Plumber, Tinsmith at Hardware Store

“Store Hours 7 A.M. to 11 P.M.”
Plumber, Tinsmith at Hardware Store
Time as wrought many changes in Oakville’s main business district since the accompanying picture was taken, about the year 1909, but the building that housed the flourishing hardware business of James N. McGregor has altered very little with the passing years.
The premises are still occupied as a hardware store, as they have been since 1878 when the late James Kelley established a business there. His son, the late John Kelley, continued it after his father’s death, in 1893, and later sold it to Mr. McGregor, his brother in law. The Oakville Hardware ltd. has operated the business for more than twenty years at the same site.
McGregor’s was one of the leading hardware stores in Halton County when the picture was taken, and did a thriving business in farm supplies, stoves, and builder’s hardware with people of the town and surrounding countryside. The store had its own plumbing and tinsmithing department, and employed several men who later went into business for themselves in Oakville. Only about four of the figures in the group are still alive. On the extreme left is the late Wesley Kelley, who was employed in the tinsmith department. In the same department was the man beside him, Arthur Gerrard, who has been in the tinsmith business himself for many years. Eugene Ryan, chauffeur, is next in line, and on his left is the late Cecil Taylor, the store’s delivery boy.
The man with the bowler hat and the moustache is the late Fred Mollison, who worked for McGregor’s as a plumber and later went into business for himself. John Dowdle, the youth next to him, worked as a plumber’s helper, and was killed overseas in the First World War. On his left is the late Roy McGregor, the proprietor’s son. Standing in the doorway are Mrs. McGregor, Mr. McGregor, and the late Mrs. John Longstaff, then Beatrice Haddlessey.
William McPherson, with the light moustache, was a clerk in the store for 33 years. The boy on his left is Goldwin Thornton, now living in Toronto. Next to him is the late Hubert Hunt (a cousin of Hubert Hunt, 11 navy St. N.) The man wearing the dark hat is the late Samuel Pallett, a plumber. Wearing the straw hat is George Barrett, who also worked in McGregor’s plumbing department, but has had his own plumbing business for many years. William McGraney, next to Mr. Barrett, worked as a plumber’s helper. He still lives in Oakville, on McDonald Avenue. The youth on the extreme right, William Conder, lost his life overseas in the First World War.
Store hours were long in those days, recalls Miss Isabel McPherson, daughter of William McPherson, McGregor’s chief clerk, who loaned the photograph.
“The store opened at 7 o’clock in the morning” she said “It was the first store on the main street to open. My father used to leave the house at a quarter past six and would work till 11 o’clock each night, and 12 o’clock on Saturdays. In the winter time my brothers and I would only see him on Sundays. There were no weekly half-holidays for merchants in those days. It was Mr. McGregor who started the practice later.”
“My father started in the store with the late James Kelley, and worked there 33 years. Sometimes he would spend a whole day cutting glass, and never break a pane. He used to be a diamond cutter. I think just about everyone in Halton County knew my father.” Added Miss McPherson.
Mr. McGregor died in 1924. A few years after his death John Kelley, his brother in law, the former owner, operated the business, later selling it to the present owners.