Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....McDonald, James W. 1878 - 
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Ila Wakley iwakley@msn.com January 16, 2011, 11:28 pm

Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 664 - 667
Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     JAMES W. McDONALD is one of Portland's enterprising business men and 
enjoys an enviable reputation as a sheet metal contractor, a line of work 
which he has followed for many years. A native of Kansas, he was born in 1878 
and was a boy of ten when his parents, Peter and Cansady McDonald, established 
their home in Portland, Oregon. The father was a stonemason and aided in 
constructing the Portland Hotel and many other large buildings and churches of 
the Rose city. At the outbreak of the Civil war he enlisted in the Union army 
and served for four years with the Thirty-fifth Illinois Infantry. Death 
summoned him in 1908 but the mother still resides in Portland.

     James W. McDonald received a grammar school education and at an early age 
applied himself to the task of learning the sheet metal workers trade, which 
he followed for some time as a journeyman. He then started out for himself, 
joining M. D. Kreibs, who had been engaged in the sheet metal business for a 
considerable period. They were associated for eight years under the style of 
Kreibs & McDonald and after the death of the senior member of the firm Mr. 
McDonald assumed control of the business, which he conducted alone until about 
1920, when the firm of McDonald & Wynkoop was formed. They were located at 
Second and Madison streets, on the west side, and when those quarters proved 
too small, a building, fifty by one hundred feet in dimensions, was erected 
for the firm at Hawthorne avenue and East Ninth street, where the business has 
since been located. It was continued under the form of McDonald & Wynkoop 
until May, 1928, when the present style of McDonald & Wetle was adopted. 
Adjoining the shop is the office of the firm, which manufactures ventilators 
and skylights and does all kinds of sheet metal work. The partners also make 
the various compositions used in roofing and most of their business is 
contract work on the larger buildings. Both are experts in the lines in which 
they specialize and an extensive business is proof of the reliability and 
standing of the firm.

     In 1907 Mr. McDonald was married in Portland to Miss Anna G. Jordan, who 
was born in Norway and came to the United States about 1904, making the trip 
alone. Their children are Gerald and Elaine, the former a high school pupil. 
During the Spanish-American war Mr. McDonald joined Company E, of the Second 
Oregon Infantry, and was sent to Manila, remaining in the service of his 
country for two years. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Builders 
Exchange, and the National Association of Sheet Metal Contractors. Early in 
life he displayed that self-reliant nature and spirit of energy and 
determination which carries the individual ever onward and upward. Business 
men respect Mr. McDonald for his honesty, ability and industry and his worth 
as a citizen is uniformly conceded.

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