Contains articles on the accidental deaths within the Bradford and West Gwillimbury area

Event Date : Thursday, January 31, 1974
Event Type : Death

"Walter Bak, well-known marsh farmer and produce stand operator, died at York County Hospital, Newmarket, on Thursday, January 31.A native of Chocznia, near Krakow in Poland, where he was involved in mixed farming, Mr. Bak emigrated to Canada in 1926. After working here for 10 years, he returned to his native land and the family he had left behind. Three years later, with his wife, Maria, and two of their five children, Theresa and John, he returned to Canada, to see if his family would adapt to life in Canada. Although he intended to bring over his three other children, Wladzia, Joseph and Stanley, the Second World War intervened and made emigration impossible. After share cropping in the Blenheim area during the war, Mr. Bak brought his family to Bradford in the spring of 1945. Three years after the war ended, sons Joseph and Stanley rejoined the family, although their sister Wladzia, did not come to Canada until 1959, when she arrived here with her husband and family. Two more children, Antoinette and Casmir, were born in Canada. In Bradford, Mr. Bak and his family began farming in the marsh and, after a few years, began selling produce to passers-by from a roadside stand. As the family business blossomed, the produce stand was expanded into a full building. Although he went into semi-retirement last year, Mr. Bak was still involved in the business and played an important part in the planning of the huge produce market now under construction on Bridge St. Mr. Bak is predeceased by his wife, Maria; and survived by three daughters - Mrs. Wladzia Balon of Bradford, Mrs. Theresa Sarabura, Toronto and Mrs. Antoinette Alexandrowicz, Kingston and four sons - Joseph, Peterborough, Father Stanley, Oblate of Mary Immaculate, John, Ottawa, and Casmir, Bradford. He is also survived by 26 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren.Requiem High Mass was held at the Holy Martyrs of Japan Church in Bradford on Monday, February 4, with burial in Holy Cross Cemetery, Thornhill."

Contains various miscellaneous photographs in the Bradford West Gwillimbury Public Library archives relating to Bradford's local history

Contains items based on the churches in the Bradford West Gwillimbury area. Headings include: Auld Kirk Bond Head Churches Bradford Presbyterian Church The Convent Church Photographs Dunkerron United Holy Martyrs of Japan Methodist Churches in BWG Springdale Christian Reform St. Luke's Anglican St. Paul's Anglican Trinity Anglican
*Churches - Other

February 10, 1988
Birth

Holland Landing couple are proud parents of test tube quintuplets
Holland Landing will soon be home to Canada's first-ever test tube quintuplets, born early Saturday morning at a Toronto hospital. Remington, Lance, Wade, William and Maxine were delivered two months premature over a five-minute span that began at 3:59 a.m. Saturday morning to Wayne and May Collier, of Dutch Settlers Crescent in Holland Landing. While they're not the first quintuplets born in Canada they are the first to be conceived by way of the in vitro fertilization process, and theirs was also the largest multiple birth ever at Women's College Hospital in Toronto, according to the public relations officer there. Wendy Lewis said Sunday afternoon that the five babies were listed in stable condition and that doctors were pleased with their progress. The babies will remain on respirators and under close observation for at least another couple of months, she said. Ms. Lewis said that a team of 25 doctors and nurses were involved in the birth, which took place with relative ease, with children arriving about a minute apart. They ranged in size at birth from 805 grams (one pound, 12 ounces) to nearly 1,200 grams (Two pounds, 10 ounces). The public relations officer said that Mrs. Collier, a 33-year-old executive administrative assistant with a law firm, had gone through a carefully monitored fertilization and gestation process under the Toronto East General LIF (Laboratory Initiated Foetal Emplacement) program. She had been in hospital for two months prior to the birth, and anticipated the number of children and their premature arrival. "She actually knew after five weeks of pregnancy she was going to have quintuplets, " Ms. Lewis explained, adding that premature labor "is expected in multiple births." Om fact Mrs. May had gone into labor twice during the week before the actual birth, she said. It will be at least 11 weeks before the quintuplets can come home to father Wayne, 27, an air conditioning and heating apprentice. The couple have no other children. Mrs. Collier couldn't be reached by phone over the weekend, but was slated to appear at a press conference in Toronto sometime Monday.