William Gooderham Sr.

William Gooderham Sr. (August 29, 1790 – August 20, 1881) was an English distiller, businessman, and banker. He was a founder of the Gooderham and Worts distillery.

William Gooderham Sr.
Born(1790-08-29)August 29, 1790
Scole, Norfolk, England
DiedAugust 20, 1881(1881-08-20) (aged 90)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
NationalityCanadian
OccupationDistiller, businessman, and banker
Known forFounder of Gooderham and Worts distillery
Children15, including:
William Gooderham Jr.
George Gooderham
James Gooderham
Charles Horace Gooderham
RelativesAlbert Gooderham, grandson; George Horace Gooderham, grandson; James Gooderham Worts, nephew

Life and career

Born in Scole, Norfolk, England, the son of James and Sarah Gooderham, he immigrated to York, Upper Canada (now Toronto), in 1832 to invest and partner in a wind-powered flour mill with his brother-in-law, James Worts. Briefly operating as Worts and Gooderham until Worts' death in 1834, Gooderham continued to operate the mill as the William Gooderham Company.

In 1837, he added a distillery to make efficient use of surplus and second-grade grain.[1] Having taken Worts' son, James Gooderham Worts, under his guidance since Worts' death, they became partners in 1845 and renamed the company as Gooderham and Worts.

Expanding their business, they introduced gas for illumination, expanded the use of steam power in the plants and built their own wharf to ship their consignments. By the 1860s, they owned schooners on the Great Lakes. During the 1860s and 1870s, Gooderham was a community and business leader in the Toronto industrial landscape and in transportation and financial services, as well as on the stock exchange, and in the council and the board of arbitration of the Toronto Board of Trade.[1]

In the summer of 1842, he participated with Bishop John Strachan in the founding meeting of Little Trinity Anglican Church,[2] where he later was a warden for 30 years. A marble memorial for Gooderham is mounted on the west wall inside the church.

In 1864, he was appointed president of the Bank of Toronto.

Descendants
George Gooderham (1830–1905)

His son George Gooderham (1830–1905)[3] was a businessman and philanthropist, his grandson George Horace Gooderham was a businessman and politician, and another grandson Albert Gooderham was a financier and philanthropist. His descendants' significance was not limited to Canada: his great-grandson, Dean Gooderham Acheson, born and raised in Connecticut, would serve as the US Secretary of State.

His son Charles Horace Gooderham built a "country property", a Georgian manor in northern Mississauga (at 929 Old Derry Road), in 1870. It was sold in 1884 and is now the Rotherglen School Meadowvale Elementary Campus, a private Montessori school.[4]

See also

References
  1. "William Gooderham Sr.". Dictionary of Canadian Biography (online ed.). University of Toronto Press. 1979–2016.
  2. Historic Trinity Church 1843-1943
  3. Dean Beeby, “GOODERHAM, GEORGE,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 13, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed October 11, 2015.
  4. Meadowvale Village Heritage Conservation District – List of Properties. City of Mississauga, Culture Division, Community Services, October 2012 DRAFT.
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