Province of Manitoba » Culture Heritage, Tourism and Sport » Historic Resources » People, Places and Events » Manitobans Who Made a Difference » Difference Makers » Daniel Eames Sprague

Manitobans Who Made a Difference

(Courtesy of the Archives of Manitoba)

Daniel Eames Sprague, through his successful logging, lumber mill, and lumber retail operations and participation in various organizations, contributed to the development of Winnipeg and Manitoba. Sprague was one of many Ontarians who sought opportunities in the recently created (1870) province of Manitoba. He was unique in the late nineteenth-century lumber industry of Manitoba because, although his timber berths were in the extreme southeastern part of the province, he built his original sawmill and retailing operation on Fonseca (later Higgins) Avenue in the Point Douglas area of Winnipeg.

Sprague was born in Keswick, York County, Canada West (after 1867, Ontario). He came to Winnipeg in 1872 and, in 1881, established the Sprague Lumber Company. For several years, Sprague transported his logs to Winnipeg via the Sprague, Roseau, and Red rivers. With the building of the Manitoba and South Eastern Railway in 1900, he transported them by rail. Sprague was president and manager of the Sprague Lumber Company, president of the Pacific Coast Lumber Company and the Western Retail Lumbermen's Association, a director and president of the Winnipeg Industrial Exhibition Board, vice-president of the Canada National Fire Insurance Company, the North-West Fire Insurance Company, and the Imperial Canadian Trust Company, western director of the London and Lancashire Life Insurance Company, a director of the Monarch Life Assurance Company, the Canadian Manufacturers' Association, and the Winnipeg General Hospital, a member of the advisory board of the Great West Permanent Loan and Savings Company, and one of the promoters of the Winnipeg Jockey Club in 1906. He was also a railway contractor. A Conservative in politics, he ran unsuccessfully in the constituency of Winnipeg South against a Liberal candidate in the provincial election of July, 1892. A keen proponent of Western Canada's economic development, Sprague was one of three Winnipeg Board of Trade delegates to the conference that formed the Western Canadian Immigration Association (1904-08), intended to promote American immigration to the Canadian West. In the years before World War I, he became a prominent businessman and property holder in Winnipeg.

Sprague had five timber berths in southeastern Manitoba, comprising about 90.65 square kilometres (35 square miles). His mills produced between 1,500,000-2,500,000 board feet annually in the years before World War I. In addition to lumber, he produced firewood for the Winnipeg market. In 1916, Sprague, a quartermaster with the 109th regiment, joined a forestry battalion of the Canadian army, was appointed a Lieutenant-Colonel, and served overseas until 1920. Sprague's business, however, like many other ventures at the time, suffered the effects of the post-war depression. As a result, in 1918 Sprague closed his sawmill and manufacturing plants in Winnipeg, and concentrated on his retail lumberyards, selling products from mills in British Columbia. He established new retail sites around Winnipeg and continued operations until his death in 1928.

Sprague's wife, Alice, and nephew, D. Boyce Sprague, carried on the business, but changed its focus to a wholesale and brokerage lumber firm. John Shanski purchased Sprague Lumber in 1946, establishing a retail division which he later sold to Monarch Lumber. In 1972, John Shanski Jr. took over the wholesale division, Sprague Distributors. The lumber company, begun by Daniel Sprague, celebrated 100 years of operation in 1981. It has since been sold to a competitor.

Sprague, engaged in selling his lumber holdings to prospective buyers, passed away while in Ottawa. He was buried in St. John's Anglican Cemetery in Winnipeg. Sprague, a village in southeastern Manitoba near the border with the United States, as well as the neighbouring Sprague Bog, Sprague Creek (River), and Sprague Lake, in the area where Daniel Sprague had his lumber camps, and Sprague Street in the west end of Winnipeg, are named after him.