Canada Central, fire during construction of the line in 1870 caused extensive damage in the area - August 1870  BELLS CORNERS BURNED - We learn that the village of Bell's Corners, near Ottawa has been wholly consumed by fire and that several people were burned to death. The new depot at the Canada Central R.R. was also destroyed. We can give no further particulars in this issue. Peerth Courier 26 August 1870 Perth Courier 1870-08-26 p1 CANADA CENTRAL RAILWAY. The Canada Central Railway Company have also been very heavy losers by fires which have been raging along a greater portion of their line for many weeks past. However, on Thursday last [18 Aug], the fury of the flames could no longer be successfully combatted - the fires gradually but surely crept toward their works. First the station house at Bell's Corners was burnt, next, a long range of workmen's shanties speedly [sic] followed, which in turn, was followed by the destruction of the Paymaster's office, including the books, papers and other valuables. The Paymaster had barely time to get away with his own life, and the money of the Company in his possession, such was the rapidity with which the fire was moving. A platform car was also immediately consumed. A locomotive and train were drawn down to the eastern section of the road to avoid destruction, where they yet remain, unable to venture back. Miles upon miles of fences have been burned, and thousands of ties destroyed. Workmen's tools have also been consumed in endless quantity. These, besides other property, will aggregate a great loss. Besides all this, one man is reported to have lost his life on the line. This disaster must seriously impede the progress of the works on the road. Our information from this section is only up to yesterday afternoon, and it is hard to tell what damage may have since been done. Almonte Gazette 27 August 1870 The Canada Central. The losses of the Canada Central Railway by the late fire were not so serious as we had supposed. At any rate, with the promptitude which has been characteristic of the company, the damage has been repaired and the locomotive is now running as far as the junction of the March Road with the Richmond Macadamized Road, about 7 miles out of the city. Ottawa Citizen 4 September 1937 The big fire, which in 1870 swept all the Ottawa river front and much of the interior of Carleton County bulks large in the memory of Mr. John Cardill, veteran resident of Ottawa who, at the time of the great conflagration was living on a farm on the tenth line of Goulbourn. Sometime in the sixties, fire, which destroyed a part of the old Rochesterville tannery forced his father out of work there and the family moved out to Goulborn. At the time of the big blaze in Carleton, the Canada Central Railway was being built north and west of Bell's Corners. Mr. Cardill was one of the construction gang employed on the job: the men boarded and roomed at Nelson Corbett's rooming house in the village of Bells Corners. Destroyed Rails. "At the time the fire broke out," says Mr. Cardill, "I was working with a gang some distance north of the village. At that time we were engaged in loading ties on a wagon belonging to Jeremiah Sullivan, of Ramsay. The district in which we were working was mostly swamp land covered with a thick growth of cedar bushes. The flames not only swept the cedar bushes, but they burnt the newly laid ties and warped the rails which had been laid or were beside the road-bed. "I distinctly remember that the flames spread with such rapidity through the district where we were working that we had to flee for our lives. When we reached what was known as Robinson's rock cut we found the flames had already swept through the village and there was absolutely no chance of reaching the boarding house to get our belongings. We were forced to join other unfortunate fire sufferers in a head-long flight down the Richmond road in the direction of the city. "Those of the villagers who had buggies or wagons packed what belongings they could and fled. Those who had no vehicles left everything and fled on foot. Some of the people, mainly women and children, fairly exhausted from running and lugging what effects they could with them, stopped at Graham Bay and sought shelter there from the rushing flames. I recall that quite a number of us, mostly members of the construction crew, continued on down the road until we reached what was then known as Barry's Bay - a little hamlet a short distance east of Woodroffe, now known as Springfield Park. There we spent the night. "On returning to Bells Corners the following day we received instructions to commence immediately on the work of rebuilding the burnt section of the railroad. So anxious were the officials to have the work completed in the shortest possible time that they kept us employed day and night, with only brief rest periods, but without a wink of sleep. I well remember that when Saturday night came I threw myself down on my bunk and fell into such a sound sleep that I didn't wake up until Monday morning. That was certainly a trying ordeal." For an account of a journey through the devastated region on the Canada Central Railway inaugural train see: https://churcher.crcml.org/circle/excursions.htm#CCR |