The Rural Voice, 1996-06, Page 41My Town
Holstein: friendliness and sharing makes the
difference in this Grey County village
By Walter Aitken
Holstein, the unofficial
capital of Egremont
Township in Grey
County, is celebrating a bash
the weekend of Canada Day
to introduce The History of
Holstein, a brand new history
book researched, compiled,
written and edited by people
from our community.
Alex Sim of Guelph who
is originally from this area
and is associated with the
Rural Learning Association,
instigated a great deal of
interest in preserving some of
the historic events in
Holstein. A committee was
formed May 12, 1994.
Campbell Cork of Mount
Forest was contracted to do
the editing.
By 1850 settlers were
busy clearing land and
creating new homes for
themselves and a village was
beginning to form on the
banks of the Saugeen River.
In 1849 a log school was
built, Romains and Kerr
established a wagonmaker's
shop, and eventually a mill was built
and a post office opened in 1865.
According to a local legend this
young town was known by the
descriptive name of "Hofs -a -Wood."
A more official sounding explanation
comes from an account by Maggie
Simpson in a 1923 edition of The
Durham Chronicle : in 1865 the new
postmaster named the town
"Holstein" because the German
province Schleswig-Holstein was in
the news at that time.
The greatest asset of our village is
the people themselves. "A friend in
need is a friend in deed." A couple of
incidents at haying time this past year
illustrate that theory beautifully.
Neil Aitken who farrns two miles
HOLSTEIN NOME COMING SCHOOL REUNION
JUNE 28 JULY' 199&
Walter and Olive Aitken have long taken pride in
Holstein as they farmed just north of the village.
38 THE RURAL VOICE
north of the village, was stricken with
a serious virus prior to haying. His
hay crop was harvested by relatives,
friends and neighbours. Neil was
truly grateful and the deed must
surely have assisted his recovery.
Neil was just newly married and
beginning farmers don't need such
setbacks.
Also in haying time this last year,
the main barn on Aitkenbrae Farms,
immediately north of Holstein, was
threatened by spontaneous
combustion. Fifteen minutes being
phoned the Mount Forest Fire
Department arrived and started
watering down the steaming mow of
hay. Simultaneously, a large number
of neighbours and village people
were on hand to lug out the steaming
and heavy wet bales onto the barn
floor.
From there, the bales were
pushed with tractors and loaders
down the gangway to the yard
where they were soaked to keep
down the flames. In less than two
hours the exhausted men had
moved 2,000 bales out of the
smoldering mow.
Owners Morley Aitken and Don
Lantz and the insurance company
were indeed grateful for the
determined efforts of the
volunteers and firefighters in
avoiding thousands of dollars of
possible damages.
In earlier periods of history,
many fires were fought by bucket
brigades, not nearly so effectively
as with the modern fire trucks. In
the '30s, the fire at the R.J. Arnill
store, south of the United Church,
couldn't be controlled by the old-
style bucket brigade. Nor did we
quell the fire at the Bert Gibson
hotel, located where the Dave
Francis garage presently stands.
In those days, volunteers were
ever present as they still are. It
gives a person, or neighbourhood,
a great sense of security to know
there will be a response if there is a
request for help, even a response
without a request, in times of peril or
threatened disaster.
In the early part of our history,
most of the settlement and work was
accomplished by groups working
together chopping down trees,
breaking new ground, threshing, corn
cutting and silo filling, and wood
bees, etc. I expect the volunteering
spirit has been inherited since the
days of the pioneers. It is incredible
to visualize the fact that in fifty years,
all arable land in Egremont was
settled with a house and barn and the
township had reached its peak,
population -wise. Most immigrants