If you have any T.J. Reed information please go to contact us and follow the instructions provided.
Below are photographs pertaining to the Reed family graciously donated from the Cranston family photo albums.
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James "Jim" Finlay McDermid was born on March 9, 1902 as the youngest of 10 children born to the late Duncan and Mary (Clinton) McDermid on a farm located on the Sand Road (which is presently the David McDermid farm) in Carnarvon Township.
His schooling education was held at the S.S. No. 2 Schoolhouse and James only went as far as grade eight.
Together with his two brothers he worked on his father’s farm until the age of 17. Since he was the youngest and there were only two farms, Jim got left out. “My father came and asked me if I wanted to farm, but I didn’t know,” he says. One afternoon, his father went out to buy Jim a farm, but as luck would have it, it was sold in the forenoon.
“I found it hard to find out what I wanted to do, but I always had it in the back of my mind to own a store. But it’s quite hard to achieve if the pockets are empty.” Mr. McDermid claims.
As a young man, before entering upon his 60-year business career, he quotes "I roamed around a bit doing odd jobs in Toronto, the Soo, and out West on the harvest excursion, but my kind kept drifting back to Manitoulin where I wanted to start a store,” Jim recalls.
His first experience in business after returning to the Island from the West James received a call from the Cushing and Jackman General Store in Mindemoya to be a clerk. It was mostly known as the Jim Cushing Store. This was the break that got Jim started. “Violet Rose asked me to help out in the store.” Cushing was running a farm and Jackman moved to Killarney leaving Rose in need of an assistant. I could thank her for giving me my first start,” Jim admits.
Jim began his career on October 23, 1921 and worked for the Cushing and Jackman business for exactly two years, up until the time the store was closed. Jim then worked for A.J. Wagg for a few months in the handling of turkeys brought by Manitoulin farmers. “My job was to oversee the weighing and the sorting of weights and return those that were too small.”
Then Jim found it difficult to find a job. From there, he went to work for Mr. Joe A. Ward in Tehkummah. Mr. Ward didn’t ever pay Jim the wages he asked for: always more. Jim earned about $50 a month, plus board and lodging.
“I stayed there for seven and a half years and enjoyed every minute of it,” recalls Mr. McDermid.
A memorable day was August 28, 1928 when James Finlay McDermid married Elsie Mae Bailey of Mindemoya.
To this marriage three sons were born: Murray, Blair and Irving.
“She has been a tower of strength to me all through the years together with the three boys,” Mr. McDermid once stated.
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Jim left Tehkummah to go to Providence Bay to sell out the stock Mr. Ward had purchased from the McNichol and Love store, as they were discontinuing business. Jim states: “Then came the pressure from the people of the town and the surrounding community that we operate on a permanent basis, with the privilege of working my way up to the purchase of the business. My decision was the affirmative. I thought we were needed and I made my choice.” At the time, it was one of five stores in the area.
The beginnings of James' own business career began (during the height of the Great Depression) on September 21, 1931 when Mr. James Finlay McDermid and Mr. Joe Ward formed the J.F. McDermid and Company in Providence Bay.
In his association with Joe Ward, James McDermid bought pulpwood and shipped it from Providence Bay, Michaels’ Bay, South Bay and Carter's Bay.
This arrangement lasted until June of 1937 when Jim McDermid he purchased Mr. Ward’s share of the business.
This was merely the beginning of the McDermid family's business career in this community. Jim McDermid thought that success could only be gained by using four-letter words: HARD WORK. It was a philosophy shared by members of his family and his staff alike. The feeling of everyone pulling together is very much in evidence the moment one entered the big general store that bears the McDermid family name. At some time in the 1930’s, Jim also raised foxes and sold the pelts. Mr. McDermid said he owes special thanks to a brother, cousin, Mr. Ward and J.H. Burt, former Mindemoya bank manager, for the royal treatment and assistance he received from them during his early years in business.
April 1943 Recorder
In 1944, Jim McDermid received the ultimate in compliments (as well as what must surely be one of the rarest compliments ever), Jim was asked by each one of the three major political parties, the CCF, the Liberals and the Conservatives, to be the local candidate). He accepted the Liberal candidacy. But in 1945, the Conservatives were on a very powerful upsurge in Ontario, and Mr. McDermid’s party was defeated. He never entered active politics again, having too many irons of his own in the fire.
In the fall of 1947, Mr. T.J. Reed Sr. passed away and his sons decided to sell the store they had inherited. Jim McDermid was approached by the Reed's to purchase the store, which stood next to the present site of Sandy Denovan’s Garage. In 1947 Jim McDermid purchased the Thomas John (T.J.) Reed Store with the thought in mind of expanding into furniture. The T.J. Reed Store measured 24 X 60 feet. Jim and Mae turned the general store over completely to groceries and dry goods, while Reed’s was operated as a hardware and furniture outlet.
Jim and Mae's eldest son, Murray, 17 years old at the time started working at the Reed’s store location. But after a year or two, he went off for a stint of professional baseball with the Brooklyn Dodgers. He returned to the family business after recovering from a near-fatal accident which closed pro ball to him forever.
In 1948 Mr. McDermid added an addition on the south side (approximately the same size as the original store) to make room for the expansion of furniture.
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The year 1950 proved to be both dramatic and traumatic for the McDermid family. As J.F. recalls: “We burnt one, built one and bought one, all in that same year.”
