Name Edward Wood | Died June 16, 1941 | |
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Edward Rogers Wood (May 11, 1866 – June 16, 1941) was a prominent financier in Canadian business, notable for his role in the development of the Brazilian Traction, Light and Power Company Limited (later Brascan Ltd, then amalgamated into Brookfield Asset Management) and for his links with the “Peterborough Methodist Mafia” of George Albertus Cox. Wood was born in Peterborough, Ontario to a Northern Irish father (John W. Wood) and a Scottish mother (Jane Porter). He married Agnes Euphemia Smart in Toronto on July 18, 1891. They had a son, William (nicknamed Wy - died at six months) and a daughter, Mildred.
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Business activities
In his early teens, Edward Wood joined the G.N.W. Telegraph Company owned by Peterborough's Mayor George Albertus Cox and later Senator George Albertus Cox. After completing school Edward joined Cox's financial firm, Central Canada Loan & Savings Company. Both men incorporated in 1898 the National Trust Company in Toronto, Ontario. National Trust became part of Bank of Nova Scotia as Scotia Trust in 1997. In 1901 Cox and Wood formed Dominion Securities (now part of the Royal Bank of Canada) with the purpose of underwriting and retailing of provincial, municipal, and utility bonds. In 1902 Edward Wood shifted Dominion Securities into industrial finance by financing of Dominion Iron & Steel and Dominion Coal. In 1910 he formed Dominion Steel Corporation, where his younger brother Frank Porter Wood was a President. He was at that time a leading financier and also became active in philanthropy as well as in volunteer endeavours for the University of Toronto, Toronto General Hospital, Art Gallery of Ontario and the YMCA.
Examples of Wood Family Residences and University Benefactions
Edward and Euphemia (Pheme) Wood built and lived in Wymilwood (84 Queen's Park, named for children, Wy and Mildred) with his family from 1902 to 1924. They donated Wymilwood; an Elizabethan-style mansion now called Falconer Hall to the University of Toronto and is now part of the UofT law school. In 1920-24 they laid out, built and moved to Glendon Hall on Bayview Avenue. Wood's 20-year-younger brother Frank P Wood and his wife, Emma later built and located nearby in an estate now used as Crescent School. In 1950, by then a widow, Pheme Wood died and bequeathed Glendon Hall to the University of Toronto with the intent that it be used by the Department of Botany for a university (not a public) botanical gardens. Following 10 years of mixed academic use the University turned over the estate in 1961 to its newly created affiliate, York University.
Edward had died in Toronto in 1941. They are buried in the Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto, adjacent to the grave of George Albertus Cox.