Becoming established in Ottawa

William was the oldest of the children of Patrick and Bridget of whom we have a record. He was born in Ireland on March 5, 1820, according to the inscription at the family plot which lists his death as August 12, 1885 at age 65, 5 months and 7 days. He is described as a native of Limerick. It is interesting however, that the obituary of his son Bernard says that his father was a native of County Kilkenny. Possibly he worked there before emigrating.

William married Honorah McGrath on April 4, 1850 at Notre Dame Cathedral in Ottawa. William was 30 and she was 23. She too was born in Ireland. The marriage date shows that he emigrated before 1850, and probably after 1845 with his father and other family members. Further evidence is found in an article in the Ottawa Citizen in 1879, which reported favourably on William's butcher business, which began in the Bytown market. The article reports that he had been doing business in Ottawa "for over 30 years". He probably began his career as a butcher in Ireland under his father's tutelage.

The By-Ward Market was established very early in the development of Bytown. A Market Building had been built on George Street, and across the street a large butchering and meat packing industry was developed between 1830-1840, which became known as "The Butcher's Shambles". (Shambes is an old name for a butcher's slaughter house.) This is where William would have started his career.

On Feb. 21, 1851, Bridget was born to William and Honorah, as duly recorded at Notre Dame Cathedral. That year William leased Lot 19 on the north side of Clarence Street. However, it was apparently not for housing, as it was left vacant until 1858. Probably he used it for grazing of animals to be slaughtered.

The first census of Bytown, nominally 1851, had an effective date of Jan. 11, 1852. William is listed therein as a butcher. With him was his wife Honorah, daughter Bridget, his brother Myles, and a maid aged 14. They were living in a 11/2 story log house with land attached, and they had three pigs, but the house location was not given. In other 1852 records William was listed as one of those petitioning to have the open drain on Clarence St. covered over.

On Aug 8, 1852, Bernard was born. He was destined, in due course, to become very prominent in Ottawa. Then in July 1855, twins Anastasia and John were born but lived only one day. Honorah died before 1858, when William remarried. It seems probable that her untimely death may have resulted from the birth of the twins. At this time her date of death and burial place have not been found.

William married Margaret Hendrick on Feb. 9, 1858 at Notre Dame Cathedral. Like Honorah, Margaret was born in Ireland That year William built a 1 1/2 story clapboard house for his family on the west half of his Clarence St. lot, which at that date had a street address of 135 Clarence St.

Up to this point, neither William or Myles were listed in the Ottawa City Directory which had been published yearly from 1850. However in 1861, they were both listed, in separate houses on Clarence St., William as a butcher but no occupation listed for Myles. The 1861 Census lists Myles as a grocer living in a two story frame house, but unaccountably does not list William.

Changing Residences
By 1862 William had made another significant investment in building a large double house on the east half of Lot 19, listed as 137-139 Clarence St., but it appears that he did not live there. It was occupied by tenants until 1900 when it was sold by his family. On the other hand, in 1866, William was living at 118 Clarence Street, a new address on the south side of Clarence St. He lived there until 1875.

William and Margaret had eleven children, including an infant who died soon after birth. In 1873 they had a very full household living in the house on Clarence St. A bigger house and more land for raising cattle were sorely needed. Consequently, in 1873 William purchased a 27 acre property in what later became Ottawa East.

The new property was roughly triangular in shape extending along the Rideau River, from east of present day Main Street to Clegg Street. It was legally described as Lot K, concession D, Nepean Township. At that tie, Main Street was called the Gloucester Road or the more elegant sounding Spring Park Road. In the City Directory it was in the village of Archville, which later became Ottawa East. Beside pasturage, he built a smoke house and an abattoir on the property, and not least he built a large home for his family. The house has been described as of wood construction with gingerbread trim. It was destroyed by fire in the 1890's.

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The Butchering Business
In the 1861 City Directory, William's shop was described only as on Clarence Street. In January 1862, much of the market area was destroyed by fire. There were eight butchers at that time. Five of them lost most of their meat and William was one of them. The other three suffered little loss. There is no evidence that William's location had changed but the directory became more specific as the years went by, until in 1864 his shop was described as "Stall 5, outside, Old Market Building".

