1900s Letters Featuring Business and Gossip of an Ontario Lumber Firm
0010060Three letters written by Joseph Brennen, whose family owned a large lumber manufacturing firm in Hamilton, Ontario, and timber interests in Northern Ontario. The letters are dated 1906, 1908, and 1909.
The Brennen letters offer a tantalizing glimpse into the lumbering business that existed at the turn of the 20th century in Ontario. The M. Brennen & Sons Manufacturing Co Limited were headquartered in Hamilton, Ontario, where they operated a lumber manufacturing firm. Brennen also had an operation in Northern Ontario, supplying timber to their facility in Hamilton. This was located at Brennan Harbour, just west of Spanish, ON, on the north shore of the fabled North Channel.
Joseph Brennen worked out of the Northern Ontario facility, and he wrote often to his brother Herbert. Some letters went to Herbert in Hamilton, and others to where Herbert was staying at Russel House, one of the great hotels in Ottawa at the time. The letters mention business concerns, challenges Joseph faced, and, of course, gossip.
The letters are written on company letterhead, which lists both the mill community (Brennan Harbour) and the train stop (Rainy Lake Station).
“I awaited all day for arrival of same [Steamer Seguin] here as yet. ... Please find out where she is and let us know for a certainty when she will arrive up here. We have all lumber forwarded out to the end of the dock awaiting her. The W.J. Boyce telegraphed for a load for the Leentz Lumber Company” (October 10, 1906).
“I do declare Herbie. This is the first time in all my life I ever heard of an owner of a house having $5.00 Five Dollars being taken out of his wages for to have a house papered for a tenant” (October 10, 1906).
“I got back last Sunday morning. Nearly 4 months between baths” (May 2, 1908).
These letters measure 11.0 inches by 8.5 inches. There are twelve pages in total. The pages of the 1909 letters are in good condition, and the 1906 and 1908 pages are in good condition save for some tearing occurring where the pages have been folded. The envelopes are quite worn and torn in places but otherwise intact and readable. They are written in copperplate and the handwriting is legible.
These letters offer a window into the operations of a successful family business in a major industrial city in early Ontario.
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