Showing 14390 results

Municipality :
Community : Churchill
Lot :
Concession :
Description : On Saturday, September 29 Ruby Kell will have the honor of being presented with the Innisfil citizen of the year award and that will also be the day that she will be celebrating her 50th wedding anniversary with her husband Robert Kell.

Municipality :
Community : Holland Marsh
Lot :
Concession :
Description : 1976 Was a Year Most Vegetable Growers Would Like to Forget
By Matthew Valk

The end of the year is a time when most of us look back on what we have accomplished and look forward to better things to come. 1976 was a year that many growers would like to forget.

The first few months were a struggle to sell a large crop of carrots which never brought more than $1 per bushel; in many cases, it was far less.

A large volume was fed to cattle. There were some hopes that the stabilization board would help to reduce the large financial losses, which most growers were facing. However, after several months of negotiations, Ottawa came across with a measly $2.25 per ton which would not pay for the seed.

The 1976 growing season was also less than desirable. Apart from a warm month of April, the early spring was cold and wet. June was more like what we were looking for, warm and dry, but the months that followed produced cool temperatures and lots of rain.

Diseases were more prevalent than usual, particularly "blast" in onions. Harvesting weather was deplorable; rain and cloudy weather hampered field operations which were mostly stop and go. Although storage temperatures were fairly good for carrots, the high humidity caused a lot of headaches for onion growers.

The market situation has made some compensation for all these problems. The price of carrots and onions has been somewhat better than last year and prospects for the new year are good.

The reason for this is that growers in other parts of the world have had and are still having still bigger battles with the weather than we have had. Everyone has heard about the drought in Europe and the shortages.

In particular, potatoes and onions have been in great demand by European buyers and large quantities have been going overseas. Although most of the onions have been shipped by U.S. shippers, the effect has been a steady market for us as well.

Recent abnormal rainfall in the southern USA, mainly Texas, is affecting the growth of onions and carrots and the volume that may be expected in the next few months.

The acreage of these crops will certainly be down from normal and the quality could be affected due to the wet field conditions so far. So as we go into the new year, there seems to be nothing new as far as marketing our produce is concerned.

As usual, our marketing problem is really a production problem. The weather factor continues to play a big role in the volume of production. Growers usually say that they are better off if we all produced less and received more. No one can argue with this philosophy.

Since no one will volunteer to reduce production (this is against a grower's nature), the weather is left to do the regulating for us.

As we go into the New Year, I would like to wish friends and readers a healthy, happy and prosperous 1977 and good markets.

Municipality :
Community : Bradford West Gwillimbury
Lot :
Concession :
Description : He Helps Plan Area Growth

Art Kneeshaw was appointed to the Bradford planning board in 1969, just when growth began to surge in town.

The appointment to the Bradford board was followed two years later by his being named to head the joint planning board with West Gwillimbury.

"The idea behind joint planning is to make Bradford and West Gwillimbury work together," Mr. Kneeshaw said recently in an interview.

The pressure on the town of Bradford to develop never lets up, he said.

"With gas prices so high, commuters to the north are suffering," he said. "People are moving closer to Toronto. Because we're not that far away, we're getting hit by that."

The Simcoe-Georgian Task Force has suggested that the population of the town of Bradford should grow to 12,000 by 1991.

"Even at the present rate it's going to be ahrd to hold it," Mr. Kneeshaw said. "Right now we have enough development approved to take us up to 7,800 people."

The official population for Bradford in 1975 was 4,566. "We're still in the process of going from 5,000 to 7,500," he said. "It's going to be busy for the next two or three years anyhow."

The main limit to growth right now is the delay in approval of the proposed sewage plant extension. Council asked the Ministry of Housing for approval 18 months ago.

"It appears we're getting in more industry than we should," Mr. Kneeshaw said. "The plan is set up for 75 percent residential and 25 percent industrial."

"This town can someday handle 20,000. We're very fortunate that we'll never have to annex for years."

When asked what has been the toughest problem he has faced while sitting on the planning board, Mr. Kneeshaw replied:

"The time element. A developer always feels there is a time delay from the time he makes application until he get approval to go ahead."

An area resident all his life, Mr. Kneeshaw is the Land Registrar and Master of Titles for the County of Simcoe.

He has worked for the county for 25 years.

He and his wife, Ruth, have two grown children, Brian and Faye.

Mr. Kneeshaw's numerous interested include curling, golf and the Bradford Lions Club.

