Saturday 2 February 2013

1917-04-07



NEARLY SEVENTY YEARS AGO
          In the year 1853, the first directory of Canada was published, containing the names of the professional and the business men in the cities, towns, and principal villages. It was brought down to November, 1851. Its editor and publisher was Robert W. S. MacKay and its printer was John Lovell, of Montreal. It took Mr. MacKay and eight intelligent assistants from September, 1850 till the fall of 1851 to collect the requisite material for the book, and it was no small undertaking to visit every important city, town and village to compile the data that would make it valuable as a directory for the use of the public. Over five hundred and fifty different localities in Canada are embodied in the volume. It was purely a business directory, as only the names of business men were given. It was a risky undertaking, and the editor found it very difficult to find a printer willing to take chances on its success for his pay; but evidently it panned out alright, as the next directory was on a larger scale, and was published in 1854. Copies of that old directory are very scarce, and it is only on rare occasions that one turns up. Mr. Watt, of Watt & Son, merchant tailors on Macnab street north, is the owner of one of these volume, and having read in a late number of the Saturday Musings in the Spectator of the first directory issued in Hamilton in 1853, a copy of which is carefully guarded by Mr. Scriven, its owner, Mr. Watt kindly loaned the writer a copy of one that antedates it a couple of years. It would no doubt be a matter of interest to the present inhabitants of the old Gore district to read the names of the men who were prominent in the business affairs of the towns named nearly three-quarters of a century ago, and it would be a pleasure to the writer to publish them, but managing editors have to be consulted, and under no circumstances would they consent to open the columns for a graveyard directory. We will merely take a glance through the directory and give a brief sketch of the towns in which Hamilton is specifically interested.
          Let us begin at the ancient town of Ancaster, which was a place of some importance when Hamilton did not even have a name, and was only known as the Head of the Lake. Ancaster is a village eight miles  distant from Hamilton and four miles from Dundas. In the old stage coach days the fare to Hamilton was 25 cents. The town had ten business houses, three taverns, one of which was named the Oddfellows’ hotel, kept by John Tidy, and one solitary lawyer, A. S. Milne. The different trades were well represented. The town council in 1850 were John Heslop, reeve; G. B. Rousseaux, M. H. Howell, J. A. Calder, John Hamill. Harry Eggleton’s father was one of the proprietors of the ancient foundry and machine shop.
          Beamsville, a village situated in the township of Clinton, county of Lincoln. Distant  from Hamilton, 22 miles. Stage fare 75 cents. Population about 400. It had three taverns, one of which was conducted as a temperance house, and one distillery to keep the town in high spirits. It must have been quite a thriving town, judging from the large number of industries carried on.
          Brantford, a town in the county of Wentworth, township of Brantford, situated on the Grand river, which is navigable to within two and a half miles of the town, for which distance a canal has been constructed, so that Brantford, during the season of navigation, had uninterrupted water communication with Lake Erie. Brantford is distant from Hamilton 24 miles; usual stage fare $1. During the summer and fall, there is steamboat communication direct to Buffalo three times each week, the fare being $2. Population about 4,000. It had two weekly newspapers, the Courier and the Herald. All branches of business and trades were well-represented.
          Caledonia, a village situated on the Grand river, in Haldimand county, distant from Brantford 20 miles, the steamboat fare being $1.35. From Hamilton, 14 miles, the stage fare being 50 cents. Population about  800.
          Cayuga, the county town of the county of Haldimand, situated on the Grand river. Distant from Hamilton 25 miles, the stage fare being $1. Steamboat fare to Brantford, $1.25, and to Buffalo, $1.75. Population about 400.
          Dundas, a town in the township of Flamboro, in the united counties of Wentworth and Halton; distant from Hamilton, five miles. Stage fare, 25 cents. Population about 2,500. A hundred years ago, Dundas was the principal town at the Head of the Lake, and was a prosperous place of business. The construction of the Desjardins canal opened the town to direct lake navigation, and it was the main shipping point for all the towns in western Canada. After the construction of the Great Western railway, Dundas declined in importance. Of late years, it has had a business revival through a few enterprising men investing in manufacturing industries. Jones and Harris were publishers of the Dundas Warder, a weekly newspaper of political prominence. A look over the list of names of the business men of nearly seventy years ago brings back to memory many pleasant recollections.
