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Montreal Transportation Co.'s relationships to Canadian Towing & Wrecking Co. Ltd. and Reid Towing Co. Ltd. are described separately at the end of the Montreal Transportation Co. lists. A Brief History of the Firm: The Montreal Transportation Company was formed in 1868. It based its shipping operations in Kingston Ontario although the head office was in Montreal. It was the largest shipping enterprise that ever based its operations in Kingston and, during much of the firm's existence, it was the largest inland Canadian shipowner. The firm grew to become the largest grain transhipment firm in North America and outlasted all of its competitors in the St. Lawrence grain forwarding trade. Beginning in the 1890s, the company expanded into the carriage of grain directly from the lakehead [see definitions] to Montreal. The company was founded by brothers Hugh and John McLennan. They were involved in grain warehousing and forwarding in Montreal. In 1868 they got together with Jean Baptiste Auger of Montreal (shipbuilder and owner of Auger Shipping), Murdoch Laing of Kingston (merchant), Thomas Rimmer of Montreal (timber merchant), George Chaffey of Kingston (vertically integrated lumber, grain and mineral forwarding business operating tugs and barges) and George Mathieson Kinghorn of Kingston (ferry operator, investor in the Wolfe Island Canal, wharfinger and grain forwarder) to form Montreal Transportation Co. George Chaffey was soon bankrupt, or nearly so, and Montreal Transportation Co. then bought at least some of the Chaffey Bros. barge fleet. The initial purpose of Montreal Transportation Co. was to gather grain coming from ports as far west as Chicago and then export it to Europe through Montreal. This required transhipment of grain at Kingston. Montreal Transportation Co. would have floating elevators at Kingston to unload grain from lake vessels and transfer it to the firm's own river barges. The barges would be towed down the river to Montreal by Montreal Transportation Co. tugs where more floating elevators could be used to load the grain into ocean-going vessels for export. Alternatively, it could be transfered to flour mills for processing. The Montreal Elevating and Warehousing Co.'s grain and flour storage space was available as surge capacity if needed. Montreal Transportation Co. was initially capitalized at $60,000. In the beginning, Montreal Transportation Co. used "package freighters" to move grain from the west to Kingston. They carried grain east, down the lakes, and manufactured goods west, up the lakes. Sailing ships, especially schooners, also brought grain to Kingston from many lake ports. Montreal Transportation Co. quickly created a fleet of barges to run between Kingston and Montreal. Some former Chaffey and Auger barges formed part of the initial fleet 3