Wills 1910 William death

OVER A CENTURY OLD

Inmate of Industrial Home Remembers the Building of the First Welland Canal

[Welland Telegraph, 8 March 1910]

              It is very seldom that The Telegraph records the death of a person over a century old, for so great an age is extremely unusual. William Wills, who died at the Home on Sunday, was 102 years old, and up to the 19^th of February was hale and vigorous. On that date he suffered a stroke, which ended in his death.

             He was probably the only man living who could relate from actual experience the story of the building of the first Welland Canal. That was an undertaking on which his father was engaged and the lad use to carry the father’s dinner. Even up to the time of his death he was fond of telling of the army of workmen with their adzes hewing out the sills for the old wooden locks.

             Mr. Wills lived in Thorold nearly all his life and his body was taken there for burial.

 Died: 6 March 1910