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a18 economist suntribune february 11 1987 i unionville historical society gazette feb 16 to 22 heritage week a reason to celebrate by conrad beaubien initiated in 1979 by the heritage canada foundation herit age day which falls on feb 16 has become a tradition of importance the unionville historical society affiliated with the ontario historical society is an active group that is dedicated to creat ing awareness of the rich heritage in our midst there are many superlatives that describe the rationale in maintaining a record of a societys past former premier duplessis of quebec very aptly put it when he stated that history was like a rear view mirror the unionville historical society has grown since its forma tion in 1983 on a mandate of recording preserving and com municating the early story of our town with two short films already to its credit our organization has embarked on its most ambitious project to date the publication of the union ville story in book form scheduled for release later this year the work is authored by local writer and educator larry rainey to find out more about this project and other planned activities why not contact us now we would like to hear from you an active mem bership and financial support is the fuel we need become a member or a patron get involved contact the unionville historical society po box 296 unionville ontar io l3r 2v3 conrad beaubien 4773258 or marion warne 477- 1108 special train is still operating first published in 1912 stephen leacocks sunshine sketches of a little town poetically describes how his magic al train metamorphoses from suburban commuter into the mariposa local carrying the careworn business man back to the remembered town of his childhood in this same work the chapters that follow are still familiar to readers worldwide as the tales of mariposa unfold leacock wit transforms everyday events into recognizable situations wrought with humor the mariposa train that has transported millions of readers in a time machine back to the little town in the sunshine apparently continues to run today to and from union station on the former toronto and imipissing line larry rainey herein recounts a recent experience by larry rainey as the go train pulled into the station i tucked my macleans into my briefcase and prepared to disembark i gazed out the window as we passed the new seniors condos and the old stiver bros elevator as we slowed to a stop alongside the old union ville station something strange happened as i looked across the car i saw reflected in the glass the form of old harry flummerfeldt the stationmaster scurrying back to his post from a quick game of croquet on the lawn of the harrington place just across the tracks there was a cart full of parcels on the loading ramp in front of the old station i could hear the bawling of cattle in the yard across the street wait a minute whats going on here as i stepped down from the train i pulled up at the scene before me where was the aluminum and glass go booth before me lay a beautiful apple orchard with some varieties i had never seen before let alone tasted there were strangely shaped pale green apples and some that were sort of a russet color something else was strange too the sun seemed to have backed up in the sky it was midday rather than late afternoon just then the air was shattered with a loud blast from a whistle like an old factory whistle i turned and there across the street was the old planing mill still intact and i thought i saw no it couldnt be old de harrington steaming up the hill on his way home for lunch and who was the little girl tagging along beside with a bouquet of white flowers clutched in her hand could it be young grace fresh from a trip down to the creek bank and what was this black smoke which was engulfing the platform wafting towards the clean white laundry on the har ringtons clothesline diesels are smelly but they dont usually just then i was nearly lifted out of my wallabees by the blast of a locomotive whistle i gawked openmouthed as the great black engine chugged to life and began to head east towards markham i could see the fireman stoking coal into the engine as it huffed and puffed its way over the car bridge as i stumbled across the tracks towards my car i began to realize that i would not find it there instead i saw an old horsedrawn coach with the words queens hotel emblazoned on the side the onearmed driver peered at me curiously as my confusion was obvious are you coming up to the hotel for dinner young man he inquired youll get a fine meal with all the trimmings and its still only 25 cents dumbfounded but beginning to accept this strange situation i was preparing to accept his offer when i spied something on the platform in front of the station it was the head of a moose all stuffed and prepared for someones den wall there were sever al inanimate species there on the ramp and there was the tax idermist dixon talking to flummerfeldt about their shipment to points unknown in the distance i could hear the steam locomotive hooting its way into markham no doubt the mail that was loaded had been sorted by now and anything addressed to markham was ready to be delivered in that village no eternal storage for 34 cents here for this was unionville 1907 not 1987 a complete dinner for 25 cents huh at the queens hotel and free transportation to boot i was beginning to think that i might like this turn of the century turn of events i stepped up into the cab of the couch alongside the driver as he snapped the reins i glanced down and saw the digital clock on my car radio indicating that it was559 pm i heard the voice of the announcer traffic on the parkway is murder tonight if you can find an alternate route yes i found an alternate route home but it wasnt on any road maps produced by the mtc or go transit my detour was through the past of unionville and i had even stopped to smell the anenomes in unionville at the turn of the century the train station was the focal point of activity the steam locomotives made regular stops there on their way to markham and points cast and north grace harrington remembers although the