[Welland Tribune, 18 August 1905]
The death of Richard McGarr occurred at his home in Merritton Tuesday morning after a continued illness of tuberculosis. Deceased was well-known in this city, having conducted the Arlington’s hotel on Bridge street for over six years, as was popular around this district. Some few months ago he retired and moved to Merritton, owing to ill-health.
[People’s Press, 5 September 1905]
A sad combination of marriage and death occurred last week in the family of Adam Myers, Clifton street. On Wednesday evening Miss Pearl Myers, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Adam Myers, was united in marriage by rev. J.W. Magwood to Mr. John Stewart. The happy pair left for the east for a wedding trip. On Thursday morning at eleven o’clock, Mrs. Myers, mother of the bride, was stricken with paralysis and at noon she passed away. The over-excitement of her daughter’s marriage had put too much a strain on her nervous system with sad results. The newly married couple were summoned home from Rochester by the sad news. Mrs. Myers was 62 years of age and is survived by a husband, one son and two daughters. The funeral was held on Saturday afternoon to Drummond Hill cemetery.
[Welland Tribune, 18 June 1897]
A sad death occurred at Air Line Junction, Humberstone, on Sunday last, when Justina Matthews, wife of Eli Horton, departed this life at the early age of 38 years. Death was caused by lockjaw, the result of blood-poisoning produced by a female ailment. Mrs. Horton was the daughter of the late Abner Matthews of Welland. She leaves a husband, a mother, and five children, the oldest whom is ten years of age. The funeral took place on Tuesday, interment at Fonthill’s cemetery; services by Rev. W.H. Swayze. Mrs. Horton had a wide circle of friends, and her untimely death will be deeply mourned, and the sympathy of the community goes out fully to the bereaved ones.
[Welland Tribune, 1 September 1905]
This community was shocked to hear of the very sudden death of Master Harry Teeter, son of Chas. Teeter, which occurred here on Saturday August 26th, after a brief illness of only a few hours, caused by a blood vessel bursting near the brain. Harry was a particularly bright little fellow, 8 years of age. For one so young he was well advanced in his studies at school, a regular attendant at Sunday school and a general favorite among the companions by whom he will be greatly missed.
The funeral took place on Monday afternoon from the residence of his grandfather, Mr. A.W. Teeter, where he resided, and was largely attended. Rev. D.N. Robertson officiated. The bereaved family have the sympathy of the community in their hour of affliction.
[Welland Tribune, 12 May 1905]
Niagara-on-the-Lake, May 19-Mrs. Mary Ball Servos, an old and highly esteemed resident of the Niagara District, passed away this morning at her residence, Palatine Hill, Niagara township, aged 77 years. Mrs. Servos was a daughter of the late Capt. John O. Ball, and granddaughter of the late Capt. Bernard Frey of Butler’s Rangers. She is survived b a grown-up family, two sons and two daughters.
By Walter Melick Jr.
[Welland Tribune, 4 November 1897]
Essay which won the Dunnville Chronicle’s special prize at Canboro fall exhibition
In the year 1784 the township of Canboro was given to Captain John Dochstader by Joseph Brant, or Theyendanegea, a chief of the Indians, with the concurrence of the chiefs of the Six Nations. About the year 1800 Benjamin Canby, a Quaker and a native of Philadelphia, came up from Queenston, where he had been doing business as a tanner, and negotiated with Captain Dochstader for the purchase of 19,500 acres of the Dochstader Tract, as Canboro was then called, for $20,000, for which sum he was to execute the mortgage. The land was sold for the benefit of his (Captain Dochstader’s) two children. The balance of the land, 1,750 acres, he retained, and it is known as the “Dochstader Tract”.
