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Audrey Evans Dies After Brief Illness

Bradford lost a special lady last week. Audrey Evans, wife of former Bradford Mayor and Simcoe Centre MPP, D. Arthur Evans died early Wednesday morning, April 29, at York County Hospital in Newmarket after a sudden illness.

Mrs. Evans, 63, was taken ill while she and her husband vacationed with friends in Pheonix, Arizona on April 14.

Mr. Evans said she "miraculously" regained consciousness while in hospital in Pheonix to greet her children who had rushed to her bedside, then lapsed into a coma shortly afterward.

She was flown back to Canada the day prior to her death. He family was with her when she died.

NEAR ALLISTON

Born Audrey Myrtle Kerr, Mrs. Evans was the daughter of Selby Britton and Myrtle Kerr who owned a farm near Alliston.

Mr. Evans recalled meeting his wife at a dance while they were both teenagers. "We went together for five years and were married in 1939 in the Anglican Church in Rosemount," he said.

The couple celebrated their 42nd wedding anniversary while they were in Pheonix.

After their marriage they settled in Bradford where Mr. Evans operated a business and was ready to embark on his long political career, culminating in his election as Bradford's first mayor and MPP in 1960.

POLITICAL LIFE

"There is absolutely no way I could have done it without her," he commented. "I couldn't have had a better wife for a political life."

A charming, friendly lady, Mrs. Evans proved as staunch a campaigner as her husband. "She really enjoyed it," he recalled.

As well as helping her husband through successive political campaigns, Mrs. Evans was also an active members of the IODE and Anglican Church Women, and taught Sunday school as Trinity Anglican in Bradford.

Before a serious operation about four years ago, Mr. Evans said, she also enjoyed curling and playing golf.

"She was very active with young people. Our children's friends were always made welcome in our home. She just loved young people." Mr. Evans said.

Mourners Friday overflowed the chapel of the Lathangue-Skwarchuk Funeral Home where a funeral service for Mrs. Evans was conducted by Rev. Garnett Whitfield of Trinity Anglican Church.

Rev. Whitfield himself recalled first meeting Mrs. Evans as she typically offered assistance while he and Mrs. Whitfield were moving into their home last year.

FAMILY

Audrey Evans leaves her husband Art, children John, Don, Robin, Cathy (Mrs. Luis Arruda), and grandchildren Martina, David, Tara, Reagan, Becky, Justin, and Tiffany. She also leaves a brother, Borden.

Interment took place at Coulson's Hill cemetery.

Pallbearers were Keith Noble, Jack Constable, Ron Whiteside, Tim Fuller, Art Turner, and Doug Stewart.

Flower bearers were Ken Tupling, Walt Edney, Lloyd Kneeshaw, Bus Culbert, Keith Stevens, Jim McClocklin, Charlie Evans, and Ross Hughes.

Article which mentions the police and fire departments' new dispatch service.

Bradford Witness and South Simcoe News
February 15, 1984

W. Earl Rowe, veteran of federal politics and former lieutenant-governor of Ontario, died yesterday of a heart attack at his farm, about 70 kilometres (43 miles) north of Toronto. He was 89.

A lover of both politics and horses, Mr. Rowe spent 35 years as a Progressive Conservative member at both provincial and federal levels before being named lieutenant-governor in 1963, a post he held for five years.

His only defeat at the polls came in 1937, when he waged an unsuccessful attempt to wrest the Ontario premiership from Liberal Mitchell Hepburn. Shortly afterwards, he returned to federal politics.

Born in Iowa of Ontario parents, Mr. Rowe began his political career in 1919, when he was elected reeve of Gwillimbury Township.

He next won a provincial seat in the riding of South Simcoe in 1923 and two years later won the federal seat of Dufferin-Simcoe. He held the seat for 38 years with the only interruption being his try for the Ontario premiership.

Mr. Rowe was the youngest member in the cabinet of R.B. Bennett, serving briefly in 1935 as a minister without portfolio in the short-lived government. he resigned his federal seat and returned to provincial politics when the government was defeated in November of that year.

He remembered Bennett as "probably the most knowledgeable and least appreciated prime minister because of the very difficult time he went through."

