Robert McLaughlin (November 16, 1836 – November 23, 1921) was a Canadian industrialist and businessman. He founded McLaughlin Carriage then McLaughlin Motor Car Company which later became part of General Motors Canada.

Life and career

McLaughlin was born in Cavan Township,

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada () was a Province, part of The Canadas, British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the Province of Queb ...

in 1836, the son of an Irish immigrant, John McLaughlin. He moved to Darlington Township with his family in 1837. He married Mary Smith in 1864,"The McLaughlins - Sleighs, Buggys, Cars and Ginger Ale". ''The Clarington Promoter'', September 2016, pages 1 and 4. by Myno Van Dyke and bought a plot of land near the village of Tyrone from his father. He built a house and a workshop, and began building cutters and wagons. By 1869 his workshop was too small, and he set up a

carriage A carriage is a two- or four-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle for passengers. In Europe they were a common mode of transport for the wealthy during the Roman Empire, and then again from around 1600 until they were replaced by the motor car around 1 ...

works at Enniskillen, Ontario. McLaughlin also taught Sunday school in the

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

church there. In 1877, he moved his growing business to Oshawa to take advantage of available labour and railway access in the larger urban centre. He established the Oshawa Carriage Works, later known as McLaughlin Carriage. In 1878, he married Sarah Jane Parr; his first wife had died of consumption. His sons George William and Sam also became involved in the business (George later served as of GM Canada), but eldest son John James left to become a chemist, started a soft drink company in Toronto, and invented Canada Dry ginger ale.Arculus, Paul. ''Durant's Right Hand Man'', Freisen Press, 2011. page 45. During the 1880s, McLaughlin designed a new type of steering gear for carriages; through a distributor, the company sold about 20,000 of these gears to other carriage companies.Petrie, Ray. ''Sam McLaughlin'', Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1975. pages 11-12. McLaughlin served on the board of health and board of water commissioners at Oshawa and also served as mayor. He was the first president of the local

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...

. After his carriage works was destroyed in a fire in 1899, he relocated to Gananoque but returned to Oshawa the following year, rebuilding the business with a loan from the city. In 1901, he married Eleanor McCulloch after the death of his second wife. In 1907, on the advice of his sons Sam and George, he set up the McLaughlin Motor Car Company to manufacture automobiles. McLaughlin supported tariffs restricting trade with the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and opposed Sir Wilfrid Laurier's

free trade Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold Economic liberalism, economically liberal positions, while economic nationalist politica ...

proposals in 1910–11. In 1915, he sold off his carriage manufacturing business. In 1918, his companies were taken over by General Motors. McLaughlin died at Oshawa in 1921 of colon cancer. His brother James was a doctor and member of the Ontario assembly.

References

External links

Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''Oshawa MuseumMcLaughlin family fonds
Archives of Ontario {{DEFAULTSORT:McLaughlin, Robert 1836 births 1921 deaths Canadian automotive pioneers Canadian people of Irish descent Mayors of Oshawa Canadian founders of automobile manufacturers Deaths from colorectal cancer in Canada Deaths from cancer in Ontario 19th-century mayors of places in Ontario