DID YOU KNOW?

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Grave Matters - News of the Dead

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Ignac Paradis was one of four  young log drivers drowned in our river system between 1867 & 1869.  All are buried at the "Hughes Cemetery"  on the Centre Line Road.

Ignac was  born  in 1849 and died May 10, 1869. He  was from St. Lambert, Quebec and worked for  the Page Lumber Company.  He drowned at Deer River Falls, (Cordova dam) Belmont Township and his monument was erected by Mr. R. Downs or Mr. R. Page of the Page Lumber Co. but nothing remains of the original monument.  In August, 2014,  however,  a new white  cross and plaque were erected in memory of this lost soul.

You can read all about this cemetery,  and in fact,  all our other cemeteries,  complete with lists & photos of tombstones,   in our new section  GRAVE MATTERS .

The Marmora Dam

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The original  Marmora dam was located about 200 feet upstream of the present dam and at a more northerly angle.   It  was a timber crib structure. In 1930, the crib works were replaced with concrete spillways at the west end of the dam structure. This spillway had five openings, each of which were 14 feet wide. The west spillway was separated from the centre sluice way by a gravity wall (which was over-topped during the "one in 100 years" flood in the spring of 1976.) The centre sluice way, before construction, had one opening which was 10 feet wide.Even with all the stop logs in place, a considerable amount of water was passing through, under and around the sluice way through major clefts in the bedrock. The east section contained one sluice way which is about 20 feet wide.
Read the whole story of the Marmora Dam Click here.

The Naming of Hayes Street

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ITEMS OF IRON FOUND ON THE SITE OF THE HAYES BLAST FURNACE

 In telling the story of the Streets of Marmora,  we would be remiss in not mentioning  the street named after the Village's founder,  Charles Hayes.  In the 1790's, the Loyalists first came to the Bay of Quinte. Over the next 30 years, the southern townships filled with settlers, but in 1820 there were still less than 50 pioneers in the whole of Marmora and Lake Townships. In that year, Charles Hayes, originally of Dublin, Ireland, conceived the idea to start an ironworks at what was then known as "High Falls" on the Crowe River.

The water power to run six enormous waterwheels came from the river. Two enormous blast furnaces, reduced iron ore, charcoal and limestone into molten iron which was cast largely for ballast for the British Navy. Barges, loaded with ore, were rowed from Blairton and unloaded, after their two-day trip, near the present boat ramp in the North End Park. The village grew as the industry did, and within a few years,  200 workers had emigrated to find work in Marmora.

By 1825,  it became clear that Hayes' enterprise was failing. All the produce of the mine had to be dragged out over the road  to Kingston, but that road was impassable for much of the winter.  In the spring, it broke up into mud holes, and in the summer it hardened into wheel-breaking ruts. It was just not practical to transport large and heavy iron bars all the way from Hayes' village in the bush. The Works were lost to Hayes' creditors. Hayes went back to England in 1825. He subsequently recovered his losses working  in the linen trade and so far as is known, never returned.

 

 

 

The naming of Cameron Street, Marmora

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The Honourable Malcolm Cameron. Malcolm Cameron is normally associated with the history of Sarnia. Indeed, one biographer says that no citizen "filled so large a place in the public eye while living, as The Honourable Malcolm Cameron, and no one who has passed away is more affectionately and proudly remembered". Cameron was born at another iron town, Trois Rivieres, Quebec, on April 25, 1808. His parents were both natives of Scotland. Cameron soon displayed both a capacity for business and "a taste for public affairs." At the age of 28, he became a member of the Upper Canada Assembly, and he subsequently represented the ridings  of Kent, Huron, Lambton & St. Clair,   almost successively until he became Queen's Printer in 1863.

For the last thirty years of that period, he also served as a member of the Parliament ofCanada. In the government of Sir Charles Bagot, he became "Inspector of Revenue" and, in an accomplishment which shows the value of the dollar at that time, it is boasted that he increased provincial revenues by $50,000.   As a businessman, Cameron,  like most enterprising men of his day, was deeply engaged in the development of railways. Railways required iron and that fact,  and his place of birth, may have attracted him to Upper Canada's Irontown.   At Marmora, Cameron purchased, developed and resold lots behind those fronting on Forsyth Street,  the lots south of Linn Street and across the river 'to the south of Norwood Road. Those areas became known as the "Cameron Section", and, of course; our present "Cameron Street" was named for him.

(As many as 24 trains a day ran up this street in Marmora from 1884 to the 1970's for the Marmora Railway and Mining Company, a branch of the Central Ontario Railway (COR), later owned by the Canadian Northern Railway (CNR) and finally Canadian National (CN).)

