Why so many divisions on the website?
Five Rivers is a family owned and operated business dedicated to the pursuit of excellence and individualism. Our partners, Gary and Lorina Stephens, each pursue their own visions under Five Rivers’ umbrella, Lorina the publishing division, Gary the glass and cooperage divisions.
This may seem an odd combination; however, together, in an historic stone house, this husband and wife team dedicate themselves to personal involvement and attention to detail not only in their lives but their business dealings.
What We Are, and What We Do
We’ve been operating Five Rivers Chapmanry since 1994, and are located in the historic and picturesque village of Neustadt, Ontario, Canada, about 2 hours northwest of Toronto, 1 1/4 hours northwest of Guelph at the intersections of Grey County Roads 9 and 10.
Five Rivers encompasses several endeavours:
Five Rivers Glass & Mirror
This division of Five Rivers is Gary Stephens’ field of expertise, and his primary occupation. He has 35 years of experience in the glass and mirror industry, and a reputation for excellence in craftsmanship and customer service.
He has done everything from custom sand-blasted glass walls, laminated glass column installations, to custom tempered glass shower enclosures and mirror walls.
Five Rivers Cooperage
When not leaping buildings as a glazier, Gary works as North America’s premiere historical cooper, creating peerless white and tight cooperage for museums, living history sites, re-enactors and collectors in Canada, the United States and United Kingdom. His work forms part of the living history displays at L’anse aux Meadows Museum, Newfoundland; Buffalo Bill Historical Centre, Wyoming; and The Gibson House, Ontario, to name but a few.
Five Rivers Publishing
In 2008 Lorina established her own indie publishing house in direct response to the changing face of publishing. She brings with her 20 years of experience as a freelance writer, author and editor, and a commitment to publishing new Canadian voices which might otherwise remain silent.
Employing print on demand technologies as part of responsible management of environmental and financial resources, Five Rivers Publishing also offers not only a sound and sensible publishing model, but is now developing distribution channels that takes our books into the global market-place.
We’re also pleased to welcome to our publishing venture Robert Runte, who joins us in an editorial capacity, and Kelly Stephens, as our intern editorial assistant.
Five Rivers Chapmanry is a micro-publisher of fiction and non-fiction, catering to new Canadian authors. We employ print on demand technologies as part of responsible management of environmental and financial resources by printing only the books required, rather than warehousing thousands, thereby saving trees, land, air, water, hydro, fuel and capital expenditures. We also produce eBooks as part of that mandate.
Five Rivers is committed to bringing publishing back to uncompromising personal editors where it belongs, not focus group marketing. We publish real books by real authors for real readers.
Five Rivers is committed to producing quality books that have had the scrutiny of a good editor, with attention to layout and cover design. We work closely with our authors throughout the process. And we are very aggressive in our marketing, ensuring both our authors and our titles receive the best possible exposure in the global marketplace.
What does Chapmanry mean?
Chapmanry, or chapman, is an archaic term which in essence means a purveyor of goods, and is one of the few historical terms without a negative connotation, unlike sutler, chandler or a variety of others.
Why call ourselves a chapmanry? It fits. We undertake such a variety of endeavours it made sense to choose an operating name that would encompass them all.
Why Five Rivers?
When we first created Five Rivers Chapmanry we were located in Orangeville, Ontario, at the headwaters of four rivers: the Humber, the Nottawasaga, the Credit and the Grand, and in proximity to yet another river.
When we relocated to Neustadt, Ontario, in 2001, we found the name still worked as the area is home to the Saugeen, Rocky Saugeen, Beatty Saugeen, Teeswater and Sauble Rivers.