Commercial 85 Dunstan's College and was first employed as clerk in Owen Connolly 's store in Charlottetown . He may even have been recommended for this new job by Connolly, who was particularly helpful to young boys of Irish descent and was on the Board of Directors of the Bank.69 The Merchants Bank of P. E.I , was in the Connolly fire of 1891. It moved across the street to the Knight building and was there for the fire of 1912. It then moved back across the street to the Allan L. McDonald building for a year until making a final move to the new Canadian Bank of Commerce building the next year. The Merchants Bank had merged with the Com ¬ merce in 1906. J.J. Hughes may not have been with the Bank when it made its last move. He was a general merchant in the Imperial building when it burned in 1909 and must have found it profitable. He built a new store the same year on the corner where the Co-op now stands. This store served the public for many years. In 1900, he began a highly successful political career which will be covered elsewhere in the history. Hotels: Souris had far more hotel accommodation in the last century than it has today. Travellers from Charlottetown and elsewhere were obliged to stop over at least one night, even after the railway came. There were a number of boarding houses, as well, for young men working in Souris but not yet committed to remaining there. Benjamin Heartz made at least one trip a year to Souris . Even as a child, his son Frank accompanied him and has left this account of one of those trips: I was born in 1871, came to Souris to live in 1888. However it wasn't my first trip here. My father belonged to Mat¬ thew, McLean & Company and I went to Souris every year since I was two. We travelled by horse and wagon. The trip took about seven hours. I remember we generally stopped at Midgell . All the travellers stopped there. She kept an inn with a little drop to drink and the large sign over the door proclaimed THE WIDOW DINGWELL. I can remember an able looking woman with a bunch of keys at her waist. In Souris we generally stopped at Big Jim's. He had a hotel above a store. The Cox Hotel was near a school...When Alexander MacKenzie , Premier of Canada , came to Souris, I heard him speak at Big Jim's when I was not more than seven or eight. I can remember staying at the Stone Hotel when I was a youngster but it wasn't running when I came to Souris .70 Big Jim had an advertisement in the Examiner on June 12, 1877: "Car¬ riages always in waiting at Railway depot to convey passengers to and from trains, free of charge." The official name of his hotel was Bay Vue but was usually referred to as Big Jim's. It was in what was later called the Imperial Building. The Cox Hotel was called the , a name that went with it from its first location on to the Imperial Building and to its perman¬ ent location on , west of what is today Silver Threads Club. It was, originally, a store and dwelling built by William Sterns in 1891. After