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Chapter 8Merchants in YarmouthYarmouth was booming: “between 1874 and 1885, Yarmouth was the second largest port of registry in Canada, in terms of tonnage, second only to Saint John, New Brunswick”. Projects started before 1888 included gas street lighting, water supply, an academy, many banks and insurance companies, churches, some steamers, a few steel ships, cotton and woolen mills, telephone and telegraph, and the start of the railroad to Annapolis.  Map of Town of Yarmouth, 1889, by Curry.Ralph Harold DavisRalph Harold Davis was born February 4, 1876 at Westport, Brier Island, and his family moved to Yarmouth when he was 2 years old. Milton High School Class in 1891, with Ralph in the back row, third from the right. between: tall Cecil Killam in a bowler hat on the left, and short Percy Hood on the right. ( Ralph’s father’s cousin was married to I.W. Killam’s uncle. )  In the summer of 1892, Ralph attended regular meetings of the “Temple of Honour” at Milton, and a few meetings at the Baptist church. He and his friends played with his canoe and rowboat, both rigged for sail, and watched free shows put on by the Indians in the Kickapoo Medicine Company. In 1892, Ralph began attending Horton Academy in Wolfville. Ralph had a newsletter from a Rhode Island YMCA dated 1894, with changes in the rules of basketball with text marked: a free throw rather than a foul would now be awarded to the opposite team in the case of a foul. The Young Men’s Christian Association had been formed in Yarmouth on March 22, 1891. Ralph named his sailboat the Sherora from parts of his name and his friends’: “Sh” from Shenton Allen; “he” from Herbert Von Metzsky; “ro” from Roy Williams; and “ra” from Ralph Davis. A photo of the sailboat Sherora later hung in the “Sherora” cottage on Perry Road, Carleton, Yarmouth County. 
We leave Bathurst Saturday Aug. 10, 1893  Sunday Aug. 11, 1895 During my watch from 8 to 12 this morning a German bark hove in sight and soon we overtook her, as we came up with her he luffed up across our bows and we had to run off before the wind to avoid a collision she was named the Toni and hailed from Rostick. In the early part of the afternoon we sighted Prince Edward island on our lee bow and soon we could see the light house on East Pt. about 5 we had left it far astern at six the land of Cape breton was in sight quite-plainly. The wind all day has been fair and blowing a fine breeze by eight o’clock we sighted Cape St. george and about 9 o’clock we sighted Port Hood light. At twelve I went below. Excerpt from: A Brief Diary of Events in the life of R. H. Davis, as Second Mate on the Barkenteen Peerless, from July 15 to Sept 2/1895 In 1895, Ralph was second mate on the his father’s vessel, the barke Peerless, for two months. His father suggested, however, that he not get into shipping. Steel ships with steam engines were established and growing in the carriage trade. Instead, Ralph took Architectural Draughting at St. John Technical School. He made the working drawings from which the wheels were cast for the Burrell-Johnson Iron Foundry’s steam engine, designed by Robb Engineering and built in 1897 to run on the “log” railroad to New France. The Burrell-Johnson Iron Foundry was owned by relatives of his wife-to-be, Margaret Burrell. Ralph later taught architectural drafting at the Yarmouth Technical School two nights a week. He designed two cottages on Perry Road: the family cottage “Sherora” and one behind Perry’s. He had a paper in 1907 on renovating orchards, possibly to help his father-in-law William Burrell in Carleton. MarriageRalph and Margaret Doane Burrell were the first couple to be wed in the Baptist Church at Carleton N.S. in 1903 (Yarmouth Times). Maggy had met Ralph while living in town. She had enjoyed the Lovitt family, a fun-loving bunch who were involved in her family’s foundry. Maggy & Ralph first lived at her sister’s home on Prescott Street (W. E. Perry). In May of 1907 Ralph and family moved across the street to a house on Fairmount Street purchased for $500. from L. Beveridge. Children born to Ralph and Margaret were: Alice in 1904, Elsie in 1905, twins Samuel Bancroft (Banny) and William (Bill) Burrell in 1907, and Mary in 1914.
Maggy’s father, William John Gibson Burrell, owned a “hobby farm” at Perry Road, Carleton in the summer and worked at a foundry in Boston in the winter. William Burrell died in 1913, and his land was sold to the YMCA for a summer camp. Maggy’s brother-in-law Calvin Foote, senior, may have designed his Victoria B.C. house while recuperating from typhoid fever in Yarmouth in 1914. Another relative of Maggy’s had a store at Milton corner. The sign he erected over the store misspelled his last name, so he changed his name to “Burrill”, rather than pay for a new sign. Later, the head man of Cosmos Mills in Hamilton, ON would be another relation, Walter S. Burrell. R. H. Davis & Co, Ltd.In 1897, Sam and his sons Ralph and Oscar established R. H. Davis & Co. Ltd., on the corner of Main and Parade Streets in Yarmouth. Ralph Davis’s obituary recalled how he “in company with his brother, O. L. Davis… he founded the business, which, at present, bears his name, and in the year 1896 opened a general wholesale paper and printing plant in the premises now [1933] occupied by W. R. Rozee”. [The Yarmouth County Museum has a photo of men in front of the building.] The Yarmouth Daily News recorded that
Later, a magazine article in The Busy East recalled how
Oscar later operated another branch in Sydney.