Click here for more on the Central Ontario Railway

As what he called an "advanced liberal",   Malcolm Cameron campaigned throughout his life for causes and rights which we take for granted.   He sought the abolition of debtor's prisons, the vote by secret ballot, and the release for settlement of the enormous clergy reserves. It is said that, but for his modesty and benevolence, he could easily have obtained the highest offices in the lands but that he preferred the advancement of others over his own. When he died on June 1, 1876,  he was again a sitting member of Parliament.

Famous Marmora Doctor

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Dr. Allan Roy Dafoe was Marmora's resident doctor in 1908, assisting Dr. MacKechnie in the house on Forsyth Street later owned by Dr Parkin. His fame skyrocketed on May 28, 1934 when he delivered the famous Dionne Quintuplets in Callander, Ontario. With skill and zeal he ministered to the five babies whose combined weight was 13 1/2 pounds. Dr. Dafoe had the honour of presenting his little patients to King George VI and Queen Elizabeth during their visit in 1939. He was given the Order of the British Empire. Dr. A. R. Dafoe died at North Bay on June 2, 1943, aged 60.

Read all about  Marmora doctors at    http://www.marmorahistory.ca/doctors

Nayler's Common hosted cephalopods

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On the main path in Nayler's Common, you can find a cephalopod fossil!   What is a cephalopod?
Cephalopods first appeared about 500 million years ago in the Upper Cambrian Period. Two groups of cephalopods exist today: The Nautiloidea with a few species of the pearly nautilus, and the Coleoidea, containing the squids, cuttlefishes, octopods and vampire squids

Read more about Nayler's Common and the going's-on there 500 million years later.


The St. James Hotel

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A reference to the St. James Hotel now 156 years old... (NW Corner of Highways 7 & 14)

"The travelling public are respectfully informed that a new stone hotel has been recently opened at The Marmora Iron Works,  very conveniently situated at the terminus of the new macadamized road from Belleville,  and close to the Iron Furnaces which are now in active operation.
To the sportsman this offers a new field,  the number of wild fowl on Crowe Lake and Belmont Lakes,  the excellent fishing,  and the herds of deer,  a quantity of which have been lately sent to the New York Market,  offer unusual attraction not often found together."

Toronto Globe, September 24, 1858

Read all the history on the St. James Hotel.  Click here.


The "Pioneer" - Famous locomotive in Blairton

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Did you know....

THE "PIONEER" - Famous locomotive in Blairton
When all else fails, try again. When the Marmora Iron Company saw the gloomy profit reports in 1866, they decided to amalgamate with the Cobourg-Peterborough Railway Co., and with American investors, formed the Cobourg, Peterborough and Marmora Railway and Mining Co. This company planned to move the Blairton iron ore to a smelting furnace in Rochester by rail to the Narrows on the Trent River, by boat to Harwood Station on Rice Lake, by rail to Cobourg and again by boat to Rochester. The locomotive on the Cobourg track, known as the "Pioneer", was shipped by water to Cobourg from Nova Scotia . A now forgotten story, this model of locomotive was the first engine to operate in Canada

Read more about Blairton and the American connection


1823 If, at first, you don't succeed, perhaps you should give up.

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Did you know....
The business venture of Charles Hayes, the Marmora Iron Works of 1823, was plagued with troubles making it impossible to finance. The road to Belleville was impassable; his workers were prone to rowdiness and disorderly conduct; the native locals were unhappy with their treatment by the British Government, and his dream of a connection to the Trent was denied. By 1824 he gave it all up to his creditors, Peter McGill, Anthony Manahan and Robert Hayes, and by 1830, they sold to Thomas Hetherington, who had some new ideas but suffered all the same difficulties.


In 1847, Joseph Van Norman, an experienced smelter from Norfolk County, bought the Works and built a new road to Healey Falls. From the River Trent a steamer carried the pig iron to Rice Lake from where it was carted 12 miles to the Dock in Cobourg. His new route looked good and business started to boom, only to be lost again with the opening of the St. Lawrence Canal, allowing cheaper British iron to be shipped inland. Van Norman lost everything. The "Marmora Foundry Company" lay dormant until 1856 when Mr. Vernon Smith, and later Mr. Bentley gave it one more try.

Read more on the Marmora Ironworks of 1823

29 unmarked burial sites

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Just south of the north-end boat launch in Marmora, spanned the first bridge across the Crowe River. Leading west across the river, the road turned south passed what is now the Crowe Valley Conservation Authority building and round the rock knoll (now cut through for the #7 Highway) on its way to Havelock & Norwood. With this road being the main route west, it made sense to build the first church, St. Matilda's here, right on the road and with a beautiful view upstream. And so it was, in 1825, that Laughlin Hughes helped choose the site. Little did he know that his son, John Hughes, who drowned in the river, would be the first person to be buried there. It is said there are 29 unmarked burial sites in this cemetery.

