HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1960-11-03, Page 44 The (004eh Signal -Star, Thursday, November 3rd, 1960
Vigorous Streams Determined The
location Of Colborne's Pioneers
(By W. E. BII )
tion of the earliest settlers .inI t. "_L µ -,'F '1F.V,I...�Y •b s:M:>•9M4`, `.7.
'and a quarter before- the On-
tario Water Resources �'oinmis-
sion came into being, the pion-
eers in this part of Huron
sought out ever -flowing streams
soft and cools his milk cans. One landed immigrant. 11e wyas horn
b ° ifs" i t tI Sills ear" i 8fi ,lace • .stat. ct
.Rt di3�"S'' ,fYYa� •s y ,� >.tr"'"X'I -: P : ... • a�r?�, , � l .
at. thermometer dipped into the probably in the United States,
, y\, !•.. t,. _:" e,...:vva .. .,Penns •Ivan,ia
80 to 49 degreeS.,
. ) Ttch taeltnari. ;L '' 61ie• mar-
F MKY1l
Settlers who lacked such aS ried Susannah Holly, 21—again,
stream. had little difficulty in the place is not indicated. He
reaching good water by drilled ; is known to have been in Vaugh.
wells. Across the river from ,an Township, York County, and
with all the care of oasissboundflhe Fisher place, a well sunk to 'must have skilled as a mill -
travellers in the desert. ' There,
figuratively, they pnt,hed their
't 'tents.
Q •ft 4
Michael Fisher, to whom the
Canada, Company • .sold 5,465
acres in Colborne, followed up
a .stream running into the Mait-
land,River southeast of the pre-
sent hamlet of Benmiller. There
is a legend that he /lid it ,in a
rowboat. At any rate, he found Village's two- `industries, grist liar his 5,465 .acres in the bend
its rising on Lot 6, Maitland mill and woollen mill, are pow cf the Maitland, and $10,000 was
j Concession. ered by Sharp Creek. a lot of money then, if not now.
Now, 19 years later, it slakes Built Several Mills That seven shillings sixpence at
the thirstof Albert Durst's cows Michael Fisher was no newly • the end is apparently the price
per acre, for that is the way it
!figures out. The dollar equival-
ent at the price of the pound
sterling then was $1.82. The
deed in Huron County registry
office is signed by Thomas Mer-
cer Jones, 'commissioner, and
j was registered April 23, 1832.
i John Galt, former commission-
er, had 'returned to the Old
'Country in 1829. -
At a time when, few settlers
--far
13 feet overflowed. One farmer Wright, He operated a chopping
has a good well in his cellar. 4 mill in Waterloo County, built a
Of course, on high land it is' sawmill on his Colborne farm,
different. A windmih was erect- and is said to have died in
ed at the Stewart Nurseries on Vaughan Township while erect -
the hill. A, Goderich man who ing a grist mill.
built on the•same height drilled No oral or recorded bits of
200 feet to find water. Outside Fisher family history yet ob-
Dan Miller's tavern at Benmil- tallied by this writer explain
ler, long gone, there was a good Michael's wealth. 'He paid the
well, which is still in use. The Canada Company £2,049 7s 6d
THANKS !
Bill Currey wants to thank most sincerely all
those who made his 21st anniversary and grand
re -opening --sale- last week such an outs
success..,
He appreciates, too, the patronage extended to
him during the past 21 years — and looks forward
to providing these customers, and others, too; with
biggerarra tette serAvIm-than£ even,befare at�� °him
new, modern service station on the Huron Road.
43
Michael paid cash fo' 5,465
'i' res and was not thereby im-
poverished, for though he first
built a shanty on Lot 6, then a
log cabin, he erected in 1836, a
big stone house, bringing men,
machines and much material
from York. ,The limestone was
quarried from the Maitland.
Michael's son, Valentine, by this,
time aged nine, split the
shingles for his father to shave.
Michael acquired in 1831 lots
three to 14 inclusive in Conces-
J
Buying A Diamond This Christmas?
