One of the most noteworthy of these is Henry Beer—general merchant, produce dealer, brickyard owner, importer and exporter. A Conservative, he represented Queens Third District in the Assembly from 1870—1873, and was later Speaker for several years. He was also a Justice of the Peace, and a Lieutenant-Colonel in the 82nd Queens County Battalion of Infantry. His “Southport Store” drew shoppers over from Charlottetown.

Captain John Aylward, another notable Southport resident, followed the sea for most of his life. He was born in Newfoundland, but moved to the Island at an early age. By hard work and thrift he acquired some 600 acres of land and his own ship. As master of this vessel, he engaged in trading with Newfoundland, making several crossings each summer with potatoes, turnips, grain, and sometimes live animals.

However, not everyone prospered even before the bridge was built; George Moore seems a good example of this fact of life. His Stratford House opened in 1855. In Haszard’s Gazette on February 13, 1856, a letter signed “Veritas, Lot 48” enthusiastically recommended “Stratford Hotel”: “this establishment is equal to any house for the special accommodation of the public in the Provinces, and Mr. Moore—the proprietor—has strong claims on public patronage.” But the 1864 Directory (above) shows Moore working as a bank teller in the city.

For a more general picture of Southport at a time when the village had become well established, we recall another old newspaper report, this time from the Patriot of June 20, 1878:

“... we reach Southport, destined to be one of the fashionable and health bearing adjuncts of Charlottetown. It is now quite a business centre, and when the new road is opened it will become still more important. The day is coming when the seaside from Farquharsons Point to the harbour’s mouth will be studded with villas. Charles Haszard, Esq., by the ferry facilities, which he so obligingly affords, is doing much for Southport as well as for the health and pleasure seekers from the city. The Honorable the Speaker of the Assembly [ Henry Beer] is a citizen of this place—where he and H. Bovyer, W.H. Farquharson and John Kennedy carry on a mercan- tile business. An Episcopal Church, a Schoolhouse, a Tannery, two Lime Kilns, a Post Office, three forges, two Houses of Entertainment, seven Brick Kilns, a Tailor’s shop, one Harness and Saddlery establishment and two Weigh Scales, are among our Southport notes. Beer, McIntosh, McKenzie, Alex. and Neil Stewart, Flood and Son, and the two Cardiffs, manufacture Brick extensively; the blacksmiths are Allan Stewart, Allan

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