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The Exeter Times-Advocate, 1949-09-15, Page 1Seventy-sixth Year be master of ceremonies entertainment. Ben de crowds at the Lucan night program several BOW Former Dashwood EXETER, ONTARIO, THURSDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER IS, 1949 Single Copy 6$ Fair Board Preparing For Record Event Next Week Though the Exeter Fall Fair has always been -a big attraction in this district, the Agricultural Society i$ going all out this year to make it the best exhibition yet. One of the feature attractions of the show will be a sparkling- grandstand performance, includ ing Mojo, the iclown, Earl Hey wood, radio and record star, the Paul brothers, of Woodham, and the Fairchild trick riders. Th© trick riders, who have been attracting great crowds throughout the province, are Joan 'Ross, Barabara and Lee Fairchild, who perform all kinds of exciting stunts on fast-moving colourful, trained horses. Ben Lucas, the noted cartoon ist, will for th© lighted . Booster „ weeks ago. $ The grandstand performance will play two nights, both Wed nesday and Thursday. Fail’ board officials expect large crowds to fill the new grandstand for the show. A monster parade .will again get the fair off ta a colourful start, as it did last year. Three bands will lead the train of decorated floats, cars, freak out fits, bicycles and school children to the community park. To increase accomodation for entries in the fair, two new cattle barns are just about com pleted on the east side of the grandstand. ........................ about forty The faii- out Plans section of fair enteries. The prizes for horse entries in the fair have increased $250. A new pony class has been added to the list and more emphasis will be placed on light horses in the show. Prizes for lady drivers, which weren’t included in the pize list, will be four, three, two and one dollars. Two horse , races, of three heats each, promise to be real thrillers and several top-notch entries have already been ceived. Road, bicycle and races, will also be featured. A girls’ softball game at O’clock in the afternoon will Exeter playing the best still left in the league. Earl Heywood and the popular barn 'dance gang from CICNX Wingham will play for the Thursday night dance .which will put an end to the big celebration. A travelling midway, with ferris wheel, airplane spins, and Other exciting rides will be the grounds for enjoy. All in all, there’s nothing stop this year’s fail' from being the best it’s ever been, not even the weather. Bank Staff Honours Two The local bank staff held a combination farewell and wel come party at Grand Bepd last Friday night. About thirty of the bank staff and their friends enjoyed a dinner party at the Lakeview House • to honour Mr. J. L. Hendry, who has been ap pointed manager of the branch bank at Owen Sound, and Mr. Cedric E. Shaw, new head of the local office. Mr. Les Sim, who for several years has been office manager for the Hill-Clarke-Francis Com pany at Centralia, has moved to Camp Borden where he assumes a similiar position.>*___i______, 1 Grads Continue Education Many Exeter District High School graduates of last year have entered higher fields of education this fall. Among those attending Lon don normal school are Bonnie MeFalls, who won one of the two Dominion-Provincial scolarships for Huron county, Betty Gaiser, Frances Taylor, Frances Lostell and Jean Armstrong. Pat Hay, who successfully completed her first year at Western last year has also entered normal. At Stratford normal school are Anita Daters and Dorothy Turn er. Eleanor Jinks will of Western Enrolled for nurses’ Kestle and Cook and Bernice enter the University Ontario next week. at Victoria Hospital training are Janet Joanne McCurdy, s The sheds will house stalls. board are , carrying to improve every Forty-Two Youngsters Enrolled In Primary Forty-two six-year-old children, started their first year at Exeter Public'"- School last week under the tutelage of Mrs. E. J. Turvey and Mrs. Faye Jameson. Follow- owing is the list: Carol Alderson,. Jean Baril, Noel Bell, Douglas Braithwaite, Cynthia Bury, Martha Cochrane, Barbara Cook, Douglas Gussins, Bessie Delbridge, Betty Dixon, Linda Doerr, James Gould, Helen Haley, William Harvey, James Hovey, Kenneth Haworth, Carol Hedden, Carole Hogarth, Donald Jermyn, James Jones, Sharon Kestle, Sharon Knapp, Robert Maskell, Barbara McDonald, Flora McKenzie, John McKnight, Barbara