User:Peteforsyth/William Reid

From History of Oregon (Bancroft/Fuller), 1886.

William Ried was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1842, of Scotch parentage. He was brought up in an atmosphere of railroads, his father being manager of the Glasgow and South-western Railway, and a railroad builder for 20 years. William was sent to St Andrew's parish school, and educated in the Presbyterian faith, under Samuel Neil, author of Logic and Literature. At an early age he left his father's house to do battle in the world for himself, succeeding in securing an education in Glasgow university, with a knowledge of the law which enabled him to practice as a partner of Alex. Douglas of Dundee, soon after which he married Agnes Dunbar. While at Dundee he met Mrs Lincoln, widow of President Lincoln, and performing for her some literary service, was rewarded by the appointment of U. S. vice-consul at Dundee, which office he held from 1869 to 1874, when he resigned to come to Oregon. His frequent intercourse with Americans led him to give much attention to the country, and in 1873 he published a pamphlet on Oregon and Washington as Fields for Capital and Labor, which was widely circulated, and resulted in the formation by its author of the Oregon and Washington Trust Investment Company, for doing business in Portland. The president of the company was the earl of Airlie, and Mr Reid the secretary. This company invested over $1,000,000 in Oregon and secured mortgages on much valuable property, being subsequently converted into the Dundee Mortgage and Trust Investment Company, with Reid as manager. Mr Reid has been very active in commercial and financial affairs. Soon after arriving in Portland he organized the Board of Trade, with A. P. Ankeny and 85 other members, who elected him secretary. In Sept. of the same year he procured the establishment by the legislature of a State Board of Immigration, the governor appointed him one of the commissioners, and the board making him secretary. He prepared pamphlets, which were printed in several languages, and circulated at the Paris exposition and the Philadelphia exposition, attracting much attention to the north-west. He was the organizer of the Oregon and Washington Mortgage Savings Bank of Portland, the first deposit savings bank in the state. In 1878 he conceived a system of narrow-gauge railways in the Willamette Valley, to be built by Scotch capital, under the name of the Oregonian Railway Company, Limited; and secured the passage by the legislature of a law entitling foreign corporations to build railroads in the state, with the same powers belonging to domestic corporations. In the autumn of 1880 he had in operation in the Willamette Valley 118 miles of road, when he applied to the legislature for a right to enter the city, and locate his road upon the public grounds therein, l)ut was opposed by Villard's railroad companies and the city government. The legislature, however, passed the bill over the governor's veto, and the Scotch company was triumphant, Reid being local president. The construction of the road into Portland was proceeded with, and the grading had reached to a point within 11 miles of the city, when the stockholders in Scotland, despite the protests of the local president, gave a 96 years' lease of their railways to Villard for a guarantee of 7 per cent on the stock. Reid then abandoned the management, and turned to other enterprises. His next undertaking was the introduction into the state of the roller system of manufacturing flour, and the City of Salem Company, with a capital of $200,000, was the result. In 1883 it erected the Capitol A and B mills at Salem and C mill at Turner, at a cost of 230,000, with a combined capacity of 900 barrels per day. The success of these mills led to the erection of others on the same plan, in Portland and elsewhere. The First National Bank of Salem was organized in 1882 by Mr. Reid erecting the bank building and becoming the first president. Having relinquished all connection with the Scotch companies above mentioned, in the spring of 1883 he organized the Oregon Mortgage Company of Scotland, with a capital of $1,000,000, which he managed for two years. In 1884 he organized the Portland National Bank, and was made its first president, and also president of the Oregon and Washington Mortgage Savings Bank. In the mean time the successors to Villard in Oregon repudiated the 96 years' lease of the narrow-gauge system, because the road was uncompleted and unproductive. The courts appointed a receiver; the legislative act under which the Oregonian Company was chartered became inoperative through the expiration of the time allowed for the completion of the road, the people of the valley desired to have a road to tide-water put in operation, and Reid was the man to bring it about. Another bill was introduced in the legislature, contested as the first had been by the city of Portland and the Oregonian Railway Company; but the bill became a law, and the Portland and Willamette Valley Railway Company, organized by Reid, undertook to connect the Willamette Valley system with Portland by the 1st of Nov., 1886. The state gave the new company a contract, to last for 15 years, to carry the freight and passengers of the uncompleted road to Portland. Mr. Reid is eminently a financier. There has been loaned on real-estate mortgages from May 1874 to June 1885, $7,597,741 of Scotch money. As one dollar borrowed represents three of value at minimum estimates, and as much of the property mortgaged is never released, there are many millions' worth of Oregon and Washington lands held in Scotland.