Kleinburg Archives

 

Kleinburg Memories of the Past

As told by George East

(reprinted from the 1970 Binder Twine Festival Guide)

Reminiscences in the 1967 Binder Twine Festival Guide have sparked a former Kleinburg resident, George East, now of Victoria, B.C., to send us some of his own.

Mr. East's father, Fred, and for a time in the 20's, Mr. East himself, used to operate the Village Store and post office now run by George and Dorothy Watson. His grandfather, Matt, who died around the turn of the century, built the store (now the post office) in East's Corners (now Nashville), and also had an insurance business.

Matt rented Charlie Shaw (who started the Binder Twine in 1891) his first store in the house now owned by Dan McLean Sr. George's sister, Maude, used to live in the house now owned by Geoffrey and Doris Wheeldon (formerly Kellam's).

Here are some excerpts from Mr. East's letters to his old friend and pioneer Kleinburg resident, Gordon McGillivray (Highway 27).

The town of Nashville, he says, was named because of the Jonathan Scott family who came from Nashville, Tennessee. "I don't suppose my Dad or Grandad or the boys, who sat around the old stove in the store knew too many names anyway that weren't in use. None of them had ever been far away from that corner.

"The railway just recently came and they had to find a name for a Post Office. So I expect that after a few squirts of tobacco juice on the old stove they came up with the name "Nashville". Charlie Patterson, John Kurtz, John McDonough, Peter Devins, Archie McGillivray, Bill Long, Adam and John Dalziel and the rest of the natives apparently went along with it.

"When Mackenzie was on the warpath and Peter Devins was a bit nervous they said every man from Matt East's Corners to Clairville was a damn rebel"

He talks of the old Howland mill (west of Geoffrey and Phyllis Share's house), founded by John N. Kline in 1846 and sold to the Howland Bros. in 1852. "My grandad, John Bond, was Howland's miller for years. He was a stone dresser and kept the stones cut for grinding. His left hand was covered with green specks from using the hammer and chisel on the stones. The old mill was turned over from the stones to the modern mill about the turn of the century. There was no water like what .came out of the ground at the east end where there was a cocoanut shell hanging.

Some of the prices he mentions are: "chewing tobacco, three plugs for a quarter; a good suit, $7.50 to $12.00; underwear-fleece lined or pure wool, burrs and all, 50 cents a garment; socks 25 cents; and the best work boots-English kip-$2.25 to $2.75."

"I'm sorry to see the old Shaw Hardware store go (demolished this year to make room for Norm Hall's gas station) but everything else on that side of the street has gone. The old blacksmith shop that was down by the Anglican Church (site of the present United Church) Wuerster's barn, house and harness shop, Gobeil's Hotel, shed and tables-the old Hollingshead store next to Shaw's.

"Kleinburg was on an old Indian Trail - really an Indian portage from the Humber to Collingwood - on the Nottawasaga River. I remember well the toll gates - not in operation though - but the remains were left there for years. The old "Half Blanket" property (where Mrs. Colin Ray lives now) when I was a kid was owned by Dan Mackenzie (father of long'-time ex M.P.P. Lex Mackenzie) - remember when he was Hotel Inspector?

"When dad built in Kleinburg, he had a tile drain run across the road-and about 18 inches below the gravel road they had to cut through the plank of the old plank road, still sound and solid. You see there had been a town well in a spot which would be just inside the front wall and across the road in front of our house (site of Wheeldon's) there was another town well.

That was the old Malcolm Buchanan property. He was one of the old timers - like Con Ryan, Michael Crottie, Fred Harris, Christian Wuerster, George Gobeil, August Groskurth, Jake Zelinskie (who had an apothecary shop).

"The old copper shop, stave factory, and barrel factory was a long building opposite Brown's Pop Works - on the site of the Vic Ryder building. Old man Gough ran it for years until he quarrelled with H. S. Howland. Dick and Gus (his sons) were in Pine Grove -beside the old Gooderham and Worts distillery for a while. In Toronto they had a clothing store that went in off Queen and came out on Yonge - an L-shaped store. The corner where Woolworth's are was Philip Jameson's hat store - so Gough Brothers kinda wrapped around him with a lane going in off Queen.

"They used to come to Kleinburg often after the coming of the automobile. What a thrill to have a ride in Dick Gough's car. He was a big tall man and when he got tight he seemed to wave like a reed in the wind-rather than stagger. Eaton's got the property eventually and that is when Sellers-Gough was started."

Across the road from the barrel and stave factory was John Brown's Pop Factory. "Pop Brown made the best Sarsaparilla and Cream Soda and Birch Beer that was ever made this side of Paradise. In fact, in the memory of a little boy, that was Paradise.

"Mr. Armstrong, the shoemaker, lived next to Perry's store - the shop was on the south side which later became a barber shop.

"Clarence Lankin was the barber. He worked for dad two or three days a week - barbered nights and weekend days. Half cut a quarter and a shave a dime. Kids' haircuts 15 cents. A tea kettle supplied the hot water and a cake of Williams barber shaving soap would last several months."

Mr. East asks how many of today's youth ever heard of a hostler? "Yet every hotel had one to look after the travelling public's horses. Or a huckster? Cheap John from Texas-Walking Thompson with his pills. I expect I was one of the last of the hucksters. I drove the horse and wagon, loaded with groceries and dry goods and had my regular customers from Kleinburg to Linton to Macville, returning by Wildfield. Each trip took a day."

He refers to the evangelists - Crossley and Hunter who scared hell out of us little fellows with their hellfire and brimstone - I can still smell it -and Frank Coleman who was a horse trader by day and an evangelist by night. He had a guitar too. I'll admit they were all tear jerkers -early Billy Sundays or Billy Grahams who gave no alternative to the sawdust trail. They gave one temperance sermon each week - usually singing 'where is my wandering boy tonight?'"

Mr. East recalls pre-World War I days when he knew Sir John Eaton "who was plain Jack then. He and Harry O'Neill and George Wolf developed that Bolton property as a summer hideout - later turning it over to Neighbourhood Workers and now Bolton Fresh Air Camp."

He mentions Jim McDonough's Hotel (south across the street from the present Royal Bank). "Jim left either his pipe or his scarf in the store almost daily when he came for his mail. Dad had the post office in the old Hollingshead store - where Crottie's were (1899-1900).

"And in the house where Merle Hambly.lives now was a hotel with an interesting hotel keeper - Harry Marsh - a roly-poly Englishman with a waxed moustache, polished, carefully dressed. His wife, a buxom belle, possibly of stage fame, dressed nicely and was a perfect lady. They weren't there long. As a hotel it was never a success and as a hotel keeper, Harry just wasn't. They were very friendly but soon learned that Kleinburg was no place for an English pub."

"Another resident was George Chavignaud and his family. They were fine folks. He was a good artist who didn't go along with the Group of Seven when they originated the idea. His daughter Christine still lives in Brampton. His paintings are being sought after now. I have a couple he did in 1920."

Speaking of last year's Festival Guide, he says: "That booklet is purely a Charlie Shaw history of a happening he was responsible for. No one else in the world had one and I am glad he is being remembered. We are losing much of our culture and history-those pioneers were all part of that heritage you and I and a very few others appreciate, but we all enjoy the fruits of their labours - it's a long way from tallow candles to the moon landing.

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