County Judge of Welland County
Over the span of years there has always a few names in every community that are linked inseparably with its progress and prosperity, and which reflect real lustre upon its history by reason of their honorable lives and exceptionable achievements. Such a man is Lorne B, C. Livingstone, for years one of the foremost citizens of Welland County, a well-known jurist, and long identified with many of the leading civic interests of the community. It was also through Judge Livingstone’s interest and moral support that this history was so successful.
Judge Livingstone was born on October 18th, 1871, in the Town of Simcoe, Norfolk County, Ont., and is the son of William W. and Margaret (Jackson) Livingstone, the former being a solicitor and town clerk of Simcoe, who came originally at the very early age of seven years from Scotland. His grandfather was related to the celebrated David Livingstone, the noted African explorer. Judge Livingstone, the subject of this review, was educated at the Simcoe Public and High Schools, and became a student in the office of Ansley & Slaght, barristers, (Mr. Ansley was the County Crown Attorney of Norfolk County), and also in the office of Beatty, Hamilton & Snow, of Toronto-Mr. James Beatty of this firm then being Mayor of Toronto. Mr. Livingstone began his professional career as barrister in Simcoe for a short time,
When he went to Tillsonburg, Ont., where he practised law until he was appointed to the bench for Welland in 1913 as County Court Judge. Judge Livingstone took considerable local interest in war activities; he was chairman of the Patriotic Fund for Welland County, wherein he was instrumental in bringing about a very strong local organization, which under his leadership raised a lot of money; on two occasions in Welland City alone over sixty thousand dollars. He assisted in all other war activates, and was especially interested in recruiting for overseas. He was chairman of the Welland County Loan Campaigns, and this unit won a number of flags in contests. As a recognition and appreciation of his splendid work, the Great War Veterans at the conclusion of the war conferred upon him honorary membership. During his term of office as Judge he has been noted for his impartial administration of justice, and an enormous increase has been made in his judicial work by reason for the increased population in Welland County. Judge Livingstone is a member of the Welland Club and the Lookout Point Club, and is an enthusiastic lawn bowler. For a number of years he was President of the Welland County Bar Association and is now its honorary president; he also takes an active interest in the Welland Boy Scouts. Another of his activities was that he was one of the organizers, and the first President of the Welland Historical Society, and is still a member of its Council. His religious affiliations are with the Holy Trinity Anglican Church of England. He was married in 1900 at Tillsonburg, Ont., to Miss Frances Isabel. Van Sittart, daughter of James A. Van Sittart, a barrister of that place; they have three children: Margaret, the eldest, is married to Dr. Donald W. Cameron, who is engaged in the Connaught Laboratories at Toronto; one son, John Van Sittart Livingstone is a student in the office of Price, Waterhouse & Company of Toronto; and Betty Isabel, a daughter who resides with her parents. Mrs. Livingstone is a granddaughter of the celebrated Admiral Van Sittart, who settled at Eastwood, near Woodstock, Ont. The admiral kept an open house and was noted for his hospitality. The noted authoress, Mrs. Jamieson, after a visit there gave an account of the place in her book, “Summer Rambles in Ontario.” One of the principal streets in Woodstock is named after the Van Sittart family.
Judge Livingstone’s sterling business integrity, by his exemplary career in the community, his denial disposition, and his high ideals of life and conduct have won for him an enviable place in the community; and his kindly influence will long be remembered in Welland County, where he has labored so long and so indefatigably for the common good.
A.E. Coombs
History of The Niagara Peninsula and the New Welland Canal
1930
Roland and Burwell Everett are twins. They were born on January 25th, 1902 in Ridgeway, Welland County. Their parents are Roland and Alice, nee Fite, Everett of Ridgeway. Their father is a well-known farmer of that place. Both parents are still living.
The object and purpose of Everett Bros., is to give the public a product of the very highest grade.
They established themselves in Fort Erie and Bridgeburg in their own business in 1919. One of the brothers concentrated his attention on the production of milk, cream and other dairy products which would meet the most rigid of health and cleanliness requirements, and would be deliciously palatable.
