Memorable Manitobans: George Reading Crowe (1852-1924)

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George Reading Crowe
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Grain merchant.

Born at Truro, Nova Scotia on 22 October 1852, son of James Crowe and Harriet N. Archibald, he was educated at public schools. He commenced a career as an accountant in Nova Scotia. He came to Winnipeg in 1879. He was President of the Northern Elevator Company, Traders’ Building Association, and Northwest Fire Insurance Company; Vice-President of the Northern Trusts Company; and a director of the Royal Bank of Canada, Great-West Life Assurance Company, Canadian Fire Insurance Company, Northern Mortgage Company, Inland Lines Limited, St. Lawrence and Chicago Steam Navigation Company, and Royal Crown Soaps Limited. In 1911, he was affiliated with the British Empire Grain Company, Grain Exchange, Winnipeg.

In 1875, he married Elizabeth Mary Alexander of Truro, Nova Scotia and they had three children: Hattie May Crowe (c1877-1967, wife of C. M. Scott), Annie Maude Crowe (1887-1976, wife of William Henry Puddicombe Collum, son of Simon James Collum), and James A. Crowe. He served on the Winnipeg City Council in 1885 and again in 1912 and 1916. He was a member of the Manitoba Club and a founding member of the St. Charles Country Club, in 1905. He served as President of the Winnipeg Grain Exchange (1895), Winnipeg Board of Trade (1903), and Canadian Club of Winnipeg (1906-1907).

He died at his Winnipeg residence, 89 East Gate, on 7 September 1924 and was buried in the Elmwood Cemetery.

See also:

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Crowe House (89 East Gate, Winnipeg)

Sources:

Who’s Who in Western Canada: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Men and Women of Western Canada, Volume 1, edited by C. W. Parker, Vancouver: Canadian Press Association, 1911.

A History of Manitoba: Its Resources and People by Prof. George Bryce, Toronto: The Canadian History Company, 1906.

The Story of Manitoba by F. H. Schofield, Winnipeg: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1913.

The Leading Financial, Business & Professional Men of Winnipeg, published by Edwin McCormick, Photographs by T. J. Leatherdale, Compiled and printed by Stone Limited, c1913. [copy available at the Archives of Manitoba]

“George R. Crowe dies after long illness,” Manitoba Free Press, 8 September 1924. [Manitoba Legislative Library, Biographical Scrapbook B8]

Obituary [Hattie May Scott], Winnipeg Free Press, 1 November 1967, page 40.

Obituary [Annie Maude Collum], Winnipeg Free Press, 14 October 1976, page 55.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 1 March 2020

Memorable Manitobans

Memorable Manitobans

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