This is where you will find interesting stories of
various EVENTS in and around Welland.
Currently we have a lot of stories about
businesses and their owners in the 1800s and 1900s.
SUBSCRIBE to the POSTS: RSS 
SUBSCRIBE to the COMMENTS:Comments RSS 
| [Feb 21, 2023] Introducing “ARCHIVES Search“: Located at the top right portion of the side menu. Select the desired month+year from the dropdown options and the system will list all the posts that were made to the website at that time. NOTE: Main and Tales each have their own independent Archives Search function. |
| [Jun 8, 2022] NEW USER LOGINS have been suspended as we investigate a recent hack to the database. The site is currently READ-ONLY mode to UNREGISTERED USERS. Only REGISTERED users may still log in to comment. |
[Welland Tribune, 22 January 1909]
The burning of the note covering the last debt on Central Methodist church and also the note constituting the last debt on the new organ were matters of great jubilation at the church last Friday night. The proceedings opened with a sumptuous supper, after which the fire scene was enacted, and a program of bright speeches, fine music, etc., followed. The crowd was large and a silver collection mounted to $10.
[People’s Press, 22 August 1905]
An exciting yachting accident happened off this harbor a week ago Saturday night. A gasoline yacht bound from New York City to Erie was running for Port Colborne harbor on account of coming storm, when she struck a reef off Fairview Farm (Frank Shisler) at 12 o’clock at night. Three men were on the boat, two running it and one asleep. When the yacht struck the reef a small boat was launched, but upset in four feet of water, nearly half a mile out, and one of the men waded ashore on the reef. He woke Mr. Shisler, who drove to town and sent the tug Armstrong to the assistance of the yacht. The yacht had been got off in the meantime, but was helpless, as her shoe was bent up against her propeller. She was towed to Port Colborne, where one of the Contractor Hogan’s derricks lifted her out of the water for repairs. She remained in port all day Sunday, the crew spending the day searching for oars, anchor and pocket-book of money, which were lost in the lake, but without success. The pocket-book was said to have contained $180 and some valuable jewelry. The party had no money left but some small change. The yacht was 44 feet long, and two of the crew named Tismuth, claimed to be the owners. The lake was very calm or the boat would have dashed to pieces.
[People’s Press, 22 August 1905]
Mr. D.F. Osler of the Port Colborne branch of the Imperial Bank has been appointed accountant of the North Toronto branch. He will be succeeded here by C.F.W. Patterson of the Market branch, Toronto. H.E. Cook, ledger keeper, has been transferred to Toronto, and left for that city yesterday morning. A host of warm friends will regret their departure. The uniform courtesy and genial manner of these officials have made them very popular with our citizens, who, while sorry to see them leave town, are glad to know that both gentlemen are being promoted.
[Welland Tribune, 13 July 1907]
Mrs. Collins and Miss Laura Hooker, two representatives of the Japanese booth for the Trip Around the Earth in three days, on Thursday morning, afternoon and night will serve ice cream and sodas at the Welland Pharmacy. The proceeds to go towards the booth. Mr. Collins has very kindly and generously given gratis not only his parlors, but his delightful creams.
TWO MEN DROWNED
[Welland Tribune, 9 June 1905]
Port Stanley, Ont. June 7-This morning about 9.15 the Government cruiser Vigilant, Capt. Dunn, sighted a fishing tug about six miles east of Middle Island in Lake Erie and five miles north of the boundary line. The captain changed his course and made towards the tug, which proved to be the Grace M. of Lorain, Ohio, Capt. William Galbraith. The tug went quite near her Capt. Dunn signalled with his whistle for her crew to check. No attention was paid to stop, but the tug shot past the Vigilant with full steam.
Captain Dunn turned and soon overhauled her, but the tug continued to dodge the Valiant notwithstanding the fact that Capt. Dunn had fired across her bows several times. The Vigilant was again coming up on the tug when she again attempted to cross the Vigilant’s bow. Capt. Dunn seeing there was likely to be a collision, stopped and backed full steam.
He had his boat well stopped when they came together, but the momentum of the Vigilant was sufficient to roll the Grace M. over and she sank. Capt. Dunn rescued Capt. Galbraith, Engineer Wm. Rulleson, and D, Poppelwell, a fisherman. Two fisherman named Martin Oleson of Cleveland and Wm. Anderson of Lorrain were drowned.
Capt. Galbraith admits that Capt. Dunn was in no way to blame, and now his sorrow realizes he should have obeyed Capt. Dunn’s signals and stopped his boat when ordered to do so.
The Vigilant succeeded the Petrel on Lake Erie this year. The big legal fight over the seizure of the Kitty D. by the Petrel is well known. It has lasted two years and has cost thousands of dollars.
[People’s Press, 5 September 1905]
The Str. Savona, loaded with iron ore, went ashore on York Island in Lake Superior in a gale on Friday night, and broke in two. One boat containing eleven people reached shore in safety, but it is feared that five men, who took another boat, are lost, also six members of the crew who staid on the wreck. The Savona was a steel freight steamer, built in 1890, owned at Erie, and valued at $150,000. She was lengthened 72 feet at Buffalo last spring.
[Welland Tribune February 27, 1940]
Switch Engine Conductor Trapped Under Train
Hamilton, Feb. 27- Storm conditions were blamed today for the second railway fatality within eight days when A,N, Clavel, 36, Hamilton conductor of a Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo switch engine crew, slipped in the Forest avenue yards, fell under a moving train and was killed. A fine snow caused slippery conditions.
The last car was said to have passed over his legs, death resulting as police were rushing him to the General hospital. Born at Montreal, Clavel had resided here for 23 years. He is survived by his widow and four children. Dr. Leeming Carr, coroner is investigating.
James G Lord 63, a Canadian National Railways car repairman, was killed Feb. 19 during the season’s worst blizzard when he walked into the path of a backing switch engine.
[Welland Telegraph October 29, 1903]
Tuesday morning a light road engine , while backing out from the Grand Trunk roundhouse ran down and instantly killed a workman named James MacDonald. The unfortunate man was dragged some 20 feet, the wheels of the engine passing over his legs. The body was rolled under the ash-pan of the engine and it was found that nearly every large bone was broken. Death was instantaneous. James MacDonald was about 50 years old, a carpenter in the employ of the company, and was working near the round-house at the time the accident happened. He stepped in the way of the engine as it backed out thinking no doubt, he was stepping on to the pathway. Before he could step back the engine was upon him. He was a married man leaving a wife, one daughter and two sons, who reside at Simcoe.Ont.
[Welland Tribune January 31, 1940]
Instantly Killed When Newly-Laid Rail Springs-Second Workman Hurt
Thorold, Ont., Jan 31-William Ivansuik, 33-year-old workman at the Beaver Wood Fibre Company plant, was instantly killed and a second workman William Mowry suffered a broken collarbone and other injuries today in an accident that occurred while the two men were laying railway track. They were engaged in construction of connecting spur to main line track in the company yards when the accident occurred. Hoist and coal car passing the connection on the mail line caused the newly-laid rail to spring, hurling the two men to the ground.
Company officials are unable to account for the accident.
Steamer Idaho Goes Down Off Long Point
NINETEEN DROWNED
The Story of a Terrible Struggle for Life Amid Inky Blackness, Shrieking wind and Merciless Waves
[Welland Tribune, 12 November 1897]
Buffalo, Nov. 7-The steamer Idaho of the Western Transit Line, which left this port Friday afternoon in the face of a big gale, bound for Chicago, loaded with packet freight and carrying a crew of 21 men, foundered off Long Point on Lake Erie at 4 o’clock Saturday morning, but two men survived to tell the tale of a fierce battle with the angry waves. Long Point juts out into Lake Erie from the Canadian shore about 50 miles west of Buffalo, and its vicinity has been the scene of many disasters. The Idaho was an old boat, having built in Cleveland in 1863. She had lately been completely overhauled, however, and was considered a staunch boat and able to stand any kind of weather. Her captain, Alexander Gillies, who went down with the vessel, was one of the most widely known of lake seamen. The news of the disaster reached this city on the arrival of the big steel steamer Mariposa shortly after eleven o’clock Saturday night, when Captain Frank D. Root told the following story:
“It was one of the worst gales I ever experienced in all my years on the lakes. We started from Chicago with a load of oats. All the way down the lakes we had a fight with the storm, and I thought once or twice of putting in somewhere until it blew over. It was about 12.30 yesterday afternoon when I first learned of the wreck of the Idaho. I was on deck, when my first mate came to see me and told me that he had sighted a spar off to the north and that he thought there were a couple of men clinging to it. He pointed it out to me, and when I got the glasses on it I could distinguish the men plainly. We were running under a good head of steam at the time and I put on more and headed for the spar.”
A SURVIVOR’S STORY
The story of the foundering of the steamer is told most graphically by Deskhand W. Gill, of the two men taken from the spar by the crew of the Mariposa. The name of the second man who was rescued is not known. He disappeared almost immediately after arriving in the city, and could not be located. He was the second mate on the Idaho.
Gill’s story as told by him early this morning is as follows:-“We left here Friday night, bound for Chicago, with a cargo of general merchandise. Everything seemed alright until we got outside of the breakwater, and then we were struck by the worst storm that I ever saw. When the first big breaker struck us we were tossed up in the air like a top, and a second later a big roller coaster came over the port bow and rolled down amidships a foot down. The wind shrieked and howled, but we did not pay much attention to the storm. We had felt wind before. The captain consulted with the mate and decided that he could weather the storm and he kept on his course. There were some old sailors in the crew, and I think all of them were satisfied that we were in no danger. As we headed up the lake, dead against the gale, it appeared to be getting worse every minute. The waves were running high, and the wind threw the tops from the breakers like dust.
“We moved slowly against the heavy wind and sea, and when we were well up the lake we found that the boat was making water very fast. It kept faster and faster and the bilge pumps were put to work, but the water gained, and every minute the ship kept getting less buoyant and the big combers kept breaking over her. After passing Long Point the captain he could not weather the storm and gave the order to turn back and run for the point, with the intention of beaching the ship. But the pumps gave out and the water gained so rapidly that it was too late. She was already laboring, and the two men at the wheel could do nothing with her. A couple more men went to work with them, and finally they brought her around and headed her to land. Captain Gillies ordered the men to the fire buckets and we formed a line and began to bale, but it was of no use. The water gained on the pumps and the buckets, and so on till the water put the fires out.”
