In honour of Ontario Heritage Week, InnisfilToday will be sharing a series of stories from the Innisfil Heritage Committee on the town's early villages and settlements
What was the most important event in the development of Innisfil? Even more important than Highway 400, it was the building of the Northern Railroad, the first significant railroad in Canada. A year earlier, American interests had built a line from Montreal to Portland Maine, through Lac-Mégantic, Que, to take the Canadian trade to their Harbour.
This is a story of people with vision, some with business acumen, some sorely lacking the same, of nay-sayers, of government bailouts, of people signing contracts without doing their homework, and even Barrie trying to annex part of Innisfil.
As early as 1836, the Legislature of Upper Canada passed a Bill authorizing a railway from Toronto to Lake Simcoe. It was in the early 1830s that the first big wave of settlers came to Simcoe. So, the area was quite undeveloped. The proposal was to join Lake Ontario to Lake Huron by way of Lake Simcoe with a canal for the Simcoe to Huron section. The initiative for this proposal came from Toronto. With the Rebellion of 1837 and other events, this item moved to the back burner.
In 1845, a further Act was passed giving the railroad further distance and extending the time for completion. Efforts to raise capital by stock calls were not satisfactory.
The Act chartering the successful railway project was passed in 1849, establishing the "Ontario, Simcoe and Huron Railroad Company" (shortened to O, S, and H and colloquially re-expanded to "Oats, Straw, and Hay). This third proposal was in large measure the result of pressure from the Simcoe District Council (the predecessor of the Simcoe County Council) and the local newspaper, the Barrie Magnet. Strong support came from the Toronto Board of Trade, Toronto City Council, and other corporations.
The next year, the Simcoe County Council committed itself to subscribing 50,000 Pounds Sterling worth of share capital. The animosity became quite bitter. The proposal was to raise the money immediately, with the County selling debentures payable in 20 years. The City of Toronto did likewise, for another 50,000 Pounds.
One of the early results was that the part of West Gwillimbury (W.G.) south of the Holland Marsh (W.G. had originally extended on the south to Davis Drive and east to Yonge St.) seceded from Simcoe County. and became part of York. At the same time, the townships of St. Vincent, Collingwood, Euphrasia, Artemisia and Osprey also seceded from Simcoe to become part of the new County of Grey.
It took a little longer, but the Town of Orangeville in 1863 joined Wellington County. and later, in 1880, Mono and Muller townships were transferred to Dufferin County. There was great resentment in all these areas about being taxed to support a railway that was too far distant to be of measurable value to them.
A US. based contractor was given the job of building the line, to be paid as the monies were spent. By October 1852, the money raised had all been spent and the railroad was a year short of reaching the head of Kempenfelt Bay.
In some years, the railroad tax exceeded all other county related taxes. The ratepayers were unhappy, and the County Councilors frustrated. They tried to sell the debentures. No takers. By this time, Toronto and York County had issued $400,000.00 (note change in currency from British to Canadian) and other municipalities along the route also contributed.
The first engine was the "Lady Elgin" used in construction, followed by the "Collingwood and "Simcoe". The "Toronto" was the first Canadian built engine. The cost of freight and duties bringing the Elgin to Toronto prompted a foundry in Toronto to build this engine. The first trip carrying passengers and freight was on May 16, 1853 pulled by the “Toronto” was to Aurora. As more line was built, it reached Bradford June 15 and Allandale Oct 11, 1853, and Collingwood (earlier known as Hen and Chickens) on Jan 1,1855. The first rails were iron rather than steel, which was not used until after 1865. For the first 30 years wood was used to fuel the engines. Wood is bulky, so it required re-filling the wood box fairly frequently. One of the places to refuel was south of the 2nd of Innisfil, on the farm now owned by Colin Campbell. The northbound trains would be well slowed down after the long climb out of Gilford, and the southbound trains would have an easy start. There is a deep excavation near the back of the farm, so that the 4" logs could be loaded on the level, or almost downhill.
