The Rise and fall of the Fonthill Nurseries

Once a thriving industry, now just old memories

By Jim Middleton, Tribune Reporter

[Welland Tribune Mon. March 1, 1976]

Fonthill Nurseries hasn’t sold a twig since 1968, or a shrub or a bush—yet the influence of that firm which flourished for well over 100 years in the Pelham area is still felt and seen.

At its peak, the nursery owned or rented more than 1,000 acres of land and provided employment for up to 250 residents of the area, and for dozens more all across this land working as sales agents on behalf of the Fonthill-based business.

A recently written letter commenting on the subject of the loss of the nursery to the area summed up succinctly the feeling of many about the nursery.

“The dissolving of Stone and Wellington will remove the last vestige of the renowned Fonthill Nurseries,” the letter stated.”This was a proud and economically valuable operation for nearly 100 years. Up until the end of the Second World War it was an operation where jobs could be found even in depressed times and, consequently, was always looked to with hope by those out of work.”

The last president and managing director of the nursery was Bill Wellington. He was the third generation of Wellington’s involved directly in the operation of the business preceded there by his father and by his grandfather. Bill Wellington today is the bailiff and clerk of the First Small Claims Court in the Judicial District of Niagara South.

“Just a damn shame” he says, “that a 100-year-old business can be shut up by so-called progress.”

Bill Wellington started out in the business in 1935 “at the wrong end of a hoe,” as he puts it, and he lists three main factors for the decline of the business which was once the largest of its kind in all of Canada with world-wide interests and markets.

The one, two three punch from the fates which proved in the long run, to be knock-out blows al fell upon the business in the late 1940s.

Sales Drop

First the company experienced a drop in volume of sales when chain stores and other nursery sales stations came into the rail nursery business and began cut-price operations.

Added to that problem other operators began importing stock from the Netherlands at, as Mr. Wellington describes it,”25 per cent less than we could grow it for.”

And to cap off the struggling company’s woes, the township of Pelham ran a water service line side a major portion of the company’s land which raised their taxes “out of the agricultural bracket.”

Even after the major part of the nursery business had been phased out, he still had hoped to subdivide part of the land. To keep open a sales station and an office and grow some stock for landscaping. Here, too, he encountered difficulties. There was a lack of sewers in the area and a disinclination on the part of the authorities to permit development where there were no sanitary sewers. The possibility of a lagoon system was explored but fell before a petition of area residents. Finally there was an Ontario Municipal Board hearing which turned thumbs down on his proposals.

Everything he could think of he tried in a tenacious attempt to preserve the business. Even the raising of tomatoes as a cash crop.

It was not to be and, in 1968 the company which had helped a generation of area citizens get through some tough depression years came to an end. The company which had flourished and prospered for more than one century was not destined by the fates to last for two.

But while it flourished it reached into many homes in the Pelham area and it is remembered with a kind of fond affection in many years.

A history written in 1887 employs the following glowing terms to describe the influence of the nursery operation on the community:

“…The industry is one highly credible to the county, aye the country, producing as it does many of the trees and shrubs that go to beautify the landscape in this and other countries and produce luscious fruits to please the appetites of untold thousands on both sides of the Atlantic.”

At that time, in 1887, the company, according to the same history, occupied about 400 acres of land, gave employment to about 175 in the busy season and was enjoying annual sales of about $200,000.

Nursery Grew

Just as a giant tree grows from a tiny seed so too did the nursery spring from a small beginning. A man named  Samuel Taylor began a small nursery business, dealing largely with local people and upon his death, the business was purchased by the partnership of D’Everardo and Page.

This partnership failed to enjoy financial success but, through the expansion program it laid the groundwork for the success which followed later.

The next ownership of the business was in the hands of E. Morris and Co., which was described as successful in management of the enterprise, but unable to promote the sales of the stock in distant places.

Thus, in time, the company of Morris, Stone and Wellington was formed. Mr Morris managed the nursery and Mr Stone had managed a nursery near Rochester N.Y. and Mr Wellington ran the retail side of the business, through sales agents from his offices .

The opening of the sales office in Toronto in 1878 began the phase of the company’s operation which pushed it into the forefront of such businesses in Canada.

“the proximity of the nurseries has made an important contribution to agriculture in the Niagara District,” claims an advertising booklet put out by the nurseries in 1937 to help celebrate their 100^th anniversary. Continuing in the same self-laudatory vein as was often the practice in those days the booklet says:

“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 60 men are employed all year round, this number often being increased t as many as 200 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 40 and 50 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”, the booklet continues, “Business at first was largely local, but soon enlarged to take in Upper and Lower Canada and the Maritime provinces,”

As Bill Wellington tells it, Pancake Lane in Fonthill was named Pancake Lane because if the cattle-produced pancake shaped droppings which dried in the sun when cattle were kept in the area. Mr Wellington’s version seems to have an air of authenticity to it despite the story told by some modern residents of the neat suburban, brick bungalow-lined street that its name acknowledges the fact the area was knocked “flatter than a pancake” by the famous 18^th century hurricane which was supposed to have visited the region.

In addition to the cattle, a herd of horses numbering up to 20 were used by the company for hauling and cultivating. While mechanization has taken over many jobs in modern agriculture, Bill Wellington contends that a horse-drawn cultivator is still the best device for cultivating between rows of nursery stock.

The complete line of the nursery’s products were hauled to College Street for distribution across the land by rail.

The line of products, as expressed on the title page of a catalogue and price list prepared by the nursery during the 1930s, included ornamental and shade trees, flowering shrubs, roses and evergreens, fruit trees, small fruits, asparagus and rhubarb plants.

The 47-page catalogue included planting instructions in addition to the description and prices of the various products.

A surprising comparison with today’s prices might be made from the catalogue’s page headed up “Grapes” On that page they are listed as “Strong two-year vines, well rooted. $1 each; $1 per 12. Hundred rates on application.” Those prices have changed little today. A modern area nursery still charges $1 each for quantities up to 25.

The offices and buildings owned by the nurseries stood just off South Pelham Street on land now occupied by a medical clinic and a funeral home. Further down the road one can see lines of huge evergreens which were once part of the nursery’s stock.

Christmas in the area, is even part of the nursery’s story. “Pop” Coons, a retired volunteer firefighter who has been selling Christmas trees to the people of Pelham for the past 25 years got his start at the suggestion of one of the nursery managers who provided him wit his initial stock of Christmas trees culled from the regular stock.