William Alexander Quantz

– Biography Background Information

(Editor’s Note: This biography background is a brief summary with some pictures to go with his Memorandum. It is an ongoing project and will be updated periodically.)

WILLIAM ALEXANDER QUANTZ was born 26 Nov 1854 in Markham, Ontario, Canada, and died 18 Jun 1945. He married (1) SUSAN REMINA CLAYTON 05 Oct 1881. She was born Sep 1854, and died 03 Apr 1892 in Toronto, Ontario. He married (2) FLORENCE ELLA AMOS 13 Apr 1898. She was born 15 Aug 1869, and died 10 Jan 1959.

Children of WILLIAM QUANTZ and SUSAN CLAYTON are:

i. EDNA JANE⁹ QUANTZ, b. 05 Jul 1882; d. 22 Aug 1960; m. WILLIAM R. REID, 20 Apr 1910.

ii. CLAYTON QUANTZ, b. 08 Jul 1886.

iii. FLORENCE REMINA QUANTZ, b. 24 Mar 1892; d. 02 May 1892, Toronto, Ontario.

Children of WILLIAM QUANTZ and FLORENCE AMOS are:

iv. GORDON AMOS⁹ QUANTZ, b. 16 Mar 1901; d. 13 Oct 1967; m. (1) KATHLEEN HARRISON, 13 Jan 1945; m. (2) AUDREY LUELLA EMERY, 07 May 1958.

v. JOHN OSCAR QUANTZ, b. 10 Jun 1903; m. EILEEN GERTRUDE TAYLOR, 10 Jun 1949.

Moved to Hard Scrabble Farm, near Ballantrae, and farmed there for several years. It was very hard work clearing part of the bush and turning it into fields for gains and grazing. Eventually the farming proved unsustainable for William so in November 1890 – he sold off his equipment and livestock, leased the farm out to Philip Badgero for a term of four years and moved to Toronto on Saturday, Jan. 3, 1891. Initially they stayed at his father-in-law’s, Father Clayton, but then moved into a rental place of their own.

In February of 1893 William started working for Walker and Sons of The Golden Lion. They were a dry goods company that employed several delivery men who delivered their goods by wagon all across the city. The work days were very long but it helped take his mind off the deaths of his wife and daughter.

A card for the customers

They were located at 33 to 37 King Street (King and Colburne Streets) in Toronto.

Pictures are from the Toronto Public Library’s Virtual Library. See http://static.torontopubliclibrary.ca/da/pdfs/ndtradecardsg-goldenlion.pdf

Epworth Church

Epworth Church, situated on the corner of Yarmouth and Christie Ste., in Toronto, was erected in 1890, owing to the strenuous exertions of the Rev. Jonathan Milner. It was a plain frame, rough-cast building, seating comfortably 250 people, and was at first what would be in Anglican parlance a "chapel of ease" to Bathurst St. Church.

See: The Methodist Churches of Toronto: a history of the Methodist Denomination ... By Thomas Edward Champion

Epworth Methodist Church, Christie Street at Yarmouth Road, 1890 (telegram [Toronto], 2 August 1890, 6 t.c.) designed by GORDON & HELLIWELL. See http://dictionaryofarchitectsincanada.org/architects/view/1592

Broadway Tabernacle

Broadway Methodist Tabernacle was a prominent Methodist church in Toronto, Canada, that existed from 1872 to 1924. The congregation was originally housed in a wood chapel at the intersection of Spadina Avenue and Dundas Street, which at that time was known as St. Patrick St. It was originally named the Spadina Avenue Methodist Church. Rapid growth in the congregation saw it seek a new home, and in 1876 a larger lot was purchased at the northeast corner of Spadina and College Street. The wooden church was transported on rollers north to the new location. The old site eventually became the location of the Standard Theatre.

