Introduction. ……….
- Life In The 1700 and 1800’s In Elgin
Transportation Routes to 1850
Bayham Township
Malahide Township
Aylmer (Malahide Township)
St. Thomas (Yarmouth Township)
St. Thomas Trains
St. Thomas Train Stations
St. Thomas Bridges
St. Thomas Doubles In Size
St. Thomas Early Hotels
Old St. Thomas Churchyard
Chisholm Monument St. Thomas
Jumbo – St. Thomas
Earthworks (Southwold Township)
Talbotville (Southwold Township
Native People (Southwold Township)
Oneida Nation Of The Thames
Iona (Southwold Township)
Fingal (Southwold Township)
Dutton-Dunwich Township
Tyrconnell (Dunwich Township)
Aldborough Township (West Elgin)
Colonel Thomas Talbot
Bayham "Firby and Moore" Map
Aylmer Fire 1965
Old St. Thomas Church
Times Printing Building
Journal Printing Building
City Hall 1898
Francis "Frank" Hunt
Alexander C. Henderson Fire Chief
Elgin County Court House
St. Thomas 1875
L&PS Train # 4 at St. Thomas Station
C.S.R. Station
P.M. Round House/Shop
C.S.R. Station 1905
Wabash Station 1900
L.&P.S. Station St. Thomas
L.&P.S. Station Port Stanley
Queens Hotel
Grand Central Hotel
Empire Hotel
Royal Hotel
Hotel Advertisements
Old Church Yard
Old Church Yard Entrance
Wallace’s Tombstone
Henry Judgeson Rapelje
Chisholm Monument
Chisholm Monument 1952
Native Area Map
Iona Advertisements from 1877
Fingal Climax Threshing Machine
Fingal Monitor Steam Engine
Life In The 1700 and 1800’s In Elgin
This story got started from gathering information about the Firby’s Family Tree. I wanted to find out what it was like and what was happening for the Firby family in the Talbot settlement in the 1800’s. Well one story, book and page led to another and another and I was hooked. I have over 1000 names in my Family Tree and this book of over 100 pages on Elgin County and growing, there is no end. Hours have turned into several years and the more I find out the more I have a feeling as to what it must have been like for our Pioneer Fathers. They opened up the land in the wilderness, labored long and hard to make settlements and gave us a wonderful Place to live and raise a Family. And to them, this book is theirs. The Firby‘s were a gentle, loving, church going people who worked hard and some say "stubborn" but as a Firby I can say that is not true, we just have Principles, "which is the only way".
Arnold Raymond Firby
St.Thomas, Ontario, Canada
03/04/02
The Firby’s Come To Canada
Talbot Settlement
First A word about the original Settlement of this part of Upper Canada, known as the Talbot Settlement. Colonel Thomas Talbot was born at the ancient Baronial Castle of Malahide in the county of Dublin, Ireland, July 19, 1771, a young son of aristocratic Anglo-Irish nobles, the Talbot’s of Malahide. In those days of peers and primogeniture, families and estates were inherited wholly by the eldest son, leaving younger sons such as Thomas to seek careers and wealth elsewhere, Consequently, in 1783 when he was 12, a commission in the British Army was purchased for him. At 16 he served as an aide to Marquis of Buckingham of the Court of Dublin and two years later was posted to garrison duty with the 24th Regiment at Quebec. He was Private Secretary from 1791 to 1794 for John Graves Simcoe, the first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, living and serving in Newark (Niagara-on-the-Lake), touring the Western Peninsula and winning Lord Simcoe’s commendation and Lady Simcoe’ approval.
In 1794, Talbot returned to England to join the war against Napoleon. But in 1801, after the Treaty of Amiens brought a temporary end to The Napoleonic Wars, he sold his commission, retired from service, and sailed again for Upper Canada, seeking land in Yarmouth Township. When Talbot had acted as Simcoe’s private secretary he had with Simcoe visited this part of Upper Canada, landing at Port Talbot and penetrating the wilderness to the fork of the Thames where London now stands. Talbot was so pleased with the country that he applied for the land. He did not get the land he wanted or the amount General John Graves Simcoe had recommended which necessitated another trip to London, but when he returned in 1803, he had an agreement he could work to his advantage not far from Yarmouth, in the Township of Dunwich and Aldborough.
The Colonel Talbot Settlement which in 1803 was the whole of the county of Elgin and part of Essex, Kent, Middlesex and Norfolk, an immense tact of land granted by the British Crown to Colonel Talbot, an Irishman of good family. Talbot was granted Five Thousand acres of land on the condition of conveying fifty acres out of every two hundred to an actual settler. He was also commissioned addition grants that covered in all about 28 townships with 618,000 acres of the Western Peninsula along the Lake Erie shore, south of the Thames River to Lake Erie and from Windsor in the West to all most Long Point in the East. In return for getting settlers to open up the land, he received an enormous amount of land for his own use. He established himself on the bluff of Lake Erie, at what is now Port Talbot. Here all settlers came to arrange for land and the settlement spread out from this point. Talbot commenced settling, arranging for the serving of the Talbot Road and the building of a mill but attracting only 27 settlers by 1812
If Colonel Thomas Talbot had not been balked by royal favor and South Yarmouth had not already been granted to the Honorable Colonel James Baby family of Sandwich for services to the Crown, his settlement may have been started in Houghton Township of what is now Norfolk County, or Yarmouth Township in Elgin. Yarmouth was Colonel’s first choice as "his favorite settlement" but the Duke of Cumberland to whom he wrote on May 16 1801 did not see it that way.
That letter was written by Colonel Talbot from "Skitteewoaboa Upper Canada" which is the Ojibway Indian word for whiskey or firewater. Nobody knows exactly where Skitteewoaboa was. Some historians say it was Port Bruce: others, Port Stanley.
The late Dr. James H. Coyne is authority for the statement that in May 1802, Colonel Talbot actually chopped trees near Port Stanley, with the view of starting a settlement in Yarmouth. The Talbot settlement actually began on May 21 1803, 14 miles west of Port Stanley. As Talbot approached his new possession by water, he selected a spot at the mouth of a romantic winding creek in the township of Dunwich as his landing place, naming it Port Talbot. Seizing an axe from an attendant he at once felled the first tree animating Columbus as he kissed the earth of the New World.
Colonel Talbot began his settlement for the purpose of encouraging and developing the growing of hemp. He was an authority on the subject; and he had inspected the soil along the north shore of Lake Erie in the company of his friend, General John Graves Simcoe, with that agricultural specialty in mind.
The War of 1812 caused setbacks. Immigration ceased, crops were destroyed, cattle slaughter, and Talbot’s mill was burned. Talbot escaped numerous attempts to capture him but his surveyor, land registrar, and neighbor, Colonel Mahlon Burwell, was nabbed and held prisoner in Ohio for the duration of the war. After the war, however, settlers poured into the area, giving Talbot the numbers he needed to realize his dream
As it was necessary for Talbot to go to York (Toronto) frequently, Colonel Talbot had a trail blazed, which snaked through the woods in that direction. He began the construction of the Talbot Road in 1804 and in the early part of the 19-Century it was already not only the longest but also the best road in Upper Canada. This trail became known as the Talbot Road and is still called that in many places today. Highway #3 follows much of it today. In his plan, Talbot had his settlers receiving grants of land from him were obliged to build a road and clear a right of way’ in front of there own property as part of their settlement duties to qualify for legal title to the land. Also, they were required to spend a stated number of days per year on its upkeep. This was known as ‘Statute Labour’.
Talbot prepared for settlement by having Colonel Mahlon Burwell survey the Talbot road and devising a manageable means of assigning lots and ensuring completion of settlement duties. Newcomers were interviewed at his " audience window" and if found acceptable, were either sold or assigned a lot, their name penciled in on his map.
Depending on the circumstances, the settler got his land for little or nothing but hard work. If he had been in the military service in England or had fought in the American Revolution as an Empire Loyalist, he was entitled to at least 200 acres free (more if he was an officer), as was each of his children at the age of 21. When the settler was assigned his lot, he had to clear 5 acres of land and build a log shanty (a minimum size was required) and opened the road in front of their lot, Talbot then issued them a certificate, which with fees, they could take to York to claim their patent and register ownership. If their duties were not preformed or in some cases if they proved rebellious, their names were rubbed out and replaced by others.
Two hundred-acre lots of land were surveyed out along both sides of the road and settlement started from the Talbot’s place moving eastward. When the land along the road was taken up Townships were then surveyed.
The roads and lots were usually set out in a grid pattern and Talbot originally had set aside a certain percentage of the lots as Clergy land for the use of the Church and this turned out to be a detriment to settlers. No one was required to clear the land or build the roads by them. Eventually the system was changed and these lots went to the settlers.
Using this method, Talbot opened land in about 28 townships from Long Point to the Detroit River. In selling crown lands, he earned 3% of the selling price. Where he could he claimed land for his efforts, holding it for speculation. In Dunwich and Aldborough, he assigned the Highland Scots as little of his 5,000 as possible. Set on 50 acres of reserve and claimed the remaining 150 acres of a 200-acre grant for him self. The Scots protested, claiming that Talbot had swindled them of their rights and kept their land. Many were unable to see why, that in placing a settler on 200 acres of land, the division should be 50 acres to the settler and 150 acres to Colonel Talbot. This was however in accordance with the British Government and did not prevent the settler from acquiring more land by paying for 100 acres at the sum of £6 9s 3d.
Others joined the chorus of discontent. Anger turned to opposition and the formation of the Reform Party. Local Reformers in opposition to York’s Family Compact and the despotic practices of the Colonel defeated Talbot’s associate, Mahlom Burwell, who had been elected MLA in 1812, 1816, and 1820. Talbot responded in St. Thomas on St. George’s Day 1832, denouncing Reformers as rebels, lamenting that despite his care, black sheep, affected with rot, had crept into his flock. To no avail, Reformers continued to be elected locally, forcing Burwell to run in London to regain a seat.
And in response to complaints about his arbitrary practices and concerns about the mass of land that he had acquired, Talbot himself was rubbed out in 1836. Ordered to end settlement practices and give way to provincial authorities, again he appealed to his influential friends in England, won some reprieve, and stubbornly refused to fully comply with provincial demands, even to the time of his death.
Canals and Pioneer Roads
During the late 1820,s when Talbot fell out of favor with the government, another group, the Canadian Company acquired a great deal of unclaimed land. A wealthy company of Englishmen, who had purchased hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile land and some not so fertile land for about one shilling an acre for the purpose of speculation. For a period both where a source of land to the settlers. Before 1850, the original crown land and deeds were distributed as follows:
Colonel Baby and Family 18,400 acres
Canada Company 5,833 acres
King’s College church 3,833 acres
Private Landowners 27,767 acres
Crown Land 12,800 acres
The Population of Ontario in Canada
Quebec Ontario
Year Canada (Lower Canada) (Upper Canada)
1665 3,215
1765 69,810
1825 479,288 157,923
1851 890,261 952,004
1871 3,689,256 1,620,851
1901 5,371,315 2,182,947
1931 10,375,786 3,431,683
1961 18,238,247 6,236,092
1971 21,568,311 7,703,106
1981 24,343,180 8,625,105
This was the condition in the area before the Firby’s arrived.
The area in Malahide and Bayham Township where the Firbys settled (Corinth area) was opened up on Talbot Road in the 1815-1818 periods. From 1815-1820 a great influx of sons and daughters of the Loyalists from the Niagara area, where the good land was all taken, came to clear land hear. Others came from the old country too
Colonel Thomas Talbot was eccentric to say the least. He quit a most promising military career, abandoned the British Court and the world of society at the age of 29 years, to bury himself in the then lonely bush wilderness of Elgin County. He lived in a crude log house for years, choosing to call it with Irish wit" his castle" and for half century he remained, most of the time directing with almost regal powers the settlement which bears his name.
Colonel Talbot remained a bachelor to the end. Some say he was disappointed in love as a young man and that this was one of the reasons for him abandoning his career and virtually isolating himself in the Canadian wilderness. Roughing it in the bush, at cost and deprivation, Colonel Talbot did establish the framework of a prosperous, British settlement. He had roads surveyed and opened. He assigned lots and saw to it that settlement duties were done. As the recognized local representative of colonial power, he assumed numerous official roles and, when it suited his purpose, served. In early years admirers referred to him as the Father of the Settlement, critics, both local and provincial, castigated him as arbitrary and unjust, self-serving and self –righteous.
He was all this and more he was charming, often moody, austere and ruthless, concerned at times but rarely warm or inviting, Talbot was the child of the 18th century court of Dublin, here to make his land fortune of British North America.
Colonel Talbot died in the home of George Macbeth in London Ontario on February 6 1853. He was born in Castle Malahide, Ireland on July 19 1771 one of a family of seven sons and five daughters born to Richard Talbot and Margaret O’Reilly.
Colonel Talbot was laid to rest in the beautiful old God’s Acre of St. Peter’s Church Tyrconnell, high above the serene blue waters of Lake Erie.
The Firby's In Bayham Township
In 1831 Thomas Firby (1802-1875) got a 100 acres in Bayham Township from the Canadian Company. Thomas must have been a scout for the rest of the family and either returned to England or wrote back that the rest of the family should come. Whether or not all the rest came together, I don’t know. Robert Firby (1818-1886), nephew of Thomas got 100 acres almost adjoining his uncle’s land in 1834. It had been Clergy land. I assume that Robert’s parents, Joseph and Hannah as well as his siblings, Ann, John (Eli), and infant Thomas Medd, who was born in 1833, came too, as the next child Hannah was born here in 1835. Thomas’s other brother’s John (1789) and James (1791) may have come then too. The first evidence I have of John is in the 1842 census. John and Elizabeth had a son James born in England in 1833 and have found no evidence of children born after that. Unfortunately church records for the early 1800s are almost non-existent. They were serviced by itinerant Ministers and often held the services in the homes and schools.
The first and only church in the area was Benson’s Chapple Wesleyan Methodist Church built about 1837. It was known as Moss’s Church as well because it was on the corner of the Moss’s farm. A Moss relative has the original deed to the one-acre lot of Church land bought in 1855 from Thomas Firby one of the trustees. Civil registration of births, marriages and deaths did not begin until 1867 in this country. Cemetery records seem to be lost if they ever did exist, most records before that time were kept by the family usually in a family Bible.
Ann, the mother and grandmother died in 1848. She is not buried in the Firby cemetery but in another one some three miles southeast near Richmond Village (Wilsonburg Cemetery). Firby‘s have relatives in both cemeteries, which makes me suspicious that families related to the Firbys came to Canada too. Ann Weighell (1765-1848) may have been living with a bother’s family, who owned land across from the cemetery where she is buried. Also Thomas Firby (1802-1875) married Elizabeth Cheeseman of Barninghare Yorkshire while in England and their children were born in Canada. Nephew Robert, son of Joseph and Hannah married a second sister Margaret Cheeseman and a third sister Bleaner Cheeseman married Thomas Weston of Cantley Yorkshire and they lived here also. The Cheeseman name continues here so these sisters must have had brothers or uncles whom came here. Another family the Dennis were neighbors and Ann (1806-1867), the sister of John, James, Joseph and Thomas, who was Baptized at Over Silton on 27 April 1806 married Thomas Dennis (1798-xxxx) at OverSilton England. Another Firby Girl married a Pearson in Yorkshire in 1828. All these families lived in Bayham Township or near by and at sometime came to Canada and are related.
The land in the Bayham area is relatively flat, fairly sandy, well drained soil. A number of creeks rise in the area and have created deep ravines that are well forested still although the big timber has been cut out. The land was originally forested with huge Pines, Oaks, Maple, Beech and Walnut. It must have been a tremendous task to cut and root out these trees with the tools they had so they could farm. Robert (1818-1886) became a very successful framer and financier. According to maps and Registry Office Records he owned many hundred acres of land and held mortgages on many more. Robert soon got into the lumber business and built a sawmill on Little Jerry Creek (lot 1 Concession 8, Bayham Township). At the height of the lumbering trade, he hired a fair number of workers for his mill, which later was converted to steam and he became by far the wealthiest of the family. John and Joseph seemed content to farm and Thomas left for the Windsor area where he had a soap and candle works. He kept in touch with the Bayham and Malahide families. His descendants went to live in California. James remains an unknown factor. He likely lived here for a while. It is reported he then moved to Michigan, USA and has descendants there. I have not yet followed up this information.
Settlement was steady and fairly rapid, so that by the 1800’s the population in the area had risen to 12000 and there were 60,000 acres under cultivation. In 1851, legislation was passed to set apart Elgin County from Middlesex County. The new county was named after the Governor General of the time, Lord Elgin. There were Townships of Aldborough, Dunwich, Southwold, Yarmouth, Malahide, South Dorchester, Bayham and villages of St.Thomas and Vienna
Early Settlers of the area were slaves to their farms and land. There were no labor saving devices as we have today. Water, wind, animal or men were the only source of affordable power on the farm. It was all toil and hard labor, a bushel of wheat for a yard of cotton cloth and eighteen bushel for a barrel of salt seems a strange tale today but it was true in 1817.
In summer farmers got up at 4 o’clock and younger family members were called and bounded out of bed without a second call and proceeded to the barn to do the chores- feed the cattle, clean the stables, curry and harness the horses ready for the days work. When first chores were done a breakfast of corn or graham mush, fried potatoes, fresh or salt pork, and bread and butter with milk or very weak tea. There was always plenty of fresh milk and on occasion fresh eggs and steak after butchering. There was no fresh meat available from day to day, no refrigeration other then a cool cellar, which keep some thing quite well but not meat or milk. Most days after breakfast the clearing of farmland, roads, turning the soil, planting crops and hand hoeing weeds row after row mile after mile was the daily farm life. On occasion the welcome daily routine was interrupted to help a neighbor in a barn raising, shanty building, threshing or a special outing to the market in St.Thomas or London. The diet was very good especially during the summer season when all kinds of fresh vegetables, fruit and gallons of fresh warm milk were plentiful. When Wheat, Oats, or Corn was ready to be threshed, the neighbors helped each other and the threshers were always rewarded for their work with a big threshers harvest meal. Big chunks of meat usually beef or pork was prepared over an open wood pit fire
The family friendly threshers filled up on a luscious meal of meat and vegetable fresh from the garden. The meal was always topped off with milk, tea, coffee, and pies of all kinds and deserts, all you could eat and drink. Threshing was a happy occasion in more ways than one. It was a time of Harvest, Feasting and good fellowship of friends, family and neighbors and the family ate left overs for the next two or three days.
The men worked from sun up to sun down but the women‘s work was never done not even after the oil lamps were out. They raised the family and attended their needs looking after the little children all hours of the day and night. It was the mother’s unquestioned duty to keep the house and young children in order. She got the meals, did the family washing by hand, sewed and mended the clothing, darned the socks and did the family knitting. She churned and made butter and cheese. During the busy season she helped with the chores in the barn, milk the cows, fed the chickens and pigs and even helped work the land. The families were slaves to their land and farm. They accepted their lot without a murmur and enjoyed life to the fullest
When children of the mid 1800 got married they built two story farmhouses for themselves no more shanties or log cabins. Shingles and boards from the sawmill were cheap and with the help of carpenters and masons they did much of the work themselves, making the cost comparatively low. Most of the houses were quit large with a mason foundation for cellar walls. Large living rooms and parlor, a combination kitchen and dining room, a woodshed and three to five upstairs bedrooms. The walls were plastered and at times papered. The living room floors had rag-braided rugs and heated with a fireplace or potbellied stove. The kitchen had the modern proverbial cast iron wood stove. The bedrooms were not heated in most homes and the parents usually had a down stairs bedroom off the living room so their bedroom was comfortably warm in cold weather. Wood fuel could be had for sawing and chopping. Grandpa use to say, a full woodshed warms the body and soul twice "now warm your soul": (pointing to the pile to chop). The early homes were cold and drafty even with a hot wood fire in the stove. Mother usually had a "Foot Stove" to keep her feet warm while doing her mending and knitting in the evening. It consisted of a square wooden box about a foot high with a perforated top. Live coals from the wood fire were placed on some ashes in a metal container set in the foot box. Sometime heated stones or water was used in the place of the hot coals. This added a great deal to Grandmother’s comfort.
There were no sanitary facilities of course, as we know them today just a "jerry or thunder mug" under the bed at night and a little shack out back for the rest of the time. There was no running water in the homes (unless you had a pump at the kitchen sink) it had to be carried in from an outside pump. The plumbing was outside; you washed your hands and face in a common hand basin stationed on a block of wood in the woodshed or out of doors. The boys bathed in a swimming hole in the creek in the summer and in a tin tub behind the living room stove, it serviced the whole family’s bathing needs during the winter. Although the children frowned on a full bath in the winter, mother saw that all had at least a few (no excuse for being dirty we have plenty of soap and water).
The old General Stores became a popular Mecca for all the family in the surrounding country in the 1850’s conducting a busy business when trading was the custom unlike modern shopping today. The price of store goods:
1 bushel of potatoes 25¢
1 bushel of apples 25¢
Mutton 4¢ a pound
Beef 3¢ a pound
Cheese 8¢ a pound
Coffee 19¢ a pound
Butter 13¢ a pound
Lard 8¢ a pound
1 gallon soft soap 8¢ a pound
1 Cord of 4ft.Hardwood $1.00 delivered
The farmers’ wives would exchanged butter and eggs for necessary supplies, perhaps material for a new dress and thread, hooks and eyes or buttons were ‘thrown in’ by the store-keeper to complete the bargain.
Great Grand Pa Thomas Jefferson Firby (Tommy Tot) and Grand Pa Lorne Cecil Firby bought the farm, lot 33 concession 8, Malahide Township, Elgin County in 1906 and farmed it and that is where my dad Arnold D. Firby was Born in 1910. Lorne Cecil Firby was Born 1884 in Malahide Township died September 4 1966 St.Thomas at 82years old at the Memorial (Hospital) Home and is buried in Aylmer with his dad and other family members in the Aylmer Cemetery, Ontario. He married Mable Moore on January 18 1910 in Tillsonburg, Ontario. Mable Moore was from the Bayham Township area and was born: 1891, died: March 5 1951 at St.Thomas, Ontario, and is buried in Aylmer with Lorne’s family. They spent many years later in life living in Temagami, Ontario running a fishing lodge on Angus Lake and mining a small silver and gold mine. His daughter Hazel (Montgomery) Firby lived in the Temagami area also. Lorne and Mable had Five Children: Arnold D. Firby, Mildred Firby, Harold Firby, Hazel Firby and Leamon Firby. Arnold D. Firby married Margaret Doreen Parkins on May 3 1938 and they have two Children.
My father Arnold D. worked on the New York Central Railroad as a Conductor and a Brakeman and died on December 13 1958 age 48 years of a heart attack on his way to work and is buried in Aylmer. My Mother Margaret Doreen (Parkins) Firby was born December 4 1918 at Yarmouth Township, Elgin County, Ontario and died September 10 1996 at St.Thomas of cancer and is buried by her second husband John Alexander Scott in Fingal Cemetery, Ontario.
This tells some of what I have learned about the first generations of Firbys who lived in Upper Canada. No doubt more will come to light as I continue my search into the deeds and wills in the Registry Office and Library in St. Thomas. There are many other untapped sources as well.
Arnold R Firby
St.Thomas, Ontario, Canada
Life In The 1700 and 1800’s In Elgin
Transportation Routes to 1850
Transportation in the pre-railway Ontario was of paramount concern to officials and settlers alike. The transportation of goods and people before the arrival of railways was difficult and expensive proposition. Generally the cheapest way to move heavy material was by water, hence the earliest settlement and more important communities were located on rivers or lakes. Roads were primarily for foot and local cartage. The quality of roads varied considerably and even the best were very rough by any standards. In the spring and fall roads were often so muddy that they were completely impassable. Winter generally proved to be the most comfortable time to travel when the frozen ground provided a hard and smooth surface. In attempt to provide a smoother riding surface some of the more important roads were given a special surface. Planking of roads with wood was cheap and easy (but not very permanent) way of providing a level road. Macadamizing of roads was a more expensive method but provided a longer lasting surface. Where goods roads existed, stagecoach service was initiated between the principal settlements. For example by 1846 stages left London, Ontario daily for Hamilton, Chatham and Detriot, three times a week for Port Stanley and Port Sarnia and twice a week for Goderich. The fares were not cheap; the trip from Chatham to London was $3.50, a sizeable amount in those days.
The map shows most of the heavily traveled roads in Southwestern Ontario around 1850. It can be seen that the greatest concentration of good planked or macadamized roads were located around Toronto and the Niagara Peninsula where the population was most dense. The number of roads decreased toward London, until west and north of the town they rapidly diminished in numbers.
An extensive Great Lakes Coastal traffic carried much of the freight and passengers business of Southwestern Ontario. Only some of the numerous ports have been marked on the map.
Canals played a minor role in transportation in Southwestern Ontario. The Welland Canal, Built in 1833 and later extensively rebuilt, was the most important. A moderately successful canal was the Desjardins Canal, which connected Dundas with Burlington Bay. This canal is best remembered as the site of the worst accident on the Great Western Railway, when, on March 12 1857 a train fell through a bridge killing seventy persons. The canalizing of the Grand River from Port Maitland on Lake Erie to Brantford never developed into a successful commercial venture.
Despite the absence of Railways in Southwestern Ontario prior to 1850’s the concept was not entirely unknown in the area. A small horse operated tramway was actually built between Queenston and Chippewa on the Niagara River in 1839.
Early Travel Map
Canals Or canalized rivers _ _ _ _ _
Planked or macadamized roads _______
Other important roads . . . . . . . .
Other roads _______
Bayham Township
In the year 2000, Bayham celebrated its sesquicentennial, the 150th anniversary of its creation as an autonomous, local-governed township. Initially, when what became Upper Canada was largely unsettled and governed from Quebec, this area was part of the District of Hesse. In 1792, by proclamation of Lt. Governor John Graves Simcoe, the new created Upper Canada was divided into 19 counties with the Otter Valley a part of Suffolk County. And by 1836, with pioneer farms settled, roads opened, local industry and commerce begun, and the location of a new Court House in London, local government was again reorganized with this region now part of London District. Then in 1850 a new means of local government was adopted and London as the county seat with Bayham Township of Middlesex County became the local entity.
London was soon too distant, Middlesex too large, so in 1853, the seven southern townships of Middlesex were severed and united into the County of Elgin with St. Thomas as the county seat and Bayham on the eastern fringe. In that year, Vienna became an incorporated village, separate from Bayham, and almost 100 years later, in 1949, Port Burwell was also separated. But on January 1, 1998, both Vienna and Port Burwell were rejoined with Bayham Township to form the new Municipality of Bayham.
