HAMILTON’S
REVERED GRAND OLD WOMAN
On the 7th of November,
1820 – ninety-seven years ago last Wednesday – Mrs. Daniel Kelly, whose home is
No. 444 Main Street East, was born in a frame house on King street, where the
Stanley Mills company department store is now located. This makes her the
oldest native-born Hamiltonian now living, and virtually the oldest resident of
this city, for she has spent her long life within a mile of the house in which
she was born. Connected with her life is a bit of ancient history. Her
grandfather, Richard Springer, came to Hamilton about the year 1800, and
located on a farm of about one hundred or more acres, from the mountain down to
Main street. He built his log house in a grove in the rear of where the Woods
Milling company have their mill on Hannah street. The Springer family descended
from Charles Christopher Springer, who was born in Amsterdam, Holland, in the
year 1650. He had one son, who was educated in London, England, for the
ministry, and afterwards became Episcopal Bishop of Stockholm, Sweden. This
bishop had also one son, who was educated for the ministry, who emigrated to
Wilmington, Delaware, in 1696, where he built the first church, which is still
standing. The Springers and the Beasleys were related by marriage. Colonel Richard
Beasley, who married Henrietta Springer, was the original owner of Dundurn
Park, which was part of his farm, and built the west wing of the castle, in
which his family resided till 1832, when he sold the place to Mr. Allan N.
Macnab. From the marriage of Colonel Beasley to Henrietta Springer, descended
former City Clerk Thomas Beasley. Lee Wilson, the discoverer of acetylene gas,
was also a descendant of the Springer family. It would be an interesting bit of
history to trace the Springer family from Amsterdam and down through three
centuries to Mrs. Daniel Kelly, now the oldest lady in Hamilton.
Richard Springer’s daughter, Sarah,
married Dey Knight, a native of Fryeburg, Maine, and they were the parents of
Mrs. Daniel Kelly. We have before given a history of Richard Springer, the
founder of Methodism in Hamilton, therefore it will only be necessary to refer
to it at this time. Four years after Mrs. Kelly was born, her father, Dey
Knight, had the contract to erect the first church building in Hamilton, which
event occurred in the year 1824. From the time when Richard Springer held the
first Methodist service in his log house in what is now known as the eastern
part of Corktown, which was in the year 1801, till the year 1824, there was not
a church building in Hamilton belonging to any denomination, and it was a
number of years later before the Presbyterians came to occupy the land.
When the first church (then known as
the King street Methodist church) was dedicated, Mrs. Kelly was a girl four
years old, and can possibly lay claim to be one of the first attendants and one
of the first members of the Sabbath school. Her life has been one continuous
part of the history of Hamilton, and now in her ninety-seventh year, her mind
is clear and active, and it is a pleasure to hear her tell of the early days in
this city. She has one sister living on Main street east, Mrs. McKerlie, who is
ninety-three years old; two sons and one daughter. One of the sons holds a responsible
position in St. Louis, the other son lives in Pierre, Dakota, and the daughter,
Mrs. Rogers, lives at home with her mother. She also has living seven
grandchildren. Almost a centenarian, and the Grand Old Woman is as bright and
cheerful as she was in the years gone by. May she continue so to the end is the
prayer of her host of friends.
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THE IRISH LAND ACT
Nearly eighteen years ago, William E. Curtis,
one of the best-informed newspaper correspondents of his time, then the
principal staff writer on the Chicago Record-Herald, wrote a history of the new
Irish land act that forced the landlords to sell their estates to their
tenants, so as to enable every tiller of the soil to become a prosperous farm
owner if he so desired. This act was to be the deathblow to landlordism in
Ireland, and the hope that with a sense of ownership of their homes would come
peace with prosperity to the tenantry. It was intended to complete the land
reform in Ireland, and to eradicate forever the evils of landlordism, which had
for so many generations afflicted that country, and retarded its prosperity.
The British government provided $900,000,000 to help Ireland become independent
of what was known as “absentee landlordism,” as the greater part of the land was owned by men who lived in
England and spent part of each year on the continent, while some poor Pat lived
in the tumbledown cottage in Ireland, unless he had made it habitable for his
family at his own expense. No wonder why they lived in poverty, when all the
agricultural wealth was stripped from Ireland to support the “landed gentry,”
who left the gathering of the rents in the hands of agents, who, too often, were
the essence of brutality. Under this galling yoke, the Irish renters were
compelled to live until patience ceased to be a virtue, and they emigrated from
the homeland to Canada and the United States by hundreds of thousands. The
early settlers in Hamilton will remember the year 1847, when thousands of them
landed at the wharves down at the bay, some to make their home in this town,
and others to scatter to the westward. What pitiable plight were the poor
immigrants in, scores of them dying in the sheds down on the wharves of that
dreaded disease “ship fever.” Those who survived the perils were nursed to
health and strength by the good women of Hamilton, and today their descendants
are among the leading businessmen and citizens of the town. They settled in one
of the quarters of town, built comfortable homes for their families, and that
section was christened “Corktown,” and the name will stick to it forever. But
what a change has taken place in the last thirty or forty years; the early
frame four-room cottages have given place to hundreds of handsome brick houses,
built in all the elegance and comfort befitting the prosperity of the people
who own and live in them.
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THE COUNTRY NEWSPAPER
Nearly all of the city newspapers have some
smart Aleck on the staff who delights in poking fun at the country paper.
Peraps to the city reader it matters little whether Tom Jones and wife visited
Dave Smith and wife last Sunday, or whether Tim Turnsod’s barn is not as big as
some of the skyscrapers that are being built in our Canadian towns, but all the
same, these little personal mentions tell a story of vital interest to the
weekly readers of Dave Hastings’ compendium of home gossip.
People
in the country are interested in each other’s doings, and the people mentioned
as a rule are of the substantial sort, and very few of them have their names
connected with the scandals or divorce cases. It may that to one who does not
known country life, these personal mentions may sound funny, but the little
country paper, in reporting these simple things, and the clean, wholesome life
in the community in which it circulates, is doing that which is worthwhile for
the information and pleasured of its readers. It is in the quiet country and in
the small towns where the strength of Canada is rooted, where its wealth is
created, and where its most important and precious ideals are cherished. The
country paper must be true to country life, of which it is an important part,
if it is to live and do the work of highest value. Their continued efforts on
behalf of community betterment is of more worth to the nation than all the
efforts of the big city papers that are devoted to the building up of great
cities. It is an old saying that “God made the country and man made the town,”
and it must be admitted that the country editor has no small share in the
country part.
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