A.E. Coombs
History of The Niagara Peninsula and the New Welland Canal
1930
In Fort Erie and surrounding territory there have lived a generation of hearty, industrious stock whose work has made an impression and whose names are interwoven in the scenes of earlier and more strenuous times. Among these were the Sherk family of which Jonas Sherk, the subject of this sketch, is the present representative. Mr. Sherk has been engaged in the farming business during part of his life and later in the lumber and mercantile business. He has also been active in public life and has been honored by important public office. He is recognized as one of the leaders in the business and social life of the community and is to-day, it may be mentioned, one of the largest taxpayers in Fort Erie.
Jonas Sherk was born in Fort Erie, June 22nd, 1853. His parents were Peter and Judith Troup Sherk, the former being one of the oldest settlers and pioneer farmers of Welland county. Early in life he went to Buffalo, N.Y., and later returned to his native place and located on a site which is still named after him-*Sherkston, Humberstone township, Welland county. The family was of Pennsylvania Dutch origin and of United Empire Loyalist extraction.
Jonas Sherk was born in June, 1853, and was educated in the public schools at Fort Erie and at Milford, Indiana, U.S.A. He taught school there and then entered the mercantile business as a clerk in a general store in the same place. His location there was due to the fact that his mother had died at an early age and Jonas was sent to live with his uncle in the Indiana town.
At the age of twenty-one years Mr. Sherk went to Fort Erie and engaged in the farming and lumber business. He also carried a feed business supplying the horses at the Fort Erie race track which he has done ever since that place was opened.
Mr. Sherk was elected councilman many times and also reeve of Fort Erie. He was also a member of the Fort Erie school board and also tax-collector for several terms. All these public offices he has filled capably and with credit to himself. He has ever the interests of the town at heart and is now, by the way, the second largest taxpayer in Fort Erie. Mr. Sherk has always been a Liberal, and is a member of the Church of England.
Mr. Sherk married Miss Fannie M. Treble, (24 November 1880), daughter of the late Charles and Fannie Treble, the former being customs collector and magistrate of Fort Erie, Ont.
Mr. Sherk has two children living, Frank, who is engaged in business with his father and married to Hazel Willit Sherk of Hamilton. The other child is Ethel May, who is also married (Arthur Nicholson Sexton) and resides in Fort Erie. Mr. Sherk is the owner of fifty-five acres of land in the village of Fort Erie and is one of the richest men in the community in which he lives. He is extremely active for his age and looks much younger than his years.
Died: 25 December 1939
A.E. Coombs
History of The Niagara Peninsula and the New Welland Canal
1930
Is the owner of the dairy company bearing his name, and he conducts in the city of Niagara Falls in an establishment that is thoroughly modern and metropolitan in equipment and service, and he is one of the well-known and substantial business men of this city.
Melvin Dell, Jr., was born on March 6th, 1890, in Willoughby township, Welland County, near Niagara Falls, Ont., and is the son of Richard and Marjorie Dell, the former was a farmer who moved to Chippawa, this county, two years before he passed away, now deceased; while his mother is still living on Maitland Street, Niagara Falls.
Mr. Dell Jr., obtained his education at the school in Willoughby township, and a considerable portion of his youthful days was spent on his father’s farm until he was twenty-one. He spent the next three years in the general store of his uncle, Adin Dell, at Niagara Falls, and then, to better fit himself for subsequent progress in the business world he spent the next eight years with the W.H. Martin store, in that city, and then being ambitious, he started up his own dairy business at the present location, 2493 Orchard Avenue, Niagara Falls, with only one horse, one wagon and one cow, until by his industry he now has five 
wagons with five men working for him. The second year after he started, he built and he equipped his present business with up-to-date equipment and pasteurizing machinery with two large glass lined sanitary milk tanks which have a capacity of 2,160 quarts daily. This milk plant is so arranged with modern appliances that the milk, after being pasteurized, is never touched by human hands until it reaches the table of the consumer. This business has grown in seven years to fifteen times its first year sales, which attests the high quality of this milk and cream. He handles a jersey milk that by government tests is running five percent, the quality of their milk averages very highly; the law only requires three to five, so that the product of the Dells Dairy averages five points and above. The health inspector has pronounced this to be the cleanest dairy in Niagara Falls, Ont., He is an active member of the United Church. He was married for the first time to Miss Maud Irene Baker, who passed away in 1918; they had one child, a boy, Ross Melvin, now attending school. His second marriage was to Miss Marguerite Green, who was born in Lundy’s Lane, daughter of Raymond and Alice Green, the former being a farmer; both her parents are living in Niagara Falls; there were three children by this second marriage; two girls, one boy Marion, Gordon, and Marjorie; the two latter children are attending public school at Falls View School. Mrs. Dell’s great grandfather fought in the Fenian Raids, and was one of the original U.E. Loyalists.
