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« « * * * * * * * * # # # Daily Journal-Record It Seems To Me . . . By P. W. THOMPSON Journal-Record Staff Like almost every community in Canada, Oakville has undergone tremendous changes since confederation became a reality 100 years ago. Nobody now living, it is safe to say, can recall the town as it was in 1867, but there are a number of citizens who can remember it as it was in the closing decade of the last century and the first decade of the present one. O u r o w n a c q u a in ta n c e w ith O a k v ille b e g a n s h o rtly a f t e r th e close o f th e la t t e r p e rio d . W h ile O a k v ille a t t h a t tim e h ad e n jo y e d th e s ta tu s o f a to w n f o r m o re th a n h a lf a c e n tu r y , it w as in r e a lit y h a r d ly m o re th a n a good -sized c o u n try v illa g e . T h e c e n tre o f a ric h fr u it-g r o w in g a re a , i t w as fa m o u s f o r its s tra w b e rrie s . O N LY HORSES xm m m m m m m m m m xM % * * * * * The rural atmosphere was much in evi dence. That was before cars had come into general use, and nearly all local transportation was by horse-drawn vehicles. Heavy wagons, light buggies, and large horse-drawn buses jolt ed along dirt roads that were deep in dust in the dry weather and full of mud-holes after a heavy rain. On Saturday evenings the m a i n street, with its lines of hitching - posts, would be busy with farm families in town to do their shopping. There were, of course, no' paved streets or highways. The stores, by today's standards, were almost incredibly primitive for the most part. There were only two or three industrial estab lishments of any size, and these would be tiny alongside today's giants. Many families still used oil lamps and got their water from wells. Streets were dimly light ed by electricity, and the town was without a theatre o f any kind. B U IL D H O M E S B u t O a k v ille 's days as a s m a ll r u r a l c o m m u n ity w e r e n u m b e re d . A n in c re a s in g n u m b e r o f c ity p e o p le w e re d is c o v e rin g th e to w n 's r e s id e n tia l a d v a n ta g e s a n d m a k in g t h e ir som es h e re . F a rm s a lo n g th e L a k e s h o re ro a d w e r e b e in g b o u g h t u p f o r es ta te s . THE SUMNER FAM ILY -- In this portrait taken three years before the old chief died in 1911, George Johnson Sumner posed with his wife and seven children. Sumner was Oakville's chief constable for 37 years, and held many other town offices, including tax collector. Standing above are his five sons Charles, John, William, Osbert and Thomas. Seated are daughter Caroline, the chief, his wife M ary Nelson and daughter Matilda. Matilda, now almost 100 years old and living in Halton Centennial Manor, is the only surviving m em ber of this fam ous old Oakville fam ily. FOUNDER'S FAM ILY -- E ver since Col. William Chisholm founded Oakville and, b y im proving the mouth o f the Six teen, brought to it the L ake' s trade and prosperity, m em bers of his fam ily have played a dominant role in the life o f the town. Shown above examining an historic site m arker com m em orating the colonel is Mrs. Hazel C. Mathews, a m em ber o f the Chisholm fam ily and author o f a com prehensive history o f the area, " Oakville and the Sixteen." With Mrs. Mathews are Ralph Wakely, a form er Historical Society chairman, and the late William Anderson, then the m ayor of Oakville. Sumners Sumner Avenue, which runs east from Trafalgar R oad along the southern edge of G eorge's Square, perpetuates the nam e of a fam ily long associated with OakviJle. Oakville' s first Sumner was William Johnson Sumner, son of a farm er named William Sumner who m oved from New Hampshire to Canada in 1800 and died in Esquesing Township at the age of 80 in 1851. I^he fa irly traces its direct desceHtf A >m Roger Sumner, a farm er o f Bicester, Oxfordshire, whose grandson, William S., a lawyer, settled in Dorchester, Mass., in 1636. WITH WOLFE William Johnson Sumner' s great-uncle Thomas, bom in Hebr on, Conn. in 1734, served under General Wolfe at the taking of Quebec in 1759, and held the post o f j u d g e in Gloucest er, Mass., until during the Am er ican Revolution, he was " drove from his home and fam ily and was obliged to flee to the British A rm y for safety and protect ion." In 1815 his appeal to the Lieut enant - Governor of Upper Can ada, Sir Peregrine Maitland, for compensation for the property confiscated by the Am erican reb els, resulted in a grant of land in Chinguacousy Township, where he died a year later. But this is a digression from the Oakville Sumners. Thom as's grand-nephew William Johnson Sumner, son of the Esquesing farm er, was proprietor in the early 1820' s of the G rove Inn in A;anra'£'fllle, now part of Bur lington. OAKVILLE HOUSE When William Young, proprie tor of the recently - built Oak ville House, died in 1831, Sumner m oved to Oakville and was grant ed a lease on the hotel b y the owner, town founder Col. Wil liam Chisholm. Form erly a printer, S u m n er retained a lasting love for the printed word, and was part icularly fond of placing