The Islands: Biographies: Wolfe Island Bio 12

Wolfe Island Biographies 12

WARREN GODFREY & EMELINE HINCKLEY

(With Permission:)
From the book "Back of Sunset"
By Michael Dawber
Copyright 2000
Central Frontenac Township
Copies available for sale at the township office:
http://www.centralfrontenac.com/#contactinformation

The crossroads village of Godfrey has had many names and many different roles in its long history. When the hamlets first post office was granted in the fall of 1854, the name given was Deniston. Irishman William dennison was the first postmaster, and the probable source of the name. When the Kingston & Pembroke Railway reached this place, the company called its station Bedford, as it was the closest railway point to Bedford Township. To many locals, however, the most familiar name was Iron Ore Junction, as tons of iron ore were shipped from nearby mines through this point. Ultimately, the community settled on Godfrey, honoring a family with deep roots in the community.

Warren Godfrey was born in 1800 in New York State. At an early age, his family resettled to Wolfe Island, opposite Kingston, and it was there that Godfrey met Emeline and Hinckley, the American-born daughter of a Loyalist family. In the 1830s, Emeline and Warren struck out for what was then the outer limit of active settlement in Frontenac Country, choosing to settle just beyond the Hinchinbrooke-Portland line. Their farm, in Hinchinbrookes 3rd Concession, would ultimately become the site of the community of Godfrey. Several other families had also chosen this corner of Hinchinbrooke, including Bryan and Mary Nefcy, Adam McMahon, Edward and Margaret Kelly, Elizabeth and James Hickey, Elizabeth and John Vandake, John and Mary Alton, and Isabella and John McKnight. John McKnight is sometimes credited as Hinchinbrookes first settler, though according to a petition written in 1851, Godfrey claimed that honor for himself. All these families-mostly Irish, largely Catholic or Anglican-had the good fortune to find some of Central Frontenacs best farmland. Indeed, the only Class 1 farmland in the entire township is in this rolling corner of Hinchinbrooke. After Warren and Emeline eventually relocated to Olden Township (where we will meet them again in Mountain Grove), their son Chester inherited the original homestead, with wife Margaret Kennedy, Chester farmed this land for many years, eventually giving way to son Coleman in the late 1870s. By that time, the village had begun to take shape around the intersection of the Frontenac road-begun in 1854 by Warren Godfrey and his crews-and the Mast Road, which dates back into the early 1800s. The community had gained a log school , situated on the farm of James and Julia Hill and called Hills School in consequence. The old log school would be replaced by a frame building in 1901, and local students continued to study there until the school was destroyed by fire in 1950. By 1872, local Methodists had constructed Bethel Church on the Mast Road. Nominally, at least, the church was Primitives Methodist. A small graveyard was also established on land donated by John and Melissa Campsall. Today, one can still see their tombstones there. Bethel was first served by Mr.J.G. Mallory. Old records show that circuit riders from 1888 served Verona, Bellrock, Desert Lake, High Falls, Bethel, Kennedys Hall, Crow Lake in the Parham area, and Deyos Corners, previous to 1890 known as Maddens Mill.

Such family names as Campsall, Kennedy, Freeman, Mcknight and Peter were noted. The K&P had built its station on Chester Godfreys land. After the turn of the century, tons of feldspar from mines in Bedford left for the market through Bedford station. (Fledspar-which included microline, sandidine, orthoclase, and adularia-are used in ceramics and enamels.) The Howes family had begun its general store and would continue in the business for almost 100 years. The store became an Imperial Oil Dealership in 1885, possibility the first in Frontenac County. The store also housed the local post office, renamed from Deniston to Godfrey in April 1878. Two Howes men, Richard B. and R. Joseph, ran the office continuously between 1885 and 1960. Godfrey boomed. Three hotels did a rushing business with the miners and the travelers from the trains.The railway built cattle pens, next to the Howes store, where anything could be purchased.

The Islands: Biographies: Wolfe Island Bio 12