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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1967-11-23, Page 7• On the corner lot on the east side over the bridge,. John Daly, by the 1840's, was the proprietor of the Na- tonal Hotel: He was the ,grandfather . of the late John F. Daly. In the Natienal Motel many weary wayfarers found rest and shelter for many yearn* John's son- Thom- as, who was one :of the first children Thorn in Egmond- ville, sold the old hotel in 1918 to Kruse` Bros. They us- ed this material to build their new chopping afd grind- ing mill. After crossing the bridge and turning west on the Mill road, ,one passed through "Dutehtown". On the north side was the pottery, the brewery, the German church and graveyard. From 1927 Andrew E. Moore had his Sunnyvale Poultry Farm and Hatchery west of here, here he still does business. A house, which he purchh ed and drew across the river with horse on the ' e, was part of hie first hatchery. This scene Was watched by many interested.,persons. Alex Boyes mov- ed his farm supply equipment from Seaforth to the west of Moore's in 1963. On the, south side of the Mill toad, several of the home owners had a small business on his property. Claus Kruse had a cooper shop, Henry Reinke a cabinet shop and Christopher Heffler made wood and willow ware. Michael Gormley had in his home the first weav- ing loom in the village and he was followed by Mrs. Charles Sutherland. Andrew Calder also did weaving - in his home here. In a house on what is now the. Paul Doig farm, one could hear the click clack of William Hadden's loons. On the Doig property today there is a nine -hole golf course. BLACKSMITH SHOPS From an early date the hamlet had two blacksmith ▪ shops. John Sproat, when he arrived in Huron from Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotlandt in 1847, decided to settle in Egmondville. He saw a need that he could supply, so opened the first blacksmith shop on the corner where Henry Weiland lived for many years. Very soon he was selling handmade nails and horseshoes. Often in pay- ment for his work, he took produce of various kinds, such as butter; eggs, maple sugar, etc. At one time, Mrs. Sproatused to tell, they had so many ,lar'e mounds of maple sugar sitting around that they began -Using them for footstools. Robert Fulton took over from Sproat in '1854. In June,' 1886, Samuel Lounsbury and Sandy Ross leased the Fulton blacksmith and carriage making es- tablishment. At this time he and his family went to Fort Townsend, Washington Territory, where two oth- er 'sons already were in business. The blacksmith shop was later demolished and Thomas Daly used the car- riage and wagon shop for a, grocery store. Daly sold this building in 1913 to Kruse Bros. Several continued to use it for a store till the 1920's when the owners had it moved near the street, west of their chopping' mill, and almost across from the United Church. Today it is a private home. Thomas Hills by the early 1860's became the second village blacksmith. His -shop was located almost across the road from Jackson's store. Here he employed a °' number of men for many years, doing blacksfith work and also making -wagons and buggies. An old document shows" that Thomas served hisapprenticeship with Pet- er ° Hunter, of Darnick, Scotland, from 1850 till 1854. ti During this time Hunter was to pay. Thomas Hills Tour shillings, six pence, per week for the. first year, "and five shillings weekly during the other three years. With this Thomas had to provide himself with board, bed, washing and clothing. He also had to stay with people approved of by his boss. Further restrictions followed : "Nor shall he keep idle or debauched company, nor use any sort of gaming, but' in general and irr every res- pect the said Thomas Hills shall behave and conduct himself during this, his indenture, as becomes a faith- ful, sober and .industrious apprentice." Thomas appar- ently filled allthe requirements, finished his appren- ticeship and became .an industrious anddchighly respect- ed citizen of Egmondville village. In later years his'son George assumed the respon- sibility of the shop and "when„. he retired, the business 'was sold to Alex Lillico. By the early 1940's John ,Mc- Lean had rented