Dipping into the past…

June 4, 2015 · 0 Comments

125 YEARS AGO
Thursday, June 5, 1890
• he nomination meeting of candidates for the Ontario Legislature was held in Orangeville on Thursday last. Sheriff Bowles, returning officer, opened the proceedings, and the nominations came in briskly — no less than 26 candidates being nominated to represent Dufferin. Thomas McFadden, seconded by Joseph Haddock, nominated Dr. John Barr. George Bailey was moved by Dr. Smith, seconded by John Park. Dr. Gaviller’s right-hand men were Walter Gordon and Thomas Parsons. Robert McGhee was moved by W. J. Sproule and seconded by Richard Slack. The other 22 candidates retired, and the nominations closed at 2 p.m. A public meeting was then held, presided over by Reeve Allen, of Mono. Short speeches were delivered by the candidates and others. Mr. McGhee’s friends endeavoured to get Mr. Bailey to retire, but when their efforts were futile, Mr. McGhee quit the field, showing his loyalty to his party. As a result of the meeting there will be three candidates in the field, Dr. Barr, Conservative; Mr. Bailey, Reform, and Dr. Gaviller, the Farmers’ candidate.
Persons entitled to vote in the election must be on the voters’ list, must be a British subject and at least 21 years old; must have resided in Ontario for nine months preceding the commencement of assessment roll on February 15; must have been a bona fide resident of and domiciled in the municipality at the time, and must, on polling day, be a resident of and domiciled in the riding and have resided there continuously since the time fixed as a foresaid.
• he 36th Battalion, to which the Shelburne Volunteer Company belongs, will be going to camp at Niagara on June 17. John Witter, of Shelburne, who has charge of the canteen and officers’ mess, will go to St. Catharines this week.
• hile testing the new waterworks mains in Shelburne last week between Owen Sound Street and the western terminus, a leak was discovered. Says the Shelburne Free Press: “It would have paid the contractor much better to have seen that all pipes were sound before putting them in.”
• The other day Mr. James Bell, of Erin Township, aged 96 years, walked from Camilla to his brother’s place (Mr. William Bell’s) north of Primrose, a distance of six or seven miles. He started to walk the whole distance from Orangeville but got a lift as far as Camilla. It seems that while he was partaking of a lunch at Orangeville, the train by which he intended going to Shelburne went off and left him, but that did not deter him from completing his journey.

100 YEARS AGO
Thursday, June 3, 1915
• t its meeting Tuesday evening, Shelburne Council passed a resolution requesting Dufferin County Council to enact such legislation as is necessary to change the standing of the Shelburne Continuation School to that of a High School.
• Richard Backus, of Kincardine, sold his brick block and warehouse in Shelburne, next to the Royal Hotel, on Monday last, to M. Blumenthal, who has had part it leased for some years. The price, we understand, was about $5,000.
• A disastrous fire took place in Orangeville last Thursday night, at one time threatening the valuable blocks on East Broadway. The blaze was discovered in a frame stable in the rear of Frampton’s Bakery at 11:20 p.m. The fire spread to the large three-storey block, owned by John McKim and occupied by him as a grocery store and butcher shop, as well as by the local office of the Department of Agriculture. The upper flats were used as rooming apartments, and several occupants had very narrow escapes, some being taken out of upper windows, others sliding down ropes, and all losing their belongings, as the entire McKim block was gutted. Frampton’s Bakery and Merlina’s fruit stock suffered badly. The fire brigade handled the situation well, and were ably assisted by a large number of citizens and commercial travelers. The Sun printing office, adjoining the McKim Block to the east, escaped damage owing to a double firewall between the buildings. The block so badly damaged was one of the town’s finest. It will be rebuilt at once. The loss is placed at about $15,000, with insurance of about $12,000.

75 YEARS AGO
Wednesday, May 30, 1940
• ays the Shelburne Free Press and Economist: “Canadians to-day are being asked to buy War Savings Certificates. What does this mean? It means this: that our answer will be the measure of our devotion to democracy, to freedom. We have been told that democracy is decadent. That our ideals of freedom are meaningless. That our way of live cannot compel the devotion that goes to the totalitarian creed. War Savings Certificates can answer, and powerfully, that indictment. To the extend that we buy them will tell whether or not devotion to democracy and liberty does exist; whether their exists the reality of democratic responsibility, of democratic loyalty, of democratic unity.”
• he services in Shelburne’s three churches on Sunday were carried on in special observance of the Empire Day of Prayer, and were very largely attended. At. St. Paul’s Church, the Bishop of Huron was present and held Confirmation services in the evening.

50 YEARS AGO
Wednesday, June 2, 1965
• he Village of Shelburne will acquire a tract of about 70 acres in the northeast portion of the municipality for use as an industrial park. “Approval has been secured from both the Ontario Municipal Board and the Department of Municipal Affairs to go ahead with the project,” said Reeve Phil Franchetto, “and the land to be purchased, at a price of $250 an acre, will be the major portion of the Allan McKelvie farm, just inside the corporation limits and bounded on the east by Highway 24 and on the south by Highway 10.” The purchase will include the barn on the farm, but Mr. McKelvie will retain his present residence and one lot to the east of his home.
• helburne Golf Course is now in operation with play on the full nine holes. The course was well patronized last Sunday.
• he 1965 summer tourist season was ushered in to Ontario with beautiful summer weather and the busiest Victoria Day holiday weekend on record. Rock Hill Park, in Mulmur, was in full swing with its camp ground populated by scores of campers, the pavilion rocking to the beat of the “Polaras” and the showboat, fresh and bright for the first talent show, which featured as a special guest TV and recording artist Johnny Bourque. On Sunday June 6, Country Music Hall, the popular country program on CFTO Toronto, will present a full show featuring Dianna Leigh and the Maple Creek Boys.

10 YEARS AGO
Thursday, June 2, 2005
• f all goes as planned, Orangeville’s south arterial road (the ‘bypass’) will be opened within six weeks or sooner. Trevor Lewis, Dufferin County’s Public Works Director, said Monday the completion target for the new Dufferin 109 is June 30, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony scheduled for early July. Laying of asphalt was to begin Tuesday.
• An Orangeville teenager is to be sentenced under the Youth Criminal Justice Act next month after being convicted in Brampton on Tuesday of two counts of being an accessory after the fact in the murders of Robert Grewal, 22, of Mississauga, and Giusseppi Manchisi, 20, of Milton. Youth Court Justice Minoo Khoorshed accepted the Crown’s assertion that the teen “willingly” helped killer Douglas Donald Moore, 36, dispose of the dismembered bodies in November, 2003, in two locations south of Montreal, as well as helping him bury their severed heads and hands. Defence lawyer Charlie Waite, of Brampton, said the teen, now 15, did not deserve to be found guilty because he had been “under duress” at the time.