History of Hamilton, Ontario - Definition and Overview

The History of Hamilton, Ontario contains only the history before 1946 of the area governed by Hamilton, Ontario, since its amalgamation in 2001. For other aspects of the city, please consult the main article. Articles on its five other constituent municipalities prior to amalgamation in 2001 -- Stoney Creek, Dundas, Flamborough, Ancaster and Glanbrook -- often have a different focus and add more detail than found here.

History

From the beginning, what is now Hamilton has benefitted from its geographical proximity to major land and water transportation routes along the Niagara Peninsula and Lake Ontario. Its strategic importance has created, by Canadian standards, a rich military history which the city preserves (http://www.city.hamilton.on.ca/culture-and-rec/MUSEUMS/military/default.asp).

And also from the beginning, the tension between maximizing economic growth and minimizing environmental damage was evident. The area between Burlington Bay (also known as Hamilton Harbour) and the Niagara Escarpment have been developed for residential, industrial and recreational purposes. Cootes Paradise in Dundas was just that when it was chronicled by Captain Cootes in the early 19th century: plenty of birds, fish and game. Unfortunately, through abuse and neglect, it became a literal and figurative cesspool.

For about a century after achieving its status as a city in 1846, Hamilton has rightly seen it self in terms of industrial production. It adopted or acquired such nicknames as the Ambitious City, Steel City and the Birmingham of Canada. However, after this period, other sectors of the economy took over and Hamilton became a post-industrial economy but failed to change its image and self-image to match. Here then follows the growth of the Hamilton until the end of the Second World War.

Even in its early days when inhabited by Indians, Hamilton's residents have had diverse ethnic, racial, national, religious and linguistic backgrounds. Since then, successive waves of immigration have crashed on Hamilton's shores, usually leaving some permanent evidence of their arrival in the names, buildings or institutions of the city.

History to 1811: In the Beginning

Like most of the Americas south of the treeline, the original inhabitants of the Hamilton area were Indians. The first European to visit what is now Hamilton was probably Étienne Brûlé in 1616. Lasalle also visited the area, a fact commemorated at a park in nearby Burlington.

In perihistorical times, the Neutral Indians occupied most of the land but were gradually driven out by the Five (later Six) Nations or ‘’’Iroquois’’’ who were allied with British against the French and their Indian allies the Huron. A member of the Iroquois Confederacy provided both the route and name for Mohawk Road on Hamilton Mountain and the route for what would become King Street in the Lower City.

Like British North America itself, the Six Nations confederacy was torn apart by the American Revolution. Indians loyal to the Crown, under their leader Captain Joseph Brant, were settled in several nearby areas of what became Upper Canada in 1791 and ultimately Ontario in 1867. These included Brant’s Ford (now Brantford)on the Grand River in Brant County south of Hamilton, and Brant’s Block (now Burlington) in Halton County north of Hamilton.

White United Empire Loyalists moved into the Hamilton area during and after the American War of Independence as well, dramatically boosting the population and economic development of the region between the original Upper Canadian capital at Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake) and the new one at York (now Toronto). This was to prove crucial, for the fighting between the United States and Britain was not yet over.

Administratively, the whole area was part of the Nassau District, which was renamed the Home District in 1792. Additionally, parts of the area were separately incorporated into the West Riding of York County and First Riding of Lincoln County. In 1798, most of the future Hamilton became part of Niagara District while remaining in Lincoln County.

History 1812-1844: Invasion and Rebellion

After simmering treaty and border disputes finally erupted into the War of 1812, the Hamilton area again became a strategic area. In 1813, the British regulars and Canadian militia defeated (http://www.hpl.ca/Local/SPCOLL/bttlsc.shtml) invading American troops at the Battle of Stoney Creek was fought in what is now a park (http://www.city.hamilton.on.ca/culture-and-rec/MUSEUMS/battlefield/default.asp) in eastern Hamilton. Burlington Heights, adjacent the grounds of present-day Dundurn Park and Castle (http://www.city.hamilton.on.ca/culture-and-rec/MUSEUMS/dundurn/default.asp), was also a site commanding the entry to Burlington Bay.

George Hamilton, a settler and local politician, established a townsite in the northern portion Barton Township after the war in 1815. He kept several east-west roads which were originally Indian trails, but the north-south streets were on a regular grid pattern. Mr. Hamilton named many of the streets after his offspring, including James, John, Catherine and Mary. Streets were designated "East" or "West" if they crossed James Street or King’s Highway No. 6. Streets were designated "North" or "South" if they crossed King Street or King’s Highway No. 8.

