Results for ‘Historical MUSINGS’
Some Gleanings From First 1884 Issue of Welland Tribune
Older residents of the city and Welland county will be interested in the first copy of the Welland Tribune issued in 1884, the 27th year of that paper.
The legal cards, all of Welland show A. Williams, J.F. Saxon, Harcourt & Cowper (Richard Harcourt and T.D. Cowper), W.M. German, and L.D. Raymond, father of Col. L. Clarke Raymond.
Physicians are:Dr. J.E. Hansler, Fonthill; Dr. M.K. Collver, Stevensville; Dr. Burgar, Dr. Cook and Drs. Schooley & Montague, Welland; Dr. Park, Port Robinson.
Hamilton Weller is the Welland dentist and the only member of that profession here using a professional card.
The British Hotel, Thorold, John Coan, proprietor; and the Windsor Hotel, opposite the court house, Welland, B. Noble, both make mention of their well-stocked bars as well as their stable accommodations.
Farms and other real estate are advertised by the following: F. Swayze, G.W. Winney, A.C. Yokum, G.W. Spencer, W.H. Hellems, D. D’Everardo, Welland; Sam’l Reece, Pelham; Samuel Morse, Niagara Falls South; H.N. Wilson, Marshville; Paul Beam, Stevensville; Robert and Wm. T. Cook, Port Colborne.
E.R. Hellems solicits business as an auctioneer.
James Haun, jr., Ridgeway, advertises for a teacher for S.S. No. 12 Bertie.
P.H. Bouck, near Fonthill, has an estry buck sheep, and asks the owner to come and get him.
Various articles are offered for sale by Robert Spence, Niagara Falls South; J. Jepson jr., Niagara Falls Town; James Garner, Fenwick; Jas. H. Hodges, Welland; and R.L. Benner, Port Colborne.
A. Reid, secretary, Crowland, gives notice at the annual meeting of the Welland County Agricultural Society.
T.H. Macoomb announces a new term for piano and organ instruction and Eddie Macoomb’s new class for the violin at Welland; Miss Alice A. M. Hopkins of Port Colborne was another instructor in the musical arts.
Geo. H. Burgar issues marriage licenses at the post office, Welland.
Election cards by J.R. Haun, Port Colborne; Herbert Griffiths and Geo.Stalker of Welland, and Sylvester Smith of Stamford.
J. Murison Dunn, B.A., Head Master, gives notice of the re-opening of Welland High School.
Geo. J. Duncan, Sheriff, gives notice of a sale of lands.
Business houses advertising are C.J. Page, Orient block, Welland; C.B. Bennett, Port Robinson mill; M. Whalley & Co., clothiers, Welland. T. Griffith, dry goods, etc., Welland; Peter McMurray, stove and tin store, Welland; Carter and Benner, Port Colborne, lumber wagons and sleighs; Brown Bros., wines and liquors, Welland.
George Baxter was County Judge and Division Court Clerks were G.L. Hobson, Welland; Edward Lee, Marshville; Thomas Newbigging, International Bridge; John A. Orchard, Drummondville; George Keefer, Thorold; A.K. Scholfield, Port Colborne.
Railway timetables show the Great Western Air Line, the Michigan Central and the Welland Railway, now Canadian National.
Further advertisements are Stone & Wellington, Fonthill Nurseries; T.L. Nichols, architect, Welland; A. Hurrell, Amigari, general merchant; C.H. Reilly, boots and shoes, Welland; E.A. Gill, marble works, Welland; E. Cutler, Ridgeway, contractor and general store; Thos. H. Madgett, photographer, Welland; H.W. Hobson, druggist, Welland; H.N. Hibbard, notary public, Ridgeway; J. Priestman jr., and J.F. Hill, insurance, Welland; R.H. Tisdale, Attercliffe and Gearin Bros., Thorold, insurance.
Financial advertisements by John Broadwood, Niagara Falls South, and J. McGlashan, Welland, manager Imperial Bank.
Samuel House, Stevensville and H.A. Rose, Welland, offer general merchandise, and James Bridges, Welland, announces the sale of his store to Taylor Bros.
J.H. Stanley has a large ad of his stores at Port Colborne and Dunnville.
Miss C. Hooker is another piano and organ teacher, at Welland, and C. Swayze another photographer.
Thomas Cumins, Welland, extols Sulfphur and Iron Bittters at 50¢ the bottle, in a halfcolumn ad; White Bros., carriage makers, opposite the Dexter House, Welland, announce that they “have in their livery department a good, and safe stud of horses, stylish carriages, open and top buggies etc., ready for the road at all times,” while Warren Spence, Drummondville, advertises an extensive stock of carriages, harness, etc.
F. Swayze is an accountant and conveyancer at Welland, and H.D. Lock and W.H. Turner, merchant tailors.
Z.W. Durkee, Thorold, offers pianos, organs and sewing machines at 20 per cent off, and R. Moderwell advertises the Thorold Hardware Store and public telephone office.
J.H. Burgar, Medical Hall, Welland, is agent for Galvanic and Faradic batteries.
L.E. Browne, District Master, calls the annual meeting of the Niagara District Lodge Orange Young Britons at Port Robinson, and George Elliott of that place advertises his coal yard.
Mrs. Emma Price, West Main St., Welland, has a hang-over notice of her store being headquarters for Santa Claus. T.H. Allen, International Bridge has a similar ad of Christmas groceries, and G.A. Rysdale of Niagara Falls Village, announces that he has opened a meat market on Ferry street, next to town hall. Another new store is that of Alex McQuinn at the Canada Southern Junction.
Dr. Brewster, Ridgeway, is not only that but conducts a drug store as well.
Ross & Co., Dry Goods, Welland, offer a belated Merry Christmas as do Balfour & Co. of Port Colborne.
And that brings the end of the old names revealed through the advertising columns. There are a lot more such in the news sections, but that is another story-maybe.
The Welland Tribune and Telegraph
14 January 1926
J.F. Gross, M.L.A. is now the owner of a steam automobile, the first in Welland. It is a one-seated vehicle and new and up-to-date in every particular. Mr. Gross made the purchase in Buffalo and immediately put it to the test by making the run from Buffalo to Welland that day.
People’s Press
22 September 1903
By
OLIVER UNDERWOOD
Sept. 19, 1903, less than twenty-three years ago, is a date marking the opening of an epoch in which the city is still living and one enjoyable or contrariwise to the inhabitants thereof, according to whether they have the good fortune to sit calmly behind the steering wheel and placidly watch the pedestrians precariously leaping from curb to curb; or whether they perforce emulate the nimble chamoix in a series of more or less graceful hops that carry them from one side of the street to the other.
In other words, on that date the then and still intrepid J.F. Gross, then as now truly the captain of his soul, drove the first horseless carriage to appear upon the streets of Welland; and if the dope of the old-timers is right, the first one to be propelled anywhere in the Niagara District.
And she was some lil’ old boat, that bus, according to the tales of the said old-timers.
She wagged her tail, barked gleefully and came to heel, more or less, at the call of her name, which was Kensington Steamer; and she set the present Solicitor back all of $345, freight and duty paid.
And the driving of her was some trick-a far cry from the easy job of this day. The levers and thingamajigs were decidedly complicated and in addition to keeping ones eyes on the machine, Mr. Gross had to keep the other peeled for approaching horse-drawn rigs. When one of the latter hove insight it was generally necessary to bring the Kensington to a dead stop, while the legal luminary vaulted lithely or climbed slowly to the ground, took the meeting equine by the short hair or the bridle, and led him or her safely past the waiting horseless vehicle.
Should Brother Gross omit this Stop stuff at the near approach of a horse, he had to eventually pull it off just the same; only the procedure was lengthened by his having to assist in prying the horse out of the limbs of a tree or from the cross-arm of a telegraph pole, aid in assembling the scattered fragments of the attached rig, speak some mollifying words to the other driver, and whisper to him that he come into the office tomorrow, when J.F. would write a more or less sizable cheque to cover the damage done; and all would again go merry as a marriage bell.
Somebody gives Pete McMurray as authority for the statement that these stunts with the cheque book got so repetitious that Mr. Gross finally employed an outrider to precede his flaming chariot, tooting loud blasts on a trumpet, that oncoming horse drivers might take warning; and either turn down the first concession or anchor their steeds firmly to a convenient tree or snake fence.
But let it be remembered that Pete wasn’t the good churchman in those days that he is today; and it may be, and likely is, that this stuff is only a pipe-dream.
Reference is made to the Gross flaming chariot; that is no far-fetched raze on this predecessor of the tin one of today; for, to relieve any probable monotony, the contraption used to catch fire every so often; and when that happened, there was no slow climbing to the ground on the part of Signor Gross; he leapt, and he leapt pretty darn quick, with no quibbles about it.
This little idiosyncrasy of the Kensington continued to her last days, ever when she had passed from the Gross kennels into the hands of Billy Wilson, sometime landlord of the old Mansion House. Mr. Gross got so used to the fiery-flames act that he used to just sit around, and let herself burn till she got tired of it or burned out; but mine host Wilson, the first time he found himself giving himself an imitation of Abednego, or whoever it was that wallowed in the fiery furnace, lost his head entirely, headed the boat for the canal, (it happened just about where the post office now stands) and by the time the Boniface was landing all spraddled out on the green sward of the canal bank, the smoking monster was plunging under the waters of the canal; and it took George Wells and the whole fire company to drag her out on terra firma again.
But she went on running, just the same so that’s the kind of a boat she was. Cars wuz cars then.
The Kensington liked like a buggy with a sewing machine, a hot-water boiler, and such-like didoes tacked under the box; and she made more noise than Hartley Horton’s threshing outfit coming down the Canboro Road according to the bards of yesteryears.
So much for what purports and appears to be the first motor car hereabouts. There is a tale about a car constructed by Ben Neff of Port Colborne, all on his own; using a cold chisel, a hammer, a screwdriver and a can-opener to assemble parts obtained from goodness knows where. But the Neff outfit seems to post-date that of Mr. Gross, which was a real, sure’nuf boughten car.
If this historian is wrong, anybody who can tell it better has the floor.
First Garages
In the classified business directory of the latest edition of the Welland City directory, there are no less than thirty-eight businesses listed in connection with automobiles-garages, auto repairs and parts, painting, tops and trimmings, etc. Some of these are duplicates, but at that; the number to say nothing of the number of cars upon the streets, bespeak the part the automobile plays in the life of today.
And yet it was only fifteen years ago, back in 1911, that Welland had its first automobile agency; that of W.G. Somerville & Sons, who handled the now defunct E.M.F. and Flander’s cars which in due course merged into the Studebaker of today, which that firm still handles.
They received the first carload of automobiles reaching Welland consigned to a dealer. There were three of them; and one went to the late former Mayor of Welland, George W. Sutherland; the second to Dr. Garner, then in practice here; and the third was held by the firm for display.
The first Ford did not burst upon the landscape until 1912. While the E.M.F. and the Flander’s have gone to the bourne whither have departed croquet, the bustle, ping-pong and calf less skirts, the Ford still lingers and may still be seen now and then about the streets of our fair city, according to Gerry Nash, who now acts as intermediary between Henry Ford and the general public hereabouts.
In fact, it may be set down that there are quite some Fords going; and no doubt Brother Nash will be pleased to furnish specific statistics as to their numbers; he being fully qualified to hand-out the tall ones.
But the late Richard Moore, father of Postmaster W.H. Moore, was the first one to wish the Ford on this municipality; and during his first year with the agency he sold the tremendous total of thirty cars, which does not include tractors, either; the last having not then been invented.
And who drove the First Ford in Welland? C.J. Laughlin, of the Laughlin Realty Company, was the first man to shake the reins over a Lizzie. That is no small honor, which does not seem to be the case as regards another and vacant niche in the local Hall of Fame, which should be filled by the man who tossed-off the first glass of 4.4. Much digging has failed to reveal any one who will admit that this distinction can be wished on him.
But that is another story for some future day and makes it time to close this one.
The Welland Tribune and Telegraph
30 March 1926
By OLIVER UNDERWOOD
So, the new Reeta Hotel has an ice plant that will turn out half a ton of ice a day for the guests. Looks like Brother Lambert had spent a little too much money in this direction, what with forty-two rooms and a corresponding number of guests to push the button for ice-water in the morning. Besides which, the morning after demand is not what is used to be, not what it used to be. And look how the ice consumption has been cut down since John Collins and Colonel G. Rickey joined the ranks of the late lamented. And the Walker boys, Hiram and Johnnie, they used to use up a lot of ice too. But they are all gone now, if not forgotten; and with this quartette out of it, half a ton of ice per diemsort of looks likes over-production.
The topic of discussion at last week’s meeting of the B.Y.P.U. was Sources of Happiness.
Wonder if Single Blessedness got its deserved recognition?
The Welland County Hospital is going to make provision for more maternity wards.
The Hospital Board must be keeping an eye on Fonthill.
It is to be hoped that everybody read thoroughly last week about the Empire Cotton Mill plant. One who has seen similar plants in some of New England mill towns has good cause to get chesty over Welland’s possessing this one. Not merely from the commercial standpoint, which is some big item for the city, but in the underlying spirit of man’s humanity to man the story tells.
If nominations of employers of labor who are not in the Simon Legree class, are in order, Manager J.D. Payne and his superintendent, Thomas F. Cuddy, are two mighty good names to play. The whole city will join in saying “Atta Boys!”
Do they call it the Rotary Club because they think one good turn deserves another?
Last Saturday’s market report says onions jumped from 75 cents to $1.20 per basket. No one dast hit us if we say onions seem to be getting stronger?
And cow’s tongue is listed in the market report at 45 cents. Suppose one started a dinner with ox-tail soup and finished with this cow’s tongue; that would be sort of finishing with the start and starting with the finish.
It says that at Oddfellow’s Hall the other night, the special dance, where lights were dimmed and the moon turned on, was especially enjoyable. Went to a little stag gathering the other evening. The host did not turn on the moon, but he poured out a little moonshine, and that was especially enjoyable too.
Welland Not the Dearest Place on Earth says one of our recent headlines. And that may be proved by L.V. Garner, W.H. Crowther, John Cooper and some others; Fonthill is evidently dearer to those fellows or they wouldn’t have moved out there.
There is an old saying that a prophet is not without honor save in his own country. That does not apply in the case of Welland’s new Doctor of Divinity. Knox College can confer no higher mark of honor upon Rev. J.D. Cunningham than the honor and esteem in which he is held here.
According to the report at the Board of Trade, that new pipe line is till nothing more than a pipe dream.
An editorial last week said that St. Catharines has a higher tax rate than Welland and that about the only joy the Welland taxpayer has is the realization that in St. Kitts they have to pay more. There is another and much greater joy for the Welland taxpayer-he doesn’t live in St. Catharines. To pay the higher taxes and live there too, would be a mighty tough combination.
Reeve S.A. Thomas, down at Port Robinson, advertises a fresh milch cow for sale. Everybody knows Sam never did have any use for anybody who tried to get fresh with him; maybe that’s why he is selling the cow.
Miss S.E. Oill of the teaching staff of the Fonthill Public School is good enough to contribute the following: Some of the school boys howlers quoted in the papers are only too real. The other day one of your young folks told us, “The hard part of our body is the bones and the soft part is the brains.” And a short time ago this came from another, “If impure air gets into your sistom, it will harden the lining of your stummick.” Still another, “Our chief export to China is missionaries.” And, “A harbour is a place to get your hair cut.” The above is a mighty welcome contribution. Can’t Welland produce some juvenile emanations to match them? Let us hear from you Sisters. And this does not bar Brothers McCuaig and Flower.
The latest addition to the ranks of the Welland Chess Club is Chief of Police Crabb. That is going to be mighty handy for the other players, for it’s all in the day’s work for him to say, “It’s your move.” But we hope the Chief is a better chess player than we are, otherwise, he will crab the game.
Our hat is respectfully raised to the women of the Welland Daughters of the Empire. Did you scan their annual report posted last week? When you consider what these women are doing towards the betterment of life here, and elsewhere, your own head will be uncovered too. Furthermore, it will give you an idea of why the Creator did not stop at his first attempt, Man, but went ahead and turned out something really worth while. You may be covered, gentlemen, but just keep the thing in mind.
It is said there are only two seats in the Lambert Theatre which give anything but a perfect view of the stage. It is a safe bet that we will always sit in one of them whenever we happen to attend. That’s foreordained.
W.D.S. Fraser and the other members of the Board of Trade who stand sponsor for the proposed Boy’s Municipal Council are on the right track. This work of taking in hand the coming generation of our citizens and giving them an idea of civic procedure is most commendable. It will be invaluable training for the boys and their day will reap the full benefit therefrom. But why any distinction between the sexes? As matters are shaping now, the women will likely be running things by the time these young fellows get in the game; and that being the case, why not line up the girls, too, and give them a chance to learn the ropes?
“Touch Up The Court Room.” That’s what the heading said, but somehow court room and a little touch-up do not seem to synchronize. Provincial Constable Gurnett is a Sherlock Holmes, all right. And so is License Inspector George Elkins. They go to foreigners to search for liquor; do they waste time digging under the floor for it? They do not; they do not. They pry off the ceiling and bag their game. Cause Why? They know that good things come high.
It was a shock the other day, that headline, ANOTHER OLD LANDMARK GONE. Reading on, we saw it wasn’t Clayte Page’s hat.
The Welland Tribune and Telegraph-2 March 1922
Gleanings From A Welland Telegraph of 1886
By
OLIVER UNDERWOOD
A good deal of water has gone under the bridge at Welland the last forty years. That strikes one in a look-back on the Welland of 1886 afforded in a copy of the Welland Telegraph of March 19 of that year. Old Wellanders of those days will doubtless be interested in recalling the times and events recorded in its columns, and the newer ones may care to glance back at the town that preceded the city of the present age.
City Treasurer A.W. Jackson has graciously dug up the dusty archives of his office, and reports that the town then boasted a population of 1850 and that Richard Morwood was the incumbent of the mayor’s chair.
The paper itself is an eight-page sheet of six columns, published by Sawle & Snartt and issued every Friday at $1 per annum in advance; otherwise $1.50.
Column one of the front page is devoted to professional and business cards. The medical men are Dr. A.B. Knisley, Stonebridge; Dr. J.E. Hansler, Fonthill; Dr. McKeague, Wellandport; Dr. C.T. Krick, Marshville; and Dr. J.T. Carroll with an office at Main and Frazer Streets, and Dr. S.H. Glasgow office over Garden’s store, in Welland.
Next comes the legal profession, and her one finds names of today-W.M. German and Harcourt & Cowper (Richard Harcourt and T.D. Cowper); the former with an office in the Frazer House and the latter opposite the court house. Also L.D. Raymond, father of our Col. Clarke Raymond, and A. Williams, rounding out the list of barristers at the county seat. J.F. Saxon had a law office at Fort Erie and Pattison & Collier maintained offices at St. Catharines and Thorold, and the senior partner was in Welland every Thursday.
Hamilton Weller practiced dentistry in the Griffith Block, Welland, and H.G.A. Cook of Drummondville, visited the town on Wednesdays over H.A. Rose’s store, West Main Street.
George Ross was a surveyor, and insurance agents were F. Swayze & Son and S.H. Moore of Welland, and Chas. Treble, Fort Erie.
E. Box and E.R. Hellems were auctioneers at Welland and John Weiss at Stevensville.
Hotel cards are the Queen’s Hotel at Welland, Wm. Early, “Best of liquors always on hand”; the Brunswick House, Niagara Falls; F.T. Walton, where “Driving or sleighing parties will find good accommodation and large rooms for entertainment at all times,” and the Durham House, Wellandport, L. Durham, which offered much cordial hospitality in the announcement that “A large barn and driving sheds have been added to the house, and an attentive hostle is always on hand.” The bar is supplied with the choicest wines, liquors and cigars.”
Passing, more or less regretfully, from memories of these bonifaces, the local news is found. The old town wasn’t doing any too badly according to the following item: “We were informed by a gentleman of this town, a large employer of labor, that there was not an unemployed carpenter in town, and that he had a lot of work standing for want of hands.” “There is,” he added, “more work of all kinds than there are men to do it.”
What’s this! Boy, page Billy Wilson, sometime of the Mansion House and now of His Majesty’s Customs. Tonight at the rink the five mile race for the championship of the County of Welland will be skated for a prize of $20 to first, and $10 to second. We are told the following entries have been made: W.W. Wilson, T. Holder and L. Asher, of Welland; D. Mitchell, J. Blout and J. Cook, Niagara Falls; and McIntosh of Thorold. The gentlemen entering have a local celebrity and a pleasant, exciting contest may be expected, that will be of more than passing interest.
Not only sports were a part of life, but lovers of the Thespian art, had something to look forward to. For there was coming at Orient Hall for one week, Robert H. Baird, making this third annual tour of the province and his first appearance in Welland, in such sterling offerings as “Uncle John,” the Irish drama; “The New Cathleen,” that beautiful domestic drama; “Cast Adrift,” not to mention, “Hand and Glove,” and crowning all, that heart-throbber of old, “Lady Audley’s Secret.”
And the sheik of this day, who has to wreck a five-spot for a night at the show with his favorite queen, may well look with regret at the era of the ten-twent and thirt, for the popular prices of 10 and 20 cents were announced.
A cricket club was organized with these officers: Hon. Pres. R. Harcourt, M.M.P. President Jno. McCaw; Vice-President, Major Snartt; Secretary-Treasurer A.F. Crow and Sidey, Sears, Garden and Jackson on the management committee.
Lenten services at Holy Trinity Church were conducted by Rev. R. Gardiner.
