ALFRED HAWKSWORTH.
A spirit of business enterprise and laudable ambition advanced Alfred Hawksworth to an enviable position among the manufacturers of Montreal where the latter years of his life were passed. In the course of an active career he learned to discriminate readily between the essential and nonessential and utilizing the former and discarding the latter he met success in his undertakings. He was, at the time of his death at the head of the firm of Alfred Hawksworth & Sons, Limited.
He was born on the 9th of October, 1846, at Glossop, Derbyshire, England, a son of Samuel Hawksworth, who always remained a resident of England. In early manhood Alfred Hawksworth crossed the Atlantic to the United States and settled at Lonsdale, Rhode Island, where he was employed in connection with the cotton mills of that place. Subsequently he removed to Concord, Massachusetts, and was made overseer of Daymen & Smith’s cotton mill. His expanding powers and growing ability later lead to his appointment to the responsible position of manager of the largest cotton mill at Manville, Rhode Island, and during his residence there he invented a loom for the weaving of velvet and plush. At different times he was in charge of cotton mills at New Bedford and Newburyport, Massachusetts, and Pawtucket, Providence, and Pontiac, Rhode Island, being thus identified with some of the largest manufacturing interests of that class in New England, while in Pontiac he was for eight years superintendent of the cotton mills of B. B. & R. Knight, and by reason of his responsible position, was accounted one of the foremost business men of that place. He also became an important factor in the public life of the community, being greatly interested in everything that pertained to the general welfare. He sought earnestly and effectively to improve roads, schools and libraries and in fact to advance any measure relative to the public good.
On the 19th of March, 1895, Mr. Hawksworth arrived in Montreal, becoming manager of the Merchants cotton mills at St. Henri, now a part of the plant of the Dominion Textile Company, Limited.
About eight years prior to his death he resigned that position and established the mill supply house of Alfred Hawksworth & Sons, Limited, which was incorporated in 1905 and is still one of the important productive industries of Montreal. The business from its inception proved a profitable one and under the careful guidance of its founder, developed into one of the large enterprises of this character in Canada. Mr. Hawksworth, through long experience, was familiar with every phase of the manufacture of cotton goods and knew the needs relative thereto, his mill supply house being an outgrowth of his experience and knowledge.
While living in Lonsdale, Rhode Island, in June, 1871, Mr. Hawksworth was united in marriage to Miss Esther A. Moss, a daughter of Edward Moss of that place, and they became the parents of a daughter and five sons: Fred, of Montreal; Edward, who is connected with the Hawksworth & Sons Company, Limited; Harry, who is vice president of that company; Walter L., who is secretary-treasurer, and also assistant manager of the supply house; and Lester A. The daughter, Miss Alice M. Hawksworth, is at home with her mother.
Mr. Hawksworth joined the Masonic fraternity in Concord, Massachusetts, in 1870, and in June, 1903, was made a life member of the Mount Moriah Lodge, No. 8, F. & A. M., of Limerock, Rhode Island. He was also made an honorary member of Mount Moriah Club at Limerock and in Masonry he attained the Knights Templar degree. He was a communicant in St. Simon’s church in Montreal and his entire life was actuated by high and honorable purposes and manly principles. He was a great reader, possessing scholarly taste and his private library contained three thousand volumes with the contents of which he was largely familiar, spending many of his pleasant hours in close association with men of master minds within the four walls of his library.
Mr. Hawksworth could truly be called a self-made man—a title of which he had every reason to be proud. It indicated not only his substantial success in business, but also his intellectual growth and progress. Along the former line he possessed notable ability in coordinating force and unifying elements into a harmonious whole. More than his success, the breadth of his mind and character commanded respect and endeared him to those with whom he came in contact. In his leisure hours he was always to be found at his own fireside or in those circles where intelligent men were wont to meet in discussion of vital problems, and when he passed away on the 16th of February, 1913, a feeling of deep regret was manifested by all of his associates, for his genuine worth had given him firm hold upon the affections of those with whom he was brought in contact.