The Original Thomas Alfred Code and Andrew Haydon Letters — Part 28–I Didn’t Swindle Money from the Wampole & Co W.H. Brick

“Thou Shall Not Bear False Witness Against Thy Neighbour”

Written by Wampole employee W.H. Brick

On the Code Felt and Knitting Company Limited Stationary

Written in Toronto, March 14, 1907

Copy of Circulation Letter to the Citizens of Perth

In all honesty I could write a Canadian mini series about this 5 page faded letter that was found in an envelope in my Thomas Code Journals. Neatly typed probably by Code’s secretary in defiance with what the Perth newspaper and its citizens were waging against Mr. Brick. A lot of it is fading and it is extremely repetitive, so I typed out the highlights with a hint of sarcasm. I could not help myself. Apologies

Toronto, March 14, 1907

When one disappears out of the blue one day, and money is missing from the great Wampole Medicine Company, one should not write that they have feelings of mingled surprise and interest 9 months later. So instead of letting the local Perth papers complain about you — you feel a 5 page letter of “Truth” is needed to stop the ‘fake news”.

The good people of Perth should know that I, Mr. W.H. Brick will no longer tolerate this behaviour and it will only be discussed in a court of law. No more ‘he said she said”!  “I shall take you all to court.”  Famous last words.

Please note my friends that one Mr. Danner never suffered injury at my hand and had always been the gracious recipient of the hospitality of my home. Now, however, he takes the advantage of “the psychological moment” by never losing an opportunity to condemn me in either public or private. 

Among the false statements Mr. Danner has circulated is the fact that I had robbed Wampole from day one! He was simply jealous that Mr. Wampole and Mr. Campbell respected me more and they failed to notice his remarkable worth. I believe that Danner also said that after my death I would need to answer for the insanity and subsequent death of Henry. K. Wampole. I, W.H. Brick was not responsible for Mr. Wampole’s or anyone’s death.

Then there is also a Mr. Maher who had the audacity to intrude into Hick’s Boarding House unannounced while my wife was seriously ill. He ranted that her dearest husband, me, was going to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. He is nothing but  a dumb brute! There is also nothing to the truth that over $3,000 was short from a Toronto baseball club when I was treasurer. The gall of the Toronto papers sending copies to the newspapers of Perth! Ladies and gentleman, no other individual has entered a community with more desire to help than I did when I took up residence in Perth.

Suddenly a crash came and I went away as per an arrangement with the late Henry R. Wampole. After that fateful day an event that no man was ever more unjustly or atrociously maligned than myself. Since I have returned to Toronto I have been gathering evidence to clear up the words these gossipers are spreading through the town of Perth.

Photo-Perth Remembered–

First- I did not leave Perth borrowing or attempting to borrow 50 dollars 100 dollars or a million dollars.

Second–I did not leave town without paying my honest debts, except my board bill at Hick’s House. But, I did pay it later, or did I? ( By the way W.H. Hicks left his wife at the boarding house when he left without paying the bills)

Third— That I did not dabble in stocks, place horse race bets or run with women. I also did not lose lots of money on poker games but I did lose a small stake with friends in a private game.

Fourth— That I did not deceive or fool the people of Perth

Fifth — that I did not speak badly or gossip about the people of Perth

Sixth— That I never took advantage or fooled any citizen or firm in Perth

To the Perth physician who told my wife she had no idea how she had put up with me so long– I wish to say we are living happily ever without his advice. 

The Hicks House later the Perth Hotel– Perth Remembered

To the boarders at Hick’s Boarding House that gossip incessantly about me– I know they dare not say this to my face. To the editorial comments by a local barrister of Perth I saw “Pshaw!”

To those that have defended me in Perth it leaves me room to return even though I have a crushed and bleeding heart.

Scrapbook Clippings of Wampole

 

Thomas Alfred Code Journal

The Original Thomas Alfred Code and Andrew Haydon Letters – —Part 1

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 2– Perth Mill

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 3– Genealogy Ennis

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 4a – Innisville the Beginning

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 4b – Innisville — Coopers and “Whipping the Cat” 1860-1870

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 4c – Innisville — Henry York and Johnny Code

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 4d – Innisville — “How We did Hoe it Down”!

