Nov 14 2023

LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WIN HISTORY AWARD

Three students win SCHA’s Andrew Hunter Award for essays in Canadian History
BARRIE, ON, October 30 – Three Bradford District High School students have won the Simcoe
County Historical Association’s Andrew Hunter Award for excellence in essay writing on a topic
in Canadian history. Abiishan Nanthakumar won first place, Katie Jung won second place and
Clare McCormick placed third in this year’s awards. All three winners wrote essays about
Quebec’s Quiet Revolution of the 1960s.

Each winner will receive a cash prize as well as a copy of The History of Simcoe County, the
book written by Andrew F. Hunter, this award’s namesake. Andrew Hunter was an early local
historian of Simcoe County and a co-founder of the SCHA. His book was one of the earliest
local histories to be published in Ontario and remains an essential read today.

The Andrew Hunter Award was originally offered to post-secondary Canadian History students
at Laurentian University’s Barrie campus. When Laurentian phased out its History program, the
award went dormant for a few years until it was relaunched in 2020, this time focused on
students of Canadian History at high schools across Simcoe County.

Says SCHA President Ted Duncan, “We at the Simcoe County History Association believe that
if you want people to preserve historical places, buildings, artifacts and archival material in the
future, we must connect them to history as they develop and grow. The Hunter Award program
is one way to do that.”

“We must support educators who develop programs to involve their students in our past through
research and storytelling,” Duncan says. “Andrew Hunter believed in that, and so do we.”
The SCHA will be accepting submissions for the next Andrew Hunter Award throughout the
current academic year. Interested teachers can contact the SCHA for more information at
info@simcoecountyhistory.ca.

The Simcoe County Historical Association is a voluntary non-profit organization dedicated to the
promotion, preservation, and appreciation of the history and heritage of Simcoe County. For
more information about the Simcoe County Historical Association, please visit our website at
www.simcoecountyhistory.ca.

https://www.simcoecountyhistory.ca/1691-2/

Nov 22 2022

Response to Bill 23

Developers: 1 – Simcoe County Residents: 0

If you thought last year’s proposed growth plan and the push by developers to increase settlement areas, reduce agricultural land, build on wetlands, and ignore the impacts on our lakes and streams was outrageous, wait until you see what comes next!

Bill 23 announced 25 October, just after the municipal elections (and while most municipalities are in flux) amends 9 pieces of legislation and includes everything from the protection of our built heritage, the role of Conservation Authorities, the stripping of planning responsibilities from municipalities and the county, removes of some development fees which pay for local infrastructure, removes rental re-placement regulations and the list goes on.
No one argues the need for more affordable and attainable housing. No one argues the need for com-munities to offer a wide range of housing choices and options. But it simply does not make sense to strip the land and water that we all share for the convenience and, dare I say, profitability of developers.

The Architectural Conservancy Ontario’s ( https://acontario.ca/ ) latest media release states: “Bill 23 will make it practically impossible to protect most of Ontario’s identified heritage properties”. Further-more, the most minimal protection offered for properties currently “listed” (not designated) will be lost 2 years after this bill is in effect if the property is not “Designated”. Not only does this undermine the past efforts of the Municipal Heritage Advisory Committee members, it also does not create a single unit of affordable housing.

Organizations such as Environmental Defense ( https://environmentaldefence.ca/ ) and Simcoe County Greenbelt Coalition ( https://simcoecountygreenbelt.ca/ ) have already held webinars and/or issued press releases, etc. to raise the awareness of the impact these changes will have on our County, our homes and our environment.
The Ontario Association of Municipalities’ ( https://www.amo.on.ca/ ) recent update raised the concern of who is going to pay for the roads, sewer, and water infrastructure if development charges are no longer levied. Regardless of any source of government funding that might offset the costs, we are still the taxpayers that will eventually pay the price.

As an organization the Simcoe County Historical Association is proud of the heritage of Simcoe County. Our rural communities, heritage main streets, settler homes, lakes streams, open and wooded landscapes are what bring back memories and help us learn from our past. We encourage you to tap into the organizations listed above as a first step to learning more. But remember to contact your MPP by email or in person, write a letter to the editor, post, or comment on your social media platform.

Let us find a way to build homes that are truly affordable not just “pave paradise” and line the pockets of developers. Bill 23 must be withdrawn. There are better ways.

Apr 26 2021

Annie Bell Gibbons Family

Innisfil Centennial parade at Innisfil Beach Park 1951

Annie Bell Gibbons was born Sept 21 1902, in Innisfil Ontario, Canada, on the south half lot 25 of the 9th line, the daughter of life-time residents and farm families, James Gibbons and Phoebe Taylor, she was delivered by Dr. Little.

