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by BILL ROBINSON Sun Correspondent There are businesses in Neepawa that have remained in the same family for three quarters of a century and there are others that have changed hands time and time again. Most Neepawa commercial enterprises are well es tablished and are blessed with reliable staff. One Neepawa business has been in existence since two years before the town was incorporated 92 years to be exact — and in that period of time has had only three owners. Or that is to say until this week when it officially changes hands for the third time. William Howatt started a bakery on Mountain Avenue in 1881. He ran a successful business for 38 years, then in 1919 he sold to Sam Seaborn. Sam supplied the town with bread and other bakery products for the next 26 years. In 1932 he hired young Radley Bates, taught him the secrets of the trade and two years later, Lawrence Hurrell, just fresh out of high school. Openings for high school graduates were not all that plen tiful in those days and most were grateful for a job of any sort. Young Hurrell started work in the bakery for the princely wage of $6 weekly for a seven-day week, but on Sundays they just had a short day — a mere eight hours. Five years later, Canada was at war and Sam Seaborn had to look for more help as his right hand men were in khaki serving their country. Lawrence Hurrell enlisted in the Cameron Highlanders and was later transferred to the Royal Winnipeg Rifles. He was with the Little Black Devils right through until war's end, serv ing in a wide variety of capacities from rifleman, up through sergeant-cook to acting regimental sergeant-major. Peace came and both Lawrence and Radley re turned to Neepawa and in short order they were back in white instead of khaki. But it was only two weeks before ex-sergeant-major Hurrell decided that he should own the business instead of working for somebody else. The name was changed to Hurrell’s Bakery. It was not only the name that was changed; that was just the begin ning. Over the next few years, change was the order of the day at the bakery. First of all, in 1947, the old building was replaced by a new highly sanitary plant. The old bake ovens were still in use in the new building but by 1949 serious mechanization started. The old ovens were replaced by electrically operated gas heated modern ones that could, if required, produce 400 loaves or more, per hour. A complete line of electric mixers and other equipment was ins talled in the shop and a much wider variety of products could now be produced in far less time and with much less manpower than had been possible in the old days. For years a bakery wagon operated by a super salesman plied the Neepawa streets and Stew Lindsay's glowing description of the products of Hurrell's Bakery were enough to make any housewife break down and buy. Hurrell had also built up quite a respectable wholesale bread business in the surrounding district before the major invasion of city bread trucks began. Then when there were bread trucks from four or five competing companies selling at every country store, he decided that it as time for a change. He dropped the wholesale business and opened a coffee bar in the front part of the bakery. While he lost some of the bread business by quitting wholesale deliveries, a good many of the out of town customers started coming to town to pick up their own supplies of the bread they had enjoyed before. They —— given quantity prices and took enough back to fill their freezers. Just a week or so ago, a signal honor was ac corded to the local bakery. Reg McKeen of the Workmen's Compensation Board presented a plaque to the proud proprietor signifying that not a single claim for lost time had ever been filed in the entire 28 years he had operated it. Apart from the activities locally as a town councillor, Chamber of Commerce president and many other committees, “Pete’’ Hurrell as he is commonly known by most of his friends has also served his industry well. He was not only president of the Bakers Association of Manitoba for both 1971 and 1972 but also served as a director on the Bakery Council of Canada for those two years. Now Pete Hurrell has emptied his last oven full of smoking hot loaves. He has sold the business to Wayne Clark and although the sign may proclaim Hurrell’s Bakery for a few months, it is now Clark’s Bakery. Rad Bates stays on as head baker with the new owner. Wayne Clark came to Neepawa three years ago to take over management of the kitchens at East View Lodge, Neepawa's major senior citizen complex. With four years previous experience as head cook at Brandon General Hospital and a graduate of a management course at Brandon University and a food management course from the University of Toronto, he is not stepping into the unknown. Neepawa and district citizens will still be able to buy that bread with the real home-made taste to it.
Newspaper Details
Brandon Sun
Brandon, Manitoba, CA
Thu, Nov 01, 1973
Page 9
Full Page
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