DID YOU KNOW?

(If you reach the bottom of the page,  hit "Next".  There's more!)

 

WHO WAS ST. MATILDA

/
 
 

Our little church on the west side of the Crowe River at Marmora is named St. Matilda’s.

But who was St. Matilda?

Queen Matilda was married to Henry the first, and a powerful woman. As a political activist she also is now heralded as the ‘Patron Saint of Misbehaving (or Disappointing) Children’- such presumably as her own. It was a title earned as a result of her dealings with two contentious sons fighting over one crown.

         St. Matilda is also venerated as a builder of chapels and by the falsely accused. All in all, she was the right choice after whom to name our contentious little church.                  

No sooner had it been erected, was it the subject of litigation.

The little stone church was built under the direction of mine manager, Anthony Manahan in the mid 1820’s. It was probably the first Catholic Church back from Lake Ontario and was consecrated by Upper Canada’s first Catholic Bishop.

When Church of England members not only came to use it, but also claimed to control the access to it by Catholics, the quarrels began. After a series of public insults back and forth, Anthony Manahan got a Magistrates Order that the church was indeed Catholic. Its ruins still occupy the lovely site beside the  Crowe River, north of the dam.

Two little crosses were made by the Ironworks to crown each end of the little Church. One of them still survives in the Catholic Church on Bursthall St..

TO READ ALL ABOUT THIS LITTLE 1820’S CHURCH, CLICK HERE

                                                   

HOW TO SPEAK "MARMORA"

/

MARMORA - 101

Linguists tell us that within any language group local expressions will develop. To understand your community, it is essential to learn the local lingo.

Here is your language course ‘Marmora 101’. The exam will be administered by members of a select committee who may greet you on the street at any time and will expect an appropriate response.

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SUGGEST ADDITIONS TO OUR DICTIONARY (info@marmorahistory.ca)

So, here we go:

North of Seven: Translation: Way back

Back of Cordova or B. C.: Translation; North of Seven only more so

Git ‘er done: Translation: There is a time for thinking and a time for action. . . . This is not a time for thinking.

Your Grampa was from Madoc: Translation: You are not really from Marmora

Newcomer: Translation: see above

I’m not running for election; I am standing for election:

Translation: I can’t be bothered to talk to you.

Receive for Consideration: Translation: Nope

Receive and file: Translation: Council feels you should go now.

No better than he thinks he is: Translation: a weird way to say he’s not so great.

Like a fart in a wind storm Translation; Hard to predict

How’s ya belly where the pig bit ya?:

Translation; This strange question is in fact used as a polite greeting that need not be specifically answered. If you do respond you can say, ‘good, how’s your pig?’   Origin Uncertain—sounds Australian.

Go ahead, tell it to my wife: Translation: Please don’t tell my wife

Shut your yapper: Translation: I want to talk about me.

He couldn’t hit a barn door with a handful of beans: Translation: He’s drunk.

Seeya on the lake when the ice sinks:

Translation: This pleasant greeting reflects the speaker’s scientific literacy. We all know that spring makes the ice sink to the bottom which is why the deeper down you go, the colder it is. And why it comes up next winter.

Not until Hell freezes over and all the little devils come out to skate: Translation: No thanks. .

The Maple Leaf Café : Translation: A secret place to meet for a beer on the way to the . . hunt camp.

That Poodle can’t hunt: Translation: A nice little insulting zinger to a dog and the owner. . . You probably knew that anyway.

Organ Recital: Translation: Gossip at the old folks’ home

Going to the movies?: Translation: I saw you picking your seat!

Kids don’t take after strangers: Translation: Your kid’s a moron and so are you

Better than a slap in the belly with a wet fish: . Translation: It is what it is and stop yer whinin’!

DID MARMORA INVENT MONEY

/

“But dear brother, we have no money here. The best farmer in the country must when he is going out a journey, he must take wheat tic or oats or some such commodity to bear his expense in the towns traveling. We will not see one shilling in the course of a year.

 

Royal Keyes, writing to his brother in September 1834. Royal farmed north of Marmora until his death at the age of 107

Royal Keyes was not complaining about how poor he was.  He wasn’t poor. In the same letter he boasted of a flourishing farm and three good meals of meat daily. He was complaining about the lack of coins and bills themselves.

Archives of Ontario

Money is a strange thing. The rule is clear--it is only worth anything if another person thinks so. It is only of any use if you  can trust that someone else will accept it in payment of something you really need. If you can’t trust the coins or bills, or, if you don’t even have them, trade gets complicated. But when it is trusted, it is a convenience that a growing economy cannot do without.

Instead of shillings or dollars, which weren’t flowing around the new colony, locals were forced to use barter. But when surplus crops needed to be converted to other food or seeds or livestock, the barter system was just not convenient enough. How, after all, could Royal walk or ride the 8 miles to a market with a bushel of wheat to buy perhaps an overcoat? How much wheat makes a coat or a jar of honey or a frypan? Who knows? Would Royal have to carry his wheat back and forth if what he wanted to trade it for was not available that day? What was needed was something light, that could fit in your wallet, and easily go back and forth and symbolize the value of the wheat. That is what coins and bills, if trusted, do.

 In Upper Canada, before a centralized government mint was established to stamp out ‘Canadian Coins’, the need for coins was clear. Farmers, miners, bar tenders, and financiers, all came to accept a wide variety of coinage. The exchange rate was set by law for whatever was floating around--for British Guineas, Crowns, and Shillings, and for American Eagles, and for Portuguese Johannes and Moidores. Set even for Spanish Doubloons, Pistareens, and Pistoles, and for French Louis d’Ors, Livres and Sols Tournois. It didn’t matter where it came from, they worked,  but any gold and silver coins were carefully weighed before being accepted.
If even these national coins were not around, traders often resorted to ‘commercial tokens’, semi-official coins struck by early banks or businesses. One such halfpenny token bore the blunt message—'No Labour; No Bread’. If you had laboured for it, you could buy bread with it. In case you missed the message, the reverse read—'Speed the Plough’. One 1838 Token valued as ‘one stiver’ proclaimed, ‘Trade and Navigation’ on one side and on the other ‘Pure Copper Preferable to Paper!’.

