By 1911, elevator companies represented in Yorkton were: N. Bawlf & Company, the Canadian Elevator, the Dominion Elevator, the Imperial Elevator, Northern Elevator, and Peaker Bros., plus Levi Beck’s and Frank W. Bull’s private enterprises. In 1916, Bawlf & Co. had a chain of twenty elevators in operation within a radius of 30 miles of Yorkton; some of these were at: Theodore, Buchanan, Sheho, Calder, Stornoway, Rokeby, Bredenbury, Tonkin, Dunleath, Donwell, Rhein, McNutt and Sturdee. The company opened an office on Third Avenue North, next to the Bank of Toronto. Well-known local buyer, George H. Laying became manager of all business generated by this conglomerate. The operation was sophisticated enough to have a direct 15-minute wire service with the Winnipeg Grain Exchange. The 1926 telephone directory lists more of their elevators located at; Ebenezer, Gorlitz, Hampton, Phone Hill, Orcadia, Peoples Siding (just south of Yorkton), Barbour, Rokeby, and Barvas. James B. Gibson of Yorkton had also opened an elevator at Phone Hill, and at Rokeby, both short distances from Yorkton. By 1921 Gibson had merged with the Peaker Brothers and the firm became known as the Peaker Gibson Grain Company. The N. Bawlf Grain Company had been established by Winnipeg-based grain merchant Nicholas Bawlf who had become a millionaire by the time of his death in 1914.
Contact Terri Lefebvre Prince, Heritage Researcher,
City of Yorkton Archives,
Box 400, 37 Third Avenue North
Yorkton, Sask. S3N 2W3 306-786-1722 heritage@yorkton.ca
