9) Abraham Hendershot: Elected reeve for the Village of Welland in 1876 & 1877, & elected mayor for the Town of Welland in 1878

Vital statistics

Birth: October 27, 1837 at Pelham, Ontario, Canada

Death: February 8, 1920 at Dunnville, Ontario, Canada (age 82)

Burial place: Hillside Cemetery (Find a Grave)

Parents: Abraham Sr. / Hannah

Spouses: Sarah Ann (née Dunn) / Fleeta Belle (née Rounds)

Children: Paul / William / Charles

Occupations: Speculator / Merchant / Real Estate Agent

Religion: Episcopal Methodist

Political affiliation: Conservative

Community affiliations: High School Board, Public School Board, President of YMCA, Police Magistrate

Profile

Abraham Hendershot was born on October 27, 1837 at Pelham, Ontario to Abraham Sr. and Hannah Hendershot. Their family is of German origin, the Palatinate region, with the name Hendershot having evolved from Hinneschied. It was Abraham’s great-grandfather Michael Henneschield (1674–1749) who emigrated with his wife Katherine to North America, settling in New Jersey in 1710. Michael’s grandchild Peter (Abraham’s grandfather) eventually fled to Canada as a United Empire Loyalist, settling in Pelham Township. His Loyalist entitlement in 1797 earned him a 200-acre lot of land on the 6^th and 7^th concessions of Pelham, which he was credited for turning into one of the finest farms in Welland County. Peter’s nickname was “The Lord of Hendershot Farms” and he had eleven children with his wife Anna, including Abraham Sr. who was the father of our subject, Abraham Jr.

When he was 23 in 1860, Abraham Jr. and his brother Paul started a business in Fort Erie as the “Hendershot Brothers,” but moved to Welland only a year later in 1861. He must have opened up his new business right away, for it was in 1862 that the village council of Welland started meeting in what was known as “Hendershot’s Hall.” This was at 7 East Main St., where Abraham operated his dry goods store. The council had originally been meeting in the Welland County Courthouse from September 16, 1858 to December 13, 1862. Then, no longer being able to meet there, they moved to the aforementioned Hendershot’s Hall at the behest of Abraham, meeting there exclusively between the dates of December 22, 1862 to March 15, 1870.

Due to Abraham’s election as councillor in 1870, to avoid potential conflict of interest, the council released him from his rental contract. They then rented a new council chambers from William Mellanby at “Mellanby’s Brick Block” located on Canal Street (30 King Street), first meeting there on April 22, 1870.

Abraham was very interested in local politics and public affairs. Besides renting out his hall for use of council meetings, he was elected six times as a councillor in 1865, 1870, 1872, 1892, 1897 and 1898. He was elected reeve in 1876 and 1877, and mayor in 1878. But he also ran unsuccessfully for reeve in 1871, and unsuccessfully for mayor in 1879, 1883, 1885, 1894 and 1895.

Perhaps Abraham’s most notable accomplishment was to be remembered as the first mayor of Welland, as is proudly noted on his gravestone. Welland grew from a village to a town on January 1, 1878, and with that, the official designation for the chief magistrate of the municipality changed from reeve to mayor. The number of councillors also ballooned from 4 to 12, three from each of the town’s four wards.

The municipal election for that milestone year was held on January 7, 1878, and the first mayoralty contest was between Abraham Hendershot and John Dunigan. This would turn out to be Welland’s most disputed election.

The Tribune noted in the upcoming contest between Dunigan and Hendershot that neither would be their first option, however Hendershot would be the more economical and safer man of the two. The paper also had “not at all times approved of his every act… but it certainly speaks well for him that so little is brought against his public course – his opponent, Mr. Dunigan, at the nomination, not preferring even a single complaint against him.”

As to the controversy regarding the election, in the evening after the election day the Ward 3 ballot box was stolen. It contained all the ballots and papers pertaining to that ward. It was stolen from Egerton Ryerson Hellems bookstore, reportedly by vagrants, with Hellems being the town clerk who was charged with the safekeeping of the ballots. The town did not provide the clerk with any specific place for the ballots, “so he left them in his store, placing them under the counter about half past ten o’clock at night, in the presence of Mr. G. H. Burgar, Drs. Schooley and Kennedy, and others, and locking up and leaving the place.”

