Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....Bay, Fred N. 1886 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/or/orfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Ila Wakley iwakley@msn.com October 25, 2009, 6:27 pm Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 123-124 Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company Fred N. Bay, of Portland, stands supreme in this territory in his particular line of business, as agent and distributor of magazines, in which field of effort he has achieved success through his tireless energy and good management. Mr. Bay was born in Portland in 1886 and is a son of F. W. and Kate (Pierce) Bay. His father was born in California, to which state the family had gone in 1857. For twenty-five years he was a shoe salesman with Portland houses and he died in 1915, while his mother, who is a native of Oregon, now resides in Portland. She is a daughter of N. S. and Mary Pierce, the former a veteran of the Civil war, who shortly after the close of that conflict came to Oregon. Here he entered the United States Indian service, later became assistant chief clerk in the Portland post office, served for a time in the United States customs house, and in his later years was in the railway mail service. Fred N. Bay attended the Portland public schools, graduating from high school, after which he entered the employ of the Portland Telegram, with which paper he remained for fifteen years, being in the business department for twelve years and serving as circulation manager for the last three years. In 1916 he became district agent for the Curtis Publishing Company for Portland, handling the Saturday Evening Post, the Ladies Home Journal and the Country Gentleman. When he took the business over the combined circulation of these publications in Portland was about three hundred and fifty thousand copies, but under his aggressive and indefatigable efforts the circulation has been built up to one and a half million copies a year in this city. Though still primarily a Curtis agent, Mr. Bay has gradually taken on other publications and now handles almost eighty different magazines in western Oregon, their annual distribution amounting to about one and quarter million copies, or practically seven hundred and fifty tons. The country magazines go direct to the buyers, but for the city deliveries Mr. Bay utilizes three motor trucks, which is in marked contrast with the one remade Ford truck which was sufficient to handle his business in 1916. On June 21, 1911, in Portland, Mr. Bay was united in marriage to Miss Leona Blackhall, who was born in Nebraska and is a daughter of Henry and Jean Blackball, the former now deceased. They were both natives of Scotland and were married in this city, where the mother is still living. Mr. and Mrs. Bay are the parents of two children, Jean Katherine and Fred Norman, Jr. Mr. Bay is both a York and Scottish Rite Mason and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. He belongs to the Multnomah Amateur Athletic Club and the Chamber of Commerce, and was a charter member of the Lions Club, but is not now affiliated with it. A man of great energy, he does thoroughly and well whatever he undertakes and commands, the confidence and respect of all who have had dealings with him, for he has attained his success through worthy methods. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/or/multnomah/bios/bay924gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/orfiles/ File size: 3.7 Kb