1921 Duluth & St Louis County MN, Van Brunt.pdf - Garon.us

DULUTH AND ST. LOUIS COUNTY 849
in the family, seven of whom are still living, James P. being the fourth
in age.
James P. McDonald was well educated, and manifested some unusual
intellectual qualifications while a schoolboy in Canada. When he graduated
from the public schools he passed a written examination held under
the direction of the Dominion Government and obtained the highest percentage
of any student in the Dominion at that time. From the public
schools he entered the Collingwood Collegiate Institute, and after finishing
his education found his first employment as cashier in a mercantile concern.
During the season of 1888 he was purser on the steamer Imperial.
Since then for a period of over thirty years his one work and interest
has been the lumber business. He was assistant to the manager in a plant
manufacturing lumber, and made use of every opportunity to learn the
business in every phase and detail from the stump to the market. The
firm with which he served this practical apprenticeship was at French
River, Ontario. During the second year he took an examination under
the Dominion Government as to his qualifications as a scaler of logs on
Crown land timber, and after the examination received a life certificate for
scaling Crown land timber.
j\Ir. McDonald came to the United States in November, 1891. in
company with his brother Peter Thomas McDonald. He crossed the line
at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and immediately became associated as a
lumber inspector with the Flail & Munson Lumber Company at P>ay Mills.
Michigan. He was there a year, and in November, 1892, came to Duluth,
even at that time one of the most prominent i)oints in the lumber industry
of the northwest. During the winter months of 1892-93 he was employed
as a log scaler by the Howe Lumber Company at Tower, one of the larger
organizations then in business, and also by Robert Whiteside of Duluth.
In the spring of 1893 he became lumber inspector for the Howe Lumber
Company at Tower and continued during 1893. In the winter of 1893-94
he scaled state timber as deputy surveyor general, but then returned to
the Howe Lumber Company as lumber yarcl superintendent in the spring
of 1894, and filled that position during the summer seasons up to and
including 1896. During the winters of 1895-96 and 1896-97 he was
engaged as chief deputy surveyor general in the Fifth District of Minnesota.
His next work was with Ogilvie & Turrish of West Superior,
Wisconsin, as superintendent. This firm had a large ])lant for the manufacture
of lumber at West Superior. Mr. McDonald remained with them
until he was appointed surveyor general of logs and lumber by Governor
Schofield of Wisconsin, an office he filled for a term of two years. One
of the largest timber and lumber manufacturing concerns at Duluth, the
Minnesota Log & Timber Com])any. then secured Mr. McDonald's services
as general manager of their operations, and that was his post of duty
until the corporation li(|uidated and wound up its affairs. In 1^04 he
became associated with another prominent northwestern lumberman.
Mr. William O'Brien, who had been president of the Minnesota Log &
Timber Company, and continued as general manager of the O'Brien
Lumber Manufacturing Plant at Duluth.
In 1909 the firm of Mullery-McDonald Lumber Company was organized
with William O'Brien, president; John C". Mullery. vice president;
V. J. Mullery, treasurer, and Mr. McDonald, secretary and general manager.
This firm owned extensive tracts of timber land, logged off tlie land
and railed the products to Duluth to be manufactured into lumber at their
three sawmills, which they jiurchased f'-om Ilul)b;ird cK: \'incetU. the Red
Cliff' Lvunber Company and the .St. Louis Lumber Company. The operations
of the firm were conducted on a large scale until P>P'. During P>15