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The Huron Expositor, 1954-11-19, Page 11.r. trik WE APPRECIATE THE OPPORTUNITY OF HAVING BEEN RESPONSIBLE FOR THE .PLASTERING NECESSARY IN THE SPLENDID NEW ADDITION O THE SEAFORTH DISTRICT HIGH SCHOOL Culp Bros. Limited CONTRACTING PLASTERERS Residential - Commercial - Industrial 37 Uxbridge St. KITCHENER ONTARIO 9 ter QuDHere •(Continued from Page 8) • up for 'himself as a grain -buyer. Ontario .grain was an important crop at this time; prices were high. and much of it was exported. This business brought him into contact with all the merehants and farmers doing business in Seaforthi. He was observant, and was attracted by the salt -works operating in a Pruni- tive way. He saw it as a new in- dustry with a future, and after some experience in ..selling farm machinery he decided to go 'into - salt. Having no capital, he formed a company with himself as man- ager, and (built the salt works at. Hensall, of which some traces may still- be found. But he tailed to operate it at a profit. ".Then he repeated the experi- ment at Parkhill with similar re- sults. The salt produced by the small makers 'wee marketed co- operatively through the Canada Salt Association. When a new plant came into the field, the As- sociation could dictate terms, un- ess the owners were prepared to play a Ione hand. Carter was autocratic in temperament and soon quarrelled with the Associa- tion. 'They despised me,' he used to say, 'because I was a young man with no capital; brains didn't count!' Then he found another in- vestor willing to back him, and built the salt works at Courtright. Here he had a free hand, and tast- ed his first success, but what he cbiefly enjoyed was a temporary victory over the Salt Association. "Yet he wsas not satisfied, and sold out and went to Michigan where he believed there were much larger opportunities. And the Can- adian salt makers who had. found him a disturbing element sincerely hoped he would stay there. He was in Chiicabo for fifteen years, and returned lo Canada not much richer, except in experience. At Mooretown there was a small, half - built salt works which he bought cheaply, completed, and then be- gan to make salt at a fair profit. I have always thought this was no better than many others that were operating at a loss. Carter had served his long apprenticeship, and now working with the hand of a master. "The Cleveland -Sarnia Saw Mills had put down a salt well, and ap- proved plans for a modern salt works with a vacuum pan, which would use the surplus steam from saw ,mill 'refuse. Carter was en- gaged to supervise the building of the plant, but had hardly begun when he offered to take over the venture, upon conditions which were favorable to both parties. One could write a long chapter of his complicated activities at this stage. But he succeeded, got the plant in- to operation in 1905, and in the next five years paid for it out of profits, and put away a comfortable surplus in cash. He was a bash• elor, with no dependents; his per somal expenses *ere light, and he had the satisfaction of ktrowing that he was no longer a young man with no capital. Then in 1910 the Saw Mill bought him out at arhand- some advance on the original cost. For the first time he had a large cash balance and was free to do as he liked. Plans for another venture in salt were considered, but his health was giving him some anxiety. Why should be try to make more money when he could not spend the interest On what he had? "As mere gossip he heard that two or three students at the Sar- nia Collegiate, who had gained Honour Matriculation, would not be able to go to college for want of money. Could he help such students—impersonally—for he had no intentions of playing rich uncle to any one? Fortunately, he con- sulted Mr. Grant, who suggested a scheme of Scholarships. The first intention was to offer them to stu- dents of the Sarnia Collegiate, but after consultation with other teach- ers, Mr. Grant advised that compe- tition should be open to students in the County of Lambton. This worked out, and the next year Mr. Carter took in the Counties of Huron, Middlesex, Perth and Wel- lington, giving $200 in each coun- ty. It was respectable but not lavish, and as far as he would go in his life -time. Then under his Will he extended the scheme to 25 counties, making an annual distri- bution of $5,000 in alt, which the Ontario Government pays as the interest on a capital sum of $100,- 000 bequeathed by Mr. Carter for the purpose. "When a man who has had a liberal education sets up a system of scholarships, it may be assumed that he knows what he is doing, and what he is trying to accom- plish. Now, Mr. Carter used to call himself an uneducated man. He believed that the lack of edu- cation had kepthim back all his life, and perhaps defrauded him of his rights, but what he had in mind was schooling. At the village school he had learnedto read -need write, and do arithmetic, and he did these things well. It is doubt- ful whether he would have gone further with any subject unless he had been convinced of the advant- age from a business standpoint. He was an intensely practical man, with a good brain, and far from il- literate. He wrote a good hand, dictated excellent letters, and for many years he kept his own books, accurately by double entry, and knew exactly what the books meant when he did keep them. He was, in fact, a good example of the self-made man who left school at Ellis -Don Ltd. Are Proud To Have Been Chosen As, the GENERAL CONTRACTORS For the Building of the New Addition at the SEAFORTH DISTRICT HIGH SCHOOL It was indeed a pleasure to have worked with the School Board and Architects in the construction of these modern facilities. Ellis -Don Ltd. ENGINEERS and CONTRACTORS Oxford Street East LONDON - ONTARIO eaOr 1Ii Principals Since 18 Charles Clarkson 1879 -1882 J. C, 'Harstone 1882-1886 Charles Clarkson 188(3- 1899 Alexander Mowat 1899- 1900 G. F. Rogers. 