Gore Park, whose western boundary is King and James Streets, formed the public square for the new settlement and has remained the epicentre of the city ever since. The original plot of land set aside for the courthouse has had four different buildings erected on it. It was only supplanted as the court site by a move across the street in the 1990s as part of an architectural preservation project for the Post Office and Dominion Public Building.

Gore District of Upper Canada and Wentworth County were created in 1816, with Mr. Hamilton’s settlement as the seat for both. The county’s original constituent townships included the following, the territory of which became part of the amalgamated Hamilton in 2001: Ancaster (later a town), Barton, Binbrook (later one half of Glanbrook), Glanford (later the other half of Glanbrook) and Saltfleet (later the town and city of Stoney Creek). Seneca and Brant Townships were also original constituents of the county but later became part of Brant County.

During the first half of the 19th century, Mr. Hamilton’s settlement in Barton Township steadily increased status at the expense of Dundas. Growth was aided in 1827 by a channel cut to link Burlington Bay directly with Lake Ontario, thus improving its marine transportation. George Hamilton’s settlement was incorporated as a police village in 1833. In comparison, the Desjardins Canal to Dundas was at best an incomplete success. The physical structures, with living interpreters, of these pioneer days are preserved at Westfield Heritage Centre (http://www.conservationhamilton.ca/parks/visit/westfield.asp).

As railway fever raced across North America, Hamilton prematurely got in the act with the promotion of various paper lines in the 1830s. This included Allan Napier MacNab’s Hamilton and Port Dover Railway which, although chartered in 1835, did not actually lay any track until the mid-1850s under a different corporate name. MacNab completed Dundurn Castle, his stately home, in 1835. A boy soldier in the War of 1812, he led Gore militia to crush insurgents in the Rebellion of 1837 for which he was knighted the following year.

History 1845-1866: Ambition Is Born

Then, as always, municipal reorganization was foisted upon Wentworth County. Caistor Township (earlier and later part of Haldimand County) was briefly added in 1845. Hamilton received its city charter in 1846. Seneca, Onondaga and Caistor Townships were removed from the administration of county and replaced with three others from Halton County: Beverly, East Flamborough and West Flamborough (which were amalgamated as the Town of Flamborough 1974-2000).

Hamilton City Council was based on a board of control, which effectively meant an executive committee of at-large city councillors controlled the city government. Mayors (http://www.hpl.ca/Local/SPCOLL/mayors.shtml) were short-term figureheads who changed mostly on practically an annual basis. The same year Hamilton became a city, Robert Smiley and a partner began publishing ‘’The Hamilton Spectator and Journal of Commerce’’.

As MacNab completed his two years as the premier of the united Province of Canada, the newly renamed Great Western Railway became Hamilton’s first functioning railway in 1854. The GWR’s maintenance and marshalling yards were located in Hamilton, and the city got its first taste of the steel industry as it re-rolled rails imported from Britain. Unfortunately, in 1857, 57 passengers were killed when a train derailed (http://www.hpl.ca/local/spcoll/desj.shtml) near the Desjardins Canal.

Not content with this relatively minor operation, dozens of small workshops and craftsmen banded together to smelt still rather than just mill steel. Easy access to limestone from the Niagara Escarpment, coal mined in Appalachia, iron ore mined from the Canadian Shield and export markets through the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence system made Hamilton an important iron and steel producing city.

Other industrial ventures conducted in the Ambitious City (a phrase adopted by ‘’The Spectator’’ from detractors in Toronto) and Birmingham of Canada included manufactured tobacco, beer and other consumer products. It also became a centre for the textile industry, which did not die out completely until the 1950s.

History 1867-1892: Ambition Is Nurtured

When the Dominion of Canada was created in 1867, Hamilton was an enthusiastic partner in the bold new political enterprise and preached the joys of the British Empire. The city was represented in the House of Commons by one seat for the city proper and two for the remainder of the county (Wentworth South and Wentworth North).

Growing commercial and industrial prosperity prompted large scale emigration from the British Isles. Many Irish immigrants created a Corktown in the general vicinity of John and Hunter Streets. Patriotic Britons and native born Canadians of British stock erected many public monuments downtown to honour John A. Macdonald, Queen Victoria and the United Empire Loyalists.

More people meant more demand for services and information. In 1874, the Hamilton Street Railway (http://www.city.hamilton.on.ca/Living-Here/Transit/default.asp) began offering horse-drawn public transportation. Robert Smiley, the founding publisher of ‘’The Spectator’’, sold the newspaper to William Southam in 1877 as the first link in the Southam newspaper chain. A unified Hamilton Fire Department, staffed by professionals, replaced the numerous volunteer fire companies in 1879.

The Hamilton area was also intimately connected with the early history of the telephone. While staying at his parents’ Brantford home in neighbouring Brant County, Alexander Graham Bell conceived of the idea of the telephone in 1874 and make the first experimental long distance call to Paris, Ontario in 1876. The following year, retired Baptist minister Thomas Peter Henderson become the first General Agent for the telephone business in Canada. In 1878, the first telephone exchange in the British Empire was opened in Hamilton.

More workers and new immigrants encouraged a nascent trade union movement among skilled craftsmen. Hamilton unionists and other working class people gave birth in 1872 the Nine Hour Movement, urging the government to limit working hours to nine per day.

A more modest but still unstable railway boom marked the last part of the 19th century too. The Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway was incorporated in 1884, and by 1892 offered limited cargo service and ultimately passenger service. Electrical railways which sporadically linked Hamilton with Grimsby, Beamsville, Brantford and Oakville were established the following decade.

History 1893-1905: Ambition Is Realized

Modernization and business consolidation often went hand in hand with unionization. The HSR converted to electrically powered vehicles in 1892. In keeping with the area’s reputation, the firefighters unionized in 1896. As it was absorbed by Hamilton Electric Light and Power Company in 1899, HSR workers joined Division (now Local) 107) of the predecessor of the current Amalgamated Transit Union.

But it was definitely not all work and no play for local residents. In 1894, Hamilton Herald newspaper and cigar store owner Billy Carroll established the Around the Bay Road Race (http://www.aroundthebayroadrace.com/history.htm). The route circumnavigates Burlington Bay and, although it is not a proper marathon, it is the longest continuously held long distance foot race in North America. It was won by such sporting greats as William “Billy” Sherring, Tom Longboat and Sam Mellor.

Adelaide Hoodless and other founded the first Women’s Institute in Saltfleet Township (Stoney Creek) in 1897 and began her educational campaign for home economics. A year after she died in 1910, one of Hamilton’s many new schools was named in her honour.

Hamiltonians, like other residents of the colonies, discovered one of the darker sides of British Imperialism when the South African War broke out in 1899. Men from Wentworth County and other Canadians volunteered to serve in the Canadian Mounted Rifles (http://www.hpl.ca/Local/SPCOLL/forget.shtml) or Northwest Mounted Police contingents. Although they excelled at the bitter guerrilla war there against the Boers, its conclusion in 1902 served as an omen for the future.

Ernest D’Israeli Smith, after being frustrated by paying to have his fruit transported from the Stoney Creek area, had founded a company in 1882 to market directly to wholesalers and eliminate the middleman. E.D. Smith & Sons Ltd. (http://www.edsmith.com) continues operating today, and has since the early 1900s has sold manufactured preserves and jams. Its namesake founder served as the Conservative MP for Wentworth around the turn of the 20th century.

By the end of the century, symbolically marked by the death of Queen Victoria in the first days of the 20th century, Hamilton expanded to the approximate limits of the Mountain Brow to the south, Chedoke Creek to the west and Gage Avenue to the east.

Through natural increase and immigration, the urban Hamilton-rural Wentworth population balance shifted so much that in 1904 the federal ridings were redistributed. While the total number of MPs remained the same, two were now from the city proper (Hamilton East and Hamilton West) and one represented the rest of the county.

History 1906-1918: Dreams and Nightmares

Hamilton had a momentous year in 1906: local boy Billy Sherring won an Olympic gold medal at Athens for the marathon. The Amalgamated Transit Union struck against the HSR in a bitter labour dispute. The working class voters of Hamilton East, sympathetic to the ATU, elected Allan Studholme as their MLA. For years he stood as the lone labour representative in the legislature, championing the eight hour day, workmen's compensation, the minimum wage and women's suffrage.

The steel industry continued to grow and finally consolidate through this period, some combining to form the Steel Company of Canada in 1910 and others Dominion Steel Casting Company in 1912. Stelco and Dofasco, as they became colloquially and then legally known, were located in the north end to take advantage of the transportation and cooling opportunities provide by access to the water.

The infant science of aviation found early and enthusiastic supporters in Hamilton. Jack Elliot established an airport in the north end near Stelco which in 1911 hosted the first Canadian Air Meet. Pioneering aviator J.A.D. McCurdy won that contest, sponsored in part by the newly minted Hamilton Automobile Club (now CAA South-Central Ontario)

Emigration continued from Britain and the United States (chiefly blacks) during this period as local museums (http://www.city.hamilton.on.ca/culture-and-rec/MUSEUMS/fieldcote/default.asp) show, but also began from other countries such as Italy and Austria-Hungary. Remarkably, thousands of Italian Hamiltonians are descendants of emigrants in this period from a single Sicilian town, commemorated by the dual naming of Murray Street as Corso Raculmuto.