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 4e – Innisville — ‘Neighbours Furnished one Another with Fire’

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 5- Code Family– “Hawthorn Mill was a Failure, and the Same Bad Luck has Followed for at Least 50 Years”

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 6- Code Family– “Almost everything of an industry trial character had vanished in Innisville in 1882”

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 7- Code Family–“Thank God, no member of my family has disgraced me or the name!

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 8- Code Family– “We got a wool sack and put him inside and took him to the bridge”

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 9- Code Family –“I had much trouble in saving myself from becoming a first class liar”

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 10- Code Family – I conjured to myself: “You will know me later!” And Peter McLaren did.

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 11- Code Family –“I continued with bull dog tenacity for 12 years without salary”

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 12- Code Family–“Had I the course to go over again I would evade outside responsibilities beyond my share, even if it cost more”

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 13- Code Family–S. S. No. 17 Drummond, Innisville

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 14- Code Family–Letters from Mother Elizabeth Hicks

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 15- Code Family– Love and Runaway Marriages

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 16- Code Family-“The fish would shoot back and forth and at time hit their legs causing them to fall”

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 17- Code Family–“A reaper with the sickle and danced all night”

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 18- Code Family–Family Records from the Family Bible

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 19- Code Family–“Michell was never known to have any money, excepting at or after tax sales”

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 20- Code Family–“Whither Are We Drifting?”– The Perth Public School

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 21- Code Family–Franktown Past and Present Reverend John May

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 22- Code Family–Field Day at “The Hill” (McDonald’s Corners)

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 23- Code Family–Brother John — John Code Goes West

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 24- Code Family– Built for the Love of his Life

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 25- Code Family– A Letter from Mother

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 26- Mary Rathwell and Eleanor Ennis

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 27- John Code and John Ennis

 

CLIPPED FROM
The Lanark Era
Lanark, Ontario, Canada30 Oct 1918, Wed  •  Page 5

More Local Treasure Than Pirate’s Booty on Treasure Island

My actual book of “Pioneer Sketches of the District of Balhurst “( Lanark and Renfrew Counties) Volume 1” signed by Andrew Haydon 1925

 

When I began documenting the letters between Andrew Haydon and Thomas Alfred Code I assumed the approximately 40 page history journal relating to the Code family had been put into the book Haydon wrote about the district of Bathurst.

The journal I have in my pocession included correspondence with Andrew Haydon, member of the Canadian Senate (1924-1932) who asked Thomas Alfred Code for biographical information. Code in his attempt to aid Haydon put together correspondence, typed biographical information, and news clippings as well as a few letters handwritten from his mother in this journal.

The American seller that sold me the book also assumed that when Hayden later published “Pioneer Sketches of the District of Balhurst “( Lanark and Renfrew Counties) Volume 1”   had included a small portion of Code’s information in his book. He didn’t. The letters between Hayden and Code were done in 1929 and the book was published in 1925, so I figured that the letters were to be of use to him in Volume 2 if Hayden ever wrote it. Instead, he wrote Mackenzie King and the Liberal Party 1930, and then died in 1932.

In this book by Andrew Haydon he discusses the settlement and development of the ‘old’ Bathurst District. The District of Bathurst included most of Lanark, Renfrew and Carleton Counties in present-day Ontario. From the world events that set the scene for settlement of the ‘upper’ province, to specific information about individuals who came to call Bathurst District their home.

 

My actual book of “Pioneer Sketches of the District of Balhurst “( Lanark and Renfrew Counties) Volume 1” signed by Andrew Haydon 1925

The author has included many first hand accounts of those who experienced the hardships and opportunities of settlement in a new land. Includes many references to the early families and individuals in the region. So, this makes the Code letters and ephemera I have in the journal all the more important to local history.

“The history of Bathurst still waits to be written. A well known English writer has explored in fiction the story of the Five Towns. The history of Bathurst turns to the geography of its Five Rivers– the ancient forest home of Algonquin tribes, whose wigwams once dotted those picturesque tributaries of the Ottawa, still carrying the French or Indian names of Rideau, Mississippi, Madawaska, Bonnechere and Petawawa.

