Low Down Articles
Echoes from the Past
Article 17 of 111
This article first appeared in the "Echoes from the Past" column of the The Low Down to Hull and Back News.
Reprinted with permission. Search complete list of Low Down Articles.
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Do you Know?
That a cement factory was working in Hull in the 19th century. The material was heated up for 2 or 3 days in kilns, the heat was increased until it was red hot. The resultant was broken with a cracker. It was ground with "common corn stones", being eventually bagged and sold as Hull cement, supposedly superior than Portland cement. Charles Brown Wright (1826 - 1900) managed the business as C.B. Wright & Sons into the beginning of this century.
At one period there was a huge explosion which shattered windows all around, even in Ottawa. This is the likely cause of the operation finally being closed down.
All that remained for years was a hole in the ground, filled with water. It was close to the shopping centre housing Sears.
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That Philemon Wright had a nephew who asked his uncle for a job with him. The lad wrote "I am very husty (sic) and shall be 21 years on the 1st of April, 1819". He was the son of Philemopn's sister, Elizabeth who married Capt. John Symmes. Yes, he was Charles Symmes, and he got the job - despite his birth date. Later he had a falling out with his uncle over wages and moved to Aylmer.
He built the well-known Symmes Hotel and at one time was Aylmer's mayor, the second in the line of mayors.
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That white marble, without vein, was discovered about 1829, on the west bank of the Gatineau River not too far north of the Alonzo Wright bridge (Farmer's Rapids area).
Other marble deposits were also found, one near Kingsmere of very good stone, although some were mined on a small scale apparently it wasn't worthwhile to do so as a commercial effort.