KAWARTHA LAKES-Between the 1940s and the early 1970s, it seemed like just about everyone in Fenelon Falls either worked at Allen Wood Products or knew someone who did. The company was the village’s largest employer, manufacturing a great variety of wooden toys that were marketed across Canada by major national retailers. Popular products included Tinkertoys and Bingo Beds (also known as pounding benches). Today, for a village like Fenelon Falls to have a company like Allen Wood Products manufacturing products that practically every family in Canada knew and loved would be a remarkable business success story. At the time, it was not unusual. Most communities had their own industries—few people thought twice about seeing “Made in Canada… Fenelon Falls, Ont.”
George Allen moved to Fenelon Falls in 1928, purchasing the Mickle & Dyment sawmill on the south shore of Cameron Lake. He converted it into the Standard Pattern and Handle Company, which made utilitarian goods, such as tool handles. In 1942, the factory burned, and was rebuilt as Allen Wood Products. The company started experimenting with making wooden toys, which soon became their primary business. By the 1950s and 1960s, their toys were being sold nationally.
Some workers made a career at Allen Wood Products, while many more started out there as teenagers and moved on to other occupations. To the workers of the time, the factory was quite advanced, including a custom-made machine that drilled all sides of the Tinkertoy hub at the same time. Yet many of the products required a lot of manual labour to manufacture. For instance, sitting at a lathe, copying the same toy part over and over again, or packing the toys into tubes. It was steady work, but the company could not afford to pay high wages.
As happened in so many other communities across Ontario, Allen Wood Products closed, as manufacturing moved overseas, and plastic toys replaced wood. At the time, it seemed most families had a Tinkertoy, and no one thought to save this local artifact for posterity. Years later, Jim Mullen, son-in-law of the last company owner, began collecting Allen Wood toys on eBay. When he donated a large assortment of the locally manufactured toys to Maryboro Lodge Museum, many people took an interest in seeing what had once been made in the community—or the toys that they played with growing up.
As a high school student in Fenelon Falls, Sam Dickie started making films when he got his first GoPro. He enjoyed history and after seeing some of the local history stories that were published on the museum’s website, was inspired to begin creating local history documentaries. His first shared George Jackett’s memories of digging the Fenelon Lock, and since then he has published three others.
Allen Wood Products is now playing at Maryboro Lodge Museum and can be viewed online:
https://maryboro.ca/documentaries/
This story is part of our partnership with Maryboro Lodge, The Fenelon Falls Museum and was written by Glenn Walker.
If you want to make a donation to the museum, you can e-transfer to: [email protected] or mail a cheque to :
Maryboro Lodge Museum
Box 179
50 Oak Street
Fenelon Falls, ON
K0M 1N0
