H. D. GRADON

Sacramento County

Biographies

H. D. GRADON

H. D. GRADON—A highly trained, experienced engineer whose good work is now being demonstrated in the Natomas Reclamation District No. 1000, is H. D. Gordon, a native of Portland, Ore., the son of Israel and Isabella (Creigh) Gradon. His father was born in Ohio in 1816, and migrated to Oregon by way of the Great Plains, traveling by means of the ox team and the covered wagon. He was an expert wagon-maker, and had great success in that line of business in Portland, having been among the founders of that early city. He was crowded out of business only by the keen and ruthless competition of Eastern manufacturers. He died at Portland in 1890, at the age of seventy-four, highly esteemed by a wide circle of acquaintances and admirers of his sterling character. Mrs. Gradon was also born in Ohio, and died in Portland in 1874, at the age of forty-seven. She was a remarkable woman, and left her impress upon that city in one of its most important formative periods.

H. D. Gradon was graduated from the Portland high school in 1876, a member of the second class graduated from the high school. Portland then being the only town having a secondary school. Already, he had shown a special talent for mathematics, a mental aptitude that has contributed to his success in a field requiring a thorough knowledge of mathematics. When only sixteen he accepted a job as chairman to a United States government surveying party under Engineer George S. Pershin, and spent three months in the Santiam section of eastern Oregon. For this work he received $35 per month. At the age of eighteen, he took another job on a cattle range in eastern Oregon, at $40 per month; and he recalls his experiences in mining at Spanish Gulch, his initial effort, and the very profitable results.

In 1880, Mr. Gradon entered the Department of the Interior, under Surveyor-General Tolman, and seven years later he opened his first offices at Portland. Thereafter he was generally recognized, both in and out of Portland, as a thoroughly competent civil engineer. In 1893, Mr. Gradon was elected city engineer of Portland, and held that office for three years, during which time much new work was accomplished in the building of streets and sewers. He was also engaged on public and private jobs as surveyor, as in the building of the narrow-gage railway in Willamette Valley, Ore., and later in the service of the United States government on a survey in western Oregon.

Mr. Gradon had much t do in major engineering projects in Idaho and Oregon, which brought him directly into touch with the remarkable resources then lying undeveloped, but which are now being exploited. He recalls, among many other experiences, an association, in 1883, with a young civil engineer names Emery Oliver, now general manager of Natomas Company of California, who was employed by him for a couple of years, and was later his partner. In the construction of the Western Pacific Railroad, Mr. Oliver was a division engineer, and it was in order to become his associate that Mr. Gradon left Portland in 1905, for California. His first job was in the construction of fifteen miles of road, in 1905-1907, running out to Oroville. In 1907, the difficult engineering problem of mastering the Feather River Route loomed up, and Mr. Gradon was called upon to “put it over,” which he did in record time.

In the meantime, Mr. Gradon invested in a profitable orange and olive ranch near Oroville, and also made some wise investments in San Francisco property, which he still owns, having sold his ranch at the end of five years. He had formerly owned a beautiful country estate in Marin County, near San Anselmo, called Woodacre Lodge, which also has since been sold.

In 1910, Mr. Gradon took up his work with the Natomas Company of California as associate engineer; and his services have been especially valuable, as he has often been retained as the consulting engineer in difficult problems of engineering. As far as his material circumstances are concerned, Mr. Gradon would not need to work at his profession; but he has no desire to be “retired.” His offices overlook the racing waters of the Sacramento River, and here the plans and maps for Reclamation District No. 1000 have been drawn since 1915.

While at Portland, Mr. Gradon was married to Miss Dorothea Grethe, a native of Germany who first came to Portland in 1884; and the happy couple resides at Natomas Park on the Sacramento River, ten miles north of the capital. He is a member of Portland Lodge No. 142 of the Elks, in which he membership number is180, in a membership that now numbers over 4,000. In national politics, Mr. Gradon is Republican.

Transcribed by Gloria Wiegner Lane.

Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches, Page 539. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.