First railroad ticket to Barrie issued June 20, 1853

Interesting relics of the old days now occupying but small space in the Huron Institute, Collingwood, are samples of the first railroad tickets to Barrie. They are but small pieces of cardboard, yet they recall the days of the first railway in what was then Upper Canada; in fact, the first railway, or as then termed, railroad, operated in what is today the Dominion of Canada. Two of them are tickets reading from Richmond Hill to Barrie and are signed by W. H. Holmes, agent, and dated in pen and ink, "20th June, 1853". They also bear in plain printing across the bottom, Good for this trip only.

The other is a pass, a blue ticket, bearing in printing across the top the name of the railroad and as an ornament a miniature of a steamboat and a locomotive, tender and two cars, this separating from the top line the words and steamboat. Below is written, Pass a party of miners from Bradford to Orillia consisting of eighteen adults and twenty-two children. A . Brunell, Superintendent, Toronto, Oct. 29th, 1853.

Turning to the history of the construction of the railway, which afterwards became the Northern Railway of Canada and ultimately the northern division of the Grand Trunk system, it is learned that these were issued the first year the road was opened for regular business. The charter for the line was given on August 29, 1849, to the Toronto, Sarnia and Lake Huron Railway Co., with a capital of £500,00 [sic] in £5 shares. The road was to run from the City of Toronto to some point on the southerly shire of Lake Huron, touching at the Town of Barrie on the way. The survey was to be carried out in three years and the road was to be completed in ten years. In 1850 the name was changed to Ontario, Simcoe and Huron [Union] Railroad Co., and in 1858 to the Northern Railway of Canada. The first section of the road, Toronto to Aurora, was opened to the public on May 16, 1853, the next section to Bradford June 13, 1853, and the third section to Barrie on October 11 of the same year. The branch to Belle Ewart was opened on May 3, 1954, and the road reached Collingwood on Jan. 1, 1855. In 1879 the Northern took over the Hamilton and Northwestern and in 188 the Grand Trunk got both by amalgamation. In 1853 Lt.-Col. F. W. Cumberland became chief engineer and undertook the construction of the road and in 1859 became managing director, a position he held until his death in 1881.

Railways: O.S. & H.U.Rd.

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