The Village Squire, 1981-07, Page 17Heritage
by Jeanne Kirkby
Can you imagine a village where the
pigs are allowed to run loose and "live off
the land", or a peaceful township
sideroad where echoes of the past bring
you the whistle of a furniture factory
across the road, while your feet shuffle
down the imaginary boardwalk of a
thriving main street area? Can you
picture the teamsters with their wagons
carrying logs or farm produce behind
spans of heavy draught horses up the
mud -rutted roads toward their railway
link in the village of Seaforth? Can you
see the Maitland's spring freshet releas-
ing the log booms and bringing huge
platelets of ice to crash against the
narrow wooden bridges, sweeping them
away from their stone -filled abutments?
Conditions have sure changed since the
establishment of farms and villages in the
most southerly Township of the Queen's
Great Bush.
Morris Township, County of Huron. is
celebrating its 125th Anniversary as an
incorporated municipality this July 31st
to August 3rd. While the occasion will
bring forth a festival of dances, parades,
contests and barbecues in nearby Brus-
sels, the real celebration will be in honor
of the developers of that agricultural
township. through a century and a
quarter of progression from its first state
of "trees as thick as the hair on a dog's
back", to its present stage of careful and
scientific cultivation - one of Huron
County's finest agricultural townships.
As well as Bluevale, Walton and
Belgrave. Morris nas vanished hamlets
Sunshine and Bodmin,
My how Morris twp. has changed
that once were known as Bodmin,
Sunshine, Morrisdale, Morrisbank,
Jamestown and Bushfield, now only
memories in the hearts of the old-timers.
Bodmin had the first grist and saw mill
located in the Township as early as
1854. What a convenience that would be
for the early settlers who used to walk a
two day journey to Goderich, with wheat
to be ground into flour. Sunshine was the
site of Morris Township's first church, a
New Connection Methodist, built in 1856
and remaining in full use until 1927.
NORM'S BLUEWATER
SMOKED FISH LOFT Ltd.
Today Newcombe's General Store and
Holland's Hotel at Bushfield are long
gone, leaving only St. Michael's Ceme-
tery on the 7th line as a marker for Morris
Township's earliest Catholic community.
No longer do the farmers of the
Jamestown area team their logs to the
Maitland riverbank each winter so that
the spring melting will carry them to the
saw mill in Bluevale.
The Canadian Census of 1881 listed the
population of Morris as 3,815, compared
to today's estimate of 1700 from the
assessment rolls. When the early rail-
roads reached across the land to carry out
the agricultural produce, many of the
sons and daughters of the first settlers
were lured away to the west. Mechan-
izaton became the trend, and the nature
of farming changed, and changes still
today into specialized food producing
operations. The small villages that the
railway lines passed by quietly disintre-
gated and the rural population turned
toward the larger village centres.
Eleven school houses remain on the
concessions, yet not one classroom is
used for Morris students within the
Township. The sites of former churches
who lost their congregations to the bigger
church communities are transformed
back into farmland, with only the
remaining cemeteries and their pioneer
memorial cairns marking the burial.
Morris Township'a 125th Anniversary
Celebration promises to be one of the
highlights of the local summer season ❑
Featuring the finest smoked fish in the world
Rainbow Trout • White Fish • Salmon
Eels • Smoked Turkeys
Live bait Fresh Fish
Come in and try our free samples
each has its own separate flavour
236-7705 Hwy 21. 8 mi north of Grand Bend
236-4063
VILLAGE SQUIRE/JULY 1981 PG. 15