Stanley River was a place name for approximately 100 years before the name Stanley Bridge came into being. Prior to this the village we now call Stanley Bridge was known as Fyfe’s Ferry. The reason for the name is as follows: The land on the west side of the river comprising the village and extending up to the Green Hollow on the west side of the highway, and eastward to the Dave and Frank Bell homestead was owned by one of the first settlers to the area, name— ly, William Fyfe. He and his wife Jane Arthur and their first born son William came to Stanley Bridge in 1820 and lived in a home on the site of the present day aquarium. Their home moved later, is now the home of their great, great grandson, Alfred Fyfe. William Fyfe operated the various modes of communication across Stanley River and was honored by having the tiny vil- lage called after him. We are indebted to another early settler who lived on the opposite shore, Dougald Henry, and who with Charles Anderson owned most of the land on this side of the river, who in his 87th year, in 1904, left us this graphic description of Fyfe’s Ferry. Mr. Henry writes:

“After leaving the ship yard, I moved to Stanley Bridge, then called Fyfe’s Ferry, got myself a little place, built a blacksmith shop and settled down. There was no bridge in Stanley then. A big log canoe was the ferry, and the horses were to swim across the river; the ferry canoe was run by William Fyfe; he charged 3 pence for a single passenger; 8 pence for a horse. When people got to have “gigs” the ferryman’s means of taking them over was to run the axle on the canoe, the wheels being in the water on either side. It cost about a shilling for this; with the increase in travel, the ferryman made a good bit of money. ”

“It was considered a great improvement when we got a big scow, propelled by two long oars in place of the canoe. The Government provided the scow and gave much money besides for the service. On the scow a team of horses, wagon and all could be ferried over at once. The route of the ferry was a little above the present bridge. I have often gone to the shore at night with people on their way home from town and hollered to the ferryman to come and take them over. The old man would mostly be on the lookout for passengers, but when he and the boys happened to be away, the girl would put a passenger over. People generally went to town on the horseback then, 2 or 3 together for company. ”

As the village and surrounding community expanded a better means of communication was needed. The Honorable Jeremiah Simpson, Commissioner of Roads for the district, assumed the initiative. At this time in our history much of our legislation and many of the public pro— jects such as roads, wharves and bridges were initiated by means of public petition to the Legislature. In addition, before governmental approval for the expenditure of public monies on such projects was given, the people of the district had to subscribe substantial sums of money. This was the procedure at Fyfe’s Ferry on the Stanley River. Jeremiah Simpson drew up the petition and John Anderson, Captain Andrew Bell and Dougald Henry canvassed the various districts. The people subscribed liberally and in the Session of the Legislature in 1852, George Coles, the Premier and one of the representatives of the lst district of Queen’s presented the petition to the legislature. It received approval one year later and tenders were called and work

was begun on May 12, 1853. We are indebted once again to Dougald Henry for a picturesque record:

“We got engineer Manderson to draw up the plans of the bridge. The Honorable George Coles, Edward Whelan, James Warburton, and Alexander Laird (all M.L.A. ’s) came out to look at the site where the bridge was to be built. The residents were gathered to meet them. There was a nice little tent built in the bush on the bank with a choice supply of eatables and drinkables including plenty of Scotch. Speeches were made — in fact the bridge was built that day. William and Donald MacKay, Charles Anderson, and James MacLeod together built the

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