Obstacles | Mysite

When the Agate brothers started their business, they ran into a lot of problems. Owning a business is hard! Here are some of the obstacles they ran into on the way.

In 1891, the malt house was burned down. But, three years later in 1894 William and John Agate decided to rebuild their malt house. But that same year, at four in the morning a fire started at the malt house, and by 6:30 A.M. the malt house was burnt down. A lot of barley was burnt in the malthouse. But again, they rebuilt it. They were very persistent!

At about 2:00 in the morning, two robbers attempted to rob the malt house but failed. The robbers broke into a blacksmiths shop to steal tools to crack open a safe. Then, they broke into the office, and tried to break open the safe, but they were scared off by some young people who just went for a sleigh ride. The Agate brothers later said the safe had a lot of money and checks in it.

Not all the obstacles involved their buildings. In her diary, Mary Agate wrote on April 26 and 27, 1881, about some of the workers going on strike because they wanted higher wages. John Agate was able to work it out and hire new workers, but the workers who went on strike came back asking for their jobs, but John Agate refused.