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Background about Octavius L. Hicks.

As documented on other pages of this section of the website, it has been fairly conclusively concluded that Dora was built by Octavius L. Hicks. I felt it worthy of the man to provide some background about him and his canoe building and livery businesses, as well as his many other (more famous) endeavours. I hope you will find it an engaging story despite the length. Many thanks are owed to members of the Hicks family who have communicated with me and provided historical and contextual information. It started in 2006 with John Hicks, grandson of O.L.'s first son William Hicks. He proved a reliable contact and source for pictures, historical background, and additional family contacts.

The content of this long section of the website is broken into several parts:

Introducing OL Hicks.

OCTAVIUS LAING HICKS was born January 27, 1852 in Broughty Ferry, Monifieth Parish, Angus County, Scotland. He died December 22, 1930 at his home on Lakeshore Road, Humber Bay, York County, Ontario. He is buried in Christ Church Cemetery, Mimico.

His first marriage was to HANNAH TAVERNER on February 06, 1874 in Bond Street Baptist Church, Yorkville, York County, Ontario. She was born January 15, 1851 in Yorkville, York County, Ontario, and died April 18, 1905 in Humber Bay, York County, Ontario. His second marriage was to MARY NURSE, the widow of his good friend Charlie Nurse, on September 20, 1906 in Carleton, Carleton County, Ontario. She also pre-deceased him.

The 1911 Census of Canada records that Octavius immigrated to Canada from England in 1872.  Family records state that he worked for his brother Thomas (who was married to Elizabeth Taverner) for 1 or 2 years before starting in business for himself in Toronto, then moved to Humber Bay.

Octavius and Hannah had 10 children: William John, Harry George, Alfred Taverner, Frederick Joseph, Ernest Lyell, Frank Herbert, Septimus Herbert, Octavius (who died in infancy), Hannah Octavia and Norman Weston.

Here is a brief summary of the man according to an 1885 publication (History of Toronto and York County, Volume II, Page 254, C. Blackett Robinson Publisher, 1885):

Octavius L. Hicks, hotel proprietor, Mimico, was born near Dundee Scotland, in 1852, and came to America in 1871 ; after spending one year in the United States, he came to Canada and located for short time in Hamilton, eventually taking up residence in Toronto, Where he carried on business as contractor and builder for about two years. In 1873 he removed to the mouth of the Humber and commenced the business he had formerly followed in England (boat building), which he still continues in conjunction with his hotel business. His house , " The Royal Oak ," has excellent accommodation for excursionists, pleasure and picnic parties, and contains a large room suitable for balls banquets, etc. He has a large variety of pleasure boats and yachts to order. He is the inventor and patentee of the roller sliding-seats for racing boats, similar to those used by Mr. Hanlan. Mr Hicks has been instrumental in saving the lives of five persons on four different occasions, having rescued two persons at one time. He also formed one of the company who started the Annie Craig steamboat running daily in the season between the Humber and the city. He was married in 1874 to Hannah Taverner, by whom he has five children, all boys.

O. L. Hicks and boating.

Before O. L. Hicks established his busineses on the Humber River, he is believed to have erected the first boathouse in the Sunnyside area. This area was to eventually become the focal point of the Toronto and area boating communty for many years. (For a perspective on the history of boating in Toronto, at the WCHA Assembly in 2021 a presentaion was delivered on this topic. It includes information on O. L. Hicks and Dora. The video is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQrRWXLgCa4).

John Hicks is the grandson of William (Bill) Hicks who operated the livery at the Wanita (see below) on behalf of O. L. Hicks. He has been researching the background of O. L. Hicks and his boat building endeavours. He recounts a portion of his research thus:

"The attached photograph of a boathouse has for years puzzled me. I had no idea where it was, I knew it was not the Humber.

I was once again looking through Mike Filey's book "I Remember Sunnyside" and on page 47 there is a photograph of the old Sunnyside crossing looking West. In the photograph there are a number of boathouses. I went online to the Toronto Archives and found other photographs that allowed me to locate the boathouse picture I have attached. I identified it by its roof. I began to look for other archival photographs of the Sunnyside crossing.

In the attached photograph you can see a chimney and roof line above the boathouse. I matched it to the Scared Heart Orphanage which was at Sunnyside. Plus if you look were to look at page 42 of "I Remember Sunnyside" you will see a building in the background with a square tower. You can see the same square tower on the left hand side of the attached  photograph.

