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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance Times, 1935-05-16, Page 18Tannblyn, Dr., office and residence Vanstone, Bros., marble works Vanstone, Richard, law office Williams, C. E., Chemist and druggist Wingham, Tanning Co., R. Ascott, manager The value of telephone service in the early days, as now, depended in. large measure ;upon the progress that Was made in the establishment of long distance connections. Through the years, Wingham has occupied a strategic position with re- gard to Long distance service in this. section of Ontario. Connecting lines were pushed through this section and the .immediate vicinity in the late '80's, Line building continued unabated in the . early '90's until, by the Autumn of 1893, a net work of talking chan- nels were interlaced from Kincardine, Southampton, Wiarton and Meaford to give rapid connection with such larger centres as London, Stratford and Toronto. From any of the lat- ter points, more distant centres could be fairly well readily reached by tele- phone. An interesting map of ava.ilable long distance connection, 'dated Oc- tober 11, 1893, stands in the 13e11 Co.'s Museum at Montreal today. It shows That, at that time, lines from Wing - ham gave telephone users here voice circuits as follows: Northwest through •Lucknow and Ripley to Kincardine. North to Southampton via Teeswat- er, Formosa, Walkerton, Cargill, Pais- ley, North Bruce and Port Elgin. From Walkerton, a branch line made connection with Hanover and run thence to Elmwood, Chesley Tara and on to Wiarton via Hep- worth. From Tara there was an ad- dtional voicepath to Owen Sound and another from there to Meaiord. Each of the latter gave connections to To- ronto by various routes. To the south from Wingham, there were lines to London and Stratford, Wingham-London connection was es- tablished over circuits that extended through Blyth, Clinton, Hensall, Ex- eter and Latcan. There was a conven- ient tie -line that ran from Clinton to (Continued on Page Nineteen) k i PAGE N HISTORICAL REVIEW QV THE TOWN Or WINGHAM Thursday, May 16th, 193 THE WINGHAM ADVANCE -TIMES PUB. CO PUBLISHERS OF THE HISTORICAL REVIEW W. B. McCOOL W'. W. ARMSTRONG Who is •in ; charge of the mechanical Who is the Editor and is in charge of end of the business, the office work. • The Wingham Advance -Times was established i n 1873, by the late Charles Cliff. The late Mr. James Fleuty purchased it the next year, and edited the paper for many years. His son, . William, now residing in Oak- ville,carried on the business for a crl#ils and then sold out to the late. John Cornyn. Mr. Cornyn later sold out to Mr. Theo. Hall, who in turn sold out to Mr. George Spotton. Mr. Spotton sold the business to Mr. John Joynt, which was managed by Mr. A. G. Smith, who later purchased the business. Up to this tithe the paper was representative of Conservative Policies, but upon Amalgamation in 1921 with the Wingham Times (Lib- eral), the paper became known as the Wingharn Advance -Times, and is In - !dependent in politics. The Wroxeter News and the Gorr•ie Vidette amalga- mated with the Advance -Times also. Mr. Smith sold out to the late Mr. W. Logan Craig, of Grand Valley. Mr. Craig published the paper and carried on the business fur five years, but awing to ill -health, was forced to re- tire. After his death, in 1932, the business was taken over by two very prominent young men who enjoy a large circulation, Messrs. W. W. Arm- strong and William B. McCool. The Wingham Advance -Times specializes in job printing. The past Editors of the Wingharn Times were: Messrs. R. A. Graham, S. W. Galbraith, Robert Elliott, H. B. Elliott and Mr. Colgate, THE LATE ROBERT A. GRAHAM Who was one of the oldest Pioneers of Huron County. Mr. Graham was a native of Scotland, and came to Canada in early manhood. He was en- gaged in farming in Turnberry Town- ship for a few years In 1872 he pur- chased the Wingham Times, which up to this time had been printed in Clin- ton. . He installed the first printing plant in Wingharn, Mr. Graham en- gaged in