Doug Grant
This the ferry which ran for many years between Brockville and Morristown. It was named after one of Brockville’s foremost war heroes, a native son and former Brockville lawyer, Lt.-Col. Elmer Watson Jones (ca.1874 1918). Elmer Jones was a partner in the Vancouver law firm of Macdonell, Henderson & Jones when the Great War broke out in 1915. He had moved to Vancouver in 1906. He, in 1907, married Isobel Macintosh, the daughter of C.H. Macintosh, the former Lt. Gov. of the Yukon. He went overseas with the 21st Canadian Battalion in 1915, as a company commander. By 1918 he had become Lt. Col. of the 21st Battalion. That was the year he was badly wounded at Zwishen Stellung. Following his recovery, King George V presented him personally at Buckingham Palace with the Distinguished Service Order (D.S.O.). A month later, on August 8, 1918, he was fatally shot and died during the advance at Amiens. Ferry service was provided across the river for decades. Two of the earlier boats that performed this service were the
H.P. Bigelow and the John Webster. The ferry shown here came into service in 1926. It was built in Groton, Conn., and sold to the Brockville & Morristown Transportation Co. chose to honour Elmer W. Jones by naming it after him. In the picture, it is loaded and waiting to ship out from the dock at the bottom of Ferry St., near the CPR docks and the Brockville Rowing Club. It was a double-ended vessel, 130 feet long by 42 feet wide. It could load up to 25 cars. Besides cars, it was equipped for passengers in all weather with its two enclosed heated cabins. In about 1929 the point of departure in Brockville was moved to Mathen’s Bay at the bottom of Home Street. In 1942 the was taken out of service and used by the U.S. Navy at Norfolk, VA for three and a half years. In that period another boat named the “ ” was used. The “Jones” was returned here in 1946 and carried on until competition from the new bridge in the 1950s cut into business.
These articles can now be found online in a new Web Site: The Doug Grant Building -http://doug-grant.weebly.com/ © copyright -
September 2009
Source: The photo above was originally loaned to me by the late Jim Burns, before he passed away.