I determined from the archives this was the boathouse that belonged to I N Devins. So I assumed my great grandfather had a picture of an early competitor's boathouse.

Last February [2024] I came across an article from the October 6th, 1911 edition of the Toronto Star. The article was on the demolition of the boathouses west of the Sunnyside crossing. In the article it states that O. L. Hicks opened the very first boathouse at Sunnyside and sold it to I N Devins and then went out to the Humber.
 
I did not know this. I assume this picture was taken when it still belonged to O L Hicks.

So we can add another boat house to those built by O L Hicks."

When Octavius moved to the Humber River area, he operated a boathouse cica 1873, the first of many. Here is the history of that era in John Hicks' words and pictures.

"The first boat house set up by my great-grandfather, Octavius Laing Hicks, was on the west bank of the Humber River between the Lakeshore Road bridge and the Grand Trunk Railway bridge. I believe that some of the stone from the GTR abutment can still be seen today on the east bank of the river. If you zoom in on the first attached photo you will see Hicks' Humber Hotel directly behind the boathouse.

"The second boathouse was directly across the river on the Toronto side. Again between the Lakeshore Bridge and GTR bridge.

"The final boathouse was back to the west side but now south of the Lakeshore Road Bridge. This had been the original location of the Nurse Boathouse.

"In the fourth picture you can see the two bridges. The back of the building on the right is the second Hicks boathouse and the Nurse Boathouse on the left will become the third location for the Hicks boathouse at the mouth of the Humber.

"The Old Mill location was in addition to boathouses at the mouth of the river. They gave it up due to low water levels. The attached picture of the Mill is from the Toronto Public Library collection.

"The last boathouse at the mouth was torn down in 1931 to make room for the new concrete Lakeshore bridge."

Sharing this information on the internet brought in some unexpected relationships. Ken Maxwell connected with John Hicks through this website. He wrote (August 2014):

"My, the memories that come flooding back as I read about canoeing on the Humber.

"The pictures are terrific, I plan on printing them out along with your letter.

"There are a few books about Etobicoke early years also telling about the mouth of the Humber.
But I never could get information about the first exact locations of the boat liveries.

"Being a teenager your mom and dad didn't have too much time for me but I did tie up and buy a pop for Erla and I many a Sunday afternoon at the location which is now T.H.Y.C [The Humber Yacht Club].

"Your picture of the boat house at the Old Mill site is the first I have ever seen.

"I do remember also buying a hot dog from "Ma Hicks" under the big old Weeping Willow tree just outside the old wooden Port Credit Yacht Club behind the post office building.. I belonged there with a sailboat from 1950 - 1970.

"I would be most interested in seeing any pictures you can send me. Thank you so much."

John wrote back to Ken:

"I have no memory of my grandfather as I was four years old when he died and I was born and raised in Northern Ontario. I do remember Ma Hicks (Lena) as she did come and visit us once in North Bay.

"I did not realize that you yourself had boyhood memories of the Humber. These next set of photographs should be more familiar to you.

"I also learned from you that Ma Hicks had a hot dog stand near the Port Credit Club. I did not know this.

"I will be sending you more clippings when I locate them today."

John included in his communication some photos of the Hicks Boat and Canoe Livery known as The Wanita.

The Wanita.

John Hicks also provided some other tidbits of information relevant to my research. For instance:

"I did contact Nellie Bloor, my father's step sister. She lived at the Wantia on the banks of the Humber from 1937 to the mid fifties. I am sure it was from the Wantia that your father in law purchased the boat. It was from the Wantia that my grandfather ran his small rental business.

"Nellie told me all the torpedo designed canoes that my grandfather rented were Hicks built.She also said that the traditional canoe designs they rented were Peterborough built. Nellie has a great memory.

"She could name the two Longitudinal Cedar Strip canoes made by Peterborough. She told one exists and is her son's back yard. She told me there was another one called the Ann. Nellie had no idea that I had the Ann.  When the Wantia was closed my step grandmother sent the Ann to my father thinking he would appreciate it because it had my mother's name. What my father really wanted was one of the Hicks built canoes."

John also provided some pictures of the Wanita. He noted: "I have been trying to date that picture. It was taken by the Star. I am sure there is the actual newspaper clipping someplace but so far I have not been able to locate it. It could have been this location that the Dora was sold from."





He later came up with an earlier picture which was of the original Wanita. He said, "I found a negative yesterday which is a picture of the Wanita with the original Wanita Tea Garden sign."


John also provided a clipping (part 1 and part 2) of a story in the July 27, 1951 edition of the Toronto Globe and Mail. It recounted their hosting three British tars who came to visit for a weekend and ending up staying for over 17 weeks.

Not only canoes.

Hicks did not construct just canoes. There were other types of boats in his rental fleet. In 2014, John Hicks provided some information about one of these in a Toronto museum.

"I received a picture today from museum services in Toronto of a boat owned by John Howard, his estate is now High Park, the boat was built by O L Hicks.

"It is not a canoe but I thought you might still be interested. It was a boat builder named Peter Code who told me years ago that this boat was in existence at Colborne Lodge in High Park.
When I saw the picture it reminded me of another boat named Valiant. The picture of Valiant was in an album that had belonged to O L Hicks. I always assumed he must have built it.
The person who sent me the picture of John Howard's boat, now in storage, also sent me the data file associated with the boat."
 
The data file says:
This boat was constructed by Octavius L. Hicks, who operated a boat building shop and livery operation on the Humber River [in Toronto] at the end of the nineteenth century.  This building is illustrated in Frederick Arthur Verner's watercolour "Lakeshore Bridge", (MTL T12719) published in Toronto In Art (Toronto: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1983, p. 61). Hicks' name is stamped into the inside face of the transom.
 
The boat is very interesting in rig and model.  At some point, the lapstrake planking was covered on the outside with painted canvas, fastened at the keel and gunwales.  In plan, the boat is 18th century in shape, with a full bow and the maximum beam well forward of midships.  The quality of detailing is high, particularly in the shaping of the sternsheets.  The boat is equipped with a short mast and a "standing sprit".  That is, the heel of the sprit is permanently fastened to the mast with a screw eye arrangement just above the partners, rather than the more usual arrangement of suspension with a rope snotter.  A sheave at the mast head evidently took the halyard.  Extensive diaries written by John George Howard survive, and frequently mention boating activity on Grenadier Pond and Lake Ontario.  Overall, it is a burdensome, well-made small boat, with some design characteristics which would bear further examination."
Date:  1875-1890
Dimensions:   13 ft 11 1/2 in x 5 ft 1 in
[From catalogue file, notes by John Summers, Curator]

John Howard's boat is shown in the image below:


This is a photo of Valiant built by O L Hicks.

John Hicks finished his note by saying, "I know nothing about boats but they seem to be of a similar design."

John also uncovered information about a rowing shell made by O. L. Hicks.

Hello to all,
Below is a link to an article on Octavius Laing Hicks that appeared last week in the August 22nd edition of the Etobicoke Guardian.
It is a brief article on O L's bridge building career. Please share it with anyone who you think may be interested.
http://www.insidetoronto.com/news-story/4774183-etobicoke-history-corner-humber-bay-s-octavius-laing-hicks-was-a-master-bridge-builder/

I am also attaching three photos taken in 1973 at the Marine Museum that use to be in the Stanley Barracks on the CNE grounds. The pictures are of a rowing shell that was built by O L Hicks. I have also list the museum notes below. This boat is in the Toronto Museum Service's storage.

Practice wherry, by Octavius Hicks, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, circa 1875.  Made of lapstrake construction with shallow, light weight, skimming dish model hull and oarlocks to each hull (1973.3.10).  Equipped with a sliding seat (1973.3.9).
 
"ONE RACING SHELL  //  -made of wood.  Both bow and stern are the same shape.  The sides are concentric.  Inside the bottom of the boat, the following letters are stamped on the keel at the bow, "O. L. HICKS".
MEASUREMENTS:
approximate length from the stern to the bow - 16', 3" (495.30 cm); width from oarlock to oarlock - 46 11/16" (118.6 cm); height - 12" (30.5 cm)..
..History:  May have been used by Ned Hanlan to train in."
Label attached to catalogue card reads: "EARLY RACING SHELL WITH SLIDING SEAT  //  Built by the late O. L. Hicks  //  Loaned by his Grandson  //  Lorne W. Hicks of North Bay  //  This shell was used as recently as 1937 by Bobby Pierce  //  a "Diamond Sculls" winner,  //  to train young oarsmen."
[From catalogue card (small).]
 
