Strong, James Moores
(1849-1938). Merchant; Member of the Legislative Council.
Born Twillingate, son of William and Elizabeth Strong. Educated Little
Bay Islands; Methodist Academy, St. John's. Married (1) Ann Murcell;
(2) Lydia Rooney. Strong was involved in the French Shore fishery
from an early age and in 1873 established a fishery supply business
at Little Bay Islands, in partnership with a brother, as J. & J. Strong.
The firm, subsequently known as the Little Bay Islands Packing Co.,
supplied the local shore fishery and voyages to the French Shore.
After the Bank Crash of 1894 the firm was reorganized as Strong &
Murcell and expanded into the Labrador fishery -- where some
of the largest firms had been forced into bankruptcy by the Crash.
Known as James Strong Ltd. after 1922, the firm supplied as many as
50 schooners each year to the French Shore and the Labrador
coast.
In 1930 Strong was appointed to the Legislative Council by his son-in-law,
Sir Richard A. Squires, serving as a member of that body until it
was dissolved in 1934. By this time management of James Strong Ltd.
was in the hands of a son, William, who predeceased his father in
1936. Thereafter the firm continued on a reduced scale under another
son and a grandson, maintaining a retail store at Little Bay Islands
until the early 1970s. In 1981 the ledgers and other papers of James
Strong Ltd. (including some material from its predecessor firms,
dating back to 1880) were donated to the Provincial Archives by the
Strong family.
- DNLB (1990),
- Who's Who in and from Newfoundland 1927 (1927),
- Archives (F.A. 235).
RHC
Text and images copied from the Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador web site at
http://enl.cuff.com/entry/80/8055.htm
© 1997, 1998 Copyright J. R. Smallwood Centre for Newfoundland Studies.
© 1997, 1998 Copyright Harry Cuff Publications Limited.