1890s Hamilton

He was labeled “a queer roadside character.” But in his own way he made an impact in the Albion Mills area in November 1890, and also attracted the attention of a reporter for the Hamilton Herald. This article is to the memory of an unnamed but memorable character who drifted in and out of the Hamilton collective memory, but left a mark in his own way. The article on this gentle man in the Hamilton Herald began as follows : “ People in the neighbourhood of Albion Mills are all agog with curiosity about a seemingly harmless and inoffensive little man who has recently taken up his abode there. He is peculiar, certainly, and his peculiaration of character have caused the mild excitement of that locality.” He quietly came to the attention of residents near Albion Mills late in the fall. A short distance south of the mountain brow, in the forests along the Red Hill Creek, a very small dwelling appeared. It was a lean-to, between two and three feet high, and about four feet by two feet in...

In November 1980, a reporter for the Hamilton Herald, in search of a story, walked around the Hamilton Market Square before deciding to pop into the office of the city official in charge of Market operations. Here is the Herald man’s description of the office, and of the usual collection of idlers who would visit there for some conversation :   “A small room, a portion of which was partitioned off by a low railing, with carpetless floor, upon which the light streaming through three small windows disclosed the fact that it was unfamiliar to the brush of the scrubwoman; a desk, several chairs drawn around a small wood-stove, and a wood –box, completed a bird’s eye view of the interior of the Market Clerk’s office. “So much for the room; now for the occupants.           “They were half a dozen in number, and each reclined in an easy, careless attitude upon one of the chairs, except one, who was poised on top of the high wood-box.  ...