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Holland Marsh With digital objects English
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Prelude to a child;s tragic death

" 'Could the life of one child have been saved and the lives of five others been improved if the Children's Aid Society had acted sooner?' This is the question that Mrs. Carol Simone keeps asking herself after the drowning on Monday of her neighbor's child, Betty Lowder, aged 12..."

Bradford Witness

Prof W.H. Day and Crew

Professor W. H. Day, who initiated much of the work in the marsh operated the Kingwilbra Gardens beside Bridge Street. Tom Fuller Sr. was one of the workers on the marsh for the professor. Mr. Fuller recalled getting paid 17-cents an hour and then getting a rather substantial raise to 20 cents an hour. The work crew included Arthur Taylor, Jack Geddes (killed in action during the Second World War), Wilbert Mulliss, Bruno and John Carvalho, Frank Maurino, Herb Taylor, Homer and Howard Henbest, Gordon McKelvie, Bob Edney, Charles Hansford, Joe Sangdrige. In the photo, top left, A. Moffat, S. Foster, H. Taylor, Tom Fuller, A. Doan, J. Foster, W. Semenuk, B. Cudmore. Middle Row: N. Gilfin, A. West, M. Thompson, R. Smith. Bottom Row: J. Ellis, H. Ellis, Hunter, J. Sadur, M. Zlotkin.

Bradford West Gwillimbury Public Library

Prof. W.H. Day cairn - detail

"In Memory of William Henry Day, Professor of Physics at O.A.C. Guelph, whose foresight and energy were principal factors in the development of the Holland Marsh Gardens. He came to Bradford in 1924 and harvested his first crop in 1928. He died suddenly while at work in his garden, July 5, 1938.
Erected jointly by county of Simcoe, Townships of West Gwillimbury and King and Village of Bradford 1955."

Amanda Gallagher

Professor Day Letter

Letter from Professor William H. Day to the Bradford Reeve and Councilors. Discusses the Holland Marsh drainage scheme, dated October 14, 1926.

John Harrison

Professor Day Note

Note from Professor William H. Day to Bradford’s clerk certifying work completion. Signed by Day with his title of “supervising engineer” included, dated November 10, 1926.

John Harrison

Profile of Dredge Cutting Blueprint

Profile of dredge cuttings in the construction of part of the south part of the Holland River marsh drainage system in Village of Bradford. Blueprint, dated July 7, 1925.

John Harrison

Public visits research centre

"Visitors from as far away as Idaho came to the open house at the Muck Research Station in the Holland Marsh last Friday. A steady stream of farmers, growers, salesmen and students toured the nine-acre site loaded with exhibits and test crops. The research station has served the area since the late 1940's, testing various crops, fertilizers, and chemicals used on muck crops. The station is headed by senior muck crops specialist Matt Valk, with Edo Knibbe as the agricultural technician, and staff members Fred Weening, Dave Walton, Eleanor Wall and Maureen Evans. The annual open house was blessed with warm, sunny weather."

John Slykhuis

Remembering "Flood Hazel"

Description : "Reginald Kuzyk was 30 years old, and an employee of the department of Highways, back on October 15th, 1954, when Hurricane Hazel hit.
The storm brought torrential rains and flooding. Dams burst, and homes were swept away in the floods. A total of 81 people lost their lives in Ontario. The floodwaters had washed onions from Holland Marsh fields and heaped them on the highway in "gobs.... I never seen so many onions in one place. They were all over the ground, and everywhere." He also remembers seeing two homes, which had drifted on the floodwaters until they washed up next to the highway. By the time Hazel blew itself out, more than seven thousand acres of farmland on both sides of the 400 were under water, covered by a lake more than 7' deep in places.
George Sadovchuk's described the Marsh after Hurricane Hazel as "it was just a lake. It was very impressive to see all that water where once was viable land... I was just amazed at the destruction that took place."
Relief efforts brought the homeless into Bradford, to the Town Hall, where they were clothed and fed by volunteers. A total of 25 pumps took about 4 weeks to drain the fields, at a peak pumping 220,000 gallons per minute. But it would take months to clear the debris and repair the damage. Seventy families - 350 men, women and children - spent the winter that followed in a trailer park, set up by the Rotary Club on the site of the Bradford Arena.
The sky was appropriately grey, for Sunday's historic tour of the Holland Marsh. The tour not only commemorated the 200th Anniversary of Yonge Street, but also the 42nd anniversary of Hurricane Hazel."

Bradford West Gwillimbury Public Library

Resigning from fight for the Holland Marsh

Art Janse has been involved in the Holland Marsh all of his life, as a resident, a farmer, a Town employee for 45 years, and drainage superintendent for Bradford West Gwillimbury and King Township. Janse is retiring due to the response from many of the farmers to his ideas for the Holland Marsh Drainage Scheme improvements that would also improve the safety for motorists. The project has a high price tag of bout $17 million but Janse has won the right to assess upland residents a share of the cost, and has made the case for contributions from municipalities, OMAFRA, Transportation, Natural Resources and Environmental Ministries, and Conservation Authorities.

Bradford West Gwillimbury Times

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