Addison Henry Foell

1891 - 1954  (62 years)

• Name	Addison Henry Foell
  Born	6 Feb 1891	, Ontario, Canada   [1, 2]
  Gender	Male
  Business	16 King St. N., Waterloo, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada
  	A. H. Foell & Co.
  		A. H. Foell & Company, Waterloo, Ontario. John Reichert standing on platform on left. He was a steam mechanic and foreman at Waterloo Manufacturing from 1920s to 1940s
  Name	A. H. Foell
  Occupation	1911	Elmira, Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [1]
  	Carpenter
  Residence	47 Avondale Ave. S., Waterloo, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada
  Residence	1911	Elmira, Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [1]
  	Lutheran
  Eby ID Number	Waterloo-198025
  Died	1954  [2]
  Buried	Memory Gardens Cemetery, Breslau, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [2]
  Person ID	I198025	Generations
  Last Modified	10 Jul 2025

  
  

  Father	Samuel Foell,   b. Jun 1862, Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 22 Aug 1933, Guelph City, Wellington Co., Ontario, Canada  (Age ~ 71 years)
  Mother	Frederika Weltz,   b. 16 Jun 1866, Dorking, Peel Twp., Wellington Co., Ontario, Canada ,   d. 21 Jan 1943, Waterloo City, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 76 years)
  Family ID	F187508	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Lillian Viola Herlick,   b. 31 Aug 1897,   d. 1980  (Age 82 years)
  Children	1. Gerald Addison Foell,   b. 30 Apr 1925, , Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 14 Oct 1925, , Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 0 years)
  Last Modified	10 Jul 2025
  Family ID	F48231	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  Flash from the Past: Waterloo trucking firm also sold ice from Silver Lake For most of four decades, A. H. Foell & Co. was a major trucking firm in the north half of today's Waterloo Region. It also sold blocks of "clean, natural ice" that it cut from Silver Lake in Waterloo Park. Last week's "mystery" photo, taken by Ernest Denton of Kitchener in 1930, shows part of the firm's Waterloo home base at 43-47 Avondale St. S., (then Victoria Street South) just west of the downtown. It also had a storefront office at 16 King St. N. A half dozen readers phoned or sent emails identifying the site in the photo. Wilbert Sommers of Kitchener, who grew up nearby, said he was in the Foell garage several times as a boy. And Gerry Fischer of Waterloo knew the site because he long ago delivered Record newspapers on the street. This is only the right side of Denton's photo. The complete image (there wasn't space to publish it all) shows an equal number of vehicles on the left side. The big house in the picture (not a Foell property) is still there. But the old Foell garage on the left was long ago replaced by a small apartment building. You would never guess today that this residential street, from about 1919 to the late 1950s, held a trucking firm that at its peak had two dozen vehicles. Addison Henry Foell, the founder, lived at 47 Avondale (Victoria) in a house that's still standing. According to his nephew, Don Foell, 81, of Waterloo, Addison got initial financing from his father, Samuel, who insisted that another son, Don's father, Alvin, help to manage the firm. A third brother, John, was also very involved. Alvin's family lived at 44 Dunbar Rd. S. (then Charles Street South), which backed on to Addison's property on Avondale. Close by at 72 Dunbar (then Charles), Koch Transport, now based in Cambridge, was started by Wilfred and Elvina Koch in 1924. Don Foell was just 11 months old when the Denton photo was taken, but A.H. Foell & Co. quickly became a big part of his life, as it was for many of his siblings and cousins. "We were driving trucks when we were 10 years old," he recalled in an interview. Laverne Foell of Huntsville, Ont., one of Addison's sons, sent an email describing his boyhood years. ""It was so exciting to grow up in that environment . . . There were so many exciting things happening every day, with primitive equipment breakdowns, tire blow outs, construction activity, horses, harvesting ice, accidents, mechanics fixing trucks, loading and unloading freight, moving household furniture, picking up mail for the post office, accompanying drivers on trips and listening to their adventures." For years, A. H. Foell & Co. had the only PCV (public commercial vehicle) licences for hauling freight to London, Ont., and to Toronto, where it had a warehouse and two trucks. It also had the only permit for handling household moves to out-of-town sites. Plus one for carrying heavy equipment. "In my day, there were trucks leaving Waterloo at least twice a day to Toronto and one going to London," Don Foell said. There was no Highway 401 in those years and trucks weren't as durable as they are now. Foell recalled an Ottawa trip his father made in the firm's 1928 Gotfredson truck. "He started with six tires and only one of them lasted for the entire trip." In town, Foell drivers did everything from picking up mailbox contents for the Waterloo post office to delivering food orders from the York Trading Co. wholesale grocery at King and Madison streets in Kitchener. They carried loads for the Snyder's Furniture Co. and hauled machinery made at the Waterloo Manufacturing Co. Don Foell recalled unloading flour from boxcars at the Waterloo train station on Regina Street (then Queen Street) and delivering it to Henderson's Bakery. "We'd be as white as you could get when we were done, just covered in flour." Some short trips were made by horse and wagon. One of the firm's horses, Pete, was an old Waterloo firehall horse, Don Foell said. If you were on the road and a fire alarm sounded, Pete would head for the firehall. "You could not stop him." At Silver Lake, A.H. Foell & Co. had a three-storey insulated building to store huge ice blocks cut from the lake with a mobile saw powered by an old Model T Ford. A second Model T powered a conveyor belt that lifted the blocks into the building. "As kids we sometimes stood on those blocks of ice in the water and floated on them to the conveyor belt," said Don Foell, who still has a nine-metre pole with a steel hook that was used to move ice blocks. Addison Foell was a man who enjoyed "any physical challenges he could find," Laverne Foell wrote. "As my father got older he hired a manager to look after routine aspects of the business so he could spend more time with the heavy equipment challenges. He moved massive punch presses that required a lot of ingenuity to move and erect on site - often requiring the demolition of walls and innovative use of jacks and pulley systems. He also moved houses." As time passed, A.H. Foell & Co. gradually sold its various licences to rival firms. The heavy equipment licence was the last to be sold. The firm ceased operations not long after Addison Foell's death in May 1954. Don Foell remained in Waterloo. When he retired in 1988, he was superintendent of planning and construction for the Waterloo County Board of Education, now the Waterloo Region District School Board. Laverne Foell is now retired as a Toronto Dominion Bank manager in Huntsville. "Flash From The Past: Waterloo Trucking Firm Also Sold Ice From Silver Lake". 2011. Therecord.Com. https://www.therecord.com/life/2011/04/15/flash-from-the-past-waterloo-trucking-firm-also-sold-ice-from-silver-lake.html.

  
  

• Sources

  [S176] Census - ON, Waterloo, Elmira - 1911, Div. 49 Pg. 14. [S3231] Find A Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/206828982.

  
  

• Event Map

  Born - 6 Feb 1891 - , Ontario, Canada Occupation - Carpenter - 1911 - Elmira, Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Residence - Lutheran - 1911 - Elmira, Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Buried - - Memory Gardens Cemetery, Breslau, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  = Link to Google Earth