Alexander Frederick Douglass was born June 23, 1868, in Port Elgin, Bruce County, Ontario, Canada, son of William and Polly Gaukel Douglass. At age 15, he left the farm to learn the bakery business from William Stafford in Port Elgin. In 1891 he started a bakery of his own in Tara, about 8 miles east of Port Elgin, where the bakery ovens he built still stand today, and the next year he married Johanna “Josie” Munro of Embro, Ontario, daughter of William and Margaret Reid Munro. In 1897, he moved his family and business to Wyoming, Ontario and one year later moved again to Chicago where he formed a partnership with Charles Bowman in a bakery business. The business grew rapidly and it seemed they would become prosperous, but one year after starting the bakery in Chicago, Alexander Frederick was stricken with hernia. He was operated on but did not survive the surgery. He is buried in Mount Greenwood cemetery, Chicago.
His death left his widow with four children under the age of six: Edwin, Margaret (mar. Clyde Dick) Beverly and Betty (mar. Welford Clark)