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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1947-10-30, Page 6ee Six CUkV1 061 NEWS-AE.00RD THURSDAY, QIG,TOBERi, 30,' Bank of Montreal, Canada's First --established Bank, Completes 130 Years ' of Successful ocal Branch Cornpletes Sixty-eight Years in Clinton. 47" Ontario's olides'b banking institution come down from James Croai, a Bri- will be 130 years old next Monday. 'tisk settler who later became a Bank Oldest . iii Canada, as well as in of tMontrealiihareholder for the ex - Ontario, the Bank of 11'Iontreal, al, traordinary.span of 60 years, ;though organized in Quebec, had two "When F began farming in On- branehea in this:province within eight tario," •afa Croii's s'eeolleetions begin, months of its 'foundation — one at '"we had neither mowing nor reaping York and another at Kingstn and nor threshing machines, and the wo- today, the bank has subtaart allfy more men had no sewing machines - ofifices in Ontario than in •any other The postage on a letter from Ontario province in the Doaninion. to Halifax was two shillings three - It was in 1817 that the first regu- pence , • . There was no money in lar stage -coach run began between cinnulation in those days , 13very- Kingston and York. That same his- thing was done by barter , . toric year saw the founding of Ca= Mr. Croil wrote those words re- rnada's first permanent bank —*Rho When the Montreal Bank, as it was B of X, as millions, of Canadians now then known, first opened its doors, call ih. The date was November 3, the population of Canada was just sand ellius nextMonday will mark the about half a million. Trade was ear.. bank's 130th anniversary. ried on prineipally by barter, and to Inall the intervening years, the a leeser extent by tse use of IAlmeri- B of ;Nl has opened for business on can, British, French, Spanish: and every single banking day — an im- Portuguese money. pressive proof of how •closely and con- tnuously the bank's work has bean woven into the vast progress of the At the very outset, the young bank country since colonial days. issued its own bills in small dlenomi- 1 Pioneer Days nations and, later, copper coins. This A good ;account of early times has money, indeed, was the first real , Canada's First Money Canadian currency. The innovation did much to stabilize and speed up com- merce and industry, which had hither- to been subject tothe varying rates of exchange of the several currencies in use. This was ,hut one, aspect of the bank's major eentribntiot to. the Ca- nadian economy. That'. contribution amounted to nothing leas than ending the chaos in which business was transacted and organizing the first domestic financial system of Canada. So well did the bank succeed that this system has since evolved without. ever losing its stability, 110 matter how critical the times or how rapid the country's growth. Thus, through more than a century and a quarter, the Canadian economy has survived two major wars and several minor, ones, as well as ,periodic depreslsions and civil unrest, It has expanded many times since 1817 and has won world recognition for its rare com- bination of dynamic growth and steadiness. Mueh of the nation's economic strength derives from another prin- ciple which the bank introduced in Canada. This was the braneh-banking system. CANADA'S FIRST BANK BUILDING k, ,tge Taken Brom an old hand-eohoured engraving,this winter. 'seen is a view of St. James Street, ''Montreal, as it appeared in 1830, thirteen years• after the Bank 0± Montreal's founding. The building on the right Was the first head office of the bank, which served as headquarters for the B of 84 from 1819 to 1848. This 'was the first building especially eon strutted for banking purposes in Canada. Today a post office stands on this site, while adjacent to it, facing historic Place d'Armes, is situated thebank's present head office building, completed and occupied in 1848. Spreading Branches As the years glassed, bhe hank spread. Rs branches all over Canada, During the early 1840's, it opened reir ONTARIO and the gatM Hove ;Grown Up Together Liminess by barter, travel by stagecoach ... such was dte order of the day when the Bank of Montreal began business in Upper Canada. Within eight months of its .founding in November,, 1817, the II of M—Canada's first -established bank- opened agencies in the garri• son town of kingston and the trading settlement of 1'ork.'1'ypical settlers' of the time -the thousand citizens of 'Kock lived by farthing, lumbering, and trading with the Indians. . Slice that fat•otf day, Ontario has become themost potmlous and highly indus- trialized .Canadian. province .. and the B of M has built up its largest representation here.Soon,the new 16•storey B' of M bailding will be numbered among Toronto's many beautiful edifices ... typkal of the progress On. tadb sad the Bank of Mout- rut have made together. Today, the 8 of M