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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1975-04-03, Page 13An early 1900's scene at Harvey Bros. mill Terry Simpson with old church doors Mill during early demolition stages Terry and Ken Simpson atop structure "Historic landmark falls to wrecking crew. One of Exeter's oldest land- marks is quickly dissappearing and will be replaced by a modern commercial complex. Workmen are expected to complete demolition of the for- mer Cann's Mill property on Main street within the next month and Gaiser-Kneale Realty and Insurance will be con- structing an office building. The mill served Exeter and area farmers for more than 75 years. It was built in 1894 by Rollens arid Williams and was known at that time as Exeter Roller Mills. The original owners were Arthur J. Rollins and John A. Williams. During the next four years Rollins sold his share to Williams for $7,000 and in January 1899 Williams sold the property to Joseph Cobbledick for $11,500 plus merchandise on hand. The merchandise included wood at $1.55 per cord; coal at $3.20 a ton; Star flour $1.35 cwt.; Manitoba flour $1.45; shorts 70 cents a hundred; fall wheat 62 cents per bushel and Manitoba wheat 75 cents a bushel. Only three years later Cob- bledick sold the mill to Harvey Bros, for the same price of $11,500, Prices in 1902 had risen somewhat. Hardwood was selling at $3.50 per cord; Star flour $1.85; Manitoba flour $2; shorts $1; and oats 42c a bushel. Thomas and Joseph Harvey operated the business for many years and it was purchased in late 1939 from the Harvey Estate by G. A. Cann and Sons for $4,600. The document of the sale to Cann's listed all land, buildings and machinery included. except stock of mixed grain owned by Verne Pincornbe, cracked beans owned by Bruce Tuckey, Win. P. Hatter's wheat and seed owned by J. Hubert Jones, In October 1973 Cann's Mill Limited sold the company shares to Exeter District Co-Operative including the grain elevators and fertilizer storage equipment at the CNR station. The Exeter Co-Op in turn sold the Main street feed mill property to Gaiser-Kneale Realty. The local realtors then sold the feed mill building to Don Simpson of Thedford to be dismantled and removed, Carf Cann has some of the original documents covering the property which became well known in the area as Cann's mill. The property was originally part of Lot 22 Concession 1 in Stephen township comprising 100 acres. The farm was sold on May 31, 1830 by The Crown to the Canada Company, Owners in the next 26 years were Edward Tigant, Patrick. Smith, Robert Haskett and Thomas Gidley, On September 1, 1856 Gidley sold the west half of the property to Wm. Kelly and established the Gidley survey and set up lots on the easterly portion. In 1866 Gidley sold to Albert Clark and in the ensuing years other owners were Armon Clark, Robert Elston and Henry Hooper. On. December 13, 1892 the property then owned by Henry Hooper was purchased at public auction by Rollins and Williams for $950. Carf Cann has a copy of the auction sale notice in his possession, It listed dimensions of the property as "one rood and four-fifths perches, more or less and included a good one and a half storey frame house and a good orchard," Carf Cann said he can remember picking plums from a few remaining trees in the or- chard when his father purchased the mill in the late 1930's, The sale bill in 1892 was printed by the Exeter Times Steam Printing. Company. No one presently living in Exeter remembers this printing com- pany. Historian Joe Wooden suggests it was part of the Exeter Times, Since purchasing the entire Cann's Mill property Gaiser- Kneale is in the process of selling the back half to the Exeter Legion for parking purposes. Mel Gaiser told the T-A Wednesday afternoon that his firm had tentative plans for a 14,000 square foot one storey commercial complex. He hopes to have construction completed by late 1975. Meanwhile Don Simpson of Thedford and his crew are busily engaged in demolishing the building. Simpson who purchased the building for $300 at a public auction a few weeks ago said he didn't plan on buying when he came to the sale. "1 was interested in buying scales, motors and office equipment for two other mills in which I have an interest," said Simpson, A mill in Thedford now known as Lambton Farmers Limited is being readied for operation after being out of business for a couple of years. Simpson said the Thedford mill is as old or older than the Exeter building. The Thedford man expects to have all the materials cleared away by the end of April. May 15 is the time limit for completion of his contract. Hundreds of peoplehave visited the site in the last couple of weeks looking for materials of all kinds especially antique items. On the subject of buyers Simpson said ,"some guys are looking for bargains. They expect to get a truck load of material for $2. They won't get any bargains here but our prices are com- petitive.- He listed wooden pulleys, windows, doors and pine lumber from the mill's bins and chutes as the most popular items. Wooden pulleys can be used as chan- deliers, tables, windows and various antique articles; added Simpson. The pine lumber from the bins and chutes which has become highly polished from grain and feed passing through is popular in use for fire boxes, clocks and pine furniture. Simpson said he still had a good amount of timber, bricks, pine lumber and assorted lumber for sale including beams most of which are hand hewn. The going price for bricks in a clean condition are $100 per thousand. Simpson said labour costs of cleaning brick was about $70 per thousand, Hand hewn beams are selling for up to $600 per thousand board feet with other beams at about $250. Lumber brings $150 per thousand board feet. Simpson is planning on keeping Most of the doors and windows. for his own use. The .sliding .doors