From the 1870s until well into the 20th century, several organizations sent orphaned and destitute…
Valuing Our History
Two week encampment for 30th was training, relaxation
A major institution in the period between 1860 and World War I in Ontario was the volunteer…
Bootleggers faced heavy fines and jail in early 20th century
Illegal sales of beer and distilled liquor in Wellington are as old as the first settlements…
Harriston and Mount Forest post offices opened in 1912
This week’s column concludes the series on four Wellington County post offices built in…
Tornado cut a 60-mile swath through Wellington in 1908
Most people do not regard Wellington as a tornado-prone zone, but this county has experienced…
Planning for new Fergus Beatty plant began 100 years ago
The Beatty Brothers firm of Fergus was, by a large margin, the largest 20th century…
Canadas Emergency Measures Organization
One of the products of the Cold War of the 1950s was the creation of Canada’s Emergency…
Two-ring circus appeared in Mount Forest in 1887
Circuses were occasional visitors, but by no means frequent ones, to Wellington County in the…
Beatty Bros. company installed fire fighting system in 1935
No business in Wellington County dominated a town to the extent that the Beatty Bros. Company…
Freight trains collided at Puslinch station in 1909
A couple of months ago this column described a cluster of railway accidents in Wellington County…
Erin minister charged with sedition in 1917
The Disciples of Christ is the name of a religious denomination that is not well known to most…
Spring thaw produced widespread destruction in 1912
Over the years this column has described some of the destructive floods on the Grand River and its…
Funeral of Mayor Thomas Goldie was big event in 1892
A characteristic of the late Victorian period was a fondness for staging public events and…
Trial of Maryborough woman caused a local sensation in 1921
In 1916 a girl from Maryborough Township named Nellie Wetzel dated a man named Colonel Laughrin.…
Knuckles and know-how on a routine train trip in 1923
I like to indulge my fascination with railways several times per year in this column. Though little…