Photo Description
Niven & Ditmars General Merchandise store in Granite. Niven & Ditmars is a large mercantile firm who not only supply the family trade, but also meet the wants of miners and mining companies in the line of lumber, tools, steel, powder and all kinds of mining supplies.
Their store, which we show by an accompanying illustration, has a frontage of 44 feet, and a depth of 54 with a fire proof wareroom attached. Their line is a complete one, including drugs, and by courteous and liberal treatment, they have built up a trade that speaks volumes for their personal popularity. They also are engaged in the lumber business, their mill being situated about three miles west of Granite. It has a capacity of fifteen thousand, and as they are putting in a planer they are now prepared to furnish all kinds of dressed lumber.
The firm is. composed of J. N. Ditmars and Neil Niven, both public-spirited and energetic citizens, and who have at all times lent their aid in every manner for the advancement of the interests of the town and county.
Joseph N. Ditmars, one of the members of the firm, has lived an adventurous life. lie was born in Ohio in 1848, but moved at the age of two years with his parents to Missouri, where he resided until 1861. At the breaking out of the civil war he joined Price's army. and remained with it until they joined with Van Dorn. They were then taken to Knoxville, Tennessee. Later, under General Longstreet, he passed through the campaign in Virginia. At the surrender at Appomattox, he, among others, broke through the Federal lines, and with two companions went to Texas. Remaining but a short time, he returned to his old home in Missouri, where he attended school for a year. He then engaged in farming for seven years. Coming west, he spent some time in Nevada. During the Frazier River excitement he spent a year there and then started overland with a party for the Yukon. The party lost their guide, and he and 26 others became lost, and finally drifted into Fort Sill, where they stayed two months of the winter. In the spring he and two others left for California and it took them four months to accomplish their trip. He later returned to Nevada, mining there until 1886. He then spent two years in China, and shortly after his return to San Francisco moved to Granite. He is a member of the K. P. and Masonic orders, belonging to Baker City Lodge No. 47.
Neil Niven is a Canadian, and was born in 1857. At the age of 19 he came to the United States and spent two years in Michigan. He then moved to California, where he remained until 1886 prospecting and mining. After spending two years in China he came to Granite, Oregon, and at once embarked in business. He is married to Miss Ida Limbeck of Idaho."
Text courtesy of the Baker County Library website