On March 8, 1950 the Reed Store burnt down with all its stock and contents burned to the ground and was not rebuilt. This fire occurred the day before Jims birthday. “It wasn’t the most pleasant kind of birthday,” recalls Jim. “Many people said five or six years you’ll get over it, but you never do.” There was enough insurance to cover the building, but between $25,000 to $30,000 of stock, which was uninsured, was lost. “We couldn’t get the firefighting equipment mustered in time to save anything.”
“Where do you go from here?” was the question now facing Jim. “With three sons to find a place in life, after me finding it hard, I felt the urge to rebuild,” says Jim, “but instead of building a second store, I decided to build a bigger one where we are now.”
The disaster forced the expansion of the grocery and dry-goods store to its present size, and the addition of hardware, furniture and building supplies to the parent store. This is where today the present store on Lot 20 Mutchmor Street West still operates.
Once he had made up his mind, Jim went to work immediately. An announcement was put out that the store would be open for business on December 18, 1950. “Well we opened it on the eighteenth and have progressed from there to where we are now,” says Mr. McDermid. “Myself and two of my boys have incorporated and created a company and we have extended our activities into the field of building materials,” Jim recalled. Mr. McDermid’s store carries most anything one may wish to purchase. He has always stuck to the general store idea. “It has been my claim that you can’t prosper and sell from an empty wagon,” he states, “But we have gotten to the point where I can say that you can overload the wagon.” Mr. McDermid notes that today, people don’t buy in bulk like they used to. “When buying groceries and hardware, they want packaged goods. Another change is the switch from service counter to self serve. You used to get a list and serve the customer. The goods would be piled up on the counter. Today the customer helps themselves.” “The products and goods sold at the store are delivered to the place of business. In the earlier days the supplies were brought in by boat and the shopkeeper had to pick them up at the dock, but that practice hasn’t been around for years,” says Jim.
The store stayed open on Saturday nights. “We used to be open as often as six nights a week, at one time, but now it’s down to one. This was always a Saturday night village,” Mr. McDermid explains, “the farmers and the fishermen came to town on this day. That part of it has just stuck”. “A person should always give credit to his staff,” claims Mr. McDermid. “Any business can only respond through the efficiency of the staff. We’ve been fortunate to have good people and that means a lot.”
Also in 1950, the McDermid family began operating a second furniture outlet in Little Current. Some may remember in 1950 the O.T. Bennett Store in Little Current, became “Murray’s Furniture and Hardware”. It closed 10 years later when they found most people preferred to shop for furniture in the bigger store in Providence Bay.
Mr. McDermid remembers receiving a note from Doctor J.B. McQuay which cautioned him about “running himself ragged” in trying to get the store opened by the announced date. “It’s not worth it,” was the doctor’s advice. “I wonder how many doctors would think to do such a thing.” Mr. McDermid questioned. “It was an up and up kindness he was thinking of my health.”
The firm once held the unique distinction of having members of three generations on the staff, J.F.’s sons, Murray and Irving, hold the respective titles of president and vice-president with the company, while Jamie, Murray’s son started work as stock boy at the age of 17, establishing three generations of McDermids in the same business. Jims' sons Murray and Irving may of hold the top titles in the company, but the senior McDermids guidance was still much in evidence in the business. “I’d be so bored that I’d go crazy,” laughs man who hard work had always been a way of life. “Mae - my wife - is the hardest-working and lowest-paid member of the whole staff, and it’s always been that way,” Mr. McDermid says, with great affection for the tiny woman who has been at his side since their marriage in 1929. “I’d never had been able to do any of it without her,” Jim fondly stated.
Standing Left to Right: James, Audrey, Murray and Irving
Sitting: Mae and James (J.F.)
Jim was concerned about the welfare of the Providence Bay community and his many friends and neighbors here. He worked tirelessly for improvement. An outstanding feat was the building of the Providence Bay Arena which started in 1946 by forming an Arena Committee. On January, 17, 1946 at the Providence Bay S.S. No. 6 Public School (now known as The School House Restaurant) the very first Providence Bay Arena Committee meeting was held. The original Arena Committee members from Providence Bay & Spring Bay were: J.F. McDermid, Cameron Gordon, H.G. Oakes, W.J. Dinsmore, Milton W. Buie, Willard Reed and E.G. Burch. A building plan was drafted and fundraising efforts were started to get the project started. The people of Providence Bay and surrounding area seen their vision become a reality in 1949.
Jim claimed the hardest task they ever faced was the endeavor to conjure up finances to build the arena for the young people of the community. They wrote hundreds of letters to Ontario companies soliciting support for the project. Jim even spent hours amounting to 40 full days of manual labor in its construction. At the time, he was nearly 50 years old and was running two full-time businesses in town. “The place was small, and we were just crawling out of the depression, but it was achieved,” Jim boasts.
Also Jims' gift of the land upon which the Providence Bay Curling Club sits has brought a great measure of enjoyment to the people of this community. Many have benefited from his kindnesses in numerous ways.
The addition of warehouses for the store were located on Garland Street in Providence Bay which were built in 1979.
Jim attended and supported both the United Church and the Brethren Gospel Hall.
James Finlay McDermid died on Sunday, January 8, 1984. In his 82nd year.
Funeral services were held on Wednesday, January 11, 1984 at 2:00 p.m. at the Providence Bay United Church.
James Finlay McDermid is sorely missed from this community, but his influence is still felt today and will continue to be felt for many years to come.