1890s Hamilton

Each of the three little steam engines that operated on the Hamilton and Dundas Street Railway was popularly known as “the Dummy.” On Saturday afternoon, November 4, 1893, sadly, one of the Dummys became deadly. The interurban train connecting Hamilton with Dundas had almost completed its journey into the city from the Valley Town.   As the train, which ran on tracks in the middle of streets, approached the corner of Bay street south and Hannah street (now Charlton avenue west), the engine was being driven by William McDonald, with Conductor Harrison on board in the passenger car. At the corner mentioned, there were some children playing a game of hide-and-seek. Suddenly, one of the boys intending to run from one side of the street to the other, he instead ran directly in front of the moving train. Before the train could be brought to a stop, it had run over the unfortunate young fellow. As described in the Spectator’s account of the incident, “ when taken from under the wheels, it

“Great is steam; and great also the steam shovel; particularly the one in use on the spur line construction. But for that steam shovel and a few other things, among them dynamite and detonators, work on the cuts and fills along the line would be terribly slow. The mighty steam shovel takes the place of a big bunch of navies, and the dynamite gets a move on that is unapproachable by a battalion of them.”                         “With the Railroad Makers : What Was Seen in a Trip Along the Spur Line”                         Hamilton Spectator. September 4, 1896 .         During the late summer of 1896, the Canadian Pacific Railway began construction of a project to connect the Grand Trunk Railway with the Toronto , Hamilton and Buffalo Railway by means of a spur line through an area south of Dundurn street to just beyond the Desjardins canal.         The scene of the construction activity was never known as a particularly romantic or picturesque locality despite the hills and hollo

1890-08-02 Herald "No. 63 Au the Foorce : One Day in the Life of a Hamilton Policeman”        “Right About! Quick march!” was the ringing command uttered by Sergeant Prentice one morning lately at a few minutes to 7 o’clock , and out upon the beautiful morning strode three constables and the sergeant from the portals of No. 3 Police Station.           Instantly, the eye of the passer-by lights upon Constable Bankit, No. 63. And no wonder; he is tall, erect, with almost an imperial gesture, deep black moustache, a pleasing countenance and a uniform neat and clean.           He walks out on the street with head up and nostril sniffing the fresh, invigorating air, like a war horse eager for the fray. But the fray is not near, and No. 63 has to content himself with sauntering up and down the beat, looking in the store windows and at pretty girls, for, be it understood, Constable Blankit is yet a bachelor. Occasionally, he stops to flip off the sidewalk, a stray piec

“Not to solve a Cronin murder mystery, nor to bring to an untimely end a bright young life, but simply and solely to satisfy an abnormal condition of curiosity did a Spectator reporter yesterday afternoon march out of the city hall and descend by straight up and down ladder into the bowels of the James street sewer.” “In the James Street Sewer : An Afternoon Trip         Through the Sewage” Hamilton Spectator. February 14, 1895           On Wednesday February, 13, 1895 , an oddly attired young man drew many glances as he walked along James street north towards a sewer trap near the city hall.           As the young man, a reporter with the Hamilton Spectator, later noted, “sewer society rules differ somewhat from those of other society, yet they are just as strict and confining. The correct thing to wear when going calling in an ordinary city sewer is a pair of long, rubber boots, an old blouse and any old thing for a hat. The older the blouse the better, for you will find it c

It was an alarming, and very, very sad discovery.           On the north side of Hamilton Bay , on the sands of the harbour’s shoreline in a cove formed by the point jut of land called Willow Point, on a cold December day, there and then Tessie Henderson’s body was found.           Tessie Henderson was a handsome young lady who lived with her mother and uncle in an old frame dwelling near the Roman Catholic cemetery. She was a teacher in a Sunday School and a member of the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavour at a church near her home.           But on that cold December day, a Spectator reporter was alerted to the discovery at Willow Point. His poignant description of what he saw began by noting that the lifeless body that had been found had not been a victim of a drowning accident, but someone that had died of exposure to the frigid and wet weather of that time of year.           “No more pathetic picture could be imagined,” he wrote, “than the sight of that handso

1894 – Police Matron         In 1894, the Board of Police Commissioners in Hamilton decided that a full-time “police matron” should be hired to deal with females who had been arrested and held at the No. 3 Police Station awaiting an appearance at the Police Court and a potential transfer to the City Jail.           Hamilton ’s No. 3 police station was the biggest station in the city and was located at the corner of King William and Mary streets, just a few blocks east of the downtown core.           Across the street from the station, and beside the Bethel Mission, lived a woman named Mrs. Martha Lewis. Mrs. Lewis, a black woman, was often called upon by the police when the services of a police matron were required to deal with issues arising from the detention of female prisoners.           When the decision was made to create a full-time police matron job, Mrs. Martha Lewis applied.           Upon hearing that a woman “of colour” was in the running for the police matron position, a

"The effects of time and the chemical action of the atmosphere are generally more visible in an old cemetery than in any other place. Burlington cemetery, however, cannot be called a very old one, though the deterioration of property there through the effects of frost and the weather amounts up into the thousands. It was first opened   about the year 1850, and now all the older sections of the cemetery show visible signs of decay and destruction” “ Burlington Cemetery : Its Present      and Prospective Condition – The Spoilations of Time”         In March, 1888, a petition was circulated among the citizens of Hamilton requesting that the management of the city’s cemetery be taken out of the hands of city council and placed under the control of an independent commission.           It was felt that the city council had been too parsimonious respecting the upkeep of the cemetery grounds :           “each year the chairman of the Finance committee is under strong pressure to f