Los Angeles County
Biographies
DONALD MUSGRAVE LEE
LEE, DONALD MUSGRAVE,
Automobiles, Los Angeles, California, was born in Lansing, Michigan,
August 12, 1880, the son of Herbert A. Lee and Sadie
(Musgrave) Lee. He married Etta Stewart at Portland, Oregon,
August 18, 1904, and to them there has been born one child, Thomas
Stewart Lee.
Mr. Lee attended the public schools of Chicago, whither
he had moved in his youth, and was graduated from the Northwestern Military
Academy in 1897.
Immediately upon the conclusion of his studies Mr. Lee
moved to Detroit, Michigan, and there went to work as a clerk in a wholesale
dry goods establishment. He remained with that firm just ten months, however,
and at the termination of that period, decided to go into business for himself. He sought the West as his field of operations and
located in Seattle, Washington, in the year 1898.
He went into the lumber, timber and shingle business at
Summit, Washington, his operations including the management of a shingle mill,
of which he was sole owner, and a logging camp, in which he was the directing
head.
In due time Mr. Lee became an extensive
shipper of shingles, a large proportion of the product of his mill being sold
in the Western States. He remained in the mill business until 1902, when
he sold out his interests and entered the automobile field, one in which he has
since been conspicuously successful.
His first automobile connection was in the states of
Oregon and Washington, for which territory he was appointed general agent of
the Cadillac Manufacturing Company. His headquarters were in Seattle, and from
this point he directed the operations of branch agencies in Tacoma and
Portland. Within two years Mr. Lee had made such a fine record that he was
chosen by his company to open up the field in and about Los Angeles, which at
that time, 1904, was not largely populated with motor cars. With the taking up
of the California business he surrendered his Northwestern territory.
By progressive methods and a careful use of the
experience he had acquired in the north, and by his personal popularity,
Mr. Lee and his work grew in importance, and it was not very long before
he was a leader in the automobile field.
In 1908 he opened a branch office in Pasadena,
California, and three years later (July, 1911), when his success had won him
the position of manager for the entire State of California, he established
branches in San Francisco and Oakland. At the present time Mr. Lee has
under his supervision, for the Cadillac Company, thirty-seven sub-dealers and
upward of a hundred employes. In the year 1911 his
company sold more than six hundred cars in the State of California, a
remarkable record.
Mr. Lee’s position among automobile men in the United
States is a firm one and due entirely to his own efforts. He began life with
little financial strength, but by enterprising methods and native ability has
won for himself a place among the successful business men of the Pacific Coast.
He has also placed his company in the forefront in the territory over which he
has control, and at one time his cars held all road records in the State of
California, especially between the two principal cities of Los Angeles and San
Francisco.
Mr. Lee is held in high esteem in business circles in Los
Angeles, and is one of the most popular men in the State.
He holds memberships in the Annandale Country Club, the
Automobile Club of Southern California and the California State Automobile
Association. In the work of these two latter organizations he is a prominent
factor.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
13 October 2011.
Source: Press Reference
Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 719, International News Service,
New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2011 Marie Hassard.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES