February 2020 Volume 12: Issue 4 Inside This Issue
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Kinmount Gazette KINMOUNT GAZETTE THE KINMOUNT COMMITTEE FOR PLANNING AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT February 2020 Volume 12: Issue 4 Inside this issue: FRIENDS & NEIGHBOURS: SOUTH BEXLEY 2 HOCKEY MEMOIRS PART V 3 GAME WARDENS PART III 4 WORLD WAR II RECRUITING 6 SPOT THE SHOT RECAPTURED 7 COUNCILLOR’S CORNER 7 KIDS CORNER 9 THE HOT STOVE LEAK 10 COLD & FLU 13 KINMOUNT FAIR CELEBRATES 150 YEARS 14 THE GALWEGIANS 15 FOOD FANATIC 15 THE MARRIAGE OF CHOCOLATE & VALENTINE’S 15 ROYAL CANADIAN LEGION BRANCH 441 16 IN THE LIONS DEN 16 THE LIBRARY LINK 16 RED CROSS FOOD PACKAGES FOR POWS 17 THANK YOU TO OUR PATRONS 17 TWO POLICE OFFICERS KILLED 18 HIGH FIVE CLUB 18 SPOT THE SHOT 19 EDITORIAL 19 Get Results! ADVERTISE IN FEBRUARY 22, 2020 THE GAZETTE! Rates per issue: Business Card Size $20 KINMOUNT COMMUNITY CENTRE 2 x Business Card $40 1/4 Page $55 6:30-9:00 1/2 Page $100 Full Page $200 Admission FREE Snack Bar by Donation [email protected] Wear Your Finest Winter Wear 705 - 488 - 2919 The Gazette is a non profit monthly publica- A Family Event tion produced by volunteers. The Gazette depends on advertising sales & donations Sponsored by the Kinmount Community Centre Board of Management to remain operating. We are grateful for your continued support. Do you enjoy the Gazette? BURNT RIVER INVITES YOU TO ITS FREE Send a donation! ANNUAL FAMILY FUN DAY EVENT Make cheques payable to Kinmount Gazette SUNDAY February 16, 2020 PO Box 286, Kinmount. On K0M 2A0 11 am - 2 pm at the Burnt River Community Centre Your name will appear in our Bring the entire family! Thank You to Our Patrons Section Tax Receipts issued for Donations $25+ Kinmount Gazette Kinmount Committee for Planning and Economic Development Friends and Neighbours: South Bexley, Laidlaw Estate, Aros, St. Mary’s The Township of Bexley was sur- Laidlaw made his money from land veyed in 1834. It was attached to sales and railways, including financing Eldon Township via the Portage the Victoria Railway. By this time the Road, an old Indian trail that led focus of the community had changed. from Lake Simcoe east along the The Toronto-Nippising Railway passed Talbot River towards Balsam through the area, but further north than Lake. The Talbot River emptied Fort Ranch at what became Victoria into Lake Simcoe, not Balsam Road. The Trent Canal was opened in Lake (Trent River). But it came 1873 and the Portage Road was by- very close to Balsam Lake and passed by the new waterway & railway was just a short portage away. The access points. Portage Road was a traditional The first post office in the area was native road and witnessed the called Aros (after a village in Scotland) passage of much Canadian Histo- and was located beside the “Fort” in ry, including Samuel de Cham- 1866. Mail came from Kirkfield plain as well as generations of two days a week. But with the es- Hurons, Iroquois and countless tablishment of Victoria Road other peoples. So popular was this (1872) the post office was closed location, that a trading post was and the settlers gravitated to the built here in the 1700s. By the new centre or later to Bexley ham- time the first settlers arrived, all let or Corson’s Siding. The section that remained were stone chim- of the Trent Canal between the Fort neys. and Kirkfield was not finished until The earliest planned community the early 1900s. in Bexley Township was a village The community of South Bexley/ site called St Marys at the west the Fort/Aros/St Marys contained a end of Balsam Lake. It was sur- school house (SS #6 Bexley veyed along the west shore of “Laidlaw School”), a church (St Balsam Lake where the old Por- Thomas Anglican) and the “Fort” The stone walls of Fort Rouche today tage Road hit the lake. When the Estate which was turned into a tour- Trent Canal was cut through from ist lodge. The business centres Balsam Lake to Grass Lake, it gravitated to Victoria Road at the passed through the St Marys site. junction of the Victoria Coloniza- Unfortunately the site was poorly tion Road and the Toronto- located: it consisted of a flat rock Nipissing Railway, the hamlet of with about 2 inches of soil. The Bexley and the hamlet of Corson’s village lots were never occupied. Siding. Later Balsam Lake Provin- But a number of settlers did trick- cial Park was created (1968) to the le down the Portage Road from east of the community between the Kirkfield. Among these early