Millennia ago, Bayham (and the rest of Elgin) were under glacial ice. With global warming, glaciers melted, water ran, sand and silt debris created the Norfolk Sand Plain. Freed of the great weight of ice, lands rose, Lake Erie was formed, and water flowing to it cut the valleys of the Otter Rivers through the western portion of the Sand Plains. The sandy soil was ideal for natural growth of coniferous trees and the area produced an abundance of magnificent white pines.
In the second decade of the 19th century, pioneers arrived in Bayham. They were a few some what scattered up the valleys and most were Loyalists who had lived some years in Digby County, Nova Scotia before migrating to the first, there after known as Nova Scotia Street. In 1830, the mouth of the Otter was merely an opening, an outlet. But in 1830, Colonel Mahlon Burwell, surveyor and soldier, Member of the Legislative Assembly and Tory ally of Colonel Talbot, acquired land here and laid out a town plan. There were but two houses in place, one occupied by Mr. Foster and the other by the Custom House Officer, Mr. Draper. In 1832 Mr. Hollowood built a tavern, and soon after Colonel Burwell, who proved a friend and patron of the Port, organized a Habour Company, built an Episcopal Church and endowed it with 600 acres of land. Peter Macdonald and George White, both carpenters and builders, also came, and in 1836 the village now numbered 200 inhabitants
The early Bayham pioneers were concerned with clearing the land for farming and cutting trees for there own use, not export. But in the 1830s and 1840s, there was such demand for the white pine of Bayham and Malahide that locals not only cleared land but also logged the timber and set up an extensive lumber industry.
In the 1840s, Vienna boomed and by 1851, it had a population of 700 inhabitants, a lumber trade worth $80,000 per year and 16 stores. Because the Big Otter was navigable as far upstream as Vienna, mills were built there, with lumber, shingles, and staves then shipped down the Otter to both British and American markets. Shipments to Quebec market in 1845 were 109,658 pipe and 624,707 West India staves for that year. The pines however greatly out numbered the oaks, although an extensive cut was made against them, they furnished much employment until about 1872.
In 1849 they were twenty-nine sawmills in the township, and in 1851 the first steam whistle sounded in Port. Brainard built Hamilton’s Mill, on the island, in 1853 and was destroyed by fire in 1873 not to be rebuilt. Shaw and Williams’ mill on the island in the Otter would cut 40,000 feet per day along with Brunson’s mill under the management of A.T.Culter cut immense quantities also. By the mid 1870’s there was not a single mill in Port Burwell nor six in the whole township doing any considerable business
Although the harbor was not much improved in the early years, the village of Port Burwell was in business, shipbuilding, trading and no doubt fishing. By 1850, export and import statistics indicate trade worth more than £43,000. And in the 1850s, shipbuilding of Burwell was expanded with 3 shipyards constructing numerous two and three-masted schooners. The ship building industry was probably more extensive in Burwell than any port on the lake
The Master builders of many of these vessels were G.W. Pontine and Lemuel McDermand. Some went to the Old World and were sold, and all would compare favorably with those of the same class built at any other port. This list of vessels is interesting, as it is closely connected with the commercial history of the South of Bayham. The names are vary-political bias and some of personal friendship, and some of love and some christened after pretty ladies
Ship Name Year Christened Tonnage
1834 to 1846
Sir Robert Peel "
Lady Colborn "
Chapman "
Amity "
Royal Tar "
Sterling 1847 48
Hagard 1848 81
Royal Oak 1849 58
Pine 1850 88
Ada 1860 54
Florence 1861 199
Almina 1862 173
Ellen Theresa 1862 77
D. Cornwell 1862 338
D. M. Foster 1863 251
Homeward Bound 1864 106
Laura Emma 1864 40
Arbian 1866 138
Sarah Jane 1866 174
George Suffel 1866 75
A. C. Storrs 1866 145
W.Y. Emery 1866 154
W.W. Grant 1866 163
Ariadne 1866 -----
Two Brothers 1868 137
Leviathan 1868 91
D. Freeman 1869 193
Argo 1870 118
E.A. Dunham 1870 75
Vienna 1871 166
Edward Blake 1872 328
Clara Youell 1872 269
Lady Dufferin 1872 356
Craftman 1873 210
Lady MacDonald 1873 284
Erie Belle 1873 319
Lilly Hamilton 1874 320
Mary Ann Lyden 1874 245
Grace Amelia 1874 199
W.G. Suffel 1874 238
Annie M. Foster 1874 77
Hercules 1875 240
Richmond and Sandytown (Stratfordville) were active hamlets as well, both benefiting from lumbering, local farming, and their location on the Talbot Road. Richmond was one of the first places to be settled in Elgin County, having its first sawmill going shortly after 1816, and was a thriving village some years before Aylmer came into being. Sandytown (Stratfordville) further benefited from the building of a toll road from Port Burwell to Ingersoll in 1851. It was the Plank Road, the forerunner of Highway 19 and the initial road link in Bayham’s close ties to Tilsonburg. This Thoroughfare greatly facilitated the movement of timber and produce to the lake being the main trunk line through the township north and south. Stratfordville and Eden, five miles further north, were due to the construction of the road and they were mainly lumbering stations. Corinth is a village in the northwest corner of the township near the Malahide line and is a station on the Air Line Railway. In 1871 it contained one general store and a post office, kept by Wm. Moore, with other stores, hotel, and shops near by.
With depletion of white pine and a decline in the need of new schooners, Bayham’s economy was left to survive on the agriculture of sandy soil. Until the advent and success of tobacco, on all but the clay loam of the Corinth area, survival was largely what it was. Large brick farmhouses and big barns do indicate some prosperity, but for most, livelihood was a struggle. Vienna’s population declined with its industry. Richmond became a rural hamlet rather than a mill town. Port Burwell gained some prosperity from fishing and had some advantages as the terminal of Mr. Teall’s Tillsonburg and Lake Erie Railroad and the port of the Ashtabula, and had popularity as a beach, resort and casino destination. Stratfordville spawned an active commercial strip, although this too withered somewhat in recent years as, more and more, Bayhamer‘s shop in Tillsonburg and Aylmer. But with tobacco and the benefits of commercial fertilizers and cash crops, Bayham’s agriculture now thrives.
Advertisement from about 1877
Life In The 1700 and 1800’s In Elgin
Malahide Township
The township of Malahide lies between Yarmouth on the west and Bayham on the east, and is bounded on the north by south Dorchester and on the south by lake Erie. It contains about 6,000 acres, and received its name from Colonel Talbot in honor or remembrance of the baronial Castle of Malahide in Ireland.
The early settlers were the brothers, William, Andrus, Daniel, Simeon and Joseph Davis who emigrated from the State of New York about the year 1810. A few others came before the War of 1812 among these were Noah Davis, Cousin of the Davis brothers, Stephen Leek, Henry House, Isaac Crane, Daniel McKinney, Isaac and Thaddeus Ostrander, Onesimus, G. and Thaddeus Bradley, Wm. Teeple and John Vanpatter. William Davis emigrated from Albany in 1809 and settled on Lot No .2, north side of Talbot Street were he built a log home and mill. The mill (Stump Mill) he built to supply flour and meal for home consumption was a pattern not seen in the area before. A large sound stump with the top nearly level as possible was first selected, a fire kindled in the center of the top and the circumference kept wet while the fire was burning. This plan of course soon hollowed a mortar, which had a very solid foundation. In this hollow was placed the wheat or corn to be brayed into flour or meal. A spring pole in the position of an old fashioned well sweep was rigged above the mortar, and the end of this pole at a proper angle with it fixed another, a sort of dependent pestle reaching nearly to the grist. The motive power was not steam or water, but human muscles. A rope ending in sort of stirrup reached from the spring pole, which was worked with the feet and hands. The New England styles of Mills would grind 300 bushel of grain per day, this mill would not grind as much. There was a time, however, no better ones near than Long Point or Port Talbot could be found. Decon William Davis lived on this farm until his death at the age of 80 years.
The drive down Nova Scotia Street from Copenhagen to Port Burwell in the summer months, when farms are in their richest and most promising attire is breath taking. The timothy grass is as high as the fences, with a sea of green and gold verdure chasing sunny ridges on waving wheat fields to cozy farmhouses. The loving family dwellings half hidden by fruit and evergreen tree, only showing now and then the glimpse of the blue lake in the distance, all making a picture that would cause a artist to pause in wonder. It is today as it must have been in early times
The Summers, Cassaddens and Laurs were the early settlers on Talbot Street east of Aylmer, and 1830 David Hunt and Thomas Kilmer located on the 8th Concession. The first saw and grist mill in the settlement, except for William Davis’s manual Stump Mill were built in 1817 on Catfish Creek by Andrus Davis and John D. Brown and later sold to James Brown. The first farm house was erected a little west of Aylmer by Simeon Davis for a wayside inn and later used for a barn and driving house.
