Post by jeremy on Jan 14, 2011 23:20:43 GMT -5
Just when you think you have a handle on all the railways in Lambton County, you discover another one!
The Sarnia Observer for 26 May 1882 has a story (see the attachment below) about a tramway built by Harvey Morris of Wallaceburg along the Lambton Line in Sombra township.
A tramway is a lightly built railway for logging, mining, or other light industrial use. If you have seen those ore cars on rails in the Indiana Jones movie, you have seen a tramway. The original mining tramways built 500 years ago had no motive power other than that of the humans pushing the ore cars. Others, like the Dawn Tramway, used steam locomotives. Mr. Morris’ tramway, as the article indicates, used teams of horses.
Who was Harvey Morris? Well, he seems to have been born around 1844. The Canadian Album of 1893 reports that “Mr. Harvey Morris, after an ordinary public school education, clerked for four years in Fort Erie, after which he farmed six years near Florence. After a term as foreman for Mr. Johnson, the lumberman, he located, in 1872, in Wallaceburg”. The area had an abundant supply of trees, and was a natural place to go into the barrel and stave business.
Although he may have been forward thinking, as evidenced by his construction of a tramway to keep his shops supplied with lumber all year round, all was not sweetness and light in Mr. Morris’ mill. The machinery would have had a number of circular saws, drills, and other equipment, driven from a central by a central power source by means of axles, pulleys, and leather drive belts. With all the equipment open and no safety procedures in effect, it is not surprising that accidents were frequent.
In 1882, Mr Morris constructed his famous tramway. This reflected a desire for increased economic efficiency , in a time when useful timber was gradually becoming harder to obtain. For the moment though, Morris had other worries. He could produce hoops and staves faster than he could ship them to his customers, and they piled up in railyards at tarnsshipment centres like Sarnia.
The mill prospered for some time, but ran into trouble in the 1890’s, when the ready supply of lumber in the region began to dry up. Indeed, the Dawn Tramway was closed and dismantled around 1898, because that area had been pretty well clear-cut as well. Mr. Morris’ comparatively short tramway meant that his mill ran into trouble even earlier. The Northwestern Miller for 1895 carried the following story:
J.H.Black of the Richard Grant Co., New York, has been here for 10 days past, with an attorney, taking depositions in regard to a stave deal. The staves came from the factory of Harvey Morris, at Wallaceburg, Ont., who afterwards failed, and the stock, being rejected by a Minneapolis shop as not up to the standard, had to be sold to other parties at a heavy discount. The Grant company has now made a claim from Morris’ estate for some $8,000 as its loss in the transaction, and it is to show what the quality of the stock was that the testimony has been secured in Minneapolis. The depositions of several parties were taken.
The Sarnia Observer does not seem to report on Mr. Morris’ legal troubles. On 1 March 1895, it contains a brief notice that “Harvey Morris’ stave mill, at Wallaceburg, will resume operations at once, Mr. Morris having closed arrangements with a wealthy New York firm on Saturday.” Does this represent an attempt to revive the mill after the failure reported in The Northwestern Miller?
When the formerly vast forests of the region had disappeared and lumber was no longer a source of wealth for Wallaceburg, the town moved on, turning to the manufacture of glass. Harvey Morris was apparently unable to move on in his thinking, remaining in the lumber business, though no longer as an owner. The Adirondack News for Saturday 20 April 1918 reports that he had died at home on the previous Sunday, 14 April 1918, at the age of 74. In the obituary, he was praised for years of service as the “efficient superintendent” of the Brooklyn Cooperage Co.’s plant in St.Regis Falls, in northern New York State. He had retired some 5 years earlier, spending the rest of his life in Sombra (town or township?) being buried in Dresden.
Mr. Morris’ tramway is described as extending four miles east of the river - presumably the Sydenham River at Wallaceburg. No more details about it exist. How long did it last? When was it torn up? How long before people forgot where it had been?
The Sarnia Observer for 26 May 1882 has a story (see the attachment below) about a tramway built by Harvey Morris of Wallaceburg along the Lambton Line in Sombra township.
A tramway is a lightly built railway for logging, mining, or other light industrial use. If you have seen those ore cars on rails in the Indiana Jones movie, you have seen a tramway. The original mining tramways built 500 years ago had no motive power other than that of the humans pushing the ore cars. Others, like the Dawn Tramway, used steam locomotives. Mr. Morris’ tramway, as the article indicates, used teams of horses.
Who was Harvey Morris? Well, he seems to have been born around 1844. The Canadian Album of 1893 reports that “Mr. Harvey Morris, after an ordinary public school education, clerked for four years in Fort Erie, after which he farmed six years near Florence. After a term as foreman for Mr. Johnson, the lumberman, he located, in 1872, in Wallaceburg”. The area had an abundant supply of trees, and was a natural place to go into the barrel and stave business.
Although he may have been forward thinking, as evidenced by his construction of a tramway to keep his shops supplied with lumber all year round, all was not sweetness and light in Mr. Morris’ mill. The machinery would have had a number of circular saws, drills, and other equipment, driven from a central by a central power source by means of axles, pulleys, and leather drive belts. With all the equipment open and no safety procedures in effect, it is not surprising that accidents were frequent.
In 1882, Mr Morris constructed his famous tramway. This reflected a desire for increased economic efficiency , in a time when useful timber was gradually becoming harder to obtain. For the moment though, Morris had other worries. He could produce hoops and staves faster than he could ship them to his customers, and they piled up in railyards at tarnsshipment centres like Sarnia.
The mill prospered for some time, but ran into trouble in the 1890’s, when the ready supply of lumber in the region began to dry up. Indeed, the Dawn Tramway was closed and dismantled around 1898, because that area had been pretty well clear-cut as well. Mr. Morris’ comparatively short tramway meant that his mill ran into trouble even earlier. The Northwestern Miller for 1895 carried the following story:
J.H.Black of the Richard Grant Co., New York, has been here for 10 days past, with an attorney, taking depositions in regard to a stave deal. The staves came from the factory of Harvey Morris, at Wallaceburg, Ont., who afterwards failed, and the stock, being rejected by a Minneapolis shop as not up to the standard, had to be sold to other parties at a heavy discount. The Grant company has now made a claim from Morris’ estate for some $8,000 as its loss in the transaction, and it is to show what the quality of the stock was that the testimony has been secured in Minneapolis. The depositions of several parties were taken.
The Sarnia Observer does not seem to report on Mr. Morris’ legal troubles. On 1 March 1895, it contains a brief notice that “Harvey Morris’ stave mill, at Wallaceburg, will resume operations at once, Mr. Morris having closed arrangements with a wealthy New York firm on Saturday.” Does this represent an attempt to revive the mill after the failure reported in The Northwestern Miller?
When the formerly vast forests of the region had disappeared and lumber was no longer a source of wealth for Wallaceburg, the town moved on, turning to the manufacture of glass. Harvey Morris was apparently unable to move on in his thinking, remaining in the lumber business, though no longer as an owner. The Adirondack News for Saturday 20 April 1918 reports that he had died at home on the previous Sunday, 14 April 1918, at the age of 74. In the obituary, he was praised for years of service as the “efficient superintendent” of the Brooklyn Cooperage Co.’s plant in St.Regis Falls, in northern New York State. He had retired some 5 years earlier, spending the rest of his life in Sombra (town or township?) being buried in Dresden.
Mr. Morris’ tramway is described as extending four miles east of the river - presumably the Sydenham River at Wallaceburg. No more details about it exist. How long did it last? When was it torn up? How long before people forgot where it had been?
Attachments:
