Results for ‘Historical MUSINGS’
Mr. Patterson who conducts a well-stocked establishment in Welland is distinctively one of the representative citizens and business men of this thriving community, where he has maintained his home for more than forty years, and where his success has been the result of his own ability and well-directed endeavors.
Mr. Patterson was born on September 10th, 1865, at Port Colborne, Ont., and is the son of John and Anna (Clancy) Patterson, a railroad builder.
John Patterson, the father of the subject of this review, was born in England and was reputed to be one of the best known and competent railroad builders of his day, and came to Canada many years ago and was in charge of the construction work and laying of the Welland Railroad, now the Canadian National, from Port Colborne to Port Dalhousie, Ont.
John J. Patterson, received his early education at the separate school in Port Colborne, and after leaving school followed in the footsteps of his father by going to work on railroad construction, and on big contracts travelling nearly all portions of the United States. His ability and experience enabled him to become associated with the well-known firm of Drake and Stratton Construction Company, of New York, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. That company was one of the largest railroad constructors in the United States. One of the first of Mr. Patterson’s large contracts was work on the tunnel built under the St. Clair River, between Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ont., and required several years for completion. In 1891 he moved his family to Welland, where they lived while he was travelling on various contact jobs for the firm. In 1910 he bought out the furniture and undertaking business of George Cronmiller, who had been in that business for forty years, and after taking over this business he made a number of improvements on the property, and in 1921, to meet the requirements of a constantly expanding business, he erected his present building which he now occupies at 125 East Main Street, where he carries nothing but the best of household furniture in connection with the undertaking business. In public life Mr. Patterson successfully served eight years in the Town Council, and was very active; is now a member of the Water Commission and has been for the last six years. He was married on September 22nd, 1887, to Miss Anna McNeff, daughter of James McNeff, of Thorold; they have five children living. Maude, the eldest, married to George O. Darte, prominent undertaker of St. Catharines; John F., married to Miss Neoma Clifton and associated with his father in business in Welland; Marguerite, now Mrs. C.R. Korman of Milwaukee, Wis.; William Gerald, single, and associated with his father in business; Harold Joseph, married to Miss Stella Traver and they have one son. The two children who have passed away are Anna, who died in November 1920, and James T. who died April 8th , 1928, All the boys were in service during the World War; John was in the U.S, army. Mr. Patterson’s religious connection is with St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church; his fraternal affiliation is with the Knights of Columbus.
He has built up a substantial and prosperous business and has a well-equipped store that caters to an appreciative patronage, and as a public spirited citizen takes a great interest in any movement toward the betterment of the community.
A.E. Coombs
History of The Niagara Peninsula and the New Welland Canal
1930
(Welland, Ont.)
Gordon Somerville came from a family of builders in Welland, who have left substantial proof of their work in road building in and around Niagara Falls, where the subject of this review is now established, in handling building supplies, and has been conducting a thriving and prosperous building for the last two decades.
Mr. Somerville was born on March 30th, 1889, at Welland, Ont., and is the son of William George and Elizabeth Somerville, his father a well-known implement selling agent of farm machinery and prominent builder of that place.
W.G. Somerville, father of Gordon P., built the town hall as well as the school house at Bridgeburg, and the school house at Dunnville. Built the concrete road from Niagara Falls to Queenston, and the road from Niagara Falls to Stamford and St. David, in 1924.
Gordon P. Somerville comes from a very prominent family, and is one of six children, and acquired his early education at the public school at Welland and went into business with his father, and later for himself, at the age of twenty, by buying his present business in 1909, from his brother Harvey, who had started the same two years before, and he now handles everything in the line of building supplies, except lumber, and is rated as the oldest and most reliable supply house in the town. He was married in 1915, to Miss Ethel Chambers, daughter of John H. Chambers; no children. His fraternal affiliations are with the Masons and the Eastern Star. He is a great lover of outdoor sports, especially baseball and hockey.
A.E. Coombs
History of The Niagara Peninsula and the New Welland Canal
1930
John Young is one of the outstanding figures in the industrial life of Welland county, and as a business man and citizen has become one of the important industrialists of Welland county.
