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yak po diay Shen dhe, adhe. gon FIN Gd, Shee Shia, AMG hs S000. ANY cag - Sketches of Scugog by Paul Arculus Sketches of Scugog is a historical column written by local resident and historian Paul Arculus and published in the Port Perry Star the first issue of * each month. * LJ ° Last month's article gave an account of the failure of the various proposals for a railroad to link Whitby with Port Perry. The last failed suggestion mentioned was the 1859 proposal. There were several causes for the failure, some reasons were practical, but unfortunately, other rea- sons were merely part of the political fighting which took place even then. One practical reason for the public's The GWR disaster of 1857 - A broken wheel or axle ripped the wooden floor of the bridge across the Desjardins Canal near Hamilton. This weekend the bridge and the train plunged 60 feet to the ice covered river below killing 59 passengers. mistrust of railroads was the safety fac- tor. In Britain where railroading began, the railroad beds were not subjected to the'ektremes of temperature which faced those in Canada, particularly the pro- blems of frost heaving and moving the rails and beds Britain, where railroads began, at that time was far in advance of North America in its industrialization and therefore much better equipped to handle problems of production and its iron products were of a much higher quality. In the first 30 or so years of railroad building in North America, lumber was almost exclusively used for bridge and trestles. In Britain iron or stone was used. In the early days of the locomotive, even the tracks in North America were wooden rails covered with an iron strap. Lumber was so readily available and in such an abundant sup- ply, particularly in the Canadas In addition, in Britain, attention was immediately applied to safety considera- tions whereas in Canada, the safety aspect was much slower to evolve. All of these factors meant that Britain had an excellent safety record on its railroad lines In British North America, on the other hand, hardly a week passed without a major railroad accident; collapsing bridg- es and trestles, trains being derailed, ete In 1854 alone there were 19 major accidents including a collision of two G.W.R. trains near Chatham in October 1854, killing 52 people. A government investigation condemned the railroad for poor track work inadequate or nonexist- ent ballast On March 12, 1857, one of the worst railroad disasters in Canadian railroad 34- PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, December 3, 1996 Poor safety recorc to mistrust railw history took place. A Toronto-Hamilton express on the G.W.R. with the locomo- tive, "Oxford," became derailed and { plunged into the Desjardins Canal near ¥ Hamilton killing 59 people. The cause was thought to have been a broken wheel or axle at the front of the locomotive. It tore apart the wooden floor of the bridge. The worst railroad disaster took place on the Richelieu River at the bridge at Beloiel, Quebec. The engineer of a G.T.R. passenger train ignored a signal indicat- ing an open draw bridge and failed to make the mandatory stop at the east end of the bridge. The speeding train fell .through the open drawbridge and plunged into the river below, some parts of the train landed on a barge on its way under the bridge. Ninety-nine passengers were killed. This was on June 29, 1864. All of these accidents took place which the debate raged over the using of public funds to build a railroad from Whitby to Port Perry. Those who stood to profit most from the Whitby to Port Perry railway were busi- nessmen, store keepers and land owners in Whitby and Port Perry. They were opposed in their railroad plans by the ordinary ratepayers who refused to sanc- tion the spending of public funds in order to benefit the wealthy. Many farmers opposed the use of local funds since they could not see the advantages of the rail- way. They carried their grain to the stor- age centres at Whitby and Prince Albert in the winter time when they had more spare time to do so. The Ontario Observer of August 9, 1866 gave particular emphasis to a meeting which had taken place in Sinclair's Hotel in Borelia the previous Thursday. Apparently, a huge crowd attended, including virtually all the businessmen of Port Perry and many from Prince Albert. The meeting was chaired by Joshua Wright, the Reeve of Reach Township: Thomas Paxton again raised the issue of a railway linking Port Perry with Whitby, this time with no mention of future exten- sions beyond the southern shore of Lake Scugog. In last month's article, emphasis was placed on the success of the Port Hope to Lindsay Railway which was completed in 1857. Its early completion led to it becom- ing one of the most successful railways in Canada West. John Fowler of Port Hope was one of its major promoters. Fowler renewed the interest in the Whitby to Port Perry railway by writing a >» * was then known, in letter to the editor of the Ontario Observer attempting to enlist the of the Reach Township ratepayers. appeared in the issue of September 1867. Thomas Paxton immediat tacted Fowler. At the Borelia m Paxton called on Fowler to presentation. The Observer repo - "He (Fowler) believed it to be p ble and of easy accomplishment. Fi fnowledas i peiivay atijss, and arly of the Port Hope and Lindsay and the effect which the building of road would have upon that line, make this a good paying line. He much confidence in it that he would undertake to build the road and take 1.1000 per mile stock in it. He would ish the road with rolling stock, and wh completed would lez upon such terms as be agreed upon. He would render all the assistance in his power to facilitate the procur ing a charter and in co pleting the work." The financing of railways of Canada upon the promoter's ity to persuade the var ous communities to pay for it. Fowler enlisted Chester Draper and worked with Thomas Paxton to promote the PWPPR. Thesemen began the arduous task of raising the funds for the proposal. - run Peter Perry's Scugog Village in the 1840s and had become a prosperous merchant himself. By 1864 he owned the Port Whitby harbor. Paxton owned one of the first mills in Scugog Village and similarly expanded his holdings to include a consid- erable amount of land in Port Perry. It was at this point that Joseph Bigelow became involved in the railroad project. Big had arrived in Port Per or Scugog Village as it 1850. His father, Hiram Bigelow had bought the Purdy's mill in Lindsay. Purdy had built the original dam on the Scugog River at what is now Lindsay and established a mill there. His dam doubled the size of Lake Scugog. Hiram Bigelow, always looking for good investments, bought Lot 6 in Scugog Village on March 8, 1850. He handed this pro- perty to the two oldest of his 13 children, 21 year was the brother-in-law of Joseph old Joseph and his | All were heavily involved in the pri twin brother Joel. | of the railway. i They moved to Scugog Village in 1851 and bought the adjacent Lot 5 to the east in 1852. Joel moved to the United States shortly after- wards, leaving Joseph to develop his hold- ings on Queen Street. Joseph built a house on the extreme western portion of