The
ancient Hamiltonians take a look backward in memory now and then and dream of
the bucolic days when nearly every well-to-do home was provided with a melodeon
in the parlor, and after prayers, the winding of the clock and the putting the
cat out at nine p.m., then out went the tallow or candle, and the family
retired to peaceful rest, and got up refreshed with the song birds in the
morning to take up the daily routine of life. The good old bossy, after giving
her morning pail of milk, could be heard bellowing her song of peaceful content
as she turned her head toward the succulent pasture fields east and west to
browse during the long, hot summer day, and then return home at eventide to
replenish the pantry with more pans of sweet, fresh milk. There was no hint of
the milkman having crossed a creek with his wagon to supply his customers with
the pure lacteal fluid, for milk was so plentiful in those days that it was
almost as cheap as water, hence there was no temptation to the honest milkman
to fill up his cans from the creek. Now, it might be inferred that people were
more honest half a century ago than they are now. Forget it. Human nature has
been built on the same plane since the time Noah landed his passengers and
freight from the ark on dry land before Hamilton had a place on the map. Do you
know that people are apt to live in the past after they pass a certain stage in
the journey of life? Well, that is just the case of this old Muser, whose
memory flies back now and then to the time in Hamilton when the cat went out
for the night, and boys and girls were not allowed to roam the streets after
old Peter Ferris would ring the nine o’clock bell.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The congregation of the
First Methodist church dedicated their handsome temple last Sunday, and on next
Sunday, a like service will be held in connection with the Sunday school
building. It required a deal of courage for the members to build such a
handsome and costly edifice, but the location deserved it, for on that lot and
corner was built not only the first church in Hamilton, but also the first
Methodist church. The corner and the lot are historic ground. Sometimes it seems
like plowing over the old ground for any mention to be made in these musings in
connection with church, especially that of First church. At a venture we will
recall the story, and if the reader should say that he or she read it before,
then they can skip this page and read “Bobby’s” hot stuff on the sporting page
about the latest prize fight. One hundred and fifteen years ago there landed in
the region, now known in history as the Head of the Lake, but later christened
Hamilton, a man by the name of Richard Springer. He was of German descent, but
was born in the United States. In the year 1801, he located a farm south of
Main street and up to the mountain, better described later as the site of the
St. Patrick’s school on Hunter street, now turned into a flour mill by the Wood
Milling company. The Springer homestead stood in the rear of the present site
of the mill, and the first thing that the owner did was to rect an altar in his
home to the Great Father who directed his life, and then he planted an orchard
with the choicest fruit grown in this region in those days. A few trees of the
old orchard are still yielding fruit. He invited his neighbors to attend the
weekly prayer meeting held in his house, and on Sundays he would have a class
meeting and preaching service. When the farm kitchen became too small to
accommodate the increased attendance, he fitted up his barn for the meetings.
Now and then a wandering itinerant preacher would drift toward the Head of the
Lake, and then there was a regular Pentecostal feast among the ancient
Methodists. When quarterly meeting time came, these old Methodists would
journey out to Bowman chapel on the mountain or to the chapel at Stoney Creek,
which was riddled with bullets in the war of 1812, and there they would devoutly
listen to the gospel sermons, relate their experience and “sing the hours away
in everlasting bliss.” In those days, Elder Ryan and Rev. Nathan Bangs were the
best known itinerants in these parts, and Elder Ryan travelled from one end of
Upper Canada to the other, organizing circuits. For years, Richard Springer’s
barn accommodated the congregations in winter, and during the summer months,
services were held under the forest trees. The first and oldest regular place
of public worship was a little frame school house on the lot near the corner of
King and Wellington streets. Here Mr. Springer continued his regular class and
prayer meetings, and in the absence of an itinerant preacher, he would conduct
the Sunday service. As an exhorter, it is told that Mr. Springer was a man of
great power, somewhat quaint in his manner, which was very effective in those
early days of Methodism. It is said that most of the farmers living at the Head
of the Lake (now the city of Hamilton0 were Methodists, among them being the
Springers, Lands, Aikmans, Fergusons, Hughsons, Beasleys,Hesses, Kirkendalls
and others whose names are forgotten by the Muser. Some of those named united
with the Church of England when the Rev. James Gamble Geddes first gathered a
congregation here, about 1825.In 1822, Richard Springer, Charles Depew, Col.
