Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....Elrod, J. O. October 19, 1875 - ************************************************ 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 L. Wakley iwakley@msn.com June 19, 2009, 2:44 pm Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company J. O. ELROD. Any list of the men who have been largely responsible for the development of the business interests of the Columbia River valley during the past twenty years must include the name of J. O. Elrod, whose operations in the lumber and logging business have been on a large scale, while in enterprises directly related to the city of Portland he has taken an active and leading part. Mr. Elrod was born in Ringgold county, Iowa, on October 19. 1875, and is a son of Eli W. and Arminta (Elder) Elrod. The mother died in Iowa. The father was for a number of years extensively engaged in the lumber business in Minnesota and in 1894 came to Oregon, locating in Sherman county, where he engaged in raising wheat. He was successful in the business affairs and in 1905 retired from active pursuits, moving to Portland, where he resided until his death. J. O. Elrod secured a good public school education, graduating from high school in Minnesota, and in boyhood went to work in his father's lumber camps in that state. In the spring of 1895 he came to Oregon, and devoted his attention to wheat farming in the eastern part of the state until 1905, when he came to Portland and engaged in the lumber business, with which he has been actively identified to the present time. He has also handled much real estate, buying tracts of land, which be has subdivided and sold, and has been successful in that line. He is the owner of two large and well equipped lumber mills, one at Reedsport and the other at Cochran, in connection with which he carries on logging operations on a large scale. He is a director and president of the Cochran Southern Logging Railway Company, secretary of the Blue Lake Logging Company and president of the Umpqua Mills and Timber Company, all of which are important and profitable concerns. Mr. Elrod employs several hundred men in his various operations and has proven a progressive and enterprising business man, soundly conservative in his judgment and doing well whatever he undertakes. He was the organizer of Multnomah drainage district No. 1, which includes over eight thousand acres of splendid land on the Columbia river, including the present grounds of the Alderwood Country Club, the Columbia Country Club and the Riverside Golf Club. When the district was organized there were not over twenty residences on the entire tract, but since it has been reclaimed it is now practically all under cultivation or improved, the land being, at a conservative valuation, worth at least two and a half million dollars. Mr. Elrod became associated with J. H. Trimble in the building of what is known as the Elrod & Trimble Terminals, at a cost of over one and a half million dollars, and devoted to warehouse and cold storage purposes. The building, which is two and three stories in height has two wings, each five hundred and fifty by two hundred feet. The cold storage department has a capacity of three hundred thousand boxes, and there is dockage room for three vessels of large type, there being forty feet of water. This has been a very important addition to Portland's business institutions and has proven a successful enterprise. On January 18, 1898, Mr. Elrod was united in marriage to Miss Minerva Cook, of Little Falls, Minnesota, and they are the parents of two children, Lucile, the wife of Ralph Moore, of Portland, and Maurine. Mr. Elrod is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, in which he has attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite; the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, the Arlington Country Club, the Columbia Country Club, of which he is president, and the Alderwood Golf Club. He is a director and a member of the forestry committee of the Chamber of Commerce and is a past director of the Portland Realty Board. His life has been so varied in its activities and so far-reaching in its relations that it has become an integral part of the history of the Columbia River valley, and his sterling worth and integrity have gained for him the unqualified confidence and esteem of all who have come in contact with him, while his kindly manner and agreeable personal traits have won for him many loyal friends. Additional Comments: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. II, Pages 910-913 Photo: http://www.usgwarchives.net/or/multnomah/photos/bios/elrod812gbs.jpg File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/or/multnomah/bios/elrod812gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/orfiles/ File size: 5.0 Kb