William Watson Ogilvie
| W.W. Ogilvie | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
15 February 1835 Montreal, Quebec |
| Died | 12 January 1900 (aged 64) Montreal, Quebec |
Captain William Watson Ogilvie (15 February 1835 – 12 January 1900), commanded a division of the Royal Montreal Cavalry during the Fenian Raids. He and his two brothers, Alexander and John, are remembered for their pioneering work in the Canadian milling trade and as pioneers and believers in the success of the Canadian West.
William Watson Ogilvie was born at his father's farm at Cote St. Michel, near Montreal. He was the third son of Alexander Ogilvie (1779–1858), founder of the Ogilvie Flour Mills, and his wife Helen (1793–1863), daughter of John Watson, a businessman engaged in the flour industry at Montreal, and Helen Walker. The Ogilvies and the Watsons had known one another in Scotland. William's grandfather, Archibald Ogilvie (1750–1820), had been a prosperous farmer at Arnieve, near Gargunnock on the River Forth, but seeing little future for his children in Scotland sold his farms and with £2,000 took his family to Quebec. Arriving there in 1800, he purchased a large property at Howick on the Chateauguay River. William was educated privately at the High School of Montreal, and afterwards served an apprenticeship in the family's milling business. Like his two brothers, he joined the Royal Montreal Cavalry in 1857. By 1866, he had assumed command of the regiment and defended Canada in the Fenian Raids.
His brother expanded the family's flour mills and renamed the firm A. W. Ogilvie & Co., of Montreal. William joined his brothers, Alex and John, as a partner in May 1860. In 1868 William, accompanied by his brother Alexander Walker Ogilvie, travelled to Hungary to inspect the latest milling processes and adopted them into their own mills to produce a superior grade of flour. By 1872, the company was expanding into Ontario. When Alex entered politics, William succeeded him running the firm from Montreal. The Ogilvies shipped their first load of wheat from Manitoba in 1877 and for the next decade dominated the grain trade of western Canada, which was experiencing an agricultural boom. They built a mill at Winnipeg in 1882.
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