Moore, Michael Nose worthy. Robert Perkins, Paul Petrie, .Edward Sanders, Carolyn Simpson, Lloyd Simpson, Carole Smith, Vera Smith, Mary John Shaw, Gordon Snell, Tait, Lome Turnbull, Wright, Sharon Wright. Shaw, April Peter re foot four find team on everybody to can Former Rector At Anniversary Attend IL.L.A. Conference Among those attending London Laymen’s Association conference at Alma College, St. Thomas over the week-end were Mr. Robert Watson, Stranway, Brucefield, Mrs. Cecil Skinner, and Mr. W. 0. Pearce, Exeter. the and Rev. Mr. and Centralia, Mi's. Grace Hawkins, Clinton, is visiting .with her niece, Mrs. George Hunter. who Trivitt Memorial Church cele brated its sixty-first anniversary last Sunday and a former rec tor, Canon A. A. Trumper, Lon don, was the guest speaker for the evening service. Canon Trumper spoke to a large congregation of familiar faces in the church as he preached on the theme “In the Beginning, God”. The other Churches in town withdrew their services in honour of the anni versary celebration, Rev. C. L. Langford preached for the morning worship on “Come Thou With Use, And We Will Do Thee Good’’. He was in charge of the evening service. Eleven-year-old Shirley Har ness sang “The .Lord’s Prayer” for both the evening and mor ning congregations and Mrs. Grant Carew rendered “Peace, ItGrant Carew rendered Is I” in the evening. Mr. Trumper was rector of the Trivitt Church from 1916 to is now preaching in London. Robert Cameron, organist, and Owen Atkinson, choir master, were in -charge of the special cliqlr numbers. The church was decorated with flowers for the occasion. formerly Memorial 1925 and Five Injured In Head -onCollision John A. Gillies, Detroit, has been charged with dangerous driving as a result of a head-on collision which caused consider able damage about a half-mile east of Grand Bend on Highway 81 Sunday night. Provincial Constable John Fer guson arrested Gillies Monday in St. Joseph’s Hospital and took him to Goderich where he was released on $1,000 bail. Two people are still in hospi tal from the accident, Mervyn Ravelie, .Grand Bend, is confined with a double fracture of the jaw and Mrs. Charles Hugo Schenk, of Crediton, is suffering from extensive facial injuries. Five persons were rushed to the hospital in four ambulances with police escort Sunday night after the accident. The three who have been re leased are Hugo Schenk, suffered injuries to his knee; John A. Gillies, and John Gray, both of Detroit. Two girls, Jeannette Schenk and Labelle Hill, who were rid ing in the Schenk ear, were the only ones who escaped the acci dent without injury. Police said the accident hap pened around 8:20 p.m. when a 1935 model car driven by Mr. | Schenk, proceeding west on the highway, stopped at a culvert under repair to wait for the heavy 1949 model American car proceeding east. Gillies was driv ing the car and Gray and Ra velie were with him. The north side of the highway was blocked off leaving only room for one Jane of traffic. The Gillies car travelled Over the culvert and suddenly went out of control, swung to the north side of the road and hit the .Schenk car head-on. Damage to the Gillies car was about $1,000 and the Schenk car was demolished. Dr. J. A. Ferguson, Dashwood, gave first aid at the scene. The injured were removed to St. Jo seph’s Hospital by the Hopper- Hockey ambulance, Exeter, the Hoffman ambulance, Dashwood, and two ambulances from Forest. Provincial Constable John Fer guson, Exeter, investigated. Gil lies will appear in Exeter court this Thursday. Girl Chosen Miss Western Ontario A former Dashwood girl, Edith Spicer, was chosen “Miss Wes tern Ontario” for 1949 at a beauty contest held in Windsor last Thursday night. Chosen from among a field of twenty-two contestants from all parts of the Western Ontario district?,. blonde, blue-eyed Edith won the5 plaudits of a jam-packed crowd of nearly 25,000 who wit nessed the event. The shortest contestant (five feet one inch), she entered the contest as “Miss Oxford County”, having recently received that honour as a native of Thames- ford( ten miles east of London), where her family lives. She works in London as a hair dresser. The Spicer family, eleven in all, formerly lived in the con verted hotel- at Sarepta, one and a quarter miles east of Dash wood. Edith attended Dashwood public and Exeter high schools while she was there. Her father, R. C. Spicer, was a poultry rancher and market gardener. After the contest, the 