Name/Title
"Albert Matheson"Entry/Object ID
Matheson,Albert 1Description
Charles Albert Matheson
Black and white. Beige tinge. Photo is glued to cardboard.
Photo depicts Charles standing and his hand is resting on the back of a chair. There is a large picture in the background on the wall and there is a column on the right. At the bottom in blue ink says Great Uncle Albert.
Charles Albert
born: May 29, 1844, Perth.
died: December 15, 1917, Perth.
buried: Craig Street Cemetery.
· Educated locally and at Upper Canada College, Toronto; studied law with John Deacon in Perth, but withdrew from that field.
· Ensign, Perth Light Infantry Company; served during the first Fenian Raid in 1866, for which he received the Canada General Service Medal.
· Entered into partnership with brother-in-law Henry Dowsley Shaw in 1868 as a general merchant under the firm name of Shaw & Matheson. This union lasted until 1893, when Charles was bought out by Shaw’s son, Henry Montague Shaw. Charles’ sister Flora was a silent partner in the connection from 1886–93.
· Was a pioneer in the manufacturing of cheese in Lanark County, operating cheese factories on the family farm west of Perth and at Ferguson’s Falls; played an active part in the making of the Mammoth Cheese in 1892.
· Built the first silo in this part of Canada.
· With a partner G. B. Farmer erected and equipped buildings for the conversion of peat, which was abundant in the bogs around Perth, as a fuel substitute for coal, which had to be imported. However, he was ahead of his time and the venture was not successful.
· He appears to have run the family farm before it was turned into the Links O’Tay golf course in the early 1890s.
· His obituary and will reveal little of his character; however, his will included a caveat that none of his assets was to be paid to any person of German, Austrian, Hungarian, Bulgarian or Turkish extraction, suggesting, along with his rather eclectic career and interests, that he might have been a bit eccentric.