Canby named his estate “Canboro,” and established himself on the Talbot road where it crosses the Oswego creek, and laid out a village, which he named in compliment to himself, Canboro Village. Instead of having the township laid out in lots and concessions, he had it surveyed into blocks of unequal size and irregular shape, and opened roads, now called the Dunnville, Indiana, Smithville and darling roads, all of which converged and centred in Canboro Village. These, with the Moote and River roads, are now the principal ones of the township. There never was a government survey made of the township, but Canby, for convenience, divided it into three concessions , the Oswego creek being the division between the first and second, and a crooked line, along which there is no road allowance, forms the southern limit of the second concession.
Among the first settlers of Canboro were Peter Swick, a native of New Jersey, who settled on the Indiana road, and Peter Melick, who settled on the Talbot road, a short distance east of the village. These pioneers cane to Canboro in 1804. There were no roads by which the township could be reached. They had, therefore, to ascend the Chippewa and Oswego creeks in canoes, and brought all their property also by these conveyances. Matthew Smith came shortly after from the state of New York, and built a mill on the Dunnville road on the farm now owned by George Brooks. The motive power of this mill was horses, and the stones were dressed from common hardheads. This primitive contrivance soon gave place to a waterpower grist and sawmill, which Mr. Smith built at Canboro Village. This mill he traded to Canby for land, and afterwards he built the saw and grist mill on the Dunnville road, known later as Melick’s mill.
In the year 1814 Samuel Birdsall, a native of Delaware and a nephew of Canby’s, settled north of the village. William Fitch, also a relative of Canby’s, came here in 1832and started the first general store and post office in Canboro. Adam Moote, a man of German descent came from the township of Grantham, and settled in the north-east part of the township in 1835, where his descendants still reside. Major Robinson was also an early settler, locating on what is now called the Robinson road, where he built a mill and store near where Attercliffe station stands. He has long since disappeared and his land is now known as the Ebenezer block.
The first church in the township was erected in 1824 near where the town hall is standing in Canboro village. This church was built of hewed logs, and erected by means of a “bee” of the settlers.
There was no organized system of education in the township until after the rebellion of 1837; before this the schools were supported by subscription or a tax of $2 a quarter on each scholar attending. The first of these schools was erected in Canboro Village about the year 1825, and the second one erected was situated on the Grand River near where H.N. Misener lives, and was known as the Burnham school house. These were the only school buildings erected for a number of years and they were also used as churches.
About the year 1848_to the Niagara district council, Ezra Smith, who held the office each succeeding year, until 1850, when the first municipal council was elected with Barton Farr as reeve. Amos Bradshaw, Jacob A. Bradshaw, Calvin Kelsey, William Burk, Walter Melick, Samuel Swayze, W.H.M. Birdsall, Jas. L. Ricker and Geo. Brooks have consecutively held the office of reeve, with Jas. E. Ricker elected the previous year.
The population of the township of Canboro is 975, and this assessment for the year 1897 is $385,215. The soil in the northern part of the township is a heavy clay, while along the Grand River it is mostly sand or sandy loam, and in the Moote settlement there is considerable land of black and gravelly nature, very productive and valuable. There are three railways crossing the township, two branches of the Grand Trunk and the main line of the Michigan Central.
[Welland Tribune, 13 August 1897]
Ernest w. Fell, oldest and only surviving son of J. Howard Fell of Pelham, departed this life on August 5th at his home, 49 Wilbur street, Cleveland, O. An attack of peritonitis, followed by heart failure, caused his death. The funeral cortege formed at the M.C. station, Welland, at 8 o’clock Sunday morning, when the remains arrived, accompanied by the widow and sister of the deceased. The obsequies took place at the old Friends church.
The subject of thee lines was born in Pelham, March, 1848, and died while yet in the zenith of a useful life, possessing a mind of great genius and refinement, and a clear, bright intellect.