Friends of Mr. and Mrs. Elijah Shotwell, from which family the name of one of our streets is derived, gathered to celebrate their silver wedding anniversary, proceeding to the Shotwell home from the residence of M. Beatty. The honored couple were presented with a silver cruet, butter knife and mustard spoon, a crystal shell plate, and, of course (for no function would have been complete in those days without one) a silver and crystal pickle dish. “When ‘twas nearing midnight, or had perhaps reached that hour, the guests departed for their homes, well pleased with an evening well spent.” The explanatory and somewhat apologetic reference to the breaking up hour indicates that our elders kept better hours than the present generation with whom midnight is but just the spank of the evening.
An ice race was pulled off the previous week. The footing was soft and slushy. C.F. Dunbar’s “Victor” was the winner over C. McNeil’s “Little Gertie”and W. Best’s (our own Billy, maybe) “Nellie Grey.”
Fire destroyed the planing mill of Rounds & Sons and O.E. Rounds, with a loss of $7000. The mill was originally built by Ebenezer Seeley in 1848. It laid idle from 1859 to 1870, when it was reopened by the Rounds’. The location was near the old Beatty plant on North Main Street.
In the Personals the following names are noted: Rev. P.K. Foot of Port Colborne, who was to hold service at the Welland Baptist Church and Grand Trunk travelers reported by the agent, O.H. Garner: J.C. Page, Colin Campbell, James Sayers, James Farr, H.A. Rose, J.B.Brasford, Geo. Cowper, J.H. Burgar, J.V. Strawn, John Hill, E.W. Damback, Richard Foster, W. Michner.
A column is devoted to the police court proceedings in the case of a couple of Wainfleet cut-ups who drove to Welland, got all lit-up and were charged with “defaming the Lord’s Day and with drinking in a riotous manner through the streets;” the riot including firing a revolver in the course of the joy ride. Fine and cost of thirty days. Fine paid. Which was the end of a perfect day.
The old burg must have been one grand little fashion centre. It is recorded that J.E. Whalley had gone to Europe to buy his stock of gent’s furnishing goods.
These names are mentioned in a report of annual meeting of the Niagara District Division Pomona Grange: John A. Ramsden, James J. Moore, Elliot Henderson, E.F. Leidy, E.W. Fares, S.W. Hill, Jonas Sherk, Duncan Schooley, Alexander Servos, David Fritz, John Scholfield.
There is a column and a half editorial about the raceway, in which the paper takes issue with The Tribune, and another editorial hands the following can of raspberries to an esteemed contemporary of the present day: “If Niagara Falls Review is not meeting with as much success and patronage as desired, it is not to be wondered at. Its pages are sicklied o’er with the bilious hue of jealousy, and its time appears to be devoted to continued mournful plaints of the ill treatment it receives from its neighbors. There is nothing tries the patience of the public more than a man with a grievance. A more admirable method and a mere certain road to success for the Review would be to stick strictly to business and not waste so much valuable time pulling other people to pieces.”
Ho Hum. Journalism is more peaceful nowadays. Likewise, decidedly tamer. It would be difficult to picture Bro. Duff thusly walloping Bro. Leslie or the latter countering in like manner.
At Niagara Falls: “The mud and soft roads have surrounded us.” “Arrived the first robin of the season, on Wednesday, a.m.” (March 17).
Divertisment of the cognoscenti at the cataract. “Buckley’s roller rink was well patronized Tuesday evening, and every visitor was well satisfied that Buckley had furnished the curiosity of the day and hour. At 9 o’clock the trained mare, “Dolly Stone,” was led into the circle and the performance commenced. She selected the colored ‘kerchiefs, picked up the half-dollar, walked the six-inch plank and balanced on it to the satisfaction of everybody. But her great feat was skating on rollers-genuine, graceful skating, without either tumbles or mishaps. We can not describe the performance, for to have a knowledge of Dolly’s wonderful acts, they must be seen.”
Those were present at a meeting of the offices of the 44th Battalion: Col Morin, M.P.P. Majors Bender and Tatters all, Surgeons Oliver and Glasgow, Adjutant Brennan, Captains James, Greenwood, Raymond, McMicking and Barwell; Lieutenants Vandersleuys, Bradley, Abbott, McKenzie McIntyre, and Skinner.
Every countryside correspondent makes passionate and bitter mention of Mud! Mud! Mud!!!
At Fonthill, “Another pleasant party was held at D’Everardo hall, under the management of Dr. Emmett.”
That’s about all on the four pages carrying stuff of local interest; the inside four being made up of clips.
There is a goodly volume of advertising, Pursel Bros., Welland, tell the world that business is booming in their men’s clothing, furnishings and hats and caps. Menno House is in his new quarters at Stevensville with a large stock of general merchandise. Sundry legal notices bear the name of Sheriff Geo. J. Duncan; D.W. Horton, President, and W.T. House, Secretary, call the annual meeting of the Horse Bleeders’ Association at the Mansion House, Welland. J.H. Stanley of Port Colborne tells the femmes about some perfectly grand spring millinery.
Mr. Vanderburgh informs the great unwashed of Welland that he has employed a first class barber, and also that he had “fitted up a nice bath room, which is constantly supplied with hot and cold water, and hope to receive patronage of the general public for the same.”
Welland market reports quotes fall wheat at 76¢ and spring at 70¢, oats 28¢, eggs 14¢, butter 16¢, potatoes 50¢, pork 5 and 6¢, beef 4 and 5¢. Bran was 70¢ and middlings 75¢ with corn meal at $120 to $2 and chop $1.
Lookit, lookit! Coal, egg and chestnut, $5 and $5.25. (Business of regretful sobs from the householders).
F. Macoomb, at the Beehive, Welland, advertised some grocery snaps, and H.B. Hyatt was prepared to supply furniture. C. Swayze was an “Instantaneous, dry plate” photographer, besides stocking some nifty Chromes.
Thomas Griffith, dry goods, etc. had a “holiday announcement” the same being a trifle stale along in March. H.W. Hobson, Palace Drug Store, also offered photograph albums with which to entertain callers. Brown Bros. paid cash for wheat at the feed store next to their liquor store, thus saving the farmers many steps. J.H. Burgar, chemist and druggist.
O.H. Garner must have conducted sort of an antediluvian five-and-ten what with “Vases, with or without flowers; photo albums, large and small; ladies and gents’ companions; picture frames, cabinet, plush and easel; poets, 75¢ to $4; miscellaneous and toy books; autograph albums, gold pens and pencils, ladies and gents pocketbook companions and plush looking glasses, views of Niagara Falls; violins, accordions and mouth organs.”
J.F. Hill, general insurance. B. Bridges, “The finest stock of groceries in Welland,” and pure wines and liquors. T. Best’s clothing house, Port Colborne, Geo. Stalker, the Glasgow Grocery, Welland. Imperial Bank, with eleven branches throughout Canada, M.R. Detenbeck, Stevensville, J. Brasford, leather store, McCleary & McLean , planing mill, Thorold.
J. James, merchant tailor, International Bridge-“Try James’ First Prize Pants, only $4, made to order.” C.J. Page, groceries, hardware, crockery; Orient Hall, Welland. Thomas Cumines, druggist AND pure wines and spirits, Ross Co., mantles, shawls, etc., etc., including ladies shirts, but no mention of any for gents.