Mr. Young was born on November 12th, 1882, in Hawick, Scotland, and is the son of John and Mina Smith Young, of Hawick, Scotland. He received his early education in the public schools of his native city up to the time he was sixteen years of age, when he served his apprenticeship as a mechanical engineer at Hawick for a period of five years, then he attended the West of Scotland University of Glasgow, Scotland, taking up electrical engineering and in that line worked in that section of Scotland and England. He was working at his profession when he was employed on the other side together with R.T. Turnbull, a celebrated and widely-known metallurgical engineer, to come to Canada where he arrived in 1907. Mr. Turnbull erected the first electrical furnace ever built and operated both in Canada and the United States. Mr. Young has had a wide experience with electric furnaces. In 1914 he started his present plant in a modest way in the making of equipment for industrial electric furnaces. The building now occupied is of brick construction, 50×130 feet, and twenty men are employed in the plant.
He was married in 1909 to Miss Jemima B. Sommerville, of Hawick, Scotland. He has been the chairman of the Industrial Advisory Board in Welland, of the Board of Education; and been on the High School Board for the past eight years. His hobby is flowers, and he is a member of the Horticultural Society. He is now the president and manager of the Volta Manufacturing Company, Limited, General Consulting Engineers, of Welland, Ont., and is engaged in the manufacture of electric Steel furnaces, electric brass furnaces, electric alloy furnaces, electric furnace equipment and control, electric heat treating furnaces, electric carbonizing furnaces, electric babbitt and white metal furnaces, electric foundry riddles, electric winches and capstans, carburizers and heat treating salts, etc., and electric water heaters.
Mr. Young is a man of wide experience and training in the field of engineering, and his technical knowledge and skill has placed him in the forefront of men in his line, and his remarkable success is not entirely genius, but rather the result of sound judgement and experience.
A.E. Coombs
History of The Niagara Peninsula and the New Welland Canal
1930
Recognized as one of the able barristers practicing at the bar of Welland county, Dilly Benjamin Coleman has won appreciation not only from his professional associates, but from his fellow citizens at Welland where he has been practicing since 1919.
His family on his father’s side, are among the very earliest settlers in Welland county. His great –grandfather having settled at Port Robinson in 1808, their family properly belong amongst the original founders of Port Robinson, this county.
Dilly Benjamin Coleman was born in the beginnings of the eighteenth century, September 6th, 1890, in Wainfleet township, Welland county. His parents were James Arthur and Lelia (Strong) Coleman. His father was engaged in the natural gas business. Mr. Coleman attended public and high school, graduating from both in Welland, and then attended the Toronto University, graduating from here in 1914 with a B.A. and L.L.B. Mr. Coleman then attended Osgoode Hall and was called to the bar in 1916. He spent a short time after his graduation with the well-known law firm of Gregory, Gonderham, Campbell and Coleman of Toronto.
In 1919 Mr. Coleman, visioning a wider field for his talents, returned to his birthplace, Welland county, and entered the practice of law with Mr. McComb, Barrister and City Solicitor of the City of Welland and has been affiliated in this law partnership ever since.
He also enjoys the honor of being president of the City of Welland Horticultural Society, and has been a member of the Welland Park Commission several years. He is a member of the Anglican Church, and is married to Miss Lillian Gooth, daughter of Frederick H. and Augusta A. Gooth, the former is a prominent insurance broker of Toronto.
A.E. Coombs
History of The Niagara Peninsula and the New Welland Canal
1930
Soldier, barrister and official of various courts, the name of Colonel Cohoe stands out as one who has a record, not only in the World War service, but in civilian life as well; and is a man who holds the confidence of the public, and is regarded as a man of sterling worth and fixed integrity.