John Aikman, john Eaton and Peter Ferguson, acting as trustees for the
Methodist Episcopal church, purchased the present site on the corner of King
and Wellington streets from Col. Robert Land, paying twenty pounds ($80) for
about one acre and a quarter of land for a burying ground and a church. One of
the first burials was Samuel Price, a tavern keeper, whose gravestone bore the
date 1822. In 1823, the deed was made to the trustees and immediately after
getting possession, the trustees built the first church in Hamilton, and in May
1824, it was duly dedicated. The contract for the erection of the church was
given to Day Knight, a brother-in-law of Richard Springer, and the father of
Mrs. Daniel Kelly, 444 Main street east, who is now in her ninety-fourth year,
and as bright in intellect and activity as a woman of sixty. The building cost
about $1,700; the dedication sermon being preached by Presiding Elder William
Case. Soon, after the church was built the congregation withdrew from the
Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States and assumed the name of the
Methodist Episcopal Church of Canada. This was known as Ancaster circuit, the
Reverend Issac B. Smith and the Reverend David Culp being the ministers in
charge of the circuit. The writer of these Musings had the pleasure, in his
youth, of hearing the Rev. David Culp preach in the old Methodist Episcopal
Church on Nelson street, now Ferguson Avenue. The church property was
afterwards sold to the government, and on it was built the gun sheds for
Captain Booker’s artillery. The Rev. Dr. Ryerson, then a young fellow of twenty
years, came from his farm home in Ancaster to study the classics under Mr. Law.
He was a Methodist and Mr. Springer finally captured hi and got him into the
ministry.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The first
Methodist church built in Hamilton, and
dedicated in 1824, cost $1,700, and the early Methodists felt proud of it. It
cost much self-denial in those early days even to raise that small amount. The
church that was dedicated last Sunday cost $105,000, and the Sunday school
building that will be dedicated tomorrow cost $35,000 more, making a grand
total of $140,000. When it is considered that there are but few wealthy men
connected with the First Methodist, while the majority of its membership is in
comfortable circumstances, it required a deal of faith in the future for the
congregation to tackle such a proposition, especially in these days of
financial stringency. There is no such word as fail in the lexicon of the First
church, and while the present generation may not be able to pull the whole
load, there are future generations of Methodists to finish the job. The new church
is a credit to Hamilton, and to the denomination in Canada. It is to be
presumed that the first Methodist bishop in Canada, Bishop Reynolds, dedicated
the old King street church in 1824, though we have no authentic data to prove
it. The new church was dedicated last Sunday morning by Bishop Chown, and in
the evening by the Rev. E. B. Lanceley, who may be in effect called the father
of the new church, for it was during his pastorate that the enterprise was
started. We will close with a little item of history. In 1824, the first
missionary collection taken up on the Ancaster circuit, comprising about thirty
miles in circumference, in which the Head of the Lake was included, amounted on
the entire district to $32. This would not go very far toward the conversion of
even one heathen in these days of high prices of living.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is estimated on
reliable authority that not less than $2,000 a day crosses the bars of the
hotels in Hamilton; and this seems to be a new estimate considering that there
are sixty-two licensed hotels, the average receipts being over $32 a day. Added
to this, there are sixteen retail stores where liquor is sold by the quantity,
not to be drunk on the premises. As there is a good profit on liquors, it is
reasonable to suppose that the retail dealers take in quite a large amount in
the course of a day’s business for what are called bottled goods. But take the
incomes of sixty-two licensed hotels at $2,000 a day and it amounts to $32,000
a week. Count it up for a year and it costs to quench the thirst of the hotel
customers $804,000. These figures are low if we consider a semi-official
estimate that appeared in the local columns of the city papers some months ago.
That statement gave in round numbers $1,000,000 as the
estimated receipts that crossed hotel bars in one year. Take your choice of the
$2,000 a day or the one million dollars a year and either is certainly a great
waste of money for the momentary pleasure of tickling the palates of the few
hundreds or more who indulge in that luxury. It is not the intention of the
Muser to berate the hotel keeper or his customers. The man with a liquor
appetite and his helpless wife and children are the sufferers.
