 | That the Grand Central Hotel was built by the
Buckbee family in 1845 & was the last hotel to be torn down. |
| Spanish flu struck this area in 1918 & took
the lives of Dr. R. W. Munro and his wife Winnefred. |
| There was a 3 story building at the corner of
Brock and St. Catharines St. which housed 2 businesses. The blacksmith
shop was on the bottom floor & the top two floors were used to make
carriages. Once the carriages were built, they were rolled down to the
road level for sale. |
| The Griffin family was the founding family of
Smithville. They easily started the town as they had twelve siblings. |
| We actually had the ONTARIO Provincial Police (OPP)
stationed in the area. In 1930, Officer Bill Woods worked here.
Guess what; they made him supply his own motorcycle. Wonder why we
don't have them anymore? But that wasn't the first police presence
here. 1887 was the first. |
| Have you ever noticed the empty lot at the corner of West, Station, &
Griffin Streets, as you enter the Town of Smithville? When we moved
here 15 years ago, there was an old style gas station there. The
original business was Jim Murray's Seed Cleaning business. How many
more years, are we going to have to look at the empty lot. Twelve
years is enough I think. It would be nice to have something to make
our downtown stand out. |
| Did you know that we have had natural gas in the area since 1920? A
major pipe line goes through the area in the north part of West Lincoln
& even supplies gas to tiny St. Ann's & Wellandport. |
| That one service I remember in Brantford that was also present here, was
milk delivery to the home. Sam Fisher was the local supplier from the
early 1900's. We always looked for the horse drawn wagon & the
beautiful horses that accompanied them. |
