Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1983-07-13, Page 13THE HURON EXPOSITOR, JULY -13, 1083 A13 UNDER THE WRECKING BALL—Topnotch flour mill, built in 1868, Is being torn down this month. Out of operation since 1955, form, •' employees say the mIll'was in Its prime as Excellence Flour Mills during the Second World War. 87 years of milling Th demolition of the old flour mill owned by Topnotch Feeds Ltd. m Seaforth marks the end of an era. The hard manual labor performed by men strong enough to carry around 140 pound bags of flour 'for at least eight hours a day is now done by machinery. And, the days when a small flour mill was able to thrive ithout being driven out of business by Targe corporations. a over: The folld is a list of the highlights in the life of the flour mill. Mu of the information is courtesy of Seaforth historian Belle Ca Obeli, who lives in Huronview. • 1868 - William A. Shearson and Co. build a 86' by 40' flour mill just east ofThomas ,Lee's lumber yard on the north east side of the railway track. With lO hands employed; the mill had a capacity of 150 barrels of flour dzily and was run by a 60 horse power engine. 1872 - James P. Kendall and Martin Charlesworth are JwTerS. 1874 - A.W. Ogilvie and Co., of Montreal takd over. 1876 - Mill is burning wood, and selling it to customers. 1883 - Manager T.O. Kemp changes fuel from wood to coal 18881- Fire at Mill. 1903 = Andrew and George Stewart and Duncan McCallurn f .ah,K d, BY SUSAN'HUNDERTMARK r. Brickb brick, Seafotth's old flour milt, owned by Topnotch Feeds:Ltd., will be torn down and .carted away ,during the next month. Out of operation for close to 30 years, it has been used since 1955 as a warehouse Occasionally but more often served as a home for raccoons and pigeons and a place that local kids explored. 'it's an eyesore and a hazard for kids who get into it," says Richard Reider, manu- facturing manager of`Topnotch. Tearing down the building will give the company mere rootll,for expansion. With rotting floorboards and the old wheels and wooden pulleys sold as antiques or shipped to the James Richardson Archives in Winnipeg, the building is only a shell of the flour mill which once produced 800 barrels of flour every 24 hours in the 1940's. In 1.868, the flour mill was erected by William A. Shearson and Co. The four storey brick building had a capacity of producing 150 barrels of flour daily and 10 hands were employed. From 1943 to 1953. Elzebert Turgeon from Montreal owned the flout mill, then called Excellence Flour Mills. During that time, the mill was in its prime, says Gord Staples, then the foreman at the mill. r Employing about 30 men at 50c to 85c an hour, the flour mill was one of the biggest employers in town, next to the Foundry. .They worked three shifts over 24 hours at full capacity for three years during the war when the mill was a 11)0 per cent war -essential industry.., The mill was run by a 250 horse electric motor which drove a bee pulley with a shaft across the milliTJlat drove other pulleys and worked all the machines in the spill. Since the motor was open to the air, it was dangerous to start, • become owners, changing name to Seaforth Milling Co. Another bad fire at mill. 1909 - Williamson, Anson, Favelle and Swanson Ogilvie, of Montreal join the Stewarts and Duncan McCallum as owners. Storage is greatly increased to 1800 barrels. 1913 Ogilvies take over. 1918 - Rob Roy Milling' Co. purchases Ogilvies Flour Mill. 1924 - Mill becomes Huron Flour Mill with new owners Adam Rotz, Louis Peiffer and Ernest Meldorf 1926 company fails and mill is empty for some time 1928 - becomes Wolverton Flour Mill 1934 = Town of Seaforth gets the mill 1935 - Seaforth enters into an agreement of option with Elzebert Turgeon of Montreal for the purchase of the mill. 1936 - E. Turgeon/ buys the mill and names it Excellence Flour Mills ! ° 1937 - Excellenc Flour MW opens with 24 employees. 