Robert Deniston Hume

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Robert Deniston Hume (1845–1908) was a cannery owner, hatchery operator, author, and politician in Oregon. He was born in Augusta, Maine, and raised by foster parents on a farm. At 18 he moved to San Francisco to work in a salmon cannery owned by his brothers, then moved on to Astoria, where the family business did well. After his first wife Celia Bryant and their two children died, he started anew near the Rogue River at Gold Beach.

In 1877 Hume bought the rights to a Rogue River fishery, built a cannery and other buildings, and gained control of the tidelands along the lower Rogue. For 32 years his company caught and shipped hundreds of tons of salmon. He expanded into many other ventures, including a store, hotel, newspaper, ships, a hatchery, a sawmill, and more, and helped found Wedderburn. He called himself the "Salmon King of Oregon" and used newspapers, lawsuits, and lobbying to protect his interests. Running as a Republican, he was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives in 1900 and 1902.

Hume wrote about fish management, with ideas published as Salmon of the Pacific Coast (1893). He supported hatcheries and egg-collecting, helping establish a federal egg-collecting station at Elk Creek. Despite his efforts, salmon runs varied and generally declined over time. Oregon later closed the Rogue to commercial fishing in 1935.

In 1877 he married Mary Duncan, who helped in his business. In November 1908, after a storm during a voyage, Hume died. His body was moved to San Francisco in 1912. Historians view him as a controversial but influential figure who pushed ideas about hatcheries and fish management and who shaped Rogue River fishing and Oregon politics.