Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

50 HISTORY OF THE BANKMr. Edwin S. Lally, formerly agent of the Bank of UpperCanada at Barrie, was appointed agent at Barrie, with Mr.T. D. McConkey 1 as local director. Both these men borenames intimately associated with the history of Barrie and ofSimcoe county. Soon after, steps were taken to establishbranches in Guelph and Hamilton. In the former the stockof the new bank had met with a ready sale; in the latter wassituated the head office of the Great Western Railway, thebusiness of which had been secured for the bank by Mr.McMaster, who was chairman of the Canadian Board of thatrailway. A sub-agency in Strathroy, under the control of themanager of the London branch, completed the list of branchesopened during the first year.Before The Canadian Bank of Commerce began operations,an arrangement had been effected with the MerchantsBank of Canada, Montreal, whereby each agreed to collectfree of charge for the other at its branches. A few monthslater this arrangement was cancelled and a similar one wasmade with the Molsons Bank. As already mentioned,Senator McMaster's friend, Mr. Caldwell Ashworth, acted forthe bank in New York in the same capacity as he had for theMcMaster firm as broker in transactions involving the purchaseand sale of foreign exchange and the conversion ofUnited States currency funds into gold.2It was also decided1 Thomas David McConkey, M.P.P. (1815-90), was a native of Ardtrea, CountyTyrone, Ireland. His family came to Canada about 1821, and were among the earlysettlers in the neighbourhood of Barrie, Ont. Mr. McConkey went into business inBarrie about 1843, and became warden of the County of Simcoe in 1860. In 1863 hewas elected as member for the North Riding of Simcoe in the last Parliament of theProvince of Canada, and again in 1867 in the first Parliament of the Dominion ofCanada. He was one of the petitioners for the charter of the Bank of Simcoe, incorporatedin 1866, which never came into existence, and one of the charter members ofthe Toronto, Simcoe and Muskoka Junction Railway Company, incorporated in 1869.He was sheriff of the County of Simcoe from 1875 until his death.For many years following the Civil War in the United States, gold was at apremium in that country, and the bank kept two accounts with its customers, onein currency and the other in gold funds. The first general ledger of The CanadianBank of Commerce shows that two accounts were kept with Mr. Ashworth,one in current funds and the other in gold. Speaking of this period, John Crosby