The following was submitted by the staff of the Orillia Museum of Art & History (OMAH).
The Orillia area has had a prominent and extremely diverse industrial sector.
This sector has employed many people who live in Orillia and this sub-category features some of the best-known companies — Tudhope, Otaco and Sarjeant. These companies have evolved from the time of their conception and each has played an integral role in the formation of the city.
In 1871, after the farm he had been renting on the Isle of Ely in England was sold, William Sarjeant immigrated with his wife and 10 children to Canada West, settling on a farm near Hawkestone in Oro Township.
In 1889, Sarjeant’s son, Walter, partnered with Barrie merchant James S. Johnston, for whom he had been working for several years, to form Johnston and Sarjeant, a company that manufactured and sold coal, wood fuel, and building supplies. In 1890, the company opened a branch office in Orillia, with Walter’s brother, Samuel, as its vice-president in charge.
Johnston retired in 1903, and Walter and Samuel assumed the business as the Sarjeant Company of Barrie. At the same time, Walter and Samuel partnered with their brother, Albert John, and William A. Sargent (no relation) to form the Sarjeant Company of Orillia. In 1905, the two companies were combined and incorporated as the Sarjeant Company Ltd.
The new corporation was headquartered in Barrie. Its directors were Walter, Samuel and Albert John Sarjeant, Lela Tryphena Rook and William A. Sargent, who quickly resigned his position following a disagreement. He was replaced by Charles Albert Sarjeant, a nephew of Walter, Samuel and Albert John. Walter Sarjeant became the company’s first president, Albert John its vice-president, and Samuel the general manager of the Orillia branch.
By that time, the company’s business had expanded to include the manufacture of lumber and shingles, cold storage and warehousing, the sale of real estate, and the sale of ice, which was harvested from lakes Simcoe and Couchiching by hand and later by steam-powered saws, cut into 50-, 100- or 300-pound blocks, and hauled to shore by sleds.
Throughout its history, the Sarjeant Company has been marked by constant growth and the involvement of many generations of the same family.
