1916 WWI Photo - The Boys of 62nd Battery waiting at the Petawawa Train Station for the 15th Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery to arrive at Petawawa, Ontario

On the back of this photo, in very light hand writing, reads: 62nd Battery Ammunition Column. Boys at the station waiting for the Battalion to pass through. I am below the tracks. You can see the Village of Petawawa in the background - some busy (this would be Selkirks Store / Post Office / Gas ). I must not forget to mention there is another store on the other side of the tracks (this would be Giesebrecht's General Store) which is not in the picture.

62nd Battery & Ammunition Column of the 15th Artillery Brigade, C. E. F. in Victoria, British Columbia prior to their departure to England.

The 15th Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery prepares to depart British Columbia 28 May for Petawawa, Ontario to continue training before deploying to England. LINK - www.vancouvergunners.ca/1916-15th-brigade-cfa.html

Col. A. T. Ogllvle, of the 15th Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery, Victoria, B. C, will command Petawawa Artillery Camp this summer. He la one of the beet known artillery officers In commission. LINK - www.newspapers.com/clip/116019703/15th-brigade-canadian-f...
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Heart Of Petawawa Village - This CPR station at Petawawa was always a busy spot, even when Camp Petawawa was only a tented army summer camp 40 years ago. Agent W. T. "BILL" Collum has been on the job since 1914. Gerry Tremblay was the assistant agent. while Joseph Xrelger look on. LINK to a photo - www.newspapers.com/clip/115342383/petawawa-7/

William Thomas Collum
(b. 1892 in New Glasgow, Pictou County, Nova Scotia – d. 24 April 1965 at age 73 in Petawawa, Ontario) - occupation - CPR ticket agent at Petawawa, Ontario - LINK to his newspaper obituary - www.newspapers.com/clip/116087763/william-thomas-collum-o...

His wife - Catherine Loretta Contway
(b. 17 February 1890 in Admaston, Renfrew County, Ontario – d. 13 July 1961 at age 71 in Petawawa, Ontario) - occupation - nurse - LINK to her newspaper obituary - www.newspapers.com/clip/116072264/loretta-catherine-nee-c...

They were married - 22 October 1918 at Pembroke, Ontario.

(Clipped from - The Ottawa Citizen newspaper - Ottawa, Ontario, Canada - 14 August 1953) - By Fred Inglis - PETAWAWA - Without a military camp nearby, there probably would be no Petawawa village today. The soil in this vicinity ts too sandy to support general farming. Consequently, the village depends largely on the big army camp just across the Petawawa River, for a livelihood. Petawawa also produces prominent hockey players, clean sheets. and neat suits, pop and piscatorial possibilities. Petawawa village doesn't look much as you scoot through Its extra wide main street on your way to the camp, to Chalk River, Deep River or North Bay. Yet it has two busy light industries and a population of from 1,000 to 1,500, depending on how far you take in. The village is in the township of Petawawa and is not incorporated so it has no borders. Some of Petawawa's breadwinners work in the village, others are employed at the military camp, at Chalk River atomic energy plant; some at Deep River and some at Pembroke.

Business Places - Serving customer in town and from the military camp are three grocery stores, two butcher shops, a home furnishing store, even service stations, including three garages and an auto agency. The town has three good restaurants, a Post Office, Bell Telephone office, a recently opened barber shop and 18 taxis between four firms, one of which operate radio-equipped cars. In addition, there Is a wholesale tobacco and confectionery firm, a bottling plant and a laundry and dry cleaning plant. Showplace of the village is the new Roman Catholic church opened this spring. Its exterior of varicolored field stone. There ls also a Presbyterian Church, an Anglican Church and two Lutheran churches, about a mile northeast of here. A modern separate school with four classrooms and an auditorium was opened only last year. The two oldest stores in town are Don Selkirk's store, built in 1910 (1906) and Giesebrecht's store, opened prior to 1915 by Eugene Gelsebrecht.

Hockey Players - Mr. Gelsebrecht died last Dec. 23 and the store is now operated by his six sons, Roy, Fred, Jack, Dick, Bert and Bruce, all well-known hockey players. Roy, the oldest, played with Detroit Red Wings from 1938 to 1941. Jack played with Buffalo and Houston and was with the Ottawa Senators for the last two years. Bert and Bruce are connected with Detroit, Omaha and Shawinigan teams.

Petawawa Point, on the Ottawa River, about a mile from the village, is a popular summer cottage settlement with a good sandy beach and is nearly as large as the village. The late Peter White, Toronto lawyer, camped here for 25 summers and the late E. A. Dunlop, Conservative MP, was a summer resident here. His daughter comes here each summer. They tell me there is fair fishing in the Ottawa River at the mouth of the Petawawa; they get pike, pickerel and small mouth bass. On the north branch of the Petawawa, is fair muskie fishing. Black Bay, on the Petawawa, is another popular summer center and noted for Its good fishing. At the Giesebrecht Limited bottling works, five men turn out about 250,000 case's of soft drinks a year, or an average of 1,100 cases a day. Using the latest type of equipment they bottle Pepsi-Cola, Nesbitt's Orange and the firm's own brand, Vitality drinks. All are distributed in Pembroke and as far away as Arnprior. Next door is the Deluxe Dry Cleaners plant, laundry and hat cleaning shop where 35 or 40 men and women are employed. Business comes from the army camp, from Deep River, Chalk River, Rolphton, Cormack, Eganvllle, Cobden, Chapeau and Pembroke. The population here is predominantly French and German, postmaster Oliver Clouthier told me. Mr. Clouthier, an ex-Forestry Corps officer, has been the town's courteous and efficient postmaster for about three years. A new store, the Riga Super Market, was opened recently by A. Jurmalietis.

"When I first came to Petawawa in 1915." CPR Agent W T. "Bill" Collum told me, "the village was very small. There were only two stores, Selkirk's and Giesebrecht's and a butcher shop. There were only one or two permanent administrative buildings at the camp the rest were tents. "After the First World War." he continued, "all artillery units from Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes came here for summer camp. They came from the middle of May to early September. As many as 5,000 troops came, all on special trains. There were no buses then. There were also squadrons of the RCD from Toronto and St. John's, Que. They marched from St John's; brought all their horses and equipment and made about 15 miles a day. Major Timmlns was in charge. He was a great horseman." At the outbreak of war in 1939. Mr. Collum recalled, an internment camp was built at Center Lake, within the military area.

Building Boom . . "A tremendous building program went on in 1940," he said. "As many as 110 cars of lumber and equipment were shipped in through here, as high as 35 cars in a day." A staff of four gives 24-hour telegraph and ticket service at this main line point, preferred by Bill Collum, who declined the position as agent at Ottawa Union, Pembroke arid Brockvllle. ... "There' no place like Petawawa for me," he explained. The original village used to be at "the point," according to Joe Kreiger who was born on a farm a couple of miles east of here about 60 years ago. "There used to be a wooden bridge across the Petawawa at the point before the First World War." he said, "but Its been gone a long time now. William and Tom Murray had a sawmill at the Second Chute. Gillis used to bring thousands of logs down the river and so did J. R. Booth, McLaughlins, Hawkesbury, Pembroke Lumber - there must have been a million logs a year, when the river water was higher.

Taken in: Canada / Ontario / Petawawa (show map)

Taken on: January 7, 2023

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