later years in the Grocery business, which latterly has been un- der the 'management of his daughter, jSiiss Elizabeth Graham. ISTORY OF THE BELL TELEPHONE IN W1NGHAM The telephone was an early settler in this community. Telephone service, through a local agency, was establish- ed here by the Bell Telephone Com- pany late in 1885 or early in 1886. Janes McGuire was the first tele- phone "agent" here and his office was situated in the heart of the business section on Josephine Street. This central office was open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on week days; from two to four o'clock Surday afternoons and from 10 to 12 a.m. and from 2 to 4 p.m. on holidays. • Long distance telephoning was in its infancy but some short -haul calls were possible. The curious came from miles around to satisfy themselves about Alexander Graham Bell's "talk- ing wires" that had been invented at Brantford in the summer of 1874. Some. could scarcely believe their ears when, as telephone development in Wingham and vicinity progressed, they were able to distinguish the voices of relatives and friends speak- ing front as far away as London and l Stratford! The records dc n'ot show just how or by whom the first telephones were brought to Wingham. Alexander Mel - !vine Bell, the inventor's father, and David Bell, a brother of Melville, pre- sented several lectures and demon- strations at London in the eary '80's. It is probable that Wingham citizens may have attended these telephone experiments. Others may have known intimately of the several long distance test calls that were made between StratfOrd, Galt and Guelph. Some en- terprising resident here may have bor- rowed or purchased a pair of tele- phones because they were, of course, useless unless at least two of them could be connected, In December 1886, the first list of Wingham subscribers to telephone service was published in a small, poc- ket-size directory that contained the names and addresses of all telephone users in the "Ontario Department" of the 13e11 Telephone Company, of which the late Hugh C. Baker, Ham- ilton, was then Superintendent. At that time there were five telephones in use here, as follows: Bethune, Dr. A., corner Centre and Patrick streets ELCOME —ToThe — Brunswick Hotel WINGFIAM, ONTARIO A pioneer Hotel with all modern conveniences. not aitd Cold Water. Home Cooking. Rates on Application. MAT. BELL Main Street. PROPRIETOR Yy I,tigha)kltl[t. Ont. Grand Trunk Railway Station Great ,North-Western Telegraph Co.., Office Meyer, H. W. C., office, corner Vie-, toric and Josephine Streets Meyer, H. W. C., residence; corner Patrick and Minnie Streets A copy of that early directory is carefully preserved in the only tele- phone museum and historical .eollec- tion in Canada, situated high np on the 20th floor of the Bell Company's; Beaver Hall Building headquarters int Montreal. The volume is an interest- ing reminder of the iersons who were among the first in Ontario to adept the then new method of communica- tion soon after the incorporation of the Bell Telephone Company, on Ap- ril 29, 1880. The limited number of instruments here, as in n:ost other centres, of course, excluded any need for tele- phone numbers. Subscribers were then called by name. A notice prom- inently displayed in bold type at the bottom of various pages throughout the book, advised persons calling that: "Tire name of the party wanted should be spoken with especial dis- tinctness to prevent mistakes." Another foot -note frequently en- countered in the directory pages was the warning: "Do not attempt to use the tele- phone on the approach of or during a thunder storm." Recalling a characteristic of the old -tune telephone apparatus then in use in homes and in places of busi- ness, there appeared another notice: "Should the transmitter be oast -of - order,, it ispossible to speak through the hand. telephone." (receiver) Early in January 1891, a new tele- phone directory for the "Ontario De- partment" listed the following addi- tional subscribers to Bell service in Wingham: Agnew, Thos,, Livery stables Bank of Hamilton