Charles Minor, ex-Wainfleet Man, Holds Reputation for Skilled Craftmanship
[The Welland Tribune and Telegraph, 21 April 1921]
Dr. E.J. Barrick of Salvadore Sask. sends us an interesting clipping from Victoria Daily Times relating to an ex-Wainfleet man who has not been heard from for a number of years. A.R. Minor and D.W. Minor of Wainfleet are nephews. The article is as follows:
Victoria holds within her borders in Charles William Minor, one to whom accuracy has been a guiding star for forty useful years of achievement.
“Charlie” as he is known to his circle of friends in every walk of life holds the reputation for being the most ingenious watchmaker on the continent. He has worked at his profession for the past forty years ever since he made his first watch with a Toronto firm when he was only eighteen years of age. Now he is getting along towards the further end of the road of life. Holding as his motto “a man is as old as he feels”, Mr. Minor is fifty-seven years young, born a Canadian of Canadian parents in the year 1864. His workshop is in the Glengarry Apartments on Cook Street without name or sign.
In all the intricacies of mechanical problems that have come before him in forty years he has yet to meet a problem in the highest realms of mechanical accuracy that he cannot overcome.
Makes Own Tools
Typical of the inventive genius and viewpoint of Mr. Minor is the fact that he has in the past forty years made watch-making and repair tools and instruments that cannot be bought by the remainder of his trade to-day. Working for months at a time he has perfected model after model of instruments that now do his daily work for him and consist of the standard tools of the watch trade.
These tools he had made himself from the rough steel, cutting them out, tempering them in his own workshop and solely by himself. His tempering solution is a secret which he guards more closely than anything else of the really exceptional achievements of which he had been capable. All tools are made to fit his lathe which in itself is a model of perfectness with attachments that guide his work in a manner that is not only not possible, but still undreamed of in the accepted trade practice of watch-making.
With these gems from his own brain Mr. Minor will make a watch from beginning to end. The main spring is the only point he cannot make by virtue of the fact that that requires very expensive machinery and processes but given the facilities he states he would be delighted also to make that. The watch case of course is the work of others as in carpentering the cabinet making is apart from the other branches of the trade.
Mechanical Neatness
A representative of The Times yesterday interviewed Mr. Minor and was through kindness treated to an exhibition of mechanical neatness and skill that will always serve as a treasured memory. The watchmaker set a ruby for the visitors in the twinkling of an eye boring a hole for his jewel, setting it in place with a degree of accuracy that bore out his contention that the finished product was mathematically correct. In this, Mr. Minor explained that the accepted practice was to bore the setting and try the jewel, if the hole was too small to rebore, if too large to throw away the work. On the other hand, by a most ingenious jewel setter he has made himself, Mr. Minor bores his hole and sets the jewel by the exact and automatic measurement of the ruby itself.
He explained that rubies, sapphires and diamonds were all used in watches, while the diamonds were used for end-bearing, on the end of the pins bearing the movement. Garnets, he told, were used in cheaper grades of watches. In connection with jewels, he exhibited what is known as an old English Virge watch, which was made in 1834 and is still giving perfect service. This Virge watch was made before jewels were used in watches, and it is in itself an interesting study of mechanical movement. Mr. Minor is making today a wheel for the Virge watch made in 1834, an incident that explains everything about the man and his exceptional genius.
Going through the cabinet, Mr. Minor exhibited some of the tools he has made himself, including a universal wheel cutter, that will cut every wheel used in all American watches; tool holders, chucks and counter-sinkers; screw-cutting attachments that cut the threads of all screws used in watchmaking from 10 turns to the inch to 250 turns to the inch, this tool cutting right and left hand threads with the slight turning of a single lever on the lathe; wheel rounding tools that will bring the tiny watch wheels into perfect mathematical balance.
He is deluged with orders to repair chronographs, meteorological, astronomical and other instruments, while during the life of the life of the late Dr. O. M. Jones, Mr. Minor made most of the special instruments of that famous surgeon.
Other Records
Mr. Minor has had a long life of activity in other walks too. He holds the road cycle, racing championships of this city for the two and five miles respectively in 1884, and later starred on the “safety’s” when they came out. His English settler, “Roy Montez,” chief of a long line of the fine settlers, won fifty-five firsts, and dozens of specials in the Pacific Northwest Dog Kennel Shows, while his other dogs won literally bushels of medals and cups in similar events. For trap-shooting in the three coast cities Mr. Minor holds medals of the top place, and several from international gun clubs. He is a photographer of more than passing ability, and added to all he studied for medicine and served four years as an apothecary and dispenser with high recommendations in 1881.
Body of W.H. Minor Found Gnawed By Rats
He Had Lived Alone and Evidently Had Been Dead for Some Days
[The Welland Tribune and Telegraph, 10 March 1921]
Chief Reavely, of Port Colborne, made a rather gruesome discovery at about 4 p.m., on Monday, when the badly decomposed body of William Henry Minor, of Lowbanks, was found in a shack on the Barrick farm, which is about one mile north of Humberstone on the N.S. & T. Railway.
