by Jean Turnbull Elford writing in Canada West’s Last Frontier (1982) Nothing could look better to the pioneers of Lambton than a railway when what roads they had were almost impassable and water transportation was halted by ice for months on end. In 1836 with commendable optimism the settlers of [...]
by Phil Egan Special for The Sarnia Journal He arrived by way of London and the old Errol Road, driving a team of oxen and a cart filled with goods he intended to sell. His destination was the collection of log shanties huddled together at “The Rapids.” He was 28 [...]
by George Mathewson for The Sarnia Journal (2014) No family has had a greater impact on Sarnia street names that the Vidals. Richard Emeric Vidal was a captain in the Royal Navy who was rewarded for his service with 200 acres in what would become the city’s choicest residential neighbourhoods. [...]
by George Mathewson for the Sarnia Observer (2003) Froome and Field Talfourd were not your typical pioneers when they ventured into the wilderness of Southwestern Ontario on horseback. The road came to an end at Warwick, so the brothers from England followed a trail blazed through forest and swamp to [...]
by George Mathewson for the Sarnia Observer (2003) Malcolm Cameron was already an energetic member of the Upper Canada legislature when he moved to Sarnia in 1834 in search of new opportunities. The 27-year-old quickly found them. Before he was through, Cameron helped launch the Observer, named Lambton County, built [...]
by George Mathewson for The Sarnia Journal (2015) Froome Talfourd has a street, a hamlet and a creek that bears his name, but it was a cottage he built in what’s now downtown Sarnia that impressed one early city historian Talfourd’s cottage was high on a hill overlooking Sarnia Bay [...]
by Tara Jeffrey for the Sarnia Observer (2014) The city of Sarnia has been shaped by number of notable politicians, from familiar figures like former prime minister Alexander Mackenzie, to long forgotten names like 19th century mayor Thomas George Johnston. Some notable names from the history books include: Cameron was [...]
by John C. Carter, special to The Observer Headlines in the July 10, 1838 edition of the Sandwich Western Herald said it all: “Piratical Doings on the River St. Clair.” Editor Henry Grant vividly described an attack made upon Sombra on June 28 by what he called “Pirates-Rebels.” This was [...]
by George Mathewson for the Sarnia Observer (2003) From the illicit rum-running of “Scarface” Capone to the location of the Sarnia Golf & Curling Club lounge, alcohol helped shape the social history of Sarnia-Lambton. With its miles of lonely shoreline, the St. Clair River was a porous border for rum-runners [...]
by George Mathewson for The Sarnia Journal (2015) Today we offer another first hand glimpse (of Sarnia) through the eyes of one Julia Marie Jones, who, in the summer of 1830, kept a journal of her transatlantic crossing and arrival in Upper Canada. Julia was the spirited daughter of Henry [...]
