In my last Postcard Memories column, we looked at the importance of wagons in early Bradford. All transportation depended on them — whether it was going to town to shop or to church for Sunday services, transporting farm goods to market or finished industries ware to a train siding, or delivery groceries to customers.
It’s not difficult to imagine, therefore, that wagonmakers (also known as wainwrights) were among the more important craftsmen in early 19th century Bradford. These skilled artisans made and repaired all manner of wagons, carriages, and sleighs.
One of those who plied his trade in Bradford — if, tragically, only briefly — was Charles Lundy. The man has largely faded from history. If not for a newspaper advertisement from the 1860s, we may never know of this man and his contributions to Bradford.
As best we can, it’s time to bring Lundy out of the darkness and to cast light on his life.
Charles W. Lundy was born on May 27, 1830, in Whitchurch Township, the 8th of 11 children. His parents were both the children of United Empire Loyalists who came to Canada (or British North America as it was then known) in the wake of the American Revolution. Father Enos, hailing from New Jersey, was born in 1794. Enos was a cousin of William Lundy of Lundy’s Lane, Niagara Falls, fame. Mother Margaret Bostwick was two years younger. Both would outlive their son.
As a young teen, Charles apprenticed himself to a wainwright. About 1850 he set out on his own, opening a shop in Sharon.
Wagon making was a collaborative enterprise. To make wagons in any scale, a number of hands needed to be employed. Typically, a blacksmith would be associated with the wagonmaker’s shop, either working on site or adjacent, as wheels needed to be rimmed in metal and other items crafted on the forge. In smaller businesses the wainwright would keep busy with repairs through the summer months and then spend the winter months building a couple of wagons or sleighs. While we don’t know details of Lundy’s work experience, we can assume they more or less followed this pattern.
In 1852, Charles married Mary Wetherall. Her father, Lincoln Solomon Wetherall, hailed from New Jersey, too, and was a contemporary of Enos Lundy. It’s probably safe to assume the Lundy and Wetherall families had a close connection with one another prior to Charles and Mary’s wedding, and it’s therefore also probable that Charles and Mary knew each other in some capacity growing up.
In any event, the couple quickly began a family. Seemingly like clockwork, a new child would enter the world every two years: Selina in 1853, Josephine Adeline in 1856, William Horace in 1857, Charles Wilmer in 1859, George in 1861, Kathleen in 1863 and Mary Emmeline in 1865.
Bradford was growing rapidly in the 1850s so not long after marrying Charles elected to move the short distance from Sharon and set up a new shop. Lundy’s wagonmaking shop was located behind Thomas Driffill’s blacksmith shop located at 4 Holland St. (a lot now occupied by Wing’n It). Lundy and Driffill would have benefited from each other’s business.
Lundy remained in Bradford for a decade and seems to have done well.
In 1861, the family moved again, this time to Glen Allen. It was here, on April 7, 1865, Charles Lundy died. We don’t know the cause, but with baby Mary Emmeline dying five days earlier it’s likely both were struck down by the same illness.
With seven mouths to feed, Mary moved to Newmarket to be near her family and her in-laws. With their help, and earning her own way as a seamstress, she managed to raise the children on her own. She joined her husband again in 1906.