Increased population and prosperity prompted a building boom. As a publicity stunt and raffle, workers and contractors built a house in a day in 1913 which was later featured in a Ripley’s Believe It or Not cartoon. The same year, the Hamilton Public Library (http://www.hpl.on.ca) opened its new building funded by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. (The site was renovated and now houses the Family Court (http://www.ontariocourts.on.ca/family_court/overview.htm).)

Hamiltonians participated in the First World War as combattants, but due to Col. Sir Sam Hughes' mobilization plans for the Canadian Expeditionary Force, there were no major battles associated purely with Hamiltonians. The Royal Hamilton Light Infantry later perpetuated the battle honours of four of these consecutively numbered Overseas Battalions of the CEF.

Heavy industry boomed as the Canadian and British governments' war driven demands for steel, arms, munitions and textiles increased. Unfortunately, in their quest to expand, the twin steel giants damaged the land by infilling Hamilton Harbour and burying or diverting many creeks which formerly flowed into the bay. War profiteering by manufacturers dampened some of the mood, but generally Hamiltonians pulled together (http://www.hpl.ca/history/war/default.htm).

History 1919-1938: Between the Wars

The Great War was a somber affair, but post-war dream seemed secure in the Roaring Twenties. The United Farmers of Ontario won the most seats in the 1919 provincial election, but chose not to govern. Instead, a Liberal minority government was propped up by independent and progressive members. Walter Rollo, MLA for Hamilton West, became the first Ontario minister of labour in this government.

The Hamilton Board of Education resumed its ambitious building program for schools. Their names often honoured the memory of war veterans: Memorial School, Allenby School and Earl Kitchener School. The educational building boom was coupled with a residential housing boom in which hundreds of low-rise apartment buildings, of three to four stories and six to ten units, grew up across the city, especially in the east end.

Higher education -- disregarding its normal school or teachers college -- arrived in Hamilton in 1930. McMaster University was founded in Toronto as a Baptist institution of higher learning. Funded by a bequest of Senator William McMaster in 1887, it was in danger of becoming absorbed by the University of Toronto. Hamilton’s municipal government, civic boosters and ordinary residents lured the university to the city with grants of land and money in 1930. Not only did McMaster preserve its independence, but it began publishing The Silhouette (http://www.msu.mcmaster.ca/sil/) student newspaper, now an award-winning weekly broadsheet.

Local boosters also ensured that Hamilton hosted the inaugural Empire Games, now known as the Commonwealth Games in 1930. Amateur athletes from around the British Empire and Commonwealth gathered to compete at Hamilton Civic Stadium, the current site of Ivor Wynne Stadium.

The Great Depression of the 1930s hit Hamilton hard. The simultaneous and prolonged decline in domestic consumption and international trade in finished industrial goods and building supplies put a stop to residential and institutional construction for a decade. It was in this context of privation that Dr. [Elizabeth Bagshaw] started her illegal birth control clinic in 1932.

Emotional relief from the Depression was found in The Washingtons (http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=U1ARTU0003637), local brother who performed as a blues quartet throughout Ontario. Practical relief was found in government works projects designed to prime the economy and which added to the long-term attractiveness of Hamilton.

Thomas B. McQueston, a Hamilton lawyer and MLA, served as minister of transportation and chairman Niagara Parks Commission starting in 1934. He spearheaded the construction of the Queen Elizabeth Way, a controlled access highway which links Fort Erie with Toronto via Hamilton, and the Mountain access for Highway 20 in Stoney Creek. He also supported the construction of the Rock Gardens at the Royal Botanical Gardens. Whitehern, his downtown family home, now serves as a civic museum (http://www.city.hamilton.on.ca/culture-and-rec/MUSEUMS/whitehern/default.asp).

History 1939-1945: War Returns

As war clouds gathered over Europe, Britain decided to shore up its support in the Dominions by having a royal visit to Canada. When King George VI and his consort Queen Elizabeth visited Canada in May and June of 1939, they stopped in Hamilton and also opened up the QEW.

Hamiltonians like others in Canada and the world welcomed the spike of economic demand casued by the Second World War but not its source. Heavy industry again began spewing out its pollutants, and by the end of the war the ecological cost of pollution had taken its toll on Hamilton: heavy metals made fish from the Hamilton Harbour inedible, air pollution made breathing difficult and industrial dumps contaminated land.

