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Shouting out Barrie's history!

Former Brit continues to conduct his historical walking tours of downtown Barrie, which are well attended and something he's happy to do
2019-11-21 Steve Travers IM
Barrie’s official town crier is also a volunteer at the Mission Thrift Store in Barrie. Ian McInroy for BarrieToday

When today can seem minute-to-minute, tomorrow a check list and next week a who-knows-what, why would the past matter?

Because it’s fun!

Just ask Steve Travers, Barrie’s first (sort of) and only town crier, who barks out his love of history for anyone who might attempt not to hear him from 100 feet away.

As the official town crier for the City of Barrie — a gig he unceremoniously took on in 2002 — he brightens up the scene at all kinds of events: official proclamations, flag raisings, parades, and kindling the spirit of history for young students and, probably closest to his heart, leading historic, guided walking tours of of Barrie.

He needs to know his stuff when it comes to sharing historic tales about the city, which involves much research, including ongoing trips to the Simcoe County Archives in Midhurst.

“I’ve also met some of the people related to the pioneers I talk about,” he says, while doing his weekly volunteer stint at the Mission Thrift Store at Big Bay Point Road and Yonge Street.

Regular patrons there wouldn’t be surprised to hear him — and see him in his traditional town crier outfit — bellowing out his request for volunteers.

Barrie’s history is long, varied, and occasionally a little spicy, Travers says, adding people of all ages are taking more interest in how their community came to be and what it has evolved to in the 21st century.

There was a lot of that spice back in the mid 1800s, including the Black Swamp Gang, the Ball brothers of Hillsdale and perhaps some other trades that will go unmentioned here.

“At (what is now known as) Five Points, the loggers and the rail road men would have a ‘punch up’ on a Saturday night and they would all bet on their own champion,” he says. “So the loggers would have a champion and the railroad men would have a champion and at Five Points the two men would have a bare-knuckle fight.

“And then afterwards they would go celebrate in the Simcoe Hotel where they would go and drown their sorrows, depending on whether they won or lost," Travers adds. “It’s such a lovely building. It’s a second empire building: a flat-iron design. It’s 10 feet at the front and 110 feet at the back. You can still see the original charred timbers of the foundations if you go downstairs.”

Although Travers may be technically Barrie’s only — and ever — official town crier, as per his propensity for accuracy, he is quick to point out other variables.

“Most pioneer towns that had a farmers market also had a town crier to give out the news, due to the fact that 80 per cent of the population was illiterate, as they were farmers, loggers, railroad men, etc.,” he says with bright eyes looking out from under the brim of his hat.

Only this day he's not wearing his George Washington-style wig.

“They would ring their bell at the farmers' markets and were also employed to announce the arrival and departure of trains, boats and announce government tax increases, weddings and funerals.”

Hmmm… sounds like a newspaper.

“The only ‘crier' we had was the Barrie court crier, Thrift Meldrom, who was so very funny and droll in the courtroom,” Travers says. “He would make the judges and lawyers laugh so heartily they would forget their dignity. Sort of like ‘Call Ian McInroy to the dock for drunk and disorderly... again!"

Bellowing out the business of the day these days is not necessarily gender specific, he says.

“There are lady town criers in Ontario, too,” Travers says, adding members of the Ontario Guild of Town Criers have a code of ethics. “We cannot say anything in our proclamations that may be an affront to our citizens, or anything of a political or derisive nature.” 

During his time as town crier, Travers says he has had the privilege to meet many people that he respects and who have respected what his role as crier can bring to people of all ages.

That would include Lt.-General, the Honourable Roméo Dallaire, OC, CMM, GOQ, MSC, CD.

“What a great guy,” Travers says of the Canadian Forces legend, for whom a south-end Barrie high school is named.

“He told me to tell young people to vote in elections while I was doing school talks on the history of Barrie. He said ‘Ask students who are 18 years old this: Do you allow your grandparents to tell you who you can date? And when they say ‘heck no I don’t’. Then say, 'Don't allow them to pick the government for you then'.”

Travers’s vocal chords can fill a room, or almost knock you off your pins if you’re chin-to-chin.

“My dad was a sergeant in the British infantry in the Second World War — he fought alongside Canadians at D-Day — so he taught me how to bellow loud and true,” he says, adding his father’s military experiences are one of the reasons he loves history.

The former Brit continues to conduct his historical walking tours of downtown Barrie, which are well attended and something he is happy to do.

“I like to repay all the wonderful things that people did for me when I arrived here in Canada 28 years ago,” Travers says. “This is a way of adding to this community that has welcomed me so wonderfully.”