Nicholas Bawlf (1849-1914)

Grain merchant, municipal official.

Born at Smith’s Falls, Ontario on 15 July 1849, son of Nicholas and Cathrine Bawlf. Educated at public schools, Smith’s Falls. Commenced flour, feed and grain business, Winnipeg, 1877. President, Alberta Grain Company; director, Standard Trust Company; Great West Permanent Loan Company; Bank of Toronto; first vice-president, Foley Brothers & Larson Company; also Interested in Northern Crown Bank; Great West Life Insurance Company; Canadian Fire Insurance Company; President of the Winnipeg Grain Exchange, 1890, 1897.

Bawlf sold out to Peavy Company of Minneapolis in 1909 then founded the N. Bawlf Grain Company and, in 1912, became President of the Alberta Pacific Grain Company of Calgary. He was one of the first traders to ship grain to Japan via Pacific ports. Bawlf held many directorships of Canadian corporations. A devout Catholic, he opposed the Manitoba School Act of 1890 and lobbied in Ottawa for more Anglo-Catholic senators.

In 1877, he married Katherine Madden of Almonte, Ontario. They had nine children: Edward John Bawlf (b 1878), William Richard Bawlf, Mary Julia Evelyn Bawlf (b 1885), Josephine Helen Bawlf (b 1887), Frederick Leo Bawlf (b 1890), Kathleen Esther Bawlf (b 1895), Louis Drummond Bawlf (b 1896), David Leland Bawlf (b 1899), and Clarence Nicholas Bawlf.

He was a member of the Manitoba Club and St. Charles Country Club. Recreation: horses. Address: 11 Kennedy Street, Winnipeg. In 1910 he was listed by the Winnipeg Telegram as one of Winnipeg’s 19 millionaires.

He died at Winnipeg on 26 December 1914.

More information:

Bawlf House by Lillian Gibbons
Manitoba Pageant, Volume 23, Number 1, Autumn 1977

Nicholas Bawlf, Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online

Nicholas Bawlf, Manitobans Who Made A Difference, Manitoba Historic Resources

Sources:

Who’s Who in Western Canada: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Men and Women of Western Canada, Volume 1, 1911. C. W. Parker, editor. Canadian Press Association, Vancouver.

Profile revised: 14 February 2010

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