At the time of his death half a century was drawing to its close since the subject of this sketch, the late Robert Reford, first established a commercial connection with Montreal. The outstanding position which Mr. Reford occupied in the life of the city was the natural outcome of qualities which quickly bring men to be recognized as a source of strength to whatever spheres in which they may move. He was a man of very pronounced ability, tenaciousness of purpose, firmness of decision and of forceful character but by those who knew him best he will be remembered, chiefly for those high standards of honor which were his for the straightforwardness and uprightness of all his dealings with his fellowmen and for the strong sense of justice which throughout his long career he was so often called upon to exercise.
Robert Reford was born at Moylena, which for generations had been the family seat near Antrim, Ireland, in 1831 and was a lad of fourteen when in 1845 he came with his mother, three brothers and one sister to make his home in Canada. The family arrived at Quebec the night of the great fire when the lower town was almost completely destroyed. After a very brief stay in Montreal they settled in Toronto, where Mr. Reford completed his education. He was, however, still but a boy when he became engaged in business and, though he was indentured to work for his first employer for two years at a fixed salary, it is indicative of the great natural capacity which he possessed and of his steadiness and alertness in business, that at the end of the first year his salary was increased fivefold and again at the end of the second year that amount was doubled. In three years time, still barely on the threshold of manhood, Robert Reford had proved his ability to such an extent as to be offered a partnership with William Strachan in a wholesale and retail grocery business which the latter was about to open. This offer was accepted but the firm dissolved after a few years duration and Mr. Reford started a business on his own account, which he continued to conduct alone for several years, only taking Richard Dunbar as a partner when he acquired, by purchase, from William Ross, another large wholesale business of the same nature. The two businesses were run separately, one as Reford & Dunbar, the other in partnership with the late John Dillon, as Reford & Dillon, wholesale grocers and merchants. It would indeed have been strange if a man, imbued with the spirit of enterprise and courage, as was Mr. Reford to a very remarkable degree, had been content to remain without some wider scope for his abilities than that offered, even by a successful wholesale business. It was not long before he took the initial step which was to lead him so far along the path of that vast question of transportation.