Mr. Cohoe was born on March 18th, 1871, at Fonthill, Welland county, Ont., and is the son of John Edward Cohoe, a farmer, also born in Fonthill. His great, great-grandfather, Ambrose Cohoe, settled in Fonthill in 1787, and died there in 1789, he was a U.E. Loyalist, and his children were given some of his land presented to him by the Crown. Mr. Cohoe, the subject of this review, has one brother and one sister, and when he was four years old moved to Wainfleet, and first attended school there, and then graduated from the Welland High school. In 1887, at the age of sixteen, he enlisted in the army as a private in the old 8th Company at Wellandport. In 1888 and 1889 he went to military school at Toronto and became a lieutenant; was given a certificate, second class, and then first class. Became a captain, then a major and became commander of the 44th battalion about 1902, and continued as such until 1908. In 1894 he graduated from Osgoode Hall, a law school at Toronto, and practiced law in Welland under the firm name of Raymond & Cohoe for about ten years. In January, 1905, he was appointed Local Register of the Supreme Court, Clerk of County Court, and Register of Surrogate Court. He was Liberal organizer for a number of years, about ten years prior to 1904.
From 1908 to 1911 was Brigade Major of the 5th Infantry Brigade, and in 1911 to 1914, was in command of the 5th Brigade. When the World War broke out he took charge of the frontier force of canal, then went overseas. Went to England in command of the 4th Infantry Brigade of the first contingent, and was first stationed in England at Salisbury Plains. He was then commander of the infantry at Pond Farm Camp, and afterwards Sling Plantation Camp in England. At Pond Farm Camp he had the Newfoundland troops under his command. At Sling Plantation Camp he had New Zealand troops under his command. When the Frist Division went to France Colonel Cohoe was returned to Canada; he did not go to France nor did he see any active service. On his return to Canada he was given charge of training the infantry at London, Ont. He was in England about five months; volunteered to go to Siberia in 1917, but was not accepted; is now a full colonel and on the reserve list of officers. In 1912-1913 he took the militia staff course, and in May, 1914, passed the examinations for tactical fitness for command. The colonel was married in Welland in 1894 to Miss Clara Jane Holcomb, daughter of C.V. Holcomb, a farmer of that place; they have three children: Dorothy Ellen, the eldest, married to Major Hugh W. Murray of Toronto, and they have two children; Donald A. Grant and Dorothy Jane. John Edward Cohoe, age thirty-one, is fourth in the family with the same name; is single. He went overseas with the Artillery, 17th Battery, and was in the final drive at Amiens, and went to the Rhine after the Armistice with the army of occupation, and was quartered at “Bonn” with a professor of that German university.
When the son came home he went to the School of Science at Toronto University, and graduated from there in 1923, and since that time has been with the International Nickel Company, at present working in Port Colborne as superintendent of the refinery. Ruth Buchanan died at the age of five, 1903 of heart failure. *She is buried in Smith Cemetery, Welland. Colonel Cohoe in his social contacts is a member of the Welland Club, and the Lookout Point Golf and Country Club-golf being his hobby. He is a Mason; is a past deputy grand master of this district, member of Merritt Lodge, past grand superintendent of Niagara District , Royal Arch Masons, past first principal of Willson Chapter, and an ex-warden of the Church of England. In his younger days he took a great interest in athletics, played football at Osgoode Hall, and on the Welland cricket, baseball and football teams.
A.E. Coombs
History of The Niagara Peninsula and the New Welland Canal
1930
In all of Lincoln County there are few men who have been more active in public life, in social clubs, in fraternal organizations and in their own business enterprise than the subject of this sketch, former publisher of the Niagara-on-the-Lake, Advance, now an inspector of the Liquor Control Board of the Niagara-on-the-Lake Brewery Warehouse and Justice of the Peace of the County of Lincoln.
Edward Hugh Brennan was born in Welland County on May 11th, 1883. His father and mother were the late Luke Joseph and Mary, nee Whitten, Brennan. His father was a bookbinder at St. Catharines and at Welland, Ont. *His brother was A.J.J. Brennan, pharmacist in Welland.
Mr. Brennan attended public school at Welland before starting in the printing business, which he learned while working for the Welland Tribune. He left the Welland Tribune and roamed about the province in the employ of a number of printing shops before he settled in Welland in a job printing establishment of his own, which was opened in 1907. He managed this shop successfully until 1916, when he left to accept a position as ticket agent, and representative of the Grand Trunk Railroad at Suspension Bridge, New York.
