My Genealogy Hound

WILLIAM R. DOUGLAS, who owns and conducts the largest grocery, crockery and queensware house of Westfield, was born in county Down, Ireland, January 30, 1847, and is a son of Thompson and Anna J. (Shaw) Douglas. His parents were both born in county Down and became members of the Presbyterian church. His father was engaged in the grocery business and in farming, and died in 1889, at eighty years of age. His mother is a daughter of James Shaw, who was a prominent linen manufacturer of Ireland (see sketch of Robert Shaw). She is now in the seventy-fifth year of her age and resides on the home farm in county Down.

William R. Douglas passed his boyhood days on the farm and attended the national schools at Ireland. At sixteen years of age he left his native land and came (December, 1863) to Westfield, where he learned the trade of stone and marble-cutter, which he had to abandon at the end of his apprenticeship, on account of ill health, occasioned by the stone dust. He then learned the trade of moulder, which he followed in the Lock factory until it shut down in 1870. During this same year he secured a clerkship in a grocery store, where he remained until 1874, when he became a partner with Robert Shaw and J. R. S. Cosgrove in the grocery business, under the firm name of R. Shaw & Co. The firm was changed several times during the next eight years, but he remained a member of it during all of that time. In 1882 he purchased the interests of all his partners, and since that year has conducted a very extensive and lucrative business. His establishment is at No. 3 and 4, on Main street, and is divided into two large departments. His trade is now of such proportions as to require the service of five clerks. He deals largely in groceries, provisions, glassware, china, crockery, standard proprietary medicines and notions. Mr. Douglas has been a republican since coming to this country, and is now serving as a member of the school board of Westfield. He is a member and deacon of the Presbyterian church. In addition to his mercantile interests, he owns some valuable real estate, is a stockholder of the “Pulley Works” and has a promising young vineyard. Nov. 19, 1874, he united in marriage with Mary Winsor, daughter of David Winsor, of Westfield. To their union have been born seven children: John R., Harry W., William M., Elizabeth A., James R., Alice R., and Grace.