Page 294 - PGM Compendium

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Of
M⸫W⸫ Louis Sohns

1880-1881

M⸫W⸫ B Louis Sohns was born in Beerfelden, Germany. He
attended Heidelberg University. At the age of 21, he took part
in the 1848 Revolution in Germany. When the rebellion failed,
he was arrested and put in jail. Somehow he escaped, and using
funds from his family, fled persecution in Germany to the
United States where he was naturalized in 1856.

Upon reaching the United States, Sohns joined the U. S. Army.
He was transferred to Fort Vancouver in the Washington
Territory, journeying via the Panama Isthmus in 1852. Also on
that boat was Captain Ulysses S. Grant, Lt. Henry C. Hodges,
and John McNeil Eddings, as they joined the 4th Infantry at the Fort.

After leaving the army in 1856, Sohns worked in various jobs including painting and construction.
In 1862 he became a stockholder and founder of the Puget Sound and Columbia River Railroad
Company. The company was authorized by the Territory to build a rail line originating in
Steillacoom on the Puget Sound through Vancouver and out to the mouth of the Deschutes River
on the Columbia River. In 1866, he joined with David F. Shuele to open ‘Sohns and Schuele’, a
general merchandise retailer in Vancouver. The company grew in business and products, including
shipping of local produce, products, and grain to San Francisco, California.

In 1867 Sohns and others founded the Clarke County Woolen Manufacturing Company, with the
mill site to be located at Salmon Creek, to the north of Vancouver. The local newspaper, in
announcing the company’s founding, stated ‘Every citizen of this county interested in its welfare
ought to aid this project to the extent of his ability.’

Sohns was a principle stockholder in the Vancouver, Kickitat and Yakima Railroad, and a director
of the Michigan Mill, the town's largest industry. Louis Sohns founded a successful wood products
company, specializing in cooperage and barrels, which shipped to various ports on the west coast,
the Puget Sound Manufacturing Company of Puyallup, for which he also served as president. In
the late 1870s this company was shipping as many as 3 million barrels to various ports on the West
Coast.

With other business leaders in Vancouver, including H. G. Struve, Sohns in 1868 founded the first
water company for Vancouver. Later in 1881, with David F. Schuele, Sohns also founded the
Chrystal Water Company to address the increasing water needs of the growing county. In 1883
Sohns was a principle founder of Vancouver’s first bank, First National Bank. He served also as
the bank’s first president. He continued to preside as president, but left that position in 1889 to
serve his second term as Mayor of Vancouver.