James Ferrie

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-35175
• Residence: 1852, Preston (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada

Other Events:

• House: 1834 *BUILT BY ADAM FERRIE, 1754 Old Mill Rd., Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-113715
• Occupation: 1837, Preston (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Postmaster
• House: CONSTRUCTED 1840, 39 Doon Valley Dr., Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada
• Hall of Fame - Waterloo Region: Bef 2012, , Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada

Notes:

Adam Ferrie, Jr., the founder of Doon, was the first officially appointed postmaster in Preston, receiving the appointment on February 6, 1837. The post office was situated at the corner of King and Lowther Streets, where the Henning store was located. Emphasizing changing conditions through the years is the fact that when Ferrie was postmaster the office was open until 11: 00 p.m. and no holidays were permitted to the staff.

Ferrie had ambitions to build mills and become an industrialist. In 1834, unable to obtain a site on the Grand River in Preston, he purchased 300 acres on which he erected a grist mill, sawmill and distillery. This developed into the community of Doon.

The 1839 Doon Mills operated under the name of Adam Ferrie and Company until taken over by his brother Robert. Adam Ferrie, Jr., died in the prime of life at the age of thirty-six.


Waterloo Region Hall of Fame

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The Village of Preston was named, however, not by the Pennsylvania Germans, nor by the European Germans, but by an Englishman, William Scollick, the first surveyor, who named it after his native place. Among the earliest storekeepers were Adam Ferrie, Jr., son of the Hon. Adam Ferrie, of Montreal


First Annual Report of the Waterloo Historical Society pg. 11

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Ferrie, ADAM, businessman; b. 11 Dec. 1813 in Glasgow, fifth child of Adam Ferrie* and Rachel Campbell; m. Jane Kinsey, and they had two sons and a daughter; d. 5 Feb. 1849 in Preston (Cambridge), Upper Canada.

Adam Ferrie was born into a family long engaged in commerce. In 1824 his father, a successful Glasgow merchant, established an importing and general merchandising business in Montreal as a branch of his Scottish enterprise and in an attempt to stake out a future for his sons. Five years later Ferrie Sr moved to Montreal with his family to take control of the business. The following year, as part of a major expansion, two sons, Colin Campbell* and Adam, both of whom had worked in other branches of their father's business, established a wholesale and retail store in Hamilton, Upper Canada. Branch stores, superintended by resident partners, were soon set up in five promising locations in Hamilton's hinterland: Brantford, Dundas, Nelson (Burlington), Preston, and Waterloo.

In partnership with Thomas H. Mackenzie, Adam had opened the Preston branch in 1832 under the name Adam Ferrie Jr and Company. In addition to running a general merchandising and forwarding business, the firm owned a tavern, barn, and blacksmith shop. The Ferries had also intended to build a grist-mill at Preston, but were unable to obtain the necessary water-rights. Instead, in 1834 Adam purchased for the family business a 300-acre farm and sawmill about four miles from Preston on the Grand River; an adjoining 280 acres were subsequently obtained. On this property he constructed an integrated milling complex, which he named Doon Mills (Kitchener), comprising a grist-mill, sawmill, distillery, tavern, granary, cooperage, and workmen's dwellings.

Doon Mills was an impressive and expensive operation. Ferrie, who from his youth had an interest in mechanics, designed the grist-mill on a grand scale. Its masonry construction and huge stone dam contrasted with the modest wooden mills typical of rural Upper Canadian villages. Despite the proportions of the dam, it proved unsound and burst in 1840, carrying away the distillery and other buildings. Additional expenses were incurred in reconstruction. Moreover, the new distillery proved a problem since, for some reason, it did not operate efficiently. Doon Mills was substantial, but it was a poor investment. When Robert Ferrie took over management in 1847 from his brother Adam, then ailing, he explained to their father that "too much money has been laid out up here, so as to make a profitable investment," and the complex did represent a considerable cost. The buildings were insured for £6,250, an under-valuation in Robert's opinion.

