Gaston, Joseph.  "The Centennial History of Oregon, 1811-1912."  Vol. 4. 
Chicago, Clarke Publishing Co., 1912. p. 38.


WALTER FRAZAR BURRELL

     has been recognized throughout the years of his manhood as a stalwart and
enthusiastic supporter of every movement and project instituted for the benefit
and upbuilding of the city of Portland. His business associations have brought
him into active connection with its wholesale and manufacturing trade and at the
same time he has been a factor in the agricultural progress of the states of
Oregon, Washington and Idaho. His judgment is sound, his discrimination keen and
penetrating. He seems to see from the circumference to the very center of things
and so coordinates forces that unified and harmonious results are achieved and
the utmost possible for the attainment of success seems to have been reached.
His days have been unmarked by events of special importance, save such as come
to those reared on the western frontier, in a district where a spirit of
enterprise is rife and where nothing seems to deter successful accomplishment.
     His father, Martin S. Burrell, was a man of conspicuous business ability,
who came to Portland in the year 1855, and it was in this city that Walter F.
Burrell, entered upon life's journey on the 13th of February, 1863. His
education was acquired in the schools of Portland and Oberlin and when his
school days were over, he entered the business house of Knapp, Burrell &
Company, of which his father was the head and applied himself to mastering the
details of a business that included the handling of vehicles, agricultural
implements and sawmill machinery, and was the largest of its kind in the
northwest.
     The trade grew to very extensive proportions, but the father's interest in
the business was sold immediately after his death in 1885, and Walter F.
Burrell, who was then but twenty-two years of age, took charge of the management
and development of the other properties that were features of his father's
estate and included large tracts of unfilled land in Whitman county, Washington,
all of which the son brought under cultivation in the production of splendid
crops. While he has given much attention to raising wheat and other crops of
grain, Mr. Burrell has also engaged in the extensive growing of apples and
pears, not only in Oregon but also in the states of Washington and Idaho.
     In 1895, Mr. Burrell was married to Miss Constance Montgomery, a daughter
of James B. Montgomery, a prominent citizen of Portland, and they are now the
parents of five children, Alden Frazar, Louise, Douglas Montgomery, Robert
Montgomery and Virginia. Mr. Burrell is a republican in his political belief. He
belongs to the Arlington, Commercial and Multnomah Clubs, and served under Mayor
H. S. Rowe on the board of public works of the city of Portland but has had no
ambition for office, preferring to devote his efforts to furthering the
interests of Portland through its commercial bodies, and also to managing the
extensive business interests, belonging to himself and associates, in the
control of which he displays marked ability and energy, regarding no detail as
too unimportant to receive his attention and at the same time controlling
the larger factors in his interests with notable assurance and power.
 
 
Transcriber's additional notes:
 
This same biography also appears in the following books:
 
"Portland, Oregon, Its History and Builders." 
Author:  Joseph Gaston
S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago-Portland, 1911
Vol. 3, Page 281
 
"Portland The Rose City, Pictorial and Biographical"
S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.; Various compilers; 1911
Vol. 2, Page 249
 

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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in March 2008 by Diana Smith. Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.