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.

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

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

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