One Hundred Years 1837-1937 in Business

—Celebrated by The Fonthill Nurseries.

[Wellington & Davidson, Fonthill, Ontario]

The Nurseries

Horticulture in Canada, in the year 1837, was rather primitive. Yet the pioneers who settled this country were both thrifty and cultured, with the result that fruit trees and plants to ensure a food supply, and trees and shrubs for beautification, early became a normal requirement.

One Hundred Years ago this year, therefore—a long span indeed for any business to survive the rigors of a comparatively new country—a Nursery enterprise was started in a small way by Samuel Taylor, at the lovely little Village of Fonthill, in the county of Welland.

Although utilizing an area of 100 acres, Mr Taylor’s venture did little but give the nursery idea form, and the business soon passed into other hands. The new form was a partnership, Messrs. D’Everardo and Page, both pioneer names in the district; and the former, recognized as a leader in practically all departments of the young community’s life, actually became the founder of “The Fonthill Nurseries”

The Management

The new management considerably enlarged and extended the Nursery’s operations. In due course enterprise was rewarded by increased sales, but not in sufficient volume to place the business on a secure footing, and it was sold. The new associates, Messrs. Morris, Hill, Weatherald and Balfour, laid a more enduring foundation, and after resolving into one more partnership, Messrs, Morris, Stone and Wellington, built an entirely successful business, with continent-wide ramifications. Although Mr. Stone died a few years later, the form name was continued until 1910, when control was assumed by the present management, Messrs. Wellington and Davidson.

The District

The district around Fonthill is peculiarly suited for the propagation of nursery stock. Within a comparatively small area are found a variety of soils, ranging from rich sandy loam to heavy clay. Climatic conditions also are unusually favourable, for the interior of the Niagara Peninsula benefits by the moderating influences of both Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, thus reducing the hazards of weather extremes. In the course of the developments outlined, “The Fonthill Nurseries” have continued to progress. Expansion in sales led to the further purchase or lease of lands for cultivation. Gradually the Nursery was increased to 850 acres, thus constituting the largest such enterprise in the Dominion. The opening in 1878 of a sales office in Toronto proved a wise step heralding the moving to it of the head office of the Company, where it continues today.

The proximity of the Nurseries has made an important contribution to agriculture in the Niagara district. The organization always has stood for advanced methods based upon scientific knowledge; and the continuous view of straight rows of well-planted, thriving trees and flowers cared for by expert workmen with the aid of superior horse power, both animal and mechanical, for decades has been a source of unending pride throughout the entire district. At present sixty men are employed all year round, this number often being increased to as many as two hundred during the spring shipping season. Like the mastercraftsmen of the Old Land who hand down from father to son the secrets of their professions, “The Fonthill Nurseries” have been served by several generations of workers. The staff includes a number of expert workmen who have been employed continuously between forty and fifty years, some of them succeeding their fathers on the payroll of the Company.

Millions of young trees, shrubs and plants have been distributed by “The Fonthill Nurseries”. Business at first was largely local, but soon enlarged to take in Upper and Lower Canada and the Maritime Provinces. With the great developments in the West, The nurseries found their products in demand from coast to coast, and for years they have been shipped annually to all points of the compass from Newfoundland and Cape Breton to Vancouver Island.

All properties, including the extensive greenhouses, are maintained in an attractive manner and the home Nurseries at Fonthill long have been the Mecca of beauty-lovers and the horticulturally or floriculturally minded. Efficiency, however, has been the watchword and the application of modern methods of propagation storing and packing, has kept the institution well in the forefront of the nursery industry throughout Canada.

The Founder

One Hundred Years! The memory runs easily back over the years, down the stream of time, especially when a pioneer organization such as “The Fonthill Nurseries” provides the framework upon which recollection can trace out the familiar paths. For most of us, of course, a century ago is Antiquity, in the mist of which even family identity loses definition, and records fail. It is institutions like this, concrete and visible today, yet with roots deep in the storied past, that help us to negotiate vast time distances like a century. Our lives are timed for less impressive spans, and our memories prefer to divide the Past by nothing longer than a generation.

The year 1837, when this great enterprise had its inception, was a notable year in history. Political and economical conditions in Canada were such that William Lyon Mackenzie put his ideas into muskets. In the same year Princess Victoria faced her great opportunity and emerged a Queen. Before there was a telephone or telegraph; when Niagara Falls knew no electrical harness; before the horse or even the ox realized it was slipping; long before radio music was wafted on the ether waves, or men like eagles rode the winds; before a cable joined continents over the floor of the Atlantic, or a railway crossed Canada—in fact, long years before there was a Dominion of Canada to cross—this worthy  institution commenced its long and successful career in the youthful colony it was destined to serve.

One looks back One Hundred Years expecting to see lords and ladies in satin and crinoline; dignified Governors and their aides organizing their primitive settlements, and blustering Generals leading red-coated soldiers against the Indians. While the picture is somewhat exaggerated,  yet the origin of “The Fonthill Nurseries” fits appropriately into a pioneer setting. Far through the mist of the vanished century looms the illustrious founder, Dexter D’Everardo, now almost a legendary figure of feudal lord color and dimensions.

Dexter D’Everardo unquestionably belonged to his day and age. He was a mystery, as he chose to be, to the people of his own time and village, so it is no wonder his personal history is shrouded in uncertainty. He appears to have been born in Paris, France, in 1814, to have come to Nova Scotia in early life and to have reached Fonthill about 1835. He died in Welland in 1891, and rests in the beautiful Fonthill cemetery. In the long interval, however, he lived a rich and useful life, always exhibiting an intense loyalty and animated by extraordinary vision. In the course of over half a century of outstandingly able and devoted public service he made a lasting mark upon the country of his adoption.

In spite of his peculiarities, Mr. D’Everardo attained a high degree of popularity and was widely respected. Because of them, however, he is remembered and recorded in county history as a man of mystery about whose early life and inner soul little was known, and he remains a lonely, though towering , figure leading a life that in many ways seems stranger than fiction.

His austerities and eccentricities, however, did not prevent Dexter D’Everardo from contributing immeasurably to the welfare of his community, for he was essentially public-spirited. Especially in educational, judicial and municipal affairs he laboured unceasingly and received high and honorable appointments. That the founder of “The Fonthill Nurseries” did not profit financially from his venture in this type of business considering his rare gifts for organization, is somewhat surprising. But it is more than likely that he found the business an avenue of expression for a cultured, artistic mind, which coveted Beauty in any available form for his own neighborhood, and deemed that an abundant reward.

Thousands who pay tribute to their beauty without knowledge of the fact that it is the mind, and, in not a few instances, the actual hand, of Dexter D’Everardo to which credit for their planting should be ascribed. It was he who furnished the young trees, it was under his direction that the planting was done which today crowns the beauties of the thriving suburban village. These trees form a fitting monuments to the man, for they speak of the much he did for the village nestling under their green aisles.

The management and staff  of “The Fonthill Nurseries”, individually and collectively are proud to have some part in making Canada a land of beauty and utility. This pioneer Canadian Nursery is happy to provide the machinery by which Canadians may extend their orchards and enhance the beauties of their private grounds, their public parks and roadways. In now celebrating its centenary “The Fonhill Nurseries” takes this noteworthy milestone in full and easy stride, and proceed confidently forward into another century of service.

Harold B. Crow.