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[Welland Telegraph, 28 May 1912]
D. Hoover, West Main Street, while digging in his garden last week, made an interesting find of a number of Indian relics. He found several dozen arrow heads, a gun flint and a broken stone tomahawk. These reminders of the era of the Red Man must have lain under the soil for at least a century and a quarter.
[People’s Press. 9 April 1912]
The conductors on the Welland street railway are having a great deal of difficulty in landing their passengers on South Main street, because there are no crossings in many places and there is mire a foot deep between the tracks and the walk. Several lady passengers had to be carried ashore. One of the conductors said his rule was to carry all who were not over twenty five. The conductors are obliged to place stepping stones for ladies over 25 wearing hobble skirts.
Cooper and Swayze Form Partnership
[People’s Press, 7 May 1912]
William Swayze has gone into partnership with John Cooper, the owner of the Dexter House, and the two men who are both experienced in the business will operate under the name of the New Dexter Hotel Company. The terms of partnership were entered into on Monday.
Mr. Cooper has had the Dexter House almost entirely remodeled. The three floors have been covered with tile flooring making them exceptionally clean and sanitary. Three new tile lavatories have been installed.
The owners announce their intention of re-furbishing the house and making it one of the most up-to-date hotels in the district.
Rescued by S. Lambert-A Arkins’ Store and Dwelling with all Contents a Complete Loss and No Insurance-S. Lambert’s House Damaged
A fire occurred shortly after six o’clock last evening which caused a loss of between $4,000 and $5,000 and in which Mrs. A. Arkins and her two children, a little girl and a baby had a thrilling experience.
The building was owned and occupied by A. Arkins. On the first floor he conducted a furniture and upholstering business, and he resided on the second floor.
Mr. Arkins was away working at the time, and about six o’clock, Mrs. Arkins, who was upstairs with the children, went down to the store and lighted a coal oil lamp which she left on a counter at the foot of the stairs. Some time afterward the little girl noticed the floor was hot and asked where the smoke was coming from. Opening the door to stair door leading to the stair below Mrs. Arkins saw it was a mass of flames, which rapidly shot up the stairs cutting off the only avenue of escape. With her two children, she rushed to the small back balcony. Here there was a drop of fifteen feet, and she screamed for help.
Sam Lambert heard her cries and rushed to her assistance. There was no way of getting up to the balcony except to climb the posts which supported it. This he did and securing, first, the baby, he slid down the post with the helpless little one. Next he climbed up and brought the girl down, and a third time he performed the feat, assisting Mrs. Arkins to climb down the post. Mr. Lambert’s feat was a remarkable one. Very few could have succeeded in climbing the fifteen feet up the post to the balcony. The three persons would have had to jump from the verandah or burn to death in a very few minutes had he not so promptly and bravely rescued them. Mrs. Arkins fainted when the danger was past.
By this time the alarm had been given, but when the firemen succeeded in getting the water turned on the whole building, upstairs and down, was a huge bonfire. The interior of the building was completely gutted and not an article of the contents was saved, the furniture stock and household goods being wholly lost. In fact every earthly possession of the Arkins family was entirely destroyed except the clothes they were wearing. Their loss will be fully $4000 with not a dollar of insurance. Their situation is a most deplorable and distressing one.
The next building, a house occupied by Andrew Jones, and owned by S. Lambert, stood only two or three feet away. It was damaged to the extent of several hundred dollars and only the fact that both buildings were metal sheeted saved it from almost total loss. Mr. Jones had no insurance on his furniture and it was removed from the building.
Just what caused the fire is not known. The lamp did not explode but Mrs. Arkins snuffed the coal oil lamp in lighting it and may have allowed a spark to drop.
People’s Press
1 October 1912
Fire: 30 September 1912
Struck by Lightning
Loss over $15,000
Fire, started by lightning, completely destroyed the large frame mill known latterly as “Brown’s Mills,” on the raceway at Welland, last Friday morning about 4:30 o’clock. The mill, which was owned by Robert Cooper, had not been in operation for some time past, but was used by him as a stable and store room. The teamster, Archie Hannigan, was at the mill at the time, giving the horses their morning feed, and was prostrated, but recovered in time to get out the team of heavy horses, and the driving horses, the only other team in the barn were got out by Robert Edington and George Dooley, a neighbor. Other contents of the mill, consisting of valuable machinery, hay, oats, salt, straw, fertilizer, &c., were burned. The loss is estimated at between $15,000 and $20,000, on which there was an insurance of $1500 in the London Mutual.
The building was the largest and most substantial frame structure in town, and burned fast and fiercely, the flames pouring out of the roof a few minutes after the building was struck. The crash of the stroke was so great that the whole neighborhood was aroused, and the firemen, helped by the rain, succeeded in saving adjacent buildings, in which, however, the glass was broken by the intense heat. Cinders were carried s far away as the Y.M.C.A. grounds, fully half-a-mile, and in all probability other fires would have been started, only that the roofs were all soaking wet by the heavy rains that had fallen just before.
The burned mills, originally known as the Aqueduct Mills, were built by late Moses Cook of St. Catharines, about the year 1850, over 60 years ago. Its original site was on the west bank of the OLD canal, (the grandfather of the present canal) a little north of the spot now occupied by Clemo’s barber shop. Mr. Cook sold to Betts & Dusenbark, pioneer residents of Welland, and they sold to the late David Cooper, previously a resident of Marshville. Mr. Cooper operated the mill, doing the principal gristing business in this section, until, on the second enlargement of the canal (1872-76) when the government purchased the mill, the site being required for the then new aqueduct-the one now in use. Government sold the building (to be moved) to late Brown Bros., who moved it to the site on Dennistoun street where it stood till it made a 24th of May bonfire last Friday morning.
Previous to its purchase by Brown Bros. the mill, like all mills of the date of its erection, was a “stone” mill, using stones for grinding. After its removal Brown Bros. equipped it with the latest roller processes, and operated it for some years, eventually selling it to Mr. Robert Cooper, who continued its owner until the end of the chapter.
People’s Press
28 May 1912
Fire: 24 May 1912