And last, but not least-decidedly not, in view of their then importance in the scheme of things: Perry Davis Pain Killer, Campbell’s Cathartic Compound, Campbell’s Tonic Elixir, Burdock Blood Bitters, Hagyards’s Yellow Oil, Freeman’s Worm Powders, McGregor’s Speedy Cure, Hayyard’s Pectoral Balsam, Ayer’s Sarsaparilla, Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup, Putman’s Corn Extractor, Ayer’s Hair Vigor, Hall’s Vegetable Sicilian Hair Renewer.
And C-Saw Consumption Cure, which appears to have the revolutionary discovery of a county inhabitant out Amigari way, and of which it was asserted that, “Nothing on earth has ever been heard of so wonderful in its effects for the cure of consumption and cough.” Strange that the world has not worn a path to the door there of R. Moore.
But then, Emerson wrote about mouse traps and not about consumption cures-mouse were the only traps he mentioned.
The Welland Tribune and Telegraph
21 October 1926
Glimpses of Life in Welland and the County in April 1892
By
OLIVER UNDERWOOD
Then as now April weather thirty-five years ago was the same uncertain proposition as it is today. The Welland Tribune of April 1, 1892 says, “Fishing is in full swing in the river,” and “The canal is clear of ice at this point.” And as further evidence of the arrival of the vernal season, “Only 18 in the jail. Sure sign of spring.”
The succeeding issue refers to a thunder and lightening storm-supposed to put the kibosh on Old Man Winter; but one week after that, April 15, it is recorded that “A belated snow storm reached town on Saturday and whitened the earth.”
All of which seems to indicate that weather is weather and always will be and nothing is done about it, just as Mark Twain complained.
Art-High Art
Passing from the mundane to the field of art, C. Swayze, Welland, announces, “I will give a dozen cabinet photographs and a splendid crayon, 18×22 in a 7 inch frame for $10. See sample of Mayor Brown in my front window.”
Well, well, well! Likely there are a lot of the up-and-coming generation who have never fastened eyes on that highly artistic combination of a crayon portrait in a heavy gilt frame, flanked by a more sombre framed coffin-plate of the deceased subject-highly artistic, but sure to make the cold chills run up and down the spine of the juvenile beholder.
An ad for a general servant offers the glittering wage of $12 per month. And when some of the old-timers think back on how some of those old “hired girls” could cook, they will readily agree that the stipend ought to have been all of that per day.
The Wellandport correspondent of The Tribune hands a fair warning and likewise a stiff jolt to some of the straying sheep of that centre in the following: “We have in our midst, I am told, a place where there is a good deal of card playing going on, and sometimes a good deal of money changes hands. Where are our constables that they do not make a raid? Boys, take warning! ‘Nuf sed’ this time; perhaps more later on, if need be.”
Thorold town council is discussing the installation of the new incandescent electric lights.
At Humberstone, a new gas company program proposes to charge $1 per month the year round for all stoves and 10¢ per month for lights; the existing rates being $1.50 for a heater, $1 for cook stoves and 15¢ per light.
At Niagara Falls, “the electric railway from the Grand Trunk to the falls is to be completed by July.”
An Old-time Boniface
The death of Elias Hoover is recorded. He was the father of our Dexter D. Hoover, and one of the pioneers of the county town. Coming to Welland, he built the Welland House and managed it for several years; then went to Port Colborne and built the Erie Hotel. Returning to Welland in 1858, he again took possession of the Welland House and in 1873, he built and occupied the Dexter House.
The Welland school board is notified by the Board of Health to close the public school for at least one week or longer owing to the unsanitary condition of the outside closets.
Masonic lodges of the district are being visited by Most Worshipful Grand Master of Canada, J. Ross Robertson.
Port Colborne votes 162 for and 5 against a $4500 bonus to the glass factory.
All the World Awheel
O.H. Garner advertises a safety bicycle for $80. The woodcut of the machine bears about the same resemblance to the bike of today, as does the 1907 automobile to the modern car. Those were the days when the aspiring (and perspiring) male cyclist donned a pair of skin-tight black knee pants, a heavy white wool turtle neck sweater weighing fourteen pounds, more or less, and a dinky little cap; and pedaled manfully over the course of a century run-100 miles within so many hours. And thought he was having a grand time!
The License Commissioners just appointed are Alex. Logan, Niagara Falls; Robert Cooper, Welland; J. Havens Smith, Port Colborne. Applications for 82 taverns, 4 wholesale and 9 shop licenses in county.
From Marshville it is reported that our now fellow townsman, A.B. MacLean, has turned down the offer of $200 for his driving horse.
The Tribune correspondent there takes another jab at the devotees of the pasteboards. This thing has gone far enough and must stop. While we do not pretend to belong to the old orthodox, puritanical, fire and brimstone class, at the same time we do say that of all the mean, low-lived, despicable devices, poker gambling heads the list.
Niagara Falls Baptists let contract for the first church edifice of that denomination there, the building and furnishings to cost $2000.
From that same point comes the warning that “The town is going to indict any person throwing ashes on the streets in the future.”
The impending opening of the new Peace Bridge lends interest to this item from “International Bridge:” “Report says we are to have a ferry here this summer, for which we will be very thankful, as we need some better accommodation between here and Buffalo.”
At Fort Erie, “The bylaw to enable the village council to borrow $10,000 for the purpose of building a town hall for this village was voted on by the electors, and was carried by an overwhelming majority.”
The new bell of Christ Church, Niagara Falls, is to ring for the first time Easter Sunday. Its weight is 1000 lbs. and on the bell are inscribed the names of Canon Houston, Wardens, A. Frazer and Walter Woodruff, Supt. Joseph Brown and treasurer W.J. Drew.
“Mr. Wm. Hutton deserves the thanks of all those who drive between Welland and Fonthill. He has constructed a road scraper, and with it has put a long stretch of road in fine shape for travel. Let his good example find many followers.”-Tribune.
What’s Bred in the Bone
Talk about today’s sheiks and flappers! When dad and Mother start bawling out, the rising generation might hand ‘em this item from the Welland Telegraph. The noise made in the post office every evening during the sorting of the mail by the boys and girls is so bad that Postmaster Burgar has decided, unless Constable Eastman interferes and keeps better order, to lock the outside door of the office until the mail is distributed.”
The cold grey down of the morning after fully realized by some of the cut-ups of Niagara Falls: “Some of the boys went over the river the other evening to see the “Two Jacks” burlesque company. Next morning they sang, ‘What a Difference in the Morning.’ ”-Telegraph
“The plan for the new judges’ stand for the Welland fair grounds has been completed. The structure will 10×10, 18 feet high. It will be securely locked when not in use, so that the small boy who swims in the raceway can not use it as a dressing room. The bell presented by Charles Carter of Port Colborne in 1888 will swing in the peak.”-Telegraph
The same journal razzes the town fathers as follows: “After a careful examination of the streets and sidewalks, the chairman of the committee came to the conclusion it was high time to make a move, and a gang of men was started to scrape up the mud. How about the broken planks and filthy gutters?”
The Markets
Butter 18 cts., eggs 12 cts., potatoes 35 cts., wheat 82 cts., oats 31 cts., corn 50 cts.
