Jim Kershner’s This day in history » On the Web: spokesman.com/topics/local-history
From our archives, 100 years ago
An elderly man known as Portuguese Joe surprised the Spokane YMCA with a bequest of $10,000 on his death at age 70.
Even more surprised were his three brothers, who got $5 each under the terms of the old man’s will.
Portuguese Joe came to the Northwest from Portugal – or possibly the Azores – as a young man. He went to work as a sailor on steamboats plying the Columbia River.
His real name was John Enos, but one pay clerk on a Columbia steamboat said there were too many other men on the boat named John, so he dubbed him Portuguese Joe.
He saved money and invested in land along the Columbia, which he farmed. He always had a stew pot bubbling on the stove for visitors.
He then sold the land at a tidy profit, moved to Spokane and invested in real estate. He owned and sold several Spokane hotels.
He didn’t “fall victim to the wiles of the love god” until he was 69, and he left the bulk of his $225,000 fortune to his bride of one year, who was also a Portuguese immigrant.
He left $10,000 to each of three Catholic institutions in the Azores.
He apparently was fonder of his sisters than his brothers. He gave each of his sisters $5,000.