William Weber - Cabinet Maker
18 Well Street
Stratford, ON
1903

In October 1872 William Weber was born in Neustadt, Grey County, a village founded and settled by German immigrants, to John (Johann) Weber (1834-1916) and Elizabeth Gonder (also recorded as Gunther) (1839-1916). John and Elizabeth emigrated from Germany through New York in 1857 and were married in Waterloo County in 1858. William was the seventh of eleven children. John was listed as a labourer in the census of 1881 and a railway labourer with the Grand Trunk Railway in 1891.

On September 18, 1895 in Wiarton, Bruce County, William married Mary Ellen Phillips. Mary Ellen was born in Brant Township, Bruce County on August 12, 1869 to Stephen Phillips, a carpenter, and Elizabeth Maria Jasper, both born in Ontario.

William moved to Wiarton between 1891 and 1895. In 1891 he was listed as a carpenter working in Neustadt, and by 1895 he was listed as a cabinet maker working in Wiarton, which by this time had several large furniture manufacturing facilities and was the northern terminus of the Grand Trunk Railway. While living in Wiarton, William and Mary Ellen had two children: Clarence Garnet Lefroy (1896-1970) and Payson Seaman Earl (1898-1949).

By 1900 William was listed as a cabinet maker in Preston (currently part of Cambridge), another community that had a strong furniture-making industry. While in Preston they had another child, Elmer Stuart (1900-1973).

From 1903 to approximately 1907-1908 William was a superintendent at Globe-Wernicke Co. Ltd. in Stratford, one of the main furniture manufacturers in what was then a major centre for furniture. William and his family moved into their newly-built house at 18 Well Street by September 1903.

By 1911 they were living in Belleville, where William worked again as a cabinet maker in the town's furniture industry. While living in Belleville they had their last child, Beatrice Joy (1912-2007).

From 1912 until his death from septicemia on February 22, 1914, William worked as the superintendent at Evans Co. Ltd., a lumber/building supply business in Sudbury. William was buried with his parents in Wiarton.

It appears that Mary Ellen and her children moved to Toronto soon after William's death. In 1920 Mary Ellen married Thomas Marshall Jeffrey. She eventually ended up in Vancouver, possibly to live with one of her children, as three of them (Payson, Elmer, and Beatrice) ended up in British Columbia. She died in Vancouver in 1951. Clarence ended up in California.