Two small boys, George Unis and Andrew Tuge, brought the information to the chief of the finding of the body. They had lived near and had not seen the old man for two weeks. They later found the body, reporting immediately to Chief Reavely.
When found the body had been lying in that position for eight or ten days, and was in an awful state of decomposition. The eyes, nose and cheeks had been eaten by rats and mice. The pockets in the clothes on the body had been turned inside out, and the pants had been stripped off to the knees, suggestive of the fact that some party or parties had been searching for a money belt. There was no money on the body or in the shack at the time the tragic discovery was made. The bed clothes that were in the shack were found on the floor, probably pulled off as falling to the floor.
There was however no signs whatever of violence. The skull was not broken, nor were there any signs of a struggle. There was on the leg a scar, but this may have been caused by a fall or some other trivial thing. Doctor McKenzie, of Port Colborne who was physician to the deceased, states that the man has been suffering for a long time past with heart disease.
There is no evidence that the deceased was murdered, although there are indications he had been robbed.
William Minor had an account in the Imperial Bank at Humberstone for four hundred dollars, and the last withdrawal had been for sixty dollars, and had been made on January 8th.
The deceased had been living alone for some time in the shack, where he was found dead. He was seventy years of age.
Coroner McKenzie, of Port Colborne, has decided that an inquest will not be necessary. However Provincial Officer Gurnett is investigating the case.
Inquest To Be Held
An inquest and post-mortem examination has been ordered by the coroner. The inquest will take place on Thursday, March 17th at Port Colborne.
*Death was attributed to a Cerebral Hemorrhage.
Five Stevensville Youths Fined For Having Guns and Revolvers
[The Welland Tribune and Telegraph, 10 March 1921]
Provincial Officer Gurnett had five young citizens of Stevensville on the carpet before Magistrate Goodwin, in Welland Police Court, on Tuesday morning for having rifles and revolvers in their possession, without a permit. All five pleaded guilty to the offence, not knowing that a permit was necessary. One of these revolvers was encased in a holster and was compete with a buckle to fasten to a belt, and as Officer Gurnett explained it “looked too much like Jesse James style for young boys to be carrying around.”
The father of two of the boys could not see why the officer had to pick on his family, when probably every house in Stevensville had one or more guns. The magistrate explained that the law now requires that the owner of a rifle or gun must have a permit to have same in his possession, and that the Provincial officer must make a start somewhere. Each of the boys were fined $5 and costs apiece which amounted to $9.50. One of the boys who had two charges against him was fined the five dollars on one charge, and allowed to go on a suspended sentence on the other.
We are going to take this opportunity of advising both the residents of the rural communities and the citizens of Welland, that if they have in their possession a rifle or a revolver, the best thing they can do is to get a permit to own one immediately. Residents of the rural community had better see Provincial Officer Gurnett and parties in the city can obtain the necessary permit from Magistrate Goodwin.
[The Welland Tribune and Telegraph, 13 October 1921]
“I called around to see Chief Stapf the other day-and maybe I wasn’t surprised. Course seein’ them new shinin’ motor buses of theirs flying around Welland every once in a while, I kinda expected to see things spick and span around the station. But when the Chief showed me all these new-fangled businesses down in his cellar and up around the building, I was dumbfounded so to speak.
I kinda thought that when a feller pulls the hook in one of them there red boxes in the corner, it burn’t a light or somethin’ in the hall, and the chief or maybe the driver, or somebody pulled a rope that blew the whistle, so that folks would know there was a fire, and everybody could come out.
But say, for intercate machinery and high fallutin’ ideas, that firehall beats the cards. It takes more room to accommodate all the paraphernalia used to blow that fire horn than a man would need to pile up a hundred cases of good old Johnny Walker.
As near as I could figure it out, course I couldn’t keep up to the Chief when it comes to explainin’ electric things, they have to have about twenty black boxes, where they make electricity so that they can keep shooting it along them wires that goes to the red boxes on the corners. Then they have three great big round tanks about ten feet high, which they keep pressed air in, to say nothin’ of lots of delicate instruments in the Chief’s office, which he says regulate the whole business.
It seems an awful lot to set one whistle goin’, doesn’t it?
The Chief’s not a bad scout, you know, but he’s gettin’ awful stuck up about his outfit. But you can’t blame him much, seein’ as how he has a real up-to-date equipment. The men’s bedrooms look as if old maids slept in them, they’re so neat and tidy. I bet they do a lot of sweepin’ mornings.
I’ve only got one thing against the chief. He got me sliding down the pole from the second floor and I hung so tight the muscles of my arms was made sore. But then I ain’t so young as I used to be.”
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