Those knowing him best learned to love him most. He lived a noble, truthful life, and is mourned by innumerable friends. Twenty years ago he married Miss Ware of Batavia, N.Y. She with his parents and two sisters are left to mourn his sudden demise. It has been the painful duty for Miss S.J. Fell to accompany, within the past three months, the remains of her two brothers from their homes in Cleveland to the quiet churchyard in Pelham. The same friends acted as pallbearers on both of these sad occasions. They were A. Yokom, J.A. Kelsey, E.B. Davidson, A.J. Sutton, Elwood Chantler and Richard Moore.
Mr. Rodgers of the Friends Church spoke words of love and hope, and expressed the sympathy felt for those whose hearts have been doubly pierced by the barbed arrows of bereavement- a time when we repeat farewell and plant by the sacred dust the willow and cypress. Having no fear, but ever relying on the goodness of nature, the spirit of the departed dropped out of life’s battle. By the side of his brother, whom he so soon joined in death, amid the quiet scenes of his boyhood, beneath the waving branches of majestic trees and beautiful floral offerings, we laid all that was mortal of the departed; and in our memory these brothers, both noble and handsome types of manhood, shall ever remain. Love surrounded their memory and youth was ever theirs.-COM.
[Welland Telegraph, 30 January 1891]
Mr. Chas. Hart received word from Brooklyn on Monday of the death of his sister, Mrs. Holfe, and left on Tuesday to attend the funeral.
DEATH OF CHARLES A. HART
INDUSTRIAL HOME
[Welland Tribune, 17 December 1897]
Number in the home, Dec. 16th-51
Charles A. Hart, an inmate committed from Bridgeburg, died on Wednesday aged 73 years. The body was taken to Dunnville for interment.
3 Chestnut Street, Fonthill, Lot 168, Pelham, (formerly Thorold)
[Pelham Historical Calendar, 1986]
Catherine B. Rice
This magnificent house is situated on a quiet street, fronted by an extensive lawn and bushes and sheltered by a lovely maple tree. The owner, Mrs. Holly Mosley, is surrounded by beauty within and without, while she continues to create more beauty with her needlework.
The patent for Lot 168, one hundred acres, was made out to Thomas Karraghan on October 25, 1798. In 1814, the land passed to George Keefer, and in 1825, to Caleb Swayze. He was the last one to own the complete acreage, and he was selling portions of his land in 1850. In 1921, Mr. and Mrs. Mosley purchased this property, now consisting of twenty-five acres from Roland Tanner, whose father William Tanner had taken possession in 1872, and had constructed the house. The land was in Thorold Township at that time, but on January 23, 1929, a by-law amended the Village of Fonthill, changing Lot 168 from Thorold to Pelham.
The cottage roof on the house, decorated with triple peaks, is unique. Beneath the central peak topped with stained glass, the verandah, with its sloping inset roof and four sturdy pillars, occupied the centre of the facade. It has two high windows flanking it on each side, with two similarly-placed windows on the second storey. Over the front door there is a stained glass window, while the main window in the door is most unusual, having an etched design on frosted glass.
The interior is composed of large, light and airy rooms, with high ceilings. The dining room, hall and two sitting rooms all have a large moulded decoration in the centre of the ceiling. The one in the dining room portrays a harvest theme of fruit and grain. In the hall there is fern-like arrangement, and those in the two sitting rooms are carved with doves, flowers, leaves and ribbons. A third stained glass window adorns in the main sitting room. The clear, rich colours attest to the value of the material and the workmanship. The woodwork throughout the house is impressive in its quality and its depth. The staircase was apparently constructed of cherry wood from the trees on the estate. The beautiful hand wrought newel post draws one’s attention for a second and third glance.
In the rear sections of the house Mrs. Mosley’s son, Harry, conducts his insurance business. He is better known as “Moe,” a nickname that he acquired in the air-force which has remained with him ever since. There is also a daughter, June (Mrs. Gordon Clemens), who resides in Welland. Mrs. Mosley has five grandchildren and five great-children who are able to come to this gracious home for happy visits.