"According to local custom, based on information from the builder's grandson, this boat is known as a "practice wherry".  This despite its lack of resemblance to any known wherry model, and likely illustrates a generic use of the term similar to what is often done with "skiff".  The boat is of lightweight lapstrake construction, with an extremely shallow, skimming dish model hull.  There are raised wooden blocks on each gunwale to take oarlocks.  Fore and aft of these are pairs of bolt holes which could have served at some point to attached riggers.  It is equipped with a sliding seat [1973.3.9] and a simple plank foot-shaped stretcher.  It was constructed by Octavius L. Hicks, who operated a boat building shop and livery operation on the Humber River at the end of the nineteenth century.  This building is illustrated in Frederick Arthur Verner's watercolour "Lakeshore Bridge", (MTL T12719) published in Toronto In Art (Toronto: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1983, p. 61).
[From catalogue file.  Written by John Summers, Curator, Marine Museum of Upper Canada.]

Family photos and stories.

In 2008, John Hicks provided some additional information about his ancestors. He wrote:
"I have a small photo album with snap shots that belonged to O.L. Hicks.

"One snap shot is of my grandfather's house. William John Hicks, which was directly across Lakeshore Road from O. L.'s house.

"There is a second faded photograph taken from William's yard. For the first time today I noticed something in the background. It appears to be a pile of boats. One looks like a canoe of sorts.
You can just make out the board batten wall of a building behind the shed. This is where the boat building took place."

The "pile of boats" John mentioned look to be the canoe forms upon which canoes and boats were built. What a sad thing to see.


This is a photo of O L Hicks and his second wife Mary, the widow of Charles Nurse, in a canoe. She died in 1924 so that helps date the picture.


This is a photo of O. L. Hicks in 1920:


There is also a Wikipedia article which provides additional background and photos.

News stories following his death provide extensive background.

                             HUMBER BAY PIONEER DEAD AT AGE OF 78

              O. L. Hicks, Boat-Builder, Also Built First Concrete Bridge in Canada

     The builder of the first all-concrete bridge in Canada and the first electric railway from Sunnyside to Mimico, Octavius Laing Hicks, 99 Lake Shore Rd, Humber Bay District pioneer, and who, for 60 years, conducted a boatbuilding business at the mouth of the Humber river, died at his home early today at the age of 78.
     Most of the bridges built in York County during the last 50 years were erected by Mr. Hicks.  He was the inventor and constructor of the first roller seat for racing shells, as used by Ned Hanlon during all his championship races.  Mr. Hicks was a member of the York Pioneers and of Christ Church, Mimico.  He was a large shareholder in the old Humber steam ferry company, which ran boats from Yonge St. To Humber Bay, as well as one of its promoters.  He was born in Dundee, Scotland, in 1852.
     He settled first in Kansas before coming to Toronto.  He is survived by William J. of Humber Bay, Alfred E. of Toronto, Norman W., in Montana, and Frederick J. of Hamilton, son; Mrs. John Bosworth, Cedar Valley, Ont., a daughter.  He retired from business about five years ago.
     The funeral will be held from his home Friday afternoon at 2 o'clock.  Rev. Mr. Tremain of Christ Church, Mimico, will officiate.  Interment will be made in Christ Church Cemetery, Mimico.
     "Charlie" Hicks, as he was affectionately known to thousands of Toronto's residents, was a member of Mimico Masonic Lodge, Lambton Mills, and a charter member of Connaught Lodge, Mimico.  The funeral will be attended by members of his lodge and other brethren.
     At Exhibition park he constructed the world's first water merry-go-round.  Boats of various nationalities, including the Santa Maria, Nina, Pinta, Norwegian boats, and Italian gondolas, were used.  The boats were pulled around in a circular waterway by an endless chain propelled by a steam engine.  Later when the amusement was moved to Munro park, east of Scarboro Beach, an electric motor was substituted for the steam engine.

