“Old January
certainly kicked up some funny capers in bidding farewell last night, and left
a very rough start for the shortest month of the year.”
Hamilton Times. February 1, 1915.
January 31st
was a Sunday in 1915.
The day began with
snow early in the day, a little inconvenient but not overly so. However,
conditions deteriorated over the course of the day, until they became most
troublesome, as the snow became sleet:
“People walking home
from church last evening found that the sidewalks were too apt to fly up and
hit them in the face, and for that reason the middle of the road was
well-patronized by pedestrians.”1
1 “Sleet
Storm Had Them Guessing”
Hamilton Times. February 2, 1915.
The Dominion Power
and Transmission Company which operated both the Hamilton Street Railway and
the various radial electric railway lines which connected the center of
Hamilton with various suburban locations battled the storm successfully, with no
interruption of service and only minor delays.
The electric lines of
the Cataract Power company survived the ice storm mostly intact, although three
lines needed repair as they broke under the weight of the ice. At 157 James
street south, the weight of the ice caused a sheet metal veranda to collapse,
while out in the county areas many fruit tress had branches fall over due to
the heavy ice.
The sleet storm
turned out to be just a prelude. One day later, a second major storm arrived in
the Hamilton area:
“A blizzard which has
been raging since last yesterday afternoon held Hamilton tight in its grip
today, and at press time showed no signs of abating, although Probs promises
clearing weather for tonight.”2
2 “Terrific
Blizzard Throttles Traffic”
Hamilton
Spectator. February 2, 1915.
Unlike the sleet
storm, the second storm brought part of the Dominion Power and Transmission
company’s lines to a standstill. The company managed to keep the Hamilton
Street Railway more or less on schedule, but several of the suburban lines were
less fortunate and had to be closed.
For the Grand Trunk
Railway, the problems caused by the storm were major:
“ ‘One of the worst storms
that we’ve encountered in years,’ said Superintendent Gordon, of the Grand
Trunk. That company had snow plows bustling all night, but in several cases,
they got tied up in big snow drifts.”
“Here is what
happened to a few of the Grand Trunk trains. The 7:15 Brantford to Toronto
train got as far as Copetown, when it ran into a miniature mountain of snow. Back
of it stands the Chicago-Toronto express. Behind it is No. 4, from Chicago to
New York. A snow plow was sent to try and dig them out, but at noon, the three
trains were still stalled.
“Near Grimsby, the
train which left here at 9:27 for Buffalo is blocked. The Port Dover line is
closed. A train started in for Hamilton this morning, but pulled up at
Vittoria.A snow plow which was sent out to try and clea the tracks jumped the
tracks about a mile and a half from the city. Later in the day when the company
gets its main line cleared, it will rescue the plow and endeavor to restore
traffic.”2
The City of Hamilton
called off all garbage collection because of the storm. Also the city’s own
snow-clearing operations were challenged:
“The city is having
trouble on some of the narrow streets. After the heavy snowfall of a few days
ago, the snow was carted to these side streets. The sleet storm on Sunday did
not help any, and the blizzard of last night and today almost succeeded in
blocking some of the streets entirely. The works department had decided now to
dump all snow on city park lands and on the bay.”2
The Bell Telephone
company noted that much of its long distance service was affected by the storm
as many lines fell. However, the Bell management was pleased to say that of its
staff of 150 girls in its employ, only two failed to put in an appearance at
the switchboard stations.
An amusing scene took
place on James street south, near Jackson street, in front of St. Paul’s
Presbyterian Church:
“On stormy days such
as this, one see many funny things, despite the disagreeable weather, which
force smiles to the countenance, and replace the frowns caused by the snow
drifting down one’s neck. This was the digging out of an electric snow plow.
“The electric was
proceeding south on James, and became stuck in a snow drift. A passing
horse-plow was hailed, and after wasting some ten minutes digging away the snow
from in front of the electric, it was able to proceed on its way with a convoy
of three street cars following in its wake.”3
3 “Good Old
Horse : Electric Snow Plow Dug Out by Dobbin.”
Hamilton Times. February 2, 1915.
Although above the
escarpment, there was a portion of the area around Concession street that was
within the city limits in 1915. There was considerable complaining from
mountain residents who claimed that the city officials when it came to snow-clearing, “forget the mountaineers,
who relish the wading through snow three feet deep no more than their city
brethren:”
“Last evening, one
prominent resident of that section, who found it necessary to make a call on Concession
street accidentally slipped into a ditch, and required the assistance of two
passers-by to get him on a firm foundation. Needless to say, the pedestrian was
below the regular stature. However, it shows how deep the snow is.”3
3 “Snow,
Snow : Mountain Visitor Nearly Lost”
Hamilton Times. February 3, 1914.
The final chapter in
the local press coverage of the big February 1915 storm was written concerning
an incident at the Hamilton Police Court:
“ ‘Too much washee,
washee, no get time clean snow, you savvy,’ said Jun Lee, a Chinese laundryman,
to the magistrate in police court this morning.
“Lee was charged with
not cleaning his sidewalk off, but was allowed to go when he promised to lay
off work and shovel the snow”4
4 Hamilton
Times. Febrary 2, 1915
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