After spending three years in the employ of the Grand Trunk, Mr. Brennan went to Burford, Ont., and purchased the Burford Advance, a weekly newspaper, in connection with which there was being operated a job printing business. Mr. Brennan published and managed the Burford Advance for a period of nearly two years before leaving it to go to Niagara-on-the-Lake, where he established the Niagara Advance in the year of 1919. In January 1929, he sold the paper to his son, Nixon E.J. Brennan, who now conducts it.
Mr. Brennan’s activity in public life has been widely and varied. For three years he served on the Niagara-on-the-Lake School Board. So well did he fill the duties of this position that for three one-year terms in succession he was elected as councillor for the same town. Then, in 1914, he was appointed Justice of the Peace of Lincoln County, and still holds this post.
For a period of three years he acted as division clerk of the First Division Court of Lincoln County, from which he resigned in 1928 to become an inspector for the Lincoln Control Board.
Mr. Brennan has taken an active part in the conduct of many fraternal organizations. He is a member of the Niagara Lodge, 2, A.F. & A.M., which is located at Niagara-on-the-Lake. He is also a member of the Niagara Chapter, 55, R.A.M., of which he is a past principal. In 1929 he was elected Grand Superintendent of Niagara District No. 7, of the Grand Chapter of Canada, Past President of the Niagara Agricultural Society, Past President of the Bowling Club of Niagara-on-the-Lake; and being a strong Conservative in policy, was most active as Secretary of the Niagara-on-the-Lake Conservative Association; and member of the St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church.
In 1906 Mr. Brennan was married to Hattie Nixon, the daughter of the late James and the late Mary Ann Nixon of Vankleek Hill, Ont. There are two children, Nixon , who has taken his father’s place on the Niagara Advance and Ila H., who was engaged on the Advance for several years. They live with their father on Johnson Street.
Mr. Brennan’s parents are divided between North of Ireland and English ancestry.
A.E. Coombs
History of The Niagara Peninsula and the New Welland Canal
1930
Mr. Benson is from an old and honorable Canadian family, and his grandfather, as well as his father, were among the early pioneers in this section of the country.
Mr. Benson’s father fought at Chippawa in 1812 and 1813, and met his future wife at that place; her family name was Deamud. His father, Albert, learned the trade of blacksmith at Napanee, Ont., and was so impressed with the slogan of that day, “Go West, young man,” and seeking a better opportunity went to Niagara and worked in a carriage manufacturing shop for a year. At that time there were no railroads, and all transportation was done by way of the old canal; he walked to St. Catharines to take a boat to visit his home, but found on his arrival there he had missed the boat by one day, and so determined was he on making this trip that he walked all the way to Port Maitland. The grandfather, who was an early pioneer, had gone west to seek his fortune and finally died at White Pigeon, Iowa; when the elder Benson, then took over the grandfather’s farm at Port Maitland, and went back to work on his trade at a place half way between Stromes and Port Maitland. In this latter place he met his wife, Miss Isabella Sheehan. He died when the subject of this review was but seventeen months old.
Eldorado F. Benson was born on April 25th, 1853 in Port Maitland, Ont., and is the son of Albert and Isabella (Sheehan) Benson, who originally came from Prince Edward County. Mr. Benson acquired his early education and graduated from the public school of Stromess, and first started to work as a carpenter, building ships, in his native town. In 1878 he located in Dunnville, Ont., and remained there as a carriage builder for twenty years. In 1884 he was married to Miss Clara Misener, who died some years later. He now sought new fields and in 1898, went to Hamilton, Ontario, where he worked in the same line for two and a half years, then to Milton in 1901, working there until 1906 when he made his final move and located in Welland, twenty-three years ago, and has been there ever since at 33 N. Main Street. He started business in a modest way and now has ten men in his shop, nearly all of them over seventy years of age. In late years trade conditions and demands have changed, so that he now caters only to the finest trade making milk and bread wagons and commercial truck bodies, auto tops and trimming, auto and carriage painting. He was married the second time in April 1919 to Miss Sarah Jane Catell of Simcoe; they have two boys, Ernest and Collin Blaine. He has always been active in religious and social uplift work; being an ardent prohibitionist, attends the United Methodist Church, three generations on both sides of the house have attended the same church. He was a great angler in his early days and a great ball player, as catcher played on Dunnville and Hamilton teams.
