San Joaquin County
Biographies
McDOUGALD, SANGSTER & CO.
JOHN SANGSTER
WILLIAM ARCHIBALD McDOUGALD
McDOUGALD, SANGSTER &
CO., wholesale liquor merchants of Stockton, succeeded by purchase in July,
1888, to the business established by Evans & O’Brien in 1868. Later on the
business was carried on by John H. O’Brien alone until August, 1877, when he
sold out to J. A. McDougald & Co., in which the “company” represented the
Mr. John Sangster of the present firm. In 1879, J. A. McDougald lost his life
by drawing his gun, muzzle toward him, from a wagon, and the business was
bought by the former owner O’Brien. Two brothers McDougald, D. A. and W. A.,
formed a partnership February 1, 1886, to carry on a wholesale liquor business
in this city, and in July, 1888, they bought out Mr. O’Brien. They do a jobbing
business in this and neighboring counties as well as in this city.
John Sangster was born in Scotland, in
1842, a son of John and Maggie (Gray) Sangster, both deceased, the mother in
Scotland, and the father at the age of sixty-two in Canada, whither he had
emigrated in the childhood of his son. The latter, brought up on his father’s
farm in Glengarry County, Canada, and there educated, afterward learned the
trade of a tailor, and worked at it some little there as a journeyman. Coming
to California in 1864, from New York city by way of Panama, he arrived in San
Francisco, March 29, 1864. He worked about one month in the Revere House in
Napa, then several months at his trade in Marysville, when he went to the mines
in Trinity County, in the fall of 1864, remaining there about six months. He
then took up farm work in that county eighteen months and followed the same
line afterward in Humboldt County nine years, meanwhile buying 160 acres, which
he worked on his own account one year. Selling his land he returned to Canada
in the winter of 1876, remaining but three months, when he came by railroad to
Stockton and went to farming near Modesto for nine months. In 1877 he returned
to this city and was engaged for three months in delivering for a coal and ice
company. August 1, 1877, he embarked in his present business as a member of the
firm of J. A. McDougald & Co. After the death of his partner in 1879 and
the purchase of the business by J. H. O’Brien he remained with the latter until
May, 1880, when he went to Oregon. There he became the agent of an Eastern
manufacturer of agricultural implements, dealing mostly with country merchants.
After four years in that business he returned to Stockton in 1885, and a few
months later helped to form the present firm.
Mr. Sangster was married in this city,
June 12, 1887, to Mrs. Catherine Roberts, a widow with two children: Mary and
Maggie Roberts. Mrs. Sangster died in September, 1888. Mr. Sangster is a member
of the I. O. O. F., a Knight of Pythias, and a member of the Improved Order of
Red Men.
William Archibald McDougald, of McDougald,
Sangster & Co., wholesale liquor merchants of Stockton, was born in
Glengarry County, Canada, in 1838, a son of Archibald and Mary (Corbett)
McDougald, both natives of Canada, of Scotch descent. Great-grandfather John
Corbett, the original emigrant on one side, lived to be eighty, and grandfather
John McDougald, the first emigrant on the other side, lived to be sixty-five.
Great-grandmother Margaret (McDonald) McDougald, lived to be over eighty, and
grandmother Flora (Forbes) Corbett reached the age of seventy-three. Mrs. Mary
(Corbett) McDougald, born in 1817, died in Canada in 1872 and her husband,
Archibald, born in 1809, died in this city in 1878. Of their children four sons
and one daughter came to California and settled in this city, and are all living
here in 1890, except one son, John A., who was accidentally killed in June,
1879, leaving a widow and three children. Donald Alexander, a widower with
three children, is a member of the firm of McDougald, Sangster & Co.; John
D. is the well known rancher and capitalist of this city, and Miss Mary A.
McDougald is one of the matrons of the State Insane Asylum.
The subject of this sketch received his
education in a country school in his native county and then learned the trade
of painter in Montreal, where he also worked in a grocery store for some time.
He came to California in 1863, by way of New York and Panama, and worked at his
trade in San Francisco until he came to Stockton in 1865. Here he became a
member of the firm of Quinn & McDougald, in the painting and paper-hanging
line, in which they remained until January 1, 1869, when they went into the
grocery business; John A. McDougald being also a partner, without change of
style. In the fall of 1870 they sold out, and the subject of this sketch, for
the benefit of his health, moved to Los Angeles, where he engaged in the paint
and oil business until June, 1873. He then returned to Canada and embarked in
the grocery and liquor business in Ottawa, under the style of W. A. McDougald
& Co., until 1874, when he was burnt out but resumed for a short time.
Becoming dissatisfied with that country a longing for the sunshine of
California seized him, and winding up his business he returned to Stockton in
the fall of 1875, accompanied by his father and sister. He rejoined his old
partner, Mr. Quinn, in the original business of painting and paper-hanging,
under the old style of Quinn & McDougald, which continued until the
formation of the present firm, as already stated on February 1, 1886.
Mr. McDougald was president of the
Caledonian Club of this city until its death in 1885. He is now a member of the
Caledonian Club, and of the St. Andrew Society of San Francisco.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County, California,
Pages 632-633. Lewis Pub. Co. Chicago,
Illinois 1890.
© 2009 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
Biographies
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