Beatty & Sons rose from forging farm tools to building boats
At the dawn of the 20th century, Welland was fast becoming a bustling municipality, with plenty of opportunities for development and a fresh start tempting many a budding tradesman.
In this uncertain but exciting time when fortunes were made or broken, when businesses rose, thrived or fell, all it took to enter the ring was a family name and a skill.
The success of Beatty & Sons Foundry and Machine Shop is a prime example.
The company’s beginnings stretch back to Matthew Beatty, an Irish-born machinist and marine engineer, who bought an acre of land between Seeley and North Main streets in 1862 from Amos Lee Haun, and opened a small foundry.
At 102 North Main — now Niagara Street — it operated as Matthew Beatty, Foundry and Machine Shop, primarily manufacturing items such as agricultural equipment, steam engines, castings and other tools.
With construction of the third Welland Canal circa 1870, a sudden need for dredging machines allowed Beatty to expand his business further, and the first all-steel dredger in Ontario, the City of Toronto, had its machine components produced at M. Beatty in 1886. Initially employing 60 to 100 skilled mechanics at the beginning of the venture, Beatty’s company was considered to be one of Welland’s leading industries and employers by the late 1800s.
Beatty’s business was incorporated about 1901, and by next year the inventory expanded to include steam-powered dredges, derricks, shovels, steam and horsepower hoist engines, and even centrifugal pumps for mining.
In 1905, the company relocated to a bigger and newer facility on Lincoln Street, on the east bank of the Welland Canal, in order to be more accessible for shipping by both canal and railway, with a half-mile of track connecting the factory to the Grand Trunk Railway. The Lincoln Street location consisted of eight buildings, housing a machine shop and woodworking area, a storage for castings, an offices and design room building, and a one-storey foundry.
The North Main location contained a storage and paint shop, a smithy, a pattern house, a general utilities building and a shop specifically dedicated to the manufacture of steel dredge hulls and boilers. Inside, the shops were equipped with most modern machinery and tools for manufacture and repair: the machine shop had lathes, planers, drills, shapers and keyseaters, the foundry had a crane with a lift capacity of several tons, and the blacksmith shop was equipped with a steam hammer. Power for the entire smithing facility was provided by a 25-horsepower steam engine.
As the company continued to prosper, Beatty was joined by sons William, Harvey and Alvin, forming the eponymous Beatty & Sons in 1907.
Ten years later in 1917, the North Main facility was leased by the British American Shipbuilding
Co., under wartime contract to the Imperial Munitions Board and the Canadian Government Merchant Marine, to manufacture ships and ship parts.
After British American closed in 1918, the shop was bought by E.J. Anderson and Wilbert McIntyre, who used it to found Welland Iron and Brass. The Lincoln Street location was bought by Canadian Mead Morrison Co. in 1920, and sold again to Welmet in 1960 as various industrial mergers and transformations took their place.
Sadly, no trace of the original structures remains today. Welland Iron and Brass was damaged by fire, and the buildings were demolished five years after the company was closed along with Welmet in 1984.
The only reminders we get of these adventurous times in industry is a family name, and the lasting evidence of skill in the relics that are left behind.
All information is courtesy of Welland Public Library and Welland Museum Archive.