- General Store 1865 (Approx.) - 1872 (Approx.)
- Postmaster 1868 - 1878
R.B. Jamieson opened a general store about 18651, and his name is listed in most directories up until 1871. A Robert “Jameson” is listed in the 1871 census as a 45-year-old merchant from Scotland. By 1868 Jamieson had also been appointed the village postmaster, which may explain his gradual disappearance from the business records.
After 1868 R.B. Jamieson was replaced by G.S. Jamieson as the operator of a General Store. Unfortunately we do not know how the two were related; perhaps they were brothers. R.B. still owned property in 1877, as he was listed as an owner of a building1 that burned along with the Dominion Hotel in March 1877 [CP 16 March 1877; 3]. Jamieson immediately started to build a new brick block on the lot next to Mr. Twomey’s [CP 4 May 1877; 3], and by July the foundation work had begun [CP 6 July 1877; 3]. The architect and contractor was Thos. Mann who designed the Mansion House Hotel as well. The building, measuring 40 by 47½ feet, was to contain two (or three) stores, and it was completed by December [CP 7 Dec 1877; 3].
Jamieson was dead by October 1878, when George Cunningham was appointed postmaster, “which was made vacant by the decease of his uncle, Mr. Jamieson…” [CP 11 Oct 1878; 3]. Cunningham had apparently been helping in the Post office while Jamieson was ill. The store of G.S. Jamieson disappears soon afterwards as well.
392 Variant spelling: Jameson. Jamieson has often been mistaken for Robert Jameson (1809-1850), one of the founders of the village, but R.B. Jamieson is definitively not the same man.
393 An “R. Jamieson, dry goods merchant” is listed in Mitchell’s Canada Gazetteer and Business Directory (1864/65)
394 The occupants of Jamieson’s building were Robson and Robson, John Nevison and Thomas Nevison. The store of G.S. Jamieson does not appear to have been touched. [CP 16 March 1877; 3].
See Also