Bennett, Richard Bedford, K.C., LL.B. (Calgary, Alta.), is one of the leading barristers and publicists of the Canadian West. He was born at Hopewell, Albert County, New Brunswick, on July 3, 1870, the son of Henry J. and Henrietta (Stiles) Bennett. His father was of U.E. Loyalist stock, and his mother’s people settled in Canada immediately after the British conquest of 1759-60. On both sides Mr. Bennett represents the ninth generation born on this side of the Atlantic. He was educated in the Public and High Schools of New Brunswick and at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he qualified for the law and received the degree of LL.B. He was called to the New Brunswick Bar in 1893, and for a time practised at Chatham, N.B., as the partner of the late Hon. L. J. Tweedie, afterward Prime Minister and Lieutenant-Governor of the Province. In 1897 he removed to Calgary, and was called to the Bar of the North-West Territories, forming a partnership with Mr. (now Sir) James Lougheed, at present Government leader in the Dominion Senate and Minister of Civil Re-establishment, a partnership which has continued ever since. In 1907, Mr. Bennett was created King’s Counsel. In 1898, one year after his arrival in the West, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the North-West Territories for West Calgary, and sat in that body until its dissolution in 1905, on the granting of autonomy to Alberta and Saskatchewan. In 1909, he was elected for his old constituency to the Alberta Legislature, and was recognized as the ablest debater in that body. Among his public services was the exposure of the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway transaction, which led to a change from the Rutherford to the Sifton administration and Cabinet reconstruction. At the Federal elections of 1911 he resigned from the Alberta Legislature to run for the House of Commons as Conservative candidate for Calgary. He was elected, and the same campaign placed Sir Robert Borden in power. At Ottawa, Mr. Bennett was at once recognized as one of the leading figures on the Government benches, and in the trying period which followed the outbreak of the war in 1914 proved a source of strength to the administration. Actively identified with the Canadian Patriotic Fund and Red Cross Society. President of the Alberta Provincial Branch of the latter, member of Central Council and of Executive of Patriotic Fund. He accompanied Sir Robert Borden to Great Britain and France in 1915 on the occasion of the Prime Minister’s first visit of inspection to the Canadian army overseas, and later became Chairman of the National Service Commission to report on Canada’s war possibilities in men and resources. At the general election of 1917 declined re-nomination, but supported Union Government. In addition to his renowned forensic abilities, Mr. Bennett has a deep grasp of commercial and development questions. Shortly after going to the West he became identified with the irrigation projects of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. He resigned his position as counsel to that company in Alberta on being elected to the House of Commons. He is to-day interested in and director of several industrial and financial corporations, including the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company of New York. In religion he is a Methodist, and in politics an Independent. He is a Bencher of the Law Society of Alberta, Fellow of the Royal Colonial Institute, and a member of the following clubs: Ranchmen’s and Golf and Country, Calgary; Rideau and Country, Ottawa.
Butterworth, John George Bissett, Ottawa’s premier coal merchant, was born at Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia, in 1848. His ancestors can be traced back to the Huguenots of France, whose lives were in constant danger in the 16th and 17th centuries, who were constantly involved in war, who were persecuted and suffered severely in the reign of Francis I. and his successors, and of whom from 25,000 to 30,000 suffered death at the massacre of St. Bartholomew, August 20, 1572. In 1685, hundreds of thousands of these Puritans went into exile, going to Prussia, Holland, Switzerland, England, Scotland, and America, and Mr. Butterworth’s ancestors found a resting-place, a place of safety, in England, where they remained and industriously added to the wealth of the country, and took part in the Peninsular War at the beginning of the 19th century. Being seafaring, enterprising, and ambitious men, and with a desire to make their mark in the new world, where they would have large scope to exercise their talents, they left the old country and arrived at Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia, where, eventually, they became builders and owners of merchant ships and captains in the merchant fleet, and married into United Empire families. Tiring of seafaring life, and in compliance with the wishes of the sons, and at the suggestion of the mother, Mr. Butterworth, Sr., sold out his shipping interests and the valuable lands and wharves which he owned at Port Hawkesbury, and with his wife and family arrived in Ottawa, which was then in its infancy, having been incorporated just one year, previously. When they grew up, Mr. Butterworth and his two brothers, E. B. and C. A. Butterworth, following in the ambitious footsteps of their ancestors, not satisfied with their then existing opportunities for advancement, left for the United States, and engaged in business and met with success. Their love for the British Empire, however, was still dominant within them, and they