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Industry in Cobourg
The Early Years |
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As well as the usual main
street merchants, Cobourg had a good collection of Industrial activities.
As described elsewhere on this site, Cobourg had:
Below are some other industries - including farms.
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Ontario
Mills Woolen Factory
Below - the factory in 1905 |
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There are several streams running through Cobourg into Lake Ontario
and early pioneers were quick to make use of these as a source of
power. In later days, these were often converted to Steam and one
example of this was the Ontario Mills Woolen Factory which was owned
by Stuart E. MacKechnie. It opened in early 1846
and continued operating until 1913.
The Mill was built on Factory Creek (also called Jones'
creek, Cobourg Brook and currently Cobourg Creek) on the south side
of King Street West. It used water from the dam which had been built
much earlier (~1804) 200 feet north of King street - probably by
John Nugen. The water was carried in a five foot wooden enclosed
flume that went under King street to the basement of the Mill.
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The Mill building was mainly brick, 4 and half stories high, 100
feet long and 40 wide. The basement housed the water wheel, the fulling
machinery (Fulling is the process of fluffing up an already woven
or knitted piece of woolen cloth) , finishing room and dye house.
On the second floor was the weaving department with its Power Loom.
The third floor housed the Carding room where wool was processed
from its raw state so that it was ready for spinning into yarn on
the fourth floor. The fifth floor was really an attic and was used
for drying the wool after it was washed and dyed.
A feature of the Mill was that it was steam heated so that there
was less of a fire hazard - always a problem in those days. Employment
at the Mill was reported to be 170 people.
The Mill location is currently occupied by a different building
now up for sale.
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Men's
Boot and Shoe Maker - Store
Keeper
David Ramsay arrived from Scotland in 1869 and
was soon running a business manufacturing and selling boots
and shoes for gentlemen.
The picture at right was in a county atlas of 1878 and shows
his store on King street.
Click any picture for a larger version.
This item and the next three are courtesy of the
Canadian
County Atlas Digital Program of McGill University. |
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Cobourg to
this day makes an effort to preserve as much as possible of the
heritage as shown by the buildings.
Some
of this effort shows in the activities of the Cobourg
Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee (LACAC). |
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Farming
A typical farm was owned by James Beatty - from the picture it
would appear he was successful at what he did. The following is all
that is known about him in 1878:
Born in Canada
Occupation: Farmer - Connection to John Beatty, Mayor
of Cobourg in 1858-60 & 1866-67 is not known.
Settled in
1843.
The property size was 198 acres and was bounded by present day roads
King street, Brook Rd N and Elgin street. |
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Farming
J.G. Hagerman was born in Canada. In 1878 he gave his occupation
as Farmer and Dep. Reeve.
His farm was 85 acres and located west
of Cobourg with the southern edge on Lake Ontario. Today Westwood
drive runs through what used to be his farm.
The picture at right (1878) would
have been looking south with the road in the foreground probably being
what is now Elgin or Highway 2. |
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Hotel
Keeper and Horse Breeder
The combination of running a hotel and importing and breeding horses would
not appear to be common but that was what George
Cockburn did in 1878.
Located at what is now the corner of Dale Road and highway 45 in Baltimore,
the property shown totaled 85 acres.
George gave his occupation as Importer of Heavy
Draught and Blood Horses, and Proprietor of Hotel and he settled in 1842. |
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Diversey Water Technologies
Plant |
The Diversey
Water Technologies Plant, formerly known as Perolin Bird Archer,
was closed down around the end of the 1990's and demolished in 2003
after it was bought for a nominal price by the town. After a major
clean-up, the site is now parkland. At right is a photo of the
plant soon after it had ceased operation. As can be seen, it had
a prime location between Victoria Hall and the lake.
At its peak, it was used to mix chemicals - the railway line that
had run between it and the lake had tracks into the building where
the rail cars delivered chemicals that were mixed then shipped back
by rail. Many of the products made by the plant were intended for
steam locomotives and proximity to rail and the port made for a prosperous
plant. |
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era passed, efforts to convert the plant for other products were not
as successful and the plant eventually shut down. Then when the railway
line stopped running nearby, operation was no longer possible. (See Maps for
a look at where the railway lines were.) At its peak, over five million
pounds of chemicals were shipped annually from the plant. |
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