The investment at Doon was jeopardized by problems in other branches of the family business. During the early 1840s in Hamilton, Colin Ferrie and Company had encountered severe financial difficulties. In the settlement of its affairs, operating capital was diverted from Doon Mills and Adam complained to Robert that for lack of cash he feared being "forced out of the market." As well, over the next few years Colin borrowed money from Adam. These loans remained unpaid in 1847, making it difficult for Robert to balance accounts.

Adam was himself partly responsible for the problems at Doon Mills. He was not an "office man." He preferred superintending the daily operations of the complex and enjoyed dealing with customers personally, partaking of the social intercourse at the general store and post office which had been added to the complex. In consequence, according to Robert in 1847, the Doon accounts were poorly kept. Consisting mainly of single-entry bookkeeping and memoranda, they defied easy scrutiny.

Personal conflict and tension between Adam and his father put severe strain on the family business. The elder Ferrie had not approved of his son's choice of a wife and had opposed their wedding. Matters were brought to a head in 1847 by Adam Jr's deteriorating health. Suffering from tuberculosis, he feared death and the consequences of his hostile family's refusal to acknowledge or support his wife and two surviving children. To protect them, he changed his will in 1847, bequeathing to them Doon Mills and the Preston property, all of which, although in his name, was legally held for the family. He also gave his son, James, his interest in the family business. The family was furious, especially Robert, who, though managing Doon Mills, was not himself a partner in the family business. For more than a year, as Adam's health worsened, his father and brothers demanded that he relinquish title to his branch. In July 1848 his mother arrived in Preston to negotiate a settlement. Adam agreed to change his will and sign over the property; in return his father granted him and his family an annuity and altered his own will to provide for Adam's children. In his remaining months, Adam was forced to borrow money from friends and to beg his family for funds to pay his bills. He died in Preston on 5 Feb. 1849 and was buried in the Galt cemetery. Operations at Doon Mills were continued by Robert.

The career of Adam Ferrie illustrates the strengths and weaknesses of the family as a form of business organization. Family ties permitted both the extension of mercantile enterprise over long distances and the diversion of family finances to branches most in need. However, successful operation depended upon amicable relations, which could be disrupted by matters not directly pertaining to business.
David G. Burley

GRO (Edinburgh), Glasgow, reg. of births and baptisms, December 1813. HPL, Arch. file, Ferrie family papers. Adam Ferrie, Autobiography, late Hon. Adam Ferrie (n.p., n.d.; copy at MTRL). British Colonist, 20 Feb. 1849. C. S. Bean, "History of Doon," Waterloo Hist. Soc., Annual report (Kitchener, Ont.), 1941: 164-72. J. F. Cowan, "Extending commercial interests and public services (a brief study of the Adam Ferrie & Co. in Waterloo County, 1832-60)," Waterloo Hist. Soc., Annual report, 1953: 19-28.

Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online 2000 University of Toronto/Université Laval

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Among the most prominent settlers who came here about 1832 were Adam Ferrie, Jr., and Samuel Liebschuetz; the former a Scotchman and youngest son of the Hon. Adam Ferrie, of Montreal, then head of a large wholesale house; the latter was a shrewd German Jew. Both started a store here and both did a thriving business. Mr. Adam Ferrie, Junior, commenced in the dwelling house of Jacob Roos, cooper, but soon built a new store and a large warehouse, at present owned by our worthy ex-Reeve Mr. William Schlueter, who converted the warehouse into that well known establishment called "Business Corner," Mr. Liebschuetz erected the store now owned and occupied by Mr. Uttick the tobacconist. Mr. Liebschuetz's business increasing rapidly, he built another store combined with a tavern; but not finding sufficient room in Preston for his energies and ambition, he traded his property in Preston against a mill property, now known as German Mills, but for many years known as Jewsburg, so named after its founder who was a Jew. This was the first grist-mill that was bought and enlarged with money earned in Preston. Liebschuetz by reason of some criminal act, as was supposed, fled the country and never returned.

