were in charge of crowd control; 3,000,000 people visited, and the line of cars sometimes stretched for 4 kilometres (2.5 miles).
So-called fertility stones lined the path to the observation platform and were free to visitors. Each morning the Ontario Department of Highways replenished the supply of stones from the shores of Lake Nipissing. Everyone needs to believe in miracles, and it appeared that the Department of Highways did, too!
The image of the girls graced, among other things, lunch boxes, serving trays, and china, and they figured prominently in print — notably, ad campaigns for all manner of food and other products, including General Motors and McCormick’s Biscuits. Dr. Dafoe ran the complex, and he and the other guardians appointed by the government determined the girls’ fate.
The town of North Bay saw the end of the bitter depression. Tourism meant prosperity to anyone who could provide accommodation, food, or souvenirs. By 1939 $2,500,000 had been spent in North Bay by those eager to see the Dionne quintuplets.
This did not come to an end until the girls were almost 10 years old! They were finally reunited with their parents, and together they moved to a new home, but with less than satisfactory results. Isolated and controlled from their earliest memory, they and their family had difficulty adjusting to a normal life together.
Emilie died in 1954, during an epileptic seizure. In 1970 Marie was found dead in her apartment; she had suffered from depression and other health problems. The surviving Dionnes publicly approached the Ontario government in the mid-1990s for a portion of the money they had earned during the 1930s. After some public pressure, the government agreed to award them $2,800,000.
Eventually, Stan Guignard, a former Canadian heavyweight boxing champion, took over the Dionne homestead. Guignard had the house moved to North Bay, where it stands today as a museum. Visitors can tour the rooms the Dionnes lived in and browse through original artifacts and paintings.
The quintets are probably North Bay’s most unusual and famous story, but it is only one story from the area. North Bay is now a major city with many government offices, a major cruise ship, Nipissing University, and Canadore College; the Northwest Trading Company has been gone since 2008. Change is ever-present, ongoing, and what we think we know today is history by tomorrow.
Oshawa
The land now occupied by Oshawa was once covered by dense forest. A broad stream, the Oshawa Creek, found its way to Lake Ontario. Those who originally traversed these waters were the Natives called the Mississaugas. They lived in a large settlement where Port Perry now stands.
In the spring the Natives bundled their pelts and paddled to a spot called Oshawa harbour. Once there, they headed west to a French trading post at the mouth of the Credit River.
The French established a trading post in the Oshawa harbour in 1750 called Cabane de Plombe, meaning “lead or shot house,” near the mouth of the Oshawa Creek. Nine years later they abandoned their log structure. It remained empty until 1794, when a party of six white settlers arrived in the area and sought refuge there. They were Benjamin Wilson, his wife, and his two sons, James and David, as well as two young men, L. Lockwood and E. Ransome. The Wilson family built a frame house on high ground about 136 metres (150 yards) back from the lakeshore. Here, Nancy Wilson came into the world, the first white child born in the Oshawa district.
On October 15, 1792, Roger Conant landed on Canadian soil at Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake) after crossing the Niagara River on a flat-bottomed scow ferry. He journeyed eastward along the north shore of Lake Ontario until he arrived in Darlington, where he hastily erected a log dwelling on his 1,200 acres before the winter set in. Four years later he brought his family from the United States to settle on this property. To invest the $5,000 in gold he had brought with him, he engaged in the fur trade. He had three flat-bottomed, broad-beamed Durham boats built in Montreal, which he promptly filled with blankets, traps, knives, guns, flints, ammunition, and beads to trade with the Natives for furs. He quickly accumulated a considerable fortune, which he invested in holdings of land along the north shore of Lake Ontario.
Conant, obviously a colourful character, once remarked that the salmon were so plentiful in those days that while he was paddling his canoe, the salmon raised his canoe up in the water. Conant went into the packing business and shipped some of those plentiful salmon by the barrel to the United States, at an excellent price. From the proceeds of one of these ventures, he bought yet another 150-acre farm on the shore of Lake Ontario. In 1811 he left his log cabin to build a frame house near the Oshawa harbour. Little did he know that his home would play a part in the War of 1812, just one year later.
When General Hull surrendered his whole command of 2,500 men at Detroit, on August 15, 1812, a serious question arose: what would the British do with so many prisoners? The redcoats decided to send the American prisoners to Quebec. Unable to furnish enough boats, many prisoners were forced to walk along the shore of Lake Ontario. The prisoners and guards alike were fed at various places along the route. When they arrived at Roger Conant’s home without warning, the family quickly set a large pot of potatoes on the fire to boil. A churning of butter had been done that day and a ham had been boiled the preceding day. The guards were outnumbered two to one, but no one escaped while feasting at this house.
A few days before Roger Conant died in 1821, he did a very odd thing. Conant decided to bury his gold in a large iron bake kettle on the bank of the Oshawa Creek. When it was noticed that the kettle was missing, a search began but failed to reveal its whereabouts. Many have attempted to find this buried treasure, but, alas, without success.
Around 1800, William and Moody Farewell and Jabez Lynde arrived in the area. Moody Farewell built a saw and gristmill on Harmony Creek and a tavern on Dundas Street. When regular stage traffic travelled this route, the Farewell tavern became a popular resting place. Jabez Lynde was the first pioneer to own property in what later became the village of Oshawa.
During this time several small communities were scattered about the area, clustered around the mills at the edges of the many creeks. On Dundas Street Edward Skae operated a store, and the settlement that grew around it became known as Skae’s Corners. Other early settlers of Oshawa included the Annis, Henry, Ritson, Ross, and McGill families.
In 1840 the settlers of Skae’s Corners petitioned the government to establish a post office. At a meeting Sydenham was the name chosen by the citizens, until Moody Farewell arrived with two Native companions. The two Natives were asked to suggest a name and they offered Oshawa, the translation of which is said to be “crossing between the waters” or “where the canoe is exchanged for the trail.”
Oshawa received official village status in 1850, with a population of about 1,000. Three years later Oshawa became a customs port. In 1856 the Grand Trunk Railway was completed from Toronto to Montreal, passing to the south of Oshawa.
The new rail and harbour facilities helped to promote industrial growth in the area. A.S. Whiting had the distinction of being the first industrialist in Oshawa, establishing the Oshawa Manufacturing Company, producing agricultural implements in 1852. Whiting originally started out as a clock salesman in 1842. His methods of operation, as he related them himself, are on record. He would bring 100 clocks, from the factory in New England, by boat to Port Hope. There he would buy a team of horses and a spring wagon, and with the clocks on board, start out on a selling tour in the surrounding district. At a farm house, he would set up a clock in the kitchen. He would then depart, leaving the clock, which he said he would collect later on his return trip. It was quite a successful technique: he very seldom had to take a clock back!
George H. Pedlar established the next plant, a tin and sheet metal business, in 1861. The new rail and harbour facilities attracted many businessmen to Oshawa, including Robert McLaughlin. The McLaughlin family was to have a profound influence on the development of the community.
Robert McLaughlin manufactured carriages in the hamlet of Enniskillen, northeast of Oshawa. In 1876 he bought a lot in Oshawa and there he erected a modest three-storey building with a separate blacksmith shop constructed of brick. He sold the balance of the lot to the town, where a jail was built and later the city hall.
In