1903-11-14

When editors, who live on the fat of the land – terrapin, soft-shelled crabs and the like delicacies, being as common on their daily menu as potatoes and pickled pork on the table of the humble toiler who works for fifteen or eighteen cents an hour in these piping times of prosperity, in making concrete walks or digging sewers – get short on political topics on which to write, they take up economic questions. As it is the easiest thing in the world to figure out how cheaply a family can live and what luxuries they can enjoy on the munificent sum of $10 a week, it is a pleasure to the brainy editor to sharpen up his pencil, square himself before a desk and go at it as it becomes a man who has just risen from a dinner prepared by a chef graduated from the School of Domestic Science. As the smoke gracefully curls from one of Tuckett’s Marguerites, he feels at peace with the world, and in that contented frame of mind is equal to discussing the last budget of the finance minister of Canada or to tell poor people how to live and save money on a dollar a day. The editor is not only one to give good advice along the economic line. Pick up any of the magazines or weekly papers devoted to the elevation of women, and there you will find pages on how to fully clothe and educate a family in which there is half a dozen healthy kids, always ready for three meals during their waking hours and a piece of bread and butter should they wake up during the silent watches of the night. The charming young ladies who write for the magazines have no idea how to cook a meal, yet they will learnedly discuss all the ins and outs of the culinary department, and tell how much it should cost for the weekly family expenses.

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          A few days ago a number of women got together, when the topic  was started of keeping a family of five on $10 a week, and they figured the following out :

          Rent  ………….….. $2.50

          Table expenses …..$4.00

          Clothing …………   $1.50

          Fuel ………………. $1.00

This left one dollar for car fare, contributions to the church, and odd trips for mother and children during the summer months. There was nothing for doctor bills or sickness, just simply $10 a week for actual and necessary expenses. This amounts to $520 a year. How many men are there in Hamilton today, including all classes of wage-earners, who average $500 year in and year out? It was the easiest thing in the world for the good women to figure how cheaply it might be done, yet not one of them would dream of being limited to $10 a week to provide for a family of five. They had all passed through that economic stage, and are now enjoying the luxuries that only come to the large majority when they are treading the downhill journey of life. In our youthful days, when we had the capacity and appetite for a good dinner, we had not always the dinner to enjoy. And the same is true of all the pleasures of life. Probably a wise Providence has so ordained it, on the principle that in later years there should be some recompense for the zests of youth that are gone forever. Burns tells the whole story in his rhyming grace :

          “Some has meat and canna eat,

              And some wad eat that want it;

           But we has meat and we can eat –

              And sae Lord be thankful.”

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There may have been a time in Hamilton when a family of five might live on $10 a week in comfort, though without many of the little luxuries, but that day has passed. Everything as well as labor has advanced during the past two years, and the near future does not give any promise of any reduction in the cost of living. Take the table of weekly expenses given above, and it would be a difficult matter to cut short any of the figures. Carroll D. Wright, Unites States commissioner of labor, has been figuring on what it cost to keep a family of five, and here is his estimate for the year 1903, which is an increase of 11 per cent over the cost in 1902, the total being $1,569.71.

The facts are that one-half of the world has no idea of how the other scratches through the year. The average earnings in Hamilton among skilled mechanics are under $600 a year, even though the work may be pretty steady; and, when a family of four or five, and sometimes more, have to be fed, clothed and educated, it makes close work to end the year without a deficit. The responsibility staring the father of a family in the face makes him dread labor troubles, and this is probably the reason why so many are classed as non-union men. The young fellows who have no one to care for but themselves are generally the ones to vote in favor of strikes, for if they are out of work, the weekly stipend from the union will pay their board. It becomes a serious question nowadays for a young man to consider the responsibility of married life, and this may account in some measure for the large number of bachelors, and unmarried young women who would brighten homes and make life worth living to the poor fellows who are trying to play the game of life alone. Ten dollars a week may do for two people to get along on comfortably, but when the babies begin to clamor for bread, it is another thing.

