Robert Deniston Hume | |
|---|---|
 R.D. Hume in the 1890s | |
| Born | October 31, 1845 Augusta, Maine, US |
| Died | November 25, 1908,[1] age 63 |
| Resting place | Hunt Rock in Wedderburn in 1908; body moved to San Francisco in 1912[2] |
| Occupation(s) | Cannery owner, "pygmy monopolist", hatchery owner, politician |
| Known for | Salmon canning and hatcheries, especially on the Rogue River |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Celia Bryant; Mary A. Duncan |
Robert Deniston Hume (October 31, 1845 – November 25, 1908) was a cannery owner, pioneer hatchery operator, politician, author, and self-described "pygmy monopolist" who controlled salmon fishing for 32 years on the lower Rogue River in U.S. state of Oregon. Born in Augusta, Maine, and reared by foster parents on a farm, Hume moved at age 18 to San Francisco to join a salmon-canning business started by two of his brothers. They later re-located to Astoria on the Columbia River, where they prospered. After the death of his first wife and their two young children, Hume moved again and started anew in Gold Beach, at the mouth of the Rogue.
In 1877 Hume bought rights to a Rogue River fishery, then built a salmon cannery and many other structures and acquired all of the tidelands bordering the lower 12 miles (19 km) of the river. He remarried, invested in a small fleet of ships and a salmon hatchery and expanded his business interests to include a store, hotel, newspaper, and many other enterprises in Gold Beach and in the nearby community of Wedderburn, which he founded. Canning, shipping, and selling hundreds of tons of salmon over the years, he became known as the Salmon King of Oregon.
Hume often wrote editorials, engaged in litigation, appealed to legislators, and waged political campaigns to protect his business interests. Running as a Republican, he was twice elected, in 1900 and 1902, to represent Coos and Curry counties in the Oregon House of Representatives. According to his biographer, he voted self-interest first and conservative positions second, resisting Populist ideas in vogue at the time.
Among his publications were a series of articles about fish management, collected and reprinted as Salmon of the Pacific Coast in 1893. Despite his efforts to maintain a steady fish supply through egg-collecting and fish-rearing, salmon catches on the Rogue, rising in some years and falling in others, generally declined over time. Seventeen years after Hume's death in 1908, the state closed the river to commercial fishing.
- ^ Dodds 1959, p. 238.
- ^ Dodds 1959, pp. 222, 238.