Annie Bell Gibbons married Stanley Anthony Walton of Barrie and they became parents of four girls. Issabell Walton, Dorathy Walton, June Walton and Yvonne Walton. Stanley Walton, employed as a World War I Veteran along with his brother Matthew Walton, was also affiliated with the Roman Catholic religion and was a member of the Independent Order of Oddfellows in Barrie. Stanley, his lungs now in deteriorating health did return to Barrie to his young family after World War I ended. While he did suffer from the effects of war, he was able to spend the remaining time with his children in Bell Ewart and received treatment for his injuries at Toronto Hospital until his passing in 1960. Stanley Anthony Walton was laid to rest at the 6th Line Cemetery, located at Yonge Street and the 6th line of Innisfil, Ontario.

While raising her girls, Annie Bell was involved with the Lefroy Women’s Institute. She moved to Barrie, in the 1960’s to the neighbourhood in the East End of Barrie, Napier St, where she lived with her daughter Yvonne Walton-Hussey and her four grandchildren, the offspring of Yvonne and Fred Hussey.

Annie Bell (centre) with daughter Dorathy (right) and daughter Yvonne (left)

Annie Bell and her husband were no strangers to war time life. Stanley Anthony’s father Edward Walton was also a veteran of World War I. Edward married Mary Carney of Ireland, who had moved to Barrie with her parents, brothers and sisters when she was 10 years old in 1885. Edward Walton’s obituary in the The Northern Advance, Barrie, Ontario, Thursday, May 18^th, 1922 listed the many different wars that he took part in during his time as a Canadian soldier from Barrie. In the obituary his funeral was listed as the largest ever witnessed in Barrie, starting at St Mary’s Church to St. Mary’s Catholic Cemetery where he was laid to rest alongside his wife Mary Carney.

After Stanley Walton’s passing, Annie Bell found love again, with Mr. Roy Davis. She lived a church-loving life with her friends and family by her side, as well as and at this point, her grandchildren, in both Barrie and Innisfil, whom Roy Davis also cared for and helped to raise. Annie Bell and Roy Davis returned to live for the last part of her life, in a house that was built for her by Roy Davis in Lefroy, Innisfil Ontario. She passed away in 1992 and was also laid to rest at the 6th line Cemetery.

As told by Amanda Yvonne Annie Wilce, great granddaughter to Annie Bell Gibbons.

Many stories of Simcoe County Families and the genealogies, including that of Annie Bell Walton’s families, can be found in the newly published and detailed book organized by Amanda Wilce, a contributor of many stories and much research.

This newly published history focuses on the Ferrier and Sabin family, Mary Sabin and David Ferrier, who immigrated to Canada after the American Revolution. They lived during the very early pioneer times of Innisfil, Simcoe County, Ontario, Canada. Along with Amanda Wilce, credit is extended to author and researcher Bill Warnica along with Torrence Ferrier, Brian Adams, Peggy Annette Wells-Huish, Danielle Christine Lee and Teri Lamb-Bowers.

The Sabin-Ferrier book can be found here or by contacting Sabinferrier@gmail.com

Dec 30 2020

Tudhope: A small family with big dreams.

I have 3 co-workers who are related to each other; Tracey, her daughter and her niece. Their roots run deep in Simcoe County and are mostly centred around the Town of Elmvale. Recently, Tracey asked me to take a quick look at their family tree and now I have 3 new distant cousins!

The chances seemed unlikely. Tracey’s ancestors have been living in this country for the better part of 200 years while I am an immigrant who only sailed into the Port of Montreal in 1967.

Having a rare surname in a family tree certainly helps though. In fact, I knew we had to be related as soon as I saw the name of Tracey’s third great grandmother, Margaret Tudhope.

If the Tudhope name rather sounds familiar, it should. This unique surname comes from only one place – the small village of Lesmahagow, in the county of Lanarkshire in Lowland Scotland and it is extremely well known in Simcoe County, particularly in the vicinity of Orillia.

In 1831, a group of some 50 people arrived in Canada with an organization called the Lesmahagow Emigration Society. The leader of that group was James Tudhope. His family included his wife, Christian Brockett, and their 8 children. Their daughter, Margaret Black, and her husband, James Black, were Tracey’s great great great grandparents.

But it was Margaret’s brother, William Brockett Tudhope, who started out as a blacksmith and progressed to wagon and carriage maker, who set in motion the career path that would help put the Tudhope name on the map in Simcoe County.

William Brockett Tudhope married Mary Reid in Oro Township in 1857. The eldest of their ten children, James Brockett Tudhope, was born there the following year. James B. Tudhope started out as a school teacher in Orillia but joined his father’s carriage company in the 1880s. In the early part of the 20th century, James B. Tudhope wore many hats – Mayor of Orillia, M.P.P., M.P., member of the Orillia Water and Lights Commission and, of course, founder of the Tudhope Motor Company which produced cars in Orillia.

The name is still very prominent today. The former Tudhope Motor Company factory, known as the Tudhope Building, now houses Orillia City Hall. Tudhope Park, on Lake Couchiching, is a 65-acre park located on land donated by the Tudhope family.

