[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.
Michigan Central Freight Train Smashed
[People’s Press, 9 May 1905]
St. Thomas-May 6-A bad wreck 0ccurred on the Michigan Central railway two miles west of Kingsmill yesterday at 5 a.m. through an axles of a freight car breaking. Eighteen cars were derailed and piled up six in a tier. The train was a fast merchandise. One car was loaded with steel plates. There were two carloads of pianos and several automobiles, all of which were smashed to pieces.
The John C. Pringle Helpless on Lake Michigan
[Welland Tribune, 12 November 1897]
Detroit, Mich., Nov.9- A special to the news from sand Beach, Mich., says:
With her rudder gone and a northwest gale blowing forty miles an hour, the steamer John C. Pringle is drifting down the lake at the mercy of the waves. The steamer, with three barges in tow, bound down, was noticed outside the harbor this morning flying signals of distress. The tug, Boynton, with the life savers, went to her assistance. The tug got a line to the disabled steamer, but each time it parted. The sea then became so heavy that the Boynton was forced to give it up. The life savers were staying with the Pringle. The barges were apparently all right and have sailed on down the lake. The Pringle and tow are lumber laden.
The Pringle is a wooden steamer of 474 tons burden, built in Detroit in 1880, is 173 feet in length and rates “A 2.” She is owned by G. Reisterer of Tonawanda, N.Y.
The wind has shifted to the northwest, and the tug will make another attempt to take the steamer in tow.
[Welland Tribune, 19 November 1897]
Jesse Sorge, our popular butcher, has moved back on the farm in Caistor to help his father, who is advanced in years. It is reported that Mr. Flewellyn will be the next man to strive after the patronage of the Fonthill people in the butcher business.
Keith’s Restaurant closes its doors after more than 60 years
By Steve Henschel, Photo: Staff Photo
[Niagara this Week, 25 May 2017]
PELHAM-Looking out the windows of Keith’s restaurant Vilma Moretti has watched Fonthill’s continuous march through the decades.
She was just 18 when she started serving at the eatery, famed for its pies, on the corner of Highway 20 and Pelham Street. The restaurant has been central to her life, she married Keith Crick in 1962, and has run the restaurant along with her son Tom Crick since Keith’s passing in 1993. Now, at age 73, and with the death of her son Tom, the restaurant has closed. On a Friday evening the restaurant’s guests enjoyed a meal and one last slice of pie, before Moretti closed the doors on the location that has sat at the very heart of Fonthill since 1959. No longer will she look out the windows and witness the ever-changing face of the town.
“I don’t know where I am sometimes,” said Moretti, who has watched big box stores move into the town. She said it seems sometimes the small town she grew up in is long gone. Klager’s Meats, where Keith’s used to get its meats is closed now, so is Keiths.
“It’s time for me to retire,” said Moretti, explaining with the loss of her son and business partner to pancreatic cancer she can’t keep the restaurant open.
“I still see Tom coming through the doors,” said Moretti, speaking from the shuttered restaurant where the chairs now sit upturned on the tables.
“He’ll always be here,” she said, explaining it is hard to close the restaurant. She added, however, that the memories of that place she will carry forever.
“This place is bricks and mortar, the memories are here, and here,” she said, first pointing to her heart, and then her head. On a physical level those memories live in the more than 300 photos of customers Moretti has been picking up over the last week.
“I’ve been on this corner since I was 18, it’s not been only work, but my social life,” said Moretti.
Keith first moved into the location back in 1959, continuing his foray into the restaurant business after operating the Drift In next door for several years. Before he took over the building it had been a confectionary and then a bakery since first being built in 1929. Keith was born on a farm where he learned to cook from his mother. He brought that talent, and her recipes, to the restaurant business where he, and eventually Moretti and Tom, kept a focus on using top-notch ingredients and made-from-scratch recipes cooked daily.
“He certainly could bake pies,” said Moretti, adding, “Tom took after him in that respect.
Moretti met Keith, 26 years her senior, when she took on a serving position after graduating from Pelham High School. He was a friendly man, she recalled, young at heart who loved to golf, play bridge and talk politics.
“He was a charmer,” she said.
Moretti explained it is the people she will miss the most.
“My customers as well as my staff are my family,” she said, adding some of her wit staffers have been working tables for over two decades.”
Moretti said Keith’s is home for many of the staff, patron and herself.
“That is what this place is, everybody comes home to Keith’s,” said Moretti, who is putting the location up for sale. She hopes that perhaps another restauranteur with a focus on home cooking could open up shop.
*Personal note. I cannot stress enough how wonderful this spot was for everyone in the village. Not only the pies were amazing, but the roast beef was worth the trip to Keiths.’
[Pnyx 1960]
The widow of Louis S. Haney of Fenwick, Edith B, Haney, who died in 1959, left in her will the sum of twenty thousand dollars for student scholarships and for help in buying books for the Pelham District High School. The trust fund is to be administered by the School Trustees. The interest each year is to be divided into five parts: four of these are to be given as scholarships to such members(not exceeding four) of the graduating class who have excelled in their school work and who may be in need of assistance to study in an institution of higher learning; the fifth part is to be used to buy new books for the school library.
Mrs. Haney and her husband were natives of the district. The daughter of Thomas Robinson, she as born just across the Chippawa near Beckett’s Bridge, Lou Haney was born in Fenwick in the house where theHerrs now live next door to Mr. Crossley. His father Johnson Haney was a thresher.
Lou Haney started out as a carpenter and, in partnership with William Ryan, ran a planing mill. They built the store where the Newstead Hardware is now. There, Mr. Haney went into the hardware business. When power pumps were introduced he sold them to farmers to take the place of the old hand pumps. He would leave a pump with a farmer to try out and the man, finding the machine so much more efficient on a bleak fall morning than endlessly pumping troughs full of water for thirsty cows and horses, would buy it. Mr. Haney was a good salesman. Later when radios were coming into common use, he sold them.too, throughout the district. He built up a successful business.
Lou Haney, a devout man, joined the Church of God. It is interesting to know that he was baptized in Garner’s pond. Both he and Mrs. Haney were faithful members of the Fonthill Church of God as long as they lived.
He had married Edith Robinson and they built a house on Maple Avenue where they had a garden. On week-ends and holidays she would make up a picnic lunch and they would drive around the peninsula picking up rocks and stones from Stoney Creek to Queenston and from the shore of Lake Erie for their rock garden. They collected garden ornaments and pieces of statuary. The garden was their hobby and they were proud of it, it is still a show place.
In the early nineteen-thirties Mr. Haney became ill. He went up north for his health but failed to recover and died shortly after returning to Fenwick.
Mrs. Haney as left alone with her house and garden. She had not been able to carry on the business during her husband’s illness and it was sold. After his death, acting on the advice of the late Arthur Armbrust and others, Mrs. Haney invested her money wisely. It was a time when stocks and other securities were low in price. She was able to hold her investments till the more than doubled in value. Unfortunately her health failed and she had to give up her activities.
Mrs. Haney had been an active worker in the village and church organizations. She was interested in Women’s Institute and until her last illness was a member of the Maple Acre Library Board and, for many years, its secretary.
The school has been fortunate in having had so many public spirited citizens in the vicinity and who have supported its work in different ways. We are apt to forget those who have gone before us. Mrs. Haney and her husband will be remembered by name. The awards of scholarships will be known as the Louis S. And Edith B. Haney Scholarships. Let us hope their generosity will long be appreciated.
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