Fonds med-12 - F. M. Ginther Land Company fonds

Frances Marion Ginther was born in Ohio, February 3, 1879. In childhood, he moved with his family to Illinois, where he was educated at Springfield. The Ginther's later resided in Cando, North Dakota, before eventually moving to Medicine Hat in 1906 or 1907. Frances Ginther married Estele (nee Sprinkell), before he moved to Medicine Hat. They had three children: Wilbur, Noble and Marion. The Ginther family home was located at 506 Aberdeen Street. Mr. Ginther's main business interests concerned real estate, originally specializing in farm lands by handling the CPR and Hudson's Bay Company's lands in southeastern Alberta. In approximately 1909, the F.M.Ginther Land Company began handling real estate in Medicine Hat and Redcliff. A good proportion of the land owned by the F.M. Ginther Land Company was situated between those two places. As a promoter, Mr. Ginther actively publicized the advantages of living in the booming town of Medicine Hat and numerous booklets and promotional materials were written under his leadership. As well, Mr. Ginther took an active part in community affairs as a member of the Industrial Bureau of the Board of Trade, as President of the Medicine Hat Pump and Brass Manufacturing Company, and as President of the Medicine Hat Baseball Club. Mr. Ginther was also well known through connections with firms in Glasgow, Scotland, as well as in the United States. In 1913, Mr. Ginther formed a brief partnership with John Gillespie, known as Gillespie and Ginther Ltd. (see associated material). By the ending of WW I however, the F.M. Ginther Land Company had begun to suffer financial problems, necessitating the formation of another partnership between Frances Ginther and William Finlay. As the real estate market "dried up" during the last of the war years, so did his business ventures. In about 1921, the Ginther family moved back to Illinois, then to Arkansas and finally to Texas, where the family, primarily the two sons, began an oil and gas company. The surviving three children of the Ginther family live in Houston, Texas. Frances Marion Ginther died May 16, 1949.