M.P. Cady General Merchandise and Monopole

A 1910 photograph depicts M.P. Cady’s general merchandise store in Beaverton, facing a muddy, unpaved Broadway St. Mr. Cady is wearing a dark suit and tie as he and the unidentified driver of the horse-drawn Studebaker wagon that delivered commodities pose for the photographer. Monopole is painted on the facade of the one-story, wood structure.

Monopole was a well-known brand of canned goods manufactured and distributed by Wadhams & Kerr Bros., wholesale grocers and coffee roasters in Portland, Oregon. Established in 1895 and dissolved in 1926, they packaged two product lines: Monopole and the less expensive Palace Car. Imported fancy foods that added an exotic touch to a household’s pantry were packed in glass jars, tin cans, and cartons. Coffee was the exception. It was sold only in reusable glass containers called the “Self-Sealing Mason Jar.” Thrifty homemakers then had a useful container for home canning.

Mason Patterson Cady (1879-1953) was a member of one of early Beaverton’s most prominent families, active in political and civic affairs. Alonzo Brockway Cady was the city’s first mayor in 1893. His son, Fred Willis Cady, built the 1914 landmark brick structure on Front St. (now Farmington Road). M.P was Alonzo’s grandson and Fred Willis’ nephew.

Born in Minnesota to Miles and Francis Patterson Cady, they settled in Beaverton in the 1890s. M.P. married Birdie Vincent (1882-1970) in Beaverton in 1904; they would have two daughters and one son. He clerked, delivered mail, advocated for state-wide good roads and improved city streets, and opened a general merchandise store that operated from 1909-1913.

It’s unclear if his uncle’s nearby emporium selling similar products, housing the post office, and bearing the Cady name, prompted M.P. to seek a buyer, but two Woodburn businessman purchased the inventory in 1913. M.P. and Birdie then moved to Albany for two years before returning to Beaverton where he began a new career: agent for Studebaker and Chevrolet automobiles.

Elected mayor in 1917, he resigned before the end of his term and moved to Hillsboro where he established Cady Motor Company, served as mayor from 1925-1929, and was president of the Oregon and Washington County automobile dealers’ associations. M.P. and Birdie are buried in Hillsboro’s Fir Lawn Cemetery.

In the 1920s Broadway Street was the city’s commercial core, but wood frame, false front architecture gave way to fire-resistant masonry construction that is now prevalent in the Downtown Historic District. Clockwork Rose Tea Emporium and Bootleggers Whiskey Bar occupy the historic building that was constructed on the site of M.P.’s business.

Ann Koppy is a retired local historian with the Beaverton Historical Society. For more information, visit us online at www.historicbeaverton.org