ALL THINGS CONSIDERED

 By Deane Van Luven (Kingston Whig Standard, JAN 16, 1963) Transcribed by Ken Menard 2005

GARDEN ISLAND, a peaceful haven for a small summer colony, a mile or so from Kingston, gives little indication today that it once was a family “empire”, throbbing with industry.

This is where the far-flung Calvin lumber and forwarding and ship-building business nourished for over a century. However, the firm actually began business on Wolfe Island, in 1826.

The first Kingston Calvin bought half of Garden Island a few years later. The expansion was rapid from then on.

D. D. Calvin, the founder, came here from Vermont and soon found it was profitable to ship huge squared logs of timber down the St. Lawrence River to the bustling Quebec market

The big logs were tied to­gether as rafts -some or them, in later years, a quarter of a mile in length and 120 feet wide - for the long, risky journey through the rapids.

There were no canals, at first, or lighthouses or other conveniences of today. Huge crews of French-Canadian rivermen and some Indians manned the rafts.

J. D. CALVIN, the grandson of the founder of the Calvin firm, last evening described many of his family’s experi­ences of rafting and shipping as he spoke before the Kingston Historical Society, in the city council chambers. His audience was spell­bound, and enjoyed moments of amusement, too.

It was “hard going”, at first, for the infant industry. Mr. Calvin intimated. When the rafts reached their destination, grandfather Calvin pocketed his profit left over after paying off the rivermen, but usually it wasn’t enough to finance the next few months’ work.

This difficultly was partly overcome by obtaining advances in cash, against the next trip downriver, from merchants eager for the Gar­den Island logs, grandson Cal­vin explained.

WITH AMAZING rapidity, the Calvin business grew, and expanded into various side­lines.

From rafting logs for him­self, the first Calvin became a forwarder for other lumber­men, receiving fees for tak­ing their logs downriver.

Soon, he branched out into building schooners. In the first one, a new idea of a port or “hatch” in the stem of the vessel was built. This allow­ed easy loading and unloading of the logs, which could not be handled through the customary hatches on a ship’s deck.

Horses were used to load· and unload, Mr. Calvin ex­plained. A team of horses us­ually spent a whole summer aboard ship for this work.

Before long, tugs and steam barges were being built, too, on Garden Island. The ship­yard expanded, and machine shops, saw mills, repair shops and other subsidiary work­shops were built.

AT THE HEIGHT of Garden Island’s prosperity, there were between 700 and 800 people living there, all connected in some way with the Calvin business.

They had their own school­house, department store for food and supplies, a big bakery and a slaughterhouse for fresh meat, a church and pub­lic library. One of the big prob­lems was to keep up a suf­ficient supply of firewood for the homes, as well as the in­dustry itself. Most of the rivermen lived in a large boarding­house.

Whenever a new ship was completed after months of work, the launching always signaled a general holiday for the workmen and the women and children.

On that day once the launching was done, the men did no more work for the rest of “launching day,” Mr. Calvin recalled, it was a picnic for every Garden Islander.

THE DEMAND for top qual­ity oak and pine that spurred D. D. Calvin, in the 1820s, to build a huge lumbering, forwarding and shipbuilding in­dustry on Garden Island came from the British Admiralty.

Napoleon’s decrees of 1806 had blocked the Royal Navy’s source of timber for oak ships and pine masts from Russia. So the St. Lawrence valley timber, not so close but just as suitable, became important.

Calvin’s first “deal” brought a profit of $610, and that convinced him of the possibilities.

WHEN HE had moved to Garden Island, he retained a rafting business at Clayton, where he bad started. He became a British subject in 1845.

Garden Island became a separate municipality for many years, and Mr. Calvin was the perennial reeve. As a mem­ber of Frontenac County Council, he was warden four times. He also served two terms in the Ontario legislature.

On the Island he was virtually the monarch of all he sur­veyed, although not a harsh one. But he didn’t like anyone telling him what should be done.

For instance, he never bought fire or damage insurance for any of his ships.

“Why pay money to those fellows?” he once exclaimed. “If necessary, I can afford to lose one ship a year and still have money.”

ON GARDEN ISLAND, in the Calvin heyday, there was no liquor sold. But an ambitious ship’s captain one day insisted on docking at the Cal­vin wharf, at noontime when the men were idle, and his ship had a well-stocked bar.

Mr. Calvin became furious and warned the ship’s master not to return. The island “governor” threatened to cut the ship’s lines If she docked again. The captain retorted that, he, in return, would shoot Calvin.

A few days later the ship clocked again. Calvin rushed down and swung an axe to cut the lines, and the captain brandished his gun.

But he didn’t shoot. The “governor” had won another battle!

ON TWO OCCASIONS at least, the Garden Island resi­dents showed a bit more en­terprise than their “city” friends in Kingston.

One of these events was when the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) stopped briefly at Kingston, while touring on the S.S. Kingston in 1860.

All the children of the Is­land were taken to Kingston on the tug “Hercules” and at the dockside they sang welcoming songs to the Prince. It was the only welcome (the Is­landers claim) that His Royal Highness received here.

In 1910, the cupola of Kingston’s City Hill caught fire when a tinsmith, doing a re­pair job, accidentally started a blaze up there.

    The smoke was noticed at Garden Island, and some of the Workmen suggested help should be sent to the city.

“Nonsense,” said Mr. Calvin. (His son, J. D. was telling the story to members of the Kings­ton Historical Society Tuesday night.)

“Why, the fire department is right next door,” the head of the firm went on. “They’ll have it out in no time.”

BUT AFTER the smoke rolled higher, Mr. Calvin relented; He sent a tug, loaded with men and hose. The tug reach­ed the wharf, and the Island­ers swarmed ashore, dragging their hose.

As the men at the nozzle reached the base of City Hall, the city firemen had just erected their long ladders to the cupola.

So the Islanders kept right on, up the ladder, and soon put out the fire. That’s the story, believe it or not!

The Calvin men, anyway, figured it had been a good day!