1946 - Excellen'e Flour•Mill runs at full capacity for three years. r. 1953 - Topno h Feeds Ltd. buys the mill 1955 - Flour ill closes! BICC MILLS, ,r.... .,•v .. .4 444. trw see TuJ.. 4 RUBBER GLOVES "You wore rubber gloves and stood on a mat and you sure didn't start it during an electrical storm," says, Louis Nigh, who worked there at the tithe. Gprd Staples, one of the few people allowed to start it, says he used to use a 10 ft. pole with a loop on it to start the motor. It wasn't a thing to be fooled with and 1 didn't like starting it too' well," he says. Once he received a terrific shock when something was wrong with a fuse. The shock took him off his feet and he says only his rubber gloves and the dry floor saved his life. According to Louis Nigh, when Topnotch bought the mill and stopped producing flour, that 17 ton ,engine was sent up north where it was put to work in a mine. Duringthe war, Excellence bought number three and four Western wheat and occasionally local wheat and produced GR (George Reign) flour which was sent overseas to, England and the allied troops. The flour was a cross between bread and baking flour. HARD FLOUR It wad a hard flour because my mother, whowasa good baker, tried to use it once wihen'sh out ofher usualbakingflour ('9ta lh 1i't get if to s'e," says Mir. HWltl1KU1N ROLLER PROCESS. �TThe wit a aorehu o. a haveh.tn iE uaMrn enlarged. and a...eoWn07 applied THE LATEST IMPROVED ROLLS Flour Dressing Machines Prem 1b. boot M.ouhcturleg Finis have been pat in, and .rel -thw "soar'' add.d W .cable' her to tum out Sour sEc.oN co TO NONE 'In ilia Dom)nlon. The tacdltt-ea for receiving 'man from fanners and for elevating and ehipp,no have Ian dean a t...1vely Improved. Organ ,yn now , • taken from farmers' Wagons. weighed, and Coded into oars at the rate of 700 bushels par bent, by the work of two men. 60 YEARS AGO— The flour mill, being torn down In the picture above, Is shown here during the 1920's. UNDER THE OWNERSHIP of Rob Roy MIAs Ltd., the flour mill offered'prlces of $5 to $5.50 for a 100 pound beg of flour In thls advertisement which appeared In the Huron Expositor In 1921. The same amount of money would probably only buy a 10 pound bag today. A LARGE_ FEED STONE —FOR -- CUSTOM CHOPPING fly been put ln, and the necessary rnsehiner, for handling chop and roared Fram,s. A good shed has been erected, o, that wagons can be unloaded and reloaded under oo,tr. WHEAT EXCHANGES Promptly attended to, and FIRST-CLASS ROLLER. FIGUR GUARANTEED. CUSTOM FEE3D Chopped saNdactorily and without delay. ROLLER FLOUR, BRAN, SHORTS, And all kinds of CHOPPED FEED Constantly on hand. Highest Market Price Paid in Cash for any Quantity of Wheat. APPLE BARRELS FINE, COARSE COARSE AID LAND SALT FOR SALE. e.ty Itratelas .ed °WW1* man will be kept M .dtaed intimas. The nerd petro of Wawa and ,eattrad..p.o*u0y.olid . n . A. W. OCILYIE & CO., PROPRIETORS. T. O. LRW', Manager. The advertisement above appeared in the Huron Expositor In 1887 during the time A.W. Ogilvie and co. o1 Montreal owned the flour mIll. The owners boasted the latest machinery Including Hungarian rol- lers, flour dressing machines and Custom chopping and sold apple barrels and salt as well as flour, bran, shorts and feed. T e milling process involved putting the wheat through rollers and grinders and then a series of screens. As the wheat was sifted through the screens, by-products such as shorts and bran were taken off and the flour , ii,I became finer unlit `it reacted the finished product. Vitamin E ;which' acted as a whitener and preserve* was also added when the floor went throu�gh * mixer, It was then bagged in 140 pound bags Which were sewnup (first by hand and leterby machine) and loaded by hand onto'a cart and then into a train car which held 500 bags. "We used to stand those bags straight up on our shoulders," says Roy Rau who worked at Excellent Flour Mills for five years. "Only big men worked.there." " Gord Staples agrees that you had to be in good shape to lift the bags of flour. "The men had coidpetitions with the -bags where they'd try to lift 'a bag over their heads without touching the front of themselves," he says. WiTH HIS TEETH Roy Rau -performed one feat with those bags that no one could top. He used to lift 140 pounds of flour with his teeth. "It started as a bet with some guys from Montreal. They bet him he couldn't lift the bag with his teeth and carry it three feet. He did it and but he had a neck you couldn't turn with a pipe wrench for about three days after," says Louis Nigh. "1 was -just full of devilment then." says Mr. Rau who also claims he could lift Aman by his belt with his teeth. Another form of devilment that went on at the mill was the practical joke. New employees used to—'return to work after lunch to find their coveralls filled with bran and sewn up the front with the sewing machine, says Mr. Staples. Working at the mill could cause health problems if the workers didn't take