Businessman.
Born at Stanwood, Iowa on 28 December 1864, he came to Canada in 1892 and was a supervisor in the bridge and building department of the Northern Pacific Railway and Canadian Northern Railway. In this capacity he was an office of the Manitoba Union Mining Company established to develop the Arnold Cement Quarry. He resigned from the railway in 1903 to go into business in the manufacturing and sale of plaster and cement. He founded Western Gypsum Products Limited in 1929.
He and wife Christina Isabel McKinnon (1868-1951) had five children: Robert Elmer Spear (1894-1953), Grace Anna Spear (1896-1947), Roderick Arthur Spear (1900-1938), John Edward Spear, and Alice Beatrice Spear (1908-1961, wife of Frank Beaven). He was a member of Augustine United Church, Odd Fellows, and Knights of Pythias.
He died at the Winnipeg General Hospital on 13 July 1941 and was buried in the Elmwood Cemetery. He is commemorated by the community of Spearhill, near where he quarried limestone, and the steamboat J. R. Spear.
1901 and 1906 Canada censuses, Automated Genealogy.
“J. R. Spear honored,” Winnipeg Tribune, 3 September 1903, page 5.
Birth registrations [Robert Elmer Spear, Grace Anna Spear, Rodrich Arthur Spear, John Edward Spear, Alice Beatric Spear], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Death registration [John Robert Spear], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
“J. R. Spear dies, aged 76,” Winnipeg Tribune, 14 July 1941, page 14.
Obituary [Christina Isabel Spear], Winnipeg Free Press, 5 November 1951, page 28.
Obituary [Robert E. Spear], Winnipeg Free Press, 27 March 1953, page 39.
“Gypsum firm president dies at 52,” Winnipeg Free Press, 13 January 1955, page 11.
Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.
Geographic Names of Manitoba prepared in part by Anthony Paul “Tony” Buchner, Manitoba Conservation, 2000.
We thank Linda Spear for providing information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 5 July 2025
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