serves the people of this modern - minded province through I89branchesandiacoostant- Iy adding to this number. Y BANH" TO A MiII/ON CANADIANS (1.1: PROVED THEIR FAITH IN CANADA .1.130 Wary' o An exhausted Europe—torn by de- cades of war—was breathing more ==�: easily ... two years before, the Napoleonic Wars had at Last ended at Waterloo. In the New World, the three-year-old Treaty of Ghent had endedan attempted invasion from the south ... and the peoples of North America began a friendship that is the admiration of the world today. TNT() came this scene cae nine men of vision..". nine English and Scottish merchants who realized that, without a solid financial foundation, the colonies could never reach nationhood. Together, they determined a course of action. With their own money and the backing of 209 other pioneering citizens, these nine melt founded the Bank of Montreal, which opened its doors for business on November 3rd, 1817, Never once since then has the Bank failed to open an a business day. 1817 ... Sturdy colonists of British North America --- half a million of them—were scattered over as many square miles. To the west and north lay another two million square miles, unsettled and untouched.. Merchants and traders did their business by barter and with a hodgepodge of foreign currencies, whose changing values spelled chaos. Trade development languished, AT the very outset, the Batik issued its own bills and coins. Here was Canada's first real money. The currency won immediate acceptance ... goods , moved morequickly.,.atid the stability the nine men hoped for came rapidly. The people proudly welcomed this Canadian currency—and, as its circulation spread, so did the reputation of the new bank, Within a year of its founding it became the Government's banker, and its currency ofnci:dly replaced the British money used by the Government up to that time. Bt1T all was not easy. There were hard, trying days ahead—each de- cade had its ups and downs. From 5836 to 1840, Canada experienced a succes- sion of bad harvests, political convul- sions, commercial changes and failures. Rebellion had depreciated the value of property and seriously hindered the im- provement and further settlement of the country. The Bank of Montreal survived only by the most .careful use of its re- sources and the confident loyalty of its depositors. "ECOVERY was rapid dialog the middle years of the century. Then came 1867 ...and a nation was born. But, a trans -continental railway was a condition of Confederation, and now the Canadian Pacific had to be pushed through. To speed the construction, the enterprise was placed in private hands. The work went fast, and the last spike was driven five years earlier than ex. pected. With faith characteristic of its .nine founders, the. Bofel had backed to the limit this great national project. 'JUST two weeks after the Batik tatted, J Canada's first branch bank was founded . • . the B of M's Quebec agency opened -and, thus, the Canadian branch banking system began. The following year saw agencies opened at Kingstoc and York, now Toronto,, and branches spread 'as the years went on, Hailed throughout the world for its strength and flexibility, this system of branch banking—begun 130 years ago—has proved ideal for a country vast in area. and small in population. 190 -the century opened with Ur a new flood of prosperity which lasted for more than a decade. Two more trans -continental railway systems ... a great influx of new settlers abundant crops . thousands of new industries --and then.., World War Il Through the trying times which followed . the inflated days of the 20's and the depressed days of she 30'a—through it second World War in OW time . Canadians worked and fought, and Canada became a world power. —Peace .. , new plans ... new hopes . . . rehabilitation. Life in Canada still takes work, courage and, above all, vision... ~a -*'-'l.- 'the kind of vision which spurred nine men to pioneer the to {' nation's economy 130 years ago, From a corporal's guard in 1817, the staff of the fief M has grown to an army eight thousand strong ... working closely with Canadians and their industries in hundreds of communities from coast to coast. .. supplying the lifebloodof credit to an expanding nation . , •seeking always --through sound counsel and friendly service—to give practical help to the million and a half customers who put their trust in the Bank. What of Tomorrow. e ?just as history foreshadows the future, so the record of Canada and of her first -established bank working together gives promise of bright ton morrows for the nation. "The twentieth century belongs to Canada"... and for that future> we pledge ourselves anew to work constructively with Canadians in every walk of life. SANI . OF MONTREAL Canada's First -established Bank aOus4W.SI�11�ii lex,C.M.G.,Preridext B.C,Gmaralau„Vice President and GeNerolMaf i/' branches at Bytown, now Ottawa, at