Austin Mausoleum - St. James Cemetery - Toronto, Ontario, Canada
N 43° 40.269 W 079° 22.203
17T E 631400 N 4836640
Mausoleum of James Austin, founder of what would become the Toronto-Dominion Bank, is located in the oldest cemetery in Toronto.
Waymark Code: WM8YZT
Location: Ontario, Canada
Date Posted: 06/02/2010
Views: 8
The large family Mausoleum of the Austin family - founded by
James Austin, the original president of Consumer's Gas, and a founder of the Dominion Bank in 1871. Family members were originally interred here, with faithful servants of the family interred in the fenced grounds surrounding the mausoleum. The vault is still in use by family members today.
Information taken from Cemetery: Illustrated History Visit website
From: Wikipedia
James Austin
James Austin (1813 – February 27, 1897) was a prominent nineteenth century Toronto businessman.
He was born in County Armagh, Ireland to a Methodist family. He immigrated to Canada at age sixteen along with his parents and became apprenticed to a printer. He spent ten years as a printer travelling through Canada and the United States and becoming involved in the Reformist movement of William Lyon Mackenzie.
Entering business he joined with Patrick Foy to found the Austin & Foy Wholesale Company at the corner of King and Jarvis in Toronto in the Daniel Brooke Building. He also was involved in the Consumers' Gas Company being one of its founding directors. The wholesale company was successful, but Austin was interested in pursuing other ventures and it was dissolved in 1870 leaving Austin with a fair amount of money.
He became a central player in the Toronto financial world. In 1871 he founded The Dominion Bank, ancestor of today's Toronto-Dominion Bank. He remained president of that institution until his death, but was also involved in many others. He became president of the Queen City and the Hand-to-Hand insurance companies, and chairman of the North of Scotland Canadian Mortgage Company. In 1881 he increased his control over Consumers' Gas also becoming president of that company.
In 1844 he married Susan Bright and they had two children. He built Spadina House, which is now a museum, in 1866 to house his family. He retained all of his positions up until his death, despite suffering from deafness late in life. He died after several months of illness at the age of eighty-four. At his death he had a fortune of some $300,000 which was divided between his son and daughter. His business interests and his home passed on to his son Albert W. Austin.
From: Wikipedia
St. James Cemetery
St. James Cemetery is the oldest cemetery in Toronto still in operation. The cemetery opened in 1844 as the burial ground for St. James Cathedral. It is located at Bloor Street and Parliament, overlooking the Don River ravine. Just to the west is the St. James Town neighbourhood, which is named after the cemetery. The cemetery was necessary as the burial ground around the cathedral itself, in use since 1797, was out of room. When built it was a located a considerable distance from the centre of town. The cemetery itself is home to the Chapel of St. James-the-Less which sites atop a knoll at the highest point in the cemetery. The chapel opened in 1861.
The cemetery is the final resting place of many of Toronto's oldest families and notable citizens:
James Austin, founder of what would become the Toronto-Dominion Bank
Robert Baldwin, Joint Premier of the Province of Canada
James Cockburn, Father of Confederation
George Gooderham, whiskey magnate
Casimir Gzowski, engineer and railway builder
William Howland, Father of Confederation
E. J. Lennox, architect of Casa Loma and Old City Hall
Henry Scadding, historian
Hampden Zane Churchill Cockburn,Victoria Cross recipient in the Second Boer War.
John P. Robarts,17th Premier of the Province of Ontario.