Ebenezer Culver Griffin purchased Lot 6, Concession 3, East Flamborough Township from Alexander Brown in 1837, although he probably held the land for a time before he registered it. Included in this transaction was over a mile of the Grindstone Creek which Griffin recognized as the necessary impetus for the industrial development of the small settlement.
Henry Ferguson Graham, an ambitious young American tanner was among the first group of industrialists who purchased property from Griffin during the 1830s. His property, village lot 12 in Lot 6 of the Griffin Survey was purchased on 5 November 1837 and included restricted water rights for a section of the Grindstone Creek. As Griffin sold parcels of land, agreements about water rights were included, thus allowing him to control development in the valley, Graham agreed that “his water rights be limited to grinding of bark for tanning or other machinery to convert hides into leather.” Levi Hawke, his neighbour, was allowed use of the creek “except for three days, Monday, Wednesday and Friday when water be allowed to go thru the raceway to lot 12 for tanning purposes.”
Henry Graham was born in Turbot Township, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania in 1803. The youngest of eight children, he was the only one to travel northwards to seek his fortune in Upper Canada following an apprenticeship as a tanner and currier. He walked from his home to Crook’s Hollow in 1826 and found employment with James Crooks and later with John Binkley in Dundas. In 1830 he married Agnes Rosenberger of Dundas and during this decade they moved to Waterdown where he established a small tannery at the rear of his property. The narrow laneway to his business was called Leather Street and continues to exist today as the driveway to ‘Maplebank’. An active and successful businessman and a staunch member of the Free Church of Scotland, he became a part owner of a Griffin Mill and by 1850, Tax Collector for East Flamborough Township.
Assessment Roll entries record that the first house Graham and his wife lived in was a one-storey frame dwelling and the imposing stone house that he eventually built was not constructed until 1847. Several interior features of the stone house suggest that the earlier building was incorporated into the new home as was often the practice among first generation settlers.
In 1853, Graham and his large family returned to the United States, his fine house and business being sold to Elihu Pease, another American tanner who had established himself on Yonge Street. Pease gave the property as a gift to his daughter, Elizabeth who was married to Andrew Davis and who was also involved in the leather trade. Descended from a famous U.E.L. family who had settled first in Saltfleet Township and later Brant’s Block, Andrew Davis operated his own tannery on Yonge Street until moving to Waterdown with his family in 1854.
Expecting to operate a viable business in the village, Davis discovered that the water rights of the creek on which the tannery relied, were divided between himself and the neighbouring property owner. This was Read Baker, owner of a Rake and Cradle Factory who had purchased a parcel of land from Henry Graham, with just sufficient property to ensure a constant water supply for his business. It appears that Andrew Davis felt it was impossible to obtain enough power to operate the business without the full water rights and as he was unsuccessful in persuading Baker to sell his interest, he gave up his plans to continue the tannery.
Undaunted by this setback, Davis’ Cash Book reveals that as 1855 began, he set himself up as a General Merchant in the village. He also invested his money in mortgages and his name appears in connection with several village property transactions during the next decade. The 1867 Directory Listing for the village describes him as a ‘gentleman’ and it appears he may have also established a small farm, as the lot was enlarged when the adjoining property to the south was acquired from the Dornan brothers in 1864.
During 1868, Andrew Davis’ brother-in-law, Edward Pease bought a tannery in Aurora and invited him to join the business. Andrew decided to take his eldest don, Elihu James, then seventeen years old with him and for a few years they lived partly at the business and in Waterdown where the rest of the family remained. In 1871 Elizabeth Davis and the three youngest children left Waterdown and the house and property on Leather Street was sold for $5,000 to Peter Creen, a lumber merchant on 5 November 1875.
© The Waterdown-East Flamborough Heritage Society 2009, 2024.