_________________________________________________________________________

                                                        The Passing of
                                              A Pioneer in Bridge Building

                    The Late O. L. Hicks Whose Work Coincided with a Remarkable
                           Transition in Design--His Monument Is the Middle Road
                               Bridge for the Promotion of Which Much Credit Is
                                        Due to the Present Premier of Ontario

                                                    by FRANK BARBER

     O. L. HICKS, who died on December 23rd full of honors and years--seventy-nine of them--is worth special mention in this magazine.  He was probably the most active and widely known bridge contractor in a considerable district about Toronto--especially in the metropolitan county of York--through twenty-five years preceding the war.
     This period, beginning in the late eighties, was one of rapid transition in almost every art, mystery or business.  In the domain of highway bridge design and construction it rather more than spanned the interval from wooden bridges to the present reinforced concrete bridges and those of all-rivited rigid structural steel with concrete floors.  Almost as interludes in this interval were the beginning and end of cast iron bridges and light pin connected steel bridges with wooden floors and handrails.  Besides this concrete for piers and abutments largely replaced stone masonry.  Only one class of bridge in this country is not embraced in this period--the lattice girder wooden bridge, whose usefulness ended when Howe invented his truss in 1841.
     For forty years before this period there had been almost no change in ordinary highway bridges; the wooden How truss bridge had possessed the field except for the occasional stone or brick arch.  (We are leaving out of account such small streams as could be spanned by a single queen-post or king-post wooden truss bridge.)

                                           A Pioneer in Bridge Building

     The story of O. L. Hicks is therefore largely the history of highway bridge construction.  This alone would not entitle him to more than brief notice, but it happened that he built the first one of nearly every new class of bridge in a wide terrain.  We shall mention only three.  But first, let us remember that the wooden bridges with which the period began were of one form only, but many different and divergent kinds of bridges are included in the later steel bridges and concrete bridges.  I would have written "steel and concrete bridges" but these words signify, in Toronto (may I explain to readers outside this city?) what is defined in the literature of this subject, as "steel bridges."  Doubtless in some other Canadian locality "Steel and concrete bridges" would connote only what is more generally named "concrete or reinforced concrete bridges"; they also consist of both steel and concrete.
     Mr. Hicks built in 1905 the first all-rivited steel bridge with a permanent floor in York County--Musson's, over the Humber.  The floor was concrete and brick, the abutments deep courses of Longford limestone.  He built the first concrete arch in the county, on Scarlett Road over a branch of the Humber, about 1908.  The first concrete through beam bridge at Unionville, constructed in 1907, was also one of his contracts.
     A real advance in foundation work devised by Mr. Hicks, and which is most suitable for certain situation, deserves a short description.  He was awarded the contract for the abutments of the electric railway bridge at the mouth of the Mimico River.  Having in mind the sinking of the Grand Truck abutment near by, which was founded upon piles, the engineer specified that the concrete abutments should be founded upon the rock which lay about twenty feet below the water level, overlaid by some quicksand.  The engineer supposed that recourse would be had to pneumatic caissons, but Mr. Hicks sank open concrete shells of square cross-section to the rock, using pumps, afterwards filling them with concrete.  These, placed closely side by side to form the abutments, sank of their own weight when clam shell buckets cleared the inside of sand, with only occasional weighting with steel rails.      The method was so successful that he afterwards built "sea walls" to stop the ravishment of the shore of Etobicoke, New Toronto and Mimico.  None of these walls have ever required repairs in which respect they are unique among the many kinds of sea walls on these shores.

                                   The First of the Concrete Truss Bridges

     Above all his name is remembered as the contractor, in 1909, of the concrete truss bridge on the Middle Road over the River Etobicoke between the counties of York and Peel.  While the wee-known engineer, Considere, invented the concrete truss, and built a number of them in France and Belgium, the Middle Road bridge was the first of the type built aside from those designed by Considere.  The inventor's trusses were designed of steel would members, but the Middle Road bridge had ordinary concrete compression members, and this is the prevailing style of the present day.
     The concrete truss bridge is also distinguished by the name of "bowstring truss" (I often wonder why; did the coiner of the word know anything of Turkish customs?), or the arch bridge with suspended floor (arch ribs rising above the floor).  Most of these as now built are not strictly trusses; that is, they are not built up entirely of triangles. 
     It should be mentioned that the approach spans to the Sparkman Street bridge, Nashville, Tenn., built in 1908, were said at the time to be the first concrete trusses in America, but they are not now recognized as such.  They are ordinary open spandrel arch spans (the arches under the floor) but with the addition of a concrete tension member tying the skewbacks of the arches together; this was their only resemblance to a concrete truss bridge.

