The Wingham Advance-Times, 1951-11-07, Page 15First grants to provide free school books to elementary schoo°s. V
Increased contributions made for Children's Aid.
Province pays one half cost of supplying free milk to school
children.
Most advanced labour laws, expanded compensation rind
rehabilitation for injured workmen with industrial healcb
measures,
p
Action by Premier Leslie Frost led to universal old age pen-
sions for all over 70, effective January 1st.
Old age pensions for needy persons from 65 to 70, effective
January 1st.
Pensions planned for the totally disabled from 18 to' 65:
Ontario is the first province in Canada to pass legislation to
implement the Federal-Provincial agreement for security for
the aged.
Old age pension benefits increased 3 times by present
Progressive Conservative government.
Most generous Mother's Allowances in Ontario's history.
First construction grants in Canada made to build and extend
hospitals, 14,474 beds and bassinets provided.
First .province to pay 50% of construction costs of homes for
the aged, plus 50% of maintenance.
ENSURE CONTINUED GOOD GOVERNMENT
Ontario leads Canada in war against Cancer and Tuberculosis,
PrIM-10nr
Life Insurance LI 14'3 DC'mnce
Retween"1 .F.1,tr:1" 1,1,1 Wish"
651A
hf MePHAJEL, Whigham NORM. CLEGG, Gorrie
W141 WEBSTER, Lucknow, RR. ROSS H. MARTYN, Ripley
.0.0.1.411•1•1011•••••1•1•1•
if You n'i Know Furs
Know Your Furrier
Specially fine Northern Muskrat Coats
in stock at the present time.
For Best Quality Fur Coats of all Types
V'AL FURS
Phone 300
Wingham
North St.
FEE WI
DESIGNED
EXCLUSIVELY
F R
BURNING Oil.
THE LAST WORD
IN
HOME-HEATING
COMFORT
• You will be just as proud to own this as we are to offer it
to youl Home heating with oil is now firmly established, and
Is growing year by year. A furnace which is scientifically
designed and constructed to burn oil is far more efficient and
satisfactory in every way than the addition of an oil burner
to an old, general-purpose furnace. For care-free heating,
for the utmost in economy and efficiency from every gallon of
oil burned, this new "Climat-Maker" is the last word.
Come in or write us to-day
Percy Clark
h mixing and Heating
ingharn Phone 255
WEDNF.4SBAY, NOVE31131611,
THE; wil\TGLIAM ADVANCE-TIMES A(.03 1±1 ,PEN
The article thus entitled is a suffic-
ient introduction to present readers
of The Advance-Times.
It is always a pity, I feel, that
some record is not kept of events of
any community, large or sniall, to be
preserved in some concrete form for
the edification of posterity. These
recollections may not all be authen-
tic.
The author has been actively iden-
tified with newspaper publication and
journalism, in some form or other,
all his life, until retirement, Now, at
four score years and six, the desire to
use a pen still prevails, and so I sit
In my most comfortable chair and
think, and ebb*, anti think.
My memory wanders hack to the
first day I came to Wingham Le, a
boy of eight years, I was old
enough to notice things and apprec-
iate the inevitable fact that I had
come to live in the nucleus of a muni-
cipality that was yet in its infancy,
and as a matter of fact had not yet
been incorporated as a village, but
was part and parcel of Turnberry
Township,
The thought occurred to me, Why
don't I, in my spare time, write
down all these many things that
come to my memory? I would be in-
dulging in my favourite pastime, and
my recollections might be of interest
to the residents of the now prosper-
ous town of upwards of three thou-
sand inhabitants. So I hunted up a
lead pencil and some paper and start-
ed to write.
Early History
All Huron County was originally a
wilderness, covered with almost. ev-
ery known kind of timber; magnifi-
can
only snrmise what had caused the
man's death.
raft, packed on it all his wordly pos-
sessions and floated down the north
branch of the Maitland River to the
point where he disembarked, the date
being March 17, 1858. The story has
been given wide publicity that he con-
tinued to live on the flats. This is
entirely erroneous. He built a log
house close to the road leading to-
ward Lucknow. where he lived until
he died.
Farley was an adept at forecasting
the weather, was very superstitious,
believed in ghosts, hob-goblins and
so on. I remember him telling me as
a boy about seeing two of them run-
ning along the ground and hopping
over the fence down by the barn. He
He was small of stature, eccentric.
and excitable and argumentative, and
bad the habit of twisting and twirl-
ling his side whiskers. when in a
warm ag,rument. To my mind it
seems a pity that as the first white
settler, with his house and barn
completely obliterated, no earin or
other memorial has been erected to
mark whore he first started to clear
his land in the primeval forest.
