THE HEART OF THE CITY
JOHN WINER
54-56 King Street East
(pre-1890 address 23-25 King Street East)
Winer was born on August 31, 1800 in Durham, Green County, New York, although he was educated primarily in Auburn, New York. His mother was English and his father was Dr. Andrew Winer of Germanic descent. Dr. Winer had been a doctor with the Kings forces during the Revolutionary War and was a well-known physician in his time. He moved to the Niagara district in 1821. He began as a blacksmith in Jordan, a town half way between St. Catharines and Hamilton. Soon after, he became a student of the Thompsonian system of medicine. This system involved concoctions of roots, vegetables and other household edibles. It was very popular at the time as a cure-all brand of medicine. The demand for Winers "potions" increased and he soon gave up the blacksmith profession entirely. He moved to Hamilton in 1829 and a year later he opened his own business on the northeast corner of King and John Street.
In Hamilton, Winer was known for his "public spirited efforts." For the eight years preceding the citys charter, Winer was chairman of the Board of Police, which was the governing body at the time. He was also one of Hamiltons pioneer alderman, representing a ward on city council for many years.
When Winer came to the town of Hamilton, most of the land was farming property. There were only two other stores and one tavern; they all did little business. There certainly were not any other druggists in Hamilton at the time. Winer advertised the opening of his store in a half-column newspaper article, asking people to come see the "large and elegant assortment of drugs, medicines, paints, dye-woods and dye stuffs." But not long after opening the store, Winer changed his inventory to include only drugs. Over the next 54 years that Winer remained in business, he made himself a large fortune. Every man in his employ became rich and independent as well. This was quite a feat, since all other local business of that time "either failed, died or sold out."
There were a few glitches in Winers business though. He was once involved
in a legal dispute with a New York druggist named John Moffat. Moffat claimed to have
patented "Life Pills" and "Phoenix Bitters" and accused Winer of
counterfeiting them. Moffat claimed that Winer had forged his engraved signature on the
pill labels and offered to sell them to other druggists at a lower cost. After
Moffats lawyer apparently asked Winer to stop the counterfeiting, and Winer refused,
Moffat began to slander Winer in his local newspaper, "The Good Samaritan." In
retaliation, Winer started his own paper, "The Bee", in which he described
Moffat as a "vile morsel of mortality," a "filthy mass of rubbish," an
"unblushing quack," and referred to him as the "New York reptile."
After a brief war of words, the counterfeit claims were dropped and the event more or less
blew-over. Another unfortunate occurrence happened in 1845 when the Winer firm was
devastated by a fire. Most of the business was completely destroyed. However, Winer
rebuilt quickly and was seemingly undaunted by such a tragedy. He did require some
assistance, however. In 1848, C.N. Sims of Montreal entered a partnership and the firm
became known as Winer & Sims. In 1853, Lyman Moore entered the partnership and the
firm was called Winer, Moore & Co. George Rutherford joined in 1858.
By 1862 it was clear that Winers business had recovered from the damages
done by legal disputes and a fire. The firm discontinued the retail department in favour
of supplying the country with wholesale drugs. In 1863, they started a glass
manufactory, Hamilton Glass Works, which became an important branch of their business. In
1876, Winer became president of the Canada Fire and Marine Insurance Company.
In 1882, Winer suffered from a stroke and his health took a drastic turn for the worse. He retired as head of the firm in 1883, stepping down from the company he had been senior member of for 54 years. John Winer died on August 1, 1887 and his obituary read that Hamilton had lost a great citizen.
John Winer left behind a wife and three daughters. His wife, Sarah Ryan, who he married in 1823, was a known local heroine. She had relayed information from the Beaver Dam victory in the war of 1812 to headquarters in Niagara. Her good deed was often likened to that of Laura Secord. Apparently, the horseback ride she took was "long and perilous." But Sarah was not the only heroic family member associated with John Winer. His grandson, William Winer Cooke, was a 1st Lieutenant who died at the battle of Little Bighorn in southern Montana. His remains were laid to rest in the Hamilton Cemetery and he has, like his grandfather, been a great source of civic pride.
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