| | LEVEL OF DESCRIPTION: | Collection | | No.: | PR1764 | | TITLE: | Marshall Wells Limited collection | | CREATOR: | Marshall Wells | | DATE RANGE: | 1913-1987 | | EXTENT: | 285 photographs and other material
Includes 56 negatives, 13 blueprints, 0.07 m of textual records, 4 scrapbooks and 1 poster. | | ADMINISTRATIVE | | HISTORY/BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: | The Marshall-Wells Company was a Duluth, Minnesota hardware company formed in 1893 when Albert Morley Marshall bought out Arthur B. Chapin’s shares in the Chapin-Wells Company; the company was renamed the Marshall-Wells Company, a new partnership between A.M. Marshall and B.E. Wells. The first Canadian branch of Marshall-Wells opened in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1901. The company became involved in the Edmonton, Alberta market in 1907 when they joined the John Sommerville and Sons hardware store; the store was renamed the Sommerville Hardware Company Limited. In 1912, Marshall-Wells purchased the Ross Brothers Hardware Company; operations of Ross Brothers and Sommerville Hardware Company were amalgamated. The Sommerville Hardware Company continued as a retail hardware dealer until 1923, and Marshall-Wells took over the Ross Brothers location on 102nd Avenue and 103rd Street and dealt with wholesale hardware. This Edmonton branch was incorporated as Marshall-Wells Alberta Company, Limited under the Ordinance for the North-West Territories respecting Companies on July 2, 1912; Jack McMullen was the manager. In 1919, Marshall-Wells began construction of a new warehouse in Edmonton, the Marshall-Wells Building, on 104th Avenue and 103rd Street; the building was completed in 1920 (and demolished in 1979). Marshall-Wells continued to expand in Western Canada, establishing warehouses in Vancouver, British Columbia, Regina, Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Calgary, Alberta, Port Arthur, Ontario, and New Westminster, British Columbia; with the warehouses in Winnipeg and Edmonton, there was a total of eight branch warehouses in Canada in 1951, and only five branch warehouses in the United States. Beginning in 1928, the company approved the use of the Marshall-Wells name by independently owned hardware stores, with Marshall-Wells providing merchandising, pricing, advertising assistance as well as store plans to the franchises. In 1955, the trustees of A.M. Marshall’s shares in the company sold the shares to Ambrook Industries. In 1957, the Canadian holdings of Marshall-Wells were sold to Gamble-Skogmo Incorporated (Inc.). Marshall Wells of Canada Limited was registered under Part VIII of the Companies Act on April 24, 1957, with the head office in Winnipeg. The Marshall-Wells Alberta Company, Limited was renamed Albeco Stores Limited on May 27, 1957; Albeco Stores Limited was dissolved March 31, 1960, but Marshall Wells operations continued in Edmonton as Marshall Wells of Canada. In 1973, the Fields Stores Limited of Vancouver purchased Marshall Wells Limited. When the Hudson’s Bay Company reacquired Zellers from Fields in 1976, they also acquired Marshall Wells Limited, at that time a Fields subsidiary. In 1985, the Hudson’s Bay Company sold Marshall Wells Limited to Cochrane-Dunlop Limited. Under the Business Corporations Act, Cochrane-Dunlop, Marshall Wells Limited and C.D. Services Incorporated (Inc.) were amalgamated under the name Cochrane-Dunlop Limited on January 15, 1986. In 1987, Cochrane-Dunlop was forced into bankruptcy and was officially dissolved July 1, 1988, ending Marshall Wells Limited in Edmonton. | | CUSTODIAL HISTORY: | Marge Begon and Gary Noren, of Canadian Hardware Agents and Distributors, deposited the records in the Provincial Archives of Alberta in 1988. How they came by the records is unclear, though Marge Begon did work for Marshall-Well Limited for over twenty-five years. | | SCOPE AND CONTENT: | The collection consists of records accumulated about Marshall Wells Limited operations and staff in Edmonton, Alberta and includes some original records of Marshall-Wells Alberta Company, Limited (correspondence, certificates, agreements), building blueprints, a placard of the names of Marshall-Wells Alberta Company, Limited employees who volunteered for active service, an accounts book for the Sommerville Hardware Company, newspaper clippings, issues of Edmonton’s Zenith, the Marshall-Wells newsletter, historical information about the company, photographs and negatives of stores, merchandise, staff and trucks, a guest book, and scrapbooks about the history of Marshall-Wells, including one compiled by Bernard (Slim) Charles Millward. | | ASSOCIATED MATERIAL: | Approximately 200 Marshall-Wells Company catalogues can be found at the Information and Resource Centre of the Royal Alberta Museum. | | RELATED RECORDS: | Also see the J.F. McMullen fonds (PR1765). Images of various Marshall Wells warehouses can be found in the Provincial Archives of Alberta reference prints. | | GENERAL NOTE: | Information for the administrative history is taken from the Alberta Gazette, from Henderson's Edmonton, Alberta city directories, and from the records. |
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