HISTORY OF BOWMANVILLE
Part 19
By Mr. J. B. Fairbairn, P. M.
Speaking of the cold, when Colonel Wicksteed was inspector of the Kingston Division, he stepped of the stage coach one intensely bitter morning shortly after midnight; the fires were all out at Hines' hotel opposite and my stove was cold instead of hot. He was nearly perished and his feet almost frozen. I hunted up a pair of good, heavy, homemade socks which he put on over his boots and of which I am sure he flt the benefit before he reached his destination. I received them again in due time with a note of thanks. This recalls a speech I heard made by Laughlin Taylor on his trip to Palestine. He was agent for the Upper Canada Bible Society and when here had always large audiences. He stopped in the midst of an eloquent peroration to tell the audience about the socks his mother had made for him in her Highland home, and of how useful he found them in climbing mountains and walking over rocks on his journey. It almost brought tears to one's eyes to hear him so pathetically describe the dear old lady's solicitude for her darling boy. Who made mine I do not know, but I am inclined to think they did Mr. Wicksteed as good service as did those that called forth the melting eloquence of the celebrated orator.
It requires an imaginative conception to take in the wonderful changes of the pblic service since 1829 when the first post office was established. When I entered as assistant in 1845 it was a very small affair. My brother John had just put up the little brick store now in use by Mr. John Gilbert, opposite Mr. W. G. Glover's livery. At the south end a small space was partitioned off and there the postal business was carried on. Afterwards he put up a frame building next door, into which the office was removed. The inside space would be about ten by twenty and the boxes and general outfit were of the commonest description. This will show how office accommodation stood in 1848. In 1850 changes were absolutely necessary. I rented from James Heal, Sr., the present Grand Central premises and obtained a supply of the latest improved boxes then in use. They were made in Port Hope and cost three hundred dollars. The change was a vast improvement. It made quite a respectable place. I will not follow the removals but we have finally reached the highest stage of development. The present magnificent public building will be here for some future person to write about. We are largely indebted for it to Robt. Beith, Esq, ex-M. P. Looking at the correspondence,, including the vast newspaper circulation, now handled through this channel, it is a marvel to what a height it has reached. Here I would put in a plea for those who are actively engaged in the work. The general public has little idea of the hardships many have to undergo. Take an office of this size. The regular hours are from seven o'clock a.m. to seven p.m. and in addition a mail is made up and dispatched at nine p.m. and the western mail is received at eleven. Before it is assorted and the registered matter entered and put in the vault, the wee sma' hour has come. I wish some who are so ready to find fault had a few months' trail of it.
The P.M. and clerks are between the devil and the deep sea, -the Department on the one hand and the public on the other. They have come in contact with all classes in the community. I do not suppose there is in Ontario a more kindly and pleasant people to deal with but there are a few exceptions, and if any little irregularity occurs we get it hot and heavy from them. To handle hundreds of letters the work has to be done with great rapidity, and owing perhaps to an illegible address or a mistake in the box, a letter sometimes gets misplaced. There is not time to wait and scrutinize every one. If this were done then the lobby would raise a storm. The public does not like to be kept waiting. Our mail clerks on the travelling post office are both expert and careful, but owing to the rush they have the same difficulty, one which arises principally from similarity of names. For instance take Brownsville, Beamsville, Bowmanton and Bowmansville, New York. With a quick glance how easy to throw a letter in the wrong bag! The marvel is that so very few go astray. Of late years the addition of the Savings Bank, Money Order and Postal Note branches have added much to the labor and responsibility. I hope the day is not far distant when at least fair remuneration will be given. If any deserve it, 'tis the present hard working servants of the public in the post office. Accidents will occur no matter in what business you are engaged. I am tempted to give an account of one which at the time caused me grave anxiety.
