The Corbett family came to prominence early in Portland’s history, when Henry Winslow Corbett arrived in 1851 from New York. Arriving with $25,000 worth of goods obtained from Williams Bradford & Co through a three-year partnership, Corbett would resell the goods in the newly opened Oregon Territory. He would go on to gain widespread success in business, real estate, and politics, becoming a senator representing Oregon from 1867-1873. His descendants also played important roles in Portland’s civic and economic spheres.

Originally from Westborough, Massachusetts, and later New York state, Henry Winslow Corbett was eventually joined in Oregon by his siblings Elijah, Mary Freeland, and Emily Phelps. Before embarking for Portland, Mary Freeland Corbett married Thomas Robertson from Cambridge, New York. Upon arriving in Oregon, Robertson joined Henry Corbett in his mercantile business, eventually forming Robertson Heavy Hardware, wholesale hardware firm. The descendants of Mary Freeland and Thomas Robertson would become joined to other old Portland families through marriage. In 1910, their grandson, Thomas Robertson (1881-1924) married Kathleen Burns, the granddaughter of Captain John Couch and wife Caroline Flanders.

In 1858, younger sister Emily Phelps Corbett married Henry Failing in 1858, who went on to be a leading businessman in Portland. The Failing, Corbett, and Robertson families continued to develop close business and kinship ties for generations.