Memorable Manitobans: William Henry Carter (1874-1962)

Building contractor.

Born at Bismark, Illinois on 21 January 1874, son of Ninion R. and Elizabeth J. Carter, he was educated at Danville, Illinois. He commenced his business career as a timekeeper for the M. Yeager & Sons construction firm, in 1896. He worked for ten years as Superintendent of Construction for the William Grace Company of Chicago, coming to Winnipeg in 1903 and organized the Carter-Halls-Aldinger Company.

He served as President of the Western Drainage Company, Vice President of the Lake Bar Sand and Gravel Company, and a Director of the Walbridge Aldinger Company (Detroit), Aldinger Company (Detroit), Sovereign Life Insurance Company, and the Winnipeg Cartage Company. He was President of the Winnipeg Builders’ Exchange (1910, 1911, 1914) and the Winnipeg Board of Trade (1918-19). He was vice-president of the Winnipeg Electric Company for several years becoming its head in 1940 as well as chairman of the single men’s relief commission in Winnipeg and the Industrial Development Board. In 1933, he was elected president of the Better Business Bureau and, in 1945, he was appointed chairman of the Manitoba Regional Council to assist post-war reconstruction efforts. He was a founding director of the Lakeside Fresh Air Camp for Children on Lake Winnipeg. He operated a stock farm, known as Cloverleaf Farm, near Cloverleaf, Manitoba.

On 5 October 1904, he married Mary Julia Tullis (?-1950) of Danville, Illinois, with whom he had one son, Tullis N. Carter. He lived at 261 Harvard Street, Winnipeg. He was a member of the Manitoba Club, Carleton Club, Adanac Club, Commercial Travellers Club and St. Charles Country Club.

He died at Winnipeg on 1 December 1962 and was buried in Springfield Cemetery. He is commemorated by Carter Avenue in Winnipeg.

Some of the buildings that his firm constructed:

• Marshall-Wells Building (136 Market Avenue, Winnipeg), 1905-06
• Casa Loma Building (Portage Avenue and Sherbrook Street, Winnipeg), 1909
• McArthur Building / Childs Building (211 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg), 1909
• Confederation Life Association Building (457 Main Street, Winnipeg), 1912
• Finnie and Murray Building (321 McDermot), 1912
• McCormicks Limited Building (425 Henry Avenue), 1912
• Winnipeg Electric Railway Building (213 Notre Dame Avenue, Winnipeg), 1912-13
• Manitoba Free Press Building (300 Carlton Street, Winnipeg), 1913
• Olympia Hotel / Marlborough Hotel (331 Smith Street, Winnipeg), 1913
• St. Charles Hotel (235 Notre Dame Avenue, Winnipeg), 1913
• Minto Armouries (969 St. Matthews Avenue, Winnipeg), 1914
• New Hargrave Building (361 Hargrave Street, Winnipeg), 1922
• Northern Electric Building (65 Rorie Street, Winnipeg), 1928
• Trust and Loan Co. Building (Winnipeg), no date
• Hudson’s Bay Warehouse (Winnipeg), no date
• Great West Permanent Building (Winnipeg), no date
• Grain Exchange Building (Winnipeg), no date
• Confederation Life Assurance Co. Building (Winnipeg), no date
• Sterling Bank Building (Winnipeg), no date
• Administration Building, Power House, Agricultural College (Winnipeg), no date
• School for the Deaf (Winnipeg), no date
• Hospital for Insane (Selkirk), no date
• Leeson and Lineham Building (Calgary), no date
• Cuthbertson Building (Fort William, Ontario), no date
• Roundhouses for the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (Watrous, Biggar, Wainwright, Edmonton, Westfort), no date
• Hudson’s Bay Store (Calgary), no date
• Canadian National Railway Station (Vancouver), no date
• Canadian Pacific Railway Station (Moose Jaw), no date
• Hudson’s Bay Stores (Victoria), no date

See also:

Manitoba Legislative Library, Biographical Scrapbook B13, page 56, Obituary - W. H. Carter.

City of Winnipeg Heritage Buildings Conservation List

Sources:

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

The Story of Manitoba by F. H. Schofield, Winnipeg: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1913.

The Leading Financial, Business & Professional Men of Winnipeg, published by Edwin McCormick, Photographs by T. J. Leatherdale, Compiled and printed by Stone Limited, c1913. [copy available at the Archives of Manitoba]

Pioneers and Prominent People of Manitoba, Winnipeg: Canadian Publicity Company, 1925.

Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by J. M. Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.

“Free Press Necrology Files”, Winnipeg Elite Study, G. Friesen Fonds, Mss 154, Box 15, File 16, University of Manitoba Archives]

“Builder and carrier,” Winnipeg Tribune, 22 November 1948. [Manitoba Legislative Library, Biographical Scrapbook B10, page 77]

Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 4 December 1962, page 25.

This profile was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Sarah Ramsden.

Profile revised: 8 April 2012

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