the wagon shop from I,,illico and was using it as a garage. Because of health conditions Alex • Lillian was forced to give up the work and it was James Racho who carried on in his place. It was after Racho took over that this old landmark, both the blacksmith and wagon shop, was burned to• the ground. Because there was a need felt for a shop of this kind, farmers and others assisted in rebuilding a community shop on the Racho property. Raeho later sold to Henry Ziler, -4, who had Raymond Nott for a partner till he died in 1960. Ziler is now the sole owner.. While the mode of -work has changed with the times, a thriving business is still. being done in this shop. WOOLLEN MILL August G. VanEgmond's Woollen and Carding mill was one of Egmondville's first industries. August was the youngest son of the well known Colonel Anthony VanEgmond. In 1854 August started this .,business • on a small scale, just south of the swamp that separated Egmondville aid Seaforth. By 1866 the business had Increased to such an extent that larger quarters were needed. By this time he was assisted by his sons,' Leo- pold and William. That year they built the three storey brick building which was burned on December, 28, 1883. The present building was erected in 1884, and later an- other building, used for storage, was built across the street. A. G. VanEgmond retired in 1886 and his sons carried,on till the a rly 1900's. From then two business firms, the John Dick Co. and W, E. Southgate Co., made clothing in these buildings. When W. E. Southgate Co. was there the frame building and its contents were des- troyed by fire in• August, 1907. In later years the brick building was used to store flax and later still Logsdon Hatcheries had their office and supplies in it. Today it stands idle and silent, a far cry from the early days of noisy, bustling activities, as "the employees processed the raw wool into,the finished products. The noise Was created by each operation from the dyeing of the wool, the, carding, the spinning it on spools and the weaving on the jooms. Could it be other- wise than noisy, when nine looms turned out in six days 2,575 yards of checked flannel in May, 1882. At the. Industrial Exhibition in Toronto in.Septem- ber, 1881, A. G. VanEgmond was awarded three medals for his goods. Special mention was made of the Seaforth Woollen Mills exhibit at the local fair in September, 1890. Their collection consisted of cloths, blankets, shirting, yarns, etc. They showed over sixty tweed pat- terns. . After 'Silver Creek, which flowed through Van- Egniond's property, was deepened to- drain off the town's surface water, A. G. VanEgmond and Sons en- tered dction against": the town for damages to their fr machinery and fabrics. Water to supply the mill was pumped from Silver Creek and it was the salt ;polluted water from the town's salt wells that caused the dam- age,. The action was fought from court to 4burtwith eminent Torontd lawyers pleading for. the town. J, T, Garrow, a harpurliey boy, practising law in GQderie�h, won fame for himself by winning the case for_V'anEg- monds. however, before the amount of damage had been fixed, the mill was burned. A compromise was ef- fected and the - court case was dropped. Seaforth made a loan to enable VanEgmonds to rebuild, and"wlien the new, building was built a short distance over the boun- dary line, the,town extended the waterwrkss across the swamp to supply the mill with pure water. This was possible as the town pump house was :located far enough up the stream to be free of the salt seepage. The VanEgmonds were pleased with the settlement and the town lost nothing by their action, as the mill for many years continued to do a thriving business, which wars also a benefit to the town. BREWERY The brewery started by George 'Weiland was among the 'first. _industries in the hamlet. George was the father of Henry Weiland and grandfather of ,Ralph "Cooney" Weiland of hockey fame. Henry Colbert, Sr. took over around 1850, and he was followed by his son Henry. In 1877 Henry Colbert, Sr. and Alexander Slem- mon purchased the soda pop works south of the rail- way track, known as Franz A. Meyer's Soda Water Manufactory. In the 1880's and later Colbert added to his ,brewery property. In May, •1881, he