Alexander Postlewaite Ankeny (November 6, 1823 – March 24, 1891) was an American pioneer businessman, soldier, and steamboat owner in the Pacific Northwest..

He is chiefly remembered for having built the New Market Theater, an historic structure in Portland, Oregon.

[3] After Ankeny arrived in Oregon, he received a contract to build a wharf boat on the Willamette River at the foot of what later became known as Washington street.

[3] Also in the spring of 1851, Ankeny started a store in Lane County, Oregon, where the city of Eugene later was established, and placed one of the men who had come with him from California in charge of the story.

[3] On January 27, 1856, Ankeny was mustered into the first regiment of the Oregon Mounted Volunteers as the captain of Company C for the purpose of engaging in the Yakima War.

Gates, built the steamer Spray to run above The Dalles on the Columbia and Snake rivers.

[4][9] Spray ran for about a year until it was sold to the Oregon Steam Navigation Company which was constructing a monopoly on steamer traffic on the Columbia.

[4] In 1867, Ankeny and William Kohl brought the steamer Cascade from Puget Sound to the Columbia River.

[4] According to another source, Ankeny purchased Independence in 1860, and ran it as a regular steamboat, rather than as a ferry, on the Portland-Cascades route and then sold it to O.S.N.

[10] Ankeny is also reported to have run Independence on the route from Portland to the Cowlitz River in the Washington Territory.

[6] In early March 1877, Ankeny and two other men were reported to have recently filed articles of incorporation in the Multnomah County, Oregon’s clerk’s office for the "Blue Gravel Hydraulic Gold Placer Mining Company.