The Wingham Advance-Times, 1954-07-28, Page 6SjX,The Bingham A(lvniiey-*l*iine«i, yVednesdny, July 4», iaui uaiu muxmgvU tnv sniugK auu
. ------------------------------------ ------ ------------------- ------- ------- --------------■ .— I
Early Mills Provided Town
With First Industrial Growth
In the year I860 Peter Fisher, who j
had lived in Guelph, set out with ob- j
ject of obtaining a useful water;
privilege for operating flouring and |
woollen mills. On horseback he direct- j
ed his course through comparativej
wilderness by way of Mount Forest,;
Arthur, Port Elgin, Walkerton
Teeswatpr.
At Teeswater he learned that a
ter privilege was for sale by
government in the Town Plot, later
Lower Wingham. When he reached
Zetland, a growing and thriving com
munity at that time, he found
settlers there were not aware
a water privilege, or even
Town Plot.
On leaving Zetland he met
Currie, who was seeding grain in a
rough piece of ground with one horse.
-Mr. Currie volunteered to guide him
'to the existing water right.
Edward Farley was settled in the
Town Plot and where Upper Wingham , stands, about one-half acre was eledr-,18e? the wooden mill was completed,
ed and a log house stood where John] north of the grist mill. To the cast,
Cornyn had a tavern.’ i access being gained by a foot bridge,
Fisher to Goderich -jthe Fishers erected a shingle and saw-
, ,, r->- u . I mill. The grist and woollen mills wereThe same night Mr. Fisher began fhis journey and spent the night at1 °Perated by Peter Fisher while Archi-
Hagarty’s Hotel in Belgrave. The fol
lowing day saw him on his way to
Goderich and on arrival there he
discovered from G. Widder, Crown
Land agent, that the privilege was to
be sold in a day or two at $50').
| Mr. Fisher had also secured an
option on the water power above Al
bert Street, or the upper dam, rights
to which were held by a man named
■ Wrenehman, who, regardless of this
j option, sold to Thomas Gregory- The
i latter with his brother built a saw-
I mill near the upper bridge, about
' where the present pumping station
now stands, and a grist mill on the
site of the Howson & Howson mill.
anil
wa-
tho
that the
of such
of the
Rohert
i However, on the day of the sale •
; bidding was lively and soon reached
. $900. It was finally sold to a man by i
the name of Armstrong, a siineyor-
: from Teeswater, for $1,150. Mr. Arm
strong had apparently overshot his'
, mark for when it came time to pay
i for his purchase he did not have the 1
1 money and Peter Fisher then bought
• the water privilege for $50 over Arin-
• strong’s price. j The holocaust was started when a
i _ „ . , , , ... youth, sweeping the floor of the wool-Mr. Fisher was joined by his bro-I, , ... . . ,ther, Archibald, who came from St.;len m111 shoved the sweepn^s mto ft
Marys. Together they cleared land and i box stove with a broom, which
erected dwellings and by 1862 had a1 promptly caught fire. In an effort to
; °Pe,ra^n«’ Thjs building was i extinguish the fire in the broom he
it: ----,, . ' ithrust it into a pile of greasy wool.
The fire soon spread and the youth
ran. to the stairs and gave the alarm
to the room above. The men who were
working on the second floor ran down
but three women on the same floor
thought the youngster was merely at
tempting to frighten them and con
tinued at their work until their only
route of escape was through the win
dows. They clung to the sills and when
no ladder long enough to reach them
could be secured, they dropped to the
ground below. All were scorched by
the intense heat and suffered some
what from their inconvenient exits,
but there were no fatalities.
Swept by Fire
In the spring of 1875 a fire swept
through a section o*f Lower. Wing
hum, the loss being estimated at
$20,000.00. The buildings destroyed in
cluded the grist mill, the woollen mill
and Peter Fisher’s residence.
stove
■
ii
j 82x37 feet and three and a half storeys 1
j high, standing on Helena Street, now i
• the location of the power house. By j
First Mill
vltbI Saw milt
In 1888, just prior to the burning of
the Lower Wingham mill, Hutton and
Carr (Mr. Price having died shortly
after the firm was formed) had pur
chased Gregory’s mill from Mr, Tur
ner. The merger gave them full con
trol of tjie water power. The upper
mill was equipped exclusively with
stones and mainly used for chopping,
with seven runs of stones in operation.
Farmers came 25 or 30 miles for cus
tom work.
Howson Mill at Upper Dam
Public Bath in
' I
Barber Shop
In 1894 The Times
a bathroom installed
deuce of Thomas Henderson by Young
and Paulin of town.
reported viewing
in the new rcsi-
✓
The water passed from the roof to
a large tank in the bathroom and
from there to the kitchen stove where
it, was heated and forced up again
to the bath. There was also a hot
water tap over the kitchen sink.
In case the tank upstairs.ran dry,
a wooden tank had been placed in the
cellar and the water was forced up
stairs by means of a pump.
A bath was also being installed in
the new home of T. TI. Ross and these
two bathroom owners, as well as G.
E. King, were putting in furnaces.
r
• Barber Shop Bath
8 J. W. IJewer had a bathroom put
in his barber shop in 1909. Hot an'd
cold baths could be had any hour of
the day or evening at moderate
charges. This convenience had been
long ayvaited by the townspeople.
