The Journal · The Brantford Club
Third in Canada: When Brantford Exported to the World
By the early 1900s, Brantford, Ontario stood third in Canada by value of manufactured goods exported, behind only Toronto and Montreal. A city of some sixteen thousand people carried that rank on the strength of works like Waterous, Cockshutt, Massey-Harris, Verity, and Slingsby.
The claim sounds like civic bragging until the qualifier is read out in full, which is how this Journal always reads it: third in Canada by value of manufactured goods exported, behind only Toronto and Montreal, in the early 1900s. Two cities many times Brantford’s size ahead of it, and everyone else behind. Here are the works, their dates, and the room where that era sat down to dinner.
What did Brantford manufacture?
Brantford manufactured the machinery of a working continent: steam engines from Waterous, ploughs and farm implements from Cockshutt, the harvesters of Massey-Harris, Verity’s ploughs, and Slingsby’s textiles. Farm equipment led the parade, which is why the city’s exports reached wherever fields did. The names were businesses first and civic institutions second; several of them also supplied the Club’s own roll, starting with Charles Waterous, Manufacturer, first name on the Charter roll of 1898.
- 1844
- Waterous, building engines in Brantford
- 1872
- Slingsby, textiles
- 1877
- Cockshutt, ploughs, founded the year Brantford became a city
- 1891
- Massey-Harris, from the merger with Brantford roots
- 1892
- Verity, moved to Brantford
F. D. Reville’s 1920 county history ranks the export standing fourth; the modern tally, per the Canadian Industrial Heritage Centre and the Great War Centenary Association, says third. The Journal prints the stronger figure with the qualifier attached and keeps Reville’s dissent in view, because that is what a record is for.
The era’s surviving room
The Brantford Club opened on December 31, 1898, twenty-four years after the telephone was thought of in Brantford and mid-stride in the export era. The book’s endnote for opening night reads like the era’s payroll: the Honourable A. S. Hardy, then Premier of Ontario, at the head of the list, with Harry Cockshutt and Lloyd Harris among the company. Cockshutt Plow closed in 1962 and the great marques belong to the history books now, but the club that watched the era from 98 George Street still sets its tables in the same house, which makes it the era’s surviving room.
The order books closed; the dinner book did not.
Questions the record answers
Was Brantford really third in Canada?
Third in Canada by value of manufactured goods exported, behind only Toronto and Montreal, in the early 1900s, per the Canadian Industrial Heritage Centre and the Great War Centenary Association. F. D. Reville’s 1920 history says fourth, a dissent this Journal keeps in the footnote.
What companies made Brantford famous?
Waterous, building engines from 1844; Slingsby textiles from 1872; Cockshutt ploughs from 1877; Massey-Harris from the 1891 merger; and Verity ploughs, in Brantford from 1892.
What happened to Brantford’s big manufacturers?
The era ended the way industrial eras do: Cockshutt Plow closed in 1962, and Massey-Harris passed into the history books. The Brantford Club, opened in 1898 in the middle of that era, still keeps its house at 98 George Street.
Sources: the Canadian Industrial Heritage Centre and the Great War Centenary Association for the export standing; F. D. Reville, History of the County of Brant (1920), for the dissenting rank and the company histories; the Club’s centennial history for opening night and its guest list.
The city still does its business over dinner, and the room for it is described on corporate events at The Brantford Club.
