James Reaney Memorial Lecture: Snapshots of Jamie with Jeff Culbert – 19 October 2024
Hosted by Words Artistic Director Josh Lambier.
In conversation with Jeff Culbert and Josh Lambier of Words Fest
This Lecture celebrates the legacy of London poet and playwright James Crerar (Jamie) Reaney (1926-2008) and his late wife, the poet Colleen Thibaudeau. Jamie Reaney was friends with Jeff Culbert, a connection that began in the 1980s.
With Josh as tour guide, Jeff recalls his roles in the Reaney creative process and will be performing selected readings and songs on this journey.
Part 1: Peter McArthur, the hardest question and the “horrible, horrible” war
By Stephanie McDonald, December 2024
It’s a question from a child no parent is equipped to answer: Should I go to war? It was what Daniel, eldest son of Mabel and Peter McArthur, asked of his father in the early years of the First World War.
Even as prolific a writer as Peter McArthur was, one can imagine how the man dubbed the “Sage of Ekfrid” struggled to find the right words to share with his son. His response reveals both his wish for his child to come to his own decision as well as the urge to protect and keep him safe.
Peter penned his answer to Dan’s question in a letter on January 25, 1916, a year and a half into the war.
My Dear Dannie-boy:
The question you have asked me is the hardest I have ever had to face and I am afraid I cannot give you much help. You know my position is that such a question is one that a man must settle with his own soul. Under the military law you are now a man and expected to arrive at your own decision without guidance or interference. Think it out for yourself. If you feel in your heart that you should go I cannot tell you not to, for by doing so I might ruin your after life. If you feel that you should not go and I told you to go the result might be equally disastrous. Only keep this in mind, that if you come to the decision that keeps you true to all that is best in yourself, whether it be to enlist or to serve to the best of your ability at home you will always be equally dear to me.
If you decide to enlist I should favor the signalling corps. The work is as dangerous and requires as high a courage as any other but would not make it necessary for you to do actual fighting and shed blood.
I cannot tell you how much my heart is with you in this trial you are passing through. It is such a trial as never came to me. But whatever decision you make, try to make it without thought of what others may say or think.
“To thine own self be true and it must follow as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.” (From Act 1, Scene 3 of Hamlet, by William Shakespeare.
Your loving father, Peter McArthur
It is all horrible, horrible. Why don’t they take old cusses like me who, as a friend said, “has seen most everything and should be ready to go.” Canada is being raked over for recruits just now and thousands of boys of eighteen to twenty are enlisting.
Peter McArthur
Dan did enlist in the Army, and as a signaller as his father had suggested. We can trace his journey over the next few years from letters that Peter wrote to his friend and fellow writer C. Bowyer Vaux of Philadelphia, whom he had met in 1894 in New York City. These letters are held in the archives at Western University.
Just a month before writing the letter to Dan, McArthur tells Vaux that Dan was home from college for the Christmas holidays and talked of enlisting, but expressed skepticism it would happen. In March 1916, at the age of 18, Dan was one of the newly enlisted. As was common when major events happened in his life, McArthur wrote to Vaux to share the news, perhaps seeking some solace from his old friend.
Got your letter this morning and it came at a time when I needed a word of cheer. Dan has enlisted for overseas service and we find it hard to let him go. He has enlisted with the college battery and is taking a special course as a signaller. He seems such a little boy to go into this terrible thing. But there are hundreds of thousands of parents in Canada who are feeling as we do.
With thanks to the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Peter McArthur for permission to share the 1916 letter from Peter to his son Daniel, as well as the family photos used in this piece.
Part 2: Peter McArthur, the hardest question and the “horrible, horrible” war
On 15th March 1916 Daniel McArthur, son of Ekfrid Township writer, poet, farmer and philosopher Peter McArthur, enlisted in the 56th Battery (commonly known as the O.A.C. Battery as most recruits were students at the Ontario Agricultural College) in Guelph. Two months later, in mid-May 1916, he was stationed closer to home, in nearby London.
Peter wrote to his friend and long-time correspondent C. Bowyer Vaux, saying they saw Dan “every week or two but we can’t get used to seeing him in uniform.” At the end of the same month Dan was still in training in London but in a few weeks was to go to the training base in Petawawa, “and we shall not see much more of him before he goes across to the war.”
By September of 1916 Dan was in England. Another update was shared with Vaux in November.
We hear from Dan regularly and he seems to be having a great time in England. It is not likely that he will reach the trenches for some months yet as their final training is being delayed for some reason. But I have very little hope that the war will be ended before he reaches the front.
As 1916 drew to a close, on December 30th, McArthur added a note by hand in the margin of his typewritten letter:
P.S. Dan writes that he expects to be in France early in January. Then our real time of suspense and dread will begin.
But in February he remained in England,
for which we are duly thankful. The battery he went with was broken up and he was placed with a battery that needs further training. He seems well and cheerful.
By July of 1917 Dan was still in England (“we are expecting to hear all the time of his going to France”), but McArthur now had a new worry to contend with. He told Vaux that McKellar, his second born,
was also bound to enlist but as he is only seventeen I refused to allow him. He is busy farming and we have in the largest crop we have had since we returned to the land.
By the fall of 1917, the time that Peter and his wife Mabel had been so anxious about, had arrived. On November 4th he wrote to Vaux with the news.
