Hugh McPherson was born January 25, 1845 at West River, Nova Scotia. He married Margaret Esther Sellers (b. March 18, 1849 at Six Mile Brook, Nova Scotia) on February 5, 1875 at Six Mile Brook, Nova Scotia. The couple moved to Brandon Hills, MB c. 1880. Together they had four children: Georgina (Georgie) Jane; Harriet (Hattie); Johnston (Jack); and Angus.
The couple lived at Watervale, NS until they moved to Manitoba with the Brandon Hills settlers. Hugh travelled to Brandon Hills with the Roddick group in 1879, leaving his wife and three children in Nova Scotia. He selected the N.E. 1/4 of section 10, township 9, range 18 as his homestead. Margaret and the children joined Hugh in 1880.
Situated as it was just north of the river and slightly to the east of the end of the hills, the McPherson home became a sopttin house for travellers from the south making their way to and from Grand Valley and later Brandon. The family records show that literally scores of people stayed with the family during the early years. The fee charged for a meal for the driver plus feed for a team was thirty-five cents. Nellie McClung later described the farm and the stopping-house in one of her early books.
Hugh McPherson died at Brandon Hills, MB on March 7, 1916. Margaret Esther Sellers McPherson died at Brandon Hills, MB on July 13, 1935.
In the fall of 1892, Margaret's brother, Angus Sellers and his family arrived at the McPherson home. Included in this part was Margaret's two sisters Jessie Murray and Libby Sellers. The Sellers family remained with the McPherson's until mid-summer of 1893, when they moved to their new farm at Bunclody.
In 1902, after the death of his wife Blanche, Arthur Prowse accepted Margaret McPherson's offer to foster his daughters Winnie and Kitty. The girls stayed with the McPherson's until their marriages; Winnie to Alex Brown and Kitty to Frank Allbright.
Scope and Content
Contains the following files:
5.1 Margaret McPherson correspondence 1903-1926
5.2 Margaret McPherson correspondence 1927-1931
5.3 Margaret McPherson correspondence 1932-1935
5.4 Margaret McPherson correspondence (undated)
5.5 Margaret McPherson burial/marriage notices 1895-1924
5.6 Margaret McPherson greeting postcards
5.7 Mr. and Mrs. H. McPherson non-greeting postcards
5.8 Margaret McPherson non-greeting postcards
5.9 Hugh Mcpherson notebook 1871
5.10 Hugh McPherson financial records 1913-1918
5.11 Hugh McPherson postcards
5.12 Libby Sellers non-greeting postcards
5.13 Libby Sellers greeting postcards
5.14 Libby Sellers correspondence 1882-1936 (some undated)
5.15 Kitty and Winnie Prowse correspondence and postcards 1916-1923
Notes
Part of the Alfred Angus Murray McPherson collection
See collection level description of the Joseph H. Hughes collection for biographical information.
Custodial History
See collection level description of the Joseph H. Hughes collection for custodial history.
Scope and Content
Accession 1-2008 (32 cm textual records and 1 map; 1906-1916; predominant 1909-1915). As mayor, city Alderman and prominent city businessman, J.H. Hughes came into possession of many city government, civic, and business records during the first decade and a half of the twentieth century.
The accession consists of city records, information on contemporary city utility services and companies including tenders for the construction of the Brandon street railway, documents concerning grain elevators, lumber production, newspaper clippings, as well as personal and city correspondence - including a proposal from the Canadian Northern Railway to construct the Prince Edward Hotel.
Accession 6-2009 (2.26 m textual records; 1882-1920). Records in the accession deal with the business affairs of Hughes & Company. Accession also contains records related to the personal affairs of J.H. Hughes.
Records from 1882-1889; predominant 1882 include: business corresondence. Much of the correspondence is between Hughes and his business associates T.T. Atkinson and Mr. Kennedy at Rat Portage in Ontario. Mr. Bambridge, who ran the Souris Yard is also mentioned frequently. There is also corresopndence related to the Reid Farm, Hughes' first commercial faming venture. Various documents are concerned with J.H. Ashtown Hardware, the Manitoba Government Immigration and Intellegence Office, Butler Paper & Co., Canadian Pacific Rail, Boston and Maine Rail, Keewatin Mills, Charmichael Clothing, The Hudson's Bay Company and the City of Brandon
Records from 1889-1893 include: financial records including debts owed to or by J.H. Hughes & Company; correspondence between the company and partners and employees regarding the running of the lumber company in Brandon, Souris, Rat Portage and Rainy River (shipping of goods, camp supplies, maintenance of mills, ordering of goods, trade with other lumber companies); legal records pertaining to litigation regarding debts; correspondence with the Department of the Interior, the Department of Crown Lands, and the Department of Indian Affairs; correspondence regarding real estate in Brandon and land sales in the various regions of the lumber and grain company's operation; correspondence between J.H. Hughes and his borthers A.J. Hughes, Charles B. Hughes, his cousin J.R. Hughes and his father J.C. Hughes regarding both business and personal matters. Also includes telegraphs, postcards, magazine subscriptions, and Masonic brochures.