1900-1913 G. A. Miller 1913-1914 O. A. MacKay 1914-1915. J. F. Ross 1915-1922 M. J. O'Neill 1922-1923 G. W. Spencer 1923-1929 A. B. Farmer 1929-1930 G. A. Ballantyne. 1930 - 1944 Lorne Fox 1944-1948 L. P.0Plumsteel 1948 - what we used to call the third book, but who applied what he had learned with precision, and made it effective. "W1hat he lacked, without quite understanding it, was the mental discipline that every earnest stu dent gains, and the culture that is of increasing value as a man gets on in life. He used to say that he had never learned grammar, be- cause the book stated that gram- mar consisted of orthography, etymology and syntax and no one ever told him what these words meant. And he worried because he thought he did not speak gram- matically, and perhaps his speech was an object of ridicule. I was able to assure him that be used good English, for the excellent rea- son, esson that he was constantly associ- ating with people who did so, and further, that as a child I had made considerable headway with gram- mar before the teacher thought it necessary to worry us with the hard words about the three divi- sions. "'Of course. he knew a few ordin- ary rules of syntax, and was in- clined to be pedantic about them. He thought a double negative in a sentence must be the mark of hopeless ignorance, and was sur- prised to learn that it was good construction in mediaeval English. and still used in French. One day he asl£ed me what book I would recommend for study of absolutely good English, and"the answer was the Book of Common Prayer. He was incredulous. In his last illness he read it a good deal, and was surprised to find that it is so beau- tiful. We may therefore feel . a' real compassion for Carter, who fought his way up with limited op- portunities, and with no one at any stage to give him useful mental guidance. And it must be rem- bered that at all times his own temperament isolated him from those who might have helped him. He was autocratic, he never suf- fered fools gladly, and was always enveloped in a protective cloud of suspicion. It is right to add that as an employer he was just and spippo e�w� ,may "xillittai 4 Vii/ '��1101111 << Seaforth MIZISENI WO MillitniNP I mom m NM1111111111 rc • considerate. He always wanted things done in his own way, and in no other, but he always stood by his instructions, and accepted Mt responsibility. "It is therefore remarkable that he was able to make up tris mind to the Scholarship scheme, and from actual contact at the time I must always set a high value on the skill and diplomacy of Mr. Grant. Here was one point on which Mr. Carter was not satisfied.' He wanted to ensure that the scholarships should go to students Who needed the money. But on a large scale how could the point be decided? I think he was pretty well convinced that all students need money, and that a hundred dollars may be of more value to a young man than thousands to an old man. The scholarships did not exhaust his estate, and the residue was left to the Hospital for Chil- dren in Toronto. "I don't suppose he had ever seen the Hospital, but he believed it to be a worthy institution and well managed. Like many bach- elors, Carter had a tenderness for children. If one may moralize over his career, and the spending of his money, the lesson must be that 'there is a divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them as we will'." Recent Concept, District School Serves Wide Area That January day in 1879, when the Seaforth High School first op- ened its doors it had as students many who lived in the neighboring townships, as well as those stu- dents in Seaforth. And through the years there has continued to be a large representation among the student body of those who liv- ed in Tuckersmith or McKillop or Stanley or Hibbert. Those from the townships who attended did so because either they or their par- ents, or perhaps both, had .a strong desire for higher education. Their presence here was as a re- sult of arrangements completed by the individuals themselves — ar- rangements for transportation and for board and lodging. But. in 1947 the pictue changed. With the creation of secondary school districts, it became the right of every person of school age, resi- dent in the district to be provided with transportation from their home, or a point near it, to the district school. Today the Seaforth District High School serves young people not on- ly in Seaforth, but also in the Townships of Tuckersmith, McKie lop, Hibbert, Hul'lett, Grey and Morris, as indicated on the map on this page. Every school morn- ing orning a fleet of large buses, oper- ated by contractor Scott Habkirk, leaves Seaforth to cover the school area. At four o'clock the same clay the buses once more cover their routes and take the pupils home. Each day the buses cover 400 miles and in an average school year travel 80;000 miles. SEAFORTH DISTRICT HIGH SCHOOL USES SUPERIOR PROPANE GAS IN ITS LABORATORIES AND KITCHEN We are happy to have this opportunity of serving the School and extend congratula- tions on the occasion of the opening of an addition. SUPERIOR PROPANE LTD. 19 Market Place PHONE 4174 STRATFORD SUPERIOR PROPANE GAS is the most modern and economical fuel for dolnetic and commercial heating and cooking and for water heating. IN THE ENLARGED EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM PRESENT- ED AT THE SEAFORTH DISTRICT HIGH SCHOOL, AGRICULTURE TAKES A LEADING PART So that the Students could gain a practical knowledge of the subject, equipment necessary to agriculture has been made available, including a Ford tractor supplied by us. FORD EQUIPMENT IS,. ECONOMICAL,, IS TIME -SAVING, WHETHER IN USE AT SCHOOL OR ON THE FARM . Daly Motors FORD - MONARCH FORD TRACTORS PHONE 102 SEAFORTH au atitelidw erd4aha