Tillsonburg: A Potpourri of Memories

By Duane Duff, 2020 - Guest Contributor

This is a collection of anecdotes of some of my memories relating to Tillsonburg.

The New York Central Railroad ran a little north of the town limits of Tillsonburg in an east-west direction. It was a busy double-track line, handling not only its own freight and passenger trains but also the freight traffic of the Pere Marquette (later, the Chesapeake and Ohio) freight trains between St. Thomas, Ontario, and Buffalo, New York. Near the Tillsonburg station was a long pan beside the tracks. This would be filled with water. An interesting sight was watching a fast-moving train lap up the water without slowing down. I was at the station in June 1949 to find out train connections for my upcoming trip to Winnipeg. I learned that I would board a train for Detroit, Michigan, at St. Thomas, since the train that I needed did not stop at Tillsonburg. Several times since, I have made that trip by New York Central between St. Thomas and Detroit. Sadly, the trains and the tracks are long gone.

A little farther north, Highway #19, which formed much of Broadway, intersected with the paved road that led to Delmer and Brownsville to the west. A short distance in that direction, the road intersected with the Quarter Town Line. On the northwest corner of this intersection lay the farm of Victor Bradburn. One day in 1942, I drove a team of horses there in a grain field as Mr. Bradburn loaded his wagon with the shocks that men on the ground threw on with their pitchforks. When we had a load, I drove the horses to the threshing machine where Mr. Bradburn unloaded the wagon into its jaws to have the grain separated from the straw. At the end of the day, we all went to the house where the ladies had prepared a bounteous supper for the field workers. This is an event, very common in the past in southern Ontario, that is now history.

In 1946-1947, our old school bus, in making its round, would travel south on Highway 19 from Ostrander, continue on Quarter Town Line past the front of the Bradburn farm, turn right at the Delmer road, go along the south side of the farm, and continue on west to the school in Brownsville. Thus, the route, which did not enter Tillsonburg, became very familiar in that school year. The Bradburn farm looks very different now, according to the Google map. The town of Tillsonburg has expanded to the farm and constructed the Bradburn subdivision.

Just west of Broadway, near the south, was a bakery on the north side of the street – Besley. In the late 1930s, it operated a bread truck that visited our home near Corinth for a short time. Eventually, it became known as the Tupholm Bakery. To the east of Broadway, on the east side of the street, was the Jackson Bakery, whose headquarter was in Hamilton, Ontario. Their bread truck stopped at our home a little later. The driver was Doug Stafford, whose parents lived a little south of the Corinth Public School. He married a local Corinth girl, Phyllis Brown. In 1939, just before King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited, Jackson Bakery produced several gimmicks in relation to the upcoming visit. One was a box of doughnuts becoming a periscope with a mirror at each end facing in opposite directions. I met Doug and Phyllis at the Corinth school reunion in 1995. These longtime residents of Tillsonburg died only a few years prior to this writing. They were in their 90s.

A short distance east of the traffic light and on the north side of the street was a bicycle repair shop. I recall taking my bicycle there once because of a broken crossbar. I did not have a major problem with my bicycle after that.

Somewhere to the east of Broadway was a business called Scotts’ Dairy. I did not really know anything about it except that, in the 1950s, it was purchased by Don Murphy, my dad’s employer at the Corinth cheese factory. In a few years, Don purchased a funeral home in Delhi, Ontario, and became a funeral director.

In the northeast part of the town was the fairground. Once during the war years, I attended the fall fair there. In the winter of 1946, Fred McCurdy and I drove there in his dad’s car one evening and skated on the ice rink. In the spring of 1947, I played a few games on the diamond with the Corinth team of the Tillsonburg Softball League. I do not know how long the league lasted, but one of my younger brothers, Glen, played on the Corinth team in the 1950s.

In the late 1930s and the 1940s, a mixed train ran once each way every day of the week, except Sunday, between St. Thomas and Jarvis. It passed through Corinth and just south of Tillsonburg. I used to marvel at the long trestle over the Otter valley. One morning, my mother and I travelled on this train from Corinth to Tillsonburg. On arrival, we were required to enter the station, which was near Highway #19, to pay the fare of 15 cents each. Then we walked for a short distance to the north and then west across the swing bridge over the Otter Creek. This took us to a point on Highway #3 opposite the Borden’s plant. We then followed the highway up the hill and to Broadway.

