Many of the early settlers who came to West Flamborough stayed only briefly, lured away by prospects of employment or the chance to own more land, their names appearing only once or twice in township records before they disappear. Other families settled and succeeding generations continued to remain on, or very close to their ancestor’s property. This house at 801 Collinson Road, close to Highway #5 and Brock Road has been in the continuous ownership of one of those pioneer families, the Mordens, since the time of its construction.
On 8 October 1855, Jacob Morden purchased 50 acres of Lot 7, Concession 3 for £375, property that was one concession north of where he was born and where his grandfather had settled in 1801. Jacob, born 25 April 1824, was the second son of ‘Big Jim’ Morden and Elizabeth Cochenour. Jonathan, his older brother, joined their father and operated a grist mill adjacent to the family’s sawmill on the Spencer Creek, while Jacob worked on the family farm. About 1855, he married Euphemia Fraser, daughter of Hugh Fraser of Bullock’s Corners, who had been born in Scotland and came to Canada in 1841.
Soon after their marriage and purchase of the property, Jacob built this one-and-a-half storey house, a dignified example of the popular Ontario Vernacular style that is to be found throughout the province. Constructed of stone quarried from a nearby lot, the house was erected by 1861, replacing an earlier frame one that was reputedly incorporated into the rear or tail of the new house and used as a Summer Kitchen. When the young couple first arrived, their only neighbours were bear and deer and the land that they hoped to farm was covered with enormous tree stumps right up to the front door.
The uniformly high quality of the cut-stone masonry work on all façades is unusual and a reflection of the family’s wealth. The central doorway of the three-bay-wide main façade is protected by a majestic wood inlays, such as chestnut and cherry. All the wood used in the construction and interior of the house came from timber that was on the property. Above the portico, the traditional centre gable contains an unusual architectural detail, an ornately moulded ogee window.
John Fraser Morden, Jacob’s only surviving son, and his wife, Kathryn Simon, came to live at the house and operate the farm following his father’s death. Jacob’s obituary in the 3 February 1900 edition of The Hamilton Times stated that “another old and well-known resident of West Flamborough passed away on Wednesday morning. He was in his 76th year and had lived all his lifetime in the locality in which he died.” John Fraser Morden’s mother, Euphemia, continued to live in the house until her death in 1923. Her obituary in The Dundas Star on 25 January 1923, noted that she was “deeply loved by all who knew her.”
For almost one hundred and fifty years and through four generations, the property was operated as a mixed farm, specializing in the production of early Weatherston and late Roxbury seed potatoes. Ownership of the house and property passed down to the eldest son in each of the succeeding generations. John Fraser passed it to his son Jacob Osborne in 1949, following Jacob’s death, it passed to his son Donald. Today farming continues, but with a dramatic change, for the present and fifth generation farmer is Sandra Morden, the great-great-grand daughter of Jacob, who purchased the farm from her father Donald in 1995. Potatoes are still being grown on the property, but the farm now specializes in growing, developing and marketing organic and natural food products.
© The Waterdown-East Flamborough Heritage Society 2004, 2024.
