One of the early families to settle in East Flamborough Township, the Gallagher family of Lot 8, Concession 6, originally came from Ireland. Previously, stories surrounding Samuel Gallagher, his wife Mary Sullivan, and their eldest children were recounted. This Heritage Paper looks at the younger sons, Daniel and Samuel.
Daniel, the second son was about eight or nine years old when he and his parents arrived in Upper Canada in 1838, and about fifteen years old when they purchased the East Flamborough Township property. It is unlikely that he ever attended school in the township, as no doubt he was required to help his father clear more land to farm.
In 1855, Daniel married Charity Hess of Barton Township. He had met Charity while visiting his sister Phyllis and her relatives, the Kribs and Elderkin families. Following their marriage, they farmed for a number of years in east Flamborough, and four sons, David, Samuel, Edward and George were born.
In 1861, Charity’s grandfather, Samuel Hess who had come from Pennsylvania in 1788 and received a Crown Grant of 400 acres died on his ninety seventh birthday. The property known as Spring Farm was offered to Daniel and Charity Gallagher, and in 1864 they moved to the Mount Hamilton area to take possession.
A year later Charity’s widowed father, David Hess, returned from Michigan and moved in temporarily with his son-in-law and daughter on the old homestead. But with a new wife, he felt that he was intruding and had a small stone cottage built about two hundred feet north of the homestead. The limestone for the cottage was taken from a small quarry near the south end of the farm where there was an outcrop of limestone bedrock at the junction of the 7th Concession Road and the Caledonia Road – thus giving the road its eventual name of Limeridge Road.
When the cottage was built, mortar was needed in its construction, so a small pot-kiln was constructed on the property to burn the limestone which would produce the lime needed for the mortar. Soon the quarrying of limestone for the foundations of the many barns and houses being built in Barton Township resulted in a new local industry being born.
Under Daniel Gallagher, this new enterprise providing lime and stone for construction purposes, demanded by the sudden growth of the town, burgeoned into a major business supplying both products to Hamilton and the surrounding area. By 1884 he employed six men plus his eldest sons, David, George, Dan and Russ. As the younger sons grew old enough they too were put to work. Originally called “The Barton Lime Works”, the company name was changed several times during its history, “The Gallagher Brothers Lime and Stone” and finally “The Gallagher Lime and Stone Company Limited”.
In 1877, the old Hess homestead caught fire. Daniel and Charity, with their seven sons and two servants went to live with neighbours until they could have a new house built. Everyone escaped the fire without injury, but David Hess, Charity’s father lost some of the Presbyterian Church records which he had looked after for many years and which were stored in the old house, together with Samuel Hess’ Crown land grant document and many personal possessions that included the family bible and early photographs. One of the children, Daniel who was twelve years old at the time, was credited with saving the life of his youngest brother Harry, by carrying him out of the burning house.
During this time, the Gallagher family continued to grow. In 1880 Charles was born and three years later, her eleventh child, her first and only daughter was born. The birth of Charity’s last child, Raymond in 1887, completed a rather unique family. Her first son was born in 1857 when she was eighteen. She gave birth to twelve children over that thirty years. Her second and third sons, Samuel James and Richard Edward died in infancy, but the remaining nine all reached adulthood. Their only daughter, Mary or May as she was called, only lived for eight and a half years. She died in February 1892 and was buried in Grace Anglican Church Cemetery, Waterdown.
Daniel and Charity celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary in 1906. Charity died in 1911, and Daniel in 1914. Both were buried in St. Peter’s Cemetery, Mohawk Road West.
The third son born to Samuel Gallagher and Mary Sullivan was called Samuel James. Like his brothers, he too helped his father clear the East Flamborough property for farming.
In 1870 Samuel married Henrietta Dougherty in Grace Anglican Church, Waterdown. Born in Scotland, she was the daughter of William Dougherty and Janette Gray. The family came to Canada when Henrietta was very young, with a sister Elizabeth and a brother William who died during the long voyage and was buried at sea.
The family settled on a farm in the present day area of Rosedale for a few years, and Henrietta and her sister attended school. Later they moved to Michigan, but following the unexpected death of William Dougherty, the two girls, then in their late teens, returned to Hamilton with their mother as she found work at Wesley College. While in the city, Henrietta and Samuel James Gallagher met and fell in love. She returned to Scotland for a long visit, and during this time, she and Samuel wrote to each other for two years until her return in 1869.
They made their home on the original Gallagher farm where two sons and four daughters were born, Mary, Elizabeth, James Edward, Stuart, Alice and Ann. According to family reminiscences, the old Gallagher homestead at Flamborough Centre was a beautiful old farm, with maple trees along the laneway, a picket fence in front of the house and apple orchards surrounding the barns and sheds. In 1881, Samuel build a new large barn by the house and a blacksmith shop across the road.
Samuel died in 1908 after a long illness, Henrietta in 1925. Both are buried in Grace Anglican Cemetery, Waterdown. Their children, Alice, Ann, Mary and James are also buried in the same churchyard, Elizabeth in the Union Cemetery, Waterdown and Stuart in London, Ontario.
This concludes the Heritage Papers on the Gallagher Family of East Flamborough Township. Further family history and reminiscences of later generations of this early township family can be found in the Flamborough Archives.
© The Waterdown-East Flamborough Heritage Society 1994, 2022.