Broadway Tabernacle

Construction 1889

See http://www.virtualreferencelibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMDC-PICTURES-R-32&R=DC-PICTURES-R-32&searchPageType=vrl

In 1879 work began on a new brick church that would be able to seat 900. The church was also renamed Broadway Methodist Church, as at that time the wide stretch of Spadina from College to Bloor was often known as 'Broadway.' That church also became too small, and in 1887 it was almost completely demolished and replaced by a third structure. This building was designed by E.J. Lennox, the most prominent architect then practicing in Toronto. At the request of the congregation he copied the basic floor plan and design of his earlier Bond Street Congregational Church, but at a larger scale. Rather than employing the neo-Gothic style, as he had with Bond Street, Lennox designed the church in the Romanesque Revival style. The building thus had many similarities in style of the City Hall that Lennox was working on simultaneously.

The new Tabernacle opened in 1899 and became one of the major centres in the city that was sometimes dubbed the Methodist Rome. Near to the large working class population of west Toronto and the textile mills of Spadina it became an important social centre. This was especially true under the leadership of Dr. Salem Bland, one of the leading Social Gospel advocates in Canada, and who led the church from 1919 to 1923.

However, the nature of the neighbourhood was changing. New immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, most notably a large Jewish population, were moving into the working class area and the Methodist English were moving north to other neighbourhoods.

The merger of churches that created the United Church of Canada in 1924 led to the eventual closing of the Tabernacle. The building was demolished by 1930, and replaced by the four storey office building that stands on the site today.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadway_Methodist_Tabernacle - 1872 to 1924

1895 Fires

There were three major fires in Toronto in early 1895. William Quantz writes of them on page 292.

SW corner of Queen and Yonge. The Simpson building was completely destroyed.
The damaged spire of Knox Church can be seen at rear.  Photo taken March 4, 1895

See pictures and information at http://goadstoronto.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-great-toronto-fires-of-1904-and-1895.html

W.A Murray & Sons

William worked for Murray & Sons as delivery-man, maintenance worker and night-watchman.

Postcard of the W.A. Murray & Co dry goods store, 17-27 King Street East, Toronto, Canada. Source is John Chuckman Collection - Vintage Toronto Postcards, Date 1909 (Permission – Public Domain)

Jacob “Jake” Daniel Quantz

Jacob Daniel Quantz was William’s brother. Mid-way through 1895 he moved back from Kentucky and prepared to move to Alberta. William’s entries are;

Volume 3, Page 295

August 3:. I am feeling better and working quietly along. Work is not pressing now and the weather fine for driving. Friday night I went to Northcote Avenue to see Brother Jake and family. They have just come from Kentucky and are going on to Flos today.

Volume 3, Page 297

September 21:. A rather eventful week. Brother Jake was with us till Tuesday morning when he started on his journey to Alberta, N.W.T. (North West Territories).

Roads

With the assistance of Lorne Smith and Ruth Burkholder

While living on the farm (both periods) William makes regular reference to the roads whether for travel or with respect to maintenance or being blocked after a snow storm.

Owners had responsibility initially for clearing the road allowance in front of their property. In the 1800's each owner had to give an allotted time for mandated road maintenance. Snow clearance was another matter. It was a community affair--more like a community bee, not mandated. It was a necessary community effort if anyone was to get anywhere.... and those with 'equipment' ... horse and grader or blade .... would be the ones who would get out and clear a path ... shovels also helped.

Moving Back to Hard Scrabble Farm

Volume 4, Page 380, October 20

They moved from Toronto back to Hard Scrabble Farm. The old house was no longer suitable. They had to move the old house back from its original position to allow for construction of a new house. They lived in the old house while William constructed the new house. It took time and William had to work the farm at the same time as building the house.

Hard Scrabble Farm was located at Lot 26, Concession 9 of Whitchurch (northeast corner of 9^th Concession and St. John Side road – one concession north of Church Hill). It is still an operating farm today but the western part is returning to bush with trees and underbrush.

The following map shows the various fields William refers to in his memorandum. Note too that Valley grove is just to the west of the Hard Scrabble house and barn.