The box being stolen is enough of a story on its own, but that particular box contained crucial votes that would decide the election. Abraham won the election by just one vote, and if not for three spoiled ballots that were in the Ward 3 box, Dunigan would have won by two. On that election evening both Abraham and Mr. Dunigan celebrated that they had each won. There was a lot of ink spilled about this situation in the January 1878 newspapers, but suffice to say that the box was ultimately recovered and Abraham was declared the winner.

When town council met for the first time on January 21, 1878, the clerk Egerton Ryerson Hellems read aloud a statement written by Mr. Dunigan protesting Hellems himself and threatening legal action. Hellems “in explanation of his position, said he read the above document as part of his duty; but would say that he believed he had acted right in proclaiming Mr. Hendershot Mayor, as he believed even Mr. Dunigan would have done the same with the same evidences at hand that he (Hellems) had.” Before proceeding to business, Abraham then spoke up about removing local jealousies and uniting in one spirit for the common good. He said when he became reeve two years prior there was no money in the exchequer, but since he had been in charge there was now $4,000 to the credit of the town. He also felt no compunction claiming victory as mayor, as a majority of one was as good as five hundred in his eyes.

After this razor-thin victory however, Abraham would be met with limited success in succeeding elections. William Lewis, in the second volume of his trilogy “A History of the City of Welland,” wrote that Mayor Hendershot seemed to attract conflict. During one council meeting he became involved in a heated discussion with the police chief, threatening to throw the chief out the door. The next meeting the police force was reduced by one member. He later became involved in a dispute with the Tribune over alleged discrepancies in city accounts, and one day attacked the editor, J.J. Sidey, with a rawhide outside a saloon. Perhaps the public grew weary of his aggressive tactics, and after 1878 he ran for mayor five more times but was never again elected as such.

To his credit, under Abraham’s leadership in the years 1876-1878, Welland finally organized a fire protection service. William Lewis writes “In the early years of the community, fires were fought by citizens with buckets of water carried from the river or canal.” Citizens of every stripe formed two lines, passing either full or empty buckets back and forth from the water source to the fire. As noted in our previous profile of reeve John Baker Hellems, in 1859 the village council headed by John passed a resolution that required each house in Welland to have a ladder and two pails. But it was the winter of 1872 that saw a series of disastrous fires strike Welland, leading to public agitation to create a municipal fire service. From the December 18, 1872 edition of the Welland Tribune and Thorold Mercury: “By all means let us have an engine and hook and ladder company now – before the town is devastated by fire.”

It took four more years, but in 1876, near the end of Abraham’s first term as reeve, a by-law was passed to purchase a fire steamer for $3,150. The Merritt Fire Company was also organized at this time with 31 members. Then in January 1877, during Abraham’s second term as reeve, Welland erected its first fire hall (on Cross Street near the river, in front of the Welland Courthouse).

Abraham moved to Dunnville around 1890 and lived there for 30 years until his death on February 8, 1920. As a memorial to Abraham in Welland, there is a Hendershot Ave. south of Ontario Rd., to the east of Southworth St. There was a Hendershot St. in the Hagar and Empire Streets area (Which is where the Hendershots owned some properties), until a Canada Forgings plant was built in the area and a couple streets were removed for the plant. Hendershot Ave. was later given the moniker to ensure Abraham’s name did not pass from memory.

Sources

“Ballot Box Stolen!” Welland Tribune, January 11, 1878.
Barrett, David G. “Where Welland Councils Have Met: 1858 to 1971.” 1971.
“Fire Engine.” Welland Tribune and Thorold Mercury, December 18, 1872.
“First Mayor of Welland Dead.” The Standard, February 11, 1920.
“First reeves Of Welland Were Named From Council Ranks.” Evening Tribune, June 29, 1963.
Lewis, William H. “Aqueduct, Merrittsville and Welland: A History of the City of Welland, Vol. 2” (2000), 102-103, 116-117.
“The Mayoralty.” Welland Tribune, January 4, 1878.
“The New Council.” Welland Telegraph, January 25, 1878.
Pane, Sam, “The Hendershot Family,” “1988 Pelham Historical Calendar” (1988).
Ruch, John E. “A name in a hundred Hinneschied/Hendershot: a Palatine family of the great “auswanderung.”” Canadian Genealogist, November 1982.\
The Welland Historical Society, “What’s in a Name? The Origins of the Street Names for the City of Welland” (2005), 23-24.
“Welland Town Elections!” Welland Telegraph, January 11, 1878.