HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1967-11-09, Page 9•
•
a History 'byeblle. Campbell,.
on aii4**London
ii
Mee in
-
In the old Egnnondville log dhurah, asin many to thein. Apparently the' village citizens gave the !nate
, other churches in the early days, the minister preached ter second thought, ox'',sonie solution to their probletil.
long discoursese In the 1870's, Robert J..Dunsmore was was found,•1lecause 'Egmondville never was incorporate
O one of the young lads who attendeSunday School anE& ed.
church service here. In later years n a poem he wrote, r
entitled "Old Church 0' Mine", he had this to say about
these lengthy sermons.
"Rev. Graham, that grand old man, would preach an
hour or so, v
. We kids were nearly starved before he'd quit and let
us "go,
For he'd preach from Nehemiah, and talk of this and
that;
Of someonewho begat someone, who in their turn begat,
Until we children's nerves `were worn into a Minima
(ratters,
Before the preacher said '"Amen" and shut off `the be -
r'
getters." �
tr
GERMAN CHURCH
A small German Church' was built at an early date
▪ by a few families who had come from, in and around,
Alsace Lorraine. The church was situated, at tie; line
between the Colbert Brewery and the lirbperty" °now
owned by Andrew Moore. By the 1890's the church was
gone, only a few gravestones remained. Today there
is nothing left to mark the church and graveyard site.
In the 1'860's a Baptist minister resided in: Eg-
mondville. If regular services were held here in a.home'
it was only for a short time, with possibly a Sunday
School class for a longer ,period. The minister , was_ still
in the' village when a family tragedy *as discovered
early Sunday morning June 7, 1868; a couple of miles
east on concession 3. While the- family was not of the
Baptist faith, he asked a friend to accompany him on
his walk to the home. It was only after he arrived,
there . that a church duty of his own came to mind,
which he had forgotten in the confusion: Very soon he
retraced Ms steps, and still arrived back in time to.
teach his Sunday School class.•
SCHOOLS
Mention was' made earlier of a schoolhotlae which.
was built by.Colonel Anthony VanEgmond in the 1830's.
The next one was the brick on the hill where Victor Bis-
- back now lives. This one was in .use till the 1880's.
The contract for this school in part reads as fol-
lows: Agreement made on the fourteenth day of March,
one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, at Egmond-
ville, in the County of Huron, one of the united- counties
of Huron . and Bruce in the Province of Canada, be-
tween Alexander MacKay, of Tuckersmith, in said
county. of Huron, and John Daly, of Egmondville, afore-
said of the first party, and Constant Louis VanEgmond,
William Payne and John Angus,.. trustees of school sec-
tion number eight in the Township of Tuckersmith of
the second, part.. •
MacKay and Daly bound themselves to erect, build
and finish in good and workmanlike manner and also
furnish all the needed materials for the schoolhouse ac-
cording to the plans and specifications. The school was,
to be finished by October 1. The price was to be one hun
dred and thirty pounds, currency, paid when the school-
house was completed and approved. The sum of fifty
pounds was to be paid the trustees for breach of con
tract. The witness to this agreement was William But -
tan. 4' °
The dimensions of the school were as follows : thir-
ty-four feet long, twenty-four , feet wide and 'twelve
feet high from the stone foundation to the joists, 'with
gable ends. Three windows were to be on each side
with thirty lights in each, eight by ten inches..The door
was to. rnen,sure three feet six inches wicl„e,, six feet
ten inches high, with lights over -it.. The small window
in the front gable was to be equal to the one in the
church. The lumber to -be used for various purposes
was to be pine, cherry, oak, hemlock and rock elm. •
In 1887 this school was sold to Samuel Wallace,
who used sortie of the brick' and 'other materials. to build!
the house now on the property. Samuel's brother. Jo--
eph lived here till he went to Winnipeg. Robert Beattie,
who taught many years in Sproat's School, was another
occupant before Victor Bisback.
At one time more than one hundred pupils attend-
ed this brick 'school. Spelling matches were weekly fea-
tures and two of the top spellers were George Anderson'
' and Mary Jane Hyslop. George was' ungallant enough
- to send Mary Jane, nearly always, to her seat in tears:
The• teacher was strong on spelling and mental arith-
metic and George was tops in both.
In the 1880's a two -room brick school was built
farther north .and one block off Main Street, to replace,
' the one on the hill. In 1922 it -was rebuilt into a one-
' room school by Ernest Dineen. Again in 1956 another
room was added, which was formally opened in March,
1957. This school, like many of .,the other little 'red
schoolhouses, closed its doors in centennial year when
the new. Huron Centennial School, south of Brucefield,
in Stanley Township, opened on April 8, 1967. On Ap-
' ril 8, auctioneer Harold Jackson,, declared the building
sold when be received the $11,000 Jackson?,
Arthur Devereaux
was the bidder for Seaforth St. James' Separate'Schobl•
Beard. Since September the building is being used as a
Separate School.
