San Francisco County
Biographies
A.
M. MACPHERSON
A.
M. Macpherson, of the firm of Macpherson
& Rucker, commission merchants and wholesale dealers in California and Oregon produce, 215, 217 and 219 Washington street, San Francisco, was born in Nova Scotia, November
1, 1857. His parents, James and Catharine (McDonald) Macpherson, were both natives of Scotland, and came to America about the year
1810. The father died in 1875, aged
seventy years, and the mother also deceased, in 1880, aged sixty-nine years.
The
Macphersons have descended from the clan Macpherson, whose chief was Lord Cluny. This man warmly espoused the cause of exiled
Stuarts in their efforts to recover the British throne. Our subject’s great-grandfather, John Macpherson, fought in the battle of Colloden
for Prince Charles Stuart. Alexander Macpherson, his grandfather, was born in Inverness-shire, Scotland, in 1764, and emigrated to America in the ship Hector,
arriving in 1810. His grandmother’s
maiden name was Catharine Gillis. They were
married in 1803, and had a family of seven sons and four daughters. James Macpherson,
the father of A. M., was the second oldest son, being born in 1805. He was consequently but five years of age
when he landed in America. He died in March, 1875, aged seventy years.
Mr.
Macpherson’s mother’s people came from Moidart, Inverness, and belonged to the
clan Ronald. They also arrived in the
ship Hector at the same time. They had a
family of seven sons and six daughters.
All of the sons followed the sea, and were masters and owners of ships
till the time of their death. Mr. Macpherson’s maternal grandfather’s name was John Ban
McDonald, and his grandmother’s was Mary McDonald, she living to be 101 years
of age.
Mr.
Macpherson, the youngest of his father’s family of
five children, left the parental roof when but twelve years of age, and went to
sea. He engaged in the fishing trade a
few years, when he became a deep-water sailor, and has visited many parts of
the world. He came to California in September, 1874, and
engaged in clerking for a time, and some nine years ago embarked in the
commission business, under the firm style of Macpherson
& Branagan.
This business continued until 1889, when Mr. Macpherson
purchased the entire business, soon afterward taking in his present partner,
Mr. Rucker. The business of this firm
has been a success from the start, and now extends far into the northwest, and
also to the Sandwich
Islands. They supply perhaps seventy-five per cent of
the American shipping from the port of San Francisco.
Mr.
Macpherson was married in this city, December 25,
1880, to Miss Georgiana F. Young, a native of California, and a daughter of
William E. Young, a native of Massachusetts, who came to California in 1849,
and has been for many years a contractor and builder, erecting many of the
substantial buildings of San Francisco.
Mr. and Mrs. Macpherson’s family comprises six
children, namely: Georgiana C., Alexander W., John Hugh, Charles J., Harry H.,
and an infant daughter, Nellie E.
In
politics Mr. Macpherson is a stanch Republican,
casting his first vote for Garfield. In society he affiliates with the A. O. F.,
Occidental Lodge, No. 6,676; K. of H., Yerba Buena
Lodge, No. 1,788; and A. O. U. W., Spartan Lodge, No. 36,—all of San Francisco.
Mr.
Macpherson is a man of business in the full meaning
of that term, strictly temperate, never yet having tasted of liquor or tea.
Transcribed by Donna L. Becker
Source: "The Bay of San Francisco," Vol. 2,
pages 106-107, Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.
© 2005 Donna L.
Becker.
California Biography Project
San Francisco
County
California
Statewide
Golden Nugget
Library