The Wingham Advance-Times, 1967-06-29, Page 6Canadian
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Confede
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Pao Wingharrt. Advance,Tina s, Thursday. lune 29, 1961 By J. IN, King.
Memories of John A. 7.7
Three schools built in
Zetland in 20
PUPILS AT Zetland School August 27, 1894. Miss V. Cooper was the teacher.
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yr. period
Zetland was a post village in
the townships of Wawanosh and
Turnberry in 1S5t; and was des-
cribed as being on the Maitland
River, 30 miles from Goderich
and two miles from Wing,harn.
In 1863 it contained a steam
sawmill, two hotels and some
workshops. Lewis J, Brace was
postarnster with mail received
three times weekly.
James McCool, proprietor of
the Zetland Hotel was also a
carpenter and joiner in the vil-
lage. A Mr. Stewart was the
proprietor of the Crown Hotel.
Mr. Brace also owned the
Zetland Steam Sawmill, David
McDonald was head sawyer,
James Follis, sawyer and John
McDonald, engineer.
John McLeod was a carpenter
and builder, Robert Kennedy
was a stonemason, David Bell,
a laborer, and William Nevill
had a shoe shop. Martin Snooks
was a bar tender in one of the
hotels.
A short time later the village
had three hotels, a dance hall,
store, two shingle mills, a
blacksmith shop and several
homes.
The sawmill of Mr. Brace
was not the conventional style.
It consisted of a small steam
boiler which was encased in
stones for insulation. The steam
was piped to a small steam en-
gine which operated a verticle
whipsaw, cutting only one dir-
ection of its travel. When he
learned that a railway was to be
built through Wingham to Kin-
cardine he quickly replaced his
out-dated equipment with a
large boiler and a circular saw
and got the contract for all the
timber needed in the bridges
along the line from Wingham to
Whitechurch. When construc-
tion started there was a big
camp of workers at the bend of
the Maitland, near Zetland.
The hotels were filled and many
men were billeted with farmers
in the district.
The following history of Zet-
land School appeared several
years ago in The Advance-
Times. It was written by Mrs.
N. R. Currie, the former Nellie
R. Crozier who was teacher at
Zetland School from 1922 to
1926.
0--0--0
Zetland was a village in East
Wawanosh and Turnberry Town-
ships, situated on the Maitland
River. Here the earliest settlers
found a home. Our first post
office was found in Zetland.
This village was formed around
1860.
The first school house was
built on a back street in Zet-
land. It was merely a low
shack, made of round logs with
small windows and banked high
with earth to keep out the cold.
The first teacher was Miss Bell,
who was a rather harsh person,
using a large flat ruler to keep
order. The seats were benches,
narrow ones without a back.
Few scholars attended as attend-
ance was not compulsory. This
school was just used a couple of
years.
Afterwards, a larger school
was built farther west. The new
school was built of hewn hem-
lock logs, large logs and as a
result, few cracks to plaster.
The large trees, found in the
bush around Zetland, werehewn
to make wide flat logs, some-
times two feet wide. Mostly
benches were found in this
school. However, some sta-
tionary desks were built along
the walls, except where there
was a window. When writing,
benches were drawn up to these
desks; so desks were used by
turn. Sixty scholars were en-
rolled in this school.
There was no school in Wing-
ham, at this time. About a
dozen Winghamites at one time
attended Zetland school and did
so for a couple of years. The
teacher in this school was Mr.
Young who taught for sixteen
years. He had been a Presby-
terian minister in Scotland and
became so overweight he was
advised to come to Canada and
take up land. This he did at
the east side of Zetland. He
was very sensitive about his size
and weight. A scheme was put
into motion to get his weight.
In the grist mill at Lower Wing-
ham, where Mr. Young went
occasionally to buy flour, was a
large scale embedded in the
floor of the mill. The miller
planned to have Mr. Young
walk over this scale and to have
his attention diverted. The
weight whispered around the
section was 360 pounds, some
teacher to get at the stout end
of a blue beech. However, due
to this training, a wonderful set-
tlement of honest, hard-work-
ing and intelligent men and
women were trained.
Years later, around 1879, a
stone school was erected. La-
bour was less costly than at
present and the ratepayers gave
generously of their time in those
days. This school was used
many years and was closed
around 1938. There wasn't a
sufficient number of pupils to
attend. The Department of
Highways purchased the school
and grounds when the highway
between Wingham and Lucknow
was being built.. The school
had been built too near the
highway. The school was dy-
namited and burned in February
1955 and the stone was used to
build up the sides of the high-
way,
A farmer, named Robert
Kennedy, asked permission to
organize a Sunday School in
Zetland school, This was grant -
ed and the first Sunday School
of the district was formed, Mr.