In 1817 the lots on Talbot Street were all taken up and nearly all of the 1st, 8th and 9th Concessions also. There was about 775 person in the township then.
The shore of the blue waters of Lake Erie skirting the south of the township tells a tale of early promise, a promise that was not wholly fulfilled. As early as 1812 Colonel Backhouse, then living at Port Rowan, purchased a lot at the mouth of the beautiful and romantic stream called Silver Creek, built a sawmill in 1814 and a grist mill in 1816 and for a time were a great assistance to the settlers.
Henry Dalley purchased a farm on the hill about half mile west of the present site of Port Bruce and by advocating the feasibility and great advantages of cutting a new channel for the stream to make a better harbor farther west. He managed to sell a number of lots, lay out a village and call it Devenport. In 1835, there was a general store kept by James Mihell & Co., hotel, tailor and blacksmith shop. In that same year Daniel Hanvey of St. Thomas surveyed a railway line from Devenport to London. Today all trace of the Devenport and ruins with a place of great promise has long since disappeared with small fulfillment.
The channel of the Catfish was not changed, and Port Bruce from1840 to 1860 was a village and shipping port of considerable importance. In 1851, Amasa Lewi started buying grains there, for 62 ½ cents per bushel and built a dock from which to ship from. There was a large trade in the lumber and staves, (this was a staving period in the history of Malahide and Bayham) but the roads were very bad and teams had to unload on the bank of the creek a long way this side of the Port. The cargoes were from here scowed down to the vessels and loaded. Finally a bee attended by forty men cut the road so that Lewis’s dock was approachable. In 1855 a Government agent visited Port Bruce and the result was a gratuity of $6.000 for the improvement of the harbor. In the same year the Aylmer and Port Bruce Gravel road was completed. It was built by a company that although they did not make a profit, the enterprise was a great help to the township and marked an era in its prosperity. The company mortgaged the "Gravel Road" to the township, and the corporation, about the year 1860 took it in payment of the debt, sold it with the harbor in 1869 to Sheriff Munro and others, bought it back and removed the toll gates in 1874.
Progress had been made by the county as a whole but Port Bruce’s glory and wealth had departed and gone to Aylmer. The schooner Nattie Davis though built there, came no more, the warehouses were deserted and the never-ending procession of wheat laden wagons lining the Gravel Road were no more. The reason for the change was the fact that staves and the lumber industry was gone, and the railway carried the grain faster at less cost
The population in Malahide Township in 1848 was 4,034
1853 4,050
1861 5,320
1871 5,550
The population by places of birth England 350
Ireland 154
Scotland 82
New Brunswick 54
Nova Scotia 146
Ontario 4,448
Quebec 26
Germany 13
United States 257
Aylmer (Malahide Township)
The history of Aylmer begins in Malahide, in 1810, Nahlon Burwell surveyed the area east of Yarmouth and opened two new townships, Malahide and Bayham, the former named after Malahide Castle, birthplace and family home of Thomas Talbot, the latter named in recognition of a friend of Talbot’s Viscount Bayham. In 1811, lot 9 and 11 along the north side of the concession road in Malahide designated as the Talbot Road were granted to Daniel and Wright Davis of Niagara, while neighboring lot 10 was granted to John and Hannah VanPatter of Pennsylvania. These lots included Catfish Creek, the crucial source of power in the era of water-powered mills, and this locale became the site of the settlement that would become Aylmer.
Fifteen years later, sufficient Malahide lands had been settled to support the first industrial and commercial ventures in the area. A tannery, a potashery, and two general stores were established in what is now Aylmer, one of the stores by John Hodgkinson, whose last name became synonymous with that small settlement beside Catfish, Hodgkinson’s Corner. By 1833, Hodgkinson’s Corner was referred to by some as Tory after Tory, New York, the origin of some local, American-born residents. But others, more loyal, British residents, in honour of Lord Aylmer, Governor General of the Canada from 1831 to 1835, thought the name Aylmer more appropriate and therefore had that name registered as the location of their Post Office. Fittingly, Philip Hodgkinson became the first Post Master and Aylmer, so stamped, became steadfastly loyal and British.
Meanwhile, as noted by commentators of the time, Malahide was widely settled with and cleared, timber exported, grain harvested, orchards planted, and sheep tended. Southwest of Hodgkinson Corner at what is now (1999) the corner of Rogers Road and Brook Line, first Ashael Lewis and then Daniel Carson tapped the power of the creek now known as Bradley Creek and from 1824, at a millpond still recognizable, raised a carding and fulling mill and a sawmill. At Jamestown, two miles up the Catfish from Lake Erie, there was also enterprise and settlement, but there was little at Catfish Harbour (Port Bruce); for forty years, it was the neglected reserve of an absentee landowner, Colonel John Hale.
By 1851, the year of British North American’s first census, Aylmer, Malahide, and Catfish Harbour were all showing marked development. Aylmer was a village of 400 with mills, factories, a foundry, three hotel, three general stores, the service of a dozen tradesmen, a doctor, two churches, and a school. Malahide had a population of 4050 and was an incorporated township in the county of Middlesex with a Town Hall on Water Street, Aylmer. The Hales finally sold two lots at the mouth of Catfish, these to Lindley Moore and Amasa Lewis, who immediately built a warehouse and 400 foot pier into 11 feet of Erie water and then christened the spot Port Bruce after James Bruce, Lord Elgin Governor General at the time. Thereafter two local joint stock companies were founded, one to extend Port Bruce’s pier, build wharves and facilitate dredging, the other to promote and construct a plank and gravel road from Port Bruce through Malahide, Aylmer, and South Dorchester to Hamilton Road Middlesex. These initiatives created; ease of shipping, prosperity, a post office in the township; ships, more warehouses, a two story hotel, a harbour master, a customs officer, 200 residents in Port Bruce; and by 1861, more sophisticated shops and three new, steam powered wagon and carriage manufacturers in Aylmer.
Aylmer Train Station
Steam power transformed Aylmer in the next decades. Stream released industries from the banks of the Catfish Creek and led to such sizeable manufacturing and processing that Aylmer became know as a factory town. Thereafter came a second industrial area, along what is now the south side of South Street west of fourth Ave. where the Aylmer Canning Factory and the Elgin Pork House were established, and then a third, north of Talbot Street and the Creek to the Great Western’s new Airline in that area of Aylmer subdivided by George Walker. Here were the factories of McDiarmid Manufacturing Co., Aylmer Packing Co., the new Aylmer, later Dominion, then Canadian Canners, the Aylmer Condensed Milk Co., and Aylmer Pump & Scale. In twenty years, the population almost tripled and prosperity was such that many of the finer building of Aylmer today – The Old Town Hall, the Anglican, Baptist, and Methodist (United) Churches, and numerous stately residences – were built. In January 1872, Aylmer was incorporated as a village, separate from Malahide, and in 1887, it became a town, all in spite of a number of devastating fires.
Malahide’s development matches Aylmer’s. The Malahide map in the Elgin County Atlas of 1877 shows a fully opened township of 100-acre farms and hamlets with schools, churches and at least one orchard per operation. Port Bruce was not so fortunate. When it was not made an official Port of Entry, its harbour lost potential, local business to Port Stanley and Port Burwell. The initial harbour improvement company faltered and was replaced by a second, but traffic was limited and revenue insufficient. As railroads replaced lake transport, Port Bruce was again bypassed as the proposed rail line from Port Bruce to London never materialized. The area, however, prospered. Malahide farms provided crop and milk to Aylmer industries; Aylmer processed and provided service to Malahide and in the cases of Aylmer Peas and Carnation Milk, to the rest of Canada.
The economic tendencies of the 19th century have continued into the 20th century with only slight, albeit significant differences. In Malahide, in the late 1920s and 1930, tobacco was introduced as an alternate crop on the sandy soil and has since dominated the fields south of Aylmer. The clay loam to the north still has more traditional production, although with the closing of Aylmer’s Carnation plant and preference for cash crops, the number of dairy farms has declined. Port Bruce has gained popularity as a summer resort, its creek a harbour for small sail and power boats, its pier a perch for fishermen, its lakeside cafes a favorite destination for daytrippers. But it still a quiet spot and determined to remain so. And while all the factories of Aylmer’s Victorian era are now history, the Imperial Tobacco Co., Aylmer’s largest employer, follows in their footsteps, processing a local crop for a wide market.
From the view of social history, the landscape has changed more dramatically. While 19th century Aylmer and Malahide were almost wholly British and Protestant, in the 20th century, both have become more culturally diversified. After the Great War some Belgians settled in the area. After the Second World War (1940-1945), came more Belgians, Dutch, and ethnic Germans (Saxons), resulting in sizeable Roman Catholic, Christian Reformed, and Lutheran communities. And in the 1950s, the Amish discussed in Route #7 and Mennonites of Western Canada, Mexico, and Belize arrived, with this latter Mennonite Kanadier population now being the largest, single ethnic group in the area.
Aylmer Fires
Aylmer has had more than its share of devastating fires over its history. Indeed it has been devastated from time to time, three observations however do merit special consideration. First Aylmer on three separated occasions, the south block of Talbot, east of John, and the north block, west of John to Centre, have almost been completely leveled. In a span of 10 years in the 1800’s, hotels were cleared 3 times from the present site of Aylmer Central. Ironically, the south block of Talbot, west to John, fell victim to the flames only once – and that didn’t occur until 1965.
Second, despite fears from the blaze to blaze that the town" would sink", Aylmer stubbornly fought back. The fires of 1864 almost flattened 2 blocks, but the village replaced the water-pail line with a new fire engine and within 8 years, it was ready for incorporation. Undoubtedly the fires of 1874 were the worst ever suffered by Aylmer, destroying nearly three blocks. While the present United Church and Town Hall were being constructed, the two fires striking the downtown within a month destroyed over 40 buildings and caused close to an unbelievable $100,000 damage. The village then organized its first fire brigade and within a decade had climbed to the 1,000 mark in population. It was a serious blow to Aylmer’s economic hopes but remarkably no one was killed and these section were gradually rebuilt in the next few years
The 1880’s were particularly difficult period for major fire losses also, but the eventual bricking of stores and the adoption of waterworks systems aided Aylmer’s growth to the status of town by 1888. Only the Propane truck fire of 1965 would, after this date, be able to demolish a downtown section and today even those scars have been healed over, though taking a little longer than the past.
Thirdly. Until 1934 only one person was killed in a town fire and even then, cause of death was believed to result from an explosion and not the subsequent fire. There have been only 11 fatalities reported in almost 150 years (1979) of Aylmer existence. The Brown House blaze in 1934, which killed 3 persons, recorded the highest number of deaths. Some dogs and some horses have been victims but despite the number and severity of fires, Aylmer has been fortunate and despite the suffering experiences has stubbornly rebuilt.
Today (1999), Aylmer has a population of 1,020. Malahide, now including the village of Springfield and the former township of South Dorchester, has 8,218. While separated in government, socially and economically they are one, with the crossroads of "Hodgkinson Corner" still the heart of the community.
Life In The 1700 and 1800’s In Elgin
St. Thomas - Yarmouth Township
The Village of St.Thomas was positioned at the intersection thoroughfare of London and Port Stanley road on the side hill of Kettle Creek. The thriving village covered the hillside and even stretch northward over the ravine, many of the places of business being built on long wooden piles that had a foot hold far down the precipitous side of the hill.
About 1825 St.Thomas had a beginning as a village. The Village commencing at the foot of the hill near the bank of Kettle Creek and extended on Talbot Street to Mr. Shaw’s store, which was on the north side near the crest of the hill.
In 1828, St. Thomas consisted of 17 buildings. On the south side of Talbot Street were the homes of Captain Daniel Rapelje, the first settler on the southwold side; Dr. Charles Duncombe’s home, William Drake’s, Archibald McNeil’s, Joseph Barnes’ and Benjamin Wilson’s, while on the north side of Talbot Street were Hamilton and Warren’s store and living quarters and distillery, and the houses of Garret Smith, Thomas Curtis, George Lawrence, Samuel Thompson, John Miller, Joseph Mann, his son Daniel Mann and Richard Misener. A year or so later Kiely’s hotel was built.
In 1832 Talbot Street was used as a race coarse, the half-mile reaching to the site now occupied to day by the City Hall. Stanley Street was at that time a corduroy road (logs laid side by side).
Mrs. Jameson describes the village of St.Thomas in 1837. "St.Thomas is situated on a high eminence to which the ascent is rather abrupt. The view from it, over a fertile well-settled country, is very beautiful and cheering. The place bears the Christian name of Colonel Talbot who styles it his capital and from a combination of advantages; it is rising fast into importance. The climate, from its high position, is delicious and healthful; and the winters in this part of the Province are milder by several degrees than elsewhere. At the foot of the cliff, or eminence, runs a deep, rapid stream, called Kettle Creek (I wish they had given it a prettier name) which after a course of eight miles and turning a variety of saw-mills and grist-mills etc. flows into Lake Erie at Port Stanley, one of the best harbors on this side of the lake. Here steamboats and schooners land their passengers and merchandise, or load with grain, flour and lumber. The roads are good all round, and Talbot Road, carried directly through the town is the finest in the province.
The population of St.Thomas is at present rated at seven hundred and it has doubled within two years. There are three Churches, one of which is very neat and three taverns. Two newspapers are published, one violently Tory, the other violently Radical. I found several house buildings and in those I entered a general air of cheerfulness and well being very pleasing to contemplate…. I was very much struck with this beautiful and cheerful little town more I think, than any place I have yet seen ".
Old St.Thomas Church
Times Building Journal Building
St.Thomas was first incorporated as a village in 1852, with a population of 1,300; in 1861 it numbered 1,631, and in 1866 not many more; in 1870, it was less than 2,000.
The old Town Hall erected in 1850 by Yarmouth Township was purchased, did duty as the Town and City Hall until 1898 when the new and present municipal building was erected.
City Hall Elgin County Court House
In 1870 many of the houses that were supported on the long piles were decaying, and endangered the safety of the inmates and buildings. No consideration was given to the fact that there was plenty of level land east of Williams Street on which to erect buildings. The only idea that had controlled the people was that it was their duty to keep as far west as possible, probably thinking as they increased their distance from Colonel Talbot and the setting sun they lessened their chances for happiness in the world to come. True the town was born at the foot of the Fingal Hill, and had partially moved to the top but it was not done without bitterness. When the St. Andrew’s market and the town hall were established on Stanley Street the opposition at that early day to the site was terrific and caused much animosity among the inhabitants. Those in the Hollow had vested rights, which those on the hill ought to respect. There was a very productive agricultural district contributing to the town, and when the farms had surplus product the business with the town increased and made a demand for more business places. These businesses were erected in the vicinity of Stanley Street, and farther west, and at later date bold men ventured to invest their money as far east as Metcalfe Street. Businesses going so far toward the rising sun were soon because of public sentiment; found their ventures were unprofitable.
When James McAdam built a grocery store on the corner of St. George and Talbot Street, his sanity was called into question for selecting a business site so far east. The Post Office through the Ermatinger influence had been pulled to the corner of Church and Talbot Street, where the Iron Works in later years stood. The banks were all west of Pearl Street. The great business center was between Queen and Pearl Street, and some in the vicinity of Stanley Street where rental was held at a thousand dollars a year. The market did not extend to William Street, and the leading hotels, the Lisgar and Hutchinson houses were all in the west end, while the Catholic and Presbyterian churches were located in the eastern outskirts of town. In the cases of the latter it was not considered necessary to locate them in the town as most of the members of those churches resided in the township.
In 1871 when the work commenced on the construction of the Canadian Southern and the Air Line Railroad it brought thousands of people to town in search of jobs and wealth. They came from all parts of Canada, United States, and Great Britain who hoped to rise to important and lucrative position in the Railway shops and the new Railroad. There was no accommodation in the town for the crowd, they had money and were willing to pay for lodgings but none was to be had.
The East End of St. Thomas for many years was called Millersburg, for Edward Miller, whose original house stood off Alma Street. Subsequently he built the Waddell house on the west side of Balaclava Street. John Miller’s farm House was a red brick building that stood behind Thayer’s service station (old Canadian Tire Store), opposite the International Hotel. Where the New York Central freight building still stands (1999) was "Grabeth" Coughlin’s farm home. Coughlin later moved to a farm on Wellington Road where he was called "Sawmill Dan". Millersburg, which was a farming section, grew up almost over night, and soon had more inhabitants than the old town. Then the section of land lying between Millersburg and St. Thomas began to fill up and in a few years its population, and that of Millersburg reached the ten thousand mark.
Business places were established in the locality where the people resided. Grocery stores sprang up in localities where cows had pastured only two years before; John E. Smith built a block of stores between John Street and the Port Stanley railway tracks, and here and there on Talbot Street in Millersburg. The Moore block at the tannery was the only brick building between the Port Stanley railway and Metcalfe Street until Frank Hunt built the Hunt block (known as Oak Hall) in 1882. For erecting this he was dubbed "the lunatic who built the brick block in the woods." Towards the end of the 1870’s St, Thomas though it would be for the interest of the town to take in Millersburg, but not in such a way as would give the old town control of the council. This was done after much fine work, and Millersburg became a part of St. Thomas. But on condition that Millersburg should not be responsible for, nor pay any portion of St. Thomas’ debt, which was very large in proportion to its assessment and came very near bringing the town to the auction block in previous years. This necessitated two rates on the tax roll: one for Millersburg and one for St. Thomas, and this continued until the city was incorporated.
Francis "Frank" Hunt
Then commenced as bitter and as long a fight as was ever witnessed in any municipality large or small.
