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.

Sep 14 2020

Leslie Frost: Orillia’s Premier

September 20, 2020 marks the 125th anniversary of the birth of Orillia native and former Ontario premier Leslie Frost.

Frost was born in Orillia on September 20, 1895 to William Sword Frost, a jeweller and former mayor of Orillia, and Margaret Jane Barker, who helped establish the Salvation Army in Canada.

Frost was studying at the University of Toronto when he volunteered to serve in the First World War in December 1915, at the age of 20. Frost was commissioned as a lieutenant and trained with the 157th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (Simcoe Foresters). The battalion shipped for England in October 1916. In August 1917, Lieutenant Frost was reassigned from the 157th to the 20th Battalion (Queen’s York Rangers) and arrived on the Western Front in the middle of the Battle of Passchendaele. Though he survived the battle, in March 1918 Frost was shot through the waist near Arras. He was evacuated to England, where he was treated at the Prince of Wales officers’ hospital in Marylebone. In December 1918 Frost was shipped to a hospital in Canada on the advice of a medical review board. He was finally released from hospital in September 1918 and officially discharged from service in 1919 with the rank of captain.

Frost went on to study law at Osgoode Hall, graduating in 1921. With his brother, Cecil Gray Frost, he purchased a law practice in Lindsay. Initially, the two brothers rented a former general store at Pleasant Point north of Lindsay and commuted to town by steamer. Frost bought the Pleasant Point property in 1925, later converting it into a family cottage.

Long an active member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, Frost was first elected to the provincial legislature in 1937 and never lost an election for the remainder of his career. He served as provincial treasurer and minister of mines in the Cabinet of PC premier George Drew from 1943 to 1949, when he became leader of the Progressive Conservatives (and premier of Ontario) in 1949 after Drew retired to pursue federal politics.

With his small-town values, progressive politics, genial nature and pragmatic attitude, Frost led the Progressive Conservatives through three consecutive majority governments, winning the 1951, 1955 and 1959 provincial elections. His premiership saw great expansion in the role of government in society and in public investment in the economy – from the creation of the 400 series of superhighways, the introduction of the provincial sales tax, and the establishment of public hospital insurance (the forerunner to OHIP) to voting rights for First Nations people and the merger of 13 neighbouring municipalities to create the City of Metropolitan Toronto.

Frost resigned as Conservative Party leader in 1961, at the age of 66. He was succeeded by John Robarts.

After retiring from politics, Frost remained heavily involved in governance, serving on the Board of Governors of the University of Toronto as well as on the Board of Directors of the Bank of Montreal, Canada Life, and other corporations. He also served as Chancellor of Trent University from 1967 to 1973.

During his retirement, Frost was also an avid naturalist and amateur historian, publishing the books Fighting Men, about the experiences of Orillia soldiers in WWI, and Forgotten Pathways of the Trent, which challenged previous historians’ conclusions about First Nations trade and warfare routes through southern Ontario. In 1969 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada. He died in Lindsay on May 4, 1973, at age 77.

Written by: John Merritt, SCHA

Sep 30 2019

William McDougall: Father of Confederation, Canadian Nationalist

Did you know that one of Simcoe County’s former MPPs was also a Father of Confederation?

Although he never lived in Simcoe County, William McDougall served as MPP for Simcoe South in the 1870s, in the twilight of his political career.

McDougall was born in 1822 on a farm along Yonge Street, the third generation of a staunch Scotch-American Loyalist family who was amongst the first settlers at York (now Toronto) after the American Revolution.

In contrast with his loyalist parents, McDougall developed a passion for American-style liberty at an early age, when he witnessed the burning of Montgomery’s Tavern during the Rebellion of 1837, at age 15. After finishing school, McDougall studied law at the office of Toronto lawyer James Harvey Price, where he also learned many of the values underpinning his early political career: increased democracy, greater access to land ownership, and ambivalence towards the two existing political parties, the Reform and the Liberal Conservatives.

McDougall opened his law practice in 1847 but devoted much of his spare time toward politics. In 1849, McDougall’s Toronto office became the meeting place for reformers dissatisfied with the pace of change in provincial politics since 1837. From these meetings grew the Clear Grit movement, a radical wing of the Reform Party. Between 1850 and 1855, McDougall’s newspaper the North American was essentially a mouthpiece for the Clear Grits. It was later absorbed by the Toronto Globe.

After two unsuccessful attempts, McDougall finally entered the provincial Legislative Assembly in 1858, where he remained until Confederation.

An early proponent of Confederation, McDougall joined Oliver Mowat and George Brown in defecting from the Reform government of Canada West to call for political union between the provinces of British North America. He attended all three Confederation conferences.

Following Confederation, McDougall surprised his former political colleagues by setting aside his liberal political beliefs to join Canada’s first federal government, which belonged to the Conservatives of Sir John A. Macdonald.

