Date Published:
April 2008

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

William Rutherford

Interested in Civic Affairs, treasurer of William Rutherford & Sons Company, Limited. Montreal, Canada.

WILLIAM RUTHERFORD, ex-mayor of Westmount, was born in the city of Montreal, April 22nd,1864. His father, William, was a native of Scotland, locating at Montreal in 1852, where he established a lumber business in 1856. He was one of the pioneers in the development of the Province of Quebec and was of that famous old Scotch Presbyterian strain which produced many of the sturdy men of Canada. Mother, Elizabeth (Jackson) Rutherford was also a native of Scotland. He received his education in the Westmount school, the High school of Montreal, later taking a course at the private school of the Hon. Edward H. Springrice and began work as a junior clerk with Gillespie, Moffatt & Co. He next went to the Pillow, Hersey Manfg. Co., and from that he entered the lumber, sash and blind business of Wm. Rutherford & Co. (the founder being his father). It is now known as the Wm. Rutherford & Sons Co., Ltd., having been incorporated in 1898, and is at present one of the most extensive of its character in Canada; they also control The Dominion Box Co. Mr. Rutherford was an alderman of Westmount for three years and its Mayor in 1911-1912, having been elected by acclamation. He is one of the school trustees, City of Westmount. He is treasurer of the Wm. Rutherford & Sons Co., Ltd., and is president of the Dominion Box Company, and of the Adirondack Silo Co., of Canada. He is a member of the curling and of the bowling clubs, and is an enthusiast in outdoor sport. Mr. Rutherford was married May 16th, 1893 to Ida Bulmer, a daughter of Mr. John Bulmer, of Montreal, the union bringing five children, William Jackson Rutherford, John Bulmer Rutherford, Jean Rutherford, Andrew Scott Rutherford and Marjorie Rutherford.

Source: Canadian History Makers. A Volume Containing Accurate and Concise Sketches of Men who have Done Things in The Dominion of Canada Past and Present Together with Photogravures Made from their Latest Photographs, Montreal, Canadian Publication Society, 1913, 159p., p. 71.