[People’s Press, 1 February 1910]
Last Thursday arrangements were being made for a kitchen shower in honor of the approaching wedding of one of Welland’s fair belles.
A kitchen shower, be it known, is an event when all the ladies visit the home of the prospective bride, see her single for the last time; sometimes get a squint at the gown, and present her with anything from an egg cup to a tea kettle.
“Some one’s dead?”
“The bride to be has passed away.”
Happy morsels for the gossips’ tongue and so the news spread. The undertaker was seen carrying in a coffin where the festivities were to be.
But it was not a coffin, it was only a box of packed camp chairs to accommodate the visitors who were coming with the gifts.
One of the Worst Wind Storms on Record Here
[People’s Press, 25 January 1910]
Welland, Jan. 24-Old timers whose whiskers are white with the years, and whose memories are ripe with experiences of early county days, of times when there was no Welland, but Merrittville, declare that they never knew of a storm with the severity of the one that swooped down on this town last Saturday.
Early in the day it came a gentle breeze, giving such fair promise of a good day, that a dozen farmers braved the slushy roads and came to market.
By noon it was a gale, and by one o’clock it had developed into a hurricane.
In this hurricane came snow, blinding in its intensity.
It is well that it was not cold, as they speak of cold in the far west, but it was a blizzard, the like of which has probably never passed this way before.
Business was paralyzed.
One could not see two feet away.
The blinding snow mercilessly filled the eyes of those who had to go out and many staggered like drunken men.
One young lady en route to the M.C.R. Station was blown over and had to take refuge in a neighboring house.
“Red” Jones who handles the ribbons for Mr. Minor, the buss-man, was lifted off his seat in the front of the buss, but hung to the ribbons.
At Fort Erie two cutters were overturned by the gale and the occupants injured.
Freight trains were stalled at the Falls, it being unsafe to send them across the bridge.
Business was suspended.
Several of the merchants did not return for the afternoon.
Some of the farmers who drove in early in the day, remained till Sunday morning, when they made their way home through drifts and bare spots.
Only five inches of snow fell.
It was not the depth, but the way it came down.
Places that were supposedly tight before, little chinks in windows, hitherto unnoticed cracks under doors, all wore white trimmings inside.
The snow drifted everywhere.
It was most artistic in its designs, and miserably partial.
One man had his walks swept by great nature’s brush, swept as clear as a board.
The man next door had a drift three feet high to clear away.
The wind had a fine sweep at the corner of Muir and Main streets.
And on Sunday the public awoke and those who ventured out found a long drift of pure white on this busy thoroughfare.
During the storm there were many collisions.
Some of them were head-on between men and those of the opposite sex.
There was not time to stop to apologize. Those who collided simply cleared the snow from their eyes and hurried on.
And Sunday the snow fell fitfully, and that which had piled up melted from the windows and Welland woke up and commenced to dig itself out.
Two of the Occupants Couldn’t Swim
-Narrow Escape from Drowning
[People’s Press, 21 June 1910]
A close call from death by drowning was experienced by a party of three in the Welland river about four miles above here on Sunday.
Byrne Eastman, Clarence Page and Alan Michener of Welland were out in the latter’s canoe. It seems neither Eastman nor Page could swim, nor were they used to riding in a canoe, and when they were about in the centre of the river, over went the canoe and all three went into the water. As soon as Michener noticed the other two couldn’t swim, he assisted them and got them ahold of the canoe, and was swimming around to push the canoe into shore, when young Eastman lost his head and grabbed him by the neck. Both went down, and Michener loosened his friend’s hold of his neck, and locked his legs around his neck, and when he came up, he brought Eastman up too.
About this time Henry Carl and Hugh Graham of Welland, who were paddling around in a punt, reached them and they hauled the two in the boat.
It was a narrow escape and young Michener is to be congratulated on the coolness and courage he displayed throughout.
And he has to Come all the Way from Toronto and Prove that He Never had a Wife
[Welland Telegraph, 11 October 1910]
H.G. Wiltse, of Toronto, general agent of the Niagara Navigation Co., was received in our fair city on Wednesday in a most melancholy and dejected frame of mind. He came on an errand such as few men in his position have ever been called upon to perform.
Truth to tell Mr. Wiltse was served with a bailiffs warrant, summonsing him to appear in Division Court at Welland on Wednesday morning. He had to answer to the serious charge of having neglected to pay his wife’s doctor’s bill. The doctor in the case hails from Niagara Falls and he had a lengthy bill, including several treatments for housemaid’s knee and also $18 for a confinement.
Mr. Wiltse deputed the bill though not on the grounds that the charges were excessive. Having been a bachelor all his life until the very day of trial, he could not well see how he could have contracted the expenses referred to in the bill.
But he walked into court with a heart heavily palpating, for one never knows what may be proven in a court room. The doctor got one good, square, searching look at him and then threw up his hands. Mr. Wiltse was the wrong party.
