Eaton's Rural Roots

"Flightstop" art installation by Michael Snow at the Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto. For many years, Eaton's was Canada's most popular department store.

In the last post, I mentioned the popularity of Eaton’s Department Store. Until the chain closed in 1999, Eaton’s was known as “Canada’s Greatest Store,” with locations all over the country.

Eaton's, 1901.

If you’re too young to have shopped at Eaton’s, your parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents most certainly did.

Eaton's in the 1940s.

Did you know that Timothy Eaton opened his first store in Kirkton, Ontario?

Timothy Eaton, born 1834 in County Antrim, Ireland.

Kirkton is a hamlet on the border of Huron and Perth Counties, less than 10 miles (less than 16 km) northeast of the Culbert homestead.

Kirkton is northeast of Lucan, Ontario and the Culbert homestead.

The small, log general store was known as J. & T. Eaton and it was owned by Timothy Eaton and his brother, James. The store opened in 1856 and was stocked with essentials for settlers: dry goods and groceries. 

Timothy had to barter with customers over prices and accept goods in payment or credit for merchandise. This limited his chances for making a profit but because his was the new store in town, he had to accept this way of doing business.

Kirkton, with a population less than 200, wasn’t growing as rapidly as Timothy Eaton had hoped. When the Grand Trunk Railway bypassed the area, Timothy was faced with the prospect of closing the store.

In 1860, he moved the business to St. Mary’s, Ontario, with a larger population of 4,000. However, Timothy Eaton was a man of big dreams, and small-town Ontario wasn’t enough for him. In 1869, he sold his share of the business to his brothers and moved to Toronto. 

It wasn’t long before Eaton’s became a retail empire.

Advertisement in the Globe and Mail promoting the Eaton's department store, its coronation displays and its merchandise made from the British Empire. 10 May 1937. 

Eaton's Centre, Toronto, 1970s.

The Eaton's empire was a Canadian institution until they filed for bankruptcy and closed all their stores in 1999. It's been said that "When Timothy Eaton moved to Toronto in 1869 and declared he would sell his merchandise for cash only, at one price, and money refunded if goods not satisfactory, people said he would go broke... and, sure enough, 130 years later, he did!"

You know from this previous post that Myron Manford Culbert (1884-1961) married Effie Pearl Taylor. Effie’s second cousin, once removed was Lorne Nelson Marshall of Kirkton. Lorne opened a general store/hardware store on the site of Timothy Eaton’s store at the corner of what we know today as Highway 23 and Huron County Road 6...

Lorne Marshall's general store / hardware store on the site of Timothy Eaton's first store in Kirkton, Ontario. Photo courtesy of Lorne's son, Ron Marshall.

Lorne ran the business until 1959, raising his family in the same building. 

Under new ownership, the building still stands today at that same corner in Kirkton. 

A 2013 shot of the Kirkton store that stands on the site of Timothy Eaton's first store. Photo courtesy of Ron Marshall.

Our ancestors, John Culbert & Mary Ward and some of their children probably made the trip to the first Eaton's store in Kirkton at least once in their lifetime. Without a doubt, many descendants of John Culbert and Mary Ward visited Lorne Marshall's general store which later stood on that same site. 

Timothy Eaton plaque. Photo via Creative Huron.