by Paul Morden for the Sarnia Observer
(2014) Joe Dagan believed Sarnia should be a city.
As an alderman in the early 1900s, he urged town council to push for the growth needed to make that happen. As mayor, he led the celebrations in 1914 when the Duke of Connaught, the third son of Queen Victoria and then Governor-General of Canada, came to officially proclaim its newly-granted city status.
Born in 1859 in Port Hope, his family moved to St. Marys where Dagan grew up. He married a girl from that community and in 1895 moved to Sarnia and set up shop as a tailor.
Dagan joined town council as an alderman in 1906 and continued to serve through several terms. It was while he was an alderman that Dagan urged council to give Decatur, Illinois-based Mueller Manufacturing $30,000 to set up shop in Sarnia.
In those days, a town needed 10,000 residents to officially become a city and Sarnia was a few hundred short. According to Glen C. Phillips’ book, “Sarnia: a Picture History of the Imperial City,” Mueller began building the Sarnia plant in 1912 and production began in June of the following year. As part of its deal with the city, the brass works had to create 150 jobs. It worked, and by the time Dagan was elected mayor in 1914, the city’s population had climbed above 10,000.
Dagan is said to have not wasted any time calling on the provincial government to grant the town city status, and he welcomed the duke, and his daughter Princess Patricia, to Sarnia on May 7, 1914 for the official ceremony.
After the governor-general planted a ceremonial tree in Victoria Park, Dagan said, “In testimony to our loyalty to the King and Your Highness as his representative in Canada, and in the public expression of our affection and regard for all the members of your illustrious family, we have taken the liberty of selecting as a synonym for Sarnia the title of the Imperial City, thus linking the title of the reigning house of the Empire with our young city`s name.”
The mayor then watched as his granddaughter, Margaret Diver, presented a bouquet of flowers to the princess.
The celebration had drawn large crowds to Sarnia to see the royals and take in the parades and speeches. Years later, The Observer said Dagan “was largely responsible for the success of the event.”
Dagan left political life for the following seven years, but returned to city council as an alderman in the 1920s. His tailoring business ran for 20 years in Sarnia and then in 1916 Dagan was appointed to the Department of National Revenue, working at the customs office at the St. Clair River railroad tunnel and at the ferry docks. “His genial manner made him extremely popular with the travelling public, and particularly the tourists,” The Observer said of Dagan.
His home was on Front Street, he attended Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church, and he was a member of the Order of Foresters.
After leaving council, Dagan joined the Sarnia Hydro Electric Commission, becoming its chairman in 1929. Dagan was still serving on the commission in April of the following year when, at the age of 71, he died of a heart attack.
“Mr. Dagan had been in apparent good health all day and his sudden passing came as a distinct shock to a wide circle of friends and to the residents of the city and the surrounding community,” The Observer said in a front-page story the next day. Earlier on the day of his death, Dagan had even been at work in his office at the railroad tunnel.
“Mr. Dagan gave freely of his time and energy to the cause of hydro in Sarnia, and his death will leave a gap in the public affairs of the city,” hydro manager J.E.B. Phelps told The Observer.