Memorable Manitobans: Joseph Samuel Armitage (1849-1922)

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Joseph Samuel Armitage
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Postmaster, municipal official.

Born at Newmarket, Ontario on 1 January 1849, son of Job Armitage and Hannah Siddons, he learned the milling trade then moved to California in 1870, returning to Ontario in 1872 to purchase a mill at Port Colbourne. He sold the business in 1879 and moved to Manitoba and took up a homestead at Tanner's Crossing on the Little Saskatchewan River, since renamed Minnedosa. He built a saw mill and grist mill there, and also farmed, selling out in 1882. He was appointed Postmaster of Minnedosa in 1882. He married Mary Minneta Boyd (?-?) of Hanover, Ontario in 1876 and they subsequently had three children: Mary Adelia Armitage, Harvey Boyd Armitage, and Herbert Joseph Armitage. In January 1883, he was elected warden of the County of Minnedosa, and a member of the first board for the Western Judicial District. In 1914, he resigned his position as postmaster and moved with wife to Edmonton, Alberta where he died on 14 March 1922.

See also:

The Old Flour Mill at Minnedosa by Ed J. Brown
Manitoba Pageant, Volume 21, Number 3, Spring 1976

Odanah by Florence M. Brown
Manitoba Pageant, Volume 5, Number 2, January 1960

Early Minnedosa: The Crossing, the Town and the Railway by William John Rose
MHS Transactions, Series 3, 1958-59 season

Early Days of Minnedosa by Mrs. E. J. Brown
MHS Transactions, Series 3, 1964-65 season

Sources:

A History of Manitoba: Its Resources and People by Prof. George Bryce, Toronto: The Canadian History Company, 1906.

“Joseph Armitage, pioneer of west, dies at Edmonton,” Manitoba Free Press, 21 March 1922, page 10.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 7 October 2020

Memorable Manitobans

Memorable Manitobans

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