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Looking Backwards THE COBOURG STAR, FRIDAY, AUGUST 9, 1974 Page C3 This is another chapter in the "Looking Backwards" series being published throughout this summer as a weekly feature of the Colborne Chronicle and Cobourg Star. The series peers into Colborne and area's past, revealing many sidelights of our area's history that few of us have seen before. "Looking Backwards" is authored by Walter Luedtke, a 10-year resident of Colborne, who, during the school term, is head of the history department at Brighton High School. Anyone who has information which might aid Mr. Luedtke in his research or has an idea of a possible area of interest that has not been dealt with before might contact him at 355-2502. Colborne in 1856 The 1850s were good years for Colborne, as they were for Canada West as a whole. Businessmen, farmers and lumbermen prospered and there was a feeling of even better things in the offing. This prosperity was due, in part, to Britain's war with Russia. Patriotic bosoms swelled with the exploits of the "Thin Red Line", the Light Brigade and the Heavy Brigade at Balaclava in the far-away, exotic, Crimea. On the more -practical side, businessmen derived a tidy profit from the Mother Country's demand for Canadian lumber and grain. Relations with the upstart Yankees, south of the Lake, were better than ever before. The Reciprocity Treaty Eenny to the pound), a ealthy climate, good harbors and extensive water powers." Colbornites could travel by steamer from Colborne Harbour to Oswego twice, and to Rochester three times weekly, for $2.50 cabin and $1.75 deck passage. Also, every day, George Mink's stage coaches left the Commercial Exchange Hotel for Cobourg and beyond and or Kingston. Going north, one could travel daily to Castleton, and to Percy, Hastings and Norwood three times a week for $2.00. The big development, however, was the coming of that triumph of modern science and engineering; the railway. The Grand Trunk, the longest railroad in the world, running from suggest a siding to be run to the lakeshore to connect with the harbour. An extension of the "Percy Gravelled Road", the pride of the township, to the railway station would certainly be appropriate and show the good faith of the village. In other areas things were moving quickly also. I »ue to the efforts of Joseph Keeler and J.D. Hayes ab-ranch of the new Bank of Toronto was to be established in the village. Keeler, especially, had dug deeply into his pickets to help buy the 10,000 pounds worth of bank stock that had to be subscribed before the prudent bank agreed to a Colborne branch. Finally, Colborne was to have its own newspaper, the Colborne Transcript, owned and edited by the young Joseph Keeler. The paper was to serve not only Colborne, but also its natural hinterland, the "five flourishing townships Seymour, Percy, Asphodel, Cramahe, Haldimand - all immediately contagiious or else by their trade and exports, being in a great ,measure directed to this place." Above all else, the Transcript was going to do all in its power"....to point North-west corner of the Market Square in the 1860's. The hotel on the corner is probably the Northumberland Exchange Hotel, the main stage coach stop in the village. allowed free entry of Canadian raw materials and foods into the vast US market. As a result, hundreds of schooners and steamships sailed between the Canadian lakeports and Sodus, Oswego and Rochester to the south. Colborne, with its 1,100 inhabitants, was straining to get in on the business boom and to catch up with its more successful rivals, Cobourg and Brighton. At a public meeting in the Town Hall a resolution described Colborne thus: "..Colborne possesses natural, local and artifical advantages, which have for many years remained without that notice and attention that its importance demand." "Colborne is being blessed with an almost total excemption from taxation (usually one Sarnia, via Toronto, Montreal and Quebec all the way to the Atlantic Ocean - the great artery of trade and commerce -- was actually going to pass through the village. Colborne would be ready for it. A committee consisting of W.H. Col ton, prominent storekeeper, R. M. Boucher, barrister, and J.D. Hayes, auctioneer and commission merchant, were to approach the Grand Trunk