                                     Interest Shown by Hon. Geo. S. Henry

     The Middle Road bridge was in charge of a committee of councillors from York and Peel counties.  Geo. S. Henry (now the Hon. Geo. S. Henry, premier and minister of highways of Ontario) was then warden of York County; and had it not been for his strong support of the project it would not have been even considered.  He cannot escape the responsibility for this bridge; nor, we may fairly presume, does he wish to do so; it  stands today without flaw, and innocent of any repairs since it was built, one of the leaders in a type of concrete bridge which, because of its peculiar fitness for certain situations, is now being built in every land and every section (always excepting the city of Toronto which demands to be considered the only city in Europe or America which refuses to conform to the new faith regarding concrete bridges, even of any kind).  Mr. Henry must have had confidence in the engineer who devised the project and in Mr. Hicks, the contractor for it.  But he had moreover, the patience to investigate and the talent to understand the proposition.  Government bridge departments in the various states and provinces are generally too tape-bound to be up-to-date in bridge construction; but the Ontario Department of Highways has adopted the concrete truss bridge, and has built the longest of them in Canada (not the greatest spans) at Freeport and Caledonia; but this was after Mr. Henry had become minister of public highways.
     Colonel Thos. L. Kennedy, M.P.P., now minister of agriculture for Ontario, was also one of the committee in charge of this Middle Road bridge situation.  He voted against the concrete truss, but was pleased with it after it was constructed.  But from the first he was so sympathetic to the ambitious young engineer, and took such a kindly interest in his scheme that he, Mr. Kennedy, immediately made a friend for life.  How many men can  refuse to support an engineer's darling project and in doing so make a warm friend of him?  Not many.  Good old Tom!
     The Middle Road bridge has often described and has found its niche in the history of bridges; therefore the writer merely adds these personal touches.  At present about one-third of all concrete bridges in Canada are concrete trusses, and the longest concrete single spans in the world are of this general type.

                                            Possessed a Personality

     Mr. Hicks was English born.  In his speech, ordinary and extraordinary, he never had recourse to ejaculation, that ordinary refuge of the speechless.  Mentally he was cool, calm and logical.  He never lost his poise or his patience.  He knew the comfort of old shoes (foundation engineers and contractors are privileged in this respect) but he never sought the comfort of old habits of thought--they joys of old ways of thinking.  He was an observer and reader of construction methods used by other contractors in this and other countries, and with him, to observe attentively was to remember accurately.  Thus was he always level with the best construction methods, and frequently they were of his own devising.  He made profits not by high prices but by accumulated knowledge and by great skill in rigging to meet novel situation.
     Some contractors considered him to be a bold and lucky speculator (for instance, in his contract on the Mimico abutments mentioned above).  The writer, however, knows that he never gambled on a contract or took an avoidable risk.  He had always considered well his modes of construction and he was one of the most accurate estimators the writer has known.
     Two other bridge contractors who were very active in the period and region where Mr. Hicks has left so many landmarks are still living; and another firm which then  began dabbling in bridge contracts afterwards became one of the largest firms in Canada in bridge building and other construction.  I should like to mention them all, but as they are also still in active business, the editor informs me that they may announce themselves in this connection at the regular space rates which are very reasonable considering the circulation.
     Many of Mr. Hicks' contracts were upon designs by James McDougal, the best highway bridge engineer of his time (1888 to 1908) in this part of Canada.

                                                      Diversified Interests

     This story of O. L. Hicks would be incomplete without a reference to his versatility and his works other than bridges.  Doubtless all Toronto knows of his boathouse at the mouth of the Humber; there he built skiffs and scows and motor boats, and sold them or rented them to pleasure seekers.  In this connection we are credible informed that he devised the sliding seat for the racing boat that won the world championship in single sculls for Toronto so many times; those were the days when Ned Hanlan sat upon it.
     He also designed, built, and employed a manager for a water merry-go-round.  This was operated very successfully in several parks, one after the other, in Toronto--for a time at Toronto Exhibition.  This fact surely must be well remembered; all the city newspapers mentioned it in the notice of his death and claimed for him and the city that this water Saturnalia was the first if not the only one of its kind. 
     Since Mr. Hicks' practical retirement from bridge building (or from active management) about fifteen years ago he often acted as consultant on construction.  We may be sure that he had no fears during freshets that any of his bridges would not safely breast the floods.
     They may inscribe upon his tombstone--his real monument is the Middle Road bridge--"In memory of one of those pioneers who built beautiful bridges to join together the devious paths of men."
  