In addition to his support for Confederation, McDougall was also a booster for increased colonization and the expansion of Canadian territory across the continent at the expense of Indigenous peoples. His term as provincial Commissioner of Crown Lands from 1862 to 1867 oversaw increased settlement and the repossession of reserve lands on Manitoulin Island. Between 1867 and 1869, it was McDougall who introduced the bill calling for the annexation of the Hudson Bay Company’s territories (what is now all of northern and western Canada) and helped negotiate the transfer.

At least in part due to his role in the annexation of Rupert’s Land and his support for colonization, McDougall was selected as the first lieutenant governor of the North West Territories, even before the official transfer of lands on January 1, 1870. It was this role as lieutenant governor that led to the incident for which McDougall is best remembered.

McDougall’s appointment coincided with the outbreak of the Red River Resistance, an uprising by Metis inhabitants of the Red River Colony (now Manitoba) over the transfer of Rupert’s Land. To the Metis, the arrival of federal surveyors in August 1869 was an intrusion on their traditional territory. Simmering tensions boiled over in October 1869, when a party of Metis men led by a young Louis Riel confronted a survey party and insisted that the Canadian government had no right to trespass on private property without permission.

Shortly afterwards, McDougall departed for the Red River in order to take possession of the North-West Territories for Canada. He brought with him a party of men and an arsenal of 300 rifles to be issued to supporters of annexation – mostly English-speaking Protestant migrants who had moved to the colony within the last ten years.

News of McDougall’s coming confirmed Metis fears that annexation to Canada would threaten their culture, for the French-speaking, Catholic Metis were well aware of McDougall’s anglophile, pro-Protestant beliefs. At the beginning of October, the Metis organized a “National Committee” led by Riel and erected a barricade along the road connecting the Red River to Ottawa via North Dakota, the only route by which McDougall could reach the area.

McDougall and his party reached the border at the end of October. Choosing to ignore a warning from the Metis National Committee, McDougall and two lieutenants continued along the road towards Fort Garry (now Winnipeg) before being stopped by a party of thirty Metis and conducted back to US territory.

Thwarted, McDougall returned to Ottawa, bitter and embarrassed. His failure to stand up to the Metis seems to have dealt a death blow to his political career. He lost the next federal election in 1872 and briefly resumed his law practice before returning to provincial politics as MPP for Simcoe South in 1875. In 1878 he resigned his position to return to federal politics for one term.

After losing the next two federal elections in 1882 and 1887, McDougall was forced to the sidelines in 1890 when he sustained a serious spinal injury after accidentally walking off a moving train. He died in Ottawa in 1905 after years of ill health.

John Merritt – SCHA

Photo: McDougall in 1894, after his retirement from politics. Courtesy of Library and Archives Canada.

Jul 17 2019

Josephine: Ghost Town of Simcoe County

If you follow the North Simcoe Rail Trail east from George Johnston Road, near Minesing, you just might find the remains of the old hamlet of Josephine, one of the small handful of ghost towns scattered across Simcoe County.

Josephine began in 1879 when Joseph Budd established a sawmill, a commissary and a few houses for his employees on lots 11 and 12 in the 9^th concession of Vespra. Budd named the tiny hamlet after his daughter.

Budd was the last of three lumbermen who harvested the virgin white pine forests that grew around what is now the village of Minesing. The ancient forest was bounded on the south by an escarpment stretching west from Dunn’s Hill and on the west by the Minesing Swamp.

The first of the lumbermen to operate in this area was George Ball, who built a mill on Willow Creek about a mile downstream of the Mill Road (now Highway 27) bridge around 1855, shortly after the arrival of the Northern Railway in Allandale created a market for lumber in the area.

Later, Gideon Shortreed built a mill on the 7^th line of Vespra near where it crossed the Northern Railway (now CPR) line.

After these first two lumbermen had completed their work, most of the area had been deforested, leaving fields covered in four- or five-foot-wide stumps.

Although the best trees in the area had already been cut, some decent lumber — white pine mixed with oak, maple and ash — remained growing along the edges of the Minesing Swamp. However, for many years this area remained untouched because there was no easy way to transport the lumber to market. The construction of the North Simcoe Railway (later part of the Canadian National Railway) in 1879 changed that, and Joseph Budd set up operations in the area that same year.

Budd established himself on 200 acres of land that was neatly dissected by the North Simcoe Railway line. To the east of the railway, he built his mill and the houses for his workers. Budd constructed a house for himself to the west of the railway, facing the mill that provided his livelihood.

Although Josephine boasted a commissary where Budd’s employees could buy personal items, for the first few years there was no post office or general store available to them. Instead, a road was opened from the 9^thLine of Vespra to the 7^th, known then as Budd’s Road and later as Snow Valley Road. From there, prospective customers would follow a winding track through the fields of stumps to the general store and post office of George Sneath, near the junction of what are now Highways 26 and 27.

In those early years, the closest school to Josephine was in Minesing, which was hard to reach outside winter given the poor state of the roads through the swamp. The village of Minesing, with five churches and no tavern, also held little appeal for Budd’s millworkers on their days off. Instead, most locals travelled to Midhurst for their entertainment, except on Saturdays, when they could catch the train to Barrie for the day.

For years, Josephine was a “flag stop” for the Saturday morning train travelling from Allandale to Penetanguishene along the North Simcoe Railway. Being a flag stop meant that the train would only stop at the local station if it was “flagged” or signalled to do so, otherwise it would continue on past the station without stopping. Josephine’s train station was commonly known as “Budd’s” or “Budd’s Mill.”

Joseph Budd opened Josephine’s first and only post office in 1884, with himself as postmaster. The same building also served as the hamlet’s local school as well as a Methodist church.

A fire swept through Josephine in 1885 and destroyed almost everything, but the town was quickly rebuilt. The post office closed for good in 1894.

After the largest trees had been cut, Budd’s mill was bought by Charles Wright and converted to the manufacture of shingles and staves, which it continued to do until as late as 1914.

Not much is left of Josephine today. Intrepid explorers may be lucky enough to find remains of the hamlet and mill to the east of the trail and of Joseph Budd’s house to the west. Ironically, after a hundred years, a hamlet built on the lumber trade has been swallowed up again by the forest.

By John Merritt for the SCHA.

Photo: Three men cutting lumber in the Minesing Swamp, circa 1910. For many years the swamp and surrounding forests supplied lumber for mills like Joseph Budd’s. From A History of Vespra Township (Township of Vespra, 1987).

Jun 16 2019

Frederick Hodgson: The man who helped build Collingwood.

Downtown Collingwood in 1914. The Arlington Hotel, built by Fred Hodgson in 1900, is visible on the far left.

Frederick Thomas Hodgson was a builder and architect who spent much of his life and career in the Collingwood area. Operating around the turn of the century, he contributed many buildings to the growing town that can still be seen and appreciated there today.

Hodgson was born on September 19, 1832, in the town of Selby in Yorkshire, England. In 1847, at the age of 15, Hodgson emigrated to Canada with his uncle, William McDonald, and his aunt and cousins. Initially, Hodgson settled with his relatives at Duntroon, in the township of Nottawasaga. In 1851, at the age of 19, he struck out on his own, moving to the village of Hurontario – what, in a few years, became the town of Collingwood.

As a young man, Hodgson found work as a contractor during the extension of the Northern Railway into Collingwood, erecting some of the houses and sheds that sheltered the workers building the railway line. In 1853, at age 21, Hodgson built his first permanent building on Hurontario Street in Collingwood, on what is now the site of the Globe Hotel.

In 1859, at age 27, Hodgson moved to St. Catharines to take up a job as Superintendent of Rolling Stock for the Welland Railway. He remained there for 17 years.

In 1877, at age 44, Hodgson moved to New York City to take up a job as associate editor of the magazine American Builder. He became managing editor the following year and remained at the helm of the magazine for 12 years.

During this time, Hodgson began publishing a prolific number of guides to practical building and construction techniques, which by the end of his life numbered as many as 144 titles. Hodgson’s best-known book was The ABC of the Steel Square, a practical guide to the use of the carpenter’s square published in 1881. Eventually, the book was published in 20 editions, one as late as 1972, and sold in six countries.

In 1890, at age 56, Hodgson finally returned to Collingwood, where he set up his own business as an architect and builder.

At the time of his return, the town was booming thanks to the arrival of the railway in the 1850s and the beginnings of the local shipbuilding industry in the 1880s. As an architect, Hodgson’s contributions to the growth of the town included the West Ward School and the “Armadale” residence of local cookie company magnate Herbert Y. Telfer on Third Street, both built in 1890. Hodgson also designed “Tornaveen”, the 10,000 square-foot, three-story Queen Anne Revival-style mansion of Herbert Telfer’s older brother Frank, built directly across the street from the younger Telfer’s far more modest home and completed in 1892.

Hodgson also made extensive alterations to the residence of Midland tycoon James Playfair in 1894, as well as an addition to the Globe Hotel, a major expansion of the General and Marine Hospital, and a new gymnasium building for the Collingwood Collegiate Institute, all built in 1895. In 1900, he built the Arlington Hotel on Hurontario Street, as well as a home for local politician and founder of the Collingwood Enterprise John Hogg at Third and Oak Streets.

Throughout the rest of his career, Hodgson worked as editor of National Builder, the Chicago-based magazine that had absorbed his old magazine, American Builder. He also contributed to journals like Canadian Architect and Builder, based in Toronto; Carpenter and Builder and Architect’s Magazine, both based in New York; Dixiein Atlanta, and Craftsman in Cleveland. Hodgson worked mostly by long distance, sending editing suggestions and articles to each journal by mail.

After decades of work contributing to the built landscape of Collingwood and to the professions of architecture and construction in general, Frederick Hodgson died on July 15, 1919, at age 87. The books and magazine articles he wrote can still be found today, and several of the buildings he built are included in heritage walking tours throughout the Town of Collingwood.

Written by John Merritt, SCHA

Simcoe County Historical Association Land Acknowledgement