by Charles Phelps (1980) From the 1870s the Blackwell Sideroad was the dividing line between School Section Three (Bright’s Grove School) and School Section Six (Clark’s School at Murphy Road). The children from Blackwell Sideroad east went to S.S. No. 3 and the children from Blackwell Sideroad west attended S.S. [...]
by Jean Turnbull Elford writing in Upper Canada’s Last Frontier (1982) The opening of a line between Port Huron and Chicago in 1879 brought a great increase in traffic to both the Great Western and the Grand Trunk. Three years later, the two lines amalgamated under the Grand Trunk name [...]
by Dan McCaffery (2015) "For decades politicians trembled every Wednesday when it hit the streets.” That's how The Observer led off a story in the summer of 1995, reporting on the demise of the legendary Sarnia Gazette weekly newspaper. It was August 19, 1995 to be exact, and the final [...]
by Jean Turnbull Elford writing in Canada West’s Last Frontier The earliest ferry to run between Sarnia and Port Huron was a sailboat. A Sarnia named Crampton got a license to run her in 1836. In the 1840s a horse-powered ferry began to run with George Moffat in charge. Julius [...]
By Phil Egan. Special to The Sarnia Journal (2015) At age six in 1953, I used to board a bus from my home on Maud Street in Point Edward to journey across town to Our Lady of Mercy School at Christina and Durand Streets. One day after school, daydreaming, I [...]
(from 1957 Progress Edition of The Observer) (1957) The crunch of the bulldozer, the whine of the crane, the roar of the truck, the staccato of the air compressor and hammer are all sounds which tell of Sarnia’s continuing expansion. Steel-helmeted construction workers are pushing up more of the weird [...]
From 25th Anniversary Yearbook of St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church (1995) Canada was founded more than 200 years ago by European settlers who came to this new land in search of a better life. Canada’s strength was, and continues to be, the diversity of its people. Its multicultural heritage can [...]
by Phil Egan Special to The Sarnia Journal Sarnians, and Ontarians in general, have had a tempestuous experience over the years with the practice of purchasing liquor. It wasn’t always as easy as it is today. In fact, there was a time not too long ago when it was pretty [...]
by Phil Egan Mary Alice Moon had already lost two sons to the war. She was determined not to lose a third. The Edmonton mother had seen sons Kris, John and William answer the call to King and Country by enlisting in the RCAF in World War II. When John [...]
by Jim Miller for the Sarnia Observer (2003) Sarnia-Lambton has produced its share of NHL greats – Pat ‘Whitey’ Stapleton, Dave, Mark and Dale Hunter, Dino Ciccarelli, Wayne Merrick, Bob Gould – but only one has been inducted into the National Hockey League’s Hall of Fame. Amazingly, it was none [...]