Unlike the First World War, in this war the Canadian Army mobilized its territorially recruited militia units as a body rather than soliciting individuals to serve in conglomerated units. Men of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry (colloquially known as the Rileys (http://www.rhli.ca)) and the rest of the 2nd Canadian Division were mobilized early, but sat on their hands in Britain for two years. The Hamilton area was also active in the Royal Canadian Air Force: the city proper sponsored 424 “Tiger” Squadron by buying bombers to equip it.

On the homefront, the public not only eagerly followed the progress of the war (http://warmuseum.ca/cwm/newspapers/intro_e.html), but they also got a chance to see airmen in action. In 1940, as part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, the Royal Canadian Air Force established a station in Glanford Township. Hundreds of Commonwealth pilots and other aircrew were trained at RCAF Station Mount Hope, and some unfortunate ones are still buried there.

The army’s enforced idleness -- disregarding their unsuccessful foray to France in May 1940 and disastrous defence of Hong Kong in December 1941 -- led to discontentment in the army, the public and the government. In this atmosphere, the timing was ripe for Lord Mountbatten’s ill-advised and unauthorized raid-in-force. The Rileys lost hundreds of its young men on a single day in 1942, when they were effectively wiped out as a fighting force at Dieppe.

When the war finally ended, Hamilton was a much different place. Women had permanently entered the paid workforce. The lean times of the Great Depression were over -- and veterans were going to make sure that happened. But for that story, please return to the main article.

External links

Each of these links also appears in an appropriate part of the article above.

Current historical attractions

Some other sites contain minor historical displays or interpretation, but the websites and physical locations of the following bodies and organizations contain mainly these.

• Canadian Warplane Heritage (http://www.warplane.com/), static and flying museum, Mount Hope airport
• Hamilton Civic Museums (http://www.city.hamilton.on.ca/culture-and-rec/museums), including Dundurn Castle and the Hamilton Museum of Steam and Technology
• Royal Hamilton Light Infantry Heritage Museum (http://www.rhli.ca/museum/museum.html)
• Erland Lee House (http://www.fwio.on.ca/Contribute/erland_lee/erland_lee.asp), birthplace of Women's Institutes
• Ontario Workers Arts and Heritage Centre (http://www.web.net/~owahc)
• Westfield Heritage Centre (http://www.conservationhamilton.ca/parks/visit/westfield.asp)

Historical documentation online

Many other websites contain some photographs and other documentation, but these sites contain primarily these.

• Industrial Hamilton: A Trail to the Future (http://collections.ic.gc.ca/industrial/intro.htm)
• Hamilton Public Library (http://www.hpl.ca/Local/SPCOLL/Speccol.shtml)’s Special Collections for local history
• Federated Women’s Institutes of Ontario (http://www.fwio.on.ca/Contribute/about/historic_achievements.asp)
• Hamilton Gallery of Distinction (http://www.hpl.ca/gallery/browse_inductees/index.php)
• Dr. Elizabeth Bagshaw (http://www.collectionscanada.ca/women/h12-296-e.html)
• "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" (http://members.shaw.ca/tunebook/maggie.htm), lyrics to George Johnson's song

Hamiltonians famous prior to 1946

People associated with Hamilton who became well-known prior to 1946 are listed below in the order of their birth.

• George Hamilton, settler and city founder
• Allan McNab, 1798-1862, soldier, lawyer, businessman, knight and leader of the Province of Canada
• Thomas Bain, 1834-1915, Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons
• George Johnson, 1839-1917, teacher and songwriter
• Allan Studholme, 1846-1919, stove maker and first Ontario Labour MLA
• E.D. Smith, 1853-1948, farmer, businessman and politician
• Adelaide Hoodless, 1858-1910, education and women’s activist
• Walter Rollo, first Ontario minister of labour
• Elizabeth Bagshaw, 1881-1982, physician and birth control activist
• Thomas McQueston, 1882-1948, lawyer and Ontario minister of transportation
• Florence Lawrence, 1890-1938, Hollywood's first movie star
• John Foote, 1904-1988, military chaplain and Ontario cabinet minister
• Jackie Washington, 1919- , blues musician and railway worker

Other links

• McMaster University (http://www.mcmaster.ca)
• Ancaster Old Mill (http://www.ancasteroldmill.com)
• Royal Botanical Gardens (http://www.rbg.ca)
• Canadian Automobile Association South Central Ontario (http://caa.701.com/sites/701/HTML/halton/304495.html) (formerly Hamilton Automobile Club)
• The Canadian Encyclopedia (http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com)