George Russell held a prominent position in Sarnia in the last half of the 1800’s. He was a local politician (Reeve-1866) but most notably a businessman. As advertised, Russell’s founding of The Sarnia Brewery Co. Ltd. in 1861-1862 ensured that the locals would have an ample supply of alcoholic malts [...]
by Jean Turnbull Elford (1982) Beginning with British rule in the northern part of this continent, land was acquired from the Indians as it was needed for new settlers. Because of legislation passed in 1763, no Indian band forfeited their land without their own and the Crown’s consent. The Indians [...]
by Jean Turnbull Elford in Canada West’s Last Frontier (1982) Point Edward, Lambton’s largest incorporated village, placed where Lake Huron empties into the River St. Clair, made its way into recorded history earlier than any other part of Lambton. The first written account comes from the pen of Father Hennepin [...]
by Phil Egan - Special to The Sarnia Journal (2015) In his 1961 book, A History of the Chemical Industry in Lambton County, R.W. Ford describes the Bushnell Refinery, built in 1871, as the “first of Sarnia’s refineries.” Records indicate, however, that this information is not correct. Sarnia’s earliest refinery [...]
By Steven McKenna (2015) The year was 1889 when Patrick Grandcourt Kerwin was born in Sarnia, Ontario in what was a young Canadian nation where residents were considered British subjects. Queen Victoria was the monarch and the Prime Minister of the day was Sir John A. Macdonald, leader of the [...]
By Phil Egan - Special to The Sarnia Journal (2015) If houses could talk, this one could spin captivating tales It sits in stately and understated grandeur in a park in Bright’s Grove. Its two-storeys are clad in the distinctive Wawanosh yellow brick fired in the Telfer Road brickyard kilns. [...]
By Phil Egan, Special for the Sarnia Jornal, Then and Now (2015) He enrolled at Notre Dame at age 15, and went on to become president of a university. He rode with Union forces during the U.S. Civil war through some of its fiercest fighting in Tennessee and Georgia. In [...]
By Phil Egan special for The Sarnia Journal We breeze along the 402 Highway today with exasperation if a construction delay makes our journey longer than an hour. For Sarnia’s early settlers, it was never that easy. Founding father Malcolm Cameron had built the road to London, but from spring [...]
By Phil Egan, Special to The Sarnia Journal, Then and Now. (2015) Dawn broke that morning on a warm, clear day. There was no humidity in the air. A breeze from the river, at times brisk, swirled up clouds of dust on the dirt roads of Front Street. It was [...]
by Lawrence A. Crich (1986) Any attempt to get a clear picture of education in Sarnia prior to 1860 is met with frustration. This can probably be better understood when one realizes that the first Sarnia Board of Education was formed only in 1851 and the first recorded surviving minutes [...]
