1917-04-07

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.

1916-04-29

WHEN SLAVES WERE OWNED IN UPPER CANADA

          At the beginning of the last century, a sort of semi-slavery was permitted by law in Upper Canada, known as the apprentice slavery system. Negroes were not bought and sold as in the United States, but a sort of settled condition existed that did not allow the negro to own himself. Human slavery has existed since the foundation of the world. Homer tells us that in his day the male slaves were I employed in the tillage of the land and the tending of cattle and the females in domestic work and household manufactures. The females were in the more pitiable condition, for they had to submit to the brutality of their masters. By the original Roman law, the master was clothed with absolute Dominion over the slave, extending to the power of life and death. The slave could not possess property of any kind; whatever he acquired was legally his master’s. The union of a male and female slave had not the legal character of a marriage, and it might be terminated at will by the master. Down to 1442, the conquering armies made slaves of the conquered armies, and it was not till that year that negroes, as a race, became slaves. When the Portuguese, under Prince Henry, the navigator, were exploring the Atlantic coast of Africa, one of his officers, who had captured some Moors, was directed by the prince to carry them back to Africa. He received from the Moors in exchange for them ten blacks and a quantity of gold dust. This excited the cupidity of his fellow countrymen and they fitted out a large number of ships for the trade, and built several forts on the African coast. Many negroes were brought into Spain from these Portuguese settlements and the colonial slave trade first appears in the form of the introduction into the newly-discovered western world of children or descendants of these negroes. So far as we can gather from history this was the beginning of the slavery. The first Englishman who engaged in the African slave traffic was Capt. John Hawkins. The English slave traders were at first altogether occupied in supplying the Spanish settlements. In 1620, a Dutch ship from the coast of Guinea visited Jamestown in Virginia, and sold a part of her cargo of negroes to the tobacco planters. This was the first beginning of slavery in British America; the number of negroes was afterwards continually increased by importation, and the field labor was more and more performed by slave labor, so that in 1790 the State of Virginia contained 200,000 negroes. The question of the legal existence of slavery in Great Britain and Ireland was raised in 1729, to the effect that a slave by coming into those countries did not become free, and might be compelled by his master to return to the plantations. It was decided by Lord Mansfield, on June 22, 1792, that as soon as a slave set foot on the soil of British islands, he became free. The question of slavery became a live one in the British parliament in 1788 in consequence of the numerous petitions presented by the people against it. Mr. Pitt moved that the House of Commons should early in the next session take the subject into consideration. On March 19, 1789, Wilberforce, after an admirable speech, laid on the table twelve resolutions which were intended as the basis of a future motion for the abolition of the trade. In 1806, a bill was passed in both houses to put an end to the British slave trade for foreign supply and to forbid the importation into the colonies won by the British arms in the course of the war. In 1807, a bill was enacted that no slave vessel should clear from any port within the British dominions and that no slave should be landed in the British colonies after March 1, 1808. The British parliament had a long and bitter struggle in its humane efforts to remove the blot of slavery from its history. In 1811 a bill was passed through parliament declaring the traffic to be a felony punishable with transportation. Some years later, another act was passed making it’s a capital offense. There was so much profit in the slave trade that if one voyage in three was successful, they were abundantly remunerated for the risk. England was not the first European power to abolish the slave trade; that honor belongs to Denmark. The United States had, in 1794, forbidden any participation by American citizens in the slave trade to foreign countries; they now prohibited the importation of slaves from Africa into their Dominion. This act was passed in 1807. In 1807, there were 800,000 slaves in the West Indies; three years later, they were reduced to 700,000, and in 1823, England abolished slavery in the West Indies, paying the owners an indemnity of $100,000,000.

