Hamilton Corbett

Hamilton Forbush "Ham" Corbett (December 13, 1888 – May 7, 1966) was a prominent Portland, Oregon businessman and in his younger years was a leading amateur American football player. He played college football for Harvard University and was a consensus first-team selection to the 1908 College Football All-America Team.

Hamilton Corbett
Harvard Crimson
PositionFullback, Halfback
Career history
CollegeHarvard (1908–1910)
Personal information
Born:(1888-12-13)December 13, 1888
Portland, Oregon
Died:May 7, 1966(1966-05-07) (aged 77)
Portland, Oregon
Career highlights and awards
Consensus All-American (1908)

Early life

Corbett was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1888, the son of Henry Jagger Corbett and Helen Ladd Corbett. The Corbett family was one of the influential families in Oregon at that time. Corbett's paternal grandfather was Henry W. Corbett, a leading businessman and banker and a United States senator from Oregon.[1] His maternal grandfather, William S. Ladd, had been an early mayor of Portland (the fifth [2] and again as the eighth[3]). Ladd was also a major business figure and founder the Ladd and Tilton Bank, the first bank established in the state of Oregon.[4][5]

Corbett grew up in Portland, where he attended the Portland Academy. His father died in 1895, when he was 7 years old.[6] Since his father and his brother had predeceased his grandfather, Henry W. Corbett, who died in 1903, Corbett and his two older brothers Henry L. Corbett and Elliott R. Corbett inherited the responsibility for the H. W. Corbett estate.[7]

Sports career

Corbett attended Harvard College from 1907 to 1911 and played on the freshman football team in 1907. He was five feet, eleven inches tall and weighed 167 pounds while at Harvard.[8] From 1908 to 1910, he played on the Harvard Crimson football team. He was selected as a consensus first-team fullback on the 1908 College Football All-America Team.[9] In 1909, Walter Camp selected him as a third-team All-American at the halfback position.[10] In 1910, he was selected as a first-team All-American halfback by sports writer, W.S. Farnsworth, of the New York Evening Journal,[11] and a second-team All-American by The New York Times.[12]

In the fall of 1913, he served as an assistant coach under Percy Haughton for the 1913 Harvard Crimson football team.[13]

World War I service

In May 1917, with the United States entry into World War I, Corbett entered the Officer's Training Camp at the Presidio of San Francisco. He was commissioned as a first lieutenant and sailed to France in September 1917, serving there with the 151st Field Artillery, 42nd Division. He was wounded in July 1918 and was promoted to captain. When the war ended, he remained with the occupation forces in Germany, serving as aide-de-camp to Major General James Harbord.[14] He received his discharge from the military in May 1919.[15]

Family
Hamilton Corbett house S.
(Gretchen Forster, 2018)

Corbett was married to (1) Harriet Cumming [16] at Portland in 1920.[17]

They built their home on Palatine Hill in Dunthorpe in 1928, designed by Pietro Belluschi.[18]

The first marriage was later dissolved.

He married for a second time (2) Charlotte Breyman Thomson in 1944, at Lakewood, Washington.[19]

He had one daughter by his first marriage: Harriet Corbett, born in 1922.[20]

Business career

Hamilton Corbett was the youngest of three brothers but was an equal partner with his two elder brothers Henry L. Corbett and Elliott R. Corbett in the Corbett Investment Company, with offices on the tenth floor of the Corbett Building, which the Corbett brothers had built in 1907.[21]

The Corbett Building in 1984

With the death of their grandfather Henry W. Corbett in 1903, the three brothers inherited his businesses,[22] including 27 downtown Portland properties. The three Corbett brothers also then controlled the First National Bank of Portland.[5]

Hamilton Corbett was President of the Security and Saving Trust Company, a saving and trust company the brothers controlled through the bank.[5]

They were also involved in a number of large real estate ventures in Portland. As well as building the Corbett Building in 1907, Corbett and his brothers built the ten-story Pacific Building in 1926 on property they owned across the street from the Pioneer Courthouse in Portland. The building site was on the Yamhill frontage of the landscaped "cow pasture" in the grounds of the house and gardens of their grandfather, Henry W. Corbett, which occupied the block bounded by Taylor, 5th Avenue, Yamhill and Sixth Avenues. His widow remained living in the house fronting on Taylor on the other part of the block until her death in 1936.[23][24]

Today, the Pacific Building, built by Corbett and his brothers, is a historic landmark in downtown Portland.[25] The classic ten-story office building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[24]

Hamilton Corbett house N.
(Gretchen Forster, 2018)

The real estate holding company owned by the Corbett brothers, sold several of its downtown buildings in 1956. The properties included the Pacific Building, the ten-story Corbett Building, and the Corbett Brothers Auto Storage Garage plus two quarter-block lots in downtown Portland.[26][27]

