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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1971-08-05, Page 19• +M Teton 5"J!W�.rks- gets fuIItreatment at the museui The Editor of the Huronkriew '" News," Henry Lieshman e'has provided the Goderich Signal -Star with a copy of the latest publication, • En that edition was contained an interesting story written by H.. S. Turner who has been a resident of Goderich for the past 40 years. - - In a telephone conversation with Mr. Turner 'who resides at 72 Montreal Street, it was learned that the author lived • in the Stapleton area while a„ boy and had written the story, from memo y— r • fir happened . and , tales he had heard. Checking with Huron County Pioneer M,liseum, it was discovered that one—entire room is devoted to the story of the Stapleton salt works...:and that. much of the information about the display came from Mr. Turner. {.�.. The_following is the article which appeared in the ° .Huronview News about this Huron County industry which - closed down in the early part of this century; THE STAPLETON • SALT WORKS' Few persoris ' motoring east from Clinton on No. '8 Highway know that one mile from that town they pass- by the second - salter 'well drilled in North ' America. Old tirners rernember the Stapleton Salt Works which for fifty years was a busy centre of activity and industry'in, this part of Huron County. • The story of this pioneer industry began when Henry Ransford, a young Englishman, decided to personally investigate the advertisements of the' Canada Company who were seeking setfiers for their. 1,100,000 acres of virgin bush located mainly in Huron and Perth 'Counties, then known as Canada West. Henry began the long journey in, April, "1832, via sailing vessel to New York; then by rivers, canals, lake and wagon trail 'caught up with the men, who-- were ho-....,were 'chopping a road way. through to Goderich. `. Before' leaving for England in the .fall, he took up thirty-four hundred acres from the Canada ,Company. Making the long' journey again the following year he examined + his purchase of land, which.. lay, mainly along the 'Huron Road east from Clinton, and chose a location for a house on a bend of the Bayfield Rivet. whish over -looked the gently rising ground at the top of which Huronview row stands. Henry 'named the ,location "Stapleton" after his home in England. With the help of.a few men he cut a - roadway to connect with -the Huron 'Road, cleared a few acres and got his new house partly *built. Leaving instructions for its completion, he again headed for England, this time for the purpose of marrying Miss Frances Richardson and making preparations to emigrate to Canada.' Early in 1884, 'Henry and his bride, accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Walker and four small children set sail for their new home in the bush. This time Henry chose to come by boat to Port Stanley 'and up the almost impassable London Road to • V a nderburg's C,prners . (now Clinton) only to learn that nothing more had,_been done to his house since he left the year before. ' A busy time followed to get both 'families comfortable before • winter. The following year the Walkers builta home for themselves across the Huron Road on lot 21, Hallett Twp. During the next twelve years eight children were born to Mr. anc Mrs. Ransford;. and the matter of their education decided Henry to return with his family 'to, -England. His Canadian property was left in charge of Thomas Walker and Mr. Gosman: The' area began to develop • fast. In 1858 the Buffalo and Goderich Railroad was surveyed through the Ransford property and Henry's' ' son, Richard, returned....ta ..;...his birthplace at Stapleton to look after his father's' interests. In addition to the excitement Ito aroused by the coming of the railroad, news• of the discovery of oil in the Sarnia area aroused speculation" 'as to the extent of the oil field: One day Richard vas crossing the creek near» his home and noticed bubbles rising tote surface from the creek t k y♦' �w• a 1- io f. , mind "he .mmntiohei these bubbles to his father ' in a letter, i o wrote ,back instructing hire to secui' a driller and, go down to a depth. of 1200 feet to investigate. t, . ' Drilling bean in 1867 and at the depth of 1172 feet the drill struck a new• . formation. Suspecting. salt (which had been discovered at Goderich the year previous) a .pail of• the liquid, brought up was taken, to Mrsl Thomas Walker Who evaporated it on her kitchen stove and confirmed the fact that the drill. had indeed ,entered a bed of rock salt. stables for the' many horses required. ' Down in the corner by , the creek and' the Huron Road stood the busy iaWmill with its' log . storage yard, engine house and stave and heading mill where materials for barrels .'were sawn, and aka pg ',for barrels from lumber 'not '-,good enough ' for construction purposes. In addition to these buildings connected with the production of salt were the.'farm. buildings, Richard plugged the drill hole the office and store, eight 01 %11 and hurried off to E nglarid tok houses built' `along the Huron It his d anri the long in ihs of should be done. The two men four -foot, wood required .tobail • spent the winter studying. the the brine. The fires burned night manufacture., of salt in England, and . day and the daily and ordering the necessary requirement was from seven to pumping and ',evaporating -ten— cords depending "on the equipment. - quality of the wood. These were installed the next • In its heyday, during the w spring and on August 11th, 1880's and 90's; over one 1868, fires were 'lit under the hundred men were employed 'pans and the first salt sold.to'a and the daily production of salt local farmer. From then on the, plant continued to grow and before many years Stapleton was a real hive of industry with salt being shipped ' out and the farmers from . the surrounding area teaming in the needed firewood headi;i"tg and logs to be•sa`vvn into lumber and material for barrels. Two Marge evaporating pans were placed end to end, With furnaces beneath both outward ends. A central smokestack drew the heat along under both pans, Which , were housed, in large barn -like sheds equipped with ventilators along. the ridge to allow the steam to esape. Next were the salt storage sheds where the fresh salt was, dumped before being shovelled into barrels . for