HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1996-06-26, Page 14AWL al I I
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GREY TOWNSHIP
From MDL
]Co QC) its
Grtgrot I tt
to
Grey Township on your
140th Birthday
Proud to be serving the residents
of Grey Township
CARDIFF & MULVEY
REAL ESTATE & INSURANCE LTD.
BROKER
• Farm • Residential • Commercial
Phone 519-887-6100 Fax 519-887-6109
Keeping Grey cool in the summer and
warm in the winter with
Beautiful Styles to Make your House a Home
Available through your local MDL Dealer
Congratulations
to
Grey Township on their
140th Birthday
Pleased to be keeping Grey on the go with
Quality Used Cars & Trucks
"We not only sell cars — we service them"
Brussels 887-9269
Conraturations
and best wishes to all of our
friends and neighbours
Associated
Financial
Planners
Limited
Helen M. Hetherington
Financial Planning Consultant
RR #3
Brussels, Ontario NOG 1H0
Bus: (519) 887-9964
Fax: (519) 887-9967
Res: (519) 887-6817
Toll Free: 1-800-869-8922
Heal! Office: 20 Erb St. W., Suite 800, Waterloo, Ont. N2L 1T2
PAGE 14. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 1996
Grey Township — 140 Years
Township of Grey named for English earl
On June 28, 29 and 30th Grey
Township will celebrate its 140th
birthday.
The township of 64,746 acres
was named for Charles the second,
Earl of Grey. The first minutes are
dated Grey, Lot 10, Conc. 11, Jan.
21, 1856.
The first known European settler
was a man by the name of
In the 1860s Jonathan Carter
established a sawmill on the
Maitland River. This part of Huron
County was held by the crown and
settlers were beginning to take up
land for farming. The road to the
mill was between Lots 22 and 23.
This eventually became Huron
County road 19.
In 1863 Carter became the first
postmaster, and the post office was
called Carter's.
In 1867 the new postmaster
William Spence called the new
community Ethel. He remained in
the village, became a merchant and
established a pottery.
In the mid 1870s a grist mill was
built on the river where it was
damned. The importance of the
river was overshadowed by the
coming of the Wellington, Grey
and Bruce railway in 1873. The
township paid the railway to run
the line through the township. The
railway was built south of Ethel at
Tindell, however, the railwaymen
renamed it Ethel Station.
The township was rapidly settled
in the following decades. The first
school was established in 1869.
Churches were built in 1874 and
1877.
The community was booming
and a variety of businesses were
established. Hotels were built at
both Tindell and Ethel. The livery
stable, the blacksmith and the
veterinarian all focused on the
horse which was essential for
farming and transportation.
In 1872 John Cober established a
steam sawmill and carriage works.
The next year fire destroyed his
works but he re-established it in the
village. Fire was a constant threat
and on occasion help was
summoned from Brussels and
Listowel by train.
The turn of the century seems to
have been the peak of economic
development in Ethel. The Bank of
Hamilton had a branch built. The
building eventually became the
township office. Prior to that the
meetings were held in the
community hall, which was built in
1892.
There were a variety of
merchants, a barbershop, a dance
hall, a milliner's shop and an egg
grading station.
The coming of the automobile
changed the economic life of the
village and roads now became
more important than the river or the
railway. Businesses closed or
moved. Empty buildings were torn
down. The post office and the grist
mill were closed in the 1980s. Ethel
Beauchamp, who lived at the
present location of Henfryn, and
later moved to a location west of
Cranbrook.
The land that early settlers
thought was too low and wet, has
since been drained and proved to be
extremely productive. Grey is
basically. an agricultural townshp
and the past 25 years have seen
became a residential community
rather than the economic heart of
the township.
many changes. Many farmers have
turned part or all of their operation
into cash cropping of corn and
beans. Century old barns and sheds
have been replaced with modern,
one-storey confinement type
buildings to house hogs, dairy cows
and beef.
Early roads and bridges were
constructed and maintained by
statute labour and council
employed pathmasters to ensure
that this work was performed. In
1926, the province granted a 50 per
cent road subsidy, provided that the
municipality hired a road superin-
tendent and kept a full set of
records. Council hired Wm.
Cameron of Cranbrook, ending a
half century of statute labour.
Today the township owns a full
line of equipment, employing a
road superintendent, two full-time
operators and one part-time.
In 1947 all 13 school sections in
Grey fell under one board of
trustees called the Grey Township
School Arca. In 1963 a school was
built in Walton and the Grey
Central School near Ethel was
opened in 1965. When the school
was built the enrollment was 310
pupils and in 1996 it is 245.
In 1974 Grey Township Council
adopted a land use policy which
was one of the first rural plans
approved in the province. The
hamlets of Ethel, Cranbrook,
Henfryn, Molesworth, Moncrieff,
and Walton boasted numerous
flourishing stores and industries in
the early years. The largest
industries we have now are Cook's
Division of Parrish and
Heimbecker Ltd. and the Brussels
Livestock Division of Gamble and
Rogers Ltd.
1996 marks the 40th anniversary
of the Grey Township Fire
Department. Grey is proud of its
dedicated volunteer firefighters.
Fire chiefs over the years were:
Gordon Cook, George Pearson,
Wm. D. Brown, Robert
Cunningham, Douglas Evans,
Gordon Engel, John Engel and
Gary Earl.
In 1878, 27,814 acres were
cleared and the population given
was 3,952. The total assessed value
was $142,300. Today there is a
population of 2,046 with an
assessment of $118,538,205.
Sawmill begins
Ethel's history