[herrington] first LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO 229 



The latter soon formed a new partnership with George Lott, which 

 lasted for twenty years, and the saw mills were soon busier than ever 

 under the management of the new firm of Stevenson & Lott. The 

 junior member was just the man to take charge of the shantying and 

 river driving end of the business. He was small in stature with a 

 piping voice but absolutely fearless and perfectly at home in handling 

 both oxen and men and when he gave an order it was done in such a 

 way that those to whom it was addressed asked no questions but pro- 

 ceeded to execute it. 



The senior partner acted as financial agent, and exercised a gen- 

 eral supervision over the mills and marketed the product. In reviewing 

 a mass of correspondence, carried on between him and the Crown 

 Timber Office and the various firms with which they dealt, the writer 

 was impressed with his keen business methods and his evident ability 

 to hold his own in any negotiations in which he was involved. 



The details of this business were sufficient, one would think, to 

 occupy the time of a man of ordinary business capacity; but it is quite 

 evident that he did not belong to that class. Shortly after he left 

 Bath we find him negotiating with the Cartwright estate for the lease 

 of a flour mill in Napanee and in a few months he was soliciting the 

 grists from the surrounding country and doing all manner of custom 

 grinding.^ 



As soon as his partner Lott was seated securely in the saddle and 

 had demonstrated that he could relieve his senior partner of all re- 

 sponsibility in connection with the cutting and driving of the logs, 

 Mr. Stevenson thought he could safely embark in another line. He 

 opened a new general store in Napanee and was to a certain extent a 

 rival to his old partner at Newburgh. This return to the first business 

 in which he engaged when a young man perhaps suggested to him that 

 he again put into practice the knowledge acquired in another line 

 while in Bath. The shipping industry was assuming large proportions 

 in Napanee and he saw no reason why he should not enjoy a portion 

 of it; so it was taken up in conjunction with his other lines and proved 

 to be very profitable. So profitable indeed was the chartering of ships 

 that he went one step further and built and launched upon the Napanee 

 river the schooner John Stevenson. Laden with the products of his 

 own mills and such other freight as could be obtained at the bay ports, 



1 Napanee had long been famous for its flour. In 1786 the Government erected 

 at the Appanee Falls the second grist mill built in what is now the province of On- 

 tario. So celebrated did this mill become that in the Indian tongue the word Ap- 

 panee lost its original signification and took on the secondary meaning, flour. The 

 Honorable Richard Cartwright purchased the site of the town of Napanee from the 

 Government in 1792 and the mills and waterpower remained in the family until 1911, 

 when they were sold to the Seymour Power Company. 