One of the most unusual substitutes for government coinage was this half penny token.                                           

If the image on front looks familiar it may because it was associated with Marmora. It was on the village’s old official seals. What’s more our Ironworks started with shovelling and ended with the blacksmith’s anvil.

Was this early ‘money’ our invention? Here is more evidence that it might have been.

The date was 1820 when the Ironworks to be built at Marmora was a topic of discussion, especially in Kingston where the first bank in Upper Canada was being floated. It was there that our first Ironmaster, Charles Hayes, arrived and where our second Ironmaster, Anthony Manahan, carried on a commercial business. Was this one of their projects?

People learned to love their tokens. The government learned to hate them. Governments like to be in charge of the mint. The right to just print off tokens had to be denied if ‘Government Money’ were to take over. In 1825 commercial tokens were banned. Like most good things they survived, at least briefly in spite of the law. Some have speculated that the tokens just kept being stamped out, backdated so as to escape the new rules.

So did Marmora once invent some ‘money’.  We don’t know for sure but at the risk of inventing history,  we can say  it is a definite maybe. Or maybe it is all a ‘coin-incidence’

 

When in doubt, dowse. 

/
 

For some the neglect afforded to St. Matilda is at least partially excused because it was not certain that its grounds held a burial place. The gravestone placed there was certainly moved there years after the death of Margaret Hughes. That of itself doesn’t resolve the issue.

               On a fine day in September, 2005, a good Christian walked repeatedly back and forth, south to north, over the little meadow west of the ruins of St. Matilda. The sun shone on the flat stone nearby that marked the landing of the old wooden bridge that teetered across the river, once bringing worshippers over from the village. His guide was another good Christian and both had faith in his findings.

               Dowsing for water seems anecdotally to work. Indeed, to have worked for centuries. Some dowsers claim to find not just water but minerals, even animals. But is it reasonable to think we can not only number the buried dead, but determine their gender and a rough age? It is a complex universe and one where greater mysteries are accepted, not just by witches, but by the reverent alike.

               Some consider dowsing another potential source of knowledge in that complex universe. For others it is the sort of witchcraft for which burning at the stake was righteously prescribed.

Whatever your thoughts the results on St. Matilda’s little church seem to, roughly at least, match the rediscovered truths. It was all scrupulously set out in the dowsers’ plans. Seven burials in the first right hand row, ten burials in the second right hand row; two burials in the second left hand row, ten burials in the second left hand row. The next day white crosses were reverently placed in each position.

Not long after the crosses were all gone.

One of the biggest frustrations in genealogy, is being unable to locate the burial site of an ancestor. Although we may have an idea of where this ancestor is buried, we have no proof. Grave dowsing cannot give us the name of the person buried in any un-marked grave, but it can identify the locations of unmarked graves within a cemetery or lot and also provide some clues to their gender and age. (Brenda Marble, Cass County Historical & Genealogy Society)

Hoffman-La Roche, the huge multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, has been employing dowsers on the company’s payroll since 1944. The dowsers are used in seeking water for the company’s operations. When interviewed as to the unscientific nature of dowsing, a company spokesperson replied as follows: “Roche uses methods that are profitable, whether they are scientific or not. The dowsing method pays….”2 But so do prostitution and selling crack cocaine — in the short run. The question remains: should dowsing be used if it is really a method of occultic divination? John Weldon Christian Research Institute

Wayne VanVolkenburg wrote:    Some of the members of the Stuckey family, my wife's ancestors, claimed land that was granted under “The Homestead Act” near the current village of Whitestone. After clearing the land, and trying to establish a farm circa 1885, they found that the land would not sustain them. Unfortunately, they lost two children to this harsh land. They then moved on to Alberta.

The children were buried on the farm property in a fenced in area. Over time, the fence rotted away, leaving only pieces of the metal gate frame. There remained two depressions in the soil that were located with the help of a longtime local resident.

 After speaking to a member of the local historical foundation, I learned that there was a person who would “witch” for buried bodies. We met him at the grave site and had him try to provide us with any useful information. Without any prior knowledge, he was able to confirm that there were two graves, and that one was a baby. He also pointed out which direction the graves were facing.

 The children were in fact, a newborn baby, and a nineteen year old boy. There was no mention of the sex of these children. This allowed us, with the current owner's permission, to erect a wooden grave marker. Remarkably, the original log cabin is still standing nearby.

EVER THOUGHT OF MARRYING YOUR COUSIN?

/

It may come a surprise to some people to hear that, yes, civilly in Ontario, you can consider your uncle’s son or daughter, as a spouse! (and your aunt or uncle for that matter!) It is against the law to marry your parent, grandparent, child, grandchild, brother, sister, half-brother, or someone under sixteen.

But the question arose when Christina Travis wrote to us about Solomon Johns and Susan Johns. She writes:

“The family stories available on your website say that the relationship between Susan and Solomon is unclear. Census records show that she lived in his house and later married his nephew (also a resident of his house), which seems like a hint in favor of them not being closely related. However, this attached marriage record from the Catholic Church of Marmora/Madoc shows that Solomon is the father of Susan, and so the marriage between Susan and the nephew William Hilton, had to be cleared in Rome with a special dispensation because they were first cousins, which was considered "ex copula illicita." That may clear up the mystery for researchers.”

tHE HOME OF SOLOMON JOHNS and Susan Mooney, with niece, Sarah Mariah Bleecker

And so it still is today, that yes, in the Catholic Church, first cousins can marry if the diocesan bishop grants an appropriate dispensation. The church's position is that two first cousins are forbidden to marry only by ecclesiastical law, not by divine law. For this reason it is canonically possible to receive a dispensation that permits two first-cousins to validly marry in the Catholic church. (This assumes, of course, that it is legal under civil law in the area in which the marriage is to take place).

