Historic Hood River
John E. Long
Notes
In 1921 John E. Long was granted US Patent No. 1,394,565 for an electric sign apparatus like the one you see here on the Willamette Building & Loan Association Building in Portland. We have a small model of this invention in our collection. It uses a paper tape to “program” the sign ticker, and mercury switches to flip the lights on and off as a message marches across the panel.
This is apparently the same John E. Long who worked on the Bonneville Dam at the very start, as seen in these posts. Unfortunately he has a pretty common name, so I haven’t had much luck figuring out much more about Mr. Long or his company. The best evidence he lived here (besides the fact we have his collection) is in this document from the Dwight Eisenhower Library. Apparently in 1966 John Long sat for an oral history interview about his relationship with Eisenhower. They were schoolmates before Eisenhower went to the US Naval Academy. From that document we also know his son or grandson was living in Hood River in 2003.
Unfortunately I haven’t been able to piece together how John Long commercialized his invention. We know the electric sign at Time Square in New York City debuted in 1928, but this article about it mentions different inventors and patents. Our John Long collection includes an image showing a sign installation in 1947, so it appears he was in business for a while.
If you find anything else about John E. Long or his electric sign company, please share.
Jeffrey Bryant
Hood River – A funeral for John Elmer Long, a childhood friend of former president Dwight D. Eisenhower, was held Friday.
Long, who lived the last two years of his life in a Vancouver nursing home, was held Friday. Long, 91, died Monday.
Long was born Oct. 17, 1888, in Abilene, Kan. He was a carpenter and builder who invented one of the first home versions of the dishwasher and the Traveling Word Sign at the Apostolic Faith Building in downtown Portland. He was described by his family as a man with a very creative mind.
Long and Eisenhower were raised together and the friendship had been maintained until the former president’s death. Long was a member of the Hood River Grange, the Multnomah Community United Presbyterian Church and the Pine Grove Methodist Church.
Survivors include his widow, Dorothea at home; five sons, Olney of King City, Ore., David of Corvallis, Ore., Lloyd of Oklahoma City, Okla., James of Pullman, Douglas of Riverside, Calif.; two daughters, Maryann L. Wyss of Portland and Patricia L. Burnet of Washougal; 25 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren.
Long was buried at the Butte Cemetery Association Pine Grove Cemetery in Hood River.
Published in The Columbian (Vancouver, Washington ) on May 25, 1980.
L. E.
Charlott Jones must have known John E. Long’s wife Dorothea. She left a comment on her Find A Grave site.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/31571086/dorothea-graham-long