The Goderich Signal-Star, 1969-05-29, Page 44-t,�rll.l'D ititliSIGNAL.slAR, THURSDAY, MAY 29,1969
uron. • History
• Corner.
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all printers were determined not to print anytbing till
they were sure it Nti,oitld.oFiend no one, here would be
very little prime ... Benjamin Franklin
Before the fact
In a press release issued this week,
Ellard Powers, vice *president of the
Ontario Farmers' Union said a recent
release issued by the campaign committee
df the' proposed General Farm
Organization was misleading.
The release from the GFO committee
stated the Ontario Milk Marketing Boards'
decision to support the G F O was
Will beheard about
• Fort Erlie, 'tis said, gets in the news too
mulch. But worth noting is the fact that
the mayor, Jack Teal, has announced that
he will not attend council meetings from
'which the -public and the newspapers are
excluded by formal resolution'.
' Councillors who wish to keep their
' deeds -(good, bad and indifferent) secret
are not. democrats. Politicians generally
dbn't want -publicity exceptwhen they
need it to get re-elected. (The Printed
Word)
,
unanimous. Mr. Powers says it was not,
because he is not in favpr of a CFO, and
he is a member of the milk marketing
board. The one thing that is likely to
puzzle some people, however, is the
release from Mr. Powers also states the
milk board's decision to support GFO was
made• before Mr. Power's election to its
board of directors.
How then can Mr. Powers claim the
board's decision was riot unanimous
because he was not in favor when he was
not'even a member?
Perhaps the release from Mr. Powers is
incomplete. Was Mr. Powers in a position
on the OMMB at all duzing the time it
voted to support the G F.O, or was he not?
If he wasn't the fact that he was not in
favor of a'GFO,is hardly relevant.
Mr. Powers said in the release "I am
sick and tired of other people telling
everyone what my decisions are," adding
he `is perfectly capable of issuing a press
statement himself.
We wonder who fouled this orae up?
Get it straight
In a London Free Press a,t/ le last
Thursday Free Press staffer Julian Hayashi -
said the members of seven county
councils,` in a meeting at Stratford, had
said, quote, "...they would be reduced to
garbage men and dog catchers...,"
ungtote, if the province takes over
assessment.
That's one heck of a statement for any
elected representative to make and it
immediately became material for an
editorial. The so-called garbage men and s
• the dog' catchers of this world are just as
t good as,- andcertainly in many -cases,
bitter .citizens than, anyone else. They are
honest,. hardworking people doing a
thankless job and there isn't a bol itician
or, anyone else for th,t matter who can
.knock them.
that could have been the editorial.
However, looking a bit further along in
• this front page story,, we -find another
quote, along the same lines, attributed t°o
Tavistock reeve William Ducklow which
said,' quote, "We'll have nothing to do but
Collect ga bage and catch dogs," unquote.
Now we have a verydifferent.,statement
qy
.A
The question then is: did any member
of a county council degrade the qualities
of garbage men and dog catchers or did
the Free Press writer use a bit too much
license for the sake of a good'line?,
To use the words...reduced-to-garbage
men and dog catchers," in connection
with the men mentioned .is to suggest they
are of some lower form of life, or at least
have less importance in life • than
whomever made the remark. To say
"...We'll have nothing to do but catch
dogs and .collect garbage,': is to suggest
the administrative powers 'of the
councillrne►i are being • l'edCited, a very
different thing, and probably what the
councillor meant. •
So let's get it straight. There - are
enough problems already witli, people in
politics who claim, all too often, they
have been misquoted in the press,.
although the reason they make the-elaim
is more often than not to try to get
themselves out of an unpleasant situation,
or to make it appear that they really
weren't in on the dirty deal anyway.
(They are always thinking of the election,
these politicians!) ,aw
Red .Cross Water Safety Week
TodeY, the public is exposed to a
multitude of messages about the benefits
of this product or that service, and many
business corporations spend considerable
time and effort to discover the hest way
to ."get.the message across." The Canadian
Red Cross Society is equally anxious to
get -its message about.. water safety -4'61=' 1s
to the Canadian people of whom, 1,1866
-died by drowning last year. ' •
Through a varied program that ranges
from beginners' swimming courses to
instructor training, he Red Cross covers
all aspects of water safety. It is playing a
large part in helping to reduce Canada's
annual drowning toll by teaching the
necessary skills to meet emergency
situations. This knowledge, however, will
not . prevent accidents caused by
carelessness.
