Many people have made important contributions to the village of O’Leary. One such person was A]. Matheson, who for over half a century served the village faithfully. He supplied O'Leary with need- ed pharmaceutics and was a great help to the doctors who served the O’Leary area at that time.

Arthur]. Matheson was born at Brackley Point, P.E.I., in 1871. He taught school for many years in Unionvale. He occasionally helped Dr. McEwen with medicine preparations, and when the doctor dis— covered that a drug clerk was needed, he turned to Mr. Matheson. A]. (as he was familiarly known) studied pharmacy in his spare time and he eventually wrote the examinations of the Prince Edward Island Pharmaceutical Association. In 1900 he opened a drug store, but like many other buildings in O’Leary, it burned. He had another one constructed on the comer of Willow Avenue and Main Street. The carpenters were Harry Williams of Lot 11, Pat Howard, and Neil MacDonald of O’Leary. The building was completely finished on the inside with natural wood. It had a beautiful hardwood ceiling.

In those days before ready made drugs, the filling of prescriptions was a painstaking and exacting task. The filling was weighed out pre- cisely, depending on each dosage, mixed together and then put into ‘ individual packets. When capsules were required, each one had to be filled and capped individually. Skin ointments were concocted using lard or vaseline base, mixed with other ingredients.

The front shop stocked up-to-date merchandise such as cosmet- ics, magazines, books, china, silver, toiletries, and fine chocolates. At the back of the store was a very interesting collection of antiques and artifacts. A]. was a pioneer in museum work in the village. Later, the store was run by his son Keith and his grandson Kenneth. Some pharmacists of the drug store were Eva (MacLennan) Dennis, Donald Matheson (Keith’s son), and Robert Matheson, (Kenneth’s son), who became the pharmacist in Tignish when the store in O’Leary closed.

Another early druggist, Garfield Ellis, son of Robert Ellis, Sr., operated a drugstore in a building belonging to his father just west of the railroad track. He later moved to Montague and from there to Western Canada.

It has been reported that early in the 1900’s J.W. Carruthers oper- ated a drugstore near the present site of the Credit Union.

IE. Dalton was born in Melrose, NE. in 1884. As a young man he worked in Amherst for a druggist - WJ. Ormond. In March, 1910, he moved to O’Leary and bought the Carruthers’ drugstore where he operated the business for a period of two or three years. While resid- 1 ing in O’Leary, he boarded with a Mrs. Gorrill who lived near the

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