Russell Champion was originally from Malpeque,
but moved the five miles to Kensington with his wife in
1920. He started out working for Waldron Darrach as a
clerk at Tuplin's
Store. After learning the ropes at
Tuplin's, he had enough faith in his business acumen to
found his own general store in 1926.
While this store
became very successful, Champion wanted to explore other
avenues and sold his business to Donald MacKenzie in
1933. In 1936, he opened a cold storage facility to
accommodate the public's refrigeration needs. Before this
point in time, each farm
would have an ice-house, a building in a shaded area with
a stone-lined cellar. A heavy layer of sawdust was used
to insulate the large blocks of ice, cut during the
winter from local ponds. In the summer, meat and fish
would have to be preserved by pickling or drying
techniques. The appearance of firms like Champion's
introduced a much appreciated convenience and guaranteed
frozen meat year-round.
Hiring on his sons and sons-in-law, the Champion family firm expanded into lobster packaging. Only years before, lobsters only cost seventy-cents per hundred, no matter what their size. Farmers even sometimes spread them on their fields as fertilizer. But with the growth of the market in the U.S., lobster suddenly became a lucrative industry and Champion got in on the leading edge of it. He went on to start a cheese factory, a boon to local dairy farmers, and his construction company built many of the stately wood homes in Kensington.
Mr. Champion also had a taste for politics. He acted as Mayor of Kensington from 1928 to 1929 and also from 1940 to 1948. His son, Everett, followed in his father's footsteps. He was as a town councillor for five years before serving as mayor between 1956 and 1970. During his time as councillor, he also served as fire chief for the town.
Reuben Tuplin | Dr.Donald Darrach | James Kennedy | Maynard F.
Schurman |
Donald
MacKenzie | K.L. Waite | Other
Pharmacies
