BEECHEY: The day a young hero died in Tillsonburg

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It was Oct. 22, 1877: the day a newly-made hero died.

Dewitt Clinton Armstrong was born in 1860, the child of immigrants from England who settled first in Lynedoch and then to Tillsonburg where his father was a pumpmaker.

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There were no teens back then. The goal of a child was to grow up as quickly as possible as to enjoy the opportunities and shoulder the responsibilities of an adult. At 14, Dewitt left childhood behind as he was now a young man, finished school and apprenticing at W.S. Law’s newspaper, The Tilsonburg Observer.

As a ‘printer’s devil’ (apprentice) Dewitt was doing the tedious work. In four years as a journeyman, he could do hand setting the type of individual letters and punctuation of every word, backwards while placing the sentences from right to left (mirrored printing). You really had to mind your ‘Ps and Qs’ for a p looks very much like a q when put in backwards! It took five to six hours to set a half page in a newspaper.

Dewitt worked long hard hours for two years, breaking up the columns of type for every page and cleaning each piece, sorting them by letter, font and size and returning back to its appropriate case. You wouldn’t want them ‘out of sorts’ for the next typesetters! I took about two hours per page ‘distributing’ the type.

Working for W.S. Law would have been a thrill, for they not only worked on the Observer but also printed books, handled stationary, sold musical instruments, fitted spectacles, and they were a tombstone and marble monument agency. And they had a lending library of 200 novels.

Dewitt would have also worked on Mr. Law’s imported English Wharfedale Press, powered by the first steam printing plant in the district.

On Friday, Oct 19, 1877, Dewitt got his name in the Tillsonburg Observer. “Sad Accident: On Monday last, while our steam press was being removed from the first, to a second floor, a derrick which was being employed in the hoisting fell and struck the writer of this, throwing him over to the roof of the adjoining building, at the same time, Dewitt Armstrong, who was employed in this office, fell or was knocked down by the falling derrick, his head striking up on a projection lug of the “fliers” of the press, which lay on the roof; this lug fractured his skull so badly above the left ear that his recovery is despaired of. How the poor boy got the blow that is likely to cause his death, not one of those present at the time can tell with certainty, as the position he occupied placed him in no danger. We can only surmise that when he saw the derrick falling and noticed the danger the writer of this was placed in, that he attempted to ward it off without thinking of that to himself. Drs. Joy and Moore are in attendance upon him but have no hopes of his ultimate recovery. Written by W.S. Law.”

Dewitt’s obituary was also written by Mr. Law. “Young Armstrong had worked in the Observer office for nearly two years and was one of the most faithful, civil and obliging youths that I have ever employed. During the whole course of his service with me, he never to my knowledge returned an impertinent answer, or hesitated to perform any work assigned to him; nor have I ever heard one word of complaint against him from any other employee. This cannot be said of many boys; and while his parents will miss and mourn for him, we also, and his companions in the printing office will miss his ready help and mourn for him sincerely.  I sincerely, believe that he sacrificed his life in endeavoring to save mine, for as I stated last week, I was the only person endangered by the fall of the derrick, and the kind-hearted boy, when he saw the derrick falling must have attempted to hold it up. Proof of this was afterward discovered when the body was examined – the inside of his right hand being torn and blistered by the rough scantling. I escaped with a slight injury, possibly owing to the sacrifice of this poor boy’s life, so that, next to an over-ruling Providence, I firmly believe that I owe my escape to the sacrifice made for me by Dewitt Armstrong. That he may have gone to a happier home, to dwell with Him who gave his life for us all, is the sincere prayer of Wm. S. Law.”