             Publication:  Contract Record and Engineering Review, January 7, 1931

_________________________________________________________________________
  
                       THE GUARDIAN -- Islington, Thursday, June 9th, 1955

        Hicks An Honored Name On The Humber Since 1873; Boat And Bridge Builders
                                           By Robert A. Given

     Half hidden among the trees on the west bank of the Humber about three minutes walking distance south from Bloor is a romantic old boat-house.  Thirty years ago it was a popular rendezvous for couples who paddled the placid waters in the twilight.  A solid-ivory keyed grand piano provided lilting music in the adjoining tea-room.  It was then known as the Wanita Tea Garden, an Indian name reminiscent of an even earlier era.
     It was on the 12th of June, 1925, that William John Hicks left the boat-house by the Old Mill because of the shallowness of the water, and moved downstream to this old tea-room and boat-house which had belonged to Henry Cornish.  Today hundreds of fellows and girls from 8 to 15 years visit Hicks' boat-house regularly for lessons and fun with canoes.  Many come as members of the YMCA in the city and nearby suburbs.  It is also, semi-officially, the only life saving station on the Humber.  Mr. Hicks, having among other things, a telephone and a searchlight by his bedroom window!
     There have been Hicks's on the Humber since 1873.  Born near Dundee, Scotland, in 1852, Octavius Lang Hicks went first to Kansas city in 1871, then to Hamilton and then to Toronto where he spent about two years as a contractor.  Finally he moved to Humber Bay where he began building boats as he had been taught back in Scotland.
     O. L. Hicks was a man of many parts.  He was probably best known for his boat building, livery and rental business.  He also had a commercial fishing fleet on the Lake.  In the winter he and his men were in the roads and bridges contracting business.  For a time nearly every bridge in the township was a Hicks-built bridge.  For example, he built the present old iron bridge on Dundas over the Humber and moved the twin wooden spans which preceded it, one part going to make the Thompson bridge over Mimico Creek at Bloor and the other part for the Agar bridge north of Islington.  He built the bridges and laid the rails for the Toronto and Mimico Electric Railway which were part of the Mackenzie-Pellet interests.  He even put the original double decked open cars on the rails!
     Years ago replicas of Columbus' three ships came across the Atlantic bound for the World's Fair at Chicago, in 1893.  Photos were taken of them while stopping over in Toronto harbour, and miniatures were made for a water merry-go-round which Hicks invented and built in High Park.  This amusement with its endless belt in a circular trough of water was moved to the Toronto Street Railway Company's Munro Park in the east end of the city.
     Hick's boat-house and refreshment stand at Sunnyside, along with Walter Dean's, Captain Maw's and Mrs. Myers establishments were the original attractions along that waterfront.  Ice cream was purchased from William Neilson who delivered it in a wheel-barrow from his kitchen on Roncesvalles Avenue.
     O. L. Hicks was manager of the Exhibition Park Ferry Line in 1886 when, for a ten cent ticket, a person was entitled to ride from Toronto westward to the Exhibition Park and return.  Four steamers, the Rupert, Canadian, Geneva and Sadie were in this service.  In the winter of 1887 Mr. Hicks was secretary of an organization which held trotting races on the frozen Humber.  On one occasion someone entered a moose and cutter to compete with the usual horses and sleighs.
     O. L. Hicks built the first concrete truss bridge in Canada.  It was across Etobicoke Creek at the Middle Road and was opened in November 1909 by Hon. T. L. Kennedy who was then road commissioner for Peel County and others.  In a specially printed pamphlet it is told how, to avoid poor bonding on successive day's work with the cement, Mr. Hicks placed bags of ice upon the last concrete poured each night so as to keep it from setting.  He gave the Atkinson Brothers at the Old Mill the idea of bending plough handles with steam instead of carving them from large pieces of wood, an idea which was then used principally by boat-builders.
     In 1882 with Eugene O'Keefe, brewer and president of the Home Bank, John Duck, Charles Nurse and others he formed the Humber Steam Ferry Company Limited to bring guests from Toronto to Humber Bay resorts.
     For a time O. L. Hicks owned the celebrated Royal Oak Hotel at Humber Bay and one of the brickyards near the site of the Humber Valley Golf Club.  Often there were sleighing parties from offices and factories in the city and they would whoop it up until 5 or 6 in the morning.  Usually they were orderly affairs, but occasionally the Junction Gang from West Toronto would try and crash a party.  If this occurred, the proprietor of the hotel would send word up to one of the brickyards and in a short while a number of labourers would appear and restore order.  For their services they were usually given a keg of ale which they carried back to their yard. 
     An interesting story is told of how the old Erindale Power Company wouldn't serve anyone south of the electric railway along the Lake Shore Road.  O. L. Hicks wanted the hydro and was determined he would get it.  He went down [to his] cellar and with nautical bearings drilled a 2 inch hole from his cellar to a lamp post on the north side of the road some sixty odd feet away.  He used a regular 2 inch wood drill fastened on long rods which had to be dismantled at post, and connected them up so he could have electricity.  Harry McGee and others living south of the road were dumb-founded, but it wasn't too long before all were served with electricity. 
     William John Hicks has followed in his father's footsteps.  He fed wires through the underground tunnel, which had come to within two feet of the frequent intervals when the channel became clogged.  He operated the Turbinia on the Humber and then later on the Nottawasagga River near Wasaga Beach.  He helped his father invent and patent the roller sliding seat for racing boats which was used by Ned Hanlan.  During the Second War Hicks' boathouse home was a hostel for some 170 British sailors and airmen waiting for their ships and planes to be delivered.  Mrs. W. J. Hicks better known as "Ma Langford" still receives regular letters from many of the lads who spent a week or a month at their home while on service.  During their winter vacation Hurricane Hazel struck its disastrous blow up the Humber and Mrs. Hicks flew home at the call of the Red cross to help in that time of need as has been the Hicks' habit since 1873.  "Ma" wishes to remind the older children that they are still welcome after the hurricane, and mothers are assured they'll be looked after properly.
    
