Nicholas Bawlf
| Nicholas Bawlf | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1849-07-17 near Smiths Falls, Upper Canada |
| Died | 1914-12-26 Winnipeg, Manitoba |
| Occupation | Grain merchant |
| Father | |
| Mother | |
| Partner | |
| Children | |
Nicholas Bawlf (17 July 1849 – 26 December 1914 (aged 65)) was a Canadian grain merchant who played a central role in the founding of the Winnipeg Grain and Produce Exchange and in the development of the prairie grain trade during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His company operated a terminal elevator in Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay).
Early life
Bawlf was born on 17 July 1849 near Smiths Falls, Upper Canada, the son of Nicholas Bawlf and Catharine Kirby. He received his schooling in Smiths Falls and trained as a moulder, working for Cossitt Brothers in Smiths Falls and later in Almonte.[1]
On 6 February 1877, he married Catharine Madden in Almonte. The couple moved to Winnipeg shortly after their marriage. They had six sons and two daughters.[1]
Career in Winnipeg
Arriving in Winnipeg in 1877, Bawlf established a flour and feed business on Main Street South, later relocating to Princess Street. He became one of the city's early merchants in rawhides as well. The family initially lived on Main Street North; by 1897, Bawlf had built a substantial residence at 11 Kennedy Street.[1]
He was a devout Roman Catholic and a parishioner of St. Mary's parish. He served as a school board trustee and was outspoken on behalf of Catholic interests in the controversy surrounding the Public Schools Act of 1890 under Premier Thomas Greenway, lobbying senators in Ottawa on the matter.[1]
He served as an alderman for Ward 4 in Winnipeg from 1883 to 1884.[1]
Grain trade and the Winnipeg Exchange
Bawlf expanded into the grain business during the 1880s. In 1883, he promoted the establishment of a central grain exchange, but the venture failed owing to incomplete transportation infrastructure, insufficient storage capacity, and crop damage from an early September frost.[1]
By 1887, conditions had improved markedly: the Canadian Pacific Railway was complete, and wheat exports had grown from two million bushels in 1883 to four million in 1886. On 24 November 1887, Bawlf and ten other merchants founded the Winnipeg Grain and Produce Exchange at the Winnipeg Board of Trade offices in City Hall. He served as exchange president in 1890 and again in 1897, and held numerous positions on its executive council and committees.[1]
Bawlf was a major benefactor of the exchange's first dedicated building on Princess Street, completed in November 1892 and designed by architect Charles Arnold Barber. A second, larger building was officially opened on 11 January 1899 to accommodate the exchange's growing membership.[1]
Elevator operations and consolidation
By 1892, N. Bawlf Company operated grain elevators in ten communities with a combined capacity of approximately 118,000 bushels. His principal competitors included Ogilvie Milling Company (under William Watson Ogilvie) and the Lake of the Woods Milling Company, founded in 1887 by George Stephen and William Cornelius Van Horne.[1]
In September 1893, Bawlf joined four other firms in forming the Northern Elevator Company Limited, capitalized at $250,000. Its founding directors included Bawlf, Rodmond Palen Roblin, Arthur Atkinson, Samuel Peck Clark, Herbert Crowe, and James A. Mitchell. By 1900, Northern Elevator operated 92 elevators — representing approximately 21 per cent of the prairie total — with a combined capacity of 2.4 million bushels and a net profit of $180,643. By 1907, annual profits exceeded $200,000. Bawlf served as the company's president until he sold his interest to an American milling company in 1909.[1]
In 1899, Bawlf organized the Dominion Association to reduce destructive competition among grain dealers. The body was renamed the North-West Elevator Association in 1901 and incorporated as the North-West Grain Dealers' Association in 1903. Western farmers accused the association of operating as a monopoly; grain merchants defended their practices before a royal commission on grain shipment and transportation in 1899.[1]
Port Arthur and later ventures
In 1909, Bawlf and his second eldest son William Richard established N. Bawlf Grain Company with an initial capitalization of $50,000. Among the company's early acquisitions was a terminal elevator in Port Arthur, Ontario (now part of Thunder Bay).[1] By 1914, the company's authorized capital had grown to $250,000 (with $100,500 paid up), and 1915 profits reached approximately $100,000.
