There have been unique elements in the business and social career of this well known citizen of Detroit, where he has
touched many lines of activity and where his attractive genius and interesting personality are acclaimed by nothing in more significant degree
than by his unqualified popularity. Within a recent period the writer of
this article presented a little narrative concerning the things that have
been done by "Alec" McLeod. and there can he no inconsistency in utilizing much of the context thus offered in this supplemental canvass of an
interesting subject.
The fact that Alexander I. McLeod is a native of the smallest state in
the American union has not militated against his "bigness" of intellect
and heart, as all who know him can well testify. He was born in the city
of Providence, Rhode Island, on the 2d of August. 1852, and is a sou of
Alexander and Janet (Reid) McLeod. His lather was born in the highlands of Scotland, whence he came to America when a lad of sixteen
years, having worked his passage on a sailing vessel and having first settled in Nova Scotia. There he learned the trade of ship-carpenter and
marine draftsman, and to these closely allied vocations he continued to
devote his attention throughout his entire active business career, which
was diversified by employment on land and sea. He made numerous
voyages, and incidental thereto visited many of the principal seaports
of the world. Finally he established his home in Providence, Rhode
Island, where he became a successful ship-builder. In the financial depression and panic of 1857 he met with severe losses, which greatly impaired the comfortable fortune that he had gained through energy and
well directed efforts. Under these conditions he determined to locate in
the west, and in the year last mentioned he came with his family to Michigan and took up his abode at Mount Clemens, Macomb county, where
he engaged in ship-building on a modest scale. In 1859 he removed to
Detroit, and here lie was for many years superintendent of the shipyard
of Campbell & Owen, which firm was succeeded by the Detroit Dry Dock
Company, and the latter in turn by the present Detroit Shipbuilding
Company, which is a branch of the American Shipbuilding Company.
He continued a resident of Detroit until his death, which occurred in
1875, and as a man of sterling character he ever commanded the confidence and respect of all who knew him. His wife, who was a native of
Paisley, Scotland, died in 1865, and of their four children three are living.
Alexander I. McLeod was afforded the advantages of the public
schools of Detroit, where he was reared to maturity, he having been seven
years of age at the time of the family removal to this city. At the age of
eighteen years he entered service as a sailor on the Great Lakes, a vocation to which he was drawn by an inherent and insistent fondness for the
water, and it may be said that he has never abated his love for the ever
varying attractions of the great inland seas. At the age of nineteen years
he withdrew from his association with the lake marine service to enter
upon a vocation of radically different order—one in which he was destined
to achieve no mediocre success and prestige. He entered the employ of
the old Detroit Advertiser and Tribune, and finally became a member of
its reportorial force, in which connection he made so excellent a record
that in 1872 be became a member of the editorial staff of the paper.
This incumbency he retained until the following year, and he gained reputation as a versatile and forceful writer, with clear appreciation of news
values and mature judgment as to matters of economic and general civic
polity. In 187:1 Mr. McLeod received from Judge George S. Swift appointment to the office of clerk of the recorder's court of "Wayne county,
and in this position he served until 1877. when he resigned to engage in
business in an independent way. He became one of the organizers and
incorporators of the Pierce Chemical Company, which engaged in the
manufacture of wood chemicals. The inventor of the processes utilized
was Henry M. Pierce, who was made president of the company, and Mr.
McLeod became superintendent. The latter was identified with this enterprise about one year, at the expiration of which, in 1878, he associated
himself with Captain Augustus C. Donnelly in the operation of a line of
packet steamers on the Ohio and Tennessee rivers, between Cincinnati.
Ohio, and Florence, Alabama. Mr. McLeod thus became chief clerk on
the "Ariadne," of Cincinnati, in which vessel he owned one-fourth interest. From this enterprise he withdrew in 1882, in which year he returned to Detroit, where he entered the employ of the Evening News
Company, and from 1885 to 1889 he was city editor of this popular daily.
