Famous People

Shelburne Industries Ltd.

Shelburne Free Press & Economist June 18, 1947

What is believed to be business history is being made in Shelburne with the announcement that Shelburne Industries Limited is to have an exhibit in the General Exhibits Building at the Canadian National Exhibition at Toronto late this summer. "S.I.L." is well into quantity production of Diamond Gloss Polish which is being distributed from coast to coast in all three fields - the grocery, hardware and automotive trades. This has been accomplished after five months of slow but sure work in organizing sales distribution and promotion along with advertising under the direction of President E.W. (Bill) Cooney. All other phases of organization of a company of this size have been completed, production is in full swing and sales are steadily on the increase. Owing to the wide and favourable acceptance of Diamond Gloss as one of the foremost general-use polishes on the market, demand for shares in the company has increased, likely with the realization that the product offers an excellent investment return. Consequently the company board of directors has authorized the sale of a limited number of shares for public distribution. Officers if S.I.L. are: President, E.W. Cooney; vice president, J.Earl Besley; secretary, Austin M. McQuarrie, and treasurer, T. Harold McGhee - all residents of Shelburne. The company's exhibit at the C.N.E. will have an extremely favourable and handy location. An attractive display will be the background for daily demonstrations of the wide range of use provided by Diamond Gloss Polish Shelburne Industries Ltd.

Mrs. J.H. Wylie

Orangeville Sun August 29, 1907

Pastugeta Lid Mrs. J.H. Wylie of Zina Street is at Toronto exhibition demonstrating the new boiler lid of which she is the inventor and which has been named "Pastugeta". Last year Mrs. Wylie was awarded the bronze medal for having invented this useful boiler lid.

M.H.J McLary

Tara Leader March 1, 1945

Six years' labour by M.H.J. McLary, Orangeville toolmaker and designer, on an invention that every farmer is waiting for, has resulted in complete blueprints and acquisition of Canadian and American patents for a weed destroying attachment for plows. A model of Mr. McLary's creation will be constructed in the near future, and when materials are available the inventor plans to build his machine on a large scale in Orangeville. The weed destroying attachment relates to a method of and means for cultivating the soil in the growing of crops, and comprises the provision of burner apparatus for attachment to an agricultural implement such as a plow. From experiments, Mr. McLary has ascertained that a very efficient method of destroying weeds and conditioning soil is to subject the ground to the intense heat of a blow-torch while it is being plowed. This completely destroys weeds as they are uprooted and is particularly effacious in killing twitch grass, which is most difficult to eradicate. Also, it is effective in killing insects and their larvae, and results in a betterment of the soil with the assurance that it is virtually free of weeds and their seeds. He found that best results were obtained by using a burner at the front of the plow and another at the rear, the front one being arranged to throw a flame directly on the land in close proximity to the point of the plowshare, and the other being arranged to throw a flame on the turned soil of the furrow. The invention includes suitable blow-torch apparatus for treating the soil in this manner. This comprises suspended burners having downward directed nozzles to which hydrocarbon fuel is delivered under high pressure as from a tank in which air pressure is built up by a compressor. The burners have a preheating coil and protected against injury by encompassed guards. They are yieldably mounted by pivotal arms stressed by springs so as to swing backward to clear any obstruction such as a stone. A distinctive feature of construction is that the burners are devised with a special flexible connection in the fuel line which accommodates the backward motion in riding over an obstruction. Mr. McLary's weed destroying isattachable to gang plows, as well as plows having a single share.

Charles Woodward

80 Years of Age And Still Manages Six Million Dollar Business. Charles Woodward, Onetime Mono Man, Has Had a Remarkable Career.

Orangeville Banner April 7, 1932

Mr. A.W. Dods, of the Dods Knitting Co., has just received a letter from Mr. Charles Woodward, head of Woodward Stores, Ltd., of Vancouver and Edmonton, in which he makes some interesting comments on the business depression of the early nineties. "I might say," Mr. Woodward states in his letter, "at that particular time (1890) things were very bad and in the little town of Thessalon, I think myself and only one other pulled through paying one hundred cents on the dollar." Mr. Woodward, who was reared in Orangeville and later lived on the Centre Road, Mono, is a graduate of "Mono College" and is still pleased to meet and chat with any of the friends of his school days. Any doubt on this particular point nay be dispelled by referring to "Who's Who", which expressly notes the fact that the Vancouver merchant prince graduated from "Mono College." Mr. Woodward, who is now approaching his 80th birthday, has been in the mercantile business for 56 years and as a young man had some unusual experiences. He commenced his business career as an Indian trader on Manitoulin Island. In his time he has done many kinds of laborer's work, including deckhandling on the boats running between Owen Sound and Sault Ste. Marie. Then came his unsatisfactory experience as a storekeeper in Thessalon where he was finally burned out. However, he managed to pay his creditors one hundred cents on the dollar and, practically without means, started for Vancouver with a firm determination to make a fresh start and win success if it were humanly possible to do so.

In Vancouver Mr. Woodward achieved a measure of success that falls to the lot of very few business men. Today, in his 80th year, he is the proprietor and owner of one of the biggest stores in Vancouver, a concern with an average of 1200 people on its payroll. He is also the principal owner of another large store in Edmonton with an average pay-roll of 150 people. The stores have a paid up capital of six million dollars, no watered stock, no mortgages and no bonded indebtedness and as Mr. Woodward sometimes puts it himself, "do not owe anything except taxes and goodwill to our fellow citizens." While Mr. Woodward gives most of his time and thought to his Vancouver and Edmonton stores, he has a number of other interests. In politics he is a Liberal and on one occasion Vancouver Liberals persuaded him to allow his name to go before the Convention held to select a candidate for the Legislative Assembly. Mr. Woodward was nominated and in due course was elected to the Legislature. The interesting part of the story is that there were a number of former Mono Tories in his riding and it is a matter of record that at this election every man of them voted for Woodward. There are still a number of Monoites in the neighbourhood of "Mono College" who remember Woodward quite well as a boy and who have followed his remarkable career on the Pacific Coast with interest and not a little pride.

Hon. J. H. Lamont

Orangeville Sun April 14, 1927

In accordance with recent federal legislation, an additional judge has been appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada in the person of Hon. J.H. Lamont, of the court of appeals of Saskatchewan. Hon. John Henderson Lamont, is a graduate of the University of Toronto and of Osgoode law school, Toronto. He was born in 1865 at Horning's Mills, Ont., a son of the late Duncan Carmichael Lamont and Margaret Robson Henderson. He was married in 1896 to Miss Margaret Murray Johnston and has a daughter. At the university he won the degrees of B.A. and LL. He graduated from Osgoode Law School. Until 1899 he practised law in Toronto when he moved to Prince Albert, then in the Northwest Territories. There he was made crown proscutor in 1902. Later he entered the political arena and in the election of 1904 was elected to the House of Commons as a Liberal member. In 1905 he resigned to become Attorney-General of the province of Saskatchewan, holding office until 1907, when he was made a judge of the Supreme Court of that province. In 1909 he was a vice-president of the Toronto University Alumni Association. He sat on the Supreme Court bench until 1918, when he was elevated to the court of appeals. Mr. Justice Lamont is a brother of Mrs. J.B. Adamson of Orangeville.