The record of the Benson family is an admirable one that reflects credit on those who have borne the name in the past, as well as those of the present generation. Eldorado F. Benson is a sincere man, conscientious and earnest; strong in his support of prohibition he has sought to lead his people in the way of right living, and to raise the standards in his community. He is a very successful business man and is held in the highest esteem by all who know him.
A.E. Coombs
History of The Niagara Peninsula and the New Welland Canal
1930
He was born at Glen Huron, Ont., on January 16th 1891. He is the son of the late Jared Beeshy and Hannah Hembling Beeshy. His parental ancestry is French and his maternal ancestry Suffolk, England.
At the age of eight years he was adopted by his uncle, Jacob Albert Beeshy of Ridgeway. In this village he completed his public and continuation school education, being the first student to matriculate from Ridgeway Continuation School. His undergraduate work included attendance at University College, Toronto, and at Queen’s University, Kingston. He received his master’s degree from Queen’s in 1915, majoring in history and political science.
During the summer vacation he assisted his uncle in the management of a retail china and grocery business at Ridgeway. During his high school terms he acted as a special correspondent for several newspapers in the district, and, in college he selected such subjects as might be of special value in journalism as a profession.
Graduating from college in the early years of the World War, and denied an opportunity of serving at the front, he sought to compensate for absence from the firing-line by other forms of service. At his own expense he took himself to England, and during the winter months of 1915-1916 made a first-hand intensive study of the famous Derby Recruiting Campaign, that greatest of modern experiments in the raising of a volunteer army.
Some of the methods successfully employed in that campaign in England appeared to him to be adaptable to conditions peculiar to Canada, and with this thought in mind, he prepared considerable data which appeared to him of value, and which he transmitted to the proper Canadian authorities on returning home. By them he was warmly commended for the service he had rendered.
The serious illness and untimely death of his uncle in December 1916, raised the alternatives of putting a long established business on the auction block, or of surrendering his hopes of entering journalism as a life work. For reasons which were partially beyond his control, he accepted the second alternative. He had a definite ideal of the kind of business he wished to develop. He foresaw that only in a specialized development of his little shop could his hope for material success. He believed there was a future for an institution, concentrating on the importation and sale of the less common and more distinctive varieties of English china and pottery.
He contrived as soon as possible to relegate the grocery department of his store to the limbo of forgotten things. He gradually enlarged and improved his showrooms, extended his connections with a group of notable Staffordshire potters, and was soon in a position to offer to his trade a really remarkable collection of uncommon and highly interesting patterns in china and pottery, such as was seldom to be met with, even in well-known city shops.
He is a firm believer in the power of advertising, and considers that he derives the most satisfactory results from a carefully planned scheme of direct-mail advertising plus a consistent distribution of advertising material over the counter of his shop.
By concentrating on the productions of a small group of outstanding English potters he has built up a highly specialized business, which in many respects has few, if any, counterparts in Canada. The strategic position of Ridgeway, near one of the main arteries of International tourist traffic brings tens of thousands of visitors each year from every part of the United States and Canada, a circumstance which has contributed largely to the widespread distribution which Mr. Beeshy’s shop enjoys. It is perhaps not too much to say that there is scarcely a State in the American Union, nor a province in Canada where china purchased at this little village shop cannot be found.
Several years ago, inspired by one of the old-time shops in the ancient city of Chester, he rebuilt his own store front after the style of modified Elizabethan architecture, with the result that it is easily discernible by the passer-by, and readily to be remembered once it has been seen.
The whole institution is an interesting example of what may be accomplished in even a small community by anyone possessed of a keen imagination combined with a fair measure of business ability.
By making personal journeys to the potteries in England, Mr. Beeshy has built up a valuable connection, and one that has made it possible for him to select his stocks in person in a much more satisfactory manner than would otherwise be possible.
By heritage and training he is a Liberal in doctrine, while declining to commit himself unreservedly to the shibboleth of any particular party.
Events of historical and economic importance claim his special interest, while swimming and tennis are his favorite sports.
