Real Talk!

If you've read any of my previous blogs, you will know that I have a penchant for history and I love to research... I stumbled upon an advertisement the other day... and I thought I would share it with you.

The following ad appeared in the classified section of the Toronto Daily Star - Sep 12, 1945:

"737 acres in Faraday township, on good gravel road, 12 miles from Coe Hill, 10 miles from Bancroft, 100 acres under cultivation, level, 100 acres pasture, balance timber, poplar, spruce, balsam, hardwood; navigable stream crosses property, 2 separate lakes, good house and barns, never-failing well, will sell part or whole, or timber separately, or will sell land, stock and implements as going concern. Interested parties invited to inspect property. Melville Vader, Bancroft, Ontario."

There’s no price mentioned, but in the same edition, there is an ad for a 50X324 waterfront lot with “Splendid beach, partly wooded. Bowmanville, Near Oshawa” that is listed for $195, $50 down and $3 per month.

And a dairy farm, “Sutton area, 167 acres, all cleared, brick house, bank barn, well watered, full price $3800.”

Another "Archive" search uncovered the following article: The Sarnia Observer- May 23, 1884

"A letter published in the Belleville Intelligencer, and charging the Ontario Government with corrupt conduct in making the sale of a large block of land in North Hastings to Mr. Wm. Coe, of Madoc, is seized upon by the Toronto Mai as the suitable text for an attack upon the Commissioner of Crown Lands. The correspondent says that the Government was dishonest and corrupt, and that Mr. Coe practiced the wiles of a trickster in order to succeed with his purchase, and to place the settlers of the region at the mercy of a monopoly. The Toronto Mail goes further than the correspondent, and asserts that the Governement has sold to Mr. Coe 100,000 acres of land in the townships of Wollaston, Limerick and Faraday, with timber thereon, at 75 cents, or less, per acre; while the price to ordinary settlers, without the timber. Is $1 per acre. And then the Mail proceeds to say:

“Mr. William Coe is a grit: he is in fact a bright and shining grit. Mr Coe opposed the Minister of Customs in North Hastings in the general election of 1882, and was beaten by a majority of 351. Mr. Coe has now received his solatium at the hands of the Ontario Government through this disgraceful job, which is, moreover, a gross injustice to the settlers of that part of the country.”

No other evidence is needed to prove that the Mail views the transaction in a partisan light, nor that the only object in referring to it at all is tom make capital for its party. Not only does that journal assume that the sale was a job, but it declares the settlers of North Hastings have suffered a great wrong “by means of this barefaced and indefensible transaction.”

Before referring to that transaction, or the object of it, we may inform the Mail that had it examined the returns of lands sold to Mr. Coe, and to which reference is made it its article, it would discover that the extent of the sale was some 50,000 acres instead of 100,000. We may also inform the Mail that the sale was not made at “75 per cent, or less per acre;” that the pine timber was not sold with the land’ that, in a word the sale was made in strict accordance with the provisions of the Mining Act.

Now let us inquire into the object for which this land was acquired by Mr. Coe from the Government; and let us see whether it has been “a disgraceful job,” or whether “a gross injustice” has been done to the settlers of that part of the country.

Mr. Coe is a practical miner of large means in Madoc. He was engaged for several years in exploring the townships of North Hastings, and succeeded in discovering several deposits of iron ore of a quality that is eagerly sought for by the iron and steel master of the United States. A number of wealthy American capitalists procured an interest in those mines with Mr. Coe, but development of them was retarded by the want of railway communication. The Belleville & Madoc Railway could not serve the purpose, and it was found necessary to build a new road. Mr. Coe and his friends obtained a charter for the Central Ontario Railway, extending a distance of 90 miles from Weller’s Bay to the township of Wollaston. The have built a first-class road throughout, at a cost of about $2,000,000 and without receiving a dollar of aid from the governments or municipalities.

The primary object of the company was of course, to provide an outlet for the shipment of ores and materials; but the road cannot fail to be a boon to farmers, lumbermen and other settlers in bringing in supplies and forwarding the produce of their industry to market. Neither can it fail to promote settlement, and to enhance the value of lands belonging to the Crown.

But the company was not content with an enterprise which was limited to working the mines and shipping the ore to the United States to be smelted there. They were anxious to build charcoal furnaces of their own in the neighborhood of the mines, and for this purpose application was made to the Government for the purchase of 100,000 acres of Crown lands. It would never do, they said, to depend for supplies of charcoal outside of their own property, for command of this article is a much a necessity as having the iron ore itself. The land they sought to buy was almost worthless for farming purposes as was shown by the fact that although two of the townships had been open for settlement for a period of 21 years the sales to settlers did not reach 7,000 acres, and its only value to the company consisted in the supply of hardwood timber upon it. In the application to the Government it was set forth-

“That the building of this road and erection of a charcoal furnace, and running the same, will bring a hundred-fold more people into these townships than any increase that will take place by actual acceptance of the lots in question by individual settlers.

That this railway will act as a colonization road, and save the Government a large amount annually which would have to be spent for colonization purposes in this section.

That a great number of hands will be kept in constant employment in the cutting of wood and hauling the same to the ovens or heaps to be prepared into charcoal, as enormous quantities of charcoal will be required for smelting purpose. And that

The working of the mines now opened up will also employ quite a number of people, thus bringing about a market for labor in the back country, and distributing a large amount of capital in the shape of wages and otherwise which without this enterprise, would never find its way into these scattered and northern settlements. “

The Commissioner of Crown lands dealt with the application of the company upon it merits and like a sensible man he decided to entertain it. An inspector in the employ of the department was instructed to examine the lands applied for by the company and to report on their suitability for settlement. The schedule of his report shows that out of the total of 100,000 acres in the three townships there were 16, 919 acres in Wollaston, 11,231 in Faraday and 23, 388 in Limerick- a total of 51, 538 acres- that were almost worthless for agricultural purposes, and the Commissioner recommended that these lands be sold to the company on the conditions laid down in the act respecting mining.

Now these are the facts of the transaction, and we leave it to any fair minded Tory to say whether it has been “a disgraceful job,” or whether a “gross injustice has been done to the settlers of that part of the country.” If we were called upon to express an opinion upon it, we should say that the Commissioner of Crown Lands could not do less than he did, and be worthy of the position her fills. Nay, we think that under all the circumstances, he would have been amply justified in making the Company a free grant of the lands which they have obtained by purchase."

Some things never change.