CAMERON, WILLIAM WALDO (1878-1939). William Waldo Cameron, businessman, was born in Waco, Texas, on August 1, 1878, the son of Flora Ann (Berry) and William Cameron.^qv He attended the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (now Texas A&M University) and St. Albans Military Academy in Virginia. He returned to Waco in 1895 and held a variety of successive positions in the mills, elevators, and lumberyards of the William Cameron Company. In May 1898 he became a partner of his father in the pine and flour mill interests. After his father's death in 1899, the Cameron estate was divided, and on October 10, 1900, Cameron became president of William Cameron and Company, Incorporated. The business then had fourteen retail lumberyards, four yellow-pine mills, forest land, and bank and industrial stock. Between 1900 and 1905 the company added ten lumberyards, two new sawmills, sash and door departments, and wallpaper, paint, and mantel stores. Additional establishments were added up to 1924, when the retail lumberyards totaled seventy-one, the Sash, Door Manufacturing and Wholesale Industry had nine warehouses and branches, and the capital stock of the corporation had increased to $7 million. By 1939 the business included seventy-two yards in Texas, eleven in Oklahoma, and three in New Mexico. In 1910 and 1920 the Cameron family donated land for Cameron Park to the city of Waco. Cameron was married twice: to Faith D. Baird of Buffalo, New York, on January 9, 1901, and to Helen Miller of Waco on June 21, 1922; one daughter was born to each marriage. Cameron died in Waco on October 16, 1939, and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Dallas Morning News, October 17, 1939. R. J. Tolson, A History of William Cameron and Company (Waco: Cameron, ca. 1920). Vertical Files, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin.