One of the main reasons that John Galt had for chosing the site he did for Guelph was the presence of the Speed River. The volume and energetic flow of water in the river could power many mills, which would be the mainstay of the town's economy, making it a natural centre for settlement in the region.
This fact makes it interesting for any scholar of the Royal City to consider the rest of the Speed River, especially upstream of Guelph. (The towns of Hespeler and Preston, downstream from Guelph, now part of the city of Cambridge, are perfectly interesting but lie in what is now Waterloo Region, and so are outside the purview of collectors of Wellington County ephemera, such as yours truly.) In that connection, the hamlet of Speedside has already been taken up in an earlier post.
What about the source of the Speed? Conventionally, this is traced to spot just outside of Orton, Ontario, a hamlet located at the edge of Wellington and Dufferin Counties, at the border of the townships of Erin and East Garafraxa. The Speed can be found beside the Elora Cataract rail trail just south of Orton, where it is a lovely but modest stream.
(The Speed river near the point where it emerges from under the rail trail at Orton. Photo by the author, July 2024.)
So, imagine my pleasure at obtaining a postcard of Orton, all the more so as postcards of little villages are often rare and hard to come by.
("Main St., Orton". Real photo postcard, ca. 1910. The view faces west from roughly the village's center.)
A railway crossing is visible in the immediate foreground, along with a few utility poles on the left-hand side of the street. These are likely telephone poles, which provided a service that was extended into the village in 1909. At the left margin is the facade of a general goods store, featuring a variety of items on the porch and a three-step gable. Unfortunately, the sign over the front awning is not quite legible. A cow is visible grazing on the grass on the right-hand side of street.
Here is a corresponding image of Orton today, courtesy of Google Street View:
The buidings once gathered around the railway crossing are notably absent today, not to mention the crossing itself.
As luck would have it, the Dufferin County Museum has another postcard of Orton that records almost exactly the same view but taken from a slightly more westerly point along Main Street:
("Main Street, Orton". Real photo postcard, ca. 1910.)
The format, caption, and handwriting strongly suggest that this image was taken by the same person as the one above, just from a little further east along Main Street. A railway crossing "X" sign can be seen along the left side of the street, next to the store with the three-step gable. Across the road there is a building with a two-storey verandah; perhaps the hotel. The sign across a span of its second-floor balcony is not quite legible. At the bottom middle, fresh horse hoofprints can be seen in the road. Perhaps these were made by the horse that the photographer rode while passing through town.
(Corresponding image courtesy of Google Street View.)
A reverse angle photograph shows the street from the west side of the village looking east.
("Main Street, Orton, Erin Township, Ontario." Courtesy of Wellington County Museum and Archives,
A1980.116.)
In this view, the two-storey hotel from the previous picture can be side on the left side of the street near the middle of the image. Utility poles are visible on both sides of the street in this picture, suggesting it was taken at a later time than the images above, perhaps in the 1930s after electricty arrived in Orton. Another building with a two-storey verandah can be seen in the right foreground. Unlike many of the old buildings in these pictures, this building remains standing today.
(Courtesy of Google Street View.)
As was the case with Gourock, the hamlet of Orton came into existence through an offical act of the Canada Post Office. The nucleus of the settlement was a small log house inhabited by John Glover, a farmer on the Garafraxa side. He and John Leeson, a farmer who owned the land on the Erin Township side of the line, sold off lots for houses and small businesses. One of the settlers to take advantage of this opportunity was William Mooney, who built himself a log house, 10x12 feet, on one of the lots. This, it appears, was a general goods store. Business was good and a larger store was later built on the site, with accommodations for the Mooney family provided on a second floor.
Mooney, his store and other enterprises are always noted as central to the story or Orton in the reminiscences of later residents. Of course, the store was a place where locals could find items that they were in need of but could also meet informally and chew the fat.
In addition to the store, Mooney was involved in the food trade, buying and selling local livestock, potatoes and turnips, and operating the local grain elevator. After his death on 12 July 1915, the Toronto World newspaper published a brief obituary (23 July 1915):
One of the founders of Orton is dead
The village of Orton loses one of its most respected citizens in the person of Wm. Mooney, who died suddenly on Wednesday of apoplexy, in his 64th year. He was one of the founders of the village, having erected the first general store, and in addition has conducted a general grain, live stock and farm produce business.
For 35 years he served as postmaster and was always foremost in his support of the interests of the village. The late Mr. Mooney was a Conservative in politics and a member of the Christ’s Church.
A widow, three sons and a daughter survive.
As noted, one of his accomplishments was the job of local Postmaster. Since 1840, the local post office had been located in the nearby village of
Mimosa. However, everything changed when
the Credit Valley Railway (CVR) came to town in 1879. The CVR connected the little hamlet with the Big Smoke, thus allowing Mooney to ship goods with much greater facility than before. No doubt, this linkage allowed Mooney to make connections in Toronto that were noted in his obituary. (The first passenger train left Orton on 19 February 1880. One can only imagine that Mooney was on it.)
("Canadian Pacific Railway station, Orton, 1898." Courtesy of Wellington County Museum and Archives,
A2006.218. The
CPR had taken over the CVR by this time. Apparently located on the north side of Main Street, the early station is not much more than a shed. Note the water tower in the background, positioned to supply water to the steam engines of locomotives.)
With a train station then right in town, it made sense for the mail to come by train along with people and goods. So, Mooney become the local postmaster in 1883 and set up a post office in his store. Naturally, the Post Office required a name for this branch. Up to this point, the community had been known, perhaps informally, as "Little Chicago." Brown (2006, p. 307) suggests that this name reflected a rivalry with the town of Grand Valley in Luther township, which was known locally as "Little Toronto."
("Canadian Pacific Railway station, Orton, 1911." Courtesy of Wellington County Museums,
A2006.218. The new station was a significant upgrade from the original one. The station was later moved away and converted into a house.)
Whatever the case, the Post Office followed its established practice in such cases and blessed the locale with a new name, "Orton." This was in honor of Dr. George Turner Orton, who was then the Wellington-Centre Member of Parliament (1875–1887). Orton had been born in Guelph in 1837 and was educated as a medical doctor in back in the old country. In 1880, he was resident in nearby Fergus. Being a local bigwig, his name recommended itself to Post Office officials. What Orton thought of this distinction is not known. There is no evidence that he ever visted his eponymous community.
(Dr. George Turner Orton, M.P., Wellington Centre, Ont., 1879. Courtesy of
Wikimedia Commons.)
In any event, the railway and the post office put Orton on the map.
The 1884 Ontario Gazeteer and Business Directory estimated the population of Orton at 50 souls and provides the following list of the hamlet's concerns:
| Name |
Occupation |
| Hodgins, Wm. |
grocer |
| Lathorn & McLaughlin |
saw and shingle mill |
| Liddle, H. |
carpenter |
| Linsay & Clark |
grain dealers |
| Mooney, Wm. |
general store |
| Murphy, John |
hotel |
| Richings, F.W. |
live stock |
| Stevens, A |
shoemaker |
| Warden, L. |
blacksmith |
Henry Liddle (usually spelled Henry Little) is the man usually credited with construction of Mooney's store and many of the other early buildings of Orton.
Another person listed in the directory who is often central in accounts of Orton is Lorenzo Warden (sometimes spelled Worden). Warden was born in Eramosa in 1851 and is listed as a blacksmith in nearby Ballinafad in 1876. Like Mooney, it seems that Warden saw the wisdom of relocating to Orton in its early days and set up as the village blacksmith, a business he kept up for most of the remainder of his life. (It appears he sold his business to the aptly named Fred Black around 1910 and moved to nearby Marsville but returned in 1911.)
A local blacksmith was vital to a rural community like Orton in that era. Transportation and mechanical power for farm operations was provided mainly by horses, and these had to be shoed regularly and properly.