Rapid Growth
Settlers came in rapidly taking up
residence in the surrounding town-
ships. .A village came' into being in
what was known as Lower Wingham.
The North and South branches of the
Maitland converged here and an
abundance of water power seemed
available.
A grist mill and a sawmill were
seen to be necessities to meet the
growth of the community, and two
enterprising brothers, Archie and
Peter Fisher, practical millers were
the first to respond to this necessity.
Hotels, stores and many other mer-
cantile businesses including Math-
ewson's cloth factory and Flacen's
tannery were quickly established.
It soon became evident that the
Government had grievously erred in
its choice of a location and the early
settlers referred to the site as a frog-
pond.
First Hotel
But the high and dry land of what .I
became known as t7pper IN'ingham at-
tractud the attention of new settlers,
the first to arrive being John Cornyn,
who had three sons, Robert, William
and Thomas. They erected a log
building where the Queen's Hotel now
stands in 1859.
In 1869 Edward F'oley arrived and
built a frame house, which eventually
became known as the Commercial
Hotel. Thomas .cud John Gregory
mint a grist mill on the upper branch
of the Maitland in 1556.
(Continued next week.)
SIERBONDY'S
COFFEE SHOP
Meals = Fountain
Service
North of
Lyceum Theatre
Wingham, _Ontario
Hammertoe
Studio
For Everything
Photographic
Films for all Cameras
Photographic
Chemicals & Papers
POST CARD VIEWS
OF WINGHAM
Cameras & Accessories
Projection Screen
Movie Equipment
Developing & Printing
( 48 hours )
Enlarging
Colouring
We carry the
Revere Tape Recorder
Demonstration on
request.
Skinny men, women
gain 5,10,15 lbs.
Get New Pep, Vim, Vigor
What a thrill Bony NI out: vain hollows 011 up. neck no I. body ioAea half- starved, sickly t.- look. Ilousanda of girls, women, mop.could gain before, are pup proud ....•.,110-1001,ing bodies. They thank t..e ' ;•71;:, ties.-blitiding ,E-01110, 1101 ' ' invigorators, Iron, vitamin ..mprol•ti appetite and 11.4. -• f gtvett yeti more etretigil and . pus on line hones. Don't feat gel tn.: • • •-. A••••• znAlecl the 5, IP. 15 or 21, . .1 for normal welehr_ costa little. :.\*ew ,4?e on'!. i“)0, Try flittlotit4 ';',.`.1urs for nom rent* and added POtinti ,. tot. ,ere At all
Wingham, Past, Present and s uture
By William 4. Fleuty
flee and place of residence (one might
call it a hut), was on.the west hank
of the river, His door was never
locked and his medicine bottles were
on the shelves exposed to the sight
of all who might enter,
The doctor noticed that the con-
tents of one particular bottle was
diminishing after his frequent ab-
sences and he was considerably an-
noyed thereat. Coming home one day
he found a man lying on the river
bank, as he supposed drunk. Howev-
I
the first person to locate in the or• miles west of Wingham, laid out with
streets and containing hotels. stores. l Wingham Town Plot. He start.
sawmills and a post office, situated on cd out from Owen Sound, got to To-
cent maples, elms, beeches, pines the bank of the majestic Minesetung ronto by train and then on to Strat-
and hemlocks. It was wandered over River, the Indian name for Maitland, ford. Then he resorted to, a wheekti
. as it is known today. Now not a yes- vehicle and got as far as P,orlmin
tige of this early settlement remains. Morris Town hip' The average' citi-
zen today will have no idea where
First Doctor Rodmin was located. Just another.
Even a medical doctor had the tern- j hamlet now forgotten. The stubborn
erity to pitch his tent here. History determination of this man was here
tells us that this intrepid individual demonstrated. for unable to proceed
farther on account of the muddy had been a surgeon in the United States civil war 1860-65. His of- state of the roads, he constructed a
free and unhindered by that indig- tr eNamination showed that the
enOus specimen of Canadian known man was dead. A glance at that one
as the Indian. particular bottle in question showed
Pioneers, looking for cheap lands that its contents were much less than
and eager to hew out a home for when he had left home. One
themselves, began to arrive in this
district and here and there villages
or small clusters of settlers started Original Settler
to spring up. Many such places are Early records toll us that a little today only a memory. Take for in-
stance the village of Zetland, two Irishman named Edward Farley was