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Ralph Martin Erwin
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Restauranteur.
Born at Burwell, Nebraska on 2 September 1902, only child of Charles H. Erwin (1869-1937) and Inez Elora Sidener (1867-1959), in the 1920s he managed the Western Canadian circuit of a theatrical company from Chautauqua, New York until it folded with the advent of vaudeville.
He lived at New York City until 1931 when he moved to Winnipeg where, with a $400 loan from a relative, he opened a restaurant on Fort Street, naming it Salisbury House, where he served a new American invention, hamburgers. Believing the term inelegant, Erwin named his creations “nips”.
Salisbury House became a Winnipeg institution and Erwin eventually opened outlets around the city and in Brandon, Flin Flon, Kenora (Ontario), Moose Jaw (Saskatchewan), Calgary (Alberta), and Minneapolis (Minnesota). He opened what is believed to be Winnipeg’s first drive-in restaurant, at 1860 Ellice Avenue, in 1954. He sold his majority interest in the company to a group of investors in 1979 and retired to Toronto, Ontario.
On 9 May 1926, he married Helen Jacobs (?-?) at Harlan, Iowa and they later had two children: Phyllis J. “Pook” Erwin (1934-2024, wife of Donald Ketcheson) and Stewart Erwin. From 1940 to 1947, the family lived at 115 Linden Avenue in East Kildonan and they had a cottage at Clearwater Bay on Lake of the Woods. He received a City of Winnipeg Community Service Award (1971). A biography was published as The Erwin Story in 1982.
He died at Toronto, Ontario on 5 June 1983.
See also:
Manitoba Business: Salisbury House
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 7 June 1983, page 38.
“Salisbury House started with $130,” Winnipeg Free Press, 10 July 1991, page 20.
The Erwin Story by Patrick Donohue, compiled by Phyllis Erwin Ketchesen, edited by David M. Ferguson, Toronto, 1982.
Obituary [Phyllis Ketcheson], Arbor Memorial.
Memories of Clearwater Bay, ISSUU.
Charles H Erwin, FindAGrave.
We thank Phyllis Ketcheson for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 13 July 2025
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