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Dipping into the past…

September 24, 2014   ·   0 Comments

150 YEARS AGO
Thursday, September 22, 1864
• rom The Sun, Orangeville, compliments of Dufferin County Museum and Archives:
The election to fill the vacancy created in the Amaranth Council by the death of the late Mr. Jas. Spence took place at Farmington on Monday week last, and resulted, we are happy to state, in the return of Mr. W. B. Jelly of Laurel.
PRISONER ESCAPES – On Saturday last, a young man named Wm. Lawrence was brought before T. R. Buckham and F. C. Stewart, Esqs., charged with having feloniously taken a carpet bag, containing $13 and some wearing apparel from a traveller named Hugh McDonald, a resident of Bentinck. Some evidence having been taken, the case was adjourned till Monday for a fuller hearing; but the prisoner, who was given in charge of Constable Wallace, meanwhile effected his escape and has not since been captured. We understand that on the facts having been communicated to J. J. Kingsmill, County Crown Attorney, at Guelph, Mr. Wallace was indicted at the next Quarter Sessions for negligently having allowed the prisoner to escape.
THE TRAMWAY – We can assure our friends and the public that the affairs of the tramway were never in a more prosperous condition. However gloomy its prospects were in consequence of the extraordinary and suicidal course pursued by our Village Council with reference to it, they are now, on the other hand, equally cheering. The committee appointed at a public meeting held in the Village to manage the tram affairs, appointed a deputation to wait upon Messrs. Gooderham & Worts, and these enterprising merchants have offered to subscribe towards a preliminary survey, and also to take stock in the road if it should be found to be as advantageous as is confidently anticipated… . A meeting will held at the “Cataract House”, Church’s Falls, on Saturday, the 1st of October next, for the purpose of taking steps toward a survey of the road. We need not say that we anticipate a good attendance and a liberal subscription seeing that sufficient proof was given at the meeting recently held at Alton, of the disposition of our Caledon friends.
THE AMERICAN WAR – War is a doubtful game, and its results apparently depend upon the slightest contingencies. At the commencement of the great civil struggle now raging on the American continent, no one could have foreseen the magnitude at which it would arrive, or the length of time during which its ravages would continue. … The present summer has, on the whole, been favorable to the South, although it has sustained some distressing reverses. Atlanta has been yielded to the brutal foe, after an heroic struggle, but its captors have gained very little spoils and no prisoners and it may be questioned whether the North has derived much benefit from its possession. Mobile is now declared to be impregnable and its siege has been abandoned. Charleston stands as defiant as ever, and is absolutely impregnable. Richmond is not yet taken and Petersburg frowns defiance at Grant and his hordes. It is calculated that General Grant has lost one hundred and twenty thousand men during the summer campaign, which is certainly a greater army that Lee had altogether. By sea, the Confederates still reap a rich harvest from Yankee merchantmen and carry dismay into their commerce. Under these circumstances, the friends of the South need not be discouraged at the recent reverse which has befallen General Early in the Shenandoah Valley from the forces of General Sheridan. The North claim to have gained a great victory and taken 2,000 prisoners; we, however, knowing the unreliable character of Northern telegrams, do not anticipate, by any means, so great a disaster as that reported.
THE INTERCOLONIAL CONVENTION – As might have been expected, a very profound interest has been felt throughout the whole Province at the doings of the Convention of Delegates form all the British American Provinces recently assembled at Charlottetown. The idea is fast gaining ground in the colonies that a union of the whole in a British American confederation has become absolutely necessary. Under these circumstances, the public who have such important issues at stake, whose future happiness and well-being are inevitably bound up with this matter, very naturally turn their eyes with anxious interest in the direction of New Brunswick, where a convention of the chief politicians from all the provinces was assembled to deliberate on this very important measure… . That body has ended its labors for the present to assemble again at Quebec. Great things are said to have been done, but nobody knows precisely what they are. The doors were closed – each member could take notes – but no one was to publish anything to the outside world. On this account it can be seen that very little can be known by the public of the doings of this wonderful convention, except the few disconnected ideas which some not over-prudent member may have charitably communicated to anxious but grateful public.
THE LARGEST RAILROAD CORPORATION IN THE WORLD – The Grand Trunk Railway Company has now under its control and management, thirteen hundred and thirty-five miles of Railroad, extending from Portland to Lake Huron and Toronto to Quebec, with various branches. No other railway in the world has such a length of road under its control.
The POTATO ROT IN IRELAND – The Ballymena Observer under the appropriate heading of ‘Te Deum Laudamus’ thus alludes to the disappearance of the potato rot in Ireland: “The potato disease has disappeared from Ireland. Not a single tuber has been affected by it this season and a most luxuriant crop has reached maturity. The largest, finest and most profitable crop of flax that was ever produced in this kingdom has been safely gathered in. The fields are whitening with a bounteous harvest, and the weather is propitious. Truly the earth has yielded her increase.”