purchased from obert N. -Brett 25 acres on top of the hill, form- erly owned by the VanEgmond Estate. In. February, 1906, George Hawes sold to Colbert Bros., Henry and Percy, the old Payne farm adjoining the brewery. In -"that same year George E. Henderson and T. L. DeLacey, of the Commercial Hotel, bought a half interest in the business. • This Huron Brewery was on the Mill road, west of the large frame house which was the Colbert home for many years. It was later occupied by D. F. McGreg- or. and now by his son Rex McGregor. In January, 1889, the brewery, machinery and con- tents were completely destroyed by fire. The fire start- ed in the workroom. By. July of the same year Colbert was having a brick buildingerected to replace the one lost in the fire. Business was 'Carried. on here till the spring of 1913 when the Canada Temperance Act came into effect. The property then was disposed of to the Brewers' Association. One by one the buildings were. removed. Thelast. one was moved by Bob Archibald to his farm in Tuckefsmith. All' that was left then WAS an underground cellar where the beer had been stoted and kept cool. .Such drinks as birch beer and ginger beer were made in this brewery. The drinks were put up in crockery bottles with a mechanical apparatus for open- ing and closing them. These were sold and delivered throughout the country. Young lad§ used -to say that a visit to Colbert's Brewery had a way of diminishing the nearby bridge from its . natural size when they went in, to a narrow path when they. came out. POTTERY Vanentine Boehler, a native of Alsace-Lorraine, was the one who 'opened the Egmondville Pottery. It was situated on the north side of the Mill Road, east of the Huron Brewery. Foot power was used to run the machines that turned the clay to shape it into flower pots and other utensils. BoehIer's daughter Lizzie later married Jacob 'Weber, and he took the business over. - from his father-in-law. By 1882 Weber was shipping his products by the carload.. In April that, year one car- load was shipped to Manitoba. Ferdinand Burgard bought from Weber, and for years his Egmondville Pot- tery cart was a familiar sight as it traveled over West- ern Ontario roads delivering products from this indus- try. In November, 1910, Burgard offered the pottery for .sale by auction. BRICK' AND TILE YARDS_. • Brick was made by John Bowden from the 1860's" on Lot 9, Concession 2, and later the Kruse Bros. — Richard and William — had their brick and tile plant near the turn in the road on Concession 3, almost across from Bowden's. The clay used by Kruses was taken front what is now'Paul Doig's farm. In 1910 they receivedan order from the town of Clinton to supply them with three miles of four inch tile. In 1912 they were adver- tising brick for sale half a mile east of Egmondville. They continued to do business here till late in 1913. In the summer `of 1913 Kruses purchased a five acre block, one block east of Main St., nearly opposite what was then the Presbyterian Church..Late that year they had their brick and tile -making machinery moved here from their former yard in Tuckersmith. By July of the next year they were turning out 100,000 tile and brick every month. This business' was discontinued many years ago. In the fall of 1913 the Kruse Bros. also bought the old John Daly hotel and had the material built into their new chopping and grinding mill, near their brick and tile plant. Since the mill was closed a number of years ago, little use has been made of.this building. LIGHT AND WATER It was not till 1913 that Egmondville had lights of any kind to illuminate, the .streets Even then, only ten electric lights were installed. The work was done by Case and Neilans. It was on the night of May 20th that these lights were turned on for the first tune. When an attempt to get a water supply from Sea - forth failed, it was the Misses Ina and Marion Gray' who got the ball -a -rolling to provide a system of their own. The first well was drilled in the northwest section, and the consumers got their first water supply in July, 1957. When the demand became greater than this well could supply, a second one was drilled in the early 1960's, north of the cemetery., Like Harpurhey, from a small beginning in the