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A copy of the York (now Toronto) Gazette, Saturday, October 24, 1812, printed by John Cameron, “Printer to the King’s Most Excellent Majestie,” has been handed us by a friend. It is a four page sheet, 8 x 12 inches to the page, and three columns to the page. It was published at $4 per annum, and had been published for 22 years. The latest intelligence was its foreign news, dated over two months before it reached the readers, and among other matters in the paper were proclamations by Roger Hale Sheafe, who had been appointed president and administrator of the government of Upper Canada. One column is given to an outline of the military funeral at Fort George on October 16, 1812, of General Brock and his aide-de-camp, Lieut.-Col Macdonald. The Gazette had no editorials and no items of local character, being devoted only to foreign news and official proclamations. On the 6^th day of July, 1812, General Brock as president administering the government of the province of Upper Canada, issued his proclamation setting forth that on “the seventh day of June last, the congress of the United States declared that war then existed between those states and their territories and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the dependencies thereof and requiring all officers, civil and military, to be vigilant in the discharge of their duty, especially to prevent all communication with the enemy, to be apprehended and treated according to law.” Within three months after issuing the proclamation the brave Brock fell while leading his army against the invaders. The government even in that early day deemed it necessary to aid the industries of the province of Upper Canada, one of which was the cultivation of hemp, under an act for granting a certain sum of money for the encouragement of the growth and cultivation of hemp within this province.” Commissioners were appointed to see that the money appropriated was spent in promoting the hemp industry.

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Only two advertisements had place in the paper. John Strachan, afterwards the distinguished Bishop of the Church of England in Canada, was the teacher of a private seminary. His advertisement read as follows :

“The subscriber having been nominated teacher of the school of the Home District, informs the public that his seminary is now open for the reception of pupils. Rate of tuition appointed by the trustees, Halifax currency; common education 6 pounds per annum; classical 8 pounds do. Anxious to extend the advantages of his school, the subscriber will even abate somewhat of the above rates to the poorer inhabitants, provided they keep their children neat and clean, and supply them with proper schools. N. B. Scholars from other districts are charged 10 pounds per annum.”

                                                JOHN STRACHAN

The other advertisement was of lands for sale in the province of Canada, belonging to John Gray, Esq., of Lower Canada. Three hundred acres of the land were in the third, sixth and seventh concessions of the township of Saltfleet.

Among the first criminal trials on the court records in the district, when court was held in the log courthouse of which mention was made in these Musings a couple of weeks ago, two cases are worthy of special note. One man committed manslaughter, of which he was convicted. As there were some extenuating circumstances connected with the crime, the judges assessed a fine of five shillings, which the friends of the prisoner promptly paid, and he was set at liberty. The other criminal was tried for the grave offense of sheep stealing, and after solemn trial was found guilty. For his crime, the code affected the penalty of death, and the judge so pronounced, “And may the Lord have mercy on your soul.” However, the records further show that the sheep stealer was pardoned and did not suffer on the scaffold for purloining his neighbor’s mutton. The punishment laid down for the two crimes was so ridiculous that the sheep stealing was soon after expurgated from the list of capital punishments.

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Looking backward in history for 60 years, we find that Dundas was an important manufacturing town, even though it had only a population of about 5700. A description written in 1844 might be of interest now, of which we give some of the main points. Dundas is described as a manufacturing village in the township of Flamborough West, five miles from Hamilton, and situated at the western extremity of the valley which borders the southwestern portion of Lake Ontario. An extensive marsh reaches from the village to Burlington Bay. A canal, five miles in length called the Desjardins canal, after a Frenchman who first commenced the work, has been cut to connect the village with the bay, through which all articles manufactured in the place and farming produce can be sent to Lake Ontario. Dundas is surrounded on three sides by high table land, commonly called the mountain, from whence large quantities of freestone and limestone were obtained, much of which was sent to Toronto and other places on Lake Ontario.” Through the influence of the extensive water power, the village has been gradually rising into prosperity during the last fifteen or twenty years.”

Sixty years ago, Dundas had six churches, which  was certainly a fair proportion for a population of 1,700. There was the Episcopal, Presbyterian, Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, and one free to all denominations. The fire department comprised a hook and ladder truck and one engine. It was well supplied with taverns, there being six in the village, of which Bamberger’s was the principal one.

