Unqualified commendation is
ever deserved by the man who through his own efforts rises from an
impecunious position to one of comparative affluence. Such an one is
Edgar Wallace Anderson, who began life in a clerical capacity and is now
vice president and sales manager of the Nor' West Motors, Limited, of
Edmonton, which owes its inception to his initiative spirit, and its
continued growth and progress to his executive ability and keen
sagacity. He was born in Elora, Ontario. in 1879, and comes of Scotch
ancestry in both the paternal and maternal lines. He is a son of Osgood
McKenzie Anderson, who was born at Garloch, in the Highlands of
Scotland, in 1844, and came as a boy to Canada with his parents, who
settled in the province of Ontario. There he was married in 1870 to
Jeanie Wallace Gladstone, who was horn in Ontario and was a relative of
the Great Commoner, William Ewart Gladstone, one of England's most noted
statesmen. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson are now living in Guelph, Ontario.
The public schools of
Guelph afforded Edgar Wallace Anderson his educational opportunities and
he also attended a commercial college of that city, from which he was
graduated in 1892. His initial experience in the business world was
obtained as clerk in a grocery store of Guelph, in which he worked for
seven years, going at the end of that time to Fernie, British Columbia,
where he remained for three years, acting as manager of the grocery
section of the department store of the London & Liverpool Company. He
next went to Vernon, British Columbia, where he assumed the management
of the grocery division of a department store, and two years later
accepted the position of manager of the grocery department of the store
conducted by the Hudson's Bay Company at Kamloops, in the same province.
At the end of two years he severed his relations with that company and
went to the States, where he became clerk in a grocery store at Seattle,
Washington, thus continuing for a year, when he returned to British
Columbia. At Greenwood he entered the grocery business independently but
sold his store at the end of one and a half years and made his way to
Vancouver, where he spent a year. He then came to this province,
locating at Calgary, and was there engaged in the grocery brokerage
business until 1907, when he removed to Edmonton and has since been a
resident of this city. He became the organizer of the Nor' West Motors,
Limited, of which he was made vice president and sales manager and is
now serving in those capacities, being the moving spirit of the
business. He keeps in close touch with all new developments in the motor
industry and has formulated many well devised plans for the development
and expansion of the business, which he conducts with marked efficiency,
keeping it not only in line but rather in the lead of the progressive
institutions of this character.
While in the United
States Mr. Anderson was married, in Spokane, Washington, on the 18th of
August, 1903, to Miss Laura R. Johnson, a daughter of John C. Johnson.
Mr. and Mrs. Anderson have a son, Errol Donald, who was born June 25,
1916. Mr. Anderson is an adherent of the Liberal party and his religious
views are in accord with the doctrines and teachings of the Presbyterian
church. Fraternally he is identified with the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows and he is also a member of the Canadian, Kiwanis, Automobile and
Curling Clubs. He is a man of marked strength of character and forceful
personality, aggressive at times and at times cautious, but ever
dominated by an accurate sense of business exigency and the highest
standards of commercial ethics. He is deeply interested in all that
pertains to the welfare and progress of his community and district and
Edmonton numbers him among its foremost business men and highly
respected citizens. |