Next day we packed our grips in a box & shipped them to Calif. Then we left Portland for Oregon City, 12 Miles away on the electric RR. While in Portland we had our photos taken. Stayed all night at Depot Hotel in Oregon City & the next morning we begun “Our cruise on the Southern Pacific”.
John is wearing a detachable collar, tie, and bowler hat. The vests for all three men are higher on the chest than we see nowadays. Jesse is not wearing a collar or tie, and he has something in his vest pocket. That hat brim is too wide for a derby and does not look very defined or shaped. It might be a Laredo hat. Tom is wearing either ready-made or second-hand pants that are too long for him, and he turned up the cuffs really tall! The fabric is possibly denim. He’s got lace up ankle boots that were common in those days. He might be wearing a modern, ready-made shirt with an attached collar, and his hat has more definition than Jesse’s. It might possibly be a Homberg or early fedora.
Electric train systems connecting nearby towns were called an interurban railroad. They look more like enclosed trollies but they moved a lot faster. The one that these boys rode in 1901 was called the East Side Railway Company, and you can read a little more about it at this link. It was probably one of the most modern experiences those boys had to date. In 1905, the company was a part of consolidation and became the Portland Railway, Light and Power Company. Below is footage from the 1930s that would be similar to what the Bench boys rode in 1901:
