Capt. J. C. Ainsworth

From Lewis & Dryden’s Maritime History of the Pacific Northwest

Capt. J. C. Ainsworth was born in Springborough, Warren County, Ohio, June 6, 1822, and on the Mississippi River received his first lessons in the profession which afterward made him famous. After becoming of age, he rose quickly to the position of pilot, and subsequently to that of master on a passenger steamer plying between St. Louis and up-river points. It was while in this service that he first heard of the gold discoveries in California and of the wonderful possibilities for labor and capital in that faraway land. He journeyed to San Francisco in 1850 with William C. Ralston, and soon after his arrival went to Oregon to take command of the Lot Whitcomb. His life in the Northwest from this time until he retired nearly thirty years afterward is inseparably associated with the marine pursuits with which the history deals, and to his thoroughly practical knowledge of all of the details of steamboating and his rare business judgment was due the marvelous success achieved by the great transportation company, in which he was the lading spirit from the time of its inception until it was finally merged into the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company. 

While Captain Ainsworth made for himself a reputation as a remarkable financier among the money kings on both sides of the continent, yet he always remained a firm friend of the laboring classes. Retrenchment, with him, never commenced with the reduction of salaries, and haggling over a few dollars with this or that man was a policy he despised. "Give the boys good salaries" was a sentiment which he always expressed, and the "boys," since grown gray in laboring for less appreciative masters, will never forget the kind-hearted employer who appreciated good service and acknowledged it in a substantial manner. As an indication of the regard in which Captain Ainsworth was held by the people of the upper country, from whom much of the revenue of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company was derived, an extract from an article published in The Dalles Inland Empire after Ainsworth had retired is herewith given: "He has been at all times a gentlemanly public servant, a faithful custodian of the interests of his fellow-stockholders, and the most equitable and merciful of employers. In fine he has been a good friend to friends and a stern foe to the enemies. His broad sense of justice has made him the object of an almost filial degree of affection from his employees, and, to his sagacity in making three voluntary reductions of freight rates without compulsion in five years’ time, the growth and expansion of the eastern empire are largely attributable." Captain Ainsworth’s friendship for his early companion, W. C. Ralston, lasted until the tragic death of the famous banker, and in this connection the following story was told in the San Francisco Examiner: "When Captain Ainsworth and W. C. Ralston arrived in California they separated. Ralston remaining in San Francisco to engage in the banking business with Eugene Kelly, while Captain Ainsworth went to Oregon and began steamboating on the Willamette River. Each was successful and one day Ainsworth saw a chance to increase his fortune if he could become possessed of $50,000 in cash. He wanted that amount very badly, so he went to San Francisco and called on his old friend W. C. Ralston, for assistance. The details of the plan were outlined and the necessary money was promptly advanced on a sixty-day note. When Mr. Kelly returned from a trip East, he looked over the affairs of the institution and noted this transaction. He was much displeased with the loan and insisted upon its immediate recall. Ralston defended his action warmly but unsuccessfully, and some words passed between the partners. In the meantime Ainsworth had gone to Oregon, and the customary notice was delayed until the sailing of the next steamer. Ainsworth concluded the deal, cleaned up something like $100,000 and started the borrowed money homeward within a few days, and the vessel which carried the recall passed the money on its way to the bank. This transaction so angered Ralston that he withdrew from the partnership and opened the Bank of California." Before retiring from the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, Captain Ainsworth invested largely in real estate in Tacoma, and was prominently identified with the construction of the Northern Pacific between the Columbia River and Puget Sound. In 1880 he removed to Oakland, Cal., where he became interested in local banking, and subsequently exploited the famous watering-place at Redondo Beach, expending nearly $3,000,000 in transforming it into one of the finest seaside resorts on the Pacific Coast. 

Captain Ainsworth died at his home near Oakland, December 30, 1893, and few if any of the pioneers in the marine business of the Northwest have left a record which will prove more lasting or more creditable.