And along the Five rivers the adventurous pioneers constructed scores of mills, little and large, around which were clustered scores of hamlets, many of whose locations are marked today by the crumbling ruins of an old stone chimney, or otherwise rest but in the dim memories of a rapidly disappearing generation.”– Andrew Haydon

It goes to show you that you should never judge a book or even words by their cover as History is not a burden on the memory but more of an illumination of the soul.

The Code Journal of local history and Code Genealogy

 

Andrew Haydon-–He was the author of Pioneer Sketches of The District of Bathurst (Lanark and Renfrew Counties, Ontario) (The Ryerson Press, 1925) and Mackenzie King and the Liberal Party (Allen, 1930).

Come and visit the Lanark County Genealogical Society Facebook page– what’s there? Cool old photos–and lots of things interesting to read. Also check out The Tales of Carleton Place.

Information where you can buy all Linda Seccaspina’s books-You can also read Linda in The Townships Sun andScreamin’ Mamas (USA)

 

 

The Original Thomas Alfred Code and Andrew Haydon Letters – —Part 1

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 2– Perth Mill

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 3– Genealogy Ennis

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 4a – Innisville the Beginning

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 4b – Innisville — Coopers and “Whipping the Cat” 1860-1870

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 4c – Innisville — Henry York and Johnny Code

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 4d – Innisville — “How We did Hoe it Down”!

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 4e – Innisville — ‘Neighbours Furnished one Another with Fire’

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 5- Code Family– “Hawthorn Mill was a Failure, and the Same Bad Luck has Followed for at Least 50 Years”

When Newspapers Gossiped–David Kerr Innisville

Kerr or Ennis? More about the Innisville Scoundrel

What Went Wrong with the Code Mill Fire in Innisville?

 

CLIPPED FROM
The Ottawa Citizen
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada14 Oct 1924, Tue  •  Page 9

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 6- Code Family– “Almost everything of an industry trial character had vanished in Innisville in 1882”

Thomas Code

 

Absolom McCaffrey was 46 when he opened his new bakery on Bell Street in 1867. Previous to this he had been a cooper – a maker of barrels – in business with Napoleon Lavallee between 1833 and 1847. Together they did a thriving business constructing butter tubs and barrels for flour and pork. Absolom was still listed as a cooper in the 1861 census. Why the change of career we wonder?–Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum

 

 

Thomas Code was another uncle of the writer and also a forty-niner. In company with Absalom McCaffrey of Carleton Place and others, he joined in the gold rush to California. Returning home a few years later he purchased the Innisville store business of Michael Murphy, who left and settled in Carleton Place. He  continued until conditions got very much impaired in the village, and having a large family decided to try his fortune in the West; this was in the middle 1870s. He took up land near a place called Elgin, south of Brandon, Manitoba. He and the family suffered great hardships on the early stages. He told me when I visited him in 1883 that only for the people of Ontario, the country would have never been settled. They were living in a sod house, and the outbuildings were built with sods– one of them an excavation on the side of the knoll. I again paid him a visit in 1902 and found conditions about as we find them at home- good houses and barns. Other facilities had changed the whole situation. Some of the family are farming there yet.

William Code

William Code, father of the writer, was born in Montreal in the year 1820 as stated. He served an apprenticeship with John Graham of Carleton Place– a wagon and carriage builder of the early days. In the middle to late nineteenth century 164 Bridge Street belonged to the Greig Block. One thing that is clear is that John Graham operated a wagon shop here. At the expiration of his term he drifted to Prescott, Ontario and obtained employment there.

This was in the historical year of 1837 when Von Shultz and his band (Rebellions of 1837–38) invaded the Windmill District. His employer, who was equipped with musket and regimental clothing, insisted that my father should don the outfit, which he did. His employer disappeared and was never heard of again. While the situation was not that dangerous he could hear the bullets in the air. Von Schultz and his gang were captured and history tells what happened there. An old friend, Robert Mackay, who passed away some years ago, told me that he was at the scene of the hanging at Fort Henry, Kingston, and said he saw bodies removed in a cart, the legs hanging over the end.

After my father’s experience as a journeyman, last in Kingston, he came back to Innisville and started a wagon shop. He had a turning lathe later in the old carding mill for rounding the hubs. I remember helping my father to crosscut the oak logs, to be split into spokes ready to be put away to dry. He made the coffins also for the district. They were an uninviting receptacle covered with black cloth, the best of them are not inviting.

He also built a hotel, and procured a farm near the village. He died in the year 1868. Father was enterprising, ambitious, and met with more than average success, as success went at the time. But later, owing to limitations and the general trend, a Napoleon could only go so far, which leads me to advise ambitious young men to start out in life where the going is good, and where there is room at the top of the ladder.

The hotel was later leased to James Young, who afterwards ran the Queens Hotel in Perth. The old woollen mill on the south side of the river that had been operated by A & G Code was vacated. Strange to say during all the years it had been operating it had escaped destruction, but one night in the year 1878 it was discovered to be on fire. Without fire protection the building was obliterated together with the late A. Code home and the hotel. This with the burning of the flour and saw mills in 1882 left Innisville almost desolate compared with its former glory, as almost everything of an industry trial character had vanished.

Next –The family of William Code

 

Photo- Perth Remembered

Note—When the post office opened in 1851 a clerical error resulted in the community being called Innisville. The error was never corrected.

History

The first industrial process on the site was operated by the Kilpatrick family beginning in 1842 and established as a tannery shortly thereafter.  In 1882 a new owner, Thomas Alfred Code, established Codes Custom Wool Mill with a range of processes, including: carding, spinning, fulling, shearing, pressing, and coloring of yarns. In 1896, its name was changed to the Tay Knitting Mill, and it produced yarn, hosiery, socks, gloves, sporting-goods, sweaters, and mitts. Another change came in 1899, when a felt-making process was introduced and the mill was renamed Code Felt. The company continued to operate until the closing of the factory in 1998.

 

51 Herriott – The Code Mill is actually a collage of five different buildings dating from 1842. T.A. Code moved to Perth in 1876, and bought this property by 1883. Code spent 60 years in business in Perth. The business started with a contract to supply the North West Mounted Police with socks, and continued for many years manufacturing felt for both industrial and commercial uses.

Code Felt Co today– Click here..

 

In the 1883, Mr. T. A. Code established Codes Custom Wool Mill with a range of processes, including:  carding, spinning, fulling, shearing, pressing, and coloring of yarns. In 1896, its name was changed to the  Tay Knitting Mill, and it produced yarn, hosiery, socks, gloves, sporting-goods, sweaters, and mitts.  Another change came in 1899, when a felt-making process was introduced and the mill was renamed  Code Felt. The company continued to operate until the closing of the factory in 1998. The following year, John Stewart began a major restoration and introduced new uses for this landmark. This impressive limestone complex with its central atrium now has an interesting mix of commercial tenants.-Perth Remembered

How did I get this?

I purchased this journal online from a dealer in California. I made every attempt to make sure the journal came back to its rightful location. Every day I will be  putting up a new page so its contents are available to anyone. It is a well worn journal full of glued letters and newspaper clippings which I think belonged to Code’s son Allan at one point. Yes there is lots of genealogy in this journal. I am going to document it page by page. This journal was all handwritten and hand typed.

How did it get into the United States?  The book definitely belonged to Allan Code and he died in Ohio in 1969.

Allan Leslie Code

1896–1969 — BIRTH 27 MAR 1896 • Ontario—DEATH JUN 1969 • Mentor, Lake, Ohio, USA

 

Andrew Haydon–He was the author of Pioneer Sketches of The District of Bathurst (Lanark and Renfrew Counties, Ontario) (The Ryerson Press, 1925) and Mackenzie King and the Liberal Party (Allen, 1930).

 

Come and visit the Lanark County Genealogical Society Facebook page– what’s there? Cool old photos–and lots of things interesting to read. Also check out The Tales of Carleton Place.

