Hamilton, Ontario

“ It is served by the New York, Ontario & Western railway. Hamilton is situated in a productive agricultural region, and has a large trade in hops; among its manufactures are canned vegetables, lumber and knit goods. There are several valuable stone quarries in the vicinity. The village owns and operates its water-supply and electric-lighting system. ”

“ You spring from sturdy stock, long identified with railway construction in Canada, and since those other days in the loft of Hamilton’s smoke smeared freight shed, down the avenue of occupations in your native city, abroad in Western Ontario and throughout the business zone of Toronto, few dare question your reputation for urbanity, commercial sense and thoroughness. ”

“ Hamilton, at the head of Lake Ontario, around which the railway trains pass to the Niagara Falls, New York, and the Eastern States, has a population of 24,000, 600 of whom are coloured people. Among them are blacksmiths, carpenters, plasterers, and one wheelwright. ”

“ They included many men from the Balkan States, Italians, Russians, and others who in Canada take more kindly to manufacturing and railway construction employment than to the life of agriculture. Mr. Marsh informed me that in March 1,200 men could readily be found employment in the various Hamilton factories.
Ontario, with its four millions of population out of the seven millions of Canada, is the great manufacturing Province, although there are growing manufactures in the Eastern Provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Quebec. ”

“ Appointed commander-in-chief of the forces in British North America, 1873. Acted as administrator of the government of Canada during the absence of Lord Dufferin, 1875. Attained the rank of general, 1877. Died in Halifax.
Hamilton. City of Ontario, on Burlington Bay, west end of Lake Ontario. Laid out and settled, 1813, by George Hamilton, from whom it takes its name. Index: BL Early municipal government of, 298, 300. Bib.: Lovell, Gazetteer.
Hamilton, Alexander (1757-1804) . American statesman. Index: Dr Anxious to keep on good terms with Britain, 286 ”

“ Lawrence Park, Hamilton, Ltd.; and several other land and building companies. He is a member of the Royal Arch Masons, and of the following clubs:—Commercial, Fernleigh Bowling and Athletic; Canadian (Hamilton) , and Country (Burlington) . In politics he is a Liberal, and in religion a Presbyterian. In 1896 he married Laura, daughter of the late Jonathan Ellis, Port Dover, Ont., and resides at 322 Queen Street, Hamilton.
Bowman, Charles Martin, M.P.P. (Southampton, Bruce County, Ont.) , is one of the veteran members of the Ontario Legislature. He was born at St. ”

“ His answer was: "Efficiency is the highest economy. If the springtime of life is wasted, life's greatest opportunities are wasted. The taxpayer must be made to pay for the common intelligence of the people." As a result of all this courage—may I not call it heroism—in the defence of sound principles of education he placed his native Province in the van of all the States of America and all the Colonies of the British Empire. Well may we to-day assemble to do honor to his memory. Not only Ontario, but Canada, owes much to his breadth of mind, his sagacity and his tremendous force of character. ”

“ The name is not fifty years old, and twenty years ago Hamilton had less than 4000 inhabitants. Its growth bears no comparison with that of some American cities, but it is still very remarkable, and its wealth, importance, and defencelessness are quite sufficient to make it an object of attack. The houses are built of stone. Banks, hotels, manufactories, churches—well constructed and handsome—give proof of the prosperity of the community; and the residence there of Sir Alan MacNab, who lived somewhere in the vicinity in a brand new mediæval castle, should be some guarantee for their loyalty. ”

“ Hamilton is beautifully situated on a sloping plane, at the foot of a wooded range of hills, called mountains, whence fine stone of very white colour in immense blocks is easily procured and brought; and it is very surprising that more of this stone has not been used in Toronto, instead of wood. Brick-clay is also plentiful, and excellent white and red bricks are made; but, such is the rage for building, that the largest portion of this embryo city is of combustible pine-wood. ”

“ The principle includes the realization of all that the century stands for—union, equal rights, progress, justice, humanity.
It is my task to say a brief foreword on the progress of Canada and especially the county of Elgin. The beginning of the century found Ontario almost an unbroken wilderness. Rare and scanty were the clearings here and there along Lakes Erie and Ontario, and on the great rivers. The winter express from Detroit to York or Niagara, made its way along the lonely forest path. ”

“ IV When one comes to Ontario, one is dealing with the kitchen garden of the Dominion—in summer a land of placid sky-blue lakes, and amber-colored wooded rivers, and trim, almost garden-like farms, and heavily laden orchards, and thriving cities beginning to smoke under the pall of the increasing and almost universal factory. ”

“ The total area of these four States is about four-fifths that of Ontario, and yet their increase of population in ten years more than equals the entire population of the province.
In population, wealth, industries, and resources Ontario is the Dominion's gem; yet in a decade she could attract and hold but fifty-odd thousand persons,—not quite all the children born within her borders. ”

“ Toronto is the centre and heart of the Province of Ontario; and Ontario, with a third of the whole population of Canada, directs the country for the present, conditioned by the French on one hand and the West on the other. And in this land, that is as yet hardly at all conscious of itself as a nation, Toronto and Ontario do their best in leading and realising national sentiment. A Toronto man, like most Canadians, dislikes an Englishman; but, unlike some Canadians, he detests an American. ”

“ Lawrence, they view shores studded with rocks, and have not the faintest idea of our fertile lands and rich farms, which give to Ontario its wealth. The wealth of Ontario is certainly in her comfortable homesteads and fertile fields. Of this the tourist knows nothing, and he goes down to Quebec city to see, as best he may in America to-day, the best example of a city in the eighteenth century style; and he passes out of our borders, having come almost wholly in contact with our French population, and goes away considering our land a land of stones peopled by Frenchmen. ”

