
William Cameron Edwards
'William Cameron Edwards' (
7 May,
1844 –
17 September,
1921) was a
Canadian businessman and
parliamentarian.
He was born in
Clarence Township in
Russell County, Ontario in 1844, received basic schooling in
Ottawa and, at a young age, began work in the timber industry at
Thurso,
Canada East. He founded W.C. Edwards & Company which built large
sawmills at
Rockland and
New Edinburgh. Up until 1920, Edwards' company also operated a sawmill on the
Petite-Nation River in
Quebec at North Nation Mills, north of
Plaisance.
A
Liberal, he was five times elected as a
Member of Parliament representing the
Ontario electoral district of
Russell. He was first elected in the
Canadian federal election of 1887, and was re-elected in
1888,
1891,
1896 and
1900. On
17 March,
1903 he was appointed to the
Canadian Senate upon the recommendation of Sir
Wilfrid Laurier. He represented the senatorial division of
Russell, Ontario until his death.
At one time, Edwards owned the residence at
24 Sussex Drive, having purchased it from
Joseph Merrill Currier in 1902. Edwards was also president of Canada Cement, was a noted livestock breeder and served as president of the Russell Agricultural Society.
External links
★
Biography from the Library of Parliament
★
''The Canadian men and women of the time : a handbook of Canadian biography'', HJ Morgan (1898)