Company with the proposal to. have "its workshops and other buildings necessary to be constructed for their use" in Colborne. Who could know, perhaps out of all the other eager little towns and villages, the Grand Trunk would pick Colborne and then....? In the meantime, it would be a good idea to out the great advantage of having our vast resources fully developed and made known to the public"; in other words - to boost Colborne. Thus with 1,100 people, a railway station, a telegraph office, a grammar school, a harbour, reasonably good roads, a bank and a newspaper Colborne was well on its way. In 1856, Colborne was indeed a flourishing village. Along the lakeshore there were three wharves, from which schooners and steamers were loaded. In Colborne Harbour there was Keeler's Wharf, which handled "salt, water lime, pork, coal, lumber, cord-wood, cedar posts and produce." Especially for sale at the wharf in 1856, were " a few barrels of very superior pork of the following kinds; Clear, Mess No. 1 and Mess No. 2." Also coarse, fine and dairy salt were always on hand. There was so much traffic to and from that wharf, that Keeler applied for permission to build his own road from Lakeport to the Cramahe Gravelled Road. That road has been described in last week's column. Just south of Colborne, where now the St. Lawrence Cement dock juts into the Lake, was Cole's Warf, which also shipped lumber and produce. Near the wharf was a grocery store. Spilsbury's Wharf was two miles east of Colborne. That "wharfinger" must have had some bad experiences with his customers, for he advertised as follows. "The public is hereby notified that the subscriber will not be responsible for property of any description, now or hereafter, left at his Wharf, or his lumber yard for shipment or otherwise, unless that same is actually receipted in writing." Hotels and attendant bars and saloons abounded in Colborne and the surrounding hamlets. One of these was the Northumberland Exchange, the stop for the stage coaches along the Kingston Road and along the Percy Gravelled Road. F.M. Teasdale was the agent for George Mink's almost obsolete stage coach company. He advertised for 1,000 bushels of oats and 50 tons of good hay to feed the stage horses. On King Street was Sidney McDonald's Colborne Hotel, which had free buses running to and from the boats. The Mansion House,operated by George Leith, stood on the west side of the Market Square and became eventually respectable enough to be used as the meeting place for the village council. Those who abstained from "demon rum" and who shunned the company of those who indulged, preferred the haven of J.H. Howard's Temperance Hotel. Howard, with the coming of the Grand Trunk Railroad, must have changed his convictions, because he operated the Railway Saloon, which later became the Grand Trunk Hotel. On the beaches of Colborne Harbour fishermen's nets hung to dry, for whitefish and Take trout were plentiful then. Men like John Bleakly, the Brown brothers, David Kerneghan, Asa Lapp, Moses Moore, Noble Palmer and James Stevenson took their boats out on the Lake and returned with rich catches. The fish were cured, packed into barrels and sold across the border. Colborne's creek, dammed in refecting ponds, powered mills that produced a variety of things useful and necessary to life. In Colborne Harbour, William Niles operated a grist mill and sold tasty, stone-ground "wheat, buckwheat, flour, Indian meal, barn and shorts." Not far along the creek he also worked a saw mill, producing flooring, sheeting, clapboards and dressed and matched In front of the Marion Hotel. Does the wagon carry milk or.. doctors, Dr. Hugh on King Street and Dr. J.P. Powers in East Colborne. And always the Keelers. Joseph A. was Justice of, the Peace, postmaster and Commissioner of Queen's Bench. Joseph "Little Joe" Keeler was also a J.P., editor and publisher of the Colborne Transcript, insurance agent, whar- gg to-date business methods allowed for no unseemly haggling, every price being plainly marked and "no abatement givern." Wood's Store had imported dry goods "comprising every variety of English, French, German, Italian and India Dry schooner Sterling. Other general stores were owned by R.S. Proctor and J.B. Dewey. Peter Phelps sold something new in Colborne-books and magazines, stationary