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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1977-05-12, Page 23. L, 4 ~ 66 o II a ,4* 4 41-1.4', / Dam � ~ as a picture of this unidentified child, here is a photograph of the Piper Mill. The s owned by S. T. Whiteman. ( 'mvEmR--m ~ ° obertrlj SIGNAL THURSDAY, MAY /2,W.; ' • STAR No trace of industries now .!! I SECOND SECTION 40 mosism industries at Piper's ��������� ��,��� � �� serv•�dfor � acentury. BYmV.E'E0LIOTT They were threshing wheat at G,airbraid, Dr. Dunlop's place in Cloborne, in January, 1841. Entries in the Gairbraid dairy show that the operation covered two days. On January 4 there came from Piper's "two men and one yoke of oxen',' On the 18th the force included "L. Lamb and two yoke of oxen; Piper's two men and one yoke." The use of oxen in threshing grain is not explained in any of the publications purporting to give the history of. agriculture in Huron, but it may be surmised that Dunlop's grain would be hauled to a mill. This would not necessarily be Piper's; he did not own the mill site in 1841, and if in business there if would be as tenant. Whatever its relevance, if any, to the threshing "bee," there appears in the diary, between the twi) threshing dates, the following -entry: bbls. Whiskey from M. Fisher." Down Mill Road, still so called, there were for many years -busy Anduatzies at Piper's Dam, which served this district for a half century or more and departed, There is now no trace of them except that when the river is low there may be seen the outline of logs from the dam, washed away' long ago in a spring freshet. In the 1850s there was a grist mill, car- ding mill and a brewery. A publication of that decade listed "a grist mill, sawmill, and woollen factory on the Maitland." The late William Campbell, who gave his reminiscenses to the Goderich Star in° 1927, recalled that "Buxton's brewery o at Piper's mill, and Matheson's distillery, later known as Montogomery & Keeling's, was on the river bank past'the cemetery.Th—' chief flour mill was P|per's, In spring, farmers came with wagons and pitchforks and forked suckers- from below ,hedom." The industries at P|po^ , Dam changed owners many ` times through the and one of the most picturesque was William Lee, who came to Goderich in 1869. abd bought the Piper millLee had been a youthful freighter with ox -teams travelling to \he United States' new West, then in his '20s a soldier in the Northern army. He operated the., mill forithree years, which would be after the death Samuel Piper' William and mand before William Hilliard took it over. Lee shipped flour to Britain through Montreal, and n 1874 started ucoal business h he coninued until his death in 1911. He was also a "for- warder," and although that term belongs | to the early years -of shipping, when there was much commerce with [)etroit, Lee always used Jt. Lee married Matilda Columbiana, d&UQbter of Christopher Crabb. Some of their descendants are with us:. other members of the family ttled iChicago. Th,e brewery at Piper's was well up the hill. Its great foundation timbers remain, bul the site is heavily wooded and a good photograph was opt obtained. The reason for its location was a stream of spring -water, desirable' for use in the brew of the time. he carding mill was powered by the same stream. Indeed, both the little stream anti ' the woollen mill, both long gone, are named as landmarks in the deed to Ezekiel McCann, and probably other documents. William and Samuel Piper, born in England, undoubtedly were associated in operation of the grist -mill, for each is designated as "rniller" in many records, and there is no evidence of Samuel being connected with any other. The same records, however, describe Samuel's ...property as Lot 8, Con. 1, Colborne. This river land now included in Maitland Conservation Authority's Falls Reserve park, sold by the Canada Company in 1843 to Baron Van Tuyll, who mortgaged the 158 acres to the Bank of tipper Canada for 1293 pounds, '|4'shillings and 0mrponce. The Bank sold to Sam Piper in \857.and after ` five years he sold to William, who in 1870 sold 148 acres to the township. Skipping over numerous later transactions, one pauses with interest at the following b, in 1008 "Joseph Goldthorpe and M.G. Cameron, Lot 8 etc,, So John W. Moyes, $10,317 anthstock," An echo of the Ontario West Shore Railway affair. Moyes, the promoter, said he proposed to harness the Maitland for power. Sam Piper died March 29, 1874, aged 57. 