A little music, please - Glimpses of the Past with Karen Webster

At one time, Wingham was known as the “Furniture Town of Canada”. The area was a source of good timber and there was a workforce that excelled in furniture manufacturing. One such factory that upheld this tradition was the Gunn Company that manufactured phonographs.  

 

On this property, other manufacturers had also plied their trade: Standard Furniture (bedroom suites and dining room furniture) as well as Walker and Clegg (fine upholstered furniture and mattresses). It was during the tenure of Walker and Clegg in 1914 that a four-storey, 188-by-80-foot factory was built. The furniture business seemed to run in a cyclical pattern with its ups and downs. When the building had stood empty for two years, in 1920, the town of Wingham offered William Alexander Gunn, a manufacturer of phonographs from Saginaw, Michigan, inducements of loans and interest-free periods to relocate. He asked for a loan of $10,000 for seven years at no interest and a fixed assessment of the same amount with no exemption of taxes. There was a vote in the town and, in the fall of 1920, the deal was approved.

 

William A. Gunn had been born near Woodstock, Ontario in 1857, the son of a farmer. He married Mary Fox and three of their children were born in Canada. When the family relocated to Michigan in 1884, William’s profession was stated as a piano salesman. Son, Carlyle, was born in Michigan.

 

On Oct. 14, 1920, 40 of the local businessmen hosted a banquet to welcome Gunn to town. Those assembled were able to hear two songs played on one of Gunn’s phonographs. He reported that he had laid out $30,000 thus far in building improvements, equipment and materials. Gunn had also purchased two houses opposite the factory for some of his workers.

 

Working with William Gunn were his brother, two sons and two sons-in-laws.

 

A grand open house was held on Saturday, April 9, 1921 and everyone was invited to visit the factory showrooms. A 10 per cent reduction was offered on opening day on phonographs selling for $135 to $400. The cabinets were made of oak, mahogany or walnut. The prices charged would have made these products luxury items.

 

By 1922, Gunn formed Gunn-Son-Ola. This company was incorporated with a capital amount of $150,000. The directors were William and Carlyle Gunn, manufacturers of Wingham, William Wesley Gunn (William Alexander’s son) music dealer of Detroit, Walter James, automobile dealer, of Flint, Michigan and Bert Ferris, hardware merchant of Freeland, Michigan. Gunn-Son-Ola was to manufacture organs, gramophones, pianos and other musical instruments and take over the business carried on by William Gunn in Wingham together with his plant.  Other furniture items, such as small writing desks, were included in the product line.
In 1926, after being plagued with diabetes for a few years, even though insulin had been discovered in 1921, William Gunn had been unwell for several weeks but had continued his duties at the factory. He passed away suddenly on Nov. 10 at his home on Francis Street. Left to mourn his passing were his wife, Mary, two sons and two daughters. After a funeral service in Wingham, he was interred at a Saginaw cemetery. His son, Carlyle, took over the reins of the company.

 

By 1927, radios were increasing in popularity and sales for phonographs were declining.  The company pivoted and began manufacturing radio cabinets as well as toilet seats.  In 1928, an order was received for 500 radio cabinets and, by the next year, the factory was operating 24 hours a day with 115 men being employed. Of this number, 20 men were on the night shift making toilet seats.

 

An unfortunate incident occurred at the factory in late January of 1929 when William Bolt, an employee, was operating a rip saw the board flew off the machine, striking him in the abdomen. He later died of his injuries.

 

The October 1929 stock market crash affected the Gunn-Son-Ola company almost immediately. Orders were cancelled and many products already manufactured were not shipped out. A buyer for the business was sought, but in those tough economic times, no one was buying. A sale was held for radio and phonograph cabinets still in stock and the lovely wooden pieces that previously commanded large prices were sold for as little as $2 each. The company declared bankruptcy.

 

Carlyle Gunn returned to Saginaw after the Brown Brothers, Abraham and Moses, purchased the factory in 1931. They continued a business there for a few years but, eventually, they too shut down.

 

The building sat empty for a long while until it was eventually demolished and, in 2026, the Alfred Street apartments occupy the land that once housed the Gunn-Son-Ola factory.

 

And thus, another chapter in the story of Wingham, a town that was synonymous with fine furniture manufacturing, was ended.