precautions. FINE DUST "There was a fine dust in the air which would stick to your lungs and could give you miller's tuberculosis. We were supposed to wear masks to keep out the dust but it was hot and miserable wearing them," Mr. Staples says. The equipment also caused problems once in a while. Working at full capacity, the grinder blew up once with a tremendous bang and steel plates were stuck into the wooden beams of the building. "Nobody was hurt but it s a wonder ,, someone wasn't killed," he says. "The grinder was rebuilt and we didn't push it so hard afterwards." At the end of the war', the mill stopped producing at full capacity and began competing withother larger flour mills such as Purity Flours and Robin Hood Flours. But, the mill wasn't big enough to compete with the large flour mills for the foreign market and was too labor-intensive to -compete with the smaller mills, such as the Arva Flour Mill. for the local market. After some financial and personal prob- lems, Mr. Turgeon sold the mill to Topnotch in 1953. The new owners immediately built a new feed manufacturing plant and continued to produce flour for only a few years. The flour mill closed in 1955. "It's progress; it's like a lot of other things." says Mr. Staples about the mill being torn down, "It costs too much to make flour with it or keep itp•historically 'e , m When the faiir ''bsili 'dealt' equfB- menf was bought by local busines'4men and farmers who were building new elevators or silos. "1 guess you could say there's parts of the flour mill all over the county," says Louis Nigh. • Big spender owned FULL OF DEVILMENT -Roy Rau, into 8t((I, lives In Egmondvllle, Is remembered by, ,his fellow employees of Excellence Flour Mills as the man who,could lift a 140 pound bag.ot flour with his teeth. Mill closes when overseas shipments stop From the Feb. 1, 1946 Huron Expositor. Excellence -Flour Mills, which have been operating in Seaforth for the most part, on a 24-hour basis for the past three years, will close down indefinitely on January 31st, when its Government con- tracts wilt terminate. For the past couple of weeks the management has been experiencing labor. - troubles, and a number of employees have been on strike, but the business office informed The Expositor on Wednesday that this was not the direct result of the dosing down. of the mill. Themill, which employs around 45 men, wasp�roduc • 1ng98,0t19RndsmXGoY kn,' Ment tegUJatitite,flbur`• y . for shipment overseas,' and since the mill opened early in 1943 a total of 14,000 barrels of flour has been shipped to the British Ministry of Food. A' short time ago a dispute over an extension of working time from eight to ten hours a day sent employees out on, strike, but mill owner and manager, E. Turgeon, of Montreal, has been' able to hire other unemployed men to work in the mill until January 31st, when he ex- pects to close it down. The striking employees have not interfered with the new men who are working in the mill until the clean-up or orders is completed at the. end of the month. Mr. Turgeon stating that his Government contracts were being cancelled as of January 31st, and that he wanted his employeesto work 10 hours a day until then but Labor ur,da .4144000040047014- 44)414A..yru A representative . of ,..•the striking body stated that the chief cause'of the.strike was "a smaller pay envelope'for more work. Excellence Flour Mills The only man in Seaforth with a shiny new '42 Chev during the welt was Elzebert Turgeon, owner of Excellence Flour Mills and a Montreal native. "He lived very high off the hog," says Gord Staples, one of his employees. "He always dressed in the best English tweeds and you could smell him coming, he wore so much perfume." A connoisseur of fine wines, Mr. Turgeon lived in a suite in the Commercial Hotel and for a time lived in a house on James St His generous spending also spilled over into ' the community. He gave many donations to the St. James Roman Catholic Church which he attended and backed a hockey team with Excellent Flout Mill sweaters for two or three winters. "Once when the furniture factory was burning, he closed down most of the mill and sent 15 men over to help put out the fire," says Mr . Staples. But; his high living may have contrib- uted to the downfall of Excellent Flour Mills, especially after the war when competition with larger flour mills grew fierce and problems began with his wife whose family controlled