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          Slavery was far from being approved by the most eminent fathers of the American union. Washington in his will provided for the emancipation of his own slaves. The words, “slave,” and “slavery,” were excluded from the constitution because they did not choose to admit the right of property in man, and it was at the same time provided that congress might interdict the foreign slave after twenty years. Soon after the formation of the Northern States in 1777, Vermont abolished slavery, and in 1804, New Jersey adopted measures for its final abolition within its boundaries. This simply transferred the northern slaves to southern markets. The pioneer of the abolition movement in the United States was Benjamin Lundy, and he was followed by William Lloyd Garrison, Elijah P. Lovejoy, Wendell Phillips, Charles Sumner and John Brown, the latter being hanged at Harper’s Ferry in 1859. The election of President Lincoln in 1860 was the signal for the rising of the south. The north at first took up arms to maintain the union, but soon the whole nation saw that the real issue with the south was the continued existence of slavery. The war closed at  Appomattox on April 9, 1865, but slavery in the territories had been abolished by congress in 1862. On the 22^nd of April, 1862, President Lincoln issued his proclamation of freedom to the slaves, and in 1864, a constitutional amendment was passed abolishing and forever prohibiting slavery in the United States.

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                                       SLAVES IN HAMILTON

          How many of the ancient Hamiltonians remember the time when slavery existed in this city, though in a very mild form. It was known as the apprentice slave system, which bound the colored man or woman to his or her master, but at the same time protected the slave from injustice or cruel treatment. In a box of legal papers that were removed many years ago to Toronto by the owner, much interesting history might be found that would be well worth writing up. That box would be valuable to the archivist of Ontario, and it will be a misfortune to some future historian should it be lost. A part of its contents is legal papers  relating to the sale and transfer of negroes who were owned in this city when it was known as the Head of the Lake. The only record the writer of these Musings had access to, and it is very brief, is of two household servants that were owned by early settlers. The older citizens of Hamilton whose memory will carry them back to the days before the American war, will remember an aged negro named Jackson, who lived in a very ancient frame cottage near the Delta. Jackson was a house servant in the family of Col. Henry Beasley, grandfather of A. C. Beasley. Where he came from is beyond the knowledge of Mr. Beasley. All that he can remember of the old man is that he used to nurse the father of Thomas C. Beasley, former city clerk, and that he performed the same kindly office for him. Jackson lived for almost one hundred years, dying about the year 1868. He was a kindly old soul, and everybody who knew him was always ready to add to his comfort. He was bent with age and his head was covered with thick, white hair, as fine and wavy as a fleece of wool. If he ever had a family, it was not known even to the Beasleys. That he had been a runaway slave from the south there was no doubt; but he never talked about his early life, not even to those with whom he was most intimate. Jackson, for he was never known by a Christian name, had a little patch of ground surrounding his cabin near the Delta, on which he raised vegetables, chickens and some fruits, so that his wants, which were few, were well-supplied. During the latter part of his life, Thomas C. Beasley saw to it that the old man was well-supplied with comfortable clothing and with money sufficient to make him independent. One day he was missed from his usual haunts; his chimney was smokeless, his door closed and locked, and his chickens squawking around, looking for the kindly hand that fed them. A neighbor went over to see what was the matter, and in looking through the window he saw the ancient colored man sitting bolt upright on a chair. The alarm was given, the door broken open, and it was seen that the old man had passed away, a sweet smile resting on his face, evidencing that his closing hours were free from suffering. Mr. Beasley took charge of the house and paid the expenses of the funeral. There was a large gathering at the house during the ceremonies, and the aged slave was followed to the grave in the city cemetery by nearly the whole neighborhood in which he lived. Jackson was the first apprenticed slave of whom we have any record.

