More Davis Tannery Documents

Specifically, rail-related documents pertainng to rail shipments to and from the Davis Tannery. I was pleased to see these records as part of the Queen's University Archives Davis Tannery Fonds. More than 70 years old, they are a tangible record of some of the rail traffic on CN's spur to the tannery. CN boxcar 429566 was loaded on CP with 41,000 pounds of cow hides on February 4, 1948 for furtherance to Kingston. The shipment originated at Eudore Fournier et Fils raw hides in Plessisville/Three Rivers, QC:

Fournier's bill of sale and other documents were together in this file:

This hide report was likely made upon unloading the car on February 11, 1948:

Another tabulation of the car's contents, perhaps a rough tally:

Documents pertaining to another shipment, this one in CP 173538 also originating Fournier's but recorded by brokers Central Hide & Skin in Montreal on September 28, 1949:

The Davis hide report for the car, unloaded at Kingston on October 4, 1949:

 

Similar documents showed the following cars and dates:

• CP 116172 on October 15, 1947 with 42,100 pounds of green hides
• CP 180494 on Aubust 16, 1949 with 42,800 pounds
• CP 183805 on September 27, 1951 with 46,000 pounds
• CP 178127 on June 12, 1951 with 48,000 pounds
• CN 408054 on Februar 16, 1951 with 47,500 pounds.

Usually, boxcars in hide service were older cars, not cleaned and only a cut above coal service. A production flowchart (see full flowchart - bottom of post) for the tannery included this graphic of hides arriving by CN boxcar (post-1961, note the artistic version of the CN multimark) or truck:

The only other railcar shown on this 196x document is the fleshing car, shown as an open gondola car:

Fleshing removed material from the flesh side of the hide by soaking and liming. This could be dirt or actual flesh. This material was shipped out by gondola car, to an unknown (to me) destination. Photographed as part of a January, 1966 tannery waste dispoal report, CN gondola CN 141677 is being loaded by means of a chute from the tannery building:

Another gondolas is shown outside the tannery fence:

It's likely that the majority of inbound materials and outbound finished product were shipped by rail. A 1938 letter mentions "giving the CPR a considerable amount of business from the Kingston plant in the matter of freight to England, as well as incoming freight business to the plant". Until, at least, the advent of road transportation and construction of Highway 401, likely steadily eating away at the tannery's rail traffic through the 1950's and 1960's. 

In 1936, the tannery was receiving: glycerin from Colgate-Palmolive in Toronto; phenol crystals from Monsanto in Montreal; kid finishing oil from Kehew-Bradley in Boston, among others. In 1963, the tannery received carload quantities of soda ash and sodium bichromate and unloaded using 'gravity rollers'.

Some day I'll learn much, much more about tanning, but until then, here's a production flowchart intended to show every single possible path for hides passing through the Davis Tannery! (As always, click for a larger version).