early 1840's, this hamlet grew. by, leaps and bounds through the 1850's. -However, the coining of the railroad sounded its death knell. When the battle for a perman- ent station was waging among the three rivals --Kg- rriondville, Harpurhey and Seaforth Harpurhey was the first to be left in the Burch. Egmondville joined forces with Seaforth and theuilt, at their own ex- -1141 HIsfory. by Ivo 0110. CampheN pean4se i a station where Pe precept oixe stands toda ?r In, time the efforts of the Eglnandviilo folk to survive prpv» ed as futile as did those of -the Fiarpurhey residents, By the early 1860's far-sighted husixiessrl n began to read the writing on the wall foretelling that Seaforth was destined to be the up -coming place of business.1 James Dickson was thefirst tq_take his business to Sea - forth, Every year, after Dickso/ea move in 1868, 4srl ore merehants and mechanics followed till' one. industry after :another c used its door. Few places of business are left today. owever, unlike Harpurhey, Egmond- ville s , name stilappears on the map. p Ip. this age of enlarged church and school areas, one Wo ers if these three former rival hamlets.— liar- purhey, gmondville and Seaforth — will, one day -fol- low the end of the age by uniting and yet become one large t riving business and industrial centre. After re .viewing what the pioneers in this community attained through their enthusiasm and hard work, we can see that almost anything; we set as our goal, can be accom- plished. These pioneers climbed the' summits regardless of obstacles, till they .reached their goal. They left their homeland to lace the future darkened, unrevealed. From every summit the reached there loomed beyond anoth- er' peak as toilsoni'e to surmount, and yet they traveled on toward a braver dawn. That dawn came when, through their determined efforts, the trails became roads, the forest became fertile fields and substantial, comfortable homes replaced the log cabin. This heritage they bequeathed to us. In this Centennial year, may we attribute all honor due to these pions who made this Canada far you and me, and, especi liy to our an- cestor pioneers who made this particelar part of Can- ada for you, and me. TI -IE END Molidayi November 27th it 801i.Itli. , .. Town Hall, Seafprth Nominations for Public Office be accepted from 7:30 to •• 8.30, and, follow- ing the close of nominations Ratepayers will have the opportunity of inquiring concerning Seaforth public affairs. Representatives ofthe Council, P.UC., School Boards, Arena and Hospital will be present to answer questions OFFICE SUPPLIES THE HURON EXPOSITOR Dial 527-0240 -- Seaforth •-4 ti.DL 31 K1 ri, r THE BARGAINS *- t It WERE NEVER BETTER: LOOK NO FURTHER! See the Grand Display of Gift Suggestions In the Store and Windows of your Christmas Store, For Every Member of the Family, at .. > ALL. MAKES ELECTRIC SHAVERS at Special Prices for Christmas Giving FOR THE • PHOTOGRAPHY. - ENTHUSIASTS! * KODAK CAMERAIS * 'MOVIE CAMERAS * MOVIE AND SLIDE, ' PROJECTORS ALMS and SUPPLIES CHRISTMAS CARDS .. . A Colorful Selection - Available in Boxes or,,$ingle Gift Wrapping Paper Seals and Tags of Every Kind for Attractive Presents ipes, Tobacco, Pouches, Cigarette, Rollers, Shaving, Sets; lectric Razors, Shaving Brushes and Bowls, Kodaks, Leather Wallets, Travelling Kits and Lighters. Tobaccos --•- Cigars — Cigarettes Playing Cards Keating's Dail 5274990 TIOLET GOODS A few of the well-known brands of toilet goods avail- able at our store: Yardley, Faberge, Evening in Paris, Max Factor, Old Spice, Friendship 'Garden; Desert Flower and many others— Cosmetic Sefs, Quality Soaps, Bath Salts,. Colognes, Dust- ing Powders, Comb, Brush. and Mirror Sets, Gift Sta- tionery. ' We Stock SMILES 'N CHUCKLES NEILSON'S and ROWNTREE CHOCOLATES IN CHRISTMAS WRAPPED BOXES FEATURING . .. JENNY LIND - WHITMAN SAMPLER WIN PRIZES IN OUR RERALL 'CHRISTMAS -•• WONDERLAND CONTEST 8 PRIZES EVERY WEEK UNTIL CHRISTMAS 8 FOR BOYS AND GIRLS FOR BOYS: - Watkie Talkies Pool Tables Leggo Sets Science Labs FOR GIRLS: Giant Fluffy Animals • Plaza Ovens , Knitting Sets Nothing to buy Nothing to,write but your nae and address 4, "The Rexall arma.cy Drug Store" M. E. Hoover, Seaforth 'r".r; r-r"r r"r"r'rrrr� .: r•" r r".r'' r' 1. r: