1900 Notice to the Patrons of the Palermo Creamery by Henry Heeks
Description
- Media Type
- Image
- Text
- Item Type
- Prints
- Description
- In another TTHS digital record, you can read the essay written in about 1902 that Dr. Anson Buck wrote on the history of Palermo in Trafalgar Township. About one of the major village businesses, the Palermo Creamery, he wrote "In the year 1895 Harry Heeks established a creamery and ran it for several years manufacturing cheese, butter and cream, paying out large sums of money to the patrons. At the present time about $1500 a month is paid to them in the immediate vicinity, making about $20,000 per year."
Shown in this record is a notice written by Henry Heeks to his patrons (the backers and suppliers of his creamery) on April 16, 1900.
The book, "The Garden of Canada ; Burlington, Oakville and District", c1902, compiled by Martha Craig and published by William Briggs, Toronto has a paragraph about Mr. Heeks and the creamery in which we learn that he was a graduate of the Guelph Dairy school and had built the factory in 1895 as a cheese factory. He remodelled the building in 1900 to be a creamery. In 1901, he sold the creamery to the City Dairy Company of Toronto, staying on as manager. He took prizes for his products at the Toronto Industrial Exhibition.
We also know that the 1919 deed giving the land parcel in Lot 31, Con 1 SDS to the new Palermo Public Hall building shows the Grantors of the First Part were Henry Heeks and John Dearing (Farmers) as well as "Laurence Hager" (he signed it "Lawrence Hager").
A March 1931 newspaper article mentions that Henry was stage manager of the play put on by the Palermo United Church choir.
Henry died at age 68. He had been born in England and been 49 years in Canada. His Death Certificate lists his occupation as a retired merchant and it is difficult to read but looks like it says he was a general storekeeper and had the post office. He never married. His nephew Walter Heeks of Bronte took care of the formalities of his death. Henry is buried in the Palermo United Church cemetery with his brother, Alfred.
The village of Palermo honoured citizen Henry Heeks with a bronze plaque which hung in the Palermo community hall until its demolition in 1973, and then was at the Palermo United Church for many years. It is now with the Trafalgar Township Historical Society. - Inscriptions
- Palermo, April 15, 1900.
To the Patrons of the Palermo Creamery...
As we are commencing our cream season for 1900, I would earnestly request every patron to take the best of care of his milk. While I make every effort to make this a profitable business, both to you and myself, my efforts will fail unless you join with me in trying to make it a success.
No matter how good a mechanic may be, he can not make a good wagon out of rotten lumber. So it is with creamery. I can not make good, sweet cream out of sour milk, or part sour. If I send a can of cream to Toronto and it is returned, it costs 60 cents. If we take in 6,000 lbs. of milk on that day it takes one cent per 100 lbs. off - 2 cans, 2 cents - and so on. This is your loss, not mine.
So you see it is to every man's interest to do his best to send as good an article as possible.
Hoping you will, one and all, join with me and try to make this more successful in the future than in the past,
I remain, yours truly, H. Heeks.+ - Date Of Event
- April 16, 1900
- Subject(s)
- Personal Name(s)
- Henry William Heeks, b.February 18, 1862 d.November 9, 1931. Buried in Palermo cemetery with his brother, Alfred and his family, wife Catherine M. Kelm and their daughter, Ellen M. Heeks. Parents of Henry and Alfred were Thomas Heeks and Maria (Jobson) Heeks.
- Local identifier
- TTFVS000577
- Collection
- Trafalgar Township Historical Society
- Language of Item
- English
- Geographic Coverage
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Ontario, Canada
Latitude: 43.43341 Longitude: -79.78293
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- Copyright Statement
- Copyright status unknown. Responsibility for determining the copyright status and any use rests exclusively with the user.
- Recommended Citation
- 1900 Notice to the Patrons of the Palermo Creamery by Henry Heeks
- Contact
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Trafalgar Township Historical Society Sponsor: Jeff Knoll, Local & Regional Councillor for Oakville Ward 5 – Town of Oakville/Regional Municipality of Halton
