Postcard Memories is a weekly series of historic postcard views and photos submitted by Marcel Rousseau.
Some were previously published by the Orillia Museum of Art and History and in the book Postcard Memories Orillia.
John Thomson purchased Longford Township in 1867 for $30,000. The next year, he built the canal from Black River to Lake St. John and a tramway from Lake St. John to Lake Couchiching to transport lumber from his new sawmill on Lake St. John.
After his death in 1881, his son William Thomson took over the expanding operations until 1900 when he sold it to the Standard Chemical Co.
At one time, the Standard Chemical, Iron and Lumber Company was the largest producer of charcoal in North America.
During the First World War, the company had a burst of prosperity and produced wood alcohol and acetone as well as charcoal. With over 100 men employed, they constructed many buildings at Longford, including a boarding house and arena.
After 1930, demand for its products fell and the company dismantled many of the buildings in the village it had created.
The plant closed in the early 1940s and by 1951 was purchased by Domtar to produce liquid detergents.
