Ironworker died from Lock 2 fall after losing balance
Joseph August Stahl was born on Dec. 22, 1863, in Peoria, Ill. He was a first-generation, American-born son of immigrant parents.
His father, Jakob Stahl, was an immigrant from Germany who ultimately settled in Peoria where he died in 1906. In the years just before his death he had been a resident of the St. Joseph’s Home for the Aged in Peoria. Joseph’s mother was Johanna Kowalcavki, born in 1832 in The Netherlands. She predeceased Jakob in 1885.
Joseph August Stahl left Peoria shortly after his mother’s death and moved first to Buffalo, N.Y., and later to Cleveland, Ohio.
On April 14, 1892, while living in Cleveland, Stahl married Martha Ann Castine (or Castoline) (maiden
surname Hamilton), the widow of James Castine (or Castoline).
Jakob and Martha Ann had six children: Joseph Allan, Evelyn, Minerva May, Katherine, Margaret and Mildred Joanne. The eldest two children died at eight years and 17 months of age, respectively. Martha also had a child from her first marriage, Sophia, born in 1888. Sophia appears to have been cared for by Martha’s parents — at least, she was living with them at the time of the 1900 U.S. census.
Joseph Stahl was employed as a boilermaker and the family remained in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) for more than 20 years. (They were recorded there in the 1900 and 1910 U.S. censuses.)
According to a border crossing document, on July 17, 1914, Joseph Stahl, describing himself as an ironworker living in Cleveland, crossed into Canada at Niagara Falls. He said that he was travelling to Hamilton. (One family member believes that Joseph had to leave Cleveland for Canada to avoid a lawsuit after the accidental death of a co-worker with whom it was alleged he had been drinking on the job at Variety Iron Works in Cleveland.)
This was not, however, Stahl’s first trip to Canada. Two years previously, again listed as an ironworker, he had travelled to Canada, headed to Welland. And, two months after that Welland trip, in July 1912 he landed in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. He seems to have been going to places with a base of heavy industry, perhaps in search of work.
On Nov. 1, 1914, Stahl was followed to Canada by his wife and four daughters. She said they were heading to Thorold to reunite with her husband, who had relocated there. There they lived in a house on Welland Street North. At the time of the 1921 Canadian census, Stahl was still living in Thorold, and again identified himself as an ironworker.
In 1922, Stahl and his three youngest daughters were granted their Canadian citizenship. By this time his daughter Minerva had already married and was living back in the United States. It is not known why his spouse was not included on the application for naturalization.
On the afternoon of Tuesday, June 4, 1929, Stahl was working on a lock gate at Lock 2 of the new Welland Ship Canal. By this time he had been working for Steel Gates Co. on the canal for a year and a half.
An official report of his accident by engineer-in-charge Alex Grant to the chief engineer, Col. ArthurÉdouard Dubuc, Department of Railways and Canals in Ottawa, dated June 10, 1929, stated that “Stall [Stahl] was standing on a staging [scaffolding] about 60 feet from the lock floor, adjusting some tackle, when he lost his balance and fell to another staging about 55 feet below.”
Accounts in the local newspapers reported that Stahl was rushed to St. Catharines General Hospital for treatment. He died two days later, on Thursday, June 6, without regaining consciousness. The death registry information, provided by Dr. D.V. Currey of St. Catharines, attributed his death to a fractured skull resulting from an accidental fall from a lock gate. Stahl’s funeral was arranged by the Williams funeral parlour in Thorold. A requiem mass was said by Rev. Father Staley at the Church of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary in Thorold, after which Stahl was buried in Thorold’s Lakeview Cemetery. His widow Martha Ann was buried next to him upon her death in 1940 (she died in North Tonawanda, N.Y., where she had been living with her daughter Minnie). The Stahl grave plot also contains the remains of their daughter Mildred, who died of tuberculosis in 1926. She was only 15 years old.
— This article is part of a series remembering the men whose lives were lost in the construction of the Welland Ship Canal. A memorial to honour the men was unveiled in November. The Welland Canal Fallen Workers Memorial is at Lock 3 next to St. Catharines Museum and Welland Canals Centre. To learn more visit www.stcatharines.ca/canalworkersmemorial.