Records from 1893-1895 include: business correspondence between Hughes & Atkinson Co. and lumber supliers in Ontario and the midwestern United States. The records deal with the activities of the company, including payment of accounts, ordering and shipping of lumber and lumber related goods.
Records from 1897-1901 include: business letters, postcards, telegrams and memorandum of the Hughes and Long Lumber Company.
Records from 1907, 1913-1915; predominant 1914 include: business correspondence, product information and legal correspondence generated and/or recieved during business activities. There are also a series of miscellaneous files containing material related to Brandon municipal politics.
Records from 1915 include: business and personal correspondence to Hughes & Company pertaining to the J.H. Hughes Lumber Co. and farming ventures in Saskatchewan.
Records from 1911-1920; predominant 1919 include: business receipts and correspondence of Hughes & Company under the management of Willard C. Hughes, as well as family correspondence that is both personal and business-related. Business activities are largely related to the company's rental property in Brandon and farms in south eastern Saskatchewan, including Storybooks, ASK. It also includes some correspondence related to the Brandon Board of Trade and Civics (Willed Hughes was Chairman of the Power Committee). Records also include correspondence urging the province to construct an electrical transmission line to Brandon from Winnipeg, the possibility of a detachment of the Royal North West Mounted Police re-locating to Brandon, the operation of the Soldiers Re-Settlement Board, and the vacating of the Winter Fair building, which had been used to house interned World War I prisoners starting in the spring of 1915. References to the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 and the Teamsters Strike in Brandon of 1919 also occur in the correspondence.
Notes
Accession 21-2008 was processed and described as part of a Historiography class assignment in September and October 2008. The fonds was broken down into smaller components (1-3 boxes of records) spanning a few years and each student was assigned all the records in a particular time frame. Description by Christy Henry, Tom Mitchell, Andrew Dagley, Jill Sutherland, Laurel Neustaedter, Kylie Staslia, Tim Banman, Christine Shumay, Aimee Brown and Erica Smith.
Accession 3-1997 (84 photographs, various diplomas; 1886-1960) contains a variety of photographs of buildings and streetscapes of the 100 block of Tenth Street and various Hughes properties in the city. In addition, there are photographs of the "Founders of Hughes and Co," a parade on Tenth Street in 1924, the Wheat City Business College Hockey Team 1912, three photographs of the Port of Churchill in 1931, three photographs of threshing crews on Hughes and Company property, a Great War military contingent from Brandon including JRC Evans, and four family photographs.
For biographical information on Angus McPherson and Hattie McPherson Morrison see the description for Box 6 of the Alfred Angus Murray McPherson collection.
For biographical information on Murray McPherson see the fonds level description for the Alfred Angus Murray McPherson collection.
For biographical information on Hugh McPherson see the description for Box 5 of the Alfred Angus Murray McPherson collection.
For biographical information on Georgie McPherson see the description for Box 4 of the Alfred Angus Murray McPherson collection.
There is no biographical information for George Richardson.
Scope and Content
Contains the following files:
15.1 Medical receipts 1945-1950
15.2 Miscellaneous farm receipts 1945-1950
15.3 Cattle and grain papers 1941-1953
15.4 Correspondence 1943-1951
15.5 Insurance 1909-1952
15.6 Angus McPherson wills 1937-1953
15.7 Angus McPherson - income tax forms and papers 1946-1956 (includes Farmers Income Tax Guides and Farm account book)
15.8 Murray McPherson correspondence 1934-1956
15.9 Hugh McPherson - blank form for Fenian Raid Volunteer Bount Act 1912
15.10 Miscellaneous 1929-1950
15.11 Angus McPherson income tax forms and papers 1943-1947
15.12 Income tax forms/papers 1943-1947 for George Richardson (1947), George McPherson and Hattie McPherson
15.13 Angus McPherson - income tax forms 1918
15.14 Receipts 1947
15.15 Receipts 1949
Notes
Part of the Alfred Angus Murray McPherson collection.