By Phil Egan – Special to the Sarnia Journal, Then and Now.
Sarnians passing by the River City Vineyard church and homeless shelter on Mitton Street might be surprised to learn that this location was once the heartbeat of one of Sarnia’s most celebrated industries.
It happened like this.
In 1881, Sarnia town council induced a man named J.F. Craig to move to Sarnia, and they gave him a bonus of $7,500 to make his decision a little easier. Craig had been in the process of establishing an agricultural implement factory in Strathroy, making plows and reapers, mowers and corn shellers, and other farm equipment of the day. .
The bonus from town council may have persuaded Craig to expand too quickly, and by 1886, the new Sarnia firm was in liquidation. In stepped one of the company’s agents, a man named John Goodison, who purchased the interests and factory of the insolvent company.
The factory was located on Mitton Street, and its plant and yard encompassed nearly the entire block between Essex and Maria Streets east to Mackenzie Street. Originally operating as Tunnel City Thresher Company in a short-lived partnership with Sawyer and Massey of Hamilton, it was, by 1889, John Goodison’s alone.
John McCloskey, an Irish inventor, had created a threshing machine to separate the edible part of grain from the inedible chaff that surrounds it. In 1892, the Goodison Threshing Company of Sarnia, Limited acquired the right to build the McCloskey thresher, and John McCloskey moved to Sarnia to join the operation.
The “New McCloskey Thresher” became famous across Canada, and was soon destined to garner sales in the United States and Argentina as well. Other farm products became secondary, as the threshing machine became Goodison’s principal manufactured product. By 1914, the company had a regular work force of 150 men as well as six salesmen on the road.
A fire in 1914 destroyed 200 threshing machines ready for delivery at a shocking loss of $200,000, but the Goodison Company was strong enough to survive. Nor did John Goodison’s death the following year put a dent in production, as sons Edwin and William stepped into the breach.
The business was firmly in the family’s blood. When Edwin died in 1915, William carried on, and Goodison continued to grow and prosper. When William died in 1928, son John E. took the reins.
In 1932, the Goodison Thresher Company finally left Mitton Street and moved to a location on Clifford Street in the growing Chemical Valley, on a site previously occupied by the Perfection Oil Stove Company. The old plant was torn down in 1933, and later became the site of the YMCA. The company left Sarnia in the 1950s for Toronto as Imperial Oil expansion took over their land. What remained of Goodison finally closed in 1962.
During its peak of operation, the Goodison Thresher Machine Company was famous across North America and beyond. It was the only Canadian manufacturer of its product to ever penetrate the American market.
It earned Sarnia a respected place in the history of agricultural manufacturing.