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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1966-05-19, Page 3s f 4 A • II (Collitiaued from last wek) e a Hlstorl by isab,el1e Campbell O o Open Peet Q,r�ae Sam Dickson in 1868 bought a lot from William. Hill, and by May, 1869, he was having built' on it a two-storey brick block. The north store was• the Post ce till 1913. After being used as a car showroom a few years, William E. Kerslake & Son had their flour and feed store here from 1p26•till 1961. James C. Laid- law, of "The Canton Warehouse.",was the first 'tenant in the south store, He'sold groceries and china. Other grocers followed, and from 1914 Thomas Phillips and family, 'wholesale and retail < fruit dealers, have had their retail fruit store .here., These two stores are now owned and used by. Phillip BroS., who do business under the name of Phillips kBros.' Fruit. They, were ' bought from the Reginald S. Kerslake state in 1961. John Hamilton, in 1863.,, owned the next lot, and for a time Paul & Hamilton, fruit dealers, did business here. Thomas Foster, Royal Hotel owner, in 1873 added to this building and used it as 'a hotel. William Pink- ney was the last to do business in the hotel. By 1895 it was divided, with Robert 'H axby's. Restaurant in one part, and in the other James Constable, had his barber shop. South of here in 1863, Francis Fishleigh ; opened the "Seaforth House". This was later Thomas Foster's Royal Hotel. After Foster transferred to the next build- ing north, James Wright sold groceries here, and James Gillespie had his saddler shop in it as late as 1895. In the late- 1890's, after being empty for a time, these buildings were burned. Sam Dickson, in 19Q2, bought the land, but no buildings were on it till Phillips' store- room was built many years later. For „a time, after the fire the vacant lot was used as a shootinggallery. The foundry came next and is described under Foundries. This is Lot 42. Practically ail lots from 43 to 49 were bought at an early date from Ed. Jarvis • by William C. Gwyne for speculation. These were very soon resold. , South of the foundry, from 1869, Alex J. McIntosh and Matthew. C. Morrison made carriages, etc., in their Huron Carriage Factory. Oliver C. Willson bought and moved- here in December, 1874.. He dealt in agricultural implements, sewing machines and musical instruments. In the third store in the block, Alex' M. Campbell sold implements from 1867. The Huron Carriage Works • took this store over five years, later, and in .1874 Will- son. owned it also. By 1905, William E. Kerslake was the owner and sold flour and feed here till all were burned on December 28, 1922. This remained a vacant plot till Kerslake sold the north part to John Regier in 1925; then a gas station and garage were built. 'This. is now John Bach's International Harvester machinery • storehouse. Alex M. Campbell sold the vacant part of his lot in July, 1874, to- Dr. James -B: Smith, London, Ont., who intended to build on it a large confectionery store and bakery. This plan never materialized, but the land was still owned by Smiths till 1904, when Mrs., Isabella Smith -Egan' sold to James Dick. For a tiine Dick had a small ice house on it. Earlier, Walter W. 'Andrew had a shooting gallery here, and when circuses came to town the merry-go-round was always set up on this plot. Emerson Durst is the present owner. On the next lot in 1872, Alexander Stewart built his brick blacksmith and wagon shop. This business from 1891 till 1944 was/carried on by his son, John A. Stewart. The Seaforth Machine and Electric Welding Shop is now housed here. Emerson Durist is the pro- prietor.