The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink AboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1979-07-25, Page 47Advame-Trow C08080W F.ditiso. ON-- an Kil our r. It was 1W I% yearn ago that it . Electrol ome had o0ned the . close dawn the Wingham plant. Detars, 40 tlIe I"tactery comps ea like Kroehler ask bock of the turrritute factory looked a4 it the long era of fur- furniture factory at the corner of Kilgour Furniture Cmpany, a after much deliberMla to Killour to do more custom work there are 50 mom shelves ni�u t_twtnutacturing was going Victoria Street and Diagonal Quebec firm which had closed its contiMM . VlfbOM's NANO in for them. holding the &&red styles of to end in V►inKham. Road since 1teY and planned to Quebec factory a couple of years the furniture busies s. ONLY CHAIRS chairs produced at the factor!' Wingbam has had a number of Kilgour produces only chairs at over the years.. furniturefaetories over the years the Wingham plant. The nine The chain aren't showcased and as many as four at one *me. models of rocking chairt. well and aren't dusted often, but f« There were also, several saw produced according to Kggow they still are reminders of the mills coexisting in Wingham's specifications are growing in days in Wingham when local Four of the nine art factories produced stoves, early days. popularity. Bill Haaula, manager of the sold exclusively to large chain carriages, gloves, salt, farm Kilgour plant, says it is no stores while the other five art machinery and other goods wonder the hunter and furniture marketed through general produced for a market r industries were so prominent a dealers. surrounding Wingham. century or so ago. There were Customers of the Winghan Specialization is the norm lots of good trees just outside of industry include Simpsons -Sears entering Wingham's second town or even in town -in tba. Es tons. Wcolco and Hom( century as a end Kilgour earliest days of the settlement. ware. Furniture t~ looking for The ancestry of the Kilgour Other chairs are pr +,, o a larger s. he Ontario plant can, be traced back to IM according to it .iistributors' chair market. maintaining the when two Ingersoll businessmen wishes. Kilgour gets blueprints woodworking industry in y founded the firm of Walker and and a sample m the chair to,.. Wingham. historically one of the Clegg, which produced factory is supposed to produce most important ones. upholstered furniture. They built After examining the sample a factory on Alfred Street and and blueprints. foremen discus. operated it until 1918 when foreseen problems with th, Richard Clegg died and his people who will produce the chat, INCOME TAX INTRODUCED partner Clayton Walker decided on the production line. A sample duru►g .uc L)ep,'CSS,L,,, against continuing in the of the piece each person will when the Jan 23. 1936, edition of educe is examined b rho business. Pr' Y The Advance -Times noted that The following year a part- production people and machining thy• provincial government would nership made up of Samuel and finishing techniques art start taxing incomes,. Single Bennett, Norman Fry, Charles discussed. persons earning more than $1.000 Blackhall and Walter Van Wyck Before production starts and married persons earning was formed to carry on. Mr. management does a flow chart on over $2,000 started to have their , Bennett had operated a planing the way the chairs will be incomes taxed at rates ranging mill in town for several years manufactured, finding out where from 1 I.-, per cent to 28 per cent. FINISHING a chair and taking the rough woodigh edges off before the furniture venture. the. bottlenecks will be in Exemptions of $4(X) a child of It is Barbara Hackett. Kilgour Furniture Manager Bill The new firm became Fry and Production. One or two extra were permitted . Hanula is shown looking en. Blackhall Ltd. in June 1920, people will help in those areas taking in several new The factory works on a six- shareholders ix shareholders when capital ran week c) cle, with three chair short. orders in the plant at one time. The young company continued One week is spent tooling up for operations in the Walker and production of a new chair and ; ¢� Clegg plant until 1927 when thio analyzing problems. Just three k y space "was required by the weeks is. spent actually , owners of the time, an American Producing a model of chair and FRY AND BLACKHALL—There weren't many complex machines in the factory now company called Gunnsonola. the rest of the cycle is taken in The Union Factory, the site of packing, storingnd shipping the owned by Kilgour Furniture in the days°when it belonged to Fry and Blackhall Ltd. This u the present Kilgour plant, was completed chai undated photo shows employees looking up from their work of building upholstered purchased by Fry and Blackhall GOOD SETUP furniture. from Canada. Furniture The Kilgour plant has a good ° Manufacturers Limited. It is the setup for production of custom,. same building which is in use chairs, Mr. Hanula said and .. today. space in the plant is used ef- . -= =- iii ice, after 45 years Under the ii._uCuuy • iriacuiiui�g Of the chair its is completed on the lower >< name of Fry and Blackhall Ltd:, Pa P /1 y. . the factory was sold, to Dho- level of the two-storey building Kirkham of Toronto. By 1969 the and assembly and finishing is business was sold again, thisdone upstairs. P b : time to EI'ectrohome. The location of the Wingham Kilgour bought the Union plant is a big asset because Factory building in February, production problems can be dealt - 1978, saving jobs which seemed to with quickly if someone has to be lost when Electrohome an come from Toronto or Kitchener ` to. deal with a problem. It takes ,< pounced it would close the plant. P ' " Just a few hours to come to - Many jobs were lost over the "=M years and the Kilgour company Wingham, sort out the difficulties y " r< started off small in production in and ,return. If the furniture s �' order to create a market for its factoiy were in Quebec like the chairs. old Kilgour factory, the trip 9 Thirty-six are presently em- would take considerably longer. ployed at Kilgour. At one time Mr. Hanula has in his office a n more than 100 worked in the old copy of an old Canada Furniture ti' r �rxManufacturers sales catalogue N�:11.1 mWo�sH, ;t. furniture factory. Mr. Hanula g s W says the market for furniture will which shows the furniture made n y .probably be strong for the next at the old Wingham factory and « y , x 7.. two or three years and he is other area factories operating' �~ under the Canada" Furniture hoping there will eventually be 60 � • ; PACKING AREA—Irene Brown is shown preparing a Kilgour Furniture chair for ship- Manufacturers name. to 80 employed at the factory: > ment. To the right stand other chairs waiting for shipment. If there were enough demand when the Kilgour line of nine The tables, chairs, cabinets' l a n. and skilled help available, the capacity of the Victoria Street factory would be about 500 rocking chairs is widely and chesterfields were the pride„ chairs a day. marketed and when furniture of Wingham in those days. At the 40 I� 0 Greetings to Allis We would like to take this opportunity to thank the farmers who supplied our milk and all the patrons who let us serve them over our years in business in Wingham. A special thank you to the staff of The Wingham Advance -Times for their excellent centennial story of our business! i w LE Best wishes for a happy and healthy 100th birthday celebration! Sun Rise Dairy Wingham sm 4 t 4 , Y JOE VIENNEAU is shown shading chairs on an assembly line at Kilgour Furniture in town. The shading adds subtle stains to certain parts of a chair and helps give a piece of furniture a warm, three-dimensional look. Congratulations Wingham from Kilgour Furniture Ltd. 44 Victoria St. Fast, Wingham Manufacturers of Colonial Rocking Chairs c=