Dundas was a thriving manufacturing village long before Hamilton took a stand in that direction, and today it has two or three establishments that furnish the principal part of the inhabitants with work. It may be interesting to know what were the leading industries sixty years ago. There were two grist mills, one with five run of stones, and one oatmeal mill; one factory for making furniture, edge tools, pumps and turnery ware; one carding machine, frilling mill and cloth factory; two foundries for making steam engines and all kinds of machinery, one of which employed 100 hands; one burr millstone factory, one planning machine, one axe factory, one comb factory, one soap and candle factory, one tannery. This was quite a showing of manufacturing industries for a small village. Three doctors and two lawyers looked after the health and estates of the villagers, and three breweries furnished all the drinkables necessary, so that they had no particular necessity of a water system except to put out fires and to take an occasional bath. It must have been a thriving business place, for there were nine stores, one druggist and bookseller, two saddlers, three bakers, two watchmakers, four butchers, six blacksmiths, two wagon makers, one hatter, six groceries, six shoemakers, one hatter, six groceries, two chair makers, four painters and the Bank of British North America had an agency. Four schools took care of the education of the infantile Dundasers.

The principal articles exported from Dundas in 1845 were 62,153 barrels of flour, 93 barrels of biscuits, 90 barrels of oatmeal, 1,100 barrels of whiskey, 115 barrels of pork, 238,289 stoves and 785 tons of freestone.

1902-01-10

The commercial and the manufacturing world generally begin the new year by balancing up books, finding out what is profit or loss. The past year has been one of profit, not only in Canada, but also in the United States, excepting here and there where the heads of firms lived beyond their income, with no capital to back them except the credit they were fortunate in having. Credit is a good thing to have, but it is too often strained; and the result is failure and business injury to every man connected, directly or indirectly, with that line of credit. Men go into business with little or no capital, and if they have had a good trade and lived within their means, they are able at the end of the year to pay their obligations; but once let a man draw on borrowed capital for current expenses and the chances are ten to one that in a year or two Dun and Bradstreet will be counting him among the list of failures, not able to pay twenty-five cents on the dollar. “Poor fellow,” his friends will say, “he struggled hard but his luck was against him.” There is no sympathy for the men he has injured by his failure. Probably if he had lived within his income, and given his business closer attention, he could have pulled through on the profit side of the ledger instead of with a deficit. Take the majority of failures that end up the year, and it will found that the men or firms who have gone out with the tide were doing a $50,000 or $100,000 business on purely wind capital, and that they were living like nabobs when they should have been saving at every turn of the wheel for the benefit of the firms who trusted them. What we call luck in business is only the result of get-up-and-get, and the man who is instant in season and out of season, may generally be counted upon to feel comfortable when accounts and notes in bank come in for the yearly balancing. A large majority of the businessmen of Hamilton begin the year with the happy feeling that in the last year ‘s prosperity they added of much to the capital stock, and that with another year like last they will be able to move a block higher on East Street.

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          This seems to be an appropriate time to take a look backward at the commercial and manufacturing industries of Hamilton. Examine the city directory that was printed 45 years ago and it will surprise you how few of the names are familiar today; how few of the men who were in the forefront of business enterprises have been followed by their children, even if the business were handed down to them. There were3 23 barristers then, of whom only three are left. Only one of the newspaper publishers has survived the years, and he is now in the civil service in another city. F. W. Fearman kept a produce store on Hughson street, between King and King William, and he is the only survivor of thirteen men then engaged in the same business. Of nine firms of tinsmiths and stove dealers, not one is left to tell the story of success or adversity. We look in vain in the list of nineteen show dealers, and not one name is familiar to the buyers of today. Of the twelve firms in the jewelry business then, not one is familiar now in the same line. Of the twelve hardware firms, wholesale and retail, the name of Andrew T. Wood stands solitary and alone to represent the strong firms who controlled the trade of the country west and north of Hamilton. Of the 69 men and firms that sold groceries in Hamilton 45 years ago, only the firm of James Osborne and Son is a familiar name now, and the son is doing business at the same old stand; the name of James Turner survives as representative of the wholesale grocery trade. George Webster made English gin at the foot of Wentworth street, but his descendants must have changed the occupation. Pilgrim made ginger wine and soda water in olden times, and his descendants are yet pilgrims in dispensing soft drinks.

