Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 3225
Really old Brandon History
11/19/2009 at 8:49 AM
James Sherriff (1851 - ?) Brandon Implement Dealer
He was born in Huntingdon, Quebec on 19th November 1851. His father was a Physician who practiced for 65 years, Dr. Francis W. Sherriff: he died at age 85. When young he was educated at Public School, and Huntington Academy. After School he Apprenticed in the agricultural woodworking Trade, and then worked as a Journeyman.
In 1874 he arrived in Manitoba, but after staying for a year he returned back to Quebec to find employment as manager for Messrs Boyd and Company of Huntington. He worked at this job for one year, and in 1880 he resigned, and returned to Manitoba. At first he worked as an agricultural implement sales person travelling between Grand Forks North Dakota, Emerson, and Brandon a position he held for three years.
In 1886 he became the Brandon representative for the Cochran Manufacturing Company of St. Thomas, Ontario. Leaving this company he founded the Brandon Machine Works, which he operated for eleven years. He then became Agent for the North West Thresher Company, the Stillwater Mining Company, the Bell Engine Company of Seaforth, Ontario, and other Companies.
In 1883 he married Ms. Selina Henderson of Huntingdon, Quebec, but after her sudden death he married Ms. Harriet B. Hossie in 1892. This marriage produced a daughter, Helen E. Sherriff.
He was a member of the Woodmen of the World, and served as a Trustee on the Brandon School Board for four years, member of the Liberal Party, the Presbyterian Church, President of the Lords Day Alliance, and President of the Sunday School Association.
Source: History of Manitoba by George Bryce, (1906)