Before
the railway arrived in the Hartney area there were no towns. Settlers
might build a church, and then, if the population warranted it, and
someone was of an entrepreneurial turn of mind, a general store or a
blacksmith shop might open for business.
But most such settlements never did become towns as we know them, with
a grid of streets and a main street set for commerce.
The
name Melgund first appears as a Post Office opened in 1882 in the
home of area pioneer W.J. Higgins.
The map
above from ca. 1887 shows post office locations (with the
exception of the villages of Deloraine and Whitewater on the new CPR
line). It
was the C.P.R. that decided that Hartney would become a town.
Today a well-tended Cemetery and a cairn mark the spot a few kilometres
south of the post office where the church once stood. A school and a
rink were nearby. That was it!
http://vantagepoints.ca/stories/melgund-village/
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