21-year- old beauty was more concerned in how she was going to keep her hairdressing appointments in London than she was over her championship. “I didn't dream of winning or I wouldn’t have made appoint ments for Friday,” she said. Edith made a tour of Windsor Friday morning to pick up her many prizes. It was her second attempt to take the crown. A year ago, she placed fourth as stock” in the race. The im pound package has-one ambition —to own her own beauty salon. Matrimony? Who cares? “I just want to be a top-notch hair-stylist,” she avows. “Miss Tavi- H. S. Registration Former Pastor Hospitalized Rev. Arthur Page, a former pastor of James Street United Church, is a patient in St. Jo seph’s Hospital, London. His many friends will hope for a speedy recovery. wMn WESTERN ONTARIO QUEEN — Edith Spicer. 21. formerly of Dashwood, and now of London, was chosen Miss Western Ontario 1949 at Windsor last Thursday night. The blond beauty is flanked by Sylvia Roclieleau, Windsor, third, and Catharine Cave, Wilton Grove. c May Have Own Fire Protection If public, opinion supports movement, Stephen first rural township trict to have its own ion. Last Wednesday, trustees of Crediton public meeting in the town hall and considerable discussion on th© proposal took place. The Ontario Fire Marshall, Mr. Alexander, of Toronto, out lined steps that could be taken in the township to give adequate protection. Several manufactur ers of were on mission. Chief behind Will be in this fire protect- the village sponsored a fire-fighting equipment hand to aid In the dis- support seemed to be a proposal to buy a $110,000 fire truck, stationed at Crediton, which, With the no operation of Dashwood and Grand Bend fire brigades, would be responsible for protection in the township. A public opinion committee composed Of the trustees Grediton and villages out the sections port to October Pfaff, Bill Colter, and L. P. Boulianne, Crediton; and Harris West, Ray Lammie and Amos Wright, Centralia. Elmer Lawn on, reeve of Stephen, was the chairman of the meeting and pointed out that a 2 5 per cent grant could be obtained from the government. tlie trustees of Centralia police Was appointed to sound views of the different of the township and te- the council meeting on 4. The trustees are Oscar Bill Colter, Registration at Exeter District High School reached an all-time high this wOek when the number of pupils enrolled totalled 306. The large attendance has made conditions quite crowded under existing circumstances and both teachers and pupils can hardly •wait until the new school is available for use. A last year's commercial grad uate, Doris Swartz, secretary in fice. The school meet of the day afternoon. Physical training instructors G. M. Mickle and Miss L. G. Stegner will be in charge. High School Board Meets Equipment for the new school building took up most of the board’s time at its regular meet ing last Tuesday night. All the members were present except A. W. Morgan. Mr. W. J. Berry and Mr. T. MacMillan, representing Hay Stationery Company, displayed several pieces of school furniture including teachers’ desks, a com mercial desk, an art desk, and three kinds of chairs. On the table, also for the in spection of the members, were samples of china for the cafe teria, submitted by two tenders, and samples of drape material submitted by the Simpson tender. Applications for the position of stenographer were opened and passed along to the principal for action. A list of capital accounts mainly for equipment was stu died in relation to a budget ot capital funds. Per E. Chambers and A. J. Kalbfleisch that the secretary be authorized to request a^transfer Of $50,066 from th^ Ttabentiirc proceeds and make payment on. the accounts. Carried. Tenders for drapes, Venetian blinds, kitchen equipment, and china were presented by the chairman of the property com mittee and discussed by the board. Per A. J. Kalbfleisch and Jas. McAllister that the board accept Simpson's tender for drapes on the south exposure with black out lining on the science room windows and on the library windows, also the tender for stage curtains by the same com pany at an estimated cost of $4,600. Carried. Per C. S. MacNaughton and E. L. Mickle that the board ac cept the IL and E. tender for kitchen equipment in the approx imate amount of $2,400 and the property chairman be authorized is the new the principal’s of- plans its first field new terin for Fri- Capture Top Honours j In Wheat Competition