KAWARTHA LAKES-William Byron Martin was born to Thomas and Lydia Martin on November 14, 1921, a baby brother for their other son, Wallace. Byron Martin grew up on the family farm just west of Bobcaygeon on the Fenelon Road. The old farmhouse had been home to his family since 1857. Byron’s mother died when he was 8, shortly after the birth of his sister Muriel, who only lived a few short days. His father, Thomas had also lost his mother at a young age.
Byron and his brother Wallace both went to S.S.#4, where their father had also gone to school. Since his father had attended, the school had burned and was rebuilt as a brick structure. To attend Hillcroft Continuation School, (high school) the brothers had to walk into Bobcaygeon. They were fortunate, it was not much further than walking to attend the neighbourhood school. Shortly before school buses appeared, many children who lived further from town struggled to be able to attend Secondary School.
As they were growing up without a mother, Byron and Wallace had to rely on each other and became the best of friends. As adults, they lived in farms across the road from each other, working together and cooperating day-in-day out. “They shared everything,” John explains. “There was nothing that was called Byron’s or Wallace’s.” Of course, they would share with each other, it is what they had always done. Their father had liked to say, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
In September of 1942, Byron wed Kathleen Lee, whose family owned the local creamery. In the following years they were blessed with two children, Betty Anne and William Gary. The family moved into the original homestead across the road, where they lived out their lives. Both Byron and Kay were sports enthusiasts who coached. For Kay it was softball and curling, while Byron loved hockey.
Wallace and Byron were best known for their maple syrup. Their first foray into the boiling process was done in a lean-to shed on the property west of Concession 8. In need of larger space, the operations were moved across the road for easier access. “Wallace was an innovator,” Jayne explains. “He always wanted to try new equipment. With the help of Mr. Schnegg, he handmade one of the first steam hoods. “Wallace was often thinking of how to mainstream the operation, while Byron just wanted to manage the existing operation. The passenger seat of Byron’s truck was piled high with everything that you might need. If Wallace asked for a certain screwdriver, Byron would go to the truck, and it would be right there.” John adds: “There was not much room for passengers.”
From beginning to end, the maple syrup season “was a lot of work,” Miles says. “It took a lot of firewood to keep the fire going. When they started out, they were just boiling sap in flat pans, sitting on an arch in the woods.” It was a labour of love; sap was hand gathered from buckets and returned to the sap house aboard a tractor and trailer. It took both friends and family countless hours to produce the golden syrup. Initially the customers were locals but as time moved on the business grew until they were selling maple syrup worldwide.
In their younger years, when everyone knew each other, and neighbours gathered to work together at bees, Wallace and Byron always took part. “Garfield Britton came around with a saw on the back of his tractor for the sawing bee,” Betty Anne recalls. “The thrashing bee employed a steam engine that travelled from farm to farm and would be there by breakfast time.” Johnny Griffin ran the thrashing machine.
As a young man Byron was always interested in sports, he liked to help at the old Bobcaygeon Arena when it was located on King Street. In the early 1950s, the community began to work on a new community centre. For many years, Byron co-ordinated a fair on Bolton Street to raise money to build the community centre,” Betty Anne says. “That’s how Midnight Madness got started. Different organizations like the curling club would all do something to contribute to the carnival. “The whole community came together and worked on it,” Betty Anne recalls. But Byron inherited his father’s sense of community service and “he spent more time on it than most.” It was an unforgettable project, both for its scale and the fact that it was interrupted by Hurricane Hazel. When the work was done, Byron was still there helping at the arena. “He would not have applied for the job, it just happened,” John observes.
1954 was a year of memorable mishaps for in Byron’s life. In October, Hurricane Hazel was an unprecedented storm—it was still a tropical storm by the time that it reached Ontario, killing 81 people (mostly in Toronto). At the time the Bobcaygeon arena was under construction, and it blew down one of the concrete walls that had just been erected. The next month, Byron’s barn burned. His father-in-law “was going into the pig pen,” Betty Anne recalls. “When he went in the main barn to turn on the power, a wire shorted out and that was it. I remember seeing the flames coming out the end. I was running down the road to tell Mom and Dad. They managed to get the animals out and then rounded up the chickens that were headed for the bush.”
