The following is a re-print of a past column by former Advertiser columnist Stephen Thorning, who passed away on Feb. 23, 2015.
Some text has been updated to reflect changes since the original publication and any images used may not be the same as those that accompanied the original publication.
Geddes Street, Elora’s main downtown thoroughfare, derives its name from Andrew Geddes, one of the handful of men who guided the village through its early decades.
From 1844 until his death in 1865, Andrew Geddes served as the Crown Land Agent in Elora and involved himself in virtually every effort to boost and promote the village.
Geddes became involved with Elora in a roundabout way. He was born in Banffshire, Scotland, in 1782.
We do not know anything about his family background, but he trained as a clerk while in his teens. By 1800, he was working in Copenhagen, Denmark, in the offices of a shipping firm based in Aberdeen.
Later, Geddes worked in the Aberdeen head office of a wholesale firm, and in 1812, he was appointed the manager of the Aberdeen Lime Company. He held that position for 21 years.
At the age of 51, Andrew Geddes pulled up stakes and moved to Canada. His reasons for making a fresh start at that age, and with a family of six children to support, are not known.
He had done well in Aberdeen, and was relatively well-to-do. After spending some time in Quebec, he settled in Winterbourne, and purchased several parcels of land in the area.
Shortly after arriving in Winterbourne, Geddes made the acquaintance of David Gilkison, who passed through regularly on his way to Elora.
The eldest son of Captain William Gilkison, David took charge of Elora following his father’s death in 1833. His visits to the Geddes residence also led to romance; David Gilkison and Margaret Geddes, Andrew’s eldest daughter, were later married.
David Gilkison worked sporadically through the 1830s to make a success of Elora and the Gilkison lands in Nichol, but he was unable to do so. He more or less ceased active involvement with the village in 1839.
Geddes’ principal achievement during his first brief residence in Elora was the establishment of St. John’s Anglican Church.
Working with David Gilkison and William Reynolds, he formed a building committee in the fall of 1839, although the church was not in fact completed until 1842, and regular services did not commence for another two years.
For a few months, Andrew Geddes lived in Elora, but there was little activity or interest in land, due in part to a lingering depression. As well, Captain Gilkison’s estate still had not been settled, nor the Gilkison assets divided among his seven sons.
Late in 1839, Andrew Geddes moved to Hamilton, where he lived for five years. Though his activities there are unknown, it is probable that he worked for one of the then-prosperous Hamilton wholesale firms.
With his clerical ability and administrative experience, Geddes would have had little difficulty in finding employment.
Captain Gilkison’s youngest son, Jasper, was also working in Hamilton at the time. Both Geddes and Jasper Gilkison began to move up in Hamilton’s social circles, and eventually established friendships with men such as Colin Ferrie and Sir Allan McNab.
Through McNab’s influence, Geddes was appointed the Crown Land Agent in Elora in 1844. His income was supplemented by his appointment as postmaster, and he also acted as the representative of Gilkison interests in Elora.
Initially, Geddes had charge of all the crown lands in Wellington, Waterloo and Grey counties, but his domain was later restricted to Wellington county.
The initial sale of land in Peel, Maryborough, Minto and Luther townships was conducted from the crown land office at the corner of High and Water streets in Elora.
In 1846, there was an attempt to transfer the Crown Land Office to Guelph, which was a larger town, had the county registry office and offices of lawyers. Geddes and Jasper Gilkison had to pull all the political strings at their disposal to retain the office in Elora.
Sales of lands in Minto and Luther produced a western-style land rush in 1854. Luther was opened for sale in June of that year, and Geddes sold 6,000 acres in one week.
Minto township was opened in September of 1854, and produced a much bigger rush, due to the better quality of the land. This sale, however, would soon return to haunt Geddes.
Andrew’s eldest son, James, opened a law office in Elora in 1849. He handled the legal work for land sales by the Gilkison family, and soon began to engage in land speculations with Charles Allan, of Elora, and James Mathieson, a Hamilton businessman.
Locally, James Geddes was responsible for subdividing Lot 18, but he also had major land holdings in Winterbourne, Clifford and Mount Forest.
Meanwhile, complaints and troubles began to seethe over Andrew Geddes’s handling of the Minto lands. There were complaints that preferred treatment had been given to some people. The complaints resulted in an official inquiry in 1859.
A number of witnesses testified that various Elora merchants were able to secure claims on Minto land, which they had no intention of farming, days before the township was opened, supposedly only to legitimate settlers.
Disgruntled potential purchasers told the inquiry that when they attempted to file a claim, Andrew Geddes told them no more crown land was available in Minto, and then directed them to his son’s office, which was in the same building, separated from the Crown Land Office only by a low partition.
The inquiry, it appears, dealt rather mildly with Andrew Geddes, perhaps out of deference to his age (he was 78 at the time of the inquiry). The bulk of its wrath was reserved for James Geddes, who, the commissioners concluded, “had carefully arranged his plans for speculation.”
Within months, Andrew Geddes had managed to rescue his reputation locally, but things did not work out so well for his son.
The year 1859 was not a good one for James Geddes. The depression of the late 1850s had wrecked his ambitious plans for land speculation, leaving him with large quantities of unsaleable land purchased with borrowed money.
When the inquiry was announced, his law partner, George Drew (grandfather of the Ontario premier), deserted him and later testified against him. James Geddes declared bankruptcy shortly after the inquiry, selling his house and all his furniture.
A couple of months later he was in court, charged with forging an endorsement on a promissory note. He escaped with a “not guilty” verdict, but was soon back in court in a civil case resulting from the sale of the Minto lands. He lost, and had to pay a $300 settlement.
Following the inquiry, Andrew Geddes lived for six years, slightly embittered by the experience and the fickle nature of many of his friendships.
Nevertheless, his contributions to the village — which included financial support of various projects, the donation of land to the Methodist church, and to the village for market grounds — did not go unrecognized. All business in the village ceased for two hours during his funeral.
Following his own downfall, James Geddes moved to Mount Forest and later to Meaford, where he was able to re-establish himself. Chastened by his Elora experiences, he became a valuable citizen of that village.
Andy’s daughter, Margaret, remarried after David Gilkison’s death and eventually moved to New York state. While she lived in Toronto, however, she returned to Elora many times to perform concerts and played the organ at St. John’s church on occasion.
Elora’s cultural tradition, now enriched with the Elora Festival, can be traced back to Margaret Geddes Gilkison.
Margaret and James are commemorated by street names in Elora, on land originally subdivided by Andrew Geddes. Of Andrew’s other children, only Anne lived for any length of time in Elora.
She never married and managed the Geddes household in Elora, assisted by two servants. Following her father’s death, she went to live with her brother, James.
Andrew Geddes began his career in Elora at a time when most men are making plans for their retirement.
His activities in Elora, and those of James, exemplify the way that greed, speculation, altruism, charity and religion could be combined in the 19th century.
Apart from the unfortunate Minto affair, Andy Geddes’ career had few blemishes – certainly fewer than most men in similar positions at the time.
During his life, no one ever doubted his unselfish commitment to the future of Elora, his adopted village.
*This column was originally published in the Elora Sentinel on Aug. 31, 1993.