Southern county farmers captured top honours in Huron’s Fifty Bushel Wheat Club com petition results of which were announced this week by .R. G. Bennett, agricultural represent ative for the cjounty. R. E. Pooley, Exeter, won first place with, an average bushel yield per acre of 65.2 and a field score of 96. His total points were 226,4. , Alvin Walper, R.R. 3, Park hill, Jim McEwan, Hensall, and Harry Strang, R.R. 1, Hensall, placed close .behind the winner. The competition was conduct ed under the sponsorship of the Huron Crop Improvement As sociation and the Maple Leaf Milling Company .for 1949. The scores are on the basis of actual yield, and also the field score, The total score is arrived at by multiplying the yield by two and adding the field score. Total scores are as fallows! R. E. Pooley, Exeter, 226.4; Alan Walper, R.R. J, Parkhill, 219.S; Jim McEwan, Hensall, 209.7; Harry Strang, R.R. 1, Hensall, 208.3; Eldon *H. Brad ley, R.R. 3, Goderich, 207.1; Hugh Berry. R.R. 1, Woodham, 200.9; Wesley Haines, R.R. 5, Wingham, 200.2; P. E. Dearing, Exeter, 199.6; Ross Marshall, Kirkton, 189.5; Arnold Jamie son, R.R. 4, Clinton, ISO; Rus sell Bolton, R.R, 1, Dublin, 176; Noble Holland, R.R. 4. Clinton, 168.9; Elgin Nott, R.R. 4, Clin ton, 166; Andrew Turnbull, R.R. 2, Brussels, 164; Heber Eedy, Dungannon, 154.9; John Taylor, R.R. 5, Wingham, 141.2, Fur-And Thereby Hangs A Tale Few men like to work for; animals, he figured it wouldn’t ladies but that’s just what Ross he lo»S before he’d have a big Francis of R.R 1 Kirkton doeslraneh ful1 of foxes and mink and rrancis or k.k. 1 craton ernes | inartlns and just ahout every_ and enjoys it, too. j thing else that bears fur. Some body told him it would take ten to twelve years before he got underway, but he didn’t think, so. Now Ross is a little wiser and after thirteen years of hard work and disappointment he says that that somebody was right. Ross states honestly, “The more animals I get, the less I know about this business.” There are many uiseases which, can kill the animals, such as neumonia or distemper. Even the weather can destroy them. Be fore long, though, Ross hopes to expand to raise a thousand pelts la year. That sounds like a lot W/W u1u ,of pelts but when you considervarieties of the wild little ani-Vjt takes seventy mink furs to —and enjoys it, too. Ross hasn’t a real woman ] boss—that is, unless it’s his wife] —but in his business it’s the l ladies who make or break his profits. H,e’s one of the few ranchers left in the district who raises those wild, sn’arling animals whose fur so nicely adorns the5 fashion-conscious woman in the cooler seasons. . The Francis Fur Farm is about a half-mile south of Plug town school. There, on not much mere than half an acre, many potential mink coats and fox capes are being grown. Housed in some 600 wire cages are all mats. The mink range from the standard dark to mutations in white, blue, pastel, and golden brown coloured furs, and the foxes from the standard silver to the platinum and -white-faced sil ver. Ross is even experimenting with his own kind of mutation—• a colour which hasn’t been proved yet but which has sold at a pretty fair price. Raising the animals ily affair with the Mrs. Francis and I FOR THE LADIES Ross Francis, Kirkton fur farmer, checks the fur growth on one. of his valued platena foxes. Mrs. Francis probably see a smart lady’s stole in the mak ing while Joan is mote interested in photographer Jack Doerr. make one coat, the figure isn’t so large after all. Ross has 550 mink and 135 foxes altogether on his farm-— not to mention the ninety wild geese, and pheasants he keeps too. (At one’time he even had raccoons!) To feed all these it takes the equivalent of one horse every two days. The ani mals don’t eat all norse—there’s a lot of fish, cereal, liver and cod liver oil "mixed in together to give the fur-bearers a bal anced diet. Just to water the mink and foxes alone takes most of a full morning, even with the pressure system and hose Ross has installed to facilitate the work. However, the family usual ly helps with the feeding and if weren’t for them, the work would never be done, Ross says.I The animals all have different dispositions, just like human be ings. Some of them are quiet and shy. others are bold and noisy. “You can he sure of one thing, though,” Ross says, “they arc all trying to get out.” Mr. Francis is a combination of just about everything-—he’s a ■ farmer, insurance agent, econom- ’ 