Andrew Joseph Dawes

One of Montreal’s foremost business men, whose prominent identification with the financial and industrial life of this city has made him an important factor in business circles, is Andrew J. Dawes, president of the National Breweries, Ltd., and also president of Dawes & Company, Ltd. The latter is the oldest established industrial institution in the Dominion, and was founded more than a century ago by Thomas A. Dawes, the grandfather of Andrew J. Dawes, who was the first of the family to leave England and settle in Canada.

Thomas A. Dawes was first connected with the brewery at River St. Pierre. Ambitious to engage in business on his own account, he established the Dawes Brewery in 1811, placed it upon a substantial and profitable basis and was later joined in its management by his sons, Thomas A. and James P., who were admitted to a partnership in the business. When James P. Dawes passed away in 1878 his share in the business passed to his two sons, James P. Dawes, Jr., and Andrew J. Dawes, who then became associated with their uncle, Thomas A. Dawes, in continuing the business which developed steadily until it became one of the most extensive enterprises of its kind in the Dominion.

Thomas Dawes, Jr., son of Thomas Dawes, the founder of the family in Canada, was familiarly and affectionately styled Tom throughout Lachine and wherever he was known. He there resided for nearly eighty years and it was said that such was the regularity of his habits that one could tell the time of day by his actions. He always took the same train into town each morning and the same walk in the evening and visited the bank at the same hour each day. His life was to the utmost methodical and systematic, and he was modest in demeanor and of retiring disposition. He occupied a beautiful home on the river bank of Lachine with his maiden sister. There he passed away on the 14th of May, 1908, when he was in the seventy-ninth year of his age, his birth having occurred in Lachine on the 19th of September, 1829.

James P. Dawes, Sr., another son of Thomas Dawes, the founder of the family in Canada, married a Miss Leishman, who died in 1856, leaving three sons, James P., Andrew J. and Thomas A. James P. Dawes, Sr., was prominently identified with the business during his active life, and contributed his part towards its progress and expansion. He died in 1878. His son, Andrew Joseph Dawes is now at the head of the mammoth business, which had its inception in the brain of his grandfather and took on material form through his efforts, and grew and developed through the labor of representatives of the family in intermediate generations to the present.

To accumulate a fortune requires one kind of genius; to retain a fortune already acquired, to add to its legitimate increment and to make such use of it that its possessor may derive therefrom the greatest enjoyment and the public the greatest benefit, requires another kind of genius. Mr. Dawes belongs to that generation of business men called upon to shoulder responsibilities differing materially from those that rested upon their predecessors. In a broader field of enterprise they find themselves obliged to deal with affairs of greater magnitude and to solve more difficult and complicated financial and economic problems. Such is the position in which Andrew J. Dawes found himself and he has proven at all times equal to the occasion and the demands made upon him.

Born in Lachine, June 15, 1846, he received his education in that town, and also in Montreal. His business career began early in connection with the interests of his father and on the death of that parent he assumed additional responsibilities in the business, which have been continued to the present time. Mr. Dawes has been a prominent factor in the development of the business. With its gradual growth facilities were increased, new buildings were added and the plant has thus expanded until it is represented by immense blocks of buildings, covering several acres on each side of the main street in Lachine. Aside from his extensive interests in the brewery business, Andrew J. Dawes is prominently identified with various projects and organizations for the development and improvement of the province along horticultural and agricultural lines, being especially interested in the subject of fruit growing.

He is a director of the Montreal Horticultural and Fruit Growing Association; is president of the Council of Agriculture of the Province of Canada, and at one time was president of the Lachine Horticultural Association. He is a director of the Merchants Bank and holds the same official position in regard to the London and Lancashire Fire Insurance Company, Ltd. He is well known in social and club circles and was president of the Auto Club of Canada from 1903 to 1906, while his membership relations extend to the Mount Royal, St. James, Forest and Stream, Royal Montreal Golf, Royal St. Lawrence Yacht, Montreal Hunt, Auto and Aero, Montreal Jockey, Montreal Polo, and St. George Snow Shoe Clubs and to the Rideau Club of Ottawa.

Mr. Dawes married Miss Mary O. A. Wilgress, of Lachine, and they have two daughters: Rachel M., the wife of F. L. Bond, of Montreal; and Frances H., the wife of B. Hazen Porteous, of Montreal.

A man of unusual energy whose exceptionally well preserved physical condition enables him to display a capacity for business more becoming to one twenty years his junior, success has made possible for Mr. Dawes the enjoyment of many social pleasures and interests. Yet prominent club man, that he is, Mr. Dawes’ first interest is the extensive business of which he is the controlling head and he is everywhere recognized as a forceful, resourceful man, ready to meet any emergency and ever looking beyond the exigencies of the moment to the opportunities and possibilities of the future.