| McLEOD, ANGUS
H., son of Charles and Elizabeth (ANDERSON) MCLEOD, was born in Glengarry,
Province of Ontario, in 1842. His father was a Scotch Highlander, a teacher
by profession. His mother was a native of Edinburgh. After the death of
his father, when Angus was eight years old, he obtained by his own efforts
a good common school education, and at the age of seventeen began to learn
the miller's trade. He had charge of various mills and finally bought one
of his own at Trout River, New York, which he carried on successfully for
five years. In 1871 he moved to St. Johnsbury where he bought the Caledonia
mills. The plant was at that time in a rather dilapidated condition, with
a capacity of not over two carloads of grain per week or 40,000 bushels
annually. Mr. MCLEOD at once installed modern machinery, made necessary
repairs and was soon doing a successful business in grinding wheat. Gradually
the competition of the great Western mills made the manufacture of flour
unprofitable and for the past twenty years that branch of the business
has been discontinued. The mills have been practically rebuilt and the
plant supplied with all the modern improvements until it now has a storage
capacity of 50,000 bushels of grain and a daily grinding capacity of 2,500
bushels, or 750,000 bushels per year, unequaled by any other Vermont mill.
A destructive
fire in 1900 burned the two elevators. Elevator B, erected soon after,
is the largest in the state with a storage capacity of 100 carloads of
feed and flour. The grain is all handled by power from the Passumpsic river,
and with the power shovel a carload of grain is unloaded at an expense
of fifteen cents. Two men are employed in the office and six in the mill.
In 1893 the MCLEOD Milling Co. was incorporated with a capital of $55,000.
The present officers are A. H. MCLEOD, president and treasurer; J. H. BROOKS,
vice-president and secretary; A. H. MCLEOD, F. H. BROOKS, and J. H. BROOKS,
directors.
In 1880 Mr.
MCLEOD was elected a director of the First National bank, and in 1895 succeeded
Colonel Franklin Fairbanks as president. He has also served as vice-president
of the Ely Hoe and Fork Co., and as village trustee and lister of St. Johnsbury.
In 1867 he married
Mary J. ROGERS of Trout River, New York. They have three children, Charles
H., Maude E. (Mrs. J. H. BROOKS), and Grace A., all of St. Johnsbury.
Source: Successful Vermonters,
William H. Jeffrey, E. Burke, Vermont, The Historical Publishing Company,
1904, p82.
Prepared
by Tom Dunn April 2005
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