Frederick Cato (1858-1935), grocer and philanthropist, was born in a tent at Pleasant Creek (Stawell), to the Scottish wife of an English gold miner. Educated at the Stawell state school to the age of 13, he worked in a grocery shop while studying to become a teacher; he taught at Stawell before spending some years in New Zealand. In mid-1881 he entered into partnership with his cousin Thomas Moran, who had established two grocery shops in Melbourne. When Moran died nine years later, the business had thirty-five outlets. By that time, Cato had become a founder of the Rosella Preserving Co, of which he became chairman of directors (later, he was also to chair the Papua-based coconut concern, Hagita Pty Ltd). Moran & Cato Ltd was formed in Sydney in 1909, and Cato founded Austral Grain and Produce Pty Ltd in 1911. In 1912 Moran and Cato was converted to a proprietary company with Moran's family and Cato as shareholders; Cato became governing director. The following year he founded the Laymen's Missionary Movement. A stalwart contributor to Methodist affairs, he was president of Queen's College at the University of Melbourne; donated many scholarships and properties to Church schools, particularly the Methodist Ladies' College, of which he was a trustee from 1927; and funded missions in Arnhem Land and abroad. In 1924 he set up wholesale companies in Melbourne and Sydney. By 1935 there were well over a hundred branches of Moran & Cato in Victoria and Tasmania, and about forty in New South Wales. Cato died of bronchitis, leaving a handsome estate; he is commemorated in parks in Hawthorn and in Stawell, where he endowed the hospital.