*
Howson, Harvey and Brocklebank
started business in Winghapi in 1899,
buying the mil] operated by Carr
Brothers. W. J. Howson came from
Teeswater, where he had been in
charge of Thompson’s mill for 19
years.
At the time this firm bought/ the
mill it had a capacity of 200 bags of
flour per day. In a 1902 issue of The
Times it was stated that they had
shipped" 1500 bags, or three cars of
flour to South Africa.
Up to the year 1904 the reel sys
tem of sifting flour had been used,
in which the flour was shaken through
cylinders covered with fine-mesh
china silk. In 1904, however, the sift
ing was changed to machines which
utilized a silk screen, oscillating hori
zontally, which permitted much faster
production of a higher grade flour,
Mr. Harvey sold his interest to the
remaining two partners in 1906 and
by 1917 Mr. Howson bought Mr.
Brocklebank’s share. The mill was
then operated as Howson & Howson,
when Frank went into business with
his father. This partnership carried
on successfully until the death of
W. J. Howson in 1932.
The output per day by 1944 was 1000
bags of flour. The Blyth mill was pur
chased in 1947, so that when the
Wingham mill was burned in 1950, it
was not rebuilt.
Their first feed Store stood in the
early days of the firm where Stain
ton’s Hardware is now located on
Josephine Street south, and was man
aged by Mr. Watt. FronT1914 to 1Q21
Howson’s operated a store in the pre
sent Adam’s feed store, just north of
the town hall.awarded the contract for
the water works pipes at
end
in 1050 the Howson
present building on
which of Jospehine Street.
/
being laid along thewas formerly are
of Josephine Street com
Following the fire at the lower mill,
the,loss being $32,000,’ these men in
stalled a double set of rollers in the
upper mill for the convenience of the
farmers, with intentions of rebuilding
on the site of the ruins in Lower
Wingham, but this was never done.
Mr. Hutton later sold his interest
to Mr. Carr, whose sons went into the
firm and later operated as Carr Bro
thers. The mill was used chiefly for
chopping until 1890, when improve
ments were made by installing the rol
ler system.
Water Privilege Bought
Disaster struck in 1899, when the
main part of the dam went out for the
third time in 20 years. The town then
bought the water privilege for $4,000
and rebuilt the dam at a cost of about
$3,500. This dam was washed out in
1921 and the present one built the
following year.
W. F. How-
with his fa-
After the fire
firm bought the
Josephine Street,
an implement shop.
Frank Howson’s son,
son, went into business
ther in 1942 and operates the Blyth
plant. Frank -Howson has served on
the Wingham town council apd is
prominent in the United Church.
Messrs. J. A. Cline and Company
have been
putting in
the north
The pipes
west side
mencing at the hydrant'near the Din- •
sley Housp north to Albert Street and
west along that street to the wheel
house. News item 1892,
Wingham’s first grist mill in Lower Wingham erected by Peter and
Archibald Fisher in the early 60’s.
Howson"s Mill
No. 381 TR & TL — Twin Chester
Bed with Matching. Chair
Later known as Howson’s Mill, the building was erected by Thomas and
John Gregory in GO’S.
11 ’1
t f
The grist mill was rebuilt the same
year and a small carding mill was
put up at the mill race between the
grist mill and the sawmill. The grist
mill was sold in May, 1882 to Hutton^
Price & Carr. The building was four
and a half storeys high and the equip
ment included six sets of double rol
lers, with a capacity of 125 barrels of
flour in 24 hours, in addition to which
there was a set of chopping stones.
The mil] was operated by water power,
the equivalent of about 125 horse
power. This second mill was burned in
1888.
Upper Mill
What was known as Gregory’s mill
(more recently HowsonHowson),
was founded by the Gregory brothers,
Thomas and John. The mill was built
in 1866, following the construction of
the dam, which was placed in 1861.
Later the mill was sold to Emmanuel
Rockey and then passed to a succes
sion of owners, Johnston, Hamilton,
and finally to A. J. Turner.
Passing the entrance examinations
were Jessie Cummings, Sara Farqu-
harson, Alex Shortt, Lottie McKen
zie, Geo. Pettypiece, Delia Sparling,’
George Sills, Harrjj Clark, Charles
Cargill, Annie Stewart, Ida Picked,
Maggie Fisher, Harry Thompson.
News item 1889,
: LIVING ROOM .FURNITURE
DURING ANNIVERSARY CELBRATION, OR ANYTIME CONVENIENT, VISIT t
THE FACTORY SHOWROOM AND SEE WHAT IS BEING PRODUCED IN
MW
WINGHAM BY A LOCAL INDUSTRY NEARLY AS OLD AS THE TOWN
9
both Period and Contemporary —
Canada’s Finest Sectional
Suites, Companion Chairs and Rockers, Chair-Beds, Convertible Living
including the famous Gainshoro Group
Room Suites with" loose or built-in mattresses. Registered Trade
Names, nationally known “X-Rayed”— “Chester=Bed”— “Re-DRest”
See, sit in and try the Beautiful Re=D=Rest Reclining Chair-Bed
IT HAS NO EQUAL
Fry & Blackhall 1919-1954
You can actually choose, at the factory showroom, the design and cover
you like and have it custom made to your order. Delivery is always
arranged through a satisfactory furniture retailer. Your pleasant anniver-
I
sary memories will linger longer and be eitjoyed more as you relax in
Fry & Blackhall Furniture and pridefully tell your friends IT IS MADE
t
i
IN WINGHAM
WINGHAM