The Welland Tribune and Telegraph
12 April 1927
35 YEARS AGO
By
OLIVER UNDERWOOD
On Dominion Day, 1891, thirty-five years ago, there floated over the building of the old Welland Tribune a new banner of red, white and blue bunting, with the word “Tribune” affixed in satin gold letters on the middle strip. A few days previously the banner had been presented to J.J. Sidey, editor and proprietor of the newspaper by its staff which numbered all of twelve people whose names were attached to the presentation.
Four of these old-timers are still attached to the present paper: the perennial George Wells, whose hair may not have been of quite so silvery a hue then but who is unchanged otherwise; Chas. Peach, who is still slinging type in the composing room; Harry C. Casper who wasn’t so hard-boiled then as he is today and who likely was then manipulating a composing stick instead of the linotype over which his fingers-all of them even unto the thumb-now swiftly play. For Harry does not use the one-finger system in vogue in the news room; not for him the hunt-and-pick stuff; i.e. hunt the keyboard for the wanted letter and then peck it with one finger. The fourth is George E. Scace who is still slinging “pikey.”
There is yet another name, but its bearer deserted the printer’s trade for another vocation. Harvey Dawdy was then The Tribune’s printer’s devil. A year later he went into the hardware and plumbing business with John H. Crow.
The remaining names are Ed McCann, Tom Phillips, Miss Ross, Allie Eddy, Miss Jennie Ross and S.J. and H.C. Sidey.
(The article on the presentation of the flag was written by Frank C. Pitkin on Friday. Little did he that before another noon had come the Harvey Dawdy he wrote of would have passed from earth.)
The Welland Tribune and Telegraph
13 July 1926
What the Welland Papers Were Saying Back in October 1892
THE GLORIOUS NINETIES
Glimpses of a Few Changes Time Has Wrought During the Years
By Oliver Underwood
This month of October five-and-thirty years ago in 1892, was marked on its first day by the death of a then outstanding figure in Welland, Fletcher Swayze, mayor of the town in 1879-80 and 1884; and of whom The Tribune said: “He was one of Welland’s best, ablest and most prominent public men…He leaves a spotless record, and the history of his public and private life will ever remain in the grateful memory of his fellow men.
The funeral was one of the largest and the attendance of the most representative that has taken place here for years. Nearly fifty carriages travelled to the cemetery at Fonthill.
It is of interest to note that but two of his pallbearers still survive. W.M. German and David Ross; the others being J.H. Burgar, Wm. Beatty, G.L. Hobson and S.J. Sidey, all of whom have in their turn gone on.
In passing, it may be presumed that the Fonthill cemetery was not then the beautiful God’s acre that, thanks to the civic pride of Dr. H.L. Emmett, it is today, for there is a notice of a meeting at John Brown’s house, father of Geo. C. Brown, Fonthill, “to consider the cemetery premises and engaging a caretaker-matters that sadly need attention.”
History Repeats Itself
The truth of the above old wheeze finds illustration in a news item of the day. It will be remembered that at the time of the Old Boys’ reunion honor was done our distinguished townsman, W.M. German, in the unveiling of his portrait, which now has place in the court house, where it will remain for the generations to come.
But the portrait of today is in reality old stuff; other hands forestalled the eminent artist of the current year, for, back in 1892, “A very fine and correct free-hand crayon portrait of Mr. German is on exhibition in the window of the Red Rocker furniture store, (now Sutherland’s). The portrait is the work of Rev. Mr. Tinkham, Port Colborne, and shews faithful care and ability to a notable degree.”
Sport For Sport’s Sake
In these days of three-million prize fight gates there is much talk of the commercialization of sport. Here again history repeats itself. One issue of The Tribune carried a complaint for somebody about the large proportion of the Welland fair’s money being devoted to the trotting purses. The week following that paper says: “There is a very mistaken idea abroad that a large proportion of the funds go to pay purses in the speeding contests. We publish the following statement of actual payments: Cattle $85; sheep $100; horses (not speeding) $115; race purses $30.”
All of which must have shut-up the knockers.
A Smoke Eater, Too
The multifarious activities of Robt. Cooper are well known. But it will be news to today’s generation to learn that he used to figure in still another field.
There was a fire in J.E. Cutler’s house thirty-five years ago. In the story we read: “During the progress of the fire County Clerk Cooper met with what may prove a very serious accident. The water had been shut off and the nozzle was lying on the floor, when all at once the water was turned on and the stream struck Mr. Cooper in the face with terrific force. The right eyelid was badly bruised and the eye severely injured. Mr. Cooper was almost blinded and had to be assisted home. The physician could give no decided opinion, but expressed fears that the sight or the right eye might be permanently impaired.”
High Court
High Court was in session with T.D. Cowper acting for the crown, and the following members of the county bar in attendance: A.G. Hill, F.W. Hill, Niagara Falls; W.M. German, Hon. Richard Harcourt, L.C. Raymond, A.E. Cole, Welland.
The grand jury was composed of the following, of whom some are still with us while many others have gone on: E. Cruikshank, foreman; W.A. Anderson, Jacob Clemens, B.M. Disher, Henry Egerter, John Greenwood, P.H. Hendershot, C.H. Hibbard, John Hoschke, Wm. Hanna, Jno. Leitch, D. McConachie, Thomas McEwen, H. Rinker, John Schneider, Chas. Sherk, Anthony Strouthers, Wm. Stapf, Wm. Bell.
Editorial Hot Shot
An editorial leader in The Telegraph takes the hide off a certain auctioneer at Niagara Falls, who, so it was alleged, had turned in to The Tribune copy for an auction sale bill, when the instructions were to give the job to the Tory organ. “Despicable trick,” “contemptible trickery,” “dishonorable individual,” “political spite,” “petty, mean, contemptible and dishonorable ends”- these are freely interlarded in the editorial vituperation.
And all for the sake of an auction bill!
Well, editoring used to be Some Job!
Poachers
The citizens named in the following excerpt from The Telegraph are still living honorable and upright lives in our midst, so the slip of the foot recounted will not be cast up against them. “Messrs. J.H. Crow and J.F. Hill went out on Wednesday to shoot squirrels. They killed five black ones, but it was on the preserves of Geo. W. Hansler, Pelham who has a fancy for raising black squirrels; and the latter gentleman, on finding the mischief done, was about to have them arrested. He was quieted down by ample apologies and promises never to do it again. Of course, the game bag was confiscated.”
Fenwick The Big Show
Welland fair now overshadows the similar event in Pelham, but ‘twas not always thus. The Fenwick show in 1892 had a $682 gate and total receipts of $1227, and the estimated attendance was over 6,000.
One item in the news story has a familiar ring; in fact, the razz might well have been used at Welland fair this year, and will likely come in handy in 1928. “The manner in which the judges stand was crowded with people who had no business there, outside of curiosity, made the work of the judges very difficult. It might be a good idea for the society to appoint a special constable with a key and club to admit only the judges and the press and guard the stand from unnecessary intrusion.”
But the long-suffering newspaperman who covered the fair had his inning, vide, “A grey-mutton-chop-whiskered judge in the speeding classes labored under the impression that he owned the earth, and took pains to be as disagreeable as possible to the press representatives. But his big feet, big feelings and porky disposition were small potatoes in comparison with the things he didn’t know.”
It would be soul satisfying to hitch an Amen on to that blast as regards the judges’ stand at his year’s Welland fair. Not to the judges or other race officials, but to certain officious society members clad in a little brief authority but without proper understanding that the stand is for judges, timers and press and that any others there are simply gumming-up the works.
