Charles Grant Augustine, son of George and Barbara Augustine, was born Jan 4, 1887 on Mitchell St., Port Colborne, Ont. He attended Central School in Port Colborne. He worked in the planing mill but decided to learn the machinist trade. He served his apprenticeship in Buffalo. He worked for many years at Beatties in Welland. One slack time in the twenties, he was in the planing mill, noticed the jointer beds were not flat. It had been in the 1917 fir, but had been planed by F Woods and Sons. They had done a very bad job. He hand scraped those beds so they were flat. It worked like a new machine. I often told Darcy Woods "he should be shot for turning out such a bad job." One of our smoothing planes had dropped in the floor and cracked. He put a plane on the side and when it was finished you could not detect the break. It looked like a watchmaker's job.

He had a Mclaughlin Buick touring car and was very proud of it.

He lived with his parents until his father's death. He was very good to his parents, treated them well. He helped to build the smaller house for his parents. They decided to break up house. His mother went to live with her sons and daughters. He got a rooming house in Welland. Very often, he would walk from Welland to Port Colborne. He had his money invested in annuities, had lots to keep him and many extras. In later life, he had anemia and had to have blood transfusions often. These got him down. He was very independent. Would do anything for you but did not want to put anyone out to help him. He took his own life.

Somehow his set of tools got in the hands of Willis Beehler. When I visited their machine shop in New Hamburg, Ont., he showed me the tools. Charles had etched his name very beautifully on each tool. These tools got in the right hands.

© 1970 by William P. Augustine