Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....Macleay, Donald August 1834 - July 26, 1897
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Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 710 - 712
Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     DONALD MACLEAY, merchant, financier, philanthropist and honored citizen, 
was one of the most active and effective factors in the development and 
prosperity of Portland for more than three decades and was distinguished also 
for his broad-minded liberality in relation to matters affecting the public 
welfare. A native of Scotland, he was born at Leckmelm. Rossshire, in August, 
1834. His education was acquired under a private tutor and in the academy of 
his native town. At sixteen years of age, owing to financial reverses suffered 
by the family fortune, he went with his parents to Canada, settling on a farm 
near Melbourne in the province of Quebec. Mr. Macleay began his business 
career at the age of twenty years 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 wholesale 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 industry and in 
1873, together with J. G. Megler, engaged in packing salmon on the Columbia 
river at Brookfield and later at Astoria and were the pioneer exporters of 
Oregon salmon. In 1872 the firm developed 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 later years amply 
demonstrated the soundness of his judgment.

     One intimately associated with Mr. Macleay wrote of him: "He was the 
first man here to engage in the regular shipping business, more or less, on 
his own account. He shipped the first cargo of salmon that ever left the 
Columbia river and was among the very first to ship cargoes of wheat in any 
quantity. For many years he carried on a large business in the operation of a 
line of clipper ships, carrying passengers and freight from Portland to the 
Hawaiian islands and to the Orient. He founded and was the first president of 
the United States National Bank, of which he continued at the head to the time 
of his death. He was part owner in the Anglo-American Canning Company, which 
conducted one of the first salmon canneries at Astoria; he owned one-half 
interest in the Megler cannery at Brookfield, Washington; he was associated 
with T. B. Wilcox and the Ladd interests in developing the flouring business, 
being a stockholder in the Salem Flour Mills and other mills belonging to that 
company. For many years he also owned and operated the flour mill at 
Jefferson, Oregon. While his business in Portland was largely that of a 
wholesale grocer as the local partner in the firm of Corbitt & Macleay, his 
mind always ran strongly to foreign commerce and shipping, and from the very 
earliest days until the close of his business career in Portland, he was 
interested in the imports from Europe and from the Orient in foreign products, 
as well as the export from this country of domestic products abroad. There may 
have been other men who took as much interest as he did and as active a part 
as he did in matters pertaining to navigation on the Columbia river and to 
export and import trade, but if there were any such, I do not know who they 
were. It is true that Captain Ainsworth, Mr. Thompson and others were very 
prominent in local navigation on the Columbia river and local transportation, 
but that, of course, had no bearing on the upbuilding of this city as a port 
or making it known to the world as a shipping point. I feel, somehow, that 
Donald Macleay's work in this community has never met with a just recognition 
nor has he had his just deserts in the memory of the inhabitants of this city, 
for whom he did an enormous amount of constructive and successful work. I 
suppose that this is largely on account of the fact that he was naturally of a 
modest and retiring disposition and never sought to glorify himself."

     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.

     As indicated, 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, while 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 vice 
president and director of the Oregon & California Railroad Company and 
imported, in cargoes, the iron rails first used in the Willamette Valley line. 
He served as director in the Portland & Coast Steamship Company; the Portland 
Telephone & Electric Light Company; the Anglo-American Packing Company; the 
Portland Cordage Company, of which he was one of the five founders; the North 
Pacific Industrial Association; the Portland Mariners Home; the Salem Flouring 
Mills Company; and various other corporations received the benefit of his 
acumen and experience. He retired from the wholesale mercantile business in 
1892, prior to which he was largely instrumental in the organization of the 
United States National Bank, of which he was president for several years and 
guided it safely through the financial panic of 1893, which brought disaster 
to so many banks and other financial institutions of the country. About a year 
later he was obliged to relinquish the presidency to go abroad on account of 
failing health.

     The city of Portland was in countless ways enriched by his exertions in 
its behalf. Whatever tended to the upbuilding of its institutions, whether 
commercial, social, educational, religious or charitable, always received his 
ready support and encouragement. He was one of the founders of the Portland 
Library. He was elected president of the Portland Board of Trade in 1881 and 
was reelected by acclamation for about nine successive years, during which 
time he was largely instrumental in inducing the United States government to 
build, the jetty system at Columbia River bar. It was largely due to Mr. 
Macleay's direction and untiring attention that this work was ever begun.

     His position on any question of public policy was never one of hesitancy 
or doubt. His business, social, private and public life was above reproach, 
and his honesty was proverbial. Though essentially a man of business, he took 
great pleasure in the social side of life. He was for a number of years 
president of the British Benevolent and St. Andrews Societies of Portland, to 
both of which he contributed liberally. He was one of the founders and charter 
members and for a time president of the Arlington Club. The Clan Macleay was 
named for him. He was one of the founders of the Chamber of Commerce.

     Mr. Macleay was married in March, 1869, to Martha, daughter of John 
Macculloch, of Compton, Canada. She was a devoted Christian, a woman of 
cultivated mind, whose kindness, charity and benevolence endeared her to all 
who knew her. She died November 22, 1876. Mr. and Mrs. Macleay became the 
parents of four children: Barbara Martha, Edith Macculloch, Mabel Isabel and 
Roderick Lachlan. Throughout their residence in Portland they were members of 
the First Presbyterian church.

     Donald Macleay died July 26, 1897. A contemporary biographer wrote of 
him: "He had the satisfaction of living to see the place which he had found a 
mere struggling frontier town grow to a splendid city of one hundred thousand 
people and of feeling that he had contributed largely to that growth. He was a 
man of sound judgment, clear perception and industrious habits, but underneath 
and as a basis on which these qualities rested and which furnished the chief 
cause of his success, was his sterling integrity, fidelity to principle and 
tenacious adherence to them in every-day life. In all his relations he was at 
once honest and honorable. Remarkably successful in the accumulation of 
wealth, one of his greatest pleasures was to fill the hand of charity whenever 
extended in a worthy cause, and he was a most active factor in the 
establishment of the charitable, educational and religious institutions of the 
city. An enthusiastic advocate of the city's park system he gave Macleay park, 
a tract of one hundred and seven acres of land, as an addition to the park 
system of the city. No man in Portland enjoyed a higher respect or held deeper 
regard from his fellow citizens. Few men have lived and died in Portland whose 
loss was felt more acutely or whose death more sincerely was mourned."

     A man of great native ability, stanch patriotism, invincible courage, 
high personal character and keen business instincts, Mr. Macleay not only won 
large material success, but also that which was of more value — the 
unqualified confidence and respect of all who were associated with him. His 
life was one of fullness and completeness, one of vigor and inflexible 
integrity, of rugged strength of character and finest moral fiber, and his 
name is deeply engraved on the pages of the history of the city and state so 
long honored by his citizenship.

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