Co., of the city could not send a man out; and no one this side of Halifax could be procured. Mr. Martin found that the resistance coil was burned out, and had to be sent away for repairs. In the meantime Mr. Martin made a temporary make-shift to give Montague lights until the coil was repaired and returned. They paid him $25.00. To bring a man from Halifax would have cost them many times that amount. (RS—There is the name of a Donald MacKinnon among the original Directors. No middle initial is given, and the writer is not sure as to whether D. L. MacKinnon, his brother Donald, or the lawyer D. A. Mac- Kinnon is the correct name/l

THE MONTAGUE FURNISHING CO., LTD. \‘

I am going to relate as best I can, what to me is a very, very interesting story. The story of The Montague Furnishing Co., Ltd. I know that the present owners and operators of that firm are too modest to do any horn blowing concerning the small beginning, and in due time, the large achievement of this firm. My good friend and benefactor, D. L. MacKinnon, was its founder. In those earlier days, when a death oc- curred in a community it was customary to have a local carpenter, or a handyman make a coffin for the deceased. For years Charles Poole (red Charlie) to distinguish from (black or dark Charlie), was called upon to do that work. Mr. Poole was a good man, and was always ready to help anyone who came to him under such circumstances. Strange to say, the grandson of the founder af the largest casket concern in the Marl- times owns the farm and homestead of Charles Poole at the present time. Athol M. MacKinnon came into possession of it through his grand- father Sheriff Daniel F. MacDonald. The Sheriff had the buildings moved to their present position: the dwelling house facing on Main Street.

Now we will return to our story of The Montague Furnishing 00., Ltd. It is a lengthy story, for it has been a going concern ever since it was organized back in the year of 1882, two years after the writer of this brief history was born. D. L. MacKinnon was one of a large family, born in Lot Sixty-One, now known as Brooklyn. He worked hard in his young days. One of his hardest jobs was working in the saw-pit. He was mar- ried to Miss Bessie Walker, they had one Child, Laughlin M. D.L. came to Montague and located in a large building situated on the corner of Main and Mill streets. It was here that he started to make household furniture on a small scale. He also began to make coffins for local use; he employed two men at first, N. J. Nicholson and Adam D. MacLure; later on he added another man, Alex MacPherson.

Mr. MacKinnon carried on the business here until the winter of 1911; when the building was destroyed by fire. The telephone exchange was located in the building, and was thought that the fire started from an overheated stove pipe, as that had been the cause of many fires in the past, and even in this present day. There had been a fall of heavy soft snow, and that, to a large extent, prevented the fire from spreading. The building was completely destroyed. All the fire fighting equipment they had at that time was the old hand pump manned by four to six men on each horizontal handle facing each other. They had but one line of hose. The pump was on the wharf, and the water was pumped from the river. Rev. W. D. Wilson and Billy Stewart were up on the roof of the building until they were forced down by the heat. Billy related the story to me. It looked as though that fire wrote finis to D.L.’s industry. But D.L. was not easily daunted. So that misfortune ushered in a new epoch in the life of The Montague Furnishing Co., Ltd. The large Owen Connolly warehouse on Main Street on the north side of the village was secured and the industry which was begun in such a small way, began to grow beyond the imagination of even D.L. himself. And I’m sure, no one in Montague dreamed of such an expansion in the casket trade, in the little town of Montague, P.E.I.

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