Farmer, businessman and politician, William Oscar Sealey was one of Wentworth County’s most prominent citizens during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He was born in Waterdown on the 26 January 1859, eldest son of Charles H. Sealey and Mary Ann Eaton. His father Charles was an upstanding member of the Waterdown community, serving as the first Reeve of Waterdown between 1879 and 1884 and as school trustee from 1867 to 1894. William, or W. O. as he became known in later life, was educated in the local public and high schools of Waterdown until the age of twelve and he then worked on the family farm of Chestnut Grove for four years.
In 1875 Charles H. Sealey bought W. H. Crooker’s Waterdown general store and William, who was only sixteen at the time, ran the business until it was sold in 1878. It was later repurchased by W. O. and he again operated it for a number of years, In 1881 he married Agnes Annie Little Forbes, daughter of James Forbes of Hamilton and they lived over the store in Waterdown at the beginning of their married life. It was while there that they witnessed and were involved with the shooting and robbery of the bank that was housed on the floor below.
In 1896 Sealey began his career in politics as Reeve of East Flamborough and a member of the Wentworth Council. In his first few days of being elected, he proposed that the council member’s fees for attending meetings be decreased from three dollars to two and that salaries of staff members be also reduced. Sealey had not researched his proposals adequately, leading the Hamilton Spectator to comment that he was “meeting with the difficulties that most young reformers do who start in to revolutionize affairs too quickly without first getting thoroughly posted as to the means to be employed”.
During his term in office he was involved with the elimination of tolls on four main county roads, the construction of a high bridge over the Desjardins canal, the petitioning of legislation for reduction of market fees, and the protest against the unfair use of the grain tester.
In June of 1900, Sealey was unanimously nominated provincial Liberal candidate for Wentworth South, however he lost the election to his Conservative opponent. In 1904 he ran again and won the Dominion election by a small margin, but was unseated because of a mistake in the tallying. He was defeated again in the 1905 By-Election by five votes but in 1908 he was finally elected to the Dominion Parliament.
During his time as MP for Wentworth he actively campaigned for agriculture, trade and commerce in the legislature. He advocated “an embargo against the export of Canada’s raw materials until manufactured into finished products, as well as an embargo against articles coming into Canada that can be reasonably and easily produced here”.
Probably his most lasting impact in the legislature was his bill initiating free rural delivery of mail in Canada. On the 10th of October 1908 the first ever rural mail delivery in ‘the British Empire’ took place between Ancaster and Hamilton. Present at the “gala” ceremony on Hamilton Road in front of Walter Vansickle’s home were, according to the Dundas Star, “fifteen rigs, forty people, two telephone poles, one mail box, seven bedraggled sparrows, an inquisitive dog and a very drizzly rain”.
Sealey’s political career was short lived, as he lost his seat in 1911 to the Conservative candidate. He turned to building and real estate, specializing in medium-priced houses and later in apartment construction. He was involved in the United Empire Loyalist organization, the Canadian Club, the Masonic Order, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Presbyterian church.
In aid of the Canadian war effort, W. O. and Agnes Sealey sent a machine-gun to the front with a maple-leaf tablet and inscription in 1915. In 1926, he organized the Eaton-Van Duzen Picnic for 500 relatives and 500 neighbours of the Eaton-Van Duzen families in Carlisle. In 1929, Sealey purchased the old Waterdown school site and presented the land to the village as a park, naming it after his father, Charles Sealey. Accepting the gift, Reeve Speck said, “It will always be known as Sealey Park, and will remain a silent witness to your goodness”. In February 1931 William and Agnes celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. On 16 March 1931 Agnes died at their home in Hamilton; William Oscar Sealey died on 7 January 1940 at his nephew’s home in Dundas and was buried in Hamilton Cemetery.
© The Waterdown-East Flamborough Heritage Society 2000, 2023.
