Memorable Manitobans: John Fleming (1858-1940)

Farmer, municipal official, grain merchant.

Born at Darvel, Scotland on 18 July 1858, son of Thomas Fleming and Agnes Young, he left school at the age of 14 to worked in a wholesale dry goods business in Glasgow. He emigrated to Manitoba in 1880, followed three years later by his family on the death of his mother. On arrival, he homesteaded until 1896 when he moved to Deloraine to serve for three years as secretary-treasurer of the RM of Winchester. He then went to Winnipeg and took employment as a grain merchant with the firm of Alexander McFee & Company. He was later appointed manager of the company's Winnipeg branch. He was also secretary of the Young Grain Company. In 1908 he served as president of the Winnipeg Grain Exchange.

On 27 March 1889 he married Margaret Jessie Paterson, of Winnipeg. They had five children: Jessie Fleming, Thomas Fleming, Marion Fleming, Murray Fleming, and Allan Fleming. He was a member of the board of management of Manitoba College. He received an honourary life membership in the Manitoba Curling Association (1932) and the St. Andrews Society (1939).

He died suddenly on 2 January 1940, while walking at the corner of Portage Avenue and Main Street in Winnipeg.

Sources:

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

Marriage registration for J. Fleming, Manitoba Vital Statistics.

“John Fleming, pioneer grain merchant, dies,” Winnipeg Free Press, 3 January 1940. [Manitoba Legislative Library, Biographical Scrapbook B9]

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 16 October 2016

Memorable Manitobans

Memorable Manitobans

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