Dan is now in the thick of the fighting in France and from what I am able to learn his work – artillery signaller – is about the most dangerous in the army. He writes very cheerfully, but we are worried all the time. Some of his friends have appeared in the casualty lists already.
In the spring of 1918 McArthur wrote to Vaux with an apology.
I know it is inecuseable [sic] that I should be so long without writing to you, but for months past I have been under such a strain that I simply couldn’t write. Dan has been in the front trenches for the past seven months and though the major of his company has been killed, and some of his friends killed and others wounded he has escaped so far. During the long winter the strain told heavily on Mrs McArthur and for the past six weeks she has been in the hospital in London, suffering from anaemia.
Mercifully, the McArthur’s continued to get “good news” from Dan through the summer and early fall of 1918, though a year after first wanting to, McArthur shares that “MacKellar is going to enlist as soon as the fall work is done on the farm – so the war is coming home to us.” On October 13, 1918, McArthur tells Vaux that McKellar has passed the preliminary examination for the Royal Air Force, though there were more tests to come. “He was not old enough for any other branch of the service as he is only eighteen, but he was bound to go.”
And then, at last, on November 11th, 1918, the war ended. Four days later, on November 15th McArthur wrote to Vaux.
I am several letters behind and haven’t much to say but feel I must exchange a good word with you about the coming of peace. It is surely the greatest news this old world has heard for many a day. To have the slaughter of our boys stopped gives us heart to face whatever the future may have in store.
While the war had ended, the McArthur’s didn’t get immediate news from Dan. In that same November letter, McArthur told Vaux that
the little yellow envelope telling us that Dan had been “gassed” gave us a shock but we got a cablegram from himself telling us that it was “Not serious. Back on duty.”
He continued:
We are now anxious to hear that he got through safely to the end. I really think I have done more worrying about him since peace was declared than in all the months he was in France – a year and four months. But no news is good news just now. We should soon hear from him about how he fared in the last weeks of the war.
The end of the war was just the start of the long wait for Dan to return home. In March 1919 McArthur told Vaux that Dan was still in Belgium. “We are hoping to get him home soon though I am afraid he will be among the last to get back.”
It wasn’t until June 1919, seven months after the Armistice and nearly three years since he went overseas, that Dan returned to Canada and was discharged from the Army. McKellar meanwhile, no longer needed in the Air Force, was at home. McArthur told Vaux that
MacKellar has been doing big work on the farm – has forty three acres under crop. I have to keep at it pretty regularly helping him out.
In a letter dated October 5th, one sentence stands out. An ordinary update at any other time, but after years of upheaval and uncertainty, it signalled a return to normalcy.
Everybody well – Dan back in college.
In the years that followed, the war’s presence didn’t completely go away. In September 1921 McArthur wrote to Vaux saying,
Things have been quiet with us this summer. We had the whole family at home for some months for the first time since the outbreak of war. Dan was run down – a “heart murmur” that he brought out of the war – and I insisted on his staying at home for the summer. He took things easy – spent most of his time cartooning and sketching and last week a specialist pronounced him cured. He is now on his way to New York to study art.
A year later, in a letter from July 1922, McArthur reports having
a glorious summer with everyone in good health and busy. They are all at home today – Dan and also his fiancee – Miss Dorothy Day who started to college with him and waited for him through the Great War. They hope to be married this fall. MacKellar is also engaged – Miss Frances Moss – daughter of the Glencoe lawyer.
While McArthur worried about hard times ahead for the country, re-adjusting to a new reality, he wrote of his personal contentment. He concludes his letter to Vaux by saying,
no man can predict the future and as “This little world of mine” is happy we have not much to complain about.
Daniel Carman McArthur served with the 56th O.A.C. Battery (which was combined with two other units to form the 55th Battery) as a signaller in the First World War. After graduating from the Ontario Agricultural College, he worked as an agricultural journalist at The Globe newspaper, then with The Farmer’s Sun where he later became editor. In 1940 he was appointed the first chief news editor of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and held this position until 1953. He then relocated from Toronto to Ottawa where he worked as director of special program events for the CBC until his retirement in 1962. Dan died in 1967 at the age of 69. He and his wife Dorothy had six children. Read more about Dan McArthurhere.
Peter McArthur was born in 1866 in Ekfrid Township and died on October 28, 1924, following an operation in Victoria Hospital, London. He was buried under a maple tree “flaming with autumn crimson” in Eddie Cemetery close to the graves of his mother and father. Read more about Peter McArthur from theDictionary of Canadian Biography here
Daniel Carman McArthur (from Canadian Singers and Their Songs)
Beginning of letter from Peter McArthur to his son Dan (Courtesy of Catherine Burns)
End of letter from Peter McArthur to his son Dan (Courtesy of Catherine Burns)
The McArthur family. From back left: Jim, Dan, a friend. Middle: Peter, Mabel. Front: Ian, McKellar, Elizabeth. (Courtesy of Charlotte Waller)
Peter and Mabel McArthur on their Ekfrid Township farm. (Courtesy of Charlotte Waller)
Near the house there is a sturdy oak tree that I always think of as one of the oldest of my friends. I grew up with it. Of course that is not exactly true, for I stopped growing many years ago, while it kept on growing, and it may keep on growing for centuries to come. But when I was a growing boy it was just the right kind of a tree for me to chum with. It was not too big to climb, and yet it was big enough to take me on its back and carry me into all the dreamlands of childhood.
On December 5, 2024, the Mary Webb Centre in Highgate organized an Afternoon With Authors book sale as a fundraiser to restore the beautiful stained glass dome.
