General Stores of Canada: Merchants and Memories

Richard Wilbur is author of The Rise of French New Brunswick and H.H.
Stevens, 1878–1973, and co-author of Silver Harvest: The Fundy
Weirmen’s Story. His latest book is Horse-Drawn Carriages and Sleighs:
Elegant Vehicles from New England and New Bruns

Any professional historian researching Canada’s social and economic
history would be well advised to study this gem, which provides
invaluable insights into one of the economic mainstays of the era before
giant chain and box stores. Indeed, judging by the careful and broad
research (11 pages of endnotes) and agreeable writing style, author
Fleming shows himself well qualified to do such a broader study himself.
He begins with an apology: “This book is very personal. I cannot help
it. I grew up in a general store.” No apologies are necessary. Fleming
uses his parents’ store in Argyle, Ontario, as his starting point, but
he quickly spreads his canvass to examine a wide range of general stores
that flourished in every Canadian town and city in the 19th and early
20th centuries.

The abundance of excellent and sharp photos gleaned from national and
local archives and individual collections speaks volumes. For example,
page 95 features the tin ceilings of a store in Gimli, Manitoba; turn
the page and there’s a two-page spread of the New Waterford
Cooperative Society Department Store in 1943. Many shots are so clear
you can read the labels of the cans on neatly packed shelves. In Chapter
4, “Storekeepers in Their Communities,” we learn that most store
owners, like the author’s own parents and grandfather, did far more
than sell groceries. They were advisers, librarians, and bankers (eggs
were a common barter item). A New Brunswick store owner allowed the
volunteer fire department to use his store as a drill hall. For others,
like Samuel Bronfman and K.C. Irving, the family store was a springboard
to far bigger ventures.

History teachers should put this book high on their must-read list;
their students would love it, too.