Band Concert
The Welland firemen’s band staged a concert in Orient hall. The male quartette’s selection, “Brudder Eben Cotch a Coon’ was not up to expectations. In fact, it sounded at times as though the coon had cotched the singer. The song was all right, but it was evident the singers failed to practice it the night before the concert.
Just As Dumb Now
Mark Twain it was who complained that everybody talked about the weather, but nobody did anything about it. It is talked about today, and it was talked about thirty-five years ago, according to the following; but this age doesn’t seem to really know much more, if any, about it than they did then. The weather prophets of Welland are disagreeing about the probabilities of the coming winter. Some of them say an open winter, and others are predicting howling blizzards and an Icelandic temperature. In the meantime, the weather goes on in the same old groove and pays no attention. How true this last-how true!
A Burning Issue
“Now that fall is here, and winter is close at hand, wood is beginning to move. The great majority of consumers in Welland are of the opinion that wood offered for sale should be measured and marked off by an authorized officer. Selling and buying wood by the load at random is a practice most unsatisfactory. Wood should be measured and bought and sold by measure only,” so says The Telegraph.
Listen, Lads!
Welland High played St. Catharines collegiate here at football. With the score 0-0, “with two minutes left for play, Harry Moore kicked a goal for the home team,” says the newspaper story.
That is that, but the nub lies in the fact that the Harry Moore is the genial and somewhat rotund postmaster of these days; and any one who can picture that much esteemed official kicking a goal now is invited to get busy.
New Industry at Port
The Telegraph devotes a column to a story of the newly opened glass plant at Port Colborne, the Erie Glass company. In the course of the tale there is found this optimistic prediction; “Port Colborne is happy and its inhabitants are wreathed in smiles at the realization of the first industry located there through natural gas. “This is only one,” said a citizen. “Others will follow when it is understood that we have plenty of gas. In a couple of years you will see the new factory, roofs shining in the sunlight all over the town. But the government should place a high export duty on the gas; then it would not be long before there would be hundreds of factories between here and Fort Erie.”
Well, that wasn’t done, but who knows, who knows?…
High Cost of Living
Even in the good old days that was a favorite topic to beef about, as is evidenced in the following from a communication to the press: “How is it when flour drops in price there is___, but the bakers keep pegging away at the same old rate. I did hear that there lives in Fonthill a baker, whose conscience, or his opposition-I don’t know which, has induced him to lower the price of the staff of life to four cents a loaf; but that does not help the Welland people-they keep right on paying six cents a loaf.”
On the other hand, J.B. Taylor & Co., Welland, advertise 28 lbs. of raisins for $1; and mixed pickles at 50¢ per gallon. And elsewhere, ladies wool hose were 15¢ per pair, while what is understood is now an obsolete article of feminine panoply, corsets, could be had from 25¢ up to one berry, case or dollar.
Also, a man’s heavy rubber coat could be bought for a two spot; an overcoat for him for $3.75 up, and a suit of clothes from $4.50.
And how does this sound- 23 lbs. coffee sugar, $1; and 25 lbs. yellow sugar for the same price?
Buggy whips started at 13¢, two for 25¢, and for 75¢ could be bought a real rawhide worth $1.25 of any man’s money.
A nifty pair of calf balmorals of congress gaiters cost jus two bucks; and dozen cabinet photographs cost but $3.50 with an enlarged crayon in a heavy gilt frame.
Notes
“A.E. Douglass has fitted a night bell on his drug store door. Parties wishing medicine any time in the night will press the button, and Mr. D. will do the rest.”
“In the little hamlet of Ridgeville, Mr. Murgatroyd is about letting a contract for the erection of more hitching posts for the accommodation of his numerous customers.”
“The new incandescent electric lights have been suffering an eclipse lately.”
“A magnificent ball is on the tapis, and if carried out as proposed will exceed anything of the kind ever before held in Welland.”
“Ridgeway band will come out next year in flying colors. The band, which now numbers fifteen members, will be increased to about 25, and four or five of the new members will be ladies. This is an innovation and we congratulate Conductor Dunn on securing the co-operation and talent of the fair sex.”
“The clay roads this week were the best they have been since the breakup last spring-perfectly level at last, and not dusty.”
“W.R. McKinney, of Crowland, is harvesting a piece of clover (October 14) which he sowed last spring. Best that?”
“Billy Lynch can’t induce any more girls to ride behind his spirited horse. The way the buggy was vacated when the colt did the circus act was marvelous.”
“The owners of the grand stand at the fair grounds which to apologize to their patrons for the dust which was allowed full swing on fair days. It will not occur again. Hereafter the stretch will be watered.”
The Market
Butter 20¢; eggs, “none in town, a limited supply would bring 13¢”; potatoes, 40¢ bushel; chestnuts, $4 bushel; wheat, 64¢; oats, 27¢; hay, $7, middlings $16; bran $14; butchers pay farmers for beef. 5 ½¢ to 6¢; lamb 8 ½¢; pork 6 ½¢.
The Welland Evening Tribune
25 October 1927
By
META SCHOOLEY LAWS
“Father can tell you things that you don’t know about, Squire Sloan,” was the greeting I got from a friend the other day, and “I’ve heard father talk about the old sand pit at the Point,” someone else chimed in. Needless to say, I was delighted, because the chief purpose of these letters is to arouse interest in those days, before it is too late for their history to be recalled by one and another of us.-If only we can today “serve our day and generation” (a phrase which would seem to have been a sort of watchword of those days) as well as they served theirs; if we can only build today as firmly and with as good material, as that with which they laid the foundations yesterday!
Squire Sloan and auntie were certainly outstanding figures. She always wore a velvet hood trimmed with a band and a short cape of mink, and a long heavy black cape in the winter. Her’s was not exactly a bed of roses, for like many of the men of his day, he was rather fond of the cup which “inebriates but fails to cheer,” to paraphrase an old adage. Because of this habit, the stern old Presbyterian pioneer had opposed his daughter’s marriage to the gay young “Yankee,” but Margaret had her way, and when long years afterward her youngest sister on a visit to her, ventured to ask whether she would not have been wise to heed her father’s warning, Auntie said almost fiercely, “If I could have seen every step of the way ahead, I would have done the same. I never had an unkind word, Mary.” And her influence over him was wonderful. Often a neighbour was seized with a sudden need to hitch up and hasten to the village, after watching Auntie walk past the house, perhaps in a driving snowstorm, for they knew her errand though none ever dared mention it to her. She would go to the store and from there to the hotel bar. “Come,” she would say to him. “It is time we went home,” and no matter how much he had been drinking he would turn back to the bar and order-“two fingers” all round. Lifting the glass high, he would say, “Gentlemen, Lady Sloan,” and after the toast was drunk, bow low to her as if she had been a queen, and accompany her out.
Perhaps she had to unblanket and untie the little bay team that he always drove, but he never refused to go with her. Only once was he known to be angry, but those who provoked him never forgot it. There was a smallpox epidemic threatened. One man, a Negro, had died, and those who had never had the disease feared to attend the burial. Squire Sloans’s pock-marked face attested that he was immune, and after inducing him to drink more than usual, they sent him to the cabin, and he laid out the body and closed the rude coffin. Then he went home with his wife. When he realized where he had been, he returned to the village and strode into the group of men, in a rage. “I would have looked after the man, but you made me expose my wife, and if she dies”- and his look told the threat his lips did not need to utter. Fortunately for all concerned Auntie escaped the disease.