decided to sell out, return to Canada, and make it their future home. In 1874, they entered into business in Ottawa as hardware merchants and metal workers, and later, in 1881, started in the coal business. Eventually, C. A. and E. B. retired from the coal business and continued in the hardware business, while J. G. B., the subject of this sketch, retired from both of these and remained alone as the coal merchant, which business he has carried on to this day most successfully, and which to-day holds the lead of all others. Mr. Butterworth has three plants, with large storage capacity sufficient to hold at any one time 25,000 tons, and enabling him to constantly carry a heavy stock of coal during the summer to provide against delays in winter transportation and during the winter season. Over $100,000 is invested in these plants. In the severe winter of 1917, had it not been for the provision made by and the ability of Mr. Butterworth to supply large quantities of coal, there would have been great hardship in not only Ottawa, but in Carleton Place, Perth, Almonte, Arnprior, Renfrew, and many outside places in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, to which points he was able to and did ship thousands of tons of coal. He, in that terrible winter, became the great provider of the people of Ottawa and her surrounding neighbours by supplying them with the coal they needed. For 1918 he was equally prepared to meet any emergency that might arise, but, luckily, the winter was not of a nature so severe as that of the previous year. In 1917, in order to cope with all demands that were likely to be made, Mr. Butterworth practically took care of the coal trade. He took the whole output of the Independent Coal Mine in Pennsylvania, shipped the small sizes to N.Y. and N.J. to the textile and munitions factories, and the prepared sizes into Canada. In so doing he secured large quantities of coal which otherwise could not have been obtained, and his foresight and enterprise prevented a serious coal famine in Ottawa and the other places before mentioned. The name of John George Bissett Butterworth will always be held high in gratitude and esteem by the people of Ottawa and of many other cities and towns in the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Mr. Butterworth is the son of William and Matilda Catherine (Bissett) Butterworth. He is President and Managing Director of the Ormstown Brick and Terra Cotta Co., of Ormstown, Quebec; ex-Vice-President of the Montreal Terminal Railway; ex-President of the Capital Power Company, of Deschene; ex-President, Ottawa Cartage Company; and ex-President of the Capital Fuel Company. In 1879, Mr. Butterworth married Elisabeth J. Shaw, daughter of James Shaw, Shawville, Quebec, a merchant in that place. He has two sons and two daughters—Grace Winifred, John George Hawthorne, Ethel Gertrude, and Wilfred Rosamond. One of his sons served as a lieutenant in the European War. Mr. Butterworth is an Anglican in religion, and resides at 225 MacLaren St., Ottawa, Ont.
E. McMAHON
Ottawa
Bell, John Percival, General Manager of the Bank of Hamilton, Hamilton, Ont., is recognized as one of the ablest of Canadian financiers. He is a native of the city in which he resides, and from early youth has grown up with the institution of which he is now the executive head. He was born on June 8th, 1872, the son of John and Jane (Park) Bell, and was educated in the public and high schools of Hamilton. In 1888, as a lad of sixteen he entered the service of the Bank of Hamilton as a junior clerk, and during the ensuing twelve years learned every phase of the banking business. In 1900 he was appointed manager of the Georgetown branch, and two years later was transferred to the Berlin (now Kitchener) branch in a similar capacity. In 1904, he became manager of the Brantford branch, one of the most important in the territory of the institution, and remained there until 1909, when he returned to Hamilton to become manager of the main office in that city. In 1914, he was promoted to the position of General Manager on the retirement from that position of Mr. James Turnbull, who, by a coincidence had become General Manager of the Bank in the same year (1888) that Mr. Bell entered its service. The five years of Mr. Bell’s incumbency as General Manager have been the most difficult in the history of Canadian finance, owing to the disruption caused by the great war, and he has proven a brilliant success. He has carried on the policy which has specially endeared the Bank of Hamilton to its clientele, by caring for the interests of the business man of moderate resources with the same zeal as is bestowed on those of the great corporations. Mr. Bell is thoroughly in touch with the great and constantly expanding business interests of his native city; and his regime has been marked by an expansion of the Bank’s Toronto custom, as witnessed in the taking over of the great office building and premises of the now extinct Traders’ Bank in that city. He was elected a councillor of the Hamilton Board of Trade in 1911, and during the war acted as Treasurer of the Patriotic Fund for his district. His recreations are golf, bowling and curling, and he is a member of the following clubs: Hamilton; Hamilton Thistle; Hamilton Jockey; Royal Hamilton Yacht; Hamilton Golf; and the Toronto Club (Toronto). In politics he is independent, and in religion an Anglican. On Oct. 11th, 1900, he married Rosalind, daughter of Rev. Arthur Boultbee, Toronto, and has two sons and three daughters. Mr. and Mrs. Bell reside at 78 Chedske Ave., Hamilton.