Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....Hauser, Sr., Eric V. December 10, 1864 - 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.org/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.org/or/orfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Ila L. Wakley iwakley@msn.com April 18, 2008, 5:43 pm

Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

	ERIC V. HAUSER, SR.  Among the notable institutions of Portland is the 
Multnomah Hotel, of which Eric V. Hauser is the owner and in the field of 
contracting he has also done important work, possessing those qualities which 
make for leadership and for success. His birth occurred in Minneapolis, 
Minnesota, December 10, 1864, and his parents were N. T. and Evelyn (Barton) 
Hauser, the former an able attorney. The son received a public school 
education and at the age of thirteen entered upon his commercial career. In 
describing his early efforts to gain a livelihood Mr. Hauser said: 
	“‘That person of fact or fiction who saved the first coin he ever 
earned is no relation of mine, for I never saved a penny until the time when I 
decided to go into business for myself, and, having borrowed a comfortable sum 
to do so, I was forced to save to pay it back. As a youngster, the small 
newspaper office in the town where we lived had a fascination for me and so it 
was natural that my first job should be in a printing office, laboring under 
that very familiar title of ‘printer’s devil.’ There was no pay attached to 
the first three months and only a dollar and a half per week for the next 
three months. I worked out my apprenticeship and stayed through the next three 
months. By this time I could set type as fast as the older men in the office, 
who were getting eight dollars per week, and felt that I should have a raise.  
I asked for it and got fired, so, with my experience under my hat and lots of 
confidence, I went to a nearby town and secured work in a printing office at 
five dollar per week. Here my duties were more varied. I was allowed to open 
up the office, sweep out and do many such odd jobs in addition to setting type 
and pulling the old Washington hand press once a week on publication day. Out 
of the five dollars earned I paid three dollars for board and had the rest to 
spend. My first one hundred dollars earned was spent in living, and from here 
on my career in the newspaper business was very satisfactory. For ten years I 
followed the printer’s trade. I made plenty of money but didn’t save any until 
I went into the business of boarding transient laborers on the Great Northern 
Railway. Getting out of debt constituted my first form of saving and it took 
the first hundred dollars earned out of the business, together with several 
thousand dollars more, to pay back the loan. My first bank account was opened 
in the transaction pertaining to the first money I borrowed.”
	Later Mr. Hauser entered the field of contracting, in which he has 
continued for about thirty years, doing important construction work for the 
Great Northern and Northern Pacific Railroads, and also aided in building the 
subway in New York city.  During the World war he built many ships for the 
United States government and is now completing the Coos bay jetty. He is also 
building a breakwater at Long Beach, California, and has executed commissions 
for millions of dollars worth of construction work. The business which he 
controls is one of extensive proportions and his constantly expanding powers 
have placed him with the foremost contractors of the country.  His connection 
with development work on the Pacific coast dates from 1900 and since 1917 he 
has maintained his headquarters in Portland. For eleven years he has been the 
owner of the Multnomah Hotel, which is one of Portland’s most distinctive 
hostelries. A detailed account of the hotel is published elsewhere in this 
volume.
	Mr. Hauser married Miss Nellie Anita Mason and they became the parents 
of four children: Rupert, the eldest, went to France with the American 
Expeditionary Force, received the degree of Civil Engineer from the University 
of Minnesota and is devoting his talents to railroad construction; Kenneth was 
graduated from the same university and is also a veteran of the World war; 
Norma is the wife of M. W. T. Faricy and lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. Eric V. 
Hauser, Jr. is vice president and managing director of the Multnomah Hotel 
Company, which has three hotels in addition to the one in Portland. The others 
are the Lithia Springs Hotel at Ashland. Oregon; the Washington Hotel, located 
in Pullman, Washington; and the Evergreen Hotel at Vancouver, Washington. All 
are modern, well equipped and efficiently operated, attracting guests of 
discrimination and refinement.
	Eric V. Hauser, Sr., casts his ballot for the candidates of the 
republican party but is not active in politics. A Knight Templar Mason and a 
Noble of the Mystic Shrine, he holds the thirty-second degree in the order and 
is also connected with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, the Portland 
Golf Club and the Arlington Waverly and Multnomah Clubs. Like all men who have 
achieved success. Mr. Hauser has been a tireless worker and a deep thinker, 
his plans being carefully matured and promptly executed. He has wrought along 
enduring lines and is esteemed for his integrity and admired for his strength 
of character.


Additional Comments:
History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. II, 
Pages 455-456

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.org/or/multnomah/bios/hausersr457gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/orfiles/

File size: 5.7 Kb