C.X. Larrabee who is associated with the development of three states, Montana, Oregon, and Washington, became in 1889 delt with Nelson Bennett in the Fairhaven Land Company. Also the Fairhaven and Southern Railroad Company, as well as in banking, milling, mining and, other interests.
Charles Xavier Larabee was born on November 19, 1843 in Portville, New York. His family moved to Wisconsin, then young Larrabee,in 1875, followed an older brother to Montana. In Butte City he made a fortune in connection with the construction of the Mountain View copper mine. He invested a lot in Portland real estate after selling his mining interests in 1887.
He was the vice president and later president of the Fairhaven Land Company and principal stockholder of the Fairhaven Railroad Company.
C.X. Larrabee arrived on the scene March 1,1888 and added his engines to the work of the construction of the Fairhaven and Southern railroad. All that had gone before was a child's play to what then followed; a thousand men were imported to carry on the work of the railroad and townside. With them here we bought teams and 200 carts and 20,000 pounds of giant powder for the work of blasting. Tacoma men started a brick yard in Happy Valley and Bennett gave them and initel order for 1,000,000 brick.Out side speculators rushed to the scene and half-cleared streets were transformed into real estate exchange, almost as exciting at times as the Chigago wheat pit.
Some of the sales for the first week in January show the feverish activity, even at that early date; Emma Schering sold ten lots in Fairhaven to Bennett for $9,400; W.D. Boone paid $1,000 for one lot near Fairhaven mill; C.D.Dyer sold nintey acres for $5,000; Charles Schering paid $8,000 in gold coin for sixteen acres back of Bellingham. Dyer, Capt. Baker and Dan Harris went to California to enjoy their newly aquired wealth. Jubilant over his gains, A.S. Palmer, a young capitalist from Jamestown, N.Y., gave a grand banquet at the Fairhaven Hotel. Bennett believed in publicity, as early as March began his campaign with a full page advertisement in the Portland Oregonian, and this was followed by other pages of Seattle and Tacoma papers, and even included a two-column write-up of Fairhaven in the New York world.