She outlived him many years and a better neighbor than W.M. Sloan, a more upright man never lived, and to the wonder of the other women his wife would have stoutly added, “No woman ever had a kinder husband.”
They had no family but one and another of the nephews often shared their home for months at a time and their adopted daughter, still living, cherishes their memory as though they had been her parents.
But to return to the Point. The winter of 1878 witnessed the last of the lumbering operations on the beach. The Decews, whose name is preserved in the little hamlet of Decewsville on Provincial Highway No. 3, just west of Cayuga, bought all the remnants of the virgin forest in that vicinity available, especially the oak. All through the winter of ‘77-‘78 the operations were carried on. The Dickout Woods was one that was practically stripped. In the spring the logs were hauled to the Beach at Point Abino. Huge rafts were built and tugs came in the early summer and towed them away. The lumbering outfit especially the wagons with their huge hind wheels stand out in memory. The huge logs, which required three teams to haul them, are not forgotten. I only know two oaks as large still standing, they gave their name to my Haldimand farm home, “Two Oaks”-great spreading trees under one of which more than once family gatherings have picnicked.
If these forests had been even partially replanted perhaps the “Chicago water steal” would not have to make so apparent a lowering of the lake level today, for the depletion of forests without doubt is a very potent factor in this matter, greater perhaps than Chicago’s much mooted drainage canal.
We have referred to the Dickouts. Squire Dickout was an early local preacher. His wife was one of the Morgan girls, from Morgan’s Point. Point Industry some of the old maps call it. He read “The Country Gentleman,” one of the oldest agricultural papers published on the continent, and one which is still issued. He was lover of trees and the row of beautiful maple trees which border the road along what was his farm are still his beautiful monument.
He laid out a little park opposite his home and planted the first peach orchard in the section. Red cherry trees bordered both sides of the road east of the house, and the fruit hung there in the summer, purple and luscious. Both Mrs. Dickout and “Grandma” were famed for their “Cherry Bouse.” The recipe is still extant but I fear me that it is taboo these days-too high a percentage of-. But these were the days when the various “moonshine” concoctions were unknown, and it would have been difficult indeed to have convinced these folk that any possible harm could be associated with the pure juice of the grape or cherry as they prepared it.
Wild berries were abundant. Their flavor is vastly superior to the cultivated varieties of today, though the latter are much more attractive to the eye. Oh, for the taste of the contents of one of the big stone jars of raspberry jam! Those of us who remember them cannot be overly enthusiastic about the manufactured article with its commercial pectin. These people knew nothing about balanced meals. Their tables were an utter defiance of every known rule of the dietician today. No menu card of today is big enough for the list of viands served at their feasts, yet, I wander through the cemeteries and read the names of these old people and their ages, 78, 80, 90 etc, etc, etc. How did they do it? Sometimes we order whether, the necessity for a strictly ordered diet proportioned as to the contents of the proteins and what not, is not laid upon us because we have forsaken the cool sequential vale of life, along which there “kept the even tenure of their way,” rather than for any more easily controlled cause.
Just north of the marsh, through which was the approach of the Point lived the Parneys (the name is spelled Parnea) and on the opposite side of the road the Pages-or rather Otway Page. The latter farm is still in possession of the family. Old Mr. Page was famous for his maple syrup and sugar. His oldest son, whose widow is still living, was the first in that neighbourhood to obtain the degree of B.A. They were a family of marked intellectual tastes. One daughter still lives, and could no doubt make a valuable contribution to Point Abino here.
Along the road too, was old Mrs. Tolson’s little home, where she and her one son lived. The little shack in the main road in which he lived after his mother died looked as if the old one had been lifted up and set down again. It was old, even if newly built.
The neat little Snider home was there too. The Snider girls could doubtless furnish stories of the Point also.
Then the Sherk farm, now the home of the youngest son, whose mother still lives with him. Chris Sherk always had beautiful horses. He had a half mile track on his farm. One of his horses, a beautiful black animal whose coat shone like satin, passes before my mind’s eye now, though it is more years than one likes to remember, that its master drove it to Ridgeway, passing the gate of Maple Grove farm on which the children swung and watched for it. I can still see him on his “Sulky” carrying the long whip which his horse never felt, I am sure.
Have you ever read “Aunt Jane of Kentucky?” It is a beautiful collection of pioneer character sketches. “Child” says Aunt Jane to her listener, “nearly all my stories end in the church yard,” and so do these, and yet, remembering the number of pioneers homes which have passed unto the hands of the lesser people than those who braved loneliness, privation as they strove to establish homes in the wilderness, one thinks of the warning crouched in these lines from
Ill fares the land to hastening ills a prey
Where wealth accumulates and men decay
Princes or lords may perish or may fade
A breath can make them, as a breath hath made
But a bold peasantry, their country’s pride
When one destroyed, can never be supplied.
Of course, the word “peasantry” was never properly applied to Canadians. Exchange that word for this coined one “ruralry” and in those lines, is described the real menace of Canada today, for one of the plainest truths taught by the page of history is this “Rural decadence spells national disaster.”
The Welland Tribune and Telegraph
13 April 1926
By
META SCHOOLEY LAWS
We are all too some extent at least, worshippers of the old Roman god Janus, one of whose faces turned tot eh past, the other to the future.
So we have our “Jubilees,” our “Anniversaries,” our “Old Boys Reunions.”
Perhaps one of our greatest pageants ever staged by the empire was the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, whose memory is perpetuated by the holiday and fittingly preceded by Empire day.
Truly the great poet Laureate wrote of her: “She did her people lasting good.”
Today, amid social unrest world-wide, amid the downfall of great empires and the birth of lesser states, the British empire stands secure.
“Unshaken still.
Broad-fused upon her people’s will.
And compass’d by the inviolate sea.”
More fascinating than fiction could possibly be is the story of her expansion and consolidation.
What an inspiration to novelist and poet, as well as to historian are the great men around whom, from age to age her history has centered.!
Two great loves have possessed her people, from the earliest days when Hengrst and Horsa led their wild followers across the North sea from their crowded quarters, down to the present.
The love of adventure, which lies at the root of Britain’s expansion; the love of free institutions, of liberty, which has been the mightiest force in her consolidation.
Hand in hand these two great forces have permeated our national life, and upon them the greatness of the empire; in all the phases, social or economic of her life chiefly rests. These the foundations of the empire. And the builders?
Small wonder that we are proud to count ourselves among them, when we consider that from so small a beginning this great empire has evolved.
What characteristic enabled the conquered Saxon to dominate the Norman conqueror so that England and not Normandy emerged?
How often had one man of this great empire dominated thousands not by military prowess, but by some other great quality; Warren Hastings in India; Cecil Rhodes in Africa.
Even the military force of the empire when brought to play in the development of her colonies has not engendered lasting hate. Those who led armed forces against her have in more instances than one subsequently aided her in establishing her rule among their own people.
This is peculiarly true of South Africa.
The daring of the northern tribes, the imagination of the Celt, the “canniness of the Scot, the dogged perseverance of the Englishman, the suavity of the Norman-all these have combined to make the Britisher.
The Welland Tribune and Telegraph
24 May 1927
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