Robert Deniston Hume (October 31, 1845 – November 25, 1908) was a cannery owner, pioneer hatchery operator, politician, author, and self-described "pygmy monopolist" who controlled salmon fishing for 32 years on the lower Rogue River in U.S. state of Oregon.

Born in Augusta, Maine, and reared by foster parents on a farm, Hume moved at age 18 to San Francisco to join a salmon-canning business started by two of his brothers.

He remarried, invested in a small fleet of ships and a salmon hatchery and expanded his business interests to include a store, hotel, newspaper, and many other enterprises in Gold Beach and in the nearby community of Wedderburn, which he founded.

Despite his efforts to maintain a steady fish supply through egg-collecting and fish-rearing, salmon catches on the Rogue, rising in some years and falling in others, generally declined over time.

While visiting Ellensburg (later renamed Gold Beach), he decided to buy a salmon fishery near the mouth of the Rogue River in Curry County.

[10] He acquired ownership of all the tidelands along both sides of the lowermost 12 miles (19 km) of the river; this gave him virtual control of fish populations migrating between the ocean and spawning beds upstream.

[11] Meanwhile, he remarried and expanded his business interests to include a store, hatchery, hotel, saloon, and sawmill, and other enterprises involving shipping, a newspaper (the Gold Beach Gazette), real estate, and ranching.

It provided Hume, the employer of the great majority of the citizens of Gold Beach and Wedderburn, with a means of repossessing the wages of his employees and of profiting on the exchange.

[21] In 1892, John H. Upton, the Populist candidate for the state legislature from Coos and Curry counties campaigned mainly in opposition to Hume's monopoly on the Rogue.

[21] In 1894, Hume, hoping for a seat in the state legislature, campaigned in support of Populist demands such as unlimited coinage of silver, more regulation of large corporations (like the APA), and large-scale government spending for internal improvements.

Shortly after taking office, Hume helped scuttle a bill to repeal a law passed in 1899 that gave the owner of tidelands the exclusive right to fish the waters in front of them.

[31] Through his newspapers, lawsuits, lobbying, and speeches made while a member of the Oregon Legislature, Hume tried to influence public opinion about artificial fish propagation.

[33] In 1897, Hume persuaded the United States Fish Commission to run an egg-collecting station at Elk Creek 150 miles (240 km) from the mouth of the Rogue.

[34][n 1] Although his observations on salmon were well received in some quarters, they "often conflicted with the opinions of other pioneers in the field",[33] and his attempts to control upriver fishing and dams met with resistance and with arguments that he was overfishing the river at its mouth.

[38] In December 1877, the year after his move to Ellensburg, Hume married Mary Duncan, the 19-year-old daughter of a former New Zealander, George Duncan, who had lost his fortune in the stock market and hoped to make another by canning salmon in the U.S.[39] According to Dodds, Mary led a relatively secluded life, working in her flower garden, writing letters, and talking to friends, and occasionally selecting clothing for Hume's store or acting as his secretary when he was sick.

"[43] Another writer says that "Robert Hume's efforts to restock the Rogue with hatchery fish were an early glimmer in the dawning of a new era on the river and in the nation at large"[44] even though "his motives may have been suspect, and the practice a less-than-perfect solution".