North of Bradford, stations were established at Gilford, Lefroy, Bramley (at 9th line--lasted about a year, replaced by Craigvale. but the siding remained for trains to meet), Craigvale, and Allandale (it was in Innisfil then). The next year, a spur line was built from just south of Lefroy where trains backed into Bell Ewart. to the Government Dock where they supported the massive lumber industry. These communities did not exist before the railroad came.
At this time, Innisfil extended north to Tiffin St. and Highway 90. The Allandale station was in Innisfil, and the track proceeded to Angus, Stayer and ended at Collingwood in 1855.
Barrie was by-passed.
In 1855, the county again tried to sell shares without success. At the same time, Bradford complained that the express trains were not stopping at its station. To offset the taxes paid to the County to cover the railroad costs, the County Council, in their wisdom, looked at the vast property holdings of the railroad and taxed the railroad heavily.
Business matters did not go well with the railroad. By June 1857, after only four years of operation, the line had liabilities of almost a million pounds, or $ 50,000.00 per mile. The railway was essentially broke. The shares that the county had bought, and the taxes to be levied on the railroad were valueless.
In 1859, the province essentially took over the company, changed its name to the Northern Railroad and guaranteed $1,000,000.00 in new bonds. Fred Cumberland became the General Manager.
The railroad had three major construction shortcomings. (1) the roadbed was not ballasted. The ballast is the layer of heavy material or slag above the roadbed and below the ties and rails, (2) the right of way was not fenced and trains frequently hit farm animals, (3) the bigger problem was that the whole system was built on broad gauge tracks. (as was the Lac-Mégantic track) rather than the North American 56-and one-half inches between the rails. This meant that the rail cars could not switch to other lines and their loads would have to be manually moved to another rail line. The United States was building their railways in standard gauge 4' 8 1/2”. It was only 30 years after the war of 1812 and some Americans were still talking about annexing Canada, so loans were being offered at lower rates if the broad gauge was used.
Over time standard gauge won so in 1881 the railway switched from broad gauge to standard gauge in one day.
All this time, the Barrie town Fathers were upset that the town people and merchants had to travel an extra three miles to get to the station and back. Bell Ewart had a booming lumber business with logs coming in by the lake. Barrie was jealous. So, what did they do? Proposed annexation, of course. They petitioned the Legislature to annex the station plus 400 acres of land from Innisfil in 1857 and again in 1859. In 1862 and 1863, the town involved itself in legal proceedings to procure the railroad and finally the spur line and Barrie station were opened in 1865. The Barrie station, long since gone, was at the foot of the present Memorial Square.
The fact that the R.R. did not go through Barrie on the way to Collingwood is based on two causes (1) the Barrie Councilors so offended the senior railroad administrators that they vowed to "make grass grow on the streets of Barrie" and (2) by heading west to Angus, the road could be built on level ground. Barrie was too hilly. Years later, the CPR also avoided Barrie, to the town's dismay, when building the route from Alliston to Coldwater through Midhurst.
By the early 1870s the railroad had become financially stable but did not pay any dividends. After years of dickering and litigation, the county's shares were finally written off in 1904---50,000 Pounds that never paid any dividends.
I would like to quote from the Toronto “Globe” of Feb 2, 1890:
“Ontario my fairly claim the credit of having taken the initiative in Canadian railway construction, for, except for an inconsequential line in the province of Quebec, the Ontario, Simcoe and Huron Railway – named for the three lakes on which were its chief objective points – was the first railway in the Dominion opened for passenger and freight traffic.
May 16th was indeed an auspicious day in the history of the Queen City, of Upper Canada – and indeed of the whole colony – for that was the birthday of the Canadian railroad era. It was a bright, sunny morning, and all nature seemed to smile on the curious crowd that gathered in front of Sword's hotel (now the site of the Queen's) on Front Street, and on the object of their curiosity. On the south side of the street was what was then called “a first-class passenger train.”
Written by William (Bill) Kell