- John Crawford, a cattle drover, and Rebecca Gamble; a relative of his, in May, 1865, bought the next lot. Crawford owned the north part. Two frame buildings were erected, and both were burned in • February, 1879. At that time 'one was being used as a store and the other as a dwelling. On . September 10, 1888, both owners sold to William Hawkshaw. "Later, 'a brick block was built. The first merchants to do busi- ness in it . were' 'Noble T. Cliff and R. Beattie & Co ; '.Cluff sold dry goods and hardware in the north store, and. Beattie's sold meat and groceries in • the south. • At the. time John Beattie was selling his much adver- tised 28c tea, he had changed over to the. north store. John did business on Main St. for sixty_, years, wrote poetry, and opened the first variety store in this com- munity. Mrs. Gordon Dick sold groceries in this .store till early in 1965, and Hugh Thompson, till 1964, had his shkie repair shop in the other. Both stores are empty • at the present time. Sam Hannah, a brother of Mrs. , Sam Dickson, from 1863 till he went to Pennsylvania, U.S.A„ to work with the Standard Oil Co,, made pumps on the corner lot. Thomas Govenlock, proprietor of the Millbank Mills in McKilIop, from 1866 had a lux/Mei yardl ere. John • Bowden was the one who built the brick hotel in, 1873, but it was. J. H. McCallum who opened for business later that year. At that time it was known as McCal- lum's Hotel. In 1913. a typhoid fever epidemic broke „put, caused by contaminated water in the well on-°Hu,ron St. beside this hotel. Frank Kling and John Laird both succumbed to the disease. James Dick and son, Arthur,' better known as "Ot", were the last owners and last to "do•'business iii the well-known Dick House. Mrs. "Ot" (Lenna) Dick has used the building as a board- ing house, and rents a few small apartments. The stable eral years, was torn down shortly after the Ball IL on Huron S.t., which had been used very little for. sev- Macaglay fire, quite near it, on March: 12, 1957.. • McGinnis Eros. in November,' 1871, bought the next lot and had a large frame• building containing four stores, ready for occupancy early in 1872. McGinnis used the two north stores for their pork packing plant and grocery store.- After Jimmy 1VtcGinnis died in 1906, his sister, Margaret, had candy shop in the first store till. 1909. In 1877, James Jamieson, shoemaker, follow - ,ed McGinnis in the second store. It was here W. J: • Duncan made spats and, leggings in the early days of his shoe-makjng.career. In store three, from February, 1872, Mrs. Annie Erwin did business a short time. for the Toronto Mil- linery Co. James Wright, grocer, followed her. John Shine was the last to use it. It was here he had his coal and wood office. Shine died in 1916. " In the fourth store, Charles M. Dunlop opened Victoria Hall in April, 1872. It was advertised as a hotel, eating house and ice cream parlor. Alfred Hill, shoemaker," who was the. last 'tenant, was still doing business in it after 1909. After being empty for some time, this old landmark went the way of many others of its kind. It was wrecked in the early 1920's, and in August, 4921, Mack McKellar bought the. lot. The stable provided shelter° for his horse as, long as "Dob- bin" was used on the express delivery wagon. The lot. was sold in August, 1945, to the Canadian Legion,but • it was not till 1959 .that, the Legion Hall was built. West of this lot on Huron St., • James McGinnis owned two lots from 1877' on which were built a black- smith shop6 aind•,a_:dwelling. ,These by 187$,.,were occu- 'pied by Ah¢u Meintosh� , wh5 rented the 6h'op met also m..�.1 in the hoose. ariteStA S 1.•li t1t •. owner, and by912 be was also i:'epairing cars; Very soon he moved into t larger quarters on Main Min S MMR After the shop had been rented a fewears, it wa: removed. By this time, rling was living in , Hinca x • dine, Ont. On the lot south of the McGinnis 'block, John. Beattie, when he was clearing the land in 1890, saved from the axe what" proved. to be a beautiful majestic elm tree in later years. Tree surgery saved its life again after being struck by lightning on May 1, 193Q. Today, its beauty still graces the grotinds_a_the bowling green. Quite near it the Clubhouse was built in the summer of 1929, two years after the greens had been landscaped on land owned by the Railway. This: land for many years was dense virgin forest, .listed as "Beaver Mea- dow". Only one small building was on it This was built by the Board of Trade on the southeast corner, and any grain or produce dealer was allowed to use it. When the farmers, arrived with their wagons and sleighs well laden with farm products, these buyers stepped out to vie with each other in the purchasing of these commodities. . 