Erastus Wiman

Wiman, Erastus

Erastus Wiman, journalist, businessman (b at Churchville, UC 21 Apr 1834; d on Staten I, NY 9 Feb 1904). Wiman made his reputation in Toronto as a commercial reporter for the Globe and the Board of Trade, as publisher of his own market and trade reviews, and, from 1860, as a reporter and manager for R.G. Dun's Mercantile Agency in Toronto and Montréal. He left Canada in 1866 to become Dun's New York City manager, but he retained a partnership in the Canadian agency, Dun, Wiman and Company, and personal and business ties. In the 1880s Wiman emerged as an enthusiastic advocate of commercial union with the US, writing and speaking on both sides of the border. The story told in his autobiographical Chances of Success (1893) ended in the same year with the loss of his fortune, invested in the development of Staten Island, and of his position as general manager of the Dun firm, upon Dun's discovery that he had diverted company funds to his own use.