The United Relief
association of Hamilton is now spending between $5,000 and $6,000 a week in furnishing
food for 2,000 or 2,500 families of men out of employment. The families cannot
starve, and there is no work for the men to do to provide the food and fuel and
house rent. This condition of affairs is not peculiar to Hamilton alone; it is
world-wide. The people of Hamilton are generous givers, and they not only
contribute liberally from their private purses toward every benevolent enterprise,
but they are loyally backing up the civic authorities to appropriate from the
public treasury all the money necessary to provide for the wants of the less
fortunate.
But, just think of
it, from $5,000 to $6,000 a week to furnish food and fuel and clothing to the
families of the unemployed of Hamilton, and not less than $12,000 a week to
quench the liquor thirst of the men who have acquired an appetite for strong
drink!
In the recent war in
which the Japanese and the Russians were trying conclusions, the little brown
brother was more than a match for the Russian bear. There was a reason for
this, for the men of Russia were as brave and courageous as the Japs. The
Japanese are a temperate people, while the Russian soldier of that war drank
heavily of his native vodka. The sober Japanese was more than a physical match
for his Russian opponent under the demoralizing influence of vodka, and the
result was victory for the little brown brother on every battlefield.
When the present
unpleasantness between the Kaiser and his neighbor rulers began, the Czar of
Russia issued an order prohibiting the sale of vodka in his Dominions. At one
fell swoop, he wiped out $500,000,000 of revenue, for the government of Russia
had a monolpoly of the liquor business. Every place where vodka was sold was
immediately closed and no liquor could be had for love nor money. It was
prohibition that prohibited. It was intended for a war measure, and its results
were immediate. There is no more drunkenness or demoralization in the Russian
army, and these brave fellows are fighting like heroes and whipping everything
before them. Tally one for a sober army! Not only has Russia a sober army now,
but the men at home are sober and industrious and their families are not only
well-fed and clothed, but the rioting and the drunkenness that prevailed have
passed away.
If Hamilton had a
czar that could do like the Czar of Russia, there would be no $12,000 a week crossing
the hotel bars, and the city would not have to raise $5,000 or $6,000 a week
for a relief fund.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Laugh and the world
laughs with you; weep and you go it alone. It was Ela Wheeler Wilcox that gave
expression to this trite saying, or words to that effect. We all like the
plaudits of friends, especially those of us who dabble in printer`s ink. This
old Muser may be pardoned if he gives to the readers of these Musings a couple
of very complimentary letters, congratulating him on having lived four score
years, and saying very nice things about our humble contributions to the
columns of the Spectator. The first is our old friend, Judge Jelfs, and the
second from an old Burlington boy who obeyed the call of the wild west and is
now the sales manager in the J. H. Ashdown Hardware company, in the city of Winnipeg.
We have not had the pleasure of being acquainted with Mr. C. H. Bamford, and
that makes his kind words the more acceptable. Many friends told us how glad
they were that the Muser was getting up in years, though he is only a boy yet.
Office of Police Magistrate,
November
18, 1914
Dear Sir, - Allow me, as one of the many thousands who
have enjoyed and been entertained by your able contributions to the press, to
congratulate you on your reaching, with God`s approval, an age in advance of
the allotted span, enjoying ,as I am sure you must, the consoling and
comforting thought that your life must be pleasing to God because it has been
useful to your fellow men.
Yours
sincerely,
Geo. Fred. Jelfs
------------------------------
Winnipeg,
Canada,
November
18, 1914.
Dear Mr. Butler, - Permit me to congratulate you on
reaching the four score mark, and to express the wish that you will long be
spared to contribute Saturday Musings to the Spectator. Your articles I read
with pleasure. While they are reminiscent, their diction has a charm that
sustains from the first to the last word. Truly, the boys and girls of Hamilton
are to be congratulated on their good fortune in having the early history of
their city presented to them so interestingly, and interspersed with such ripe
common sense. I am an old Burlington boy, and know Hamilton well, hence your
articles have an added interest. Yet even were I a total stranger to Hamilton,
they would still be looked upon as articles worthwhile.
I ask you to accept this slight appreciation of your
worth and work, and wish that the year you are just entering will be a record
one in good health and happiness.
Believe me, yours sincerely,
C. H. S. Bamford.
No comments:
Post a Comment