Joseph Stauffer Shantz

Other Events:

• Business: 566 Fisher Mills Rd., Cambridge, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada; Speed Flour Mill
• Name: J. S. Shantz
• Eby ID Number: 00110-6854
• Residence: 1852, Wilmot Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Mennonite
• Residence: 1861, Wilmot Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; O Methodist
• Occupation: 1871, Wilmot Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Farmer
• Residence: 1871, Wilmot Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Mennonite
• Occupation: 1881, Wilmot Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Farmer
• Residence: 1881, Wilmot Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Mennonite
• Occupation: 1901, Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; ?

Notes:

Joseph S. Shantz

Mr. J. S. Shantz, aged 83, passed away at his home, Fisher's Mills, on Sunday, Oct. 1. Mr. Shantz was a widely known citizen and one deeply interested in religion and philanthropic activities. There survive two sons and one daughter, Edwin of Hespeler, Junia at home and Mrs. Sydney Shantz of Kitchener. The funeral services were held on Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 3rd, from his home at Fisher's Mills. Rev. S. M. Kanagy of Blair and Bishop C. F. Derstine, Kitchener, officiated. The remains were interred in Wanner's cemetery. Casket bearers were Moses B. Shantz, Kitchener; Lyndere Shantz, New Hamburg; Moses Bowman, New Dundee; Gordon Snyder, Kitchener; Fred Snyder, Waterloo; Edward Snyder, Preston.

The Waterloo Chronicle 12 Oct 1933 pg 5

_____________________


Joseph Shantz, "was born February 13th, 1851. On February 13th, 1877, he was married to Nancy Shantz. Some time after their marriage they moved near Hespeler where she died March 13th, 1885. On March 9th, 1887, he was again married to Magdalena Snyder, widow of the late Alfred Simpson. They reside near Hespeler, Ontario, where he is engaged in farming. To him and his first wife were born two sons,."

Eby, Ezra E. (1895). A biographical history of Waterloo township and other townships of the county: being a history of the early settlers and their descendants, mostly all of Pennsylvania Dutch origin: as also much other unpublished historical information chiefly of a local character. Berlin [Kitchener, Ont.]: [s.n.].

Joseph married Nancy Shantz 13 Feb 1877, Wilmot Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. Nancy (daughter of Joshua Y. Shantz and Magdalena Martin) was born 18 Sep 1854, Wilmot Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; died 13 Mar 1885, Wilmot Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; was buried , Shantz Mennonite Cemetery, Wilmot Township, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. [Group Sheet]

Joseph married Magdalena "Martha" Snyder 9 Mar 1887, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. Magdalena (daughter of Absalom Snyder, daughter of Absalom Snyder and Mary Bricker) was born 21 Feb 1851, Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; died 3 Jun 1931, Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; was buried 6 Jun 1931, Wanner Mennonite Cemetery, Cambridge, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Name: Simon Shantz
• Eby ID Number: 00110-6744.3
• Birth: 4 Apr 1878, Wilmot Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada
• Residence: 1881, Wilmot Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Mennonite

Notes:

Edwin S. Shantz

HESPELER, Edwin S. Shantz, 74, died today at his home on Edward St., Preston. He was born in Wilmot Township and farmed near Hespeler, for 40 years, before he retired in 1941 and became associated with his brother, in the Speed Flour Mill. He is survived by his wife, the former Evelyn Howell. His first wife, Ida Martin, predeceased him in 1938. Surviving are one daughter, Mrs. R. S. Evans, Puslinch Township; one brother, Junia Shantz, Fisher Mills; one sister, Mrs. Sydney Shantz, Kitchener and 12 grandchildren. Funeral services will be held Monday, at 2 p.m., at the residence and at 2: 30 p.m., at Wanner Mennonite Church, with interment, in the Wanner Cemetery. The body now rests at his late residence.