The old stove stood in the centre of the box-like room and I had been in the habit, when over-hauling the night mail, of throwing the canvas sack on it, the fire always being out. t so happened that my brother Tom, who was quite a kid, was rooming with me. A bright idea struck him and getting up before daylight, he made a blazing fire. Smelling something burning I awake and rushed downstairs. Sure enough, it was too late! And as almost always happens the package with the most important letters being on the heated metal, they were burnt to a crisp. It took my breath away to decide what was to be done. I could make out from the remains of the less injured who they were for. One of the most important was for the Bank of Montreal, Mr. Simpson, agent. I went over to him in fear and trembling and explained how it happened. Instead of breaking out into a rage, saying nasty thins and threatening all kinds of penalties, he smilingly said, "Don't worry about it, I will get duplicates of the drafts and documents". And this he did. Do you think I was likely to forget that and fail to do him a kindness in return if I had the chance? No, the king comes in the cadger's road sometimes, and I repaid it with interest. Mr. Armour was also a victim. It goes without saying that he followed the same course. In these post office reminiscences I will give another little episode by way of showing the difficulties I labored under. When alone in charge, I was asked out one night and Tom declared he would stay awake and take in that two o'clock mail. His eyes waxed heavy and he could not resist the over-powering desire to slumber. When I reached home I found the stage had left half an hour earlier, the driver having failed to arouse him. Here was a situation ! More important even than the mail we should have received was the one that should have gone out. Montreal was the principal wholesale centre and it took so long for letters to reach there that any failure to dispatch might be attended with bad results. I ran up to a livery stable, then kept by Mr. McCutcheon, (now the Prower block) roused the men, got a saddled horse and left to overtake the stage, taking with me the bag and a key to unlock the leather one. I overtook Her Majesty's Mail this side of Newcastle and by the bright light f the silver moon made the exchange. The passengers must have thought it quite a noel and extraordinary proceeding.
The hotels in the early days played a most important part, adding to the comfort of those who were compelled to travel either for business or pleasure. Indeed without such accommodation it would have been utterly impossible to carry on any enterprise or industry requiring one to go a distance from home. There was a regular chain of them along the Kingston road, not farther apart then five miles. We had one between here and Newcastle, and one five miles west. It was here that the dastardly and uncalled for murder of Conant took place. It created great commotion, and I remember how severely the coroner's jury were criticized for bringing in, as they did, a verdict of justifiable homicide. It was during the rebellion, and more than likely the feeling against those who sympathized with that movement together with a desire to stand well with the government led to the unjust decision. The guilty wretch, it is said, came to a bad end. He was carrying despatches to the Government at Toronto and rode up to this small tavern, I suppose, to get a drink. Poor Conant under the influence of liquor, staggered out of the door and innocently caught the braggart's bridle rein. He drew his sabre and split his head open. This en passant. None of these caravansaries had a better reputation or was more largely patronized than the one kept so long by Alphonso Hindes. Hotel-keeping as an occupation was not looked upon askance as is the case in these latter days. Reputable men owned and kept them. Among the first in this section was one opened and carried on for some time by a Mr. Bates whose male descendants were among our best townsmen. He died of the cholera in 1830. By an unusual vagary of this dreadful disease most on the road escaped excepting the landlords everyone of whom between Kingston and York, saving Mr. Hindes, became its victim. Then we had the Posts and Heads of Pickering. I give these names to indicate the kind of persons who thought it no disgrace to keep such places of entertainment. Mine host, Mr. Hindes, was the right kind of individual to take charge of one. He did not drink himself and looked carefully after the whole establishment. His wife was a superior woman, a daughter of Sanford Martyn, Whitby township. They were both kind to the poor and many an unfortunate pilgrim got a good square meal free of charge. The place was clean and comfortable. The first building he occupied was of course, like all others, a small frame. It was burned down and afterwards a brick one arose from its ashes and was called "The Waverly,". It was in full blast during all the palmy days before the era or railways. Mr. Hindes was from Vermont and had all the originality and Yankee humour for which the Vermonters are celebrated. Mr. Weller of Cobourg was from the same place. They were intimate friends and the last visit Mr. Weller paid to Bowmanville was to see him. He was sick at the time with the illness which afterwards proved fatal. They were companions in boyhood. There were in the Hindes family four daughters and two sons. The former were all clever, handsome lasses. Only one, Harriet, is living. Of the sons, Alphonso Jr., of Oshawa, is still on deck, nearly the exact image of his father.
It was a hard position for those who had the management when everything was in so rudimentary a state, with no regular means of enforcing what rules there were to govern such houses. All kinds and conditions of humanity were frequenters. The free, unchallenged use of whiskey had its usual results and in spite of those who wanted order and decency, it was often a pandemonium. I saw fierce and bloody fights in the barroom and gambling was a regular thing. On entering one of the upper rooms one night, I found a party of decent citizens with their coats off, hard at it. Some made money thereby. A great many tales were told, some exaggerated; still, a lot of sheckels changed hands. I think the worst feature in connection with the whole thing was, not the unruly conduct of the drunken debauchee, but the obscenity indulged in. many of the guilty ones who would have scored to lie or steal did not hesitate to poison the air with oaths and filth. I say unhesitatingly that a man at the age of maturity who will deliberately throw this kind of pollution into the minds of the younger people is a wretch of the dearest dye. You may recover from any other kind of injury, but the God-like power of memory fixes this for all time to come until the great enemy closes this mortal existence or at least while the brain continues to act.
Next - Bowmanville and Darlington History Part 20
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