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-?)

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

Sold to Manitoba Pool (1948)

High Bluff

CPR

?

?

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

CPR

?

49,000

Sold to Manitoba Pool (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

 

Sources:

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

“Province and Reliance - The Smith and Murphy Companies,” Chapter 12 in Grain: The Entrepreneurs by Charles W. Anderson, Winnipeg: Watson & Dwyer Publishing, 1991.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 25 October 2021