For more on Susan and her husband, CLICK HERE

For more on other Johns family members, visit our family files. CLICK HERE

GOOD GAWLEY, MISS MAWLEY!

/

One of the very early families to settle in the Marmora area was the Gawley family,  brought here in 1823 by Andrew Gawley. (1781-1861) The story has it that Andrew,  whose wife, Jane Reid, died on the voyage here, arrived with four children (Jane, John, James, & Margaret).  By 1834, Andrew had married Dorothy Keyes,  a member of another old pioneer family,  and 20 years his younger.  They went on to have 6 or 7 more Gawleys to spread the name throughout Upper Canada.

Elsinore Cemetery, Bruce County.

One such son was Royal Gawley  (1845-1926),  named after his grandfather of Marmora fame, Royal Keyes.  (Cemetery Information — MarmoraHistory.ca)  Royal Gawley’s life story is one of sadness and perseverance.  Just after his third child was born,  his wife,  Anna Maria Smith died,  and Royal was suddenly totally blind.  Then,  as if set up to be tested again,  his second child,  Andrew (1885-60) fell on a rotating circular saw and lost both his hands at the age of 17.  With the help of good neighbours and his skill as a craftsman he made a living but more importantly assisted Andrew to find his way through life.

 It was Andrew Gawley who made history. 

While in hospital recovering from the accident,  Andrew was determined to design hands for himself,  and with the help of his skilled  blind father and Sy Kolb,  a blacksmtih, he produced steel hands, but they operated on one plane only. He then set to work on improving the model to do more.

“It is a simple hand,  with five holds or grips in it.  Five different grips of different sizes and degrees of power,  two opening as the hand moves closer to the body and three opening as the hand is moved away from the body.  The great problem in designing an artificial hand is to find the mathematical secret governing the grips at various distances from the body.  There is no sense of touch.” 

 Yet Andrew Gawley was able to do anything from thread a needle,  or  tie a bow,   to lifting  a 260 lb.  Ford engine block in one hand.  He went on to be a machinist for the war effort,  worked for Fisher Motor Company,  operated a cigar store, sold fruit trees and silverware, and  ran a flourishing machinist repair shop in Meaford.  He was an avid cyclist, and rode a motor cycle

Andrew Gawley at Ripleys believe it or not Photo from PBS

 But his fame was for his work making hands for amputees,  especially soldiers returning home from war,  who all agreed his hands were far better than the patented hand offered by the government.  Well known as “The Man With the Iron Hands”,  he travelled with Ripleys Believe it or Not,  travelling to the Chicago World’s Fair, and various exhibitions in California, Texas, Florida, Cleveland, San Francisco and New York.  He even did a tour of a number of Canadian towns with Conklin Brothers.Losing his hands, though, was not the end of his grief.  On two occasions he suffered devastating losses to fires,  and ended his days living in a barn.  He was often the target of ” vandals and petty thievery” and ridicule.  But he was known to take it all in stride and on Christmas Day, 1960,  The Man with the Iron Hands died. Luckily his legend lives on at the Meaford Museum, and in a play performed by the Meaford Community Theatre.

Andrew Gawley Lakeview Cemetery, Meaford Ontario.

 

1970 - THE FAMOUS MORTY SCHULMAN CHECKS OUT DELORO

/

Who was Morty Schulman, you ask? and why was he in Deloro?

Dr. Morton Schulman was a Canadian politician, businessman, broadcaster, columnist, physician and Ontario Chief Coroner, and he may have been the original force behind the Deloro Clean-up (except for one unnamed Deloro citizen) In the mid 1960s he embarrassed the provincial government when he found them to be disobeying provincial health and safety laws. He was fired and then ran for elected office and won. Here is an excerpt from his 1979 book “Member of the Legislature”. The chapter is entitled “Arsenic and Old Tories”

……………………. In April 1970, I received a letter from a resident of Deloro, a tiny town in eastern Ontario, complaining that arsenic was being discharged into the Moira River and Lake from an old abandoned refinery. The poison level was so high that cows drinking from the lake had died. The writer went on to say that complaints to Ontario's Water Resources Commission had received no response whatsoever.

I drove down to Deloro and found an amazing sight: 400,000 tons of bright blue tailings covering some fifty acres were lying in a huge dump beside the Moira River. Streams of blue tinted water ran steadily from the dump into the river. And through it all stood long dead trees and vegetation, all petrified by the copper and arsenic. The residents of Deloro were in no personal danger for they all drank well water, but everyone downstream was at risk.

The Ontario Water Resources Commission had said that the safe level of arsenic was 0.05 parts per million but tests of the surface water ran at 0.42 parts per million. And the water at the bottom of Moira Lake read at an incredible and lethal 400 parts per million. Several medical studies, dating back to 1929, had shown that drinking water with arsenic in it or even swimming in such water can produce cancer. Therefore, I went down to the vital statistics department and examined the cancer rate for that area (Hastings, Frontenac and Prince Edward counties). I discovered that it was rising 75 per cent faster than the rest of the province.

Moira Lake then had three hundred cottages on its shores, eight tourist establishments and two boys' camps. It seemed to me that I had stumbled onto something of terrible and urgent importance. I went to the Legislature and demanded immediate action, but I was astounded by the response.

