17) Alexander Griffiths: Elected mayor for the Town of Welland in 1897

Vital statistics

Birth: January 24, 1850 at Crowland, Ontario, Canada

Death: June 22, 1922 at Welland, Ontario, Canada (age 72)

Burial place: Woodlawn Cemetery (Find a Grave)

Parents: Thomas / Mary (née Wilson)

Spouse: Ellen (née Bender)

Children: Helena

Occupation: Harness Maker / Farmer / Artisan / Merchant / Financier

Community affiliations: Public and High School Boards / Welland County Council / Warden of Welland County / Council of the Board of Trade / Welland County Hospital Trust

Profile

Alexander Griffiths was born January 24, 1850 at Crowland to Thomas and Mary (née Wilson) Griffiths. His parents had a farm in Crowland, and that is where Alexander spent his youth. Then, “…in the year 1864, (Alexander) walked into Welland with his worldly possessions wrapped in a bandana handkerchief, and remained to become the city’s mayor.” He also became a very wealthy man by the end of his life, with his estate valued at a quarter of a million dollars, in 1922 dollar values. “His career was an example and an inspiration to the rising generation, while his sterling qualities were the admiration of all who knew him, young or old, rich or poor.”

Alexander first got a job in a grocery store, then worked in a harness shop with a Lemon and Buchner. He was not there long when he bought the harness shop from Lemon and Buchner by borrowing $300 on a year’s mortgage. Within six months he had made and saved enough to pay off the mortgage, but the mortgagee demanded the full year’s interest. Alexander remembered that experience and in his later years when he became a money-lender himself he charged a fair interest, only up to the day the debt was paid.

He began his life as a farmer’s boy, but he attained a position of great wealth by the end of his life through his strict devotion to business, and maintaining a “strict adherence to a high standard of business honour.” In addition to growing his harness business, he dealt in hides and wool, and was an oil distributor for a long time until his business was purchased by the Imperial Oil Company. In the late 1800s people used coal oil for lighting and petroleum was big business. Alexander was known as the “oil king of the district and Welland was the distributing centre.”

In addition to his shrewd business tactics and accumulation of wealth, he was also a generous civic-minded citizen. He ran for mayor in 1897, soundly defeating two opponents, Crowell Hull Reilly and David McConachie. He decided to run again much later in 1915 against the incumbent John Hugh Crow, but he lost 575 to 479. He then decided to run for council in 1920, 1921, and 1922, being elected each of those years, though he passed away in 1922 while in office.

As a life member of the Welland County Hospital Trust he was one of the pioneers in getting the first general hospital built in Welland, located on Riverside Drive, in 1908 and 1909. Another improvement he offered the community was the well-known Twentieth Century Rink, built by Alexander and C. J. Page in the late 1890s. This was Welland’s rink until the Welland Arena was built in 1946 on King St. It was a great success, like every venture he set his mind to. To mention one other initiative among the numerous to choose from, the Girls’ Club of Welland owed its existence largely to his interest and support.

G. R. T. Sawle, who lived in Welland from the 1880s to the 1960s, had many personal recollections of Alexander of which here is one: “He never spent money on nonessentials and was careless of his appearance thus creating a public opinion that he was miserly and eccentric. As a matter of fact, he was neither but he accentuated that opinion by buying his hats and other articles of clothing at rummage sales and by occasionally wearing one brown shoe and one black shoe, or odd socks, just to give the boys a laugh.”

As previously mentioned, Alexander died in 1922, on June the 22nd. The end came peacefully for him; he reportedly died in his sleep. An editorial about his death reads: “He never tried to appear anything he was not, nor shall we do him the dishonor of giving him any garb but the one he wore. He gained his foothold in a hard school and he never acquired any frills, but he had qualities of character that were pure gold… no man ever had a doubt as to the absolute truth of anything he ever said… His ethics were like his speech, straight and clear. He could look to the core of a thing, for shrewd thinking was his second self, and his translations were in terms of dollars and cents… In his death there is ended a long chapter in the history of Welland – Welland that he saw grow from a village to a city, the Welland to whose business and growth he contributed so much.”

You might suspect Griffith St. was named after him, but that was actually named after Jacob Griffith who owned land where that street was. Rather, Alexander St., which runs south of Division St. at its eastern end, was named in honour of Alexander Griffiths, as the subdivision created in 1907 was his project.

Sources

  • Coombs, Albert Ernest, “The History of the Niagara Peninsula” (1930), 258-259.
  • “The Death of an Old Townsman.” Welland Tribune and Telegraph, June 27, 1922.
  • “Many Citizens Pay Tribute To Life Of Alex. Griffiths.” Welland Tribune and Telegraph, June 27, 1922.
  • Sawle, G. R. T., “Hometown” (1959), 33-37.
  • The Welland Historical Society, “What’s in a Name? The Origins of the Street Names for the City of Welland” (2005), 38.
17) Alexander Griffiths: Elected mayor for the Town of Welland in 1897