his wealth, Hzebert Turgeon was last heard of leaving town for Montreal, rumour had it, (with his secretary) and is said to have died in an old age home. THE HEAD MILLER of the flour mill during the 1920's was Art Powell, shown here sharing a drink with an unidentified man. A LASTtLOOK INSIDE --Manufacturing manager of Topnotch Feeds Ltd. In Stiaftirth, Richard Fielder take*► last look at the old flour mill. On the right, he Is standing under the huge pulleys which were once run by a 250 horse electric motor and worked the grinder end rollers of the mill. a 4 .t rA. ._ lli: wit1T 1 ~'- ... '`;, -1 - f 'v.1 i7w .jj�I ,1 yp ,{6n'- . s ea ,.., ,Manitoba rt ''bte;idt'd, '''n Pastry, uar-anteed, and a whole ' For ,ale at. all 1_ : R®y :Mills, r• Seaforth l / top rices Flour,bag, $5.50 b.g . 5.25 nag 5.00 as good as the lot cheaper (:rery Steres Qc Ltd. Ontario .• UNDER THE OWNERSHIP of Rob Roy MIAs Ltd., the flour mill offered'prlces of $5 to $5.50 for a 100 pound beg of flour In thls advertisement which appeared In the Huron Expositor In 1921. The same amount of money would probably only buy a 10 pound bag today. A LARGE_ FEED STONE —FOR -- CUSTOM CHOPPING fly been put ln, and the necessary rnsehiner, for handling chop and roared Fram,s. A good shed has been erected, o, that wagons can be unloaded and reloaded under oo,tr. WHEAT EXCHANGES Promptly attended to, and FIRST-CLASS ROLLER. FIGUR GUARANTEED. CUSTOM FEE3D Chopped saNdactorily and without delay. ROLLER FLOUR, BRAN, SHORTS, And all kinds of CHOPPED FEED Constantly on hand. Highest Market Price Paid in Cash for any Quantity of Wheat. APPLE BARRELS FINE, COARSE COARSE AID LAND SALT FOR SALE. e.ty Itratelas .ed °WW1* man will be kept M .dtaed intimas. The nerd petro of Wawa and ,eattrad..p.o*u0y.olid . n . A. W. OCILYIE & CO., PROPRIETORS. T. O. LRW', Manager. The advertisement above appeared in the Huron Expositor In 1887 during the time A.W. Ogilvie and co. o1 Montreal owned the flour mIll. The owners boasted the latest machinery Including Hungarian rol- lers, flour dressing machines and Custom chopping and sold apple barrels and salt as well as flour, bran, shorts and feed. T e milling process involved putting the wheat through rollers and grinders and then a series of screens. As the wheat was sifted through the screens, by-products such as shorts and bran were taken off and the flour , ii,I became finer unlit `it reacted the finished product. Vitamin E ;which' acted as a whitener and preserve* was also added when the floor went throu�gh * mixer, It was then bagged in 140 pound bags Which were sewnup (first by hand and leterby machine) and loaded by hand onto'a cart and then into a train car which held 500 bags. "We used to stand those bags straight up on our shoulders," says Roy Rau who worked at Excellent Flour Mills for five years. "Only big men worked.there." " Gord Staples agrees that you had to be in good shape to lift the bags of flour. "The men had coidpetitions with the -bags where they'd try to lift 'a bag over their heads without touching the front of themselves," he says. WiTH HIS TEETH Roy Rau -performed one feat with those bags that no one could top. He used to lift 140 pounds of flour with his teeth. "It started as a bet with some guys from Montreal. They bet him he couldn't lift the bag with his teeth and carry it three feet. He did it and but he had a neck you couldn't turn with a pipe wrench for about three days after," says Louis Nigh. "1 was -just full of devilment then." says Mr. Rau who also claims he could lift Aman by his belt with his teeth. Another form of devilment that went on at the mill was the practical joke. New employees used to—'return to work after lunch to find their coveralls filled with bran and sewn up the front with the sewing machine, says Mr. Staples. Working at the mill could cause health problems if the workers didn't take precautions. FINE DUST "There was a fine dust in the air which would stick to your lungs and could give you miller's tuberculosis. We were supposed to wear masks to keep out the dust but it was hot and miserable wearing them," Mr. Staples says. The equipment also caused problems once in a while. Working at full capacity, the grinder blew up once with a tremendous bang and steel plates were stuck into the wooden beams of the building. "Nobody was hurt but it s a wonder ,, someone wasn't killed," he says. "The grinder was rebuilt and we didn't push it so hard