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Municipality :
Community : Beeton
Lot :
Concession :
Description : David A. Jones Made "Beetown" Famous

David Allanson Jones is credited as the founder of Beeton. He was the first commercial bee man in North America and made the community famous for its honey.

Honey bees were not native to North America and were brought in by the first settlers. Jones capitalized on the delicacy and won prizes and awards for his honey in fairs all over the world.

In 1874, Clarkville was renamed Beetown in recognition of Mr. Jones' work. The name has since become Beeton but the signs at the entrances to the village still use the beehive symbol in memory of Jones, who died in 1910.

Simcoe Centre MPP D. Arthur Evans was born in Beeton.

Probably the most famous person to call Beeton her home was Canadian radio star, Kate Aitken, who passed away last year. Mrs. Aitken remembered her childhood so fondly she often commented about Beeton in her radio shows. The history of the community is set down in her book, "Never A Day Too Bright."

Mrs. Aitken organized the first Women's Institute in Beeton in 1920 and was its first president. Mrs. Gordon Drury, curator of the Institute's Tweedsmuir History Book, said the first meeting was held in a building on the northwest corner of Main and Centry Sts. Each of the ladies donated a cup and saucer and at the second meeting, each donated a chair. To keep the place warm and cozy through the winter months, another lady donated a cord of firewood.

The Institute celebrated its 50th anniversary in October, 1970. One hundred seventy-four ladies have belonged to the organization since it began.

Each of the three churches in town has its wealth of history in the forming of the community.

Trinity Anglican Church was built in 1878 with the cornerstone laid by John MacDonald, M.P. There was probably another church on Main St. before fire destroyed the west half of the main block of stores (Jones' block) on the north side.

Mrs. Jack Camplin recalls the church was always filled for two services each Sunday, and the holders of rented pews had to be in their seats ten minutes before the service otherwise others were allowed to use the seats.

Rev. J. Cross has been the pastor at the church for the past five years.

St. Paul's Anglican Church was built in 1879 for $4,500 on land donated by the Hammell family. The opening service was preached by Bishop Sweetman on Feb. 10, 1880 and consecrated on Dec. 14, 1906 after becoming debt-free. The church seats 200 people and has a congregation of 100 families.

Church records indicate a congregation existed as early as 1867. Rev. William Davis has been the minister for the past five years.

Rev. Basil Das of Tottenham is the minister of the Presbyterian Church which was completed in 1890 and debt-free at its opening. It celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1941.

The original church, Second United Presbyterian Congregation of Tecumseth was started in 1859 and located on the south side of Main St.

The Beeton Telephone Co. is now part of the history of the community. In 1958 the company was sold to Bell Telephone when the dial system became widely used. Dr. McKelvey, the last president, said the company was formed in 1906 and owned the territory surrounding Bradford, Cookstown, Alliston, Rosemont and Tottenham.

Beeton was the first community in Ontario to have a covered ice rink. The old town hall was condemned and subsequently sold in 1947 for $5,500 and the money used to build the rink.

Dr. McKelvey, who was reeve at the time, said the arena didn't cost the ratepayers a nickel. The entire cost was raised through donations and social events.

Municipality :
Community : Other - Bradford
Lot :
Concession :
Description : William Cairns of King City and Ken Douglas of Schomberg died after their car struck a tree while being chased by police in Vaughan. Another young man, E. McNaughton, is in hospital.

Municipality :
Community : Bradford West Gwillimbury
Lot :
Concession :
Description : Cabinet Post Eluded Art
By John Slykhuis

Arthur Evans' 17 years in the Ontario legislature - now coming to an end - were not without disappointment.

The position of cabinet minister has always eluded the Simcoe Centre MPP, and he frankly feel sit was because he supported the loser in the progressive Conservative leadership race of 1961.

"Politics being what it is, I guess I could have been a cabinet minister if I had supported John Robarts. I supported Bob McAuley," Mr. Evans said in an interview.

During thar critical leadership race, John Robarts approached Mr. Evans for support. "He indicated to me that I would have a chance of getting into the cabinet if I would support him."

HARD WORK

Many of the top Robarts supporters who came to persuade Mr. Evans to change his mind ended up with cabient posts.

"All I got was hard work," Mr. Evans says. "That's politics...there's nothing you cand o about it, and that's the only regret I have, the fact that I wasn't able to be a cabinet minister."

And now that his political career officially ended with the election announcement, Mr. Evans, 62, is busy campaigning actively for his successor as a PC candidate George Taylor of Barrie.

"Yes, I'm trying to help George get elected. As far as I'm concerned we need a private enterprise government in this province. That's what made this country great."

Arthur Evans' fondest memory is not one of a political triumph or an election victory.

It's one of an elderly lady who travelled by bus from Barrie one cold and snowy Christmas season, walked the half mile or so to Mr. Evans' home in Bradford, just to give the family a turkey for Christmas dinner.

"This is for all the things you've done for everyone," she said.

RETIRING

It's the kind of memory that indicates the man he is, the grassroots, close-to-the-people politician on which the Conservative party of Ontario built and maintained such a powerful level of support.

Mr. Evans' long and distinguished political career began in 1942 when he was elected to the Bradford Public Utilities Commission.

The following year he led the polls and captured a seat on council.

Running on a platform of building a new community centre and providing increased parking, Mr. Evans was elected Reeve of Bradford in 1953, defeating Frank Allan by only 39 votes.

