Hatheway, Warren Franklin

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Peter J. Mitham, “HATHEWAY, WARREN FRANKLIN,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 15, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/hatheway_warren_franklin_15E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Businessman, social activist, politician, and author; b. 16 Sept. 1850 in Saint John, son of Thomas Gilbert Hatheway and Harriet E. Bates; m. first 28 Feb. 1880 Elizabeth Elsom Green in Dedham, Mass.; m. secondly 19 Feb. 1883 Ella Bertha Marven in Saint John, and they had two daughters; d. there 29 Oct. 1923.
    • The family of W. Frank Hatheway was well-connected in the social, commercial, and political circles of New Brunswick. His paternal great-grandfather had commanded loyalist troops in the American revolution, and his grandfather Calvin Luther Hatheway wrote a history of the province published in 1846. A cousin, George Luther Hatheway, served as premier during 1871–72. The death of Hatheway’s father in 1855 and his brother Charles E. in 1863 had stripped the family of its gentility however and they needed to work to survive.
    • Hatheway embarked on a vigorous program of intellectual improvement during his time with Turnbull, studying the classical Latin authors to improve his speaking style, and learning French, Spanish, and German. He began to write for the press, too, submitting translations of Chateaubriand to the Saint John periodical Stewart’s Literary Quarterly Magazine. Verse under the pseudonyms Carey and Philip and articles signed O. M. also began appearing in the Saint John Globe. Together with some other young men he formed the Round Table Club, a forerunner of the Fortnightly Club, to discuss literary topics.
    • The fire that devastated the city in June 1877 marked the turning-point in Hatheway’s career. He left Turnbull before the end of the year and established his own grocery firm on 1 Jan. 1878 with James Spurr Harding. It flourished, carrying sugar, flour, fish, and a variety of teas (the firm was one of the first in Canada to import tea directly from China). When the partnership was dissolved in 1887, the business was worth over $20,000. Hatheway continued on his own and by 1895 employed four salespeople to travel about the Maritimes.
    • The pamphlet Poorhouse and palace (1900), for example, advocated a system of graduated taxation exempting those earning less than $800 a year (Hatheway subsequently reduced the amount to $600 and then $400 in order to gain his point). He further demonstrated his socialist tendencies by spearheading the formation of the Fabian League in Saint John in April 1901.
    • Hatheway’s increasing political activity had led him to run in the provincial election of 1903 as a labour candidate for Saint John City. Unsuccessful, he “saw political expedience in playing the game more conventionally,” according to G. H. Allaby, and in 1908 he stood as an official opposition (Conservative) candidate with labour backing, a strategy that took him to Fredericton. There he fought, largely without success, for a number of radical causes.
    • In his work for the CPR, Ham accompanied parties of newspaper reporters and other excursions across Canada, entertained special guests, spoke at public functions, and represented the company at expositions and fairs. He was particularly adept at the promotion of tourism and he became one of the most popular and best-known men in Canada.
    • Hatheway was ultimately overtaken by the acceptance among reform-minded elements of the population of his own radical ideas, a process evident by 1910. Following his decision not to run in the 1912 election – possibly because the government of James Kidd Flemming had denied him the office of first commissioner of labour – he continued to write on a variety of subjects that encouraged readers to know themselves and the world about them. He sought an economic, political, and social order that would make Canada strong. Though his books were rarely acknowledged in New Brunswick, they attracted some critical acclaim nationally. A deed of 83 acres of land to the labourers of Saint John in 1917 was a practical expression of the love of nature and commitment to workers evinced in his writing. Hatheway died of a stroke six years later.
  • Great Grandson of Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory –https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=3658
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/197643027/warren-franklin-hatheway