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Yesterday And Today, A Salute to Blyth's 125th Anniversary, 2002-07-31, Page 24Conyratulation4 g4t4 on your I 25th, _Anniverdary from B 17H PR Tt^! G Colour Printing, Posters, Letterheads, Envelopes Phone/Fax 523-9211 Nesbitt James came from Co. Tyrone, Ireland in 1850s, settling Crown land on the 7th line of Morris. He married Abigail Smelter. They had four children, Robert, Eliza, 1M; and Morris. Family of Albert and Della (Potter) George and Eileen. y 1 / (Green) Albert, A Ethel 1 Family of Robert and Mary and 1 William. Family of George and Florence (Williamson) Linda, Brenda, Murray and Maurice. 1 Good Cooked Weals ,8111c( 1999 Tues. - Thurs. 7:00 am - 6:00 pm; Fri. - Sat. 7:00 am - 7:00 pm; Sunday 8:00 am - 6 pm; Closed Monday PAGE 24. THE CITIZEN, YESTERDAY and TODAY, WEDNESDAY, JULY 31, 2002. The Old Mill marries history of leather with history of sheep Up-to-date and historical The Old Mill is a modern building but the history behind it goes back generations. At right, the old Blyth CPR station is now a clearance centre for wool and leather goods. Standing high on the hill just south of Blyth is one of the region's most recognized landmarks: The Old Mill wool and leather outlet. You might say this business results froin the union of two of the area's historic families when Richard Snell married Glenyce Bainton in 1962. Richard's family had been among the first pioneering families in Hullett Twp., a family with more than a century of experience in the raising of sheep. Glenyce was the third generation of the Bainton family which had been in the wool and leather business in Blyth since 1894. The Snell family story in Canada began in 1842 when Humphrey Snell left Barnpool Farm, Burrington in Devon. England and moved to the community now known as Snelgrove in Chingauacousy Twp. near Brampton. In 1848 the family was on the move again becoming among the first settlers to take up land in Hullett Twp. on Lots 26 and 27 of Conc. 7, now known as Summerhill Rd. They brought with them the first purebred Leicester sheep in Huron County, the beginning of a more than 150- year history with sheep. In 1854 he was one of the founders of the Clinton Agricultural Fair where the sheep division is still an important part of We livestock competitions to this day. The Snell prominence in sheep was illustrated in 1933 when one of the family's Leicester rams was selected as the prototype for its • breed in all ,)f Canada. Naturally Richard Snell came to the sheep business early and by his teenage years was already showing championship stock. In 1958. he purchased a farm near the family farm at Conc. 8, Lot 26, on Hwy. 4 south of Londesboro. The same year he began one of the first feedlot operations for raising sheep. with 2,000 crossbred feeder lambs purchased in western Canada and finished and shipped to packing houses in Ontario. Glenyce, meanwhile, had grown up in a family steeped in the wool and leather business. The daughter of Franklin and Cenetta Bainton, she was the granddaughter of Alan Bert Bainton who with his brother Frank Bainton and sister Jayne Bainton had come to Blyth in 1894 to take over an old tannery and create Bainton Brothers. By the late 1950s Glenyce was studying at the University of Western Ontario but working summers for her family's company, selling products to department stores. After sitting around for hours in waiting rooms she'd finally get to see a buyer who would offer her less 'Tor the gloves she was selling than it cost to make them, she recalled in a 1990 article in Townsman magazine. "I didn't feel it was right," she said. She decided "If I'm going to give a glove away let's give it to the customer." When she graduated in 1960 the retail outlet at the Bainton factory was only a small display of gloves outside the office. Soon, under her instigation, the retail area was Lxpanding to take over another room in the building. In the 1990 article Glenyce recalled working to clean up the room which was directly above the furnace and being totally black with dirt when an old friend from university dropped in. She wondered what he must have thought. Backed by strong promotion the retail operation, known as The Old Mill, drew larger and larger crowds. In 1967 the Snells purchased Atlas Fur Tanning and Dyeing Limited of Cookstown and moved the operation to their Hullett Twp. farm. They developed a multifaceted operation of every aspect of sheepskin tanning including wool-on lamb skins and sheep skins for medical, infant care and home decoration, tanning of shearlings for garments, gloves and slippers and wool pulling for skins not suitable for wool-on production with the wool being used for blankets and socks and the skin tanned into leather for garments and gloves. As the tannery operation and the retail operation grew, both needed more space. In 1971 the couple built a new tannery and retail' outlet on Hwy. 4 on the former Gilbert Nethery farm which the Snells had purchased in 1963. The store was an instant success and has had to be enlarged several times since. A milestone was the decision to open the store on Sundays to accommodate people who drove many miles from nearby cities to shop for a large selection of high- fashion wool and leather products at good prices. In that 1990 article Glenyce recalled not knowing how many customer to expect the first Sunday the store was open so she and Richard and family members headed down to the store early. As they drew closer they saw the entire front lawn was shiny because of the sun reflecting on the waiting cars. Both sides. of Hwy. 4 were lined all the way to Radford's Pond. They quickly realized they couldn't possible handle the crowds themselves and had to call in staff to help out. On July 10, 1979 The Old Mill site welcomed another landmark when the old CPR railway station was rescued and moved to the area immediately south of the main building where it is used as a clearance centre for leather and woolen goods. The tannery continues to produce ultra soft lamb skins, sought after by many parents for the cribs of their babies as well as sheepskins used for everything from tractor and truck seats to luxurious rugs. It developed a process that still makes it the only tannery in North America to produce a thoroughly washable lamb skin. Before it could be advertised as washable for world trade it had to be tested and approved by the British Leather Association and authorized for world trade. Over the years Richard and Glenyce's four children have all become involved in the wool and leather business. Franklin and Richard Jr. are involved in the wool pulling and leather tanning operations while Jayne Marquis and Amanda Aitken are involved in the retail outlets. In 1999 the Old Mill's retail outlet added The Shops, an array of high fashion lines offering clothing for children, girls, teens and women in designed lines from Montreal, Vancouver, Toronto, Los Angeles, Paris, New York, Milan and Copenhagen. Being on the cutting edge of fashion takes family members around the world seeking out leather designs to produce and buying, the top fashion lines to offer customers in a unique environment. - Now-in the year 2002, even though products froMThird World countries have become a very competitive part of the business, many people who recognize superior quality and good value still enjoy the drive to Blyth to shop in this well-known Canadian family business.