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THE DEATH OF AN OLD TOWNSMAN
[The Welland Tribune and Telegraph, 27 June 1922]
The Welland Tribune and Telegraph, Limited
Louis Blake Duff, Editor
One summer day nearly sixty years ago a boy hoeing corn on a Crowland farm, reaching the road end of the row, hung his hoe on the rail fence, leaped over into the highway and set out for the Village of Welland.
Jumping the fence Alexander Griffith took an unceremonious farewell to agriculture and made an unpropitious entrance to town life. He hadn’t any capital except his character and his physique. He died last week a wealthy man and an honored citizen.
When he jumped from the cornfield he landed, as may be guessed, on no bed of roses, but on a flinty road, and flinty it proved to be for many miles and years that lay before him. He learned a trade as harness maker and all he ever learned about it was how to make a good harness. Then with a partner, he bought out a business and we have heard him tell how for the first few winters the firm had only one overcoat to its name. When one partner went out the other had to stay in.
His life is closed now and there are some things one can say about it and should say about it, as due his memory. To add a brighter color or to exaggerate would be particularly out of place. He never tried to appear anything he was not, nor shall we do him the dishonor of giving him any garb but the one he wore. He gained his foothold in a hard school and he never acquired any frills, but he had qualities of character that were pure gold. There are fine things one can truthfully say of him. For instance, no man ever had a doubt as to the absolute truth of anything he ever said. No man ever doubted when he had given his word as to whether or not he would keep it in spirit or in letter. No man can point to his long and varied business life, for he dabbled in many fields, and say this deal or that one verged on the shady side. His ethics were like his speech, straight and clear. He could look to the core of a thing, for shrewd thinking was his second self, and his transactions were in terms of dollars and cents.
He knew men by vote, he knew values, he knew always the essentials of a proposal, and upon his judgment in these he was inexorable. Having entered a proposal his regard was to give full measure and that without quibble or subterfuge. Not a few strugglers owe their start to Alexander Griffith and bless his memory today. He was never a hard taskmaster to the man who wanted to play fair. Insincerity, false sentiment, shilly shallying- these were marks for his relentless irony.
He had but one dissipation, and that came from his love of horses. In his day he owned many famous horses. Races had for him a never failing charm.
In his death there is ended a long chapter in the history of Welland-Welland that he saw grow from a village to a city, the Welland to whose business and growth he contributed so much.
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