Lazenby’s moved into a new house in early July 1901. They were still nearby but where did they move to?

Volume 4, Page 400, Aug. 30

William Paisley helping with farm chores and harvest.

Volume 5, Page 35, August 10

Threshing

Threshing the grain crops in the late summer and fall was often also a community effort. The operator, who owned the equipment, would be hired by each farmer while the operator was in the neighbourhood. The farmers would help each other to provide the manpower to efficiently harvest the crop and bring it to the barn to run through the threshing machine.

Shocking of the Rye

This applies to wheat and oats as well. “Shocking” is also known as “Stooking” in some areas. Those of us born in the age of combines harvesting grain crops we are not used to the terms used in the harvesting process in William’s day. Usually William had to cut the grain crop using a Cradle that had a scythe blade to cut the stalks and then the cradle portion caught the cut stalk.

See: http://www.americanartifacts.com/smma/grain/cradle.htm

The website ehow.com describes the process this way; In earlier times, farmers cut grass and grain by hand using long hooked knives, or scythes. Once cut, the stalks were bundled and bound into sheaves; then the sheaves were bundled together upright to dry. These larger bundles, made up of sheaves, were called "shocks." A shock of summer wheat consisted of 12 sheaves; a shock of winter wheat or rye contained 18 sheaves. When dry, the sheaves could be threshed. The seed was collected for food, and the remaining straw, or chaff, was used to feed livestock.

See: http://www.ehow.com/about_5306045_sheaves-grain.html

Shocks or Stooks of grain

See: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stooks_of_barley_in_West_Somerset.jpg

As time progressed binders were used to cut and bind the bundle of stems into sheaves using “binder twine” string. The binder then laid the sheaf on the ground. This speeded up the process but the farmers still needed to gather the sheaves together, by hand or using their pitch-forks, into shocks or stooks depending on your local community.

See: http://chestofbooks.com/reference/Wonder-Book-Of-Knowledge/Development-Of-The-Reaper-Continued.html#.UadpxJymXIU

House in Stouffville

Volume 5, Page 100, Nov. 3, 1917

William and Flo decided to leave the farm and move into Stouffville. On page 100 William and Flo sold their farm, Valley Grove, to Mrs. Pace for $3,700.00. They started their search for a house in Stouffville and had verbally committed to one but just before Christmas 1917 that purchase fell through.

On Volume 5, Page 104, Jan. 19, 1918, they purchased a property with an old house on the south side of Main Street two houses west of the railroad tracks. They paid over of $1,500.00 for a house purchased from Mrs. Williamson. It consisted of a lot of old rambling buildings which had to be taken down and remodeled.

On Volume 5, Page 106, Mar. 16, 1918, they began their move into their new home. In mid-May they began dismantling the old house, dug a cellar, and starting with the foundations proceeded to build their new house.

On Volume 5, Page 117, Mar. 11, 1919, they moved into their new home. The address was 154 Main street West, Stouffville. They lived there until Aug. 27, 1942 when Flo sold it to Ross and Ella Ratcliffe (son of Dave Ratcliffe and Helene Farr).

This picture of the house was taken in 1943 just after William and Flo had moved away.

The picture of the back yard shows the garden that William cared for so well.

The two girls are Barbara Hotchkiss, age 10 and Carole Hotchkiss, age 7.

This picture was also taken around 1943.

The two men are standing in front of the verandah of William’s house.

The gentleman’s name on the left is Alec. The man on the right is unknown.

In Volume 7, Page 275, Dec. 27, 1924 William mentions that they named their home in Stouffville “Beth-Eden”.

This shows the house as it is today in 2013. It is now a doctor’s office.

The verandah has been closed in.

The beautiful garden area is now a parking area out of necessity.

D Prosser – Pastor at Church Hill Christian Church

Volume 4, Page 392, December 28, 1901

Many times a D. Prosser is mentioned, as in this reference, as preaching at or doing a funeral at the Church Hill Christian Church. His first name was Daniel. He was the youngest of 10 children, son of John Prosser (John the elder). John’s father emigrated from New York State to Ontario, Canada.

