William Clyde Caldwell, member of the local Legislature for North Lanark, W and a prominent business man in that riding, is a son of Alexander and Mary Ann (Maxwell) Caldwell, both natives of Scotland, and both dying in 1872. He was born in the village of Lanark, Ontario, May 14, 1843, and received his education at Queen’s College, Kingston, whence he was graduated in 1864. His father was a lumberman, which business our subject also makes a specialty, cutting about 6,000,000 feet annually, and shipping most of it to Oswego, New York. He also manufactures flour, doing custom and merchant work, and has a farm of something like 400 acres, partially under improvement.
Mr. Caldwell has held the office of village councilor, reeve, school trustee, etc., and has devoted considerable time to municipal and other local interests. He’s possessing a large share of public spirit as well as enterprise.
In 1872 Daniel Galbraith, member of the Ontario Parliament for North Lanark, resigned his seat, in order to run for the House of Commons, and Mr. Caldwell was elected to take his place. At the general elections in 1875 he was again a candidate, and was defeated. In 1879 he contested the seat once more, and received a majority of more than two hundred votes; it being a Reform constituency, and he drawing out the full strength of the party.