Melancthon

History

When James Beachell, a native of Yorkshire, England, first set foot in Melancthon around 1848, he landed in almost complete wilderness. There were no railways and what passed for roads were crude trails that were barely useable.

Undaunted, Beachell, an engineer by profession, who had worked as a railway contractor in France, opened a tavern and hotel about 2 kilometres south of the future Melancthon town site. The “Beachell Hotel” grew to become a popular stopping place for many years. In 1851, he opened the Melancthon post office and later built a sawmill in nearby Flesherton.

Beachell was popular, hardworking and respected. He went on to become the first reeve of the Township of Melancthon and first warden of Grey County. Over time his businesses prospered and he became quite wealthy. Unfortunately, he was not quite as meticulous with his personal affairs. After he passed away in 1867 without leaving a will, there was nothing left after it went through the courts.

Many of Melancthon’s early settlers arrived at around the same time as James Beachell. They included people like the Darraghs, Mitchells, McCues and McManamans. One exception was William Silk, who reportedly arrived in the area around 1837. Silk worked on and off at Horning’s Mills but also had excellent carpentry skills and built the first wooden wagon in the township.

Another early settler who left his mark on early Melancthon was Michael Shoaff. Shoaff, who was a direct descendant of Laura Secord, grew up in the Darlington area. He came into some property while still in his early 20s, but apparently decided that farming wasn’t for him. After hearing glowing reports about the Beachell Hotel, he headed directly up there and met with Beachell and a number of other residents. Shoaff liked what he saw and moved both himself and his wife’s family, the Fergusons, into the area. In the early 1850s, he built a hotel and tavern, just south of Beachell’s hotel, called the Wheat Sheaf Inn. Shortly after that, George Young opened the area’s first blacksmith shop nearby to the hotel. Another hotel, operated by Francis O’Boyle, and colloquially known as the “Fenian Hotel,” was located on Lot 280, north of the Melancthon town site.

James Sawden also played a prominent roll in Melancthon’s early days. Sawden was a master carpenter who first arrived in Toronto from England around 1850. In 1858, he settled on lot 292 in Melancthon, where he set up a farm and carpentry business. In addition to carpentry and construction, he was also the area’s chief funeral director and undertaker.

Seventeen-year old James Brown became postmaster in 1855, a position he held for the next 62 years. The Brown family, who had been storekeepers in their native Ireland, arrived in Canada in 1852. A couple of years later, James Brown Sr. took over the post office from James Beachell and unfortunately died shortly after assuming the office. His young son immediately stepped in and took over.

The job of a postmaster in the 1850s was demanding. Before the arrival of stage and rail, they delivered their mail on horseback. Brown’s route took him from Melancthon to Dundalk and then onward to Inistioge, Durham’s Corner, Flesher’s Corners, Markdale, Chatsworth. On his return trip he travelled eastward to Singhampton, then south through Nottawasaga and Mulmur, and then over to Mono Centre and Hall’s Corners, finally ending up back at Melancthon. Mail delivery took place weekly., later expanded to twice weekly. With youth and energy on his side, James Brown was more than up to the task.

By the mid 1860s, James Brown was wearing several more hats. First he took on the duties of acting as the local business commissioner and conveyancer. In 1869 he received the appointment of commissioner for taking affidavits in Grey County. He went on to become a township councillor. By the early 1870s, he was the township clerk and later gained recognition as an authority on municipal law. Brown had more than enough work to keep him busy. By the early 1870s there was talk of a railway and the village was about to grow in leaps and bounds.

An early Orange Lodge, LOL 909, arrived some point before 1858. The lodge held meetings in John Tompson’s house located on Lot 292. Later on, Matthew Darragh donated a piece of property on lot 294 for construction of an Orange Hall. The first hall was a log building, later replaced with a more durable brick structure.

Melancthon’s first log schoolhouse, S.S. #7, Melancthon, was built around 1856 on property owned by Charles Beamish, right across from the post office. Miss Brunker was the first teacher. Later on the community replaced it with a newer building, also log and later again, with a brick building.

