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Home My WebLink AboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1949-08-18, Page 2Page 2 THE TIMES-ADVOCATE, EXETER, ONTARIO, THURSDAY MORNING, AUGUST 18,”1949 .......... ■■ I. .................. , . - - I-- - ...... . - .. .. ...... ■ ..... ...-J ■ ... .-.m. - ... , , „ . , - -rf 1 ! . y-1 Cxeter ®imesi^l)bocate Atones Established 1873 Amalgamated November 1924 Advocate Established 1881 Published Each Thursday Morning at Exeter, Ontario An independent Newspaper Devoted to the Interests of the Village Of Exeter and District Authorized as Second Class Mail, Post Office Department, Ottawa Member of the Canadian Weekly Newspaper Association Member of tlje Ontario-Quebec Division of the CWNA Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulation Paid-In-Advance Circulation As Of September 30, 1948 — 2,276 SUBSCRIPTION RATES Canada, in advance, $2.50 a year United States, in advance, $3.00 Single Copies 0 Cents Each J. Melvin Southcott - Publishers Robert Southcott THURSDAY MORNING, AUGUST 18, 1949 We Must Keep At It Satisfaction is felt at the renewed in terest taken in the Ausable Valley ad ministration’s taking a new lease of life. Folk interested in the project met last Fri day in Parkhill to hear the report of the work done by those immediately interested. Some folk from Missouri are waiting for knee action in the affair, knowing full well that it is one thing to have an enterprise of this sort on paper but quite another to get it where it will do some good. The suggestion about parks being set up on dif ferent parts of the land through which the Ausable flows is interesting and, we are sure, will eventually benefit the commun ity by attracting tourists. Exeter is favour ably situated for this good work. What the farmers are interested ip. is the conserva tion and control of water. Dry period are becoming more and more numerous and are lasting for increasingly long periods. The water* tables of the whole community are being .steadily lowered. Farmers are re porting that it is increasingly difficult to obtain, good pastures, while the straw of the grain crops is none too abundant. All of which indicates that the water available at the crop growing period of the year needs controlling. The river is fed from springs that are, in turn, fed from the farms along the river bank. It is a difficult matter to control rivers and streams, yet it can be done to a considerable extent when stern necessity points the way. What the administration has in mind is to have con trols in good working order before an emergency arises. Progress is a slow affair but it can be made when folk are in earn est and work according to a well thought out plan. There is no time to be lost. On tario must bear an increasing share in grain and root production. Our responsibility in this respect has .not shifted to western shoulders by any manner of means. Farm ers have found this out in recent years. The present calamity that has come upon Alberta emphasizes this matter. 5r * * * Too Many Motor Accidents We have been beset by altogether too many motor accidents. The wonder is not that we have so many such accidents but that we have so few. A few driving lessons and one is allowed to drive a car on the highway, a place where hazards spring up one every foot of the road. A railway en gineer or the engineer of a boat is not al lowed to undertake responsibilities until a thorough training has been given. A per son undertakes to drive a tractor after the most superficial instruction. Little wonder that motor accidents are the order of the day. No one seems to care except it be superficial interest on the part of the one Injured. Of course, the owner of the vehi cle is put to a mere trifling inconvenience. It is interesting to note in this connection that experience is a severe school master. Pc delight in learning the hard way. though they do not seem tv realize it. “It won’t happen to me or mine” i< a danger ous belief. " “Don’t Know Yet” F«dh are slowly counting the cost of the drouth. For one thing it laid a heavy La: d on the potato crop. The small tubers dimply have not grown. When the hills of txibers are examined they are said to be penvder dry to the very bottom. Tomatoes have 1 t-vn “cooked” on the vine, while the biossvm for the later tomatoes struggled for a little and then fell off. with the re sult that the tomato crop that promised so wed a fvw weeks ago will fall short of the bumper grade. Apples in many orchards are sure to be small Fall wheat seeding is being beset with difficulties. E‘»en the corn is suffering, though hot weather is said to be “great for the corn”. Pastures are ground bare, while the seeding for next year is in a precarious condition. Business has been at a standstill, though the house building in the village is going nt top speed. Sugar beets and mangles on many fawns are lagging behind. Copious rains for a week or so would yet save the day in many respects but such rains are urgently needed if the autumn is to prove prosper ous.'