Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....Smith, Percy A. 1884 - 
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Ila Wakley iwakley@msn.com January 20, 2011, 1:11 am

Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Page 725
Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     PERCY A. SMITH is president of the Westmede Desk Company, one of 
Portland's important and steadily growing industries, its products being sold 
throughout the United States as well as in many foreign countries. This 
concern was established as the Oregon Table Company in 1920 by H. I. and J. F. 
Trowbridge, who sold their interests in the business in 1928. In October, 
1920, Percy A. Smith bought a considerable interest in the company, of which 
he then became president, which office he has held to the present time. The 
plant, which is located at 460 Loring street, comprises a number of three-
story buildings, embracing forty-five thousand five hundred square feet of 
space, the main building being sixty by two hundred feet. The buildings are 
equipped with a modern automatic sprinkler system for fire protection, while 
the individual electric motor system is used in operating the machinery. Sixty 
people are employed, most of whom are skilled workmen. The products consist of 
office desks and furniture, bank and institutional furniture, and various 
stock lines, while they also make much furniture of special requirements, for 
which they have their own expert designers. The furniture is sold extensively 
in every state west of the Rocky mountains, as well as in South America, 
Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and Alaska, about twenty per cent of the 
company's output being exported. The business has enjoyed a very satisfactory 
growth and now amounts to about four hundred thousand dollars a year. The 
company maintains an office in New York city and sales offices and warehouses 
in Los Angeles and San Francisco, California, selling to dealers, and also has 
three traveling representatives.

     Percy A. Smith was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1884, and is a son of 
Charles E. and Hedwig (Hansen) Smith. His father came to Portland in 1859 and 
established the Smith & Watson Iron Works, with which he was identified until 
his death, which occurred in 1912. The mother still resides in this city. 
Percy A. Smith received his elementary education in the public schools, and 
after graduating from high school attended the University of Oregon. He was 
employed as a textile engineer in the Portland Woolen Mills and was later 
connected with various concerns until 1920, when he became identified with the 
present business, of which he has since been the executive head, and to which 
he has devoted his attention closely. He is a keen, enterprising and 
progressive business man and stands deservedly high in the manufacturing 
circles of this city.

     In 1912 Mr. Smith was united in marriage to Miss Marjorie Murphey, who 
was born in Brooklyn, New York, and they are the parents of two children, 
Marjorie A. and Carol. Mr. Smith is a republican in his political views and is 
a member of the Portland Rotary Club and the Chamber of Commerce, serving as a 
member of the foreign trade committee. He possesses to a marked degree the 
qualities which commend a man to the good opinion of others and throughout the 
circle of his acquaintance is held in the highest regard.

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