Robert Dollar

He was born on 20 March 1844, to William Dollar and Mary Melville. He had two younger brothers, John and James. His mother died in 1853, and Robert dropped out of school and worked in a machine shop and then as an errand boy for a lumber shipping company to help support the family. After the death of Robert's mother, his father married a servant girl named Mary Easton, and in 1857 they had a daughter, also named Mary, and in 1858 a son named William.[2] Shortly afterwards, the family emigrated to Canada. Robert began working at a lumber camp as a cook's helper when he was 14 years old, and later found work in a barrel stave factory. He learned French, and worked his way up to doing the camp accounting.

In 1861, Robert held his first real job as a logger. He had the task of driving the logs down the river to the mill. There were no roads so all travel was by water. Logging took place some distance from the mill, so running the logs could take about three months. In 1866, Robert began to keep a diary, which he continued until 1918; thus, he was able to write his memoirs in later years and tell the vivid tales of logging in Canada. For example, "The first three or four days I couldn't 'keep my feet' and spent more time in the water than out of it. But experience is the best teacher and I soon learned to stay on top of the logs."[3] Dollar worked in logging camps in the forests of Canada and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.[4][5]

Robert met Margaret S. Proudfoot in a Presbyterian Church, and they were married in 1874. This was during the time after he sustained a loss in his timber venture, was heavily in debt, and determined to pay off his share, which was $2500. For their honeymoon, he took his new bride, along with 18 men, to Bracebridge, Ontario, to establish a lumber camp. Robert and Margaret were close companions, and Margaret accompanied her husband on most of his world trips. She told her granddaughters, "When you get married, never let your husband know he can get along without you." Robert once stated, "My real success began with my wedding day." According to one source:[6]

She was a quiet person, but very determined to keep up with Robert's adventures. She took an airplane ride over Shanghai in 1927. Commenting on his constant search for new challenges, Margaret said, "Sometimes I think in the modern world of marvels, he will never be satisfied until he is the skipper of a round trip to Mars.

Robert Dollar on the cover of TIME Magazine, 19 March 1928

At age 22, Robert took over running a camp as Director of the English and American Lumber Company. His first venture into the lumber industry began when he bought a lumber camp, but it failed. This did not deter him, and, apparently learning from his mistakes, he bought other camps that were successful. He bought camps and timberland in Canada, then in the upper peninsula of Michigan and finally in Northern California.

Departure of the steamer Robert Dollar from Seattle for Nome, Alaska ca. 1900

In 1888, the family moved to San Rafael, California, and Robert bought timberland and logging camps in Sonoma, a mill and lumber business at Usal in Mendocino county, and other places such as Oregon and as far north as British Columbia.[7] Among his purchases was timberland known as "Dollar's Meeker tract." This section still had redwood trees. A portion of this tract, located on the Russian River, was sold to the Bohemian Club of San Francisco and is now the Bohemian Grove.

In 1906, Robert bought a Victorian style home in San Rafael and named it "Falkirk," after his birthplace in Scotland. He lived there until his death. He left the estate to his family and it was purchased by the community in 1975 for $250,000.[8] The name Falkirk was retained as the Falkirk Cultural Center.[9]

In 1895, he acquired his first vessel, a single steam schooner called Newsboy, to move his lumber from the Pacific Northwest to markets down the coast. Thus began his entry into the shipping industry that included lumber, commodities, mail, and passengers. In the process he became a San Francisco shipping magnate who entered the lumber trade in Canada. In 1903, Robert and his three sons incorporated their interests into the Robert Dollar Company. In 1910, Dollar built an 11-story office building in San Francisco, headquarters of the Dollar Steamship Company, which was expanded in 1919.[10] During the inter-war years, his freighters plied the Pacific and were a common sight from Canada to Canton, San Francisco to Shanghai, and Tacoma to Tokyo.[11]

In 1923, the purchase of seven "president" ships owned by the U.S. Government allowed Dollar, at the age of 80, to pioneer his successful round-the-world passenger service. Pacific Mails, a U.S. company going back to the 1850s with the Panama-California and trans-Pacific routes, was taken over by Dollar in 1925 that added 8 more ships, and he also signed a contract with Grace Steamship Company.[12][13]

The death of the founder in 1932, coupled with the Great Depression and the Pacific War, headed the company into bankruptcy. The incoming Roosevelt administration removed the critical US mail contracts from the Dollar line. The Dollar family were prominent Republicans, in 1930 they had named one of their newest liners the President Hoover, and thus drew the ire of incoming administration. In 1937, under the control of Robert Dollar's sons, Dollar Lines was bankrupt. Back taxes could not be paid and in an agreement, forced by the Roosevelt administration, Stanley Dollar turned 93% of the voting common stock over to the Maritime Commission.[14]

