When I was a young lad, I grew up in the Scotch Settlement.
Many of you may recall in my writings that our farm was on the 5th Concession of West Gwillimbury, namely the south half of Lot 8, Concession 5.
My father rented the land from the estate of Robert Hugh Sutherland.
Mom and Dad were married in 1945, and I was born, second child to Bus and Lylia Culbert.
My maternal grandparents live on Highway 89, one farm west of Highway 11 on the north side.
Needless to say, we took many trips to our grandparents, and as I grew and took note of different landscapes on the drive up, I often marvelled at the stately home on the northeast corner of Concession 7 (Highway 88) and the Middletown Sideroad or 10 Sideroad.
My grandfather, on one of the trips to and from our farms, told me he used to play the fiddle in that house for house parties along with his musical partner, Gerald Roberts. He told me it was built by Col. Richard Tyrwhitt many years ago.
Lt. Richard Tyrwhitt was born in Simcoe County on Nov. 29, 1844, a member of a pioneer family. Unfortunately, he was an orphan at a young age when his father, William, died and his mother, Elizabeth Armstrong, also passed on. Young Richard went to live with his father’s brother, Septimus.
When the Finians were trying to get to the Conservative government members in 1866, a 22-year-old Richard joined as a volunteer, and then captain of the No. 8 Company, Simcoe Foresters.
In early 1873, his Uncle Septimus set young Richard up farming on the very land we are talking about — Lot 11, Concession 7, West Gwillimbury. Richard built a large red brick house and called it Farmcote.
He married Emma Whitaker, of Toronto, and they had eight children.
Until the day of demolition, the Tyrwhitt coat of arms was embedded in the brick over the front door of the mansion.
In 1882, he was elected as the Conservative member of Parliament to Ottawa and returned at the next three elections.
In early spring of 1885, Louis Riel and the Métis were unhappy with the treatment they were receiving in what would become Saskatchewan. The government called up the militia to form a battalion, half-Queen’s York Rangers and half-Simcoe Foresters from Simcoe County. Richard went along with the newly formed group.
Heading out west via rail, marching through ice and mud, they arrived at Fort Qu’Appelle.
As for their reason for being there, the Rebellion itself ended quickly — starting in early spring and ending by the first week of July. Some members even got to see the infamous Riel as he exercised in jail.
The way home was long but more fun. A series of parties and receptions marked the trail back.
A strong bond had formed between Simcoe and York counties, and the 12th officers presented a sword and belts to Lt.-Col. Richard Tyrwhitt of the 35th.
In February 1886, he was appointed lieutenant-colonel, commanding the 36th Peel Battalion.
Richard was an Anglican and an Orangeman and belonged to Mr. Ararat Lodge No. 104, Pennville, Tecumseth Township. He presented the above-mentioned sword to the lodge.
On May 24, 1898, he was invited to lay the cornerstone for the House of Industry in Beeton. The building was for the use of senior citizens in Simcoe County. My great-grandparents were tenants of the former Simcoe Manor farm when they arrived from Ireland in 1861. My mother, for a short time, was a resident there at the now Simcoe Manor. She passed away May 30, 2022.
Richard Tyrwhitt died on June 22, 1900, of heart seizure in the Bradford railway station on his way home from Ottawa.
In 1911, new residents took over Farmcote in the name of Felix Arthur Smelser and his wife, Mary Grace.
By that time, most of the 200-acre farm was cultivated land, with only some 20 acres being used as pasture land. They raised a lot of beef cattle. Many grain crops were grown on the farm, and the Smelsers were pulling the binder behind a tractor when most other farmers were using horses.
When the senior Smelsers passed on, it seems their family carried on farming. Frank never married, and Elena married James H. McClocklin. When daughter Elizabeth died circa 1962, the farm was willed to Elena’s son, James Smelser McClocklin, with Elena and James splitting the interest in the house and the land it was built on. With Elena’s passing in the 1970s, James S. became the sole owner.
It was in the time of the Smelser family that my grandfather and Gerald Roberts would have been entertaining guests of the Smelser family. He told me there was a large west parlour with a gallery about the middle of the room on the inside wall. He also said there were two white marble fireplaces in the room for heat sources on the cold winter days and nights.
When I finished my apprenticeship for reupholstery in 1972, I took on the role of teaching reupholstery at Bradford District High School community school in the evenings. One couple taking the course was James S. and his wife, Cay McClocklin. They had two boys, Jim and Clark. (All four are deceased.) We had a great bunch of students that year.
Cay asked me to come to the farm and look at a few pieces she was wanting to have done over. I remember the day. It was in June and very hot outside. While getting samples ready, Cay offered a cold drink, and then a call came on the telephone.
Cay excused herself, and when I surveyed the room, it was exactly as my grandfather had described it — a beautiful room the whole length of the west part of the main house. The south wall was mostly a bay window and a door on the north wall to, what I found out when Cay gave me a tour, was the “morning room.” This is where the family would have had their breakfast. Looking to the northwest out of the window still standing was a two-room brick outhouse that was erected when the mansion was built. I remember remarking to Cay, “Man, it is cold in here for a hot June day.” Cay said, “Yes, you should feel it in the winter even with central heat.”
There was basically the large, grand house and a wing at the back of the house for kitchen and scullery use.
There was a wonderfully grand entrance at the front of the house and a magnificent stairway, one I have never seen since. The banister rails were of oak wood with a turning, and then a square and then a turning on each spindle. You will note the staircase in the pictures.
In the 1980s, James applied for, and finally had accepted, a change in zoning from agricultural to industrial, and it was sold.
I again was looking for something else to do, so I phoned the new owner of the land and had an appointment to see him at his office, which was then in Frank Smelser’s bungalow on the property near the road.
I went out and introduced myself to Frank Orsi and began to explain to him that if he was going to build factories (already being built), he should have someplace close by for the employees to get a noon lunch instead of travelling to Bradford. I also told him I had heard from residents of Alliston that when the Japanese came to Honda to do business, they wanted to stay not at the Nottawasaga Inn, but in bed-and-breakfasts that were in town. They wanted to get to know what the people of Canada were like. I told him I would be interested in a joint venture with him to take the old house and turn it into a bed-and-breakfast and have a coffee-shop light lunch available to the factory employees.
He told me he had heated the old mansion that winter and it had cost him $800 per month just to keep the heat on at a bare minimum.
He said, “Here are the keys. Go up, look over the place and give me your ideas as to what is needed.”
Off I went and I was able to take my time and have a great look at the place. Already, vandals had been in and punched holes in the outer walls in the parlour. That was good because I could see, like many old buildings, there was no insulation but a good space between the outside brick and the lath and plaster of the inside walls. Insulation could be easily blown in the cavity.
I looked at the kitchen proper and took into consideration what would be needed to pass inspections of the time and fit a working kitchen. I could see the roof needed new shingles, a good painting of the trim and overall caulking, etc. I went back to see him and gave him my report and, pretty much the next day, he turned off the power and made arrangements to have the place taken down.
Another grand, old place disposed of in the blink of an eye.