Kennedy paid for the papers at
first. Later, the scholars help-
ed pay part of the expense. No
Four generations of the How-
son family have been connect-
ed with the milling business
since 1872 when William 5.
Howson began his apprentice-
ship at Norval. Later he and
his twin brother, Archibald,
rented a mill at Aberfoyle and
from there moved to a rented
mill at Teeswater. In 1882
they built a new roller mill at
Teeswater, the first in the dist-
rict.
William Howson came to
Wingham in 1899 and with his
partn..rs bought the mill which
had been built by Thomas and
John Gregory in 1866, beside
the dam on Albert Street which
has been known as the Howson
Dam for over 60 years. The
dam was built in 1861.
Between the time Gregory
Brothers owned this mill and
the time it became Howson,
Harvey & Brocklebank, it was
owned by a succession of own-
ers: Emanuel Rocky, Johnston,
Hamilton, A. J. Turner, and in
1888, just prior to the burning
of the Lower Town mill, the
owners of that mill, Hutton &
Carr purchased the business from
Mr. Turner which gave them
full control of water power. The
mill in Lower Wingham was
never rebuilt after the fire.
In 1899 the main part of the
dam went out for the third time
in 20 years. The town bought
the water privileges for $4, 000
and rebuilt the dam at a cost of
$3, 500. This dam was washed
collections were taken up at
Sunday School. This Sunday
School was undenominational
and every class of people bene-
fited by it. After a few years
this Sunday School was closed
as churches were built in White-
church and Wingham. In later
life, these young people who
attended this Sunday School re-
membered Mr. Kennedy's in-
fluence for good which helped
them throughout life.
His first question addressed
to me was, "So you are from
the country?"
"Yes," I replied, "I was
born on the farm."
"Well, it's the best place to
be born on," said Sir John.
In this affable way he won
our acquaintance, and while
there is naturally not much to
record in such a chance conver-
sation, it has always seemed to
me one of the interesting inci-
dents of my life. Not long af-
terwards I had another glimpse
of Mr. Macdonald's genius for
getting in touch with people,
It was in 1878, I think, that
he held a great meeting in Gor-
rie. At that time I was teach-
ing in Harris' school, and al-
though very anxious to hear the
guest speaker, like all school
teachers, I was very backward
about asking for a day off, But,
fortunately, there were some
good Grits on the board of trust-
ees, Without being asked they
gave me leave to go, and I set
out on foot for Gorrie. Of
course a great crowd was present
to hear the Conservative lead-
er, and when he entered the
building there was a terrific
crush of people trying to see
him.
In the throng I noticed a
woman with an infant. She was
struggling desperately to get to
the front, and in her excite-
ment she cried out:
"I WILL see Sir John!"
The exclamation caught his
ear, and getting a glimpse of
out in 1921 and the present one
was built the following year.
Flour production in 1899 ran
as high as 200 bags in a 24-
hour period. Over the years
improvements were made in
machinery and methods of pro-
duction and in 1944 the output
was 1,000 bags per day -- with
much shorter work days than
when the mill turned out 200
bags. A shipment of 1., 500 bags
of flour was made to South Af-
rica in 1902.
The firm became Howson &
Howson in 1917 when Frank
Howson went into partnership
with his father, Frank helped
to develop the business during
the change from horse-drawn
wagons to delivery trucks and
remembers the many winter
rides on a sleigh loaded with
flour for bakeries and grocery
stores, Custom grist work was
done for farmers who brought
their wheat to the mill where it
was ground, and they returned
home with flour, bran and shorts.
A Model T Ford truck was
bought in 1924. Speed of de-
livery was'increased and great-
er distances could be travelled,
which meant more business and
in 1931 Howson & Howson was
exporting flour to Britain and
other U.K. Countries as well as
supplying Montreal markets and
serving a 35-mile radius around
Wingham.
W. J. Ilowson died in 1932
and Frank carried on until he
was joined by his son, Fred
Howson, as a full partner in
1943. They bought the Blyth
mill in 1947 and with improve-
ments to the business the follow-
ing year they tripled produc-
tion. In 1949 they bought the
Cargill feed mill. In 1950 fire
wiped out the Wingham mill
and instead of rebuilding the
firm divided the feed produc-
tion between the Blyth and Car-
gill mills, and bought the pres-
ent feed store on Josephine
Street in Wingharn.
the speaker through the inter-
vening people, he divided the
crowd with his hands and called
back in answer," And you SHALL
see Sir John!"
