{"id":20313,"date":"2018-04-04T20:52:02","date_gmt":"2018-04-05T00:52:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=20313"},"modified":"2018-04-04T20:52:02","modified_gmt":"2018-04-05T00:52:02","slug":"inside-aurora-the-big-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/inside-aurora-the-big-day\/","title":{"rendered":"INSIDE AURORA: The Big Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big day today.\u201d
\n\u201cI\u2019ll say. May 16, 1853. The day the first steam train rolled into our little hamlet. People will talk about this for years to come.\u201d
\nThe two men stood at the edge of a small crowd gathered just south of Wellington Street east of Yonge. The assembly continued to grow as more people arrived both on horseback and on foot. There was a definite sense of expectation and excitement in the air.
\n\u201cI never thought it would happen,\u201d Sam observed. \u201cBut I guess now that our community\u2019s so large – there must be 200 people living here – it was inevitable that the railroad would come.\u201d
\n\u201cThere\u2019ll be more than 200 soon with a train coming through once a week. Why, in no time, we could even formally be declared a village!\u201d
\n\u201cYou know,\u201d Charles pointed out, \u201cthey say it\u2019s only supposed to take two hours to get here from Toronto.\u201d
\n\u201cTwo hours!?\u201d Sam exclaimed. \u201cIt takes a whole day by stage!\u201d
\n\u201cMind you, the train it does cost a dollar, so it\u2019s not inexpensive.\u201d
\nLooking around the forested area surrounding the station, Charles continued, \u201cI guess soon this whole area will be settled. I hear old Robert Machell has already started subdividing this part of his land to sell off lots around here.\u201d
\n\u201cMakes sense,\u201d Sam replied. \u201cPeople and goods coming and going. Who wouldn\u2019t want to be right next to it all? Living way over west of Yonge, the way I do, I may even consider pullin\u2019 up stakes and settling down here myself.\u201d
\nPulling the brim of his hat down to further shade his eyes, and turning to look south along the newly-laid track, Charles asked with anticipation, \u201cWhen\u2019s it supposed to arrive?\u201d
\n\u201cWell, of course, it\u2019s the first time it\u2019s made this journey, but I think it\u2019s expected around noon,\u201d his friend replied. Taking out and consulting his pocket watch, he continued, \u201cIt\u2019s about that time now.\u201d
\nSure enough, in the distance a puff of smoke could be seen above the trees. Over the next few minutes, it steadily grew in size, until the train itself became visible.
\nThe pride of the Ontario, Simcoe and Huron Railroad Company, it carried both passengers and freight, and was five cars long, including the engine. With its obvious power, and the sun gleaming off of the polished metal, it was an impressive sight.
\nWith a reassuring hiss of steam the big train neared the station. A cheer went up from the crowd, and everyone pushed for a better view.
\nSuddenly, just before the train came to a stop as it reached Wellington, a loud screech emitted from it. A few horses reared, and many of those gathered covered their ears.
\n\u201cTarnation, what was that?!\u201d Sam exclaimed, with a wince.
\n\u201cTrain whistle,\u201d his friend replied, wiggling a finger in his ear. \u201cKnew it was comin\u2019, but never thought it would be so loud.\u201d
\n\u201cWell, that better not be a regular thing,\u201d Sam replied. Looking around, he continued, \u201cYou know, I may rethink moving here. Can you imagine having to listen to that racket?\u201d
\n\u201cI\u2019ll say,\u201d Charles agreed. \u201cAnd once a week, at that. Folks would complain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Feel free to e-mail Scott at: machellscorners@gmail.com<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston \u201cIt\u2019s a big day today.\u201d \u201cI\u2019ll say. May 16, 1853. The day the first steam train rolled into our little hamlet. People will talk about this for years to come.\u201d The two men stood at the edge of a small crowd gathered just south of Wellington Street east of Yonge. The assembly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5hD","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-02 14:28:11","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20313\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}