Family Life

The McAteer family enjoyed a handsome income from the keeping trade, commercial investments and the network of connections in the Guelph community. John and Jane raised a family of two boys and three girls, who attended school in Guelph and found husbands and wives from within the community.

Moving from residential quarters within the Western Hotel itself, the family found home a few blocks away in leafy Waterloo Street. The girls all attended the local Catholic school and are pictured here posing for a rather stylish portrait at a local photographer's studio.

Meanwhile, John McAteer rose from working behind the bar at the Albion Hotel to leasing his own Hotel and eventually buying his own hotel to run. He served on the Town council and joined a fellow entrepreneur from the drink trade, George Sleeman who served as Mayor Guelph during John's tenure.