Although Dufferin County was largely a bastion of conservative Protestantism, there was a large group of Irish Catholic settlers who established a Roman Catholic Church in the early 1850s. Initially they held services in the home of Patrick McCue, who arrived in Melancthon around 1851. Around 1858, the congregation moved a large log-hewed church, later known as St. Patrick’s, to Lot 280, owned by Francis O’Boyle. They also used the church as a separate school for a number of years with Miss. Purtil, who later married James McCue, as the teacher. Melancthon’s erstwhile carpenter, James Sawden, although not a Roman Catholic, conducted many of the early funeral services. After serving the community well for about 20 years, the congregation replaced the old church in 1879 with a new brick structure.

A Methodist Church, better known as the Gravel Road Church, reportedly existed as early as 1863 and possibly as early as 1855. Andrew Darragh, a settler who arrived in the Melancthon area around 1848, donated a half acre of his lot , number 295 NE, for construction of a small log church and cemetery. They buried James Brown’s father there in 1855. Peter Addison conducted early church services. Prior to that, they held services in the Darragh home.

In the early 1870s, a new structure built of frame and roughcast replaced the log church. James Sawden did the carpentry and George Redick of nearby Redickville, the plastering. Melancthon never had an Anglican Church. “Saddlebag ministers” conducted early Anglican services in the Orange Hall until they moved to a new church in Shelburne.

In the late 1860s, Patrick Close, a merchant and speculator from Toronto, purchased several parcels of land along the projected line of the Toronto, Grey & Bruce Railway. He then sent a colleague, J.W. Morey, an American, to find out whether the area held any potential for future development. Morey’s report was highly favourable. Anticipating the arrival of a new railway station, Close immediately began construction of the “Toronto, Grey & Bruce Railway Hotel” along with a general store, located on lot 291. The construction used local materials and provided work for many of the local carpenters, plasterers and painters such as George and Ezra Merkley, James Sawden, George Redick and George Young. Besides the hotel, there was also a stable, shed and new blacksmith shop for George Young.

Melancthon had a number of names throughout this period. These included Melancthon Village and Melancthon Corners. After the railway arrived, it also became known as Melancthon Station. It appears they mainly used the station for freight.

By the summer of 1870, shipments of goods and liquor began to arrive. Private operators handled liquor distribution in the days before the LCBO. Morey set up a wholesale distribution business and began supplying all the taverns in the district with liquor. He even developed a product of his own, “Morey’s Bitters,” widely distributed in hotels and drug stores all over the province.

Despite the hotel’s rather uninspiring name, both businesses were instantly successful. The hotel became known affectionately as “The Bruce” or alternately, “Morey’s Hotel,” and the store as “Morey’s Store.” For awhile, the corner was also known as “Morey’s Corners.” The small cluster of businesses at one set of crossroads had the effect of binding the once scattered settlement together and served as the focal point of a real town site. An increase in trade quickly led to daily mail service for Melancthon. After a couple of years James Sloan, also from Toronto, purchased both businesses. He increased the wholesale distribution into the neighbouring townships of Amaranth and Proton. The hotel was also home to council meetings until they built a new town hall in 1874.

Both Morey and Sloan must have done quite well as liquor distributors. During the 1870s and 80s, there was certainly no shortage of taverns and hotels in the Melancthon area. After disposing of the Wheat Sheaf Inn, Michael Shoaff took over the old Beachell Hotel, which he ran for a few years. Around 1872, he moved north and ran Francis O’Boyle’s hotel on Lot 280 for about three years.

Shoaff was a popular and generous individual and also an active member of the Orange Lodge. On the downside, his skills as a businessman were open to question. His last business was the Long Swamp tavern, a log building located on Lot 281, which he ran from about 1875 until his death in 1886. Others who ran the O’Boyle Hotel after him included Michael Calleghan, John McGregor and James McGoey. In 1881 McGoey opened the Wayside Inn on Lot 285, which raised the count to four taverns within about a 2 1/2 kilometre stretch.

James Brown vacated the old log post office in 1874. Walker & Tutill took over the building for a second general store. They reportedly sold a wide assortment of goods including hardware, clothing and boots, groceries, wine and liquor as well as undertaking supplies. It appears that venture only lasted a year.

In 1876 James Sloan retired from the retail and wholesale business to open a saw and shingle mill, leaving Melancthon without a store for several years. He built the mill in the fall of 1877 and installed the machinery the following summer. George DeNinny, an American, was the head sawyer. In addition to the mill, Sloan built both a large house for himself and a group of houses for the mill-workers and their families. The mill operated until around 1900.

The blacksmith shop changed hands several times. First there was George Young, followed by James Fuller and then Robert Hanna, who built a new frame shop in 1877. Other blacksmiths included William Hanna, Michael Callaghan and Elijah Simmons.

In 1881, Melancthon became part of the newly formed Dufferin County. In 1882, Robert Bell, an elderly but experienced hotelkeeper, arrived in Melancthon to reopen “The Bruce.” After doing some minor renovations and filling the bar with a full stock of liquors, he staged a grand opening. Bell retired a year later and leased the hotel to Felix McManaman for the following year. Michael and John Waters took over the hotel in 1884. They kept the business open until the arrival of the Scott Act, prohibiting the sale of liquor in hotels, came into effect.

The general store didn’t fare much better. J.J. Middleton & Sons from Dundalk reopened the business around 1883. After doing brisk business during the summer, they sold the store to A.J. Decator from Toronto. After two years, he sold off his remaining stock at cost and returned to Toronto. Archibald Kennedy reopened the store shortly afterwards but it closed again after a few months and Melancthon once again found itself without a store, until the arrival of the Patrons of Industry.

The Patrons of Industry was one of several farm-based movements that took hold during the latter part of the 19th century. These organizations, fraternal in nature, arose on the premise that farmers could secure better prices and reach wider markets by buying and selling in bulk under one banner. In 1892, James Dick arrived in Melancthon and reopened ‘The Bruce’ and the old store under the auspices of the Patrons of Industry.

The popularity of the Patrons quickly drew new business to Melancthon, such as O.L. Fewster’s hardware store, which operated out of the former hotel bar-room, now closed. A new inn, called the “Melancthon House,” which was presumably dry, was built across the road from the old hotel. The Patrons also represented H.L. Breen, who was building an extensive grain and hay operation in Melancthon.

Unfortunately the venture ended almost as quickly as it started. A massive fire, fuelled in part by large supplies of gunpowder and cola oil in the hardware store, destroyed the old “Bruce” building in February 1893. James Dick salvaged what he could and continued doing business in the Town Hall until the following spring, when he moved the operation to Shelburne.

By far the most long-lasting of all Melancthon’s business operations was H.L. Breen’s granary and hay business. The granary was first started by James McCue, whose family arrived in Melancthon from Ireland in 1851, while James was still a boy. McCue grew up to become an extremely successful farmer and breeder. Later on in life, he received the appointment of Justice of the Peace. During the Patrons of Industry days, McCue built a frame granary above the board and batten railway station, which by then was part of the C.P.R. H.L. Breen, a hay and grain dealer, later bought the business and merged it with his own. The Canada Grain Company of Toronto took over the business in 1906 and built a large grain elevator near the station. The business appears to have survived until some time in the 1930s.

Following the loss of the Patron’s store, S. Sawden opened a small grocery and hardware store in a converted dwelling. A few months later Alex Carlaw opened a second store in the old post office on the Brown property. After increasing the stock, and enlarging the building, he sold the business to R.T. Stone around 1899. The store changed hands several more times. William Campbell took over the business in 1907, enlarging the building even further. Charles O’Neill took over the business in 1913, followed by the post office in 1919.

James Brown, the postmaster who served Melancthon so dutifully for 62 years, passed away in 1918 at the age of 80. In addition to his other responsibilities as township clerk and as justice of the peace, he also served as a manager and executive of the Dufferin Mutual Fire Insurance Company, founded in 1895. The post office remained open until 1969. The store, which in later years included a gas bar, closed around 2000. The building stood until sometime after the summer of 2007, when it was demolished.

After the end of World War I, Melancthon fell into a steep decline from which it never recovered. Depletion of the surrounding lumber supplies and changes in the agricultural sector were the main contributing factors. Piece by piece, the village slowly began to trickle away until there was virtually nothing left. Of the old town hall, the Orange Lodge, sawmill or the Gravel Road Church – nothing remains.

Even the Gravel Road cemetery didn’t escape the carnage. After the province enlarged Highway 10, they jammed the tombstones into a cluster alongside the highway where they remain, largely ignored. Other relics include an abandoned farmhouse of later vintage. The CPR abandoned the railway and removed the tracks around 1997. All that survives of old Melancthon Village is St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church, located just north of the old town site. Surprisingly, the church remains in use. The provincial government reclaimed the barren remains of the old townsite which has since found new use as the site of a massive wind farm.