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          When James Durand, in 1805, came to Hamilton from Norfolk, he brough with him a colored woman, who was his apprenticed slave. Mr. Durand kept a general store in Norfolk, and Peter Desjardins, the builder of the Desjardins canal, worked for him as a clerk, and he came with his employer. Mr. Durand bought  the fine farm of 100 acres located between Main street and south to the mountain top, and bounded by a line running through the center of the block between Walnut and Catharine streets on the east and Hughson street on the west.  In coming down the then dangerous mountainside, and almost in sight of her new home, Mrs. Durand was thrown from her carriage, and lived but a few days afterward, dying from the injuries received. She was attended by Dr. William Case, the grandfather of Miss Case, whose home is on Queen street. There were no graveyards in those early days, the settlers burying their loved ones on their farms. Mrs. Durand was buried on the side of the mountain on her husband’s farm, and, strange to say, Dr. Case was buried in the same lot nearly fifty years later. We have told the story before, but history will always stand repeating for the benefit of the later generations. When Dr. Case died in 1854, although Hamilton cemetery was then opened, but did not belong to the city, the church that then controlled the property refused to sell a lot to the Case family unless some orthodox minister would perform the burial service at the grave. The good old doctor had the misfortune, if it might be so called, not to be affiliated with any church, and this was considered to be an unpardonable sin in Hamilton in those bucolic days. It mattered not that the old doctor was one of the kindest men that ever stood by a sick bed, and that he rarely ever got a copper from the poorer class  of patients, yet there was one thing lacking, he did not bow before the altar in “our” church, therefore he could not be buried in consecrated ground. Geo. Hamilton, who succeeded Mr. Durand in ownership of the farm, tendered a burial spot to the family in the original Durand burial ground, and there the body of the good old doctor rests as peacefully as though it had been consigned to the grave by the pomps and ceremonies of every minister in the then holy city. The day of the doctor’s funeral was bright sunshine, and a large company had assembled to do honor to the memory of one of the kindest souls that ever lived in the town, and the chief mourners at that grave on the mountain side were the poor in purse, whose families had been nursed back to health and life by the free ministrations of their dead benefactor. When the pallbearers were about to lower the coffin into the grave a terrific thunderstorm broke from the clear sky and the rain poured down in torrents. This brought the burial service to a close, the large audience seeking shelter as best they could under the trees, the coffin being left by the side of the grave. The storm soon broke, and the sun shone out bright and clear as it did a half an hour before. Then a few who remained completed the burial. How many are still living who attended Dr. William Case’s funeral. The doctor’s body was never moved to the cemetery. It would have been sacrilege to disturb his peaceful rest. The grave can yet be seen on the mountain side as one walks up or down the hill at the head of John street.

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          Well, there is nothing more to be told about the slave woman who came to Hamilton in 1805 with James Durand’s family and Peter Desjardins, the French boy who afterwards built the Desjardins canal. The faithful old slave remained in the Durand family during her lifetime, and was nurse to a generation by the second wife. The Durand farm was afterward bought by George Hamilton for $3,000 and was the first surveyed of the present city that has grown in population from less than two thousand in the year 1813 to over one hundred thousand in the year 1916. In the early days, Hamilton was the mecca for the runaway slaves from the southern states. While many of them stopped in the race from slavery to freedom at the village of St. Catharines, yet they never felt safe till they reached Hamilton, the haven of rest and safety. The runaway slaves were fearful that St. Catharines was too close to the border, and that their masters would sneak in upon them in the silent night and kidnap them back to slavery. Chatham was also a paradise for runaway slaves, and that town has yet many relics of the slave days before “Massa Linkum” issued his celebrated proclamation in 1862 declaring freedom to very black faced son and daughter. One by one the slave-born who sought refuge in Hamilton have passed to the home of freedom that is fairer than this. Back in the early days of the year 1840, there was quite a settlement of colored people in this old town. You, my old Hamiltonian, will remember John Burns, dark, fat and fifty, who kept a restaurant on King street west, in the building adjoining the C. P. R. ticket office. John was not overrun with business during the day, but when night came, and it was time for everybody  to be pointing their noses homeward, then was John’s harvest. The old man was a chef of no mean order and his pastries and sandwiches and delicious coffee makes one’s mouth water even in these days sixty years after. O for the halcyon days of youth! Then there was Peleg (sic) Brown, whose clanging hand bell and stentorian voice could be heard crying ales, things lost or stolen, lost children, concerts and lectures, in fact, everything that is now advertised in the daily papers. Hamilton had no daily paper then, and old Peleg (sic) was a first class substitute. Then there was cheerful old Taffy Mary, who was the banker for all of the children’s coppers, for which she exchanged her delicious taffy. An old Hamiltonian was talking about her the other day to the Muser, and the remembrance of that taffy was so vivid that he began licking his fingers. You remember Henry Pease, who died about six years ago? He came from Tennessee about the year 1850 and stopped to take a rest in London; but that sleepy old town was too slow for a man of his energy and skill, and he bought a ticket for Hamilton, and here he made his home. Henry Brazier died the other day, aged 92 years. He had a kind master and an easy job in the south, but his soul panted for freedom, and he crossed the river and came to Hamilton. He came long before the war, and was a decent citizen, and lived here 66 years. We might extend the roll; there are not many left of the old slavery stock. Julia Diggs, an old colored woman, who has lived so long that she has forgotten where she was born. She remembers, however, that she was born a slave in Maryland more than ninety years ago, and that she came to Hamilton nearly seventy years ago, and was united in marriage by Dean Geddes to her husband, also a runaway slave. When the American war broke out, Aunt Julia’s husband went from Hamilton to the United States and did his best to help President Lincoln free the slaves of the south. He died shortly after the war, and Aunt Julia is still drawing $12 a month pension from the United States government, which keeps the good old woman from being an object of charity. Some of these people who indulge in sneers about the United States forget that as a nation it provide generously for the men who did its fighting, and also takes care of the surviving widows of the veteran soldiers. There is one more colored man who spent his young life in slavery, and who is now drawing a pension from Uncle Sam for three years’ service on the fighting line. His name is William Moore. The old man has passed beyond the days of hard work, but his wants are all provided for while he lives.

