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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1987-07-15, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JULY 15, 1987. PAGE 5. Family tradition John Ainlay has been a trailblazer just like his great-grandfather John Ainlay is the owner of an Ainlay family geneology, a massive document which contains more than and individual histories, of family members, some of which date back to the year 1100, as well as drawings, photographs, and important family documents. Mr. Ainlay has promised to donate a copy of this book to the Village of Brussels, where it will become an important part of village history. While he was in Brussels for the recent Homecoming, he explained some of the early Ainlay connections to Grey Township Reeve Leona Armstrong. BY TOBY RAINEY If the village of Brussels had set out to find for itself an impressive ancestorand distinguished am­ bassador, it could not have done better than to discover John A. Ainlay, the eldest living relative of William Ainlay, the founder of Brussels. This brilliant, charming and gentle man, who was the guest of honour at both the village’s 115th birthday and Homecoming cele­ bration just past and at the Centennial celebration in 1972, has delighted the many local people whomet him on both occasions, impressing nearly everyone as being “just one of us.” And yet it wasn’t we who Letter from Continued from page 4 those wno knew him well. Yet it seems to me that if we hope to build a better world, if we really want to, as we say we do, have a world of peace and harmony, it is this man and people like him who should be our role models, not the discovered Mr. Ainlay, but rather he who discovered - or re-discover­ ed - us. By a happy co-incidence of fate, in 1968 the Ainlay family of Evanston, Illinois, was deeply engrossed in researchine the family history, mostly through the devoted efforts of the late Margar­ et Ainlay, the present Mr. Ainlay’s wife, who was a noted and innova­ tive geneologist in her own right. In 1968, Mrs. Ainlay wrote to the village of Brussels, addressing her letter simply to “The Librarian,” asking if there was anyone in the area who would still have known any of the Ainlay family person­ ally. She knew that William John Ainlay, her husband’s father, had the editor super achievers of this world for whom achieving wealth or power is more important than human be­ ings. Peace can come only when people aim not at being rich, powerful and famous but at being good people as their goal. been born in the village of Brussels, Ontario, in 1870, and had moved with his family to Canada Hill, Nebraska (near Grand Island) at the age of 15, in 1885. She also knew that Harry Dean Ainlay, William John’s brother, who was born in 1887 in Brussels, had moved to Nebraska with the family, but later returned to Brussels, where he lived until moving to Alberta in the 192O’s. (Harry Dean Ainlay later carved out for himself an impressive career in politics; elected as an aiderman to the City of Edmonton in 1931, he became mayor of Edmonton in 1949, serving for four years before retiring and moving to Haney, B.C., where he died in 1947. During this time, Harry Dean Ainlay served as president to the Trans-Canada Highway Commit­ tee, Yellowhead Route, and was influential in establishing the famous Yellowhead Route, which traverses the province from Lloyd- minster to Edmonton and west­ ward to Pine Pass on the B.C. border, the alternate route to the earlier Trans-Canada Highway #1, through Calgary). Mrs. Ainlay had a letter back from an elderly lady from Brussels (when The Citizen talked to John Ainlay on J uly 5, he could not recall her name, but said it would come to him later) who had known Harry Dean Ainlay well, and the bond between the Brussels and the Evanston, Illinois Ainlays was forged, a bond which will likely endure well into the next centry, and even beyond. Four years later, in 1972, when the Brussels Centennial Commit­ tee was making plans to hold a gigantic celebration to celebrate their village’s 100th anniversary, it was only natural that an invitation to attend as guests of honour was taken (by three Brussels couples in person) to John and Margaret Ainlay in Evanston, and the stage was set for the happy relationship the village enjoys with John Ainlay today (Sadly, Margaret passed away three years ago, but while he was in Brussels July 3-5, Mr. Ainlay said several times how much his wife would have enjoyed this second homecoming celebra­ tion, with the friendly people she herself had discovered. In 1972, as a Centennial project, the Brussels Majestic Women’s Institute restored the grave site and gravestone of the village’s