The Life of Robert Dollar

by Jocelyn Moss

From the Marin County Historical Society Magazine, vol. XVI, no. 1, 1991, pp. 2–7.


Robert Dollar began his life in Falkirk, Scotland, March 20,1844. He was the first son of William Dollar and Mary Melville. The Dollar name does not come from the American monetary denomination but was originally spelled Dolour. One source stated there was a stream by that name near where the family originally settled. Robert's father was the manager of a lumberyard and Robert was raised in an apartment over the lumberyard office. Later, the Dollar family moved into a house built for them by the company. A brother John and a brother, James were born in the next few years. These boys were very close and remained together throughout their lives.

A tale told of Robert Dollar's toddler days points out that he was an adventurer from the start. He managed to roll a wash tub down to a nearby canal. Getting it in the water, he shoved off with a pole and was off on his first voyage. Fortunately, his mother saw him and called his father to rescue him. Father Dollar administered a well-deserved spanking on the little sailor's bottom.

Robert Dollar's mother died when he was nine years old. The family was overcome by grief and William Dollar had more than he could handle trying to raise three small boys and earn a living. Unable to resolve his problems he turned to 11 strong spirits." The effect of William Dollar's drinking habit on the family life was so severe that Robert Dollar pledged he would never drink alcohol, which he never did throughout his life.

In 1856, William Dollar married Mary Easton who had been the servant girl in the Dollar house. At twelve Robert left school. He didn't miss it much; in later life all he could recall of his school days were the thrashings that the one-armed teacher dealt out. He took a job in a machine shop minding the lathe. He turned all his earnings over to his step-mother to help support the family. His next job was as an errand boy for a lumber shipping company. but he didn't work there long because his father had made a life-changing decision: the family would go to Canada. Mary, his step-mother, had a cousin in Canada who perhaps had written her to say he could use some help in his sawmill in Buckingham, Quebec. A new baby had been born in 1857, Mary Dollar. So when William Dollar sailed to the New World aboard the Angelsea he took his wife and four children along.

William Dollar began work at Charles Easton's sawmill while his son Robert found work in a barrel stave factory. The family moved around quite a bit during those first few years in Canada. William Dollar specialized in Building mills while Robert and the rest of the family followed him. 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. Robert Dollar wrote in his Memoirs, "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."

When Robert was 18, he set off to work on his own. Perhaps the Dollar house was getting a little crowded. By now there were two step-sisters and four step-brothers toddling around. Robert was hired as a cook's helper in a logging camp. From his Memoirs he describes a meal: "The food was salt pork, beans, peas, flour and tea. So the cook had to change those as best he could as he had nothing else. There were no forks in those days and each man had a big jack-knife to eat with. When we got through we wiped the knife on our pants instead of washing it. Each man helped himself to the edibles and sat down as best he could to eat."

Robert Dollar, together with his brother John bought a farm for their parents although together they were only making $26 a month. Robert knew he could never escape this harsh life unless he improved himself. so he began to teach himself to do basic math and writing. He worked at this after a long day on the job so his will to succeed was very strong. When it was discovered by his boss that he could do figuring, he was sent out to a lumber camp the next year as a clerk. This was not a soft job; he was expected to work all day and do the clerk's job at night by firelight. He found himself with an entirely French speaking crew so he also had to learn French to communicate.

It was in 1866 that Robert Dollar began to keep a diary. He kept up his diary until 1918; thus he was able to write his Memoirs in later years and tell the vivid tales of logging in Canada. When he was twenty-two, he was put in charge of a camp of fifty men. As foreman of a camp he had to be resourceful; he was in charge and the men were out in the woods far from any help or advice. Robert found he had to act as doctor, judge and letter-writer. He had to inspire his men when the situation seemed impossible. He said later in life, "One thing I now admire of this wild, hard life, was that we never used the word 'can't'. We had to do!"

Having worked for others for many years and having applied himself to making a profit for his employers, Robert Dollar decided to buy some timber for himself and reap the profits. Unfortunately, the price of logs fell and he had to sell at a loss. He and his partner split a $5,000 indebtedness. Robert had to take a job in a lumber camp to pay off that debt. He often spoke about this experience in later years. He said, "I had good luck. I failed when I was young."