Last year, 212 children under 12 years
of age were drowned because they were
unsupervised while playing in or near the
water. A toddler can drown in Moments,
if he falls face dawn in -a -few inches of
inflated toy
very quickly
wind..
(2 •
•
•
M ,N.w.N�M� . -:Hr
°
'Photo By Ron Price
LAKE SCENE - STRATFORD
' i II111I11111111111111111111111111111111111111111tr111111111111111111111111t1111111111t111t111111t11111111111111tt11t111111111111111111111I111111111111111111111111111I1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
in the water can be carried
into danger by a light.gust of
Remember Wheir???
Adults also can be careless about their
own safety.' How often have we seen the
show-off 'who is determined to swim
across the lake because he has done it
marry times before... but forgets that was
when he was 20 years younger. Or the
party cut up whq thinks it is a big joke fo
push someone into the swimming pool or
off a dock.
Water . sports are , fun and provide'
healthy recreation for people of all. ages:
But the `basic safety rules must be
observed if the dreadful annual'death toll
is to be reduced.
This is Water Safety Week and the Red
Cross is' working hard to get the message
across that lives can be saved just by
common sense. See that you play your
part by using water safety sense at all
times. Don't take chances. Be water wise
not only during Water Safety Week butall
water and a small child playing with an summer.
55 YEARS AGO
-When Mr. John .Toms, of
Bayfield, lifted his nets on
Saturday morning he found an
.extraordinary catch. When it was
weighed he was further surprised
that his haul tipped the scales at
8000 pounds. That•week it was
and Mr. James St urgeon. This fish
had -.been caught. by Mr. Tots : "t'ive , cargoes aggregating
and 'Mr Jame/Sturgegn:4'I'his4iah .nearly :a million -bushels of grain
would at the, Lowest price, ' be were discharged at the Goderich
worth five cents a pound; w4hich Elevator the past week. They
would realize X800 per week for were the T.Algorail, on Friday,
the fishermen, providing -the fish -with 200,000 bus. wheat; A. A.
kept coining into the nets as fast Hudson', Friday, 145,000 bus.
as they did last week. barley and oats-, Windoc.
Saturday, 261,000 bus. wheat; F.
V. ';Massey, Sunday, .108,000
bus,- wheat and rye;• Fort Wildoc,
Monday, 248,000 bus. wheat.
��T.AdLISHED ' Gobtrir4
,}122nd•YEAR
� t a1- 'tar' of
R
—E1-- The County Town Newspaper of Huron -- PUBLICATION
Published at Goderich, Ontario every Thursday .morning by
Signal -Star Publishing Limited
ROBERT G. SHRIER
President and Publisher
RONALD P. V. PRICE
Managing Editor
EDWARD J. BYRSKI
Advertising Sales
Subscription
Rates 56 a Year -- To U.S.A. 57.50 lin advance)
Second class mail registration nut. fiber -- 0716
house on ' the McManus farm,
across the mad 'from the Sky -
Harbor air station, this morning.
The fire broke" out shortly after
1,1 'o'clock. The town fire
brigade went to the scene, but
without water could do nothing,
and the contents of the house
went up with the flames.
25 -YEARS AGO
• Fire of unknown • origin
completely destroyed the frame.
THAT'S'mLIF'ft,By G. MacLeod Ross
WHO MURDERS OUR TREES?
Opening the Huron Tract
.HURON ROAD
Part
On May 14,• 1827, Dr. William Dunlop, Warden of Forests for the
Canada Company, and Mahlon Burwell, J.P:, a senior deputy
provincial surveyor, set out from Galt to take charge of an exploring
expedition sent by the company to carry out surveys in their newly
•
purchased "Huron Tract." This large area; bordered to the westward
by Lake Huron, had been purchased by treaty- in. 1826 from the
Chippewa nation and sold to the Canada Company. The company
was to re -sell the land to settlers under certain conditions, among
which was the opening of roads.
Dunlop and Burwell were able to ride on horseback from Galt to
Benjamin Springer's,, near the line between Blenheim and Wilmot
Townships, where they left their. horses. At "Smith's Creek," now
named for the first time the Nith River, they overtook John
McDonald, O.S., with their party of chainmen and Indian axemen.
