Matthew Farfan

One of our regular correspondents, Jacqueline Sleeper Russell, a long-time researcher of local and family history in the Coaticook-Waterville area, has sent us the photograph seen here. The photo was taken at the machine shop of Richard Orion Hopkinson, on Depot Street in Waterville, sometime around 1900. Hopkinson is standing on the right; the other men are his employees.

Ms. Russell has also forwarded us some excerpts from an article by Ellsworth Lorimer that appeared in the September 1996 edition of The Townships Sun, in which Ellsworth related some of his memories of growing up in Waterville.

The following is an excerpt from Lorimer's article:

"The owner's precise and methodical workmanship along with his inventive abilities enabled him to design and build machines for special requirements. One of his notable products was a lifting jack with considerable mechanical advantage over the cumbersome jackscrews used until that time. The final production and marketing of this jack was taken over by the Norton enterprises of Coaticook."

In another excerpt, Lorimer described the fire that destroyed Hopkinson's business:

"It must have been during my first year at school when at one recess period we looked across to Depot Street and saw the machine shop going up in flames. We extended our fifteen minute recess somewhat to watch the firemen save the railroad station and houses nearby.

The setback of the fire didn't bring Mr. Hopkinson's career to a close for an extension at the rear of his house near Bradley Brook then served as location for a fair sized machine shop. Around this time home workshop enthusiasts realized the importance of small machines driven by 1/4 or 1/2 HP motors, and Mr. Hopkinson went into production of these table saws, lathes and mortisers with their accessories. He used rugged iron castings to reduce vibration. He could set up his metal planer to proceed automatically with its long continued rhythmic strokes, producing well machined surfaces on the castings as required. Meanwhile, he could work at his big machinist's lathe making the shafts, pulleys, and fittings. Bronze bearings were machined from bars of that material from Camerons foundry on Main St., North."



(Photo: G. Johnston / Peggy Cotgrave Collection)