set- Fort and Coboconk. The original tlers was a (retired) Admiral Lakeshore Road that ran into Vanstittart. In 1834 he was given Coboconk became a side road when a grant of 1,000 acres on the the new Highway #48 became the northwest shore of Balsam Lake. main road between Kirkfield and The admiral was very much an Coboconk. The community still has English aristocrat; dressing for- an impressive church at the corner mally for dinners, entertaining of Highway #48 and Portage Road, guests, constructing a large house and those beautiful old stone walls and building a small Anglican along Lakeshore Road testify to the church. age when the area was a local About 1871 (after the Admiral “happening” community. passed on), a local businessman named George Laidlaw acquired the estate. He carried on the tradi- tions, being nicknamed the “Laird of Bexley”. He built a large “mansion” on the north shore and imported Scottish stone masons to build the impressive stone walls that still grace the property today. The estate was knicknamed “The Bexley S.S. #6 Laidlaw School Fort Ranch” or” Forte Rauche”. Page 2 Kinmount Gazette Kinmount Committee for Planning and Economic Development Hockey Memories Part V, by John Dettman Hockey in my forties was shinny my son Marty. Like me he is at the rink and in Minden. I was not a super star, just a really now coaching my son and attend- good player who plays for the ing all the games. Our store was love of the sport. Had I wanted now open at nights so Lola made him to play in the NHL? Of it possible to continue. I played in course, but I settled for him a men’s league in Minden. It was becoming a good hockey play- open to anyone over eighteen. I er that could be competitive in scored a lot of goals in that a men’s house league any- league throughout my forties. where he wanted to play. That Finally an old-timers league was he has accomplished. formed in Minden and I played in Two year’s ago, our Past Tim- it for three years, again enjoying ers team was short players success. A weekly column in the against a young Manvers team. Minden Times would report all I had just returned after anoth- the goals and assists. I even fin- er shoulder injury. As luck ished in the top ten goal scorers! would have it, Marty was We sold the store in 2,000 and home and so was my son-in- moved to Lindsay, but I contin- law Chris Richmond. Chris ued to drive to Minden to play was learning the game, having there. Bill Austin, my auditor never played it as a kid. It was who also played, said I should a great moment for me to play join the senior Past Timers on a line with Chris and League in Lindsay, as they were Marty. I was sixty-five at the always short players. I was nerv- time. Marty broke down the ous about joining the league until centre of the ice and fed me a one day I met Murray Bradt at perfect pass. I scored! What Midtown Skate Exchange trying could be sweeter that that for a on skates for pleasure skating. I hockey-dad! had played with Murray on the Marty and I played in several tourna- Fenelon Old Flyers. He had not ments (for Kinmount), and it was fun played in years, but I talked him to play together creating a very spe- into making a come back with the cial father-son bond and fond memo- Lindsay Past Timers. It was hard ries. I never wanted to neglect my KINMOUNT DOWNTOWN PHARMACY to find who was running the daughter Jill, so I put together a Kin- 4084 COUNTY RD #121 team, but finally John Henley mount hockey team for boys and KINMOUNT, ONTARIO K0M 2A0 told us to come out for a try out. I girls. Jill was eight and was a great PHONE: 705-488-1923 was fifty-seven and Murray was skater. I convinced George Simmons FAX: 705-488-1943 sixty. It was perfect timing! Mur- to start an Irondale team (for compe- ray only lasted one year, but I tition) and it turned out great. Jill PHARMACEUTICAL SERVICES went on to play for ten years. scored the first goal of our “league” MEDICATION REVIEWS I had found a team that believed on a perfect shot; and I felt this was BLISTER PACKAGING winning was not the only thing; the pinnacle! I knew there would be having fun was just as important. many more nights for Marty’s ups GENERAL SERVICES Art Truax joined in my second and downs, but very few with Jill. 20% SENIOR DISCOUNT EVERY year and we became close After hundreds of games and many TUESDAY & THURSDAY friends. He called me “Max Bent- years with Marty, I will never forget $ 2.00 ODB CO-PAY WAIVED ley” because Max was an old- the night Jill scored that first goal.