HON. WILLIAM RICHARD MOTHERWELL.
 


	Hon. William Richard Motherwell, representing the Regina constitu-
ency in the Federal government, was appointed to his present position
as Federal Minister of Agriculture for Canada, on the 27th of December,
1921. His birth occurred in Lanark county, province of Ontario, Canada,
on the 6th of January, 1860, his parents being John and Eliza Motherwell,
the latter born in Ontario, of Yorkshire parentage. The former was a
descendant of Scotch ancestry, his forefathers having moved to the north
of Ireland from Northern Glasgow about three hundred years ago. John
Motherwell was a lad of ten years when he accompanied his parents and
their five other children on their emigration from the north of Ireland
to Canada in 1817, the family home being established in Lanark county,
Ontario.
	William Richard Motherwell began his education in a rural school,
continued his studies in the Perth Collegiate Institute and subsequently
entered the Ontario Agricultural College at Guelph, from which he was
graduated in 1881.  While a student in the last named institution he
spent two weeks in military service.  It was in 1881, the year of his
graduation, that he came west and took up a homestead in the Abernathy
district, where he has remained to the present time. Farming was his
sole occupation until he accepted the position of first Minister of Agricul-
ture in the Saskatchewan government when the province was created in
1905. Appointed Federal Minister of Agriculture for Canada on th. 27th
of December, 1921, he has since made an excellent record in that con-
nection, by reason of the able discharge of his important and responsible
duties. The Hon. Mr. Motherwell has been a lifelong Liberal. He repre-
sented the North Qu'Appelle, Humboldt and Kindersley constituencies in
the provincial legislature and government for thirteen years and at pres-
ent is representing the Regina constituency in the Federal government.
He was made the first president of the Saskatchewan Grain Growers
Association, continuing in that capacity from 1901 until 1906, and was
the president of the International Dry Farming Congress during the years
1915 and 1916.
	Mr. Motherwell has been married twice. On the 17th of December,
1884, he wedded Miss Adeline Rogers, a native of Newboyne, Ontario,
and a daughter of Thomas Rogers, who was of Irish descent. On the
26th of August, 1908, Mr. Motherwell was again married, his second
union being with Miss Catherine Jane Gillespie, a native of Teeswater,
Ontario, and a daughter of William Gillespie, who came of Scotch an-
cestry. Mr. Motherwell has a daughter and a son: Alma, a resident of
Regina, Saskatchewan; and Talmage, who wedded Miss Marion Deahl
and resides in Abernethy, Saskatchewan.
	A Presbyterian in religious faith, Mr. Motherwell is now a member
~ Union church in Abernethy. He has always been very fond of base-
ball and was a proficient player of the game in his younger years. He
ranks among the influential and highly esteemed citizens of Saskatche-
wan, in which province he has resided for more than four decades and
where he has long been prominent in public life.


Bibliography follows: