Brockville Museum 5 Henry Street Brockville Ontario Canada K6V 6M4 www.brockvillemuseum.com 613-342-4397
Digital Museum
150 Years of Brockville History of Canada 150
In honour of Canada150, the Brockville Museum will be starting a special project. For the 150 days leading up to Canada Day (beginning February 2nd), we will post to Facebook something that happened in the Brockville area every year from 1867-2017. These posts will include excerpts from the newspapers, photographs and artifacts from the Brockville Museum’s collection. After they have been posted to Facebook, we will add them to this site in 25-year increments. (Click on image for details).
Town Council, in a vote, refused a request for funds for fire crackers and whiskey to celebrate Confederation Day (July 1st). There was no “public display” to mark the occasion, but there was a “most disgraceful scene” from some who disagreed with the vote. This is part of the Brockville Recorder report (from a 1967 reprint) that described the scene.
Around 1868, vice president of the Brockville & Ottawa Railway, Harry Braithwaite Abbott, arrived in Brockville. The most famous local B. & O. landmark is the railway tunnel. Much of the cargo hauled through the tunnel in those years was lumber. Abbott would go on to manage the construction of the CPR out west and coordinate the transportation of troops in an attempt to halt North-West Rebellion, and its leader Louis Riel. Pictured here is a view of the south portal of the railway tunnel.
From the Recorder and Times, January 10, 1891: “A great many of our citizens are at present employed harvesting the ice crop. Ice 18 inches thick is being cut at Clayton. It is not over 11 inches here.” Ice cutting was once a large industry – and not just for the companies supplying ice to hotels and restaurants. Many folks cut ice along the river to store in their own ice sheds to use throughout the year to keep food cold in their ice boxes. An ad for ice from The Evening Reporter (1888)
Town Council, in a vote, refused a request for funds for fire crackers and whiskey to celebrate Confederation Day (July 1st). There was no “public display” to mark the occasion, but there was a “most disgraceful scene” from some who disagreed with the vote. This is part of the Brockville Recorder report (from a 1967 reprint) that described the scene.