Every historian has suffered the experience of not noticing or overlooking an important document.…
Valuing Our History
1908 blizzards shut down roads and local rail lines
Ask oldtimers about severe winters in Wellington County, and most will immediately recall the…
Man died after hit in 1868 Mount Forest bar brawl
During the second half of the 1860s, Mount Forest passed through a significant boom phase. In 1865,…
Elora woman left town after two-day charivari
The charivari, or shivaree, as it is usually spelled in southern Ontario, is a social ritual…
Moorefield minister fined for assault on black woman
Two weeks ago this column carried the sad tale of Henry White, a black resident of Peel, who was…
Statistical records can be useful to historians
A continuing argument among professional historians concerns the value and place of statistical…
Guelph Township man shot couple walking on railway tracks
John Hazle was not a typical British immigrant to Canada. When he arrived in Ontario about 1870 he…
Georgian Bay and Wellington Railway was only a dream
Last week’s column mentioned that Mount Forest council voted financial aid for the…
Elora virtually closed down for funeral of J.C. Mundell
Last week’s column, describing two 1897 incidents in the history of the Beatty…
Mount Forest hosted major Jubilee festivities in 1897
No one living can remember the reign of Queen Victoria, but she still casts a long shadow…
Donkey baseball was popular attraction in mid-20th century
Donkey baseball was a popular attraction at civic gatherings a half century and more ago in the…
Corpse found near Harriston was tagged The Minto Mystery
In the late afternoon of Saturday, April 22, 1899, Peter McEachern was returning to his farm in…
Competitive speed skating became a local fad in 1899
Ice skating and hockey became popular winter pastimes in Wellington County during the 1880s and…
16-year-old youth assisted cattle thief in 1902 spree
Back in 1901, a man named John O’Donnell rented a farm in Minto at Lot 5, Concession 12, in…
Parisian Steam Laundry offered service to Wellington County
Laundry is a mundane subject, but it has an interesting history over the past century and a half.…