Dipping into the past…

March 25, 2015 · 0 Comments

1125 YEARS AGO
Thursday, March 27, 1890
• ome miscreants have been amusing themselves lately poisoning dogs. Mr. William McCutcheon has lost two hounds and Messrs. Walter Booth, Thos. Donkin and Henry Gallaugher one each. If the guilty parties are found out they will be prosecuted.
• At its meeting last Friday, Shelburne Council was in receipt of a letter from Ontario Pump Co. re unpaid portion of the contract price for installing the village’s waterworks system. A motion passed by Council reads: “That this corporation will pay the balance of contract price for well and waterworks system on receipt of a satisfactory joint bond, including Ontario Pump Co. and the gentleman named in the letter from Ontario Pump Co. of March 3rd, 1890.

100 YEARS AGO
Thursday, March 25, 1915
• n the Armstrong homestead in Caledon Township, a girl and boy are dead as the result of a horrible tragedy enacted last Thursday in the home, when James Stevens, a 15-year-old Barnardo lad who had been adopted by the family, cut the throat of 14-year-old Violet Armstrong and then ended his own life in similar fashion. The unfortunate girl was the only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Armstrong. The boy was secured by them from the Barnardo Home in Toronto last Easter. Whatever motive actuated the lad to such an awful deed is shrouded in the deepest mystery. As far as can be learned the children had never quarreled. The girl, who was a graduate of Orangeville High School, was of a bright and cheerful disposition, and the boy, ever since he was taken into the family, had conducted himself in such an exemplary manner that his good conduct had often been commented upon. He did his work willingly and had earned the good opinion of everyone in the home and neighbourhood. The household consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong, Violet, and an 11-year-old son, and is one of the most highly regarded in the district. No one witnessed the deed and the first intimation of it was when Mrs. Armstrong, coming from the cowshed, saw blood on the verandah and following it, found the dead body of her daughter, clad only in a nightgown, lying beside the pump bathed in blood, with a terrible gash in the throat. After the mother had carried the girl into the house she found the boy dead beside his own bed, he having cut his own throat apparently after he had murdered the girl and then rushed to his room.
• At its meeting Friday evening, Shelburne Council received an auditor’s report from the office of Fred Page Higgins & Company, chartered accountants, of Toronto, of the town books for 1911-12-13-14. The audit disclosed that in 1911 Mr. H. Falconer, as town treasurer, had deposited to the town bank account $64.60 more than he actually received. During 1912 he deposited $25.84 less than he received which still left a balance of $38.76. The report shows current liabilities at the end of 1914 to have been in excess of current assets by $470.67 without adding the $38.87 due Mr. Falconer. The report said that if all monies were deposited as soon after their receipt as possible, and an agreement made between the cash book and the bank book, occasionally, an error or omission would have been immediately detected. “We would suggest in order to prevent a recurrence of anything of this kind, that it be made incumbent on the treasurer to deposit all monies as received, and that he make his deposit slips out in duplicate, having the duplicate initialed at the bank.”
• Messrs. Bert Wheelock, son of county treasurer C. R. Wheelock; J. B. Akin, son of Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Akin, West Broadway, and Don McLaren, son of Mrs. John McLaren, of Toronto, formerly of Orangeville, have volunteered for service in the 3rd Canadian Contingent, which is now in the process of organization for overseas service. The young men expect to be placed with one of the machine gun squads.
• A Canadian Club has been organized in Orangeville with officers as follows:President, A. R. Hughson; 1st vice-president Mayor Campbell; 2nd vice-president Dr. R. N. Klynes; secretary, R. H. Neilson; treasurer, W. G. Hyland. The club will hold its inaugural meeting and a banquet on April 14, when President Falconer, of Toronto University, will be the guest of honour.

75 YEARS AGO
Wednesday, March 21, 1940
• helburne Women’s Institute is making a canvass in the Salvation Army’s drive for funds to support war work and overseas.
• Five Orangeville High School students escaped death when their auto left Highway 10, two miles south of Caledon Village, and plunged down a 50 foot embankment. The most seriously injured was Helen Gear, who is in Lord Dufferin Hospital with a fractured ankle. Jean Barber, Kay Hackett, Frances Woodland and Lloyd Curry were treated for bruises and shock. Lloyd Curry was driving the four girls to take part in an exhibition basketball game in Hamilton. As the car headed down the mountain it attempted pass another car but struck a deep rut in the ice and snow, swerved off the road, snapped several posts and cables and hurtled down the steep embankment. The car, which was wrecked, belonged to principal E. Hackett, father of Kay.
• The Earl of Shelburne Chapter IODE has received a communication from headquarters outlining a plan to ask women’s organizations in Ontario to use apples in some form at least four times a week for at least the next 10 weeks in an effort to help Canadian farmers reduce the large surplus of Canadian apples and also help the exchange situation.

50 YEARS AGO
Wednesday, March 24, 1965
• ith Shelburne Council as host and Reeve Phil Franchetto presiding, as meeting was held in the Cedar Room of Shelburne Arena last week with representatives from township councils and planning boards in attendance to hear Jack Delaney of the Ontario Department of Industrial Development present an address explaining the work of his department in assisting industry to locate in Ontario.
After Mr. Delaney’s address, a lengthy question and answer session was held in which it became fairly evident that rural areas would have to develop their own promotion campaigns with the department providing any guidance it has developed with its experience in the past. It was suggested that areas seeking industry would do well to examine their various resources and attractions and evaluate them in terms of usability by industries which they might expect to attract.

10 YEARS AGO
Thursday, March 24, 2005
• ewly elected MPP John Tory, said in an interview Monday, that while his first two priorities are helping Ontario farmers and easing residents’ tax burden, he wants to see progress on this area’s road work, especially Highway 10. Mr. Tory said he hopes to push the government to lighten property taxes by taking over the maintenance costs of County Road 109 between Orangeville and Harriston and County 124 between Orangeville and Collingwood.
Mr. Tory will officially be sworn in as MPP for Dufferin-Peel-Wellington-Grey on next Tuesday. He won the by-election last Thursday, garnering15,610 votes or 56.3% of all ballots cast. Liberal candidate Bob Duncanson finished second, with 4,625 votes, while the NDP candidate, Lynda McDougall, received 3,881 votes, Green Party Leader Frank DeJong, 2,767, Paul Micelli, of the Family Coalition Party, 479, Bill Cook, of the Representative Party 163, Philip Bender, of the Ontario Libertarian Party, 135, and Independent John Turmel, 85.