'William died February 14 of the same year, aged 77. The Maitland burial record offer,- no other par-, ticulara except that both were Presbyterians and William died of a disease of the kid- neys. Buried in the same plot is Thomas Piper, son of Samuel, who died May 19, 1.870, aged 25 years and two months. The stone in Maitland Cemetery was Susan.". The fourth grave, presumably is that of William's wife, who was a sister of Sheriff Macdonald. There are no markers on the graves of William and his wife, and the carved in- scriptions on the other. two have been so eroded by the storms of a century that they are hard to read. No Piper obituaries were found in the Huron Signal, Huron Expositor or London Free Press. It is reasonable to suppose that William Piper resided somewhere on his river property, and it ts known that there were several houses, long gone now. The grist -mill, operated with stones, was powered from a dam just a few rods west of the path on which visiters today go down to the flat rock. The water travelled along an earthen raceway; the depression is still visible along the bank. John McCreath worked at the mill, lived in one of the houses on that lot, and it is recalled that a daughter was born there in 1870. William Piper's will affords no assistance regarding the end of mill operations, Be _mnvide6 for the sale by his executors, Pette Adamson (county clerk) and William Young,of his "personal and real estate, mortgages and securities, his wife to receive the interest for life. He bequeathed to "my friend Isaac Toms my past Treasurer's jewel, presented to me by Maitland Lodge 117, Free •and Accepted Masons, trusting that he will present. same to said Lodge a'nd that the same may remain there." • Isaac Torns and Edwin Clifford witnessed, the duoument, made on July 11, l87iPiper died in]874. To, make clear the geography, Lots 1 and 2, Maitland Concession, are at 'the eastern boundary of, the town. The railway runs thcouQb Lot 1 and Lot 2 ex- tends 'to Mill Road. These were acquired in 1840 by HenryRansford, of "Stapleton," 13 miles away, beyond Clinton, and have iqng been inside the corporation. ��site of the former mills, is in Goderich township. but has been so greatly sub- divided, for residential and other purposes that the .record of the transactions fins 13 pages of the book in the registry office. From 1838. the Canada Company d the whole of the Huron Tract - 1,100,000 acres in what now comprises Huron and Perth, It is therefore somewhat startling to find that the Company bought from certain in- dividuals Lots 1, 2 and 3, as well as 5 farther east. First recorded transaction in ebnnection with the first three lots is their purchase from Hon. William Allan and Thomas Mercer Jones, both commissioners or "at- torneys" of the company. Lot 5 was purchased, "with other land," from Charles Prior, former superintendent of works for the Canada Compuny, who had been . found to be embezzling the company's funds and been discharged in 1836y These transactions are much in need of exp|enoGun, but it will not be forthcoming at this date. Obviously, unrecorded transactions previous to those first found in the registry book. Lot 3, the mill area, and part of lot 4, were sold by the Company in 1842 to John Macdonald, who five years earlier had acquired the land now comprising Saltford. Macdonald was sheriff of the district, ent of the Bank Upper Canada, and brother- in-law to William Piper, to whom heaold 17 acres of Lot 3 in 1855. taking back a whopping mortgage. In 1862 he sold 58 acres to Piper, who this time borrowed on mortgage from M.C. Cameron. In 1867, Piper sold land to VanEvery, R"mboll ,and Parsons, and 14 acres tuA.M. poUey. Goderich livery man. Evidently many Goderich men found reason toinvest in land in this area, especially along the Huron road, now Highway V. In 1872 William Piper sold some land to John Ingles, and this is the last entry in the land titles office, so far as he is concerned. He died on February 14, 1874, and two years later the discharge of a mechanic's lien held by Manufacturing Company resulted in the sale of parts of Lots 3 and 4, 141/2 acres, descriped as the "Piper mill property" to George Hilliard, lumber merchant, of Peterborough. (Later, we find the name of William Hilliard, "miller, dealer in feed and grain.") In 1882. the following ad- vertisement in ,the Signal mentioned the logation of the Hilliard store: " "W.S. 'vv.3. Bart & Co., proprietors of Goderich Mill, late Piper's; 8r|yterm on ihort notice, for convenience the parties living at a distance will exchange grists at their town store,* late William Billiard's. Masonic Block, East St.^ (The Masonic Block reference is not understood. The old Masonic building was on West Street, about op- posite the present one). p'poaitethepreoentmuw). 1 pis s Dream LOUlse at Victoria co and Jennifer Mantosh, members of the Grade 2 class - Goderich stasol, rehearse their roles for the school's production Dunlop's Dream ged Monday and Tuesday. The Grades ^ and ~ classes presented - song and history wmGoderich. (staff photo) Pioneer This group of pioneer women prepare a meal as their male counterparts art? busy with a barn bee as the Grade 5 class of Victoria School presented That Neighbourly Spirit as their part of the play, Dunlop's Dream - Godorich. Preparing the yeast are ° Jwm McWhinney, Mac Ewan, Kimm�0c0�r�L�a Brown .B(staff photo) — ~~ ° `