DO YOURSELF A FAVOR
--- See N. T. ORMANDY.
DIAMOND SSPECIALIST
PHO.NEr._J-A- 4=8833'
APPOINTMENTS AFTER 7 P.M.
4»
—421"F
TV and RADIO TUBES
TESTED FREE
GODERICH NEWS STAND
ON THE SQUARE AT CvLaoQaE STREET
OPEN EVERY NITE UNTIL 71.30
1111
d,.
43-45-47
ONTARIO SAFETY EEASUE
Courtesy of - -
.1r�HN LAQATT L,IMIT[D
cion I and II, Colborne, and lots
six to 31 in the Maitland Con � SEE5 CIVILIZATIONS EFFECT
cession. He did not get lots one
:.nd two, East Division, site of
0
The Hollow (Benmiller), prob-
.;bly because the mill sites were
already pre-empted. Sharpe
Creek, 'which rises away to the
north i 'West Wawanosh, near
St. Helens, reaches the Maitla,pd
here and at its 'unction with
:he river arose Benmi errs-grist-
mill,
rr sgrist-
mill, alongside it the inevitahLe
sawmill, and a little farther' up
stream the "carding" "mil.,.
Grist mill and woollen mill
operate still, powered by the
same unfailing stream. The
flour, and feed mill has been in
the Pfrimmer family since 1873;
the woollen mill has never been
out of the Gledhill family and
is operated by Clyde and Verne,
whose great-grandfather started
the enterprise and whose grand-
father built the present n"iill.
The Gledhill mill in the hol-
low attracts visitors from afar,
and is one of tlie most fre-
quently .pictured scenes in West-
ern Ontario: Forty-five years
ago jt achieved a 'unique niche
in, the hall of fame when Lord
Beae,rbrook, then Max" Aitken,
Canadian Records Officer, visit-
ed the lst Infantry Battalion
after Givenchy to have a, word
with Pte. Verne Gledhill, 18,
'`whose grandfather owns a
woollen mill at Benmiller, near
Goderich." He wrote. that Gled-
1�llt,�bombed out ofThi trem h
and his rifle gone, found an-
other and fired from the knee
until. driven back, then hauled
to safety a New Brunswick
soldier with one leg missing.
All this, Aitken recorded, "from
first to last a,nd at every pace
under a tempest of fire." Gled-
hill was 'awarded the Distin-
guished Conduct Medal.
Less than a mile from Ben -
miller is the house that Michael
Fisher built in 1836—altered
lnd added to, of course, but the
huge fireplace on the ground.
NTHE CANADIAN ESKIMOS
(ley Dorothy Barker)
I believe it was the great
Norwegian explorer, Amund-
sen, who once said, "My sincer-
est wish for the Eskimos is.
that civilization may never
.reach ,them: -
In the Eskimo village at
Churchill, members of the ONR
excursion gained a brief im-
pression of what civilization is
doing to these happy people of
the snows." Housing is no long-
er a problem for them. Instead
of crawling on their bellies into
an icy igloo, they sit in their
picture windows in modern, oil -
heated cottages provided for
them.by the GovernrAi'ent. They
can watch the gales off Hud-
son's Bay beat -at the. four cor-
ners of their neighbor's home
in civilized comfort.
Because of the constant level
of perma frost in the ground,
these buildings are built on
stilts, and are insulated on all
sides= -=+floors, ceilings and walls.
There .is a community play-
ground for ,the children, where
swings and teeter-totters amuse
the tiniest .mites, during brief
summer days.
• When school Convenes they
ire transported by Army bus
to -the school within the military
services camp.
The Eskimos are'cheerful and
intelligent. They become skill-
ed laborers .with very little
training and earn considerable
maney when employed at the
camp.
They are not money -consc-
ious, f'tovever, and seldom know
how to spend or save their earn-
ings. None of •the adults wee
met could speak English.' These'
were the women of the village.
