Stevenson's Boiler and Engine Works...

[Steve]

My great great grandfather, Elijah Loxton, came to Petrolia in the late 1870's, and went to work at Stevenson's Boiler Works on Robert Street, as a boilermaker. A few years later, William Stevenson built a large new shop on Centre Street. Elijah would eventually buy land owned by Stevenson, right across the street from the boiler shop and build a house that still stands. The boiler shop is long gone, but in my attempt to learn more about the business Elijah spent thirty years working at, I've begun to uncover a growing number of records and artifacts...

(click to enlarge)


courtesy of The Lambton Room

(Notice the Michigan Central Railway tracks in the foreground, dating this photo to prior than the late 1950's)


The second photo is a survey of the property, prepared in 1916. The shop was located about half way down Centre St. from the Blind Line. It served for a time as Lambton County's public works garage, before being torn down.

(click to enlarge)


courtesy of The Lambton Room


I'll be adding more info and photos about Stevenson's on a regular basis and I'm very interested in learning, or seeing more about this once important, but now almost forgotten, Petrolia industry...


Questions:

What year were the buildings finally torn down?

What ever happened to William Stevenson and his descendants?

Does anyone have an ancestor that worked at the boiler works?

Does anyone have any artifacts or photos from the boiler works?