WELLANDPORT: Busy Shipping centre of a Bygone Era PART 2

[Niagara Farmers’ Monthly  September 1992]

Dr John W. Collver was Wellandport’s resident physician from 1868, until his death in 1912. He was responsible for another of the town’s firsts, introducing lucerne to Canada. The seed , which he imported from Germany, was grown on property owned by another familiar name J.D. Fulsom, at the east end of the village.

Dr. Collver also had a drug store, on the northeast side of the Canborough Rd. and Hwy 57 junction.

Descendant and namesake John Collver and his wife, Dorothy, recently posted a sign, “The Collvers of Wellandport”, with others on display at Watson Lake, Yukon.

One of Dr Collver’s successors, Dr. John Leeds, caused quite a stir in 1933, when he administered the first vaccinations to the pupils at SSNo 1 Caistor. He had the unenviable task of persuading the children to have the dreaded needles, as well as convincing their parents that it was beneficial!

GROWTH DIMINISHED

The old businesses began to disappear, victims of time and technology, and the end of the great lumber era. Among them were the cheese box factory, Peter Swartz’ harness boot and shoe shop, Jim Sheldon’s grocery with a crank telephone, and up to eight families on one line. It was closed in 1961, when dial telephones came into service.

Next to the original telephone office were Amos Heaslip’s Furniture and Undertaking Establishment, the Methodist Church, Thomas Kay’s Carriage Works (later Ross Hall), and the Presbyterian Church.

FUNERAL DIRECTOR WAS VERSATILE MAN

Amos Heaslip was established as a funeral director in 1890. His card advertised two hearses; :Handsome Black Hearse with horses to match; the very ptettiest White Hearse in the county with white horses”. The black combination was said to have been used for adults; the white one for children.

John Lampman took over the funeral business from then owner Mr. Slaght, and Millie(Mrs Clifford) Davis of Elcho Road, remembers attending a funeral there in the 1940s.

“The funeral home was upstairs, and there were curtains behind the casket. A trap  door was cut in the floor, and then the coffin was put behind the curtains, lowered down through the floor. The mourners were told not to come downstairs until the casket was out in the hearse.”

Mr Lampman, “a very distinguished-looking man’ had a hardware as well, often recited poetry, and was active on the school board and in the community. He maintained the hardware store when his son, Glen, moved the funeral home business to Fenwick, in the late 1940s. Their descendants still co-own that business, known as Lampman and Muir

Herb Powers bought the hardware store in 1954, operating it on the bottom floor. The Lions and other clubs used the second floor as a meeting hall. Brothers Jim and Jake Veldman bought the building in 1980, serving the mainly. agricultural community with hardware and farm automation systems from Wellandport Home………

FALL FAIRS SHOWCASED TALENTS,WORKS

Community spirited blossomed from 1868 to 1942 with the annual fall fairs held by the Monck Agricultural Society. Area dairyman Gerald Freure’s father, Charles, grandfather Dilly Holmes and great-grandfather, Charles Holmes, each served terms as secretary for the society. Their records  and an old fair poster demonstrates some of the many changes in agriculture and society over the years.

Fan and fancy braiding were among the Ladies’ Department classes; Dog-power churns, iron ploughs, and lumber wagons were listed under implements and Manufactures. Domestic Manufactures called for such entries as” No less than 20 pounds of Best Butter, packed; 50 pounds of Best Cheese, 10 yards of Rag Carpet; Best 10 yards Wool; full cloth, home woven.

Prospective exhibitors and spectators were warned not to leave their horses and buggies along the front fence, according to the fine print on the fair poster preserved by the Freure family.

The agricultural society hosted annual July 1 Garden Parties….

Games were held at what is now Gladman’s Park and restaurant, just south of the Chippawa Bridge. Organized softball has since been played on the Community Centre grounds, with improved lighting and bleachers provided by the Wellandport Men’s Softball League.

Here too, with a lot of community effort the Community Centre was built in 1952. Men volunteered their carpentry and other skills, while dances, contests and plays were major fundraisers. The Women’s Institute, formed locally in 1918, catered for various functions, turning many of the profits back into the building, for kitchen equipment and improvements. Since the formation of Regional government in 1970, the hall has been maintained by the township of West Lincoln. At the same time, former Wellandport reeve William, Brooks became the first mayor of the new township.

In 1987, the Wellandport branch of West Lincoln Public Library was moved from the centre of the village, to is present location alongside the hall. It was originally opened in response to a request by the Wellandport Women’s Institute

The Wellandport Natural Gas Company Limited was another successful community project. Upon its initial formation in 1910, it supplied natural gas for street and residential lighting. The shareholders eventually sold their stocks to a J. A. Coleman, who served the area with natural gas until 1954, when sources were depleted by the opening of a new pumping station at Winger. A new Wellandport Gas Company was formed. Based in Dunnville it continues to supply many of the Villagers.

Several organizations have come and gone over the years: Wellandport Farmers Milling Company, Limited with 40,000 in capital stock, and $10-shares; the Lions club; the 48 club. Until 1960, the later brought happiness and fulfillment to many through its annual Santa Claus parades, Hallowe’en, garden parties, and minstral shows. It raised money primarily for the local Girl Guides and Boy Scouts clubs.

The Wellandport branch. of the Independent Organization of Odd Fellows built their hall in 1953, on the east side of town.

The Second World War resulted in yet more technology, and bigger, more modern factories to attract tradesmen to Welland. Hamilton and other centres. Fred Sutton moved to Wellandport upon his discharge from the navy in 1945, but joined the car pool to get to his job at Atlas Steel in Welland.

Fred’s wife, Vivian, worked for 12 years at the general store, now Wellandport Food Market on the southeast corner of Hwy 57 and Canborough Road.

FROM PREHISTORIC TO MODERN TIMES

Gordon Stayzer was digging a pond for his cattle, when he discovered the tooth of a female mastodon, a relative of modern elephants in 1963. Further excavation revealed more teeth, ivory tusks, a skull, vertebrae and ribs on Stayzer’s Traver Road  dairy farm.

That discovery was made less than five kilometers from Winger, where remains of the “Wellandport Mastodon” were unearthed in 1912. That skeleton has since been displayed at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto.

The brown, furry mastodons, believed to have been extinct for 6,000 to 10,000 years, were about three metres tall. Their vegetation diet included pinecones and twigs from the lush evergreen forests of their 15 million year era.

Following the timeline to modern days, many citizens now fear their farmland may be endangered. Clifford and Marilyn Gracey of Elcho Road are among those actively opposing a proposed toxic waste treatment facility on West Lincoln farm land. The Ontario Waste Management Corporation, has already done some testing at the Schram Road site, just northeast of Wellandport.

The Village and its population have changed dramatically over the years. With the exception of the antique store, most of the commerce is agriculture-oriented today. Bob Douma’s New Life Mills, Peninsula Grain Elevators and Fertilizers, and Wellandport Growers’ Co-operative are a few examples.

New houses continue to spring up, in and about the town, although the population has never again reached its peak of 300 from the early days.

“The Dutch are doing a good job,” reflects Gerald Freure, on the cultural change in the area. His Elcho Road dairy farm has been in the family for more than 100 years.

“Wellandport has never looked nicer, with the way they keep up their buildings and farms, and even their flowers-and I’ve lived here all my life.