Mr. Wiltse was naturally overjoyed as any faithful bachelor should be, to learn that he had no wife and family and consequently had not doctor’s bills to settle, but it ruffled him a bit that he had to come all the way from Toronto to make the claimant aware of the fact.
In view of the circumstances set forth on the Wiltse case, The Telegraph advises its readers to make careful scrutiny of doctor’s bills. If an innocent bachelor is to be charged heavily for confinements, what assurance has the man of the family that he is not being charged for twins and triplets when the doctor brings but a solitary unit to join the family circle.
[Welland Telegraph, 15 April 1910]
Today-the fifteenth day of April-is the fifth anniversary of the opening of the offices of the Welland Realty Company in Welland, the fifth anniversary of the advent of B.J. McCormick, to the business community of Welland.
A wonderful transformation has taken place in this old town in those five years. Then the population was only a dozen or so over eighteen hundred. Now it is over three times that figure, and B.J. has done more than any other person to bring about that change. He has been the means of bringing to Welland several million dollars of investment in industries, industries today employing their hundreds of men.
These enterprises had the direct effect of multipying by six the number of workingmen’s homes. Indeed, the ramifications of this progress have been felt in every department of local business.
In these five years Mr. McCormick has sold over seven hundred thousand dollars worth of local real estate, and he enjoys the proud record of never having had one dissatisfied client. Only once was a claim adjusted by the courts, and that was in a friendly suit to establish a precedent.
B.J. is the most lavish user of printer’s ink this old county ever saw. Since the day he first saw Welland until this morning, he has splashed it on thick and often. The result has been that he has made the firm name a household word throughout the peninsula, and has carried the name of Welland throughout the broad areas of Canada and the United States.
On this birthday The Telegraph hastens with its heartiest congratulations.
[Welland Telegraph, 22 April 1910]
J.D. Gunn, addressing the Water Commissioners on Tuesday afternoon, stated that he understood the Township of Crowland would construct sewers on streets in the Township outside of the town limits. These sewers will be constructed on streets upon which houses have been erected only.
[Welland Telegraph, 22 April 1910]
A local builder has purchased four lots on Church Street. Four houses will soon don these lots. The building boom in Welland continues to grow. Not a day passes but a great deal of real estate changes hands and contracts for new houses are let. This will be a big year for Welland.
That is the Intention of the Members of Holy Trinity Church
[The Telegraph, 14 June 1910]
A new church will be erected by the members of Holy Trinity Church. That is the present intention. The work of erecting the new edifice will not be started this year but plans are being made toward that end at the present time. A warden’s meeting was held on Friday night to discuss the matter.
Presbyterian Managers Asked to Complete Canvas and Then Put up School Room
[The Telegraph, 14 June 1910]
A meeting of the congregation of the Presbyterian Church was held on Thursday evening for the purpose of receiving the report of the canvassers from the campaign for a new Sunday School room and alterations to the church. It was found that while the canvass was not nearly completed, almost $2000 had been subscribed and about a quarter of that amount guaranteed each year for sinking fund and interest.
In view of the circumstances the congregation instructed the managers to complete the canvass and then proceed with construction.
On Friday afternoon at a meeting of the Ladies Aid of the Church, it was decided to increase their contribution to the fund from $100 to $200. On Sunday Mr. Cunningham suggested that the new school room be termed “McCuaig Memorial Hall.”
[Welland Telegraph, 14 June 1910]
Fort Erie- Contracts were let for the new waterworks system. An addition of seventy-five rooms was being made to a summer hotel.
Niagara-on-the-Lake- The militia training camp will open on June 7, Navigation and the fruit season will commence a little earlier. A busy summer is expected.
Port Colborne- Work went forward on the new flour mill. The section of the mill now being built will have the largest capacity of any mill in Canada, with one exception. It will turn out six thousand barrels of flour per day, grinding thirty thousand bushels of wheat. The storage capacity will be two hundred and fifty thousand bags of flour, and the elevator will hold a million bushels of wheat. Provision is made in the foundations for doubling the capacity of the mill.
Welland- The Dain Agricultural Implements Works commenced work with sixty employees. A rail-joint shop was added to the Ontario Iron & Steel Company’s plant. A large number of foreign laborers arrived for employment in different works. Building trades were active, many dwellings being in course of erection.
Dunnville- The ratepayers voted on the three by-laws-To loan thirty thousand dollars to the promoters of an industry for the manufacture of auto parts, furnaces, shovels and other articles; to grant a fixed assessment of twenty-five thousand dollars and free water for ten years to the Dominion Hammock Manufacturing Company, and to spend thirty thousand dollars for a new high school building. All three were carried to large majorities.
Merritton- All the mills and factories were running full time, with conditions of employment good.
Thorold- Favorable conditions prevailed in the labor market; the supply and demand being about equal. Thorold will have a new pulp and paper factory. The factory will be in operation in July or August.
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