Information where you can buy all Linda Seccaspina’s books-You can also read Linda in The Townships Sun andScreamin’ Mamas (USA)

 

 

The Original Thomas Alfred Code and Andrew Haydon Letters – —Part 1

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 2– Perth Mill

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 3– Genealogy Ennis

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 4a – Innisville the Beginning

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 4b – Innisville — Coopers and “Whipping the Cat” 1860-1870

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 4c – Innisville — Henry York and Johnny Code

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 4d – Innisville — “How We did Hoe it Down”!

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 4e – Innisville — ‘Neighbours Furnished one Another with Fire’

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 5- Code Family– “Hawthorn Mill was a Failure, and the Same Bad Luck has Followed for at Least 50 Years”

When Newspapers Gossiped–David Kerr Innisville

Kerr or Ennis? More about the Innisville Scoundrel

What Went Wrong with the Code Mill Fire in Innisville?

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 2– Perth Mill

Original letter typed up in 1929 and sent to Andrew Haydon from the journal I purchased.

Perth, Ontario,1929.

The subject of this narrative (Thomas Alfred Code) was born June 9th, 1854 on the banks of the Mississippi in the township of Drummond, Lanark County. He had a varied experience in the early days, principally on the farm being in full charge for our years previous to embarking in business. He received a limited education in the local village school, and spent a winter term at the Grammar school in Perth.

In the year 1876, in his 21st year, Mr. Code rented a small carding mill in Perth. A year later he removed to a  small building on Mill Street owned by the Hon. John Haggart.

Owing to the ever changing conditions in the local custom trade, it was deemed necessary to make some shift to keep step with the times. The people were gradually changing from the homespun to the factory-made article.

As the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway was in contemplation, a railway contractor, the late Mr. Hugh Ryan suggested that there was an opening for the knitted goods: Mitts, socks etc. This was adopted without any previous knowledge of the art. About the year 1880 the plant was removed to the present location, and the knitting has continued up to the present time.

In the year 1897 the Gemill Mill was taken over by the Perth Woollen Company, the principals being the Hon. John Haggart, Geo.D. Ross from Montreal, and Mr. Code. After a few years of indifferent success making tweeds, flannels, etc. a plant was installed for manufacturing pressed felts, and continued to make a limited range until the year 1920. At this time the holdings of the Hon. John Haggart and Mr. George D. Ross were taken over by Mr. Code. The Perth Felt Co. Limited and the Tay Knitting Mill were then re-incorporated and operated as one, under the name of the Code Felt & Knitting Co. Ltd.

 

 

An addition was then added for the manufacture of fine piece felts, which greatly enlarged the field for the company’s product. The mills are managed jointly by Wellington Douglas and Allan L. Code. The former has had a life-long practical experience in every department of the mill. The latter served in the Royal Flying Corps in France. He has since taken a course at the Lowell Textile School, and has applied his time to the development of the mills.

Mr. Code, the founder is spending his fifty- third year in harness without interruption,– a feat equalled by few.

Thomas Alfred Code

This poem was on the other side of the page opposite the narrative from Thomas Alfred Code

 

 

Photo- Perth Remembered

History

The first industrial process on the site was operated by the Kilpatrick family beginning in 1842 and established as a tannery shortly thereafter.  In 1882 a new owner, Thomas Alfred Code, established Codes Custom Wool Mill with a range of processes, including: carding, spinning, fulling, shearing, pressing, and coloring of yarns. In 1896, its name was changed to the Tay Knitting Mill, and it produced yarn, hosiery, socks, gloves, sporting-goods, sweaters, and mitts. Another change came in 1899, when a felt-making process was introduced and the mill was renamed Code Felt. The company continued to operate until the closing of the factory in 1998.

 

51 Herriott – The Code Mill is actually a collage of five different buildings dating from 1842. T.A. Code moved to Perth in 1876, and bought this property by 1883. Code spent 60 years in business in Perth. The business started with a contract to supply the North West Mounted Police with socks, and continued for many years manufacturing felt for both industrial and commercial uses.

Code Felt Co today– Click here..