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          Hamilton was the headquarters for the wholesale dry goods trade for Western Canada 45 years ago, there being eleven importing firms engaged in the business, the largest being Buchanan, Harris and C. The sales figured up in the millions. All of that immense trade has dwindled down to one wholesale house, and Hamilton has been the loser. George McKeand is the only survivor of the wholesale trade. It took 26 retail dry goods stores to suplly the demands of the trade away back in the fifties, and many of the firms carried as fine a class of goods as was in the market in those days. Only one of the old-time merchants has his name now connected with business – Thomas C. Watkins, and he died last Thursday. Drug stores are scattered all over the city now, so one has not to go far from home to get a prescription filled or to buy a bottle of patent medicine. Hamilton had only six retail druggists in the fifties and two wholesale firms, and not a member of any of the old firms is now living. F. F. Dalley is the only one who has succeeded his father in the drug line. There were 23 doctors to cure the ills that flesh is heir to, three of whom were homeopaths, two eclectics and two German, not one of whom is now living, Dr. Case being the last to pass away. Now there are 70 physicians to look after the health and ailments of Hamilton, three of whom bear the names of early practitioners.

          Twenty-five places were licensed to dispense high ball refreshments to the thirsty, and only one of the men is now living, so far as we can hear. One of the saloon keepers was named Budge – certainly very appropriate to the business. George Lee kept the Argyle Coffee rooms on King street, where one could get a good meal of roast beef and potatoes for 13 cents and finish off with pie at six cents. Gentlemen were requested not to smoke in the dining room. It now takes 17 licensed saloons to supply the hourly demand of those who need to have their tonsils levigated.

          The Hon. Issac Buchanan represented the city of Hamilton in provincial parliament; William Notman, of Dundas, the north riding of Wentworth; Joseph Rymal, the south riding.

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          Early in the fifties, Tom Burrows, the genial old auctioneer, who has a veritable curiosity shop on Rebecca street, came to Hamilton, a raw young Irishman and began clerking for T. M. Best, an auctioneer of great ability in those days. Best was a genius who could take a standard library and quote some trifle passage or verse from almost every book he put up at auction. When he had a book sale on hand, he would go through the volumes and here and there pick out some catchy sentence, and having an excellent memory, he used his reading to good advantage. Tom Burrows learned the tricks of the trade from his old employer, and being gifted with Irish mother wit, he has come down to the present a one with few equals in his profession. Give him a violin to sell and the genial old Tom will tune it up and play the Rocky Road to Dublin or an aria from an opera, before he offers the instrument for sale, and then he can always get a good price for it. He is the last of an illustrious line of auctioneers who were noted in their business half a century ago, and when death makes the last bid, “going, going, gone!” who is there to take his place? May the veteran auctioneer live many years to enjoy his curiosity shop and to throw bouquets of pleasantry to the lady patrons of his auctions; for it is said that half the women in town watch the newspapers ads to keep track of Tom Burrows’ sales, and they attend them as regularly as they would a matinee at the opera house.

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          We might fill columns in looking backward and comparing the past with the present. One thing is certain that but few of the men who were active in business and professional loife half a century ago will be here to answer roll call at the Hamilton Old Boys’ reunion this coming summer. Indeed one can almost count the survivors. There is A. T. Wood. George Roach, George Moore, F. W. Fearman, Tom Burrows, Thomas Beasley, Henry S. Papps, Edward Martin, Joseph Kneeshaw, William Edgar, C. W. Meakins, F. W. Gates, George McKeand, Alexander Murray, William Hendrie, James Walker, Joseph Kent, Joseph Mitchell, N. B. Robbins, John A. Bruce of the firm John A. Bruce and Co., seedsmen; Robert Young, J. H. Smith, the old schoolmaster, Richard Russell and others whom we cannot recall. Of course, there are many of the old stagers whose only prominence was that they were good citizens, made an honest living and paid their debts. The last of the old dry goods merchants, Thomas C. Watkins, died on Thursday. In his young manhood, he was a force in business circles, a liberal giver to benevolent and religious causes, and one of the old-fashioned kind of Methodists who attended class and prayer meetings as regularly as night came. Mr. Watkins was active in temperance work, and a working member of the Sons of Temperance, not that he needed the restraints of a society, but to help others. He was also a member of No. 2 Fire Company fifty years ago, when it was organized on temperance lines. His business life was  a record of industry, and he leaves a monument by which he will long be remembered – the finest business house in the city.

