The Journal · The Brantford Club
Famous People From Brantford: The Visitors’ Ledger
Brantford’s most famous name is Alexander Graham Bell, who said the telephone was conceived here in 1874. The Brantford Club’s own contribution to the roll is its Visitors’ Register and its records: Winston Churchill at supper in 1901, Sir John A. Macdonald as a house guest before the Club existed, and Joe Clark at lunch, the second Prime Minister to visit the premises.
Every city keeps two lists of its famous: the ones it produced and the ones who came through. The first list, Brantford’s athletes and poets among them, is well told elsewhere. The Brantford Club keeps the second kind, in ink, and this entry reads from it. Everything below is from the Club’s centennial history and its Visitors’ Register, dates attached.
Who are the famous people from Brantford?
The famous people from Brantford start with Bell, whose claim on the city is the city’s claim on the telephone; the full account is in why Brantford is called the Telephone City. But a working city’s fame also arrives by train and signs a book, and at 98 George Street it did exactly that. The Club’s ledger and its history hold a Prime Minister who knew the house before the Club did, a future Prime Minister of Britain who stayed for supper, a conductor, and an actor famous for playing a Prime Minister.
- Before 1891
- Sir John A. Macdonald, a guest of Dr. Bown at the house, before the Club existed
- January 3, 1901
- Winston S. Churchill of London, England signs the Visitors’ Register
- Per Reville
- George Arliss, the actor famous as Disraeli, and Walter Damrosch, the conductor
- Later years
- Joe Clark, with Maureen McTeer, at lunch: the second Canadian Prime Minister to visit the premises
The evening the ledger is famous for
The Register’s best-known line is three days into 1901: Winston S. Churchill, London, England, written in his own hand after he addressed a gathering in town and stayed for a supper party of about twenty, Dr. Digby as host. The page itself was photographed for the Club’s centennial history, and the evening has its own entry in this Journal.
The house guest who came first
The oldest famous name attached to 98 George Street predates the Club entirely. The centennial history records that the first Sir John A. Macdonald was a guest at the house in the years it was the residence of Dr. John Y. Bown, himself a Member of Parliament immediately before and after Confederation. The house’s full biography, doctor, widow, and the $4,500.00 sale to the Club, is in the house older than the city.
The rest of the 1901 page
What makes the Register more than a trophy case is the company the famous line keeps. The same season’s page shows guests giving their residences as Winnipeg, Rossland in British Columbia, Detroit, Montreal, and Toronto: commercial travellers, visiting members, the ordinary traffic of a manufacturing city at full steam. Fame got a line in the book like everyone else, which is rather the point of a ledger.
Fame signed in and had supper; the ledger did not fuss.
Questions the record answers
Which Prime Ministers visited The Brantford Club?
The Club’s centennial history counts Joe Clark, at lunch with Maureen McTeer, as the second Canadian Prime Minister to visit the premises. The first was Sir John A. Macdonald, a guest of Dr. Bown at the house before the Club existed, so his visit belongs to the house rather than the Club.
Did Alexander Graham Bell visit The Brantford Club?
The Club’s records show no visit, and the Journal claims none. Bell’s Brantford story runs through his family’s homestead and the Bell Memorial, and the Club tells it as city history, not house history.
Who else appears in the Club’s records?
Per charter member Ralph Reville’s recollections, George Arliss, the actor celebrated for playing Disraeli, and the conductor Walter Damrosch were among the Club’s notable guests, alongside the everyday visitors from Winnipeg to Montreal recorded on the Register’s pages.
Sources: the Club’s centennial history, privately printed for the hundredth year, including the photographed Visitors’ Register page and Ralph Reville’s recollections; the City of Brantford’s heritage record for the Bown era.
The most famous line in the book has its own entry.