Adam Ferrie, junior, who had taken in Thomas H. McKenzie as a partner, did a very thriving business. Possessed of a liberal education, he was one of the most honorable and straightforward of business men, always ready to aid in improvements. He desired to enlarge his business by the erection of a grist-mill and for that purpose endeavored to procure the water privilege and lands near the Grand River, them owned by Mr. John Erb, junior; but all at tempts to procure this land, though it was lying waste and remains a waste to the present day, proved futile. The means at the disposal of Mr. Adam Ferrie were considerable, while his father, who at that time was wealthy, encouraged the plans of his son, who upon seeing that he could neither with money nor persuasion procure lands in Preston, looked elsewhere for the investment of the funds at his disposal. He selected an old saw-mill with a good water power about four miles from Preston; purchased the same, sold out his Preston store to Thomas H. McKenzie and left Preston, to the great regret of all reflecting men. The place he selected for his investments he named Doon. Here he built a substantial dam, a large grist-mill, saw-mill, distillery, store, dwelling house, tavern and a number of small dwellings for the men in his employ. Thus out of a wilderness he made a thriving village. This was the second grist-mill built with money at least partly earned in Preston. But unfortunately family difficulties obliged Adam Ferrie to leave Doon and to let his elder brother manage its affairs. The old stern father had decided upon the change and poor Adam, the younger, had to obey. He left Doon broken hearted, and among his last words were heard the expression: "My brother will not be able to manage that business, it will go to ruin. My father has greatly wronged me, but I have obeyed him to the last." He soon died of a broken heart, a premature death; the Doon property became involved, and the Ferrie Estate lost it. Young Adam's prophecy became fulfilled.

Fifth Annual Report Of The Waterloo Historical Society, 1917 pg 26

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FERRIE - Died at Preston, on the 5th instant, after a lingering illness, which he bore with exemplary patience, Adam Ferrie, jun., Esq., second son of the Hon. Adam Ferrie.

Hamilton Spectator 17 Feb 1849

House:
The Homer Watson House is associated with both Doon Village's founding resident, Adam Ferrie and Homer Watson, a local artist of national and international acclaim. The Homer Watson House was first built and owned by Adam Ferrie who established the community's mill and gave the village the name 'Doon'. Ownership passed to Homer Watson in 1883. Watson's artistic ability is reflected in the studio he built in 1893, using stone from a local building. He also constructed a gallery in 1906. He left evidence of his skill on interior pieces such as the frieze, which covers the walls of the studio and anteroom.

House:
39 Doon Valley Drive is associated with three prominent citizens of Waterloo County. The first owner, the Honourable Adam Ferrie, was the founder of Doon Village. Samuel Snider, who purchased the property from Ferrie, owned the Blair Mill, as well as other mills that he and a partner operated in Bridgeport and Baden. Thomas Slee, one of the first trustees of the area, and the Doon Postmaster from 1867 to 1893, was the last significant owner of the property, purchasing it from Snider in 1878. In addition to its association with persons of historic significance, Doon Valley Drive (formerly Doon Village Road), was once an important linkage between the Village of Doon to Tow Town and Oregon (today Upper Doon).
39 Doon Valley Drive is unique in its use of building materials and the methods of construction. This one-and-a-half-storey house combined granite, limestone, fieldstone and lime mortar in its construction. It retains many original, intact features, such as the stone chimney with cove moulding, and the single door with a transom, on the north façade.

City of Kitchener Heritage Property Report, November 1990, Jean Haalboom; City of Kitchener By-law 91-142

Adam — Jane Slipper. Jane was born 1817, , Surrey, England; died 9 Sep 1891, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; was buried 10 Nov 1891, Trinity Anglican Cemetery, Cambridge, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Name: Jane Ferrie
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-387973
• Birth: 1823
• Occupation: 1852, Preston (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Widow Lady
• Residence: 1861, Preston (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Anglican
• Occupation: 1871, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Boarding House
• Residence: 1871, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Episcopalian

Notes:

DEATH OF MRS. ADAM FERRIE

Mrs. Adam Ferrie, who passed away on Monday the 9th inst., was well known to the old residents of Galt, Preston and Doon. Her late husband was the founder of the pretty village of Doon and during his life it was a most prosperous place. Mr. Ferrie died nearly forty years ago, his brother the late Robert Ferrie, who was member for Waterloo at one time, succeeded to the business. Mrs. Ferrie's home for many years was in Preston, where she resided with her daughter, who married Mr. George H. Patterson, then manager of the Galt Branch of the Canadian Bank of Commerce and who afterwards removed to Montreal. When Mrs. Patterson died a few years ago, the mother returned to Galt, where her kindly disposition had made her many friends. She leaves three grandchildren, who are in Montreal and to whom she was greatly attached. The funeral took place on Tuesday, to Mount View Cemetery.

