Octavius Hicks

Octavius Laing Hicks (27 January 1852 – 23 December 1930) was a prominent citizen of Humber Bay in Etobicoke Township.

[4] 'The Flotilla' carousel formed from a ring of miniature boats was installed at High Park in 1894.

[6] In 1918, his boat livery became involved in legal dispute with the Toronto Board of Harbor Commissioners.

[7][8] Hicks took the matter to court but lost quickly because "the limits were set by the Department of Marine and Fisheries at Ottawa, and were not merely plan of the commissioners.

Most ambitious was when he joined with John Duck (Wimbledon House), Charles Nurse (Nurse's Hotel) and the brewer Eugene O'Keefe to form the Humber Steam Ferry Co. For several years, this company operated two ships to carry excursionists from Toronto to the owners' hotels at the Humber River.

He claimed that Nurse had improperly fenced in part of public right of way south of the Lakeshore Road.

The boat factory was located on the north side of Lakeshore Road to the west of the Humber Beach Hotel.

The firm also did more mundane work such as building a cinder path for bicyclists,[16] earth moving,[17] pile driving, and sand blasting.

[21] Two innovative techniques were used in construction of the bridge: "the rods were given considerable tension before the concrete was poured by an ingenious device of the contractor";[21] ice bags were left overnight on the fresh concrete so that courses poured on successive days would bond properly.

[21] In 1909, he received a contract from Vaughan Municipal Council to build a reinforced concrete bridge over the Humber River between Purpleville and Kleinburg.

The arch bridge over the Holland River at Newmarket was built by Hicks and designed by Frank Barber.

Hick's solution was to sink square concrete shells through twenty feet of sand.

[19] In 1906, he did the concrete work for the Toronto and York Radial Railway bridge over Etobicoke Creek.

[26][23]Some contractors considered him to be a bold and luck speculator (for instance, in his contract on the Mimico abutments mentioned above.)

The couple sailed their own cabin cruiser, Visitant, to Kingston and continued via steamer without any rail travel.