PEOPLE OF THIS DISTRICT INTERESTED IN SUCCESS OF MERCHANT IN NORTH DAKOTA

R.B. Griffith Celebrates Fiftieth Anniversary of Grand Forks Store

NATIVE OF WELLAND

First Experience Gained in Business of Late L.G. Carter of Port Colborne

[The Welland-Port Colborne Evening Tribune, 10 November 1931]

News of unusual interest to the older residents of Port Colborne and Welland has been received in Port Colborne recently, concerning the success of a former Port Colborne resident, a native of Welland, R.B. Griffith. R.B. Griffith, proprietor of the Ontario store in Grand Forks, North Dakota, celebrated on November 2, the 50^th anniversary of the founding of his business, which has grown from a small general store, which at one time was on the verge of bankruptcy, to a successful and modern department store, employing ten department heads, occupying a four-storey building, and with its allied businesses approximately $1,000,000 turnover this year.

The record of Mr. Griffith whose first day of business in his Grand Forks store netted him gross receipts of $17.80, is one of continued progress, and expansion despite the fact that two years after the store was opened the proprietor was ready to turn it over to his creditors to satisfy their claims, when a heavy stock and poor crop came close to spelling disaster. From that time on, when his creditors extended him additional consideration, the business was built steadily upwards until its present strong position was reached. Mr. Griffith is now president of the company, with his son, Paul B. Griffith as vice-president.

Born in Welland

R.B. Griffith was born in Welland, December 24, 1855, the son of James and Ellen Griffith. At the age of 14 he went to Port Colborne as clerk and for three years was an employee in the store of the late L.G. Carter. Through alternative periods of schooling and clerking he reached the time at which he wished to enter the Woodstock seminary, but an epidemic which broke out in the school caused it to close and his plans were altered.

Mr. Carter passed throuogh the Dakotas on his way to Western Canada to engage in the real estate buisness and remembering that Mr. Griffith wished to start in business in the western United States, selected Larimore as the place in which he would build his store. Arrangements were made and a stock was shipped west from Minneapolis to Larimore. Arriving at what was suppose to be the site of Larimore, however, Mr. Griffith found that the town did not yet exist. He accordingly had the goods taken from the train at Grand Forkes and opened his store there at the time, naming his the Ontario store. Mr. Griffith himself painted the first sign for the store.

In 1885 he married Miss Minnie Webster, a clerk in his store, and four children were born of the marriage, three dying in infancy, the fourth , Paul B. Griffith being the present vice-present of the store.

Helps to Establish Church

In addition to being prominent in the buisness life of the community, Mr.Griffith was instrumental in the organization of the Firt Baptist church of Grand Forks, being clerk of the church of which Rev. C.Y. Snell, former Port Colborne man, was pastor. Mr.Griffith’s name has been inseparably linked with the growth of this church which was organized the year Mr. Griffith went to Grand Forks, with a charter membership of 16, and which celebrated its 50^th anniverary recently. The late Thaddeus Zavitz, a Port Colborne man, was prominent in its later organization. Mrs. Zavitz, his widow is still a resident of Steele street, Port Colborne.

In 1900, Mr. Griffith presented the church wih a handsome Sunday school building, having promised that if the attendance averaged 250 for six months, he would present the new Sunday school building. The attendance reached the required average and the handome building was erected at a cost of $13,000.

William H. Carter, Mrs. Lucinda Carter, Leroy H. Carter and John Lynson were other charter members of the church who have relatives in Port Colborne.

Mr. and Mrs. Griffith and grandson, Robert Griffith, apent a couple of days in Port Colborne in August of this year, visiting several of their old Port Colborne friends including Mr. and Mrs. O.L. Steele who were also residents of Grand Forks and district during the days when Mr. Griffith opened and began the development of his business.