Husbands and .fathers were all
-working. The children looked
,floor retnains, spit and all. So like a garden of wild flowers
'large is this room that Tobias in their bright colored modern
Fisher, a farmer occupant of the lre.ses and jeans. They swarm -
farm, had a blacksmith shop in cd around, our bus as it carne
it. -Mrs. Albert Durst, wife of to a halt within the village,
-45 .4'1-;,! r �,4 i 4 ,p _ the present owner, has heard hoping we would ask them to
IZ
'`�''' " ••• �_- that square dances were held pose for snapshots,
LLI
ALL CAMERA FANS
to
HENDERSON'S
for the brightest of all
Gift Suggestions
CAMERAS&V-0TO SUPPUE$
CHOOSE FROM OUR LARGE STOCK OF NAME BRANDS
• ARGUS BELL and HOWELL
• GRAFLEX • KEYSTONE
• KODAK Cameras and Projectors
• NOMAD s POLAROID
• STRATO 35 • VIEWMASTER
• SAWYERS Mark IV VOIGHTLANDER
•
TRIPODS -- FILTERS -- FILM -- CHEMICALS — FLASH EQUIPMENT
YOUR HEADQUARTERS
FOR ALL PHOTOGRAPHIC SUPPLIES
RSON Book Store
GODERIOE
tl
r
there. We were warned by the Army
Champagne Cooler s Captain, who escorted our tour,
A few rods east of the house not to give them money. Tour. -
is the spring that Michael ist .generosity has ruined some
Fisher located before he built Tndians, making them slovenly,
his•shanty. In the west'round lszy and unhappy looking in -
below it lie certain rusted dividuals.
troughs, which once conveyed Even those Eskimos living
the cold water to a nearby within the rim of civilization
shanty for the cooling of cham- remain , nomadic, They flock
pagne. into Churchill because of sum-
- C. LeTouzel, an owner in mer employment possibilities.
the 70s, manufactured and bot- But the .population.of the Esk-
tled his own"wine — whether imo village, we were told, is
from domestic or wild grapes always in a state Of flux.
nobody seems 4o know now— Civilization has 'brought het -
and kept it in „this building ter health to this race of hunt -
under lock and key. erst who have survived the
According to Stanley Snyder, Arctic climate for generations
a fifth -generation descendant of by their wits and skill. High
Michael Fisher, young men of mortality rate among the aged
the neighborhood found that by •end infirm and infanticide at
reaching in at the water outlet sne time helped. control the
they could grasp a bottle, and growth of the Eskimo popula-
the running water would then 'firm. .With "the advent of the
roll down the next. One even 'white man, the Government's
ing they found they had dravrn baby 'Tonus and old an-MIK-
more
i T p n -more than they could consume. ions, this has zoomed, until
They caught a cow and gave adarting to civilized ways is the
her a drench. The ,,effect was Eskimos' only hope of survival.
amazing; she s emed to take a Diminishing whale, polar bear
new lease on ii e.. and caribou herds, their natural
Hamlet Little Changed means of livelihood, have fore -
The Stewart` Nurseries on the Fr1 these natives into other lines
hill west of Benrhiller constitut- of endeavor 'than 'hunting.
ed an important industry years Their skill as craftsmen has
ago, with salesmen travelling spread throughout the contih-
throughout Western Ontario, ent and even ,farther afield.
and along with the two milLs Now their soapstone carvings
made Benmillernie ly balanced find, more recently, their prints
between industrial a d residen- are being sought by tourists
tial:_ property, the 1 Iter cam- and museums .alike.
arising a dozen hoes - . It has Weather -bitten old gals who,
always had a school .arid church, probably since the Stone Age
and . until recently ' a general have, generation after genera -
store. - tion, ruled the igloo will con -
It is no longer . a post office, tinue to chew hides and cure
for although through mast of its ne'lts in the smoke of seal oil
existence a daily stage ran from for their family's apparel. It
Goderich, it is now on a rural is 'the younger generation° that
mail route. Manyf' of its earliest
dead lie in unmarked graves in
the original burial -ground in
Concession V'HI, which was
agandoned on the opening of
Colborne Cemetery.
