History of the Anderson Family
"The gong will ring five minutes before closing hour, when covers
may be put on and preparations made for closing."
~ Book of Rules ~
Robert Marshall Anderson was born October 1, 1860 in Peterborough, Ontario where his father, Duncan Anderson, was a Crown Land Agent. He began his career in business as a teenager, working in the nearby town of Lindsay, Ontario for his uncle, Samuel Ritchie, who ran a local dry goods store. Later, R.M. Anderson worked as a salesman in the Dundas & Flavelle dry goods store in Lindsay.
R.M. Anderson came to St. Thomas in 1896 as the junior partner in a dry goods business and manager of the store known as Northway and Anderson. In 1906 Anderson purchased his partner John Northway’s share in the company and established the family business that dominated St. Thomas commercial life for much of the 20th century.
Building on his success as a businessman, R.M. Anderson soon gained prominence in the city's social and philanthropic circles. He served as President of the Elgin Patriotic Society from the time of its founding in 1914 until its disbandment in 1919. He was active in several civic building campaigns in St. Thomas, including those supporting the construction of Memorial Hospital, new buildings for the Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A., and extensions for Alma College.
Mr. Anderson was also a devoted member of Knox Presbyterian Church in St. Thomas and served for many years on its board of managers. He was an avid amateur golfer and curler and was instrumental in establishing several golf clubs/courses in the St. Thomas area. He was a founding member and director of the Elgin Country Club in 1899 (later renamed Pinafore Park Golf Club), one of the few clubs formed in Ontario prior to 1900 still in existence. Also in 1899 R.M. Anderson married Katherine (Kate) Wegg, a lifelong resident of St. Thomas whose ancestors included some of the area's first settlers, the Duncombe and Wegg families of the Sparta Settlement.
Their son Donald Hume Anderson was born on April 14, 1910 and quickly absorbed his father’s passion for the sports of curling and golf. As a student at the University of Toronto (1928-1932), he was a member of the varsity curling team, and captain of the varsity golf team during his last three years. After completing his Bachelor of Commerce degree in 1932, he entered the family business and continued his secondary career as a recreational and highly competitive amateur sportsman who was instrumental in organizing both curling and golf at local, provincial and national levels. When Robert Marshall Anderson died on August 24, 1940, D.H. Anderson succeeded his father as President of Andersons Limited.
D.H. Anderson was a sixteen-time Club Champion at the St. Thomas Golf & Country Club and served as the Club's President from 1951-1953. In 1990 he donated a portion of farmland for the construction of the Redtail Golf Course in Port Stanley, Ontario, where the Club House is named Anderson House to honour its benefactor. He served as a governor of both the Ontario Golf Association and the Canadian Seniors Golf Association.
D.H. Anderson was also a founding member of The St. Thomas Curling Club (formed in 1955), later served as Club President, and led the campaign to fund and construct the St. Thomas Memorial Community Centre Arena, which opened in 1956, providing St. Thomas curlers with six additional sheets of ice. The St. Thomas Curling Club has hosted or participated in many bonspiels at local, provincial, national and international levels. In 1961 a St. Thomas Curling Club team that included D.H. Anderson won the Governor General’s Cup, a feat repeated in 1970 by a Club team featuring his son, Bob Anderson. D.H. Anderson became a Vice-President of the Ontario Curling Association in 1968, and from 1971 to 1973 served as the Association's President.
Following his father's example, D.H. Anderson became an influential community leader and philanthropist. He was the founding president of the St. Thomas-Elgin Branch of the Canadian Cancer Society, the St. Thomas-Elgin Branch of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind and the St. Thomas Mental Health Care Association (subsequently renamed the Elgin Association for Community Living). He also served as president of the St. Thomas Board of Trade and the St. Thomas-Elgin Art Gallery Foundation, and was a director of the St. Thomas Y.M.C.A., the St. Thomas Industrial Board and the Elgin County Pioneer Museum. During the Second World War, he was Chairman of the Fundraising Committee of the St. Thomas Branch of the Canadian Red Cross Society. He was often called upon to lead important civic building campaigns, including such initiatives as the construction of a new general hospital and the Public Arts Centre.
Like his father, D.H. Anderson was an extremely knowledgeable and widely respected collector of art, books, maps, furniture and other artifacts, especially those created in or relating to the local history of St. Thomas and Elgin County. His private collection was without equal in south western Ontario, and while much of the collection was sold at auction after his death in 2004, many items were donated to the St. Thomas-Elgin Public Art Centre where they remain on display.
Donald Hume Anderson married Mary Morley in 1937. Their three children, Robert Morley, Mary Catherine (Kate) and Susan Elizabeth (Betsy) joined their father in running the store that bore their family's name.
Donald Hume Anderson continued to serve as President of Andersons Limited until the store closed in 1988. He died on February 6, 2004 at the age of 93.
