Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....Smith, Jay 1864 - ************************************************ 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 July 4, 2010, 7:01 pm Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 484 - 485 Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company JAY SMITH. The Marshall-Wells Company, of Duluth, Minnesota, which has branch houses throughout the northwest and Canada, with its principal western office in Portland, is the leading concern in the hardware and lumbermen's supply business in the territory which it covers. To this company is given a large part of the credit for the development of Portland as a jobbing and wholesale center, having been one of the first big concerns to establish sales headquarters in this city. The Marshall-Wells Company was established at Duluth, Minnesota, in 1893 by A. M. Marshall, and the home office has always been maintained in that city. During the subsequent years the company has established branches at many points in the United States and has warehouses at Duluth and Minneapolis, Minnesota; Billings and Great Falls, Montana; Spokane, Seattle and Aberdeen, Washington; Winnipeg, Manitoba; Regina, Moose Jaw and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta, and Vancouver, British Columbia. It handles a general line of hardware, lumbermen's and logging supplies, plumbing material and paints. The territory they cover includes not only the northwest but also California, Alaska and the Hawaiian islands. The present warehouse and office at Portland was erected in 1909 — a four-story, concrete, mill-construction building, to which three more stories were added in 1914, so that it now comprises seven stories, two hundred feet square, embracing two hundred and eighty thousand square feet of space, and occupies an entire block. In addition there are extensive iron sheds, served with electric cranes, giving a total floor space of three hundred and forty thousand square feet. The company's railroad tracks to the platforms greatly facilitate the loading and unloading of goods. Since the business was established at Portland, in 1901, it has enjoyed a steady and continuous growth and is now one of the most important commercial enterprises of this city, employing three hundred and fifty people. Jay Smith, vice president of the Marshall-Wells Company and manager of the business in the west, was born in Saginaw, Michigan, in 1864, and received a public and high school education. In 1882, when eighteen years of age, he became identified with the hardware business as an employee of the McIntosh- Huntington Company, of Cleveland, Ohio, with which concern he remained for twenty-one years, becoming manager of the industrial sales department. In 1903 he came to Portland as manager for the Marshall-Wells Company and his record here has been one of which he has just reason to be proud, gaining for him a wide reputation for sound judgment and executive ability. Mr. Smith gives his political support to the republican party, and is a member of the Arlington Club, the Portland Golf Club, the Portland Chamber of Commerce and the Arctic Club of Seattle, Washington. During his twenty-five years' residence in this city he has made a host of warm and loyal friends, who esteem him for his genuine worth as man and citizen, while in business circles he commands uniform confidence and respect. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/or/multnomah/bios/smith1206gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/orfiles/ File size: 3.8 Kb