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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen-Auburn, 2004-07-29, Page 28eafr tfachtlation4 Be/ii q•th:ifteil ort 50 y.eaia.I uBUR RI RETR VER EAT SIDE Jamiey eampgtound Serviced and unserviced sites available PO Box 59, Auburn,Ontario NOM 1E0 (519) 526-7238 auburnriverside@hurontel.on.ca www.campgrounds.org/auburnriverside AUBURN - 150 YEARS OF HISTORY. PAGE 7 Oldest Auburn native parade grand marshall As the oldest resident born in thburn. Bernice Anderson has been onoured by being named the grand narshall of the homecoming parade ;at.. July 31. Born in 1917, she is the fourth :eneration of her family to live in tuburn and still lives in the house • ler father and grandfather built hortly after her parents were narried. Leading up to the village's 50th anniversary there has been a teady stream of visitor's wanting to ake advantage of her remarkable nemory of village life in the past. Her earliest memory was when she vas only about two and she emembers an early-morning ommotion outside the house and ier father going outside. She later learned that the sawmill co-owned by her father, Edgar Lawson and C. 1. Howson (located south of the 'illage where Craig's sawmill later Iperated for many years) had lurned. There were later suggestions hat someone had set fire to the mill. Mrs. Anderson is one of the amous Weir babies, one of more han 2.000 babies who came into the vorld with the assistance of Dr. B.C. Bert) Weir. Dr. Weir also helped deliver her own older child. "It. was a glorious place to grow up," she recalls of her early years in Auburn. She spent a lot of time at neighbours but children were also free to run, and play throughout the' village. When she was older, about 12 or 13, she remembers meeting in the evenings with others about her own age at the Anglican Church on main street where they would choose up sides in a game she can't remember the name of now, then run and hide all over the village. There was no fear of being out alone in the dark. she says. Her father and mother had met when her mother came from the Seaforth area to teach at the schoolhouse just east of town. Later iunday visits to her mother's family n Seaforth became a weekly event, it first by horse-drawn carriage, but ,00n by an early automobile. She remembers her father, unlike nany fathers of a later generation. vas eager for her to learn to drive the :ar, having her practise in their own hive and later letting her drive 'riends on picnics all over the ;ountry, even as far as London. She remembers when there were several houses on the river side of vlaitland Terrace, some of which lave been moved into the village proper now. She remembers when ice would be cut on the slower channels of the Maitland River and hauled to the ice house that was part of the butcher shop and the dairy operated by by Charlie Beadle at the corner of Turnberry (now Donnybrook Line) and Queen Sts. Homeowners who bad an ice box could also buy ice at 25 cents a block. Auburn had a tennis court in those days, first at the west end of main street and later across the street from where the Missionary Church is today. With the school a mile to the east of the village, in winter her grandfather, who operated a dray service with her father, fixed up his sleigh with a canvas top and installed a small heater inside to offer rides to school in the cold weather. There was a charge of five cents and she remembers thinking long and hard as to whether to use her money for a ride or buy an orange. In summer, some-,of the village children got a ride to School in the morning with Dr. Weir. The village children were teased by the 'children who. had walked that the "baby carriage" was arriving. She also remembers electricity coming to Auburn in 1931. The power company had required a certain number of farmers along the way pay for installing power in order to bring the lines all the way to Auburn. When not enough farmers subscribed, 10 village residents, including her father, paid for the farmers' charges so Auburn could get pOwer, then fundraising events were held to pay off the debts. The same kind of funding was used to provide seed money for the 100th anniversary celebration of the village in 1954, she recalls, when a small group of residents loaned money to the organizing committee. She can recall the 75th anniversary of the village when she was still in public school. Girls from the school dressed all in white and her grandfather had a team of white horses to draw a wagon in the parade. At the centennial celebration in 1954 she and her husband Oliver took part in the parade with a democrat (a horse-drawn buggy) with their parents and their own children. For the 1979 celebration she remembers watching the parade in the rain. She says she's honoured, but seems a little bewildered at being chosen grand marshall for the parade. She's looking forward to - seeing relatives come home but doesn't expect to see many of her girlhood chums because they're just too old to travel, she says. One of her best friends who lives in Edmonton has explained it's just too strenuous to make the trip. Auburn has changed a lot, she says, and today is more a dormitory community than in the days when she was growing up and neighbours were so close that when you borrowed sugar or flour, you didn't even bother paying it back. Without services like a doctor or bank, even local farmers don't move to the village when they retire. Still, she says, Auburn is home and the steady parade of neighbours and villagers to her front door has proved there's still a close tie for many people to her and to their community. Teamwork While the men would be busy at a barnraising, neighbourhood women were also busy preparing meals for the workers. From left: Lucy Irwin, Marjorie McDougall with her daughter Bernice Gross, Laura Toll, Lena Plaetzer and Beatrice Ruddy. (Photo courtesy of Bernice Gross) CONGRATULATIONS and Best Wishes AUBURN on celebrating 150 years of history HURON CHAPEL EVANGELICAL MISSIONARY CHURCH Phone 526-1131 Service Hours: Sunday School 9:30 a.m. Morning Service 10:30 a.m.; Evening Service 7:30 p.m. Louth and Adult Bible studies at 7:15 p.m.