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The Work of Our Hands County voters supported, but which tavern keepers sabotaged by handing out free drinks on election day to get out the Conservative vote. Over 100 charges were laid, a riot ensued, and the mob drove the detectives out of town. Hardy cleverly defused the situation by offering plea-bargains, satisfied that he had demonstrated his ability to use the machinery of government for partisan advantage. In his quest to achieve greater representation for his local area at all levels of government, Hardy pressed Laurier to appoint local MP William Patterson for South Brant to cabinet as Minister of Customs. This appointment of a successful businessman to this post (Patterson had a successful candy factory in Brantford) symbolised the Liberal Party's move away from its traditional support for the free trade doctrine. It also helped win the support of the country's businessmen, and the Liberal Party therefore emerged as a genuine second party on the national political stage. After only one term as premier, Hardy retired from office in 1899 due to ill health. Sadly he died two years later at age 65. He represented his fellow residents in Mount Pleasant and Brant County with a sensitivity to the issues that mattered to the people who helped keep him in office. The unusual architecture of the old Nelles Academy, that helped mould leaders such as Hardy, and the village's other octagonal buildings continued to attract the interest and curiosity of onlookers. Grey Gables, described in the Globe and Mail as "this queerish architectural gem...near Brantford, the strangest house I ever had seen," captured the imagination of many. After the death of its builder, Richard Tennant in 1878 at the age of 53, his widow Caroline sold it to Colonel James Knight Goold. Goold, an officer in the British army, noticed the octagonal home when visiting his family in nearby Brantford. He became so attached to the quaint house and the surrounding scenic view that he bought it from Caroline, treasuring it through its "lovely maturity." Goold would have been a familiar figure to passers-by with his long white beard and a blanket over his knees as he sat outside on the piazza on warm days. His dignified presence and loving attention to his special adopted home contributed to the air of graciousness in Mount Pleasant that had begun decades before. Col. Goold's son Albert carried on the Goold