Municipality :
Community : Bradford West Gwillimbury
Lot :
Concession :
Description : Area Historical Society Formed

The first major steps to preserve the heritage of the Scotch Settlement and area were taken last week when about 20 people officially founded a historical society.

Known as the Scotch Settlement and District Historical Society, it will seek to preserve the historical record of not only the struggles of the Scottish settlers but those of Bradford and West Gwillimbury as well.

Philip Baker, a representative of the Ministry of Culture and Recreation was on hand to describe the procedure in setting up a historical society, the grant structure, and the initial problems that will have to be faced.

DISINTEGRATE

He told the group that the common mistake of most historical societies is to concentrate all activities on one particular project in the beginning and then disintegrate when it is completed.

He urged members to set up a variety of projects that could be tackled over the years.

The next step in the formation of the group is to adopt a charter, Mr. Baker said, and consider affiliation with the Ontario Historical Society.

He commended the society for its decision not to concentrate activities only on the Scotch Settlement, because of the danger that it would then be too limited and not self-perpetuating.

Funds for the immediate future would present the group with its first major hurdle.

Grants from the ministry and Wintario are of the matching variety and the group will first have to acquire funds on its own.

With this in mind, the society will probably ask the councils of Bradford and West Gwillimbury for a grant.

The maximum grant available from the ministry is $550 a year.

WINTARIO

Mr. Baker said other grants are available through Wintario, but also on a 50-50 basis.

The society elected its first officers that same evening, with Eleanor Reid as president, Andrew Rettig secretary-treasurer, George Brown in charge of architecture and historical buildings, and Ruby Fairs, program director.

A fee structure was also approved, with a $5 annual fee for a family, $3 single, and $1 student.

Don Beatty of the Innisfil Historical Society was also present at the meeting, and he related experiences of his own group, especially financial and the difficulty of maintaining an adequate number of members.

The society will meet again later in the fall at a date to be announced.

Municipality :
Community : Innisfil
Lot :
Concession :
Description : John Kneeshaw,left, looks at school bus he was driving when a sanitation truck collided with him last Friday night near the Honorable Earl Rowe School. At right is Edgar Sturgeon of Sturgeon Bus Lines.

Municipality :
Community : Bradford
Lot :
Concession :
Description : The wedding of Dora Muriel Williams and John Franklin Jennet. The ceremony was officiated by Rev. J.A. Crabb

Municipality :
Community : Middleton
Lot :
Concession :
Description : This is was the home of John MacDonald Campbell and his wife Edith Rose and is where they raised their nine children. This photo appeared in The Bradford Witness and South Simcoe News on June 8, 1983.

Municipality :
Community : Bradford West Gwillimbury
Lot :
Concession :
Description : Robert Evans is Named QC

BRADFORD - When Bradford lawyer Robert Evans read through the Globe and Mail January 1, he found his name listed among about 150 lawyers chosen for appointments to Queen's counsel by the Attorney General of Ontario.

He wasn't exactly surprised by the honor, but was very pleased.

"Appointments are awarded to lawyers who have been in practice for a number of years, and I had applied for it," said Mr. Evans, with the Bradford law firm of Evans and Evans.

Perhaps one reason he wasn't amazed by the appointment is that a number of other lawyers in his family have been similarly honored.

FAMILY

Robert Evans' grandfather T.W.W. Evans started the law firm in 1894 and not only was he named to Queen's counsel (it was then King's counsel because King George V ruled Great Britain) but so were his father Charles, uncle Brock, and his brother Thomas.

Robert Evans was born in Bradford and called to the bar in 1966. Since then he's worked in the Bradford family firm doing most of the litigation work.

An active member of the Progressive Conservative party, Mr. Evans admits the appointment has political overtones, but points out that members of other political parties are also appointed to Queen's counsel.

He told the Witness his appointment was "a mark of experience and was likely considered in light of his other community affiliations.

A member of the York Region Law Association, he was president of that group for two years, and is also active in the Simcoe County Law Association.

ACHIEVEMENTS

A term as president of the Bradford Rotary Club, and another as master of the Masonic Lodge in Bradford round out his list of achievements, and one of the personal highlights he proudly points to is that he was among several businessmen chosen to represent Canada in an Australian exchange program in 1967.

His family of wife Janet, and three daughters, Heather, 6, Jackie, 5, and Pamela, 3, have welcomed other exchange students into their home in past years.

Mr. Evans said he has been proud to watch Bradford growing over the years, and is equally proud of his family's law firm.

Although there are no specific duties attendant with his appointment to Queen's counsel, a few changes will result.

