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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1995-08-23, Page 22 -THE HURON EXPOSITOR, August 13, 1995 Feature Seaforth produced big The following story, by Clare Westcott, is the original story from which a Toronto Star feature artkle was gleaned. What does Lloyd Eisler and Sir John Aird have in com- mon?...and William Aberhart, Social Credit Premier of Alberta in 1935 and Howard Kerr, founding President of Ryerson and Ralph Weiland, longtime player and coach of the Boston Bruins? They all came from Seaforth. As did Charlie Stewart, Presi- dent of Simpsons; Arthur Reid, founder of Household Finance and Ken Lawrie, founder and publisher of the Scarborough Mirror. As did James Gillespie, principal of Central Tech and Andrew Lumsden who started a newspaper that became the Winnipeg Free Press. So many left the small Huron County town and found fame and fortune...and some found only fame. One of the first to leave was Col. Anthony Van Egmond. Thirty years before Confeder- ation he was summoned by Willion Lyon Mackenzie to lead the rebels down Yonge Street to overthrow Sir Francis Bond Head's Family Compact. They rallied at Montgomery's Tavem and in the skirmish that followed the rebels were routed and Van Egmond was captured and held in the Toronto jail, A few days later he died from The effects of the battle. The home which belonged to his son, Constant, is now a historic site that sits on a hill overlooking the Egmondville River. In 1867 Canada was formed, as was the Canadian • Bank of Commerce. Not long after a young John Aird set upshop for them on Seaforth's main street. He went from this small clapboard bank to become Sir John Aird, the fifth President of the Canadian Bank of Com- merce, and the grandfather of a popular Lieutenant Governor of Ontario. Another early leaver was George F. Rogers who went from Principal of Seaforth's Collegiate in 1900 to a career that took him to the office of Director of Education for the province of Ontario; the posi- tion held by Egerton Ryerson a few decades earlier. In the 1930's I delivered the London Free Press before school each morning to Mrs. Kerr. Her son, Howard, left Seaforth after the war in 1919 to auend university and become an engineer. A practical and pragmatic academic, he went on to create and build Ryerson Institute of Technology, becoming its first princi- pal...and later President. In the years before he died he was the founding chairman of the coun- cil of Regent's that planned and built the community col- lege system we now have in Ontario. The Weilands lived in a frame house on the corner across from the historic Van Egmond homestead overlook- ing the river. The minute the water behind the dam froze over it was invaded by shinny player$. Young Ralph, known as Cooney to his chums, lived on the ice - a mere 100 yards from his back door. He so honed his hockey skills that he made the NHL in the late 1920's. Ralph "Cooney" Weiland played for Detroit and later for Boston where he became coach for the Bruins for four years leading them to a Stanley Cup. He almost became a Toronto Maple Leaf...He wanted $2700 a season and Connie Smythe offered only $2500. • In the years before he died he coached the Harvard University hockey team. Charlie, Bob and Bill were the Aberhart brothers. Charlie owned the town's drug store (as a small boy I asked my dad why people called him '400' Aberhart. He said it was because he made 400 per cent on everything he sold) and Bob ran the chopping mill grinding grain for local farmers. Brother William left in 1910 and headed west to teach school. By 1915 he was prin- cipal of Calgary's largest high school. He set up a Bible Institute and preached hellfire sermons on radio station CFCN and earned the title "Bible Bill"...and it was a short step to names of heroes and cham- politics. pions and doers of great deeds. He and his prot6g6 Ernest McKillop, Tuckersmith, Hullett Manning Crusaded with Evan- and Colborne are the names of gelic zeal and convinced townships in Huron County. farmers caught up in . the They are as well the names of depression that Toronto and directors of the Canadian com- Montreal bankers were in pony who developed and league with the devil. They settled the area. Organized by could be saved by electing their John Galt in England in the Social Credit Party and they 1820's the company bought a were. Aberhart won 56 out of 63 seats in that legislature. After eight years as Premier, 'Bible Bill' was followed by Ernest Manning, long-time disciple and one of his early bible college students. Depression *ave way to war- time prosperity and hallelujah - oil was struck at Leduc. Premier Manning 's son Preston, not yet in school, was to learn the game of politics at his father's side - as his father did apprenticing with Seaforth's Aberhart. He learned it well. On October 25, 1993 he changed the face of Canadian politics - maybe forever. Harry Stewart had too many sons growing up to work in his main street clothing store so Jim and Dave stayed home to run the business. Doug became a preacher and minister of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in downtown Toronto while brother Chuck took a job with the Robert Simpson Company, and in the 1970's became President. Three times Simpson's Toronto store won the gold for creative window design beating out every large department store in North America. George Daly painted on week- ends in his studio converted from a rural school in the Caledon hills. Through the week he was the store's Direc- tor of Creative Advertising. But George is remembered best in Seaforth, where he was born and raised for his pencil sketches of the town in the high school yearbook. And there were women who left and brough honour to their town. In the 1930's Helen McKercher left her father's farm to attend the. MacDonald Institute at the Ontario agricul- tural college in Guelph.. She became Director of the Home Economics department in the Ministry of Agriculture, Honourary President of the Federated Women's Institutes of Ontario and a life member of the Associated Country Women of the World. Grace McFall left to become a soloist with St. Paul's Cathe- dral choir in Toronto. From there she sang her way all over North America for two decades as a star member of various concert tours. Isabell Graham wrote poetry in Seaforth for 50 years. She wrote for publications in Canada and the United States and her poems