Algoma Dairy had enviable record of milk delivery in Chapleau starting with 'pony express' in 1921

From its "pony express" which brought milk to its first customers until it ceased deliveries, the Algoma Dairy in Chapleau had an enviable record of never missing a day, according to newspaper articles about the family business that served the community for just over 75 years.

On July 4, 1921, the first delivery of milk went out to a few customers of the business established by Walter and Emily Broomhead with total assets of one cow, a cart and a Shetland pony.

The steady growth over the years was "not achieved by chance" but by the efforts of Mr. Broomhead, his wife and their three sons, Jim, Walter and Arthur, according to a newspaper report about the family business 35 years later.

In due course they eventually had a herd of 84 cattle,  a farm, where two of their grandchildren still live today, and the pony express delivery gave way to an insulated milk truck. By 1939, they had the Algoma Dairy  building at the intersection of Birch and Young Streets.

As the business had grown they dispensed with the herd of cattle and had milk shipped from the Larchwood area which was processed at the dairy. One newspaper story relates that during a Canadian Pacific Railway strike, they had a truck travel over Highway 129 daily to Blind River to pick up the milk and return to Chapleau same  day.

They kept pace with modernization, and added the latest in equipment. Sons Jim and Walter joined the business and when their younger brother Arthur did a bit later, Margaret Costello asked what he did.

Jokingly, the older brothers replied, "Well he's supposed to do as he's told but generally ends up doing what he pleases." Arthur became the last brother to be actively involved with the family business.

When Mr. Broomhead died in 1940, Mrs. Broomhead and her sons continued the business.

In 1956, Margaret Costello paid tribute to Mrs. Broomhead for her "tremendous vitality and indomitable spirit that pulled her through early struggles (including the death of her husband) -- combined with a lively sense of humour".

The story also noted that in 1956 that Algoma Dairy would be one of the oldest family owned businesses in Chapleau that had never changed hands having been established in 1921.

The Boston Café owned by the Hong family would be another. Charles W. Collins stores celebrates 90 years with the Collins name in 2018, and still operated by family members.

Arriving in Chapleau in 1912, Mr. and Mrs. Broomhead purchased property on King Street which at the time was a "mixture of bush and mud" and built the first house there.

Obtaining milk was a problem for families with young children so they bought a cow to solve it, and their neighbours who faced the same situation became their first customers and their business was started in 1921.

As government regulations increased, the dairy adapted constantly upgrading the business but still never missing a day's delivery.

Like so many Chapleau people I have such fond memories of milk being delivered to our door daily as I was growing up in our home on Grey Street, first by Jim and later by Arthur.

When I was a youngster on my way to visit my grandparents Lil (Mulligan) and Harry Morris on Elgin Street (the other side of town), quite often I would meet Jim on the milk truck. He never failed to tell me to say "hello" to my grandparents from him.

All the Broomhead family have made a significant contribution to many aspects of the life and times of Chapleau for over 100 years now. Grandchildren and great grandchildren of Emily and Walter Broomhead still do.  The Algoma Dairy closed in 1997. My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Premier Bill Davis visits Chapleau working the room with constituents even while enjoying ice cream cone on downtown walking tour

Premier Bill, MJ, Willie Memegos, Clare Hoy in cap

Bill Davis, who was Ontario's second longest serving premier from 1971 to 1985, held a cabinet meeting In Kapuskasing, called a provincial election while in Timmins, and made his first campaign stop Chapleau in August 1975.

Although Chapleau council presented a brief to the cabinet meeting in Kapuskasing, Mr. Davis decided to visit the community to discuss local priorities. 

The major priority at the time was to complete the new Chapleau General Hospital, extend services to it and realign Teak Street, but the needs of the elderly were high on Chapleau's list of priorities.

With a reduction in  beds at the new hospital, there was a great need for a facility for the special needs of the elderly. In the brief, there was a request for an extended care facility to be located at the hospital. In due course, Chapleau was told there was no funding for such facilities, and that was how Cedar Grove Lodge came into being.

In 1998, the Bignucolo Residence was opened -- about 23 years later.

By 1975, the airport was open with norOntair service daily but the airport commission led by Gene Bernier and Yvon Martel, wanted the runway extended and paved to bring it up to standard and stimulate the economy. Mr. Davis was told that a Ministry of Natural Resources water bombing base should be built at Gala Lake. Chapleau was an ideal location for the base.

Council had also started planning for a civic centre to replace the Town Hall, as well as for a new sewage plant and system as it had reached its optimum use.

Get this one!!! Council was asking for an "immediate" feasibility study to pursue improvements to the connecting link between Highways 144 and 129, commonly called the Sultan or Ramsey Road. 

The brief to the premier argued that "the opening of such a link (as a provincial highway) would greatly reduce travel time to and from the community and is necessary for increased economic activity in Chapleau."

So much for that one. Forty-two years later, as folks were travelling home for the 90th anniversary reunion of Chapleau, they were asking on Facebook, "How is the Ramsey road?"We avoided it by coming via Highway 129 and returning by Highway 144.

While in Chapleau, Mr. Davis visited the Chapleau Centennial Museum, and was taken on a tour of the new hospital site by William Memegos, the township public works superintendent, then off to the downtown area, where, always the politician he did some mainstreeting. First, he picked up an ice cream cone from Walter Broomhead at the Algoma Dairy, which gave the travelling press a photo op.

As an aside, it just struck me that in 1984, I think, Mr. Broomhead presented a dozen eggs to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau when the prime minister's train stopped in Chapleau. That's a story for another day.

While mainstreeting, Mr. Davis met a family from his Brampton riding, and he spent time chatting with them. Always work the room when your constituents are around, even if it happens to be downtown Chapleau.

Mr. Davis attended a coffee party at the Royal Canadian Legion Hall where the highlight was the presentation of a plaque to Mary (Muske) Campbell for her outstanding work for the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party.

A couple of days later, a column by Clare Hoy in the Toronto Sun was headlined "Backwoods Bill" and questioned why the premier would visit a place with only one flashing street light (at Birch and Lorne) and so on on the day he called an election. Not really complimentary to Mr. Davis or Chapleau. Chapleau citizens were not impressed and for a time the Toronto Sun was banned from Pearl Freeborn's corner store.

When I was editor of the Cord student newspaper at Waterloo Lutheran University (now Wilfrid Laurier University), Mr. Davis was Ontario's education minister and was awarded an honorary degree by the university. It bothered me for the longest time that I ran the Davis story as the headliner on page one, instead of something more radical in keeping with the sixties. But I was a good Progressive Conservative in those days, so I went with it.

As education minister from 1962 to 1971, perhaps his most lasting legacy was to establish community colleges in Ontario, a first in North America, a move that was much criticized, but they are still around. 

When I was news editor at the Brampton Times newspaper responsible for the front page in 1967, we ran every word Mr. Davis ever uttered on the front page. I didn't have to question myself at all as the paper totally supported him, and I simply ran the stories. Mr. Davis was also the consummate riding politician and never missed an opportunity to talk about Brampton -- or chat with constituents as noted on his visit to Chapleau.

Overall, Mr. Davis helped Chapleau. As premier, many considered him very bland, but he had a way about him -- a sense of common decency, so rarely seen today in our politicians that he stands out as one of the most memorable politicians I have known.

Stephen Lewis, who was at one time the Ontario NDP leader sent the following message to Mr. Davis to mark his 80th birthday, three years ago:
"You made politics an art that was at once humane, generous, respectful and urgent. We often disagreed but there always remained a quality of shared regard and friendship, how astonishingly different from the politics of today." Mr. Davis still lives in beloved Brampton. My email is mj.morris@live.ca