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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Clinton News Record, 1925-07-30, Page 3THE M0'UNTC?STLE SISTERS Few of Clinton's: home -coming sons or daughters but will remember :the Mountcastle sisters. From left to right they are the Misses Clara; Ellen and Eliza. All have been gathered to their fathers. '^ THE ROYAL BANK as had its branch in Clinton for over fifty years. Mr. R. E. Manning is Elie local 'manager. THE CLINTON FLOUR MILL 'Visitors are invited to go down some morning next week and see them. tarcn out Noith Star, Maple Leaf or Snow;h'lakeflour. • THE PUBLIC SCHOOL Many home-comingold boys and girls will want to go through this ouilding, - It has been remodelled and changed Within the last few, years cut "the same old bricks are in the walls, thebell swings to and fro." My Objective was thePrinter's Trade a a Desire to Become an Editor in my memory. Althoii > I have be. I ceme engrossed in Alum ic<,u poiities I continuo to take a general interest what the Canadians are doing.• Tlis is a sketchy outline of my un-; Editor It n o`ows ecoid: As an old en- eventful earner and. Ifear I have sai courage and guide me. I attended school for less than two year's, all of them. rural schools, but 1 seemed' to have acquired' a hunger for educe - bon and much of what I received was 'due to the kindness of Mr. Scott. The ,llounnetcastle sisters, always interest- ed in' education,; also aided mein many ,ways. Among the names 1 re- call of the business men. were R. M. Racey, hardware; James Fair, grist and saw mill; Combe, the druggist; John Hodgins, dry goods; Nellis, books and, stationery; Robeson, gro- cer; Stanbnry, grocer; James Yuill, stationery; A. SI -Fisher, drY goods;, John Cuninghanie, grocery, and Coats, dry goods. The' Wiseman` boys, John, Janes and Robert, were well 1cnown in Clin- ton in Sny time. Jaynes was my Sun- day school -teachei and among, the .other boys hi his'class were'James Turnbull, son of the grammar school principal, Joseph Chambers and Frank Irving. The Irving boys moved west to Chicago about the time I did. My sister,. Lizzie, of Toronto',' is spending her vacation with;me as I write this and has,assisted me in re- calling'some of the old' Clinton names. She attended school in Clinton when A. M. Taylor,, afterwards <a Chicago lawyer, was her teacher. She was also a pupil at the Holmesville school and counts among her old comrades Jennie ,Rumball, now Mrs. James Ford; and other members' of the, Rum- . ball family Clinton;an'I have been very much in- terested in the letters 'froin former residents, , recalling' early History My i•iond, "W. D. Fair, has asked me to contribute to the symposium and as I alft unable to attend the eelebiation prehaps its is my duty to do what I tan towards adding a little interest by bringing back the past in glimpses of Clinton and ' vicinity as I knew them many years ago. My first recollection of Clinton was n 1863-62 years ago—whenI 'ar- rived there with my parents from Scotland„ I was then between three and four•, years old, a very early age to Main anything in mind, 'you will say, but there are a few things which stand out in my memory. One is that we lived in a house next to the one afterwards built and occupied by Hugh Matheson, the blacksmith,. for many yearsprominent in the ,.Presby- terian church. When I last visited Clinton four,years ago the house was still standipg, - Another thing I re- member was the arrival from Scot- land a year later of my .grandfath- er, George Thompson and his family. Isi a few. -weeks he bought a farm' on the Huroh road,'two and a half miles from ' town and lived there. about twenty years'. That family, consist- ing of grandfather, grandmother, three sons, and three daughters, in- cluding my ' mother, have all since passed away. The' last • togo, my aunt Margaret Thompson, who mar- ried Edmund Mountcastle more than fifty years` ego,' died in 1921 and is buried with her husband in .the Olin- .ton cemetery. I left Clinton more than forty years ago but have visited it at intervals of ten or fifteen years, so that 1 have not been entirely out of touch with the old town. James A, Ford, one of;, your townsmen, was a . schoolmate of mine at Holmesville. I think' Jim will remember that very distinctly. The Rumballs, including Mark, George, Georgina and Ellen, also attended •the Holmesvrlle school with my brother, sister and myself. Summer and win- ter we trudged more than a mile to the school along the tracks of the Grand Trunk railroad. Near Holmes ville there was a big fill-in on which the track was built, forming: a steep embankment. If you will ask Geor- gine I think she