On the 1st of January, 1889. he was made private secretary to Mayor
Hazen S. Pingree, during whose admirable administration of four terms
he continued the incumbent of this position, from which he retired in
1895. In the autumn of the preceding year he had been elected treasurer of Wayne county, and that he ably handled the fiscal affairs thus
entrusted to his supervision is best evidenced by the fact that he was
chosen as his own successor in the election of 1890. He made many and
effective improvements in the system of handling the business of the
treasurer's office, notably by the introduction of the cashier system, which
was adopted also by the city water board and the receiver of taxes, and
the plans and methods which he thus formulated have since continued to
be utilized by his successors in this responsible county office. He retired
from office in July. 1898. In polities Mr. McLeod gives unwavering allegiance to the Republican party, in behalf of whose cause he has given
effective service.
Mr. McLeod has been more or less intimately identified with lakemarine interests for many years, having been part owner of the composite steamer "John Owen" and of the steamer "Progress,** in which
latter connection he was vice-president of the Progress Transportation
Company. In 1895 he was one of the organizers and incorporators of
the Detroit Telephone Company, of which he was elected vice-president
besides being a member of its directorate. The successful work of this
company is a matter of city and state history, and it may justly be said
that -Mr. McLeod was a potent factor in building up the business of this
important corporation. In 1897 he was concerned in the organization of
the new State Telephone Company, of which he was vice-president up to
the time of its consolidation with the Bell Telephone Company. In 1905
he organized the Maxwell-Briscoe-McLeod Company (now the United
Motor Detroit Company), which is engaged in the sale of automobiles,
and the trade territory of which includes Michigan. Ohio. Kentucky.
Tennessee, Alabama. Mississippi and Louisiana. The enterprise has been
most successful and Mr. McLeod has been president of the company since
1906. He is also president of the Detroit Reduction Company, manufacturers of fertilizers, and is a director of each the Chicago Reduction
Company, the Dixie Portland Cement Company, the Atlas Foundry Company, and the Central Savings Hank of Detroit.
For a long term of year Mr. McLeod has been one of the most prominent and enthusiastic figures in yachting circles on the Great Lakes, and
the speedy boats with which he has been concerned and sailed as a Corinthian yachtsman have effectually trimmed the sails of many a worthy
rival. In 1884 he served as vice-commodore of the Michigan Yacht Club,
in 1898 as commodore of the Inter-Lake Yachting Association, and in
1905 as commodore of the Detroit Yacht Club. He is owner of the yawl
"Frances A.." named in honor of his wife, and the same is a fine specimen of its type, being thirty-five feet in length and having won many
races. In 1887 Mr. McLeod was head of the syndicate which built the
"City of the Straits constructed by the Detroit Dry Dock Company,
from the design of Brady Wandell. This yacht has a long series of victories in hard-fought struggles, with Commodore McLeod at the stick, the
most notable of which was sailed in a snow storm on Lake Erie on the
21st of November, 1888. and which resulted in a victory over the "Alice
Knight." of Toledo, of fifty-seven minutes over a thirty-mile course.
The latter craft was then champion of the lakes. Again in 1900, when
the honor of Detroit seemed to be at stake, Commodore McLeod organized another syndicate, which built the famous forty-foot sloop "Detroit." a boat that cleaned up everything in its class and that was finally
taken overland to San Diego. California, where it beat everything on the
Pacific coast and won the trophy given by Sir Thomas Lipton. Mr. McLeod is one of the few surviving members of the old International Yacht
Club, of which the late Kirk C. Barker was the commodore and leading
spirit. In 1884 Mr. McLeod effected the organization of the Michigan
Yacht Club, the immediate predecessor of the Detroit Yacht Club, and
largely through his efforts was secured from the board of park commissioners of Detroit the franchise and concession which made possible the
erection of the club house on Belle Isle.
Mr. McLeod is a member of the Fellowcraft Club, the Rankers Club,
the Detroit Hoard of Commerce, the Detroit Motor boat Club, and a life
member of the Detroit Yacht Club, besides being actively identified with
the Inter-Lake Yachting Association. lie holds membership in the Harmonic Society, of Detroit, and is affiliated with both the York and Scottish Kite bodies of the Masonic fraternity, in which he has received the
thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Kite and that of
Knight Templar.
On the 28th of October. 1876. Mr. McLeod was united in marriage to
Miss Frances A. Millington. daughter of the late John Millington. who
was a leading architect in New York city. They have one daughter.
Frances Janet. The family home is in one of the beautiful suburbs of
Detroit, fronting on Lake St. Claire, Crosse Pointe Shores.
History and Biography Wayne Co - Henry Taylor & Co 1909
