Iron Roads of Oxford County - Eastwood

The Great Western Railway was the first railway to roll through Oxford County. The opening of this railway was a steel version of the traditional paths of commerce dating back to the 1790s when commerce moved from Burlington Bay to London.  Incorporated as the London and Gore Railroad Co in 1834 this rail line was to join London, Burlington Bay, the Thames River and Lake Huron. It went through several name changes until it was established as the Great Western.

The Great Western rail line was designed by a group of Hamilton businessmen who believed that a line through to the Detroit River would give them easier access to export to the states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. The suspension bridge across Niagara River in the 1850s gave them connection to the railways serving the port of New York.

In Oxford County the tracks followed the north bank of the Thames River and the Great Western rumbled through Beachville, Ingersoll, Woodstock, Eastwood, Gobles, Princeton, Tillsonburg and Thamesford. In general, the arrival of the locomotive was perceived as a progressive moment for the area representing the promise of increased economic opportunities and greater interconnection and exchange with the rest of the province.

 In 1882 The Great Western and the Grand Trunk Railway merged under the name Grand Trunk Railway. After adding several branches of rail the Grand Trunk Railway was amalgamated into the Canadian National Railway in 1922.

Map of Eastwood

Eastwood was established at the crossroads of highway 2 and 53, now county road 55. The arrival of the train increased a sense of community, growth, and purpose and ensured that the community flourished. Milk, cattle, coal, mail, goods, passengers, gossip and murderers passed through the station.  High school students rode the fifteen minute train ride from the farms to high school in Woodstock.

St. John's Anglican church Eastwood

The first settler along the stretch of road that would become Eastwood was John Phelan in 1822. Ten years later Admiral Henry Vansittart took an interest in the area. He took land holdings in place of retirement then built a home, and then sank some of his personal savings in building St. John’s Anglican Church and a saw mill. Flat cars, pulled first by oxen then later horses, drew logs from the Vansittart timber holdings in Blandford Township to the mill at Eastwood. A ridge of ground formed the right of way with wooden tracks laid along the top.

By 1846 there were approximately 60 inhabitants supporting the Episcopal church, two stores, a tavern, saddler, wagon maker and two blacksmiths.  A log school was standing and in operation by 1848. With a brick building erected in 1872.

When the Great Western railway ran through town December 15, 1853 the importance of the village’s location at the crossroads of transportation continued to grow. The railway was used to ship livestock from Eastwood and stock yards were built. The mail began to arrive by train and milk was delivered to Toronto from neighbouring farms leaving on the 9am train. Ed Lazenby remembered riding with his father to deliver milk cans to the station for delivery to Toronto dairies. Other rambunctious teens remember being given the chore of delivering the milk cross-country in the winter with the horses and sleigh, turning too fast, tipping the cans, the milk spilling out on the snow.

Initially the station agent and his family lived in quarters above the station rooms. Trying to sleep only a few metres from the railway track could not have been easy. The china would rattle and the plaster shake and the engine’s whistle would slice through the quiet night.

The first station at Eastwood burned down in 1904 after two freight trains collided. At the time, agent Thomas Dunn and his family lived in the apartment above the station. They were rescued but the station building was lost. A railway coach was used as a station for three years until a new building could be constructed.

Following the fire, station agents no longer lived in the station, they resided in a house at the end of Station Road fronting on Stone Road. The first station agent on the voters list is John McLean, 1897-1903, George McPherson 1903, Thomas Dunn, 1904-1908, John Warren until 1918, and finally Frank Little until 1934 when the station was closed. Little was transferred to the Burford station. Since that time the station house has been privately owned.

Station Master's house

Railway station agents had a long and detailed job description. They not only ticketed passengers and collected express charges. They dealt with grain shipments, requesting and billing for cars, completing daily revenue reports, switch lists and way bills, feeding as well as caring for cattle waiting for shipment. The daily paperwork was tallied each month for the station and for area unmanned flag stations. Agents were also expected to clean the station, tend the garden, handle telegrams, money orders and passenger tickets. They also made connecting bookings for steamers and train connections.

By 1855 the telegraph was making train operations simpler and safer. Relaying train orders soon became the agent’s most important function. As orders would click in from the dispatcher in the divisional station, the agent had to carefully write them down. During the war the agent, often having the only telephone in town was called upon to relay the news of a son or husband killed overseas.

Trains were required to stop at each station. The engineers entered the station and signed the train order forms. If the previous train had been late arriving the agent held up the train at hand until he assumed the previous train was clear. Before telegrams and standard time, he simply made an educated guess and hoped for the best. The trains operated on a single track, and so careful timing ensured the trains did not collide. On busy main lines, with smaller engines and shorter trains they were passing through more frequently. This could be challenging. In the fall, when grain and farm products had to be shipped or perish, trains puffed past main line stations often at twenty minute intervals.

After the second world war the role of the station agents in Canadian communities changed. Televisions and telephones replaced the telegraph key as the link to the outside world. The advent of the forty-hour work week in 1950s made the life of the station master more like other businesses. The station lost its role as community drop-in centre. By 1960 the agent was no longer a key member of the community but rather had become just another railway employee.

For a few years after the station agent’s position was discontinued passengers were still able to get on and off at the Eastwood stop but had to purchase their ticket from the conductor once on board. The station was closed in 1934. Rail companies had experienced a drop in business as trucking began to be used to ship produce and livestock. The coal yard at Eastwood continued to be operated by Mr. Shelby until this business also closed in 1960.  

Eastwood Train station

Eastwood gained international notoriety in the 1890s when Fred Benwell was found shot in the back in the Blenheim swamp just a few miles from the Eastwood train station. In a highly publicized trial Reginald Birchall was found guilty of his murder. Birchall had placed an ad in a newspaper in London England offering training in landscape and farming practices and an opportunity for part ownership in a farm in Ontario. Fred Benwell’s father footed the bill for his son to travel to Canada with the first instalment of payment should Fred decide this was a project he wanted to take on. The two men met in Niagara, travelled by train together getting off at the Eastwood station then proceeded to walk to the swamp. Only Birchall returned to catch the afternoon train to return to Niagara. Birchall and his wife had lived in the Eastwood area previously and he was recognized by people at the station and along the road.

For generations the train station was the heart of small town Canadian community. People congregated at the station to meet the mail, see who was coming and going from the village and to hear the latest news. They greeted teary eyed relatives, bid fearful farewells to soldier-sons, cheered royalty and jeered politicians. Cities expand swallowing up small rural communities and today Eastwood is now part of the city of Woodstock.