John Quirk
Wingham’s Veteran Conductor, Retired.
How many amongst you wide-a-wake and well-informed commercial men and transportation people, who read these lines, can explain where was and what became of the Erie & Niagara Railway, Canada. A gentleman born in 1833 at Lungar, Ireland, not a great distance from Ballykilbeg, known as John Quirk, Esq., Wingham, Ont., would, if interrogated, inform you that the railroad referred to originated at Lake Erie’s shore at Fort Erie, Ont., and terminated at historical old Niagara-on-the-Lake, where Lake Ontario’s blue waters lave the sloping shore.
The nucleus of that highway—now a “Michigan Central” branch line serving the fruit belt—was surveyed and laid with wooden rails by Gilbert McMicken between 1835–1841 and cost 19,000 pounds. Its motive power was an old grey horse and traffic crossing from England in ships via Montreal, around and over the different rapids and river to Toronto, was transported by Mr. McMicken and his dapple equine engine the nine miles from Queenstown, a grain depot on the Lake Ontario level, to Chippawa, beside Lake Erie, where it was again entrusted to vessels bound to the rim of civilization then at Sault Ste. Marie. The passenger fare from Queenstown to Chippawa was 2s–6d. Gilbert McMicken was a patriarch in the forwarding business, he also built the first suspension bridge at Queenstown where a horse ferry plied and there, in 1846, his heir “Ham.” G. McMicken, later European Traffic Agent of Great Northern Railway, London, England, set foot on terra firma. Permit me to add here, that the latter’s son, E. G. McMicken, is General Passenger Agent, Pacific Steamships Company, San Francisco.
Mr. Quirk would explain also, that he first started railroading on that line as baggageman in 1867, and in three months’ time accepted a conductorship of a regular train running between these points. In the absence of the present Buffalo-Bridgeburg international steam highway, built in 1873–74 by G.T.R. and G.W.R., jointly, United States traffic crossed from the foot of Main Street, Buffalo, by boats which old timers will remember as “Florence”, “Grace Dormer” and “Ivanhoe”. From Niagara-on-the-Lake passengers made the trip to Toronto in the “Rothsay Castle”, “City of Toronto” &c., &c., forerunners of the splendid craft which now transport their children and grandchildren on business or pleasure bent. William A. Thompson secured the first charter for Erie & Niagara Railway and the Great Western Railway surrendered their lease of it in 1870. This road underwent changes in fortune, emerging as a link in the Canada Southern Railway but to-day survives under the domination of Michigan Central Railway.
RAIL COURTESY
Guard: “Now then, Missis, are you first-class?”
Passenger: “Purty middlin’ thank ye. How’s yourself?”
From this embryo period imagine the perspective offered the retentive and vigorous memory of an eighty-four year young veteran like genial John. He has seen a lot of Ontario in the making and a host of travelers and transients have seen him in Great Western and Grand Trunk trains. It has been declared that the travelling man of other days, with fourteen years’ experience on the rail—devoted seven years to his business and other seven to waiting for trains at Harrisburg. From this staid burg Mr. Quirk watched the Wellington, Grey & Bruce Ry. extend northward while he officiated as conductor over each section when laid down. Elora and Fergus were reached in July, 1870, Palmerston, 1871, and Southampton in 1873. They considered themselves fortunate if the trains did not leave the tracks more than three times a week as the new portion was used without delay and formality as a means of accomplishing a further leg of the journey. Prior to that time the tedious and lumbering stage coach was the only long distance substitute for shank’s mare in reaching a hundred towns and villages which the Grand Trunk serves to-day, thus aiding a battalion of drummers in the vital matter of earning a living. John Quirk was long a respected citizen of Kincardine and covered the run from there to Brantford and Hamilton for twenty years. He punched the tickets of thousands of travelers using the London, Huron & Bruce R’y, who remember his brusque but cheerful manner and woe betide the luckless bride and bridegroom who happened to entrust themselves to his care when making the initial trip in double harness. He never did possess a voice as soft as a sighing zephyr and he was ever an incorrigible tease.