          Dunnville is a thriving village on the Grand river, in the county of Haldimand, distant 40 miles from Hamilton; stage fare $1.50. The distance to Buffalo is 50 miles, the steamboat fare in those days being $1.75. Population about 600.  Those small towns on the Grand river were prosperous in the days of navigation , for they had direct transportation from Brantford to Buffalo three round trips each week, and at very cheap rates. The railroads ruined steamboat travel, and the towns have made but little increase in population. (Dave Hastings, an old Hamilton printer, publishes a bright weekly newspaper in the town, and to use up his leisure hours, he is the police magistrate and gathers in a few shekles in that way. Some of these days Davey will wake up to the fact that river navigation will bring back the light and prosperity of other days to the ancient town of Dunnville, and he will see to it that some booster is elected to parliament who will get an appropriation from the government to clean up the ancient stream and bring new life to the Grand river.)
          Grimsby (of Forty), a village in the county of Lincoln, and 17 miles from Hamilton. Stage fare, $1. Quite a difference now when one can make the round trip from Hamilton for 35 cents. It had a distillery and a brewery, three general merchants, a homeopathic doctor who left a long line of descendants, and the town boasted of two churches of England and resident ministers.
          Here is a description of Hamilton as given in the directory of 1851-1852 : “The city of Hamilton is situated on Burlington bay, at the head of Lake Ontario navigation, in the township of Barton, counties of Wentworth and Halton, and is also an electoral district returning one member to the provincial parliament. The city has been greatly improved within the last few years and is in a most favorable situation for trade, being in the center of one of the finest agricultural districts of Canada, and when the Great Western railroad, now in the process of construction, is completed, it must necessarily conduce to the still greater prosperity of the city. Hamilton is distant from Kingston, 226 miles; usual steamboat fare $5. Distant from Toronto, 50 miles; usual steamboat fare, $1.50, and stage fare, $2.50. Distant from London, 84 miles; stage fare $3.50. Population by census of 1850, 10, 312.” The names of the city council for the year 1850 may be interesting to old-timers. Mayor, John R. Holden. Aldermen, Milton Davis, H. C. Baker, W. L. Distin, J. S. Clement, J. Trilles, M. Magill, D. Kelly, J. M. Williams and R. McMcElroy. Councillors, J. Lister, G. H. Cozens, J. Osbourne, J. Simpson, T. Collingwood, D. Stuart, H. Weeks, J. Moore, S. Kirkendall, and J. Stuart. The city council was composed of what might be called the upper and lower house. The mayor was elected from among the aldermen. Sir Allan Napier McNab represented the city in the provincial parliament; Caleb Hopkins, of Halton, and Dr. Hermanus Smith, of Wentworth, represented the united counties. Before the days of public schools, Hamilton had ten private schools, among the number being the Catholic Benevolent society’s school, and the Orphan school. There were 19 dry goods stores and ten wholesale; two general merchants; thirty-six grocers who sold liquor; tw hardware dealers; 54 hotels, taverns and saloons; 23 law firms; two religious newspapers, and three semi-weekly. Hamilton had not then reached the daily paper period, the first of which was the Morning Daily Spectator, which started in 1853. There were 13 churches, classed as follows : two Church of England, one Roman Catholic , two Presbyterian, seven Methodist, one Congregationalist and one Baptist.
          At one time in its history, before the building of the Great Western railroad was begun, Hamilton aspired to build a canal from Lake Huron down to this city, with an entrance through the Dundas valley into Burlington bay. It would have been a great business feeder to Hamilton, as well as opening a waterway through a rich agricultural country, but it was abandoned when work began on the Great Western.
          Wellington Square at the head of Lake Ontario, and seven miles northeast of Hamilton. Steamboat fare to Hamilton, 12 ½ cents; to Toronto, 75 cents. The name of this ancient town was wiped off the map about forty-five years ago, and in its place was substituted that of Burlington. In 1850, it had as the business and professional part of the population thirty-seven persons. Some of them may have been living when the iconoclasts got in their work and changed the name of the old town. One dear old lady, who died a couple of years ago, mourned till the time of her death for the loss of Wellington Square.
          Hannahsville, in the township of Nelson, Halton county, distant from Hamilton 11 miles, with a population of about 125. The stage fare from Hamilton was 50 cents. The town was also called Nelson. That small population must have been a very thirsty one, for it took five taverns to supply the demand for liquid refreshments.
          We might go on and enumerate the towns contiguous to Hamilton, but we think we have named enough to recall to the memory of the old stagers from whence came Hamilton’s principal country trade in the long-forgotten past