 

In the 1883, Mr. T. A. Code established Codes Custom Wool Mill with a range of processes, including:  carding, spinning, fulling, shearing, pressing, and coloring of yarns. In 1896, its name was changed to the  Tay Knitting Mill, and it produced yarn, hosiery, socks, gloves, sporting-goods, sweaters, and mitts.  Another change came in 1899, when a felt-making process was introduced and the mill was renamed  Code Felt. The company continued to operate until the closing of the factory in 1998. The following year, John Stewart began a major restoration and introduced new uses for this landmark. This impressive limestone complex with its central atrium now has an interesting mix of commercial tenants.-Perth Remembered

How did I get this?

I purchased this journal online from a dealer in California. I made every attempt to make sure the journal came back to its rightful location. Every day I will be  putting up a new page so its contents are available to anyone. It is a well worn journal full of glued letters and newspaper clippings which I think belonged to Code’s son Allan at one point. Yes there is lots of genealogy in this journal. I am going to document it page by page. This journal was all handwritten and hand typed.

How did it get into the United States?  The book definitely belonged to Allan Code and he died in Ohio in 1969.

Allan Leslie Code

1896–1969 — BIRTH 27 MAR 1896 • Ontario—DEATH JUN 1969 • Mentor, Lake, Ohio, USA

 

Andrew Haydon- see bio below–He was the author of Pioneer Sketches of The District of Bathurst (Lanark and Renfrew Counties, Ontario) (The Ryerson Press, 1925) and Mackenzie King and the Liberal Party (Allen, 1930).

 

Come and visit the Lanark County Genealogical Society Facebook page– what’s there? Cool old photos–and lots of things interesting to read. Also check out The Tales of Carleton Place.

Information where you can buy all Linda Seccaspina’s books-You can also read Linda in The Townships Sun andScreamin’ Mamas (USA)

 

The Original Thomas Alfred Code and Andrew Haydon Letters – —Part 1

What Went Wrong with the Code Mill Fire in Innisville?

The Original Thomas Alfred Code and Andrew Haydon Letters – —Part 1

Photo- Perth Remembered

History

The first industrial process on the site was operated by the Kilpatrick family beginning in 1842 and established as a tannery shortly thereafter.  In 1882 a new owner, Thomas Alfred Code, established Codes Custom Wool Mill with a range of processes, including: carding, spinning, fulling, shearing, pressing, and coloring of yarns. In 1896, its name was changed to the Tay Knitting Mill, and it produced yarn, hosiery, socks, gloves, sporting-goods, sweaters, and mitts. Another change came in 1899, when a felt-making process was introduced and the mill was renamed Code Felt. The company continued to operate until the closing of the factory in 1998.

 

51 Herriott – The Code Mill is actually a collage of five different buildings dating from 1842. T.A. Code moved to Perth in 1876, and bought this property by 1883. Code spent 60 years in business in Perth. The business started with a contract to supply the North West Mounted Police with socks, and continued for many years manufacturing felt for both industrial and commercial uses.

 

In the 1883, Mr. T. A. Code established Codes Custom Wool Mill with a range of processes, including:  carding, spinning, fulling, shearing, pressing, and coloring of yarns. In 1896, its name was changed to the  Tay Knitting Mill, and it produced yarn, hosiery, socks, gloves, sporting-goods, sweaters, and mitts.  Another change came in 1899, when a felt-making process was introduced and the mill was renamed  Code Felt. The company continued to operate until the closing of the factory in 1998. The following year, John Stewart began a major restoration and introduced new uses for this landmark. This impressive limestone complex with its central atrium now has an interesting mix of commercial tenants.-Perth Remembered

How did I get this?

I purchased this journal online from a dealer in California. I made every attempt to make sure the journal came back to its rightful location. Every day I will be  putting up a new page so its contents are available to anyone. It is a well worn journal full of glued letters and newspaper clippings which I think belonged to Code’s son Allan at one point. Yes there is lots of genealogy in this journal. I am going to document it page by page. This journal was all handwritten and hand typed.

How did it get into the United States?  The book definitely belonged to Allan Code and he died in Ohio in 1969.

