From a Town to a City in one Decade

—A Brief Sketch of Its Early History

[See related TALE: CAPTAIN ARTHUR BEAMER McCORMICK]

The city of Welland-July 1^st, 1917. Welland’s growth from the small town stage to the status of a city has been so remarkable that it has attracted the attention of all Canada and has received much notice, too, across the border.

This phenomenal growth has taken place in the past decade, or to be more correct, the past eleven or twelve years. The first of Welland’s new industries was the Plymouth Cordage Co., which came here twelve years ago. At that time the population was 1797. The spell which had held Welland dormant for so many years was broken. The slogan “a new Industry every Thirty Days” was made a reality.

While the Cordage Company was the first of the city’s new industries, and since then we have secured large cotton mills, knitting and clothing factories, etc., the industrial field in which Welland is supreme is the iron and steel trades, one of the most important being the splendid new plant of M. Beatty & Sons, the city’s pioneer industry founded in 1860 by Matthew Beatty under the name of the Welland iron works.

Col. McCormick’s genius and enterprise as Industrial Commissioner for a period of ten years contributed largely to the growth of Welland from a town to a city.

Our Industries

The leading industries of Welland today are:-

Industrial Statistics

The story of Welland’s expansion, its paved streets and street car system, fine public buildings, schools and churches, its numerous residential streets is told in the industrial statistics of the city. A comparative table showing the growth for the past eleven years is as follows:-

As this very plainly shows, the year 1916 was by a big margin the most prosperous in Welland’s history.

Of the total value of manufactured products for 1916 the proportion represented by munitions is about 25 per cent, the value being five and a half million.

Last year Welland’s manufactures spent in new buildings $361,808 and in new machinery, appliances and equipment $1,125,734.

Welland Fortified For Reconstruction Period

From the report of the industrial commissioner for 1916 we quote the following:-

“After the war-what? The Department of Trade and Commerce has been urging that the people take steps now to meet the situation of the day. While Welland has made a tremendous contribution toward allied success in the war by supplying munitions, it is some insurance for the future to know what we are turning out outside war products, manufactures unrelated to the war or but indirectly related to it in such volume as to mean a continuation of a large and substantial portion of our business after the war is over. It is obvious that the more provision that can be made for normal activities after the war, the better it will be for our community, and the country.  That we are well fortified for the inevitable dislocation that must follow peace is evident. Our industries are in strong positions financially. The people generally are in a better position than ever before.”

Supremacy of Industrial Facilities

Welland’s growth has not been the result of chance but because of the supremacy of its industrial facilities, the chief of which are rail and water transportation supplied by six steam railroads, two electric railroads and the Welland canal, competing power companies giving the cheapest electric power and lighting rates in Canada, ideal sites for factories, natural gas, water and drainage. Production costs in Welland are found to be much less than in any other industrial city in Ontario.

The construction of the Chippawa-Queenston power plant with an ultimate capacity of 900,000 h.p., ensuring unlimited power supply for the future, means that Welland is even now only at the beginning of an enormous development which will cause the progress of the past decade to be surpassed in the years to come.

Historical Sketch

The name of Welland, like many of the proper names in this district, comes from England. It is the name of a river that starts near the geographical centre of England and runs in a Northeasterly direction about seventy miles, emptying into the Wash, an arm or inlet of the North Sea.

Welland is the third name by which our city has been known. The land hereabouts was first settled about the year 1788. The building of the Welland Canal in 1829 necessitated an aqueduct to convey its water over the Welland River at this point. The first aqueduct was of wood, and on its construction the nucleus of a village sprung up and was known as “The Aqueduct.” In 1842, when the first enlargement of the canal was made the old aqueduct was replaced by a stone structure which still stands intact east of and alongside the aqueduct in use. The name of the place was then changed to Merrittsville in honor of the late William Hamilton Merritt who first proposed the Welland canal and whose perseverance and energy finally made the great work an established fact.

Welland’s first expansion beyond the usual cross-roads store and blacksmith shop was the lumber industry, started by settlers from Niagara county, New York. The principal of these was a Mr. Seeley who came here about the year 1850 and started a sawmill. His three sons-in-law, Messrs. Joiner, Mosenbark and Moses Betts, and the late O.H. Rounds located here soon after. The late Mr. Hooker came here in 1855 and started the brickyard.

The progress of Merrittsville was comparatively slow until the separation of the united counties of Lincoln and Welland, and the village, after a hard struggle with rival places, became the county seat, which assured a future. The county buildings were erected in 1856-1858.

A Village in 1858

By an act of parliament, assented to July 24, 1858, the village was incorporated and the name changed from Merrittsville to Welland. The lands comprised in the new municipality were taken partly from Crowland and partly from Thorold townships, the river being the boundary between the two townships. On the 17^th of August of the same year a commission was issued instructing L.D. Raymond to act as returning officer at the first municipal election for the village, which was held on Sept. 16 following. The election resulted in the return of the following gentlemen as the first council of the village:-Daniel McCaw, Moses Betts, Chester Demare, Wm. A. Bald and Nathan F. Fitch. At that time the reeve was not elected directly by the people but chosen by the councillors, and D. McCaw was accorded the honor of being Welland’s first reeve. He was the founder of the boot and shoe trade here, still carried on by his son, John McCaw, under the name of D. McCaw & Son.

Became a Town in 1878

Incorporation as a town was made in 1878, when A. Hendershot was elected the first mayor. He is now a resident of Dunnville. The balance of those elected was:-reeve, A. Williams; councillors, G.H. Burgar, S. Hampton, D. McConachie, A. Asher, J.V. Strawn, G. Cronmiller, W.D. Jeffrey, J. Tuckey, G. Stalker, W.L. Beatty, D.A. Johnson and Wm. Page.

Welland’s next step forward was when the Canada Southern Railway (now the M.C.R.R.) was being built and the next boom period was during the enlargement of the Welland canal, the principal local feature of which was the construction of the aqueduct at present in use. This is one of the finest and most extensive pieces of masonry work in America but it is to disappear with the building of the new Welland ship canal, work on which had been discontinued until the end of the war. Ten years elapsed between the first letting of the contract and the completion of the aqueduct about the year 1888. From that time until the beginning of the industrial era referred to at the head of this article the population declined.