The store sold dry goods such as ink, mucilage, wrapping paper, stationery, toilet paper, wallpaper, twine, bags, etc. Ralph sold goods from his bicycle as far away as Liverpool. They also bottled vanilla extract until Ralph discontinued the product. Waiting for a train, he had seen a poor man drinking some of his vanilla extract. Paper was imported from England by the ton, with sherora watermark. “FoolsCap” was made by drawing lines on sheets of paper with a machine. It had a canvas conveyor belt on a wooden frame, and pen nibs attached to ink wells drew lines as the sheets passed under. In the 1940’s this machine, the printing presses, and an elevator would all be driven by one large electric motor which transferred the power to overhead shafts via leather belts. They also manufactured “a 6 cent writing tablet which had the picture of a sailing yacht on the cover, and was called the Sherora tablet…”; similar to the present-day Camp Fire Note Book sold for 69 cents by the DRG Stationary Co. in Georgetown (Pelton). In 1905, the business was moved to the Sherora Building on Main Street, purchased from the Lovitt brothers. An expensive fire wall was added to the North Side, which paid off in the fire of the 1950s. 
Store Front on Main Street. R. H. Davis & Company, Limited. STATIONERS, JOB PRINTERS, PAPER DEALERS, MANUFACTURERS OF PAPER BOXES, DAVIS ESSENCES.
R. H. Davis – Front Shop; March 12, 1914.
Ralph Davis died in 1933, at 58 years old. Davis, Frank, Descendants of Ethel Davis Ralph Davis’ Time Line and Materials ( found in Mary Clulee’s Trunk )
  l-r: Bill, Capt.Sam, and Banny Davis. 1915 Descendants of Ralph Harold Davis3* Ralph Harold DAVIS, b.Westport, BriarIs. 1876, Feb. 4, d.Yarmouth 1933, Nov. 1, Married: 1903, Jun. 9, Carleton, Yarmouth Co.: Margaret Doane BURRELL, b. 1876, Oct. 10, Pembroke, Yarmouth Co., d.Yarmouth 1963, Oct. 4, Business Owner: R.H. Davis & Co.Ltd.; Architectural Technologist designed wheels N.Fr.log Railroad, built desk-shelf.
2. Alice Bethia Davis, b. 1904, Jun. 19; m. Rowley C. FRITH, florist, Acacia Ave., Ottawa; ch:
2. Elsie Cleland Davis, b.Yarmouth 1905, Dec. 16, d.Ottawa, 1986, Dec. 12, m. David MACKENZIE, Sarnia, Ont.
2* Samuel Bancroft DAVIS (See Chapter 9) 2. William Burrell Davis, 1907, Aug. 6-Mar 7, 1996, lawyer, Labour Dept, Ottawa. m. Dorothy Allen;
2. Mary Beatrice Davis, Yarmouth 1914, Dec. 5-; [ Mary Davis III, of three consecutive generations. ] m. John “Ian” Weston CLULEE, b. New Zealand,- 1990; WWII pilot, accountant, Business Manager R.H.Davis & Co.
1. Joy FRITH, m. Jim Bradley, farmer, Carp, Ont.
1. Sylvia FRITH, m. “Joe”Alan Bland,
1. Mary Jane FRITH, m. Bradford: divorced, art dealer Tuscon, Arizona, – NewHampshire,USA.
1. Ian MACKENZIE, m. Anita Walker, live at Port Hawkesbury, N.S.
1. Donna Davis, Ottawa; m. R. Allan Freeze, UBC prof; address WhiteRock, B.C., Received research funding from Izaak Walton Killam trust. Father-in-law, Bill, showed Al how the Davis family is related to I.W. Killam. ( Ethal Davis’ grand daughter married I.W. Killams’ uncle. )
1. Brenna E. FREEZE, 1990
1. William Walter Davis, b. 1945, Ottawa; m. 1965 Jessica A. QUACKENBUSH; address: Ont;
ch. Ian James Davis, b.2000,Nov.21, Toronto.
ch. 1. Bradley Andrew Davis, b.2000,Aug.11, Gatineau, QC. 1. John Davis CLULEE, B. 1944, m. Jean McEwen, Education and real Estate Calgary, business manager R.H. Davis & Co; address Yarmouth. ch. adopted:
1. Janet Burrell CLULEE, m. Bruce Duncan, farmer, Almonte, Ont.
Lineage of Margaret BurrellThe Burrell origin is possibly southern Scotland. There is a Burrell Museum in North England. 6. Henry BURRELL Sr. b. 1778, Co.Down, North Ireland; d. 1850, Apr. 9, Ireland.
5. Henry BURRELL Jr., b. 13 Jul. 1807, Co. Down, N.Ireland. d. 28 Jun. 1896, Yarmouth.
4. William John Gibson BURRELL, b. 1840, Mar. 14 Bear River, Digby Co., N. S. d. 1913, Carleton, YarmouthCo. bd.: Yarmouth Mountain Cemetery   William Burrell lived on Pond Road, in Milton, Yarmouth, and had a farm on the Perry Road, Carleton. Back step stone near road, near YMCA camp road. Worked in a foundry in Boston in the winters.
3. Margaret Doane BURRELL, b. 10 Oct. 1876, Pembroke, Yarmouth Co. N.S. d. 3 Oct. 1963, Yarmouth, N.S., bd.Yarmouth Mountain Cemetery; m. 1903, Jun. 9 Carleton, Baptist Church, Yarmouth Co., N.S.. Ralph Harold DAVIS, b. 4 Feb. 1876, Westport, Briar Island, d. 1933 (For children, see Ralph Harold Davis) |
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Hobby Farm House
twins: Banny & Burrell
Left to Right= Alice, Bill, Maggy, Ralph, Mary, Elsie & Banny Davis, at home 24 James Street, Yarmouth, NS. ~ 1930.
Burrell sisters: left to Right: Caribel (l), Jane (top), and Margaret ( r ).