By John Rhodes
Special to The Chatham Voice
Have you ever been to St Mary’s, Ont.? I think, because of all the stone buildings, it is a beautiful town. Many of those structures were built with material (stone) that was common and locally available which would explain why, in Chatham, there were so many houses and stores built of wood – it was cheap and plentiful.
In the early days, mid 1870s for example, there were lumber dealers located in various parts of Chatham.
According to the 1876 Town Directory, J.J. Binsley had a yard near the northeast corner of King and Fourth streets; the Hadley Lumber Company was on the north side of Wellington Street, about opposite Harvey Street; the J. Northwood lumber yard and mill was located at the river at the foot of Second Street, about opposite the present-day fire department bay doors.
John Piggott later bought this mill; in the meantime Mr. Piggott had a yard where the present-day Capitol Theatre stands. The Schulenburg mill was located at the river foot of Victoria Avenue; Summerville and Chaffee had a mill and yard on the east side of Queen Street, about half way between School and Harvey streets.
In compiling this list I noticed an unidentified but substantial mill and yard appearing in the 1875 Stoner Overview Map and located at the southeast corner of Colborne and Prince streets, right next to a bridge, and I had to know who owned this business. It took some looking and digging, but I found out that it was owned by a man named Aldis.
Salem Goldworth Aldis was born on July 12, 1821 at Tivershall, St. Mary’s, England and was in Canada by 1836. I am not sure of his arrival date in Chatham, probably the late 1830s.
Salem and Alfred Aldis, I think him to have been a brother, established their mill and yard on Colborne Street shortly after arriving.
In the 1860s, Salem married Victoria Arrabella Dauphin of Pain Court (1849-1913) and with her had nine children, which was a common family size for that era.
In researching the lives of the children, I noticed that several of them died at Detroit, indicating that, at some point, the family moved to the United States.
Salem Aldis died on April 6, 1886 and reposes in the family plot, Old Ward A, Maple Leaf Cemetery.