It was during this time that Robert met and courted Margaret Proudfoot. She married him despite his debts. She saw something in him and they started their life together in Bracebridge, Ontario. They remained there for six years with Robert coming and going to his jobs logging far away in the timber country. Robert Dollar found time to found a Masonic Lodge in Bracebridge. He was a lifelong member of the Masons throughout all his travels. When the need for contributions to build a Presbyterian Church in Bracebridge was announced, Robert Dollar contributed lumber to the building.

Meanwhile, in 1878 Margaret and Robert's first son, Alexander Melville was born, followed in 1880 by Robert Stanley. Seeing the boom in logging slowing in Canada, Robert went to Michigan and began to buy land as the Director of the English and American Lumber Company. A mill was set up along the Detroit, Mackinac and Marquette Railroad. The spot was known as Dollarville. Although it is now a ghost town, there was once a thriving mill town on the spot.

The family moved to Marquette, Michigan in 1882. There in 1885, Mary Grace was born followed by John Harold in 1887. In Michigan Robert Dollar started the British Canadian Lumber Company, which kept him busy cutting and shipping lumber to England. The family remained in Michigan until the lumber began to get scarce.

In 1884 Robert Dollar returned to Scotland for the first time since emigrating in 1858. While there he gave money to buy books to start a library. Mr. Carnegie gave the building to house the books.

In 1888 the family went to Southern California for Robert Dollar's health. Those long cold Michigan winters were beginning to take their toll. While in California Robert began to look for lumbering prospects on the coast. Robert and his brother John bought one of the last redwood groves in Sonoma, called the Meeker tract. They started a lumbering business in Guerneville but sold out part of their holdings to the Bohemian Club for their Grove.

In 1889 a town pier and sawmill was established at Usal in Mendocino County. After the death of the manager, Robert Dollar was asked to take it over. Robert established an office in San Francisco while Margaret and the children were at home in San Rafael. By 1896 James, John and Robert Dollar were all in California working at an office on California Street running the Usal operation. Robert's son A. Melville began working for his father during this time. In 1900 the mill at Usal burned, and the area was about logged out, so the site was abandoned. Up until this time, Robert Dollar and his brothers and associates had been exclusively in the lumber business, seeking new areas to log, setting up lumber camps, building a mill and selling the lumber. As an area was logged over, they would move on to another logging site.

While Robert Dollar was seeking more logging sites in the Northwest, he began to investigate the prospect of getting into the shipping business. The high rates charged by the shipping concerns were cutting into his profits. Robert Dollar was 57 when he bought his first ship, the Newsboy, a small ship of 300 tons. The ship was purchased at the time of the Klondike Gold Rush. It was immensely profitable because of the great rush of people and supplies going north to Alaska. By the end of the century Robert Dollar owned four ships. The largest was 638 tons and was christened the Grace Dollar after Robert's only daughter. Thus began the tradition of naming the ships after family members. It was about this time that Robert Dollar began to be referred to as "Captain" Dollar. This was an honorary title and nothing more; Robert Dollar did not pretend to be a ship's captain.

Robert Dollar was not a man who thought much of unions. To him all union men thought that the world owed the working man a living. Consequently he was heavily involved in the San Francisco dock strike of 1919. this strike when it was resolved changed San Francisco from a closed shop employing only union workers to a wide open shop. The dock workers had stopped unloading the cargo because ship owners would not meet their demands. Non-union men who came to work at the docks were attacked and beaten up. The Camber of Commerce called a meeting at the Merchant's Exchange in San Francisco. Every man connected with shipping and the commercial life attended. At the meeting, Mayor Rolph was condemned for his handling of the strike and the speakers proclaimed a condition of lawlessness existed on the waterfront. the police and the court system were not arresting and jailing those workers who were attacking the non-union men. There was a call for citizens to take the law into their own hands. Captain Dollar was one who spoke at that meeting. "Let's fight," he urged, "if a peaceful working man is beaten up by the strikers, then beat up two strikers in turn." He incited the audience, "It's up to you merchants to get some life into you and move the cargo piled up on the wharfs." He added, "Either do that or report to the world that we don't want any more ships coming in here, that we can't handle them, If you want to continue in business, clear off the wharfs!" After this meeting a vigilante committee was formed. Groups of these men turned up when a striker was in court. They tried to influence the judges to convict strikers brought before them. Dollar and his vigilante committee intimidated one city official by threatening to hang him. The waterfront employers took back all compromise offers and demanded that the stevedores go back to work before arbitration could resume. J.J. Murphy, the head of the stevedores union was arrested for disturbing the peace. After this no more workers were assaulted and the strike collapsed.

