Last week’s column described the events surrounding a shooting in Maryborough on Apr. 16,…
Valuing Our History
Battle over Harriston school raged into summer of 1954
Last week’s column described the efforts of the 1954 Harriston Board of Education…
Sam Robertson, of Hollen, sought living in Harriston
Last week’s column outlined the rise and decline of Hollen in the middle part of the…
Six months in jail for throwing a stone in 1908
Last week’s column described a violent assault that took place during the severe but…
Local films from the 1940s now available on DVD
Back between 1946 and 1949, a small-time film maker produced a series of 85 films depicting towns…
Telephone operator was frightened to death in 1933
One of the more bizarre and tragic deaths in Wellington County’s history occurred in Arthur…
Joyriding railroaders narrowly avoided jail in 1913
The Canadian Pacific station at Guelph Junction, near Campbellville, about 14 miles southeast…
Spanish Flu persisted in Wellington well into 1919
My two most recent columns described the initial impact of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic…
Danger of flooding on Grand River was acute in 1934
The construction of storage dams, combined with careful monitoring of conditions, has virtually…
Rockwood cheese factory produced cheddar for export
Economic pressures on farmers are nothing new. For agriculture, the Great Depression did not…
German immigrant Bill Geiger prospered in Fergus
Today there are few immigrants from western Europe to Wellington County, or indeed, to anywhere in…
Gang of pick-pockets stirred up excitement – and escaped – in 1898
The morning of Monday, April 11, 1898 began as a routine one at the Grand Trunk’s Mount…
Firearms were involved in three separate 1897 incidents
Today, Canadian police and courts take a dim view of the brandishing and use of firearms. That was…
James Goldie: pioneer Guelph businessman died in 1912
The Goldie family, though not well known today, was a major player in the middle part of the Grand…
Church union in 1925 caused turmoil amongst Presbyterians
In 1925, the Canadian Methodist Church amalgamated with the Congregational Church and most of the…