Table 3 summarizes the growth of William's meat business

In the earlier Bytown days, town meetings were held on the second floor of the old Market Building. In 1865 a new Market Building of stone construction was built, but at first the butchers preferred the older one. Over the years there were many fires and many losses. In spite of these problems, William's goods were attracting favourable comment. In 1876, his introduction of Western beef was highlighted, and also his spring lambs and mutton fed by himself on his new property at Spring Park. The photo shows the new Market Building in the late 1800's.

The butchers were important merchants in Lower Town. Newspapers of the day describe how the Butchers' Ball in 1877 was the best ever. William was one of the sponsors, and his son Bernard (then 25) had a very active role in the affair.

When Bytown was first founded, Lower Town was planned to house the workers and their shops, while the gentry were to live in Upper Town on the higher ground across the canal. However, Lower Town grew and prospered at the expense of Upper town. The citizens of Upper Town demanded their own market place. Accordingly the Wellington Ward Market was established in the vicinity of present-day Wellington and Lyon Streets. William grasped an opportunity to expand and he established a shop there (Stall 6) in 1876. His son Bernard married in 1879 and William turned over the Wellington shop to him. His other sons, William and Michael, then 20 and 18 respectively were no doubt working in the two shops.

In 1877, William expanded his land holdings again. He purchased a large acreage on the west side of Gloucester road (Main Street). It was bordered on the north by Clegg Street, on the east by Gloucester road, and on the south by Riverdale Avenue. The northerly part, which was kept as a pasturage for many years, became known as "Slattery's Field". In addition, that same year, he also purchased nearly 50 acres of land, Lots 21-25, in Gloucester Township, in the vicinity of present-day Cyrville. This could have been for investment purposes or to provide more pasturage for the animals needed for his expanding meat business.

The following stories concerning "Slattery's Field" are derived from newspaper accounts. First, in 1911, Slattery's Field made the newspapers of the day as the site of the first airplane flights in the Ottawa region, only eight years after the Wright brother first "took to the air" in the United States. An American, Lee Hammond, during several days in September, flying a biplane, made short demonstration flights from Slattery's field over the Central Canada Exhibition t Lansdowne Park. His flights came to an abrupt end while trying to land. A herd of cows got in his way, and his plane was damaged trying to avoid them.

The next claim to fame for Slattery's Field occurred in October 1913 when the newly launched Montreal Daily Star commissioned William Robinson to fly copies of their first papers to Ottawa. Because of mechanical problems, the plane had to land five times enroute to Ottawa! Eventually he was ready to land at Lansdowne Park but couldn't because of a large crowd of spectators. He was able to land instead at Slattery's Field. The next day he attempted a demonstration flight but his engine failed and he crashed at the corner of Clegg and Drummond Sts. The plane was totaled but he was unhurt. In spite of the mishaps, this was the first flight between two cities in Canada.

The highlight of William's career occurred in 1879 when he was honoured by acquiring the much-coveted Vice Regal patronage for his meat. A new awning now graced his ByWard shop, reading " William Slattery, purveyor to his excellency the Governor General ".

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The Final Years
William died August 12, 1885, age 66, at Caledonia Springs, Prescott County. This was the location of a "spa", which had been established by an enterprising local farmer at a spring on his property. The Caledonia springs Hotel was already advertising in the Bytown Gazette in 1836. William was probably there for treatment when he died. He did not live to see the major expansion of his butcher shops under his son Bernard, but he did leave a well-established and highly regarded business to his family.

William did not have a will, which suggests that he died unexpectedly. The court awarded his personal estate to his widow Margaret, apart from a $6000 balance placed in trust with the court, presumably for his children. The trustees evidently divided his business and real estate assets in equal parts to his nine surviving children. Margaret sold the property to Bernard who used a go-between to represent him. (There could be a story in this.)

In June 1890 Margaret died, only 56 years of age. She was buried with William in Notre Dame Cemetery.