MADE
IN HAMILTON
19TH CENTURY
INDUSTRIAL TRAIL
SITE
17
GREAT WESTERN ROLLING MILL, 1864
The
giant, derelict, steel-roofed sheds of Stelco's former Ontario Works near the
foot of Queen Street are all that remains of a once thriving centre of iron
and steel production in the city.
A
group of Ohio businessmen leased the idle mill in 1879 to take advantage of
a new government tariff policy aimed at protecting Canadian manufacturers. The
new Ontario Rolling Mill Company re-rolled old rails into iron bars and nails.
Inside, scores of men employed as rollers, puddlers and heaters were often paid
by the piece. The company's directors helped form the
Benjamin Danforth started working in the rolling mill's nail plant in the early 1880s. He made nails and tacks from nail plate provided by the rolling mills. Nailers worked 10 hour days, their wages based on the number of kegs of nails they produced. As was the custom, Danforth hired boys to help him with his work and paid them out of his wages.
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