Although best known for his role in the construction of the Chapleau end of Highway 129, and his untimely death from a heart attack just as it was completed in January 1949, Thomas J. Godfrey served as the second reeve and was otherwise greatly involved in community life in its early years.
Writing in Chapleau Trails, edited and published by the late Dr. W.R. "Bill" Pellow, Betty (Good) Godfrey, the wife of Thomas Godfrey Jr, his son, wrote the following about her father-in-law and the completion of Highway 129.
"Tom Sr. lived to see his beloved Chapleau highway completed in 1949 and he was a member of the party that drove the first automobile across those last one hundred yards to join Chapleau to the outside world by uniting two primitive bush roads. It was winter.
"The snow was heavy and deep. It was a bitter cold day. The drive had been long and arduous, excitement was high, anticipation of this moment was trying on the healthiest and bravest, however it proved too much for Tom Godfrey and on that day when he was experiencing fulfillment, ultimate pleasure and satisfaction, he had a heart attack and died."
The Chapleau Post reported that Mr. Godfrey had commented that it was the "happiest moment of my life" just before he died.
Mr. Godfrey had succeeded G.B. Nicholson who had served as reeve from 1901 when Chapleau was incorporated until he chose to retire. Mr. Godfrey was reeve from 1914 to 1916.
Born in Godfrey, Ontario, he arrived in Chapleau in 1898 to work for the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Like so many of Chapleau's early pioneers he quickly became involved in community life playing hockey, baseball, curling, golf as well as becoming a member of the Chapleau Town Band. He became a big asset as he was already a violin player but switched to cornet and euphonium.
In 1916, Mr. Godfrey played baseball on the 'Young Elephants' coached by Father Romeo Gascon of Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church. My grandfather Harry Morris also played on it.
In fact, when I was a a child walking past his house at the intersection of Birch and Lansdowne streets where the Louis Hemon Cultural Centre is now, I still recall him practising on his front porch.
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| Earle Sootheran, Mr Godfrey, Oliver Korpela |
Mr. Godfrey became Indian Agent in 1916, a position he held for many years, but he also became an entreprenur owning a pool room established circa 1910, and for a time the "old old rink" on Lorne Street.
But his first love was to complete the "big gap in the middle" which would result in Highway 129 with Thessalon. Until it was opened, Chapleau was really only accessible by the Canadian Pacific Railway. The highway was also under construction from the Thessalon end.
The newspaper referred to him as " a pioneer builder of the north" well known as Indian Agent and road superintendent from 1923 into the 1930s and the Great Depression.
On that January day in 1949 when he died, the Chapleau Post reoprted that the Chapleau contingent was "battling snowdrifts and biting winds over a rugged trail where no cars had ever passed he had driven completely over the Chapleau end of the road."
As Mr. Godfrey celebrated the "happiest moment" of his life, he had a heart attack and died on Highway 129. He was 74. My email is mj.morris@live.ca
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