HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1973-06-28, Page 98Section 1 Page 10 THE EXETER TIMES ADVOCATE JUNE 28, 1973
PRINCIPAL RETIRES - After spending 27 years guiding the progress of South Huron District High School,
principal H.L. Sturgis retired. Former board members, teachers and staff gathered in June of 1965 to honor
him and he's shown above with former board chairmen, Larry Snider, the Hon.' C.S. MacNaughton, Mr,
Sturgis, Dr, H.H. Cowen and Ken Johns, During his years at SHDHS, Mr, Sturgis gave out many lectures to
students returning late from a noon-hour game of billiards, but his interest in the sport was heightened when
his farewell gift turned out to be a pool table.
LAWN BOWLING TOURNEY - Since its introduction to Exeter, lawn bowling has been a
very popular sport, as shown by the picture above. The bowling greens have always
been located where they are now, north of the Burkley Restaurant on the east side of
Main St. This photo shows the third annual lawn bowling tournament, held in 1913.
Visitor from England found town gay
The following letter which was
written by Mr. Harry Hems, and
which is taken from the Exeter
Post, England, will be of interest
to the village portion of our
readers:
Sir: A few evenings ago a
correspondent asked for in-
formation relative to our city's
namesake in Canada. I am, I
believe the only resident Exonian
who has ever visited the town in
question. I went there, purely out
of curiosity, whilst upon a holiday
scamper through Canada in the
summer of 1881, and have the
pleasantest possible recollections
of my sojourn there.
Exeter received its Name from
Exeter Times-Advocate May 3,
1941
The London, Huron and Bruce
at one time known as the Butter
and Egg Special, made its last
run from Clinton to Wingham on
Saturday. It was on December 11,
1875 that the first train made the
run from London to Wingham, a
distance of about 70 miles.
Exeter Times, May 17, 1901
Again the small boy has donned
nature's shoes.
Exeter Times, May 17, 1901
Mr. Jos, Senior photographed a
handsome team of bay horses,
owned by Mr. Thos. Handford on
Monday which were afterwards
sold to Messrs. Ryan and Fares
of Winnipeg for $450.
T.A. February 1, 1940
The cat came back
After an abscence of seven
years a cat has returned to the
home of Mr. Harry Green, Exeter
north. Seven years ago following
the death of Mr. Green's mother,
the cat left the home going to the
home of Mr. and Mrs. Ed
Coombes who lived next door.
Following the death of Mrs.
Coombes about three weeks ago
the cat again returned to its
former home.
Mr. James Pickard, who is an
elder brother of the Mr. Richard
Pickard who visited Exeter from
Exeter (Canada) last week. He
left Devonshire for Canada in
1834 and settled in the province of
Ontario at the place known as
Exeter in 1852.
He is a wealthy, hale and
strong man of 65 or thereabouts
and is known locally as "Boss
Pickard".
The town itself is about as big
as Crediton, England and is a
thriving busy place. It is 31 miles
from New London, upon the
Great Western line, and =is fully
1,000 miles west of Quebec.
I went on my visit to "Oke's
Central Hotel" first but happened
to land there on Dominion Day,
which was also the day of the
Exeter races, and found all the
house so intoxicated that I was
glad to shift out to another hotel a
little lower down the street called
the "Commercial" — where I
have still a lively recollection
that a very obliging chamber-
maid, called "Rosie" made me
particularly comfortable.
The inhabitants consist of quite
a smart little colony the
majority of them from this city
and Devonshire generally; and
the names one sees up over the
shop windows have a particularly
homely look.
For instance there are Dyer
and Howard's wood-working
mill; Willis' lumeryard; Rowe,
the tailor; Gidley the cabinet-
maker; Buckingham, the smith;
Southcott, tailor; Wood, butcher;
Abbot, dentist; Thorne harness-
maker; Ross and Taylor,
cabinetmakers; Kemp, grocer;
Kinsman, dentist; Drew, un-
dertaker; Jones, watchmaker;
Taylor, publican; Weekes,
statuary; and John Gill, the
constable.
Among other names I
remember seeing were those of
Brokenshire, Brewer, Lewis,.
Dearing, Sweet, Harvey, Ching,
Passmore, Moore, Kerslake,
Robinson, Toms, Grigg, Shelley
and Sanders. The obliging
stationmaster is Mr. Knight, who
was formerly stationmaster at
St. Thomas, (Canada).
Exeter has a capital town band
of about 20 members. Apart from
Main St. which is a fine straight
thoroughfare a mile or more long,
and boasts of as good shops as the
best in our own High St.
Exeter is laid out much like the
better parts of the new portions of
St. Thomas area. There are no
poor and everybody seems fairly
comfortably off.
There are five churches, viz:
Church of England, Bible
Christian, Presbyterian,
Methodist and Roman Catholic
respectively; and Exeter
possesses a large brick built
school, at which all the children
in town, I believe, attend.
There are four hotels and two
smart weekly newspapers are
issued every Thursday, viz: "The
Exeter Times" and "The
Reflector."
As the guest of Mr. Pickard, I
attended church one Sunday and
heard a clergyman, who was a
native of Morchard, North
Devon, officiate,
A dozen miles west of Exeter is
Lake Huron and on the opposite
shore is the United States. There
is a small river called the Sauble.
I will only add that if my fellow
citizens have treated Mr. Pickard
and his daughter as hospitably as
he and his townsfolk treated me
during my stay amongst them,
then I am sure they will leave the
"Ever Faithful" city and return
to their Colonial home (4,000
miles away) with particular
pleasurable recollections of their
visit to England generally, and to
Exeter in particular.
Yours obediently
Harry Hems,
Fair Park, Exeter,
July 10, 1886