During the next two months they surveyed a line from the
westerly boundary of Wilmot"Tovvnship to the shore of Lake Huron,
built a good-sized l,og house.on the site chosen for the future town
of Goderich and carried out a number of surveys and trips of
exploration. During this trine they received part of their suppliespn
pack -horses, brought from Blenheim Township by Benjamin
Springer, who seems to have blazed a bridle path or "horse•trace."
On the return journey, Burwell made a rough su"rvey of what he calls
the "Bridle Path" or "Bridle Road" and "opened" it ,as he went
along. The "opening" cannot have amounted•to much, for the -party
only took eight days to reach Springer's house in Blenheim from the
site of Goderich. However, this rough trail was the beginning of the
Huron Road.
Sortie work was evidently done on this. road in the'next year and
a half, for' it seems to have been passable for .sleighs by the autumn
of 1828 and shanties, intended to shelter travellers, had been built at
10 -mile intervals alongpit. The Canada Company offered bonuses to
persons who would open inns along the road at certain of the
shanties. . .
Further improvement, could not take' place until the road was
re -surveyed in straight stretches 'that could be the baselines of
townships and these townships marked out in lots. John McDonald•
began, this survey from the Wilmot Line on December 18, 1828, and
seems to have passed the site.of Seaforth on January 2, 1829.‘He
spent Sunday, January 4 at "the 40th Mile Log Shanty" sitting out a
storm that left the snow "leg, deep.';, Two days later McDonald
ended his survey at the "46th Mile," where. he had expected to find
the townline of Goderich Township; •
On January 12, 1829, McDonald left the town of Goderich and
"travelled to the 40th Mile Tavern" and the next -day "travelled
from the. 40th Mile Tavern to the 20th." -
The change of name from "shanty" to "tavern" is signifigant, for
it probably implies that both' shanties had been occupied by settlers -
who had agreed to' keep 'taverns:
he settler at• the 40th Mile was,Col. _Anthony Van Egmond'and
the Seebach family had'come to the 2Oth Mile shanty"before the end
of January, 1828,, though McDonald does not mention their
presence there when he reached it -on Christmas Day.
Van Egmond in a letter says that .in 1829 he was living on the
Huron Road eighteen miles from Goderich, with his, nearest
neighbour 20 miles to the south-east. Later in the same letter he
names Seebach and Fryfogle, whose tavern`, a little east of the site of
Shakespeare, was still tieing built on December 18, 1828.
A fourth tavernkeeper, Andrew Helmer, near the Wilmot line; was
the only other settler on the Huron Road when the contracts for
making the wagon road:were let about 1.830.
Col. Van Egmond, who ,was a man of considerable means, took a
contract for about 45 miles of the road easterly from Goderich. The
• Company insisted that contractors take two-thirds of their pay in
land. Among the many, lots along the Huron Road on which
Anthony Van Egmond's name was inscribed were seven in Mckillop
Township (lots 21-27 incl.). --Ind seven opposite to these in
Tuckersmith Township (tots 6-12 incl). This block., contains the
whole area. on which Seaforth was later laid out. In addition, Van
Egmond obtained Lots 10 and 11 in both the Second and Third
sough completion to on which saw and
piling in the harbor, dredging. grist mills were soon built.'
entrance and harbor to_ _a About 1835 the Canada' Company opened ''the Mill Road"
minimum of .24 feet and facing across Tuckersmith as an extension of the Bayfield Road from The
steel piling -with wooden fenders. London Road at Brucefield to "Van Egmond's •Mills" and up the
sideroad between Lots 10 and 11 to :the Huron Road. This
Those to whom Mr. McKinley established a road junction of some importance., but certain`
presented medals were Reeve circumstances delayed the development of this site.
ffOM I7utib-ar_ --Grey; Reeve By 1$37 Col: \/ars` Egmorrd-had-become-a-severe critic of -the
(grant Stirling, Goderich Canada Company and of the ruling clique at Toronto. He supported
Township; Reeve Elgin William Lyon Mackenzie, whom he joined at Montgomery's. Tavern
Thompson, n Dmith; and on the morning before the defeat of the insurgents.'
Reeve Alvin D. Smith, He was.,captured and -taken to Toronto, where he died in custody
Tuxnbetry. � �
A wrist watch was .given,. to before being tried for treason. His affairs were left in confusion and
Mr. James Kinkead , who is in 1841 a good =part of his land was sold by the Sheriff of the
retiring this spring as secretary London District. Lots 10 and 11, Con. I. in Tuckersmith and Lots 25
of the Huron County School and 26•; Con. I in Mckillop were bought, with other lands, by George
Consultive Committee. Mr. j. Goodhue, merchant and postmaster at London, Canada West.
