The Butchers in Reston History

Reston’s early citizens had a taste for protein and several local entrepreneurs stepped up to run Meat Shops. Farmers may have had access to home grown meat but customers like the Boultons paid for the services of a butcher for cutting and grinding their beef.  Beef Rings had a place in rural areas in the days before home freezers. Community service seemed to go hand in hand with running a meat shop in Reston.  This post will tell some of their stories.

Albert Edwin (known as A.E.) Smith was a meat merchant in Reston for an amazing 51 years. He opened a shop on Main Street in 1899 when he was 25 years old. He had organized rings and delivered beef from his farm in the Elm Valley district before deciding to open a shop.  His portrait hangs in the RM of Pipestone office as he was Reeve in 1918 and contributed to community life as on council for many years. He took special interest in the Reston Cemetery and is credited with planting the spruce trees around it. His shop on 4th Street burned in 1915 and unfortunately, the early burial records as well. He rebuilt in 1916 and included another space on the north side that became the Canada Cafe. Mr. Smith's name was prominent in early discussions of having a cenotaph and a park surrounding it to honour the WW1 fallen.  Apartments upstairs in the Reston Meat Market housed many people over the years. A. E. also sold insurance and he built the little concrete block building that was just north of his shop for this purpose.  He and his wife Ellie's house on 9th Street was featured in an article here written by Fletch Manning in 2004. A.E. Smith died in 1950 and his wife in 1972.  They had two daughters and two sons including Edwin Earl who died overseas while a member of the Royal Air Forcein WW2.

During the boom days starting in 1905, the Imperial Meat Market operated on the spot of the present playground under John Benjamin Ireland (1864-1925). He and his wife had 2 sons and 2 daughters and decided to leave Reston in about 1915 for greener pastures in the Peace District of Alberta. Norwegian Oscar Haugse can be found in Reston on the 1916 census working as a butcher and living with his wife Annie and two children Thelma and Melvin were born during his time here.  

Other names in butchering were James Sexton, J. Bray and Jack Matthews.  Some of these men ran the Reston Meat Market for A.E. Smith but others may have set up shops elsewhere. In the early 1940’s, Reston House proprietor R.V. Cusack had a meat shop on the east side of the hotel with a door to the south to sell meat.

Pete Lamond (1891-1977) came from Oak Lake in the early 60's where he learned the butcher trade with his father Jack. He had been born in Perthshire, Scotland in 1891, and followed his father in the butcher trade after serving in WW1.  He worked at Reston Meat Market for a time until he decided to strike out on his own in the part of the shop that would eventually become the bakery.  His wife Bernice (Schmidt) had opened a bake shop and confectionary in the same building. This picture from the McKee Archives in Brandon University dates to 1964. They left Reston in about 1968.  Pete died in Vancouver in 1977.

Leo Curtis was a Reston businessman and entrepreneur who purchased the Reston Meat Market from Smith and renovated to create a new storefront.  He also installed 400 freezer lockers where customers could store meat before home freezers were widely available.  The bill below for locker #272 shows he charged $3 for just over 2 months rental. Leo was also busy at the Massey Harris and Dodge Desoto businesses so the shop was operated by Don Graham, Al Owen, Bill Baird and Gene Traill and perhaps others before being sold to Henry Claussen (1932-2003) in 1961.

 

C. Henry Claussen came from Germany in 1956 to start life in Canada. He met his wife here, the former Helen Adamson who was a nurse.  The couple made Reston their home for the next 2 decades. They had 2 boys and a girl while here. He was active on the Theatre Board, Minor Hockey and Ball, Fort La Bosse School Division and Chamber of Commerce and Reston town affairs. Henry was the first president of the newly created Reston Lions Club in 1963. They lived on the southeast corner of 6th Street and 2nd Avenue.  They contributed greatly to community life until selling the shop in 1980. 

Myles Van Damme bought the shop and named it Reston Frozen Foods in 1980. Myles did custom meat cutting as well as retail sales of meat including a deli counter. He and his wife Bernice were also strong community supporters. They raised 3 sons in Reston in the former Mennie home. 

Dean Andon was the last owner in 1993. The two storey building with the front already removed in the colour picture below was Reston Frozen Foods with the bakery just north/left of it. The old original 1916 building was torn down in 1996. The photos and clipping below are from the collection of John and Verna Olenick.

Long silver trays of sausage and other products, sawdust on the floors and that indescribable unmistakable smell of the butcher shop are memories of the meat market of my childhood.  I'd be delighted to hear yours in the comments below.