Business beginnings found with historical families
T CARRIE KELLY
here's a strong sense of history in Medicine Hat that continues to build generation after generation.
The list of the men and women who've helped shape the economy of Medicine Hat goes back almost 150 years.
It was a time of no income tax and no
government regulations and also a depression, said Bruce Shepard, curator at the Esplanade Museum.
Back in the 1870s to 1890s when Medicine Hat was coming to life, it was the period of the Long Depression, but there were entrepreneurs who were able to make their mark despite the hardships.
One of the area's very first entrepreneurs was James Sanderson, whose father was from Scotland and mother was of European and Native ancestry.
"He and his brother were prisoners of Louis Riel." Shepard said.
His ranch was located at Police Point and he had a livery stable that supplied hay to the Mounted Police and ice to the CPR. He collected cartloads of bleached bison bones and sent them to Chicago to be ground for fertilizer.
"He married and raised a family here," said Shepard. "He was one of the first that stayed. His descendants are still in Medicine Hat."
There are many original families that helped create Medicine Hat who still have representation here, including the Sissons and Yuill families.
16 "They rode out the ups and down," he said.
Wright's Jewelry, established in 1898, is Medicine Hat's oldest family business. It was started by A.M. Wright and then taken over by his son Bert. Today, the business is owned and operated by Todd Wright, the fifth generation of the family. Originally from Ontario, the Wright family worked its way west, finally settling in Medicine Hat.
"The family came out with the railroad. They were watchmakers and the railroad needed watch repairmen," Todd Wright said.
The Canadian Pacific Railway was built through Medicine Hat to Calgary and Banff in 1882 and 1883, creating a significant number of jobs in the city and creating a need for businesses to support the growing population.
While a substantial number of businesses fail after two generations, Wright's Jewelry is a rare exception.
"We have stayed really service oriented and we have generations of customers and really cherish that," he said. "The elder statesmen of the Wright family would be very proud. It has beaten the odds."
From the Great Depression in the early 1930s to the economic downturns of the 1980s and today, Wright's has continued to contribute to the Medicine Hat economy.
"You have to be flexible and evolve with the economy and with the trends. We've gone through highs and lows," Wright said.
Another extraordinary business that can claim more than a century of existence and multiple generations of the same family at the helm is I-XL Industries. Just as the
Wrights came west with the advent of the railroad, so did James Hargrave. As railway construction went through the area, the fur trader set up a trading tent at Medicine Hat. He eventually partnered with Herb Sissons to start a brick company and Herb later married Hargrave's daughter. After James Hargrave and Herb Sissons had both passed away, Sissons' sons (Hargrave's grandsons) took over the operations of I-XL Masonry. Today, the fourth generation runs the company.
Part of what helped make Medicine Hat businesses successful from the start is the city's location. Even those who don't have a Medicine Hat postal code rely on the city's businesses to have their wants and needs met.
"We're relatively isolated," said Shepard. "We are the city for a fairly large area that extends to Swift Current and Brooks and halfway to Lethbridge."
There are many diverse and interesting businesses in the city and 700 of them area represented by the Medicine Hat and District Chamber. The Chamber was founded on May 28, 1900 under the Boards of Trade Act by a group of business people that included bankers, barristers, merchants, contractors, physicians, lumber dealer and a butcher. The signatures on the original Board of Trade document include F.O. (Frank) Sissons, a rancher and H.C. (Henry Clinton) Yuill, who listed his profession as hotelkeeper.
Yuill was also one founding member of the Cypress Club and provided a loan to finance the building of its facility in the early 1900s. The Cypress Club was instrumental in helping save Medicine Hat's name when there were proposals to change it.
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