Allan Leslie Code

1896–1969 — BIRTH 27 MAR 1896 • Ontario—DEATH JUN 1969 • Mentor, Lake, Ohio, USA

 

Andrew Haydon- see bio below–He was the author of Pioneer Sketches of The District of Bathurst (Lanark and Renfrew Counties, Ontario) (The Ryerson Press, 1925) and Mackenzie King and the Liberal Party (Allen, 1930).

                                              Letters

April 11 1929 (all these letters were glued together at the top and very fragile)

 

February 25,1929

February 26, 1929

 

February 22, 1929

Signed T. A. Code  on wax paper style paper

January 25, 1929

 

3 page letter written and signed by Andrew Haydon– January 25 1929– see below

January 25, 1929

Dear Mr. Code,

If you can spare some time I wish you could send me as full an account as you can give of Innisville, its beginnings, its early life as to mills and industries. I mean the sewall? early industries and trades as well.

Also I want to know about you, your family history. When they came and where from + who they all were. I learn by family and by name. My records are significantly scarce reflecting Innisville and Ferguson Falls except in reference with newspapers where source obituaries offers a few records about the deceased.

Was Innisville and Ferguson Falls wooded and was there a lumbering trade? To what extent were your family mills returning both in time and output and did they go beyond the local trade as did the later developed mills in Almonte and Carleton Place on the same river. The village I suppose got its name from someone named Innis. Who was he and what did he do? You mention having seen Senator McLaren as a riverman. If you can add anything reflecting his beginnings, I would appreciate it.

I hope I am not a nuisance.

Kindest regards

Yours Sincerely,

Andrew Haydon

 

NEXT—Monday– A few words to Mr. Haydon from Mr. Code about his life.

 

 

Andrew Haydon (June 28, 1867 – November 10, 1932) was a Canadian lawyer and senator. Born in Pakenham, Ontario, the son of James Haydon and Eleanor Sadler,^[1] he received a Master of Arts degree in 1893 and a Bachelor of Law degree in 1895 from Queen’s University. He graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1897 and was soon after called to the Ontario Bar. He practiced law in Lanark, Ontario from 1897 to 1899 and then in Ottawa. He was Secretary of the 1919 National Liberal Convention and General Secretary of the National Liberal Organization Committee from 1920 to 1922. In 1924, he was appointed to the Senate of Canada representing the senatorial division of Ottawa, Ontario. He served until his death.

He was the author of Pioneer Sketches of The District of Bathurst (Lanark and Renfrew Counties, Ontario) (The Ryerson Press, 1925) and Mackenzie King and the Liberal Party (Allen, 1930).

In 1902, he married Euphemia Macdonald Scott. They had one son, Andrew Scott Haydon.

 

Peter McLaren (September 21, 1833 – May 23, 1919 was a Canadian politician.

Born in Lanark, Upper Canada, he was the son of James McLaren, an immigrant from Scotland. He married Sophia, the daughter of William Lees. McLaren was involved in the timber trade and operated sawmills in Carleton Place and at McLaren’s depot on the Kingston and Pembroke Railway line as well as in Alberta.

Guelph Archives– Carleton Place-

In 1881, the Ontario government passed the Rivers and Streams Act, mainly due to a dispute between McLaren and a rival lumber company over access to McLaren’s timber slides on the Mississippi River. The Act was disallowed by John Alexander Macdonald, leading to a dispute over jurisdiction between the Mowat government in Ontario and the federal government. However, in 1884, the Act was upheld by the British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in McLaren v. Caldwell.

McLaren was appointed to the Senate of Canada in 1890 on the advice of John Alexander Macdonald representing the senatorial division of Perth, Ontario. A Conservative, he served 29 years until his death in Perth in 1919.

Clipped from

1. The Ottawa Journal,
2. 04 May 1936, Mon,
3. Page 15
4. 

 

Clipped from The Ottawa Journal,  01 Oct 1953, Thu,  Page 37

Clipped from The Ottawa Journal,  26 Oct 1954, Tue,  Page 8

Come and visit the Lanark County Genealogical Society Facebook page– what’s there? Cool old photos–and lots of things interesting to read. Also check out The Tales of Carleton Place.

Information where you can buy all Linda Seccaspina’s books-You can also read Linda in The Townships Sun andScreamin’ Mamas (USA)

 

 

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