| Official Name: | Sunshine |
| Settlement Type: | Dispersed rural community |
| Pushpin Map: | Ontario#Canada |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location of Sunshine |
| Coordinates: | 43.7828°N -81.3356°W |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | Canada |
| Subdivision Type1: | Province |
| Subdivision Name1: | Ontario |
| Subdivision Type2: | County |
| Subdivision Name2: | Huron County |
| Subdivision Type3: | Municipality |
| Subdivision Name3: | Morris-Turnberry |
| Timezone: | Eastern (EST) |
| Utc Offset: | -5 |
| Timezone Dst: | EDT |
| Utc Offset Dst: | -4 |
| Blank1 Name: | GNBC Code |
| Blank1 Info: | FCUBZ[1] |
Sunshine is a dispersed rural community in the municipality of Morris-Turnberry, Huron County, Ontario, Canada.[1] [2]
Sunshine prospered as a milling and manufacturing town from the 1850s to the 1880s.
The early settlement had a water-powered sawmill on the Maitland River. The mill later converted to steam power, and lumber from the mill was manufactured into chairs at a nearby factory.[3]
Two churches were located at Sunshine: Bethel Church, erected in 1855, and the Sunshine Methodist Church, which opened as a loghouse church. In 1875, Sunshine Methodist built a frame church which was later bricked.[4]
Sunshine had a blacksmith, general store, and post office which opened in 1874.[3] [5] An Orange lodge was located there, which later became a Foresters lodge, and then Sons of Temperance lodge. The main street of Sunshine was gravelled, and the stores fronted onto a boardwalk.[3]
The sawmill and chair factory were destroyed by fire in 1878, and were soon rebuilt.[3]
Sunshine declined in the 1880s as railway lines were built to nearby towns.[3] Bethel Church closed in 1883, and the general store closed in 1887.[3] [4] When the availability of timber diminished - as farms in the surrounding had been cleared of trees - the sawmill and chair factory were dismantled and moved in 1888. Three houses remained in Sunshine in 1891.[3] The post office closed in 1914, and the Sunshine Methodist Church closed in 1927.[4] [5]
Sunshine Methodist Church cemetery remains at the settlement, with gravestones placed into a cairn.[3] [6]