Meaford is a municipality in
Grey County, Ontario
Grey County is a county of the Canadian province of Ontario. The county seat is in Owen Sound. It is located in the subregion of Southern Ontario named Southwestern Ontario. Grey County is also a part of the Georgian Triangle. At the time of t ...
, Canada. Meaford is located on
Nottawasaga Bay, a sub-basin of
Georgian Bay
Georgian Bay (french: Baie Georgienne) is a large bay of Lake Huron, in the Laurentia bioregion. It is located entirely within the borders of Ontario, Canada. The main body of the bay lies east of the Bruce Peninsula and Manitoulin Island. To ...
and Owen Sound Bay, in the traditional territory of the
Saugeen Ojibway Nation
The Saugeen Ojibway Nation Territory ( oj, Saukiing Anishnaabekiing), also known as ''Saugeen Ojibway Nation'', ''SON'' and the ''Chippewas of Saugeen Ojibway Territory'', is the name applied to Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation and Saugee ...
in southern Ontario. The municipality's seal and motto reflect its heritage as a place of
apple orchards
An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit- or nut-producing trees which are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of larg ...
, but in the 21st century the area has partly switched to weekend homes, seasonal homes, and lakeside
tourism
Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...
.
The
Canadian Army
The Canadian Army (french: Armée canadienne) is the command responsible for the operational readiness of the conventional ground forces of the Canadian Armed Forces. It maintains regular forces units at bases across Canada, and is also respo ...
maintains a training facility,
4th Canadian Division Training Centre Meaford (4 CDTC), northwest of the town of Meaford.
Communities
In addition to the town of Meaford itself, the municipality also includes the communities of Annan,
Balaclava, Bognor, Centreville,
Leith
Leith (; gd, Lìte) is a port area in the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith. In 2021, it was ranked by '' Time Out'' as one of the top five neighbourhoods to live in the world.
The earliest ...
, and Woodford.
History
![Meaford Fire Hall 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Meaford_Fire_Hall_2.jpg)
In 1837, when this area was part of the St. Vincent Township, locals asked the government for a piece of land at the mouth of the
Bighead River. The first settler was from Ireland, before the townsite was laid out by
Charles Rankin
Charles Rankin, (1797 − 1886 or 12 October 1888) was an early Irish-born and Scottish-descended settler and land surveyor in Upper Canada (the predecessor to the province of Ontario, Canada). He is significant due to his role in the surveyin ...
in 1845 and called Meaford. By then, a
sawmill
A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...
and
gristmill
A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...
were already operating nearby; the post office there was called St. Vincent. Meaford saw little growth until 1850 but then began booming; it had a library by 1856.
Meaford had previously been named Peggy's Landing and Stephenson's Landing.
The post office was renamed Meaford in 1865, after the
birthplace
The place of birth (POB) or birthplace is the place where a person was born. This place is often used in legal documents, together with name and date of birth, to uniquely identify a person. Practice regarding whether this place should be a cou ...
of
John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent, for whom the township of St. Vincent is named; by then, the community was booming and had connection by steamship and roads with the railway at Collingwood. The community became a town in 1874.
![Meaford, ON Grand Trunk Railway station May 1902](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Meaford%2C_ON_Grand_Trunk_Railway_station_May_1902.jpg)
The
Northern Railway of Canada's
North Grey Railway arrived in Meaford on December 31, 1872 in its westward push from Collingwood via
Thornbury Thornbury may refer to:
Places
;Australia
*Thornbury, Victoria
* Thornbury railway station, Melbourne
;Canada
* Thornbury, Ontario
;England
*Thornbury, Devon
* Thornbury, Herefordshire
*Thornbury, Gloucestershire
**Thornbury Castle
**Thornbury (UK ...
.
It was originally planned to extend further west to Owen Sound, but this ambition was never realized due to a number of factors, including rough terrain, financial limitations, and competition from the
Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway
The Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway (TG&B) was a railway company which operated in Ontario, Canada in the years immediately following the Canadian Confederation of 1867. It connected two rural counties, Grey County and Bruce County, with the provi ...
, which reached Owen Sound in 1873.
The railway was later part of the
Grand Trunk Railway and
Canadian National Railways
The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I railroad, Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern United States, M ...
(CNR) systems. Thereafter, it became known as the CN Meaford Subdivision. Regular passenger service ended in 1960 and the line was abandoned in 1985.
In 1872, there were six churches. By the early 1880s, Meaford boasted three planing mills, three carriage factories, two tanneries, a sawmill, a shingle mill, a woollen mill, two foundries, two flour mills, a dozen general stores, and a wide range of other stores and tradesmen. The community also had ten hotels. A public school was added in 1868 with 152 students within a year. A high school was opened in 1890.
2001 amalgamation
In 2001, with the
amalgamation
Amalgamation is the process of combining or uniting multiple entities into one form.
Amalgamation, amalgam, and other derivatives may refer to:
Mathematics and science
* Amalgam (chemistry), the combination of mercury with another metal
**Pan am ...
of various municipalities in Southern Ontario, St. Vincent Township, Sydenham Township and the Town of Meaford, were amalgamated to form one municipality entity. Sydenham Township named in part for
Lord Sydenham
Charles Poulett Thomson, 1st Baron Sydenham, (13 September 1799 – 19 September 1841) was a British businessman, politician, diplomat and the first Governor General of the united Province of Canada. , governor of Canada from 1839 to 1841. St. Vincent Township was named after the
Earl of St. Vincent and Meaford was named after his stately house. A township is an area of land (about 15 miles by 12 miles) that is divided into 100 acre farms (usually). For more than one hundred years the townships of Ontario were municipal entities with an elected council and a reeve. Sometimes a small area of a township was separated and incorporated as a town. The town was then a separate and distinct municipality. This was the case with Meaford in 1874 when it was separated from St. Vincent township. However it ceased to be a town at the time of amalgamation.
A transition team preparing for the new municipality voted in September 2000 to name it Georgian Highlands, with the name Meaford ranking second. Highland Hills, Georgian Shores, Bayview, Trillium, Big Head Valley, Georgian View, Cape Rich, Bay Shore Highlands, Georgian Bay Highlands, North Grey and Queen's Bush were other names considered.
But the council of the new Georgian Highlands municipality voted 4-3 on 5 February 2001 voted to name the amalgamated area Meaford, citing confusion with nearby municipalities such as
Georgian Bluffs
Georgian Bluffs is a township in southwestern Ontario, Canada, in Grey County located between Colpoy's Bay and Owen Sound on Georgian Bay.
The township was incorporated on January 1, 2001, by amalgamating the former townships of Derby, Keppel, ...
and
Grey Highlands. A by-law to formalize the name change to Meaford for the amalgamated area was subsequently passed on 5 March 2001, also by a 4-3 vote.
Since that time confusion has continued in the use of the name "Meaford". At present the name "Meaford" is commonly used in reference to the urban area formerly known as the Town of Meaford, while the name "Municipality of Meaford" is commonly used in reference to the merged region resulting from amalgamation in 2001.
Demographics
In the
2021 Census of Population
The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...
conducted by
Statistics Canada
Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultur ...
, Meaford had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.
Local government
The former mayors of Meaford were:
* 1998–2000: Doug Grant
* 2001–2003: Gerald Shortt
[ (first Mayor since 2001 amalgamation)
* 2003–2008: Wally Reif
* 2008–2014: Francis Richardson
* 2014–2022: Barb Clumpus
Meaford is on the eastern edge of the ]Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound
Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound (formerly known as Bruce, Bruce—Grey and Grey—Bruce—Owen Sound) is a federal electoral district that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1935.
The riding has had a reputation of being a ...
federal and provincial electoral district.
Transportation
The town of Meaford is located on Ontario Highway 26
King's Highway 26, commonly referred to as Highway 26, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario, connecting the cities of Owen Sound and Barrie. Between these two cities, the highway serves the southern shoreline o ...
between Owen Sound and Collingwood on Highway 26.