Robert Dollar was instrumental in opening up trade with China and Japan. He bought a British steamer, the Arab, which carried a cargo of lumber to China. this first trade venture was a failure. but the idea of China trade was started. There was plenty of cargo to carry to China but the hard part was to find a cargo to carry home. This is what Robert Dollar investigated in China. He called on every possible prospect as he scoured China for products to carry back to San Francisco. Later he would say, "From the first my venture into the Orient was a success. Had I known the eagerness with which the Japanese and Chinese merchants awaited American trade I would have been in trans-Pacific trade years before." Gradually he built up trust with the oriental merchants. In return, he respected them and stood up for the Chinese against the prejudices that had run rampant for so many years in California. One biographer said of Robert Dollar, "Me merchants of the Orient ... were suspicious of American business. But they trusted Robert Dollar and accepted him as one of them and the ordinary people of the East idolized him. On one of his trips to the Orient, a three hour procession of thousands of men, women, and children passed his hotel to honor him. A power in his own land, he was all but a god in the Orient." In 1911 he went to the Orient to tell them about the Panama-Pacific Exposition to be held in San Francisco in 1915. He was able to convince the Japanese government to participate, however the Chinese were involved in revolution and he could find no government to address. He visited the Philippines also to try to interest them in bringing an exhibit to the 1915 Exposition.

During World War I, the British commodore in Hong Kong commandeered all the Dollar steamers to carry Chinese workers to France to build ships. Robert Dollar agreed to the arrangement if he could use the unused space on the ships to carry cargo. This was agreed to and the British government awarded Robert Dollar handsomely after the war.

Robert Dollar was acquainted with the leaders of China. He traveled in China during their civil war and was always shown the best hospitality and accommodations. President Li Yuen Hung invited Robert and Mrs. Dollar to a banquet at his palace. While they were having lunch, they could hear gunfire in the hill; the fighting was so close.

In 1927 the following article appeared in the San Francisco Bulletin, "Me name of Robert Dollar is sacred in China. Agents and property of the veteran San Francisco magnate are inviolable, even to the disorderly troops of the invading Cantonese. This was revealed by T. H. Lowry, who said that everything bearing the name of Robert Dollar is treated with deference and respect by all Chinese. 'This is the greatest tribute to a foreigner I have ever witnessed in China,' said Lowry, 'Dollar's agents are not molested or harmed, and his property is saved from the ravages of warring factions. He is held as a virtual deity by the Chinese."'

Robert Dollar had established 19 offices in the Orient by this time and had built permanent buildings to house these enterprises. But his interest in China went beyond just the business he conducted there. He had always read avidly about Chinese culture and toured China many times to see the sights and show this amazing country to friends and fellow business men. He left behind a legacy of institutions in China. He helped to build a Y. M. C. A building, an orphanage, a school for the blind and a village school. He always tried to give a part of his wealth back and share it with those who might need help.

He did not forget his native Falkirk in bestowing his gifts. He visited his birthplace several times and was warmly received. Arnotdale, a private estate of eleven acres was purchased by him and given to the city of Falkirk as a park. Robert Dollar also contributed a set of chimes for the Presbyterian Church in Falkirk. He had earlier given a fountain to honor Sir John De Graeme in central Falkirk. In return he was made an Honorary Burgess of the Burgh of Falkirk. the following verse was penned for Robert Dollar on one of his visits:

"So Robbie my auld frien', I'll bid you adieu;
May health and happiness always accompany your family and you
And long may prosperity and pleasure be part of your trade,
But your name in auld Falkirk will never fade. "

Robert Dollar was not going to leave the fortunes of the Dollar Steamship Company to chance. As soon as his boys were able to help out at the office, he employed them in whatever tasks they could do. At first they only worked during school vacations. Later when they graduated from high school they became full-time employees. There was no question of a college education; they were needed in the company. They started as office boys then rose to bookkeeper and then to clerks. Robert Dollar said, "I do not feel my boys were any different than any other boys. I started them out in life with their feet planted firmly on the ground. They grew up in the business so they are in close touch with every detail of our world-wide enterprises."