advertise ments in area newspapers. The wording of these old ads shows the old boy to be quite a charac ter. F or exam ple, an ad in the Ha milton Free Press read: " The proprietor of the G rove I n n , Nelson, takes this method of announcing to the public that he intends leaving the above estab lishment on the first of D ecem ber next, and requests all those who have favored him with some of their TJCST £U ST O M to piy him fefore that time, or expect .toutile in the w igwam by an invasion of a battalion of the LAW !. . .P.S. -- I want all edit ors to insert this to oblige an old printer, alias tavern l o r d gratis, mind y e ." W ATERED WHISKEY . In 1834 Sumner bought the hotel from Chisholm, and two years later, in an ad announcing extensive alterations to the build ing, he invited citizens to par take of " Good Liquors, purified by an addition o f Ontario's beau tiful w aters." In another ad addressed to the freeholders of Halton in 1830, explaining why he had changed his mind about running for par liament in the election o f that year, he said: " I have not the impudence nor the hypocrisy en ough for that honorable situation, and not only so, I have m y doubts o f being elected." Sumner not only wrote a good ad, but he also ran a good hotel. In the sum mer of 1834 he was host to Sir Francis Bond Head, lieutenant governor o f U p p e r Canada, who rem arked it was the best tavem he had been in since leaving Albany. TWO HOUSES In 1832 Sumner built the house at 27 Navy Street South as a place to raise his fam ily " away from the hotel." About the same time he built the house at 33 William Street, which he deeded to his nine-year-old son William Chisholm Sumner, two years be fore his untimely death in 1841 William Chisholm Sumner lived in the house until 1855, when he sold it to George Johnson Lehentz Sumner, better known as " Chief" Sumner, who raised his five sons and two daughters in it and died there in 1911. Chief Sumner' s rem arkable story as Oakville chief constable for 37 years and as a recorder of his salty impressions of life in the old town are presented in detail elsewhere in this Cen tennial issue. In 1924 during Old Home Week, three of the ch ief's sons, by then middle age, cam e from the Unit ed States to revisit their old home. ONE LEFT They leap-frogged the old hitching post, which is still stand ing, and pointed out the original pantry window through which they had clim bed m any times to sample their m other's pies and cookies. One of the brothers was over heard to rem ark: " Carrie was born in the parlor." Carrie and her husband. Charlie Doty, both dead now, were prominent citiz ens of Oakville and are still well rem em bered. Only surviving m em ber of the o r ^ n a l Oakville Simmers is the ch ief' s second daughter Matilda, the 'Tillie" mentioned in his diaries, who is now alm ost 100 years old and living in Halton Centennial Manor. Chisholms The name of Chisholm is almost synonymous with that of Oakville. Members of the Chisholm family have been prominent in the life of the community since it w#s founded by Colonel William Chisholm 140 years ago. Many Chisholms have lived and died here since that time, and a number have left Oakville for other places. Older residents will re member Mr. and Mrs. Charles P. Chisholm, who lived in the large house at the corner of Dundas (Tra falgar Road) and Dunn Streets. Mr. Chisholm died in 1914, and his wife in 1942. And the increasing popularity o f the auto mobile was working changes. In 1914 Dundas Street (now Trafalgar Road) or the Station Road as it was widely known in those days, was paved. A year or so later the Toronto-Hamilton, or Lakeshore Highway was built. Handsome new light standards were erected on the main street. The town was growing and changing. But the big wave of growth and change did not hit Oakville until the years after the end o f the Second World War, There was an ava lanche o f building activity, with residential sub divisions springing up on the town's borders and many new buildings going up in the town itself. FORD P LA N T ther, survived about 20 years. him by FA M O U S DOCTOR New stores, schools, churches, were built, shopping centres arose. And with the opening of the Ford plant, Oakville entered upon a new era as an important industrial centre. The pro cess of change was accelerated by the amalgama tion of the town and Trafalgar township, and the building of hi-rise apartments. In v ie w o f th e vast ch an g es o f th e fir s t c e n tu r y o f c o n fe d e ra tio n , w h o d a re s p r e d ic t w h a t O a k v ille w ill be lik e w h e n C a n ada c e le b ra te s its second c e n te n n ia l? T h e o n ly s a fe p re d ic tio n is th a t it w ill be v a s tly d iff e r e n t fr o m w h a t it is to d a y . Frank Chisholm, who died in 1925, organized the first troop of Boy Scouts in Oakville in 1911, and serv ed as a major in the First World War. His son, Dr. Brock Chisholm, first direc tor of the World Health Organization, has become world famous for his work and his utterances on social problems. Thomas C. Chisholm, son of Herbert Chisholm, was for several years chairman of the