THEN AND NOW: A sorrowed past

Elizabeth McEwan came to Canada in the 1830’s from her native Scotland, when she was just 7 years old.

She, her parents and three brothers lived in Toronto briefly before moving to Kempenfelt, where they stayed for several years before returning to Toronto.

In 1858, Elizabeth married Richard Bolton. The young couple resided in Toronto, then made the move north to a farm in Crown Hill on the Penetanguishene Road (concession 1 lot 29 according to old records). They later moved from their Vespra farm to Craighurst, then to Barrie. Elizabeth and Richard had four children: a daughter and three sons, and when Richard died in 1914, Elizabeth went to live with son George in Winnipeg.

There was another Elizabeth Bolton in Craighurst: Richard and Elizabeth’s daughter-in-law, who had married their son Donald.

Elizabeth and Donald also moved to Barrie, buying the lovely brick home at 113 Owen St. about 1913, where they lived with their two sons, Roy and Ernest. The Bolton’s had not been in their home long, before Donald’s mother, Elizabeth, passed away in 1915. Her body was brought back to Barrie for a funeral at her son and daughter-in-law’s Owen Street home, before going to her final rest in the Craighurst Methodist cemetery.

A year later, sadness was once again filled the Bolton household. This time in the form of a sudden and tragic accident. Donald, a liveryman, was driving a new car back to Barrie from Oshawa, when his vehicle was struck by a train. It was the G.T.R. (Grand Truck Railway) era, the train on route from Toronto to the Allandale station. As is their procedure, the automatic bell on the engine started ringing at Parkdale Station (the first stop heading out of Toronto) and the whistle was blown a quarter-mile from the crossing at Yonge Street near Aurora, where Mr. Bolton’s car was struck. The engineer saw Donald’s car when the train was about 100 feet from the crossing: the vehicle was approximately 12 feet from the crossing and apparently stopped. But as the train got within 50 feet of the crossing, the car started moving forward. Even though Bolton turned the car, it was struck behind the front wheels throwing him 89 feet and his car 28 feet from the centre of the road. Donald Bolton, 49 years old, lived 18 hours at Royal Victoria Hospital with a fractured skull, attended by Dr. E.G. Turnbull, before passing away.

Although investigations were unable to determine the cause of the accident, it was speculated that the driver’s foot may have slipped off the brake and, had Bolton not turned the car, it would have straddled both rails and been completely obliterated. Evidence revealed that the lack of visibility given the grade on Yonge Street coming up to the tracks and the opinion that an electric alarm bell is not adequate public protection at such a crossing, led the jury to rule this an accidental death.  

And as if Elizabeth Bolton hadn’t suffered enough, just two years after losing her husband, in 1918 her son Roy – also a liveryman – died of a hemorrhage at the young age of 24.

Mrs. Bolton continued in her busy life, active in the Congregational Church for many years and later Collier Street United Church. Sadly, about nine years after the death of her husband, Mrs. Bolton died of pneumonia at 57 years old. Elizabeth Bolton had many, many friends and was well regarded in the community so it was no surprise at all that her funeral was very well attended. And like her mother-in-law, the other Elizabeth Bolton, she was buried from her 113 Owen St. home.

Elizabeth’s remaining son, Ernest outlived his mother by only five months, succumbing to kidney failure at 38. An estate auction for the household processions of 113 Owen St. was held in the fall of 1926.

Even a cheerful-looking home such as 113 Owen St., like most surviving century homes, carries some sorrow in its past.