It was at that time, in 1859, that Jesse and the Duke learned what many Brampton developers would later discover, namely, a farmer is willing to sell a man a piece of land for one price if he thinks the man is going to use it for his own pleasure, but he will only sell it for a much higher price if he knows the man is going to develop it for use by others. Upon learning that the land he had committed to sell was to be further severed and resold, the indolent farmer became incensed. He railed at the Duke and Jesse about the history of the land: how it had been provisionally acquired by his parents from the Crown; how they had cleared the primeval forests from it within the mandatory period, thereby earning full title to it; how it had been plowed, seeded, and harvested every year since then, with back-breaking effort; how he could not part with it for less than its full worth; how embarrassing it would be to do so.
He threatened to walk away from his agreement to sell the land. Jesse and the Duke tried to reason with him. The farmer’s parents had not paid anything for the land, and neither had he. Over most of the past three decades, the land, when combined with the other lots acquired by his parents, had been highly productive and had garnered a good income for his family. He and the Duke had previously agreed on the price; surely that represented its worth. The Duke would sell it for more than the cost of the land and its improvement, but that was to compensate him and Jesse for the risk in undertaking those improvements.
No amount of reasoning on the part of Jesse and the Duke could convince the obstinate farmer. In the end, Jesse and the Duke agreed to pay him five percent of the profits from the resold houses rather than sue him to enforce the original bargain. Jesse revised his budget. Another five percent would have to be added to the ultimate sale price for the finished lots—for this “anti-embarrassment” tax, like many other taxes that would apply in the future, was certainly not going to be borne by the developer.
With the land acquired, the labourers assembled, and the supplies being delivered, the next challenge for Jesse was to actually sell the houses, which he was building entirely on speculation. He wanted the houses to be purchased long before the construction was complete; early enough in the process to reduce the financial risk but late enough to prevent demands for customization of the houses. He knew from his work with Nelson and his father before him that customization drove up the costs and slowed down completion. He had no competition for the sale of houses of this nature, and so he did not need to meet that kind of customer demand.
Jesse need not have been concerned that the houses would be purchased too early in the process. Though many people expressed interest in the houses while they were being built, people were not willing to complete a purchase at that early stage, despite Jesse’s detailed drawings. It was only as the houses were nearly framed on the outside that Jesse received his first offer. He thought the offer marked the turning point in the project. That was not the case, however, as the buyer’s wife took one look at the closely situated homes and decided then and there to return to England. Reluctantly, the man reneged on the contract, and leaving Jesse with the deposit, he returned to England with his wife and family. The experience behind him, Jesse put the lot back on the market with the others and mentally jacked up the price of each by a further five percent. More than ever, Jesse realized the risk for which he needed to be compensated.
A third setback occurred just as the lath on the inside walls was about to be applied. This was a setback of a different sort. It was a personal circumstance that necessitated a two-month leave of absence. Each day the Duke walked to the building site to view Jesse’s progress. One day, while the Duke was conducting his daily inspection, Jesse’s landlady, the tanner’s wife, came to the site bearing an envelope. Jesse did not demand or expect any such personal delivery, but his landlady was a curious woman who took any opportunity she could to see if the project of her favourite tenant really was as outlandish as her husband’s customers said it was.
Even if she had not been in the habit of regularly visiting the site on the pretence of delivering correspondence, she would have done so on this occasion, for though the letter she was carrying had been mailed from England and was written in a feminine script, it was not written by the hand that wrote monthly to Jesse. She feared that this letter, which was light in weight, was written by Jesse’s sister, because their mother had been rendered unable to write it herself. Indeed, Jesse’s thoughts were likewise when he took the flimsy correspondence from her. Turning away from the Duke and the tanner’s wife, Jesse opened the letter and silently read the ten words written on it.
He took a deep breath before turning back to the Duke and the landlady. With tears in his eyes, he slowly explained the situation. Although Jesse thought he should defer the trip until the project was complete, the Duke and the tanner’s wife—both staunch family people—felt he needed to leave immediately. In a short time, their view prevailed. Jesse searched the four houses, found Cowan, his best man on the site, deputized him to oversee the completion of the houses, apologized to the Duke, and left.
When Jesse returned to Brampton two months later, he was delighted to see all four houses complete. Covered in roughcast, they were a long way from the brick Gothic Revival homes he dreamed of building, but architecturally they were an improvement over what was previously available to all but the wealthiest in Brampton. While none of the houses had a verandah, each had a covered porch. Each had a second storey, adding to the front of the house two windows immediately above those below. Small, peaked roofs had been added to each house, as had windows and gables. The upper roof line of each house was trimmed with gingerbread.
As Jesse stood on the street, admiring the houses, the Duke approached him with news he was sure would dampen Jesse’s spirits. The first related to Cowan, the man appointed by Jesse to oversee the construction in Jesse’s absence. He had so enjoyed the responsibility that once the project was complete, he formed a partnership with another businessman. Cowan was about to build six houses on a lot, all in the same method and style as those built by Jesse. The Duke was infuriated that Cowan would so unabashedly steal Jesse’s concepts. Jesse, however, took the opposite view, and soon the Duke, who was equally confident in the future of their little village, agreed that there could not be too many houses being built.
In any event, Jesse was about to embark on a number of new projects. His innovative work on the four houses had captured the attention of a number of people wishing to build new homes. They were custom homes—but they were homes that Jesse designed. Though few customers were yet willing to incorporate the towers, turrets, and verandahs he longed to include, they were willing to incorporate new architectural detail. He could build for them houses with less symmetrical features and with multi-roofed lines, with bay windows and jutting doorways. He could move away from roughcast plaster and wood siding. Finally, he would be working again with brick. He hoped that these projects would grant him the prestige and reputation needed to build the churches and other institutions required to support the growing village. With sufficient capital in hand, he could then construct the larger developments of which he dreamed.
The second piece of bad news related to one of the four houses in their nearly complete subdivision. Cowan, the Duke reported, had performed well as a supervisor, but one of the other workers, Billy Judge, resentful at not having been selected for the overseer’s responsibility himself, created a great deal of trouble. To keep Judge from poisoning the working environment for all of the other workers, Cowan and the Duke relegated him to a single house. They both regretted not sacking him from the project altogether, because the work inside that one house was not complete, and what was finished was not up to the standards that either Cowan or the Duke found acceptable. Jesse was similarly calm upon receiving this news. He told the Duke he would take that house and finish or refinish it himself over time. The Duke embraced his young friend. They agreed it was time for Jesse to have a family home of his own.
* * *
Over the course of Grandpa’s story, the storm ended. The wind dissipated, and the deluge of rain was reduced to a fine mist. Looking down the street, I could see four wet and bedraggled figures approaching us. Father and Ina were in front, he on the side closest to the street, his hand firmly