PLACES OF BUSINESS
The'. early business section was inthe southern;
part of the hamlet. It was centred around the interee
tion of the iVlill Road and the road which lednorth Of
it: James Dickson was the, one who opened the first
general store, and he 'Was alsti the firstto move his.
business. t'o[Seaforth. The move was made in 1863: This
store WOsxone block iiorth of Sproat's, blacksmith shop.
• In X847. John Sproat built a blacksmith shop on
the northeast' corner, across. from the present old tan-
nery; It was later taken, over by. Robert' Fulton. East
of the blacksmith shop, John. Logan aol'd dry, goods and
groceries till -1869, when, he also moved to Seaforth.
John . Collinti,°'foliowed Logan. This building narrowly
escaped being destroyed by fire the night VanEgmond's
flour mill and saw mill burned to the ground east of the
tannery,' in the 1870's. A bucket brigade, formed by the
men in a line from the river to the store, was all that
saved the building. Loss of these two mills that night
was a crushing blow tothe village. ,
Continuing east from- the store was George Wet-
land's o;cooper shop. His home was .back of it, where
the township garage now stands. Beside the cooper shop
was Dr. Henry L. Vercoe's home and office. When the
population of the Village was 500 in 1863, they had two
doctors, Dr. Vercoe and Dr. George ' Fitzsimons, also
two midwives, Mrs. Charles Petrie and Mrs. Leopold
-VanEgmand. However, no dentist was mentioned only
Sandy Ross, the blacksmith. As a sideline Sandy pulled
teeth.
• Many teachers taught the three R's in these three
EgmondviIle schools since the 1830's. The one who
taught the longest period was Ricard Hicks. ,
It was after many meetings and much discussion
in 1966 that Egmondville Schboi becairie part of the
Huron Area School No. 1, This school also had prob-
lems in the 1880's. From the report of a meeting held
in Mrs. Knox's Hotel, Iarpurhey, in November, 1886, it
is knpwn that Tuckersmith School. Board was doing•all
the business eoiinected with the schools in the township.
The duty of the Board was to arrange for the necessary
sehocl repairs, hire the teachers, etc. In September,
1888, at a meeting held in Egmondville the teachers
were hired for, the Township Schools for the following
year. The top 'Salary for the year was $475.00.
' . The. by-law to abolish `thtia township board` was
voted on in May, 1889. In order.for it to carry, a major-
ity in favor Was required in tifree of the four polling'
divisions. When the votes were counted, Egmondville
was the only division opposed, Themvote here 'was sixty
against the repeal; and'not,`gne vote was cast in favor
of it. Following their �defeat,'t'here was talk of taping
steps to seoure•,ineor ioration las a village.. The reason
given was that the aholitiui:l' pf . the Township R'od
would make; then" connection wit% the township a Ids
TANNERY
The first tannery was built east of the present
one by John Knechtel. Robert N. Brett had it later. In
the early days this was a rat infested- area. A few can
still remember hearing of the day the river.. rat race
blockedathe traffic at; the bridge as the king rat led the
others westward.
The next tannery, a brick one; was built by Leo-
pold Merkans and was later taken over by Christopher
Watson. Then, for nearly fifty years, it was under the
management of George, Henry and Thomas Jackson.
Aluminum doors and windows was a line added in
later years when Thomas Jackson and Norman Mac-
Lean were in charge. They did business under the name
6f Jackson Aluminum Ltd. By July, 1967, this company
was dissolved. No business is being done in the building
now. -
• In' earlier years Jacksons also had a cider mill
east of the tannery. A drink labelled "Jackson's Chain=
pagne Cider" was, placed by them on the market. Quite
near., here, Leopold VanEgmond had his Gun _Shop,
where he made and repaired the guns of the hunters:.in.
the community. .
EGMONDVILLE MILLS
Down by the river, not far from thefirst tannery,
William Kyle, James Kyle and Alex' Mustard, of Eg-
mondville Mills, had their saw, flour and grist mills
by the. early.1880's. These were run by water power. In
1883. millwrights changed the old grinding system with
stones to the' latest roller system. In one week in Jan-
uary, 1884, their custom grinding increased to 1,760
bushels and their custom chapping to 500 bags. By Oct-
ober, 1885, grain was being shipped from. Manitoba to
be ground in this• .mill.
