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William Beatty (Ontario politician)
Encyclopedia
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
businessman and political figure.
He was born in Stonyford, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
in 1835 and came to Thorold
Thorold, Ontario
Thorold is a city in Ontario, Canada, located on the Niagara Escarpment. It is also the seat of the Regional Municipality of Niagara....
in Upper Canada
Upper Canada
The Province of Upper Canada was a political division in British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution...
with his family the same year. He attended Victoria College
Victoria University in the University of Toronto
Victoria University is a constituent college of the University of Toronto, founded in 1836 and named for Queen Victoria. It is commonly called Victoria College, informally Vic, after the original academic component that now forms its undergraduate division...
in Cobourg
Cobourg, Ontario
Cobourg is a town in the Canadian province of Ontario, located in Southern Ontario 95 km east of Toronto. It is the largest town in Northumberland County. Its nearest neighbour is Port Hope, to the west. It is located along Highway 401 and the former Highway 2...
, receiving an LLB
Bachelor of Laws
The Bachelor of Laws is an undergraduate, or bachelor, degree in law originating in England and offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree...
in 1864. He was elected to the university's senate in the following year. He also worked with his father and brother in the timber trade. Their company operated a sawmill
Sawmill
A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....
on the Seguin River
Seguin River
The Seguin River is a river in Parry Sound District in central Ontario, Canada that empties into Parry Sound on Georgian Bay, Lake Huron at the town of Parry Sound. The river's name comes from the Ojibwe word ziigwan, meaning "spring".-Course:...
at Parry Sound
Parry Sound, Ontario
Parry Sound is a town in Central Ontario, Canada, located on Parry Sound on the eastern shore of Georgian Bay. Parry Sound is located south of Sudbury and north of Toronto. It is the seat of Parry Sound District, a popular cottage country region for Southern Ontario residents. It is also the...
, primarily managed by William, and a steamship service between Collingwood
Collingwood, Ontario
Collingwood is a town in Simcoe County, Ontario, Canada. Geographically, it is situated on Nottawasaga Bay at the southern point of Georgian Bay.-History:...
, Parry Sound and Port Arthur/Fort William (Thunder Bay
Thunder Bay
-In Canada:Thunder Bay is the name of three places in the province of Ontario, Canada along Lake Superior:*Thunder Bay District, Ontario, a district in Northwestern Ontario*Thunder Bay, a city in Thunder Bay District*Thunder Bay, Unorganized, Ontario...
), mainly operated by his brother James Hughes. The firm set up a town at Parry Sound and William also served as a lay Methodist
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
minister for the community.
In 1867, he was unsuccessful in a bid to represent Algoma in the Canadian House of Commons
Canadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...
, losing by 9 votes; he was elected to represent Welland
Welland (electoral district)
Welland is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1867 to 1988, and since 2004. Its population in 2006 was 112,875....
provincially later that same year. He was not reelected in the next general election in 1871. Later that year, the operation in Parry Sound was sold and Beatty settled there. He bought out his brother and father's share in the town site and set up a general store there. With Beatty's support, a vote was taken to keep the township free of alcohol under the terms of the Dunkin Act
Christopher Dunkin
Christopher Dunkin, PC was a Canadian editor, lawyer, teacher, judge, and politician.Born in Walworth, London, England, the son of Summerhays Dunkin and Martha Hemming, he was educated at the University of London, the University of Glasgow, and Harvard University.He was first elected to the...
. Up until 1950, anyone who bought land in the town had to sign an agreement not to sell alcohol on their premises.
Over the years, Beatty operated a number of mills at Parry Sound. He also retained a share in the shipping operation. He operated a hotel located on the waterfront and helped establish a railway line to Parry Sound, which was later taken over by John Rudolphus Booth
John Rudolphus Booth
John Rudolphus Booth was a Canadian lumber and railway baron. He controlled logging rights for large tracts of forest land in central Ontario, and built a railway to extract his logs; and from Ottawa through to Vermont to export lumber and grain to the United States and...
's Ottawa, Arnprior & Parry Sound Railway.
He died at Parry Sound in 1898.