1916-06-03

Sixty-one years ago, Hamilton’s first big hotel was opened for the reception of guests. At that time it was said to be one of the largest hotels in Canada, and it was certainly one of the finest. At that time thirty-one places advertised in this city under the heading of “Hotels,” yet it was doubtful if more than half a dozen of them could furnish decent accommodation for guests. Some of them had very high-sounding titles, but mighty poor cooks. Travelling men gave the town the go-by and would not spend a night here if it was possible to transact their business in time to catch the last train out. This was humiliating to the progressive business men of the town, and Hamilton had any number of that enterprising class in those days. The principal wholesale houses in Canada, next to Montreal, were in this town, and the country merchants who came here to buy goods very freely registered their complaints with the wholesale men with whom they dealt. A few of the comfortable hotels were always crowded, and the wiser country merchants used to send on in advance and secure accommodations. After the opening of the Great Western railway in the fall of 1853, more than ever was the necessity felt for a first-class hotel, large enough to accommodate the increasing travelling public, and in 1854, a few of the more public-spirited business men started a stock-subscription for the purpose of creating a building fund for a new hotel. In addition to the so-called hotels at that time, Hamilton had twenty-six eating houses combined with saloons, where one could get food and liquor to wash it down, but they were not expected or required to furnish lodgings. The stock was soon subscribed, each business man taking as many shares as his interests justified, and as soon as the plans, and the specifications, could be prepared, work was begun on the new hotel. Negotiations had been opened with Charles S. Coleman, a member of the family of celebrated hotel keepers in the United States, to lease the hotel at a nominal rent for a term of years, and Mr. Coleman was consulted as to the manner of building that would best suit a city of the size that Hamilton then was. The result was the elegant hotel known first as the Anglo-American and in later years as the Waldorf.

          Land at that time in Hamilton did not have much value, and the lot on the south side of King street, in the middle of the block between John and Catharine streets, was selected as the site for the new hotel. No one seemed to want that lot, for it was on the wrong side of the street for retail business hotels and the wholesale business was located on the same side of the street, between John and James streets. It might be interesting to state as a matter of history that the early circuses and tent shows that visited Hamilton used that lot for exhibition grounds. We doubt if there are many ancient Hamiltonians now living who can remember when Welch and Mann’s great national circus or VanAmburgh’s animal show pitched their tents on that lot. It is about seventy years ago since those celebrated shows travelled through Canada, and having a day off they stopped over in Hamilton and occupied this historic spot. How many of the old boys are now living who spent that day in carrying water from the town pump, that stood at the west end of the Gore, opposite where the Bank of Hamilton now raises its dizzy head skyward? It was a long way to carry water, but what did a boy care if in the end he was to be rewarded with standing room on the inside of the tent? Those elephants and horses and other animals never seemed to get water enough, but when the show began, the boys were permitted to crawl under the canvas and forget the weary hours they had spend in tramping from the town pump to the circus ground.

