EAST SIDE OF MAIN STREET, RUSSELL, MB
Large centre building is Smellie Bros., 1910 or 1911.

In 1897 Mr. A. G. P. Smellie, together with his brother Dr. T. S. T. Smellie bought the interests of Mr. John Brown and formed the firm of Smellie Bros. & Co. Dr. Smellie was never an active partner in the organization but valiantly stayed behind it during the years it struggled for existence. There were years of early frosts, when the wheat was frozen and left the farmers without money to pay their accounts. For instance, the following quote is from a letter written to one of the wholesalers on Aug. 25th, 1891:

" We wired you on Saturday to hold our order. The reason we did so was because we had a frost on Friday night and we are afraid the wheat has been damaged but to what extent we can not say yet."

Credit was also one of the big difficulties in getting a new business on a good financial basis. The farmers generally only paid their accounts once a year and sometimes, owing to crop failure, some had to be carried for a second year. Thanks to the fact that, in those days both the banks and the wholesalers were easier in their collections than they are today, many businesses survived that otherwise would have gone bankrupt. This, of course, did not relieve the worry of the merchant whose debts were much greater than his cash income. However, in the better years many back accounts were paid and thus the merchants were able to better their positions with the banker and the wholesaler provided that he himself had not spent too much during the lean years.

A gentleman by the name of R. Scott was operating in a fairly large way at Shoal Lake, Manitoba. He ran a creamery, a hardware store and a general store. In 1904 Smellie Bros. & Co. bought him out, lock-stock-and-barrel, even took over his house. Now, they had general stores at Russell, Binscarth and Shoal Lake. Some of the Old Timers may remember that 1907 was one of the lean years, and that fall, those with an investment in Smellie Bros. & Co. walked the floor at nights wondering what they might do to keep afloat. Having expanded to such an extent that their capital was all tied up and there was little money coming in, also their creditors were beginning to worry them more than usual. The writer of this article does not know what kind of a miracle or what business deal saved the situation, but Smellie Bros. & Co. were still in business when better times followed. There have been many lean times since but good business methods eventually got them to the place where they were ahead in the game enough to stand at least one bad year.

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