#f * * Grim Warnings As news comes of frequent murders and of horrible abominations, it is the part of wisdom to be on guard against passing such events over with a shrug and some- times a joke. Crime is a frightful thing and never is anything less. We recall two in stances: On one occasion a bright young man was being warned to walk chalk. His reply was “Every man is entitled to one in discretion”. He fell for that one indiscre tion. The next incident was his funeral, an event that took place twenty years too soon and just as he was in a fair way to make a splendid name for himself. His one “indiscretion” cost him his life. On a third occasion a large hospital was being visited. Ward after ward was visited. Room after room, fitted out for life saving purposes, was looked into. At last the head surgeon stopped and said: “You have seen all the rooms but one. I can’t think of taking you there, hardboiled as I know you to be. It is too horrible. Surgeons and nurses never enter there without specialized gowning.” That room was the last room for those parties who had insisted upon following out the “right to one indiscreition”. Still another instance and we leave this series of warning bells and red lights. Urgent cir cumstances called the writer to a hospital. As we passed along the "ward, we heard the most heartbreaking moans and cries we ever heard. The nurse answers oui* in quiry with “She has been doping and go ing to too many drinking parties,” A clean heart and a clean mind and a clean life are treasures beyond all price. sfe Sfc # 5» A Bad Mess China has fallen to Russian communists. That she would do so has been forecast in these columns several times. The United States, in one of her expansive moods undertook to aid China. In her effort to aid China. In her effort she failed miser ably. Much of the aid she sent fell into communist hands and the Russian bear was jubilant. The simple fact is that the United States is not prepared for her new respon sibility of being the moral and political police force of the world. This is palpably true of her blundering in China. For one thing she failed to see that Russia’s inter est in western Europe was but a big noise to divert the United States from giving ef fective aid to China. Further, she was utter ly wrong in backing Chiang Kai-Shek. Chiang has proven to be a false alarm who deceived the world into believing him a real man and a real leader. He was “a lath ; pointed to look like a sword”. When the communists have Asia, as they are very like to possess her, Europe will fall into her lap like an over ripe apple. The United States is a mighty country but when it comes to diplomacy and to intrigue she is a child in the palm of Russian statesmen. Russia knows how to labour and to wait. The United States is the victim of her own passion for speed. =5 * s£ * A Calamity Reports of the wind and hail .storm that visited Alberta being even approxi mately correct, our sister province lias been hard hit. How bitter the disaster has been we can but vaguely guess. Only those who have seen their fields a garden one hour and ten minutes later see them a Sahara can in any way sympathize with the Alber tans. Federal aid must be forthcoming in no .scanty tide if our brave fellow citizens and their children are not to suffer* to the point of being crushed. Schools, churches, hospitals, public works, enterprises of every , kind cannot escape the financial disabilities following in the wake of the hail and wind. It is too late in the season for the farmers to retrieve their defeat. Frost is on the way and the soil is reported to be dry to pow- deriness. Winter is on the way,. The har vest lias been beaten to the earth. What will become of the farmers* livestock no one carp foretell. Much will be shipped east to he sold at a sacrifice we fear. Some will he exported at a low price, for buyers are keen to take advantage of an extremity. The west has had its favourable years, Well off. indeed, are the farmers who have taken advantage of those fat years to lay up for the day of -disaster. The farmers with largely extended credit face a serious ' situation.