1890s Hamilton

“Who can imagine a more dreary day than that which marked the opening of the year 1890?”           “How the Day Was Spent : Rain Prevented Much Fun, But Society Whirled Just the Same”           Hamilton Herald January 2, 1890           With that rhetorical question asking how much more bleak a start to a new year, in terms of weather conditions, the reporter for the Hamilton Herald described in detail what a desolate and disappointing season, New Year's Day as well as the Christmas holidays   generally had been in Hamilton:           “At this season of the year, it is customary for Canadians to expect good skating on the bays, rivers, creeks and ponds; to have the roads covered with a canopy of snow, upon which sleighs speed merrily behind fast horses. Altogether the season is one of jollification and enjoyment. This season has brought a complete change. There have been no sleighing parties, no coasting, no tobogganing, snowshoeing or other outdoor amusements.”      

During a lovely summer evening, August 19, 1896, a crowd of about 1,000 Hamiltonians gathered at Dundurn park to witness, and in many cases, take part in one of Professor Jesse Gant’s wilder ideas.           It was a money-making scheme, basically, but also was intended to be a lot of fun for all involved.           Dundurn park was still not a public park, but an area that could be leased Admission was then charged by the lesse who choreographed events for their entertainment of the ticket buyers .           Professor Gant’s programme looked very enticing to those thousand people who were willing to pay to see the wedding, the watermelon eating contest and the cakewalk.           The crowd was in a boisterous mood as the professor’s programme was about to unfold.           First on the schedule was a wedding involving Miss Annie Johnston of St. Catherines who was to be joined in matrimony to Hamilton’s Professor Campbell. There would be about 1000 witness to t

During the cold weeks of March, 1897, a rumour was circulating all over the City of Hamilton to the effect that there were gypsies in the vicinity.         In response, the Spectator sent out a reporter to investigate. He indeed did find a band of Scotch gypsies camped on the tree road off Main street, near the Delta.         First spotted near the eastern limit of Hamilton, the gypsies were supposedly on their way to Albion Mills.         In the camp, the man from the Spec found men, women and children In particular he noticed three women squatting around a fire of brush at the side of the road.         One of this group, the youngest, was feeding her baby in a manner the reporter described as “in the good old-fashioned style that antedates glass bottles and rubber tubing.”         This young lady was quite jolly and talkative, while a middle-aged woman nearby was taciturn, having just finished an argument with her man. The third woman was quite young, good-lo

On November 28, 1893, the following article appeared in the Hamilton Times, written by an unnamed writer who occasionally put together historical articles for that paper’s Saturday editions. At the time, the city of Hamilton was the hub of a network of roads, mostly toll roads, each with an interesting history. Hamilton’s position at the head of Lake Ontario, with the Niagara Escarpment to the south, the waters of Burlington Bay to the north, made the surveying, construction and maintenance of these roads a challenge. The article, reprinted as a whole follows:         “ In the map of Upper Canada prepared by surveyor D. W. Smith in 1798, there was no county of Wentworth. The townships of East and West Flamborough and Beverly belonged to the West Riding of York, and the townships of Saltfleet, Barton, Glanford and Ancaster belonged to the First Riding of Lincoln. Peel, Halton, Wentworth, Brant and Elgin were not then organized. The early surveyors did not follow one