PALMERSTON – Chad Martin grew up with a love and passion for history, passed down to him by his father, Wayne.
From a young age, Martin was interested in Palmerston’s lore, as his grandfather worked on the railway.
He was born and raised in the community, and while he has lived elsewhere for almost 25 years, “it’s still home,” Martin said. “It’s always been home for me.”
During his younger years, Martin saw the Palmerston Railway be abandoned.
Years later rumors of the town seeking to buy the station travelled through residents.
“Nobody had seen inside it for quite a long time … it had been boarded up and vandalized,” Martin told the Advertiser.
Curiosity got the better of the father and son duo as they visited the station, tore back a wooden board and little Martin was hoisted inside to unlock the door for his father.
“From that moment on I was hooked,” Martin said.
His journey of documenting Palmerston’s history stayed with him throughout his education. From performing a speech about the topic in front of his Grade 5 classmates to pursuing history and museum studies in university.
“As I got older … I realized the history I witnessed,” he said.
This photo of the Norgan Theatre was taken in approximately 1947 or 1948. Submitted photo
For the past 15 years Martin has taken his research to a deeper level, focussing on the original settlement of the area.
In an interview with the Advertiser, he shared some of the significant moments in Palmerston’s past.
“In the late 1850s there was a wheat midge, a parasite that destroyed wheat crops … it didn’t affect southern Ontario,” he said.
At this time, many farmers had just settled on the land and had little to no money.
Due to the limited amount of wheat, prices for the crop went “sky high.”
“A lot of these farmers in the area made a ton of money, and if they hadn’t made that money, they would have never been able to afford their mortgages and stay on the land,
“They would have abandoned the land and the beginnings of the community would have never started,” Martin explained.
The next big step for Palmerston was when two politicians and two people had acquired a large amount of land and “saw an opportunity to make money.”
Thomas McDowell (Palmerston’s first mayor), Walter White, Lorne Ferguson and Dickie Root “all teamed up and convinced the railway to come to the area.”
The four were considered the town founders and were referred to as the “Simcoe Settlers.” A man named William Thompson was also associated with the group as he had purchased a large amount of land and was the father of Sarah Thompson (McDowell’s wife).
“If it wasn’t for them the railway would have likely gone to either Listowel, Harriston or Teviotdale,
“The railway was the internet of the day, it got your products everywhere, it connected you to the world,” he said.
According to Martin’s research, it was decided the McDowell property would become a station point on the railway in 1870.
The railways were considered an “economic gold mine” with the reciprocal services including hotels, stores and taverns, plus the employment the railways brought with them.
“There was a time where Palmerston, with the way it was growing and the way the economy was going, it was going to become a massive industrial center,” Martin said.
There was talk about the town rivaling Hamilton for economic power because it was central and had access to all these other places.
Sometime in the late 1870s, the Wellington Grey and Bruce Railway Company purchased land from both McDowell and Thompson.
Soon after the company “collapsed under their own weight financially and … were all bought up the Grand Truck [Railway].
“That seems to be the shift where Palmerston went from this potentially incredibly economic power within Canada to just another small rural way point on the railway,” he said.
Fast forward almost a hundred years in the 1950s, the railway went down to basic cargo and freight shipments with very little passengers.
“The town was essentially forced to accept the railway wasn’t its primary economy,” he said. “I often argue agriculture is what maintained the community, not the railway.
“But the agriculture wouldn’t have been able to maintain itself without the railway,” and vice versa, he said.
This photo of the “Old 81” train is from 1959 or 1960. Submitted photo
Martin is a big advocate “that the more you know about your community, the more you appreciate and the more you will do for it.”
He gained majority of his information from museum archives in Wellington County, Guelph, Stratford, Ontario and also worked with historical groups in England.
“The community history is very spread out and that’s part of my goal … getting all that information pulled together,” Martin said.
He hopes to gather most of Palmerston’s history and place it into an archive so “everybody will have the full story.
