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Roderick V (Vic) MacCosham (Tracy's grandfather), a Scottish French-Canadian, started MacCosham Van Lines with a $20,000 inheritance. Vic learned the principles that powered his corporation to the top from his mother in Bryson, Quebec after his father, a prominent Ottawa Valley businessman, lost his life in a log drive on the Ottawa River in 1887. When he graduated from college, Vic took his entrepreneurial ambitions to New York where he lost his shirt in the theatre, but stuck it out until he made enough to return home and take his $20,000 inheritance west to Alberta in 1906. |
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 In Edmonton he tried his hand in a variety of industries before he went into building with the construction of a warehouse at 109 Street and 103 Avenue. The warehouse was built with R.V's inheritance. The company's records indicate that the going rate for carpenters that year was 50 cents per hour while labourers on the excavations earned 27 and one half cents per hour. In 1913 he owned the structure and got into the warehousing business, when one of his maxims backfired - value wins over price. Vic MacCosham only built the most up-to-date, best quality facilities. "Do things right the first time and you'll have satisfied customers and eventually greater profits," he used to say. The warehouse consignee refused to pay the price and backed out of the deal.
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Undaunted, Vic MacCosham put his storehouse in order and went after the railroads for shipping and storage contracts. A master of both French and English, he quickly gained a reputation for his most unbending precept - integrity. If he advertised that his warehouse was vermin-proof he meant it. When a mouse appeared during a customer tour one day, sent the rodent-ridden furniture back to its owner. |
