Born at Gananoque, Ontario on 18 December 1853, son of George Hodgins and Charlotte Collins, he moved with his parents to Exeter at a young age. He learned the bricklaying trade and worked at Chicago (Illinois) and Denver (Colorado) before coming to Winnipeg in 1883. There he was a contractor either alone or with partners including William Horner and John Alexander Girvin. He served as Secretary of the Bricklayers and Masons Union (1893) and the founding President of the Winnipeg Trades and Labor Council (1894).
On 19 January 1875, he married Harriet Matilda Bissett (1849-1923) at Tuckersmith, Ontario and they had three children: Mary Harriet Hodgins (?-?, wife of Rowley W. Tomkins), William George Hodgins (1882-1934), and Elsie Grace Hodgins (1891-?, wife of Joshua Dryden). He died in East Kildonan on 17 April 1935 and was buried in the St. James Anglican Cemetery.
Some of his construction works in Manitoba included:
Building
Location
Year
Status
156 Lombard Avenue, Winnipeg
1904
Demolished (c1965)
306-310 Ross Avenue, Winnipeg
1905
Lee Court
217 Donald Street, Winnipeg
1906
Demolished (?)
294 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg
1906
Ontario marriage registration [William James Hodgins, Harriet Matilda Bissett], Ancestry.
Ontario birth registration [William George Hodgins], Ancestry.
Birth registration [Elsie Grace Hodgins], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
“Trades and Labor Council,” Winnipeg Tribune, 18 August 1894, page 5.
“Congress of labor men,” Winnipeg Tribune, 14 September 1907, page 11.
1911 Canada census, Automated Genealogy.
Marriage registration [Elsie Grace Hodgins, Joshua Dryden], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Obituary [Harriet Hodgins], Winnipeg Tribune, 28 November 1923, page 19.
Death registrations [George William Hodgins, William James Hodgins], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
“W. J. Hodgins, East Kildonan, dies, aged 81,” Winnipeg Tribune, 18 April 1935, page 3.
“Joshua Dryden dies suddenly at his home,” Winnipeg Tribune, 11 August 1944, page 5.
Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 15 June 2024
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