Village Squire, 1979-05, Page 18And in fact it could have been a year earlier if it hadn't been for a
mix up in procedures. The papers for incorporation were sent to
the Governor General in Ottawa instead of the Lt. Governor in
Toronto. The Governor General was away from Ottawa at the
time and so the error wasn't noticed in time to have the
declaration of town status made until 1879. The population by
then was over 3000.
The incorporation wasn't without controversy. Those in Lower
Town wanted to be included in the new town of Wingham.
Government regulations however, limited the land area there
could be in a town. It was either include Lower Town at the
expense of other, higher and dryer land in the north end around
the railway stations, or exclude Lower Town and take in the
northern section of the town. The Lower Towners felt they were
the original townsite so they should be included. The Upper
Towners felt the northern part of town was more important to the
future. The bitter battle carried on all the way to the office of the
premier in Toronto.
As can be seen, Wingham started late but progressed quickly.
It soon passed many smaller communities which had begun
earlier. Because of the late start it was also a shorter time
between the first settlement and the coming of the new
technological changes that revolutionized life in Western
Ontario. The railway came only 15 years after the first settler.
The telephone arrived in 1884, although there were only five
people with telephones at the time. The town was soon hooked
into the spreading telephone system, however and the isolation
of the community was cut. In 1890, electricity came to the town.
For many years electricity was generated from the ample water
power of the Maitland but later the plant was shut down and
power bought from Ontario Hydro.
The invention that was probably to make the biggest
difference to life in rural Ontario made its first appearance in
Huron county in Wingham. In 1904 Alex M. Crawford of
Wingham made a trip to Toronto and returned with a brand new
Oldsmobile, the first car in the county. Car owners were
instrumental in the improving of roads in the area. In 1915 with
Mr. Crawford and others already operating car dealerships an
auto club was formed and auto fanciers began to think about
doing something about the horrible condition of the local roads.
Wingham and Lucknow auto enthusiasts agreed to take it upon
themselves to rake all loose stones off the road between the two
communities. Arrangements were also made to improve roads in
Wingham itself.
Of course the technological advance that has made Wingham
famous was radio. Radio was something of an oddity even in the
big cities when a local Wingham boy became interested in it in
the mid -1920's. His name was Wilfred Thomas Cruickshank but
he was better known as Doc because of an early job as chauffer
for a local doctor. In his efforts to make a living in 1924 he
worked 10 hours a day in the Western Foundry, worked in the
evenings as a projectionist from 8-11 at the local movie theatre
and from seven to eight sold radios. He decided to make selling
radios a full-time job and set up a shop. One day during a
snowstorm in Feb., 1926, he began putting together a radio
transmitter from an article in Popular Mechanics and soon he
had his own radio station. Years later, the radio station was to
become his fulltime love and preoccupation.
The radio station, particularly through is travelling Barn
Dance, became famous far beyond its normal coverage area. It
was unheard of at the time for a community the size of Wingham
to have its own radio station. In fact it took some political
maneuvering to get a commercial license to change from an
amateur station to a professional one in 1935.
Doc Cruickshank became a local legend in those years and his
stature grew even more when the Cruickshank family managed
to land a television license in the mid -fifties and became the
Television and Radio Town of Canada. The legend became even
larger when fire destroyed the radio and television station in the
late 1950's and many thought it would be the end of the
remarkable story. Instead a new and better station rose from the
16 Village Squire, May 1979
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