Robert Simpson was Barrie’s first mayor, elected in 1871, when the community became a town. He was also the wealthy and successful founder of Simcoe Steam Brewery, located at the foot of Mary Street, for many years one of the town’s largest employers.
Simpson originally hailed from Yorkshire, England. The son of a yeoman farmer, he was born in the village of Salton on March 16, 1817. He received a good education at a local parish school and then joined his father on the farm.
Enticed by the seemingly endless opportunities afforded by Canada, he emigrated in 1835. After a brief stop in Newmarket, where he learned the craft of brewing that would later make him wealthy, he moved to the village of Kempenfelt in 1836 and purchased the store, tavern and brewery of William Mann.
Though Simpson owned three businesses, the brewery was almost certainly the most profitable, and it became the focus of his attention. Simpson would therefore have been despondent when the brewery burned in 1843.
At a crossroads, he elected to leave Kempenfelt. Crossing the bay, he put down roots in Tollendal and started brewing anew. This is the first we hear of Simcoe Steam Brewery; whether the earlier brewery bore this name is uncertain. In any event, Simpson found success.
Beer, in those days, was even more popular than it is today. In an era when one might never be certain of the safety of drinking water, which might be fouled by human or farmyard excrement or industrial waste, beer represented a safe beverage. Simpson began making money hand over fist.
In 1848, Simpson found personal happiness as well when he wed Sarah Ann Soules, a scion of the pioneering family that had settled Cedarmont in Innisfil. They married on June 20.
Unfortunately, that same year, Simpson’s brewery was razed to the ground, a hazard of using steam engines. What to do? Rebuild or start again?
In those days, Tollendal and Barrie were comparable in size and there was a healthy competition between the two. When Simpson’s brewery was destroyed, a delegation from Barrie enticed him to relocate his business to their community. Simpson accepted, moving his operation for the third time in a decade.
That would be the end of his journeys. He died in Barrie in 1891.
