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Manitoba Business: Searle Grain Company

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Presidents | Vice-Presidents | Country Elevators | Sources

In August 1929, the Searle Grain Company was incorporated through the merger of several smaller companies: Home Grain Company, Saskatchewan Elevator Company, Searle Grain Company, and Liberty Grain Company. It operated 315 country elevators across the three prairie provinces with a cumulative storage capacity of 12 million bushels. It also controlled the Searle Terminal Grain Company that operated a grain terminal at Fort William [now Thunder Bay], Ontario.

In 1966, it merged with Federal Grain to form Canada’s largest privately-owned grain company.

Chairmen

Period

Chairman

1934-1956

Augustus Leach Searle (1863-1955)

1956-1967

Stewart Augustus Searle (1897-1977)

Presidents

Period

President

1929-1934

Augustus Leach Searle (1863-1955)

1934-1949

Norman Lawrence Leach (1876-1949)

1949-1956

Stewart Augustus Searle (1897-1977)

1956-1967

Augustus Searle Leach (1909-1993)

Vice-Presidents

Period

Vice-President

1929-1934

Norman Lawrence Leach (1876-1949)

1929-?

James Miller Gilchrist (c1885-1971)

1934-1949

Stewart Augustus Searle (1897-1977)

1949-1956

Augustus Searle Leach (1909-1993)

1956-1967

Stewart A. Searle Jr.

Treasurers

Period

Treasurer

1929-?

Stewart Augustus Searle (1897-1977)

Secretaries

Period

Secretary

1929-?

D. N. Potter

c1960

Morton Miller

Country Elevators (Manitoba)

Location

Rail

Opened

Closed

Capacity
(bushels)

Comments

Alcrest

CNR

1946

1946

60,000

 

Angusville

CNR

1929

1966

110,000

 

Arborg

CPR

1929

1966

80,000

Sold to Federal Grain (1966)

Benito

CNR

1929

1966

68,000

Sold to Federal Grain (1966)

Birch River

CNR

1947

1966

116,000

 

Bowsman A

CNR

1942

1966

91,000

Bought from Canada West Grain (1942), sold to Federal Grain (1966)

Bowsman B

CNR

1952

1966

25,000

Sold to Federal Grain (1966)

Dauphin A

CNR

1929

1966

46,000

Built (1918), acquired from Liberty Grain (1929)

Dauphin B

CNR

1951

1966

22,000

 

Deacon South (Mile 142.4)

CNR

1964

1967

100,000

 

East Selkirk

CPR

1938

1968

30,000

Sold to Federal Grain (1966)

Ebor

CPR

1929

1965

26,000

 

Erickson

CNR

1929

1966

71,000

 

Garland

CNR

1934

1966

36,000

Sold to Federal Grain (1966)

Libau

CNR

1947

1966

92,000

Sold to Federal Grain (1966)

Lower Fort Garry

CPR

1940

1966

38,000

Sold to Federal Grain (1966)

Minitonas A

CNR

1940

1966

115,000

Sold to Federal Grain (1966)

Minitonas B

CNR

1951

1966

35,000

 

Riverton

CPR

1937

1966

27,000

Sold to Federal Grain (1966)

St. Boniface

CPR

1941

1966

406,000

 

Searle

CNR

1946

1966

251,000

 

Swan River

CNR

1942

1966

136,000

Replaced by new elevator (1961), repainted as Federal Grain (1966), sold to Manitoba Pool (1972)

The Pas

CNR

1948

1966

36,000

 

See also:

The Searle Grain Company and Manitoba Handweaving, A Program of Imaginative Philanthropy by Janet A. Hoskins
Manitoba History, Number 6, Fall 1983

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Van Horne Farm / Searle Farm (RM of St. Clements)

Sources:

“Huge grain merger planned here,” Winnipeg Free Press, 26 July 1966, page 1.

Grain: The Entrepreneurs by Charles W. Anderson, Winnipeg: Watson & Dwyer Publishing, 1991.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 10 July 2022
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