The following is a re-print of a past column by former Advertiser columnist Stephen Thorning, who passed away on Feb. 23, 2015.
Some text has been updated to reflect changes since the original publication and any images used may not be the same as those that accompanied the original publication.
Since I began writing this column in the Elora Sentinel in August 1990, a number of people have spoken to me with comments and questions.
What is surprising is the range of the interests in local historical subjects, among longtime residents as well as newcomers to the village. I am always delighted to talk with people about our local history, and I welcome suggestions for topics for future columns.
Wherever possible, I try to use a building as a frame of reference for each column. Buildings stand long after those who built them and originally lived in them are forgotten. It is a natural impulse to want to know more about the buildings we see and use each day.
Many Elora old timers tell me that they enjoy seeing the names of early residents in this column. For these people, local history is close to personal memory, linking past to present, and showing how a community can change profoundly over the short duration of a lifetime, while, at the same time, preserving many of its unique qualities.
For those without deep roots in the Elora area, our local history does not have this sort of richness. The newcomer is interested in the history of the village in a more general sense. The histories of buildings, and the activities that have taken place inside them, are of most interest to these readers.
Only recently has local history been recognized by professional historians as a valid field of study. It was long accepted that history was something that happened on a battlefield and in foreign capitals. Older local histories tended to concentrate on pioneering families.
John Connon’s History of Elora, for instance, tells us a great deal about some of the earliest settlers in this area, but very little about daily life in Elora in the 1800s, or how and why the village’s economy changed over time.
My own perspective is similar to those of urban and social historians, who, over the past 30 years, have tried to turn this notion on its head by making local history the starting point, and then putting local history in a larger regional or national context.
For most people, the events that occur in the local community have greater significance in their lives than most things that transpire in Ottawa or Toronto. This was even more the case years ago, when Elora and other smaller communities enjoyed a much greater degree of autonomy and self-sufficiency than they do now.
Some people look to history for useful lessons and guidance for the present. “We must learn from the mistakes of history or we will be condemned to repeat them,” is a saying we all have heard repeatedly.
There is no doubt that the history of Elora is full of examples of human folly of various sorts, as well examples that can serve as inspiration and guidance. The problem is in applying historical experience to the circumstances of the present. No two people will see the past and the present in exactly the same way.
If we were to ask everyone in Elora, “What happened in this village last week?” we would get 3,000 quite different answers. With time, most of what happened will be viewed as trivial and forgotten. A few events may have a long-term importance to the village; other events will be significant for particular organizations, families or individuals, but not for everyone.
Similarly, no two people will agree on the significant events of 50, or 100, or 150 years ago.
In some respects, the problem is easier for the historian because so little information has survived. One danger is that the surviving information does not include the really significant events. A more serious one is that we misinterpret the evidence in applying our own late 20th century perspective to the actions and motives of people in the 19th century – or even earlier.
An awareness of history animates Elora more than most villages of its size. The current debates over development and county restructuring would not be as lively if the village did not have such a strong historical sense of community.
A similar sense of history permeates the writing of the Pilkington commentators, T.I. Cheek and, more recently, Middlebrook Mel, in this paper. Their contributions have led several people to observe that our local history seems to be a parody of the present (or vice versa) as far as politics is concerned.
For better or worse, I have avoided dealing with the major political battles of Elora’s past, for the simple reason that it is impossible to explain complicated issues in a column of 800 or 1,000 words. Otherwise, I have dealt with subjects that interested me, or that I thought were timely.
Most historians will admit to having a favourite period and subject; my own is the economic history of the years from 1850 to the First World War. I am always pleased to receive suggestions for columns on buildings, personalities, organizations, businesses or anything else from any period of Elora’s past.
Over the next few months, I will be writing about some of the manufacturing businesses that have operated in Elora. Although Elora was never an important manufacturing centre, it does have a rich industrial history that includes a couple of firms of national stature.
Manufacturing was part of Elora’s economy almost from the beginning of the village. The early factories were very small, set up to supply goods to a small market in the immediate area. They existed only because transportation facilities were so poor and expensive.
Beginning in the 1850s, Elora’s leaders began to view industry as the key to local prosperity. They became much more aggressive after 1870, when Elora’s importance as an agricultural market was diminished by the completion of the railway. On the whole, the pro-industry policy of the village was a failure, and the population declined by 35 per cent over the six decades after 1870.
Today, a pro-industry position is still taken by many of Elora’s leaders. In 1870, the argument was that industry would provide employment opportunities and aid local merchants. Today, the argument is that industry will provide increased tax revenue for the village.
*This column was originally published in the Elora Sentinel on Jan. 8, 1991.