Mr. Beeshy is a member of the United Church of Canada, and has served his local church from time to time as treasurer, trustee and steward. He is also a member of Dominion Lodge, A.F. and A.M., Ridgeway, and has served as secretary and trustee of that body. He is a member of Moore Consistory A. and A.S.R., 32nd degree.
On Good Friday, 1919, he was married to Ora Winnifred, younger daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ward B. Disher of Ridgeway. They have two children-Winnifred Lucille and Kennard Milton.
A.E. Coombs
History of The Niagara Peninsula and the New Welland Canal
1930
Ownership of one of the most exclusive hotels in Welland County, which is operated under his direct supervision, has not prohibited the subject of this sketch to take an active part in the administration of municipal office and in the business of the local government.
Percy Alonzo Rice was born in Dunnville, Ont., on May 22nd, 1881. He is the son of William Henry and late Abigail Elizabeth, nee Wilson, Rice. His father was a hotelman and English. His mother was Scotch.
Mr. Rice attended the Public School and the High School of Bridgeburg, Ont. While still attending high school he was employed during part of his time as a messenger boy for the old Grand Trunk Railroad at Bridgeburg.
Mr. Rice’s next position was with his father in Welland, where he participated in the management of the Welland Hotel for a period of fifteen years.
During all of this time Mr. Rice took a great interest in hotel management and studied the means of obtaining a profit through it. After this he moved to Ridgeway and purchased the McLeod House, which he still owns and operates.
When Ridgeway’s first fire department was organized years ago, Mr. Rice was made its chief, and for a period of three years he kept this post and demonstrated his ability in managing that department of the local government.
In his participation in many other community or municipal enterprises, Mr. Rice has taken an active part, and has contributed loyally of his time, his money and his executive ability toward the development of a greater Ridgeway.
The McLeod House is one of the finest and most exclusive of the more conservative hotels in the county. There is an atmosphere about the establishment of comfort, dignity and homeliness.
Mr. Rice is an active member of the Wilson Chapter R.A.M. No. 64, Welland; a pastmaster of the Cope-Stone Lodge 373, A.F. and A.M. of Welland; a member of the Hindoo Koosh Grotto, Hamilton; Scottish Rite, 32 degree, Buffalo; and the Ismailia Shrine, Buffalo. He is also a member of the Church of England.
On October 4th, 1906, Mr. Rice was married to Cora Emma Wise, of Ridgeway, the daughter of Jacob and Hannah Wise of Ridgeway. Mrs. Rice passed away on April 16th, 1928.
A.E. Coombs
History of The Niagara Peninsula and the New Welland Canal
1930
One of the substantial citizens of Welland, is a pharmacist owner and proprietor of a well-appointed Drug Store in the centre of the city.
Mr. Brennan was born June 29th, 1878, in St. Catharines, Ont., and is the son of the late Luke J. Brennan and Mary Jane (Whitten) Brennan. His father was born and raised on a farm near Kingston City, and was later a bookbinder in St. Catharines and Welland, and died in 1909. His mother was born at Niagara-on-the-Lake, and died in 1913. His grandparents were all born in Ireland. Mr. A.J.J. Brennan came to Welland at the age of two years and acquired his early education at the Public and High School in Welland, graduating from High School in 1895. He graduated from the Ontario College of Pharmacy and the Toronto University in 1903 with a degree in Phm.B.
He went into the drug business in 1906, buying out the store of an old-time druggist, J. Hamilton Burgar, and is still active in that business.
He has also for many years been interested in many side lines, particularly real estate and the wholesale tobacco business.
In public life he was a member of the High School Board for many years, and was chairman of that body in 1912. He was elected to City Council in 1918, and the following year was elected Mayor of Welland, retiring from public life in 1920. His fraternal affiliations are with Merritt Lodge 168, Masonic, of which he is a past master, Rameses Temple as a Shriner, and he is also an Oddfellow and an Orangeman. He is a member of the Welland Club, Lookout Point Golf Club, Burlington Golf Club, but gives most of his time to his business, in which he takes a delight, and has given a service that has resulted in the up building of a substantial business.
He is a member of the Presbyterian Church.
A.E. Coombs
History of The Niagara Peninsula and the New Welland Canal
1930
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