The Mary Webb Centre came to life in 2010 when a group of people in the Highgate area saw an opportunity where the wrecking ball threatened to demolish the 100 year old United Church. The vision was to create community centre, art gallery and concert hall and now in 2024, 14 years later, the 250 seat venue is a “must-play” address for renowned as well as up-and-coming musicians from across Canada and for local performers too.
Mark Van Raay editor of log book kept by Rondeau Superintendant Isaac Gardiner.
“Your Obedient Servant – The Isaac Gardiner Journal” is the story of Rondeau Park’s first superintendent, covering the first eight years of his tenure from 1896-1904. Gardiner was 63 when he became the superintendent. Van Raay transcribed the daily journals compiled by Gardiner, who documented the early days of Rondeau. It was one of only two provincial parks in Ontario at the time. Algonquin Park was the other.
My Mary: A Story of One Barnardo Home Child. This epic tale and enduring love story spans some seventy years and shines light on one woman’s life journey as a Barnardo Home Child.
Check out more of Dawn’s stories. Here is her website: https://www.dawnbeecroftteetzel.ca/about-the-author/.
Book fair at the Mary Webb Centre, Highgate on December 7, 2024.
James McLean’s books tell the tales of the Fall of Valenfaar, a young country that is dealing with a host of unique problems. The first book called The Crimson Plains, focuses on an invasion, while the second, The Children’s Song, is a story wrapped around a religious secret. His third, the Dance of Ashes, melds the characters of his two previous books together.
Sandra Wickham is a fiction and nonfiction author, Founder of Feel Write Again, Mom, Special Olympics Coach and Special Needs Advocate. Here she is a the book fair at the Mary Webb Centre, Highgate on December 7, 2024 with her little boy helping out.
Sandra is a writing coach. Her mission, Feel Write Again, is to empower writers to unleash their full creative potential by prioritizing their physical, mental, and emotional well-being.
Laced with action, humour, and characters that readers immediately relate to, Glenn’ Muller’s stories revolve around ordinary folk being thrust into extraordinary situations. Fans of the crime-fiction and amateur sleuth genre will enjoy the Fenn & Lareault series, or the short story, The Letterhead Affair. The Gardener’s Guide to Native Plants of the Southern Great Lakes Region. Written by two very knowledgeable Ontario gardeners — Rick Gray and Shaun Booth. Emma Stack at the Book fair at the Mary Webb Centre, Highgate on December 7, 2024. She is a re-enactor who writes books set during the War of 1812 – 1814. CJ Frederick and her husband, Patrick at the Book fair at the Mary Webb Centre, Highgate on December 7, 2024.
For over two decades, Ken Willis has dedicated himself to preserving Wardsville’s history, curating a collection donated by residents that tells the story of Wardsville and its people. The Wardsville Museum is a cherished part of our community that houses a collection of artifacts and stories that showcase Wardsville and Mosa’s rich history. The museum depends on community support to preserve its treasures.
Ken Willis, the long-time curator of the Wardsville Museum, shares his personal story and an appeal for support.
Please denote your donation to benefit the Wardsville Museum and a tax receipt will be issued. Every dollar helps preserve Wardsville’s heritage for future generations.
Your support means the world to Ken and the entire Wardsville community. Thank you for helping us keep our history alive!
What happens when the story gets twisted? The story keeper and the storyteller got their wires crossed. Bunny, the story keeper, decided to tell a different story about her son. And the extended family all colluded. Eventually the son found out his true story – ‘the last man standing’. Tom Wilson discovered he is a descendant of mohawk warriors, hunters and chiefs …but he was denied the truth until he was in his 50s. You can see his artwork at the TAP Centre of Creativity until December 21st. Now he gets to tell his story – his story can be viewed here on film.
Everyone has a story. And all our stories are compelling and amazing. Why not write yours down for your descendants? Our children want to know about their ancestors and our ancestors want us to tell their stories. Truth preferred – the truth as we know it and have experienced it. Story keepers and story tellers. – Mary Simpson
Art by Tom Wilson
TAP Centre for Creativity presents, Mohawk Warriors, Hunters and Chiefs, a solo exhibition of the artwork of Tom Wilson tehohåhake (two roads). Tom is a musician, writer and visual artist based in Hamilton, Ontario. Tom’s art exhibition ends December 21st. I
Reverend Enos Montour (1898-1985) was a United Church minister and writer from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory.
Over the course of his retirement, Rev. Montour wrote a collection of stories about Mount Elgin Industrial School at the time he attended (ca.1910-1915). Mount Elgin is one the earliest United Church-run Indian Residential Schools and was located on the Chippewas of the Thames First Nation. With the help of Dr. Elizabeth Graham, Montour finished and titled his book Brown Tom’s Schooldays.
With no publisher in sight, photocopies were made and distributed to family members in the early 1980s. This important book is difficult to find today, so Professor McCallum, worked with the University of Manitoba Press, Dr. Graham, and Montour’s two granddaughters Mary I. Anderson and Margaret Mackenzie, to issue a new edition.
Now it’s time to read the book and buy the book for Christmas gifts. Support your local bookstore or order from Google. Ask at your local library. Contact the author, CJ Frederick through her website. The author is very appreciative.
Launched! Rooted and Remembered Oct 23, 2024
Great evening with James Carruthers, the story keeper; CJ Frederick, the story teller and author; and Patrick, the story champion. We packed the Archives and hosted a few people via zoom as well.