* * * * Thanks, Gentlemen! Thanks, gentlemen of the public utili ties, for providing that fine supply of first . class1 water before we suffered from a shortage. This is a case of where your stitch in time has saved a good deal mote than nine, dust keep up this sort of thing and this good village will support you to the limit. DOG DAYS SMILES .... Theatre Manager: “I hear that you and the leading lady are on the outs.” Electrician: “Yeah; it was one of those quick change scenes with the stage in total darkness. She asked for her tights and I thought she said lights.” Girl: “Why do you call your Wife angel?” Boy: “Because she’s , always ready to fly, she’s continually harping and she never has an earthly thing to wear.” Teacher: “Give me, for any one year, the number of tons of coal shipped out of the United StEltLGS ** Quiz Kid: .“1492. None.” ■ - ————— i "■■'ll As the-------- « TIMES* Go By II ——— — —■ 50 YEARS AGO (The Exeter Advocate 1899) Some mean, contemptible wretch whose actions may yet bring upon him his weft-merited deserts, removed the parsonage gates at Centralia one night last week, thus allowing a large number of cattle and sheep to get in and destroy the property. The act is as .cowardly as it is mean and the sneak is not worthy of a place in a civilized community. Mr, J. C, . Sheardown's car nage if a c t '0 r y at Centralia, is nearing completion, Among the successful candi dates in the recent Departmental examinations we notice the names of the following from Exe ter, viz: Miss E. .Carling, E. Pickard (honours), S. Gregory; also W. Haggith, of Centralia. We now boast of some swift work done jin our neibhbourhood of Dashwood. We refer to two and a half hours threshing at Mr. Peter Kraft’s where 316 bushels of .wheat was shelled out. Joseph measuring nearly six feet in length and weighing 137 lbs, The wine factory at St, Joseph was torn down .last week, Mr. George Layton and Mr. John Laporte were elected as Huron representatives to the new Ontario Bean Growers As sociation, at an inaugural meet ing in Zurich last week. The editor of this paper is on tour -with the Candian Press Party in England and Europe, 25 YEARS AGO (The Exeter Times 1924) Mr. J. Passmore, Hensail, has recently installed a large radio receiving set in his store. You are invited to drop in and hear this outfit. A monster sturgeon fish was captured by the fishermen at St. This Is Our Saga Reprinted from, the Ausable Valley Conservation Report, this is the story of the development of the area served by The Times-Advocate. This history is not only authoritive, but it also contains many interest ing features never before published for public consumption. The nar rative will be produced in a series.\______________________________________________________________________________J Exploration And Settlement To 1840 The pattern of settlement in Upper Canada was largely deter mined by the trade routes, "used during the renc h period to reach the Upper Great Lakes. As a result, the Ausable and its tributaries remained almost un explored until well into the nine teenth century. The main south ern route was by Niagara and Detroit, hut the early traders and presumably also the Indians, al most invariably preferred to coast up the western side of Lake Huron, rather than up the exposed eastern, or “lee” shore. The more direct routes by the Ottawa. Trent and the “portage of Toronto” all passed far to the northwest of the area. Cham plain is said to have camped near the present site of Goderich in 1615, but after that time the region remained almost unvisited except by a few missionaries and trader.’. It seems very likely that the Neutral village visited by the Jesuit Missionaries Brebouf and Chaumonot in 1640-41, and named by them St. Francois, was on or near the River Ausable. It has not yet been possible to fix the site of this village, but a map obtained from the Jesuits, marks jk. Francois in this gene ral region. A hunter from the French. Settlements near Detroit told a tale in 1820 Of having found “on the Aux Sables, forty miles northeast of Sarnia” the ruins of a large European habit ation with old trees growing in it and a stone fireplace and chimney at one end. This has been identified as a Jesuit Mis sion at St. Francois and there are persistent r u m o r s in the neighbourhood that such a 'chim ney still exists in some unidenti