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Event Date : Saturday, July 27, 1957
Event Type : Death

Description : The end came suddenly for Bradford's veteran, and well-known townsman, Benjamin Briton (B. B.) Collings, last Saturday morning. During the past year Mr. Collings had shown some signs of his advanced years, but the firm step, the indifference to weather conditions, and the ready reply to all greetings, remained with him to the last. He had not been well for a week or more, but on Thursday he was downstairs in his home and returned to his room unaided. Friday he acknowledged he was tired and stayed in bed and on Saturday morning he was dead. He never had pain. He kept going to the last, and just quit. B. B. Collings was looking forward to the Centennial celebration and meeting old friends, and to many who are returning, Bradford has lost one of the interests for them, in his passing. Few will disagree that he was the most colourful character in Bradford. He knew everyone, and everyone knew him. He had a greeting for everyone, a greeting which seldom was particularly complimentary, but because it was B. B. Collings' remark, it was accepted with a laugh. Few days passed that those whose duties caused them to be about the street, did not have a few words with B. B.
"Mr. Collings was born in Bradford on August 9, 1876 the youngest member of a family of sixteen. From childhood days he was working. He told stories of the days when Amsterdam was a thriving village with its mills and he was an errand boy down there. The Collings family was associated with the Holland Marsh and did a profitable business in cutting marsh hay and selling this hay for packing and mattress making. B. B. decided that if this hay was worth Toronto mattress makers transporting it to Toronto he better get into the business. In the 1890's he went to Toronto and learned the trade and came back to Bradford and opened a little mattress making factory here where he employed some of the lacrosse players of the day. Today it is common practice for sport enthusiasts to give employment to star players but B. B. Collings began that nearly 60 years ago. He then went into the furniture and undertaking business taking a course in embalming. Then back to the marsh hay business and commercial fishing and his final business venture was the draining of what was named the Colbar Marsh area a big portion of which is now Federal Farms' gardens and in this he was singularly successful. This last project was accomplished after he was in his seventies.Mr. Collings and his men were recognized in the Lake Simcoe district as an able life-saving crew. Their business as commercial fishermen took them to all parts of the lake and the river and they were familiar with the water. Few accidents or tragedies have occured on the river or lake to which Mr. Collings and his men were not called to lend their help and they have many rescues to their credit.Mr. Collings was always keenly interested in sport particularly lacrosse and had served in official capacity on various lacrosse clubs. But few sporting events occurred in Bradford throughout the years which he did not attend whether hockey ball or lacrosse.Mr. Collings served on the Bradford Public Utilities Commission for several years and also on Bradford Board of Education.In September 1902 Mr. Collings married Etta May Waldruff of Bradford who survives him with their family of two daughters and one son namely Bernice (Mrs. Gordon Crutcher) of Thornhill; Kathleen (Mrs. Ken Blevins) of Toronto and Norman E. of Bradford. Five grandchildren also survive: Gordon Stephen and Tony Crutcher Tom Collings and Mary Jane Collings. Of the family of sixteen only two survive Dan Collings of Bradford and Libby (Mrs. Selby) of Eston Saskatchewan.The funeral was held from Bradford United Church yesterday afternoon. The services were taken by Rev. F. G. MacTavish assisted by Rev. H. P. Maitland of the Presbyterian Church and Rev. H. G. Blake of Toronto. Interment was in Mount Pleasant Cemetery. The pallbearers were C. T. S. Evans, A. L. Veale, Fred Collings, Roy Collings, Phil Latchman and James R. Webb."

" '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..."

"Life ended suddenly on Monday afternoon for a 12-year-old Holland Marsh girl who went swimming in the Holland River. Betty Lowder, R.R.2, Newmarket, was swimming under the bridge at the intersection of No. 3 Concession and the Graham sideroad with her brothers and sisters, when she submerged in the middle of the murky river in about eight feet of water. There were no adults present..."

"Charges of neglect have been laid against the mother of the 12-year-old girl who drowned in the Holland River on Monday, August 5, according to the Executive Director of the York Region Children's Aid Society, Donald Van Camp.
Eleanor Lowder, mother of Betty Lowder, the girl who drowned, has been charged under Section 40 part (1) of the Child Welfare Act which makes it an offense for anyone to leave a child unattended for an unreasonable length of time without proper supervision. Under the provisions of the act the maximum fine the court is able to impose in such a case is $200 and a maximum one year prison term.
Hearings on the charge will take place in camera on September 3 in Newmarket family court.
The surviving five Lowder children are in the care and custody of the Children's Aid Society, according to Van Camp. After the accident one of the children was in the care of relatives, according to him, but now all are with the society.
Any inquest into the drowning will have to wait until the charges have been taken care of by the courts, according to Dr. Robert Seaver, who is acting as coroner in the case.
"Its all up in the air right now," said Doctor Seaver, "any charges will take precedent. Until some of these things are straightened out," he said referring to the charges, "we can't go ahead." He is also waiting on further details on the accident to become available from the police and the autopsy report.
The possibility of an inquest will still be up in the air, according to Dr. Seaver, until it is decided if some particular aspect of Betty Lowder's death has to be "...brought out."
The police will only be acting as witnesses and assisting the Children's Aid Society in this case according to Deputy Chief Robert Hood of the York Regional Police. Police could have laid the charge against Mrs. Lowder, but they deferred to the Children's Aid Society in the case.
The drowning was the first case in which Bradford firemen were called to the Marsh area which recently switched to Newmarket for its fire protection. The Bradford department's answering of the call raises the question of the $800 charge which King Township is supposed to pay when the Bradford department enters King.
When asked about the fee and whether it will be charged, Bradford mayor Joe Magani replied, "If someone is drowning and we coulz be of some assistance, I don't think its a matter of dollars and cents."

"Had Come from Toronto Thursday - Went Bathing After Day's Work

Mushaelo (Michael) Bohoniuk, 25-year-old Ukrainian, of 70 Runnymede Rd., Toronto, was drowned in the Holland Marsh irrigation cala, at a point where the canal skirts the rear of Mr. J.W. Wilson's farm, late Saturday afternoon.
The drowned man, it appears, had come up from Toronto on Thursday and had secured work with Anglo del Zotto and F. Bollsanelo, market gardeners. Having finished work on Saturday afternoon, he had decided to bathe in the canal. Undressing and donning a pair of trunks, he left his clothes in his employer's shack, started out apparently for the canal, and nothing further was seen of him alive. ..."