Electricity for Sherbrooke
By Bill Davidson
My mother’s brother, Leonard Rodenhiser, lived near Sherbrooke and kept himself active with a saw-mill and other projects. I was fortunate to work on some of these and feel my Uncle Len was a great inventor who helped many.
In 1929, Sherbrooke was without electricity so Uncle Len conceived the idea of supplying light and power for the place. He knew this would also benefit himself, as well. He tried to form a company, but many were skeptical –so he decided to operate it himself.
Uncle Len, like many others, did not have too much wealth — $4,000 of his personal money and $2,000 worth of timber lands was the total of his wealth. He constructed the dams, drew all the plans for turbines and had them cast in New Glasgow. We worked at cutting light poles from the native wood to supply electricity to many.
I remember the power plant was situated on North West Arm Brook. The first plant generated 2200 hp and had a 40-foot head, with a 75-foot horse-power turbine and more than 1200 feet of pipe line.
The lights were turned on in Sherbrooke May 24, 1931 (Archives).
Being practical, Uncle Len never wanted to waste anything, and felt the water could be used twice. A second plant was built 200 yards below the first plant for this purpose, and there were seven storage dams. There has been a great deal of interest in this big project. He did most of the work personally and magazine articles and moving pictures of the project give him the credit he was due.
Uncle Len sold out to the Nova Scotia Light and Power Commission in 1944. He still had his mill and with Aunt Grace, operated a tourist home, which they called Winkle-Rod Inn.