1902-12-27

In the Herald of last Saturday was an interesting history of the celebrated Townshend gang that terrorized the neighborhood within and surrounding Hamilton in the years 1857-58. Before Townshend took to the road as a highwayman and leader of a gang that stopped not short of murder if robbery could not be accomplished in any other way, he was a quiet, inoffensive fellow, except when under the influence of liquor; then he was a demon incarnate. Townshend was raised up on the Grand River, and about 1854-55, he worked for Holt’s brewery and drove a beer wagon to empty customers in the villages and roadsides within a day’s journey of Dundas. The drivers collected the bills from the tavern-keepers, and all through Townshend’s service with the brewing company, he was honest and faithful, and when he left to come to Hamilton to drive a cab, his employers regretted losing him. It was while driving a beer wagon that Townshend begot a taste for drinking, as the brewing companies in those days allowed their drivers a liberal sum for daily expenses in treating; as it was expected that the beer man would “set ‘em for the crowd;” and the thirsty ones generally managed to be within hailing distance when the beer wagon entered the village. When he became a cab driver in Hamilton, he fell into dissolute ways, and from holding up drunken passengers, it was an easy step to the highway. Being a bright fellow and of iron nerve, he gathered a gang around him that acknowledged his leadership and was ever ready to do his bidding. There would be weeks when nothing was heard of Townshend, and then, in a half a dozen different directions, miles from each other, raids were made on villages or farm houses, where the farmer was reputed to have money. In 1857-58, there was a great financial crisis beginning with the failure of a large banking house in Cincinnati, Ohio, the influence of which extended not only throughout the United States, but into Canada. Banks were suspending everywhere and American paper money that might be good at night was in danger of being worthless by the next morning. The people in Canada had no great confidence in their banks, for a majority of them were conducted by private individuals with but little capital as a foundation. The result was that the money was hoarded in the homes, and whenever a farmer sold his crop or his cattle, sheep or hogs, the gang was sure to pay him a visit before he had time to invest the proceeds. The operations of the gang were so widespread that Townshend got the name of being ubiquitous for he was personally credited with all the robberies and outrages committed. The city police, the township constables and the sheriff’s officers were on the watch, for a goodly reward was offered for the capture of Townshend or any of the gang, which was said to comprise six or eight young men. Nothwithstanding the dangers he was in of arrest, Townshend made his headquarters in Hamilton, and the rendezvous of the gang was an old building in Beasley’s hollow, between this city and Dundas.

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          One night in the spring of 1858, William Walton, who died in Paris, Ontario, a year or more since, was driving out from Hamilton to Dundas when he overtook Townshend. Walton knew Townshend well for both had worked for the Holt brewery at the same time, and indeed Walton had charge of the delivery wagons and employed the drivers. The night Walton was returning to Dundas, having been in Hamilton all day making weekly collections from the tavern keepers, and he had between $700 and $800 in his pocket. Townshend knew that Walton was the collector, and that Monday was the day to be in Hamilton, and when Walton was hailed by Townshend on the highway, he thought he would soon be separated from that money. They chatted together during the drive, Walton holding the reins in one hand grasping a revolver in his back pocket., expecting every moment that the tug-of-war was to come. Before reaching the hill this side of Dundas, Townshend asked to be let out of the wagon, saying to Walton, “William, don’t let on that you saw me,” and bidding him goodnight, started across the country through a field. Mr. Walton, in telling the story afterwards, said that the he never passed an hour of such terror in his life, and he was very careful not to tell of his ride with the outlaw till long after Townshend had been captured and acquitted, for he did not want to be called as a witness to identify him. Walton’s kindness to Townshend, when both worked for the brewery, was not forgotten by the outlaw.