Sometimes the story keeper and the story teller is the same person, handing stories on to the next generation. Sometimes they are two different people.
Stories ripple all around us, if only we’re willing to hear them. In 2012, CJ first learned of Ellwyne Ballantyne and the astonishing relationship he forged with two strangers after reading a short newspaper article about the dedication of an unusual tree to a long-dead soldier from World War One. With obligations to work and family filling her time, she wasn’t yet ready to hear his story. It took a global pandemic, with the prospect of lockdowns and unexpected forced time at home, to open her ears, mind, and heart and be ready to explore the roots of Ellwyne’s story that took place more than a century before.
CJ grew up in the 1980s in a wood-framed farmhouse built by Scottish settlers, situated on a dead-end road that terminates near the winding Sydenham River. In 2000, this road was renamed from a numbered concession to Buttonwood Drive. The name reflects the stand of buttonwood trees gathered at the river’s edge, where they most comfortably grow.
In 2020, she began reflecting on the fallen soldier and his extraordinary buttonwood tree that grows near her childhood home. Her curiosity eventually led her to the doors of Carruthers clan descendants, where she begged to have a conversation about Ellwyne and his connection to the tree. Thinking it might have the makings of a short story, she began putting together the pieces of Ellwyne Ballantyne’s brief life. But, with each photograph, letter, and artifact shared, she became more engrossed in the tale of an orphan who had stepped foot on three continents and was taken in by strangers who came to love him as their own. At the outset, CJ did not anticipate that it would bloom into a novel, but as she learned more details about the characters and events, she believed that each nugget was fascinating and intriguing.
C
I hope that Ellwyne’s story and his connection with the Carruthers clan touches people with its message of love, faith, and remembrance. It’s only through storytelling that those who carry memories, and decide to share them, make history come to life.
CJ Frederick
Rooted and Remembered weaves together the will to honour and remember with a glimpse into rural settler life and hardship, as told in one family’s story about an orphaned boy and his beloved buttonwood tree.
CJ hopes that Ellwyne’s story and his connection with the Carruthers clan touches people with its message of love, faith, and remembrance.
By Bob Gentleman and Kathy Evans. Review printed with kind permission from the Middlesex Banner.
In July of this year, family and friends gathered at Arrowwood Farm, a beautiful property in Riverside, just south of Melbourne, to celebrate the publishing of a book written by my uncle, Bob Gentleman. The farm that is now called Arrowwood Farm (6460 Riverside Drive) has sentimental value to our family, as it was once owned by the Gentlemans, purchased in 1870.
Bob’s book, titled “They Settled in Riverside,” is largely a family history, documenting the arrival of our ancestors in the Riverside area and describing their family branches. But Bob also captures an era now decades past as he shares stories of early Riverside neighbours and of growing up in Melbourne in the 1930s. He recalls his paper route, the school, town merchants and businesses, the railroad, and the neighbours and friends who were important in his life.
Ellwyne Ballantyne’s twenty-two years of brief, bright life are summed up on a simple plaque attached to a majestic buttonwood tree in Carruthers Corners. When local author CJ Frederick first saw the memorial tree in the rural area just outside of Glencoe, ON, she experienced a keen reverence. “It’s just a dot on a map. I was not prepared for how beautiful the tree was. It looked like it was wearing a cloak; as my mother says, ‘wrapped in a queen’s robe’. Knowing that this tree was dedicated to the life of someone who had given that life in a faraway, long-ago conflict really made me stop and think about remembrance and the enduring nature of love.” Ballantyne’s story had to be told; Frederick was eager to record it.
Ellwyne Ballantyne’s buttonwood tree at Carruthers Corners
Frederick’s father, Butch Frederick, had mentioned the plaque years earlier, and it weighed on her mind until the pandemic in 2020 provided time to investigate. An article about the plaque’s dedication in 2012 led her to James C. Carruthers of Mossley, ON. Frederick accepted an invitation to Carruthers’ farmhouse for what would be the first of many hours of ruminative local history conservation, and dutifully inspired imagination.
For James Carruthers, the tree and its plaque represents his childhood spent listening to his grandmother’s stories about the kind, lonely boy from India she took under her wing and treated as her own. Ellwyne Ballantyne, born in Calcutta, India in 1895 to a steadfast mother, was orphaned by the age of 11. His stepfather steered Ballantyne and his half-sister first to Scotland, then to North America. Soon after he landed, in the dead of winter, at the doorstep of James A. and Betsy Jane Carruthers in 1906 at Carruthers Corners. During his years working the land with the Carruthers family, Ballantyne discovered a buttonwood tree thriving completely out of its element. The striking metaphor between tree and boy ignited a stewardship within Ballantyne that rooted him in his newest land, and family. This cultivated kinship matured with Ballantyne’s voluntary enlistment to serve on behalf of Canada overseas in World War I, where he was summarily sent to France. He was killed in action in September, 1917.
Lost, but not forgotten by James A. and Betsy Jane Carruthers—Ellwyne Ballantyne lived on through their stories, and also the land. Indeed, the buttonwood tree of this historical youth is the towering tree of his present memorial.