My own connection to the Tudhopes is my fifth great grandmother, Marion Tudhope, who was born around 1749 and is buried at Lesmahagow Cemetery where many of Margaret Tudhope’s ancestors lie. Our exact connection eludes me so far but Tracey and I are likely 6^th or 7^th cousins, or thereabouts.

The variations in spelling, as we travel backwards through time into the 1600s, complicate the search. The current spelling is one that was settled upon in more modern times but previous generations used Tytop, Tutop, Todhop and other forms of the surname.

Todhop may give a clue as to the origin of the name. When surnames arose in Lowland Scotland near the time of the 12^th century, most were either patronymic (a male ancestor’s name), such as Johnson, occupational, such as Baker, or geographical like Hill.

In the Scots language of the Lowland people, a tod is a fox and a hop/hope is a small valley. In centuries past, the forebears of the Tudhopes may have originated in a valley where foxes were common. This prominent Simcoe County family has come a long way from their rustic roots in the far away hills of Scotland.

Mary Harris
Barrie Historical Archive

Dec 20 2020

Minesing’s Princess Rink, 1902-1940

Over 100 years ago, residents of Minesing got together to found their own community skating rink. Over almost 40 years, Minesing’s Princess Rink served as a hub for winter sports and social life for the small rural community, a venue for community skates and impassioned amateur hockey games and a training ground for one of the best hockey players of the early 1900s.

The story of the Princess Rink began in Minesing one morning in early November 1901, when four local men, Harry Stokes, Joseph Orchard, Charles Foyston and Thomas McLean, got together to found a community skating rink and set about finding a suitable location and adequate money to make their idea a reality.

The four men approached local farmers and managed to convince twenty of them to each advance $10 for the purpose of founding the rink, repayable at 4% interest within ten years. In December 1901, a location for the new rink was leased from another local man, Andrew Ronald, for 99 years for a nominal rent. Ronald’s only other condition for the lease was that no liquor was to be sold on the premises.

The Princess Rink was constructed through a series of work bees attended by many of the men of the community, under the direction of the respected barn framer Jesse Kester. The completed rink measured 40 by 120 feet, with a 40- by 100-foot ice surface and a 20-foot section at the front for putting on skates and observing hockey games. The new rink opened on the night of January 20, 1902.

The Princess Rink was always well attended, especially during evening skates, when bands from Minesing, Barrie, Craighurst or Stayner offered live performances for skaters. The rink also hosted a multitude of lively hockey games between the Minesing “Greenshirts” and other small-town teams – Elmvale was an arch-rival, and there were frequent brawls, often involving the spectators as well as the players. Visiting bands and hockey teams were all provided with a hot supper at the end of the evening. Evening skates were limited to three nights a week so as not to interfere in locals’ attendance at church and other social events. Despite good attendance at the rink, income from evening skates was fairly poor as tickets cost only ten cents each.

For the first few years, management was plagued by the issue of lighting the rink properly. Initially, coal oil lamps were used, then, in 1904, a 1200-candle-power gas lamp was installed, which provided sufficient light but also greatly increased the chances of setting fire to the building. On one occasion, the lamp suddenly exploded in the middle of an evening skate, causing those in attendance to flee the rink. Fortunately, no one was hurt and there was no damage to the building, though presumably the incident spelled the end for that particular lamp.

Harry Stokes, Joseph Orchard, Charles Foyston and Thomas McLean owned the rink jointly until 1906, when Stokes sold his interest to the remaining three owners. In 1908, Foyston and McLean moved to California, leaving management of the rink solely to Orchard until he, too, left the community in 1912. Harry and Carlin Foyston managed the rink until 1938, when Joseph orchard briefly resumed control of the establishment. In 1940 it was sold to Fred Parry, who found that it had become unsafe for further use and had it taken down.

One of the graduates of the Princess Rink was Frank Corbett Foyston, also known as “The Flash”, considered one of the best hockey players of the early 1900s.

Foyston, one of six brothers, was born and raised in Minesing and began playing hockey on the frozen pond on his family’s farm. The Princess Rink opened shortly before Foyston’s tenth birthday and quickly became his new venue for practicing hockey. Foyston joined the Minesing Greenshirts at age 15, and moved up to the Barrie Colts in 1909. Twice a week, he would travel the ten miles to Barrie from Minesing in a horsedrawn cutter, regardless of the weather.

Foyston’s career in the National Hockey Association began in 1912. Over the next 17 years until his retirement in 1929, he played for the Toronto Blueshirts (the forerunner of the Maple Leafs), the Seattle Metropolitans, then the Victoria Cougars, and helped win the Stanley Cup for each of those teams. After his retirement, he coached the Seattle Seahawks until his death in 1966. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1958, the Barrie Sports Hall of Fame in 1999, and the Springwater Sports Heritage Hall of Fame in 2014.

Many stories of Simcoe County Families and the genealogies, including that of Annie Bell Walton’s families, can be found in the newly published and detailed book organized by Amanda Wilce, a contributor of many stories and much research.

Simcoe County Historical Association Land Acknowledgement