James Whalen
| James Whalen | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1869-04-29 Collingwood, Simcoe County, Ontario |
| Died | 1929-06-04 Duluth, Minnesota |
| Occupation | Timber contractor, shipbuilder, entrepreneur |
| Father | |
| Mother | |
| Partner | |
James Whalen (29 April 1869 – 4 June 1929 (aged 60)) was a timber contractor, shipbuilder, and entrepreneur in Port Arthur and Fort William, with interests in the forest industries, shipbuilding, dredging, and towing.[1][2]
Early life
Whalen was born on 29 April 1869 in Collingwood, Simcoe County, Ontario, the son of Joseph Whalen, a timber contractor, and Alice Broad. He was Roman Catholic and Liberal in politics.[1]
Career
Whalen learned the timber contracting business from his father, Joseph Whalen. He entered into partnership with merchant K.M. Hamilton in 1893, and with Richard Hazlewood in the firm Hazlewood & Whalen, pulpwood contractors, in 1894. In 1898 the firm was incorporated as the North Shore Timber Company. He was also involved in the Port Arthur Pulp-Timber Co. Ltd from 1896.[1]
Together with Liberal MLA Charles Martin Bowman (1863–1932), Whalen obtained harbour development contracts beginning in 1902 for their Great Lakes Dredging Company. He organized the Western Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company in 1909, was associated with the Port Arthur Shipbuilding Company, and built the eight-storey Whalen Building on North Cumberland Street in Port Arthur in 1913. In 1902 he purchased Glenshore, the Court Street ridge home of Thomas Marks, from Marks's widow Agnes Marks. With the help of his brothers he was less successful in entering the competitive British Columbia pulp and paper business, which went bankrupt in 1925.[1][2]
Personal life
Whalen benefited from his association with his politically powerful father-in-law, James Conmee, M.P. He married Laurel Conmee, daughter of MLA James Conmee, on 2 September 1896.[3]
Death
Whalen died on 4 June 1929 in Duluth, Minnesota.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Frederick Brian Scollie, Biographical Dictionary of Victorian Thunder Bay, 1850–1901 (Thunder Bay Museum). [1]
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 This article incorporates text from the Wikipedia article on James Whalen, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
- ↑ "Conmee, James", Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 14, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. [2]