Kitchener-Waterloo Record 2 Feb 1952 pg 5

___________________

Shantz, Edwin Simon, born April 4, 1878, in Wilmot Twp., Ont.; died Feb. 2, 1952; aged 73 y. 9 m. 28 d. At an early age he moved to the Hespeler district where he lived for the remainder of his life. In his teen age he was converted and became a member of the Wanner Church where he was an active member until the time of his death. In 1902 he was married to Ida Martin who predeceased him in 1939. He married Evelyn Howell in 1941. Surviving him are his wife, Evelyn, one daughter (Mrs. R. S. Evans, Hespeler, Ont.), 12 grandchildren, one great-grandchild, one brother (Junia Shantz), and one sister (Mrs. Sydney Shantz, Kitchener, Ont.). Funeral services were held Feb. 4 at the home and at the Wanner Church with Merle Shantz officiating, assisted by M. G. McFarlane, pastor of the United Church of Canada in Hespeler. Interment was made in the adjoining cemetery

Gospel Herald - Volume XLV, Number 12 - March 18, 1952 --- page 286, 287

Edwin married Evelyn Howell 1941. Evelyn was born Abt 1880, Of, Hespeler (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; died Yes, date unknown. [Group Sheet]

Edwin married Ida Martin 15 Jan 1902, Howick Twp., Huron Co., Ontario, Canada. Ida (daughter of Aaron Martin and Judith Snyder) was born 8 Jul 1880, Howick Twp., Huron Co., Ontario, Canada; died 11 Sep 1938, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; was buried 14 Sep 1938, Wanner Mennonite Cemetery, Cambridge, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-15867

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: 00106-5923.3

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: 00106-5923.4

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: 00106-5923.5

Other Events:

• Business: 566 Fisher Mills Rd., Cambridge, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada; Speed Flour Mill
• Interesting: story, mill
• Name: A. J. Shantz
• Name: Junia Shantz
• Eby ID Number: 00106-5923.6
• Residence: 1952, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada

Notes:

SHANTZ, A. Junia

At Fairview Mennonite Home, 799 Concession Rd., Cambridge, on Monday evening, March 14, 1988, A. Junia Shantz, in his 97th year. Beloved husband of the late, Clara (Bechtel) Shantz (1984). The late Mr. Shantz, was predeceased by two brothers, Edwin and Hermice and is survived by a sister-in-law, Mrs. Evelyn Shantz of St. George and a family friend, Helen Shantz of Waterloo. Mr. Shantz, was born in Waterloo township, the son of the late Joseph and Mattie (Snyder) Shantz and was an active life-long member of the Wanner Mennonite Church. He was a pioneer in the formula feed business and operated the Fisher Mill Feed Store, in the Cambridge (Hespeler) area, for many years. He was a past president of the South Waterloo Agricultural Society. The family will receive friends at the Nelson Funeral Home, 1766 Franklin Blvd., Cambridge, on Wednesday afternoon and evening, from 2: 30-4: 30 and 7-9 p.m. The funeral service will be held on Thursday afternoon, March 17, at 2: 30 p.m., in the Wanner Mennonite Church, with Rev. Paul Martin officiating. Interment Wanner cemetery.

Kitchener-Waterloo Record 15 Mar 1988 pg B13

_________________


Flash from the Past: Busy feed mill was at Fisher Mills

Waterloo Region Record

For much of the 20th century the story of the Hespeler-area hamlet of Fisher Mills ran parallel to the story of its mill and the mill's longtime owner, A.J. Shantz.

Last week's "mystery" photo showing Hespeler Feed & Farm Supplies in the 1960s inspired dozens of calls and emails from readers with ties to the hamlet, named for Jacob Fisher, a Chilligo Creek mill operator in the early 1800s. Fisher Mills was also the birthplace in 1841 of Waterloo distiller Joseph Seagram. His parents owned a hotel there.

The old mill, just east of Beaverdale Road and two kilometres from the heart of Hespeler (now Cambridge), was a place of business until 1990. It's now a home, backing on Maple Grove Road.

In 1932, when he was 40, Ammon Junia (A.J.) Shantz became owner of the feed mill his father Joseph Shantz began there in 1890. Powered by water from a man-made pond, the Shantz mill was built on the foundation of an earlier flour mill that in 1888 was dismantled and moved to Birtle, Man. One of A.J. Shantz's first steps as owner was to add a diesel engine.

Shantz grew up working at the mill but also trained at the Ontario Agricultural College in Guelph in the 1920s. He lived with his parents on a farm that is partly visible on the far left in the photo.