Dr. C. R. Link, the local Medical Officer of Health issued a statement, "In my opinion and in the opinion of the Ontario Water Resources Commission and the Department of Public Health there is no danger of people developing cancer." Energy and Resources Minister George Kerr said, "The lake water is drunk only by a small proportion of the cottagers . . . and there is no danger involved in swimming." Health Minister Tom Wells said, "The incidence of cancer in Hastings and Frontenac Counties is slightly below the average for the province of Ontario." He went on that "the levels of arsenic in Moira Lake are no longer considered a health hazard." The two ministers also issued a common statement: "There is no evidence to substantiate charges by Dr. Morton Shulman that residents of the Moira River watershed are in danger. . ."

Morton Schulman - Wikipedia

Things simmered down for a few days and then a report was leaked by an unhappy official in the Water Resources Commission which flatly contradicted the reassurances from the two ministers. This report stated that the concentration of the arsenic was ten times the safe level for human consumption. Suddenly George Kerr got the message. In a statement on June 5, 1970, he said that the government was taking action against the refinery "which will require it to eliminate all leaching certainly this year." He concluded, "We are getting the necessary evidence with the idea of placing the company under a ministerial order. It is also quite possible that we will prosecute the company."

I was quite satisfied with Kerr's statement, but unfortunately I had been totally taken in. No prosecution ever took place. More important, neither did the arsenic leaching cease. Seven years later, after I had left the Legislature, I discovered that the arsenic was still heavily running into the Moira system and in 1977 Minister Kerr promised a cleanup for 1978. As of this writing, (1979) nothing has been done.

It turned out that Wells' comments about the cancer rates were just about as accurate as George Kerr's original statement. In January 1978, Michael Rychlo, a water quality engineer with the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, published a book called The Arsenic Papers. I was not too surprised to read the following:

“Claims by one doctor of increased cancer mortality rates in Hastings county due to the arsenic levels in the waters there were dismissed on the basis that the doctor was misinformed as to the statistics. Health officials referred to the publications of Ontario Vital Statistics to show that the claims were unsubstantiated. The health experts listed 77 deaths from all malignancies in 1971 for Hastings, which was supposed to make the rate for that county 83 deaths per 100,000. However, what the experts failed to include was the number of female deaths which was 68. The 77 deaths stated were only for males.

The correct total meant that Hastings did in fact show a death rate higher than the provincial average. If the rates were inspected again for 1972, it would have been demonstrated that Hastings had a death rate from cancer much higher than the Ontario average. “

In matters of public health as in politics it is not enough just to be right. You must, in addition, get your message to the public. In the case of the arsenic and cancer danger in Eastern Ontario, I failed to reach and alarm enough people.”

The plan to clean up Deloro did not commence until the ‘80s and a health study was conducted in 1998. As of today, they are still working on it.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE ON THE DELORO CLEANUP

Photo from Ontario Government 2020 update

Photo from Ontario Government 2020 update

PROFESSOR DYNAMITE SOLVES EPIDEMIC

/

AREAS OF MALARIA IN MADOC IN 1882

Those who believe that there is very little that happens which has not happened before, will be supported by the report of the Malaria epidemic in Madoc. No need to jump back. The disease is long gone form our stomping grounds, but it does show that in this time of Pandemic, there is evidence that history does indeed repeat itself. And that we seldom learn its lessons.

In 1882, Ontario had just set up its Board of Health and the next year the Board made its First Annual Report. Madoc and her troubles were featured, complete with an illustrative map.

In 2020 it is Covid that scares us. In the mid nineteenth century it was Malaria and its lesser relative ague. It was always around the corner but in 1882 it pounced. And landed at Moira Lake.

A dam had been built five years before to raise up the level of Moira Lake allowing for better log handling and water power for a mill. Industry was king and no permissions were needed. The water rose four feet and great patches of lowlands were submerged. Vegetation rotted as fields were drowned.

Before this event there were few health complaints near Madoc, but then malaria spread to settlers around the south part of Moira Lake and, as the summer progressed, so did the disease, up towards the town. The
wetlands ran along the creek through Madoc and malaria seemed to course along its banks. Then it went north and west so that in a few years it arrived at Deloro and Marmora.

Just as we don’t really understand Covid, they didn’t understand Malaria. It had wiped out large numbers of the workmen who built the Rideau Canal in the 1830s and flourished briefly at Duoro. It was always around in Upper Canada but how and why it sprung up and how it spread was unclear. The Mosquito was not yet the prime suspect.

The newly established Health Department speculated. Perhaps it was the general messy state of town and rampant causal sewerage disposal. ‘The soil and cleavage planes of the rock might be the means of polluting the drinking water with malarial germs.’ But, ‘The small swamps from their position and condition would not seem to be in any great degree factors in explaining the presence of malaria.’

So, what was it. The Board continued ‘We now come to what in the opinion of the majority of people in Madoc is the chief cause.’ Although they were, of course, entitled to an opinion, science, then as now, is not a
matter that can be voted on. The Madoc citizens may have been closing in on an answer, but they missed the real villain, the lowly mosquito, and so did the Board of Health.

The Board waffled somewhat between drinking water problem and some kind of wafting swamp gas. They pointed out, ‘There has been much decaying timber, logs and stumps of trees, either cut, or which having been killed have gradually fallen.’ Whether it was rot or was gas, the Board directed that it was time to clean up town of the ‘fluid contents draining from the privy-vaults, cesspools and stables’. While that may not have
helped with Malaria, it surely didn’t harm the town.

Someone, still unknown, had another solution. The summer of 1881 was unusually dry and the base of the dam started to show. One dark night that year, it was simply blown up. The Secretary of the local Board of health, E.D. O’Flynn was able to remark. ‘ Since the lowering of the dam by Professor Dynamite a few months ago, the marshes are drained, and the water of the lake purer, and free from miasmatic indications than at any corresponding period since the dam was built; and it is also noticeable that within this time there has been an abatement of malarial fevers.’

 Problem solved. The Board of Health seems to have agreed.

For a little more on Malaria in Marmora, CLICK HERE

Connecting the Postcards dots. . . .

/

Our readers will recall our article on the Oakman postcards and the importance of the collection to the historical record. We also wrote of the famous Roy Studio of Peterborough, which supplied an historical album of local activities for almost 100 years. But less famous was the Parks Studio of Peterborough, which supplied thousands photos for post cards from 1918 to 1980.

This photographic studio was operated by Lewis R. Parks (1899-1993)  and his son Gordon Parks (1929- ), two prominent professional photographers. Lewis Parks was a self-taught photographer who had worked for the Air Force during World War I installing aerial cameras. His first business was opened in 1918 or 1919 on Townsend street, but was moved shortly thereafter to Park Street in front of General Electric.

Gordon Parks first worked for his father as a child in the studio's darkroom on Saturdays. He joined his father's studio in 1951 after graduating from Shaw Business College(business administration) and Ryerson (photography), both in Toronto. Gordon and Lewis worked together as a father and son until his father's retirement in 1966. Under Gordon's influence Parks Studio was greatly expanded and a camera shop was added. The studio's last location, until its closure in 1980, was at the corner of Brock and Aylmer Streets.

Mrs. MacKechnie with "Jean" born 1910 and "Marjorie" born 1909 Photo appears to have been taken on west side of river opposite Pearce mills. note Pearce grist mill still standing.

Gordon Parks sold the negatives to the Peterborough Centennial Museum & Archives during the winter of 1999.   There were 70,000 negatives accumulated by the Parks Studio, documenting daily life, local business and industry, urban development, and key events in Peterborough from the late 1930's to 1980. The business's early negatives survived until the early 1950's, when they were disposed of by the studio. (www.archeion.ca)

We recently received two postcards produced by the Lewis Parks Studio, for which one we could identify the writer, Jean MacKechnie (daughter of Dr. MacKechnie), who described her ride in the rumble seat to Crowe Lake in 1929, while her sister, Marjory got the front seat.

TO SEE MORE OF THE MARMORA POSTCARD COLLECTION, CLICK HERE.

Deloro’s Peter Kirkegaard Associated with Fraudsters

/

Peter Kirkegaard was Deloro’s mine manager at the time Canadian Goldfields Ltd. was working the property. He built a home there that was later to become the Deloro Nursing Home (now torn down). He was a very serious researcher, with a good reputation with the universities and governments, and developed the process to refine white arsenic, the more profitable side of Deloro gold.

(Click here to read a more full biography)

In 1907, Canadian Goldfields Ltd. closed. Simultaneously the Deloro Mining and Reduction Co. opened, under the management of Peter Kirkegaard, refining cobalt from Cobalt, Ontario. We recently received a letter from Maggie Wilson of the Cobalt Historical Society, which included Peter Kirkegaard’s business card. She had been reviewing the collection of Albert Norton Morgan, a local lawyer around that time, when she came across the card.

She tells the following story:

“Over the last year, I've been researching and writing a book about the life of a stock promoter named Horatio Barber. He was in Cobalt in 1906 and in the goldfields of Larder Lake in 1907. He made a fortune selling shares in bogus mines. While in Larder Lake, his associates formed a gold mining company named the Larder Lake Proprietary Gold Fields Limited. Kirkegaard was on the board of directors of the company.

From our book, Airy Somethings, the Extraordinary Life of Aviation Pioneer Horatio Barber by Terry Grace and Maggie Wilson:

‘Directors of a mining company, especially a wildcat, were usually people of title or rank. Like a supermodel or sports legend endorsing a product, a recognizable name of some status attached to a mine will give the business a sense of legitimacy. The directors of LLPGF were politicians, medical military officers, manufacturers, and real estate men. Only two had mining backgrounds, and of those, one was a manager of a gold mine and the other was a stock promoter.

Of course, Kirkegaard was the only man of the bunch with any mining background.’ Whether or not he was aware of the fraudulent nature of the stock promotion, I cannot say.”

For more on mining in Deloro, Click here. 

A Railway in the Village?

/

As early as May 1891, the Ontario, Belmont & Northern Railway (OB&NR), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Central Ontario Railway, received a charter to build a branch line to the iron mines in the Marmora area. Construction did not start for some time, and the 14.5 km line from Marmora Junction near Belmar (marked in red),  just south of the village,   to the Cordova mines was finally completed in July 1896. Later that year the branch was renamed to become the Marmora Railway & Mining Company.    As many as 24 trains a day ran up this line to Marmora,  from 1884 to the 1970’s. The Marmora Railway and Mining Company line,  later owned by the Canadian Northern Railway, eventually was consumed by Canadian National Railway.  While the Marmora Station now sits on what would have been this CN line,  its original position was on Station Road,  on the main Central Ontario Railway line to Maynooth.

Cameron Street was laid out on the bed of this railway,  as was Riverview Drive,  and parts of the track are  still visible  to the south  as  the extension of Cameron Street,  and in the north where it crosses Glen Allan Park Road.

In the rare photo below,  taken from the iron bridge that crossed the Crowe River,  you can see a train on what is now Cameron Street passing behind the houses on Forsyth Street.   Mrs. William Sanderson’s outfit in that same photo  dates the photo for us at about  1910.

This very early photo shows some railway cars behind the boathouses, that were common along the river bank. Boathouses were still at that location in the 1960's

WHAT DOES MARMORA HAVE IN COMMON WITH NORMANDALE?

