Remembering When with Bill Cunningham

Originally Published circa 1985

Born at the turn of the century, Bill Cunningham looks back on the years he has lived in and around Fenelon Falls. Mr. Cunningham was born on Tuesday, March the 6^th, 1900. It was the turn of the century and Queen Victoria was still the reigning monarch. Sir Wilfrid Laurier was the Prime Minister of Canada.

Bill was born on the west shore of Cameron Lake to Jane and John Cunningham. He was an only child. His grandfather, Abner Cunningham, came to Canada from Ireland as a young man. He was the first person to settle in Ops Township. That was in 1824 [1826 according to Watson Kirkconnell]. Bill’s father was born in 1857 and his mother was from Cobourg.

Bill started his education at School Section 13, a one-room school at Balsam Grove. When he finished school there, duty called, and he was needed to help at home.

Mr. Cunningham recalled bringing a load of grain to Fenelon Falls one day with his father, when he was just a young boy. Work was being done on the dam and he remembers that they had to cross the river on a floating bridge. There was a dog with them on the bridge, and when the water started lapping around its paws, it jumped overboard and swam for shore. “Until about 1907, there were no cars in this area,” Mr. Cunningham said. “People travelled by horse and buggy and relied heavily on the trains that passed through Fenelon Falls.” The railroad had been constructed around 1878. It was the Grand Trunk Line and ran between Lindsay and Haliburton. The trains carried both passengers and freight. The original station is still standing in Fenelon Falls and has recently been restored. “Of course, the boats that plied the lakes were very important to transportation,” Mr. Cunningham said. “It wasn’t uncommon to see a tug pulling a barge loaded down with lumber or bricks. Steam boats, such as the Stoney Lake and the Lintonia sailed the waterways and lakes on excursions.”

“When the sawmills and lumber companies were still operating, Fenelon Falls was a much busier place all year round and there weren’t as many tourists,” Mr. Cunningham said. As a young man of sixteen, he needed a way to get around, so he acquired a motorcycle. He had it for about a year. “It was a year too long for my parents,” Bill said. “There were no paved roads, and sometimes you turned upside down before you got to where you were going.”

After that, in 1917, he bought a car, a 1912 Overland Touring car. “I travelled all over the creation in it. It had genuine leather upholstery,” Bill said, “and the steering wheel was on the right side. When it was new the car would have cost about twelve hundred dollars.”

Bill played some baseball and liked to go to dances. The dances were usually held at someone’s house but sometimes at a hall. When he was twenty, he met Frances Clatworthy, a school teacher from Hampton, near Bowmanville. When Bill met her, she was teaching at Balsam Grove. They married in 1925 and in September, moved to a farm on the east half of lot 25, concession 5, Fenelon Township. They operated the farm, working mostly at mixed farming. They had two daughters. Mr. Cunningham’s surviving daughter, Mrs. Hazel Graham, and her husband, Al live in Fenelon Falls. Bills sees them often.

In 1939, Bill started working at Foster Kelly’s, formerly known as Kelly and Smith, a business which had started up in 1898. It still exists at its original site at 14 Francis Street E., although a new building had to be constructed years ago after a fire. Mr. Cunningham saw many changes in the business during the time he was employed there. It evolved from its beginnings in farm implements, through car repairs and now deals mainly in plumbing and heating. “I enjoyed working there,” Bill said. “I finished in 1972. When you work with the public, you can end up with some strange situations.”

For pastime, Mr. Cunningham, liked woodworking and tinsmithing. He has always been an avid reader. For thirty-five years he has lived in the same house at the corner of Francis and Market Streets in Fenelon Falls. His wife passed away ten years ago.

Bill fells that he lives a fulfilling life and is close to everything. “Whatever I need is within walking distance,” he said. The busy corner doesn’t bother him and he doesn’t really notice the sound of the traffic too much. “It’s been a good life,” Bill Cunningham said. “I’ve managed to dodge curling and politics.”