In 1945, Stanley Dollar filed a lawsuit to recover ownership of the line. The battle raged until 1950 when the Supreme Court ruled in favour of Stanley Dollar.[15] The government had other plans and did not return the company. There was a cash settlement as 7% was retained by Stanley. In 1952, a group of investors, led by Ralph K. Davies, purchased the company for $18,000,000. Its name was shortened to APL in 1988. In 1997, APL merged with Singapore-based NOL, and as of 2006, 68% of NOL was owned by Temasek Holdings.[16]

• Dollar Portland Lumber Company
• Canadian Robert Dollar Co., Ltd
• Globe Wireless, Ltd.
• Egmont Timber Company
• Heitz and Kaufman[32]

Robert Dollar had interests in China that included land, buildings, and wharves for his ships. The Dollar Steamship Line had offices in Alexandria, Egypt, Manila and Zamboanga, Philippines, Genoa, Italy, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, CA, Oakland, CA, and Portland, OR. The company had wharves on the West Coast at Bandon and Reedsport, OR, Seattle, WA, and Honolulu, HI; on the East Coast at Boston, MA, New York, NY, and Washington, D.C.; on the Great Lakes at Cleveland, OH, Toronto, ON; Chicago, Ill; in Asia, at Kobe and Yokohama, Japan, at Shanghai, Hankow, Tientsin, Yangtze River, Tayeh, and Wuchang, China; at Havana, Cuba, and at Naples, Italy,

The Dollar Steamship Line also owned tugboats such as the Superior and Dollarton, lumber barges such as the Dollar 1, Dollar Hulk No.1, and Dollar Vi, and motor launches such as the Stuart Dollar.[33]

• President of the Y.M.C.A.
• President of the Ship Owner's Association
• Chair of the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo, CA.[34]
• President of the Merchant's Exchange
• President of the Douglas Fir Club
• Director of Seaboard National Bank (his son took over)
• Director London Paris National Bank.[35]
• Member of the board of the San Rafael Park and Recreation Commission

Robert Dollar gave to many causes, mostly involving religion, but some involved social and community endeavours.

After Captain Dollar turned eighty, the newspaper reporters began to ask him when he planned to retire. He replied:

It would have been nothing short of a crime for me to have retired when I reached the age of sixty, because I have accomplished far more the last twenty years of my life than I did before I reached my sixtieth birthday ... I was put in this world for a purpose and that was not to loaf and spend my time in so-called pleasure ... I was eighty years old when I thought out the practicability of starting a passenger steamship line of eight steamers to run around the world in one direction ... I hope to continue working to my last day on earth and wake up the next morning in the other world.

Dollar did continue to work until his final days.

The National Foreign Trade Council presents an annual "Robert Dollar Award" to honour outstanding contributions to the foreign trade of the United States.

The community of Dollarville, Michigan, where Dollar once worked as general manager of the logging camp, is named for him.[4]

One of the Robert Dollar Lumber Company steam locomotives was restored by the Pacific Locomotive Association, which acquired it in 1999 from the Western Railway Museum, where it had been a long term project. Locomotive No. 3 operates on a regular basis at the Pacific Locomotive Association's Niles Canyon Railway. This is a 2-6-2T (Tank) engine built by the American Locomotive Company in 1927.[43]

Robert Dollar expressed ideas concerning one's legacy after death. He wrote:

In this world all we leave behind us that is worth anything is that we can be well regarded and spoken of after we are gone, and that we can say that we left the world just a little better than we found it. If we can't accomplish these two things then life, according to my view, has been a failure. Many people erroneously speak of a man when he is gone as having left so much money. That, according to my view, amounts to very little.[44]

Robert Dollar's last public appearance was at the Commencement Exercises at the Theological Seminary. Although he was not feeling well, he insisted in walking in the academic procession and as President of the Board of Trustees gave a congratulatory message to the graduating class.[45]

Robert Dollar developed bronchial pneumonia and died on 16 May 1932. Honorary pall bearers included the Governor of California and the Mayor of San Francisco. The U.S. Government sent a dirigible over the scene of the funeral, and flowers were dropped from the sky. Over 3,000 people were in attendance.

Robert,[46][47] who had been active in his father's business for years, and was at the helm when the shipping company was transferred to the U.S. Shipping board, became the president of the United States Line that was formed by Roosevelt SS Co., R. Stanley Dollar and Kenneth D. Dawson.[48] The International Mercantile Marine Company gained control of the company in 1934.[49] The daughter of Robert Stanley Dollar, and granddaughter of Robert Dollar, Diana Dollar Hickingbotham Knowles, was a well known philanthropist in San Francisco, who died in 2013 at the age of 95.[50][51]

• "History – Robert Dollar, 1844–1932", APL History
• "What Robert Dollar Gave to Marin", Marin History Museum
• Dollar Steamship Company / Dollar Line, The Ships List

• Guide to the Robert Dollar Papers at The Bancroft Library
• Robert Dollar Mansion Archived 4 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine at Falkirk Cultural Center
• Robert Dollar Commemorative Association, Falkirk, Scotland
• A guide to the Robert Dollar and Robert S. Dollar business records, 1913–1967
• Finding Aid to the Robert Dollar Company Photographs, 1858–1960