For the rest of his life, when he wasn’t working his farmland, Byron was a steadfast fixture at the arena. The Bobcaygeon-Verulam Arena and Community Centre truly was a centre of community activity. In the era before television, just about everyone came out to community events. In Bobcaygeon, Friday night was Junior ‘D’ Hockey, and the rink was packed with fans. Many would never forget seeing goalie Jumpin’ Joe Junkin, who would go on to appear in one game for the Boston Bruins. John recollects, “I remember fights would break out. It was the first time that I ever saw a fist fight or brawl. Back then it seemed like everyone was smoking at the arena.” As soon as the ice was taken out for the summer, the crowds came to see professional wrestling, including star Whipper Billy Watson. “There were ladies who were so excited that they would get up and spit on the wrestlers,” Betty Anne recounts. In that era, watching little people wrestle was a popular public spectacle.
The arena was also home to the ever-popular Bible Conference. The Bible Conference had been popular at the old arena, and when the new building was erected, benches were donated by the committee. In return they would host a two-week event annually. The mornings were set aside for the children’s program and in the afternoons and evenings, there was lively music, and many inspiring speakers. “The Bible Conference was very evangelical,” Jayne explains. “People scheduled their holidays so they could attend. There were so many people at the arena, that they could not have all come from Bobcaygeon. The chairs covered the floor.” Betty Anne adds: “It seemed like the whole town went; it didn’t matter what denomination you were. To help, my grandfather (T.H. Martin) would host some of the speakers. I remember once when I was there, one person stood up in the middle of one of the speakers and said, ‘I don’t believe in that!’” It caused quite a stir.
On Monday nights, the arena was home to movie nights—Bobcaygeon did not have a theatre. A few nights a week the rink was open for roller skating, with roller skates that strapped onto participants’ shoes. Staying up on these roller skates was no easy feat. For families in Bobcaygeon in the second half of the twentieth century, Byron was a fixture in their lives. “Whatever was happening, Byron was there.” Locals called the arena Foxy Martin’s Den. “I do not know where the name ‘Foxy Martin’ came from,” Betty Anne explains.
Though the new Bobcaygeon arena was modern for its time, for the first few years it did not have a concrete floor, it was just gravel. At that time, before the ice could be flooded it had to be scraped first. “Some helpful visitors would volunteer to help clean the ice, there were often 3 or 4 guys helping to scrape it with tin snow scoops.” Once the scraping was complete, then it could be flooded. “They had a barrel with a big mop on the bottom of it,” Betty Anne recalls. “There was a pipe coming out of the bottom of the barrel and across the top of the mop. Two guys pulled the machine around. For many years, Deb Freeborn was the ice guy. They put the ice in there with a big hose, like a fire hose.
Later on, a new cement floor was put in with a refrigeration unit under the floor. “Then he had a red Cockshutt 1350 tractor with a scraper on the back, which collected the snow in a box. He dumped the snow into a gully outside. It took half an hour to resurface the ice.”
Once there was a concrete floor, curling circles would be painted on it at the beginning of the year. “The pebbling for curling would be done with a sprayer on your back,” Betty Anne notes. “They used to have curling on Monday and Tuesday, then Thursday was minor hockey and figure skating was Saturday afternoon. I don’t think that Byron ever played hockey, but he was a big fan. He was at the arena 6 nights a week, but he did not like it being open on Sunday. Many evenings we did not see him.”
“Byron was very generous and laid back,” Jayne recalls. “When you arrived at the arena, his office was on the right-hand side, with his door open.” John continues: “he would be standing there, and he had a greeting for everybody, he was like a trickster, you were never sure if you should take him seriously.” For kids in the era, he was unforgettable. “One remembered that when he had his break from working at a store he would go down to the arena,” Betty Anne observes, “and Dad would give him a puck to go out and play. He had many quips and memorable lines, ‘Young Lad,’ ‘Dog Water,’ ‘Merry Christmas and a Slushy Easter.’ He often asked kids ‘Are you married yet?’”
Even at home, Byron was a trickster. “When you were at the supper table, you never knew what would be on your plate,” Betty Anne recounts. “He might put on an extra helping of something. Dad used to always carry cookies in his car, because he knew a gentleman who worked for Christie cookies. He would have them to share if he went to visit someone or Devitt’s Garage, which was a popular social stop. The dogs got to know the sound of his car and would be right there for the cookies.”
Until Tommy Anderson Park was built, Bobcaygeon had two baseball diamonds, one at Hillcroft School and the other was located at the agricultural grounds beside the arena—where most of the organized games took place. “Home plate was about where the east end of the orange moveable bleachers is now,” Betty Anne says. “Bobcaygeon had a good hardball team, and there were bleachers inside the track for spectators. Women’s softball was popular, with the Bobcaygeon team playing against other communities in the region. During organized games, Mr. Purdy sold popcorn from a little cart. At that point, there was no campground on the site, and wild strawberries grew in the outfield. Byron was very excited when the village created Tommy Anderson Park.
