| No. 6 | April 2008 |
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The previous issue of this newsletter told about Thomas Hall and other
descendants of John Ramsay. The creative spirit appears to have been
inherited by Thomas Hall's sons - one, William, became an inventor of
sugar refining equipment in Hawaii.
Another son, Harold, was a co-founder of Hall & Stavert, a well-known Island business. Harold Hall as a young man had a talent for designing and building mechanical devices, and no doubt honed his skills at his father's factory in Summerside. He completed a course in drafting, largely through correspondence study, and for a time worked in the US. However, the early 1930's found him back in PEI, working at Bruce Stewart & Company. About the same time that Harold Hall was growing up in Wilmot, Stanley Stavert, as a young man on his parent's farm in North Bedeque, was displaying an aptitude for making and repairing equipment. The early 1930's found him too working at Bruce Stewart & Company as a machinist. In 1934, the two young friends, each with valuable skills to contribute, struck out on their own and formed the manufacturing business Hall & Stavert. The Great Depression was on, and of course capital grants and other forms of government assistance that might now be available for new businesses were non-existent, so starting a business from scratch required pluck and determination. Stavert and Hall traveled first to Montreal and then to Toronto in January of 1934 to buy equipment for their new business, which they established on Lower Queen Street in Charlottetown. It is interesting to note that the building was set up in a manner like that of the Hall factory in Summerside - machinery on the ground floor, workshop on the second floor, with a third floor used for storage. A few years later, a foundry located on Pickard's Wharf was added to the business. Equipment for farmers was from the first an important part of their business. Plough parts, farm conveyors, parts for potato harvesters and potato handling equipment, and water pumps were all produced by Hall & Stavert. |
The business also produced the Hallmore Tractor attachment in the late
1930's through the early 1940's. This piece of equipment converted a car
into a farm tractor. A tractor of this type may be seen in a home movie
from the 1930's found on the Internet
Here
Harold Hall died in 1942, but the business he helped establish continues today. Stanley Stavert carried on the business, later with other partners, and in later years his sons James and William joined him in the business. Hall & Stavert adapted to new opportunities and today specializes in the manufacture of marine propellers with markets in many countries around the world. Although ownership of Hall & Stavert was passed on to The Michigan Wheel Corporation of Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1996, Stanley Stavert maintained a keen interest in the activities of the company right up until his death in July, 2007 at the age of 103. I want to thank James Stavert and Dr. Tom Hall for information and the picture used in this article. 
Conveyor from the 1950's, shown in front of the Hall & Stavert plant at 49 Pownal Street The Agricultural Heritage Newsletter is an informal newsletter published electrically with the assistance of The Community Foundation of Prince Edward Island and edited by Charley Coles, Don Glendenning, and Tom Hall. Feel free to forward it to a friend. To be added to or removed from the mailing list, or to suggest ideas for future newsletters, please contact charlescoles@eastlink.ca |