The amalgamations of the early 20th century (Bank of New Brunswick in 1913, Metropolitan Bank in 1914, Bank of Ottawa in 1919) established Scotiabank as a national institution. However, the footprint that established us as a continent-wide enterprise was already in place.

Winnipeg: Gateway to the Continent

Winnipeg was a boom town in the early 1880’s. Fueled by the construction of the Prairie section of the CPR, as well as the completion of the Pembina branch of the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway, the potential of the city and its hinterland seemed unlimited. Fortunes based on speculation in Real Estate were made over night. It was into this atmosphere that Scotiabank sent Halifax Branch accountant E.H. Taylor, and ledger keeper David Forgan to open the first Scotiabank office outside of the Maritimes.

Winnipeg, c.1883

The 19 year old David Forgan described this adventure in his Sketches and Speeches:

"I took with me $40,000 in cash, and was seven days on the way, stopping a night at Chicago and two nights at Minneapolis. The cash was in a leather bag, and as I never parted with it for a moment day or night it became a great deal of a burden during that long journey. By reason of missing connections at Minneapolis I had to stay there over Sunday, and was two days later in reaching Winnipeg than I should have been. I resented the burden of carrying the cash, and so I forebore to telegraph the General Manager from Minneapolis. I thought I would give him a taste of the anxiety about the $40,000 which he had laid upon me, and I did, for when I reached Winnipeg, the Manager, who had preceded me, showed me several telegrams from the General Manager inquiring if I had arrived “with the remittance.”

We had difficulty in securing an office in Winnipeg, but as soon as I arrived with the money we started business….while a corner of an office was being prepared for us, I paid cheques out of the leather bag attached to my person. After a while, we secured a fair office, but the security of the safe being doubtful, it became my duty to sleep in front of it on a shake-down and armed with a revolver….I would prepare my bed in front of the safe and sleep until seven a.m., when I had to get out to make room for the scrubwoman….It was tinged with adventure and romance to my mind. Was I not a tenderfoot in the great Northwest, roughing it like a man…?"

David Forgan, c.1882

The great Winnipeg land boom ended just six months after Scotiabank arrived. Business declined rapidly thereafter. In November 1884 H.C. McLeod (who would eventually become the Bank’s General Manager) was sent out to manage the Branch. His assignment was to wind up the Bank’s business in Winnipeg. He was assisted in this task by the Bank’s inspector James Forgan – the brother of young David who had guarded the money so diligently. Scotiabank’s initial outing in Winnipeg ended in failure in September 1885, however, the expertise acquired in the operation of the western grain trade proved invaluable for the next step in Scotiabank’s continental expansion.

South of the Border

Minneapolis, 1890

H.C. McLeod and James Forgan were sent out from Winnipeg to explore business opportunities in Minneapolis. Minneapolis was the United States’ leading flour-milling city in 1885. It was second (to New York) in wheat trading. It had historic ties to Winnipeg via the old Red River cart trail that was now replaced by the railway. It was also underbanked. McLeod and Forgan were enthusiastic about the potential of Minneapolis and they opened an Agency on October 20, 1885.

James Forgan was so enamoured by the Midwestern town that he proposed that McLeod trade jobs with him, and so H.C. McLeod returned

James Forgan

to Halifax as the Bank’s inspector while Forgan stayed in Minneapolis as the agent. In Minneapolis Scotiabank concentrated on foreign exchange dealings and seasonal wheat and flour loans rather than the general banking services that had been offered in Winnipeg. The strategy proved successful.

The Minneapolis venture proved to be fortuitous for the Forgan brothers. In 1887 they were lured away by the Northwestern National Bank of Minneapolis. James went on to become the president and later the chairman of the First National Bank of Chicago, while David became the president of the National City Bank of Chicago.

In 1892 Scotiabank decided to open an agency in Chicago in anticipation of the Chicago Columbian Exposition of 1893. Chicago had just been designated a central reserve city and was the undisputed hub of Midwestern American commerce. The Minneapolis agency was closed and Scotiabank’s Midwestern business was transferred to Chicago.

Today Scotiabank serves its American clients through Scotia Capital Offices in: Atlanta (opened in 1977), Chicago, Houston (opened in 1962), New York (opened in 1907), Portland (opened in 1978), and San Francisco (opened in 1968).

Across the Canadian Frontier

The completion of the CPR, the influx of settlers to the Prairies, and the development of new strains of wheat and new farming methods suited to the Canadian Prairie environment convinced Scotiabank that it would be desirable to have a presence in Western Canada. Winnipeg would once again become the gateway to western expansion when Scotiabank opened a new branch there on January 3, 1899.

The next step west was to Edmonton. Edmonton, with its strategic location on the North Saskatchewan River had been a focal point of the Northwest economy from the days of the fur trade, through the Klondike Gold Rush, and into the settling of the west.

Edmonton, 1907

On May 18, 1903, four Scotiabank representatives arrived in the frontier town of 4,000. Banking quarters were not easy to find and finally they chose what Accountant F.W. Ross described as:

"…a decrepit old store….It had unusual depth and the banking office was cut off from the back by a high partition. The game of Ping-Pong was all the rage in those days. The manager had brought…a table…which was too large for his home, so it reposed at the back of the office where, even during office hours, two of the staff would practice their Ping-Pong while the third member “kept shop” in front."

In the fall of 1903 a Group of Scotiabank Directors toured Western Canada to view the Canadian Frontier firsthand. They were impressed by the potential of the west. A year later new branches were opened in Vancouver, Calgary, Wetaskiwin, and Fort Saskatchewan. In 1906 and 1907 branches were opened in Saskatoon and Regina respectively.

These were still very much frontier times. Saskatoon Manager Andrew Mooney wrote to the General Manager in June 1906:

"Since coming to this town, I have found it an absolute impossibility to rent a house, and, consequently, like a great many others, I have been obliged to live in a tent since last April….Most of the houses in this town are, as yet, of the shack variety….Having had sufficient of tent life, I wish to ask…for an extra living allowance…"

Walter Wood, 1900

Walter Wood, Saskatoon Branch’s Accountant painted this picture:

"It is scarcely possible to write from Saskatoon without some reference to this life of an ever-flowing stream that…has struck Saskatoon and, breaking has spread out over the rich prairie land on all sides to the free farms given by the Government…It is a common sight to see the arrival of whole train loads of settlers bringing with them stock and effects sufficient to set them up on their homesteads…"

The Scotiabank Group has preserved the stories of these and other “pioneer” bankers in its Archives.