Michael Fisher and Susannah
Holly had seven sons and three
daughters: ' (Records in - possess
sion of Thomas Fisher, Gode-
rich show their names -as Jacob,
Joseph, Michael Peter, Cath-
arine, Susanna, , Valefltif>;e,
Seth, Matilda and Enoch. Alio
acl gave his:sons 300 acres each.
There are alfth-generation tles-
eend'ants on these lands today,
and sixth -generation Fishers at-
tending No. 7 school in the
IViafitlarid Concession.
Curiously, the name of the
founder of Benmiller survives
only in that of the hamlet.
Jonathan, Miller, his nephew,
who kept the tavern for a time,
has taken to jive and cakes like
'a volar bear to an ice hole.
Only when the north wind
blows and the; midnight sun
shines bleakly on icy drifts do
they return, to the customs of
their •forelbcarer$. Mukluks and
caribou shirts are donned foir
eosfort and their modern
sloppy jeans and plaid shirts
ere discarded until another
spring dawns.
Night closed in quickly as our
train got underway again after
our day and a half stop -over in
Churchill. Beside the railway's
,-fight-of sway a peculiar tree
grew in profusion. Along its'
craggly branches small. red
cones, about as big as the end
of ' my" l±ttle finger, marched
bravely against the cold north
wind. -.
When I mentioned how much
I wished -I could have a branch
from the tree, the train was
stopped and the C'NR inspector,
who was aboard, gathered a
small forest of -this species of
tamarac. He also brought back
to the ,train" several species of
,moss.
Teachers, who were members
of the tour, list on thisloot 'like•
a swarm of ,locusts. It was not
hard to imagine, while Eskimo
children are learning about
fruit belts, industrial 'areas, for-
estry projects and waterways of
Canada this winter, their more
civilized contemporaries will
undoubtedly be taught about
tine species of vegetation' along
the' timberline that fringes the
Arctic.
I could agree with Amundsen
if I- thought these jolly people
of rt he .north 'would lose their
identity through- too much
civilization. No, they are in-
dividualistic and, I•believe, •will
remain so, merely adding their
unique personalities to the col-
orful pattern that comprises our
con-lmunity of Canadian citizens.
was famous for Itis great weight,
486 pounds, ,hei ht, six feet two.
Ind chest 84 fins.
A • genial sou he was later
a hotelkeeper i G'pderieh, Sea -
forth, and fin,ali,3• ''Carl -ow, where
he died in laic, aged 61. Jon-
athan Fisher, came to Gode-
µie}t' a year bi - so ago from
Colborne,,is n ed for the big
man.
Make Your
Friend
„., Happy
Auction Sale At Nile
Nets $900 For Church
(Signal -Star Staff)
NILE, Oct. 31. —.Old SQl
,brilliantly_ beamed down his
persons swarmed about NIIe
noon for
'" n cle w
hieh
u ti
ana c 4z
s
is believed to have beep 'the
first of its kind for the church.
• Members of the church
brought all kinds of farm pro-
duce and articles' to be sold -
,
off by auction in order to
help pay off a note of $1,800
owing by the church. Not
only did people come from
the immediate area but also .
from as far away as Goderich,
Kintail ;arid Lucknow. They
paid good prices and sales
"were made fast by the auc-
tioneer; Donald Blue, who was
assisted by Allan McNee as
clerk. By about 4.30 p.m.,
the sale, which got under way
at- 1.30 p.m.., was just about
over. The proceeds from the
goods sold together with don-
ations and also some dona-
tions which are still to come
in will result in a net take of
about $900
In the church shed and lin-
ed u -p` just outside o1 it was
all kinds cf farm produce to
be sold including grain, seed,
vegetables, eggs, poultry, etc,
Among the livestock were
pis and also one lone calf.
which bawled outside cf the
shed, as if anxious .for some-
' one to purchase it so it could,
get away from the crowd and
back to some peaceful /barn-
yard. There were also dishes,
furniture, stoves, c n n e d
fruit, pictures, puavips and
mechanical equipment,
In the basement of the
church was a long table cov-
ered with home baked goods
which the members of the
W.A. sold like "hot. cakes."
