Blyth 130 Years Ago
It opens with a brief description of the village, as follows:
A flourishing village on the London, Huron and Bruce Railway, 60 miles from London. Population about 1300. It contains several stores, newspaper office, hotels, saw and grist mills, foundry, salt works, woollen mills, etc.
There are about 120 entries in the Blyth section of the directory. Directories of this type included entries by subscription; they were not intended to identify all residents. Both individuals and businesses are included in the listings along with the name of the street location. Most personal entries identify the occupation of the person, with "gentleman" indicating a retired person or "res" indicating a resident. Most individuals are male heads of family with no reference to their spouse. There are a few female entries in the case where a woman runs a business, or is a widow in which case the given name of her late husband is noted.
e.g. Coulter, Ann (wid Thomas) res Queen
The array of occupations I found especially interesting. There is a whole group of occupations which provide local services which today are uncommon in small communities and are usually provided by large corporations engaged in mass production. Included in this category are these occupations: pumpmaker, shoemaker, livery man, dray man, brickmaker, tailor, harness maker, cooper, confectioner, carriage maker, merchant tailor, stove manufacturer, teamster, furniture maker.
One entry that caught my eye right away is "Pollock, Robert J. , prop Temperance House, Queen" We know that Pollock owned and operated the Queen's Hotel which was located at the north east corner of King and Queen where the Corner Café is located in 2010. We can only speculate on why this hotel in 1881 bore the seemingly contradictory name, "Temperance". One possible explanation is that he was trying to assuage the anti alcohol faction by suggesting that his establishment allows only moderate consumption. A more likely explanation is that the local authority (village council or county council) had decided not to issue a licence to Pollock for that particular year to allow his place to serve spirits, and he may have changed the name to reflect the enforced "dryness" of the hotel.
The temperance movement in Ontario was misnamed, because their whole aim was towards total prohibition - not temperate use of alcohol. Invariably spurred on and supported by a outside activists, the locals applied pressure on authorities to keep a firm control on drinking establishments and close them on the slightest provocation. Although there were at times as many as five hotels in the village, those authorities would arbitrarily decide to issue only three licences to sell alcoholic beverages in public establishments. They also would usually allow one business to sell spirits for private consumption (medicinal purposes only?).
There is no doubt that there was a great deal of alcohol abuse in those days - even more than today. But the hotels contributed enormously to the development of communities in those early days. At various times the local hotels were the only place available for community meetings. Hoteliers encouraged business development and personally contributed much to the growth of the community. Of course the core contribution was their provision of food and lodging for visitors who brought wares, business opportunities, and commercial ideas to the village.
The lives of these hotel owners and operators were made extremely difficult by the temperance people. They never knew what the next year would have in store for them, since their business could be decimated by the loss of their licence for the next year.
The following are the hotel proprietors in 1881: Robert Brownlee, Mansion House (Westmoreland and Queen); Jonathan Emigh, Revere House (Dinsley near the GTR Station which is in 2010 the Station House B&B), William Hawkshaw, Commercial Hotel (Queen and Dinsley, now Blyth Inn), Robert Pollock, Temperance House aka Queen's Hotel, (Queen and King); David Erwin, Central Hotel, (Queen Street where the car wash now stands).
There is a reference to one of the Central Hotel's boarders, Arthur W. Nation, manager of McCosh Bros. We are not sure what business was conducted by that firm.
Thus Blyth had five hotels in 1881: Mansion, Revere, Commercial, Temperance, and Central.
The above commercial uncertainty may explain why in 1881 two erstwhile hoteliers, William Shane and John Sherritt, are shown in different fields of endeavour. Shane is listed as carpenter, and Sherritt as a shoemaker
The name of David Erwin of Central Hotel has the letters KOTM after his name. This stands for a benevolent organisation called Knights of the Maccabees.
Blyth's only newspaper at this time was called Blyth Review. Its proprietor was John T. Mitchell. listed in the directory.
We often think of these olden times as rather spartan, with no one having the money or the time to indulge in luxuries and ornament. This view is challenged by the fact that there were at least two jewellers in Blyth in 1881. The best known, and probably the most successful was Frank Metcalf, recorded in the directory as handling jewelry and fancy goods. (We also know that his shop included a telegraph office, and he was very active in a provincial organization of fruit growers). This shop was located directly across from the Memorial Hall, in the south half of Sharon's Miniature Museum (2010). The other jeweller listed is Martin Owen.
One man is listed as a fireman. This was Murdoch Campbell. He would have been responsible for the operation of the steam plant of one of the mills in Blyth whether saw mill, grist mill, or flour mill.
One photographer is listed in 1881 and she is woman, Mrs. Sarah Foy. Photographers were very important in those days before simple and compact cameras became widely used by the public.
There are two coopers listed here: John Kruse, and Fred Burnett. Kruse operated on Queen Street, but lived on Westmoreland; Burnett lived on Comb street, but might have worked for Kruse.
There are two clergymen listed in the Directory: William Birks, minister of Blyth CM Methodist Church (Queen Street, same building as used by the Christian Reform Church in 2010), and Rev. Archibald McLean of St.Andrew's Presbyterian Church (Dinsley and Mill Street)
There are many Blyth people in the building trades which is reasonable, given the fact that this period is one of rapid growth. There is a high demand for building of homes and business. The occupations of carpenters, sawyers, contractors, plasterers, bricklayers,brick makers are all represented in this directory. The demand for construction was increased by the frequency of both residential and commercial fires.
In 1881, James Huckstep is listed as a barber on Queen Street in Blyth. His shop was located in the middle unit of the Howard Block which is the building immediately north of Memorial Hall. James (Jimmy) gave me my first haircut, probably around 1936-37. I don't recall how I behaved during that operation, but if I cried, I am sure it was caused by the sight of the scissors in those shaky old hands. Jimmy died in 1941 at the age of 81.
Only one person laid claim to the cheese maker trade. I assume that he was not the only one in that business, but no one else subscribed. There probably was a cheese factory in or near the village at that time.
There were a few display ads in this section of the directory.
This is the text of Lawrence and Gracey advertisement:
Blyth Steam Cabinet Works
LAWRENCE & GRACEY
Manufacturers and dealers in
HOUSEHOLD
FURNITURE
Parlor Suites a Specialty
Undertaking attended to and funerals furnished at reasonable rates
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This blog article is an example of how much information can be gleaned from a few pages out of a book over 100 years old. While it's not likely to produce earth shattering news, it can give fascinating glimpses into the world of our ancestors, and sometimes by contrast, it illuminates aspects of our life that we take for granted.
If you enjoyed this type of article, I would appreciate your sending me a note to that effect. Well, send me a note even if you didn't find this interesting. That's useful news as well.
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hbvodden@ezlink.on.ca
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