Austin A. Scales

Prince Edward Island

Austin Scales is the last of a rare breed of Maritime entrepreneurs. Born in 1886 on a modest farm in St. Eleanor's, Prince Edward Island, he stayed home from school to help his mother run the farm and to support the four children.

Educated at home he attended the Nova Scotia Agricultural College in 1910 and in 1918 he received his Bachelor of Science in Agriculture at Guelph, Ontario. While studying in Truro he heard how silver fox pelts were selling for $1,000 a piece. Seeing the promise of the market demand, he and five others formed the Willow Hill Silver Backfox Company, selling pairs of breeding stock for as high as $25,000.

Over the years he has become involved in the seed potato growing business and numerous export ventures.

In 1928 he bought a small P.E.I. grist and power plant pioneering a new field, the generation and distribution of electric power from waters of the Dunk River near his Freetown home.

In 1946, following a fire, he re-established Island Fertilizers, a business now operated by his sons Henry and David and grandson John, in P.E.I., Nova Scotia and Maine.

From his 400 acres in the Freetown potato belt he grew potatoes and helped to form Associated Shippers Incorporated which found new markets in the United States, Cuba and Caribbean countries. Another project of his was the P.E.I. potato dehydration plant which he established in 1943. The plant packed large brown tins of chipped spuds to be sent by the Canadian Government to feed allied troops during World War II.

Austin Scales has become recognized as a Canadian business leader. He is a past Director of the Bank of Canada and past Chairman of Industrial Enterprises Inc.. He also served as Chairman of the Board of Prince County Hospital. Austin Scales and Lillian, his wife of 57 years, have four sons and two daughters.

The Austin Scales business legend will not be an easy act for his family to follow. They have the challenge of filling the large shoes of a man whose footprints are firmly imprinted on the farm and business legacy of Atlantic Canada.