Ammon Junia "A. J." Shantz^[1]

1892 - 1988  (96 years)

• Name	Ammon Junia "A. J." Shantz
  Born	24 Jan 1892	Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [2, 3, 4, 5]
  Gender	Male
  Business	566 Fisher Mills Rd., Cambridge, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
  	Speed Flour Mill
  Interesting	story, mill
  Name	A. J. Shantz
  Name	Junia Shantz
  Residence	1952	Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [6]
  Eby ID Number	00106-5923.6
  Died	14 Mar 1988	Cambridge, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [7]
  Buried	17 Mar 1988	Wanner Mennonite Cemetery, Cambridge, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [7, 8]
  Person ID	I386676	Generations
  Last Modified	25 Apr 2024

  
  

  Father	Joseph Stauffer Shantz,   b. 13 Feb 1851, Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 1 Oct 1933, Fisher Mills, (Cambridge) Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 82 years)
  Mother	Magdalena "Martha" Snyder,   b. 21 Feb 1851, Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 3 Jun 1931, Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 80 years)
  Married	9 Mar 1887	Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [1, 9, 10]
  Family ID	F261899	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Clara Regina Edna Bechtel,   b. 24 May 1895, Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 1984  (Age 88 years)
  Married	21 Aug 1918	Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [11]
  Children	1. Verna Evelyn Shantz,   b. 9 Aug 1919, Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 18 Feb 1921, Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 1 years)
  Last Modified	26 Apr 2024
  Family ID	F261897	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Photos

  Ammon Junia Shantz (At least one living or private individual is linked to this item - Details withheld.)

  
  

• 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/

  
  

• Sources

  [S3] Book - Vol I 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..., 283. [S163] Cemetery - ON, Waterloo, Cambridge - Wanner Mennonite CC#6479 (formerly Waterloo Township). Shantz / Ammon J. Shantz / 1892- / Clara E. Bechtel / 1895-1984 / Verna Evelyn Shantz / 1919-1921 [S86] Census - ON, Waterloo, Waterloo South - 1901, Waterloo (South/Sud) G-4 Page 13. [S57] Vit - ON - Birth Registration. [S2858] z Vit - ON - Birth Registration, Birth Certificate 033253 (1892). Name:Amon Shantz Date of Birth:24 Jan 1892 Gender:Male Birth Place:Waterloo, Ontario, Canada Father's name:Joseph S Shantz Mother's name:Magdalena Snyder [S8] News - Gospel Herald, March 18, 1952 - Obituary of Edwin Simon Shantz. [S2588] Cemetery - ON, Waterloo, Cambridge - Wanner Cemetery Internet Link. SHANTZ/ Ammon J. SHANTZ/ 1892-1988/ Clara E. BECHTEL/ 1895-1984/ Verna Evelyn SHANTZ/ 1919-1921/ [S163] Cemetery - ON, Waterloo, Cambridge - Wanner Mennonite CC#6479 (formerly Waterloo Township). [S10] Book - Vol II 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..., 423. [S2488] aaa Vit - ON - Marriage Registration, marriage certificate 012117 (1887). Name:Joseph S Shantz Age:36 Birth Year:abt 1851 Birth Place:Canada Marriage Date:9 Mar 1887 Marriage Place:Waterloo, Ontario, Canada Father:Simon Shantz Mother:Judith Shantz Spouse:Magdalena Simpon [S2488] aaa Vit - ON - Marriage Registration, marriage certificate 018425 (1918). Name:Clara Regina Edna Bechtel Age:23 Birth Year:abt 1895 Birth Place:Waterloo, Ontario Marriage Date:21 Aug 1918 Marriage Place:Waterloo, Ontario, Canada Father:Menno Bechtel Mother:Sarah Ann Wahl Bechtel Spouse:Ammon Jemia Shantz

  
  

• Event Map

  Born - 24 Jan 1892 - Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Married - 21 Aug 1918 - Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Residence - 1952 - Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Died - 14 Mar 1988 - Cambridge, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Buried - 17 Mar 1988 - Wanner Mennonite Cemetery, Cambridge, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  = Link to Google Earth