Search for People

We welcome your comments.

Home Page

"Our Ancestors and Their Descendants"

presented by:
Susan and Barry Reynolds

Contact Us

Articles

Famous People

Family Photographs

Craigvale

History of Craigvale and Stroud

Railway History

First sod for the Great Northern Railway of Canada was turned by Lady Elgin, wife of the Governor General of Canada, and the locomotive named in her honour, "Lady Elgin". With the building of the railway from Toronto to Aurora in the year 1851, to Belle Ewart and Allandale in 1853, Craigvale rapidly developed as an important business centre. The railway first passed through Craigvale in October, 1853. It was built in sections to Aurora, to Holland Landing, to Allandale and finished 1855 to Penetang. The workmen lived in log shacks with their families near their work. It was then called the Ontario, Simcoe and Huron Railway, being called for the lakes which it connected. The railway was built to a six foot gauge. In the late 1870's the track was changed to standard gauge of 4 ft. 8-1/2 inches.

The first station in this section was at Pratt's 12 Line, next at Craigvale. The Craigvale railway station was moved to Bramley, on the 9th line, after managing directors of the railway had a dispute with residents of Craigvale. In 1878 the station and a large building containing office, freight shed and grain sheds was moved back to Craigvale.

About this time the Northern Railway acquired the Hamilton and North Western Railway and the joint lines were known as the Northern and North Western Railway until 1888, when the lines became part of the Grand Trunk Railway, and now comprise part of the Canadian National System.

The station at Craigvale was burned down about 1896, but was soon rebuilt.

The Craigvale Railway Station was renamed Stroud Station, then torn down in 1964.

Navigation Aid: History of Craigvale and Stroud

This section contains material collected by Jeanne Groce about the history of Stroud and Craigvale. It contains "information collected from libraries, books, newspapers, the Centennial History of Innisfil, Historical Revue, word of mouth, and anywhere else I could find it." Reference to the source of the material is given where possible.

Many thanks to all who have contributed names, dates, photographs and stories. Corrections are always welcome.
Our research is ongoing and the validity of the information presented should be judged by the quality of our sources.

Our study includes our ancestors and their descendants (our cousins) and our cousins' spouses and their parents. The parents of our cousins' spouses will show as "A descendant is related to Susan or Barry" and their other children will not be included unless they are connected to our family.

Last Updated
June 4, 2023

This site powered by The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding (TNG) © 14.0.2 written by Darrin Lythgoe 2001-2023 and modified by Barry Reynolds. Information is stored in MYSQL database tables and dynamically displayed.

Genealogy Database Maintained and Relationships Calculated by Legacy 9.0
Hosted by SimplyHosting