Hugh McCulloch

A noted early industrialist of Galt was Hugh McCulloch, a native of Ayrshire, Scotland, who served an apprenticeship in the machinist and millwright trades before coming to Canada in 1850.

He became an employee of the Dumfries Foundry, which he and John Goldie, another industrialist, later bought from James Crombie in 1859. Under their management the business grew from a general foundry to the manufacturing of boilers, engines, flour, sawmill and wood-working machinery, safes and vaults. He became the company president in 1891.

For 26 years McCulloch was Waterloo County’s representative on the Galt Collegiate Institute Board. He was also a member of the town council, a president of the Gore Mutual Fire Insurance Company, a director of the Galt, Preston and Hespeler Railway Company and owner with the late Daniel Spiers of the Galt Gas and Electric Light Company, which was subsequently taken over by the town.

McCulloch was inducted into the Cambridge Hall of Fame in 2001.