In a moment he was at her
side and the pride of the mother
can be better imagined than
described when lie seized the
baby and held it in his arms like
a fond uncle.
It was incidents such as these
that accounted for the tremen-
dous hold upon the affections of
the people possessed by Sir John
A. Macdonald.
(John Warwick King, the au-
thor of the above article, was
the son of Duncan King, a pio-
neer of Turnberry Township. He
was born in 1857 and passed
away in Bluevale in 1927, He
taught school at Kinburn in Hur-
on County for a number ofyear4
then came back to Bluevale and
took up farming. He represent-
ed North Huron for the Liberal
Progressive party in the Domin-
ion parliament for two terms.
--Miss R. Duff.
Try Myers' Royal Spice for
horses and cattle at Griffin's
Grocery. -- Wingham Times
1893.
On Saturday the fire alarm
was sounded, the roof of the
Dinsley House being on fire.
The fire brigade was promptly
at the scene of the fire, but it
had been extinguished by par-
ties with pails. -- Wingham
Times 1893.
In 1960 Fred Howson's eldest
son, Jim, entered the business
and his brothers Bill and Doug,
joined the firm in 1964.
The Blyth plant expanded its
facilities and services in May of
this year with a new warehouse
for bulk and bag fertilizer; a
new hammermill to give cus-
tomers faster service and more
uniform grind; new equipment
for unloading; and a new front
office and showroom.
Howson & Howson employs
about 25 people and keeps three
9-ton, two 15-ton and two 20-
ton trucks busy at the Blyth
plant. They 'produce 1,100
bags of flour and between 25
and 30 tons of feed daily and
could produce 60 tons a day on
demand.
DYNAMITED AND burned in February 1955, this school in
Zetland had been erected in 1879, This was the third
school house to be built in Zetland, which was founded
before 1860.
BEST WISHES ON CANADA'S
100th BIRTHDAY
FROM THE MANAGEMENT AND STAFF AT
When I first met Sir John A,
. 1 Macdonald I was attending the
Normal School at Ottawa, My
roommate was a man named
McGraw from Paisley, and in
the evenings we were usually to
be seen in the big Central Book-
store, which Was a favorite re-
sort of the students. To us it
was doubly attractive because
the great politician, Sir John A,
Macdonald, was to be seen
there nearly every evening.
At such times he was the soul
of affability, with a smile and
a joke for everyone, a great
contrast to that other eminent
Canadian, Mr, Edward Blake,
at that time the leader of the
Opposition, who walked the
streets oblivious of all, his mas-
sive intellect creating for him
an inner world which few were
invited to enter.
In those days Mr. Thomas
Farrow was representing this
constituency in the House of
Commons and made himself
very obliging in opening to Mr.
McGraw and me the doors of
the Capital. One evening we
entered the bookstore in com-
pany with Mr. Farrow, Sir John
A. was there as usual and Mr.
Farrow seized the opportunity to
introduce us saying;
"Mr. McGraw is a good
friend of yours, Sir John, but
I'm not sure of the other fellow:'
"In that case," rejoined the
Premier, "I need not take up
any time with Mr. McGraw,
but I'll see what I can do with
Mr. King."
FRANK HOWSON, right, senior member ofHowson &
Howson Limited, was presented with a blanket from the
Ralston Purina CO. by Frank King last month when the
official opening was held at the 8Tyth
Four generations in the milling business
Why should delicate, refined women slave at
the washboard over a steaming slopp tub or crank
eternally at the wringer. Hasn't father quit crank.
ing the car.
THE NEW WAY . . .
McINNES Dry Cleaners
PHONE 357.3750 WINGHAM
? Make Your Choice ?
HAPPY IR THDA Y
1867 1967
1867 1967
BACK IN 1867...
...THE GOOD OLD DAYS?!?
They may have been the "Good Old Days" but we'll bet there's not too
many who would trade in time. One of the big reasons is elecricity.
Just imagine everything you would do without . . . now that we've con.
vinced you
WE'D LIKE TO SAY THANKS FOR LETTING US
BRING MORE AND MORE COMFORT INTO YOUR
HOME THROUGH ELECTRICITY
and thanks too, to our great nation, Canada, for giving us this
wonderful country.
BURKE ELECTRIC
Commercial, Home and Farm Wiring
Electric Motor Rewinding and Repair
PH 357-2450 WINGHAM, ONTARIO