Mr. Lindon Clark Brooks – Drove the first Trolley Car
His obituary ran on Page 5 of the January 16, 1935 edition of the Border Cities Star, exactly 80 years ago, last Friday.
“Windsor’s first street car motorman – and, incidentally, the first street car motor man on the North American continent – died early this morning at his home, 656 Goyeau street, following a long illness. He was Lindon Clark Brooks, familiarly known among his many friends as “Old Lin” and he had reached the mature age of 81 years. He was buried at Windsor Grove.
Lindon was the operator on the inaugural run from Walkerville to the British American Hotel on what is today Riverside and Ouellette on May 24, 1886. Regular operations begun on June 3, 1886.
Hard to believe Windsor had the first street car line in North America! Very interesting.
Wonder if his house still exists?
No it would be located in the parking lot beside the Anton Griege Spa and Salon across from the old National Traveller Hotel
Dave, his house is no longer there. It stood on the east side of Goyeau, between Tuscarora and Wyandotte. In its place, are 3 small modern buildings, an empty Tim Horton’s… A vacant building, and a jewellers.
Bernie Newman wrote about the first streetcar in Canada in our 2013 edition of The Walkerville Times- you can view it here- go to page 13- it is a fascinating account!
http://issuu.com/chrisedwards/docs/walkerville-times-xmas-2013
It seems that he was also the President of the British Methodist Episcopal Church. But when he died the church was still located on the corner of McDougall and Assumption. I believe it was where the 400 Building now stands.
http://www.windsor-communities.com/african-religion-britishepis.php
First electric streetcar is claimed by Michigan. 1882.
Shawn,
Are you referring to the Streetcars in North America wiki page where it says, “The first electric street car in America was put into service on Michigan Street in South Bend, Indiana in 1882.”?
This link citing this (apparently originating on their downtown bia website) is dead.
Other links to credible rail history resources put the founding of this system to the summer of 1888.
I’d have to ask Bernie to weigh in on this but from what I recall there were a few systems that popped up in 1886 – Windsor’s was one of them. And Windsor’s claim to being “first” was legit but amounted to a matter of weeks before other communities started embracing electric powered streetcars.