The Consummate Canadian. Mary Willan Mason

      

      THE CONSUMMATE CANADIAN

      A Biography of Samuel Edward Weir Q.C.

      Mary Willan Mason

      Natural Heritage / Natural History Inc.

      THE CONSUMMATE CANADIAN

      The Consummate Canadian

      A Biography of Samuel Edward Weir Q.C.

      Mary Willan Mason

      Natural Heritage Books

      The Consummate Canadian

      Mary Willan Mason

      Published by Natural Heritage / Natural History Inc.

      P.O. Box 95, Station O,

      Toronto, Ontario M4A 2M8

      Copyright©1999 The Weir Foundation

      All Rights Reserved

      No portion of this book with the exception of brief extracts for the purpose of literary review, may be reproduced in any form without the permission of the publisher.

      Design by Derek Chung Tiam Fook

      Colour Separations by Colour Innovations, Toronto, Ontario Printed and bound in Canada by Hignell Printing Limited, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

      Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Mason, Mary Willan,

      The consummate Canadian : a biography of Samuel Edward Weir Q.C.

      Includes index.

      ISBN 1-896219-40-3 (bound) ISBN 1-896219-38-1 (pbk.)

      1. Weir, Samuel E. (Samuel Edward), 1898-1981. 2. Weir, Samuel E. (Samuel Edward), 1898-1981 — Art collections. 3. Art, Canadian. 4. Art, Modern — 19th century — Canada. 5. Art — Collectors and collecting — Ontario — Niagara-on-the-Lake — Biography. 6. Lawyers — Ontario — Niagara-on-the-Lake — Biography. I. Title.

      N5230.C22W45 1998 709’.2 C98-931048-5

      Natural Heritage / Natural History Inc. acknowledges the support received for its publishing program from the Canada Council Block Grant Program. We also acknowledge with gratitude the assistance of the Association for the Export of Canadian Books, Ottawa.

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

       Acknowledgments

       Introduction

       1 The Weir Family

       2 The Bawtenheimer Family

       3 An Impoverished Beginning

       4 His Early Years Of Practice

       5 The Young Politician And The Emerging Collector

       6 Sam The Master In His Own Firm

       7 An Interest In Art Broadens

       8 The Early Years Of War

       9 The War And Sam’s Deepening Concern For His Father

       10 Taxes And The Little Man

       11 Achievement, Prominence and Success

       12 Art Invester, Avid Horticulturalist and Businessman

       13 The Library And The Growing Collection

       14 A Summer Trip To Remember

       15 A Turning Point In The Weir Collection

       16 London, Wall Street And Possibly Paris

       17 Advice, Personal Grief And Canadian Art

       18 Family And Friends

       19 A Fraud Case, A Foundation And A Floundered Relationship

       20 The Plague Of Ill Health

       21 From The Centennial Year To The Shaping Of River Brink

       22 Knowledge And Experience

       23 River Brink And Domestic Tranquility At Last

       24 Sam’s Last Romantic Fling

       25 A Time Of Frustration

       26 Letters and More Letters

       27 The Angel Arrives And The Marriage Ends

       28 The Final Days

       The Weir family

       Archibald Weir

       James and Susannah Sutton Weir

       Robert and Martha Sutton Weir

       Richard and Margaret Moir Weir

       The Bawtenheimer (Badenheimer) Family

       Johann Peter Badenheimer

       Sources

       Credits for Illustrations

       Index

       About The Author

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      FIRST AND MOST OF ALL MY THANKS FOR