board of governors of Oakville-Trafalgar Mem orial Hospital, and did much to promote the hos pital's development. He now lives in Toronto. A member of the Chis holm family who has attain ed much local distinction is Mrs. Hazel C. Mathews, au thor of " Oakville and the Sixteen" . She now makes her home in Florida, but visits Oakville in the sum mer. The story of Col. William Chisholm and his founding of Oakville, taken largely from the well-researched writing of Mrs. Mathews, appears elsewhere in this issue. F A M IL Y E S T A T E Matilda Sumner By L U E L L A B R O U G H TO N Joumal-Record Staff How does it feel to be almost a centenarian? Matilda Sumner knows. She was b o m in a house on William Street across from St. Jude' s Anglican Church in the year 1869. Her father, George Sumner, was the district chief constable for almost 40 years, in addition to filling many other offices including that of tax collector. Mr. Sumner kept a diary from 1859 till his death. It is now in the possession of G eorge P. Doty, Thomas Street. Matilda had five brothers and one sister. She was the third youngest and is the only one liv ing. As there wasn't much work to be had in Oakville her broth ers left town. Her sister Carrie m arried Charles Doty, and Mat ilda stayed home to care for her One can only hope that those who ad minister the affairs of the municipality will do everything in their power to ensure that it re tains at least a measure of the charm which has made it such a pleasant place in which to live. W. Alex Chisholm, who practised law for many years, lived at the corner of Colborne Street (Lake shore Road) and Reynolds Street. He died in 1940. Herbert Chisholm, his bro `Erchless" , the n a m e given the former Chisholm estate at the foot of Navy Street overlooking the har bor, was the name of the seat of the Chisholm clan in Inverness-shire, Scotland. It was the home of vari ous members of the Chis holm family until about two years ago, when it was sold to a firm named Erchless Holdings. At the front part of the property are two fine old square houses, built a cen tury or more ago. The one closest to the street served as Oakville's customs house in the busy days o f the port. It also contained the first branch office of the Bank of Toronto, which was opened in 1856, the year after the bank was found ed. ft 9 PAR K O FFER B arents. TWO INDUSTRIES Matilda recalls that Oakville only had two industries when she was a girl, the tannery and the basket factory. She also re calls that the form er produced a very offensive odor. There w ere few stores and none of them remain in Oakville now. The only schoolhouse, which cam e to be known as Central School, contained both the pub lic and high school and had only two teachers. Matilda finished public school but did not take kindly to advanced learning. She stayed home for a few years before starting to work as a bookkeeper in her brother-inlaw ' s Company, known as the C. F . Doty Lumber Company. The Sumner fam ily were m em bers of St. John' s Church, which was the Oakville Method ist Church till after union with Presbyterians and Congregationalists in 1925 when it becam e " St. John's United Church. SUNDAY SCHOOL Matilda belonged to the Wom en' s Association and the Wom en's Missionary Society of the Church which have since m erged M A T IL D A S U M N E R Lone survivor to becom e the United C h u r c h Women. She taught a class of girls in the Sunday School for nearly forty years. As a result of breaking a bone in her hip, Matilda has to get around in a wheel-chair. This means of locom otion does not w orry her and she is quite in dependent, insisting on operat ing the chair herself. She has been living in the Halton Centennial Manor for two and one-half years and says " It is a wonderful home for people who have no one to take care of them. The superintendent and nurses are very kind." Matilda spent six weeks in Oakville-Trafalgar M em orial Hos pital last fall. She had a downto-earth w ay o f speaking and re marked that she would not have minded dying at that time. Most of her friends have passed on and the years have brought cha nges which she does not welcom e. She is pleased, though, that her two nephews in Oakville com e to visit her once a week. To the rear of the two houses is a large expanse o f well-shaded lawn, slop ing to the creek. After the sale of the property, it was recommended t h a t the town acquire it as an ex tension to Lakeside Park, on the other side of Navy Street, but no action in this direction has been taken so far. The present owners have indicated that they might be willing to deed the front part of the property, with the two houses, to the town on the understanding that they would be granted a rezoning for an apartment building on the rear of the lot. " Erchless" , with its long history, is one of the most attractive of Oakville's older residential proper ties. C H IS H O L M E S T A T E , H O M E O F F O U N D E R 'S F A M I L Y F O R M O R E T H A N N ow threatened with dem olition to m ake w ay for apartment block 100 Y E A R S # * « * « * * » * # * » * * # * * # # * * * * # * * * # * # # * * * * » i