Year: 1879

Of all the business firms of our city

 none stand higher in the community

 than that of E. Irvine & Co, and

 rightly to, for none cah claim more

 deserved reputation for business in tegrity, ability and promptness. The

 firm Is composed of father and son,

 and, for the edifcation of not only those who are desirous of learning what can be accomplished by energy and fair dealing, but also for those who can appreciate pluck and push

 we will endeavor to give brief out line of the business career of the the father, E. Irvine. MT. Irvine

 is most assuredly one of our oldest inhabitants, having been q resident of the city since it was lad out. On his arrival his entire worldly pos sessiors consisted of d Mexican pony and accoutrements, q ten dollar gold piece, and one dollar bill. With a keen insi ght into the future of the then infant town, he traded his pony for two town lots and ffteen dollars in cash. Becoming by this stroke of business a landed proprietor; and, in order to make the foo.hoid thus ob- tained secure, he at once erected 3 building, which he used up to within q couple of weeks as the base of CD

 erations in his struggle for inde- pendence and position among his fellow men His frst business venture in Piltsnix WIS as mana- facinrcr of chairs. this after about week. trial he discarded for the more lucrative practice of the law, into whi.ii he entered with his usual energy and ability, praclicing very successfully for about two years, when he ahanionied it in order to embark in the more coagenial pur- suits of mercantile life At this tine his general reputation for business taci and enterprise had become. so well known throughout the Territory that he could without difficulty com mand any support he esired; o1e firm alone, that of Wm. B. Hooper & Co. of Yuma, pereeiving in him that patience and application so essential to success, combined with no ordi- nary natural aptitude for commercial life, offered him any stock he might need. He started in general mer- chandise business in his old building, where he continued until the growth of his business forced him to erect and occupy his present fine and com modious quarters, on the first fast, in his fine two-story brick building, fifty feet broad by eighty feet long, built a acost of over $25, 900, and would be an adornment to any business street of our principal cities. The first floor is divided into two fine store-rooms, the smaller of which is occupied by Ellis, Asher & Co; the larger by his own business, in addition to which it also takes up the whole of the large basement as a store-house, together with the yard, in which is stored large quantities of country produce. On the upper floor the Masons and Odd Fellows have their halls, the remainder being divided into two suites of rooms, each suite being composed of seven rooms. Measured by the old adage of "by their works ye shall know them" a man who can in less than a half dozen years start with an average Mexican pony and eleven dollars as capital, and accumulate therefrom, in ordinary business transactions, real estate which at a forced sale would bring at least S30,000, be.ide a stock in trade worth over SEQ 000 is g success indeed.