While there he contracted a very serious case of typhoid fever but managed to get to his parents’ home at 71 Murray Street, Newark, New Jersey. His mother [Mary Anna Werkheiser Conrad] and a practical nurse friend of hers, Kate Colbath of Easton, Pennsylvania, worked as an around-the-clock team and brought George safely through this illness. For this, George’s parents were well repaid, as he always saw that they were properly provided for.
After that, George operated for a couple of years as an independent millwork contractor in Newark, New Jersey. He gave this up and joined a lumber and millwork company in Norwich, New York. There he became a member of the Masonic fraternity and never transferred his membership to any other lodge. Years later I visited in his lodge.
Leaving Norwich, George took a position as manager of the millwork division and factory of The W. C. Edwards Co., Ltd., at Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. William Cameron Edwards was a follower of Canadian Prime Minister Sir Wilfred Laurier, a lifetime Senator and a very influential person. His holdings and operations were from forest to delivery of its products to the building site from his New Edinburgh Mills at Ottawa. George Conrad was entrusted with every phase of the Edwards millwork division.
He brought to Ottawa from Norwich, New York, three very able assistants: Simon Devilla (Dick) May, whom he made factory superintendent; Arthur Legnard, and Jude Merritt, whom he made section foremen. He also had an Englishman and several Canadians on his supervisory team which all worked out very harmoniously. Aside from Dick May, Uncle George’s closest working associate at Ottawa was U. E. LaBelle, a French Canadian who was an expert on listing shop work from building plans.
Into this situation, Uncle George invited me, and on April 8, 1913 [at age 19], I accompanied him to Ottawa and was hired by Dick May to work in the door manufacturing section at the New Edinburgh Mills. After learning that, I was transferred to sash and, when the opening occurred, was made shipping clerk, in which I had had experience before leaving Newark. Uncle George’s chief office clerk, Walter Idington (son of a Canadian supreme court justice) quit to join the army, as World War I was then on, and I succeeded to his job.
I was with Uncle George in Ottawa from April, 1913, to April, 1917. I know he watched me and also my close pal and contemporary--Oscar Desjardins-- who also worked in his office, but he gave us free rein to make our own decisions and still was ever ready to help both of us with his advice. He encouraged both of us to attend the Ottawa Collegiate Institute to study architecture, which was of great benefit to us both in our careers. I always kept in touch with Oscar Desjardins until his death in 1961 and he revered Uncle George much as I do.
George Washington Conrad
1876 - 1957
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