"Early History of Thurston County, Washington; Together with Biographies and Reminiscences of those Identified with Pioneer Days." Compiled and Edited by Mrs. George E. (Georgiana) Blankenship. Published in Olympia, Washington, 1914. p. 244. THOMAS M. MACLEAY Thomas Moore Macleay was born in Willapool, on Lock Broom, in Boss and Cromarty Shires, Scotland. His family was one of the oldest and most prominent in that section and when he was a child his family moved to Richmond, Canada. In 1861, he went into business in Montreal and during the Civil War traveled through the Eastern States, buying what produce he could and shipping to his partner. Hearing through his brother about California and Oregon, he decided to sell out and go there. He then become interested in the firm of Corbett & Macleay Co., of Portland, who owned several large vessels and did an immense business all over the Coast and in the Hawaiian Islands. He later visited Puget Sound and decided to cast his lot in Olympia, where he opened a wholesale and retail grocery, below Second on Main street. His stock was so heavy it caused the floor to give way so he built a new place on Main street, between Second and Third streets. His large heart was open to every new comer and he trusted them with goods for months and always had a warm corner and something to eat for everyone. Traveling in those days was very hard and was done mostly by row boat and horseback. He always had the good of the community at, heart and was very enterprising. With Capt. J. G. Parker and Dr. Alden Steele, he built, the first steamer, "The Messenger," that made daily trips between Olympia and Tacoma and Seattle. It was considered a wild and unheard of undertaking in those days and was a great event when the boat was launched and made her trial trip as far as Doffemeyers Point. He married Annie Frost, the youngest sister of Robert Frost, a pioneer of the fifties, and by whom he had five children. Their first home was the building where Governor Stevens opened the first Territorial Legislature, and where their only son, Lachlan Macleay, now a prominent business man of New York, was born. Mr. Macleay died in 1897 and as his old friend, John Miller Murphy wrote of him: "His word was as good as a bond, and his name to an obligation as safe as the paper of the Bank of England. Mrs. Macleay, as a young girl, was one of a group of young people who were the life of the whole community. In the early seventies they organized the Olympia Amateur Dramatic Club, whose members were Billy Neat, Robert Frost, Capt. Ballard, (who afterwards founded the town of Ballard), Joe Chilberg, George Blankenship. Sam Woodruff, James Ferry and Professor Roberts, the ladies being Nettie Horton, Gyp Shelton. Ada Woodruff, (who is now Mrs. Oliver Anderson, the noted authoress), Julia Shelton and Annie Frost. They put on these amateur plays in the old Town Hall, the proceeds going for different purposes, once to paint the hall and again to build a house for a family who had been burned out. ******************* Submitted to the Washington Bios. Project in May 2007 by Diana Smith. Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.