          But the time came when some enterprising shopkeepers were looking for cheap lots on which to build, and what is now the site of a new hotel was covered with a row of frame buildings, and in time at each end of the block more pretentious brick stores were erected. Those brick buildings are there yet, but much larger than were the originals. It was always a wonder why the middle of that block was selected as the site of the Anglo-American, when the whole block might have been bought for less than half the money that was spent for the 160 feet on which the new hotel is built. However, there is no accounting for the judgment of men when they get their minds fixed. It was deemed to be the most eligible spot on King street for a hotel, and there it was built. At the time when the streets of this ancient city were being platted, it was the purpose of the original surveyors to make King street something that future generations would be proud of. The plan was to have it as wide from James as far as Wellington street, which was then the eastern limits of the town, as it was at the west end of the Gore. What a magnificent street that would have been, and it was intended to continue that width as far east as the town might grow in the future. The early settlers who owned the farm lands thought it would be a waste of land to have such a wide street, and they objected so strenuously that the old cow path line was followed, and that accounts for King street being laid out in a gore pattern. The land at that time could have been bought for less than $50 an acre, but as there was no such thing known as legal expropriation proceedings, the farmers won out. Well, the Anglo-American was built on that 160 feet frontage, and for all time to come there, Hamilton’s leading hotel will stand. It was a handsome structure, and the interior was so planned that every room was bright and airy. It was a great day for Hamilton when in the year 1854 the town took a holiday for the laying of the cornerstone; and for the months that followed the progress of the construction was watched with as much interest as though the hotel was to be the personal residence of each individual. It was a new thing for the town to see such a skyscraper as the five-story hotel being erected; for it was at that time the tallest building in the town.

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          Every man and woman in Hamilton felt a personal interest in that hotel, and when the last hammer sounded and the master builder said the work was completed, the managers very generously opened its doors to the public that it might see what a grand thing had come to Hamilton through the enterprise and liberality of the progressive business men who had contributed to its erection, for the men who furnished the money never expected to receive a penny in the way of dividends. And they were not disappointed, as subsequent events proved. But they had the comforting solace that Hamilton had at last a first-class hotel and a landlord that had the experience and ability to keep it at the head of Canadian hostelries. The Anglo-American soon won a reputation for its comfortable rooms and for its cuisine, and instead of travelling men hurrying away from town, rather than put up with former discomforts, the hotel was crowded with guests, especially over Sunday. The hotel was dedicated by a grand ball, and in order to give Mr. Coleman a financial benefit to start with, the price of tickets was placed at $10, the gentlemen having the privilege of taking one or more ladies.  It was an extremely select affair, as ten dollar bills in those days did not have a very wide circulation among the average Hamiltonians; but those who could not attend, for financial reasons, had the pleasure of seeing the handsomely-dressed women and their fashionably-equipped escorts enter the hotel, and of hearing the fine orchestra, brought from Buffalo for the occasion. It was joy enough to watch the dancers as they whirled around the large dining room, transferred into a ballroom for the opening night at least.

          There was a sound of revelry that night,

            And the Ambitious City had gathered then

          Her beauty and her chivalry, and bright

            The lamps shone o’er fair women and brave men.

          A thousand hearts beat happily, and when

            Music arose with its voluptuous swell,

          Soft eyes look’d love to eyes which spake again,

            And all went merry as a marriage bell.