afterwards." At the end of the war', the mill stopped producing at full capacity and began competing withother larger flour mills such as Purity Flours and Robin Hood Flours. But, the mill wasn't big enough to compete with the large flour mills for the foreign market and was too labor-intensive to -compete with the smaller mills, such as the Arva Flour Mill. for the local market. After some financial and personal prob- lems, Mr. Turgeon sold the mill to Topnotch in 1953. The new owners immediately built a new feed manufacturing plant and continued to produce flour for only a few years. The flour mill closed in 1955. "It's progress; it's like a lot of other things." says Mr. Staples about the mill being torn down, "It costs too much to make flour with it or keep itp•historically 'e , m When the faiir ''bsili 'dealt' equfB- menf was bought by local busines'4men and farmers who were building new elevators or silos. "1 guess you could say there's parts of the flour mill all over the county," says Louis Nigh. • Big spender owned FULL OF DEVILMENT -Roy Rau, into 8t((I, lives In Egmondvllle, Is remembered by, ,his fellow employees of Excellence Flour Mills as the man who,could lift a 140 pound bag.ot flour with his teeth. Mill closes when overseas shipments stop From the Feb. 1, 1946 Huron Expositor. Excellence -Flour Mills, which have been operating in Seaforth for the most part, on a 24-hour basis for the past three years, will close down indefinitely on January 31st, when its Government con- tracts wilt terminate. For the past couple of weeks the management has been experiencing labor. - troubles, and a number of employees have been on strike, but the business office informed The Expositor on Wednesday that this was not the direct result of the dosing down. of the mill. Themill, which employs around 45 men, wasp�roduc • 1ng98,0t19RndsmXGoY kn,' Ment tegUJatitite,flbur`• y . for shipment overseas,' and since the mill opened early in 1943 a total of 14,000 barrels of flour has been shipped to the British Ministry of Food. A' short time ago a dispute over an extension of working time from eight to ten hours a day sent employees out on, strike, but mill owner and manager, E. Turgeon, of Montreal, has been' able to hire other unemployed men to work in the mill until January 31st, when he ex- pects to close it down. The striking employees have not interfered with the new men who are working in the mill until the clean-up or orders is completed at the. end of the month. Mr. Turgeon stating that his Government contracts were being cancelled as of January 31st, and that he wanted his employeesto work 10 hours a day until then but Labor ur,da .4144000040047014- 44)414A..yru A representative . of ,..•the striking body stated that the chief cause'of the.strike was "a smaller pay envelope'for more work. Excellence Flour Mills The only man in Seaforth with a shiny new '42 Chev during the welt was Elzebert Turgeon, owner of Excellence Flour Mills and a Montreal native. "He lived very high off the hog," says Gord Staples, one of his employees. "He always dressed in the best English tweeds and you could smell him coming, he wore so much perfume." A connoisseur of fine wines, Mr. Turgeon lived in a suite in the Commercial Hotel and for a time lived in a house on James St His generous spending also spilled over into ' the community. He gave many donations to the St. James Roman Catholic Church which he attended and backed a hockey team with Excellent Flout Mill sweaters for two or three winters. "Once when the furniture factory was burning, he closed down most of the mill and sent 15 men over to help put out the fire," says Mr . Staples. But; his high living may have contrib- uted to the downfall of Excellent Flour Mills, especially after the war when competition with larger flour mills grew fierce and problems began with his wife whose family controlled his wealth, Hzebert Turgeon was last heard of leaving town for Montreal, rumour had it, (with his secretary) and is said to have died in an old age home. THE HEAD MILLER of the flour mill during the 1920's was Art Powell, shown here sharing a drink with an unidentified man. A LASTtLOOK INSIDE --Manufacturing manager of Topnotch Feeds Ltd. In Stiaftirth, Richard Fielder take*► last look at the old flour mill. On the right, he Is standing under the huge pulleys which were once run by a 250 horse electric motor and worked the grinder end rollers of the mill. a 4 .t