St. Thoanas, Belleville, St. Catharines, Brockville, ivalnilton and London. In the opening of the West which the B' of 114 facilitated by placing its resources behind Canadh'e first trans- eosetinental railway, the Canadian Pa- cific, its branches went hand in hand with the pioneers and were estab- lished at key points from mast to coast at an early date. The , bank ,contributed vitally . to many phases of home -front activity in both world wars. In peace as well as war, the strength, swift progress and high standard of living of the young country can be attributed in a unique degree to the policies of its oldest bank. And the B of 34 has grown with the country. The bank began with a capital of $250,000 and a :staff of seven. At the .present time its capital and re- serves amount to $78,000,000. Its re- sources are close to the rtwo-billion mark, and its staff numbers more thaai 8,000. la has aver 500 branches, including offices in Newfoundland, New York, London, Chicago and San Francisco. Its depositors number more than 1,500,000'about one out of ev- ery five bank depositors in the na- tion. Thus, the bank that nine colonial merchants started in such a modest way 130 years ago, has become, in- deed an integral part of the life of the nation. LOCAL BRANCH HAS LONG HISTORY In less than two years from new the local office of the Bank of Mont- real will be celebrating its 7011 an - W. Ii. ROBINSON Clinton Manager niversary. Established on August 1, 1879, as a blanch of the Molsons Bank, the business operated by that bank was many years ago taken over by the B of M. This branch, which in 70 years has seen many changes take place in 'Clinton, has consistently aided in .maintaining and promoting the business interests of the town. An example of this interest was the purchase last year by the Bann of Montreal of snore than 40 per cent of Clinton's sewage debenture issue. Originally situated ht the two- storey brick building later taken over by the Jackson Manufaeburing Co., the bank's office was, ine1904,'moved to its+ present site. These premises, on the corner of Albert and Ontario streets, have on several occasions been remodelled in order to meet the needs of the public more adequately. Manager here for the last five years, William H•. Robinson, like his predecessors, has taken an active in- terest in all local activities. Harold M. Monteith, whom .he succeeded is naw in charge of the bank's Sault Ste. Marie office, Operation GEORGE W. SPINNEY, C.M.G. President of She Bank of Montreal fore the .feast five years of the bank's 130. year history. A member of the staff since 1906, he joined the bank as a junior at his native town of Yar- mouth, N.S. Me. Spinney served at a number of posts in the bank before - his appointment as 'assistant to the general' manager in 1922. In 1928, he was appointed an assistant general manager and eight years later he beeaine general manager. During the - war, Me. ,Spinney was chairman of the First Victory Loan Campaign anti; for two years he was Charman of the National War Finance Committee. • B. C. GARDNER Vice president and general manager of the Bank of Montreal, -who is also president` of the Canadian Banners' Association and. a vice-president of the American Bankers' Association. Mr..' Gardner, whose wide experience banking includes service in England,. (the:United States and Newfoundlande as well as in eastern and western Ca- nada, became an assistant general manager of the bank hi 1935,4n 1942, he •assumed :the ditties of general' manager of the organization and two. years Inter became a director and. vice-president, CANADA'S FIRST BANK MANAGER' taken from an old silhouette, Hie re, production above is of Robert Griffin,, the Bank of Montreal's first maiden. 'Gr. Griffin, whose position was sane ilar to that of a ;present-day bank. manager, served with the B of RI front 1817 to 1827 • SEAFORTH LIONS FROLIC PALACE RINK, SEAFORTH Friday, Oct. 31 at 8 p.m. Half entire net proceeds to be donated to Scott Memorial Hospital; Remainder for bions Club Welfare Work PARADE Will leave Main and Goderich Streets at 7.45 p.m. School Children in costume headed by Seaforth Highlanders' Bend • and Bannockburn Pipe Band SPECIAL PRIZES FOR COSTUMES AND DECORATED BICYCLE Full Program of children's Hallowe'en events at the rink .ttrtwttt1111t, BIG GAMES Two Big Fowl Booths Over and Under Ring the Money Bingo Bird Cage Entertainment Continuous Entertainment throughout the evening at the (Rink Outstanding Program by Programme by McGregor Concert Bureau Adults 25c ADMISSION TO BINK: Children under 15, FREE Drawing for 8 Big Prizes Tickets — 15c or 2 for 25c, and 10c or 3 for 25e These ratites sanctioned by Munticicality in which they will take plate DRAWING TO BE HELD AT THE RINK AT 11.30 P.M. DANCING To a well-Isnovvn Orchestra flum Sarnia CARDNO'S HALL - - ADMISSION Sec TWO DIG DOOR PRIZES l MAKE A NIGHT OP IT! Seaforth is Hallowe'en Headquar