H.M. Switzer General Dealer Palermo C W Stoneware Jug
Description
- Media Type
- Image
- Text
- Item Type
- Photographs
- Description
- Pictured here is a glazed 2 gallon stoneware jug that likely was a storage/preserve jar or it may have held cream. It was made by Hart Potteries of Fulton, New York. The glaze is likely a "salt glaze". The cobalt design is known as a "plow flower" design but a pottery specialist has explained to me that the names given to the flower designs were often personally chosen rather than following established norms.
The pottery specialist who contacted the TTHS explains that it is the "ovoid (round) form that tells of the American origins. The few ovoid marked Ontario examples are exceptionally uncommon."
In early days of European settlement in Canada, Americans had the advantage over any Canadian pottery because the raw stoneware clay all came from the U.S. Travelling salesmen would travel from store to hamlet to village to town to sell the wares.
In 1849, Samuel Hart backed a pottery run by his nephew, William Hart in Picton, Canada West. William managed the Picton business until 1855. Other family members carried after that. The Picton business used the unique designs of the Fulton, NY pottery.
H.M. Switzer came from Ireland with his parents to Canada in 1832. He settled in Palermo, Canada West in 1844 and opened his general merchandise store and business. He and Martha Solomon married in 1845. He became Postmaster in 1846. The family lived in a house connected to the Palermo general store until 1868, when they moved to their new family house as described in the "Notes" of this record.
The store stood on the north-east corner of "the Dundas Highway" and what is now, Old Bronte Road. In his essay, "Palermo; An Historical Description", written by Anson Buck, M.D., M.R.O.S., in about 1902, Dr. Buck wrote about the stores "At present the village has two general stores, one grocery and two ice cream parlors in full blast during the warm weather. The first store was built in 1830 and wasn known as Hager's old red store. This with Mr. Sheridan's store built in 1835, and a small store south of Sheridan's were the only ones in existence here, and reigned supreme until the year 1843 when the corner store was built by Clubine and Johnson and sold to the late H.M. Switzer in 1846. In, 1887, the store was sold to Lawrence Hagar, then the Sargent family ca1900."
- Notes
- Further information about Major Switzer: He was also a County Magistrate and Commissioner in the Court of Queen's Bench. He was the Paymaster of the local militia, the Lorne Rifles from their inception.
He was a founding member of the Halton Agricultural Society which started in 1853. He was a member of the Conservative Party and also a trustee of the Hamilton and Northwestern Railway. He and his family attended St. Luke's Anglican Church in Palermo.
Prior to 1868, he and his family lived in a residence connected with his general store and post office. In 1861 he purchased 24 acres of Lot 30, Concession 1 N.D.S. and the new family house was completed in 1868. The house address is 2507 Dundas Street West which is on the north side of Dundas between Old Bronte Road and Bronte Road. In 1993, a Town of Oakville by-law designated this house as a "property of historical, architectural, and contextual value and interest". - Inscriptions
- H.M. Switzer General Dealer Palermo C W .
- Subject(s)
- Personal Name(s)
- Harvey Morris Switzer, b.1819 d.1886
- Local identifier
- TTESZ000754
- Collection
- Trafalgar Township Historical Society
- 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
- H.M. Switzer General Dealer Palermo C W Stoneware Jug
- 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
