Niel H. Asselin

The name of Niel H. Asselin has become a familiar one in commercial circles in Montreal, where he occupies the important and responsible position of general agent of the Singer Sewing Machine Company for eastern Canada. He was born in 1845 at St. Michel, Bellechase county, in the province of Quebec, and supplemented his preliminary education by study in the St. Michel Commercial College. He reached what may be termed his métier by a somewhat circuitous course. He started with the Grand Trunk Railway in the position of operator and stationmaster at Hadlow in 1863 and left that position to accept one in the office of the prothonotary for the Quebec district, in which capacity he served for six years. He then resigned to travel in the boot and shoe trade, and in 1874 came into active connection with the sewing machine business as representative of the Howe Sewing Machine Company. When this went into liquidation he made his way to the United States and joined the sales force of the Wheeler & Wilson & Domestic Sewing Machine Company.

Upon returning to Canada in 1884, Mr. Asselin entered the employ of the White Sewing Machine Company as its representative in Quebec, the maritime provinces and Newfoundland. In 1891 he joined the Singer Sewing Machine Company at Quebec as its manager for half of the province and a part of New Brunswick. In 1903 he was advanced to the position of superintendent and in 1905 became general agent for all eastern Canada, comprising Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, with headquarters in the Board of Trade building in Montreal. Here with an office staff of fifteen under his control and twenty-eight regular shops, thirty-two contract shops and four hundred outside employes under his jurisdiction, he may well be said to hold the blue ribbon position in sewing machine circles in Canada.

Mr. Asselin has a fluent command of both English and French and is a cultured, genial gentleman, whose popularity arises from attractive social qualities as well as pronounced business ability.