SOURCES: Mrs. Holly Mosley
Land registry Office, Welland
July 11, 1905-August 21, 1965
(By Vilma Ens)
Robert Douglas MacArthur , educator of hundreds of students during his 41 years as teacher and principal was born just after the turn of the century in Burk’s Falls. He received his schooling there and after finishing high school attended Teacher’s College in North Bay.
His first teaching position was in G. Chrilber, where he taught from 1923 to 1926. An opening for principal came at Woodland school in St Catharines. He applied an d was accepted.
The agreement signed by the trustees of the school stated that R.D MacArthur would be paid a salary of $1200 for the term beginning Sept 1st 1026 to June 30th 1927. Another clause stated that the Board and the teacher may, sat their option respectively terminate this engagement by giving notice to the other of them at least one calendar month previously, and so as to terminate on the last day of a calendar month. The letter of reference from George A. Evans, principal at schreiber public school states that “as a teacher , Mr. MacArthur is painstaking, energetic and conscientious firm but kind in discipline and most excemplary in conduct, willing to assist in all matters that tended to raise the moral status of the community.It is with regret that I learn of Mr. MacArthur’s intention to sever his connection with the staff but nevertheless this testimonial of his worth is truthfully and cheerfully given. I have no hesitency in recommending Mr. MacArthur to and Board of Trustees desiring the services of a faithful and efficient teacher.” So MacArthur stayed at Woodland school for 18 years from 1926-1944. During this time he married his hometown sweetheart, Laura Parsons and two sons were born to them, John and Douglas.
He came to the police village of Fenwick in 1944, to head the school as principal. The old school on Baxter Avenue right in the centre of town must have been quite a challenge. Grade one had a classroom behind the building with the only heat in winter being a wood stove at the back of the room. The main school building was old and the play ground was small. A tremendous amount of encouragement was given by Mr. MacArthur to both staff and students to persevere under these trying conditions. Then in 1951, a new school was opened on Canboro Road in the middle of an apple orchard and grapery. The grounds around the school were huge and gave Mr. MacArthur an opportunity to have baseball diamonds, playground equipment and lots of room for his students to run and play. He encouraged baseball games and a game of scrub was always held at recess and lunch times There was a covered entrance so the children could skip and play ball against the wall even in the rain. Marbles were played at the “boys entrance” and hop scotch along the south s would ide of the school. Even “hide-go-seek was fun because of the great places to hide in the grapery.
He organized a “field day” every spring and everyone participated. He encouraged both girls and boys to try their best and an abundance of ribbons and silver cups were given out. There was also a gymnasium where once a month the whole school would congregate for assembly . A different class would be responsible for the entertainment. The class rooms were large and warm and washrooms were clean and functional. Mr. MacArthur was a teaching principal and sought to pass on his love of maths and sciences to everyone of his pupils. He expected excellence .
Mac’s salary of course did no increase by very much, as was the case in those days Therefore he worked as a purser and wheelsman for the Hunterville Lake of Bays and Lake Simcoe Navigation Co. Ltd. During the summer from 1929 to 1948. His steamers were the Mohawk Belle and the Algonquin. His usual working dates were from June 29 or 30th to the Labour Day weekend. Sometimes there would not be even one day’s rest from work on the boat to the first day of school. The letter from the Vice President and Secretary states “This is to certify that we have always found Mr. MacArthur to be of good character strictly temperate and a non-smoker. Honest , capable and faithful in the discharge of his duties as purser and wheelsman.
During his twenty two years in Fenwick R.D. MacArthur was a vital force in the life of the community. He was an elder in the Fenwick United church and a former member of the stewards’ board. He was a member of the Odd Fellows for 30 years and a past noble grand of Pelham Lodge 454 IOOF. He also belonged to the Ontario Federation of Teachers.
The write-uo in the newspapers after his passing said that his qualities as a teacher will live on through the lives of his pupils. Not only the qualities as a teacher and principal but as an exceptional human being whose love, fairness, humour and encouragement was an inspiration to many.
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