Hours after publishing the initial post on the James Richardson & Sons grain elevator on Kingston's waterfront, fellow Kingston historian Marc Shaw reminded me that he had created a precis on the Richardson family and its long business and philanthropic history in Kingston and western Canada. Not only did I know a small portion of what Marc had carefully written, but I also worked near and spent time in the Richardson Laboratories while working at Kingston General Hospital! With permission from Marc, here is his intriguing history of this very well-known Kingston family, with some not so well-known facts that make for a good, multi-generational impact on our city and region.
Marc begins...
The sprawling enterprise of James Richardson & Sons has been based in Winnipeg for almost 100 years. It’s an immense privately owned family-run business, now headed by a member of the 5th generation. Dealing in businesses as diverse as insurance, investing, oils and gas, agriculture and real estate, it's a global behemoth, and incredibly successful. The relatively low-profile Richardson clan is worth something like $6.55 billion and are consistently ranked in the country’s top ten.
Some in Kingston may be surprised to know that the story began here, and that the Richardsons were long a Kingston institution. The family was aways philanthropic by nature, and although they have moved on, the city is awash in memorials, particularly in the hospitals and at Queen’s University, where many of them were educated.
It’s a very interesting family and much has been written on the individuals, their stately homes, their benefactions and their business enterprises. It’s hard to condense the whole story down. It’s also a bit confusing, with a lot of James, Henrys and Georges, with a couple of Agneses! This “précis” is not for the faint of heart!
The founder of the Canadian family and the firm which bears his name, James Richardson (1819-92), arrived in Kingston in 1823 from Ireland and was apprenticed to a tailor. Over time he discovered that often his clients could not afford to pay him in cash but gave him grain instead, which led him to gradually move into that industry. Over the next decades he built a grain-shipping and export business into a major concern. James Richardson & Sons was formed in 1857. By the 1860s he was a very wealthy man, and as a measure of his success he built for himself and his family a fine brick home at 100 Stuart Street, in a new suburb near the hospital. He built a large grain elevator on the Kingston waterfront in 1882 and by the following year was shipping wheat to England. By the time he died in 1892, the firm he and his sons operated was a major player in the Canadian grain trade. The Richardson elevator burned down in November 1897 and was replaced by a second, larger one that was a familiar sight for several decades. It also burned, in December 1941, while it was in the process of demolition. The Holiday Inn is on the site today.
In the next generation his sons George (1852-1906) and Henry Wartman (1855-1918) carried on the business. George was President from 1892-1906. In 1879 he built a large Victorian home called Windburn on Gordon Street, within sight of the home on Stuart where he had grown up. His brother Henry Wartman was President of the firm from 1906-1918. He and his family lived in stately Alwington House, off King Street at the western edge of town.
He was a noted local businessman with involvement in many enterprises: to name a few, he was President of the Street Railway Company, the Kingston Hosiery Company, and the Kingston Feldspar and Mining Company. Mrs. Richardson’s sister married Dr. Walter Connell and they occupied a very nice home nearby at 11 Arch Street, adding to the numerous relations in the Queen’s neighbourhood. Henry Wartman was named to the Senate and died at Alwington in 1918. He and his wife Alice Ford Richardson were major philanthropists and donated the funds for Richardson Laboratory at for the joint benefit of Queen's University and Kingston General Hospital, completed in 1925.
Their children were all wealthy, of course, but seemed less inclined to involve themselves in the core family business. Their son Henry came to live in a large brick home at 102 Stuart Street, next door to the original family residence. Henry was President of the Weber Piano Factory (S&R/Smith-Robinson building). The original family house next door was eventually occupied by his sister Eva, who married Thomas Ashmore Kidd (1889-1973), a grocery broker who also had considerable success in politics: MLA 1926-40, Speaker of the Ontario Legislature, MP 1945-49. He was also the Grand Master of the Orange Lodge.
When the Kidds lived at 100 Stuart Street, their extensive back yard and gardens were noted for their careful landscaping and were the scene of numerous social and fundraising activities. After World War I, the house was converted into a convalescent hospital for returning soldiers. A brother to Henry and Eva was John, who inherited Alwington and lived there for a time but eventually bounced back and forth between there and Winnipeg. Another sister, Bessie, married successful contractor T.A. McGinness and in 1924 they built Stone Gables on King Street West, on a piece of property cleaved off the Alwington estate.