fied location in the southwest part of the watershed and has been seen in recent years.. If tills mission ever really ex isted. it was not founded by Brebouf and Chamonot, who were alone in an unfriendly country in 1640 and In no posi tion to found missions or build large houses with stone chim neys. After Brebouf’s failure with the Neutrals, the Jesuits sent no more missionaries to them, at least until after 1643, when the ground had been pre pared by Indian Converts, so that any Mission on the Ausauble must have been destroyed within a few years when the country was swept by the Iriquois and Neutrals, Huron and Jesuits driven out. trhe French explorers must have sometimes visit e d the mouth of the river, when they happened to follow that shore of Lake Huron. Dollier and Casson do not mention it in their ac count of their explorations, but showed the lower part, not in accurately on. their map (1670), The French called It the “Riviere aux Sables”, and perhaps some times used , the Indian trails, which are known to have crossed the area from Lake Huron to the Thames. At any rate, there had been some exploration of the region before I860, but little in formation about the river and its valley seems to have been avail able, and the course of the river shown on a few* eighteenth cent ury maps is obviously conjectural and much less correct than the ■part shown in 1670, By this time, the Chippewas had taken over this part of the country, having gradually pene trated into it after the destruct ion of the Hurons by the Iri quois. They had built up an ex tensive trade in flints, which are found in large numbers around Kettle Point just south of the watershed. These flints were in demand with distant tribes and an important trail —- The “Flint Trail" from Kettle Point to the "Forks” of the Thames (Lon don) —• must have reached the river, below* Arkons. There were Indian Corn fields (Mahlon Bur well camped "near the corn fields” on October 6, 1826, and made a short day's journey from thence to Townsend’s location, a mile or so east of Arkons, the next day, (after lo a.m.) "ac cording to the winds of the Sable”.) on the river, near High way No. 7, in 1826, and there seems to have been a Chippewa village not far off for some years after this. "St. Francois” may also have been in this section for the Indians liked, locations near river flats where corn could be grown without trouble. The Indians were also in the habit at some seasons of portaging to the Ausauble at Grand Bend, paddl ing up stream to a point near Nairn and travelling overland" to the Thames. After the war of 1812-15 had emphasized the exposed nature of the water route from Detroit to Niagara, the military author ities were looking for alternative water routes, less exposed to at tack, which might be improved to allow* the use of bateaux and large boats. The building of tile Ridear Canal was the chief result of these investigations: but seve ral other rivers were surveyed and some rumour of a short cut from Lake Huron to the Thames by the “Riviere aux Sable” must have reached Quebec. In Sept., 1819, Lieutenant H. IVHson, Royal Engineers, stationed at Amherstburg, made a careful survey of the river from the mouth to hear the present junc tion with Parkhill Creek. Willson’s report appears , to have been pidgeon-holed in the military archives at Quebec and forgotten for the later surveyors knew nothing of it. The shore of Lake Huron w*as surveyed be tween 1819 and 1824 by Lieu tenant H. W. Bayfield. R.N., for the Admiralty, hut it was not until the preliminary agreement with the Chippewas purchasing the region for the government had been signed in April 1825, that white men began to pene trate the area, in any numbers. 2. The Beginning Of Settlement 1820-1810 % The portion of London dud Lobo Townships which fall with-: in the Ausable Watershed were settled much earlier than the remainder of the area. The northern parts of these town ships were surveyed in 1819 and 1820, and the first grant of land registered in the "watershed to Mahlon Burwell, .Deputy Land Surveyor and Crown Agent in the Talbot District, rated Nov. 21, 1820. The lots, which were in Concession XII and XIII of Lobo Township, w*ere undoubt edly in payment for surveying the area, and may not have been occupied for some time. Other grants soon followed; patents for 5,400 acres in Lobo Township portion of the water shed had been issued by .1830, and fox* 500 in the London Town ship portion. A lone pioneer, Asa Townsend, had gone deep into