Not far from here, D. I7.- Wilson built a dam to
provide his egg emporium in Seaforth with ice; Hun-
dreds of loads were hauled from here -each winter. Oth-
ers continued to haul: ice from this same dam after'Wil-
son :went out of business. In time. this dam fell into
disrepair as the older one had done much. earlier. An-
other, near the brewery, known as the "little dam", was
the village boys skating rink in: the winter.
North of Fulton's blacksmith shop, he also had a
wagon and carriage shop. Samuel Lounsbury and San-
dy Ross -took the business over in .1886. After a time
Thomas Daly carried on a grocery business in the wa-
gon and carriage shop, and - his home was just south
of it. William Aberhart, father of William, who be-'
came Premier of Alberta and also founder of the Social
Credit party, also did business here..Others: who carried
on till the 1920's were George Bates, James Cumming,
Ross Sproat, John Clark, William Leitch and William J.
-Finnegan: Kruse Bros. bought the building from Thomas
,Daly in 1913, but they did not move it to their property,
almost opposite the United Church, till the early 1920's.
Here they carried on a grocery business for a short time.
W. L. - Whyte later bought and shipped eggs from this
store, and a feed company also had it for a time. After
being empty for a few years, Gingerich Electric of
Zurich- opened a shop here . in the 19,50's,' before they
moved to Seaforth.•TIarvey McLlwain is now the own=
er, and is using it for his•private home: •
On the vacant lot where this building formerly
had stood, a house later was moved in from the -coun-
try by Robert Dalrymple. It is now the home of his
widow.. Mrs. Dalrymple's hobby' for many years was
the making of artificial flowers of all descriptions,
from materials of various kinds.
Thomas J. Marks, the first postmaster, came next.
This was later the home and weaving shop of John Dan-
by. James Dickson's store, the first ,one an the hamlet,
was 'on the next lot: William Rudd later had it for his
cabinet shop and' still later Richard Stewart, another
weaver, had it for his home and alsV had his loom in it.
. (C6ntiiiued next week) -
Seaforth Monument Works
Cemetery, .
Memorials .E
.`
.
-
CLINTON 482.9421
SEAFORTH Contest W1111* Dundas
OPEN DAILY
All Types' of
Te PRYDIE 8th SON. — Tele
Inquiries are invitedphone
Numbers:
EXETER. -05-0620
The iod of altos end'
l4gndon, haldbig its #tk 4440al
M eeting yin Andr 's lreby
teri,ar1ehurebt Wingham, Gleet -
d the+ Rev. - Robert 11 Arrell
::strong, anifli tet r � o kine
'March, Hamilton, as ItsMod
• era r.
native of St. Thomas, Mr.
Armstrong is a graduate of the
university of Toronto and Knott
College. -
Mr. Armstrong succeeds- Rev,•
G. L. Royal, Goderich,-,who in
bis:°'rnoderatpriai sermon stres-
set the need for reconciliatlon
and commitment. Rev. Gordon
Fish, Mayor DeWitt Millar, of
Wingham, and Rev. Ceeil.Jar-
dine. welcomed the Synod en he,
half of `the congregation, the
Town and the Goderich Minister
lel Association.
The debate which - preceded
tae Synod was led- by Rev.. J.
Jack and Alex Deans, Toronto,
D. I, Hill, Exeter and Rev. D. C.
MacDonald, ,Sinieoe, with group
discussion• led by Rev. T. Bry-
an; :Sarnia; Rev, T. M. -Bailey;
Hamiilton; Rev. D G.' Archi-
bald, Tara; Rev: A. • A. Ross,
•
i:tchell; Rev. H. Nugent, Wy-
oming; and Rev. A. O.' Fry, Sea -
forth. Before At rose the' Synod
overtured the General Assemb-
ly, meeting in Toronto'in June,
to appoint a committee to study
the functions and practices of
the church courts and report
recommendations for possible
changes. The Synod's 'special
committee was continued and
presbyteries asked to study the
Matter and report to the com-
mittee. Rev. T. G M. Bryan,
Windsor, missions convener, re-
Classified ads pay dividends.
-- NOTICE -�
For Co-op Insurance
Call
W. ARTHUR WRIGHT
Phone 527.1464 — John St.
