Last Heritage Paper consisted of a letter, one of a series written in 1894, and printed in the Hamilton Evening Times that outlined some of the early history of the village of Waterdown. Written by the son of an early settler who had moced to Omaha in the American mid-West, they contain some interesting memories of pioneer days. The second of these letters follows:
To the Editor of the Times:SIR, – The first upbuilding and rise of Waterdown as a village was the erection of a frame hotel by one Mr. Markle, who either himself, or some of his connections arose to reputation in Toronto.
One of the first general stores I remember was Smith & Chisholm’s, next a small one by Anson Raymond, a tailor, who afterwards removed to the Governor’s Road, Flamboro’, thence to Ancaster. The next merchant I recollect was John Ballard, father of one of your successful city dry goods men. He, I think, was the first to sell liquors as a licensed grocer in the village. Then whiskey was sold at 25 cents per gallon, principally got from Crook’s Hollow and Cobourg until the Waterdown distillery was started. Our distillery did not last long. Many years after, Dykes of Galt ran a brewery, now owned by John T. Stock.
Speaking of said warehouse, brings us to the time when Waterdown was a great and one of the best markets for grain at the head of Lake Ontario. Many of the farmers who had come all the way from Halton and Wellington, back as far as Erie, Fergus, and Elora, would prefer to deliver their loads in the village, instead of going down to the storehouse on the bay.
Samuel Anderson, who had succeeded to the proprietorship of the North American Hotel, which he ran for over a quarter of a century, was then with the other hotel keepers taxed to his utmost limits to “ascertain”, as he said, his numerous farmer patrons. In fact, every available stable and shed of the villagers and farmers close by were requisitioned to accommodate the immense crowds that sold grain to John Applegarth.
The next industry that helped to build up the business of the place was the opening up of the free stone quarries on the sides of the deep ravine below the village. Walter Grieve (whose wife was related to the author of the celebrated “Wilson Border Tales”), was manager, employing a large number of men and teams of the neighbourhood in quarrying and delivering at or near Brown’s Wharf, and from thence shipped to Toronto. The first important buildings of which, including the Post Office, were built of free stone from the Waterdown quarries.
Another enterprise that aided the village and vicinity was furnishing a coarser and rougher stone for construction at the canal through the Beach, between Lake Ontario and Burlington Bay, the stone for which was obtained from the mountain quarries, at or near the Shaw farm, from which a wooden tram railway was built down the incline, through the woods and fields to the canal. No locomotives were used on it. The rough, strong cars were loaded, brakes unloosed, the speed or momentum of which was regulated till some of the deeper hollows were approached, then with braked off, a velocity sufficient to carry them up and over the top of the next hill was obtained, several of such places occurring between the mountain and the Plains road to which the down grade brought them. From thence they were drawn on the tramway by horse teams, as also were the empty ones back up to the quarries. The said tramway, besides accomplishing the object for which it was built, afforded us youngsters our first railroad trip.
One day the writer and the Dornan, Graham, Reid and Thomson boys were promised a free ride by one of the conductors, David Griffin. We were there the next morning early, saw the cars loases and had all taken our places. A slight fall of snow had made the ground white, not much more though than a hoar frost, but overhearing one of the labourers remark that the track was so greasy that the brakes might not work freely or properly after starting, our courage failed us and we all jumped off excepting Joe Dornan. After seeing them quickly disappear around a curve of the first hill we felt that we had acted cowardly, but in an hour after, when we learned that the cars had bounced the track and plunged wildly through the woods, we considered it a providential escape as both the conductor Griffin and our schoolmate Dornan, who stuck to their posts, received bruises and contusions that laid them up for some days.
© The Waterdown-East Flamborough Heritage Society 1994, 2022.
