John Hendry LAST MONTH, we sketched the life of James Allan Grahame, a Mason pioneer whose work had to do with the development of the Hudson's Bay Company's fur interests on the Pacific Coast of Canada. This month, we take for our biographical sketch John Hendry, a Mason pioneer of the lumber industry of the province; one of those men who first saw great opportunity in the Virgin forests of British Columbia and who seized that opportunity promptly and firmly, one of the few who early realized our timber export possibilities. John Hendry was born in Gloucester county, New Brunswick, on January 20, 1843, the son of James and Margaret (Wilson) Hendry After leaving schoo1, he spent a number of years in the engineering and construction department of several leading saw mills and flour mills of his native province. Then, in 1872, he came to British Columbia. Finding business conditions unfavorable, he went south to Washington, where he remained for a time connected with the lumbering industry. About 1874 he returned to British Columbia. Two years later he formed a partnership with David McNair in a sash and door factory at Nanaimo. From this partnership, in 1878, came the firm of Hendry, McNair & Co. After carrying on business for a time at Nanaimo, the machinery was moved to New Westminster, where a new box sash and door factory was erected. A greatly increased business was the result, due to the rapidly developing fishing industry of the Fraser, which created a big demand for boxes. In 1880, the firm incorporated as the Royal City Planing Mills Company, Limited, with John Hendry as president and general mana ger. When Vancouver came into being, in 1885, a branch factory was established there which subsequently grew to immensely profitable proportions. It was about this year, too, that Mr. Hendry's company launched out into the timber export trade. This came about with the purchase of the Dominion Sawmill Company, of New Westminster. In 1889, the old Hastings Mill was purchased and all the different interests were merged under the new name of the British Columbia Mills Timber and Trading Company. John Hendry built some of the first British Columbia railroads: the Kalso and Slocan Railway, afterwards taken over by the Great Northern, and the Vancouver, Westminster and Yukon Railway from New Westminster to Vancouver, taken over later by the Vancouver, Victoria and Eastern Railway Company. It is over this road that the Great Northern now enters Vancouver. Mr. Hendry also promoted the Stave Lake Power Company, Limited, later absorbed by The Western Canada Power Company, Limited, He was chairman of the Burrard, Westminster and Boundary Railway and Navigation Company, Limited: and one of the directors of the British Columbia Sugar Refining Company, Limited. It will be seen that he was a man of many and varied commercial activities. Perhaps the best way to, convey Mr. Hendry's influence on the development work of British Columbia is to mention some of the more important public and general executive positions to which he was elected, namely: president of the British Columbia Lumber and Shingle Manufacturers' Association, Limited; vice-president of the Canadian Lumbermans' Association; president of the Canadian Forestry Association; member of the Commission of Conservation of Canada; president of the Canadian Manufacturers' Association; president of both the Vancouver and New Westminster boards of trade, and, for a time, mayor of New Westminster. Mr. Hendry belonged to many clubs: the Vancouver Club, the Terminal City Club. the Jericho Country Club, the Vancouver Automobile Club, the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club. the Union Club of Victoria, the Westminster Club of New Westininster, the Rideau Club of Ottawa, the Wellington and American Universities Clubs of London, England, the Touring Clubs of France and Italy, etc, He married Adaline McMillan, daughter of Donald McMillan of Pictou. Nova Scotia. He had one child, a daughter, Aldyen Irene, now the wife of Erec W. Hamber, present general manager of the British Columbia Mills Timber and Trading Company. John Hendry was a Royal Arch Mason. He was also a Knight Templar and attained the Thirty-second Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. He died July 17, 1916. "John Hendry" The Square, A Staff Article, R.J. Templeton publisher. Vancouver : The Square Limited, December 1921, vol 3, no. 1. pp 28, 29. affiliated with Union Lodge No. 9, New Westminster, on 3 June 1878 Grand Lodge records.