A book celebrating one of the most successful local co-operatives in Ontario was launched at the North Wellington Co-operative Services annual meeting on Nov. 27 at the Harriston Legion.
Our First 70 Years: A History of North Wellington Co-operative Services Inc. details the origins of four organizations that comprise the co-op. Although buying clubs existed in the area as far back as the 1920s to procure binder twine, animal feed, flour and sugar, North Wellington Co-op claims 1944 as its origin when Harriston Co-operative Association received its Letters Patent from the provincial government. The book charts the careful growth of the co-operative to become an organization of close to $34 million in annual sales and about 5,000 members.
The book’s author is the co-op’s former general manager, William G. Chamberlain. “Since retiring from North Wellington Co-operative Services Inc. more than a decade ago I kept thinking that someone should record the history of the Co-op,” he writes. Chamberlain served the co-operative as general manager from 1990 to the end of 2003.
Chamberlain hopes today’s co-op members will be able to spot their grandparents and great grandparents’ names in the book and see how they helped develop rural Ontario. He explains that agricultural co-operatives, part of a movement that started 100 years ago in the province, provided economic choice, hard-to-find services and products, education and market opportunities.
He congratulates the staff and directors of North Wellington Co-op for the co-op’s longevity and financial strength.
“We look forward to the next 70 years,” writes the co-op’s general manager Kelly Boyle in a special note to members and staff at the beginning of the book. The 100-page history, published by the co-op, is available at each of the co-operatives retail stores.
North Wellington Co-op, a member of Growmark Inc., serves a dozen townships from locations in Harriston, Mount Forest, Durham and Hanover.