There were a few men in the west end with foresight who saw, in their own interest that some changes ought to be made in the market site. Among them was James H. Still, who at a meeting held by the west end property owners to consider the subject that the block on the north side of Talbot Street, between Pearl and East Streets, be purchased for a market site. There were no valuable buildings on the block at the time, and it could have been secured at a very small figure. A large majority rejected his scheme with scorn. It is probable that if Mr. Still’s scheme had been adopted the market question would have been settled forever. The battle ran hot, numerous meeting were held in the city hall and many harsh things were said on both sides.
One prominent west end man used the epithet "east end paupers to the central market people at one meeting, which nearly caused a riot. Another said the "newcomers had no rights which the old residents were bound to respect." The east end responded by calling the west Enders " back numbers, aristocrats, blue beards," and other opprobrious epithets. Owning to the ward representation in the council, the old residents were able to block the scheme by electing a mayor favorable to their views. All the tricks known in political warfare were used for this purpose.
They were assisted in this by Edward Horton, who owned a block of land in the east end and who established the Horton Market on Manitoba Street in spite of the opposition of the west end of the city. Of course, it was to his interests and to the interests of those who had invested in property near him, to join hands with all foes of the central market, and he became a strong ally of his erstwhile enemies. The chosen site for the proposed market, by those who favored a central market, was the block on which the Post Office is now located. This block was never submitted to the people, because those opposed to it were able to block the bylaw in the council. Then came a change of tactics. The council voted to accept the Horton market as the city market, and voted large sums to put it in shape. But in spite of this move the fight ran on.
The council put forth the Jackson block, on the south side of Talbot, between Elgin and Hincks Street, for a central market site, but it developed afterwards that it was put up only to be knock down, and knock down it was. After this a syndicate was formed to buy the block east of the Post Office, and present a market site with suitable buildings and all other necessary equipment to the city free of cost. The scheme was to reserve one hundred feet on Talbot Street for stores, with a wide entrance, which was to lead to the market, and to extend the market north of Curtis Street one hundred and twenty feet. It was thought better not to make a break on Talbot Street of a whole block, and that a market site with a street running through the center of it would be more desirable in every way. This scheme was turned down, principally because it would fulfill all requirements. The argument used against it was that speculators were at the bottom of it to make money, but the real objection by its opponents was they did not want a central market at all, and especially on the site so well adapted for the purpose. The Moore block farther east was also proposed as a site, but it was objected to on account of large expenditure it would require to put it in shape. In the meantime the people of the west end put up the money, and extended the market through to William Street. The result of this move proved a bitter experience to the property holders between William and Stanley Street who were large subscribers to the fund to purchase the land. For from the day the entrance was made to the market from William Street, their business was ruined, and their property depreciated in value.
They had paid for rope to hang them selves. The fight for a central market culminated in 1833. In January of that year Dr. Gustin and Frank Hunt were candidates for mayoralty. Mr. Hunt had been a prominent member of the council for several years, and chairman of several of its important committees. Dr. Gustin had never served in a municipal council. He was a prominent physician, a popular citizen and surgeon for the Great Western Railway Company where Mr. Hunt expected to receive solid support. It was one of the hottest contests ever known in the city. The west end considered it a question of the destruction of their property, and went into the contest with their brains and money. Some strange thing happened. There was a provincial election on at the time, and leading reformers attended the Conservative clubrooms night after night to work against Hunt, They did not heed the warning of Ed Sheppard, that if they beat Hunt, they would beat Nairn. Sheppard was right. Hunt was beaten by his political friends and Ermatinger won over Nairn by the same majority that Gustin won over Hunt.
Hunt, in a public meeting, at which large numbers of west end property holders were present, said that if he were elected mayor he would establish a central market in a location which would not hurt the value of the west end property. But if they defeated him he would live to see the day in which their buildings would not sell for what the brick cost, and see them in poverty. He was hooted for being a false prophet. Was he?
The scenes in the council chamber that year were the most disgraceful ever witnessed in any assembly. The east enders would berate the mayor, who had the casting vote, the mayor would talk over the heads of the alderman to the hooting, yelling crowd, which was present at every meeting. When a vote was likely, either the six east end or the six west end members would make a bolt for the door, and succeed in getting out before Police Chief Fewings could make a stop-gap of himself to prevent their exit. The reporters would beat the Salvation Army drums, and blow the bugles, which were, left on the platform, and sometimes the cigar makers would come over from the Farmers’ Exchange Hotel and sing ballads while the turmoil continued.
One result of the disorder was that the police and others in the service of the city had no payday for several months, and probably would have gotten none during the year but for a compromise. It was agreed that no business would be done but to pass accounts and that the employees of the city were made happy. With the close of that council, the central market question was relegated to the limbo of past, and both markets were put in shape to accommodate whoever attended them.
The first person to take up residence in Lynhurst, Northwest of St.Thomas, was Garrett Smith, his wife six sons and daughter. The Smiths moved from Charlotteville in South Norfolk County and built a log house in what is now Lynhurst before 1812.
$300. Dollar A Year Job
Ten sought the $300 a year job. When James Fewings was chosen police constable and night watchman in 1870, his salary was fixed at $300 per annum. Not a very princely sum for working 365 days and nights but there were nine other applicants for the office. James Fewings was St. Thomas ‘ first chief of police after Municipal incorporation. He was off the job for a period and Billy Worth took his place; then Fewings was reinstated and when the Council made him chief again, Billy Worth resigned.
Those were the days when St. Thomas had a Fire hall in the town off Stanley Street and also a sub-hall on the west side of Princess Avenue (Railway Street) a short distance south of Talbot. Alex Henderson was chief of the fire department and Jim Tucker was the deputy chief in charge of the sub-building.
St. Thomas in 1879 had 29 dresser makers and 4 milliners, also 14 merchant tailors. That was a period when no self-respecting man or woman would consider wearing ready-mades if they were available
Alex Henderson - Fire Chief
St.Thomas 1875
This is Down Town St.Thomas in 1875, looking East down Talbot Street, from Stanley Street. The wooden sidewalk and wooden crosswalks enabled pedestrians to cross muddy streets. Hitching posts can be seen along the South side of the street. Merchants often displayed wares on the sidewalk, and on the North side of Talbot, they often hung products from the awnings, a practice, which the council of the day condemned.
St. Thomas Trains
From the 1850s Railroading has been the lifeblood of St.Thomas. Eight railroads ran through the city and three had large maintenance shops. Collectively they were the largest employer, and major concern, and, for some almost the only topic of conversation. Railroaders were members of City Council, unions, lodges, sportsmen and elders. Their wives were active in lodges, Home and School and women’s auxiliaries.
L&PS at St. Thomas Station
The first tracks to run through Elgin were those of a short, local effort, London & Port Stanley Railroad. From 1854 to 1856, navies labored on right of way, bridges and culverts to lay a line from London (east of St. Thomas) to the harbor of Port Stanley. The L&PS was built not only to link businesses in London to the traffic of Lake Erie but also, hopefully, to capitalize on The Reciprocity Treaty of 1854, the free trade initiative of that today. But while initially encouraging, trade with the United States declined after 1866 and thereafter, despite leases with the Great Western and the Lake Erie and Detroit River Railway and periodic successes, the L&PS faltered. In 1914, these limitations were reversed when under the leadership of Sir Adam Beck; the L&PS was taken over by the City of London and converted to an electric, radial railway. From then until the late 1940’s the L&PS boomed, largely as the summer route to Port Stanley and the favored means of transport of airmen from the Technical Training School south of St. Thomas to St. Thomas and London. In the 1950’s the popularity of automobiles undercut such service and in February 1957, L&PS dropped passenger service. The city of London sold the line and remaining assets to the Canadian National Railway in 1966 and today (1999) it is operated by The Canadian National Railway from St. Thomas to London (no train operating) and by the Port Stanley Terminal Railroad from Port Stanley to the Parkside crossing.
Canadian Southern Railway Station, St. Thomas
A Community did not have potential if it did not have at least one major rail line. The activity that St. Thomas must have had when, in the 1860’s the Canadian Southern Railway announced plans to link Detroit (and Chicago) and Niagara Falls (and New York) with a line through South Western Ontario (Elgin and St. Thomas). The tracks through the center of town were laid in 1872 with the station and shops in St. David Ward, just east of the L&PS and south of the recently, annexed, small settlement of Millersburg.
The Canada Southern and its successor, the Michigan Central Railway and the New York Central System had a huge impact on St. Thomas. With Millersburg amalgamated in 1871 as St. David’s Ward, the population increased in the 1870’s by 8,000 and 1881, St. Thomas became a city. As a divisional point, the offices and shops were extensive and with jobs in track maintenance and aboard the trains, the economic impact was staggering. Because this railroad was housed here, the payroll and railroaders’ support of local commerce and culture led to the most impressive and progressive period in the city’s history.
Because of competition from the Canadian Southern and what the Great Western railroad saw as their need to connect their Sarnia-London-Hamilton-Toronto line to the port and city of New York, in 1871, the Great Western built the so-called Airline loop from Glencoe. With a stop on there mainline, through St. Thomas and Aylmer to Niagara Falls. In St. Thomas, this rail line ran across the tressle above Athletic Park. In later Years, the Grand Trunk Railroad took control of the Great Western, leased running rights to the Wabash, became the Canadian National, and then had the Wabash’s successor, the Norfolk & Western and the Norfolk & Southern, on board. These rail businesses had a station and shops at the north end of St. Catherine Street and also employed a host of locals, most of whom lived in the north of Talbot Street.