and prose was published in books sold around the world. Jim Scott is remembered best for his books about Seaforth and the surrounding Huron County. An early dean of journalism at Western, his career continued as book editor of the Toronto Telegram, then Director of the Ontario Liberal Party and as assistant to the President during the growing and expanding years of Water- loo University. Lawyer brother Don was the Crown prosecutor at the Truscou trial and retired as senior judge in the region of Niagara Although painter William Cresswell spent most of his life in Seaforth, his paintings hung in galleries around the world. • Today a Cresswell is an important and valuable pos- session. He was elected to the Royal Academy of Painters. Few small towns have two weekly papers. The Seaforth Sun and the Huron Express of the 1800's became the Seaforth News and the Huron Expositor of the 1900's. Joe Fisher left the Expositor in the 30's and gained prominence in Ottawa as a skilled political correspon- dent and later as "Ham" Fisher Editorial page Editor of the Telegram. Art Reid came home from the war in 1919 - and he left soon after. Not wanting to work in the furniture factory where his father was boss, he left to try his luck in the big city. The age of wanting con- sumer goods was beginning but Canadians lacked the cash. A wise man, like his dad, Art Reid sensed this and got into the consumer loan business. His company's name became a household word...in fact it was. Household Finance. Throughout the ages history was kept alive be recording the 1. names million acres around Seaforth from the Indians. It extended for miles in all directions covering western Ontario like a large blanket. Coleman, Chalk, Wilson and Gouinlock are street names in Seaforth that honour early pioneers and settlers who came later and helped build a community from what was little more than a swamp. It officially became a town in 1875. Although not a pioneer or settler another Seaforth native has his name on the official map of the town. On March 10 two years ago, he brought great honour and pride to his family, his . friends and his community when, 'along with figure skating partner Isabelle Brasseur, he won . the World Figure Skating Championship in the pairs event. Near his home in the south end of town the signs read - Lloyd Eisler Street. For over 150 years this small town of 2,000 souls has dis- patched people around the world. In 1800 my grandmother's sister - my great-aunt Susan - went with the first group of Salvation Army missionaries to India. Her baby and her husband died of malaria and she returned blind. I remember as a small boy watching her weave wicker baskets to sell - always with a braille bible by her side. Sixty-five years ago Amold Turnbull was sent to England to establish a European office for a Canadian insurance com- pany. Prominent in the Lions Club. in Canada; tie• iiiitroduced the idea n London and from there it spread across Europe. The list of those from Seaforth goes on and on...the hockey prowess of Joe Sills drew him to Pittsburg in 1917. He played for New York in 1926 a year before Connie Smythe was brought to Madison Square Gardens to build a team to be known as the New York Rangers. In fact, it was Joe who coaxed Cooney Weiland to leave the Owen Sound Greys for the U.S.A. and the Red Wings. Dave McLlwain's family farmed on the edge of town but hockey was his love...and travelling. Sometimes referred to as 'Don't unpack your bag' Mcilwain, Dave is the only player in hockey history to have played in all four divi- sions in one year. After Winnipeg, Pittsburg and Buf- falo he played for the New York Islanders, the Toronto Maple Leafs and now the Ottawa Senators. He held a record with the Winnipeg Jets for the most short-handed goals. . Harvey Mason, Ron Mason's dad, was handicapped in that -he had difficulty walking even with a cane. In spite of this he loved to organize and coach kid's hockey going back to the days of natural ice in the old Seaforth rink. Like father, like son...Ron is now the most winning NCAA coach of any active U.S. coach. In 1929 Louis Laudenbach and his wife moved from Australia to Seaforth. He was a skilled cabinet maker. Fol- lowing school, son Joe got. started in the oil business with Shell. He retired a couple of years ago. He was President of Quaker State Oil. For Ken Doig hockey led to golf. Spending ten years in Scotland playing for the Perth Panthers he took up golf and he like it. Not satisfied with a strong left hand swing he practiced a right swing, driving 1,000 balls a day for a year until he had it mastered. " He took his right-hand drive to the British Open - 40 years ago this summer. He has played in hundreds of tournaments around the world. He was a member of the Canadian ama- teur team playing for the Eisenhower Cup in the Dom- inican Republic in 1974 and in 1984 was the Ontario Seniors • Champion of Champions. So it's no surprise that Ian Doig, the famous Canadian professional golfer who was Ontario PGA Champion in the late 1980's, is the son of Ken. Or that Ken Doig Jr., one of the most famous caddies in North . America, who has carried bags and given advice to the best, and was recently mentioned in USA Today, is another son of Ken. What do they do, in their spare time? They own the Seaforth golf course. Does this array of migrating townsfolk make Seaforth unique among small commun- ities? Not . on your life - although it does rank high as an exporter of doers who met challenges and achieved goals, but is this not the great -quality of all our small towns? The close community and family ties and friendly, close - range competition hones to a fine edge the ability to combine wisdom and common sense and develop competence to the limit. The intimate working with neighbours and friends in church, lodge, service clubs and even playing in the town band or belonging to the volun- teer fire department is an experiencenot common in big city life. In the city neighbours remain strangers...in town you know 2,000 people and they all know you. We were network- ing in . Seaforth 50 years before we knew what it meant. It all comes out as an indefinable quality loosely called small town native intelli- gence, but it is simply a more earthy and practical awareness of what life is all about. Through the years it has put our city slicker cousins at a great disadvantage. BEST LINE IN YEARS SERIES 2000 MODEL. 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