          The wealth and fashion of Hamilton and the surrounding country was there, and Byron’s description of the ball the night before Waterloo, fits in to tell the story. It was the first grand event of the old town, and it was fittingly observed. There are not many left of the young men and women who were present on that opening night, but to the survivors it comes as a dream of the past, never to be forgotten.

          The Anglo-American was built before its time. A population of 15,000 was not large enough to draw custom to a hotel kept in the style that it was. Mr. Coleman was disappointed although the business men gave him every encouragement, and the stockholders were willing that he should continue as lessee at a merely nominal rent. The term for which he had originally leased the house having expired, no inducements could be strong enough to persuade him to renew it. He liked Hamilton and its people, but better inducements were offered elsewhere and he bade farewell and left town with less money than he brought to it. The panic of 1857 struck Canada with foirce, and Hamilton felt it at its worst. There were but few manufacturing industries in the town, and nearly all of them were closed or the men put on short time. Men by the score were leaving every week to seek employment across the border, and none returning to take their place was poor encouragement for a hotel with a large payroll and an empty dining room. In fact, the only paying department in the Anglo-American was its bar. Old-timers will remember the genius who presided behind the bar. He was an Adonis that any photographer would delight to have for a sitter, so they he might enlarge it for the front show window. He was a man of pleasant features, with a long black beard nearly a foot in length. He went on duty about 6 o’clock in full evening dress, low cut vest, broad expanse of snowy linen with an immaculate rolled-down shirt collar and white necktie, and was a picture that foolish women would rave about and a drawing card with the men. Behind the bar with him were two or more assistants dressed in white linen suits and as lavish shirt fronts as their principal, and to them was allotted the task of rinsing the glasses and keeping the bar polished. The principal barkeep never did any of the wash up; all he did was to hand down the decanters and take in the cash. He was popular with the patrons of the bar, and through his acquaintance with prominent men connected with the Great Western succeeded in getting a conductorship on the road. But the end finally came and the Anglo-American sounded “lights out,” closed its doors to the travelling public, and Mr. Coleman and his pleasant family returned to their homes across the border.

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          That left Hamilton with but one first-class hotel. Thomas Davidson was the proprietor of the City hotel, a very popular home for travelers who visited the town, but not large enough to accommodate an extra rush of travelers. After Fisher and McQuesten’s foundry had burned down, on the opposite corner of the City hotel, a stock company bought the site and upon it built the Royal hotel about a year later than when the Anglo-American was opened. The trade of the town was not sufficient for two first-class hotels, especially as Mr. Davidson, who had been long in the business, and F. W. Fearman, who had been connected with the City hotel, both as manager and lessee, were competitors of the Anglo-American. The Prince of Wales was expected to visit Hamilton in his tour through Canada and the United States, and the stockholders of the Anglo-American thought it to be an opportune time to secure a new manager and again open its doors, and they induced Rice and Kinsley to make the experiment. They were men of ability in the hotel business, and if it was at all possible they would certainly succeed. Kinsley had for years been the manager of the Robinson Hall hotel in London, one of the most popular stopping places for the travelling public. Again the doors of the Anglo-American swung open, and when the prince was expected in Hamilton, the committee of arrangements selected it for the reception and ball. It was a brilliant affair, and Rice and Kinsley made good their reputation as hotel keepers. The night of the ball, after the guests had departed and only here and there was to be seen a glimmer of light from the window of some tired reveler, Rice and Kinsley “flew the coop.” The merchants who had furnished the supplies for entertaining the prince came round the next morning to collect their bills, but went away sorrowful, for Rice and Kinsley were not there. That was the last of the Anglo-American. The stockholders sold the building to a company of Wesleyan Methodists, who converted it into a ladies’ college. The new company got a snap, for they bought the elegant property for the low price of $28,000 – about $175 per front foot. The Hamilton hotel company paid the heirs of Dr. Burns $175,000 for the property. The hotel opened again a few years ago, with a popular landlord who knew how to keep hotel. He made it a financial success and when he sold it, he left Hamilton $75,000 better off than when he came here. The next landlord was not a success.