"I'll have to have a new silk gown made up to wear in court, and we'll have to have new letterhead printed with Q.C. after my name," he laughed.

Municipality :
Community : Bradford West Gwillimbury
Lot :
Concession :
Description : When I was about 18 years old I worked for the Bradford Fish Company which was owned by a man by the name of Jack Spencer who lived on Barrie Street. This was about 1924 or there about. At that time we were living on the 14th concession of West Gwillimbury about three miles from Gilford.

The main fish that we were fishing for was carp, a fish that was in great demand by the Jewish people. The carp was a fish that lived mainly on the roots of wild rice which was quite plentiful in the bay at that time. They also ate the rice that fell off the stalks when ripe. For this reason the carp had to burrow into the bottom of the bay and into the mud to get their food. This is why the flesh had a muddy taste when eaten, although I have eaten carp and the gentleman that was the cook for the company seemed to know how to cook it. He used to boil it right in quart sealers. He may have added something to it but he never told us his secret. I really believe that a lot of the cheap salmon that was available in those days was really carp.

At the end of the road at Gilford the company had three buildings - cook and bunkhouse, a boathouse, and a large building just north of the Gilford road which was used as a work shop and a place to store ice used to pack the fish. The fish had to be alive when they reached their destination as they had to be killed by a Rabbi. The carp was a fish that would live for a long time and when packed in ice would live when shipped away as far as New York.

When the ice was 24 inches deep (and I have known it to be 30 inches), we would have to store about a thousand blocks and when packed in sawdust and well covered it would last until well on into the next summer.

We had a large ice crusher in this building which would crush the ice into small particles with which to pack the fish. The fish were shipped in boxes that held 100 pounds. They were about three feet long and around 30 inches wide usually made of hardwood lumber. When it was stormy or too rough to fish on the open water we used to put in our time at making these boxes.

In the fall the first thing to do before the bay froze over was to drive down poles into the bottom of the lake in the areas where we intended to fish under the ice. Then we built a platform and a shelter large enough to hold the machinery and a large reel on which the nets could be stored. A slide was built from the front of the platform down to the bottom of the bay. This was used to haul the net up onto the platform.

As soon as the ice was thick enough to hold a man (about two inches of good blue ice) the first thing to do was to run ropes under the ice out to each of the corner posts that had been driven into the bay before freezeup. This was accomplished by using a pine board about six inches wide and around 10 or 12 feet long with a rope attached. Starting at the platform we would cut a hole and put the board under the ice and with a pike pole shove it as far as we could in the direction of the first corner post. Then we cut another hole and gave the board with the rope attached to it, another shot forward. This was done until we reached the first corner post, about 500 feet away from the platform. With a pulley we continued joining the posts by rope.

By the end, we had a way of pulling the net out from under the ice. The nets were known as seine nets and were about 300 yards long with lead weights on the bottom of them so that it would sweep the bottom of the bay. Cork floats were on the top of it to make it float to the top of the water.

As the net was hauled around to each of these posts a man had to be there to take the rope out of the pulley and put another rope, which was attached to the front of the net, through the pulley. When finished, we had a net that would sweep a swath at least 300 yards wide in a semi circle.

The fish would as a rule, swim back towards the centre of the net so if the net was pretty well all back to the platform before you saw how many fish you were pretty near certain that your catch wasn't very large, perhaps only two or three hundred pounds.

Of course there are almost always certain fish in the catch that had to be thrown back as it wasn't legal to fish with a seine net for game fish such as muskilunge, bass, pickerel or whitefish. Sometimes you would get no carp at all but maybe three or four hundred pounds of mullets or suckers and perch. These were all saleable. We also also used to get a lot of what we called dog fish. There was no market for them so we just threw them out on the ice for the gulls to eat. The proper name for them was Ling and I understand that now in some places they are called a delicacy and there is quite a demand for them.

The largest haul of carp that we got while I was working there was something over 40 tons in one haul. It took us two days and one night to empty them out of the net.

As we did not always have orders every day for fish, we had to make wide slatted crates 12 foot by 6 foot that sunk in the ice and down in the water When the fish were stored in them the fresh water flowed through them at all times. This way if we had a few days when we didn't get many fish but had some orders, we always had the crates of fish to fall back on.

Our main camp and cookhouse was situated just at the mouth of the river where it enters the bay. Our cook was a man from Bradford, George McDonald. We received $15 a week and our board which in those days was considered pretty good wages. On Saturday night when we were paid the first money I spent was to stop at he Gilford store and buy 25 cents worth of chocolate bars, six for 25 cents and about three times as large as what you would pay 45 cents for today.