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          A COPY OF THE SPECTATOR, JUNE 22, 1861

          Fifty-six years does not look very far to look backward; but when one comes across an old copy of the Spectator, dated June 22, 1861, it is like resurrecting history from away back. The paper before us has been preserved by Adam Cook, an old-time printer, but now an honest granger, representing Barton township in the county board. It was an extra containing the political speeches of Isaac Buchanan, when he was elected member of parliament. Down to that time, Mr. Buchanan was a Reformer in politics and an advocate of free trade. The condition of Canada at that time opened his eyes to the fact that if this country ever expected to get out of the list of poverty row, it must get interested in its young men, and keep them from flocking to the United States for that work which they could not get in their native land. Protection for Canadian industries was the only hope, and Mr. Buchanan was far-sighted enough to see it. Because Mr. Buchanan had left the Reform party and cast his lot with the small handful of Protectionists that were then coming to the front in Canada. The Toronto Globe, then edited by George Brown, and known as the “Scotchman’s Bible,” attacked him fiercely. But Mr. Brown met his match, for Mr. Buchanan had the gift of language equal to his political assailant. We will make a few extracts from one of Mr. Buchanan’s speeches as a specimen of the way the old politicians used to talk about each other. He charged Mr. Brown with telling willful falsehoods, and claimed for a Mr. Dunn and himself the honor of securing to the province the principles of responsible government. “I always feel thankful,” said Mr. Buchanan, “that Mr. Brown had not arrived in Toronto in 1841, for with such men as leaders of the Reform party we could never have got our friends in Lower Canada to join us in insisting on the British government yielding responsible government. In fact, we as Reformers would have been divided on the subject among ourselves. George Brown and William Lyon McKenzie may have been merely maggots, but we have not any liking for the maggots. And even when an unmitigated falsehood is no told by the Globe, its statements regarding me, and of all it sees interest in opposing, have just so much truth in them as to make a good lie. But the fact is, Mr. Brown is a bigot of the worst sort, who makes bigotry profitable. There are two classes of bigots, the bigot with principle and the bigot without. I am anxious before closing to say that we must all remain friends of the Great Western railway whatever may be the conduct of its present officials. So sure am I that the shareholders will come to see us as their only, as we were the first, friends, that I feel sure you will have this acknowledged by their giving you a passenger station up town. While this would benefit the railway, it would be an incalculable benefit to Hamilton. The great benefit to towns in America  arises from immigrants, but these at present cannot see Hamilton, the station being underground, so that there is no inducement to their remaining here or returning to Hamilton, although its situation as a point where water and railway communications converge is unrivalled in America.” That promised passenger station never developed, and the original one still remains underground. Evidently the officials of the Great Western forgot their promise to Mr. Buchanan and the people of Hamilton, for they began to dismantle the shops and move the machinery to London and other towns., and the old passenger station is still underground, with but little prospect of it ever being raised to the high level. Poor old Hamilton started right, but it has been the subject of kicks and cuffs  of outrageous  fortune, from the time its enterprising business men of seventy years ago laid the foundations of the Great Western railway, down to the present. And when they hand over the six million dollars in bonds, which the people were told will never cost them a cent, to build more railroads, their tribulations will begin anew. Let us pray that Hamilton may be delivered from the machinations of evil promoters.

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