'John Finch, buyer for James Beattie, perhaps served longer than any of the other grain buyers. He and "Billie','_,- the treadmill horse at the mill, which he rode `bare -back to and from work, became almost - as familiar a sight on Main Street as Express. Agent IVtack McKellar and his bike in later Years. Mack made his first appearance on Main Street on February 15, 1908, and continued on the -job ' till he retired October 16, 1965, just four months short of 58 years.' When the train first rattled along the tracks for business in June, 1858, only a flag station stood at the crossing: The first permanent station was built ,by the citizens of Egmondville and Seaforth on land donated by Patton, Bernard and Le Fray. It wasn't till 1882 that the Grand Trunk Railway buijt the present station. At that time the old one had been an eyesore for well nigh, twenty-five years. Few improvements have been made through the years. Big pot-bellied coal stoves continued to heat the building till 1960, when oil space - heaters were installed. ' However, the - station, sightly or unsightly, was the hub of activity, especially on excursion days. One 'day in June, 1908, two hundred tickets were purchased for a trip to Niagara Falls .under the auspices of the Canadian Order of Forresters, and later the same month on Circus Day in Stratford, one hundred and seventy tickets were sold. Now most days, even one coach on a train, -is sparsely occupied by passengers. Because of the volume -of business and for .the con- venience of the travellers,' tickets were available in an uptown office for many years. The closing of this office was the first dropout. With a continued dropping off in business in later years, the express and telegraph office was the next to close its doors. In 1954 it was moved to the station. About the, same time the station agent took over all telegraph work, and late in. 1965 the newly -appointed agent, Ben Williams, assumed also. the responsibility of the freight and the express depart- ments. So changes business with the times! Among the agents who have served during the years were Edward Broughton, Robert B. 'Moodie, D. Robertson, Colin Bethune, A. F. Phillips, William Plant, Fred- Forrester, John Kaiser, Fred Marshall, Walter Bryce Gerald Hall, W. R. Gurney, William Mowatt, and the present agent, T. B. Williams. The first•freight shed was struck by lightning and burned in July, 1883. Later that summer the present one was built. West of the freight shed were the scales and stockyard, which was a beehive of activity in the bygone years, but today not an animal is to be seen: The large water tank and wood supply near the -track, east of the Topnotch Feed Mill, have disappeared also. Coal -burning and later Diesel engines have brought about this change. • (To be continued) ROY N. ' BENTLEY Public Accountant 4 Britannia Road East - - Goderich Phone 524-9521 ti /lt►,111 1963 Pontiac, 4 -door sedan, V-8, tic, radio—Lic. E9625 . 1961 OIds., 4 -door sedan, P.S., P.B., radio, air conditioning—Lic. E9609 1962 Dodge 4 -door sedan, V-8, auto., radio —Lie. A6r3656 1962 Dodge, 4 -door sedan, 6-cyl., auto., radio—Lic- A48250 1963 Valiant Convertible, 225 engine, radio —Lie. E9588 Automa- Rowcliffe Motors Dodge -& Chrysler , Phone 4744W - Sea -forth ACROSS ' 1 -Fondle 4.0irP; nickname 0,0heetnut, eWpec led with hi • 12 -Man's name 13 -Bite of TO Mahal 14 -Great Lake • 6 -Drink -slowly IS 26th President 18 -Tremulous 20 -Man's name 21 -Man's nickname 22 -Simian 23 -Be defe.ted 37 -Possessed 9 -Bitter vetch 30 -Parte of stoves 31 -Conjunction 32 -Stroke 33 -Poem $4 -Preposition 36.Soundary 37. ournful 58' Jm itats -39-Arrow 40 -Deface 41•Man's 42-S_enseame 44 - Measured duration of 47 -Leave. taking 51-13e in debt 52 -Sacred Image • 53 -Solar disk �4 Unit of i -Japanese currency 65.Skin of fruit 66 -For fear that 57 -Attempt DOWN 1.1 a :ay in 2 -Goddess of diiscord '3 -Hit lightly 4 -Farm building • 5 -The self 0,0 dips s so dlora 7-S led poor!, 7,8 's•Native 1Q.Be fil,� ibOtlill: 11.Openwplft. 174 atin, . C011.140.41011s 1lt-Man' . nickhAmll. 