A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time: A Collection of Persons Distinguished in Professional and Political Life, Leaders in the Commerce and Industry of Canada, and Successful Pioneers
History
A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time: A Collection of Persons Distinguished in Professional and Political Life, Leaders in the Commerce and Industry of Canada, and Successful Pioneers
=Bell, Andrew Wilson=, Carleton Place, Ontario, was born in the town of
Perth, county of Lanark, Ontario, on the 14th February, 1835. His
grandfather, the Rev. William Bell, who came from Scotland in 1817, and
was the first Presbyterian minister in Perth, died in 1857. His father,
John Bell, carried on business in the same town as a merchant from 1828
until 1849, when he died. A. W. Bell received his education in the old
district grammar school in Perth, and after leaving school began a busy
and useful career. In March, 1885, he commenced business at Douglas,
Renfrew county, with Charles Coulter, under the name of Bell, Coulter &
Co., general merchants, and next year having admitted into the
partnership Thomas Coulter, of Clayton, Lanark, they traded in the
villages of Douglas and Eganville under the name of Bell & Coulter, and
in Clayton as Coulter & Bell. The partnership was dissolved in the
spring of 1858, each partner taking the branch he then had in charge.
Mr. Bell was then a resident of Eganville, and in the spring of 1859 he
sold out his stock to the Coulters, and removed to Carleton Place for a
few months. In the fall of the same year he again began business in
Douglas, and in 1862 entered into partnership with Donald Cameron. The
new firm did a large local mercantile trade, and sent several rafts of
square timber to the Quebec market in 1863-4. This partnership was
dissolved in 1864. Mr. Bell, in the years 1858, 1865 and 1866, carried
on saw-mills at Eganville and Douglas; and in 1864 and 1865, having
joined William Halpenny, in Renfrew, under the name of A. W. Bell & Co.,
they carried on a general mercantile business. In 1867 Mr. Bell removed
from Douglas to Newboro’, Leeds county, and where he bought out the
business belonging to John Draffin. In this place he remained until
April, 1872, and then took up his abode at Carleton Place. Here he
prosecuted his mercantile business until 1875, and then, selling it out
to a partner he had admitted in 1873, he retired into private life. In
addition to his other business enterprises, Mr. Bell has dealt
considerably in real estate in the counties of Lanark and Renfrew, and
has bought and sold many thousand acres of farm lands, and built several
shops and dwellings in Carleton Place, which he still owns. In 1856 he
was appointed postmaster in Eganville, Renfrew county, which position he
held until 1859, when he resigned; again, in 1862, he was appointed
postmaster of Douglas, in the same county, and resigned in 1867. In
March, 1862, he was made clerk of the Seventh Division Court for Lanark
and Renfrew, but when these counties were separated in October, 1866, he
gave up the position. In 1862 he was made a notary public, and also
commissioner for taking affidavits and an issuer of marriage licenses.
In 1863 the Government conferred upon him the commission of a justice of
the peace. In 1873 the Board of Trade of Ottawa appointed him official
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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