Hamilton Corbett served as President of the Portland Chamber of Commerce and aided many volunteer organisations.[5]

Death

Hamilton Forbush Corbett died in Portland in 1966 at age 77 and is buried in the Corbett plot on the crest of River View Cemetery, in Portland.[28][29]

References
  1. H. W. Corbett served as US senator for Oregon 1867-1873
  2. W.S. Ladd served as fifth mayor of Portland in 1854-55
  3. Ladd again served as eighth mayor in 1857-58
  4. Harvey Scott: History of Portland, Oregon with illustrations and biographical sketches of prominent citizens and pioneers.
  5. E. Kimbark MacColl with Harry H. Stein, Merchants, Money and Power: The Portland Establishment, 1843-1913. The Georgian Press, 1988.
  6. "Henry J. Corbett Dead", Sunday Oregonian, Portland, Oregon, 3 March 1895, p. 8.
  7. "Gives to Charity…Grandsons are Made the Residuary Legatees", Sunday Oregonian, Portland, Oregon, 5 April 1903, p. 1 & 10.
  8. "Who Will Play for Harvard: Statistics of Regulars and Substitutes on Crimson Team". Boston Evening Transcript. November 19, 1908. p. 2.
  9. "2014 NCAA Football Records: Consensus All-America Selections" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). 2014. p. 4. Retrieved August 16, 2014.
  10. "Six Yale Men on Camp's First Team" (PDF). The New York Times. December 19, 1909.
  11. Farnsworth, W.S. (1910-12-04). "Picking All-Stars Is No Easy Task: Backfield Men Show Greater Individuality Then Men on the Line and Are More Easily Chosen". The Billings Daily Gazette.
  12. "5 HARVARD MEN ON ALL-AMERICAN TEAM; Superiority of Crimson Players Earns Places on Picked Football Eleven" (PDF). The New York Times. 1910-12-04.
  13. ""Ham" Corbett to Coach at Harvard". The New York Times. October 31, 1913.
  14. The Oregon Historical Society had a small exhibition of Hamilton Corbett's war-time letters in 2017.
  15. Frederick Sumner Mead, ed. (1921). Harvard's Military Record in the World War. The Harvard Alumni Association. p. 215.
  16. Harriett Cumming Corbett was born 1 August 1896 in Portland Oregon and died 2 December 1981 in Portland, Oregon. Descendants of Robert Corbett: Thirteen Generations. Compiled in 1995 by Gordon L. Corbett And James, Corbett, Revised in 2001 by Gordon L. Corbett, Privately printed. (Elliott R. Corbett Archives).
  17. "Marriages". The Harvard Graduates' Magazine, Volume 29. September 1920. p. 169.
  18. The Hamilton Corbett home is now part of Lewis and Clark College.
  19. Charlotte Breyman Corbett was born 29 January 1900 in Portland, Oregon and died 17 August 1982 in Portland Oregon, Descendants of Robert Corbett: Thirteen Generations.
  20. Born 3 November 1922 in Portland Oregon. Died 6 June 1999, Portland, Multnomah, Oregon, USA. Descendants of Robert Corbett: Thirteen Generations & US Social Security Death Index, 1935–2014.
  21. The Corbett Building was located at Southwest Fifth Avenue and Morrison, Portland, Oregon, overlooking the Pioneer Courthouse (its mailing address was simply the Corbett Building, Portland, Oregon). The ten-story building was designed by Whidden & Lewis and completed in 1907. It was demolished by implosion in 1988 after their deaths, to make way for redevelopment. The Oregonian, Portland, 2 May 1988
  22. "Gives to Charity…Liberal Bequests in H.W. Corbett's Will...Grandsons Are Made the Residuary Legatees", The Sunday Oregonian, Portland, Oregon, 5 April 1903, p. 1 and 10.
  23. "Pacific Building Opens", Morning Oregonian, Portland, Oregon, 7 April 1926, p. 7.
  24. "Pacific Building", National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, National Park Service, United States Department of Interior, Portland, Oregon, 3 January 1992.
  25. The Pacific Building, 520 SW Yamhill. Portland Oregon. The ten-story building was completed in 1925. The architect was A.E. Doyle and Associates. A young Pietro Belluschi worked on its design, and later had the opportunity to work there when Doyle moved the firm to the building.
  26. "5 Buildings Sold in City", The Oregonian, Portland, Oregon, 8 November 1956, p. 1.
  27. "Downtown Deals Mark Year", The Oregonian, Portland, Oregon, 30 December 1956, p. 20.
  28. Social Security Death Index. Number: 541-01-5224; Issue State: Oregon; Issue Date: Before 1951. Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 [database on-line].
  29. Death record for Hamilton F. Corbett, Oregon State Library; 1966-1970 Death Index. Source Information: Ancestry.com. Oregon, Death Index, 1898-2008 [database on-line].
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