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          Before the gang was captured, two members attempted to hold up a big Irishman, who was driver of one of Holt’s beer wagons. The Irishman had been in town during the day delivering beer and making some small collections, and had a couple of hundred dollars with him. Probably the highwaymen had met him in his journeyings around town and knew that he had money. The Irishman was feeling pretty good after his day’s libations, and when he got down into Beasley’s Hollow, two men jumped out from their hiding place, one of them grabbing the horses by the head and the other with a revolver in hand ordering the Irishman to throw up his hands. He obeyed the order promptly, but brought it down as quickly, hitting the highwayman on the head with such a blow with the butt end of his whip that the fellow dropped in the road without uttering even a groan. The other fellow was kept busy trying to hold the horses, so that he did not see what had happened to his pal, and the first thing he knew, the Irishman had tapped him on the skull with the whip handle, and both were left unconscious. The Irishman drove on to Dundas and told the story of his hold up, and a number of men were gathered and went out to where he had downed the highwaymen, but they had gone. After that, orders were issued by Mr. Holt that the men who made collections must be home before dark.

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          The holt company was making a lot of money in those days out of the sale of beer, for it was the favorite tipple in the taverns in Hamilton, and up as far as Paris, Brantford and Galt. Mr. Holt was a sensitive man and could not withstand the upbraidings of his temperance friends that he was engaged in such a business. There was considerable temperance sentiment in what was then called Upper Canada, and Mr. Holt abandoned the brewing business, started a flouring mill and lost about all the money he had made. Verily virtue did not have its reward in this case.

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          When Townshend was on trial for murder in the court house in Cayuga, Samuel Black Freeman and John H. Stuart defended him. Mr. Freeman was a member of the firm of Freeman, Craigie and Proudfoot, and Mr. Stuart was of the firm of Spohn and Stuart. Both were able lawyers, and Mr. Freeman had the reputation of being one of the strongest criminal lawyers in Canada; hence he had all of that kind of cases to attend to, leaving to his partners the routine business of the office. Thos. H. Beasley, city clerk, was a student under Mr. Freeman, and he described him as a man of easy-going disposition, preferring leisure at any time to the plodding work of the office, but when he became connected with a big law suit or criminal case, especially if it was of importance, his whole nature seemed to change, and he was all business till after the trial was over. For pastime, he indulged in the game of politics, and being a Reformer and eloquent as a speaker, he represented the south riding of Wentworth in the provincial parliament which in those days met in the city of Toronto. Townshend denied his identity when he was on trial, claiming to be McHenry, a returned Californian. Indeed, he carried out the McHenry idea so strongly that Mr. Freeman was almost convinced that the wrong man had been arrested. Mr. Beasley says that till long after Townshend’s trial and acquittal, Mr. Mr. Freeman was still in doubt. The Townshend trial was one of the most noted criminal cases In Canada at that time, and Mr. Freeman’s success in making the jury believe that it was McHenry, an innocent stranger, instead of Townshend, the outlaw, that was on trial, made for him a reputation as a skillful and successful criminal lawyer. After Townshend’s release from prison, he quit his marauding methods of life and started out, under the name of McHenry. He and Walton recognized each other, but Walton never divulged the secret.