By 1912, Bawlf was president of Alberta Pacific Grain Company of Calgary; his partners in that venture included William Maxwell Aitken and Richard Bedford Bennett. He shipped grain through Pacific ports, and his associate Alvin K. Godfrey credited him with having shipped more wheat to Japan "than any man in Canada."[1]
Bawlf held a wide range of directorships and executive positions in Winnipeg's financial community, serving as vice-president of Royal Canadian Securities, vice-president of Monarch Life Insurance Company, vice-president of Great West Permanent Loan Company, director of the Bank of Toronto, and director of Standard Trusts Company. At his death he was also a director of the Manitoba Patriotic Fund.[1]
Death
Bawlf died on 26 December 1914 in Winnipeg. On the evening of his death, he had visited the exchange and dined before suffering a fatal heart attack at bedtime. He had been suffering from arteriosclerosis. Rodmond Roblin later remarked that Bawlf's life was "practically the history of the province."[1]
His wife Catharine Madden survived him until 1918.[2]
References
[1] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [2] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 Allan Levine."Allan Levine, "Bawlf, Nicholas," Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 14."[website].Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 14 (University of Toronto/Université Laval).1998.University of Toronto/Université Laval.Link.(Rights: copyrighted | Access: open)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Manitoba Free Press."[newspaper].Manitoba Free Press.28 Dec. 1914; 27 Nov. 1918; 1 July 1919.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ Rob Robson."Nicholas Bawlf, 1849–1914."[record].1979.typescript.Manitoba Culture, Heritage and Recreation, Historical Resources Branch, Winnipeg.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ "Laurier papers."[record].MG 26, G, 83072, 97062–64, 98150, 110632–33.Library and Archives Canada.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ "Winnipeg Grain and Produce Exchange fonds."[record].MG 28, III 82, 1.Library and Archives Canada.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ "Bawlf family papers."[record].MG 11, C53, 1.Provincial Archives of Manitoba.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ "Manitoba government correspondence and papers."[record].MG 13, E1, corr. and papers, 6873; letter-book, A/301, /361.Provincial Archives of Manitoba.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ "The Commercial."[newspaper].The Commercial.1886.22 June 1886; 11 Feb. 1889; 13 Feb. 1893; 5 Feb., 7, 20 Aug. 1894; 7 Jan., 23 Sept. 1895; 14 Jan., 11 Feb. 1899; 14 Aug., 9 Oct. 1909.Winnipeg.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ "Winnipeg Free Press."[newspaper].Winnipeg Free Press.18 April 1940; 13 May 1952.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ "Sessional papers."[record].Canada. Parliament. Sessional papers.1894, no. 16: 33; 1900, nos. 81, 81a.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ Lillian Gibbons."Bawlf House."[book].Manitoba Pageant.1977.vol. 23 (1977–78), no. 1: 1–2.Winnipeg.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ Allan Levine."The Bawlf family: a vanished legend in the Winnipeg grain trade."[newspaper].Manitoba Business.1984.November 1984: 33–38.Winnipeg.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ Allan Levine."The exchange: 100 years of trading grain in Winnipeg."[book].1987.Winnipeg.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ C. F. Wilson."A century of Canadian grain: government policy to 1951."[book].1978.Saskatoon.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ "Winnipeg Board of Trade Annual Report."[record].Winnipeg Board of Trade.Annual report, 1878–1915.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ "Winnipeg Grain and Produce Exchange Annual Report."[record].Winnipeg Grain and Produce Exchange.Annual report, 1887–1915.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)