125 YEARS AGO
Thursday, September 26, 1889
• t about 7:30 p.m. last Thursday, Quebec City was thrown into intense excitement by a report that a great cliff slide had occurred in Champlain Street. Thousands of people flocked to the scene of the terrible accident to find that the report was authentic. Several thousand tons of solid rock crashed down with terrific force, from almost under the King’s Bastion on the Citadel and a little distance west of the end of Dufferin Terrace, and completely demolished seven stone and brick dwelling houses on Champlain Street, some 300 feet below. About 25 persons have been removed from the debris badly injured. It is supposed that this terrible accident was due to the steady, hot weather all this month, which cracked the cliff. It is also attributable to continuous rain which prevailed since the previous Monday. About 175 bodies are supposed to be buried under the debris.
• he bones of the ancient Amaranth mammoth were on exhibition at the Flesherton Fall Fair Monday and Tuesday last. The skeleton will be exhibited in Paisley and Walkerton before returning to Shelburne.
• olice Magistrate Pattullo disposed of the liquor case against D. E. Galbraith on Tuesday by imposing a fine of $20 and costs. Evidence in the Leeson case has been taken but His Worship has not yet given his decision.
•  horse attached to the Dominion Express wagon became frightened at the Orangeville CPR station yesterday morning and ran away. The wagon was badly wrecked. Shortly afterward, the axle of Gilchrist & Kent’s delivery wagon collapsed on Mill Street and the horse attached to it dashed off. No one was injured by either runaway.
• illiam Armstrong, an unsophisticated looking youth from Amaranth, was arrested by Orangeville Constable Hubbard on Saturday morning on a charge of attempted rape. Armstrong lives with his uncle and aunt, an old couple named Lomas, whose son and daughter-in-law reside close by. There is trouble between the father and son over the farm on which the former resides, and the present charge is the outcome of the domestic broil. The outrage is alleged to have been committed on the person of young Lomas’ wife. The prisoner, who is out on bail, will appear before the Police Magistrate today.
• he Dufferin Central Exhibition, to be held in Shelburne on Tuesday and Wednesday, October 8 and 9, promises to be a splendid affair, even the greatest fair ever held in the County.

100 YEARS AGO
Thursday, September 24, 1914
• ar news: It has been decided to make the first Canadian contingent 31,000 men instead of 22,000, which will take practically all the men now encamped at Valcartier. They will likely be taken to England for further training before going to France. It is said that the second contingent will consist of 19,000 men, thus bringing the total to 50,000, but the official call for the second force has not yet been issued.
• olice Magistrate Rutherford, of Shelburne, sent two weak-minded women, Misses Elizabeth Louise Cauley and Jane Cauley to Orangeville on Friday last for safe-keeping. They are about 50 and 48 years, respectively, and one of them can talk a little, but the other is a mute and an idiot. They have lived for years in Melancthon Township and as their mother died recently there was no one to look after them and they were not capable of caring for themselves. They will be sent to the Idiotic Asylum at Orillia.

75 YEARS AGO
Thursday, September 28, 1939
• n Sept. 1, Lt.-Col. Louis Keene, Commanding Officer of the Lorne Scots (Peel, Dufferin and Halton Rgt.) was ordered to mobilize the first contingent of the regiment in the form of the The Lorne Scots, being a headquarters and two companies of an Infantry Base Depot. Immediately Col. Keene commenced organizing this new Active Service Unit, which will form part of the two divisions being mobilized throughout the whole Dominion for overseas service.
• ith his blind dog Ned dead beside him, Samuel Keyes, 85-year-old pensioner, was found burned to death Monday afternoon in the charred ruins of his Orangeville home, which was destroyed by fire during the night. The body was found was found by Wesley Thompson, a neighbour, who with other farmers had searched the ashes of the burned building.

50 YEARS AGO
Wednesday, September 23, 1964
•  real estate firm in Toronto has offered to purchase the Orangeville town hall property for $25,000. It is proposed that a large supermarket occupy the ground floor with the Town Offices being moved upstairs.
• he 97th Annual Exhibition of Dufferin Central Fair, held in Shelburne on Friday and Monday, looked to facing one its worst years, when the big day (Monday) turned out to be both dull and damp. But while the usual parade from downtown was held to a record smallness, on the fairgrounds the crowd was as large as last year and some of the exhibits were a big larger.

10 YEARS AGO
Friday, September 24, 2004
• hen and if Dufferin County overcomes its doctor shortage the credit will lie not with a new health care deal announced last week, but with a dedicated band of fundraisers working out of Headwaters Health Care Centre.

         

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