The two Stuart Street houses remain and have long been used by Kingston General Hospital (known as Kidd House and Richardson House, of course). After a long period as a private home, in the 1980s or 1990s Stone Gables became part of the Regional Headquarters complex for the Correctional Service of Canada. Its future disposition seems uncertain. And Alwington House was tragically burned in December 1958, with the loss of two lives, while Mrs. Dorothy Richardson was still in residence. The house remains were demolished and the property sold; Alwington Place was laid out where perhaps Kingston’s most celebrated home had once stood.
As noted above, Henry Wartman’s brother George (1852-1906) moved upon his marriage to a large new house at the corner of Gordon and Alice (today, University and Bader Lane). He and his wife had a number of children who grew up in the sprawling Victorian home. Son George Taylor (1886-1916) enjoyed a brilliant academic and athletic career at Queen’s and seemed destined for great things within the family grain business; he was named Vice-President in 1910. However, he was tragically shot by a sniper in France in 1916.
In his will, he left the bulk of his fortune to his sister Agnes and brother James with instructions to use it to fund a number of initiatives for the betterment of Kingston citizens. The money was carefully invested, and primarily under Agnes’ stewardship, was allocated to some very worthwhile enterprises. The Richardson Beach bathhouse, the George Richardson Memorial Stadium, and allocations for the stimulation of art and culture in Kingston were a few of the results. Agnes (1880-1954) married Dr. Frederick Etherington in 1921 and they made their home in her old family house where she had lived since birth. Etherington had had a brilliant career at Queen’s and during WWI ran a field hospital in Egypt and France. After he returned to Kingston, he became a Professor of Surgery and was for many years the Dean of Medicine at Queen’s. Etherington Hall (1959) is named for him.
Soon after their marriage and their taking up residence in the old house, the Etheringtons decided to build a new home on the same site. The result was the very graceful Georgian-style home which stands today (with many additions). The new house was perfect for entertaining and the house became a hub of the Kingston Arts and Literature scene. Over the years, Agnes funded speakers, visiting professors, and the purchase of works of art. The Etheringtons had no children, and on Agnes’ death in 1954 she bequeathed the house to be renovated and used as an Art Museum, which of course it remains today. Following WWI, Agnes also erected a convalescent home and recreational facilities (including a small golf course) on Fettercairn Island (today Richardson Island) in Indian Lake near Chaffey’s Locks.
Agnes’ only surviving brother was James (1885-1939) who appeared to inherit the drive and foresight of his ancestor who had first created the fortune. He moved into company administration following studies at Queen’s, and became President in 1919. A man of great drive and ambition, he bought out the inherited interests from all his cousins and came to dominate the firm to the extent that he became, in the public mind, the only Richardson.
He took the company to great heights. Recognizing the importance of the West to the core family grain business, he supervised the move of the Kingston executive office to Winnipeg in 1923, and relocated there. Prior to the move to Winnipeg, the company’s head office was in the building at 243 King Street East, now occupied by Empire Life. It had been there from 1914, when it took over from Regiopolis, and was succeeded there by the Oddfellows organization. Prior to 1914, he had been on the southwest corner of Princess and Ontario (present Cornerstone).
George was a giant in Canadian industry, a visionary businessman with significant side interests in radio and commercial air travel. Under his stewardship, the firm became the largest grain business in the British Empire. Queen’s named him Chancellor of the university in 1929, a position he held until his untimely death a decade later. Richardson Hall, a Queen’s building constructed in 1954 a few doors away from where he had grown up, was named in his honour.
Upon his death in 1939, an unusual thing happened. His widow Muriel took over as President and proceeded to run the company with great success until her death in 1973. Their descendants continue to operate the company to this day. They are a very well known family in Winnipeg, and have long supported many Winnipeg institutions including the Winnipeg Ballet. For many years the only “skyscraper” in the city was the 34 storey Richardson Headquarters building, erected in 1969.
One son, James, was an MP and member of Cabinet under Pierre Trudeau. Another, George, was company president for many years and was also the last Canadian Governor of the Hudson Bay Company. Daughter Agnes (1920-2007) married William Benedickson, MP and Senator, and was Queen’s Chancellor (her father’s old position) from 1980-96. Agnes Benedickson Field is named in her honour.
Few if any families have left a larger imprint on Kingston.
-my thanks to Marc Shaw for generously sharing this!
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