Of
course, it is not expected that the ancient musers of today have personal
knowledge of the events of which they tell, and the only means they have of
knowing is by delving into ancient local histories, of which, unfortunately,
there is but few in existence. A hundred years from now the musers will have
the files of the daily papers from which to gather facts that may be
interesting to those who come after us. The history of the township of Barton
is, to a certain extent, associated with the city of Hamilton, as the present
site of the city originally composed part of the township, and the history of
one is substantially the same as the other, so far as the early settlers were
concerned. In 1815, Richard Beasley was assessed for 13,350 acres of land, of
which only 150 acres were cleared. In 1815, there were only 162 ratepayers in
the township of Barton, which included the town of Hamilton. There were 75 log
houses of one story, 25 frame houses, and none built of brick or stone. In the
way of farm stock, there were 150 horses, 64 oxen, 316 milch cows, and 74 bulls
and steers.
In 1832, the Gore of King street was
the favorite resort for promenaders. The Western Mercury, published by James
Johnson, contained an advertisement informing the public that “Plumer Burley,”
formerly of the Ancaster hotel, has rented the new tavern stand in Hamilton, on
the southeast corner of James and King called the Hamilton Promenade, directly
opposite McNab’s office, and expects to commence business three weeks from the
present date.” The advertisement was dated July 4, 1832. The Promenade hotel
occupied the corner where stands the Canada Life building and took in part of
the lot of the Bank of British North America.
On the 16th of November,
1832, the tavern built by Mrs. McNab caught fire. It was located opposite the Gore, and
was the center of business. In less than an hour, five other buildings,
including the stores of Ferguson and Co. and Mr. McNab, the post office, the
Desjardins canal office, the Western Mercury office, the dwelling house and
shop of Mr. Scoble, “Yankee Miller’s” tavern and outbuildings – all were
consumed in less than three hours from the first appearance of the fire.
At the beginning of the year 1833, the
following advertisement appeared in the Western Mercury :
“The Gore district school will be opened
after te present vacation on Monday night, the 14th inst., in the
new building on Mountain, fronting the court house square (Mountain street is
now John.)
“Terms of tuition for day school are : In
classics, 1 pound, in the common branches 16 shillings. For boarders, who must
supply their own beds and bedding, 12 shillings, 6 pence per week or 32 pounds
per annum.
“An evening school will be opened by Mr.
Randall from 7 to 9, so soon as twelve applications are received. Terms 4 pounds
per quarter, payable in advance.
Stephen Randall.”
The fire did not seem to depress trade very
much for on the 3rd of January, 833, “Yankee” Miller had a flaring
advertisement in the Mercury announcing
“TRAVELERS”
“Andrew Miller’s extensive Steamboat Hotel
and Barn, that were burnt on the 16th of November last, at a loss of
$6,000, are now partly restored. He has erected a new barn, 60 feet by 40, and
a shed 45 feet long, and an addition of 30 feet to his small white house next
door to his old stand.
“He can now render travelers as comfortable
as before. He intends by tenfold more industry, persistence and economy, to
give better satisfaction (if possible) to his customers and hopes the
indulgence of a generous public to be able to replace his house in a new and
more beautiful edition, corrected and amended by the author.
“ANDREW MILLER.”
The construction of the Great Western railway
was the crowning event toward the building of Hamilton into a city. As soon as
the bill chartering the road was passed by parliament, the board of police ordered
a general illumination, and a grand jubilee was kept up for some time. This was
the death blow to the future growth of Dundas, for prior to the building of the
railway, all the produce from the back country, such as flour, meat, grain,
cattle, lumber and staves, were shipped at the head of the Desjardins canal and
passed through Burlington canal to the lake without benefitting Hamilton in the
least. Considerable influence was brought to bear on the directors of the Great
Western to run the railway straight down through the center of Ancaster
township, so that the road would connect with the Dundas and Waterloo and
Guelph roads, and so not take away from Dundas the trade of back counties. This
the company refused to do, and the people of Dundas contend to this day that
Hamilton was responsible for the loss of business to Dundas.
On the 24th of July, 1850, an act
was passed by parliament to empower the town to subscribe for stock in the
Great Western railway, and on the 10th of November, 1853, the Hamilton
Orphan asylum was incorporated, and the Gore was declared the property of the town
for public purposes. The Khan tells us in his history written for the atlas
that Hamilton had plunged into a heavy debt on account of the waterworks and
the building of the Port Dover railway. The corporation was compelled to negotiate
a loan of $200,000 to consolidate its indebtedness. At the same time, a further
sum of $200,000 was borrowed to pay for 2,000 shares of the Great Western
stock. Prosperity seemed to come with the indebtedness, and for the next four
years, the town grew with a rapidity that was astonishing. Houses were so
scarce that it was almost impossible to buy one for love or money, until the
great panic of 1857 when everything changed. It was in the year 1857 that the
waterworks were being constructed, and times were so hard that first-class
mechanics, representing all trades, walked the streets from day to day, and
were glad to get a job with a shovel and pick ax to work in the trenches for
laying the water pipes. The debt was mounting higher and higher every day, till
finally in May, 1861, an act was passed to consolidate the debt and authorizing
the corporation to issue debentures to the amount of $2,327,000 to redeem the
debentures already issued.
Hamilton at this time was almost in the
shadow of despair. Whole blocks of houses were unoccupied, ad for several years
but very few houses were built within the city limits. Trade was paralyzed, and
the few factories that were in existence were either closed or working on short
time. At the close of the American war, business began to brighten a little,
but it took years before there was work for everybody. In 1867 the population
of the city was 21,185, and in 1874, it crawled up to 31, 957. The total amount
of taxes collected in 1874 was $26,746 on an assessed valuation of $13, 850,042
worth of property.
