Ad from "Waterloo Outlook 1914"

In about 1842, Galt agricultural implement maker Nathaniel Dean Fisher opened the first foundry in Galt. He shortly took on a partner, Morris C. Lutz, and they operated as Fisher & Lutz. The firm was later known as Lutz, Cook & Co., possibly as the result of a merger with one Cook & Co.

In 1853, James Cowan bought an interest in the firm. Mr. Peter Cook died in a foundry accident in 1859, and the firm became Lutz & Co. In 1873, Daniel Cameron joined the firm, the other partners being James Cowan and John Ballantine; the name became Cameron & Co. In 1877 Mr. Ballantine left the firm, and the name changed yet again, to Cameron & Cowan. When Mr. Cameron died in 1879 the firm became known as Cowan & Co. Somewhere in the midst of all these name changes, they started manufacturing woodworking machinery. Cowan's sons, Thomas, William, and Arthur, joined the partnership at some time, but by 1884 Thomas Cowan was the sole proprietor. James Cowan died in 1901 at age 97, having been pre-deceased by Thomas.

The company incorporated as Cowan & Co., Ltd. in 1902, likely in response to Canada's 1901 Companies Act. In 1902 the company had sidelines in engines and boilers, but these lines were dropped by about 1905. In 1914, Cowan & Co., Ltd. had 130 men building woodworking machinery.

Cowan & Co.'s works were known as the Galt Foundry and Machine Works. Cowan was mentioned in passing in Planers, Matchers, and Molders in America: 1800 to 1985 as a company that made planers and/or matchers during the short-lived boom for those machines after WWII; the author, Chandler W. Jones, was likely unaware of Cowan's long history in Canada.

By the 1950s the company's facilities were ancient and dilapidated. The company went under in 1956 or 1957; the buildings were bought by the city and torn down. The timing isn't clear, but the Cowan name, and probably some of the products, were acquired by a Kitchener business, Beisinger Industries, Ltd., which also owned Jackson-Cochrane Co. This venture only seems to have lasted until about 1960.

The last independent owner of Cowan & Co., Bill Cowan, subsequently invested with others to form Galt Wood Tool & Machine Co., which manufactured woodworking cutters, and was a dealer in new and used machinery.

Do you have more information?

I am especially interested in machinery manufacturers from Ontario, and particularly Cambridge, so if you have any information on these machinery companies and products, I strongly urge you to contact Jeff Joslin.

Information Sources

• An 1851 Ontario directory lists "Fisher & Lutz, foundry, Victoria st.". It also lists Peter Cook as "general merchant, North Water st.".
• The 1851 Census lists Nathaniel D. Fisher of Galt. His occupation was "founderer", birthplace was USA, and he was 48 years old. It appears that his wife was Almyra, and children were Arminan E. and William. A genealogy web page lists a Nathaniel Dean Fisher born 1804-03-15 in Londonderry, NH and died 1887-09-13 at Warsaw, NY. The age is about right but the place of death makes it somewhat unlikely that he is our man.
• That 1851 Census also lists Peter Cook, age 38, as a merchant. His wife, ten years younger than him, was Penylope, and their children were Sarah and John B., ages 4 and 2. Peter was born in Scotland, Penylope in PEI, and the children in Upper Canada, i.e., what is now Ontario.
• A document from the Waterloo Genealogical Society (PDF) lists death notices from the Dumfries Reformer that appeared between 1853 and 1859. One such entry is "Cook, Peter. (Died) 19 Sep 1859 in Galt; age 45 years. Of the firm Lutz, Cook, & Co. Funeral on Sep 21."
• 1869 Province of Ontario Gazetteer and Directory lists "LUTZ & CO., iron founders, agricultural implement makers, &c." Morris C. Lutz, J. P., is listed separately. There is no entry under Galt Foundry or any similar name.
• 1871 Lovell's Canadian Dominion Directory lists Lutz & Co. of Galt as a maker of agricultural implements, as a foundry, and a manufacturer of "hot pressed nuts". It was not listed as a maker of woodworking machinery. Listed as members of Lutz & Co. were James Cowan and Morris C. Lutz.
• 1878-05-29 The Dumfries Reformer, forwarded to us by Elizabeth Dietrich:

  THE MANUFACTURERS OF GALT—The Galt Foundry, Engine and Machine Works. What is being accomplished by Cameron & Cowan.

  North Water street is the abiding place of a number of the leading manufacturing enterprises concerning which mention is made in this issue of the REFORMER. Here we find the extensive works of Cameron & Cowan, an establishment that fills a prominent place in the productive interests of the country. The works have been established for a number of years, and since their inception have passed through a number of changes of proprietorship. The founder of the business was Mr. Dean Fisher, who was succeeded by Fisher & Lutz. They, in turn, gave place to the firm of Lutz, Cook & Co., and upon the death of Mr. Cook (who was so unfortunate as to lose his life in the workshops), the style changed to Lutz & Co. In September 1873 the firm became Cameron & Co., with Messrs. D. Cameron, T. Cowan and John Ballantine as co-partners, and upon the retirement of Mr. Ballantine from partnership in October last, the firm style changed to its present form, that of Cameron & Cowan. Each of the copartners has been for a long time connected with the works and with the manufacturing industries of the town. Mr. Cowan, Sr., was a member of the firms of Lutz, Cook & Co., and Lutz & Co., and for some years Mr. T. Cowan had been the traveler for the Works. Mr. Cameron, before entering this establishment, and been the general manager for Goldie & McCulloch. He, by the way, is, without doubt, one of the most thorough mechanics to be found in Canada to-day. His knowledge of the mechanical arts is not only practical but comprehensive, and his judgment is relied upon whenever his services can be secured as arbitrator or valuator. This practical knowledge brings forth good fruit in connection with the Works. It has enabled the firm to originate valuable improvements and to reduce them to practical application, so that now Cameron & Cowan may fairly be esteemed representative manufacturers.

  The card of the firm designates them as “iron founders and manufacturers of all kinds of steam engines, portable and stationary, with variable cut off, boilers and heaters, &c., and wood working machinery with all the latest improvements.” The list of manufactures is certainly comprehensive, but at the same time the card outlines the special features of the business done. But while Messrs. Cameron & Cowan are in every way prepared to build engines, boilers, saw mill and other machinery, and have done an immense amount of that class of work, their real specialty just now, and for some time, has been wood working machinery. To state the varieties of machines made by the firm would but be to re-publish their circulars, and were the various machines mentioned by name few but practical machinists or manufacturers who use this class of machinery would comprehend the terms used. Suffice it to say that machinery of all kinds for the use of planning mills, sash, door and blind factories, furniture factories, &c., is made. Some of these machines are especially well known. For instance, there is the “Patent Revolving Bed Moulding Machine,” an invention of the firm and owned and controlled by them, which is characterized by practical men everywhere who have seen it as one of the greatest improvements of the age in wood working machinery. Another prominent machine is the Revolving Bed Surface Planer with patent link. The REFORMER reporter is not enough of a mechanic to attempt an elaborate description of these or of any of the other machines made by the firm, and it is hardly needed, for descriptive circulars will be sent upon application to any address.

  When Messrs. Cameron & Co. took possession of the Works in September, 1873, the force of workmen employed was but about twenty-five. Now it is sixty-five. This, of course, signifies a corresponding increase of trade, and this development has been specially noticeable since the last Provincial Exhibition where the firm had machinery at work on exhibition. The impression created was in the highest degree favorable, and the firm have followed up the advantage thus won, not by awaiting orders, but by personally visiting prospective customers all over the Province. At the late exposition held at Sydney, New South Wales, the firm were also exhibitors, and with such good results that they have since shipped several thousand dollars worth of machinery to that remote section. More recently a very satisfactory trade has been opened up in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, but after all the greatest market is here in Ontario where the Works and their products are best known.

  Each of the co-partners gives the business his undivided personal attention. Mr. Cameron attends to the workshops, and in this general superintendence is assisted by Mr. Ballantine, who is general manager. Mr. Cowan divides his time between the office and the road, and so each finds plenty to do. The results of their labor are easily appreciable, and the enterprise is in every way worthy of conspicuous mention.

