Bert Hart – Pioneer Grocer at Woodnorth 1909-1915

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Barnett (Bert) Moss HART (1880-1981) and his wife Marie Louise (1878-1921). Photo is undated but probably in the time period 1900 to 1914.

In 1947, in the Christmas issue of “The NABOB” magazine, there was a story about Barnett (Bert) Moss HART who, with his brother Victor Hart, opened the first grocery store at Woodnorth Manitoba in 1909. He operated the store until 1915 when he sold it prior to joining the Canadian Army to fight in World War One.

No author is indicated for the article but it seems that someone who worked at the magazine must have interviewed Bert Hart who was recently retired in 1947.  Mr Hart  supplied a lot of very specific details about the establishment of his grocery store as well as a number of interesting photographs showing construction of many buildings in the early days of the village.

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The table of contents page of The NABOB’s Christmas 1947 issue. The article titled “Bert Hart – Pioneer Grocer” is listed as starting on page 10.  The NABOB was a magazine catering to the interests of the “Retail Grocery and Tobacco Trade of Canada and the Yukon Territories”.

Immediately below are small scans of the six pages of the story. Following that, for easier reading, are enlargements of the text and photos.

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Enlargements of the photos and text in the six pages of the story:

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Grocery store and station in 1909.

 

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B.M. Hart and a group of veterans from the first World War.

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A school house was erected but first term classes were held in the coal shed of the British America Elevator Company.

 

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Open skating and hockey 1917.

 

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Below is a photo of Bert Hart and his wife Louise (Louie) in 1916. He is wearing his Canadian Army uniform so the photo must have been taken shortly before he was shipped overseas. He was wounded three times but survived the war, had a busy career in the grocery industry and lived to the age of 100 years. He lived and worked in Vancouver for many years and died in Richmond B.C. in 1981.  Louise died in 1921.

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On Dec 26, 1923 Bert Hart married Olive Horsnell (1904-1984) in Winnipeg. They had one daughter, Audrey Emmeline Hart (1925-2011) and divorced in 1944.  Audrey Hart married James Lawson (?-2004). They had four children and lived in British Columbia. At the time of his death in 1981 Bert Hart was married to Nellie Rosalind Page (1897-1982).

Bert’s brother Victor Hart (1885-1981), his partner in the grocery business, also joined the Canadian Army but when he returned from the war he married Margaret Elizabeth McLaren (1892-1987), a teacher whose family farmed in the Souris area, and they remained in Manitoba. Both are buried in the Pipestone cemetery,

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For more information on the village of WOODNORTH, MANITOBA check this link:

https://pamelaforsyth.com/woodnorth-manitoba-canada/