will remember howl expert she was in shoving the boysfl down this embankment, especially in the winter time. I have riot forgot- ten it as I was one of the boys. Geo, Sherman was our teacher and among the other. pupils I recall George, Dan and Eleanor Calbicic, the A;chesons, Tom acid Lucy Cottle, the Pjckards. and Words. In addition to the Rumballs, our neighbors were the Cooks, the Evans, on the old. Mount - castle farm, and the Potters directly opposite fey • "grandfather's place. Doubtless there are some Clinton pets - pie still living who can recall the Thompson gray horse and buggy, knower as the "family sirriage" which made frequent trips to town, and the dapple -gray horse "Ned" hitched to the covered, carriage, dubbed the "daily mail," owned by Robert Cook, father of Belle Cook, now Mrs. Brig- ham. By the : way, Mrs. Brigham, probably the best known of Clinton old-timers, was then Mrs. Smith and resided on the Cools homestead after the death of her, father and mother. I hose she is at the celebration. The megion Mr. and Mrs. Cook brings to me a host of pleasant memories. In my boyhood days their handsome home' was a centre of hospitality and I can still see their kindly faces and hear their welcoming words. It was -there at one time .or, another I met some of their numerous children and grandchildren. Among them were Mrs. Kilty, Aunt fSophie, as she was affectionately known; Susie Cook, af- terwards. Mrs. David Cavan, whose daughter is in, Detroit; Mrs. Cully,. ford, "formerly' Mary Kilt$*; 'Willie Cook and other children. About the years ' 1877:- to 1879 L lived with Uncle Mountcastle in a house he built near the Great' Western station. Across the road be: had a sawmill where I put in many a hard day's work. He subsequently moved the mill to Blyth and then to Dundalk; Grey County. Afterwards_ I Mound easier work as a grocery clerk in a stere.kept•by James Hun- ter on Huron street;::not far from the.. Commercial' hated. While there I cane to know Toni Jackson, jr., whose father's tailor and gents' furnishing store was only a few doors away. When business was slack Tom and I amused ourselves- by playingcatch ball up and; down the street. `I also knew' Walter and Bob Coats, the lat- ter now occupying an -important posi- tion at osi-tion"at Ottawa. The Clinton juven- ile, band .of those days was greatly admired by us boys,all of whom want- ed to be .members and help to make the music. Jim Scott; son of the lib- rarian, was the leader and his cornet playing was a ` delight to niy sonl. Torn Jackson Played the second cor- net and ,afterwards became leader. Bob' Coats played the , big horn and Charlie Rance something else, I en- vied them all very much and wanted Jim Scott to let me join, After leaving Hunter's grocery I got a job in the '- hardware store of Searle and Davis on Albert street as a clerk. I liked that work better than wrapping and delivering groceries: and thought at the time I was on the way to learning a business which would be - agreeable to ine for the reit of my life. But the disastrous fire, already referred to by one of your correspondents,,in which Mayor Callender lost his life, destroyed the hardware 'store with other business lalaces and put an end to my ambition in that direction. I must say something about my in- debtedness- to James Scott, librarian for many years of the town library. I was fond of reading and a regular patron of the library where Mr. Scott' undertook isi a fatherly -v to I regret'that my sister and I could not have revisited Clinton at this happy time when so many of our old friends will be gathered there, espec Tally as I see, by The`News-Reeord that all old boys' and girls are met at the station and escorted with a band to their quarters. Lizzie says she surely would take a fly in the aeroplane just to take a look at Clin- ton and surrounding country from the clouds. I removed to Chicago in 1884 and soon became an American citizen, as hundreds of thousands of Canadians have done. After having served as a stenographer for year or two I be- came a newspaper man on the Chi- cago Herald. Twenty-five years ago We moved to Bafalo where'I contin- ued editorial work on the Courier, on which paper I was for twelve years and then came to Albany, my present. home„ where I am editor ,af a maga: zine and other t,ublications pub- lished by the J. B. Lyon Company,. state printers. The New Era was the only paper in Clintons of those days and I re- member Mr Zanies, father of Robert Holmes, now of Toronto, and i•ow earnest he was in the diseussiou of politics. His son succeeded bit as publisher and editor. It was in the memorable Campaign of M, 1' think, that I listened to' the late Dr. Sloan, member of parliament, deliver a speech in the . town hall. It was my introduction to politics and as I have been a political 'writer for mere than thirty years that epeech sticks 11.11100.6. too 'much about. myself and . not or ongh Rhein Clintonians I knew it. 1: all my wanderings..T : n:tlost in- terest' in thio town n.