A local public transit service makes stops within urban Meaford but not in Sydenham or St Vincent. Local taxis service the area around the town of Meaford.
Billy Bishop Regional Airport is located in the municipality on Highway 26 between the Town of Meaford and Owen Sound.
Education
Meaford has one public school with the Bluewater District School Board
Bluewater District School Board (known as English-language Public District School Board No. 7 prior to 1999) is a school board in the Canadian province of Ontario, with jurisdiction for the operation of schools in Bruce and Grey Counties.
Its he ...
:
* Georgian Bay Community School (Grades JK - 12)
The closest post-secondary school is the Georgian College
Georgian College is a College of Applied Arts and Technology in Ontario, Canada. It has 13,000 full-time students, including 4,500 international students from 85 countries, across seven campuses, the largest being in Barrie.
History
The colle ...
regional campus in Owen Sound, Ontario.
Trivia
* Several scenes from the Disney movie '' One Magic Christmas'' were filmed in Meaford.
Media
The town is served by two community newspapers, the ''Meaford Express'' and the ''Meaford Independent'', the latter originally an online only publication, however as of May 31, 2013 and the former being sold and eventually ceasing publication, is available both online and in print. CKNX-FM
CKNX-FM is a Canadian radio station, which broadcasts at 101.7 FM in Wingham, Ontario. The station broadcasts a hot adult contemporary format as ''101.7 The One''. The station was formerly known as ''FM102'' before summer 2006.
History
The sta ...
, originating from Wingham, Ontario
Wingham (2016 census population 2,934) is a community located in the municipality of North Huron, Ontario, Canada, which is located in Huron County. Wingham became part of North Huron in 2001 when the Ontario government imposed amalgamation on th ...
to the south, has a low-power retransmitter on 104.9 FM to serve the municipality. Meaford is otherwise served principally by media from nearby Owen Sound
Owen Sound ( 2021 Census population 21,612) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. The county seat of Grey County, it is located at the mouths of the Pottawatomi and Sydenham Rivers on an inlet of Georgian Bay.
The primary tourist attract ...
. Rogers cable is available in the Town of Meaford while residents in the former St. Vincent and Sydenham have access only to Satellite TV.
Municipal Symbols
On April 15, 2016 the Canadian Heraldic Authority granted Meaford its coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...
, flag and badge.
Coat of Arms
Flag
Per fess Argent and Azure an escutcheon of the Arms.
Badge
An apple Gules charged with a schooner Argent.
Notable residents
* Lyman Duff
Sir Lyman Poore Duff (7 January 1865 – 26 April 1955) was the eighth Chief Justice of Canada. He was the longest serving justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.
Early life and career
Born in Meaford, Canada West (now Ontario) to a Cong ...
, 8th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada
* Beautiful Joe
Beautiful Joe was a dog from the town of Meaford, Ontario, whose story inspired the bestselling 1893 novel ''Beautiful Joe'', which contributed to worldwide awareness of animal cruelty.
The real Beautiful Joe
The real Beautiful Joe was an Air ...
, a dog immortalized by the 1894 book of the same name
* Claude Bissell
Claude Thomas Bissell (February 10, 1916 – June 21, 2000) was a Canadian author and educator.
Biography
He was the eighth president of the University of Toronto from 1958 to 1971. He played a major part in the expansion of the University o ...
, author and educator
* Keith Bissell: composer, conductor, and music educator (1912–1992).
* James Conmee, former Member of Provincial Parliament
Member of Provincial Parliament is the title given to provincial legislators in two legislatures:
* Member of Provincial Parliament (Canada)
* Member of Provincial Parliament (Western Cape)
In the Western Cape province of South Africa, Member of P ...
* Fred S. Haines
Frederick Stanley Haines (29 March 1879 in Meaford, Ontario – 21 November 1960 in Thornhill, Ontario), more commonly known as Fred S. Haines, was a Canadian painter. An accomplished and versatile artist, he is well known for his watercolour ...