Though delighted to share Ballantyne with the rest of the world—Carruthers had waited a long time to share Ballantyne’s story with an audience outside of family—he held back the finer details at first. “My admission ticket to the full Ellwyne story, as far as James Carruthers was concerned, was that I grew up close to where Betsy Jane [James C.’s grandmother] was raised, I knew the area quite well, that I had a strong interest in the past, and that my grandfather had also served in World War I.” Frederick’s great grandfather also enlisted, but was honorably discharged when needed at home. “I feel a connection to what that generation endured.” Carruthers’ expansive archive included not only the cherished memories of his grandparents, but also a photo of Ballantyne and his birth mother in India, handwritten letters, and a wooden carving handcrafted by Ballantyne.
Sometimes the story keeper and the story teller is the same person, handing stories on to the next generation. Sometimes they are two different people.
Frederick grew up in a farmhouse on a concession fatefully renamed Buttonwood Drive, near the Sydenham River, home to many flourishing buttonwood trees. “I helped my dad plant more than 5,000 trees as we reforested a corner of our farm property with conifers. I have always been fascinated by the stoicism and beauty of trees.” She had initially set out to write a short story based on the plaque and its buttonwood tree, but as a few phone calls and visits stretched into over fifty hours of remembrance, Frederick knew it was a full-length novel. “When I told James C. that the story was far too complicated and long for a short story, I asked if I could try to construct a [fiction] novel. This thrilled James because he wants the story to be shared with others before it is lost to the memories of those who will pass and take it with them.” With Carruthers’ permission, Frederick used the factual pieces of Ballantyne’s history to fully immerse the reader in the fictionalized, fully-realized details of his life from beginning to end.
“Lots of people go through the motions of saying that they remember or they give thanks for the sacrifice of others,” says Frederick when asked what drew her to tell this deeply personal story of strangers, “but the Carruthers family has set a fine example of what remembrance means and how it looks. It doesn’t have to be big and showy, but it can be meaningful and real. And worth sharing.”
A technical writer by trade, Frederick is a creative fiction author by inspiration. “I spend all day storytelling business concepts, but I’ve always wanted to write a novel. Small towns and family-owned farms are disappearing, and when they’re gone, they’re just gone. I want to tell rural stories and find an audience who will appreciate them. And the memory of Dad talking about this plaque on a tree all but in the middle of a twentieth century farm field pulled at me. The pandemic made me feel like if not now, when? So I took the opportunity to spend my lockdown time researching, connecting, and writing about this incredible tale.”
Rooted and Remembered by CJ Frederick is a fiction novel based on the real life of Ellwyne Ballantyne, a remarkable boy from India who bestowed a legacy of love and compassion to a rural Ontario family before his life was cut short in World War I. To purchase a copy of the book (available in paperback or ebook), visit the Amazon website or order it from any bookstore.
Frederick’s just published book was launched at The Archives in Glencoe on October 23, 2024 at 7:00 p.m. This story was written by CJ Frederick and published in a September edition of the Middlesex Banner.
Jim May is also a story keeper for Ellwyne Ballantyne. Here he is with Chris Carruthers and Harold Carruthers after a presentation to the historial society about a pilgrimage to France to pay respects to Private Ballantyne
Lorne Munro – I became interested in historical events in the 1970s. My interest grew after attending the 25th Anniversary banquet of the Glencoe & District Historical Society at the Glencoe Legion in 2003. We presently have eight family genealogy books in our home that I manage and update. Ancestry.ca has been a great help and I correspond with family members to gather information.
During my tenure as President in 2018, the Society’s collection moved from our rooms on Main Street to the old library at 178 McKellar Street, Glencoe. I have served as secretary, first vice president, president (a couple of times). I’m slowing down now, just working on Wednesday afternoons in The Archives and enjoying any other projects that come along.
Peacefully at Strathroy Middlesex General Hospital , Strathroy on Monday, March 18, 2024 William “Lorne” Munro passed away in his 91st year. Predeceased by his wife Phyllis (2023). Dear father to Janice and Tom McCallum, Susan Sinclair and Steve Schneider and Cheryl and Roy Neves. Cherished Grandpa to Matt and Becky, Kimberly and Paul, Adam and Kirissa, Andrew and Reilly, John and Stacey, Scott and Mandy, Jacob, Emily and Brandon. Great-Grandpa to Isabelle, Josephine and Elliott. Lorne will be missed by many nieces and nephews. Predeceased by his parents Neil and Florence Munro, his sister Anna and his brother Keith. Link to Photos reel
Everyone has a story. Now is the time to tell our stories so that our legacies are not forgotten.
We have the tools to capture stories and share them online. Let’s give it a try. At the very least, please write on the back of the family photographs.
The Glencoe & District Historical Society is recording short stories that help the younger generation understand how they got here… whose shoulders they are standing upon.
If you need some inspiration, check out YouTube. There are sad stories; happy stories, and wise stories. We are looking for OUR stories. Stories told by our people, young and old.
Our local historical society is inspired by Ontario’s high school curriculum. We would like to gather stories about the past century that bring some context and insight to what has happened in the world these past 10 decades. Would you mind helping us?
Click on this form and fill it out for the story collecting team. Or give Mary Simpson a call at 519 318 1074 to discuss some ideas. We are just getting started, so would like some early contributors to help us get the process designed.
Yoshio Shimuzu: “You have to remember that we had been driven from our homes by racial prejudice in British Columbia, reviled and despised by the bulk of the population, and here in the farmlands of southwestern Ontario, we were welcomed as equals and saviours by the farming population.” Read more →
By Mary Simpson and Denise Corneil. Featured in the Middlesex Banner.
