The Excelsior Coal Mining Company (ECMC) was incorporated via Letters Patent on 19 March 1909. Its founding partners were furrier John Samuel Douglas, Anna Douglas (wife of J. S. Douglas), real estate agent Albert W. Wooldridge, merchant Fred Ashford, plasterer James Malcolm, and Daniel Willis McKerchar, with J. S. Douglas (1909-1917), Wooldridge (1909-1917), McKerchar (1909-1917), and Phillipe A. Talbot (1909-1920, Secretary-Treasurer) serving as initial directors. The firm established a headquarters in Winnipeg and held an initial capital stock of $300,000. Some other directors included G. R. Gray (1909), Alexander McDonald (1910-1911), Albert J. Brenton (1911, 1916-1917), William Smith (1910), and P. [K.?] Dickson (1916-1917). As of 1909, the ECMC boasted 320 acres of property near Pinto, Saskatchewan on which they were to begin coal extraction.
The firm was heavily affected by the shortage of labour during the First World War and, by August 1914, was ordered into liquidation under the Winding Up Act by the Court of King’s Bench at Winnipeg. Talbot, the company’s Secretary-Treasurer, served as its Liquidator. In May 1917, a group comprised of J. S. Douglas, James Morris Douglas, A. B. Wooldridge, and Montague D. Harbard sought to gain a four-year lease of the ECMC mine and assets, with the aim to restore its operation and pay the in-liquidation firm a royalty on all mined coal. While the plan appears to have not been approved, it was not the last effort to restore the operation. The ECMC would eventually cease to exist after its Letters Patent were revoked on 1 June 1920.
While the ECMC was undergoing liquidation, the Excelsion Coal Company (ECC) Limited was organized on 21 July 1918. Its partnership was comprised of farmer Joseph Hamelin, farmer William H. Sharpe, Phillipe A. Talbot (again as Secretary-Treasurer, 1918-1923), John Thomas Haig, and Aime Benard. The firm was not immediately granted its charter, partially on account of the similarity in name between the ECMC and ECC. In late August, and again in early September, Talbot (as Liquidator of the former) wrote a letter to the Companies Office granting the latter (of which he was also part of) consent for usage of the Excelsior Coal name. Having eventually cleared this and any other concerns from the Companies Office, the ECCs charter of incorporation was granted under The Companies Act on 10 September 1918. This new company held a capital stock of $500,000. It operated into 1920, when it filed its last annual return with the Companies Office for the calendar year 1919, and sometime thereafter ceased to operate. The ECCs charter was cancelled on 6 March 1923.
“Many incorporations [New Companies],” Winnipeg Tribune, 3 April 1909, page 21.
“Don’t wait, grasp the opporotunity now,” Manitoba Free Press, 2 October 1909, page 6.
“Male help [Miscellaneous - (continued) Wanted coal miners],” Manitoba Free Press, 22 November 1910, page 17.
“Notice,” Manitoba Free Press, 20 April 1915, page 3.
“In the King’s Bench,” Winnipeg Tribune, 12 May 1917, page 4.
Companies Office corporation documents (CCA 0059), 50E - Excelsior Coal Mining Company Limited, GR6427, Archives of Manitoba.
Companies Office corporation documents (CCA 0059), 152E - Excelsior Coal Company Limited, GR6427, Archives of Manitoba.
Henderson’s Winnipeg and Brandon Directories, Peel’s Prairie Provinces, University of Alberta Libraries.
This page was prepared by Nathan Kramer.
Page revised: 26 August 2019
