Fred Payton
Prince Albert Historical Society
Most local and area residents will have heard about the La Colle Falls debacle and the devastating role which it played by retarding the development of the City of Prince Albert. When the City should have been establishing a solid base for growth, budgets were so tight (and tightly controlled) that the City could barely meet the costs of providing the most basic services.
La Colle Falls was not, however, the only project which Prince Albertans expected would lead to jobs, growth, and wealth. The energy created by the La Colle Falls dam was expected to lead to industrial development, which in turn would require development of improved rail transportation, and generally turn Prince Albert into a desirable location in which to live and in which to invest.
Discussions between the City and the individual representing a new company occurred. Prince Albert and area was seen as being able to provide an abundant source of wood, as well as the water and power required for a huge industrial complex. The representative of the company advised he was able to access machinery for a complex at one-quarter of its value, as well as a patent for a superior quality paint, and another patent for the manufacture of toothpicks.
At a meeting of the City Council held on Aug. 20, 1912, Alderman A. E. Matheson introduced a motion that the City of Prince Albert be authorized to guarantee certain securities including the payment of principal and interest of the bond debenture (or other securities) not to exceed $125,000 of a soon to be incorporated company to be known as The Great West Iron, Wood and Chemical Works Limited. At the time, $125,000 would be worth over $4,250,000 today.
(It should be noted that A.E. Matheson, who owned and operated a men’s clothing store, had no relationship with F.A. “Fred” Matheson, who would in 1929 open a menswear store, also afterwards becoming an alderman for the city. A.E. Matheson moved from Prince Albert by the end of World War I and lived thereafter in California.)
Matheson’s motion received both first and second reading at the Aug. 20 meeting, before being approved by a vote of the burgesses on Sept. 14, with 364 voting in favour and 13 voting against. Having met the approval of the burgesses, the third and final reading of the motion was passed by the City Council on Sept. 17. The by-law was then signed by Mayor N. W. Morton and the City Clerk, C.O. Davidson.
Having received the support of Prince Albert’s city council, the men who were the owners of The Great West Iron, Wood and Chemical Works sought incorporation for their company. This they received on Oct. 1. The ownership group consisted of two men from Halifax, Nova Scotia, one a King’s Counsel and the other the Imperial German Consul; two men from Toronto, a railway official and a King’s Counsel, as well as the prime mover, Felix Frank. Frank was a German citizen who had previously been employed by the Dominion Iron and Steel Company in Sidney, Nova Scotia.
The basic agreement between the City and the Company included the Company establishing a manufacturing plant consisting of a foundry, a paint mill, and two wood working plants, the first a general plant and the second a specialist plant. The City of Prince Albert, besides guaranteeing the Company’s $125,000 loans would provide fifteen acres of land suitable for an industrial site.
Although agreement was reached for the construction of the new Company’s buildings, Council still faced some obstacles. Other developers felt that they deserved the same treatment as the new company. And the land which was provided to them sat on land which had been given the City by the federal government for use as recreational parkland.
Frank Oliver, the Minister of the Interior was not pleased to have such land converted to industrial usage. When the Company asked for even more land be rezoned for industrial use, Oliver ensured that the zoning designation was such that it could not eventually be used for domestic housing. He did not want people to be able to profit by the rezoning.
Eventually the Company began to build on the original fifteen acres. The iron foundry had sufficient floor space to allow for fourteen tons of iron per melt, with two melts per day. This would allow for the cold casting of 84 iron stoves and ranges, or 168 units each day. The equipment was also capable of casting all kinds of soil pipes or other types of casting.
The general woodworking plant had a main building of 100 x 56.6 feet, with a dry house of 46 x 31 feet. Two machines were installed to run through 40,000 feet of lumber per day. All classes of woodwork, doors, sashes, window frames could be built.
The paint factory had the capability of producing 125 gallons per day and, with an addition to the building, could be brought up to 250 to 300 gallons per day. There was also capacity in the building to fit the machinery to produce their own tin cans.
The specialty woodworking plant covered two acres with the main building, a power house, and a warehouse. It contained complete toothpick machines, with both Canadian and American patents. It was adaptable for manufacturing children’s sleds, carts, showcases, and any other article made of wood.
A total of seven factory buildings and eight workers’ cottages were built. But even before they were completed, Felix Frank had grandiose plans for expansion. He felt that if the site could be expanded to 60 acres, they would be able to manufacture railway box cars, veneered pullman cars, and car wheels. The woodworking plant could produce 1,000 windows, six prefabricated houses, a carload of toothpicks, and a thousand gallons of paint daily.
The Great West Iron, Wood and Chemical Works had barely gotten into full production when, suddenly, it went into bankruptcy, apparently as a result of high freight rates and the collapse of the boom market brought upon at the beginning of World War I. The City, having just weeks before put some bonds on the market, was unable to recall them.
The equipment and most of the buildings were sold, and Prince Albert was left with one more debt to repay. All the money the shareholders had put into the Company was lost, with two of them being left virtually penniless. The man who had been the driver behind the business, Felix Frank, managed to return to his native Germany just before the outbreak of the War.
At least some, if not all, of the eight workers’ houses were sledded across the winter ice of the North Saskatchewan River to new locations in Prince Albert. At least four of them were relocated in Midtown, two on Ninth Street East, one on 11th Street, and one on 12th Street. While originally identical, changes have been made to them and they can only be identified by their one distinguishable “cottage” roofs.
The only remaining manufactory building which was utilised after the bankruptcy of The Great West Iron, Wood and Chemical Works was the four-storey paint shop, but not for many years. Eventually, that building was converted into a box factory which was operated by John Mitchell. Today, the site sits virtually vacant, with only the skeletal remains of the Pines Drive-in occupying it.
fgpayton@sasktel.net