“ Many great names are written in, many striking figures illumine the Ontario log. And as one wanders about in present day Ontario as in Quebec, memories of this fine past are constantly creeping out at unexpected moments to convince one that the past is ever present.
Great men and great events do not die. To these early days belong many an old fort and earthwork whose frowning severity is now time-softened and mellowed by the touchstone of romance. ”

“ Leslie answered rather brusquely.
“But you must know most of the students at Hamilton,” came insistently from the other girl.
“I know the majority of the students at Wayland Hall, but, with the exception of a few friends, such as Miss Harper and Miss Mason, I know little of their personal affairs, or financial circumstances. The social side of Hamilton is delightful, at the same time, it is decidedly democratic. Cleverness, and initiative, count for more at Hamilton than does money.” ”

“ He has won for himself a place in the heart of many a young Canadian, and his name will be ever associated with the educational advantages and history of Ontario. May he be spared for many years to see the result of his labors, in the growing prospects and success of the common schools and educational institutions of this noble and prosperous province, whose best interests he has patriotically done so much to promote. ”

“ The educational equipment comprises a normal college, collegiate institute, model school and more than a score of public schools, for the most part housed in handsome stone and brick buildings. There are four hospitals, and the asylum for the insane is the largest in Canada. There is an excellent public library, and in the same building with it a good art school. Hamilton boasts of a number of parks, Dundurn Castle Park, containing several interesting relics of the war of 1812, being the finest, and, as it is practically within the city limits, it is a great boon to the people. ”

“ I take the ground, that the opportunities are as great, if not greater, in this Ontario of ours, for persons to achieve success, as in any part of the world. Certainly the Old World presents no such field for successful operations, and the only possible parallel can be found in some of the neighboring States.
Of the two I would certainly give Ontario the preference, for most of those who have risen in the United States were in some way helped by their parents and friends, whereas our successful men have invariably risen from no beginnings at all, as our country emerged from the forest. ”

“ Had I observed that 70 per cent of the operatives in a great Quebec industry cannot read and write French, that Ontario has a policy of good roads comparable to that of Quebec, that Orangemen do not dominate Toronto, that the Ontario farmer is a better producer than the habitant, or that Protestant clerics do not interfere in politics, he would have bristled with information to set me profoundly right. ”

“ Turning to the farms of Canada, we find that the most fertile portions of Ontario and Quebec have been cleared and tilled, and that thousands of the farmers of the older Provinces are finding their way to the rich prairies of Manitoba and the North-West, where the forests are few and the soil easily brought into cultivation. Large towns and villages now dot the face of Ontario, while the two cities of Montreal and Toronto are rapidly increasing their population, wealth, and trade. ”

“ The entire province of Ontario is imbued with the same tendency. With an area eight times that of New York, it is, next to Quebec, the largest province of Canada, and with three million people, mostly of British extraction, excels them all in population. It is richer in mineral wealth, agricultural resources, and industrial development than any other province. The people believe in their future and they show the courage of their convictions when it comes to going in debt to back public enterprises. ”

“ If the system should be extended to connect Toronto with Hamilton it would then have access to cities and towns aggregating 60% of the town dwellers of the entire provinces, which also produce 70% of their total manufactured products. ”

“ Six steam railroads and three electric radial roads afford Hamilton ample facilities for transport by land, while during the season of navigation a number of steamboat lines supply daily services to Toronto and other lake ports. Entrance into the broad bay is obtained through a short canal intersecting Burlington Beach, which is crossed by two swing bridges, whereof one—that of the Grand Trunk railway—is among the largest of its kind in the world. Burlington Beach is lined with cottages occupied by the city residents during the hot summer months. Hamilton is rich in public institutions. ”

“ The increasing demands of our printing presses are pushing Canada’s lumberjacks farther and farther into the forests to cut the spruce logs with which the paper mills are fed. Some of the money voted the Toronto Harbour Commission to prepare the port for the shipping of the future has been spent in providing the people with a great beach playground at Sunnyside. Although Ontario leads all other provinces in its industries, it is essentially an agricultural region, well adapted to mixed farming. The farmers have many coöperative organizations that also go in for politics. ”

“ We have every reason to feel proud of the advance the Press has made, both in number and influence, in Ontario. The leading papers are ably conducted and liberally supported, and they will compare favourably with those of any country. Various causes have led to this result. The prosperous condition of the people, the increase of immigration, the springing up of railway communication, the extension and perfecting of telegraphy, and, more than all, the completeness and efficiency of our school system throughout the Province, have worked changes not to be mistaken. ”

“ The entire electrical railway system, the lighting of the city, and the majority of the factories are operated by power obtained from this source. The manufacturing interests of Hamilton are varied, and some of the establishments are of vast size, employing many thousands of hands each, such as the International Harvester Co. and the Canadian Westinghouse Co. In addition Hamilton is the centre of one of the finest fruit-growing districts on the continent, and its open-air market is a remarkable sight. The municipal matters are managed by a mayor and board of aldermen. ”

“ In coming to Hamilton the Prince returned to the regions of big welcomes. It was not that the East was more loyal or warm than the West, but that, grouped in the vast area of Canada lying between the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes, are the old and teeming industrial centres of the Dominion. In this area is about seventy per cent. of Canada's population, and men, women and children can pack themselves into the streets by the tens of thousands, be those streets ever so many or ever so long. ”