ONE LAST CHANCE
“When it was found that the power was gone, and that she could not be moved, we knew that we could live in the trough of that fearful sea, and only hope left us, was to run out the anchor and bring her head up to the sea, and let her ride out the gale Every seaman realized the danger of attempting to do that in the face of a hurricane, and when Captain Gillies decided to do it, he ordered the lashing of the boats cut, and told the men that they were forced to take one last chance, for their lives. At the word the anchor dropped from the bow and the chain began to pay out, but the sea was too heavy and instead of the anchor catching with a firm grip and bringing the ship’s head up to the storm with a jerk, it went too slow, and she simply tumbled into the trough of the sea, which broke over in torrents. In an instant she was as helpless as a log, and she was tossed here and there and taking every wave aboard. From port to starboard the great mountains of foaming water poured, rolling into the hold, and was added to the quantity already weighing her down. The load was too much, and, after a moment, when we all felt that we were lost, the ship keeled over to the starboard and went down, stern first.”
THE SHIP WENT DOWN
“What became of my mates, I do not know. I remember that the boats had loosened and some of the men were ready to take to them if the vessel went under, but no boat could have lived for a minute in that terrible sea, and if any of them did get into the boats it was simply to be swamped as the first wave struck them. Maybe they did not leave the ship at all. I was near the spar, and then the stern of the vessel began to go down. I went for the rigging and went up as far as I could. Another man went up with me-the second mate-and I thank the Lord that he was with me or I would have gone mad during all the long hours I was up there hanging on and trying to keep off the frightful cold that was slowly killing us both. There as a rolling to and fro as the vessel struck the bottom and slowly righted to an even keel, and then a second later she rolled over to her side. I thought she was going all the way over, but she did not. She settled on them, and though the waves rolled her from port to starboard, the spar remained out of the water, with the mate and myself clinging to it.”
A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE
“All this time the hail and sleet was coming down in a cutting sheet and we were covered with ice in a few minutes. For though the top of the spar on which we were hanging was twenty-five feet above the water, the big waves struck us and broke over us and the hail cut us like shot. I knew it was about 3 0’clock when we went down, and it seemed to me that daylight would never come. For what seemed an age we hung onto the rigging, and we twisted our arms about the spar and let them freeze into position, or we would have fallen into the fearful sea. When daylight came we could not see a sail anywhere near us, and the sea was as bad as ever. There did not seem to be any chance of it subsiding. Hour after hour we waited there, and two steamers hoved in sight only to pass without seeing us, and I began to despair when the mate saw the Mariposa coming. For a long time we did not know whether she would sight us, and we watched her from the time she was a little smokey haze up the lake until we could see she was a big vessel. When she finally sighted us and we saw her head for us, I tried to tell my mate, but I could not, and he looked at me with a happy look in the face. It was a terrible to us before she came up to us, and then I knew we were not safe yet, for the sea was running mountains high and the big steel boat was rolling like a skiff. Every wave sent her up in the air until we could see her white bottom under her water line. We knew at once that her captain would not attempt to lower a boat, for it would have been chewed up. When the Mariposa got within a cable length of us a man with a strong voice yelled to us to hang on. “Don’t give up.: he yelled, “We will get you off soon.” Then the boat circled around us, coming as near as she could, but when she was within a few rods a big roller swept her far out and she went off to starboard, rolling heavily when she got in the trough of the sea. Then she came back again, and again missed us, and we could not take a line had one been thrown to us. Again she went around and we watched her and watched the men on her rail, waiting to give us a lift when they could. On the third trip round she ran right along our spar and as she went past a dozen men reached for us. I don’t know who got the mate, but Mr. Smith, the engineer, got a hold of me, and dragged me from the spar and over the rail of the Mariposa. An instant later we had passed the little stick on which I and the mate had been hanging for almost a day, although it seemed a week.
NAMES OF THE MISSING
The following are the names of sixteen of the nineteen men who lost their lives:-Alex Gillies, captain, Buffalo; Geo. Gibson, first mate, Buffalo; Wm. Clancy, chief engineer, Buffalo; John D. Taylor, steward, Buffalo; Nelson Skinner, first assistant engineer; Louis Gilmore, watchman; Richard McLean, wheelman; Robert Williams, wheelman; A.J. Richards, look-out; Henry Thompson, look-out; Conrad Blanker, fireman; John Healy, assistant steward; Frederick Miffort, oiler; Edward Smith, deck hand, Rochester, N.Y.; M. Bell, deck hand. The names of three of the men drowned are unknown. One was a fireman, another a deck hand and third a porter. The hailing place of most of those lost is also unknown to the steamers owners.
The names of the two men saved are Louis LaForce, jr., second mate, and Wm. Gill, a deck hand, living at 137 Kent st., Rochester.
YOU Said..
Subscribe..