Daniel Prosser was born in Keswick on Mar. 21, 1846. He passed away on Nov. 4, 1929. Daniel ministered in the Newmarket area serving as an itinerant pastor much of the time. He married so many couples that he was known as “Marrying Dan”. Daniel’s older brother Elijah had a grandson (Elijah Prosser – Charles Franklin Prosser – Earle Prosser) named Earl Prosser who was a pastor in Ontario in the 1950s in the United Missionary Church denomination that some of the current Quantz family had a connection with over the years.

AW Banfield Renting William & Flo’s House

Volume 6, Page 148, May 14

William and Flo rented their house to Mrs. Banfield for the summer months while they travelled to the west coast. Mrs. Banfield was the wife of an African missionary who was returning to the Toronto – Stouffville area on furlough. She would move in the beginning of June when William and Flo left for their vacation. A church in northern Toronto called Banfield Memorial Church, part of the Evangelical Missionary Church denomination, was named after missionaries Mr. and Mrs. A. W. Banfield.

To support that this was Mrs. AW Banfield that William and Flo were renting to see page 11, paragraph 2 of a document entitled “Literature Outreach in Nigeria” – A History of SIM Literature Work by Jim Mason at http://images.sim.org/pdfs/literature-outreach-in-nigeria.pdf

William’s References To The Mennonite People

Volume 7, Page 366

Saturday night, July 19, 1930.

Have been trying to trim up my hoe crop which has suffered in my absence and doing a little more painting. I spent some time watching the operations of the Warren Company of Toronto who started breaking up Main Street preparatory to making a new pavement. The Mennonite people are having Evangelistic Meetings in the Arena led by Mr. Thomas, a Welshman, accompanied by a quintette of colored people as singers. There is a large attendance.

July 26:. Last Sunday the preaching service was taken by Van Norman from Keswick. Gordon and Eva are up from the city and all of us went to service. Monday evening’s service was the last of the Evangelistic Services. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas are both preachers and Lacey, Talbot, Jones, Hodges and Parker were the colored singers. There has been tremendous crowds at the Arena to hear them. [JQ Note: This would be the famous Cleveland Colored Quintet who sang in many camp meetings in Ontario.]

Volume 8, Page 381

Saturday night, June 13, 1931.

Volume 8, Page 382

July 25:. The Mennonites are having Special Services in the Arena this week and I have been attending them. Gordon and his girlfriend have been holidaying in Muskoka. There has been some heavy rains so we are not suffering from drought like some other places.

Volume 8, Page 447

Saturday night, December 1, 1934.

In part - Our meeting was postponed on Wednesday out of courtesy to the Mennonites who are holding evangelistic services.

Volume 8, Page 454

Saturday, July 6, 1935.

August 3:. In part; Mennonite Camp Meeting in the Park.

Volume 8, Page 483

Saturday night, April 4, 1936.

When we arrived at the church last Sunday morning we found the basement flooded and the furnace unusable, so our congregation went to the Mennonite Sunday School and Service. Sermon by Rev. Brubaker.

[JQ Note: The Mennonite Church was only two doors west of the Christian Church on the same north side of Main Street, Stouffville. This Mennonite Church was the Mennonite Brethren In Christ Church built in 1903. This Mennonite congregation later became known as the United Missionary Church and now the Evangelical Missionary Church. This congregation now meets on the 10^th Line, north of Main Street and is known as EastRidge Evangelical Missionary Church.

In researching this I spoke with three individuals at Markham Missionary Church who remember attending Evangelistic Services held in the Stouffville Arena in the years following these.

The Christian Church and the Mennonite Brethren in Christ Church seemed to have many connections attending each other’s services and even had a joint church in Altona called the “Altona Union Church” with the building erected in 1875. They worshiped side by side with a joint Sunday School for 80 years. As a side note, my uncle Rev. Don Pugh was one of the last pastors of this church.]

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