HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1977-06-30, Page 69it
1',
erich s
ayfl� w e r
'John Wilson, with Jacob "Judge" Reid built another
omerr, Michael and up on the hill where Hibernia
lentine Fisher, were sent street was before it slid down -
from York in a schooner at the cliff.
Canada Company's ex- These `,`Mayflower" people
i.e." were all related by marriagi,
us the Belden Atlas in its John Willson III married
',ter on the early history Mary Cummer, eldest
aderich.' Like the tittle daughter of Jacob and
flower, which 200 years secondly a daughter of the
'titer ,had brought the eldest sister of Michael
im. Fathers to America, Fisher. Daniel Cummer was
''schooner which` arrived a brother-in-law of Wills.on.
• in 1829, via the first Willson's eldest daughter was
:nd Canal, carried some married to William Jeffrey;
iur "first families." The his third daughter to Wm. C.
k men brought their Crawford, and another
en. aWilson baby was daughter to Charles Lobb. A
herein 1830.) list of marriages in 1832
:t schooner docked at a shows that Rev. Thomas
eshift wharf in the mouth Whitehead, minister of the
the Menesetung, and Methodist Episcopal Church,
bless sped back to York married Thomas B. Hale and
1e the party from Jane • Willson, both of
ghan township settled in Goderich, and Jane probably
help get, the Canada was one of the same W illsons,
pany's colonization
;'ectoff the ground. It was John Willson IV was the
his year that John Galt, only child of his father's first
nd of the settlers, was marriage, and consequently.a
aced as commissioner by half-brother of the Qther
mas Mercer Jones. children. Jacob, John III's
+hn Wilson III (correct eldest son by his second
el and Jacob Cummer ,marriage.. wasa. friend .._of.
rectspclling) bought lots William Dillon Otter, later
eflats at the lake front, commander of the Canadians
-fifths of an acre each. in South Africa, and . he
n lots in general were named his son Otter Willson.
fifths of an acre. Willson Miss Mildred Pinfold, of
at least four. not far from London. Ont., is a grand-
•oot of harbor hill. Today
belong mostly to the
.dian Pacific Railway,
• perhaps to Imperial Oil,
ven tipper Lakes Ship-
fn the heginning they
numbered from 1, but
•are in the 1.000 series in
Ison built on the flats the
daughter of Otter Willson.
Though John Willson' III
and other members of the
family returned to York
about 1834, they held property
on the flats here for many
years, and the record of inter-
family "transactions is fan-
tastic. In the case of Lot 1046
(as now' numbered), Willson
tannery in the Huron sold to Jacob Cummer. John
launching what for Willson IV got it by deed poll
thereafter 1 was the from the sheriff. Charles —
.trial centre of the set- Lobb quitclaimed to Willson,
•nt. He built his house ,- who willed it to his family and
also, as did other men in it went to Cummer. Jacob,
•ss at the waterfront. prudent man, had made his
pioneer tannery was will in 1834. It was probated 37
wardsoperated by years later, and bequeathed
;Seegmiller, four lots to his family.
'nand other members Cummer's executors tran-
•`family returned about sferred these four lots to the'
0 York, The Fishers executors of John Willson IV,
here. as attested by and they sold the land to
ail boxes in Colborne, Richard Hawley, "of Detroit,
G names in Goderich merchant". The Hawley
,one directory, and the family in 1909 sold two of the
dance at Family Jots to the Guelph & Goderich
;ons. Their connections Railway for $35,000 and
'e Snydcrs, Ginns, evidently made out all right.
,utts, . Sowerbys, The next-door lot, No. 1048,
chaels and many other was sold to the railway by
'es. • Capt. Wm. Babb.
hael Fisher's ' story is When the Willson lots were
ell known to call 'for sold to Hawley in 1871, the
ation here, A well-to-do deed required the signatures
,ight 44 at this time, he of 10 persons, parties of the
t 5,465 acres in first, second, third, fourth
e in 1830, much of this and fifth parts, in order to
in the Maitland Con- make the transfer to the
. In the following year party of the sixth' part. The
ha shack on what was vendors were • Willsons,
Albert .burst's farm, Jeffreys, Lobbs and Hales.
e years later the stone Richard Hawley built in
standing today. He had 1860 the big ' house on the
sons and three . Huron road, opposite Clayton
rs, Laithwaite's which has been
tine Fisher bought generally known as the
hotel on the flats, and Curzon house.
t-tere-ts visible a row of the piles driven 1111 years ago for the original Goderich'harbor, at
the mouth of the Maitland river, flowing into the lake at about the present bathing beach.
Donald MacAdam of MacDdnald Marine took a contract -in 1964 to get them out. Those .
that could not be hauled out were dynamited. Stack of the old waterworks building is
visible in the backj' und.
The whalebacks......,
from page 28
1 5.000. Only the Ericsson
was engined, the others towed
as barges. Holley and Barge
13" lay in Goderich harbor for
several years before being
'towed away to be scrapped.
Thomas Nicholson, Picton
St., Goderich, sailed on
Ericsson her last three years.
The last active whaleback
was American Meteor, built
in 1896 as the bulk freighter
Frank Rockefeller and
converted into an oil tanker in
1043_ ..
Of the Great Lakes fleet; 33
units were owned in the
heginning by McDougall's
company, the American Steel
Barge Company, Eight were
built by him for other owners.
Many Goderich residents
may hold a lively memory of
John Ericsson sailing
placidly out of the 'harbor
here, her crew waving from
the deck to S.I.U. strikers on
the dock. who had laid up
Nigger vessels,
SI West St.
Happy Birthday
Goderich'
from the Staff of
FRANK lit GUS
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