• 1880 book, Reminiscences of the early history of Galt and the settlement of Dumfries in the Province of Ontario, by James Young.
  • It describes the creation of the Galt Mechanics' Institute, on 1853-05-31, with president Morris C. Lutz and vice-presidents James Crombie, "Dr. Richardson", and James Cowan.
  • "Among the principal manufacturing establishments on on in Galt, before or shortly after 1857, the following may be mentioned: Messrs. James Crombie & Co.'s foundry; ... Lutz, Cook & Co., foundry..."
  • Buried in a footnote: "Mr. Morris C. Lutz was a native of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, where he was born in 1806. He settled in West Flamboro' in 1829, and came to Galt in 1844. He shortly afterwards became the partner of Mr. Duncan Fisher, of the Galt Foundry, on North Water Street, with which he continued his connection till within a short time before his death, which occurred on the 30th of August, 1876. In 1853 he was elected Reeve of Galt; from 1857 to 1860 he was Mayor, and he also filled the same position from 1865 till 1869. He also occupied many other positions of honour and trust." The name of Duncan Fisher is inconsistent will all other mentions in other sources, which give the name as Nathaniel Dean Fisher. Young twice gives the name as Duncan Fisher, and never mentions Dean Fisher.
  • The name of Mr. Peter Cook, then Secretary of the Board [of Education], and whose tragic death in 1859 was so much lamented, ought ever to be remembered in connection with the Central School, which remains to this day one of the finest public buildings of the kind in the Province." A footnote expands on the circumstances of Cook's death. "Mr Cook was killed by a separator falling upon him on the 19th September, 1859. No accident ever happened in Galt which caused more profound sorrow. Two days afterwards, in the Dumfries Reformer, the writer of this sketch made the following among other references to Mr. Cook, from whom he received much friendly counsel in early life: "Mr. Cook was born in the year 1814, on the Island of Arran, off the west coast of Scotland, and was consequently in his 46th year. At at early age, he emigrated from there to the Province of New Brunswick, where he resided for a number of years. From New Brunswick the deceased came to Galt, and entered into the mercantile business. Disliking the drudgery of mercantile life, he ultimately became a partner in the Galt foundry..." The rest of the passage is an encomium that even Mr. Cook's mother would have found a bit over the top.
• 1883 Farley's Directory of the Metal Workers of the United States, Canada and the British Provinces, page 186, lists Galt metalworking firms including Cowan & Co., Iron Founders.
• 1884 Waterloo County Gazetteer and Directory for 1884-5 lists "GALT FOUNDRY, ENGINE AND MACHINE WORKS, Cowan & Co, Victoria [street]. (See adv, back cover)." Unfortunately we do not have a copy of that back-cover ad.
• 1884 Ontario Gazetteer Gazetteer and Business Directory for 1884-1885 lists "Cowan & Co (Thomas Cowan), Propr Galt Foundry, Engine and Machine Works, N Water."
• 1885 Sessional papers—Legislature of the Province of Ontario, Volume 2: "Official list of prizes awarded at the Grand Dominion and 39th Provincial Exhibition of the Agriculture and Arts Assocation of Ontario, held at Ottawa, from September 22nd to 27th, 1884: "Wood-working Machinery. ... 2nd best band-saw, Curran & Co., Galt, $2.00". First was Cant & Gourlay.
• 1886 The Ontario Gazetteer Gazetteer and Business Directory for 1886-1887 lists "Cowan & Co (Thomas Cowan), engine and machine works, n Water."
• 1889 book, On Life's Stage, by Adam Ainslie, written in 1889 and published in 1987 by the City of Cambridge Archives, says the following about some events in about 1840: "About this time the Hon. Robert Dickson erected the present dam across the Grand river and excavated the canal for the water privileges. Mr. John Cain from Montreal planning the superintending the work. I was employed by him [Mr. Dickson] to draw and put in legal form the terms and conditions to be observed by the purchasers of such privileges. The first one disposed of was to Fisher & Lutz (Nathaniel Dean Fisher and Morris C. Lutz). They erected the first Foundry in Galt."
• 1892 The Ontario Gazetteer Gazetteer and Business Directory for 1892-1893 lists "Cowan & Co (Thomas Cowan), Propr Galt Foundry, Engine and Machine Works, N Water."
• 1895 The Ontario Gazetteer Gazetteer and Directory for 1895 lists "Cowan & Co. (Thomas Cowan), machinists, n Water."
• 1902 book from the Galt Reporter, Picturesque and Industrial Galt.

  The name of Cowan, so long associated with the industrial interests of Galt, is known all over Canada. The distinction won by the family came first from the public work of the late Mr. James Cowan, who last year died at the age of 97, and who for twenty years was chairman of the Dominion Board of Official Arbitrators, after ten years of service in Parliament. Then the late Thomas Cowan, one of the best platform speakers in the country, at one time President of the Canadian Manufacturers' Association, gave it additional fame, and finally the machinery works in Galt rounded off a reputation that is standing it in good stead to-day. The "Galt Foundry" had successively as proprietors, after its inception in 1842, Fisher & Lutz; Lutz, Cooke & Co.; Cameron & Co., and Cowan & Co. Mr. James Cowan joined the business in 1853, and his sons Thomas, William and Arthur, subsequently entered into partnership, the firm up to a few months ago being known as Cowan & Co. Its title is now "The Cowan Company, Limited," with Wm. Cowan, President; A. B. Cowan, Vice President; and Secretary-Treasurer James H. Cowan. The Company manufacture planers and matchers, surface planers, moulding machines, sawing machines, slide-valve engines; boilers, including patent feed water heaters and purifiers, and a variety of other machinery. The hands employed number 125.

  Waterloo Outlook 1914, published by the Daily Telegraph in conjunction with the Waterloo County Council in August 1914, has pictures of a couple of Cowan machines (a double-spindle shaper and a mortiser), a biography of William Cowan, Sr., a company history, and an advertisement showing their No. 289 moulder. Some of this material is reproduced in our "Images" section (see the Images tab, above).

  1940 Canadian Trade Index.

  Cowan & Co., of Galt, Limited, North Water St., Galt, Ont. Wood working machinery; veneer presses. Brand, "Cowan". Cable address, Cowans. Code, Private.

  Last year an addition to the main building was erected, but even this leaves the company cramped for room. Only by exercising care in production and aiming for a high standard in the building of machinery could the Cowans hold old customers and attract new ones. The present standing of the industry is solely due to the character of the products of the buy foundry, among which is the famous Corliss Engine.

  The business of The Cowan Company extends all over Canada. The confidential office man is Mr. W. H. Young, well and favorably known by the trade.

  Pictures include the Cowan factory, a 12-inch moulder, 48-inch band resaw, 26-inch moving-bed planer, and a Corliss engine. An advertisement for this company shows a double-spindle shaper.
• A Hall of Fame page on the Region of Waterloo website has the following entry:

  James Cowan, a farmer from Cramilt, in the Lowlands of Scotland, settled in Waterloo Township in August 1834, and became one of the County’s most distinguished agricultural authorities. From the 1860s to the 1880s his farm “Clochmhor” was well-known for its sales of purebred Leicester sheep and Shorthorn cattle.

  Cowan was the first vice-president of the Agricultural Society of Waterloo County when it was founded in 1853 and was the first president when it became the South Waterloo Agricultural Society.

  He was a representative of Waterloo Township on the District Council of Wellington from 1842-1849.

  In 1853 he bought an interest in Lutz, Cook and Company, of Galt, manufacturers of woodworking machinery, which eventually became Cowan and Company in 1879.

  Cowan served as a Reform member of Parliament for South Waterloo from 1861 to 1867 and was a member of the Federal Board of Official Arbitrators from 1869 to 1888.

• According to Elizabeth Dietrich, a descendant of Daniel Cameron, he died of cancer 8 June 1879. He was born in 1839 in Cambusnethan, Lanarkshire, Scotland. He and John Ballantine and their families came to Canada from Scotland together on the St. Patrick in the summer of 1865.
• Thanks to Jarrett Vibert for supplying us with copies of some Cowan & Co. catalogs from the City of Cambridge Archives. At least one of the catalogs had been the property of James Ray Cowan. The catalogs date from roughly 1900, 1905, and 1914. See the "Publications" tab to download these catalogs.