The Dumfries Reformer 12 Nov 1891 pg 1

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-113752

Notes:

FERRIE, ADAM, industrialist, merchant, shipowner, and politician; b. 15 April 1777 at Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, 16th child of James Faerrie and Jean Robertson; d. 24 Dec. 1863 at Hamilton, Canada West.

Unlike most of Montreal's Scottish-born businessmen during the 19th century, Ferrie immigrated when middle-aged, after a highly successful commercial career in Glasgow. In his autobiography he describes the help given him by his father and elder brothers who had been trading successfully for many years to both the East and the West Indies and had interests in London and Liverpool sugar refineries. In 1792, at age 15, Ferrie opened a profitable cotton printing shop at Irvine; by 1799, when he moved to Glasgow, he had three factories in Scotland, and in 1811 he opened another in Manchester, England. His principal outlets were provided by ship captains, including several of his brothers, who accepted his goods on consignment for sale in their ports of call; many cargoes came to Quebec and Montreal. Ferrie himself occasionally visited foreign markets in Europe. By 1815 he had an estate of £70,000 and an annual trade of £100,000. He lost most of his fortune during the next few years, mainly through the failure of business associates whose notes he had endorsed, and he was forced to rebuild by augmenting his consignments to Canada, the Mediterranean, and Brazil. He spent some years in Jamaica attempting to re-establish himself.

In the hope of improving his sales to Canada and establishing his sons, Ferrie in 1824 set up his own firm in Montreal. He formed a partnership with William Cormack who had been associated for many years with Hector Russell and Company, a Montreal dry goods house. In 1825, with £35,000 capital supplied by Ferrie, the new firm, Ferrie, Cormack and Company, to which his son, Colin Campbell, was sent, began business in dry goods, hardware, groceries, and stationery on St Paul Street, Montreal's commercial centre in the early 19th century. Ferrie even built a vessel for the firm's trade, the 300-ton General Wolfe. Heavy initial losses forced him to take charge of the business himself; after a brief visit to Canada in 1826 he moved to Montreal with his family in May 1829.

Ferrie readily saw that western Upper Canada provided a rapidly increasing market for imported manufactured goods and, like a number of his competitors, he decided to establish a branch in that region. His sons Colin Campbell and Adam Jr, who had been in business with their father, chose Hamilton as the base for their Upper Canadian operations, which were now substantial, especially from York (Toronto) to Niagara. Ferrie conducted the Montreal end of the business, and his sons built up a profitable trade in the Hamilton area, establishing branch stores in nearby Preston (Cambridge), Brantford, Nelson, and Dundas during the early 1830s.

At Montreal, Ferrie, in addition to imports, was also involved heavily in exporting. He suffered enormous losses on flour, pork, beef, and butter shipments to Great Britain in 1842, but apparently recovered later to a level of considerable comfort. Suffering again through the bankruptcy of friends, Ferrie took an interest in revisions of bankruptcy legislation during the early 1840s. A supporter of the Montreal Committee of Trade, Ferrie took an active part in organizing it as the Board of Trade in 1842.

An outspoken radical reformer in Scotland, Ferrie eschewed any affiliation with Lower Canadian radicals during the troubled 1830s. In the organizations to which he belonged, such as the Constitutional Association, he counselled firm but balanced loyalism, to keep "the furiously loyal within moderate bounds as to their hatred of the French Canadians." Most loyalists in Montreal, he later recalled, "were so prejudiced as to assert that [French Canadians] were all traitors in their hearts whatever they might pretend." Ferrie earned little thanks for urging his friends to be less virulent and for the open contempt shown to the activities of the "set of silly puppies calling themselves the Doric Club."

