Dipping into the past…

May 21, 2015 · 0 Comments

125 YEARS AGO
Thursday, May 22, 1890
• nother has been added to the long list of 22 deaths which have occurred within the walls of the Dufferin County jail within the last few years. George Irwin, aged 64 years, hailing from Melancthon, died there on Friday morning last. Mr. Irwin was at one time a well-to-do implement agent, but poverty and disease lay hold upon him and consumption ended his troubles behind the prison bars. Coroner Henry and a jury held the usual formal inquest on Friday afternoon, returning a verdict of death from natural causes. Irwin’s remains were interred in the Potters Field at nine o’clock on Saturday morning.
• t its meeting in Grand Valley on May 5, East Luther Council passed the following motion: Moved by W. S. Galbraith, seconded by John Barber, that the Council dig a ditch along the north side of the 13th Con. Road allowance opposite Lots 23, 24 and 25, provided the petitioners clear out and grub the road 20 feet wide, that the clearing and grubbing be done before the ditch is dug, and that John Barber attend to the letting of the said drain.
• t its meeting last Friday, Shelburne Council received a petition signed by the property owners on Main Street, praying for a sewer to be constructed.
• Says the Alliston Herald: On Tuesday night last, a villainous outrage was perpetrated on the horses belonging to Sam Lawrence. The animals were in the stable as usual, being about 100 yards from the house. During the darkness the human image entered the stable, cutting the throat and windpipe of the four-year-old colt, and almost severing in the tail from the mares body. The harness was also badly cut up. The party who would be guilty of such a horrible outrage should be hung at once, as his room would be better than his company.
• About 70 delegates from Mono, Amaranth, East Garafraxa, Orangeville and East Luther attended the Liberal-Conservative Convention called to meet in Orangeville on Tuesday last. Shelburne, Melancthon and Mulmur sent no representatives. A number of speakers addressed the convention on the dissatisfaction that existed on account of the convention being held in Orangeville. Reeve Allen, of Mono, moved that the convention be adjourned until Tuesday, May 27, at Shelburne. After several delegates had aired their views, the motion was carried with a large majority.
• A large number of farmers assembled in the Town Hall, Shelburne, yesterday afternoon, to select a candidate for the Ontario Legislature. Mr. W. J. Sproul, president of the Dufferin Farmers’ Institute, occupied the chair, while Mr. James Brown, of Melancthon, acted as secretary of the meeting. The following gentlemen were nominated: Richard Slack, Robert McGhee, William Ferris, Thomas Ferguson, C. Graham, N. Haney and William August. All retired except for Messrs. McGhee and Ferguson, and a vote resulted in the selection of Mr. McGhee.

100 YEARS AGO
Thursday, May 20, 1915
• ravellers over the Shelburne-Rosemont road claim that the best work done for years on this road has been done this season opposite Enos Brett’s farm. The credit for the work is due to J. D. Little and Mr. Brett, pathmasters for Mulmur and Mono. They appear to have understood their business, as everyone who travels the road speaks highly of the changes made.
• wo more from Shelburne now figure in the casualty list of the big fight at Langemarck last month. George Pattison, of the 4th Battalion, who left town with the 36th Regiment volunteers last fall and who was wounded at Langemarck April 24, and Owen Tindale, son of William Tindale, north Amaranth, who was in the 3rd Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, and who is reported as missing, which in all likelihood means he is prisoner in Germany.
• The Shelburne branch of the Women’s Institute is seeking contributions to a public shower of hospital supplies for wounded Canadian soldiers, on the afternoon and evening of Tuesday, June 8 in the Town Hall.
• ol. J. A. V. Preston, and Lt. Firth, the latter principal of Orangeville Public School, left Monday evening to join their regiments enroute for the war front in Europe. The officers were escorted to the CPR depot by the Citizens’ Band, high and public school cadets and an immense concourse of citizens on foot and in autos.
• The erection of the hydro line from the power house at Eugenia to Flesherton is nearly completed and ready for service. The poles are fine samples of B.C. cedar, 60 and 65-foot long.

75 YEARS AGO
Wednesday, May 16, 1940
• ccidentally shot while he was hunting groundhogs, 12-year-old George Legate, of Grand Valley, died Monday in Lord Dufferin Hospital. The boy was injured when his .22 rifle discharged while he was clubbing a porcupine to death. The bullet struck him in the chest and punctured arteries near the heart.
• Construction work at Camp Borden is at the height of its spring activity with hundreds of civilians working steadily and buildings being erected almost overnight. It is estimated that at least 1000 civilians are working at the big military and air base, with about 600 for the Royal Canadian Engineers alone. Both Barrie and Alliston have been combed for suitable boarding places for the workers.

50 YEARS AGO
Wednesday, May 19, 1965
• ublic and high school students in Dufferin are going to get a chance to help promote this year’s National Fiddle Contest in a poster-drawing contest that offers $40 in cash prizes. The design must advertise the coming contest in Shelburne August 6 and 7.
• The Church of the Nazarene, Shelburne, is going ahead with the work of converting the town’s former post office building on Owen Sound Street to a church and pastor’s residence.

10 YEARS AGO
Thursday, May 19, 2005
• onspicuously absent from an Ontario government announcement this week of $11.2 billion in highway improvements for the Greater Toronto Area was any relief for commuters heading from Orangeville to points south. The government announcement outlined an ambitious programme but made no mention of the long-awaited widening of Highway 10 between the Caledon gravel pits and Orangeville. However, it did promise a “phased-in” extension of Highway 410 to Highway 10.
• Despite protests and the expressed concerns of a few councillors, County-wide collection of recyclables and organic material came a little closer to implementation last Thursday when Dufferin County’s Community Development Committee approved a recycling business plan and recommended that County staff begin assuming authority for the service.