•,, childhood: There is something' .ridefiabie in.'d }colds is last to the places where we, first realized that we were`aali,'e. JAItIPIS VIALCOL'A7, Albany N.Y., July 24, ili25. Great Scott, Doctor ! What Would They Have Done to me if I'd.Taken them? The News -Record: was reading Ed. Floody's letter the other day and noticed . hrstm Clinton in 1869.that Well,e fiI havcaee hitom trimmed one year, as 'I met my par- ents in Clinton on the 17th of Sept.,. 1898. There have been a good many "Sept. morns" since then, and there have been a great many changes in the old tower in that time. How many kids know that Gibbings' Hill' is a dandy one .to go tobogganing on? in my time we kids used to go over to Mr. Fair's stave shed, borrow a good wide stave and beat it for the hill I will admit that it was pretty hard on clothes and called for new half soles on our trousers every few days. When I was about ten dr twelve .years old I traded a Newfoundland pup, I had for a donkey. We boys sure had some fun with that donkey. I had a cart for it, but it was more fun riding, or trying to ride,' it and believe me it was some job to stick to the hurricane deckof that animal. I rememlber Jonas Shaw hiring it, one day for a nickle to take , his girl for la nide. When they got to the farm- er's place that they'. were going, to visit they got out of the cart and for- got to tie the donkey,;so she wheeled about -and made ,.for home, and got there first. Jonas wanted his five cents back, but finally agreed to -take two. He said he bad only a one way ride. i Does anybody remember' the night that Phil Crews was beld lee? ' .If not f get, Joe . Wheatley, Malcolm McTag-' gait, Bert Kerr or Cap, Morrish to tell you about it. The hold-up was pulled off in the west -end of the town. I forget the name of the street but, it was ,the one that Mr. Martin liveon, one street west of where Mr. J. Cuninghame lives now, 'Huron street. Phil had a great voice in those days. It was a full, far-reach- ing voice, ltlrs. "Gal" Holloway was coming out of Mr. Chant's house at the east end of the town and heard his call for help. In about two min- utes there were about two hundred people collected under the electric light in front of Mr, Cuninghame's house, and everyone talking at once. Ted Saville had a hoe and John Ted- ford had a base hall bat and every- body had blood in his eye. I remem- ber standing inside of Bill Bower's fence in the shade of a tree. Bob Cree was -on the other side of the fence. He said it was a ."shame to beat a man up like Phil was." I be - Bean they finally took him to Jack Allen's drug store, gave hien a sleep- ing powder anti a geed "shot of rum (it was not a erinie to have a; thirst in those days) and put him to bed. I T1IURSDAYr' `JULY 34, was` it: Chiron at the last Old 5 o}Ys' Reunion and saw Shorty Hines,' a -My assitii.cd by Jack ,,(.muton, arrest the mayor of London and several oth— er notable Clinton old boys. I hope to be there at the celebration in. Aug- ust to. meet some of the. olid boys and. gn1�. Yours, —OGLE, C00PER, 9233; called on Pini the next morning and he asked me to feel the lump on his : back, said some one had ,hithim with a brick or an axe, he did not know which. Later, I believe, he came to the conclusion that'. it was 'alis; own heels that hit him as he went down Rattenbury street. Well, those good old days are gone. There were a lot of ,pretty good sports in Clinton then, the, same as now. I, remember 'sitting in 'Dr. Shaw's office in the Hodgen's Block one night` with ten or twelve of the Doctor's lyrospective patients, when in came Bob Doan. ,The doctor said, Ilow are you 'feeling, tonight, Bob?" Ile said, ,"Fine,_ Doctor, you sure fixed me up in short time." About an hour later Bob was feeling in his vest', pocket for a match when hehauledout a little round box, gave GENERAL W. D. OTTER the doctor a queer look and said, "Great Scott, doctor, what would they A prominent Old Boy, who will, be have done to ine if I had taken here for the opening of the feetivities them?" on Monday, Aug: 3rd. THE BATTENBURY HOUSE THE GRAHAM HOUSE n neon Specialty Casthi Clinton, Ontario. Manufacturers of Aluminum and Grey upon . Castings of all kinds.up to 2,200 pounds Everything guaranteed sound and ll achinable JOBBING AND CONTRACT WORK Plow Shares and Sole Plates for every make of plow Prices Reasonable