"Portrait and Biographical Record of Portland and Vicinity, Oregon." Authors: "a
compilation of this work....by a number of writers".  Chicago: Chapman
Publishing Co., 1903. p. 721.
 
GEN. HENRY MELDRUM

     surveyor general of Oregon, and typical representative of western energy
and resourcefulness, was born in Pacific county, Wash., then Oregon territory,
November 5, 1852, and comes of a family established in Kentucky by his paternal
grandfather, John, who came from the North of Ireland. John Meldrum, Jr., the
father of Henry, was born in Kentucky in 1808, and in his youth learned the
stone cutter's trade. In his native state he married Susan Cox, who was born in
Tennessee in 1817, and who is now living in Oregon City at the age of
eighty-five, hale and hearty, and with vivid memories of her jaunt across the
plains with her husband and four children in 1845. John Meldrum settled in Waldo
Hills, Marion county, and at that time, in 1845, there had been no survey of the
country, and the wildness and desolation were marked indeed.  Leaving his family
in the new home, now somewhat organized, he departed for the mines of California
in '49, experiencing there many adventures and hardships, among which was a
fight with the Indians at Rocky Point, in which contest ten or twelve well armed
men lost their lives, and the whole party were robbed. Notwithstanding this
calamity Mr. Meldrum was fairly successful as a miner, and when, one year later,
in 1850, he returned to his waiting wife and children in Waldo Hills, he had
something with which to console them for the loneliness during his absence.  In
1851 he located on a donation claim of six hundred and forty acres in Pacific
county, Wash., and in 1856 removed to Oregon City, where he worked at his trade
of stone cutter and contractor up to the time of his death in 1889, at the age
of over four score and two years. He was a Whig in the old days, but after the
war cast his vote for Republican candidates. There are now living two sons and
three daughters of the children born to himself and wife, and of these, John W.,
a civil engineer since 1866, is located on a farm near Oregon City, and is
surveyor of Clackamas county; Octavia is now Mrs. Moore of Portland ; Mary R. is
the wife of D. P. Thompson of Portland; and Sarah is Mrs. McCowan of Oregon
City.
     General Meldrum was reared in Oregon City, attended the schools of that
town, and the Pacific University of Forest Grove, after which he applied himself
to surveying under the instruction of D. P. Thompson. At the age of nineteen he
was a practical surveyor, and in 1872 took his first government contract
continuing thereat until 1900. During this time he was engaged in general and
mining surveying in Oregon and northern California, and during 1897-98 was
government inspector of surveying in Minnesota and Dakota. Early in 1897 he ran
the Blackfoot Indian boundary line in Montana, and during 1899 was again in
Montana. From 1894 until 1896 he was county surveyor of Clackamas county. In
July, 1901, Mr. Meldrum was appointed surveyor-general of the district of Oregon
by President McKinley, and after the death of this greatly beloved executive was
reappointed by his successor, President Roosevelt, his headquarters being in the
federal building.
     In McMinnville, Ore., Mr. Meldrum was united in marriage with Mary Eugene
LaForest, a native of Oregon City, and daughter of Eugene LaForest, a pioneer
merchant of Clackamas county, at Oregon City, but formerly engaged in mercantile
affairs for the Hudson Bay Company.  Mr. La Forest was a successful man, and
died in Oregon City at the age of forty-nine years.  His wife was a graduate of
the Oregon City high school, and was for many years a prominent educator in
Clackamas county. She was a member of the Eastern Star, and of the Woman's
Relief Corps. Five children have been born to General and Mrs. Meldrum : Pearl,
now Mrs. Stevens of New York City; Don E., government surveyor of Oregon City ;
Henry La Forest ; Jack; and Mary. General Meldrum is an un-compromising
Republican, is ex-chairman of the Clackamas county central committee, and has
been a state delegate for more than twenty years.  He is identified with many of
the foremost fraternal associations in the west, including the Benevolent
Protective, Order of Ellis ; the Red Men of Oregon City ; the Ancient Order of
United Workmen of Oregon City; and the Maccabees. He is past great senior
sagamore of Oregon, and is a charter member of McLoughlin Cabin Native Sons of
Oregon, of which he is past treasurer.

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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in April 2007 by Diana Smith.
Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned 
above.