Among his business connections, not already mentioned, Mr. Meighen was managing director of the Cornwall Manufacturing Company, a director of the Canada Northwest Land Company, the Bank of Toronto, the Dominion Transportation Company, the St. John Bridge & Railway Company, the Montreal Street Railway and the New Brunswick Land Company. His activities likewise extended to other fields having to do with many subjects of vital interest to city and country. He was a director of the Montreal Parks and Playground Association and was president of the New Brunswick Fish and Game Club. He was likewise vice president of the King Edward Memorial Committee of Montreal, was chairman of the Canadian board of the Phoenix Assurance Company and was a governor of the Royal Victoria, the Western and Maternity Hospitals of Montreal. The Montreal Standard named him as one of the twenty-three men at the basis of Canadian finance, and it was a recognized fact that few men were more familiar with the problems of finance or did more to establish a safe monetary system. Mr. Meighen belonged to various prominent social organizations, including the St. James Club, the Mount Royal Club, the Canada Club and the Montreal Club.
He was a Presbyterian, a member of St. Paul’s church and chairman of its board of trustees. All his life Mr. Meighen was a firm believer in the copartnership of capital and labor and in the coexisting duties, on a fair basis, of one to the other. He realized and carried out the idea of their inter-dependency. When labor had contributed to the success of capital he never allowed it go without recognition and its just reward, with the result of absolute confidence on the part of his employes in his fairness and regard for their interests, and a willingness to give, in turn, their loyal and honest support to capital. Above all Mr. Meighen had keen human sympathies. He delighted in the energetic young man cutting out his road to success, but this did not prevent him from having patience and sympathy with those who, perhaps through lack of natural gifts or unfortunate circumstances, found life an uphill pull. In astonishing numbers both kinds of men seemed to bring their successes and their failures to him, and to both, provided they showed honesty of purpose, he would give his time, his advice and his help in the open-hearted way characteristic of a man who had not a single ungenerous impulse in his nature.
At the time of his death when the press throughout Canada was giving appreciations of his ability and of his success one of his intimate friends remarked, “They have omitted the biggest thing about him—his heart”—and so it was. When these two, great heart and much ability, go hand in hand and work together, one vitalizing, as it were, the conceptions of the other, a potent force is felt to be abroad. Well is it for our Canadian business world to have had such a force in its midst as the late Robert Meighen truly was. He died when still, one might say, at the height of his activities and with a heavy burden of work upon him, but to work was his pleasure. His loss was deeply deplored by all who knew him and he left behind him a record of a man who in all things was the soul of honor and an example to those who come after—“Follow on.”
Mr. Meighen left a widow, Elsie Stephen, daughter of the late William Stephen, formerly of Dufftown, Scotland, and three children, Lieutenant Colonel F. S. Meighen, who has succeeded his father as president of the Lake of the Woods Milling Company, Mrs. R. Wilson Reford and Mrs. R. O. Harley.
WILLIAM ERNEST BOLTON.
Twenty years’ connection with the real-estate business has brought William Ernest Bolton into prominence and today he figures as a controlling factor in some of the leading real-estate companies of Montreal. He was born in this city April 11, 1873, a son of Richard and Elizabeth (Minchin) Bolton. His education was acquired in the schools of his native city, and early in his business career he became identified with real-estate activity in which connection he has remained for many years as a well known and successful real-estate broker. He has been identified with many important property transfers and with important development of real-estate interests. He is now a director of the Montreal Loan & Mortgage Company; president of the Birmingham-Montreal Realty Company, Limited; a director of the Midland Investment Company, Limited; of the Richelieu Realty Company, Limited; of the Renforth Realty Company, Limited, and of the Riviera Realty Company, Limited. These are among the most important corporations in that branch of business having to do with the property interests and consequent development and progress of the city.
In Plainfield, New Jersey, in 1905, Mr. Bolton was united in marriage to Miss Catherine Hamilton McClure and they have become the parents of two sons, Richard and Hamilton. Mr. Bolton votes with the conservative party but the honors and emoluments of public office have no attraction for him. When business leaves him leisure for social enjoyment he spends his time at the Montreal Club, the Beaconsfield Golf Club, the Winter Club, the Montreal Country Club and the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association, in all of which he holds membership.