/

Three hundred and fifty kilometers from Marmora,  on the shores of Lake Erie,  lies  the quiet little village of Normandale which finds its roots in iron ore production launched in 1815 by John Mason.  There he simply burned a mixture of charcoal and bog iron.  In 1821-1822 Joseph Van Norman, Hiram Capron, and George Tillson (after whom Tilsonburg was named)  took over and enlarged the works producing the famous Van Norman cooking stove, as well as iron kettles, pots and pans, and agricultural implements.  By 1846 the town plot had five streets,  a population of 300,  a grist mill and accompanying businesses.  However,  in 1848,  the timber was gone and the supply of bog ore had dried up. 

JOSEPH VAN NORMAN MOVED ON.   BUT WHERE DID HE GO?

Well,  during those same years,  1821-22,  Marmora’s Charles Hayes was establishing the Marmora Iron Works,  which by 1823 was producing pig iron from ore in Blairton.  At the same time,  the Village had become a fully integrated self-sufficient  working community with 200 people.  He had built a sawmill and gristmill beside the waterfalls,  a bark mill to grind waste bark for the tannery and almost 35 houses, a school and adjacent forge and mill buildings. But for Hayes,  hard time hit and he left in 1824 he handed over the reins to his creditor,  Peter McGill.

Although suffering the problems of transportation and economic  bad times,  the Marmora Iron works limped along under the direction of several owners,  and in 1847, Joseph Van Norman,  who was looking for a new project,   purchased the Blairton property for $21,000.   Although he got the furnace going in 1848, and for a short time made sales at $30 to $35 per ton, carting the ore a distance of thirty-two miles to BelIeville, "over rocks and log crossings and roads so rugged that waggons were constantly broken", this venture too was doomed to failure, and Van Norman was forced to close the mine and works, losing everything.

As for Normandale, well, a few vestiges remain. At the foot of the hill stands the Union Hotel built by Mr. Van Norman and now fully renovated. Adjacent is a small building that served as his post office. His furnaces had fully disappeared until 1968, when they were discovered by Royal Ontario Museum archaeologists. One now stands in Upper Canada Village in Eastern Ontario while the other rests in the Eva Brook Donly Museum, north of Normandale on Highway 24.

Union hotel built by van norman and P.O.

union hotel today

On Feb. 22, 2022, Karen Devolin writes, “really interesting history that is not shared here in Tillsonburg.”

Joseph Van Norman 1796-1888 Tillsonburg

long point lighthouse built by van norman

BRIDGING THE GAP

/

This photo on the left, found by Wayne VanVolkenburg at the Historical Foundation, presented a problem. When and where, in Marmora, did such a bridge exist, and whose house is that white one?

Taking a look at details, we can see on the horizon line a roof scape that is a little similar to modern Forsyth Street. Behind the trees on the left could be the St. James hotel (Havelock Auto parts now) and the old TD bank behind it. But it is not clear. On the left we also see a shed, four trees and six pieces of lumber over what seems to be a crib.

Time for comparisons with other photos……….

In 1910 we see the iron bridge is in place, the little shed by the water is there, and the shed on the right is similar in both photos, but no white house or bridge resembling the one above

But in 1932, plans were underway to relocate the iron bridge, blast through the rock and construct the #7 highway. To do so, a temporary bridge was constructed. Looking closely, you can see the four trees and the six pieces of lumber, and the white house, about which we have no information other than it stood where the baseball diamond is now. Mystery solved.

For more on Marmora bridges, CLICK HERE

HARRY OAKMAN WAS HERE

/
 

Cordova Road at Beaver Creek by H. Oakman

A pioneer in Canadian commercial aviation and one of the country’s most noteworthy aerial photographers,  Harry Oakman, owner of the Peterborough Post Card Co., worked nationwide  often taking aerial and motel images, during the 1940s-1960s.   His cards are often distinguished by an Oakman logo bearing the image of an airplane at bottom right. Thanks to Ron Barrons, we have a few Oakman postcards in our collection.

 Mr. Oakman founded the Peterborough Municipal Airport, which grew from a 1950s airstrip which he built on farmland, purchased just south of Peterborough.   His postcard company produced approx. 200 million postcards. For his pioneer aviation efforts and Canadian tourism promotion via postcards, the Peterborough airport terminal was renamed as the “Harry Oakman Building” in 1999.

Oakman used custom-made cameras he designed which allowed him to fly and take photographs simultaneously. In the 1960s, he was commissioned by Brewer’s Retail to photograph every Ontario city and town which had a “Beer Store”; to this day, many framed, poster-sized prints from this series decorate “Beer Stores.” He was featured in a 1994 issue of Kegs and Cases, the Brewer’s Retail magazine.

Marmora’s beer store had such a photo which has disappeared. Any idea of its whereabouts?

Oakman was also a Canadian boat racing champion and a tool and die maker.  His photographic collection, purchased by an Oshawa cartography company, Map Art Corporation, is one of the largest of its kind in the world.

 Information from Vintagepostcards.org

A rare H. Oakman postcard taken at ground level

round Lake, Harts Lodge, a H. R. Oakman post card..jpg

the homestead of George Barrons,
where he and Lena (Steenburgh) raised their seven children and where Charlie
Barrons and Freda (Ellis) raised their four children. That's Belmont Lake in
the background.

Probably a H. Oakman postcard

Marmoraton Mine (5).jpg

Here is a second view looking north showing in the background the farms of Robert Kennedy, Charlie Barrons on the left in Belmont Township, Peterborough County and Bob Wiggins, John McGregor and George McGregor on the right in Marmora Township, Hastings County on the right.

Ron Barrons writes: Oakman also photographed many farms in the area including this of my father's farm on Vansickle Rd. It would be nice to see others from the area.

Deer Lake, now Cordova Lake., and dam

Marmora Village looking north

Havelock

Marmora Village looking west, with crowe Lake

Al Danford wrote: The grist mill and several commercial blocks that burned are in the picture!