Ferrie maintained the same independence and determined loyalism combined with a strong distrust of most politicians during his career in public life. In 1840 he was appointed by Lord Sydenham [Thomson*] to the municipal council governing Montreal and served on a number of committees until his resignation in 1843. Appointed also to the Legislative Council in 1841, he remained a member until his death. He seems to have regarded these honours more as duties, that of councillor, with its high costs of living away from home, being an expensive one. Despite his strong reform sympathies, Ferrie quickly developed a pronounced distaste for most Canadian Reformers. Reflecting later on the politics of the late 1840s and early 1850s, he remembered only "bickerings and low personalities between the place men and the place hunters, between the 'ins' and 'outs.'" Francis Hincks* and Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine were "pretended Liberals" and "base creatures" who "seemed so wholly corrupt as to be insensible to shame."

Aside from his support of the St Andrew's Society, which he helped to organize in 1834, Ferrie directed his philanthropic efforts into unusual projects. He assisted personally in helping cholera-stricken immigrants in 1832 and 1834; during the 1830s he took a leading part in attempting to relieve the city's poor of high bread and fuel costs inflicted by combines of bakers and fuel dealers. From 1837 to 1840 he headed the committee managing the Montreal Public Bakery, a cooperative established to produce bread for sale "at the cheapest possible rate." The bakers countered by selling at less than cost and forced the cooperative out of business. A woodyard he established on a similar basis also collapsed with Ferrie personally bearing a substantial loss.

Ferrie invested little in the Montreal railway schemes of that era, but had strong interests in banking. He was active in the formation of the City Bank of Montreal, was a large shareholder in Hamilton's Gore Bank, and supported the City and District Savings Bank of Montreal. His other joint-stock ventures included the Ottawa and Rideau Forwarding Company, the Montreal Fire Assurance Company, and the Montreal Gas Company.

His wife, Rachel Campbell, had 12 children of whom six survived infancy. As most of them settled in Hamilton, Ferrie decided to retire there and in 1853, at age 76, he left Montreal, one suspects without much regret. He died in Hamilton on Christmas eve, 1863.
Gerald Tulchinsky

[Adam Ferrie], Autobiography, late Hon. Adam Ferrie (n.p.,n.d.); Letter to the Rt. Hon. Earl Grey, one of her majesty's most honorable Privy Council and secretary of state for colonial affairs; embracing a statement of facts in relation to emigration to Canada during the summer of 1847 (Montreal, 1847). General Register Office (Edinburgh), Register of births and baptisms for the parish of Irvine. HPL, Ferrie papers, inventory. McGill University Libraries, Dept. of Rare Books and Special Coll., ms coll., Ottawa and Rideau Forwarding Company, minutes of meeting, 29 March 1837. PAC, MG 24, B1, 11. Hamilton Spectator, 29 Dec. 1863. Montreal Gazette, 29 Dec. 1863. Montreal Transcript, 21 Jan. 1840. Morning Courier (Montreal), 20 June 1849. Montreal directory, 1841-53. Political appointments, 1841-65 (J.-O. Coté), 55. G. Turcotte, Cons. législatif de Québec, 132-33.
Campbell, History of Scotch Presbyterian Church, 487. Hist. de la corporation de la cité de Montréal (Lamothe et al.), 204. Adrien Leblond de Brumath, Histoire populaire de Montréal depuis son origine jusqu'à nos jours (Montréal, 1890), 370. T. T. Smyth, The first hundred years; history of the Montreal City and District Savings Bank, 1846-1946 (n.p., n.d.), 14-15. F.-J. Audet, "1842," Cahiers des Dix, 7 (1942), 241. "Origins of the Montreal Board of Trade," Journal of Commerce (Gardenvale, Que.), 2nd ser., LV (April 1927), 28-29. Adam Shortt, "Founders of Canadian banking: the Hon. Adam Ferrie, reformer, merchant and financier," Canadian Bankers' Assoc., Journal (Toronto), XXXII (1924-25), 50-63.

Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online 2000 University of Toronto/Université Laval

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Adam — Rachel Campbell. Rachel was born 1787, , Scotland; died 24 Dec 1868, Hamilton, Wentworth Co., Ontario, Canada. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Name: Rachel Ferrie
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-115251