2 weeks Ago By Joanne Laucius
Share this Story : An Ottawa antique collector's lifelong collection has been lost after a sudden fire Copy Link Email X Reddit Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Breadcrumb Trail Links Local News An Ottawa antique collector's lifelong collection has been lost after a sudden fire Clem Smith's collection of antique carriages and sleighs was the work of a lifetime. On Monday it went up in smoke when his barn caught fire Get the latest from Joanne Laucius straight to your inbox Sign Up Author of the article: Joanne Laucius Published Oct 29, 2024 • 3 minute read Join the conversation You can save this article by registering for free here . Or sign-in if you have an account.
Clem Smith poses for a photo on his burnt out tractor by his home on Kinburn Side Road Tuesday. Clem has spent almost a lifetime refurbishing horse-drawn carriages and sleighs. Photo by Tony Caldwell / Postmedia Article content Clem Smith has spent almost a lifetime restoring and refurbishing horse-drawn conveyances.
On Monday, Smith, 86, watched in horror as his Kinburn barn was engulfed in flames, creating a plume of smoke visible for miles around. The barn held dozens of historical treasures, including a hearse that dated back to the 1850s, a landau that reportedly once belonged to the reviled Montreal business tycoon Sir Herbert Holt and a two-wheeled gig that belonged to lumber baron J.R.
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Activate your Online Access Now Article content In total, some 30 horse-drawn vehicles and four tractors, some painstakingly refurbished, others built from scratch, were destroyed in the blaze. So were the harnesses, some more than a hundred years old. The only thing that was saved was the manure wagon, said Smith.
Clem Smith walks through his burnt out barn on his property on Kinburn Side Road Tuesday Photo by Tony Caldwell / Postmedia His three horses were unharmed. “I had just let them out in the morning. I just pushed them through the gate,” he said.
Smith’s equipage was not merely for his own enjoyment. The landau, an elegant four-wheeled carriage with a roof that can be let down, was used for weddings. The hearse, which was unusual because it had curved glass in front and back, was used for funerals.
Smith still has — or had — the cutter he drove to school in Woodlawn. He bought conveyances from the Mennonites in St. Jacob’s, Ont.
, and the Amish near Ogdensburg, N.Y. He had a talent for ferreting out an old wreck he could work with.
He would catch a glimpse of something intriguing through the crack of a barn door or a board. He would go and knock on the door and ask about it. Clem Smith’s burnt barn on Kinburn Side Road Tuesday.
Photo by Tony Caldwell / Postmedia Smith found the hearse, which had belonged to a funeral home in Quyon, Que, in a shed. He found the landau in the Laurentians. Evening Update The Ottawa Citizen’s best journalism, delivered directly to your inbox by 7 p.
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Article content “My dad wanted to know what they paid me to take it away. There was no top, no door. The wheels were busted, the springs.
I completely rebuilt it.” He got his carriage lamps, which he used on the hearse as well the laundau, from a funeral home in Shawville. “They’re as old as the hearse.
Maybe older,” he said. The Smith family has a long history in West Carleton, arriving from Ireland in 1830. Smith grew up in a family of eight boys and three girls.
At one time, there were 400 horses in the family. Smith was a funeral director in Arnprior and moved to Kinburn after he retired, converting the barn into a place to store his carriages and sleighs, with a workshop. His wife, Doris, died six years ago.
Clem Smith’s photos of some of the items lost in the fire. Photo by Tony Caldwell / Postmedia “Grandpa built so much with his own hands. It was his passion,” said his granddaughter Kaitlin Dupuis, who rode in the landau on her wedding day.
“He didn’t like the throw anything away. He repurposed everything. His heart was in everything here.
” Smith was working on a car in the barn with a friend when the fire broke out, using a torch to repair a brake line. “It all happened so quickly,” said Smith. Advertisement 4 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content Ottawa Fire Services received a 911 call shortly after 1:15 p.m. on Monday.
When firefighters arrived, they found smoke and flames coming from all four sides of the barn. An aerial ladder was set up to attack the fire from above. There are no fire hydrants in the area, so firefighters used tanker trunks to shuttle water from other water sources, including the nearby Carp River.
The barn began to collapse at 2:12 p.m. The fire was declared under control at 4:08 p.
m. Monday, but the wreckage of the barn was still smoking in spots on Tuesday morning. Dupuis, who lives in Arnprior, was making soup for her grandfather’s lunch when she heard about the fire and rushed to the scene.
“He would be in for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Then he would be outside, tinkering. He would hook up his horses every day and go out.
In the winter, he would draw the manure out with his manure sled. He built that as well.” On Tuesday morning, there was still some smoke rising from the wreckage of the barn.
There is nothing that is salvageable, said Smith. He’s still coming to grips with the shock. “I used to go out there, and I knew the story of every one of them, because I redid every one of them.
I could tell you where it came from, how I got it.” The only thing that was saved was a pair of pliers in his friend’s pocket, said Smith. “And they were the worst pair we had.
” Clem Smith’s photos of some of the items lost in the fire. Clem has spent almost a lifetime refurbishing horse-drawn carriages and sleighs. Photo by Tony Caldwell / Postmedia Clem Smith’s burnt barn on Kinburn Side Road Tuesday.
Clem has spent almost a lifetime refurbishing horse-drawn carriages and sleighs. Photo by Tony Caldwell / Postmedia Clem Smith’s photos of some of the items lost in the fire. Clem has spent almost a lifetime refurbishing horse-drawn carriages and sleighs.
On Monday, he watched in horror as a fire engulfed the barn that held dozens of historical treasures, including a hearse that dates back to the 1850s, a landau the reportedly once belonged to the reviled Montreal businessman Herbert Holt and a two-wheeled gig that belonged to lumber baron. J.R.
Booth. Photo by Tony Caldwell / Postmedia Clem Smith’s photos of some of the items lost in the fire. Clem has spent almost a lifetime refurbishing horse-drawn carriages and sleigh Photo by Tony Caldwell / Postmedia Clem Smith’s photos of some of the items lost in the fire.
Clem has spent almost a lifetime refurbishing horse-drawn carriages and sleighs. Photo by Tony Caldwell / Postmedia Clem Smith walks through his burnt out barn on his property on Kinburn Side Road Tuesday Photo by Tony Caldwell / Postmedia Clem Smith’s photos of some of the items lost in the fire. Clem has spent almost a lifetime refurbishing horse-drawn carriages and sleighs.
Photo by Tony Caldwell / Postmedia Clem Smith walks through his burnt out barn on his property on Kinburn Side Road Tuesday. Clem Smith poses for a photo on his burnt out tractor by his home on Kinburn Side Road Tuesday. Clem has spent almost a lifetime refurbishing horse-drawn carriages and sleighs.
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