The idea of the auction
sale ,.was that of the Board
of Stewards of Nile United
Church and it worked like a,
charm, Not only did the -sale
prove a profitable ode but
the gathering was a happy
community event in which a
lot of people had a lot of
fun:
The -money realized Will
help considerably in paying
- off bills- in connection with
extensive repairs made to the
church • about two years ago.
This- included $1,800 for re-
a,�
The_ first census taken in Can-
ada, iii 16CG, was the first., mod-
ern census taken anywhere in
the world and' the population
then was 3.213, exclusive of
Indians and Esfkimos. -
The pet•p'endicular drop on
the Canadian side of Niagara
Falls is 162 feet, Labrador's
Grand .Falls is 245 feet, .and. 115 ST.
B.C".'s Tal,,kakavv Falls is 1,200
feet.
novation work on the brick
exterior of the church, a new
oilheating system and a new
ifitehen, _ lrz :.thn basement.
If•there are any former res-
idents -tote. Nile 4.zea who
could not be present at, the
auction sale but who wish to
donate to the cause, the
chnlrch will be most grateful .
. ta..-receive these dnnatioi ' ' -'
regardless of awhether they
come, fro liam,4�1c
ver. ,
w•••••*•••••o••.••.®•••••••••••••e••••.•®••4 •,
u 1 Dots ItPay'To Advertise? s
•
•• ,
There are 56 waterfalls in the world higher ='
•
• than Niagara. Yet you could defy the average •
o•
person to name three of them. •Ap eloquent •
• Q tribute tothe power of persistent advertising. o
o••••••••••••••••••••••o••••••••4•••••••••1
fain saw users
PION'EER
reduies chain pres
same proven .quality
same top performance
same guarantee
*16" chain formerly
• ,priced ati11.10 now
selling at
other chain sizes also- 40°
reduced in price
20"
chain formerly 20.90 NOW $16.60
24" -chain formerly 24.15NOW$19.25
28" chain formerly 21.40 NOW $21.15
32" chant formerly -33:35 NOW $26:50
s
PIO•NS'ER SAWS LTD.
•,PITIRNON000N,_CANADA
Thack Sales and Service
DAVID ,ST. – GODERICH – Phone JA 4-7922
esa•••ee••oeibeeeemes®ese••ee•••eoe isime >
nnoriumnsonsommommong
your home
• wig do you
,11111UU41 HILI4111
?tel...
By Wishing
Him A
1.49
With A
Gift
SUBSCRIPTION
TO
The GODERICH
SIGNAL -STAR
• ..-
We Send
A Gift
Card For
You
when you MODERNIZE
NOW IS THE TIME TO
SETUP A'PROJECT
FOR THE LONG WINTER MONTHS
FINISH YOUR ATTIC — TRANSFORM YOUR BASEMENT.
REMODEL YOUR -KITCHEN — OR YOUR BATHROOM.
Get Set Now for those Long-delayed Improvements.
SEE US FOR
0
LUMBER — PWWOOD -- HARDWARE -
And—As A Further Incentive
Ask About Our 1 to 5 Year Budget- Plan
A Most Convenient Finance Solution
LET US HELP MAKE THIS WINTER
A PRODUCTIVELSEASON FOR YOU !
CHECK YOUR INSULATION and STORM WINDOWS NOW
Then See ,Us for All the Materials You Need
GODERICH MANUFACTURING
COMPANY LIMITED
YOUR HEADQUARTERS ` POR ALL BUILDING • SUPPLIES
ANGLESEA STREET JA 4.8382-3-
A