The postal service, like all other fields of endeavour, has seen many changes over the past 100 years. Mail service came to Lilyfield, Manitoba to serve the people with the opening of the Post Office in 1896. There has never been a clear explanation as to exactly why the official stamp bore an extra “L”. Nevertheless, mail processed at Lilyfield bore the mark “Lillyfield”. The post office originally operated out of the home of Mr. and Mrs. John W. Phipps on the NW 16 l22E.

The mail was brought out to this post office once a week by courier. The first such courier was Billy O’Neal, who served in that capacity for a short period of time. Thomas Riggall, Sr took over the contract from him and carried the mail to and from Winnipeg faithfully for many years.

The contract to take the mail from Lilyfield to Winnipeg and return with mail from there meant making 15 miles each way under often arduous conditions. In the early days the trip was made with horses pulling a buggy or “democrat” in the summer and a sleigh or cutter in the winter months. In the summer he had to contend with poor roads, especially when it rained. In the winter he often had to cope with blizzards and always the cold weather. These sleighs didn’t have heaters like the vehicles of today. It took a hardy individual to withstand the rigours of the job of hauling mail.

Upon the retirement of Mr Riggall, a Mr. Mouchet took over the mail contract. He held the position for a short time, until Mr. Phipps relinquished the Post Office. Mr. Phipps had served as Postmaster for 31 years when he retired in 1927.

Eliza Mullins took over as Postmaster from Mr. Phipps. She operated the Post Office out of her home on the SW 29 12 2E for approximately six months in 1927. In September, 1927 the local post offices were phased out when Rural Route #2 was established. Morris Lynch, who operated the “Ever Ready Transfer”, secured the contract for mail delivery to individual boxes along the route. These deliveries were made three times per week: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. His route followed the old PTH #7 during the 1930’s; it has been enlarged considerably since those days. During this period road maintenance in winter was rather haphazard. Mr. Lynch developed a forerunner of today’s snowmobile from a Model “A” Ford in order to keep mail delivery going.

In 1940 Russell Murphy secured the mail contract for the route. He honoured this contract for the next 27 years and finally relinquished it when he retired in 1967.

During the early 1960’s the people of the community joined together and, through persistence, convinced postal authorities to implement daily mail delivery. At approximately the same time the Rural Route expanded to include group boxes. These group boxes were placed at Gordon and at other appropriate locations along the route to serve people who did not live along the road.

In spite of all the changes over the years, RR #2 still remains in service. One change which has taken place is that previously a mail carrier used to contract for the route, now the contractor may hire people to do the actual delivery. The most recent contractors are Al McCarther, Garth Gustardt and Allan Lockhart.

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A photo taken during Mr. and Mrs. Rudolf Beeskau's Golden Anniversary.

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It may well be argued and noted that much of what remains of Winnipeg high society is from the same wealthy families that made their fortunes in Winnipeg early on – noted and especially the grain ( the Richardson family , The Sellors), the Ashdowns hardware empire.

The reporting at the time of the social activities that ranked high in the community might be well to be said to be similar to the social pages that one sees in the New York Times .  As an example “Town Topics”  (not yet city)  ,  what might be called the write of passage at the time of a young woman’s dance given by Mr. and Mrs. John galt in honor of the “debut “  of her two daughters.    These were Maryon and Evelyn Galt.    The article went on to report that ” The spacious rooms of this lovely home were beautifully decorated  with American Beauty and Kilarney  roses along with shaggy yellow chrysanthemums being used in the dining room areas.  Dancing was carried on in the drawing room and hall , the orchestra playing in the corner of the latter room.  Mr and Mrs. Galt with their two most charming and pretty maidens  received their guests at the drawing room entrance>”

The positive influences of these families remains to this very day.  Some families have disappeared from the scene so to speak as having no male descendants.  Still their positive effects and fortunes soldier on.

As the most major and well known example – the Richardsons are the most well known and visible of this group.

The founder was James Richardson who was a tailor in Kingston Ontario. He had come to Kingston from Ireland in 1823 with his father, after his mother’s death. The story goes that many of Richardson’s customers were farmers who had more produce than cash, and Richardson would often take grains and other commodities as payment for the work he did. And he found he could resell these commodities for more than their original cash value by waiting for the right time to sell.

In 1857 he decided to devote all his time to the business of buying and selling grain, and with his two sons, James and Henry, he set up the firm James Richardson and Sons. They built their first elevator in Kingston in 1882. In 1883 they shipped the west’s first grain to Liverpool and later in 1890 they set up the first prairie elevator in Neepawa, home of their first Winnipeg grain representative Edward O’Reilly.

The company’s founder never visited Winnipeg. Son George visited Winnipeg in the 1890s. It was James A Richardson, the founder’s grandson that made Winnipeg his home since 1912. He is described as having had a true western heart by writer John Anderson. They formed Pioneer Grain and had 250 elevators across western Canada by the 1930s. As the fortunes of the prairies boomed so did the Richardson’s grain interests.

Alan Artibise writes in his history of Winnipeg that James A Richardson more than anyone contributed to the recovery of Winnipeg after WW1. “He saw the Prairie West as a complex place, not just a breadbasket. And he saw the businessman’s role as a creative one that involved not only making money but also promoting a balanced development of the wealth of the country.”

It was in the 1920s and 1930s that the firm saw most of its expansion and diversification into other industries. In the 1920 they also got into investment securities joining Montreal Stock Exchange in 1926 and buying a Wall Street firm’s Winnipeg office in 1927. In 1982 they bought Greenshields a Montreal company that had been established in 1910.

By 1923 Canada had become the world’s largest wheat exporting nation and James Richardson and Sons was Canada’s leading exporter. The firm’s executive office was transferred from Kingston to Winnipeg in 1923 and head office in 1939.

THEY PIONEERED IN AVIATION AND BROADCASTING

Starting in the 1920s they set up Canada’s largest air transportation companies like Western Canada Airways and Canadian Airways. The later was sold to CP in 1941. They started with a small radio station in Moose Jaw which they used to broadcast grain and stock prices. In 1940 they got out of radio.

Muriel Richardson ran the company for 27 years after her husband died suddenly in 1939. She introduced a pension plan. The investment area was expanded in the 1940s. She promoted talented employees to executive levels. After Muriel retired in 1966 James took over for two years till he was elected to Parliament, at which time George T Richardson took over and remains president today.

OTHER BUSINESSES

Grain related fields like feeds, fertilizer, stock farms. But they are also into business forms, commercial and domestic heating fuels and pipelines. And of course they are into real estate with the Lombard Place project which they built starting in 1966.

It is said that the Richardson building which was Winnipeg’s first modern skyscraper was more than forty years in coming to fruition. It had been planed as an 8 storey art deco building complete with clock, but the 1929 crash and depression prevented its construction. It took another 35 years to be built and by then it had become at 32 stories the tallest building west of Toronto. Its construction signalled Winnipeg’s emergence from almost 50 years of modest growth since the hey day that had ended during WW1.

PHILANTHROPY

The Richardsons are well known for their philanthropy. But they are so modest many people do not know the great extent to which they support Winnipeg cultural and artistic life.

They have always been known for innovation. And for success. And for hiring high performing people. Bill Rait is credited with the company’s grain success during the 1930s. Today they employ 3,000 people and have combined assets of about $4.7 billion.

Famous People of  Manitoba

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