Eight decades in business, a lifetime in Trenton: Eben James II remembered

Another member of Trenton’s old guard is gone.

Eben James II passed away earlier this month. He was 99.

The man who ran Trenton Cold Storage for almost eight decades piloted the company into one of Canada’s top cold chain logistics firms, handling and storing perishable goods.

Founded in 1902, Eben assumed the helm at 22 years of age upon the death of his father.

In turn, his son took the wheel from his dad in 2000.

James was more than a businessman. He was a member of Trenton City Council, publisher of The Trentonian, chaired the Chamber of Commerce, and revitalized Fraser Park in downtown Trenton. The park is named after his uncle, Senator Billy Fraser, the man credited with bringing CFB Trenton to the city.

Construction began in 1929 and the base officially opened in 1931.

He was an avid sailor and only stepped away from the helm at the age of 97.

But high-profile people like James usually hit some bumps along life’s highway.

James had a role in the Ontario and Canadian Food Processors Associations, and when Trenton Produce Processors went bankrupt decades ago, rightly or wrongly some area farmers blamed him for their losses.

But, James received an Ontario Centennial Award for contributions to the food industry, served more than 70 years in the Rotary service club, received the Volunteer of the Year Award, and the Queen’s Gold and Diamond Jubilee Medals, as well as the Quinte Business Achievement Award, among others.

His involvement with St. George Anglican Church landed him in controversy over the church graveyard. In the late 1990s, the City wanted to build a new water tower to service the west side. The proposed site gradually whittled down to an area that butted up against the cemetery on the south side on Second Dug Hill Road.

James took up the fight, claiming the project was an eye sore and that it was irreverent to the resting place of those buried next door.

The tower was eventually constructed.

You win some, you lose some.

It was no secret that the James family and another old Trenton family, represented by Gerald Weaver, had a feud going back decades.

When the new City Hall/library complex was set up, the City decided on establishing a much-needed swimming pool. Gerald’s son Stephen offered to donate $1 million toward the pool if his late father’s name was put at the entrance. It was to be constructed adjacent to the library.

Then mayor Bob Campney, a man in the James camp, scoffed at the idea, claiming the pool humidity would damage the library books. That was despite the fact It had been done successfully in other communities. The pool eventually became part of the YMCA complex in the northeast end of the city.

Back in the 1980s, a marina project was proposed on land owned by James.

A certain Trentonian editorial staffer came out in a column against the idea, and his words were like anchors to the project, which was then scrapped.

“Stopped,” James said, “by a goddamned sports editor.”

But James lived to see the Trent Port Marina eventually get constructed. It sits on the James family land, leased the to the city at $2 a year. The lease runs to 2039, with an option to renew it for an additional 25 years.

Although the marina chalks up a substantial annual deficit that is carried by taxpayers, it is a magnificent site that could not have been built without the James family’s generous donation of the waterfront land.