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Family portrait of the Collings family.

L to R: Ernie Collings, Robert Collings, Maria Saint Collings, Fred "Colly" Collings

Robert and Maria Collings passed when their children were young, leaving behind their children who became orphans at ten and six.

Event Date : Tuesday, December 26, 1950
Event Type : Death

Description : Less than five weeks before his death, Ernest came home from C.N.R. duties for the last time...

"The Right Honorable John Diefenbaker receives a mounted replica of a portion of the press plate used in printing his article "My First Prairie Christmas" which appears in the December Canadian Reader's Digest. Making the presentation to Mr. Diefenbaker in Ottawa are roving editor Robert Collins (left) and Digest editor Charles Magill. In the Digest article, Mr. Diefenbaker describes how his first Christmas in the prairies in 1903 reaffirmed the values he was learning day by day; the warmth of family, the loyalty of friends, the special kind of goodwill that reaches out to those less fortunate."

The office for Thompson Smith's Mill, Amsterdam. Robert Collings, Geo. Taylor, Miss Scott, Mrs. W. McKinstry (Ida Collings), Jas. Spence (Seated), Jack Davey (standing), James Scott, Sam Scott, Jack Busby, Tommy Mulligan.

Thompson Smith was a Toronto man who participated in the incorporation the Rama Lumber Transport Co. and who opened up a lumber mill in Amsterdam (near Bradford). The exact date of opening is unknown, but it was sometime between 1858-1869. The mill was a steam mill and many of the logs cut were shipped along the Holland River. Smith's mill was eventually one of many in the area during the late nineteenth century.