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Humber Bay Park

     At the mouth of the Mimico Creek are the two land spits of Humber Bay Park. Mimico comes from the Indian word "Omineca" meaning home of the wild pigeons. Huge flocks of pidgeons were known to have inhabited the area at one time. On April 27, 1813, Humber Bay sheltered fourteen American warships under the command of Brigadier Pike of Pike's Peak fame (a 4301M high mountain in Colorado); nearly two thousand soldiers were preparing to raid and set fire to the Parliament Building further east during the War of 1812.
     Humber Bay Village was an early lakefront community with close commercial and recreational ties to the water. The park maintains a recreational focus for residents and visitors established during the mid-1800's when a number of hotels were built including the Royal Oak Hotel operated by a Scot named Octavius L. Hicks, John Duck's Wimbledon House, and a hotel [the Nurse's Hotel] operated by the famed distance runner Charles Nurse. Boating and other water sports were enjoyed here during the hot summer months. Town council meetings were often held in the Humber Bay hotels.
     Developed by the former Metropolitan Toronto and Region Conservation Authority with 5.1 million cubic metres of lake fill, at a cost of $6.56 million, Humber Bay Park was opened by Lieutenant-Governor John Black Aird on June 11, 1984. Several habitat restoration projects have been initiated at Humber Bay Park including the planting of Carolinian trees and shrubs, the establishment of wildflower meadows and the creation of a warm-water fish habitat and wetland on the east peninsula.

     "A Decade of Regeneration: Realizing a Vision for Lake Ontario, November 2000"

           (Available to read online at www.waterfronttrail.org; E-Library, Publications)
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Toronto Historical Board, 205 Yonge Street, Toronto, Ontario M5B 1N2, Canada

The mission statement of the Toronto Historical Board is "to present and preserve the marine history of Toronto, Toronto Bay, and its relation to the Great Lakes, with particular focus on the city's interaction with the harbor and bay."

In this collection under "Small craft" is the following:

Wherry, practice (ca late 1800s) - lightweight lap strake with sliding seat, built by Octavius L. Hicks, Humber River.  

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Date of last revision: 2024-11-08.
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