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F. W. Halls was born in December of 1873, in Lambeth, Ontario, the son of William Halls and Susan Tanton. He was one of four children. At age 12 he and his family moved to Toronto. As a child his ambition was to be a North West Mounted Police man.In 1900 he married Katherine Florence 'Kate' McGill. Over the next twenty years they had eight children, six boys and two girls.He started working for Brown Brothers (bookbinding and stationary suppliers) in approximately 1887, as a messenger boy, and continued working for the firm until 1912 when he left his poition in sales to found the Fred Halls Paper Company (later Halls Fine Paper). In 1920 he moved locations to 257-261 Adelaide St. after purchasing the buildings, expanding his space to 24,000 square feet. By 1933 he had a branch office in London which was managed by his son Frederick McGill Halls.
He was very socially active as can be seen by the memberships he held in various clubs. He was involved in the founding of the first Civitan Club in Canada in the early 1920's. He also belonged to the Masons, Shriners (Ramses Lodge), the Knights Templar, the Kiwanis Club, Royal Canadian Yacht Club, and the Albany Club. He was very involved in taking care of crippled children through his work with the Civitan Club. He was one of the founding members of the Civitan Club in Canada. He was one of the two vice-presidents listed when the club was granted its charter in January of 1932. References to Fred Halls and the Civitan Club can be found scattered in the Toronto papers through the 1930's.On a personal level he enjoyed fishing and hunting. He was fiercely Methodist in his religion.
The first public reference I can find of Fred Halls is about 1900 when he is mentioned as being part of a curling club in Toronto. The last public reference I found of Fred Halls was in 1953 as part of a price fixing scheme in the paper industry. He died in December of 1957 and is buried with his wife who predeceased him.
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