535-03 Page 15ychville's stores are all old buildings, a link with the
Joys when'the village showed promise of becoming one of
the main centres between Brantford and Sandwich. Four
of the buildings still standing are shown on this page and
listed in a summary of the early days in an accompanying
article. Right picture shows, on the left, the store owned
3Y P. Paul, which, in 1862, was a general store owned by
John Ross. Next to it is a corner store operated by J.
>mith which belonged, 90 years ago, to Mrs. Elsie. The
Jnited Church property, beyond; was the 1862 location
>f Amos Ames, clock -maker. Below is the Murray house
rich; in 1862, belonged to James Lovering who ran
butcher shop in the front. William Harper had o
bake shop in back.
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the
streets cross, at the north end of
Beachville. The old stone building
on the northeast corner was al
blacksmith shop, one, about tour
'.times its present size. On the
southeast corner he built a frame
house, later building a beautiful
stone house in front of it. These
were burned in 1951. On the south-
west corner he built a wagon and
ibuggy factory. Mrs. Polls', house
ow stands there.
James Lovering's slaughterhouse
'stood near the creek on Water
street, which runs north from the
highway,.past Charles Buchannan's
barn. This was 'ante a very busy
j part of Beachville,
{Warren Henry's Tannery stood
on the brow of the hill, east of
Charles Buchannan's house. Huge
Piles of oak and hemlock bark had
to be guarded against spring
freshets. The tanbark was torn to
shreds between stones turned by a
blind horse driven in a continual
circle. Small boy, vied with one
another for this job. The square -
vats were sunk in the ground, and
{ fed by a stream front the creek.
The hides were soaked with the
bark and then scraped by hand.
The men wore leather aprons. They
held a slab against themselves,
washboard effect, the hides
nn to the slab, and scraped them
with a dull knife, to remove the
hair, They "stank" vigorously. -
Jonathan Vickery's warehouse'
also stood on this street. He dealt
in raw furs, horns, hides and
hooves of cattle. In those days no
home, was complete without
�Polished horns or hoofs made into
. picture frames, mirrors, hat -racks,
pincushions and other fancy ar-
ticles. Vickery supplied them all,
1 but his establishment added its
{ smell to that of the tannery and
the slaughterhouse, and In thel
I; tropic days of summer Water street
was no bower of roses.
An old woolen mill also stood
here, before the Credit Valley Rail-
way wentthrough, now the C.P.R.
East of the creek, north of the
road was a barrel factory.
North of this, a glove factory.
North again, a match factory..
Alsna chain factory, demolished
when the railway went through.
An implement factory cpeZIIj;, _..
In the house now owned by Dick
Robinson,
i Zina Downs had a carpenter shop
by McIntee's line fence. He made
caskets to order. Mr, Gouldalso
made caskets. Mr. Downs lived in
the presen .Ch ilea Matheson's
house. I?e. -
Smithy, Vinegar Factory
Uriah Phelps, blacksmith, op-
crated on the propertynowowned
by W. Thompson. He also owned a
vinegarfactory across the street.
James Grey owned a sawmill op-
posite the present home of Charles
Matheson.
George Brown owned a tannery
and a. shoe store by the mill pond.
He also ran a lime kiln.
Thomas Miller, wbcat merchant,
owned sheds along the Great West, I
ern Railway track. The Crimean
`War created an unlimited demand.'
�. for wheat. The soil was so imp l'
poverished during this period that
j dairying was introduced to save
the farmers from ruin.
John Henry, tailor, lived and
worked in the present home of
Mr. Faber.
There were also two full-fledged
lime quarries operating at that
time. These were owned by Thomas
Downing and Alexander Bremner.
They made lime only. Says. a
diarist of later days, "Fertilizer of
lime, crushed stone for roads, lime
un
atone for steel mills was heard
Of in Beachville at that time
The old Credit Valley, now the