Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1977-05-12, Page 3ILY CUT • NO BACKS CKEN S LB. 894 E SLI ES HOME CURED ZEAL K• ON LB$ i.59. rgaret Clingan argaret Galt Clingan Looks over the book In the Days of the Canada Company. Her randfather, John Galt helped to establish the Canada Company and founded the of Goderich and Guelph 150 years ago. (staff photo) !SPECIAL GREAT TO TAKE• TO LUNCH RBECUE CHICKENS $2.4E9. HURON -MIDDLESEX PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE NOMINATION MEETING THURSDAY, MAY 12th, 1977 :.8:30 p.m. at the South Huron Secondary School Exeter, Ontario Memberships Availabl8 Call: E.C. HILL 524-7423 K.F. AINSLIE 524-8551 J. GINN 524-9678 Progressive Consr►ervative Memberships are also available at at the NOMINATION MEETING BUS'LEAVING GODERICH 7:30 LEGION HALL For bus reservations call: J. GINN. 524-9678 "All Supporteirs Welcome" 0 • AUTOMATIC WASHERS & DRYERS • ,PORTABLE WASHERS & DRYERS • .WRINGER, WASHERS • PORTABLE & BUILT-IN DISHWASHER • IN SINK FOOD WASTE DISPOSERS From the Dependability People ate= HUTCHINSON APPLIANCES TRADE INS ACCEPTED 308 r1URON RD. - 524.7831 lair lo) motels <;'; Meiji 1'?' asking durin0 re Your IP Yoe It's ance*or' reminisces 21, John Galt and "Tiger" Dunlop the t0wof Goderich. aftiday errnoon, April years later, Galt's granddaughter, et Galt Clingan of h, marked the an- ry by planting a al tree In the cour- ark during the town's Arbor les. Clingan speaks with pride and modesty of estors whose com- ontributions to this are probably ed in our history. e 84, she'' owns and s her own five house at 51 Colborne here she has lived for 18 years. A woman to her home once a help her with the cleaning. Up until last year, Mrs. Clingan did her own gardening and grew all her own vegetables. This year she will have a gardener to help her. She loves plants. Her other love is oil painting. Despite three eye operations during the last three years to remove cataracts, Mrs, Clingan continues to paint in her large sun lit second. floor studio. Most of her paintings are of scenery and people. She particularly likes to paint faces. As she relates the family tree and history, she says she has always been interested in it. She enthusiastically produces newspaper clip- pingsitiold books, photographs and excerpts from history articles to illustrate her history accounts. She can. even tell a good ghost story or two. There was a line of seven John Gaits beginning with, three in Scotland. The fourth' John Galt was born in Ayr- shire in 1779. He -grew up to be a poet, dramatist and novelist. Most of his novels were studies of Scottish life and character. He also wrote two biographies, one of the poet Byron whom he knew personally and the other of Cardinal Wolsey. This fourth John Galt was Mrs. Clingan's great- grandfather and she has in her possession a few, of his more than twenty novels. "I've tried to read them," she says, "but they are written in an old style of Scottish and that makes it difficult." Although Galt has been called one of the greatest hid BARBECUE SPECIAL - GUARANTEED TENDER TOP ROUND STEAKS LB. 1.28 LEAN GROUND CHUCK LB. 88' - HALF IN HAM 'TSO'PORK LB.9 7 FARM FRESH JUMBO SIZE EGGS DOZ FARMER STYLE USAGES UNSLIE MARKET .IM„E6 106 SHOPPERS SQUARE 524-8551 INE SPECIALIZE IN CUSTOM KILLING ,Scottish novelists, he had a "They (the bank) didn't take -it -or -leave -it attitude "like the idea of me moving toward his writing. He was and I had to pay my own fare. more interested in becoming But I got araise when I got ' a business man and set off for out there," she says. Canada in October 1826 to In B.C. Mrs. Clingan met fulfill this goal. He had been her husband George who sent out by the British served in both world wars as government to settle the a lieutenant and a colonel. He debts and the claims of set- commanded the Cameron tiers who lost property in the Highlanders of Ottawa. War of 1812. Before he went overseas in When his business was 1990 he made his wife take out finished he returned to her Canadian citizenship Britain and organized the papers. Since she had been Canada Company of which he born in Florida she was still became Commissioner. , ' ° considered an American, "He thought Canada was so citizen up until that time. wonderful that he just had to Mr. and Mrs. Clingan lived •return," says Mrs. Clingan. in Ottawa for twenty years. And return he did. This Later, in 1955, they moved to time he opened up the Huron Goderich where they bought twelve acres of land at the end of Bennett Street. Their house was only twenty feet from the lake bank but eventually had to be moved back one hundred feet due to erosion. "There was only one farm down in that area when we moved there. I guess you could say we started the first subdivision there. We sold many lots and planted evergreen trees," she says. Mrs. Clingan has one daughter, Mrs. Colin (Peggy) Murray who is an editor at the Toronto Sun. Perhaps Peggy has inherited her great -great-grandfather's writing ability. "They always said he (John Galt) was a better writer than a business man," says Mrs. Clingan. "Peggy was the only girl taking the short story writing course at Carleton University in her day and oneof the° youngest in the class too." Mrs. Clingan has seen a lot of changes in Goderich over the years bu�oesn't think it has grown to uch. "When I was working at the bank the population was five or six thousand then and it's onlyseven thousand,now." She says she thinks Goderich is "marvellously well kept" and praises the Tract in Western Ontario and founded the towns of Guelph and Goderich. "They say my.,, grea- grandfather was the architect and planned, the, towns and then Tiger (Dunlop) did the actual work," says Mrs. Clingan. The two men had become very good friends. "Both of them were big men, six feet four inches tall. Tiger had red hair and my great- grandfather had dark hair and eyes," Mrs. Clingan describes. Goderich was named after Lord Goderich,: Earl of Ripton and patron of the Canada Company which Galt was representing. Mrs. Clingan thinks Galt may have gotten his idea for Goderich's wagon wheel 'shape from a similar shaped town he could have seen in Austria. "He was quite a traveller," she says. Galt lived on Harbour Hill in Goderich for awhile and then made his home in Guelph. He brought his wife and three sons to Canada from Scotland. When Galt later returned with his family to Scotland in order to take up writing again, his three sons soon came back to Canada to carry on with the pioneering and colonizing family tradition. The youngest two sons, Thomas and Alexander Tilloch were eventually knighted for their ac- complishments. Sir Thomas became chief justice of Ontario. Sir Alexander was one of the fathers of Confederation and the first finance minister of the new Dominion. The oldest son, John, Mrs. Clingan's grandfather, kept.a lower profile and preferred the quiet life. He lived in Goderich as the squire of Ridgewood, a huge log and stucco house built on the north side of the Maitland river (known as the Sandy's house today). Since the settlement of Goderich was still young at .. this time, there were few educated men to fill public office. So, at the mere age of 20, John became collector of customs. In 1843 he was the justice of the peace and in 1851 he became the registrar of deeds for the counties of Huron, Bruce and Perth. He died at the age of 59 while visiting friends in Ottawa.' His son John married Lena Cameron. They had five children, four daughters and a son,, John Galt the seventh. Of these children, Mrs. D. A. Mitchell of Guelph and Mrs. Muriel Galt Wilson and Mrs. Clingan, both of Goderich, survive. Mrs. Clingan was born in Florida, where her mother's father, Malcolm Colin Cameron, owned an orange grove. This same Mr. Cameron had once lived in Goderich in a house where Alexandra . Marine and General Hospital is situated today. He was the Liberal Member of , Parliament for Huron County for many years. Mrs. Clingan's parents returned to Goderich, when she was four years old. They lived at 35 Nelson Street East. Her father was the post- master in Goderich for over thirty years until his retirement in 1936. Mrs. Clingan attended public school and high school in Goderich. In 1913 she lived in Switzerland for a year where she was allowed only to speak French, In 1917 she took a job at the Bank of.,_,Commerce in Goderich as a teller. She worked there for four years and then became restless. She asked the bank to send her to another bank in -British Columbia. Her brother John was a banker and lived in Victoria. .d,. GODERICH SIGNAL -STAR, TI-IURSDAY, MAY 12,1977 PAG Mrs. Clingan can be truly proud of her. ancestors and the role they played in developing Goderich, Ontario and even the whole of Canada. Two of her father's cousins, Robina and Kathleen M. Lizars, have written a book called In the Days of the Canada Company. It is a Canadian classic published in 1896. For more information on the Galt family and the history of Goderich, this book can be found at the Goderich public library. 3 DON'T MISS OUR O SALE ENDS MAY 21 HUGE SAVINGS ON ALL CHILDREN'S WEAR THE MOST UP TO DATE FASHIONS FOR GIRLS CASUAL AND DRESS WEAR BOYS SIZES SIZES 2-12 YEARS 2-12 YEARS SEE OUR EXTENSIVE SELECTION OF LAYETTES ALL IN-STORE MERCHANDISE IS REDUCED BY 111 io Q SPECIAL CRIB SIZE SUNCOAST MALL +90 COIL REG. 526.9S $ i 9.95 SPECIAL KANT WET HIGH CHAIRS CONVERTS TO YOUTH & UTILITY CHAIR REG. $44.95 $ 3 2 00 HUGE SELECTION OF LADY BIRD UNDERWEAR 15% OFF "THE STORE WHERE QUALITY COMES FIRST" ,544-7221