Page 285 - 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

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