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          John W. Harris, the father of the Harris Brothers, of the Herald, had a job printing office on the corner of King William and Hughson streets, in the stone building now used by a religious society. He thought it would be quite a feat of enterprise to get out a pamphlet edition of the history of murders committed by the Townshend gang, which would sell at ten cents, He had no doubt but that they would go off like hot cakes, and there would be money in it for himself and the dealers who sold them. S. I. Jones, the uncle of the Harris boys, was the local agent and reporter in Hamilton for the Toronto Globe, and being a good newspaper writer, he prepared the pamphlet giving histories of Townshend and his gang, and a condensed report of the trials, and a large edition was printed. In the year 1858, business of all kinds was bad, and a majority of the men were glad to work at even half time. A couple of printers who were working in the Christian Advocate office thought they could add to their revenue by selling the pamphlets, and they bought 500 as a starter and went to Brantford to the provincial fair, expecting to sell out and order another loot for which they made arrangements with Mr. Harris. Townshend and his gang had been making the Grand river country, their principal field of operations, and it ought to be expected that everybody in that section would be at the fair in Brantford, the speculating printers were confident of coming home with their pockets bursting with the coin of the realm. But, sad to relate, their bright hopes were knocked into pi: the rain poured down in torrents during the greater part of the fair and nobody seemed interested in Townshend or his gang, as some of them were sentenced to be hanged, and the leader escaped punishment. The printers decided not to bring back the pamphlets, so they got off into a dry corner of the fair grounds and made a bonfire of the pile. They were out their expenses and the price of the 500 pamphlets. Mr. Harris had printed a large edition, expecting an immense sale, but it is doubtful if he sold enough to pay for the ink with which they were printed. In a back room of his printing office, the history of Townshend was piled up, and it is said that everyday Mr. Harris used to retire alone to that back room and express himself in forcible language about the people who could not appreciate the efforts of an enterprising publisher in furnishing up-to-date history.

1902-11-15

Last Saturday’s musings of the days of long ago, when Hamilton was but a village and stoves were a luxury in homes, calls to memory that the first iron foundry in this city was established late in the 30’s by Fisher and McQuesten, two down east Yankees, who wandered in here about the close of the rebellion. The foundry was built  at the corner where now stands the Hotel Royal, and continued there till it was burned down some time in the latter part of 1855 or early in 1856. Fisher was a practical foundryman by trade. Dr. McQuesten practiced medicine before coming to Hamilton, and was the financial backer of the infant industry. Probably less than half a dozen molders were employers in the shop for a number of years, as it did not take many men to make all the stoves for the country surrounding Hamilton. The Gartshores had a foundry in Dundas, and there was another at Long Point, upon on the shores of Lake Erie, and it was considered somewhat of a risky business to start one in Hamilton with such strong competition close at hand. Early in 1843, a couple more Yankees invaded Hamilton, coming from Utica, New York, prospecting to start a foundry. They were Charles and Edward Gurney. Dr. McQuesten was very much pit out at the idea of a rival shop coming to town, and said that his foundry was able make more stoves than could be sold in and around the village, and he suggested to the Gurneys that they were taking big risks opening here. But the young men were not to be turned from their purpose, and they bought a lot on John street, in part of the block now owned by the Gurney-Tilden company, and made arrangements for the building of a small frame shop that would furnish floor room for half a dozen molders. The Gurneys were practical men, having learned the iron trade in Utica, and they had heard of the great possibilities of Hamilton, because it was the head of navigation, and came here to spy out the land. Their entire capital, including patterns and tools, was less than $2,000, but they were not afraid of hard work. They returned to Utica and gathered up all that was necessary for an outfit in a small way. In those days, the smaller Canadian foundry men used to make their patterns from the stoves of the larger American foundries that had a good reputation, without any cost for the privilege, and in this way were able to keep up-to-date without paying for the experiment. In a few weeks, the Gurneys returned from Utica and settled down to business. Money was scarce and everything was sold on credit. This made it hard for them to make both ends meet, but by doing as much of the work as possible themselves, they kept down expenses, and the few men they employed were glad to get work and run the chances for their pay. Alexander Carpenter, who later became a member of the firm, had a tin shop on John street, near the corner of King William, where the blacksmith shop is, and as he had some skill in the making of patterns, was a desirable acquisition to the new firm, under the name of Gurneys and Carpenter. Mr. Carpenter owned the house on John street, where Mrs. Peace’s second hand store is, in which he lived and the adjoining Gothic stone building, the lots running through to Catharine street. Next to the stone building was printing office, and next to that was the new foundry building. Further north was a church, originally built for Presbyterians, but afterwards used by the Baptists, and probably the Wesley congregation used it for awhile, history is not clear to that. Milton Davies, the owner of the stage line, lived on the corner of John and Rebecca, and the house he occupied is now down on Catharine street, the second one below Cannon. Robert Lucas, now retired, began to work for Gurneys and Carpenter in 1847, and at that time they had not more than a dozen men employed. It was no trouble to sell stoves on credit, but cash was a scarce article. As the firm increased in strength, it annexed the land adjoining, till finally it owned the entire block, fronting on four streets, and then bought other lots across the street.

