A history of Goderich: From 1850s through the 1860s

By: Kathleen Smith

From a howling wildness to a cultivated and developing society, Goderich was incorporated as a town in 1850.

The 1850s and 1860s in Goderich involved the positive economic impact of a railway line, exciting discoveries such as salt, the dangerous threat of the Fenian raids and watching a colony become a nation.

By the 1850s and 1860s, Goderich was a bustling urban centre for the Huron Tract, with a population of about 1,000.

The town evolved from a settlement into an agricultural region, with a functioning harbour and lighthouse. The town’s growth was a result of immigration trends.

For those raised in middle-class comfort or higher, found existence in the colonies difficult.

Here, they had to clear land, build their own houses, travel on primitive trails, nurse their families with home remedies, and preserve enough of the fall harvest to take them through the winter.

With railways being all the rage in 1850s, they added to economic prosperity in the Huron Tract area as well.

Where a trip from Toronto to Montreal had taken weeks to travel, could now be done in less than a day. People in rural communities could read newspapers that had been published the day before in the city, and the telegraph lines that ran alongside railways sped up communication.

The creation of the railroad brought the promise of untold prosperity and growth for the region and June 28, 1858, was an extraordinary day in Huron County.

According to local historian and author David Yates, some speculated that Goderich, with its harbour and rail link, was destined to become a major city like Toronto, Monreal or Buffalo.

Support for a rail line quickly gathered momentum.

On June 30, 1852, the United Counties of Huron, Bruce and Perth voted to extend the link from Buffalo and Brantford to Stratford and Goderich as early as 1854.

According to Yates, financial problems plagued the Buffalo to Goderich Railway from the start. The line did not reach Stratford until 1856.

The much-anticipated opening of the first line into the county was a celebration showcasing Goderich. The new Buffalo to Lake Huron Railway, at 260 kilometres/162 miles, was the second longest in Canada.

At least 1,500 people paid the $2 round trip fare from Buffalo to Goderich.

Visitors from the train were welcomed into Goderich as streamers floated from every post.

According to Yates, it was the largest gathering ever seen in ‘The City of the Lake’, as the paper called Goderich. With advantages of a fine harbour, lake and railroad, the ‘Spectator’ forecast that Goderich would derive immense benefit from the railway and was destined to be a large and flourishing place.

When the Grand Trunk Railway was finished in 1859, it was the longest railway in the world.

By 1860 the tract had two flourishing towns – Goderich and Stratford – and agriculture had evolved beyond the pioneer stage.

By 1860, nearly four million people lived in British North America, scattered across what is now Ontario and Quebec.

Nearly half were Catholic and the other half Protestant. French-speakers made up almost a third of the population, and the rest were mostly English speaking.

Most people married in their 20s, and women had no more legal rights than their children.

Agriculture was central to daily life, survival and progress in the 1860s.

At the time, the town of Goderich was made up of wide, tree-lined streets radiating from the central octagonal square like the spokes of a wheel.

Development fell short of expectations, and the town eventually only commanded local trade.

In 1866, the discovery of salt by a company drilling for oil gave Goderich a major industry. Salt resources beneath the lake in Goderich led to the establishment of the salt mine in the 1860s, and grew to what it is today, the world’s largest underground salt mine.

This industry shaped Goderich’s economy and its harbour’s role.

At one point in its history, Goderich was home to the most important harbours on the Great Lakes. A modern rail station was built near the harbour, and Goderich became a very busy rail shipping location.

Also in 1866, four artesian wells began providing the town’s water and attracted tourists who heard about the water’s medicinal properties. The Ocean House Hotel was built in the 1850s and housed many tourists.

During the 1866 Fenian crisis, the Port of Goderich was deemed one of the most vulnerable outposts of Her Majesty’s Dominions.

Fenians were Irish republican revolutionaries in the 19th century who sought independence from Britain through armed struggle. In August 1866, British authorities dispatched Her Majesty’s Gunboat Cherub to Goderich to discourage a Fenian incursion.

According to Yates, the Cherub was not the only armed vessel in Goderich that summer. The gunboat Rescue sailed into the port in June and was greeted with rousing cheers from relieved soldiers and citizens at Lighthouse Point.

The arrival of the Royal navy was a welcome sight.

The year 1866 was a crisis point in Anglo-American relations.

Many in the United States felt it was time to fulfill its Manifest Destiny by annexing Canada to secure America’s northern border.

The Fenian Brotherhood was willing to speed events along by threatening invasion of British North America.

Although the Fenians never showed, the Royal Navy showed up in Goderich’s port. If the threats from the Fenians was to intimidate Canada, it backfired.

This drama on the shores of Lake Huron convinced British North America of the need to unite for a common defence. The result was the Dominion of Canada in 1867.

Outwardly, nothing had changed.

Queen Victoria was Canada’s Head of State, and the Union Jack was Canada’s flag, but something changed on July 1, 1867.

In celebration, thousands flocked to Goderich, the county’s seat.

Giant crowds gathered to welcome the new country when a giant bonfire was lit on the Courthouse Square. As the sun rose on the Dominion of Canada for the first time, the Goderich Garrison Artillery prepared to fire a dawn salute from their 32-pound cannon.

A parade marched to the Square, where Canada’s inaugural celebrations took place by the courthouse’s west entrance.

Goderich Mayor J.V. Detlor acknowledged it was the duty of Canadians to ask the blessing for the new country.

Mayor Detlor read the Queen’s proclamation for uniting the provinces into one Canada, ending his address by stating his hope that Canada would ‘be the home of freemen and the asylum of the oppressed’.

The Union Jack waved from every available point.

Boat races, boat excursions, picnics and athletic competitions rounded out the afternoon’s events.

The symbols of loyalty had not changed, but the attitude had begun to change as the Queen, flag and parliament were now perceived as Canadian institutions.

In that subtle shift in attitude, Canada was born, a place based on fairness, moderation, and the home of freemen (and women) and an asylum for the oppressed.

When the Cherub first arrived in Goderich in 1866, Canada was a colony, and when she sailed away in 1868, Canada had become a nation.

By 1869 the population had risen to 4,500, and a railway station and steamship docks were in operation, while wheat continued to be the primary crop shipped from this area.

This is an ongoing series of historical features to tell the story of Goderich, in each issue of the Goderich Sun, from June 2026 until June 2027, in anticipation of its bicentennial.