(1879–1960) artist
* Tom Harpur
Thomas William Harpur (1929–2017), known as Tom Harpur, was a Canadian biblical studies, biblical scholar, columnist, and broadcaster. An ordained Anglicanism, Anglican priest, he was a proponent of the Christ myth theory, the idea that Jesus di ...
, Author and religious columnist
* Don Knight, former Member of Provincial Parliament
Member of Provincial Parliament is the title given to provincial legislators in two legislatures:
* Member of Provincial Parliament (Canada)
* Member of Provincial Parliament (Western Cape)
In the Western Cape province of South Africa, Member of P ...
* Brent Laing
Brent George Laing (born December 10, 1978) is a Canadian curler from Horseshoe Valley, Ontario. He currently plays lead for Mike McEwen. He grew up in Meaford, Ontario.
Career
Curling out of the Ottawa Curling Club (in Ottawa) and later the ...
, curler
* Ron Lipsett
Ronald F. Lipsett (born January 19, 1944) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1987 to 1990 who represented the central Ontario riding of Grey.
Background
Lipsett was edu ...
, former Member of Provincial Parliament
Member of Provincial Parliament is the title given to provincial legislators in two legislatures:
* Member of Provincial Parliament (Canada)
* Member of Provincial Parliament (Western Cape)
In the Western Cape province of South Africa, Member of P ...
* Marshall B. Lloyd
Marshall Burns Lloyd (March 10, 1858 – August 10, 1927) was an American inventor and manufacturer, best known for inventing the Lloyd Loom which was used for making a popular style of furniture and baby carriages.
He also was noted for filing p ...
, inventor of Lloyd Loom, Pres. Lloyd Mfg., Menominee, MI
* Herb Mitchell, former forward for the Boston Bruins
The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. The Bruins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team has been in existence since 1924, making t ...
* John Muir
John Muir ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist, a ...
, naturalist, author, "Father of the (U.S.) National Parks", left the US to avoid conscription during the Civil War and lived in a cabin near William Trout's mill, where he was working, in the Bighead Valley near Meaford during 1864-1866.
* Bill Murdoch
Bill Murdoch (born January 10, 1945 died August 16, 2022) was a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1990 to 2011, representing the riding of Bruce—Grey—O ...
, Member of Provincial Parliament
Member of Provincial Parliament is the title given to provincial legislators in two legislatures:
* Member of Provincial Parliament (Canada)
* Member of Provincial Parliament (Western Cape)
In the Western Cape province of South Africa, Member of P ...
* Darren Pang
Darren Robert Pang (born February 17, 1964) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender. He played his professional career with the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League (1984–85 and 1987–89).
He is currently the lead c ...
, former goaltender for the Chicago Blackhawks
The Chicago Blackhawks (spelled Black Hawks until 1986, and known colloquially as the Hawks) are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago. The Blackhawks compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division i ...
and current NHL
The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...
analyst
* Glenn Smith, former defenseman for the Toronto St. Patricks
The Toronto St. Patricks (colloquially known as the St. Pats) were a professional ice hockey team which began playing in the National Hockey League (NHL) in 1919. The Toronto NHL franchise (league membership) had previously been held by the Arena ...
* Tom Thomson, influential Canadian artist of the early 20th century
* Melville "Sparky" Vail, former defenseman for the New York Rangers
The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home ...
* Terry Wong
Lieutenant Colonel Terry Wong, a former helicopter pilot with the Canadian Forces, was slated to become the next Canadian astronaut, with the private firm Canadian Arrow. As of 2021, Wong is Branch Head for Doctrine Development at thRCAF Aerospa ...
, Canadian astronaut
See also
*List of townships in Ontario
This is a list of townships in the Canadian province of Ontario. Townships are listed by census division.
Northern Ontario Northeastern Ontario Algoma District
Historical/Geographic Townships
*Abbott
*Aberdeen Additional
*Abigo
*Abotossaway
* ...
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Lower-tier municipalities in Ontario
Municipalities in Grey County