A journalist for the Sarnia Observer (past) and The Sarnia Journal (present)
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 Observer (2003) The boisterous crowd of merchants and farmers who assembled in downtown Sarnia the fateful afternoon of Aug. 21, 1872 were itching for a bare-knuckles political fight. They weren’t disappointed. Sir John A. Macdonald, the first prime minister of Canada, had arrived in [...]
by George Mathewson for the Sarnia Observer (2003) Holmes Foundry is an abandoned shell today, its history buried under weeds and broken glass. But in 1937, the engine-block factory was the scene of a wildcat strike that sparked a nasty race riot and helped plant the seeds of industrial unionism [...]
by George Mathewson The Sarnia Journal (2014) The newly released City of Sarnia War Remembrance Project documents 306 Sarnia soldiers who have fallen in war and conflicts. This is the story of one of them: John Lychowich was born on the plains of Manitoba and made his way to Sarnia [...]
by George Mathewson for The Sarnia Journal (2015) A century ago, when Sarnians wanted to escape the city’s oppressive summer heat and humidity, they didn’t flock to Canatara Park. A trip to “the beach” in 1915 typically meant heading to the sandy shoreline between Christina Street and Colborne Road, an [...]
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 George Mathewson for The Sarnia Journal (2015) With its graceful spire and 37 stained glass windows, Our Lady of Mercy Church has been one of Sarnia’s finest buildings since its inception 137 years ago. But to my mind, one of its nicest features is the warm, yellow brick from [...]
by George Mathewson for The Sarnia Journal (2014) When the congregation of St. Andrews Presbyterian Church gathers for Easter services, some members will be bathed in light from stained glasses old as the nation. The cornerstone of Sarnia’s oldest church was laid on the very day of Canada’s Confederation, and [...]
by George Mathewson for the Sarnia Observer (2003) High winds were still lashing the shore when a tugboat captain returning to Sarnia harbour reported that a large lake freighter had “tuned turtle” eight miles out. The mystery ship was upside down, its entire crew missing. The gale had already destroyed [...]
