By Ashley Harper Written for Look Back at the Past, an initiative by the Township of North Dundas In the early hours of April 6, 1909, Chesterville residents were awoken to the alarm of fire and the smell of smoke. Within hours, an entire block of the village’s business core was reduced to rubble. It would become known as the worst conflagration in the history of Chesterville. It originated in a wooden-framed building on the north-east corner of King and Water Streets, which housed W. J. Nash’s tailor shop on the first floor and the Masonic Hall on the second. The flames quickly spread east down Water Street to the Chesterville Record office, destroying the printing presses, then travelled north up King to Ralph Street. Equipped with only one hand pump and pails for water, there was very little that could be done. The fire destroyed everything in its path, including Wilford Saucier’s jewellery store, Isaac Pelletier’s confectionary and fruit store, Gordon Robinson’s blacksmith shop, Joseph Fisher and Colborne Robinson’s butcher shop and the Sanders, Soule and Casselman general store. The village was left rattled by this tragedy - it was not the first they had dealt with that spring. Exactly three weeks before this incident, the Temperance Hotel and Foster’s Hall, situated at the north end of King Street, burned to the ground, and the train station and water tower narrowly escaped with minor damage. In light of these incidents, steps were quickly taken to improve the village’s fire protection. By May, the village council was preparing a new by-law to mandate that only ‘fireproof’ (e. g. brick, stone) buildings could be erected in the business section. Meanwhile, life went on in the village. The Chesterville Record was back in print on May 6, operating from a temporary office in a blacksmith shop. By the end of the summer, bigger and better buildings replaced those that were lost. Sanders, Soule & Casselman rebuilt on their former site (now Mike Dean’s). The Fisher Block (burned in 1989, now the Mike Dean’s parking lot) was erected, where Fisher and Pelletier carried on their businesses. The new Record building (demolished in 2018) was constructed and Saucier rented part of the space for his jewellery store. Wesley Hamilton built the Hamilton Block on the corner of King and Water Streets (now Louis’ Restaurant).
The response to the King Street fire demonstrates the resilience of this village and its people - something that we continue to see today.
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By Ashley Harper In October 2018, CDHS stumbled across an historian's dream at Barnfull O'Goodies in Morrisburg—a collection of over 100 beautifully-preserved postcards addressed to a local family, spanning a period of more than 15 years.
The remaining seven—William, George, Lizzie, Minnie, John Jr., Walter, and Louise—were born and raised in Winchester Township until the family moved to Beckstead, a small settlement south-east of Dunbar, in 1886. Mary Janet McLean, known as Minnie, was born on 4 November 1869. She was described as "naturally sweet and lovable" with an "indomitable spirit." As a child she suffered an accident at school that left her legs partially disabled, but she went on to receive her teaching degree in Morrisburg. By 1899, she was the instructor at the S. S. No. 8 (Forward) schoolhouse located west of Chesterville, where she remained until 1903.
If all of the McLeans had stayed in Dundas, it's unlikely that this postcard collection would exist. This distance means that postcards and letters would have probably been their primary mode of communication, since they would not have had regular access to telephones and visits were likely few and far between. The first two cards, dated 1904 and 1906, were sent to the McLeans when they were in Beckstead.
In March 1907, Minnie bought a home in Chesterville (now 69 Main Street South). Shortly after, Minnie, her parents, and her sister Louise moved into the village, while her brother John moved to the homestead with his wife and children. When Louise married that fall, she went to live with her husband, Shaler Hill, in Winchester. Although both John Jr. and Louise remained close to home, the collection includes a number of postcards from them and their families—usually about going to visit, updates on the children and their schooling, or birthday and holiday wishes.
Caroline and Minnie were left alone in the McLean home. They lived together in Chesterville for another decade. Most of the postcards are from this ten year period between 1908 and 1918. They are from both friends and family living in various places across Canada and the United States. The messages discuss births, birthdays, holidays, deaths, and other significant events. But they also mention little details that provide glimpses into daily life and the more mundane side of things—knitting instructions, school, sickness, and even a tale of a "silly man" who refused to pay his train fare. When researching people who lived so long ago, it is often easy to forget that letter writers weren't faceless entities, and individuals in photographs weren't just stern, stiffly posed figures. The postcards give these people voices and personalities and create connections to their community. They remind us that these people weren't so different from us.
That spring, Caroline sold the Chesterville property to her daughter-in-law, Mary (Gallinger) McLean, wife of William. The family matriarch would spend the rest of her life with Louise and Shaler, eventually moving with them to 126 Strathcona Avenue, where she died on 11 April 1928, a month after her 85th birthday.
These cards will forever be a part of the legacy that they left, along with the many descendants spread across Canada and the United States. Research Materials: Several resources have been prepared for those wishing to read the postcards or research the McLean family. They can be downloaded here:
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CDHS publishes articles about interesting photos, artifacts, people, events, buildings, etc. that relate to the history of Chesterville and District. If there is something that you would like to see, email us at [email protected]
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