The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

( fortunes grew from the tall timbers that covered the land north of Belleville. Many of the men who acquired those riches used a portion to build themselves beautiful homes to retire to at the end of each day. Charles Phillip Holton was one of those men. He built a large frame home at 223 Charles St. in the Victorian style, about 1880. The house is gone now. A fire destroyed it about 1959, but it was a marvel of craftsmanship. Holton's father, Ezra, was a lumber merchant who came to Belleville in 1832 and worked for Billa Flint, who would become a lumber magnate himself. Eventually Ezra went on his own and was very successful. He purchased a lot bordered by Queen and Bridge streets to the north and south, and Charles and Albert streets to the east and west. He then divided the lot into four smaller lots and gave one to each of his children. Charles and his wife, Caroline (the daughter of Sir Mackenzie Bowell), received lot three, that today is occupied by 223 Charles St. Interestingly, Ezra Holton's daughter, Eliza, married Billa Flint's adopted son, John James Bleeker Flint. They lived on lot one, two lots north of Charles and Caroline. Flint and Holton became partners in the lumber and grain business. The house had a stone foundation and exquisite exterior wooden trim. An iron cresting encircled its roof and there were verandas at the front and back. ;' In 1930 Harold G. Holton lived at 223 Charles St. although it is not known what relation he was to Charles. By 1957 carpenter J. Little lived there with his wife Ann. Two years later a fire destroyed the building and a duplex has since been erected in its place. Lumber built magnificient house During the mid-1800s huge