Eli Hyman: Millionaire Ragpicker

    Eli Hyman was Jewish in a time when most of Toronto’s small Jewish population eked out a living in the poverty-stricken area just south of Old City Hall, called The Ward. In fact, when he first appeared in Toronto, about twenty five years earlier, he was one of the very first Jews to call the city home. He maintained a slight connection to the new Holy Blossom Temple on Bathurst, occasionally assisting with morning and evening services. When the staff at Toronto General asked who they should contact about his illness, the only name he gave was Rabbi Jacobs, who came and kept him company in his final days. Eli’s belongings were meager; really only his clothing and a package, bundled up in a ragged red handkerchief. Upon his arrival, his clothing and the bundle were taken and stored in the room. His final words, which he reportedly yelled as he expired were “My vest! My vest!”.
Nobody thought much of the ravings of this clearly insane old man. But as the hospital staff went about gathering his effects, an amazing secret was soon revealed, which made headlines around the world, reported in newspapers as far away as Montreal, Wales, Australia, New Zealand, Kansas, New Mexico, Massachusetts, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The truth about Eli Hyman was that he was incredibly rich. In fact, he had, on his person right there at the hospital, almost $100,000 worth of money, bonds and scrip… the modern day equivalent of well over two million Canadian dollars. These items were carefully folded and sealed in small envelopes, stored in his red handkerchief and in his pockets. Each envelope had an address written on it: Sophia Hyman, Churchville, Ontario.

Seemingly immediately, the world needed to know everything there was to know about this ragpicker, his wife and the isolated community where she lived. Suddenly people all over the world were reading about Churchville. Here is what they discovered:

       The couple operated the grocery store for a brief time, and then converted it into a private residence (which it still is, in 2024). Churchville was not prepared to welcome Eli Hyman into the community and he appears to have been in perpetual conflict with his neighbours, likely factoring into the closing of the store. Much later, anonymous community members described what life in such close proximity to Eli Hyman was like.  He was manipulative, nosey, confrontational and had confusing opinions on matters. Anti-semitism dogged Eli and local boys tormented him in the streets, ultimately leading him to surround his home with barbed wire to keep them away from the building. While the home was apparently quite clean and organized inside, it fell almost to ruin outside, with the roughcast falling away and revealing patches of lathe and mortar. Eli reported his neighbors when they broke the law and he collected rewards from the police. This lead to further confrontations with his neighbors. On one occasion, after having his neighbor arrested and charged for smuggling jewelry into the country, he was assaulted in the street as payback. 

         In a small, rather isolated community like Churchville at the turn of the century, these sorts of behaviors would be impossible for neighbors to ignore. An example of how little they liked or trusted him happened on July 2nd, 1881, when a barn in the village burned down. Three community members testified that they saw Eli in the vicinity of the barn before the fire was lit, and he was charged with arson. The charges were dropped when Eli proved beyond reasonable doubt that he was actually about 15 miles away at the time that it happened. 

                 After the Hymans moved into the village a much stranger habit manifested in Eli. Wearing his long, blue melton coat, Eli would walk the entire 15 miles to Toronto and assume a whole other life as the destitute ragpicker that we were introduced to at the beginning of this article. During these strange, protracted periods in the city he was able to raise a small fortune by investing the small amounts of money that he made picking out glass, metal, bones and rags from Toronto’s refuse. These items he sold to a dealer who would, in turn, sell them to local factories for recycling. The number of major Canadian companies that he managed to buy stock in were startling; especially given his seeming lack of an address. 

              These companies included, but were not limited to: Canada Permanent, Canada Landed, British America Assurance, British Canadian Loan, Western Assurance, Toronto Electric Light, Dominion Savings & Investment, Union Loan & Savings, Building & Loan Association, London & Canadian Loan & Agency, Dominion Telegraph, Land Security Companies, and the Canada Cycle & Motor Co.

              One of the most circulated stories about him after his death was that he demanded these companies provide him his dividends in person and would visit regularly to see what was owed to him. Having saved the company the cost of postage, he would demand that they give him the few cents that they saved. 

             When Sophia’s name was discovered on Eli’s envelopes, she was contacted in Churchville. She made the trip into the city right away to see to funeral arrangements with the synagogue and to try to wrap her head around the new revelations about her husband. She told the hospital staff that she had no idea that he had any money; that they had always been quite poor. It’s hard to imagine how overwhelming this whole ordeal must have been for her. She appeared to still have a supportive family system, as the only attendants at the burial were her family from Toronto Township, Brampton and Bolton. The burial took place on December 21st at Holy Blossom Cemetery on Pape Avenue. Eli may have been buried in a pauper’s grave, as there does not appear to be a stone there with this name on it. 

          Sophia’s life did not get any easier in the next six months. Her home, 7772 Churchville Road, was broken into while she was out, the day after Eli's funeral. She reported to police that all of her money and valuables were stolen. She may have moved to Brampton around this time, as her death certificate indicates that she lived in the town for much of the remainder of her life. She didn’t sell the house in Churchville until March 5th, 1908, when Elmer Marshment purchased it from her. 

             Eventually, six claimants came forward demanding a share in Eli’s money. The two strongest were wives Sophia and Sarah, who was still living in San Francisco. The San Francisco family was represented by a lawyer named T.C. West, who was born and raised in Orangeville, Ontario and would eventually become a California State Senator. A person from New York City claiming to be Eli’s sister, named Dora Gross, also came forward. After paying taxes and associated fees, the remaining amount was $80,000; a total that would still amount to more than two million Canadian dollars in 2024. The two wives were instructed to pay off the other claimants and split the remainder. 

              Sophia died on January 18, 1920, and was buried in the Brampton Cemetery. She lived to a great age of 93 years. There are so many fascinating, unanswered questions about her and her family: how did she meet Eli? How did the community in Churchville regard her? What was her relationship with the rest of the Hamilton family like once she was married, and did it change after Eli’s death? Alas, these are the sort of things that are inevitably left to our imaginations. 

The story doesn’t quite end here, though. In an article that could have been taken straight out of a Hollywood script, the December 23rd, 1902 edition of the Montreal Witness reported that Rabbi Jacobs, who ministered to Eli Hyman in his final hours, claimed that Eli Hyman had alluded to more money that was still hidden away somewhere. Unfortunately, that is one secret that Eli Hyman took with him.