That was the year of the Hurricane Hazel disaster, and Mr. Evans had to forgo building the community centre to handle the sudden emergency.

"I was responsible for organizing the rescue of people on the Marsh. When the first call came to me I had to ring the firebell, get the firemen, help get the sandbagging operation going on the dykes. I never went to bed until those 3,500 people had found a place to sleep.

After that came the long period of rebuilding with his establishment of the Holland Marsh relief fund in which he had $60,000 in personal cheques sent to him. He turned them over to the national hurricane relief fund.

With the financial skill that had made him a successful businessman - he ran a bakery and clothing store - Mr. Evans managed to turn the massive clean-up of the marsh refugees' trailer camp into a plus for the taxpayer.

ASSISTANCE

He went to the relief fund organization in Toronto to ask for assistance. "I wanted to make sure that I had enough money to clean up so that the taxpayers of Bradford wouldn't have to pay a cent. I said, "I want to be guaranteed $2,000 plus whatever I can salvage our of the trailer camp."

When it was all over, he still had $2,000 left, and this became the first contribution to the arena fund, listed in the Bradford Witness of the say as an "anonymous" donation.

After the completion of the Bradford community centre, Mr. Evans was elected Warden of Simcoe County in 1958.

And while ordinarily this post mean retirement afterward, he was re-appointed after the sudden death of the succeeding warden to deal with the separation of Barrie from the county in 1959.

"We did settle the financial situation between the city of Barrie and the county in about one year... it was an unusual thing to settle in so short a time. It took York and the city of Toronto over seven years to settle."

FIRST MAYOR

With Bradford growing enough to achieve town status in 1960, Mr. Evans decided to stay on to run for the first post of mayor. He was acclaimed to office.

He had decided the previous year to run for a provincial post, but the Progressive Conservative incumbent, George Johnson, decided to stay on and Mr. Evans withdrew in favor of him.

Mr. Johnson died the following year and Mr. Evans was persuaded to run in the byelection.

"I didn't really have any political aspirations then. I had just gone through the fire (which destroyed his business) and rebuilt everything. I was quite happy. I was just going to finish off the year as mayor and get out."

Little did he realize then that his political career had another 17 years to run.

He won that byelection on September 29, 1960 and four other elections since then in 1963, 1967, 1971 and 1975.

Several of his committee appointments in the legislature have been vital ones, including heading the select committee on conservation authorities 1964-67, which laid the foundation for much of the government legislation on preserving farmland and protecting the environment.

DIPLOMATIC

With a unique display of diplomacy and political skill he also averted a showdown with unions over a bill which would see non-engineering personnel involved in boiler maintenance.

"When the bill was going through committee and they (the union members) came, there wasn't room for them to all get in the hear the bill. I had to ask the speaker of the house if I could use the Legislature...This had never been allowed and he said no.

"So I called the premier, John Robarts, and I told him the situation. I said, "you could very easily have a riot on your hands if you don't allow me to do this." He said, "do you think you can handle it?" and I said, "I think I can," so he said OK and called the speaker.

The maneuver worked, and the union members wen away satisfied.

"I'm going to miss politics," he admits, but he vows to keep active in a variety of things.

He hopes to do more work for the Lions Club of which he was the district governor in 1960, and continue as director of a savings and loan corporation.

But today?

"well I'm painting the house. I'm just about finished now."

The kind of thing that appeals to people, a man just like them, not concerned with appearances or image.

Municipality :
Community : Bradford
Lot :
Concession :
Description : Noted under Bond Head neighbourhood correspondence.

Municipality :
Community : Bradford
Lot :
Concession :
Description : Article shows breakdown of the population of Bradford in 1950 by age group, based on figures gathered by assessor F. Collings.

Research on street names in Bradford West Gwillimbury that are named after local veterans

Event Date: May 11th, 2017
Event Type: Newspaper article
Municipality: Bradford, Ont.

Description: Bradford Times article describes creation of Canada 150 quilt and its creation and donation.

Municipality :
Community : Bradford West Gwillimbury
Lot :
Concession :
Description : BRADFORD - Amid much wailing and knashing of teeth the beards of two prominent Bradford gentlemen were gently removed by master barber Joe Scotto last Wednesday.

Mayor Zyg Fenik and Councillor Bill DePeuter, who are challenging each other to a beard-growing contest in preparation for the town's 125th anniversary, took to the barber's chair.

It was the first time Mayor Fenik had been clean-shaven in five years.

In the case of Mr. DePeuter, a decade-old mustache fell to the floor in a flurry of whiskers. Although the contest didn't officially start until Monday, the two men were shaven Wednesday because Mr. DePeuter was going to Florida on vacation.

While there he'll get a signed certificate from the chief of police of the town where he's staying stating he was clean-shaven on March 1. Bradford Police Chief John Harrison arranged the international whisker inspection.

Ellen McKinzey and Diane Sturdy members of the Take Off Pounds Sensibly (T.O.P.S.) group were there to witness that the shaving was done fairly. The group will act as official judges for the contest when it winds up during the town's anniversary celebration from July 1 through 4.

A total of 19 Bradford-area men signed up for the contest Monday, Mrs. McKinzey said.

Included in the beard-growers are clerk-administrator Pat Storey (his mustache gone), Councillor Waldie Crossland (a veteran of the 100th anniversary contest) and arena manager Don Harrison (after much persuasion and outright threats).

Municipality :
Community : West Gwillimbury
Lot :
Concession :
Description :

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.