The Town of Hespeler5

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Title:	The Town of Hespeler5
Document Type:	Original Document
Keywords:	Wm. Crooks, Geo. Guenther, Isaac Groh, Chas. Miller, John Groh, Jos. Zryd, Jeremiah Pickup, Jonathan Topham, Abram Glick, Thos. Tremble, Hespeler, village, historian, record, Robert W.S. MacKay, Messrs. H. Parsell, W.H. Breithaupt, Wm. W. Evans, Waterloo County Gazetteer, directory, Joseph Shantz, J.J. Ashworth, Alex W. Brodie, O. S. Eby, Thomas Arntfield, J.D. Ramsay, Jacob Hespeler, Michael Bergy, Bergy-town, W.A. Kribs, Abram C. Clemens, Cornelius Pannebaker, Joseph Oberholtzer, George Randall, Lewis Kribs, Archibald Brydon, Andrew B. Jardine, Canada Machinery Corporation, Hall-Zroyd Foundry Co. Limited, The Hespeler Furniture Co. Limited, The Stamped and Enamelled Ware Co., The Universal Lightning Rod Co., The Robt. Stewart Lumber Co. Ltd., The Hespeler Wood Specialty Co., Brown-Proud Rug Co., The Hugo Brix Slipper Mfg. Co., W. A. Coward, The Hespeler Toy Company, Adam Shaw, Conrad Nahrgang, David Rife, Charles Karch, Col. George Hespeler,
Author/Source:	Mayor D.N. Panabaker
Transcribed Text:	Continued from The Town of Hespeler4 The National Policy of Sir John A. MacDonald and his party had not up to the time been born and the Farr mill enterprise which has grown to such prodigious proportions in Holyoke, Mass. Was lost to the village of Hespeler in 1874. The property vacated by the Farr interests n 1874 was purchased by Messrs. J. Schofield & Co. of which the partners were Mr. Jonathon Schofield and Mr. Robert Forbes, both now deceased. These gentlemen had in 1870, commenced the manufacture of woolen flannels or drugets in a smaller stone woolen-mill on Tannery St. close to the site of Mr. Forbes’ earlier tannery plant, and the Farr premises were taken over in order to combine this business with the knitting business which the Farr people had abandoned when they moved their alpaca machinery to Holyoke. The introduction of the great National Policy of the new government elected in 1878 appears to have been the real beginning of better things for this industry, and in 1880, Mr. Robert Forbes took over Mr. Schofield’s interests in what had already become a ber successful manufacturing business, and the business was carried on under the name R. Forbes & Co., until the formation of a Joint Stock Co. under an Ontario Charter granted in 1886. A sketch of the lives of both Mr. Forbes and Mr. Schofield would be exceedingly interesting. We must, however, content ourselves with only a further work or two. Sutherland’s Directory of 1864 refers to mr. Schofield as a weaver. At that time he had a hand-loom in a little shop hear the corner of Queen and Cooper Streets, and he delivered the goods he manufactured and, no doubt, other lines of goods as well, with a horse-drawn vehicle, selling them in the surrounding districts. From this humble beginning, his career of greater enterprise developed, and, after leaving Hespeler, he engaged in several undertakings, notable the founding of a woolen-mill in Oshawa, now the Schofield Woollen Co. Limited which is ably managed by his son, Charles. Robert Forbes, a native of Scotland, was refereed to in Smith’s Directory of 1851, as proprietor of a tannery, shoe-store and saw-mill, the latter however was not located in Hespeler, but in Puslinch Township. During Mr. Forbes’ residence in Hespeler he occupied the cottage for many years known as the Adam Shaw property, which later became the site for the present town-hall. After leaving Hespeler he resided for some years in Puslinch and later lived in Guelph, where he spend the remain- 220 ing years of his life. He maintained, however, an active interest in his Hespeler business, which has since he conducted by his only surviving son, George D. Forbes, who became the first mayor of Hespeler, and held that office for a number of years without interuption. Another pioneer industry to which we have as yet made no reference, is that of the A. B. Jardine Co. Limited, the founder of which was another native of Scotland, the late Andrew B. Jardine. Mr. Jardine came to Hespeler in 1862, to carry out some contract of pipe-fitting etc. for a Toronto firm, Messrs. Thompson & Keith, with whom he was then employed. Mr. Hespeler, in whose mills this work was being installed, was so pleased with the manner in which Mr. H Jardine performed his work, that, learning of the latter’s ability to do turning upon a lathe and other machine work, he decided to keep so competent a workman in his growing industry of this were possible. Arrangements were completed and the following year Mr. Jardine brought his family to Hespeler and about 1870 commenced a small foundry in a frame building located on Elgin St. a little north of the public school buildings. A second storey had in a few years to be added to this small plant and about the middle eighties still larger remises had to be provided, when the industry was moved to the site at present occupied, close to the G.T.R. Station, where extensions have frequently been made to provide room for the expanding business of this very successful company. A foundry business earlier than the one just mentioned was that of which Mr. Charles Karch, long since deceased, was the founder. This business was contined by his son, the late H.W. Karch, and developed into a plant of some proportions, making a line of textile machinery, widely used throughout Canada. Our remaining space is too limited to refer to the other various industries which have in more recent years assisted in building up this industrious town, beyond simply mentioning the names of those now in operation, viz. The Canada Machinery Corporation; Hall-Zroyd Foundry Co. Limited; The Hespeler Furniture Co. Limited; The Stamped and Enamelled Ware Co.; The Universal Lightning Rod Co.; The Robt. Stewart Lumber Co. Ltd.; The Hespeler Wood Specilaty Co., Brown-Proud Rug Co., The Hugo Brix Slipper Mfg. Co., W. A. Coward and The Hespeler Toy Company. The activities of the late Jacob Hespeler however deserve more than the casual reference herein given them. As already stated his coming to New Hope in 1834 marked 221 Continued on The Town of Hespeler6
Language:	English