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.
[Evening Tribune, 31 October 1964]
Sausages and apples predominated the Welland market this morning. Some varieties of sausages though appearing exotic to English Canadian patrons, are actually commonplace to their fellow countrymen from Central and Easter Europe.
Two varieties of blood sausage, for example, one lighter in color than the other, sold at 35 cents a pound. French sausage was 59 cents a pound and Polish sausage went at 65 cents a pound. Two more familiar kinds, farmers sausage and liver sausage, sold at 59 and 55 cents a pound respectively.
A great profusion of apples in many varieties met the eye of incoming customers. Spies were there, selling at 65 to 85 cents a six-quart basket. The Courtland type, especially held away, selling at 75 a six quart basket. Red delicious were 85 cents a six-quart and MacIntosh were 70 cent a six-quart basket. Pears sold at 65 cents a six-quart basket.
Egg prices were as follows: small, 35 cents, medium, 45 cents, large, 53 cents extra-large, 55 cents.
Beef heart sold at 35 cents a pound, baby beef liver at 49 cents and geese and ducks, 59 cents a pound.
One standout, a booth selling nothing but chrysanthemums, attracted many buyers. Its mums went from $1 to $1.25 a bunch.
Vegetable prices were as follows: squash, 10 to 25 cents apiece; pumpkins, 20 to 50 cents apiece; potatoes, 50 cents a six quart basket; cauliflower two for 25 cents; cabbage 20 cents a head; garlic 35 cents a pint and $2.75 a six-quart basket; red peppers, 25 cents a pint; Spanish onions 75 cents a six-quart basket.
By REV. RON HARMER
PUBLICITY CONVENOR
FONTHILL BAPTIST CHURCH
[Welland Tribune, 17 February 1987]
PELHAM-The 140th annual meeting of Fonthill Baptist Church was held recently with Neville Borisenko, chairman of the Deacons’ board, presiding and thus closing out of his three-year year of responsibility.
The meeting began with a delicious pot-luck supper in the church hall, followed at 7 p.m. by the business meeting held in the church sanctuary.
For the year 1986, a new procedure was followed. The Nominating committee began its work in October, seeking to choose carefully and prayerfully the new officers for 1987 over several weeks.
When this work was completed, the new people maned were elected at the Nov. 26 church business meeting. The purpose was to allow them to begin their stewardship as of Jan. 1, 1987.
At this meeting, the church budget for 1987 was presented. The newly-appointed officers for the new year were then able to sit in at the last Deacons’ board meeting in the year, held in December. In this way they could get acquainted with their new roles and provide a smooth tradition into 1987.
Pastor Rob Duncan has now just finished his first full year as pastor. The year has been busy and he has focused on preaching, teaching, visitation and counselling. Two retreats (in April and October) were held with the Deacons’ board. A wise emphasis was placed on ‘Renewal’ and renewal cottage meetings were held throughout the summer months.
Bible study and prayer have been central in our church life. Many local needs were evidenced among our people, and concentration was on these things. Our pastor carried a heavy load locally in the Association, and convention-wise, and needs our prayers.
In the annual meeting on Jan. 25, our purpose was not to centre on written reports so much, but to think of specific happening in some visual presentation. The nursery school presented a small choir and sang beautifully.
Jim Overholt, chairman of the nursery school board, presided. He introduced Elizabeth High, one of the nursery school teachers. She gave winsome words of witness, telling how she came to be involved with our school. It was an excellent presentation.
One of the mothers involved with the school is Karen Poynton. She has started a mothers’ auxiliary to provide moral support, especially for these little ones. Joyce Gunter is the school superintendent and Carolyn Lammers is the other teacher serving along with High. The choir presented a humorous skit, and Janet Robinson Mission Circle yielded insight into the ways our women are helping locally and overseas.
Our church has a very active prayer fellowship. Prayer requests circulate constantly. Many answers to our prayers have come. At least 44 people are involved at the moment as prayer partners.
Bob Rittenhouse has just resigned as Sunday school superintendent after serving most capably for four years, He is succeeded now by Al Topolinsky, who, in 1986 served as chairman of the Christian Education division. We can not overestimate the value of the Sunday School which is the right arm of the church.
Missions both at home and abroad are our concern and our church is a vital part of overseas missions through our Canada-Wide Overseas Mission Board. We share with missionaries as prayer partners, as well as with our gifts.
In 1986 our church budget stood at $94,325, and of that, $25,605 was given to missions at home and overseas. Now in 1987, our church budget stands at $101,050 and the budget at $28,050.
During the early part of the meeting a “fitting-in-memoriam” service was held to remember those who in 1986 moved on into higher service. The presiding chairman, Mr. Borisenko at the end of this helpful meeting, took the chairman’s gavel and turned it over to Malcolm Gibbon, who had been elected in his place for the next three years.
The church’s prayer is that a deepening and widening influence may continue through true Christian worship and outreach under Mr. Gibbon’s leadership.
Affixing Stamps in the Proper Corner Assists Work at the Post Office
[Welland Tribune, February 1929]
For more than 10 months, Welland postoffice has had in operation a stamping machine attached to which is an electric meter.
During these 10 months a million letters have gone through this machine, not including large size envelopes of letters posted with stamps in other than the right-hand corner.
Postoffice officials explained that the rapidity of movement in the work of stamping letters by the machine was badly hindered at times by the practice on the part of some correspondents of affixing the regular stamps on any place but the proper right-hand corner.
Officials stated that the machine was of exceptional service at such times as Christmas, Easter, St. Valentines’ Day and similar heavy mail delivery periods, and similar heavy mail delivery periods, and the St. Valentine’s Day mail delivery service had been the heaviest known.
Merchants down town bore this last statement out. One firm alone sent out over the Niagara peninsula no less than 43,200 one-cent valentines, more than 10,000 valentine cards, and between 4,000 and 4,500 10 cent-cards, to say nothing of thousands of post cards.
FARMHOUSE TWO MILES NORTH OF FONTHILL BURNED TO THE GROUND
[Welland Tribune, 24 February 1940]
Fonthill, Feb. 24-Believed to have been caused by a defective or overheated chimney the farm home of Alfred Misener, two miles north of Fonthill was burned to the ground on Friday afternoon. The loss was estimated at $2,500 partly insured.
The Fonthill fire brigade answered the alarm, but the blaze had gained considerable headway before their arrival, and without water the firemen were unable to render a great deal of assistance.
The blaze was discovered by a member of the family and the furniture in the lower part of the house was saved.
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