Warden's son Osborn followed his father into the blacksmith's trade and took over the business for some time, followed by Harry Raven in the 1920s and William Lane. In a sign of the times, this building burned down and was replaced by a garage. Warden died on 9 December 1928.
Another founding father of Orton was John Near. Near was born in Erin in 1828 and the 1871 census lists him as a farmer in that locale, married to Ellen McEnery. He is also listed as a member of the Methodist New Connexion church, a splinter group of the Wesleyen Methodists who held with a high degree of equality between ministers and the laity. When what became Orton was first established, Near was the possessor of an extensive farm on the Garafraxa side of the line.
Today, Near is most remembered for his role in the construction of St. John's Methodist church in Orton. In her historical sketch of Orton, Mrs. Thomas Dearing (née Annie Collier) recalled (Acton Free Press, 27 January 1938):
Ever since the village was incorporated, the late John Near had agitated for a church to be built, so about the year 1900, in the midst of much opposition from the Grove Methodist Church adherents, he made arrangements for its erection, and putting all his time, labor and money into it, the church was completed, to his own satisfaction, and in 1901, the St. John’s Methodist Church was opened (St. John’s United now).
As noted in
a Faded Genes blog post, there seems to have been some antagonism between Near and Mr. John Handley, the farmer who lived beside "The Grove" Methodist Church situated only two concessions east of Orton. Whether this antagonism was personal, doctrinal, or otherwise is unclear. In any event, Near convinced enough people to support the construction of a new church in Orton itself, St. John's.
("St. John's Church, Orton, Ontario." Photo by Gordon Couling, 18 September 1974. Courtesy of Wellington County Museum and Archives,
A1985.110.)
The matter between churches persisted for some time, as the blog post goes on to describe:
And for many years there was some dissatisfaction in the community. Some of the people west of Orton continued to drive right through to The Grove Church; and others drove past the Old Church to the new one in Orton.
Whatever the issue, the result was that Near built a lovely stone church in Orton that graces the hamlet to this day. (The Grove church eventually closed and was demolished but
its cemetery remains.) One item long remembered in connection with the church was that an entire ox was roasted on a spit over a bonfire at its opening. Admisson to the feast was 10 cents per person.
(
Thomas Dearing, no date. Courtesy of Lorinda Mann.)
Besides the church, the formation of a local school was apparently a controversial item. In his reminiscence, Mr. Thomas Dearing recollected that a new school for the community was first discussed in 1887–88. A board of local dignitaries was formed to give the matter due consideration and a general meeting held at Orton (Acton Free Press, 27 January 1938):
A largely attended meeting was held in the Orton Hall to discuss the matter. Some hot words were spoken by some of the speakers, and hotly resented by the others, and some hard feelings caused, which was likely to break up the meeting, but Judge Drew, an excellent chairman, managed to keep order. There was no decision given at this meeting, but at a later one, it was decided to form a new section, with parts of 12 and 14 of Erin, and parts 4 and 8 of Garafraxa, to be known as the Union School No. 2. The first Trustees were Warren Jestin, Thos. Ballantine and John Near. The school was opened in 1892.
Judge Drew seems to refer to
George Alexander Drew, a former Member of Parliament and then judge in the High Court of Justice for Ontario. It was no coincidence, then, that the judge was an old hand with contentious meetings.
("Exterior of Union School No.2, Orton, Erin Twp., ca.1891." Courtesy of Wellington County Museum and Archives,
A1991.241.)
(Orton Public School today, now a private residence. Courtesy of Google Street View.)
Just what made the meeting so contentious is not recorded. Perhaps it was a consequence of the formation of Dufferin County ten years earlier, which separated East Garafraxa from Wellington County and produced the border that ran through Orton. In any event, the decision ultimately centered on the issues of the catchment area of the school and its location. These issues were sorted out and the Union School Section #2 was duly built on the townline road a short ways east of Orton. The trustees were John Near, Thomas Ballentine, and Warren Jestin.
