A native of Russell County, Edwards entered the family lumber business in 1863. Five years later, he and James Woods established the firm of W.C. Edwards & Company. The sawmills they built in Rockland contributed substantially to the community's economic development. Edwards entered politics in 1887 and sat as the federal member for Russell until 1903, when he was appointed to the Senate. As federal and provincial governments developed forest policies in response to the growing conservation movement, Edwards, a founding director of the Canadian Forestry Association (1906), lobbied to protect the interests of large-scale lumbering by promoting the new concept of forest management.

Location

At the site of the ruins of his sawmill complex, Parc du Moulin, Edwards Street, north of Highway 17, Rockland

Themes

• Industry and trade
• People
• Politics and law