September 2024
There are many ghost towns and vanished villages across Canada and the world. Some died off when the local industry that sustained them dries up. Some towns are simply absorbed into the growing communities around them. The former Village of Kempenfelt, now a part of the southern Ontario City of Barrie, is just one of them.
Around the time that the Penetanguishene Road, surveyed by Samuel Wilmot, was cut through from Kempenfelt to Georgian Bay during the War of 1812, the village plots were laid out on 300 acres straddling the border between Vespra Township and Oro Township. Kempenfelt was actually the first registered subdivision in Simcoe County.
As Kempenfelt grew in the years after its settlement in 1819, the village would include a boat landing, log barracks, stores, tavern, brewery and brickyard.
In 1831, a petition was sent to Lieutenant-Governor Sir John Colborne to declare Kempenfelt the home of the Simcoe County administration centre, given that it was on the supply road to the Royal Navy’s Penetanguishene Naval Yard in Penetanguishene. This was rejected and two years later, the Government purchased land at the present site of Barrie which became the County Town in 1837.
Kempenfeldt did become a military supply depot and eventually boasted four taverns, a general store, a brewery, a carpenter, a brick kiln, a wharf and a tailor as well as housing, including log barracks for military troops.
Brewing and distilling became an important industry in Kempenfeldt, as many of the early settlers and military officers were English and their drink of choice was beer. William Mann built a brewery in 1832 by William Mann, later leasing it to Robert Simpson, who later became Barrie’s first mayor in 1871.
Thrift Meldrum set up a small distillery in the 1830s, which he used to supply his hotel in Barrie.
Prior to the arrival of the railway later in the 1800s, one of the ways to get around was by watercraft. John Sibbald, a tavern owner in Tollendal, on the south side of Kempenfelt Bay, established a ferry service for mail delivery with a tavern owner in Kempenfelt named Ladd, around 1833. Sibbald would row passengers northbound to Kempenfelt and Ladd would row the other way.
Ladd was known as a drinker, and tragically drowned in Kempenfelt Bay while drunk. Ladd had recently built a new tavern, one that still stands today at 190 Shanty Bay Road.
The Railway in Kempenfelt
The railway came to Kempenfelt in 1871, when the recently-formed Toronto, Simcoe and Muskoka Junction Railway (TM&MJ) built a line north-east from the junction at Allandale, on the south side of Kempenfelt Bay and also now a part of Barrie, through Oro Township, Orillia, Washago and Gravenhurst. The line was turned over to their subsidiary, the Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR).
The CNoR was taken over by the Grand Trunk Railway in 1888, who were themselves taken over by Canadian National Railways (CNR) in 1923. As the 20th Century progressed, both passenger and freight rail service gradually declined to the point that by 1995, CNR applied to the Canadian Transport Commission to abandon the line.
The last CNR train travelled along the line in September 1996, 125 years of railway operations along this line. The rails were removed and the land was turned over to Barrie and converted to a rail trail, stretching from downtown Barrie to Orillia.
Kempenfelt Poultry Yards – 36 Shanty Bay Road
George Coles established a poultry farm around 1890 at 2 Davis Street (now 36 Shanty Bay Road), expanding it to include beef and dairy (butter, eggs and cheese). Coles was born on 15 December 1858, in Stratford, Essex, England, and immigrated to Canada in 1871.
The Coles family farm would support the Coles family, as well as supplying George’s growing downtown business.
George and Sarah’s children and grandchildren helped run the farm. The children worked a stall at the farmer’s market in Barrie while the grandchildren were tasked with driving the cattle to nearby Johnson’s Beach to be watered, filling milk bottles for delivery and washing them when returned so they could be re-filled.
In the spring of 1939, three months after George and Sarah Coles celebrated their 55th anniversary, Sarah died unexpectedly of a heart attack, with George dying a short two years later in March 1941.
The Coles farmhouse, which was built around 1870, still stands today, beautifully maintained and serving as an important connection to Kempenfelt Village’s past.
Sources: Society wants historic Kempenfelt recognized (simcoe.com), Site of the Village of Kempenfelt – Signs of History on Waymarking.com, Penetanguishene Naval Yard – Wikipedia, THEN AND NOW: 190 Shanty Bay Rd. – Barrie News (barrietoday.com), Oro-Medonte – Wikipedia.
