Amherst Island Beacon
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Amherst Island Beacon Issue 445 BONA LIBENTER, TRISTIA MAESTITER, MALA NUMQUAM Aug 2015 EDITOR’S NOTE -Ian Murray I have made it a practice to send an e-mail to former Beacon subscribers to announce that a new Beacon is available on the Amherst Island web site. If you wish to be notified of new Beacons, send me an e-mail at [email protected]. New Beacons are also announced on CJAI and on the radio’s Facebook site. ***** CLINTON GRYCE KILPATRICK November 5, 1934 – July 3, 2015 Warren & Laurie Kilpatrick Clinton Kilpatrick We are honored to celebrate Clinton on behalf of the Kilpatrick and McKee families. Clinton Gryce Kilpatrick was born on November 5, 1934. As Bert Glenn said to Irwin Henderson while plowing the nearby fields, “There’s a new package at John’s”. Clinton was the only child of John Kilpatrick and Annie Kilpatrick (McKee) whose Scots-Irish ancestors had immigrated to Amherst Island from County Down Ireland between 1830 and 1860. Clinton grew up at the Kilpatrick homestead on the Third Concession and lived on the Island until his later years. And he wouldn’t have had it any other way. Clinton, by his own admission, was a bit of a John Kilpatrick and Clinton rascal and enjoyed telling us about some of his 1 exploits as a child. The Amherst Island BEACON Issue 445, Aug 2015 Published monthly, the Beacon is provided free through the Having done something to displease his mother work of dedicated volunteers. Annie, Clinton climbed up onto the roof of the house Editorial and sat straddling the peak, all the while taunting A.I. Beacon her. This would not have been amusing to Aunt 14775 Front Rd. Stella, ON K0H 2S0 (613)389-3444 Annie, as you well know. E-Mail: [email protected] But Aunt Annie had the upper hand…what goes Editor: Ian Murray c/o [email protected] Production: David Pickering up must come down and she would be waiting for Submission Deadline 25th of mth him. Provided via: amherstisland.on.ca/Beacon and its webmaster Alex Scott We believe that when they meet in heaven… Annie will forgive him for his shenanigans and Clinton will forgive her for once putting him in a Table of Contents milk can to deal with his tricks. EDITOR’S NOTE...................................................1 CLINTON GRYCE KILPATRICK......................1 Clinton attended No. 5 School for grades 1-4 and A FEW WORDS FROM A LIFELONG -8. His school mates the school at Carr’s for grades 5 NEIGHBOUR..........................................................3 included Keith Miller, Tom Miller, Nina Wemp, EMERALD MUSIC FESTIVAL...........................4 Grace Wemp (Bailey), to mention a few. FLORA.....................................................................5 He was one of the first students to attend the new EDGAR MOONEY.................................................5 Amherst Island Consolidated School when it opened NEIGHBOURHOOD .............................................6 in1947 where he completed his grade nine. He had a CARDBOARD WARS! ..........................................7 great curiosity for how things worked and he loved .............................................8 books. Clinton did very well in school and spoke JANET’S JOTTINGS .......8 very highly of his teachers. OBSERVATIONS AT LANE’S END PARK COUNCIL GLEANINGS.......................................8 His high school days ended when his father John AIMS Meeting .........................................................9 was seriously injured in a farm accident. By the age ISLAND FOOD.....................................................10 of 15, Clinton was running the farm. NATURE CAMP...................................................11 Although Clinton was an only child, he was ROOFING AT MCMULLEN HOME................13 blessed by having many aunts and uncles in the MONARCHS AND OTHERS .............................13 McKee and Kilpatrick families. This meant that WOLFREYS FAMILY REUNION.....................14 there was a wealth of first cousins whom Clinton NEW ART GALLERIES .....................................16 kept in contact with throughout his life. JULY ON AMHERST ISLAND..........................16 Clinton also had good neighbors and many THANK YOU NOTES .........................................17 lifelong friends. The Island families relied on one SALLY’S BOOKS, CJAI .....................................17 another and helped each other when help was STONE FESTIVAL KIDS’ EVENT ...................18 needed. The WOOLY BULLY Race.................................18 Our dad, Bill Kilpatrick and Clinton were first ADVERTISEMENTS...........................................18 cousins and close friends who shared many of the FROM THE ARCHIVES: Aug 85 / Aug 95 ......20 same interests. Madlyn Kerr (Kilpatrick), Merle, Ralph and Wayne McKee, are also first cousins of evening often led to what we call ‘extreme’ euchre Clinton. with much table thumping, hooting and laughter Clinton loved to visit. He loved playing cards and often until two o’clock in the morning. he enjoyed the dances and movies at Victoria Hall. Clinton had a mechanical mind and a true gift for He was good-natured and very social and could fixing things. Out of necessity, he repaired the often be found at the local stores on a Saturday family tractors, farm machinery and trucks. night. Islanders were calling on Clinton for vehicle He and Aunt Annie would frequently come to our repairs and he was becoming very popular as an store in Emerald and then up to the house after. The Island mechanic. With encouragement from Stirling Glenn, he made up his mind to get his mechanic’s 2 papers and open a garage. He accomplished this in he was anxious to try them out. short order. “I vividly remember Clinton and myself trying to As the only mechanic on Amherst Island at the build and make work a field sprayer when herbicides time and a full-time farmer, Clinton was very busy. first appeared on farms. He serviced the Island school buses, the roads’ “Clinton had this old steel-wheeled tractor we equipment, and kept most of the Island cars and were working with. I explained to him we had to trucks on the road. Later he got a license to set up a have a constant, uniform land speed. He then took Vehicle Inspection Station and his business off like a rocket, ran over a stone and the whole increased even more. apparatus upset on the ground. Clinton always made time in his busy life for St. “Clinton never got upset. He didn’t say anything Paul’s Presbyterian Church. He was Chairman of for a long time. He simply said, ‘I think we need to the Board of Managers for fourteen years and he rethink this’. served as an Elder. When the Annual Garden Party “Clinton was an important part of this community was held at the Manse, the event lasted well into the for a long time and I know we will all miss him.” evening. A bingo was one of the highlights and Clinton would set it up and call the numbers. Clinton’s story is a story of hard work; of hardship overcome; and of devoted service to family, friends, In the late1960s, Clinton was a Councillor on church and community. Amherst Island Township Council. In the words of Ian Murray, a former reeve of the Township, Clinton Clinton made a difference in the lives of many. He was a quiet Councillor, but he was sure listened to will be fondly remembered and greatly missed. when he spoke. [Staff: #5 School was located where Paul and Carol rd In 2003 at the age of sixty-nine Clinton decided to Glenn now live – 3475 3 Concession. Carr School retire from farming and the shop. He sold his beef was where Johnny McGinn now lives – 7720 Front cattle and held a large auction at the farm. After 55 Road.] years of working, he was looking forward to a *** slower pace and having more time for travel, reading A FEW WORDS FROM A LIFELONG and socializing with family and friends. NEIGHBOUR Clinton went on a Caribbean cruise with Warren -Allan Glenn and Laurene’s family and Gary & Lesley Having lived next door to the Kilpatricks since McDonald’s family. He also visited the site of the childhood, I knew Clinton well, the boy in his early Indianapolis 500 with Gordon Thompson - teens who became the man of the house after his something that Clinton always wanted to do. father’s accident and confinement to a wheelchair. When his health began to fail, Clinton moved into How Clinton would rise early, milk the cows and do Fairfield West Seniors Home in Kingston. He other farm chores all day long, and carry his father roomed with his cousin Lyle Kilpatrick. In 2008 he up to bed at night. The one thing we both looked moved into Fairmount Nursing Home and was well forward to was the Friday night movie in the Orange cared for by the fine staff of Fairmount, who liked to Hall sponsored by Maurice Hogeboom with a visit kid with him and referred to him as their favourite. to Max Beaubien’s Ice Cream store afterwards. As mentioned earlier, Clinton was well loved by We worked together for haying and harvesting and his neighbors and many friends. Keith Miller, one I marveled at 3 things about Clinton: Firstly, his of Clinton’s school and farm buddies had this to say physical strength. He could pitch a 60 pound square about Clinton: bale six tiers high with the greatest of ease. I did well to get it up 4. Secondly, his mechanical skills. “Clinton was to me a lifelong friend and neighbor. He could repair anything and did so for many Island He was a good person, a good farmer and a good people. Thirdly, his pleasant demeanor. I never mechanic. He did farm chores his entire life helping heard Clinton lose his temper or use foul words, his parents through very difficult times. even when machinery would break down or a load “Clinton was a bit of an innovator when it came to of bales would upset.