Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 3.djvu/11

 BIOGRAPHICAL

 DONALD MACLEAY.

Donald Macleay, merchant, financier, philanthropist and honored citizen, was born at Leckmelm, Ross-shire, Scotland, in August, 1834. He was educated under a private tutor and in the academy of his native town. At sixteen years of age, owing to a financial reverse to the family fortune, he went with his parents to Canada, settling on a farm near Melbourne, province of Quebec. Mr. Macleay began his business career at twenty years of age when he entered into a partnership with George K. Foster, a merchant of Richmond, a man of excellent business capacity, who had much to do with molding the character of his young partner.

In 1859 Mr. Macleay went to California, where he met William Corbitt, with whom he engaged in the wholesole grocery, shipping and commission business in Portland in 1866 under the firm name of Corbitt & Macleay. Their efforts were rewarded by almost immediate success, the business growing so rapidly that by 1870 they had become one of the leading firms of the northwest. With one exception, they were the first exporters of wheat from Oregon to England, sending the first cargo on the Adeline Elwood in 1870. They were also among the first to perceive the future of the salmon trade and in 1873, together with J. G. Megler, engaged in the packing of salmon on the Columbia river at Brookfield and later at Astoria and were the pioneer exporters of Oregon salmon. In 1872 the firm began an extensive trade with China, Australia and the Sandwich islands, purchasing several vessels to accommodate this trade, the venture proving gratifyingly profitable. With absolute faith in Portland's future, Mr. Macleay early began investing his surplus earnings in city real estate and the enormous increase in values in recent years amply demonstrates the soundness of his judgment.

Mr. Macleay was always a progressive, public-spirited citizen, and if great success came to him he was always generous with his time and means in aiding any enterprise that spelled prosperity for his adopted city or state. Through his efforts millions of foreign capital were invested in Oregon. He served for many years as local president of the Oregon & Washington Mortgage Savings Bank of Dundee, Scotland, likewise as director and chairman of the local board of the Dundee Mortgage & Trust Investment Company, of Scotland.

The work incident to the development and continuance of the business which the firm of Corbitt & Macleay represented comprised but a small part of Mr. Macleay's activities. He was interested as stockholder and director in a score of important enterprises which owed their success in no small degree to the stimulus of his business genius, and his conservatism and strength were a controlling element in the security and integrity of many of the city's financial operators and institutions.

He served as director in the Oregon & California Railway Company; the Portland & Coast Steamship Company; the Portland Telephone & Electric Light Company; the Anglo-American Packing Company; the Portland Cordage Company; the North Pacific Industrial Association; the Portland Mariners Home; the Salem Flouring Mills Company; was for a time vice president of the Oregon &