Bonarlaw a busy place.

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Bonarlaw's first name was Central Ontario Junction. The railway was first acquired by the Canadian Northern Railway, and subsequently merged into the Canadian National system, when, in 1917,  the name changed to Bonarlaw, named for British Prime Minister Andrew Bonar Law. (Born in New Brunswick, he is the only British Prime Minister to have been born outside the British Isles.)  The community has also been known as Big Springs and Bellview. The station was a junction point for the C.P.R. and the previously mentioned railways. Before automobiles, the station was very busy with a daily train to and from Toronto, as well as an afternoon and night train over the C.P.R. tracks.

You can read a lot more about Bonarlaw.

CLICK HERE

On March 26, 2021, Molly wrote:

I currently live in the old Station Master’s home in Bonarlaw and I love finding information like this about how Bonarlaw used to be. You would never know nowadays passing through.


Captain John J. O'Neill 1893

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DID YOU KNOW

The building on the corner of Highways 7 and 14 (where the TD bank is situated) was built by Captain John Joseph O'Neil in 1893. He and his wife, Ellen Butler, emigrated from Ireland and settled in Deloro, living there until 1884 when they moved to Marmora. Capt. O'Neill was one of the first mining developers of Deloro and Cordova Gold Mines.
The" O'Neill building" replaced a small frame building belonging to Dr. L.E. Pomeroy, who ran a medical practice there with his red brick home behind it, facing Matthew Street (Highway 7). He moved his practice to "Stewart Drugstore" on Forsyth St. The new O'Neill building housed a hardware in the south half and the north half (where the Historical Foundation is today) was leased to the Sovereign Bank of Canada.

Read more about the buildings on Forsyth Street - Click here

1892 Gold at the dam

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On the island east of the generating plant at the dam in Marmora,  the Hastings Mining and Reduction Co. established a gold processing plant in 1892,  having acquired the site and water power rights from the Pearce Co. The remains of the foundations can still be seen today.

Where did all the iron go?

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Ever wondered what they did with all that iron ore from Blairton that made its way to the blast furnace in 1823? While we know a lot of iron was used as ballast for ship returning to England,  in November of that year, Charles Hayes advertised an increased variety of goods including "Potash kettles and cooler, 40 gallon cauldrons and sugar kettles, single and double stores, pots and Bake ovens, Dog Irons, Sleigh shoes, cart and wagon boxes, Fanning Mill, Irons and Mill and Bar Iron."               So what are Dog Irons?  They're the metal supports for logs in a fireplace.

 

 

Licence? Beans, Baloney and Balderdash, I say!

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As a young man,   Mr. Thomas  Ephraim Potts (1872-1952)  worked at Deloro Smelting and Refining Co. Ltd,  and ran the boarding house in Deloro  for three years.  He later  operated the old St. James Hotel for nine years, the Royal Hotel in Marmora for another nine years,  the Tipperary House on Crowe Lake for five years , and Huyck's Hotel in Tweed (Tweedsmuir)for six years.

During all the time he was in the hotel business,  Mr. Potts carried on without a liquor license and proved it was possible to make a success of it without one.

Oh the IRONy

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Tecumseh Drive

'Tecumseh allied his forces with the British. Painting by W.B. Turner (courtesy Metropolitan. )

We are all aware of the close ties between Pittsburgh -Bethlehem area and Marmora. Over a century ago, samples of Blairton iron ore were sent south. They were so well thought of that from 1867-1873 more than 300,000 tons were blasted off the rock face there, loaded onto a new rail line, specially built, and sent off for smelting in Pennsylvania.  Much later, the Marmoraton Mines provided ore from the east of town and employed hundreds of villagers.  What we still call the Townsite, on the plateau north of Highway 7 and west of the river, was established for the new homes to be built for the Americans sent to manage the. works. Within the Townsite, the streets were named after tribes or noted Indians. It was ironic that one street was named after the Indian leader Tecumseh. There was no one who fought more viciously or more successfully against the Americans in the war of 1814.

St. Matilda's Cross

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This very historical cross was manufactured out of pig iron from the Marmora Ironworks (and may be the only remaining item from the blast furnace).  It was first mounted on the roof peak of the first church built in Marmora in 1825. The old limestone church was located on the west shores of Crowe River near the dam. When the little stone was abandoned in 1874, the cross disappeared for a number of years.It surfaced again and was mounted on the new Separate School roof steeple built by Stanislaus Bertrand in 191.5. For a few more years it disappeared only to surface this time mounted on the white wooden cross at the east end of the Sacred Heart Cemetery grounds.
It was removed from the cross in 1998 and is now permanently mounted in the church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Marmora, Ontario. 

(From the History of Sacred Heart Church by Gerald Belanger)