The personal recollections and most of the images on this page have been provided by David A. Jefferies . If you'd like to contact him (to say thanks, perhaps?), click here. (The colour photographs are © n. w. sadler.)

Cameron C. Hillmer was often referred to as "Mr. Oakville". He was born, raised, attended Brantwood School, had homes and raised his family, ran several businesses, and died, essentially all within the Trafalgar - Chartwell area. If the Chisholm's owned much of Oakville, the Hillmer family, for whom Hillmer Park at the Canoe Club is named, ran the town. They owned the garbage dump, ran the public utilities, were the fire chief, ran the bus/transportation service, delivered ice and coal, and one brother served as Mayor for a period; so they provide an interesting background.

335 Spruce St - cWWI	Amy & Arthur Hillmer 335 Spruce, c1920	357 Trafalgar Road

Tuxedo Park (a "survey" - i.e. subdivision - created in 1910) was that area bounded by about Reynolds to Watson and MacDonald to Cornwall named, I suppose, for it's more affluent New York cousin. Amy and Arthur Hillmer, having built their home in the area at 335 Spruce Street, appear to have taken great care to make reference to it in a Christmas Card sent immediately after the birth of their only son, Cameron Coote Hillmer, in 1913. (Note the absence of trees in the neighbourhood when Tuxedo Park was first constructed, vs. 335 Spruce today.)

I think Cameron was born at his aunt's home on the corner of MacDonald and Trafalgar - 357 Trafalgar, where his parents were married (on Thurs. Nov. 13, 1911) as reported in this local newspaper announcement.

In the 1930's CC Hillmer left home to study commerce at Queen's University and returned to take a position with Burroughs Business Machines in London, Ontario. He served in the war and got an early discharge. He thereupon returned to Oakville with his wife Margaret and took over the Hillmer Fuel and Ice Company. He and Margaret had a home designed by B.E.T. Ellis and built in 1944-45 at 405 Sheddon Avenue. I am in possession of the construction receipts for this building. CCH remained an avid active alumni of Queen's University, as indicated by the photo of 405 Sheddon decorated in Queen's colours (circa 1950-50's) by neighbours following a victory by the Queen's Golden Gales Football Team.

405 Sheddon Avenue Decorated to Celebrate a Queen's Victory		Cameron, Margaret & Alex at 405 Sheddon

Cameron Hillmer moved from 405 Sheddon to 429 MacDonald where the family was raised and his mother Amy lived over the garage in an apartment. It was estimated that he would spend in the range of $1000 per month on entertainment in the 1960's and appeared as one of the wealthiest people in the area. I worked for him as a student during this time doing ice and the last of the coal deliveries in town, managing the coal yard on weekends and assisting in his unsuccessful temporary office staffing service. My important job was delivering ice for the next Oakville party he'd be attending on Saturday night. Needless to say with a dying coal, ice, fuel oil business that he inherited from his father Arthur, the money was going fast.

He then moved for a period of time to Maple Grove Drive, but his marriage was deteriorating and shortly after his wife left for an old boyfriend in Australia, he moved into the Allan Street Apartments where he remarried. He attempted to be a government business consultant while in his sixties/seventies but was continually strapped for money. I would see him sitting in front of the old TD Bank (now Silkborg), where he had been a prominent customer, in a somewhat casual state. His second wife Thelma died and he was estranged from that family as well as his former wife who had returned to live in Guelph. His daughter Alex lived in Arizona. His son Cameron had suffered a mental breakdown and abandoned his family and Oakville law practice - Hillmer & Harris (previously located on Trafalgar Road just south of Cornwall) - and has not been seen since. CC Hillmer died alone at OTMH in the 1990s having lived virtually all his life in the Trafalgar-Chartwell area except for university and war years. See attached letter which I sent at the time of his death.