Thomas Stinson (15 July 1798 – 13 March 1864) was a

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Hamilton has a population of 569,353, and its census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington and Grimsby, has a population of 785,184. The city is approximately southwest of T ...

merchant A merchant is a person who trades in commodities produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Historically, a merchant is anyone who is involved in business or trade. Merchants have operated for as long as indust ...

, banker, and landowner.

Early life and marriage

Stinson was born in 1798 near

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, County Monaghan,

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. In 1822 Stinson migrated to

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. Briefly staying in Lockport, New York, he moved to

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of 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 ...

in 1826, settling in Clinton Township in the

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. There he married Margaret Zimmerman, daughter of a

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from the

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area.

Business career

The Stinsons moved to Hamilton in 1830 and established a dry goods, grocery, hardware and crockery business on King Street East in the "Stinson Block", the first brick business block in Hamilton. In 1831 he established a branch store in

Dundas, Ontario : ''For the county in eastern Ontario see Dundas County, Ontario. For the upper tier county, see United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry.'' Dundas is a community and town in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It is nicknamed the ''Valley Town' ...

. He was an extensive landowner in not only in Hamilton, Ontario but as well as

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, and Superior City, Wisconsin, which he named. Stinson also established the Stinson Bank in 1847 on the corner of

James James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

and King William Street in Hamilton. It lasted until 1900. He died 13 March 1864 at

, and is buried in Hamilton Cemetery.

Tribute

The Stinson neighbourhood in Hamilton was named after him. It is bounded by Main Street East (north), Charlton Avenue East (south), Victoria Avenue South (west) and Wentworth Street South (east). Landmarks in this neighbourhood include St. Patrick's Roman Catholic church.

References

:*MapArt Golden Horseshoe Atlas - Page 647 - Grids H13 {{DEFAULTSORT:Stinson, Thomas 1798 births 1864 deaths Businesspeople from Hamilton, Ontario Pre-Confederation Canadian businesspeople Irish emigrants to pre-Confederation Ontario Canadian city founders People from County Monaghan Immigrants to Upper Canada American city founders