have been taken to the Thedford and Forest Mills. During the tearing down process workmen found several interesting items. Two doors still. painted red are reported to have come from the Bethesda church located in Usborne township just east of Exeter, Lining an inner wall workmen found a sign which came from a London business College, The sign reads "Forest City Shor- thand College. The best equipped. college in Ontario, February 28, 1898." EXETER, ONTARIO, APRIL 3, 1975 Second Section Carf Cann and sale bill of 1891 Grand Bend man advocates incentives to conserve energy Neil McLeod, Don Simpson and Terry Simpson check one of entrance doors At a meeting in Bayfield of Huron-Middlesex New Democrats, the topic of energy conservation in Ontario was the main item on the agenda. An extensive paper on the topic was presented by Philip. F. Walker, Grand Bend. The paper was prepared in response to the recent an- nouncements by the Provincial and Federal Ministries of Energy indicating programs to be un- dertaken in the two jurisdictions. Mr. Walker has suggested that the recently published booklet, "100 Ways to Save Energy in the Home," by the Federal Minister of Energy has "just scratched the surface." "Since the construction of a home obviously precedes its management, I think we should talk about that first," he com- mented. "Revision of the building code should be undertaken to considerably increase the in- sulating requirements in all residential construction," he went on to say. He continued to point out a series of incentives to encourage the use of conservation measures in the home. He suggested that the sales tax should be eliminated from insulation materials, as one example. In other areas, the main thrust of his presentation was that the "conservation of existing resources must be our immediate priority," He dealt with tran- sportation extensively. In separate sections he reviewed urban, inter-urban facilities, aviation and the question of private as opposed to public transportation systems. He advocated "a two-page policy ' which would simultaneously discourage use of the private automobile while closely controlling the cost of public transit systems." He called for increased taxes on high-consumption vehicles combined with corresponding reductions for economy- conscious auto purchasers. In addition, he suggested licensing systems with a greater assessment against 6 and 8 cylinder automobiles. In a third area, Mr. Walker discussed the question of re- cycling waste materials, In particular, he called for a government ban on non- returnable containers "The population of Ontario survived very well without these for a long time and could do so equally well again," he said. In his concluding remarks, he called for an increased effort in the search for alternate sources of energy supply, He called for "intelligent, economic incentives in government policy" as necessary conservation measures "to give us as much time as possible to perfect better and cleaner forms of energy." NDP members in attendance gave Mr. Walker enthusiastic approval for his presentation. In response, Owen Pemberton of Bayfield suggested that existing government measures were of an "interim nature". Saving fuel is not the answer," she suggested, "but simply delays the inevitable time when our resources are depleted. Research is needed immediately to study alter- natives to existing energy sup- ply." While many area residents had April fool jokes played on them Tuesday, none was quite as universal as that of the weather reports and forecasts. On that date, the national conversion of actual and forecast temperatures changed to Celsius, part of the planned conversion to the metric system. The thermometer is called Celsius in honor of Anders Celsius, professor of astronomy at Uppsala Sweden in the early 18th century. In his short life time (1701-1744) Celsius made many worthwhile contributions to scientific Anders Celsius David Weary of Goderich, suggested that the incentive rates for greater electrical usage should be discontinued. "Rate discounts for high users have no place in an energy-short society," he explained. On the question of re-usable containers, Donna Klopp of Zurich suggested that the government should legislate a "standardized returnable con- tainer" for use in the food in- dustry. "A 12 or 14 ounce bottle, perhaps similar to a beer bottle, could be used to serve many current consumer needs," she stated. knowledge, not the least of which was the thermometer based on 100 degrees of difference between the freezing and boiling points of water. lie described the scale in a paper read before the Swedish Academy of Science in 1742. Area readers may take some measure of excuse in their lack of knowledge of the new tem- perature system in the fact that even the inventor had it upside down initially. The thermometer he presented read 100 in melting ice and 0 in boiling water. Six years after his death the scale was inverted to read 0 when in ice and remains the same to the present day. While experts agree thatpeople should not attempt to learn some of the suggested methods of converting Celsius to Fahrenheit in lieu of becoming conversant with the new scale, there are some methods of conversion that many will employ. The most accurate,if you have a head for mental arithmetic is to subtract 32 and multiply by five-ninths, However there is a more simple approximation to the rule which allows conversion to be made easily and gives tem- peratures which are correct to one or two degrees (Celsius degrees, of course). It is: Fahrenheit to Celsius subtract 30 and divide by 2; Celsius to Fahrenheit - multiply by two and add 30. By this rule 70 degrees F becomes 20 degrees C instead of 21,1, However, readers who are having trouble with the new scale are reminded again that even the inventor started with it upside down, Even Anders had scale upside down