{"id":8408,"date":"1887-10-29T16:29:00","date_gmt":"1887-10-30T00:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peipioneercemetery.com\/staging\/?p=8408"},"modified":"2026-10-29T16:30:44","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T23:30:44","slug":"matthew-and-mclean-more-than-a-general-store","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peipioneercemetery.com\/staging\/matthew-and-mclean-more-than-a-general-store\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew and McLean: More Than a General Store"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A business founded in Souris in 1869 grew far beyond its shop counter. Matthew and McLean connected retailing with fishing, processing, farming and transport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">From Charlottetown to Souris<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Uriah Matthew (1842\u20131902) and John McLean (1846\u20131936) began their careers with Heartz and Son in Charlottetown. With help from Benjamin Heartz, they established their own general merchant business in Souris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By 1887, the enterprise included a branch store and starch factory at Dundas. The store later moved to Bridgetown for access to the Boughton River. The firm also supplied stores in the Magdalen Islands and operated lobster canneries shipping to Boston and the West Indies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Business and public life<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">John McLean also served in provincial and federal politics, becoming a senator in 1915. His daughter, Nursing Sister Rena Maude McLean, died when the hospital ship Llandovery Castle was torpedoed in 1918.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Two different closing dates<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The shop closed in 1974. The company surrendered its charter in 1982. These mark different stages in the end of the enterprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The historic building at 95 Main Street preserves a physical connection to the business and its place in eastern Island life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Sources<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.historicplaces.ca\/en\/rep-reg\/place-lieu.aspx?id=5983\">Canadian Register of Historic Places: Matthew and McLean Heritage Building<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.princeedwardisland.ca\/sites\/default\/files\/publications\/eelc_pei_historic_places.pdf\">Government of PEI: Prince Edward Island Historic Places, printed page 31<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A business founded in Souris in 1869 grew far beyond its shop counter. Matthew and McLean connected retailing with fishing, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1457],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commerce-industry"],"gutslider_comments":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peipioneercemetery.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peipioneercemetery.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peipioneercemetery.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peipioneercemetery.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peipioneercemetery.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8408"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/peipioneercemetery.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8409,"href":"https:\/\/peipioneercemetery.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8408\/revisions\/8409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peipioneercemetery.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peipioneercemetery.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peipioneercemetery.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}