Of lesser impact but an important link in the net of that time, the Credit Valley Railway laid tracks from Woodstock to St. Thomas in 1881. This linked the Mainline of the Canadian Pacific to the Michigan Central and opened access for local passengers and freight. In 1895, the Credit Valley Railway was absorbed by CPR, which still runs trains into St. Thomas’ industrial area on this line.
P.M. Shop
Hiram Walker built the Lake Erie and Detroit River Railway in stages from Windsor’s Walkerville to Ridgetown. It was extended to St. Thomas in 1901 and purchased in 1902 by the Pere Marquette, an American line seeking a direct route from Chicago to Buffalo. The offices, roundhouse, and shops of the PM were located at the corner of Wilson Avenue and Elm Street, St. Thomas. The PM offered both passenger and freight service and was particularly noted for hauling coal on L&PS track from Port Stanley to London. Although the shops were less busy once diesel replaced steam, in the era of steam, the turntable and shops of the PM spun. The Chesapeake & Ohio RR bought the PM in 1947 and in its time, this division of the C&O moved only freight, often in the distinctive blue boxcars featuring Chessie the Cat. As trucks increasingly replaced railcars as the dominant hauler, the C&O’s St. Thomas operation was sidelined and abandoned
C.N. Diesel
The eighth line, the South Western Traction, was, in comparison to other of the group a small operation. It was an electric line in the spirit of the new radial lines, a service that started in London and was run in stages to Lambeth, Talbotville, Lynhurst, St. Thomas, Union, and Port Stanley. Opened to St. Thomas and Port Stanley in 1907, it was in receivership and sold to the London and Lake Erie Transportation Co. in 1908, Idled from 1916 to 1918, and discontinued after 1918. A novel idea ahead of its time, it was pushed aside by the faster, more modern L&PS.
Steam had its day and has been replaced by diesel-fueled electric locomotives and now increasingly by diesel-fueled transport trucks. In St. Thomas, the railroad economy has given way to the automotive industries with, ironically, the CN and new Trillium Line now servicing them (Ford, and Formet). And while most of the old railroad facilities have been torn up or torn down, there are still a few remains of the massive size and importance of railroad past to be seen.
C.S.R. Station 1905
A. F. Butler describes the Canadian Southern Station in St.Thomas, 1877.
"Building operation began extensively in 1872 have continued without cessation until the present (1877). The station is 354 feet long and two stories high above the basement. It is constructed with a view to durability, solid comfort, convenience of internal arrangement, and adaptation to purpose. The ground floor is planned for the reception and accommodation of the traveling public: beginning at the west end, we come first to the reading room for the employees and others who have sufficient literary inclinations to avail themselves of the privileges; next, the gentlemen’s waiting room, lofty, spacious and well lighted, 31 by 33; next the ticket office, 14 x 19, and retiring room, 14 x 14, for the officer in charge; next, the ladies waiting room, of the same size as that for the gentlemen; next a spacious passage 15 feet wide, by which one may pass from front platform to the train, and from which by heavy oaken staircase access may be had to the second story; on the east side of this passage is the barber shop and wash rooms, west the refreshment room, and next, a magnificent dinning room 33 x 79, with kitchen, 31 x 33, pantries, sculleries and other kindred conveniences, next, another passage of 15 feet in width, arched at either entrance, and next, the baggage room, station master's room, telegraph office and conductor's’ room. The office of company are upon the second floor, and to reach these we may take either of the broad oaken stairways and we land in a long corridor, 5 feet wide, and running two-thirds of the length of the building. This, on the south side, is lighted with numerous windows, and from it access is had to the different offices. Above each door is a fan light on which is painted in green and gold the number of the office, with the name upon the door itself. The effect of this is at once tasteful and very convenient. The offices are those of the General Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent, Treasurer, Deputy Treasurer, Paymaster, Purchasing Agent, Chief Engineer, Secretary, Solicitor, Resident Engineer, Draughtsman, with their numerous subordinates.
The floors of all the offices are covered with the finest Kidderminster carpets, and the furniture is rich and comfortable. The whole is heated with steam and lighted with gas. The external is pleasing and conveys the impression of solid durability. A platform 20 feet wide covered with a fireproof verandah, supported with cast iron pillars, and surrounds the whole building. The cornice is bold and heavy in its outline, and is supported by ornamental modillions and brackets. The upper story is lighted by 94 windows with circular heads, each shaded by a blind of blue and gold, and bearing on its center the letters "C. S. R." in monogram. Every expenditure of the company had been marked by enterprise and liberality, and they have now a road running through the Province 229 miles, from Amerstburg to Fort Erie, and 63 miles from Courtright to St.Thomas, with superior equipment, and 94 per cent of which is as straight as a line. "
Wabash Station 1900…. St.Thomas
London & Port Stanley Railway Station -------St.Thomas
Port Stanley Railway Station ------ Port Stanley
St.Thomas Bridges
St.Thomas saw a lot of bridge building the early 1870’s it was just one bridge after another. First the Canadian Southern Railway and the Great Western Railway were in a race to build a high level trestles across Kettle Creek with the Canadian Southern winning the race. It was the largest bridge of the two being approximately 1300 feet in length and 90 feet in height. The Great Western Bridge was over 900 feet in length and 80 feet in height in the center and took nearly a million feet of timber. The Canadian southern cost approximately $35,000: the Great Western, $20,000 Colonel John Ellison, a familiar name in Elgin County was the builder of the Great Western bridge. Then a little later Dr. J. H. Wilson (later Senator Wilson) built a wooden bridge in 1872 across the Mill Creek Ravine from the end of Elgin Street, at a cost of approximately $4,000 to open the Paul farm on the south side for residential development. St.Thomas assumed $2,000 of the cost of the first bridge. The second bridge built about 28 years later was a steel structure costing $25,000, design by James A. Bell, then City Engineer. The steel bridge was replaced in the 1950,s by reinforced concrete viaduct, at a cost in excess of $325,000 and in the 1990,s the ravine was filled in. and a paved road laid on top. That first Wilson bridge more or less inspired Judge D. J. Hughes of the Elgin Court to bridge (1870,s) the Hughes Street Ravine in the North end of Hughes Street in the city to his property in Yarmouth. The bridge cost around $15,000.
The laying of steel for the Canadian Southern Railway in the early 1870’s and the spanning the Kettle Creek with the first railroad bridge, unquestionably changed the whole tender of life and industrial outlook for St.Thomas and district but to-date (1952)
St.Thomas has not quite reached the dimension predicted for it on a memorial evening of Friday 13 1872 when the completion of the first Canadian Southern Bridge was celebrated with a large dinner function in the dinning-hall of the Bostwick House, the largest place in St.Thomas at the time.
The dinner was in reality tendered by Messrs. Holmes and Moore, the general contractors on the bridge. Both spoke at length and Colonel Moore was reported in the Canadian Home Journal of that date as having made the sanguine prediction: "St.Thomas, situated as favorably as it is, on this great highway of commerce between East and West, cannot fail to become one of the great and flourishing cities of Canada."
The bridge whose completion was celebrated by graceful wooden trestle structure described as follows in the Canadian Home Journal article: "In throwing its span across the valley of two great thoroughfares of the county, and it is a ‘sight’ to the thousands that daily enter the town from the West, North and South. It is composed of 64 bents, of which support 14 spans of Howe truss of 45 feet each and 49 compose part of the trestlework at either end. This makes the extreme length of the bridge 1,365 feet and the height from low water level of the creek to the top of the handrail, which protects the sidewalk on either side, is 92 feet. The supporting bents have consumed 900,000feet of timber, and Howe truss 160,000 feet more – making a million and sixty thousand feet altogether. In securing the coherence and necessary strength of this vast body of timber, so as to serve the purpose for which it has been brought together, 50 tons of cast iron bolts and 40 tons of cast iron have been employed…
There is not a tennon or mortice in the whole bridge; and where an augur holes is made, the vacancy is immediately filled with an iron bolt. Messrs Holmes and Moore commenced to raise on September 28 1871, and finished February 12 1872, occupying 85 working days of that period in completing their contract. George W. Butterfield is the engineer in charge."
No Labor Trouble
The report proceeds " The contractors pushed their work with commendable vigor and perseverance. Not a day nor an hour that men could work since operation were commenced in this town on September 28 last, has been misspent. Neither cold, snow, nor sleet was permitted to interrupt the steady progress of the work. The utmost harmony prevailed between employers and employees. The contractors were as faithful in their engagement toward their workmen, as the latter were diligent in the service of their master. Neither strikes, jars, disputes, nor accidents were heard of. The intercourse of Messrs. Holmes and Moore with our citizens, too, were of the most quite courteous a
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