Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....Mecklem, Horace September 7, 1882 - 
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Ila L. Wakley iwakley@msn.com May 8, 2009, 1:56 am

Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     HORACE MECKLEM, one of the successful insurance men of Portland, had the 
advantage of an early start in the business which has constituted his life 
work and he also figures prominently in civic affairs. He was born September 
7, 1882, and is a native of East Orange, New Jersey. His father, Henry C. 
Mecklem, was a prominent banker of East Orange and is survived by the mother, 
Mrs. Louise S. (Harding) Mecklem, who still resides in New Jersey.
     
     In the public schools of his native state Horace Mecklem obtained an 
education and at the age of fourteen began to provide for his own livelihood, 
securing the position of office boy with a large life insurance firm of New 
York city. In 1900, when young man of eighteen, he came to Portland and for 
two years was employed in the Cloud Cap Inn. On the expiration of that period 
he returned to the east and for three years was cashier in a life insurance 
office in New York city. In 1905 he again journeyed to the west, locating in 
Portland, and for three years was with the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance 
Company. From 1908 until 1914 he was in the service of the Columbia Life & 
Trust Company and has since been general agent for the New England Mutual Life 
Insurance Company, developing the business in Oregon. He occupies a suite of 
offices in the American Bank building of Portland and now has in force in 
Oregon more than fifteen million dollars worth of insurance, which yields over 
five hundred thousand dollars in premiums each year. Mr. Mecklem deals only in 
life insurance and his business exceeds that of any other agent in Portland. 
He employs ten men and the corporation which he represents was among the first 
ten in Oregon. On January 1, 1925, he admitted Alfred F. Parker as a partner 
and they have since been associated in the conduct of the business, of which 
Mr. Mecklem has a highly specialized knowledge, adding thereto the foresight, 
initiative and mature judgment of the capable executive.

     In 1905 Mr. Mecklem married Miss Olive G. Slate, of Sag Harbor, New York, 
and they have become the parents of three children, Marie, Horace Jr. and 
Janet. Mr. Mecklem gives his political allegiance to the republican party and 
is serving for the second term on the Portland school board, with which he has 
been connected since 1924, doing all in his power to further the cause of 
education. A great lover of children, he is constantly striving to promote 
their welfare and was one of the original directors of the Boy Scouts of 
America. At one time he was vice president of the local organization of Boy 
Scouts and has also been a director of the association of Camp Fire Girls. He 
is secretary of the Arlington Club, an ex-director of the Waverley Country 
Club, and also a member of the Multnomah Country Club, the Snowshoe Club, the 
Portland Rowing Club and the Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Mecklem leads a 
healthful, well balanced life and is a broad-minded man, in complete sympathy 
with those movements which make for good citizenship. He enjoys his work and 
has demonstrated what may be accomplished by diligence and perseverance when 
guided by intelligence and sound judgment. By nature he is generous and 
sympathetic and a wide circle of steadfast friends is proof of his personal 
popularity. 

Additional Comments:
History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. II, 
Pages 667-668

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