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Doors Open: Seaforth Introduction Site Submissions THE TOWN OF SEAFORTH was once an inferior tract of land called the Guide Board Swamp, a place people passed through on their way to somewhere else. At the "four corners" where the Huron Road inter-sected what was to be Main Street, a fingerboard on a post pointed the way and gave the mileage to Egmondville, Ainleyville and Goderich. The neighbouring hamlets of Egmondville and Harpurhey were grow-ing and prospering. The prospect of a railway line drew the interest of land speculators to the area in the early 1850s. When the Buffalo, Brantford and Goderich Railroad whistled through in 1858, the future prospects of all three hamlets changed. 
In the early 1840s, Andrew Steene was the first settler to the area, living in a log cabin at the corner of Huron Road and what would be the Main Street. A large part of the land south of here was owned by Anthony Van Egmond, his payment for work he had done for The Canada Company. However, after his death in 1841, the land was offered at a sheriff's sale. Eventually, it came to be owned by Christopher Sparling. It was he who persuaded the Buffalo, Brantford & Goderich Railway (later the Buffalo & Lake Huron) to buy their right-of-way through his property.Shortly after the railway right-of-way was purchased, three lawyers and land speculators from the east, Patton, Bernard and Le Froy, bought land from Christopher Sparling. They at once had the whole lot survey-ed into a town plot and had it registered as Seaforth. They also cinched the deal for the location of a railway station in Seaforth, offering land and agreeing to build the station at their cost. Soon after, businesses moved from Egmondville into Seaforth as they had begun to from Harpurhey. By the 1860s the town could boast of several retail businesses, a doctor, a blacksmith, a post office, several hotels, a wagonmaker, and a number of firms engaged in the building trades and in the buying and selling of grain. 
The grain trade was very important to the prosperity of the town. Seaforth was a noted grain-buying centre, and the main outlet for the northern cereal crop, to a distance of 50 miles. At one time, firms were handling a million-dollars worth of wheat each season. Belden's 1879 Illustrated Historical Atlas of the County of Huron, Ontario noted that the amount of wheat handled at this point was estimated as great-er (from first pro-ducers) than at any point in Ontario, Toronto being no exception.
With grain coming in by the thousands of bushels, the buyers needed flour mills and storehouses. These were built near the railway tracks. The Seaforth Roller Mill, better known as the "Red Mill," was a 3-storey brick mill on the southeast corner of Huron and Jarvis streets. It burned some time in the 1890s. Another large flour mill was erected on Crombie's mill property by William Shearson in 1868. It was a 4-storey brick building which changed ownership several times over the years, becoming Topnotch Feeds in 1953.
Another industry that spurred the growth of Seaforth was salt. Salt was discovered here in 1868. In a few years, three extensive salt works were built-Seaforth Salt Works (also called Coleman & Gouinlock Salt Works), Eclipse Salt Works and Merchant Salt Company. The pure salt brine was pumped to the surface and into tanks which held enough liquid for 48-hours boiling. The boiling was done in sheds called salt blocks. The resulting salt was packed in barrels, ready for shipment. The largest salt works, Seaforth Salt Works, with three salt blocks in operation by 1876, could produce 500 barrels of salt a day.The salt business created a need for sawmills, cooperage shops and stave factories, and these were built near each salt works. In Coleman & Gouinlock's three salt blocks, sawmill and cooperage, 60 to 75 men were regularly employed. 
Foundries played an important part in the early days. As early as 1863, there was a foundry on Main Street and, by 1866, Zapfe and McCallum were making farm implements here as well as doing regular foundry work. Coleman's Foundry & Machine Shop, built in the early 1870s near the Salt Works, was bought by Robert Bell and John Finlayson in 1899. In 1903, the Robert Bell Engine & Threshing Co. was formed. Threshing machines, both portable and traction, were made in large numbers here. The company also made high and low pressure boil-ers. In 1915 the company was given a contract to aid war muni-tions production during WWI.
The first newspaper in Seaforth was The Express, started by C.H. Hull around 1860. By 1869, there was another paper, The Seaforth Expositor, owned and edited by a duo named Penton and Colborne who soon sold out to Luxton and Ross. (William F. Lux-ton went on the found The Winnipeg Free Press and George W. Ross became premier of On-tario.) When the broth-ers McLean, Alan and Murdo Y., bought the newspaper in December of 1870, they changed the name to The Huron Expositor. By 1876, there was a rival weekly, The Seaforth Sun. Its name was chang-ed to The Seaforth News in 1904 and was published until 1962.
Seaforth had a number of other factories and "works." In the early 1870s, W. Scott Robertson had a cheese factory at the end of north Main Street. By 1872, Benjamin Shantz had built the first flax mill at the corner of Coleman Street and Huron Road. Broadfoot & Box Furniture Factory employed 15 workmen by 1878 in their factory at Market and Jarvis streets (see the related story). In 1874, Pillman and Co. Carriage Factory was established near the south end of east Main Street, and employed about 10 men in the making of buggies and carriages. Just at the southern edge of Seaforth there was the A.G. Van Egmond Woolen Mills (see the story about Egmondville).
There were a number of early shops or businesses along Huron Road (Goderich Street). Sam Stark had his home and shoe shop here in the late 1840s. In the 1860s, Graham Williamson had a blacksmith shop and made plows. Edward Cash, a grain buyer and merchant, had moved his home and store, "The Ontario House," in from Harpurhey. Lumsden's drug store and Hickson's general store were also here along the southwest side of the street.
On the east side, north of what was for many years-and is again-the Queen's Hotel, James Bonthron had a dry goods and grocery store in the 1860s. Beside it was William Watson's insurance office. Robert Tait had a saddler's shop beside the present Orange Hall.
On January 1, 1875 Seaforth was incorporated as a town of about 2,060 people. Not long after, however, the town faced a threat common to all towns and villages of the time, fire. In September of 1876, fire ravaged much of the business district. But, within two years, the town was rebuilt with many of the fine brick blocks still in use today. See, for example, the stories on the Cardno Block, the Kidd Block, Box Furniture, Sills Home Hardware and Nifty Korners.
South of the hotel, Robert Carmichael built two frame stores in 1864, occupied by at that time by Fred Veale and H.W. McCann. They burned in 1876, but it was not until 1895 that Carmichael replaced them with the red brick, two-storey building (A). At the time the photo-graph at left was taken, the stores were occupied by Fred Gale's Meat Market and W.H. Willis Boots & Shoes. Today the building is occupied by The Sewing Centre and The Huron Expositor.
Jamieson's "Golden Lion" dry-goods store, and the I.O.O.F. above, at 58 Main Street. Next door is Grieg & MacDonald clothiers. The photograph was taken c. 1900. Today the stores are occupied by Seaforth Auto-motive Parts and Dr. Feelgood.
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