JAMES MCILRAVY, Vice-President of the Independent Salt Company, New York City, was born November 10, 1860, in Drumraugh, Antrim, Ireland, the eldest son of Charles Mcllravy and Mary Betty Bruce, and is a direct descendant of the King Robert the Bruce on his mother’s side. He came to America when five years of age with his mother, uncle and sister, his father having come one year before. The family located on a farm in the town of York, Livingston County, N. Y. He was educated in the district schools and the New York State Normal School, Genesco, N. Y., and was graduated from the Rochester (N. Y.) Business College. For two years he was employed in the manufacturing of salt in that part of the state. He came to New York City in 1888 and started at a salary of eight dollars a week. Six months later, he married and had his salary advanced to ten dollars a week, and had a little left at the end of each week, his motto being never to spend the last nickel and never to buy any-thing he did not have the money to pay for. In 1890, he and his brother Henry began business at 641 Hudson Street; after a short time they were obliged to put themselves on the same salary as their employees and to work early and late themselves to continue the business. The next year they moved to 448 West 14th Street, where success followed. After ten years, the business was removed to Brooklyn, and united with another old salt concern and incorporated, Mr. Mcllravy becoming the General Manager and Vice-President. Three years later they consolidated with another concern under the name of the Independent Salt Company, now the largest salt-jobbing business in the United States. They have 70 horses, 35 trucks and two five-ton motor trucks; three large warehouses located on water-fronts in New York and Brooklyn, and offices at 44 Whitehall Street, Yew York. Mr. Mcllravy is a director and was one of the founders of the Flatbush Savings Bank.

Mr. Mcllravy has been a leading member of the Hanson Place Baptist Church, Brooklyn, for twenty-eight years, and is also actively connected with the various societies of that denomination. He is First Vice-President of the Caledonian Hospital, New York.