1st, nature lover, philosopher, and stock market watcher—bedsides being a fur rancher. He 1 helps his father, Ray Francis, on the adjourning farm during the .busy season. He’s also a part- time insurance agent. He has to have something to fall back on front Chatham, the former Helen I handled with gloves and steel j because no insurance company Jack has donated the cottage fit -------- — ------ ---- __ ... to the Hensall Chamber of Com- j dangerous as dynamite once they merce for club rooms (he soldi get out Of their cage, the furniture and is keeping the' wife). Other charitable organiza tions in the village will also use the building. A firm which builds pre fabricated houses raffled the 22- by 2’4-foot cottage, stipulating that tic 1c e t buyers must be agents of the company and that the cottage must be put to use by a charitable or service organ in the winner’s homo is a fam- Francises. ____ - -......- ~ ___ the three blond childreif—Stanley, 8, Ger ald, 5, and Joan, 4—all help out with the work. Besides them, Ross has a hired man, Preston Morrisons,(a former fur farmer himself small fellow who jmfferir-mighty cigar. The first thing that a stranger notices about Ross Francis is the quick, deft movements of his j hands whenever he touches any thing . « . that comes from ex perience. You have to be quick in this business,” he says, “for mink and foxes are just about the fastest movinn animals you can find. Just leave your* self open for a split second when handling one of them and before yon know it you’ve lost a hunk ot skin!” Even with his exper ience, Ross gets the occasional slash of the paw or bite of the teeth from an animal. Ask Mrs. Francis, who’s bandaged him .. __ __..... _ .... ____.'nnany times. She says: “I’m a Legion. Just a month before that I nurse as well as fur farmer’s Jack got married to a pretty girl wife.” The animals have to be How Lucky Gm A Person Get? How lucky can one '{fellow; get? jack “Mort” Drysdale, son of •a Hensail hardware merchant, learned Saturday night that he had won a $5,800 prefabricated cottage at the Canadian National' Exhibition. Last June, Jack won a com plete set of living-room furniture at a draw staged by the Exeter . . . _ izatlonto select the china required for town, cafeteria service. Carried. Two teachers’ desks offered by Hay Stationery, with chairs to match, were purchased on the motion of E. L. Mickle and James McAllister. The problem of advertising for caretaker and fuel w referred to the architect and cdhstruction company for informa tongs about three feet long that will back him up for cyclone pro fit around the neck. They’re as , x * „' There are three periods to fur<t There are three periods to fur v uui VI. vase, farming—breeding, weaning and Mrs. Francis hasn’t let a gold- pelting—and they all taka place en opportunity go by: she has a 'within one year. »*«♦-. «u « .<d m I Rose Keens a and his wife went to last Friday and. while ____the Exhibition with Mr. and Mrs. Norm Hannigan (the former originally from Exeter), put his tickets In the draw. On Saturday night, Jack received a phone call from T o r o n t o— “You’ve just won a new cot tage? ’ .Tack Toronto touring beautiful platena stole made- from the fur of one of the two foxes that have been raised by the Francis' cat. The only other fox raised by the cat along with her kittens is “George”, whose special friend is four-year-old Joan. Before George grew a lit tle too big to wander around the house, petite Joan used to play with him and carry him around like the kittens. Even now, when, in the pen. he will eat pellets jont of her hand and lick it like, la dog. Though the other mm- piers of the family won’t try that I with George, Joan lias no fear I of him whatsoever. 1 When Ross Francis started ■ into the fur farming business: thirteen years ago with only two | Ross keeps about thirty-five foxes and 190 mink for breeding purposes. The foxes are bred around the first of February and the mink around early March. This is one of the two times when the farm is really in an uproar— the animals howl like a Lttcan crowd at a baseball game. “I guess that’s the wolf In them,” comments Mrs. Francis. The station period for both ani mals is about two months. When they’re born the foxes look like kittens- -“pups” are what they’re called—and in a few days are little balls of fluff. The now* born mink, or “kit”, Is about the size of a cigarette, blind and : hairless. The number of young —Please Turn to Page Five