We see that Mr. William Gray, founder of The Herald, had an account with Mr. Beckett, while John Kyte, Esq., is indebted in the sum of £6 8s for a new green coat, and £1 5s for a new waistcoat. This might seem incongruous, as drugs and dry goods do not mix too well; but in another page we notice that a member of General Proctor’s household has had a tooth extracted in the establishment—thus testifying to the eclectic nature of the business in that early day, when the departmental store had yet to be evolved.
The Hudson’s Bay Company has an account. The Orkney family got their perfumes and toilet articles from the firm. The Orkney family had a large property facing on St. Catherine Street before the latter was homologated—property which extended below Beaver Hall Hill. Many will remember the family mansion, standing in off the street, near Phillips Square—a big, old-fashioned residence in the colonial style, with ample grounds.
These itemized accounts touch life in an intimate and confidential way. That this ledger should have been preserved all these years in such good condition, each page telling its own story of status and pride and mode of living—is remarkable. It is also interesting to note the copies of letters which Mr. Beckett transferred to the pages of the ledger from time to time—letters of business, but showing a perfection of chirography which would be the despair of the slap-dash writer of the present day—delicate, spiderylike copperplate, with delectable involutions, hinting leisure, and the aesthetic sense. By comparison, the horror of the typewriter is intolerable. The ledger is regarded as an heirloom to be carefully preserved by the National Drug Company, whose offices are now on St. Gabriel Street, though the original firm of Dr. Beckett a century ago, was on St. Paul Street.
Business was growing in 1815 and St. Paul Street was flourishing. In November of that year, through the exertions of Mr. Samuel Dawson, part of St. Paul Street was lighted by twenty-two lamps, costing $7.00 each. Business commenced to pick up after this.
In 1816 the principal wholesale firms doing business in Montreal were: McGillivray, Thain & Co., otherwise called the “Northwest Company;” Forsythe, Richardson & Co., who were agents of the East India Company; Maitlands, Garden & Auldjo; Gerrard, Gillespie, Moffatt & Co., then agents of the Phoenix Fire Insurance Company, of London; H. Gates & Co.; Allison, Turner & Co.; Desrivières, Blackwood & Co.; Blackwood, La Rogue & Co.; Robinson, Masson & Co.; Hector Russell & Co., also retailing fancy dress goods—the great retail dry goods house of that time; Miller, Parlane & Co., James Miller left the firm in 1819 and engaged exclusively in shipbuilding, and was one of the founders of the Allan line of steamships; James McDougall & Co., merchants and brokers; Hart, Logan & Co.; George Platt & Co., hardware; J. and J.M. Frothingham, hardware; J.T. Barrett, hardware; Jacob DeWitt, hardware; Lewis Lyman, druggist, founder of the house of Lyman’s Sons & Co.; Day, Gelston & Co., druggists, Mr. Day being the father of the late Judge Day; Wadsworth & Nichols, druggists; Thomas Torrance and John Torrance, both wholesale and retail grocers; Bowman & Smith, grocers; Zabdiel Thayer, crockery; Toussaint Peltier, grain merchant; Felix Souligny, do.; McNider, Aird & White, auctioneers; M.C. Culliver & Co., do.; and Bridge & Penn, ditto.
Most of these firms did what was then considered a very large business and many of the men composing them were reputed to be wealthy. The possession of $25,000 in those days made a rich man, and $100,000 a very wealthy man.
The business needs required a bank and the Montreal Bank was started in 1817 without a charter. This was secured in 1822. Its story is told elsewhere.
In 1820 John D. Ward built the Eagle foundry on Queen Street and with his brothers, Lebbeus and Samuel, provided engines for many steamboats on the St. Lawrence. The successor of the firm was George Brush. In 1821 Sherman & Co. formed a sculptory business. Its successors were Hyatt & Co., James Mavor and Robert Reid.
The first meeting of the committee of trade on April 23, 1822, indicates another link in the chain of progress of mercantile solidarity. This was to become the parent of the present Board of Trade.
The earliest boot and shoe factory was established on St. Paul Street in 1824 by Alexander Bell, the founder of the J.T. Bell Company of today. Among the first important industries of Montreal also must be mentioned the hemp factory, established in 1825 and owned by Mr. J.A. Converse. The Mussen grocery firm opened in the spring of 1827 with a store in Mrs. Ousteroute’s building on the south side of St. Paul Street facing Vaudreuil Lane. In 1837 his third location at the corner of Notre Dame and St. Gabriel streets marks a historic move and one thought daring. Hitherto trade had centered on St. Paul and Commissioners streets, between Custom House Square and Bonsecours Street, while Notre Dame, Little and Great St. James, Craig and intersecting streets were the residential part of the city. His example was successful and Notre Dame Street then became the principal retail street of the time. Birks’ famous chemist’s store was opened by Dr. F. Fraser in 1828, to be succeeded by R.W. Rexford and by Mr. R. Birks in 1846. His famous store was first near the old Albion Hotel from which the stage coaches started, and afterwards at the corner of Recollet and McGill streets, and has only recently been demolished to make room for the McGill building. In 1829 the wholesale dry goods importing firm of J.G. McKenzie & Co. was founded, though a legitimate successor of one of the business ventures of Horatio Gates, a merchant of great renown, and one of the incorporators of the Bank of Montreal. This year also saw the birth of Morton Phillips & Co., a firm of stationers.