From Brian Bronson: Nice picture of my Dad’s garage across from the ole bake shop. Hulin’s Garage and Farm Supply as it was called. Now a vacant lot owned by Ron Moffat. Across from the grist mill was a car repair shop run by a man by the name of Trigger (Percy) Gunn The Gunn family were from Hazzard’s Corners.. At bottom left hand corner of picture is Kelly Mulrooney’s old barn that Mr. Danford used to fill with sawdust every fall. Kelly would get us kids to maul the sawdust away from the elevator. That’s what Kelly used to heat the blacksmith shop all winter. Glen Briggs made the ole shop into a residence, Don’t know who owns it now. My great Uncle Wes Hulin sold Kelly that lot., approx in 1933.

GOODBYE BETHLEHEM STEEL

/

martin tower - Wikipedia

From 1951 to 1978 the Marmora iron ore pit was owned and operated by the Marmoraton Mine Corporation. Its mother company, however, was Bethlehem Steel Corporation in Bethlehem Pennsylvania, where the company operated a massive furnace and mill.

Bethlehem Steel was once America's second-largest steelmaker, providing ships and armaments to the US military during World War II and helping to build the Empire State Building and Golden Gate Bridge. By 1972, the company was at its peak, employing 120,000 people, and building its new headquarters, the Martin Tower - a 21 storey high rise that stood as the tallest building in Bethlehem.

However, in 2001, the company went bankrupt, leaving the tower vacant and while attempts were made to find new uses for the tower, it was found to be uneconomical. On May 19, 2019, the Martin Tower was imploded.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO

To read more about the Bethlehem Steel Corporation in Marmora, CLICK HERE

NO WHEY!

/

Springbrook Cheese Factory operated until 1952

In 1894, after long discussion , the cheese factory board of Springbrook decided to move the 1873 company from the spring and the brook on Lorne McInroy’s farm at Lot 8, Concession 9, Rawdon Township, to a more accessible location, 500 feet from the north east corner of the Springbrook intersection. There, the board members erected a fine stone factory which was to be crowned with fame.

It seems the cheesemaker, Wesley Thompson had been appalled for years that the whey, which still contained much butter fat, was fed to pigs! Being inventive, he skimmed off the cream of the whey and made a form of butter. Since no one was likely to buy this “pig feed” butter, it was retailed in a disguised form. Being a cheaper buttery product, it attracted customers who returned repeatedly for the wonderful spread. Thus was born the first whey butter in Ontario, and possibly in Canada. Today it is no longer disguised, but sold for what it is - whey butter.

You can read more about Springbrook’s history.

JUST CLICK HERE

HOW SWEET IT IS!

/

Ada, Frank and Bob Sweet

The collection of donations “in kind”  is an important part of the work at the Historical Foundation.  To actually hold the “piece of the past” not only links us to a time and place gone by,  but opens up a whole story of someone’s life.  We are reminded to think of the what,  the when,  the who,  the where and the why behind the item.

Recently we received from Bob Sweet,  (known to some as Sour Dough),  the bank account books and day books of  William Sweet’s bakery,  originally located at 1 Main Street,  at the NW corner of Main and Madoc Streets.  (Bob is the grandson of William)

There stood there a small frame building where Mr. Wilkinson,  the shoe maker,  lived. This wooden building,  built in 1875,   was remodelled by William Sweet into his first bakery, and ice cream shop later in 1908.   But in 1920, it burned down,   at which time,  Mr. Sweet and his wife, Emma Froats,  moved their bakery to 1 Forsyth Street,  known by many now as the Cassidy building.

The names in the Day books remind us of all the families  the Sweets encountered each day,  and which ones had the large families to feed.  For smaller families,  a half loaf could be had for five cents.

Bob Sweet, here with his wife, Barbara sweet, was hired by Bethlehem Steel as a mining superintendent in May, 1955, while his wife was hired in the accounting department.

His successful business,  which lasted until 1953,  sent him across the street each day to the Sovereign Bank,  first located in the last commercial building on the west side of McGill Street  (#9).  By 1908,  however,  Mr. Sweet had to carry his daily profits down to the bank’s new location at 32 Forsyth.  In 1908,  the Sovereign Bank closed its doors for the last time,  and opened the next day as the “Dominion Bank”.

After the death of William Sweet from typhoid,  on April 11, 1922, less than a year after the official opening of this building,   his children Arthur (1887-1975), Frank John (1891-1955) (both of whom suffered typhoid that same year)  and Jennifer 1903-1975) ran the bake shop until 1953.

Back row l to r...Bessie Sweet Tinsdell, Art Sweet, Bill Tinsdell......middle row Jenny Sweet, Ada Sweet ...seated Frank Sweet and Pal the dog......Bill Tinsdell had a.heart attack while picking blueberries with E. C. Prentice

WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE BEER STORE?

/

Founded in 1927, with the end of prohibition in Ontario, Brewers' Retail Inc (The Beer Store) was owned at its inception by a consortium of Ontario-based brewers.( It currently operates as a unique open retail and wholesale system jointly owned by 30 Ontario-based brewers)

Although prohibition had proven to be unsuccessful, the provincial government still needed to placate angry temperance advocates and agreed that beer would be sold through a single network of stores. However, the government did not want to operate this network itself (as was done in some other Canadian provinces), and so permitted brewers to organize the Brewers Warehousing Company Ltd., which later became Brewers Retail/The Beer Store,

It wasn't until 1957 that Marmora had a beer store, and it was not to the pleasure of everyone. The Marmora Herald argued that drinkers will drive anywhere to get their beer, so it might as well be here, resulting in tax revenue and jobs.

