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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