SEAFORTH
Complete Coverage For:
• Auto and Truck
• Farm Liability' •
• , Employer's Liability
• Accident and Sickness
• Fire, Residence, Contents
• Fire, Commercial -
• Life Insurance & Savings
• Huron Co-op Medical
Services
• Wind Insurance
ported. that'.tbe salataiar4 Mtit
and will be rased .$ t tit
New Tear.,
R+ev A. A. Ross, Mitchell; we.
earned Miss Barbara 'ilVoodri
fortmriy' of Goderieh, as Rei..
lonal Secretary ' for Christian
Edbcation. .Re stated that ,a
study bey .his committee h
shown that high interest uikaa..
eessfal. grgups' for children
youthh is usually attributed to:
participation, of cbildiren in
planning, working in small;
groups, variety of activities,0en,
thpsiastic leaders, interest and
i o'lve'ment of parents, m nis,'
teal. and adult committees. •
Centennial celebratigns and
Expo 67 seem' to have affected
#tehdaece at the two • Synod
Camps,. Kintail on Lake Huron,
and Goforth, near Duman, on
Lake Erie, according to Rev. D..
0.• MacDonald, Simcoe, but both
camp properties had been• im
proved.
On the invitation of Rev. B
L. Royal, Synod agfeed to hold
its next meeting in Goderich,
1►ionday, Oetober 28th, 1968,
•
molt I
SICKME5$ 0. MMOR MOISCAL..
I'. HSIO ,„S {, 4 X
,�py, 1"1
• itepreseiitint .4
Life Aottrance C
of Canada
T4Lrl iOPtE 527441*
1
'Choose Your
. DIAMOND
Privately
AT
SAVAUGE
J EWELLItS
(Opposite Post Office)
Evening Appointment
By Arrangement
FREE -17 Jewel Watch
with each Diamond' pur-
chase $10040 or mon
Nomiwilimimmmionemmenemilr
TOWNSHIP OF HULLETT
Notice of .First Posting
Voters'4ist
1967.
Notice is hereby given that I have com-
plied with Section 9 of the Voters' List Act,
and that I have posted up in my Office at _
Lot 27, Concession 10; in the Township of
Hulled, on the 30th Day'of October, 1967, the
list of all persons entitled to vote in the Mun
icipality at Municipal ,,Elections, and that
such_ list remains there for inspection.
I hereby call on all Voters to take imme-
diate proceedings to have any' omissions or
errors corrected according to Law; The last
day for appeal being the 13th Day of Novem-
ber, 1967.
CLARE VINCENT,
Clerk - Treasurer,
Box 293, Londesboro, Ontario
FRESH
with
It's Great.With Meals
Delicious With Snacks
TRY SOME TODAY
❑ 0
MAPLE LEAF
DAIRY
Phone 527-0810 • : ' Seaforth
Dairy Products are livoltable at
BROWN'S SUPERTEST STATION
Sundays, Holidays, Everydait Maple Leaf
0
Rene bk'anC -
Following a .request by ' representativ'1e of
Seaforth Branch 156. Royal Canadian Legion
and. of the Merchants” Comnlittee of. the
Seaforth Chamber of Commerce, and on
structions from the Council, hereby recpost.
all Citizens and Businessmen to observe
SATURDAY
NOVEMBER lItb
As Remembrance , Day
AND TO CLOSE ALL PLACES OF
BUSINESS FROM 9 A.M. TO :1 P.M.
ON THAT DAY
Frank Kling
Mayor •
"GOD SAVE THE QUEEN"
IIB
1966 -PONTIAC PARISIENNE '8'
4 -door Hardtop, A.T., P.S., P.B. & R. — 654-944
,`
1966 CHEV. BELAIRE •`8' SEDAN
A.T., Radio -- Lie. E91652 w
1966 RAMBLER AMBASSADOR '8'
A.T., P.S., and P.B. — Lie. E90.471
1965 CHEV.- BELAIRE '8' SEDAN
A.T. and ,R. -- Lic. E89-321
1965 CHEVELLE SEDAN _
"A.T. -- Lic. 248-97H
,1965 PONTIAC SEDAN •
- A.T. and R. -- Lie. E90-232
,.
1963 CHEV.' SEDAN, LOW MILEAGE
A ..T. = Lic. E90-007
ti
1963 CHEV: COACH •
R.T. — Lic. E92.699
1963 OLDS. SEDAN
' A.T., P:5., e.8. and R..- Lk. E90-652
1962 CHEV. SEDAN • • -
A.T. — Lic. E92-436 ' .4:,
'1962 FORD GALAXIE SEDAN
A.T. — Lic. E90-734
TO CLEAR — Several '67 Chev. Sedans and
-One Cheveile '8' Convertible
' •
,
SALE on NOW -
of
• UNIROYAL
WINTERIDE
`
SNOW TIRES
•' at.-
.SEAFORTH
. M'OTORS-
Ph.rne • 5274150 . ': Seaforth
N
LotOpinEvening'
venin B
`'to 9:OO' pan.
IA
vir