Back when curling was still at the community centre, Byron helped to organize an annual bonspiel for the curling club at the end of the season. “It did not matter whether you were a curler or not, you could take part,” Betty Anne observes. “He conned Winston Anderson into helping him, and the event came to be playfully called ‘Winston’s Spiel’—Winston was not somebody who talked excessively, hence the joke. Now it is more properly named the Anderson Bonspiel.”
Dad used to go around town in the spring, talking to all the businesses to find out what would be going on in summer. He would then go postering, giving out posters all around Sturgeon and Pigeon Lake, advertising what was happening.” Miles adds: “There was a chalk board at the bridge where he would write what was going on that week. I don’t think that anyone ever erased or defaced it.”
A lot of people enjoyed spending time at Foxy Martin’s Den. “It was truly a community centre. So many friends met there.” The arena hosted teen town dances, where local youth learned how to do the twist “and fowl suppers in October,” Betty Anne adds. They taught dance upstairs—ballet and tap—and would have recitals. The Women’s Institute from North Verulam would play cards, then halfway through we would have a square dance. I could hardly wait to get through with the cards so we could dance.” It was all overseen by a 7-man volunteer board, “Dad used to jokingly call them the 7 bored men.” Whatever was happening at the arena, Byron was there. He even had a little couch in his office so he could have a 15-minute nap, then keep going. At the end of the night, he would always be the last one out.
Byron was the manager of the Bobcaygeon arena for 27 years, retiring in 1981. “But then you couldn’t keep him away,” Betty Anne says. “He would go in to watch the old timers play hockey. They often said that they had an audience of one, which was my dad. After he retired from the arena, he still looked after the campgrounds for many years.” He helped with other community initiatives, volunteering for the Fiddle and Step Dance contest and serving as superintendent of the church. He served on the Fair Board for 45 years, and in fact he recruited his nephew. “I was cutting brush where Jayne and I would build our house,” Miles explains. “Byron drove in and said, ‘You are on the fair board,’ and that was it.”
When Byron wasn’t at the arena, he was often working with his brother Wallace at the farm. “There was no argument between them,” Jayne observes. “He would come to the farm every day.” Betty Anne continues, “They would be together in the morning, or they would talk on the phone to decide what they would accomplish that day. They would not say anything in a negative way.”
As had happened to both his father and his grandfather, Byron ended up spending many years as a widower, after his dear wife Kay passed away in 1999. He continued working on the farm, and spent summers in his nearby cottage on the north shore of Sturgeon Lake. He started to stay with Betty Anne for the winter, until one year “I said that I didn’t think there was any need for him to go back. He would sit at the window and talk to people who came to buy eggs. When we talked him into not driving any more, the guy who bought his car gave us $300, and we donated it to Minor Hockey. He stayed with us until his Alzheimer’s got so bad that he had to go to Pinecrest Nursing Home. It turned out, his roommate was his old neighbour Keith Coulter, who had lived at Twin Bear Farms. The facility staff tried to separate them, but they still sat at the same table in the dining room.”
For everything Byron Martin did to help Bobcaygeon—earning him Citizen of the Year for 1982—he was best remembered as the face of the arena. For most Bobcaygeon residents the two were inextricably linked. In 1971, Byron was awarded the “puck of the year” from Ontario Minor Hockey, in gratitude for his contribution to the sport. In 2006, Byron was inducted into the Lindsay Sports Hall of Fame, again for his dedication to several sports within the community.
Byron passed away on December 16, 2010, surrounded by his family. The church was packed on the day of his funeral, and a pew has been dedicated to him for serving as Sunday School Superintendent for several years. Following the service a small procession drove to the arena and watched as someone turned out all the lights. It was a fitting tribute to the man who had such a great impact on the community centre for so many years. He had been the person who would greet visitors when they arrived. And when your visit with Byron Martin was done, he would always say his goodbye: “Thanks for the interview.”
This story is a memory and nobody’s memory is perfect. Sometimes details get a little mixed up, things get forgotten or overlooked, and the perspective is inevitably subjective. If you notice something that not right, have something you would like to tell us, or a memory to share the museum would be happy to hear from you: [email protected]
This story was written by Glenn Walker.
