Cowlitz County WA Archives Biographies.....Long, Robert Alexander December 17, 1850 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/wa/wafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Ila L. Wakley iwakley@msn.com July 4, 2010, 5:54 pm Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 475 - 477 Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company ROBERT ALEXANDER LONG. While the city of Longview stands and functions as a commercial and industrial center and as a home locality, the name of Robert Alexander Long will figure on the pages of its history. It is a monument to the enterprising spirit, the progressive methods and the high ideals of him whose broad vision found expression in its construction. He ranks as one of the most prominent and successful lumbermen of the current era in America. His birth occurred in Shelbyville, Kentucky, December 17, 1850, his parents being Samuel M. and Margaret K. (White) Long. A contemporary writer has said in this connection: "His father was an intensely practical, methodical and ambitious man, who believed in doing not dreaming. There was, however, an imaginative spirit in Robert A. Long that led him at times out of his farm life environment into great future possibilities. He formed plans and looked forward to the day when his lines of life would not hold him to the plow but when he would become a forceful factor in great business undertakings. However, in his boyhood and youth he was held down to the work of the fields and to the acquirement of an education in the public schools, which he attended until his seventeenth year, when necessity forced him to give his undivided attention to business, his services being needed on the old home farm. There he continued to the age of twenty-two years, when his life broadened perceptibly in its possibilities and outlook." The change came when Robert A. Long visited his uncle, C. J. White, who was then cashier of the Kansas City Savings Bank, whose president, Dr. J. B. Bell, had a son, Victor B. Bell, about the age of Mr. Long, as was Mr. White's son Robert. The ambition of the three young men led to the establishment of a business which constituted the nucleus of the Long-Bell business interests. Mr. Long's capital consisted of between one hundred and two hundred dollars, while the other young men had credit at the Kansas City Savings Bank. They took a carload of lumber to Columbus, Kansas, which state had no native timber supply. The new enterprise met a need there and prospered from the beginning. The death of Mr. White two years later led to the reorganization of the business under the name of Long & Bell and with the passing years their trade developed until ere Mr. Bell's death they had become owners of approximately one hundred lumberyards in the west and southwest, together with large mill properties and extensive timber lands in Louisiana and Texas, railroad properties, a steamship line, coal mines, general mercantile establishments and land agencies. No name in America today is more closely associated with the lumber trade of the country than that of R. A. Long. In Kansas City, where he makes his home, the Long building stands as a monument to his enterprise and ability. The attainment of wealth, however, has never been the sole end and aim of his life. That his employes might feel a personal interest in the business he began distributing stock among them with the result that a number of these now have official connection with the company. Today Mr. Long is at the head not only of the Long-Bell Lumber Company but of many other corporations having to do with the lumber trade, with coal mining interests and with railway systems in the west. As his interests broadened in scope, covering wider and wider territory, and operations were extended into the northwest, he conceived the idea of building a model town and Longview came into existence. It is considered by many the last word in city planning and building, with its broad streets, its beautiful homes, its model factories and industrial plants, its splendid churches and schools, all placed amid a beautiful setting that nature furnished when she created a lovely lake in the midst of attractive sylvan surroundings of hill, dale and plain. With every important public project of Longview the name of Robert A. Long is associated, but his efforts in behalf of the city seemed to have reached a climax in his gift of a six hundred and fifty thousand dollar high school building with a surrounding campus of thirty-five acres, which he presented to the city on its fifth anniversary, on which occasion a two days' celebration was held. Something of the character of the man is shown not only in the fact that his employes in Kansas City have formed a Good Fellowship association but also in the fact that employes of the Long-Bell Lumber Company in Longview were most generous in furnishing equipment to the new school building, their gift being made in honor of the man whose generosity had so enriched the town. His appreciation of the value of education is found in his own words when he presented his gift to the city: "Here is the laboratory where the most precious possession of humanity — boys and girls — will be tried and tested." Back of all of the things that Mr. Long has done and accomplished — achievements great in themselves and in their far-reaching influence — is his Christian faith. He is president of the Christian Board of Publishers of St. Louis, Missouri, publishers of the Christian Evangelist, the organ of the Disciples of Christ, and made to the society the gift of its splendid plant. He is also a trustee of the Bible College of Missouri. His own belief is clearly expressed in the words of Dr. J. H. Garrison, one of the venerable ministers of the Christian church: WHAT WE STAND FOR For the Christ of Galilee, For the truth that makes men free, For the bond of unity Which makes God's children one. For the love which shines in deeds, For the life which this world needs, For the church whose triumph speeds The prayer: "Thy will be done." For the right against the wrong, For the weak against the strong, For the poor who've waited long For the brighter age to be. For the faith against tradition For the truth 'gainst superstition, For the hope whose glad fruition Our waiting eyes shall see. For the city God is rearing, For the new earth now appearing, For the heaven above us clearing, And the song of victory. Mr. Long has ever found time for interest in those activities which closely touch the civic welfare. He gives his political allegiance usually to the democratic party. He is the president of the Liberty Memorial Association of Kansas City and was a member and speaker of the conservation congress held at the White House in 1908. He is widely known for his oratory and his power in debate. His social nature has found expression in his membership in the Kansas City, Mid-Day, Automobile, Blue Hills and Hill Crest clubs. He maintains his residence in Kansas City, but he is a man of the nation and particularly of the west and his life is an expression of the progressive spirit that has led to the development of the great empire west of the Mississippi. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/wa/cowlitz/bios/long176gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/wafiles/ File size: 8.2 Kb