Decline of The Village
Traditionally, Napier's fall is blamed on the railway. Two branches of both the Great Western Railway, later the CNR, bypassed Napier. The village was also bypassed by the CPR and Michigan Central. Much business was lost as settlers moved to larger communities along the railway.
Also, once the walnut trees were depleted, the village became less important because there was less work for the sawmills.
The village did not become a ghost town overnight but faded slowly during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1890, the gristmill burned and was never rebuilt. By 1900, all of Sutherland's mills and many small shopkeepers were gone. The post office closed on June 1, 1915, after which mail was delivered from Strathroy. The store closed in 1970.
Read more about this topic: Napier, Ontario
Famous quotes containing the words decline of the, decline of, decline and/or village:
“My opposition [to interviews] lies in the fact that offhand answers have little value or grace of expression, and that such oral give and take helps to perpetuate the decline of the English language.”
—James Thurber (1894–1961)
“Where mass opinion dominates the government, there is a morbid derangement of the true functions of power. The derangement brings about the enfeeblement, verging on paralysis, of the capacity to govern. This breakdown in the constitutional order is the cause of the precipitate and catastrophic decline of Western society. It may, if it cannot be arrested and reversed, bring about the fall of the West.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“Considered physiologically, everything ugly weakens and saddens man. It reminds him of decay, danger, impotence; it actually reduces his strength. The effect of ugliness can be measured with a dynamometer. Whenever anyone feels depressed, he senses the proximity of something “ugly.” His feeling of power, his will to power, his courage, his pride—they decline with ugliness, they rise with beauty.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Tom was a glittering hero once more—the pet of the old, the envy of the young. His name even went into immortal print, for the village paper magnified him. There were some that believed he would be President, yet, if he escaped hanging.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)