Day Trips: Morpeth

Historical plaque at Morpeth features
the bell from S. S. No. 2, Howard Twp.

Morpeth, Chatham-Kent is a village after my own heart. It features a vanished lake port, deserted buildings, a pioneer cemetery, and monuments to its earlier citizens. What could be better for this backroads blogger? 

The community at Talbot Trail (Hwy. 3) and Hill Road (Hwy. 17) really started three kilometres farther south, where Big Creek flowed into Lake Erie. The river mouth formed a small harbour where wheat and other grains could be exported and a variety of goods shipped in. The port, precursor to Morpeth, was named Antrim. 

The first settlers at Antrim were the Ruddle family, formerly of Co. Antrim, Ireland. The Ruddle family was extensive and their genealogy complex, but, for those interested, there's a family history here. Family members founded a store or trading post, the first in Kent County on Lake Erie, as well as other businesses, including a tavern. The creek that meandered through their farms provided power for pioneer mills. In the 1830s, it appeared that Antrim would be a thriving community for generations to come.

Not that all was idyllic. Life was hard. Among the early burials at Morpeth Cemetery on the Talbot Trail are John and Thomas Ruddle, both of whom died on June 4, 1822, aged 39 and 27: 

The words at the bottom read: "They were inseparable in their lives and in their death they were not divided." Historian Marjorie Giddis suggested they may have drowned.* 

Eventually, something went wrong among these resourceful Ruddles. In the 1840s,  a partnership between Robert, William and James Ruddle was the driving force behind the community. When the partnership dissolved, the port village declined. Eventually, heirs of the Ruddle family sold hundreds of acres to an Anglican priest with the unlikely name of Rev. Humpisch Massingberd. Hoping to revive the community, Massingberd had this plan produced: 

The number of streets looks ambitious. But, unfortunately for Rev. M., the port had silted up. Howard Township didn't want the expense of keeping a high bridge across the harbour in good repair so it built one on ground level, a mistake that prevented boats from entering the harbour. Apparently Massingberd gave up and returned to his native England. His family stayed in the area until the 1940s but Antrim had reached the end. 

Unlike most "ghost towns," Antrim has been memorialized in poetry:

Ghost Port, by Frances Gillard Harvey

                            Antrim,

                            Fair and sure of name,

                            What happened    

                            To your glory, fame -

                            Your silted harbour,

                            Lying low,

                            Where bullrush, now,

                            And sumac grow;

                            Your brigs, your wharf,

                            Your land bridge, high;

                            Your warehouse, post,

                            Your mill close by? 

Well, as land was cleared and drained, the waterpower for the mills diminished and they were abandoned. The poem continues:

                            Antrim,

                            Only this, I know,

                            Your fathers, early,

                            Perished. So,

                            Failing times,

                            Combined with stress, 

                            Your ship was left 

                            Quite rudderless,

                            And that it foundered,

                            Less, perchance,

                            To do with pride

                            Than, circumstance!

Later, shipping facilities were built just south of Morpeth at Morpeth Dock, also known as Hill's dock after founder Erastus Hill. The map below shows Morpeth dock surrounded by Hill family landowners:

Section from Howard Township, Illustrated Historical Atlas of the Counties of Essex & Kent, 1880.

Morpeth had more luck as a community. Originally named Howard after the township, it was renamed after Lord Morpeth who visited his friend Thomas Talbot in about 1842. Although farther from the lake, it was on an important road. By the 1860s, it had as many as three hotels, 21 businesses, and perhaps 600 people.** W. L. Smith, in Pioneers of Old Ontario, describes Morpeth: "That thriving little village formed one of the greatest market centres for wheat in Western Ontario. At that time there was no Ridgetown and very little of Chatham. In fact, farmers then teamed grain from the immediate vicinity of where the Maple City now stands to sell it in Morpeth. It was a common thing to see three or four vessels lying at the dock and the lake front taking on grain, while a stretch of teams a mile and a half long, waiting for delivery, extended back along the road."***

One of Canada's greatest 19th-century poets, Archibald Lampman (1861-99), was born here. Just to the east of the village on the Talbot Trail is Trinity Anglican Church, where his father, also named Archibald, was minister. Since the family moved to the Peterborough area the year Junior turned six, he can't have remembered much about Morpeth and I doubt if he immortalized it in poetry. However, the Government of Canada built a monument to him on the church grounds:

Plaque reads: "Born in Morpeth, Upper Canada, Lampman spent most of his short adult life unhappily working as a clerk in the Post Office Department in Ottawa, for poetry was his true vocation. One of the "sixties group" which wrote Canada's first noteworthy English verse, his work shows the influence of English writers, particularly Keats and Arnold and of American nineteenth-century literature. Writer of many poems describing Ottawa's rural environs, he complemented his interest in Nature by commenting poetically on the dehumanizing effects of a mechanized capitalist society. He died at Ottawa."

Perched on a low hill - or what passes for a hill in the plains of Chatham-Kent - sits Trinity Anglican, east of Morpeth. There are magnificent views of Lake Erie from the grounds. 

Morpeth, on an important east-west road and close to the lake, prospered for some time. Then came the news that a railway would be built from Fort Erie to Windsor. Morpeth and Ridgetown competed for the tracks, but, unfortunately for Morpeth, the Canada Southern Railway was built through Ridgetown in 1872. From then on, Ridgetown grew and Morpeth declined in importance and population. You might say there was Less-Peth (groan). I'd guesstimate the current population of the village at about 250. While there are many people living here - retirees mostly - most business has disappeared, leaving deserted or deteriorating buildings at the main intersection:

I can remember this being an antique store a few years back.

But some buildings are being restored. David Benson and partner have restored the former Morpeth United Church, built 1877, and converted the lower level into an Airbnb. 

Note former entrance was on corner at left. This change was made years ago, not by present owner.

The upstairs sanctuary is being restored.

Next to the church is a pioneer home moved from another location. It's also a work in progress:

David's place, on the other side of the village, has also been beautifully restored. It can be difficult to see through summer foliage:

* The information in the link, the plan of Antrim, information about John and Thomas Ruddle, and the poem are from Marjorie Giddis, As the story is told: A History of Morpeth and Community. Ridgetown: The New Horizon Committee, 1986. 

** But 19th century population estimates often include everyone who picked up the mail at a particular post office. This estimate might have included numerous surrounding farm families. 

*** Quoted by R. M. R., "Records Reveal Antrim Village Was No Myth." London Free Press February 22, 1947. The Maple City is Chatham. I have no idea who R. M. R. was. Old-time historians who contributed to the F.P.'s Looking Over Western Ontario page often went by their initials.