In Chatsworth Township, about a 50-minute drive west of Collingwood, there’s a little road with a controversial name and a storied past.
Over the years, signs for Negro Creek Road have been removed, spray-painted and, in some cases, bullet-ridden as a regular occurrence witnessed by the occupants of the homes along the stretch.
On Jan. 30 – two days before the start of Black History Month – an entire signpost marking the road was cut down.
Iveta May has lived in her home on Negro Creek Road for the past 12 years.
“Since we moved there, the signs have been stolen or vandalized numerous times,” May told CollingwoodToday.ca. “For the last three years or so, it seems to usually coincide with some (news) event.”
May recalls there was a recent incident where a Black Lives Matter demonstration occurred in Owen Sound, and the sign disappeared after it had concluded. She says the signs were again vandalized in June 2021 after Derek Chauvin was found guilty and sentenced in the murder of George Floyd in the U.S.
“We think the person or people who vandalize this sign seem to be reacting to something, or at least, it appears that way. The message is there,” she said.
In the most recent vandalism incident that occurred on Jan. 30, May says there were very clear cuts in the metal, bringing down the entire post, which indicates special tools were used.
During a Grey County committee of the whole meeting on Dec. 9, 2021, Chatsworth Township Mayor Scott Mackey acknowledged that signs being stolen or vandalized on the road is a regular occurrence.
“Over the last couple of years, we’ve had concerned citizens bring it to our attention. Some say it’s racist to have a road named that way,” said Mackey. “We’ve had other residents say they can’t get deliveries because when they type in that address, some part of the search engine (identifies) it as racist.”
On Feb. 2, Chatsworth Township passed a proclamation declaring Black History Month in the township and as part of a staff report on the matter, confirmed the Negro Creek Road signs have been removed on numerous occasions over the years.
“Perhaps more education on the settlement and the court challenge itself may deter the removal of the signs in the future,” noted township staff in their report.
Repeated requests for comment sent to Chatsworth Township staff for this story were not returned.
May says that signs being stolen also creates practical issues for residents of the road, including making it more difficult for delivery personnel or emergency services to find homes.
“To erase the history by taking the signs is really dubious because what they’re doing is stirring up all the activism, so now there is much more known about the history than before,” said May.
***
While Negro Creek refers to the name of a road, it is also the name of the nearby river, and the historic site of a Black pioneer settlement. The area was established as a settlement by about 50 Black families who arrived via the Underground Railroad.
Historic records show Black settlers began arriving in Grey County as early as the 1820s. This area became patented in Holland Township on Dec. 29, 1851, with the family names of Earle/Earl, Douglas, Miller, Bowie/Booie and others.
Gael Miller Jackson is a direct descendant of Henry Miller, whose family settled in the Negro Creek area in the mid 1800s. While she currently lives in Ajax, Jackson says she has made trips back to the area over the years.
Miller Jackson recalls a time before she became aware of her family’s connection to the area where she visited and walked along the grounds. She said she got emotional and, at the time, she wasn’t sure why.
“That particular area, I didn’t know about. For many years, I never realized that’s where they were. My (great great) grandfather Miller had a will, and he talked about it in his will,” said Miller Jackson. “It’s part of history. It’s a part of me. It makes it more important to me, as my own ancestors were there.”
“It should be remembered. To me, (the vandalism) is like trying to wipe history out,” said Miller Jackson. “After all the cruelty (Black people) went through, it’s extra important to me that the history remain.”
***
Long-time Collingwood resident Carolynn Wilson has a personal connection to the Negro Creek Road issue, as it’s one that earned her the moniker of ‘activist’ about 25 years ago.
“In the 1990s, we were working on the old Durham Road Black pioneer cemetery. We were looking through the stones for ancestors. Some neighbours from the area came down and asked us if we knew about this road,” Wilson told CollingwoodToday.ca. “They were concerned that the township was talking about renaming the road because of 911 numbers.”
The council of the day, then Holland Township, was attempting to change the name of the road to Moggie Road in honour of George Moggie, an early white settler.
“There is nothing offensive about Negro Creek. They were there,” said Wilson. “The town had concerns it was offensive. They wanted to honour the white fellow that lived on the corner.
“We thought, if the name was gone, there was nothing left. The creek, the river, the road – that’s all those descendants had,” said Wilson.
In 1996, Wilson filed a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal to keep the name. Nearly two years later in December of 1997, the commission announced that the township had folded on the issue and would be keeping the name Negro Creek Road.
“It was a big win. What we did was right. We felt good because it was all of us. There was a group of us,” said Wilson. “It was a feeling of success. We won this for everybody.”
While Wilson said some of her own family (the Wilsons and the Sheffields) can also be traced back to the area, it didn’t play into her decision to take a stand all those years ago. She recalls a newspaper article in the Owen Sound Sun Times about the decision was the first time she ever heard herself referred to as an activist.
“Sometimes, a lot of descendants are unable to speak or are not sure of how. Sometimes, they’re a little unwilling to,” said Wilson. “It was the right thing to do. It was a matter of social justice.”
In regards to the vandalism taking place on the signs now, Wilson says it could be racially motivated, or it could be that some people believe there are negative connotations associated with the word ‘negro’ and think they’re performing allyship with the Black community by targeting the signs.
Regardless of intent, Wilson says she believes it counts as a form of erasure. She says she’d like to see the history of the area more pronounced, perhaps by erecting a placard, so that the only record of the people who founded the area isn’t confined to the name of the road.
“They were people. Some are buried there. There were Black folks and Indigenous folks. The community worked together to build that,” she said. “(We need) something to tell the story.”