It is usually mentioned that a Miss McKechnie became the school's first teacher in 1892 but remained in the job for only one year. However, she was not done with Orton, for she married Marriott McKee, one of the brothers who ran the McKee Bros. general store there. The marriage took place in 1899, by which time McKee had become a minister. The couple soon set out for British Columbia, where McKee would follow his vocation.
Beyond his essential role in founding the town church and his stewardship of the local school, Mrs. Dearing also gives John Near credit for building the hamlet's hotel, saying that he "forsaw the need of it in the community." Certainly, a local business entrepot like Orton would have use for a hotel. Grain and livestock buyers might choose to stay there while making purchases, and traveling salesmen would stay over while making calls on owners of local stores.
Mrs. Dearing notes that there had been many hotel keepers over the years, beginning with a Thomas Hodgin. (It may be that Near owned the hotel but let it to proprietors who ran the business.) The fullest description of the hotel is given in an undated history of Orton recorded by Alex Duncan:
One attraction at that time was the hotel, named the Exchange, owned by J. Irvine. It had a shed for farmers to tie teams in out of the rain or snow, and stable housing several driving horses to rent out to anyone who came in on the train and wanted to go out in the country. The usual fee would be about a dollar a day. Travellers used to come to the hotel and display their merchandise for storekeepers, and take orders instead of going to the stores.
As the local watering hole, the hotel was also the site of numerous goings on. The Grand Valley Star and Vidette provides the following example (
23 March 1905):
Cost Him $22.85—Tom McLellan, of Orton, appeared before Magistrate John Carmichael of Hillsburg on Friday charged with disorderly conduct while seeking to gain entrance to North’s hotel during weesma’ hours a few nights previously. The coaxing methods by which he sought to soften the heart of the landlord were to try to break in the door and heave a six-pound dornick through the window. Squire Carmichael salted him $10 for breaking the law, $5 for breaking the window and door, and $7.85 for breaking into the time of the magistrate.
Clearly, running a hotel could be a trying business, which helps to explain why the hotel had several different keepers over the years. Indeed, North seems to have decided that he had had enough, and a new keeper came onto the scene in 1905, with a challenging vision for the establishment, as also noted in the Star and Vidette (
19 October 1905):
A NEW VENTURE AT ORTON: John Gibson of the 10th line Garafraxa, who came home from British Columbia a couple of years ago in poor health, has rented the Orton hotel, and will conduct it on strict temperance principles.
How would the good people of Orton (and their visitors) respond to a hotel that did not serve alcohol? The Star and Vidette reported the following year on its success (
5 May 1906):
He Couldn’t Do It—Mr. Gibson who has been running the hotel at Orton on strictly temperance lines for the past six months, has given up the business in despair.
Mr. Gibson returned to British Columbia the following year.
Other hotel keepers were more pragmatic on the subject, though some went perhaps a little too far, as the following item in the Acton Free Press suggests (19 November 1908):
Provincial License Inspector Ayearst secured convictions against William Willis, of Orton, in Erin Township, for which fines and costs amounted to $98. Willis was fined $50 and costs for selling liquor, and $40 and costs for keeping it.
Either Willis was not licensed or he sold liquor in ways that violated the limitations of the license he had. Nonetheless, William Willis is still listed as hotel keeper in the 1911 Ontario census. If there is a moral to this story, perhaps it is that, in popular watering holes, too much alcohol is viewed with more indulgence than too little.
The Great War profoundly affected Orton, as it did most Ontario communities. Several young men of the area went off to fight. The military careers of three of the Conlin boys provide a view into the variety of experiences the war afforded soldiers.
("Harry Conlin," no date. Courtesy of Dufferin County Museum,
AR-2092.)