By 1912 A. Melville was First Vice President and R. Stanley was Second Vice President of the Dollar Steamship Lines. John Harold began to work at the office at age sixteen. When he showed interest in Oriental Trade, his father groomed him for the Far East offices. At twenty, John Harold and his new bride Agnes Barr set off to live in China and manage that end of the operation. Stanley Dollar pulled up roots and set off for Seattle to be on the board of the Pacific Steamship Company, which the Dollar family held some interest in. That company was owned at the time by H. F. Alexander and A. F. Haines. Robert Dollar claimed there were no problems when he asked his sons to relocate. He explained it this way: 'I have tried to impress upon my boys the great necessity for putting aside personal desires when matters of great importance are at stake."

Robert Dollar was always eager for new enterprises and in 1920 he began to think about a round-the-world cargo service. Not being able to persuade the United States Shipping Board to participate in this round-the-world venture, he put the Diana Dollar on a round-the-world route to prove his point. When the route proved profitable, the Shipping Board offered to sell Robert Dollar seven President liners for both passenger and cargo round-the-world service. These ships had to be completely refitted for passenger service.

On January 5th, 1924, the Dollar Line Round-the-World Service was inaugurated with the President Harrison sailing through the Golden Gate for a voyage off 26,000 miles during which she called at twenty-one ports in fourteen countries. The other ships in the President Line were the President Hayes, Wilson, Monroe, Van Buren, Garfield, Polk and Adams. These ships bore the famous "$" on their smokestack that made them so easily recognizable. The Dollar Steamship Lines were the first ships to publish a scheduled departure and arrival time and they kept to the schedule meticulously. This Round-the-World service was very popular with travelers. They could buy a ticket to go around the world and hop on and off the ship knowing another Dollar steamship would pick them up in two weeks. It was a leisurely way to explore the world on your own timetable. The Dollar representatives made personal contact with all tourists and encouraged them to promote the trip among their friends so that groups of friends traveled together making it a very pleasurable holiday.

In 1925 R. Stanley Dollar went to Washington, D.C. to bid for five government-owned vessels. These ships were the President Pierce, Lincoln, Taft, Wilson and Cleveland. They sailed weekly to the Orient from the United States. Robert Dollar tried to keep his ships in continual motion. He could not make any money if his ships were stuck in port. The idea of ships covering the trade routes all over the world on a strict schedule was such a revolutionary idea that it made the Dollar name famous around the world.

A tribute to the Dollar genius appeared in 1928 in the New York American: "Hats off this week to the Dollar Line, celebrating the one hundredth cruise around the world in its famous service. Four years ago Captain Robert Dollar inaugurated a round-the-world passenger line with a ship leaving every two weeks, which schedule has been maintained without a break. The sailing of the President Polk last Thursday signaled the banner day in American shipping. Off on the one hundredth cruise around the world, the flagship of the line was lustily saluted as she steamed down the bay. The incident recalls the outstanding development in American shipping in establishing a remarkable service both to tourist and to shipper touching ports of so many countries and always reaching them with clock-like regularity. There is a Dollar Liner at every port of its itinerary every two weeks the year round. This efficient operation of its ships has built up a very profitable clientele for the Dollar Line and has been encouraging in providing the very best accommodations and service. Captain Dollar and his boy Stanley, carry the prestige of flying more American flags on the high seas than any other steamship line."

It was about this time that Robert Dollar became known as the Grand Old Man of the Pacific. Robert Dollar was the one person who was identified with the trade in the Pacific Region. He foresaw the development of the Pacific nations and the importance of developing trade with them.

After Captain Dollar turned eighty, the newspaper reporters began to ask him when he planned to retire. He would reply, "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."

Robert Dollar did continue to work until his final days. He developed bronchial pneumonia and died on May 16,1932. His funeral was held at the First Presbyterian Church in San Rafael. The many mourners and tributes proclaimed the importance of this man. At his death he was recognized as the leader among American shipping executives and known throughout the world. He taught himself the shipping business, learned about foreign trade through doing it and became expert in whatever he undertook. He prophesied that the Pacific would be an important arena of trade long before anyone else would bet on it. Many others followed in his footsteps but he was the genius who had the vision and leadership qualities to show them how to succeed.