Mr. Rowe was provincial Tory leader from 1936 to 1938, but his failure to win a seat in the 1937 election, and reported dissension in party ranks, sent him back to Ottawa.

He ran federally for Dufferin-Simcoe again in 1940, and was reelected six times before leaving federal politics in 1963 to become lieutenant-governor, a position he held for five years.

Mr. Rowe and his late wife, Teva, raised horses.

Bradford Witness
January 3, 1985
Death
Gilford, Ontario

Earl Dales, 75, of RR1 Gilford, died Jan. 3, 1985 at his home. The son of W.J.Dales of Cookstown and Florence (Hownsome) Dales, of West Gwillimbury, he was born May 9, 1909 in Cookstown. He was married Sept. 30, 1939, to Betty Porritt in Gilford where he worked as a farmer.... Surviving are his wife, two daughters, Mary Lowe, of Oshawa, and Betty Ann Armstrong, of Hawkestone, two sisters, Blossom, Mrs Harry Cross, of Beeton and Isabel, Mrs. Joe Cochrane, of Stroud, and five grandchildren...

January 8, 1985
Death

William J. Sutherland, 78, of Bond Head died Jan. 8, 1985 at YorkCounty Hospital. Son of the late John Sutherland, of West Gwillimbury Township and the late Mary Noble of Yorkshire, England, hewas born Sept. 17, 1909 in Bond Head. He was married Sept 21, 1935 in Tecumseth Township to the late Elva Bradley...He was predeceased by his wife on Dec. 26, 1984. Surviving are three daughters, Margaret Brethet, of RR3 Tottenham, Marian Davey, of RR1 Bradford, and Doris Colborn, of Gilford, one son, John Sutherland, of Midland, one sister, Mary Breedon, of RR1 Bradford, 10 grandchildren and one great grandchild....

Friday, January 18, 1985
Death

Wilbert Keith Orr, 75, of Bond Head, died Friday, January 18 at the York County Hospital, Newmarket.
Son of Andrew Orr and Jane Campbell, both of Dufferin County, he was born Feb. 16, 1909 in Tecumseth Township. He was married Mar. 8, 1941 in the bride's home to Jean Lisk and has lived on the fifth line of Tecumseth and in Bond Head....Surviving are his wife, one daughter, Donna, Mrs. Andrew Rabiewsky, two grandchildren,three sisters, Marion Craog, of Tornoto, Maida Ritchie, of Beeton and Madeline Porritt, of Gilford and one brother, Wm. J. Orr, of Tottenham....

"It has been described as the largest invasionary force ever amassed.
On June 6th, 1944, ships "covered the sea" in the staging area between the Isle of Wight and Normandy, preparing to carry 150,000 American, Canadian and British troops to five key beachheads in France.
As the troops prepared for invasion, 11,000 planes began their bombing runs shortly after midnight, dropping nearly 1,800 tons of bombs on German positions. Paratroops, including the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, were dropped behind enemy lines, and 500 battleships moved into position to shell the Normandy coastline.
The Allied invasion of Europe, dubbed Operation Overlord, was originally scheduled for June 5th, but delayed by stormy weather. When meteorological reports suggested a break in the weather on the 6th, the invasion was ordered to go ahead - through seas so rough that most soldiers were seasick on the passage across the Channel.
The assault began at 6:30 a.a., on the beaches code-named Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. The 15,000 to 20,000 troops of the 3rd Canadian Division concentrated on Juno, and the villages of Vaux, Graye-sur-Mer, Courseulles-sur-Mer, Beiniere-sur-Mer, and St. Aubin-sur-Mer,
Shortly after 8 a.m., the Canadian forces hit the beaches. Some battalions met little resistance, finding that the way had been cleared by the earlier bombardment; others discovered that the enemy positions were still intact, and faced heavy fire.
Among the first to land were the Royal Canadian Engineers, called on to blast through the concrete seawalls and barbed wire that blocked the coast, clear minefields, and prepare roads for advancing forces; and the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps. Many of the Medics were killed while trying to assist wounded soldiers in that first assault.
By the end of the first day of fighting, 4,000 allied troops had been killed, 342 of them Canadians. But the beacheheads had been established, and the Canadians had penetrated as far as 11 km inland.
It was the beginning of the end for the Nazi war machine. Eleven months later, on May 7th, 1945, Germany surrendered.
"War is nothing but death, disease, destruction, disablement...and a terrible waste." - D-Day veteran."

Memoriam in the Bradford Witness for those who lose their lives in WWII.

Description : Early Days of the Marsh

Today, one of the richest and most widely known Garden Tracts in Ontario is the Bradford or the Holland Marsh. In the vegetable stores across Canada and in parts of the United States you will see potatoes, celery, lettuce, onions, and carrots, etc., bearing the label "Bradford Marsh" or simply "Marsh" as a sign of quality. But, the Bradford Marsh was not always a gardener's paradise. Unbelieveable as it may now seem, it was once nothing but an impassable marsh of Tamarack swamp, covering thousands of acres.

Beginning about Schomberg and flowing, or moving in a very sluggish manner in a northeasterly direction towards Lake Simcoe is the stream known as the Holland River, so named after a Major S. Holland, Surveyor General of Canada, who in 1971 visited the river in making a general survey of the Lake Simcoe region. This is the main river and it is joined by an eastern or Holland Landing tributary at a place called Soldier's Landing or Soldier's Bay about seven miles from the mouth. At one time, navigation to Lake Simcoe points from Soldier's Landing consisted of small craft. In 1850, when boats were larger and the western or main branch of the river was found to be much easier to navigate, having deeper water and broader streams and not so choked with marsh as the eastern branch, the steamer "Beaver" went on to the Bradford Holland River Bridge.

In 1819, the first settlers in South Simcoe, the Wallaces, the Armstrongs and the Algeos, crossed the river with great difficulty and landed at what is now known as the old wharf in the Scotch Settlement. Here for some years was the only river crossing and that was by a ferry pulled by ropes.

But by this time, the settlement at Bradford had become an accomplished fact and the question of some method of crossing the marsh and so as to give easier access to the Holland Landing had arisen. Petitions were sent to county councils and to the Government and finally under the constant urging of William Armson, Reeve of West Gwillimbury and Warden of the County, money grants were given and a road was made from Bradford to the river by laying logs across a width of marsh and filling in with earth. This was the corduroy road, the logs of which were still visible many years afterwards. Then to cross the river a floating bridge was laid down and a through direct road from Bradford to the Landing was completed and the Marsh was at least partly conquered. The ferry at the old wharf was discontinued.

In 1837 George Lount, Government Surveyor, surveyed as a townsite, the spot on the south side of the river just beyond the floating bridge, known as Amsterdam and the streets were laid out bearing such good Holland names as DeRuyder, DeWitt, VanDyke, Rubens, etc., but the townsite remained as only a townsite and no town arose, so in 1869 a lumberman named Thompson Smith acquired the patent of the unused site and built two sawmills, one on each side of the road just beyond the bridge. And the marsh was still largely unconquered. Rafts of logs were brought up the river by the tugs Victoria and Isabella, and this helped to keep the river fairly clear of weeds. The wreck of the Isabella lay near the railway bridge not so many years ago and it now probably lying on the bottom of the river.

The superintendent of the sawmills was James Durham and in 1870, Mr. Durham cut the floating bridge in two in order to get his logs through and this caused a lot of trouble but led to the erection of a bridge above the water. This bridge was 420 feet long and was complete in April 1871, the builder being Thomas McKonkey of Gilford.

To the many men working in the mills the great marsh became a familiar sight and the thought entered someone's head, why not cut that marsh grass or hay, twist it into ropes and sell it, and so was born the marsh hay industry and some use at last was made of the great wasts of land. The hay was twisted into long ropes. Later, hay-balers were brought into use and the hay was baled instead of twisted into ropes.This marsh hay was used for stuffing mattresses. Marsh hay twisting and baling went on for years and might still be the only marsh industry had not a bright idea entered the head of one D. W. (Dane) Watson, an intelligent, energetic young farmer of the Scotch Settlement who, however, had come into Bradford and acquired a grocery business where the Village Inn now stands.

This bright idea was, why not dredge a canal and drain the marsh and so turn waste land into productive soil? Mr. Watson got Professor Day of Guelph Agricultural College, interested in his idea and so was laid the germ that has sprouted into the now famous Bradford Marsh Gardens.