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Daily Journal - Record Centennial Edition, Friday, Sept- I, 1M7 TEM PERANCE HALL O A K V IL L E H O U S E , T O W N 'S OLDEST B U IL D IN G Society is defunct Still in business after 140 year* TAVERNS v*. TEMPERANCE Settlers Needed Liquor And Pubs The im portance of inns and taverns in the life of early On tario is evidenced by the fact that the Oakville House Hotel is both the town's oldest build ing and its oldest business. But the Oakville House, buill by the town' s founder as part of a carefully designed scheme for the orderly creation of an entire village, is not typical of most of the early Upper Can adian inns. Most of the early inns played a much more important role in the development of their com munities, because it was they which usually attracted settle ment in the first place. A typical frontier village sprang up around a business such as a mill or blacksmith shop which had been establish ed in the wilderness to m e e t the needs of the surrounding farmers. TAVERNS VITAL And any frontier farm er would tell you that of these businesses serving his needs few were m ore vital than the crossroads tavem. The tavern was not only need ed for the accom m odation of travellers, but it also served as the social centre of its area. The tavern of Daniel Munn, for ex ample, was where Trafalgar Township's 16 leading citizens m et in November, 1817, to draft a description of their township to be sent to an immigration promoter. Excerpts of their statement are contained else where in this issue. Typical of these early taverns was Post's Inn, located at the crossroads of The Dundas Street and Seventh Line Road, in the centre first known as Postville, then as Trafalgar, and which is now part of Oakville. Anyone travelling by coach along the Dundas Highway from York to Hamilton would be sure to stop there. If he stayed over night he would sleep on a nar row cot in a room barely large enough to hold the cot and a washstand. A small paned window barely three feet high reached from the floor to the sloping roof. The room was reached by a dark staircase, just wide enough for one person, rising steeply from the centre of the building and ending in a tiny landing giving access to four such rooms. Downstairs he would dine in the cheerful tavern room with i bright fire gleam ing on the hea vy blackened beams of the white plastered ceiling. A tavem was required by law to have three bedroom s besides those of the tavern keeper and his fam ily, and stabling for at least four horses. Before a licence could be ob tained from the Court of Quar ter Sessions, certificates had to be presented bearing the signa tures of " respectable persons" in the neighborhood testifying a. tavern was needed in the "situa tion applied for." FIRST COUNCIL In 1845 the first meeting of Trafalgar Township council was held at P ost's Inn, and by 1851, m o r e than 20 years a f t e r the building of the inn, Postville had becom e a little settlement with a sawmill, post office, store and practising doctor. By this time Halton County was producing m ore wheat per acre than any other in the prov ince, and P ost's Inn did a profit able business from the contin uous stream of teamsters pass ing up and down the Seventh Line at harvest time. Supper then cost one York shilling, bed and breakfast three Y ork shill ings, and the thirsty could buy drinks at four cents per mug. Supplying drinks was one of the tavern's mast vital functions. Liquor was both plentiful and cheap in the province's e a r l y days, and was consumed in large quahtities by all classes of people. Area historian Hazel Mathews attributes theh popularity of li quor to the fact that " life in the bush tended to have a dem oral izing effect upon settlers, who m ore and m ore learned to de pend upon whiskey as a rein forcement for their physical en ergies." E very community had its brewery and distillery, especially a village like Oakville, situated in the centre of a grain-producing area. One of the town' s earliest in dustries was the Oakville Brew ing and Distilling Company, founded by two Scots named Hopkirk and Watson in 1836 and soon to becom e Oakville's lead ing industrial firmGrain that was otherwise use less from having been frozen or rusted could be sold to the dis tillery, the farm er often taking the finished product and selling it to taverns. PRICE RIGHT A bushel of wheat would pro duce 3% gallons of whiskey, and the daily output of the distillery was between 40 and 60 gallons. Whiskey retailed at 2s. 6d. per gallon and £2 13s. by the barrel. Beer sold for a penny a quart, Drunkpnness was so com m on that it was m ore or less ac cepted as a necessary evil ab out which little could be done. But a reaction gradually set in, and the tem perance reform movement in the United States began to find ready ears In Up per Canada. A tem perance society was form ed in Trafalgar Township in 1830, two years after the for mation of Canada's first society in Montreal. The Oakville Tem p erance Reform ation Society was formed in 1834, with meetings held at the home of its president, Justus Williams. PROVINCE' S KIKST Oakville's Tem perance Hall was the first to be erected in the province. Built in 1843 large ly with labor and materials sup plied by society mem bers, the building still stands today as the Salvation A rm y citadel on Trafalgar Road, a monument to the building skill of the sober pioneer. The societies began by preach ing tem perance rather than to tal abstinence, attacking only drunkenness. Later, whiskey, brandy and rum w ere condemn ed, and, as the societies becam e m ore militant and began to win newspaper support rather than j ridicule, cider and beer w ere add- j ed to the list and the cry be cam e Total Abstinence. Support for the temperance movement spread to government, resulting in prohibition in Tra falgar Township at the turn of the century, and in the entire .province in 1916. 3000 YEARS YOUNG W e a r e n 't q u ite as o ld as C a n ad a a n d c e r ta in ly 1 w h e re n e a r th e ag e o f th e o ld O a k T r e e s how n ab o ve. W e a re p ro u d th o u g h to h a v e p la y e d a s m a ll p a rt in C a n a d a '* fir s t 100 Y e a r * . 1 9 5 K n o w in g th a t o u r p re s e n t s ta ff w o n 't be a ro u n d f o r th e n e x t C e n te n n ia l w e a re p ro u d to s tate th a t m o it o f o u r p ro d u c ts w ill be. H a v in g been in O a k v ille f o r 16 y e a rs w e h a v e seen O a k v ille g ro w ju s t as w e h av e fr o m a s m a ll business (to w n ) to a s u b s ta n tia lly la r g e r business (to w n ). W e hope th a t w e w ill k e e p on g ro w in g w ith C a n a d * as lo n g as p o ssib le. 9 2 6 7 LTD . 8 44-3 S30 Swiss Interiors 217 L A K E S H O R E ROAD, EAST J. A. W0THERSP00N Oakville 8 4 5 -2 8 7 3 -4 A N D SO N L IM IT E D O A K V IL L E , O N T. Toronto 9 2 5 - 3 8 1 3 - 4 A.E. L ePAGE L I M I T E D R E A L T O R SIMPLEX C A S T I RON S O I L P I P E & F I T T I N G S There Is No Substitute For Experience . . . Over 53 Years Of Service In The Real Estate Business We are proud to have played our part in the pro gress of Oakville. W ith our many connections For Drain, W aste, Vent Sewer and Sanitary Systems All Easy Method of Joining Cast Iron Soil Pipe and Fittings. A Compression Joint Made with an Annular Gasket of Dn Pont Neoprene. 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