shipment. Nearby was the pump house and the brine 'storage tanks, the cooper shop where the barrels were, made and wagon sheds and 2/ amounted to 50 barrels of fine salt and 20 of coarse!' • The manufacture of salt was father a simple process. Water soaking into the rock salt made a brine which was pumped to the surface' and allowed to run into" ' the pans where the heat evaporated the water 'and left the salt which was raked onto drying boards, then shovelled into two -wheeled dump carts and movedto the storage sheds. Fine salt was produced where the fire was -the hot-iest. - Only two kinds of salt were made. at Stapleton, fine and coarse. Both were shipped in standard barrels weighing.. pounds each. . - Getting these heavy barrels of salt to the railroad presented a problem. .,Only two or three barrels were, hauled • to a platform at the top of the short but steep Stapleton hill. From 'there ten or a dozen could be Y , no Lunders slim,. hauled to the station in Clinton. Less 'than half a mile away the railthad passed the 'salt works, but a, wid,e river valley • se.n,arate,d them.- ' After., considerable consultation with the railway they agreed to put in a switch opposite the plant and supply the steel. rails if theSalt Company would build the connecting tramway. In 11371 a contract was let to John Stephenson to build. ,this required• tramway of 'hewn. elm 10 to 12 inch "A" frames, 25, feet high and spaced 24 feet- a•art,across the ei'hth of a mile river valley. Three-inch hemlock planking made the ,roadway across the top of the framework. , It took some training to get horses to pull the freight cars across this high trestle,' but it was a great convenience. When cordwood • for firing became scarce, coal was substituted and a locomotive was purchased to draw the heavy cars oyer the tramway. This • locomotive' looked like a small boxcar but, complete with smokestack, bell .and whistle, did the job well. ' Before the advent of automobiles a popular Sunday afternoon outing for the Clinton young people was to, walk down the railroad to Stapleton, cross over the tramway and return `to town on the wooden sidewalk 'Which had, been built all the way -from Clinton- to the salt works for the convenience • of the workmen who made the journey twice a day. • • Soon after the salt works got going John Ransford, Richard's brother, came out to assist him: John built a house on the south side of the Huron Road and together they managed the business for their father. After, his death the brothers formed a 'partnership which lasted until 1907 when Richard Dear Ann "Zanders: My: husband and; _ ,a.e' . Cuban refugees..We speak English,. well but we prefer to use §panish at home. Our 16 -month-old baby is just' starting•to talk in,sentences. The neighbors are also starting to talk. They 'are telling us, we should stop speaking, Spanish at home and to use only English. The sa ou sild , 1 have a difficult- time when he goes to • sc.hool, that he will not be able to keep »up with the , other children. We know young children pick up -languages easily and we want our child to be bilingual. Please tell us if we are doing the boy an injustice by .making Spanish his first • language? Or are the neighbors right?---La,.Preguntia Dear La: Ustedes tienen razon.• Le hablen espanol en rasa a Su hijo. Cuando eta en la escuela, vaya a aprender el ingles tan rapidamente. No habria una problema: And now for you moved into Clinton. John then moved into the old home on the bank of the river and carried on " the business alone. By ,1915' the demand for salt ' was mainly in package" form, pd the sales of ` the well-known "Stapleton Patent Factory Filled" salt in' barrels declined until fewer than 20 men were employed. Finally, in 1918 'the works closed down, • buildings and machinery were sold and moved away, the spring floods took out the picturesque old tramway and within' a year or two almost all - trace of this once . thriving industry had disappeared. „• • No habriu unb prohlenui. 'gringos, I : You are right. Speak k ,Spanish to the child a home. When he goes, to school he will learn English _rapidly. It will ,be no problem. • * * * '. Dear Ann .Landers: Perhaps you are 'right when you say a... soli i marriage cannot be broken up by a third"party, but, it can sure kick"the living daylights out • ftli7antremiti ce. My, husband is a successful, attractive, professional man. He does a great deal of traveling and he . meets many sophisticated women who are in the same field. They are only too wilting to go to lunch, dinner—orto bed. In addition to the out of town females there are the local ladies—my so-called "good friends." They write letters to his office and pursue him shamelessly. By all accepted standards, we have a good marriage. I've kept my college -girl figure, we communicate well, and our sex life is 'very exciting. Yeti cannot trust him. 1 know he is cheating on me. I keep catching him in, lies -little stories that don't match. But l play dumb because I don't want a confrontation. Is there anything I can do—short of asking him forea divorce? My minister told me I should have my head examined if I leave him. Of.course, my minister is a man. What do you say?—Aloha From Honolulu. Dear Aloha: I say • 4u are handling your problein in the 'way that makes the best sense for - you.. The Hawaiianw ord is "Akamai." ' a man who was several years my senior.., It was ,, his second marriage, my first, ' erin's oldest daughterr'gaave birt ► to a darling baby girl three months' after 'we f h o . were married,. - A few .is friends took particuihr delight in calling me''. `Grandmaw." , The baby's mother was not pleased and neither . was the maternal grandmother: She felt the title belonged -to her exclusively. 1: was perfectly happy to let her have the "honor'.'�.sjnce• I didn't relish being called "Grandmaw" ' at 33. -"--W-hemthe-c •IL * * * Dear Ann Landers: I married F his Mother said to her, in ray. presence, "Tbis. 4 is y, our Aunt Judy." 1- decided. -to set the record straight,.once,,alad for all,. I announced, firy, "I amNOT your Aunt- J.udyand f am 4lcrot your 'Graridmaw:,. °either.:"f. am d, "your frien'end'you can call. e, Judy." •, , hiis was several years ago and 4odajust thatvery Y we are • good friends. --Ohio Correction r Dear 0': I like a lady who gets right to the .,point. 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