22.Skifi 24 -Faroe Fat lwincl 26 -Cut n-Rletain 28 -Solo 29 -Consume 30 -Unusual 32 -Trap 33 -Paddle 36:Titie of respect (abbr.) 37•Itael MLA ML!1i riir rjo €✓eche eluMMU J N I:JfiiiJW irLEr:Zf~J WU DUO BOW E?GI4 El[4:i ®®® J MU 1:J JC7 EMI OE MOM qE:ItJ DOM JnEWI t1C`JL GJ�] fes®®O =MOD M®i7MJrf E7M C'JII1 MEM E J 3 J l ©©I1 86 7Yuariy. 4O4ubstanca "%5 t sloth 43-Teutonio. deity • 44.Temporory shelter SOLUTION 4S -Pitcher 46 -Negate 47 -Plunge 48 -Dutch town 49.Americon essayist 60-Thiings, In w illiiiiiMililliiiiriiiiiIiiiiiiiill iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiil X1111-iiliiIi1IIiil1III ill 'ilii 11111 111P:ii iJ:i: iii; ilia®.ii'ii1111111:iiii30 ®®11 011igilkillilliiiigiiIIIIIKAIIII illi®.111tR!®II:N1,11 ®IM■.'iiii Alai ®liti: i� M riiiii®I111iI ° ■: 111111I' �i i ®r■■!iii!i�11. Ci%•i1111111 ST. COLUMBAN NEWS OF. THE WEEK Catholic Women's League met in the Parish Hall, Tues- day, with Mrs. Vincent Murray presiding. The minutes of the last meet- ing were read by Mrs. John O'- Leary. Mrs. William McMillan gave, the treasurer's report. Mrs. W. McMillan and Mrs. John O'Leary volunteered to visit the sick for June, The ladies to care for the altars for Junle are Mrs. Joseph Lane and Mrs. Tony Poland. A prize, donated by Mrs. T. J. Murray was Won by Mrs. Joseph •Me - lady. Mrs. John Smith and Martin Smith; Detroit, Miss Nell Doyle, London , and , Mr. and.- Mrs. Frank Doyle„ Toronto visited with Ted Doyle and attended the Williamson -Doyle wedding on Saturday. Mr.' and Mrs: Jack Morris and children, London, .visited Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Morris. Remember! It takes but a moment to place an Expositor Want Ad and be money in pocket. To advertise, just Dial Seaforth 527-0240. . mi • Is re in s 1114161sii 21 YRS OLD? When you turn 21 you're no longer cov- ered' by your parents' Hospital Insurance.. To keep insured, you 'rust take out indi- vidual membership within 30 days. Get your application form ata bank, a hospital, or from the Commis- sion. - NEWLY WED? The 'family' Hospital Insurance premium must now be paid -to cover husband and wife. Notify your 'group' without de- lay OR, if you both pay premiums direct, noti- fy the Commissicin. NEW JOB? To keep insured fol low the instructions on the Hospital Insurance Certificate of Payment 'Form 104' that your present employer is required to give 'vou on leaving. Your ONTARIO HOSPITAL INSURANCE Plan Ontario Hospital Services Commission ,Toronto 7, Oiitatio Jim• Melady, Sarnia, spent the weekend at his home. Mrs. Leo Murray spent a few days in Windsor. Mr. and Mrs. Dan Williams Detroit, visited with Mrs. Mary Williams and Frank. ASK FOR O INVITATIONS O ANNOUNCEMENTS 0 ACCESSORIES COME IN AND ASK FOR 'YOUR FREE BRIDAL GIFT REGISTER THE HURON EXPOSITOR Phone 527-0240 SHE HURONliXJ O T • VIA Ogr., MAY 1,46-04 :'i�► :..ISTRATION Iiihdergarten 'and Grade 1 Grade 1 S udents to be Ago, 6 by Bret December; Kindergarten - to be ,age 5 by 310 December. - ,Registration to be held Qin May gOth 3:30 P.M.at their .closest sic o J , Parenta.to bring proof of age and immunization record. The kindergarten schedule is not com- plete but it is expected that the pupils will attend every other day, all . day., ldon May g or Huron Huron County School Area No. 1 JACK CALDWELL, Secretary -Treasurer WANT ADS BRING QUICK RESULTS: Dial 527-0240 ri. `. •ire, tithe modern way 9 for just pennies a day! A Superior Water Heater delivers hot water 4 Mimes faster automagically... costs Tess to operate too! .. Call your Superior man, he'll explain the features of the Superior Water Heater Rental Plan. Automagic Temperature. Control : - . 2kgallons of hot waterper hour .. Clean, fast, law cost .. Free installation ... Free automagic fuel delivery ... Free service. Now enjoy oceans of hot water 'the modern way': FOR HEATING, COOKING, DRYING TOO... SUPERIOR IS AUTOMAGICALLY BEST FOR YOU! 66-5 PROPANE LTD. MONTEITH STREET STRATFORD, ONT. 271-0810 • Go ahead! Get a new car or boat. -Plan a vacation. First, see Toronto -Dominion for an inexpensive Life Insured Personal Loan. 1 fy i .�1x: .u..... t •max abCr. f. .4i 0414. Go -Ahead people make things happen, with a Personal -Loan from TORONTO. OQIVIIIINIION h6 $tok when