Industry

Manufacturing companies in Belleville, Trenton and other communities in Hastings County between 1800s - 1990s

1. The Belleville Stove Works

• Established: ?
• Owners: Harte and Smith
• Location: South Pinnacle Street
• Product: Stoves
• The company produced 10,000 stoves per year at one time.

2. The G&J Brown Manufacturing Co.

• Established: 1846
• Location: Mill Street, now Station Street
• Product: Machinery for flour-, grist-and sawmills
• The company, also known as Brown's Foundry, produced 50 different patterns of plows and other agricultural implements, portable and stationary steam engines, boilers and potash kettles as well as box, parlour and cooking stoves. The Brown's Manufacturing Company constructed the first Bay Bridge in Belleville.

3. The Patterson Iron Works

• Established: 1855
• Owners: Robert and R.S. Patterson
• Location: Coleman's Dam, Front Street
• Products: The company was a pioneer in the manufacture of agricultural implements in this part of the country. It was also the largest manufacturer of reapers and mowers in Canada.
• Number of employees: 50.
• The Patterson Iron Works was the ancestor of Foley Foundry and Machine Company, which burned down in the 1950s. In 1860, the company changed hands and it became known as Walker 's Foundry but its official name was Belleville Agricultural Works and Iron Foundry. J.M. Walker was the company's proprietor at the time.

4. Tickell & Sons Furniture Factory

• Established: 1858
• Owner: George S. Tickell
• Location: Corner of Foundry and Pinnacle streets. ( Foundry Street no longer exists. It used to run between Pinnacle and Church streets.)
• Products: Sideboards, bedroom and parlour suites, chairs and caskets
• The company's products were said to be the best of their kind in the country. Locally, they were sold at the company store located at 387-389 Front Street.

 

5. Corby Distilleries Ltd.

• Established: 1859
• Owner: Henry Corby Sr.
• Location: The Corby plant was located six kilometres north of Belleville in Corbyville on the banks of the Moira River.
• Products: Spirits and industrial alcohol
• The company's roots go back to 1859. Two years prior, Henry Corby Sr., an English immigrant and an owner of a food store and bakery business in Belleville, had established a gristmill at the site. It is said that Corby 's distilling business began as a sideline for using up extra grain left by farmers after grinding at the mill. The secondary business soon caught and surpassed the primary milling business. During the First and Second World Wars, the plant was converted to produce massive amounts of industrial alcohol for munitions uses. The distillery closed in 1991.

 

6. The Canadian Tin and Stamping Works

• Established: late 1870s
• Location: 434 Front Street
• Products: Lanterns, tinware, milk cans, cheese presses, vats, etc.
• The company was later known as W.W. Chown & Co. when, in 1892, Chown became the proprietor.

7. The Belleville Fruit and Vinegar Co. Ltd.

• Established: early 1900s
• Owner: W.B. Robinson
• Location: Hillside and Octavia streets. The site was sometimes referred to as "Vinegar Hill".
• Products: Cider, cider vinegar, pickles and catsup

8. The Belleville Pottery Company

• Established: early 1900s
• Products: Pottery and tile
• Location: Mill Street, now Station Street
• The company was a manufacturer and dealer of stoneware and clay products.

9. Deacon Shirt Company

• Established: 1903
• Owners W.B. Deacon and F.S. Deacon
• Location: Coleman Street, later ( 1941) Dundas Street East
• Products: Initially men's dress and work shirts. In later years, wool camping jackets, parkas, ski wear and down-filled jackets became the core products of the company.
• Number of employees (1903): 70
• The original building was destroyed in 1911 and the company moved to another building on Coleman Street. The new location was in the building that was occupied in the 1970s by the G.T. Lanning Company. In 1941, the plant moved to its Dundas Street East location and its name was later changed to Deacon Brothers Sportswear Ltd. During the Second World War the entire production of the factory concentrated on making heated flying suits, parkas and naval jackets.
• Forty per cent of the sales of the company's regular products went to department stores and the rest was sold in individual men's wear and ladies' wear stores.

10. The Belleville Portland Cement Company Ltd.

• Established: 1905
• Location: Bay of Quinte area of Point Anne
• Product: Cement
• It was the second largest cement plant in Canada and produced 16 million bags of cement annually. The company, which began operation in 1905 at Point Anne on the Bay of Quinte, was drawn into the merger that created Canada Cement Co. Ltd. It was closed when Canada Cement consolidated its Belleville operations at the former Lehigh plant at the other end of Point Anne. Renamed Canada Cement Plant No. 5, this plant was the centre of a thriving Point Anne community until the operation was moved to Bath, Ontario, in 1973.

11. The Belleville Iron and Horseshoe Co.

• Established: 1908
• Location: Wharf Street, today St. Paul Street
• Owner: Toronto and Belleville Rolling Mills Company
• Products: Horseshoes, ship and railway spikes, track bolts and iron bars

12. The American Optical ( Canada ) Ltd.

• Established: 1922
• Location: 1922, second floor of a building on Front Street; 1924, Coleman Street ; 1948, Bridge Street West (opposite the Belleville Fair Grounds)
• Products: Optical goods such as spectacle lenses of every description, sunglasses, safety lenses and welding goggles, medical and safety equipment The company's products were marketed in many parts of the world.