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Zurich Citizens News, 1960-02-17, Page 3WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1960 ZURICH CITIZEN NEWS PAGE =WI Founded By Swiss Immigrant Zurich Reaches Village Status This page is reprinted from the Saturday, February 6 edition of the Hamilton Spectator, through the court- esy of their staff reporter -photographer, Bruce Murdoch, who was a visitor to Zurich on Saturday, January 30. Photo -story by Bruce Murdoch of the Hamilton Spectator Founded by a native of Switzerland in 1856, and named after his former home there, Huron County's corn - venality of Zurich on Highway 84, four miles inland from Lake Huron, is Ontario's youngest incorporated village. For ;40 years just a part of Hay Township, it had been an incorporated police village' from 1896 until January of this year when it assumed full, village status. • Former hardware store owner Albert J. Kalbfleisch is the new village's first municipal clerk -treasurer. He also is tax collector. In the tower of St. Peter's Lutheran Church, Albert G. Hess repairs the clock made and installed by his grandfather in 1888. The old pot-bellied stove has given way to an oil heat er, but the back of Rader's hardware store is still a favoured meeting place in winter. From the left are: Henry Howald, John Rader, Percy Willert and store owner Lorne Rader. ••• `5, 'id�;fw •irk>. •. �$`.:.• °�,'•y�ri: .�'`„ Clearing off snow for for a picture. They are rlela, Carl and Annette. a front lawn skating rink, these healthy looking youngsters stopped work longAenoug h all children of Mr. and Mrs. Earl Zimmer, Zurich. Left to right are Katherh}e, Pat- Looking north on Zurich's Goshen Street from Main on a busy Satur- day afternoon. .i. v 1+c ...``. s+ :•:..;' �v.5:2:.°�:.v, 1, 2 A k'.'h•-+vyL:Y'::' 'v'�•.,2!2i':.:....... n�.............: �niii:G�:::,:..:2:\:.......M1l..w.. •.�. :::,5:,,.:: +i.Gi�:. u. +✓i+N.:�:>.A.......:"l:'rL NAMED AFTER ALPINE CITY A delightful little rural village of some 700 population, whose early settlers were predominantly of German origin, it is "gr- owing up" but still has direct descendants of its early pioneers among its leading business men and residents. It is a meeting place for district farmers on Saturday of- ternoons and, to cater to farm trade, its stores remain open Saturday nights. ALBERT G. HESS, 58, is the local jewel- ler and watchmaker — the third generation of his family in business at Zurich. I found him repairing a tower clock in St. Peter's Lutheran Church which his grandfather had built and presented to the church in 1888. "My grandfather, George Hess, came from Germany and was one of Huron County's earliest settlers," he said. "A watchmaker, he •came, to Hay Township in 1855 and worked as a carpenter. Then he journeyed to Switzerland for equip- ment and merchandise to open his own business here. He started in business in Zurich in 1867." "Between 1884 and 1888 he manufactur- ed three tower clocks and also an electric clock on which he obtained patents. One of the clocks was placed in the Lutheran Church at Sebastopol (Tavistock) in 1886; the second was put in the Exeter Town Hall in 1887, and the third in the Zurich church in 1888." "With the exception of the one at Zur- ich, which got out of order last year, all three have been running ever since. 1 have not found any record of him having made more than one electric clock." "My father, William Hess, learned the trade with my grandfather but went into the telephone business, built the first line and installed the first telephone of the Hay Township telephone system." "When grandfather died in 1891, my un- cle, Frederick Hess, took over the business selling out to my father in 1915 or 1916. I started as an apprentice with my father in 1918 and bought out the .business in 1928." Mr. Hess related an interesting little sidelight in connection with the Zurich church tower clock, He said that a Hess had always wound the clock once a week. From 1888 to 1912, there was no pay. Then in 1912 the village fathers decided the job was worth $5 per year. That sum was paid every year to 1959 whenthe clock got out of order., "I've wound it myself for 40 years, climbing up into the tower to do it," he said. WILIAM RADER, 91, one of the oldest district born residents, said he was born on a farm five miles distant, a son of Jacob Rader, who came from Germany. He has lived in the village for more than 40 years. "When my father came it was nearly all bush in this area," he said. "As a boy I helped him clear the land with oxen, and we used to burn the wood in piles. Then on the farm, I can recall cutting grain with a cradle before reapers came." He recalled construction of the old Hur- on and Bruce Railway, which ran near Zur- ich, and said it did much to help in open• ing up the area. He recalled, too, that as a youngster he used to help his father team grain to Lucan. "The young people of today just don't know what hardships are," he commented. THE FOUNDING of the village weekly newspaper, The Zurich Citizens' News, in 1958, gives an idea of the community -mind- ed spirit of the people. Starting from scratch, it now has a paid circulation of just under 1,000. "From 1900 until two years ago," said Herb Turkheim, publisher and editor of the Citizens News, the Zurich Herald was published by C. L. Smith. He decided to discontinue and sold his subscription 'list to the Exeter Times Advocate which st- arted delivering the out of town paper with a half page or so of Zurich news. "The Zurich people were not satisfied A group of local merchants got together and, as a result, I started in the news- paper field. We had the paper printed at the Clinton News Record office. Six mon-. the ago the plant of the former Zurich. Herald was purchased. Up to the present it has been used as a job printing plant but next week a start will be made on printing the Zurich Citizens News at home." MR. TURKHEIM said he had taken over the whole plant on January 1. It is of particular interest that when the Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association meets in convention at Hamilton this weekend, Mr. Turkheim will receive an award for having made the greatest improvement in a paper of its class for the past year. "It has been strictly a community pro- ject," he said. "The business men and al) the local organizations have given me the stongest possible support." Residents like to tell that Zurich was the home of Albert "Babe" Siebert, one- time star of the National Hockey League, who turned pro with Montreal Maroons in 1924 and starred for 14 seasons. He was appointed" coach of Montreal Canad- iens for the 1939-40 season but came to an untimely end when drowned , in Lake Huron, August 28, 1939. The village arena is know as the `Babe" Siebert Memorial Area." OLD TIME industries are, of course, all gone, victims of the motor age. Today, it has a large lumber and planing mill, factory making concrete burial vaults, a co-op feed mill, wholesale and retail bak- ery, several apiaries are producing honey, and there is a chicken hatchery. There are five garages and service sta- tions, a car dealer employs 20 men, and a plumbing, heating and electrical firm employs 16. It is also the head office of a farmer's mutual fire insurance company with more than 6,000 policies in force. There are four churches — Mennonite, Lutheran, United Brethren and Roman Catholic — and both public and separate schools, the latter recently opened. Con- struction work on a new post office build- ing will start this spring. William Rader, 91, oldest district -born village resident, helped his father clear land using a teaiin of oxen.