In
1846, there was on King street in this city, between Ray and Queen, a two-story
frame house, on the lot which is now the location of the Roman Catholic
Bishop’s palace. On Sunday night in 1846, a tragedy occurred in that house
which is not forgotten even in this day by George Watson, a native Hamiltonian
now bordering on the threescore and ten milepost. A journeyman miller who
worked in a Dundas flouring mill came into Hamilton to spend Sunday, and his
frequent visits to taverns were too much for him. Toward evening he started to
walk home to Dundas, but his unlucky star guided him into the two-story house
above referred to, which was then inhabited by a family of a mother and
daughters of ill-repute and other unfortunate girls who had strayed from the
paths of virtue. The probabilities are that the Dundas miller had a small sum
of money with him, which tempted the cupidity of a couple of American young men
who were temporarily stopping in Hamilton and who were visitors at the brothel.
The miller was murdered, and whatever valuables he had on him were taken, and
then his body carried to Ray street and thrown into a ditch, where it laid till
Monday morning, when it was discovered by George Watson, then a lad of ten or
twelve years who was then driving his cows to pasture. The boy was terribly
scared at the ghastly sight that met his gaze, and in all the years since that
time it has been a vivid memory in his memory. George gave the alarm, and in a
short time a crowd had gathered on Ray street. The police were notified and the
body was taken to Bourland’s tavern, on the corner of King and Pearl streets.
Suspicion soon rested upon the inmates in the house of prostitution, which was
confirmed a little later by the finding of a button which corresponded to those
on the coat of the miller, one of which was missing. Hamilton had but a small
police force in those days, probably numbering not more than half a dozen,
including the high bailiff and the chief of police, but they showed their
expertness by following up the clue of the button. The two Americans were still
in the house, and on their clothes were splotches of blood. The men and two of
the girls were arrested, and the evidence pointed so strongly to their guilt that
the coroner had them to answer before the court. The men and their women
accomplices were arraigned at the next assizes and found guily, and sentenced
to the penitentiary at Kingston for life. The woman who kept the house and her
other boarders were ordered to leave the city at once. The two-story frame
house in which the murder was committed, was moved down to George street, where
it stands at present and is occupied by respectable people, who may never have
heard of the tragedy enacted in it fifty-eight years ago.
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“Hamilton is at last getting a move on
itself,” said one of the old boys the other morning when watching the laborers
at work putting down the mains on Main street for the natural gas company. “For
twelve or fifteen years they have been burning natural gas out at Dunville and
Caledonia, and the Niagara frontier has been lighting and heating the homes of
the people of Buffalo, while Hamilton has lazily looked on and wondered when
some outsiders would think it worthwhile to pipe gas to this city.” It has
remained at last for a company of promoters from Cleveland, Ohio, to furnish
Hamilton with what has been lying within easy reach for a quarter of a century
or more. Natural gas was discovered up near Windsor away back in 1857, and at
first, people were scared out of their wits when the fire blazed up from a hole
in the ground and its rumbling shook the earth. A man was boring for water and
had gone down to a great depth when gas was struck. So powerful was the vein
that the workmen had to draw out their drill, and it was followed by water,
sand and gravel, which blew up a distance of twenty or thirty feet in the air.
By accident, the stream of gas was ignited, and for days it burned brilliantly.
Superstitious ones thought it was Hades let loose and that the end of the world
was at hand. At first it was decided to fill the hole, probably to keep the
evil spirits from running loose in Western Canada, but better counsel prevailed
and the flow of gas was stopped by putting wooden cloths into the hole. How
long after the gas was discovered before it was utilized, the writer has no
recollection, for he was only a boy working in the Free Press office in London
at the time of the excitement. Detroit finally got the benefit of the gas.
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Within the past twenty years gas was
discovered up on the mountain, in the Dunnville district, and Hamilton could
have had it anytime for almost a song until the owners of the gas began to find
out that they had a source of wealth under their wheat fields as well as on the
cultivated surface. Gas was also discovered at the Albion Mills, near Stony
Creek, and we are informed that it has furnished plenty of fuel for the mill.
Another vein was struck about a mile south on the mountain top, above the city,
but all this great fuel force has been lost to this manufacturing city simply
for lack of enterprise. On two or three occasions borings have been made in
this city – one back of Copp’s block on King street and another down about
Leeming street – but only small pockets of gas were found. As soon as those
Buckeye promoters came over from Cleveland late in the summer and began to talk
about piping natural gas into this city, three or four companies immediately
got busy and moved heaven and earth to keep the Buckeyes out; they promised
even better conditions, but when the time came to make good, they dropped out. As
soon as the Pipe Line company had secured its franchise, it began work at once,
and the result is that pipes have been laid more than half way from the gas
fields to this city, and an army of men are now at work putting down an
eight-inch main on Main street. There is no reason to doubt the supply of gas,
for it has shown no decline at Dunnville from the time it was first discovered.
Buffalo and Detroit have been lighted and warmed by Canadian gas for years; and
now Hamilton is to be the second city to profit by the natural advantages from
this bountiful product.
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