Kinkead has held that position Goodhue sold Lot 25 in Mckillop and 'Lot 11 in Tuckersmith in
since 1945 when the committee 1842 to -other -absentees, but he was in 1850 the registered owner of
was first formed. Lots 26 and
10 YEARS AGO
=For two -days, Wednesdayand
today, officials from Ottawa have
been conferring with a Goderich
group which is seeking long
needed - improvements d at
'Goderich harbor. The removal of
Ship Island is one ., of the
improvements sought. Anews
dispatch from Ottawa on
Wednesday quoted• Major
General 11. A. Young, deputy
minister of public works, as
saying .that the removal of this
island would cost • perhaps
$1,000,000 and that this would
give rise. to other additional
expenditures. The deputy
minister was reported as adding
that the removal of the island
would disturb the foundations
of the wharf and. ' would
necessitate $750,000 in remedial
works. Other . impr vements,. g
° t are f sheet Cortcessions of Tuckersmith, including a mill site
Those who take pleasure in composing a good Ricture (and there
are few better than .Rnr Price) will'be-hors ntszt-to learrr'that another ---
familiar beauty scene in Goderich has been ruined without just
cause. It was the view over harbour 'and lakes from • the flagstaff
lookout on Cobourg Street, framed as it was, on the right by a
massive locust tree of great girth. Quite recently this was felled and
cut up into firewood. Inspection shows that, the trunk. 'though
hollow,"had adequate live .wood around its circumference to ensure
it standing for mariv more years. Over the past few years this
indiscriminate felling of sound trees on both public and private
property has become more prevalent.
It has never been clearly defined on which council committee if
rny__-__rests responsibility .for turning thumbs down on any given
tree. If the combined Parks and Public Works cocmlttees have such
itchy fingers. which- have to be exercised in the ghastly whine of
their power .saws, a cursory inspection of the remaining trees in
Town would show several already dead, or with Targe and dangerous
dead branches, awaiting the next storm to fall on the unsuspecting.
Why not practice on • tjiese? Since they are never touched itis
reasonable to think that felling is done without rhyme or reason.
Will the responsible executioner please stand up and explain his
aberration'.' Is there no single member of council who cares?
•
THE END OFA DETOUR
it has taken four years. six and a half" -million• dollars -and 11
contracts to, pave and widen two miles of New York Avenue in
Washington, D.C. At this rate of working a 3,100 mile highway
across* the U.S.A.., would ha\e taken 2,696 years to complete.
Ground breaking would have had to be undertaken 100 years before
'Socrates was born, say T. 469 B.C. Astronomers predict the end of
the Universe in another 69 Killion years. (query: Was it worth while
to widen New York Avenue, having regard to the imminence of the
end of the World?: '
Tiff EIIGH..CO.ST, QF.. -.. _
LITTLE PAUL'S EDUCATION
So Canada has lost its "Little Corporal" as he was known in the •
Armed Forces. Thequestion arises` Has he profited by the expensive
education the people of Canada 'permitted him? Does he now
appreciate the difference between "ordering" and "leading"? It was
cherry pie to order the disintegration of three disciplined Fighting
Services, especially when you could suddenly ,assume the role of
('on,mander-in-Chief. it was root so easy to order human beings in
the mass: all able to and willing to protest. Was the Housing Problem
a hit too much for our friend? Anyhow another acolyte to Cabinet
rank passes—Unwept. unhonored and unsung. Nevertheless adult
education in the University of the World should not be chargeable to
the taxpayer.
WHO DIED?
The Association of Ontario ayors and Reeves has at long last
pulled its collertke head out of Ce sand. 1t has demanded`•t•he:power
to control and limit all spending by Boards of Education. whether
capital or operating. When you see the highway robbery which has
•charaeteris;y d extortion for funds for "educatioh" under the Davis
regime in Ontario. it is well to remember forhmv man'v centuries the
English people fought to gain control of , the purse and -to have it
vested in the elected of the' people. This sudden reveille is distinctly
heartening. But who died to permit of this startling awakening'/•
ONE YEAR AGO
LICED
BACK BACON .b. 99
LEAN — SAVE 20c
Ib.
ROUND
MADE FRESH DAILY.
USAGES
OVEN-READY -- 6 - 6 Ib. Average
PON CHICKENS
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49
Ib.
2 Ib. 954
b
4
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