As soon as it looked like the ice was going to break up in the spring we would carry a long pole with us in case we happened to step on a place where the ice was rotten. I remember one chap who worked with us used to walk to the store at Gilford almost every night and one night when the ice was getting soft in spots, he decided he wanted to go to the store and he wanted someone to go with him. We told him it was too dangerous and he said we were afraid and he was going anyways. So off he went and about 300 yards from the camp with us standing the veranda watching him, down he went. Well he got out all right and when he saw us watching he didn't turn back but kept right on going.

The same chap thought he was a little bit better than the rest of us. Most of us, when we were finished for the night would take off our hip rubber boots and walk around in our stocking feet, but he had to wear a pair of slippers all the time. So one night when he had gone to the store someone got some tacks and nailed his slippers to the floor. Well when he came home we were all in bed but not sleeping and he went to put on his slippers and the air was blue so he just ripped them up and left the tacks in the floor.

When we fished in the spring and fall in open water we just loaded the net into a seine boat and with a couple of men rowing the boat, a couple more would lay the net out. I remember one time when fishing in the open water the net got caught on a log or a stump and we had to pull it all up by hand. By the time we had it loaded, the back end of the board was just about two inches out of the water. That was one time that I would much sooner have been on dry land.

In the spring of the year when the water was fairly high the land which is now built up with cottages used to flood and the carp would go up into the water holes there and on the marsh to spawn. We used to have to go around with dip nets and catch them.

The female fish were called sows and they often weighed as much as 35 lbs. It didn't take many of them to fill a box.

If we only had an order for five or ten boxes, we would ship them by express but I know we would sometimes get an order for a freight car load.

The first foreman that I know of when the business started was Foxy Bantam. He was the father of Helen Bantam and Gordon Bantam. He was killed one Sunday while driving around the lake in a motor boat when a thunderstorm came up and he was struck by lightning.

When I worked there the foreman was Edmond Gibbons who now lived in Lefroy and is well over 90 years of age. He was an older brother of Leanord Gibbons who lived in Bradford.

Mr. Spencer quit the fishing business in Bradford and sold out to the late Dodger Collings who carried it on for a year or two. I think when Mr. Collings was running the business the dealers from Toronto used to come up with water tanks and transport the fish that way.

As the lakeshore property was developed around Gilford, and the reeds and wild rice were cut down, the carp population declined. It is now pretty well cleaned out.

Municipality :
Community : Newton Robinson
Lot :
Concession :
Description : Hon. Earl Rowe Pleads to Electors for Strong "Yes" Vote on Plebiscite

Newton Robinson, Ontario,
April 22, 1942

TO THE ELECTORS OF DUFFERIN-SIMCOE:

As your representative in the House of Commons, I did oppose the principle of a Plebiscite. However, our government has asked for an expression of public opinion and, under our democratic system of government, it is your responsibility and mine to exercise our franchise on this very important question.

To those who feel this vote to be an entirely unnecessary evasion of responsibility, and to those who are indifferent because in their own minds they question the value of voting at all, I would ask that they let the past go until the future permits its review.

Self-preservation is the first law of National life. If we are to preserve our existence as a nation, then our Government should feel free to take whatever action may be deemed necessary to defend and preserve Canada. Since our Government has asked for this freedom of action, it is our responsibility to give it to them.

This is a war for our very existence. Either we win by making sacrifices now, or we lose and pay tribute to Hitler and his gangsters in the future. The entire Continent of Europe, which a few years ago was composed of free nations, is now reduced to a continent of servitude.

It is perhaps difficult for us, being yet distant from the field of actual conflict, to fully realize the necessity of our Government exercising freedom of action so essential to maintain freedom itself.

Never in the history of all mankind should our people be so firmly attached to freedom of religion when such is brutally denied in other lands; to freedom of speech and press when elsewhere terror and fear stifles comment; to freedom from unreasonable searches and seizure when practically the whole Continent of Europe languishes under the heel of the Gestapo; to trial by jury when thousands in other lands are rushed to concentration camps or firing squads by courts which make a mockery of justice.

These things are part of us and our mode of life. They will endure only so long as we continue to believe in them and possess the will to defend them.

The decision which our Government asks of us far from ends the bound of political faith or party allegiance , because the Government of Canada is your Government and mine alike.

I would ask the people of this loyal constituency of Dufferin-Simcoe to vote "Yes" on the Plebiscite and do everything in their power between now and April 27th to assure its passage with an unmistakable majority.

Yours faithfully,
W. Earl Rowe