So it was, on Feb. 25, 1957 that the Brewers' Warehousing Co. opened the store in the property they had purchased from Walkers South End Motors. With the auto equipment removed, a new cement and tiled floor laid and asphalt outside, a modern store was installed in the southwest corner where the garage office had been, and a cold room built A conveyor belt, a lift truck and an electrically controlled loading ramp added and in the spring, the building was stuccoed.

Its first manager was Frank High (who had been managing a Belleville outlet), followed by Cletus Green in 1968. "Clete", his wife, Thelma, and their twelve year old son, Larry, were from Arnprior, and moved to Deloro for Clete's new job. He had been an employee of the Brewers Retail for 21 years prior to relocating in Marmora. With all his experience in Arnprior as a Town Councillor, hospital boardman, Fire chief, and St. Johon's Ambulance Ottawa Corps Staff Officer, he became a valuable member of our community.

AND THAT’S ALL WE KNOW!

IF YOU KNOW ANY OTHER DETAILS ABOUT MARMORA’S BEER STORE, BE SURE TO LET US KNOW.

Email us at info@marmorahistory.ca or JUST CLICK HERE

(For all other businesses not on the main drag, CLICK HERE)

COMMENTS FROM OUR READERS:

  • Norm Ellis:  I remember when you had to make out an order from and Joe Doyle would take it to madoc as there was no beer store ...

  • Ken Carroll:  I worked with Cletus for a year or so. He had quite an early life. He was a professional boxer, and travelled north when he was young. This guy was an amazing man and i enjoyed working with him at the beer store .

GO EAST, YOUNG MAN.....

/

While writer, Horace Greeley, may have advised young entrepeneurs to head west, Mr. Daniel Dunlay, in 1892, looked east in Marmora, purchasing the property at the south-west corner of Highway 7 and Bursthall Street. There he built a double house and beside it, to the west, he had his blacksmith shop. (He was the same man who built 43 Forsyth and the Dunlay Block at 28 Forsyth , now the parking lot of Nickle's Drugstore, where he ran a carriage trade.)

In 1926, the double house was occupied Mr. Quong Lee's Laundry and in 1937, it seems Mr. G.L. Forrester, who ran a clock and watch repair business, was in the same block The property remained in the family until the late 1940's, when it was sold to Mr. & Mrs. Charles Kelly, who in turn sold it to British Petroleum fourteen years later.

The first agent for British Petroleum was George Lummis, followed by Vic Provost in 1969. The B.P. company tore down the double house on Feb. 9, 1972, to make room for a 20' x 20' storage building and office, built of steel and enclosed by a chain link fence. The business was a whole sale operation for the sale of regular and super gas, oils, diesel oil and lubricants of all kinds to farmers, homeowners, commercial, industrial and construction companies.

1972

In 1983, Petro-Canada acquired BP Canada refineries and service stations, but the Marmora property was decommissioned in 1987. Trying to sell the property, Petrocan was directed to commence a remediation of the site and installation of groundwater monitoring wells. In 2004, a supplementary environmental site assessment was completed, resulting in tons of oil-tainted soil being removed and relocated in the landfill site for a fee.

The site still remains an empty lot.

2005

Celia Murray writes: .Dan is my grandfather! He built the lovely brick house on Forsyth St (#43 )next to the Clairmonts lovely stone house...now a BnB!...that is where my mother, Rita Murray, was born and raised!

Below: The North side of the street. Here we see the July 12th Orangeman’s Parade, heading west on the now #7 Highway, with Charles Dunlay in the lead. The brick building is the O’Neill Building, housing the Hardware store of Joker Jones and Jimmy Potts, which later became the TD bank.

Next right is the Imperial Garage, followed by the Blacksmith shop of Charles Sr. and Eli Clairmont. (All now the TD parking Lot) At the far right, the Clairmont House i visible. This house was later moved North, opposite the Town Hall (11 Bursthall Street)

East of 4 corners North side.JPG

BLAIRTON ORE CAR RESURFACES.........AGAIN!

/

referred to as Car No. 2.  this  is the second of the two “intact”  blairton  ore cars that were pulled from the Trent in 1980 by Parks Canada, with the help of diver  Brian McCrodan.   (Car No 1 mysteriously “disappeared” in 1981, after being re-submerged by Parks Canada near Peterborough.)

In December of 2014,  we had presented the story of the 1881 fatal train crash that had resulted in five  Blairton Ore Cars ending in the river at Trent River.  Our story described the recovery of four of the cars - the work of mining engineer, Arthur Dunn of Ottawa,  diver, Brian McCrodan of Peterborough,  and staff of Parks Canada.  It was a grand event with hopes of an eventual  museum display.

But despite having gone to the trouble of restoring so many of the iron parts, enthusiasm at Parks Canada for the idea of mounting a comprehensive exhibit, telling the story of the ore cars waned.  Ultimately they chose to simply store the artifacts in their Service Centres. 

However,  this week we received the following letter from George Parker,  the expert on the Blairton Ore Cars,  who, along with his team,  created the replica,  which now stands on the shores of Cobourg,  as a tribute:

"I thought you might be interested to know that one of the ore cars is now on display at the Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa.  It is being displayed in the same condition as when it was lifted from the water in 1980, except that the wheels have been cleaned up.   So it looks very different than the car we have on display here in Cobourg (which was made with new wood, and some new iron pieces as well).
It is quite appropriate that it should end up there, because Arthur Dunn was involved (as I understand it) in getting that museum started many years ago.   And without Arthur, the cars would probably still be underwater!   I visited the staff recently at the museum in Ottawa, to tell them more about the story of the ore cars, because they didn’t seem to get much information from Parks Canada when the car was handed over to them.  
On the same trip, I demonstrated the mine model at the National Train Museum (Exporail) in Montreal.    I asked the curator there, and he said that they have no intact railway equipment there as old as 1867. 

So it would appear that the ore car is now the oldest railway car in the country! 

George Parker