the St Lawrence and Ottawa Grand Junction Railroad Company, the St Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad Company, and the Grand Trunk Railway Company. The distilling works themselves burnt in January 1838, and an interruption of 10 months ensued whilst it was reconstructed. While the old brewery had housed seven 3,500-gallon kettles, the eleven 25,000-gallon containers were placed in the newbuild, which grossed over the next dozen years more than £400,000. In 1844, the brothers purchased from the receivers the Handyside distillery, which was located in the vicinity of their own. The property included cow barns and a piggery, and thus it was that the Molsons engaged in cattle finishing trade, for the which they used their spent grain. At this juncture, the firm employed roughly 75 men, and needed to purchase its grain supplies in Kingston, Picton, Port Hope and other ports in Canada West. Rye whiskey had become a staple. Packaging in bottles was begun. The partnership between William and Thomas, according to which they managed the brewery, had been fixed to a ten-year term in early 1838, soon after the fire. The brothers Molson agreed to a second contract on 1 July 1848. A break clause was inserted into the new contract, whereby advance written notice was to be given if William decided to exit the brewery. He exercised that clause in 1852, and did exit on 1 July 1853. He was bound to do so if he wished to pursue a career as a banker by the legislation allowing private banks because the 1850 law forbade bankers from pursuing all other trades. Molson Bank The official historian of the Molson firm writes that as a result of a disagreement with his brother Thomas as to the conduct of their joint distilling enterprise, William withdrew from this Molson family enterprise to establish Molson Bank in association with his brother, John Molson Jr. Founded in 1853 and chartered by the provincial legislature in 1855, it was absorbed by the Bank of Montreal in 1925. William remained its first president until his death and was succeeded by Thomas Molson's son, John Thomas Molson (1837-1910). Other varied activities William was vice-president of the Montreal and Champlain Railway and a governor of the Montreal General Hospital (1868), being the third Molson to hold that position. Like his brother, he was a generous benefactor of McGill University, where the "William Molson Hall" was named