City Walking Trail Bench

This stone bench is near the sidewalk of a part of the Discovery Trail, a trail that leads you around town to historic places and along the Columbia River. This lady was a great proponent of walking and having public walking places throughout the city. I love her words engraved on the bench. CLICK to enlarge and read them. I know a stone bench doesn't look too comfy but it is a nice flat place to rest IF you have been hiking and want a breather. It's also a nice place to people watch and being outside the city park where there is always something going on is a good people watcher place too.


I found this information on the internet about the person whose quote is inscribed on this walking trail stone bench -- see story of ancestors first and the last line about Dorothy.:

Jesse M. Langsdorf

Jesse Morrison Langsdorf established his reputation as a banker, but his descendants are known mostly for their legal endeavors.

Langsdorf already had carved out a colorful career before arriving in Vancouver. He had been in the military in the Civil War, worked on construction of the Union Pacific Railroad, then entered the banking business in Utah in 1869. He was involved in banks in Corinne, Ogden and Salt Lake City. He married his wife, Catherine, at Corinne in 1872.

For about a decade starting in 1899, Langsdorf was a banker at Salmon, Idaho.

He came to Vancouver in 1910 and organized the United States National Bank. This firm outgrew its building, and shortly before World War I the bank moved into a new home in what then was Vancouver's tallest building. It now is known as the Heritage Building.

Langsdorf's sons, Joseph S.G. Langsdorf and Jesse Langsdorf, assisted in the banking business.

The father died in 1923; he was the bank's president at the time.

J.S.G. Langsdorf died in 1927. Jesse G. Landgsdorf died in 1942.

A son of Jesse G. and Margaret Langsdorf, J. Guthrie Langsdorf, practiced law in Vancouver until World War II, in the firm Wilkinson and Langsdorf. In 1941 he joined the Army Air Corps, and he left the service in 1946 as a lieutenant colonel.

Langsdorf was sworn in as Clark County Superior Court judge in 1955, replacing Charles W. Hall. He continued in the positioon for 22 years, the longest for any of the county's Superior Court judges. Langsdorf also at times sat on the state Supreme Court as a justice pro tem.



Langsdorf's wife, Dorothy, former teacher and librarian, was leader in the efforts to build Discovery Trail in the Vancouver area.