Dial close up

Dial close-up of jewelers name, closer examination reveals that this watch is not double sunk.

Illinois watch is cased in a Keystone Coin Silver key wind case

Case key wind cover

Closer examination reveals the watch owners name "R. White"

photo of case and movement

Close-up of movement

Located in the southwestern Ontario, Palmerston had an early railway history. In 1871 a railway station on the mainline of the Wellington, Grey and Southampton provided the nucleus where the community was developed around. In 1874, a branch line to Listowl was completed and a post office called Palmerston named after the celebrated English statesman Lord Palmerston was open. Palmerston became a key divisional point on the Grand Trunk Railway, when they bought the railway in 1900 and later the Canadian National Railways in 1918. A photo of Palmerston's railway station today

Part of six, subdivisions, including Owen Sound, Kincardine, Durham, Fergus, Guelph junction and Stratford. It was a busy terminal in 1959 when steam locomotives were replaced by diesel locomotives, the roundhouse, turntable, and coal sheds were torn down and removed. In 1970, the last passenger train left the station. Palmerston remained an active freight terminal until the mid-1980s when the CNR requested the right to abandon the railway line through Palmerston, the station closed in 1982, and the track was torn up, in 1996. In my railway map Of Eastern Lines, you can see, Toronto, on the right-hand side, Palmerston, 90 miles to the west, below it on the bottom of the map is Stratford, Fergus is situated 28 miles east towards Toronto, Guelph Junction is 41 miles southeast of Palmerston, Durham is 30 miles north of Palmerston and Owen Sound, on the water of Georgian Bay and is 28 miles north of Durham

Elgin 18 size, 23 jewel, Grade 214, Model Veritas Serial No. 10859452 Manufactured 1903 Canadian private-label, double sunk, 24 hour dial marked M. Bilsky & Son, Ottawa, Ont. yellow gold filled screw back and bezel Philadelphia 20 year case.

Dial has one chip, and gilt secondhand that I will have to change.

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Veritas movement close up

Case back

Case trademark

Ottawa, Ontario is our nation's capital, and has been since our Confederation in 1867. It is strategically located on the Ottawa River and was part of Upper Canada, across the river was Lower Canada that is now the province of Québec and included Labrador and Newfoundland. The other maritime provinces were New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. After Confederation, Manitoba became a province on July 15, 1870. British Columbia on the West Coast joined Canada on July 20, 1871. This was under the condition that the federal government built a railway connecting, British Columbia, to the railway system of Canada within 10 years of the union. The railway was built, but it took 14 years, when the last spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway was driven at Craigellachie west of Revelstoke, British Columbia on November 7, 1885. Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces on September 1, 1905, and Newfoundland joined on March 31, 1949.

Photo of Ottawa's Parliament building with the Peace Tower and clock in the middle.

One of Canada's most historical photos shows Donald Smith, Lord Strathcona driving the last spike of the CPR, the portly man behind him is William Cornelius Van Horne President of the CPR born in Illinois in 1843 he began his career working for railroads. At the age of 14 he began working in various capacities on the Illinois Central Railroad until 1864. He then went to work for the Chicago and Alton railway for whom he served as the general superintendent from 1878-1879. In 1882 he was appointed general manager of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Beside him the tall man with the white whiskers and top hat is Sir Sandford Fleming, a Scottish inventor and engineer who surveyed a route to the Pacific coast going through Prince Rupert, British Columbia, it was an ideal route and use later by the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, but the CPR wanted to build closer to the border on the 49th parallel. Sir Sandford Fleming also invented the of Worldwide Standard Time with time zones from Greenwich in England, there was resistance to his system. But by 1929. All of the major countries of the world had adopted time zones. He designed Canada's first postage stamp, and did maps and surveyed Canada's intercolonial Railway, and parts of the CPR. He was a founding member Royal Society of Canada, and the founder of the Royal Canadian Institute, a science organization in Toronto.

In the summer of 1978 I used my CPR long service pass to take The Canadian passenger train from Calgary to Montréal, Québec, where I stayed for 10 days, it's a long journey, taking three days and two nights, going through the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec, a distance of 2240.2 miles. When the train arrived at Sudbury, Ontario. It was switched out into two trains one went southeast to Toronto, Ontario, and our train went from Sudbury down the Ottawa Valley to Ottawa a distance of 326.3 miles A Railway map of Eastern Lines showing Ottawa, Ontario to Montréal, Québec, a distance of 111.3 miles, where we arrived at Windsor Station the CPR's corporate headquarters. While I was there I made a side trip back to Ottawa for three days, taking a Canadian National Railways passenger train.

Railway Map Ottawa to Montréal, Québec

Seth Thomas 18 size, 17 jewel, Serial No. 230431 Manufactured 1899 Canadian private label dial and movement, Single sunk radial Arabic and 24 hour, in black and red lettering marked F. Callowhill, Hamilton (Ontario), lever set movement inscribed Callowhill's Special, two-tone, damaskeening, Adjusted. Cased in a silveroid case with a yellow gold filled crown.

Dial with bezel off showing setting lever

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