Three of Thomas and Elizabeth Conlin's boys went off to war. The first was Henry Ross, who joined up at Fergus on 16 December 1915 at 23 years of age, and was assigned to the 153rd Battalion. He married Mae Jessie McQuarrie of Fergus on 4 November 1916. He sailed to France on the RMS Olympic the following year and joined the 18th Battalion. Conlin seems to have done well and was promoted to corporal in August 1918 and then acting Sergeant. He lived to see the Armistice of 11 November 1918 but came down with the Spanish flu a few days later. He died on 29 November and was awarded the Military Medal posthumously.
("Willard Conlin, no date." Courtesy of Dufferin County Museum,
AR-2092.)
Willard Conlin joined up, also at Fergus, on 8 January 1916 at 19 years of age. He trained with the 153rd Battaltion with his brother and was on the same ship with him, the RMS Olympic, when she sailed for Britain on 28 April 1917. He also served in the 18th Battalion. He was shot through the right knee near Arras on 26 August 1918, during the Hundred Days Offensive, when, after fierce fighting, the Allies pushed the German Army into retreat and finally the Armistice. Luckily, the wound was relatively benign and he recovered well. His military file even has a dandy x-ray of the affected joint!
Still, Willard fell ill from the Spanish flu in hospital but recovered. In January 1918, he got a case of the German measles (Rubella) but finally recovered from that also by the end of the year. All things considered, Willard was quite lucky to survive. He returned to Canada on the RMS Aquitania and was demobilized on 27 May 1919.
Willard returned to the family farm for a few years. On 24 September 1923, he married Florence Luella Johnston of Elora and the couple moved to Fergus. Willard opened a Ford garage/dealership and also served as a city councillor.
("Pte Franklin Conlin in uniform, 1920." Courtesy of Dufferin County Museum,
P-2616A.)
The final Conlin brother to enter the service was Franklin, though he did not go voluntarily. He was drafted under the controversial Military Service Act on 10 May 1918, at the age of 23. He shipped out to Britain on the SS Corsican on 20 August 1918 and joined his unit in the field in France on 16 November, just five days after the Armistice. In March 1919, he sailed back to Canada on the RMS Carmania. He returned to the family farm and ran it after his father's death in 1926.
As Wellington County historian Stephen Thorning (2009) pointed out, the heyday of early Orton was the first quarter of the 20th century. Its population climbed over 100 souls and its railway station was an important shipping point for local stock and produce. Jim Courtney set up a turnip waxing plant in the grain elevator that was retired after the grain business moved west in the early years of the century. He also did a good business in potatoes and was the village barber as well.
Like Eden Mills, Orton also became a police village, in 1907. This designation allowed the community to set up some provisions for its own security, including fire-fighting, and enabled it to pave its main street, which was the dirt-surfaced townline. (This status was given up 60 years later when the village decided it did not have sufficient funds to maintain the main street, which reverted to control of Wellington and Dufferin Counties.)
In fact, government projects to pave the province's roadways and the increasing popularity and affordability of gas-powered vehicles also undermined the village's railway. Stock dealers from Hogtown could simply pick up cattle in trucks directly from local farms and ship them to stockyards in the big city. Uptake of cars and trucks meant that farmers could drive to Fergus, Guelph, or Orangeville for goods and supplies, bypassing Orton merchants. The advent of rural mail delivery also lessened the importance of the post office.
The local hotel fell victim to prohibition resulting from the Ontario Temperance Act of 1916, and the local bank branch closed in 1932.
As with many small, Ontario communities, these events and the Great Depression were a watershed moment that brought many changes. Electricity arrived from Niagara Falls in 1932, courtesy of the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario (also known as "Hydro"). The activism of Rev. A.L. Atton of St. John's church brought about a village park complete with baseball diamond and outdoor ice rink. More recently, Orton acquired a suburban street in the form of Elizabeth Crescent, which increased the hamlet's population to new heights.
Of course, closure of the railway line made possible the Elora Cataract Rail Trail, that hikers and cyclists can use to visit Orton, ponder the remaining old buildings and, if they so choose, locate the Speed River near its source.
Works consulted include:
