Port Colborne looking back 150 years
As Canada celebrates 150 years as a nation, the story of Port Colborne around the time of Confederation is being told in the city’s heritage village.
“As part of our 150 planning, we were discussing what would benefit residents, and it was finding out what was going on in Port Colborne when we were becoming a country,” said Abbey Stansfield, education programmer at Port Colborne Historical and Marine Museum.
She said when the museum received a grant for a historical interpreter, the decision was made to run 1867 in the Village museum tours.
The free tours, on the museum grounds at 280 King St., run every Friday from now through August at 3 p.m.
“The tour goes through each of our historic buildings on site and there’s interaction with characters portraying people from 1867. Our tour guide explains what was going in Port Colborne and why it mattered on a wider global scale.
“It’s to help people understand why Confederation was such an important event for Canada and for people in Port Colborne.”
People on the tour will meet a printer, school teacher, farmer, blacksmith apprentice and a sailor’s wife. Each represents a different industry and lifestyle found in 1867.
“We had the (Welland) canal that would have brought in a lot of workers, different industries and we also had a farming community. There’s not a lot of places where those things meet, so that’s why it’s a real interesting story to tell,” said Stansfield.
As Canada moved to Confederation, one of the sparks leading to nationhood were the Fenian Raids that started 1866. The Fenian Brotherhood were a group Irish-American Civil War veterans who intended to seize and hold parts of Canada hostage in return for Irish independence.
“There was fear the Fenians would take over the canal and the invasions were really close to home. Confederation was seen as a way to help prevent those types of attacks from happening.”
Stansfield said life around Port Colborne in 1867 would have seen sailors coming into port and frequenting some of the 12 to 20 taverns that were close by the canal. Reputable citizens, she said, would have avoided the sailors as they enjoyed their stop in the city and taverns.
“Public schooling was newlyintroduced around this time. It allowed children to pursue different careers from their parents …” she said, adding that for generations children were home-schooled and would follow in their parent’s footsteps when it came to work.
Farming was also huge in the area, and before the canal came it was the backbone of the community, she said.
While the free tours are being held at the museum, there will walking tours, at a cost of $5, on West Street every Friday in July, and in Humberstone every Friday in August.
Those tours, said Stansfield, will be led by Michelle Vosburgh, the museum’s heritage research technician, and they will run at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.
They’ll focus on the different types of homes and industries found in both areas of the community.
“She gives a lot of personal details of the people that lived there, and little anecdotes that make things come alive,” said Stansfield.
For more information on either of the tours, contact the museum at 904-834-7604 or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/PortColborneHistoricalMarine Museum and www.facebook.com/WilsonArchives.