Lincoln, he received the appointment of United Stiite« Consul at Dtinde e and held the office at that port until his removal to Oregon in 1871. While in Scotland he acted as counsel for the United States for several Ainerii-au claimants under the Alabama treaty. In 1873 he orgranized the Oregon and Washington Trust Investment Company at Dundee, and iu 187(i he formed at Portland the Oregon and Wasliington Mortgage Savings Bank, wliieh institutions have loaned the enormous sum of over $5,(Kn),0(M) on mortgages under his control, without as yet making one single dollar of bad debts. Shortly after his arrival in Oregon he appeared before the Legislature of the State and urged the passage of the first Oregon Immigration Act, and was appointed thereunder, by Governor Grover, President of the State Board of Immigration for Oregon, in conjunction with Hon. W. S. Ladd, Hon. H. W. Corbett, B. Goldsmith and C. Leinenweber as Commissioners, which po- sition he held for three years, and appointed Oregon immigration agents all over the United States and Europe, which was the direct means of securing a very large immigration to this State shortly afterwards. In 1871 he first organized, in conjunction with Captain A. P. Ankeny, the Board of Trade of Portland, and was its active secretary for a period of six years. In 1874, 1876 and 1878 he wrote various pamphlets, describing "Oregon and Wash- ington as Fields for Labor and Capital," 40,000 copies of which were printed in the English, Flemish, German and French languages for the Paris Ex- position. In 1879 he conceived the idea of constructing a system of nar- row gauge railroads in Western Oregon, and, in conjunction with Mr. J. B. Montgomery, for that purpose was one of the organizers of "The Oregonian Railway Company, Limited," of Scotland, Mr. Montgomery having gone to Scotland to perfect the same The construction of this system met with great opposition from rival railroad enterprises and the city of Portland; its enter- ing this city, in condemning and appropriating the public levee for a terminal depot and grounds ; and the fight was taten into the halls of the Legisla- ture in the session of 1880, where, after considerable opposition, a bill was passed by a two-thirds vote of the Senate and Hinise, over the Governor's veto, entitling his railroad company, which, at that time was very i)opular with the farmers of the Willamette vaUey, as an opposition road, to occupy the public levee of Portland for its terminus and depot grounds. They constructed and completed 163 miles of this railway, and had his road bed graded to a point within eleven miles of Portland, when his efforts for its farther extension to that city were stopped by the Scotch owners of the enterprise, who, despite his opposition, leased the road against his wishes for ninety-six years to the Oregon Railway and Navigation Com[)any in re- turn for a guaranteed rent of seven and one-half per cent, per year upon the paid-up stock. Mr. Reid the same year reorganized the Salem Flouring Mill Company, and also formed a company with a capital of S2(K),(MMl, called the " City of Salem Company," for the purpose of adopting and extending the gradual reduction system of milling into Oregon upon the Minneapolis process, which proved a success upon Oregon wheat. That company, of which he is President and the largest stockholder, owns the Capitol INIills, "A and B," of Salem, and the Turner "C" MHl, with a united capacity of