founder, William Ainlay, John A. Ainlay’s great-grandfather, who died in 1891, and is buried in the Brussels cemetery, along with his wife, Eleanor. For a number of years, the original stone had lain fallen and cracked on the gravesite, and it was feared that if steps were not taken to salvage it in the near future, the memorial would be lost to posteri­ ty, and a very real part of Brussels’ history would begin to fade. The Women ’ s Institute asked for and received permission from John A. Ainlay to restore the grave, permission the family readily gave, along with financial assis­ tance to show their appreciation of the idea. Brussels village council also gave financial aid, and today the old gravestone stands in its original position, the 96-year-old carving on the original stone all but obliterated, butthe legend proudly preserved on a brass plate, which will endure many more years in memory of the village’s founder. John A. Ainlay was born in Holdridge, Nebraska on June 20th, 1908. Technically, he was born a Canadian, since it wasn’t until the 1914-1918 Great War that John A.’sfather, William John, realized that he had never taken out naturalization papers to become an American citizen, and did so immediately.) He grew up and was educated in Nebraska, where he began a degree in chemistry at the Univer­ sity of Nebraska, but gave it up before obtaining his certificate, to start work as a sugar chemist for the nationally-known Great Wes­ tern Sugar Company. Withinafewyears he began a career as a gasoline chemist, eventually becoming the head gasoline chemist for the State of Nebraska, and soon took over the championship of the State’s Divi­ sion of Motor Fuels, a committee of state government. A further promotion saw him take a post with the American Petroleum Institute, in charge of the national regional office in Chicago, where he served for many years before retiring in 1972, just a few days before leaving to come to Brussels for the Centennial cele­ bration. Not content to sit still, and at an age when most of us are only too willing to retire, Mr. Ainlay let it be known that he was still available as an investigator of underground storage tankleaks, an expert on disposal of spilled fuel, an expert witness in court cases involving gasoline fires and spills, an expert in firemanship training, and in a host of other related fields. In 1963, a terrible gasoline fire which killed six firemen in Kansas City, Kansas, was widely reported, with an eight-minute film clip which was shown on television across the nation and around the world. Seeing an ideal opportuni­ ty, Mr. Ainlay created a 30-minute fireman training film from this newsclip, a film which won a National Safety Council Award as the best training film of 1963, and is still used almost exclusively in training firemen in both the U.S. and Canada on how to handle a gasoline fire. John Ainlay’s latest achieve­ ment is the invention of the remarkable Ainlay Tank ‘Tegrity Tester’, patented in 1984(when its inventor was 76 years old). This is a deceptively simple device whichisusedinthevitalwork of detecting underground leaks in fuel and chemical tanks, a job which is done more quickly, more economically, and with far greater accuracy than any device available up until now. TheTank ‘Tegrity’ tester is used in every state in the union, the favoured device of all the major oil companies which are becoming increasingly aware and cautious of underground leaks as environmen­ tal controls are tightened. Mr. Ainlay says it is also available through a distributor in Toronto, and will likely soon be the favoured choice of Canadian oil companies as well. Mr. Ainlay stilltravelsexten- sively across the nation, training testers to use the device on their own. Last year he made 24 trips to California alone, taking with him his grandson, also named John Ainlay, who is following in his grandfather’s footsteps, and may even one day be the Ainlay that we in Brussels take in as one of our own. Solving the mystery: Ainlay vs. Ainleyville EDITOR’S NOTE: Since 1972, It has been a source of some puzzlement to Brussel’s historians as to why the name of the village established In 1854 is spelled “Ainleyville,” while the Ainlay family spells the name with an “a”. While he was in Brussels July 3 - 5, John A. Ainlay cleared up the mystery In a decisive manner, producing a copy of the original town charter signed by his great­ grandfather, William Ainlay, in 1852, the year the village was established. Simply, the confusion is just a matter of a clerk’s 115-year-old error: the name Is spelled “Ainleyville” in beautiful copperplate script on the body of the document, but below, the signature clearly reads “John Ainlay.”