Marmora Cooperage Co. - A Trenton Connection
/The Marmora Cooperage Company was located on the lands north of 75 Main Street, where the manager's house stood. This company was a subsidiary of the Trenton Cooperage Mills, one of the many business interests of Senator William Alexander Fraser.
Senator William Alexander Fraser (pictured at left) was born in Trenton, Ontario where he served as Mayor in the 1920s. He represented the riding of Northumberland in Parliament with the Liberal party from 1930 through 1945. He served as Chief Whip in the Mackenzie King government. He was later appointed to the Senate, where he remained until his death in 1962.
Fraser pursued a variety of business interests beyond the Trenton Cooperage Mills, including a major cold storage business, fruit-growing and processing, regional newspapers, movie theatres, and a bridge-building company that later helped manufacture corvettes for the Royal Canadian Navy during World War II. One of his major feats was acquiring the RCAF Air Base for Trenton a few years before the outbreak of World War II. He was known as "Nickel Billy", perhaps in reference to his business skills. He died at a Kingston, Ontario hospital, at the age of 76.
A monument stands on the shores of Trenton in memory of Senator Fraser and his partner, Evan James