For some unexplained reason, Hamilton was
dependent on Toronto and Montreal for branch banks, apparently never being able
to build up a strong bank of its own. There were several attempts to create a
local bank, but some cause failure was the result. The Bank of British North
America controlled by capital and directors in the old country, was the only
successful institution till 1872 when the Bank of Hamilton was incorporated
with a capital of $4,000,000, and it has grown with the growth of the city and
now stands in the front rank of the banks in Canada. Hamilton’s Wall street is
comprised in the block from the corner of King and James to the corner of Main
on the west side and from Main on the east side down to the Canada Life
building, and then across the south side of King to the corner of Hughson and
king, where stands the reliable Provident and Loan. There is lots of money in
Hamilton and stockholders galore in the local institutions. There has been only
one bank failure in the past twenty-one years and that a private bank that in
its day had the confidence of every Hamiltonian from the day it was established
in 1847. In 1856, the Gore bank was the only regularly organized local bank in
the city, besides which there were two savings banks. The Gore bank was
chartered in 1836 with a capital of 200,000 pounds, the officers were Colin C.
Ferrie, president; Andrew Stevens, cashier; H. S. Strathy, chief teller; Robert
Park, junior teller; W. G. Crawford, bookkeeper; Edward Ambrose, Thomas
McCracken and Chas. Murray, clerks. The banking was on the corner of King and Hughson
streets, now occupied by the Bank of Commerce.
In the Wentworth county atlas printed in
1874, there were personal sketches of prominent men in those days, all of whom
have passed away, and the cards of thirty-one men, not one of whom is in
business today.
THE
HAMILTON WATERWORKS
As early as April 20, 1836, the
Hamilton Water Works company was incorporated by act of parliament. This
gigantic enterprise for a town of small population was compared with the
waterworks in Montreal, which city had the largest population in Canada. Actual
work on the construction did not really begin until about the year 1856. The
system was completed about the year 1860, at a cost of $800,000. The machinery
was made at Dundas in the Gartshore foundry, and was said to be the finest of
any manufactured, not only in Canada but in the United States. James McFarlane
was the first engineer in charge of the system and he continued with it till a
few years ago, when feeling that old age was telling upon him and he
reluctantly tendered his resignation, and it was as reluctantly accepted by the
city. The chimney of the works looms up 150 feet, and can be seen by sailors
leagues away across the lake. Two double-cylinder engines of 100 horses power
each, and four immense boilers furnished the motive power. The water comes from
Lake Ontario and is filtered through 31 feet of sand, making the water the
purest and cleanest of any city system in America. The water was originally
pumped to a reservoir on the side of the mountain, which is 185 feet above the
level of the lake. It now comes by direct pressure from the pump house into the
homes of Hamilton. The water system has always been a great source of revenue
to the city, and the consumers pay higher for its use than does any other city
in Canada for their system. The Hon. Adam Brown is the only survivor of the
original board of water commissioners.
THE HAMILTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS
There is not many of the boys and
girls now living who attended the private schools in Hamilton prior to 1845. At
the time in 1853, when the present school system was inaugurated, there were no
fewer than 28 private schools in Hamilton and it was said that the buildings
occupied as schoolhouses were so filthy and degrading in their character that
the children blushed at being obliged to enter them. When Mr. McCallum was
inspector of public schools he gave a brief review of the condition in which he
found the school-houses . The earliest official data of the public schools went
back to 1847. At that time, the city was divided into six school sections, in
each section there was one school-house containing
one room, in which all the children assembled to be taught by one teacher. The
houses were all frame buildings, and only one of them was owned by the town.
Four were in ordinary repair, and two in bad repair without proper facilities
for ventilation, and not one had anything in the shape of a playground. Of
these six school buildings, one alone was an actual school-house, the rest
being rented for school purposes, and the facilities that were offered were of
the poorest kind. Such things as a school library, maps and apparatus had not
been thought of. In 1850, the present system was introduced and preparations
for erecting the Central school commenced; old things were passing away, and
all things were to begin anew. The Central was opened on the 3rd of
May, 1853. Its fourteen rooms and teachers were supposed capable of instructing
the school-going population of Hamilton for the next ten years. In 1860, there
were the Central and six primary schools in operation, and the staff numbered
thirty, including a principal, a classical master and a music teacher. The
whole number of school population was estimated at 5,500 and the average daily
attendance for the separate and public schools
was 1, 790. The cost per pupil on average attendance and amount paid
teachers was $8.33, and including current expenditure amounted to $13.07. Now
Hamilton can justly boast of the best system of school-houses, arrangements, teachers
and results of any city in Ontario, and all due to the first-class men elected
as trustees, and the liberal policy pursued in giving to the rising generation
an education to fit them for the battle of life.
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In 1830 the town authorities bought a
bell for which $400 was paid. Not having a tower in which to hang the bell,
arrangements were made with the trustees of the American Presbyterian church on
John street, in the center of the old Gurney foundry block, to hang it in the
belfry of the church, where it remained till it was moved to the engine-house
on King William street. When the new city hall was built, it was again moved to
the clock tower, where it now does duty as occasion demands. The first police
court was established in 1846, with Captain Armstrong. He was succeeded by the
late Magistrate James Cahill, who in turn was followed by the present
magistrate Mr. George J. Jelfs, who has recently rounded out his first quarter
of a century on the bench. During its history of more fifty years, Hamilton has
had but three police magistrates, and each one of them with a heart that
sympathized with the erring ones, in many cases adopting the language of the
Saviour, “Go and sin no more.” Governor Ogilvie’s castle of retirement on
Barton street was opened for boarders in 1875. It cost $40,000 to build it.
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