A sound business man and a good citizen, Mr. Dell measures up to the best standards of Canadian manhood and his contribution to his community is of solid value.
A.E. Coombs
History of The Niagara Peninsula and the New Welland Canal
1930
Welland High Paper circa 1930s’
WILL MAN REACH MARS?
Arthur Smith
To the average person interplanetary travel is something so improbable that it belongs to the realm of fantastic. To my mind, there is nothing fantastic about it. I am convinced of the feasibility of space travel, and I predict that a successful flight to Mars will be made before the close of this century.
I am aware that there are great difficulties, but these are not insuperable. It is true that the distances are vast (Mars at its nearest is 5,000,000 miles away) but in space you can go a million miles as easily as one. This is because space is almost a perfect vacuum, and thus friction is practically absent.
A frequent objection is that a spaceship would have to obtain a speed of 7 miles per second, and that the acceleration would kill all on board. This is erroneous. Seven miles per second is the speed necessary if the rocket is to cut off its power and continue on momentum. But why not build a ship to travel at a bearable acceleration and keep the rocket blast on?
The greatest difficulty is fuel. The only suitable fuel now known is a mixture of liquid oxygen and gasoline, which is too bulky. However, I am confident science will find something better and thus remove the main obstacle.
JAMES WILSON, PICTURESQUE WELLAND NEGRO AND FORMER SLAVE, DIES IN 109TH YEAR
Had resided over 65 Years in Canada Coming From Civil War
AUCTIONED AT 10
Sold for $500, Deceased Was Treated Cruelly For Many Years
[The Welland-PortColborne Evening Tribune, 22 March 1930]
James Wilson, perhaps Welland county’s most picturesque figure for more than 40 years, a slave on Missouri plantations and a resident of Canada for more than 65 years, died early this morning at his home on Church street, Welland, after having attained an age of 108.
Surviving relatives are two sons, George in Toronto, and Robertson, Church street, Welland, and one daughter, Mrs. William Little, Niagara Falls. The funeral will be held on Monday at 2 p.m. from the Sutherland Funeral parlors to Woodlawn cemetery.
Mr. Wilson died of old age and had been in fair health until a few days ago when he suffered a rapid decline.
Jas. Wilson had an unusually picturesque career. Born of slave parents more than 107 years ago, he had been in Canada more than 65 years following vicissitudes both in slavery and in process of escaping the bonds of slavery. He was able to boast that during his 109 years, he never smoked, chewed tobacco nor drank. He was born near Korent, Missouri in 1822. Mr. Wilson tried on one occasion to escape from a particularly brutal master but was arrested near Cairo, Illinois and for 13 years after that was subjected to intolerable brutalities and to the ever-present menace of the dirk and the revolver, finally escaping through the Northern lines during the American Civil War in 1864, and eventually reaching Canada that year. He made his escape by Detroit. In that city someone asked him to hold a horse. He did so, and was then taken over to Windsor where the man gave him this parting message, “Sonny, you’re in God’s country, a breathin’ of God’s free air. If any son of a gun should axe you where you be goin’ jes’ tell him to go plumb to H…”
Sold By Auction
At the age of 10, Mr. Wilson was taken away from his mother and sold on the auction block for $500 to an immensely wealthy family. When he was 25, he was sold to a family named English, the master there being unusually cruel. He escaped to the State of Illinois by crouching in the darkened night through forest glades and among reeds. He fell into the hands of a slave searching band and was brought back to Missouri. 13 years later he again saw his chance to escape, secretly made his way onto a Mississippi steamboat and got into the lines of the Northern army and as already noted after a sojourn with the Northern troops finally reached Canada.
Mr. Wilson spent nearly all his life in Canada in the county where he was particularly well known. For more than 50 years he worked at one thing or another finally retiring worth more than in his slave days than he ever believed would be possible. He wore a copper band around one wrist and a metal band around the other, the first as a preventative against rheumatism, the latter because he had a penchant for adornment.
The Welland-Port Colborne Evening Tribune
22 March 1930
Died: 22 March 1930
Woodlawn Cemetery
25 December 1821-22 March 1930
Old Age
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