INDUSTRIAL HAMILTON: A TRAIL TO THE FUTURE
The Canada Screw Company, Limited
The Canada Screw Company was established in 1866 in Dundas, Ontario. The original
company was not profitable, so the stocks (and the name) were sold to the American
Screw Company of Providence, Rhode Island. The company was still managed by a
Canadian: Cyrus A. Birge of Hamilton, who was later to become one of the directors
of the Steel Company of Canada (Stelco). Under the management of Birge and American
Charles Alexander, the company began to prosper to the point where it would have
to expand.
Expansion of the Canada Screw Company meant that the plant would have to be moved.
Not wanting to pay a $50 sewer fee in Dundas, Birge moved the company just east
to Hamilton, near the Grand Trunk railway tracks,
in 1887.
In 1898, Birge bought back the company's stocks from the American Screw Company, and the Canadian Screw company was once again Canadian-owned.
In 1907, the Canada Screw Company amalgamated with the Ontario Tack Company, which had been associated during its history with Charles S. Wilcox (who would be the first president of Stelco).
When the Canada Screw Company became amalgamated into the Steel Company of Canada
in 1910, its Hamilton plant near the Grand Trunk
railway became Stelco's Canada Works.
References:
- Clipping File - Hamilton - Industries - Canada Screw Company. Special Collections,
HPL.
- Kilbourn, William. The Elements Combined: A History of the Steel Company
of Canada. Toronto: Clarke, Irwin, and Company, Limited, 1960.
- The Steel Company of Canada, Limited The 25th Milestone: A Brief History
of Stelco, The Steel Company of Canada Limited. Hamilton, 1935.
