Heritage
CENTRE
/MUSEUM
SRF
THE
1910s
FRENCHTOWN, so named as many of the residents spoke French, was an area of tar paper shacks that stretched northward between 133 Fifth Street and the Community Club. Frenchtown was burned down once the houses on Hollywood Avenue were built (1937).
1910
THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD
The Transcontinental Railroad, Cochrane to Winnipeg, reached and passed the Mattagami River at a location 3 miles South of Smooth Rock Falls. This location later came to be known as Jacksonboro.
1912
NEW ONTARIO
MATTAGAMI RAILROAD
Affairs of Mattagami Railroad were handled in their office downstairs at The Inn (south side). Employees handled Mattagami local accounting, sold tickets anywhere including pullman and steamship reservations and dispatched all telegraph business in and out of town. Parcels, supplies, (company and private) were loaded onto a large wagon then pulled across the street and brought downstairs to this receiving office, or to the train that stopped on the tracks just in front of The Inn hotel.
1913
This name was applied to the great northern region, which was new in the sense that not many years had passed since the development of its great and varied resources were undertaken. It was only in 1912 that the boundaries of Ontario were extended to James Bay and thereby a large part of the far north was added to the Province.
A NEW PLAN TO COLONIZE NEW ONTARIO
Willis K. Jackson of Buffalo, NY, USA, and associates, formed a company under the title of the New Ontario Colonization Company. They purchased two townships, Haggart and Kendrey on the TCR line for $98,364, or at $1.00 an acre. This settlement became known as Jacksonboro.
LEASE FOR PULPWOOD LIMIT
Mr. Duncan Chisholm of Toronto secured from the Ontario Government, the lease for pulpwood limit on the Mattagami River. Conditions of the lease was to erect a pulp mill costing, with the equipment and machinery contained therein, not less than $250,000 and at least an average of two hundred men to be employed. The Chisholm limits were later transferred to the Mattagami Pulp & Paper Co.The Chisholm limits took in 25 townships, all south of SRF, and measured 684 square miles, more or less.In order to obtain these limits Mr. Chisholm had to agree to the following condition:“No wood cut on the said territory shall be exported or sold, disposed of to any person or persons, but wood shall be used for the purpose of supplying the said mill or mills.”
1916
POST OFFICE
On April 18th, 1916, a post office was established in Smooth Rock Falls.
MATTAGAMI PULP & PAPER CO.
Duncan Chisholm was the founder of the Mattagami Pulp and Paper Co. who built the mill. In the spring of 1916 work commenced on the construction of the mill. The major contractor was the firm of Morrow and Beatty.
1917
FIRST CARLOAD OF PULP
THE CLIPPAS
On May 9, 1916, William Clippa, his wife Sarah, and daughter Annie age 14, arrived in Smooth Rock Falls just as the sun was setting. They had travelled, by canoe, down river from Jacksonboro. They established the first home in Smooth Rock Falls.​
On November 15, 1917 the first carload of pulp was shipped out by rail.Contractors erected camps to house 400 men, while the company [Mattagami Pulp & Paper Co.] erected about twenty "eight-roomed" houses and larger camps. All townsite construction, office buildings, sewers and waterworks were also constructed by the Company.
THE RESIDENTS
POSTMASTERS/POSTMISTRESSES OF SRF
A.A. McDiarmid 1916-1916 | Duncan Chisholm 1916-1926 | Andrew Lawson Wilson 1926-1930 | Horace Edwin Ruwald 1931-1942 [absent on active service] | Jeanne Georgette Landry (Lemieux) [acting] 1942-1946 | Horace Edwin Ruwald 1946 | Claude Bolton 1946 [acting] | Katherine McGregor Low 1947 [absent on active service], 1950-1970 | Jeannine B. Dubeau 1969-1995 | Clara G. (Labelle) Jacques, 1995-2000 | since 2000, Lina (Therrien) Gagnon.
PETER G. FRASER
B: January 19, 1888, Invenkeithny, Banffshire, Scotland (near Aberdeen)
D: October 18, 1961, Williamsford, ON.
- 1907: Peter came to Canada. First resided in Selkirk, MB.
- He worked around Winnipeg, MB until 1908 then moved to BC. Stayed there a short time, returned to Winnipeg. All the while working in the railroad business, having previously worked with the Great North of Scotland Railway, The Grand Trunk Pacific and the Canadian National Railway.
- 1917: Arrived in SRF with his family.
- 1917-Feb. 1, 1953: Was the conductor on the Mattagami Railway which was owned by the mill.
- He joined the company’s (1st) Quarter Century Club December 5, 1948.
- October 4, 1943: He signed a declaration for the establishment of a Public Library in SRF.
- 1940-1946: Mayor of SRF
- 1939, 1950-1952: Town councillor.
- 1953: Stewart of Trinity United Church.
- Chairman of the Public School Board for several years.
MARGARET ANN MONKMAN
B: July 24, 1894, Selkirk, MB
D: July 8/9, 1964, St. Catharines, ON.
- She was a hairdresser, seamstress and homemaker.
Children: James William “Jimmie”, b: Nov. 20, 1914, Selkirk, MB