          The firm prospered because the men at the head of it were able to superintend every department. From the making of stoves, other lines of iron work were added, till now the present company manufactures a class of builder’s hardware that is not surpassed by anything produced in this or foreign countries. John Tilden, the president of the Gurney-Tilden company, began work for the old firm way back early in the 60’s as a sorter of scrap iron, for which he was paid $1.50 a week. This early education brought him touch with the iron business, and as he grew older, he was promoted till now he is at the head of the great concern. Nearly sixty years ago, the Gurneys, with a capital of less than $2,000, and with only three molders besides themselves, started an enterprise that ended in an estate, when they died a few years ago, of not less than half a million dollars to the families of each of the brothers. Today the output of the Gurney-Tilden plant gives employment to 325 men and boys, and its buildings cover an entire block, with a large factory across the way on Rebecca street. Its large and diversified line of manufactures is one of the best evidences of the benefits of a protective tariff. Take the builders’ hardware alone; remove the duty from it, and the company would have to come in ruinous competition with that line of goods. As it is now, the Gurney-Tilden company is able to make first-class goods and make a fair profit after paying the hands employed remunerative mages. The 325 hans employed represent that number of families that are dependent on the success of the company for steady work, for even the single men and boys, in a majority of cases, have to contribute part of their earnings to the support of fathers and mothers who are partially dependent upon them.

          Before George Gurney, one of the younger members of the original family, died, he made a will in which he bequeathed $10,000 to Robert Lucas, the veteran molder, who began to work for the firm in 1847. For fifty years, “Faithful Old Bob” gave his best efforts to his employers, and it was a graceful act on the part of George Gurney to provide an independence for the old man to round out his days in comfort.

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          The weather clerks are doing good work for Canada, especially this favoured spot, where winter does not intrude itself till the closing year gets hoary with age. Just think that here we are in the middle of November, and it is as bright and pleasant as in the early fall. Kipling never visited Hamilton, else he would never have written that libelous poem, Our Lady of Snows. History tells us that it was not always as mild in November as it is now, for we have only to go back to the 4^th of November, 1871, when the bay was nearly frozen over and the young folks went skating on the ice. On that day, thirty-ne years ago, the bay was covered with boys and girls enjoy the first good skating of the season. Four boys, more venturesome than the others, went skating up toward the Desjardins Canal, where they struck upon thin ice and were drowned. At no time during the winter has it ever been safe to skate too near the point where the waters of the canal and bay unite.

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          Say, aren’t those Yankees doing things down at the foot of Sherman avenue? It is only a few weeks ago that the thirty-five acres now owned by the International Harvester company was part of a farm and was away out of the city limits. Today, the place where they raised turnips and potatoes and corn and wheat, almost in the twinkling of an eye is being covered with brick buildings, crowding on each other, and before the close of the year, hundreds of skilled workmen will be employed in turning out all kinds of farming machinery; and by the time the next grain crop is ready to harvest in the great Northwest or over in Australia and New Zealand Hamilton-made products will be available. Hamilton mowers and binders will be there to do the work, and as a certificate of good behavior that the machine is what it is represented, will be stamped on it, “Made in Hamilton, Canada.” When the Deerings first talked of coming to Hamilton, the Sawyer-Massey company and the other industries gave them hearty greeting. They were not like the old Dr. McQuesten, when the Gurneys came to Hamilton in 1843 to start a foundry, who objected to more shops in that line, as Fisher and McQuesten’s foundry was equal to all the demand for stoves and iron work. The coming of the International Harvester company to Hamilton is an evidence of what Providence and Protection have done for this city and for Canada. No wonder that thousands of men, women and children go down to the foot of Sherman avenue every Sunday to see the great transformation that is taking place – farming land turned into a great industry that will give employment to thousands of men. If the cry for more land for new industries continues, Hamilton will have to annex the entire township of Barton.