John Wissler and the Irvine River flour mills

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.

When Sem Wissler died in 1865, he left five sons: John, Ezra, Levi, Henry and Sem. All would play a role in the development of Salem, to a greater or lesser degree. 

John R. Wissler took over the family businesses on his father’s death, and struggled to keep them afloat. John also became involved in other enterprises in Elora. First elected at the age of 23, he served over 50 years in public life as a councillor, reeve of Nichol township and eventually clerk-treasurer of the township.

With his younger brother, Ezra, John operated as J.&E. Wissler and Co. Their general store became the core of their business, under the day-to-day management of Ezra. John Wissler succeeded his father as postmaster at Salem, holding the position until 1923, but the actual work was performed by Ezra and the clerks in the store. For the rest of his life, Ezra played the role of partner, assistant and sidekick to his brother. 

The Irvine Mills far eclipsed the store in terms of business volume, and also presented the brothers with more business problems. The largest of these was working capital. Millers had initially ground flour for farmers for a share of the product, but by the late 1860s the business was conducted on a cash basis. Everyone in the system attempted to play the markets to some extent. As a consequence, mills often held large inventories of both grain and flour, tying up large quantities of working capital.

Flour production at the Irvine Mills peaked at about 12,000 barrels (each containing 196 pounds) annually in the late 1860s. The market value exceeded $75,000, equivalent to between three and four million dollars in 1992 dollars. This was big business, beyond the Wisslers’ capacity to finance adequately.

With small margins and large volumes, there was always a danger of financial ruin in the flour and grain market. John Wissler hired C.B. Lowe as a grain buyer and manager at the mill. Then, in 1869, he leased the mill to Charles Whitelaw, of Paris. Whitelaw was already a large player in the Ontario flour market. He set up what amounted to a branch operation in the Elora area, leasing the Irvine Mills and J.M. Fraser’s Elora Mills, with a grain-buying office on Mill Street, under the management of A.W. Gray.

In 1871, Whitelaw began importing western wheat from Minnesota to be ground at the Irvine Mills. He soon ran into problems of his own, though, and had to scale down operations in 1874, when he ceased activity in the Elora area. He did not renew his lease of the Irvine Mills. Whitelaw was succeeded at Irvine Mills by Archibald Gray. The Irvine River never had provided a reliable flow of water for the mill, and Gray immediately installed a steam engine. Gray paid more attention to the local market than Whitelaw, producing pot barley and oatmeal.

Gray lasted only three years at the Irvine Mills. In 1877, John Wissler again took charge, installing a new 45-horsepower Goldie and McCullough steam engine. More astute than the other Elora area millers, Wissler recognized that western wheat would soon dominate the flour business, and realized that easy rail access would be a necessity for all flour mills. He campaigned to have the Credit Valley Railway extended to Salem or, alternatively, to have the line construct a siding from Elora to his mill.

In 1882, John Wissler installed equipment for the roller process of flour making, replacing the stone grinding wheels. This was the first mill in the Elora area to adopt the new process, which was more efficient and provided a higher quality product. Supported by a $10,000 line of operating credit with the Merchants Bank, Wissler continued to produce flour through the 1880s, but the business was not profitable.

The conversion to the roller process had been costly, and competition from larger, more efficient mills squeezed the profit margin. As well, he had to pay the costs of transporting grain and flour to and from the railway stations. In 1895, he threw in the towel, and closed the flour-milling operation.

Wissler reopened the mill in 1896 as a chopping mill, producing cattle feed. Run down and in disrepair, Wissler’s mill produced chop sporadically through the late 1890s. After 1900, the mill seems to have been idle. In 1914, John Wissler sold the timber and lumber in the interior of the mill to James Russell of Fergus. The shell of the old mill remained a local landmark until Hugh Drew-Brook purchased the property, and used what remained of the walls for a residence.

In addition to his businesses in Salem, John Wissler held shares in the Potter foundry property in Elora, and acted as a manager of the business in the 1880s. In the end, and despite his abilities as a businessman, his career was not a success.

In 1917, he moved to the Commercial Hotel in Elora, which was owned by his nephew, T.Q. Biggar, and worked as a bartender, in addition to fulfilling his duties as clerk of Nichol township.

Always a popular man personally, he became known as Uncle Jack. John Wissler died in 1923 at the age of 79.

*This column was originally published in the Elora Sentinel on Oct. 6, 1992.