The Niagara Lawn Tennis Club had no public land nor public facilities, so its operations were conducted on the courts at Queen’s Royal Hotel and on the courts located at private homes throughout the Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake.

One such private home was known as the Plumb House, located on King Street where today is Parliament Oak School.  The owner of the home was Josiah Plumb, who was at the time of his death in Niagara-on-the-Lake the Speaker of the Canadian Senate.  Learning about him helps us understand the overall setting for tennis in Niagara-on-the-Lake during the 1880s and 1890s, including the close connections across the Canada/USA border and the high social profile of many Niagara-on-the-Lake residents. The online publication Parliament of Canada, includes this brief biography:

Josiah Plumb immigrated to Canada from New York State in 1865 at the age of 49. His Canadian-born wife, Elizabeth, was the daughter of a United Empire Loyalist and sister of Thomas Clark Street, who was both a member of the House of Commons and one of the wealthiest men in Ontario. Plumb had been a successful banker and railway entrepreneur in the United States. After the American Civil War, he retired from business and settled in the Niagara Falls area.

Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald became aware of Plumb’s connections and business acumen, and encouraged him to run for a seat in the House of Commons. He was successful in by-elections in December 1874 and March 1879. Three years later he was defeated, however, and Macdonald nominated him for appointment to the Senate in 1883. A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography noted that, as a senator, Plumb was “distinguished by his urbanity and judicial rectitude.”

Prime Minister Macdonald appointed Plumb as Speaker in 1887 to replace William Miller. Less than a year later Plumb died suddenly.

Plumb’s New York Times obituary said that he “was popular because of his Parliamentary experience, his fluency in speech, his conceded ability, and his faculty as an entertainer in the social life of which he was so prominent a figure.”