The Barn Quilt Trail Movement, which started in Ohio, USA, has blossomed into a colorful journey across North America, thanks to the vision and dedication of individuals like Donna Sue Groves, now deceased. Inspired by her love for quilts and barns, Groves initiated the movement in 2001 when she painted the first quilt square on her family’s barn in Adams County, Ohio.
In Canada, the movement found roots in Temiskaming, Ontario, in 2007. Bev Maille, Marg Villneff, and Eleanor Katana spearheaded a project to paint 200 quilt squares, adorning barns and historic landmarks across the region in time for the International Plowing Match 2009. This initiative not only added vibrant colors to the landscape but also attracted tourists and boosted economic development.
Wardsville, Middlesex County, Ontario, joined the trail in 2009 when Denise Corneil’s mother, Eileen, returned from the U.S. with a barn quilt brochure. Denise, along with a team of volunteers, stitched a story quilt commemorating Wardsville’s founders, Mr. and Mrs. George Ward, for the village’s 2010 Bicentennial celebration. This project revitalized the community and became a testament to the power of preserving local heritage.
The movement continued to flourish in Ontario. With support from the Sand Plains Community Development Fund, over 100 quilts were created, each telling stories of settlement, community building, and rural life. Barn quilt trails spread up and down the roads of Middlesex, Elgin, Oxford, Norfolk, and Brant Counties in 2011.
Here in Middlesex, women living along Longwoods Road and the community of Chippewa of the Thames, worked side by side to plan two trails explaining how the War of 1812-1814 affected the lives of women, children, and families. The winter of 1813 was particularly bad.
Trail of Tears- Family. Located in the community of Chippewa of the Thames
The result was the Trail of Tears Barn Quilt Trail, a collection showcased on Chippewa of the Thames locations, and a trail stretching along Longwoods Road from Delaware to Thameville – plus two beautiful quilts and many new and enduring friendships. These trails and many more trails across Canada are curated at barnquilttrails.ca.
In 2013, all major barn quilt trails in Ontario were curated on one website, barnquilttrails.ca, supported by the Ontario Trillium Foundation. This initiative aimed to provide guidance and encouragement to communities starting their own barn quilt projects, ensuring the movement’s sustainability and growth. This website continues to be curated by volunteers and now showcases barn quilts across Canada.
As barn quilt trails spread across Canada, the United States, and around the world, they became more than just colorful displays; they became a way for communities to share their stories and preserve their heritage.
Today, as new projects like those in South Bruce and Osgoode Township emerge, the legacy of the Barn Quilt Trail Movement lives on. Denise Corneil, Wardsville, along with a dedicated team, remains committed to supporting and promoting these initiatives, ensuring that the colorful journey across North America continues to thrive for generations to come.
Some community barn quilt projects start the planning process with a theme and a story quilt. In 2009, Wardsville started up with the War of 1812 theme. Eleanor Blain and Sue Ellis, seasoned quilt makers, devised a plan to engage people of all skill levels in the quilt-making process.
With the assistance of local historian Ken Willis, who provided valuable insights into the Wards’ history, the quilt committee traced the Wards’ journey from establishing a settlement along Longwoods Road to enduring the trials of the Battle of the Longwoods and the ensuing accusations of treason. Thirty quilt blocks were meticulously selected to depict key moments in the Wards’ lives, ensuring that Mrs. Margaret Ward’s contributions were honored too.
The quilt-making process was a labor of love, with countless hours spent selecting fabrics, cutting shapes, and stitching together each block. Ellis and Blain invited community members, both experienced quilters and novices, to lend their hands to the project. The quilt frame at Beattie Haven Retirement Home became a hub of activity as individuals gathered to contribute stitches to the communal creation.
The quilt telling the story of George and Margaret Ward being stitched at Beattie Manor retirement home.
When the George Ward Commemorative Quilt was unveiled at Wardsville United Church in May 2010, it elicited gasps of awe from the crowd. The quilt’s was entered into the Group category at the 2010 International Plowing Match Quilting Competition in Shedden,where it claimed second prize.
Barn quilts are eight-foot square (and larger) painted replicas of actual fabric quilt blocks installed on barns. Barn quilts draw attention to Canada’s disappearing rural landscapes, timber frame barns, and the family farm. Each barn quilt tells a story and draws attention to unmarked historical places.
They can be scattered through the county mounted on beautiful barns (like Huron County), or they can create a themed route, leading visitors from one site to the next.
Tourists are Interested in our local history
With the aging baby boomer cohort, there is a lot of interest in nostalgia and history. There is a growing recognition that tourists are interested in our local history too.
The Canadian federal government is investing in rural and remote tourism. The tourism industry is realizing what barn quilt enthusiasts always knew. Statistics Canada shows that tourism provides billions of dollars in revenue and accounts for 10% of local jobs in rural (non-metro) areas. A federal spokesperson said that “Tourism can diversify and strengthen the economic base and viability as well as safeguard local culture, language and heritage. Businesses benefit from increased income from direct sales of homegrown and locally made products. Visitors want to participate in authentic Indigenous experiences, and 62% of Indigenous tourism businesses are in rural and remote areas.”
Louise Long applies masking tape prior to painting. Three coats. (Photo by Dave Chidley)
And so the barn quilt movement continues to spread. Go to barnquilttrails.ca to find the trails in Middlesex County and southwestern Ontario. Embark on a journey through time and space. This isn’t just tourism; it’s a love letter to the land, a celebration of heritage, and a testament to the power of community.