station building still stands uie twicedaily go train is ihe only regular service on the line jphotos courtesy tony murphy childhood memories return the unionville historical soci ety has recorded interviews on video and audio tape with many of unionyilles oldest residents the following are excerpts from the reminiscences of grace harrington on her childhood in unionville at the turn of the cen tury my grandfather robert harrington was a carpenter all the harringtons were in terested in the lumber busi ness they were all builders- in 1870 he moved to unionvil le and he built the big brick house on the double terrace at the corner of main and victor ia which is now an historic site in 1872 he rented the mill the unionville planing mill or the factory whichever you wish to call it from mr aiken and he bought it from him on nov 17 1881 roberts sons de my father and george worked in the mill from the time they were little boys my father nev er went past the third book in public school most of his life was spent working in the mill de and george leased the mill from their father in april 1897 it was a working mill for over 105 years i remember i spent a great deal of my time down there when i was a child i loved to go down to the mill on the outside of the building there was a stairway up to the second floor the upper level housed the work tables where sash and doors were made the molding for each door was also done in this area and the planing of lumber other activities on the upper level involved splitting the lumber into the required widths and the use of a fine ver tical saw to make trim for houses in the area downstairs on the main floor machinery for cutting veranda pillars and heavy lum ber was situated this was also the location for the steam fur nace that ran on sawdust or coal to find the lumber de would make occasional trips to hunt- sville and select what he needed it would be shipped by carload to unionville and with help of horses provided by un cle weatherill it would be taken down to the mill everyday at noon my father would ring a whistle which would say its noontime everybody went home for lunch and everybody in the village could hear that whistle sometimes if i were there my dad would let me pull it there was a creek running through the mill prop erty in the spring this creek that ran through it was quite a small creek and there was watercress and frogs lived there and us children used to catch tadpoles in our hands and then of course when they developed into frogs wed hear them croaking and there was a beautiful bed of ancnomc lovely white wax flowers be tween the creek and victoria avenue the mill was a landmark everybody knew where it was and what it was and it was just something that was unionville really it was a big part of un ionville i was lucky always to live be side the railway tracks a freight train came through ab out sixthirty in the morning the engineer mr lambwasa friend of my fathers mr lambs steam engine was no 259 he would stop at bur house and i would getin the engine and sit beside the fire man who would shovel the coal into the fire sometimes i could blow the whistle before we crossed main st as he shunted the train around the yard on his way to markham he left me off at our house my father built the house opposite the railway station the property was given to my mother by her grandmother who ran the queens hotel it was a big property and it had a twostorey brick building on it my f ather had it torn down and used what bricks he could to build a new house and on the corner of this lot there was a little frame building and that was used by the section men they had a little cart that they ran along the tracks to re pair the tracks and they kept their equipment there of course when my father built the house that was torn down there was about of an acre of lawn there and my father was the type that every blade of grass had to lie a certain way everything had to be per fect and we kept hens there too the big house was built in 1905 when we moved there there was a big orchard behind it and there were all sorts of lovely apples there were sheep nose apples they were shaped like a sheep nose pale green and there was a straw berry apple and it had little flecks of red all through it was delicious snow apples russet apples spy apples we had a lovely orchard there when i was old enough to go to high school we went by train and we bought a book of tick ets we got so many tickets for a dollar and we would often buy our tickets in markham in stead of unionville because in markham we got a ticket right through to scarborough junc tion which is the danforth avenue station now so we often used to go to toronto on a saturday on our passes but we went to high school on the train in those days and we paid our own way of course nothing was sup plied to us and coming home on the train that left markham about 430 it would be a mixed train freight and passengers there would just be one pas senger car on it they called it the hog special we had croquet on our lawn the station agent har ry flummerfeldt nearly lost his job playing croquet over there because hed play until he heard the train whistle to come in and some people could be waiting to buy their tickets but that was a very popular game the old unionville planing mill built prior to 1880 is seen here in its heyday it was destroyed by fire in 1981 a new building is under construction on the site of similar design the new development will include stores and a restaurant special thanks to sponsors of the gazette it takes varied iniatives to make any worthwhile endeavour work one of the most important factors is funding the unionville historical society is supported by caring individuals and organizations to whom we are most grateful for financiaf support the unionville historical society gazette is made possible through sponsorship by didier igas unionville and markham canadian imperial bank of commerce unionville royal lepage markham gim smith ltd unionville unionville motors dominion coal building supplies unionville crothers ida unionville and markham david reid century 21 armour real estate the ontario ministry of citizenship culture