John Collison- Conductor Grand Trunk Railway
45 East Gore Street, Stratford, ON
Built 1907
The house at 45 East Gore Street was built in the summer of 1907 by John Collison, a conductor with the Grand Trunk Railway. John was born in Richmond, Quebec on February 4, 1856. On March 30, 1881 he married Helen Forest in Hillier, Ontario, where she was born in 1857. Their first child, James, was born in Stratford on January 15, 1882, followed by Mary on December 19, 1886, Minnie on December 21, 1890, Walter on September 2, 1891, and Elizabeth (Bessie) in December 1893.
In the 1901 census they are listed as living on Shakespeare Street, and by 1904 the city directory has the family living on South Street, which was renamed East Gore Street by 1907.
John Collison and his family never lived in the house at 45 East Gore Street. It is unclear whether John intended to build this house as a rental unit, or whether he was transferred to Owen Sound, where he continued to be a conductor, before he had a chance to move into the house.
The first tenant of 45 East Gore was Bertie "John" Thurston and his wife, Ethel Emma West, according to the assessment record dated September 18, 1907. John, a machinist, probably working for the GTR, was born in Boston, Massachusetts on December 10, 1877, and Ethel was born in Stratford in 1881. They rented the house on East Gore Street for two years and then moved to Port Colbourne, where they lived until they died. Both are buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Port Colbourne.
In the 1909 city directory, Charles Heppler, a machinist, was the tenant.
John A. Nelles, a labourer at the GTR, purchased the house in 1911, and in 1915 sold it to James Gillespie, a janitor at the GTR/CNR shops.
By 1921 John Collison and his family had moved back to Stratford as they are listed as living at 161 Cobourg Street according to the census. John was still employed as a conductor.
John Collison died on May 27, 1934 and Helen died in 1946. Both are interred in the mausoleum in Avondale Cemetery along with their son James.