(from Early Settlements of King Township, Ontario by Elizabeth McClure Gillham; published by the Author, 1975)
By W.E. McKinley
Three shops, three shacks,
three hammers making song;
Three brawny arms, three
biceps bulging strong;
Three wives, and weans,
three homey roofs to crown
The happy-hammer-hamlet,
Hammertown.
Yes, there was Dulmage, Bowes,
and Stubbs atoo,
The blacksmith, the joiner,
and the custom shoe,
Wereat we lads, escaping
from the school,
Were timely taught the
technique of a tool.
For blacksmith, we would ply
a helping sledge,
For joiner, spoil the keenness
of an edge;
For cobbler Stubbs (who
scorned the factory boot)
We preached the ease of his
to any foot.
The songs their hammers sang
in those decades,
(Assisted by their
Governmental aides)
Twanged ears at Ottawa, who
joined to crown
The rural postal station,
Hammertown.
So much of yore. I called the other day
(A flight of fifty years had
flit away)
To find or tried to find
(and not a ghost)
The happy hamlet I had come
to toast.
Mute Hammertown! So smothered by the flood
Of mass production from
assembly cud,
Till none, nor shop remains,
bar thistle-down
O’er erstwhile, heaven-happy
Hammetown.
They lived and loved and
toiled in Hammertown
Till automatic gimmicks
mowed them down;
No cenotaph to mourn, nor
hammer signs,
Save memory – and these re-echoed lines.
Hammertown was once a hamlet on the twelfth concession of
King Township, extending north and south of the seventeenth sideroad. The ringing of the anvil in the busy smithy
resounding over the hills, suggested the name. The area was settled mainly by Scottish families who admired the
high rolling land that reminded them of Scotland. Prominent names among them were Crawford, McKinley, Jackson,
Irwin, Thompson, Hall, Fuller, Mitchell, Burton, Coulter, McKay, Stuart and
Watson.
In 1842, two acres were sold from the southeast corner of lot 21,
concession 12, a farm belonging to Mr. Burton, to Duncan Anderson,
described as a cordwainer. A cordwainer
was a leatherworker who made things of cordovan, or a shoemaker. The cordwainer’s or shoemaker’s shop, first operated by Duncan Anderson, and later
by William Stubbs, was on the southern portion of lot 21, and north of
it was the post office. A carpenter’s
shop, operated by Tom Bowes, was north of the post office.
Hammertown post office opened in 1912, when Coventry post office, Albion Township, Peel County closed, and Rural Mail commenced delivery to the office in Hammertown. Robert Barry was postmaster for a number of years; after his death in 1919, Mrs. Barry was in charge until the post office closed in 1947.
On the east side of the twelfth concession, south of sideroad 17, was a blacksmith’s shop. Thomas Elmer was the first smith; later James Dulmage took over the business.
The school which served the area was familiarly known as the Crawford School, as it was located on the farm of William Crawford, whose grandfather had obtained the land, lot 21, concession 11, from the Crown. A new school was built at the same site in 1926, but was closed in 1966 when it was decided to have the pupils north of sideroad 17 attend Schomberg school, and those south of the sideroad attend Nobleton school.
At one time, there were two churches in Hammertown; a Baptist Church and a Methodist Church. The Baptist Church was on the east side of the twelfth concession, south of the sideroad. The Methodist Church was on the west side of the twelfth concession and north of the corner.