A History of Elmsdale, Elmsdale West, and Brockton, Prince Edward Island

BUSINESSES - THOSE WHO PROVIDED SERVICES

'ARTHUR MATTHEWS’S FOX PELTING

Vernon Hardy provided the following information about Art Matthews’s business: “Art had a fox pelting business located beside the Western Road and facing the Dock Road. Jack Adams’ first store was beSide it. The building was about 20’ X 12’ and was equipped with a stove and benches along with his equipment for pelting the foxes.”

Art would go out to the farmer’s fox ranch and with the help of the fox farmer, he would euthanize the animals selected for killing. He used a hypodermic needle con- taining strychnine to euthanize the animals. Art would bring the dead animals back to his shop, skin them and prepare the pelts for market in Summerside. This pelting shop still existed in 1942.

When the pelts were finally cured and ready for market, they would be taken frOm their pelting board and turned with the fur side out. A wire would be run‘ through the

Elmsdale Corner, January 1942, sho- ing from the left, the Orange Lodge, Ar- thur Matthews’s fox pelting barn, the roof of the Church of the Nazarene manse over Jack Adams’s store, and William Mat- thews’s house on the right. In the fore- ground are George and Earl Currie.

Oscar Hardy Coll.

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