By Dan McCaffery for the Sarnia Observer Mayor Joe Dagan was a man who thought big. When he was elected our 34th Chief Magistrate in 1914 Sarnia had been a 'Town' for nearly six decades. In fact, its status hadn't changed since 1857, the year the Municipality finally shed 'Village' [...]
By Dan McCaffery for the Sarnia Observer He was the 'father of secret meetings' at Sarnia Council. Joseph Alexander Bell was the first Mayor in the Municipality's history to conduct a 'closed door' session of Council. It happened on April 21, 1913, and it created an uproar. Mayor Bell asked [...]
By Dan McCaffery for the Sarnia Observer Tradesmen who find work repairing the many ships that berth in Sarnia each winter can thank Mayor Bill Henderson for their jobs. That's because the Community’s 31st Chief Magistrate talked the Federal Government into creating a winter harbor here in 1911. Born in [...]
By Dan McCaffery for the Sarnia Observer He was a politician who hated politics. William J. Proctor, who served three terms as Sarnia's Mayor, was a man who never campaigned for the job. He wouldn’t give speeches, kiss babies, distribute pamphlets or do advertising of any kind. According to a [...]
by Charles Phelps (1980) From the 1870s the Blackwell Sideroad was the dividing line between School Section Three (Bright’s Grove School) and School Section Six (Clark’s School at Murphy Road). The children from Blackwell Sideroad east went to S.S. No. 3 and the children from Blackwell Sideroad west attended S.S. [...]
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 H.F. Holland for the Sarnia Gazette (1960) James Flintoft Sr. came to Sarnia in 1844. He was the third son of Christopher Flintoft, a Yorkshireman who, in 1810, settled near Perth. It was from the district that Malcolm Cameron came and he was instrumental in bringing a number of [...]
by Charlotte Vidal Nisbet for the Sarnia Observer [Editors Note: A 1941 story describing a fire that wrecked the Sarnia waterfront in 1896] (1941) The only Sunday morning that I know of when the bells of St. Andrew’s Church were silent and there was no gathering of our people for [...]
by Jean Turnbull Elford writing in Canada West’s Last Frontier The earliest ferry to run between Sarnia and Port Huron was a sailboat. A Sarnia named Crampton got a license to run her in 1836. In the 1840s a horse-powered ferry began to run with George Moffat in charge. Julius [...]
by Stephen McKenna When I was eight years old, I was asked to speak to my class about the passing of my grandfather; Patrick Kerwin, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. In a nervous voice I told them he was a warm and kind man who also happened [...]
