Manitoba Business: Province Elevator Company / Reliance Grain Company

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Presidents | Vice-Presidents | Country Elevators | Sources

Originally a subsidiary of the Peavey Company of Minneapolis, Minnesota, its origins in Manitoba date to 1903 when Gabriel B. Murphy established the grain-handling firm of G. B. Murphy & Company. After acquiring several smaller grain-buying operations, the company was renamed the Province Elevator Company Limited. By 1922 this company owned 48 country elevators.

In 1923, it purchased the Reliance Grain Company, a subsidiary of Peavey Company of Minneapolis, and later the Matheson Lindsay Grain Company (1928) and North Star Grain Company (1939). The Reliance Grain Company eventually owned 254 elevators, two of which form part of the Inglis row of elevators. In 1948, elevators of the Reliance line in Manitoba were sold to various grain companies, including the Manitoba Pool Elevators, Pioneer Grain Company, and United Grain Growers.

Presidents

Period	President
1923-1947	Sidney Thomas Smith (1878-1947)
1947	William Arthur Murphy (1884-1968)

Vice-Presidents

Period	Vice-President
1912-?	Loy M. Pugh (1879-?)

General Managers

Period	General Manager
1920-1962	Clarence Gabriel Murphy (1888-1972)

Country Elevators (Manitoba)

Location	Rail	Opened	1936 Capacity (bushels)	Comments
Basswood	CPR	1933	30,000	Bought from Forsythe Grain (1933), sold to Manitoba Pool (1948)
Bryd	CPR	1925	25,000
Carberry	CPR	1938	22,000	Sold to Manitoba Pool (1948), re-sold to UGG (1948)
Cracknell	CPR	1936	23,000	Sold to Manitoba Pool (1948)
Cranmer	CPR	1939	28,000	Sold to UGG (1948)
Curtis	CNR	1938	30,000	Bought from Forsythe Elevator (1946), sold to Manitoba Pool (1948)
Forrest	CPR	1928	15,000
Glossop	CPR	?	28,000	Bought from Forsythe Elevator (1933), sold to Manitoba Pool (1948)
High Bluff	CPR	?	?	Bought from Forsythe Elevator (1945), sold to Manitoba Pool (1948)
Inglis	CPR	?	19,000	Sold to Manitoba Pool (1948)
Ipswich	CPR	1925	25,000
Kelloe	CPR	1925	25,000
Kirkella	CPR	1928	30,000	New elevator (1922), acquired from Matheson Lindsay Company (1928), sold to Canadian Consolidated Grain (?)
Liege	CNR	1928	30,000	New elevator (1927), acquired from Matheson Lindsay Company (1928), sold to UGG (1932)
Longburn	CNR	?	30,000	Sold to Manitoba Pool (1948)
Macdonald	CPR	?	45,000	Sold to Manitoba Pool (1948)
Newdale	CPR	?	25,000	Sold to Manitoba Pool (1948)
Oakland	CNR	?	30,000	Sold to Manitoba Pool (1948)
Poplar Point 1	CPR	?	49,000	Bought from Forsythe Elevator (1935), sold to Manitoba Pool (1948)
Poplar Point 2	CPR	?	?	Bought from Forsythe Elevator (1935), closed (1948)
Portage la Prairie	CPR	?	?	Sold to Manitoba Pool (1948)
Ste. Anne	CNR	1928	10,000
Sidney	CPR	?	?	Sold to Manitoba Pool (1948)
Shoal Lake	CPR	1925	25,000
Smith Spur	CNR	?	?	Bought from North Star (1939), sold to Manitoba Pool (1948)
Strathclair	CPR	?	28,500	Sold to Manitoba Pool (1948)
Varcoe	CPR	1928	10,000

See also:

Manitoba Business: Alliance Grain Company

Sources:

“$3,750,000 grain elevator sale reported,” Winnipeg Tribune, 31 January 1948, page 1.

Grain: The Entrepreneurs by Charles W. Anderson, Winnipeg: Watson & Dwyer, 1991.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 9 April 2024