Elizabeth Hall
A Walk Through History
Around 1840, a cotton manufacturer from Dublin, Ireland, moved to Sophiasburgh, Prince Edward County, but eventually relocated to Richmond Township. His name was Dennis Daly, and 10 years after he immigrated to Canada, around 1851, he entered the tea trade, as a way of supplementing the family’s income. He started by selling produce at the market in Montreal, and on his way back home he bought chests of fresh tea to sell to farmers in the area. He had five children: Edward, Charles, Denis, George, and their daughter Eliza. When Dennis passed away in 1855, his sons Edward and Denis Daly Jr. established an importing business in Napanee.
In the 1890’s, Edward moved to London, Ontario to establish his own company called E. Daly and Company Teas. When the partnership was dissolved, the Napanee branch was taken over by Denis Daly Jr. When this happened, three brother’s named Herbert Daly, William A Daly, and John Gaele Daly were taken into the business, and eventually bought it a few years later. As demand for their tea grew, the company had to move into a larger warehouse in 1921, which was formerly Boyle and Sons Hardware and J.C. Huffman’s Drugstore.
The tea company imported green teas from Ceylon (now called Sri Lanka) and a variety of black teas from India, such as Pekoe Black Tea. The tea arrived by rail in 40, 60, and 576 Ib. cartons.
It was mixed into various blends and resold in ¼ lb., 1/2 lb., and 1 lb. packages. It was also available directly to grocers in 30 lb. cartons. The tea was tasted using tea tasting wares for quality before being packaged, as they prided themselves on meeting the high quality standards of the industry. The tea was kept in a warehouse and distributed locally by horse teams, and at the height of their demand the company maintained at least horse and wagon teams to distribute the tea. Advertisements from the time described the tea as a comfort of home: “Drink a cup of good tea, nothing adds so much to the comforts of the home, and the cost is very little.” People enjoyed the tea so much that local businesses advertised it in their shop windows. Sales regions expanded to larger portions of Ontario and Western Canada, and they also began to sell coffee imported from Chase and Sanborn. But by the 1930’s, blends of prepackaged teas were becoming more popular, and the company faced stiff competition. During WW II the distribution of shipping lanes was also cut off, which complicated matters further, it limited supplies, and rationing limited the spending power of consumers.
Random History Fact: Dentures were once made from the teeth of dead soldiers.