Realtor, municipal politician.
Born at Brant, Ontario on 17 August 1879, son of John Henry Simonite (1847-1939) and Sarah Ann Crane (1850-1932), his family moved to Rapid City in 1880. He moved to Winnipeg in 1895, and was active in the real-estate business. He was first elected to city council in 1930, serving until 1955 with only one two-year break. He was chairman of the welfare committee in the 1930s, and subsequently Chairman of the Finance Committee for 17 years. He was also Deputy Mayor for many years and President of the Winnipeg Real Estate Board. He helped to found the Winnipeg Enterprises Corporation.
On 15 October 1902, he married Mabel Rosina Davison (?-1965) at Winnipeg and they had three children: Charles Russell Simonite (1906-?), Grace Alberta Simonite (1910-1988, wife of Edward Elmore Glasgow), and Mabel Elma Simonite (1914-2008, wife of Douglas J. Kilgour). He was a member of the Kiwanis Club of Winnipeg, Southwood Country Club, Carleton Club, Motor Country Club, and Young United Church. In 1970, he was awarded a Manitoba Centennial Medal by the Manitoba Historical Society.
He died at Winnipeg on 8 December 1973 and was buried in the Chapel Lawn Memorial Gardens. He is commemorated by Simonite Street in Winnipeg. There are personal papers at the Archives of Manitoba.
Ontario birth registration, Ancestry.
1901 Canada census, Automated Genealogy.
Birth, marriage, and death registrations, Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 10 December 1973, page 34.
Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.
Obituary [Mabel Elma Kilgour], Winnipeg Free Press, 10 May 2008.
Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 20 November 2024
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