1880 AIDIDI'I‘IIDNS

 

Francis Ogletree, another early pioneer, was the first president of the Portage Milling Company, which employed
80 men and put out 1,200 barrels of flour per day. This later became the basis of the Lake of the Woods Milling
Company, which operated till 1938 and burned in 1943.

The Portage Planing Mill, later known as the Rat Portage Lumber Company, was situated just south of the CPR on
Main Street North and with its staff of 15, turned out all sorts of doors and windows, some of which went into the
present Trinity United Church and our City Hall.

The Riel Rebellion of 1885 saw some local men involved, and Portage opened a hard-tack biscuit factory to help
feed the participants. It was located on Garland Street (4th SE.)

The first hotel in Portage, the Portage Hotel, was built and operated by one Micheal Blake on Main (3rd S.E.) Street.
He also operated the newly opened post office, and had the terminal for his stage coach line to Winnipeg, carry-
ing passengers and mail there and back, twice a week, roads and mud permitting.

There were 815 taxpayers on the roll in 1883 when the first City Hall and the big Central School were built.

The newly organized Fire Department obtained a hook-and-ladder wagon for $200 to put in their new firehall on
Dufferin Avenue. A stable to house their first horse, named Charlie, was also built. Sad to say, it all burned down
and the insurance policy had expired.

The new little town put out tenders for l00,000 board feet of lumber and 5,000 lbs. of nails, in order to build and
repair the sidewalks. One of the first scandals of our history saw a councilman getting personally involved in the
process, and many years of delay in the carrying out of this ambitious project.

Fire took out a row of stores on the new Saskatchewan Avenue, including the premises of Mr. Roe, early
photographer. Sadly, all his early plates and pictures of Portage’s pioneer days were destroyed.

First Baptist Church was organized in 1881. St. Mary’s Anglican congregation built a huge frame church in 1882,
only to find it structurally unsafe in a few years time, necessitating their having to meet in the Town Hall.

The stations for both railways were across the rails from each other, with the street leading to them aptly named
Depot Street (now 4th N.W.). The Manitoba Hotel was strategically situated on the corner of Depot and
Saskatchewan Avenue, with a reported spurline to its premises.

Portage gained its second newspaper in 1882, The Weekly Liberal.

 

 

 

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