We would love to hear your stories or memories of the Freeman Station - please submit them to [email protected].
* Theo Bullock
* Pam Freeman Wilkinson
Lifelong Resident Theo Bullock Awarded a Lifetime Membership from Friends of Freeman Station
Mr. Theo Bullock is 91 years young and was honoured recently as our newest lifetime member. Theo has resided in Aldershot his whole life. The Bullock name is well known in the area as one of Burlington’s first families and one of the original market garden families. Theo is a distinguished 61 year member of the Lion’s Club in Burlington, and is a veteran who honourably served his country during World War ll.
Back about 75 years, Theo can recall in vivid detail using the Burlington Junction train station in Freeman, (also affectionately called Freeman Station), for transporting their produce to markets beyond Burlington. Theo, as a young man, would personally transport his precious cargo to the station in Freeman where the train would arrive each evening around 6:00 PM. After labelling each box, carton, case, or basket for shipping, the cargo would be loaded onto boxcars. The fruit train, as it was nicknamed, ran in the summer months, and arrived from St Catharines. As it travelled to Freeman, the train stopped many times along the way in such towns as Grimsby & Smithville, plus many other communities picking up produce for shipment from local farmers and market gardeners. The fruit train travelled across the Beach Strip, past the old Brant Inn, located on the southeast corner of Lakeshore Road and Maple Avenue, and then up to Freeman.
When the train arrived in Freeman, it had to cross over Brant Street, where the engineer would reverse the whole train and back it into the loading area located close to where the Burlington Junction station was originally located on the west side of Brant Street. Then university students who rode the train on its entire route quickly disembarked and began loading all of the boxcars. This was a great summer job for these students. They were very quick at it, and the train cars would be fully loaded in about 20 minutes. When ready, the fruit train left Freeman bound for Toronto, and on to other markets across Canada, Europe and Africa.
Young Theo would return home each evening and join his family still harvesting their produce, and they would prepare new shipments for the fruit train when it arrived the next evening in Freeman. It was hard work, but it also was a labour of love, not just for the Bullock family, but all of the area farmers who did the same kind of work each day. These were the dedicated families who helped establish Burlington into becoming such a prosperous and beautiful city that we all enjoy today.
Theo Bullock has generously shared his memories with the Friends of Freeman Station, and will continue to do so as we make progress to have this beautiful historic train station totally renovated. We are very grateful for his assistance in retelling his stories, mainly for the benefit of our younger generations, just to let them know how it was really done in the good old days. It’s all part of Burlington’s history and it needs to be preserved. Theo is a real Burlington treasure, and we thank him for his story telling, and his generous donation to Friends of Freeman Station.
Memories of Freeman - Pam Wilkinson
(From a gal born in Freeman who spent every Sunday lunch after church, Christmas and Easter in the village of Freeman as a child.)
“My grandfather Tracy was a master gardener and the long backyard, that is now Staples, Michaels and Mandarin Restaurant was row upon row of vegetables, trellisses bursting with black grapes and towering candy-coloured hollyhocks. I have vivid memories of this very tall man stooped and tending to his patch. He once even made the paper for trying to grow cotton from seeds he’d brought back from the south.
“My father, Doug, and his brothers Norton, Stuart and Bob all grew up in that house at 906 Brant. When I was in Michaelslast December I almost felt the spirits of those Freeman kids underfoot. A funny story involving that back yard featured two of my uncles making “cigarettes” out of corn silk from Grandpa’s garden. My father tattled on them and instead of his intended result of getting to go to the CNE alone with his parents, he learned that his father found tattling to be the graver offense and he was left home.
“My cousin Janet and I were great childhood pals and I remember strapping on roller skates and gliding around the empty parking lot of the Fina Station just beside my grandparents’ house on the south side. We’d buy treats at Tinnings store on the other side of the house between a car lot (Virtue Motors?) and the train station.
“My tiny, barely 5′ grandmother, Clare Freeman, was a wonderful cook and put on memorable dinners every year at Christmas and Easter. With four sons, their wives and over a dozen grandchildren, this was no mean feat. My mother told me that Granny’s cooking was so good that during the Depression there was a large white hankie tied within view of the trains coming in to Freeman Station and hungry souls were welcome to pop in for stew or soup.
“Both my grandparents had their funerals in the parlour of that grand old house, caskets in front of the old fireplace that still stands but is now in the pharmacy of the clinic located there.
“The young boy in the old wedding photo to the right of the picture is my grandfather Tracy circa 1905.
The little girls are Pam
and Janet Freeman in front of 906 Brant Street on the same lawn as the old wedding picture.
“The car picture has my grandpa Tracy behind the wheel, Uncle Stu in the back seat, Uncle Nort on the front and Uncle Bob and my Dad on the running board. One of Grandpa’s old cars (possibly this one) lay in disrepair behind the garage (where those cornsilk smokes were puffed on) and we used to play in it. I remember a bunch of us rocking it back and with great glee.