Prior to the mixed train was Old Granny that ran twice a day in each direction between St. Thomas and Hamilton for many years. It was made up of a 4-4-0 locomotive, an express car, and two passenger coaches. Apparently, there were people along the route who liked to do a day of shopping in Toronto. Its run was terminated prior to what I can remember. However, I remember seeing the platform being removed at the Corinth station in 1934. The CNR branch line that passed beneath the overhead bridge on Broadway continued on west for a few miles to connect with the CNR-Wabash at what was known as Tillsonburg Junction.

In the 1940s, a highlight of Saturday afternoon in Tillsonburg – especially for youths and children – was the matinées at the three local theatres: the Capitol, the Oxford, and the Strand. I sometimes joined George Beard, Sr., and his sons in attending a movie in Tillsonburg. We boys rode in the back of George’s red International pickup truck. On other occasions, he took us fishing in the Otter Creek west of New England.

Mervin Wallace was a boyhood friend from our preschool days – in fact, my first friend. When we were in our mid-teens, his dad sold the farm and the family moved to Tillsonburg. The town became home to Mervin for the rest of his life. There is one experience that we had that neither of us ever forgot. One Sunday afternoon in the summer of 1946, the two of us decided to go hitchhiking – anywhere, but no place in particular. First, we went to Tillsonburg. Then, standing beside the westbound lane at the south end of Broadway, Bus Jackson gave us a lift. He was formerly from Corinth and was at the time living in Tillsonburg. He took us to St. Thomas, from where someone took us to Lambeth. We had a long wait there, even trying to go either way – north and south. Eventually, someone took us to London. From there, we had a ride to Ingersoll. Obtaining a ride to Tillsonburg proved difficult. We had walked partway to Salford before someone stopped for us. It was dusk by the time we reached Tillsonburg. We finished our trip by taking a taxi to Corinth. It felt good being back home.

After the Wallace family left Corinth, I was out of contact with Mervin until 1986, after I had retired from teaching in Alberta and our family was living temporarily in Ingersoll and London. Mervin, too, had married and raised a family. His wife, the former Helen Rooke, was from a farm south of Brownsville. In 1946-1947, I met the school bus at her home. From there, she, her sister Betty, and I rode it on its round-about route via the Bradburn farm to Brownsville. In 1986, I visited the Ostrander Funeral Home when I heard that his dad, Harold, had died. Here I met Mervin, Helen, and his sister Marlene for the first time in many years. Mervin and I met again one year later at the same place when our family had travelled from Missouri for my mother’s funeral. I last met Mervin at the Corinth School reunion in 1995. He died at Tillsonburg District Memorial Hospital on Wednesday, April 5, 2017.

Numerous families from Corinth have moved to Tillsonburg on retirement. Two in my age group have been Gordon and Isabelle (my cousin) Chilcott and the late George and Mary Beard.

I rode my bicycle from Corinth to Tillsonburg a few times, once via Delmer, and the other times via Highway #3. It was a long ride down Forge Hill and a long walk up it. I remember the cross ridges in the pavement for traction purposes for cars and trucks.

In 1915, the mayor of Tillsonburg was Harry G. Coomber. He and his family spent many years after that in Corinth. The last time that I saw him and Mrs. Coomber was in the early 1950s when I called on them one day when I had taken a trip home from Manitoba.

I leave my readers with this thought: Live for the present; plan for the future; and cherish the past.

Duane's Biography:

Duane was born in 1930 in nearby Corinth. He received his pre-college education at Corinth, Brownsville, and Aylmer; his Normal School at Winnipeg (graduated 1951); and his Bachelor of Education at the University of Alberta. He has taught school in three provinces (Ontario, Manitoba, and Alberta) and one U.S. state (Missouri). He has lived in five provinces (Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia), three U.S. states (Missouri, Texas, and Washington state), and two Mexican states (Nuevo León and Chiapas). After age 75, he interviewed for over 250 mini-biographies and wrote many more essays of the past where he has lived. One of his books is available in the Oxford County Public Library system and four in the Elgin system.

In celebration of Tillsonburg's 150th anniversary, the Oxford County Archives has a new online exhibit celebrating the history of business and industry in Tillsonburg around the time of its incorporation in 1872. Visit the virtual exhibit for more information.