the wilderness in 1821, to build his cabin on the banks of the Ausauble near the present south west corner of Williams East, where he hoped to develop a salt spring into a commercially pro fitable enterprise. Townsend re mained on his "location” for some time; his salt drilling eventually came to nothing, after he had gone down 264 feet with primitive water driven drills 334 feet through solid rock. He was granted patents for his land in 1834. In the meantime, the .Govern ment’s land policy was being considerably modified. The prac tice of granting land to settlers on payment of fees had for some time been unsatisfactory from the point of view of the govern ment of Upper Canada which got very little revenue and a good deal of expense from the system. In the most of townships laid out up to 1824, one seventh of the lots had been reserved to the Crown, ana an equal number for the support of the Protestant clergy. No very practical method of obtaining revenue from these reserved lots had been devised; the newspapers of the time abound In sheriff’s notices re garding arrears of rent on leases <of Crown Reserves, to which the lessees appear to have paid little attention. Moreover, . a settler was not likely to lease a lot from the Crown Reserves when he could get a cheap freehold else where. By 1826, after consider ing a series of proposals, the Home Government had decided on the virtual abolition of "free” land grants. Henceforth, all land was to be sold, either for cask or on the Instalment plan, except to military claimants, who continu ed to receive free grants for a time, A Crown Lands Commis sioner was appointed in 1827 to implement the policy. This decision raised some practical difficulties; during dis cussions of the situation the Government had shown a marked dislike tor the necessity of enter ing the real estate business, which would demand a staff, ac counts and auditing, and would undoubtedly have political reper cussions from time to time. This reluctance resulted in another parallel development. (Continued Next Week) 15 YEARS AGO (The Times-Advocate 1934) At a well attended meeting in the ‘Town I-Iall Tuesday evening, it was unaminously resolved to hold .an Old Boys Reunion in Exeter in 1935. The committee is as follows: George Lawson, H. C. Rivers, E. Dignan, Joseph Senior, R. N, Creech, J. ;G. Stan- bury and Reeve W. D. Sanders. Roy’s United Church was the scene of a very colorful .memor ial service on Sunday afternoon, August 12. The present beauti ful structure was the scene of a very colorful memorial service which was opened in 1912 and which ,w a s recently redecorated is the .direct descendant of the little log c h u r c h which was opened for*® Divine worship in 1851 and the little brick church which was built in 1872. The service honoured the pioneers, buried in the Kirk yard, who or iginally settled in the Queen's bush and hewed homes for them selves and their growing families out of the virgin forest of the last century. Hensail defeated , Ingersoll in the third game of the Intermed iate “B” series entitling Hensall to meet Stratford for the group honours. 1O YEARS AGO (The Times-Advocate 1939) After being hunted more than a week and wanted ;on a charge of criminal assault, John Jardine aged 6 0, was placed under arrest near Dashwood Tuesday after noon and brought to Exeter. A warrant for Jardine’s arrest was issued at Goderich a "week ago on a charge of criminally assaulting the wife of a Stephen Township farmer, recently mar ried, for whom he worked since April of this year. The entire neighbourhood was deeply stir red. The third drowning at Grand Bend, that of Miss Nellie Camp bell, 32-year-old daughter of Rev. A. C. Campbell, pastor of the Baptist Church, St Marys, occurred when the deceased suf fered a heart attack in the water. The first signs of identification that Zurich is on a Provincial Highway were evident during the past week or so as -workmen are engaged in putting up the regulation signs, and No. 84 as the name of the Highway from to St. Joseph, through Zurich. Go By Train fo the CANADA NAT8OAL EXHIBITION AT TORONTO Aug. 26 to Sept. 10 Low Rail Fares FARE AND ONE-HALF FOR THE ROUND TRIP Good going Thursday, Aug. 25 to Saturday^ Sept. 10 inclusive; Return Limit—Sept, 14 Full information from any agent. ’Xfcy. ......... •■ A.,,,... CASH FOR DEAD ANIMALS ft COWS - $2.50 each HORSES - $2.50 each HOGS * .50 per cwt According to size and condition Phone Collect EXETER 287 INGERSOLL 21 William Stone Sons, Ltd INGERSOLL, ONTARIO