As part of an annual commemoration of area cemeteries, Glencoe & District Historical Society (G&DHS) organized a presentation and community walk at the Appin Cemetery. Prayers, dedications, singing, and community conversation were key parts of the afternoon.
Members of the G&DHS and guests offered welcome, poetry reading, and historical insight to the cemetery and its connection to the community.
Jim May, Appin Cemetery board member, offered an historical account of the origins and continued support for the cemetery “on the sandy knoll above the town of Appin”. His address mirrored a, 10 year ago, presentation at the hundredth anniversary celebration of the Appin Cemetery. Here it is at this link.
The cemetery land was procured in 1914 and a company was formed, Appin Cemetery Co. Ltd., by a group of community members. Eleven men agreed to pay $15 per share to form the company to purchase the land. The property, 4 acres plus roadway, was purchased for $400.00.
The price of a plot, which included 8 burial sites, was $15.00. Several families representing early shareholders, (Johnson, McFee, May), purchased large family plots with 32 graves each. This provided early operating funds for the new company.
There was a total of 6 burials in the first year.
The stone gates were built at the entrance in 1957-58. The iron arch was added in 1974 and has since been refurbished.
Women have played a key role in the development and maintenance of the cemetery. Appin Women’s Institute helped create the roadway and tree planting efforts. They also offered the first donation for the stone gate construction and maintained persistent pressure for its completion through organizations such as the Appin Dramatic Club, headed by Ivy Galbraith.
Marj Zavitz was the first female Secretary-Treasurer of the cemetery board and many other women followed to support and lead the board.
David May, current President of the cemetery board spoke and offered welcome and highlighted the current situation with the Appin Cemetery. He indicated that land had been purchased to expand the cemetery from its current location, along the laneway to Thames Road at the gates.
Having a place of remembrance and honour was the focus for those original settlers. They envisioned and built a resting place for community members in and around the town of Appin.
The Appin Cemetery has been part of the community for over 100 years and is a reflection of the people who were and are in our midst.
Like the toils on early farms and settlements that made up Ekfrid and Appin, much hard work and dedication was necessary to have a lasting and sustainable place for family members to find their final rest.
The Glencoe and District Historical Society are thankful to The Appin Cemetery board for the cooperation and support for this commemoration event. Community spirit creates strength for all.
Mary Simpson, President of Glencoe & District Historical Society, and Ken Beecroft, Past President start the afternoon program. James May shares the history of The Appin Cemetery
Presented to the Appin Memorial Day gathering August 1, 2000 by Jim May, whose family had a long association with Appin Cemetery. Jim’s first recollection of the cemetery was a phone call in the early 1950s: “Could my Dad come with his truck to help collect up stones for the cemetery gates?” This presentation tells the history of the Appin Cemetery, Appin, Ontario, Canada
Written by Harold Carruthers, No. 282 Lorne Lodge Mason historian, July 2024.
If one were to trace the history of any one Lodge, it might be compared with that of trying to determine the very origin of humanity. I am talking about the meeting places of the members of the organization called Free Masonry. The history of our local chapter, Lorne Lodge No. 282 Glencoe, can be traced back to 1872 and ended this year 2024 when our Lodge went dark after 152 years.
Last meeting of #282 Lorne Lodge: back row L-R: Keith Dickie, Alex McLean, Ron Livingston, Harold Carruthers, Doug Reycraft.
Front L-R: Bob Munroe, John Mitchell, Ryan Brubacher, Bev Whitlock, Jim May, Terry Plant. Missing: Allan Mayhew, Brad Walker, Chris Yates.
Meetings were held in some of the most historical buildings in the village of Glencoe, Middlesex County.
McKellar House hotel 1872
On May 8, 1972, 16 men held a meeting at the original McKellar House hotel and decided to form a Masonic Lodge in Glencoe, Ontario. Several of the original charter members came from ‘mother’ lodges in London, Mt. Brydges, Newbury, Seaforth, Grimsby, Iona Station and Collingwood. The men’s names were inscribed on the Charter dated July 11, 1872 which was issued from the Grand Lodge and affixed to the east wall of the Lodge meeting room. Charter member occupations were railway employees, farmers, hotel keeper, lumber contractor, druggist, medical doctor, engineer, wagonmakers, merchant and registrar.
2. First Town Hall, Glencoe. 1873 – 1893
The Town Hall 1873
Looking for a more permanent home than the local drinking establishment, the executive of Lorne Lodge signed a debenture with municipal trustees to lease the upper floor of the two year old Glencoe Town Hall for a meeting room. This new hall was located behind the McKellar House and across from the present-day Southwest Middlesex municipal office.
On September 22, 1893, twenty years later, a fire broke out in the McRoberts Livery Stables next door and after a few hours all was destroyed. Fortunately for the Lodge, most of the valuables in the Lodge room were saved from total destruction by the actions of several citizens.
3. Clanahan Block, Glencoe, ON. 1893 – 1896.
Home of Lorne Lodge 282.
The Clanahan Block 1893
The next Lodge room chosen was the 233 Main Street Clanahan Block (now owned by Godfather’s Pizza), directly across from the McKellar House. Again, there was a fire and the Lodge members were again on the street looking for a new home.