and sealing wax. All in all, Colborne was a bustling, no-nonsense, respectable and business-minded village. Its eye was on the ball, one foot on the ground, the other firmly planted on the bottom rung of the ladder to success. It kept up with the times and looked forward to a great future. Within living memory, crossroad taverns had grown into towns and cities and perhaps the time was at hand when Colborne would also make it. Thanks to Mr. William Troop for the oan of a copy of the Colborne Transcript of 1856 in whose pages the optimism of another time is so faithfuly relfected The Marion Hotel. Possibly another name for Leith's. Mansion House Hotel on the west side of the Market Square. Hotel names and owners changed frequently during this period. Colborne's Main Street in the 1860's. This old Peterson and Brother Hardware, the (heap (ash photograph shows the south side of King Street at the Store, Dulmage's Dentist and the New Post Office and corner of Division Street. Stores include Vars and Store. Strong Carriage Factory, McRae Boots and Shoes, lumber. Plaster for sale in return for cash or produce, was ground in Allen Maybee's plaster mill. Further towards Colborne stood Hiram Merriman's screeching saw mill, specializing in lumber, hardware and fittings for building schooners. S.I.J. Scripture's machine shop and saw mill was ready "to execute orders for all kinds of castings, mill irons, turning, fitting and sawing wood." The shop was also manufacturing the latest in reapers and mowing machines. Two shops made wagons, buggies and sleighs. Addison Vars' for cash or for approved short credit, a very superior lot of cutters of the latest style and best materials and workmanship; also, a few excellent double pleasure sleighs and lumber sleighs. A large number of covered and other buggies and lumber wagons now finishing and will be ready in the spring." James Scougal was the main competition in wagon and sleigh making. Ingenuity and enterprise flourished, though on a small scale, in many forms. L.D. Parsons required a constant supply of 13-foot white ash logs for his rake factory. Jacques and Armstrong tanned leather and made from it boots and shoes to order in the latest styles. Dudley and Simmons had a brickyard and produced the materials for many a sturdy building. George and Peter Inglis, Samuel Seed, John Yeoman and Robert Cowey were blacksmiths, George Gordon, a tinsmith. Joseph Scott, in addition to being clerk of the council, made and sold patent medicines. William Noble made saddles, harnesses and trunks. Leonard Tuttle built pumps. Professional men were prominent in Colborne's businesses and politics. Robert Boucher, a barrister, was reeve of Cramahe Township and Warden of the United Counties in 1857. Thomas Webb, also a barrister, was a councillor and issued marriage licences. J.M. (J rover. Esq.. owned large blocks of land and eventualh became Registrar of Deeds and Titles finger, commission agent for lumber and produce, druggist and owner of the schoooner Octavia. Finally, King Street and the Market Square were lined with stores, each unabashedly competing for the customer's dollars. William Colton sold dry goods, groceries and crockery according to the "Golden Rule". D.S. Howell had "the largest and cheapest store every built in Colborne". Its up- Goods", among which were such long forgotten favourites as DeLaines and Cobourgs. King and Strong's dry goods were selected "from the best New York, Boston and Montreal markets." Charles Underhill sold groceries, crockery;, Yankee notions, patent medicines, bootsand shoes, T.A. Howard combined a grocery store with selling real estate. He also had a half interest in the MANUFACTURES CLEARANCE ALUMINUM STORM WINDOWS '10.00.ach quantity of aluminum doors CASH AND CARRY BASIS Bring your own measurements 5 miles east of Brighton on No. 2 highway, south of Barcoven Beach Road, 1 mile. Full line of aluminum siding and accessories. Discount for cash and carry. WILLIAM BIGFORD, ALUMINUM SALES ■ ilborn hud Plymouth" CHRYSLER Dodge Truchs SALES/SERVICE Thank You For Your Consideration John Tanner & Staff PLEASE JOHN TANNER CHRYSLER LTD. 456 DIVISION ST. COBOURG WOULD LIKE YOU THE PUBLICTO PLEASE BEAR WITH US THROUGH OUR TEMPORARY MOVING ADJUSTMENTS TO OUR NEW HOME Our telephone number will the same 372-3522 nnnnniiiH»'l