Shantz is remembered as an honest, kind and astute man who kept pace with changing business realities. A Shur-Gain franchisee, producing livestock feeds was his key focus. But his mill also did seed cleaning, grain chopping and saw milling. It made apple cider, fruit juice, molasses and apple butter (the latter venture was directed by his mother, Mattie), plus its own brand of dog food, promoted by a litter of 16 Irish setters, Shantz acquired.

A description in the 1957 volume of the Waterloo Historical Society noted: "Mr. Shantz also deals in fertilizers, fencing, twine and many other lines of farm supplies. An electrical appliance shop stocking deep freezers, TV sets etc. has recently been added to his establishment."

For 22 years Shantz also owned the Speed Mill north of Hespeler. It was both a flour and feed mill.

Lois Anne Snyder of Waterloo recognized the Shantz Mill photo. She grew up in Fisher Mills and her grandfather and father, both named Alf Tuletzki, worked for Shantz, as did her sister Betty, who had a job in the mill office.

"We used to go down there sometimes with my dad in the mornings," Snyder recalled. One of the first things her father would do was go to the basement and start an engine that would get all sorts of belts and pulleys moving throughout the building.

Don Baker of Kitchener phoned to say his father, Art, bought farm supplies at the mill and worked there in the 1960s and 1970s. He is certain the car in the photo is his father's 1962 Mercury.

Bill Bartels of Kitchener has a special reason to recall A.J. Shantz. In 1924, his grandfather Jacob J. Bartels, arrived in Waterloo with his wife and four children, along with other Russian Mennonites who had fled persecution in their homeland. When they stepped from the train, a man shouted "family of six" and A.J. Shantz stepped up to say he could offer them temporary housing.

The Bartels family lived briefly at the Shantz farm. Jacob later acquired a Niagara-area fruit farm that he ran with Bartel's father, Jacob Jr., who raised his own family in Hespeler.

Bartels said he can recall going to Shantz's mill as a boy with his father in the 1940s with apples and tomatoes from the Niagara farm.

"I was pretty impressed with the idea that you could squeeze a tomato and get juice that you would put in a can."

When Shantz retired in 1970, he sold the mill to Howard Cressman, who had grown up in Shantz's home, where his mother was the housekeeper. Cressman incorporated as Chilligo Farm Supply, Ltd. and for a time had Bill Miller as a co-owner.

They made many innovations, but manufacturing was gradually discontinued. The mill became a retail site called The Feed Store.

Ron Hattle of Elora phoned to say his father, Charles, worked for Cressman in the 1970s and in retirement wrote about the mill.

From his journal: "The staff at the time was Howard Cressman, Stewart McDonald, Alf Tuletzki, Art Baker, Karol Warenholtz and Charlie Hattle. Shortly after when things got going with the pellets, they hired Guy Hawshaw. Alf's daughter was the bookkeeper."

Shantz was a very visible figure in Fisher Mills and at the nearby Wanner Mennonite Church. In the late 1930s he and his farmhand, Wilfred Becker, took two Percheron horses to Toronto and won a prize at the Royal Winter Fair.

One curious aspect of Shantz's life is that he and his wife, Clara, wed in 1918, lived apart for years, she in Kitchener and he at Fisher Mills. Their only child had passed away in 1921 while still a tot.

Miriam Cressman of Cambridge knew the couple well as the wife of Howard Cressman, who died in 2004. Clara and A.J. were fond of each other, she said, but as young people were pressured by their strong-willed mothers. Clara's mother insisted her daughter live with her in Kitchener. But A.J. found it hard to run the mill from so far away. As well, his own mother wanted him at Fisher Mills.

In later life the couple did live together again at Fisher Mills. Clara died in 1984, A.J. in 1988.

jfear@therecord.com

Flash from the Past: Busy feed mill was at Fisher Mills . (2017). Therecord.com. Retrieved 29 January 2017, from https://www.therecord.com/living-story/2620139-flash-from-the-past-busy-feed-mill-was-at-fisher-mills/

Ammon married Clara Regina Edna Bechtel 21 Aug 1918, Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. Clara (daughter of Menno M. Bechtel and Sarah Ann Wahl) was born 24 May 1895, Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; died 1984; was buried , Wanner Mennonite Cemetery, Cambridge, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Name: Evans
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-57469
• Residence: 1952, Hespeler (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada

— R. S. Evans. R. was born CA 1900; died Yes, date unknown. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-331513