French Hall 1896
Worshipful Brother William J. French offered the use of the upper floor of his business block at the corner of Main and Symes Street in Glencoe until suitable quarters could be obtained. This building still stands but it was moved a short distance to 167 Symes Street so a new Memorial Hall could be built on the corner lot by a chapter of the I.O.O.F. – International Order of Foresters, another men’s club.
4. French Hall, Glencoe, ON. 1896 – 1902.
Dixon Block 1902
In 1902, Arthur E. Sutherland, publisher of the The Glencoe Transcript local newspaper, offered to lease the upper floor of his Dixon Block, 243 Main Street, Glencoe and fitted it for Masonic use. Sutherland became a brother Mason the following year. This location served the Masons very graciously for 57 years.
Harold Carruthers, Lorne Lodge Mason historian
Dobie Block 1959
In 1958, Right Worshipful Brother Herman Bauer made the motion that the Lorne Lodge consider purchasing the Dobie Block, a brick building built by George Dobie as a bank in 1885. It was decided by the executive and fellow members to purchase this building and decorate it up to be used for Lodge purposes and lease out the lower rooms.
This building served the Masons well for 59 years. Through a combined effort of every member, the second floor was rebuilt and on November 11, 1959, a cast of Grand Lodge officers dedicated the new Lodge room. Over the years, Masons made several structure changes, added blinds, painted, and added air conditioning to make the room more attractive and comfortable.
6. Dobie Block 1959 – 2018
Hammond Lodge 2018 – 2024
In March of 2017, the executive and membership decided to sell the Masonic building due to declining membership. The building was sold and a decision was made to rent the Masonic Hammond Lodge in nearby Wardsvile 21996 Hagerty Rd. The first meeting was held September 11, 2018.
7. Hammond Lodge – Wardsville. 2018 – 2024.
Glencoe Lodge Goes Dark
In the early years, Masonic districts were usually laid out in unison with the railways.
In 1872, the Glencoe Lorne Lodge was part of the London District . Then in the years 1887 – 1923, Lorne Lodge became part of the Erie No. 1 Masonic District. In 1923, redistribution took place and Lorne Lodge members found themselves in the Chatham District.
Over the 152 years that the Lorne Lodge existed, there have been 583 initiated members, 120 Masters, 12 District Deputy Grand Masters, 14 Grand Stewards and one Grand Chaplain.
Lorne Lodge has tried to maintain a high standard throughout its Masonic history with dignity, perfection of work and upholding their strict Masonic principles, all of which could not have been obtained without the fullest cooperation of its members past and present and future.
Unfortunately, due to aging membership and a decline in new members, the members made the difficult decision to close.
I am proud to have served as historian for the past 34 years.
Film industry pros sweat the possibility that many digital files will eventually become unusable — an archival tragedy reminiscent of the celluloid era.
Martin Scorsese: “The preservation of every art form is fundamental.”
For the movie business, these are valuable studio assets — to use one example, the MGM Library (roughly 4,000 film titles including the James Bond franchise and 17,000 series episodes) is worth an estimated $3.4 billion to Amazon — but there’s a misconception that digital files are safe forever. In fact, files end up corrupted, data is improperly transferred, hard drives fail, formats change, work simply vanishes. “It’s a silent fire,” says Linda Tadic, CEO of Digital Bedrock, an archiving servicer that works with studios and indie producers. “We find issues with every single show or film that we try to preserve.” So, what exactly has gone missing? “I could tell you stories — but I can’t, because of confidentiality.”
Specialists across the space don’t publicly speak about specific lost works, citing confidentiality issues. So, only disquieting rumors circulate — along with rare, heart-stopping lore that breaches public consciousness. One infamous example: In 1998, a Pixar employee accidentally typed a fatal command function, instructing the computer system to delete Toy Story 2, which was then almost complete. Luckily, a supervising technical director who’d been working from home (she’d just had a baby) had a 2-week-old backup file.
Experts note that indie filmmakers, operating under constrained financial circumstances, are most at risk of seeing their art disappear. “You have an entire era of cinema that’s in severe danger of being lost,” contends screenwriter Larry Karaszewski, a board member of the National Film Preservation Foundation. His cohort on the board, historian Leonard Maltin, notes that this era could suffer the same fate as has befallen so many silent pictures and midcentury B movies. “Those films were not attended to at the time — not archived properly because they weren’t the products of major studios,” he says.
Can you imagine digitising the Mona Lisa painting and destroying the original? The Magna Carta? The British North America Act? 1798 Act of Parliament to create London District? The answer to maintaining records is not paper or digital – it is both!
Committee To Establish a Middlesex County Archives
Marie Williams: An impressive crowd gathered for the “Haunts of Peter McArthur” road trip Sunday afternoon, June 16, starting out at what was the McArthur homestead on McArthur Rd. before moving onto the Eddie Cemetery on Glendon Dr. and finally back to the Archives in Glencoe. Two plaques were unveiled along the way as McArthur trivia and memories were shared. Both young and more established fans of the works of the “Sage of Ekfrid,” family members and historians enjoyed the afternoon which was organized by the Glencoe and District Historical Society. The Society is marking the 100th anniversary of the death of Peter McArthur in 2024. See photos on Facebook Post.
Drawing by CW Jeffery
CW Jeffery drawing on sheet music, My Home Read more →
Marie Williams, Glencoe: The huge crowd that packed into the Glencoe and District Historical Society Archives on February 22 proved that the “Sage of Ekfrid” is as popular today as he was over 100 years ago. In addition to 30 viewing online, over 50 turned up in person.