Bell, Thos., furniture manufacturer, Victoria St. Brunswick Hotel, Josephine Street • Canadian Pacific Railway Station Chapman, W. J., Tanner, office, Vic- toria St. Clegg, Wim., grain merchant, Joseph- ine St. Meyer and. Dickenson, Barristers, of- fice Spading, R. C„ egg emporium, Jose- phine St. Union Furniture Factory, Victoria St. Willson, 13., banker, residence, Jose- phine Street Dr. Towler had succeeded Mr. Mc- Guire in charge of the agency here and was known as the "Local Man- ager." CHAMPIONS OF THE NOR WELLINGTON LEAGUE IN 1923 Top row—Dr. G. W. Howson, F. MacLean, J. Robinson, G.Irwin, H. Walker, G. McDonald, M. Donahue:, Bottom. row—N. Geddes, D. M. Johnstone, G. Cruickshanks, W. Morden, W. Hall. Street McLean and Son, saw mill Union Furniture Factory, Gilchrist, Green and Company Four years later, the Telephone Directory of December 1895 revealed that Colin A. Campbell was then the' BENJAMIN RICH e The above photo of Beni- Rich and his fine team of heavy draft horses.' They are noticeable every day on our streets. Ben carries His Majesty's mail to and from the Post Office and all trains and is very punctual in his duties. He also maintains a Taxi ser- vice which is taken care of by Big Boy Eddie. THE LATE MR. AND MRS. LAWRENCE FYFE Early pioneers of this section. It seems evident that a substantial increase in telephone users was made throughout the Province in 1891. An- other directory was published in De-•. eember of that year. It showed that a new Local Manager was in charge here in the person of A. L. Hamilton. Additional local subscribers reported were: Beattie Bros., livery stable, Diagonal Road Brunswick House, D. McCormack, proprietor Carr, A. H,, flour and feed store Dinsley House, Jno. Dinsley, prop- rietor Great North-West Telegraph Co., C. E. Williams, agent Grand Trunk Ry., ticket office, Jno. Nichol, agent Hutton and Carr, flouring mills Tennant, Robt., livery stables, John THE LATE THOMAS ELLIOTT no of the pioneers in the Town Plo of Wingharn: Wingham manager for the Bell Com- pany, and the following subscribers had been added: Brunswick Hottse, Jno. Dulmage, pro- prietor Button and Fessant, chair manufactur- ers C. 1'. R'y, ticket office, J. H. Beem- er C. P. Telegraph, office, A. Ross, agent Carr, Jno., flour mill, Minnie Street Clegg, Jno., hardware merchant Cornyn, Jno., printing office Dickenson, E. L., law office Electric Light Station, Lower Wing - ham Gordon, D. M,, dry goods and groc- er Green,ies tV. H., residence, Minnie and Patrick Sts. Hanna, Jno., general store - Homuth and Bowles, dry goods and groceries Johns, W. A., r estaatrant Kennedy, Dr. J. P, office and resi- dence, Patrick and Centre Sts, Kerry and-Conery, grocers Kormann Hottse, F. Kormann, prop. Lott and Sturdy, Livery Stable, John St,• Lloyd & Son, res., Minnie and John Sts. Mason, Geo:, books and stationery Morton, J. A., law office McIntyre, Gilbert,' general store 1MZcIl clvey, Jas., restaurant McLean and Son, saw mill Queen's Hotel, A. Roe, prop. Smith and Pethick, hardware mere t - ants Sperling, R, C., produce dealer, resi- dence Minnie and Patrick Sts, Standard Furnittre Co, Albert St,. Swartz House, J E. Swartz, prop, The Late James Walker Alva J. Walker 1898 - - 1935 Nearly Forty years ago Jas: Walker established an Under- taking business in Wingharn; and was a graduate of the Champion College of Embalming, and conducted this business until his death in 1922. Alva J. entered as an apprentice to his father in 1905 and qualified for an Embalmer's Certificate and License from the Board of Examiners tinder the Dept. of Health of the Government of the Province of Ontario, and later served three years on the Executive of the Ontario runeral Service Association. He took over the'busi- rless in 1922 and has carried on to this present time, keeping abreast of the times in new ideas of service and equipment. Continuous catering to the funeral Purchasing Public in a kindly, sympathetic and dignified mariner for nearly forty years. Our reference "Our Clients" FURNITURE,AND FUNERAL SERVICE House Phone 224. Office Phone 106 Ihmumersemsiemionmener