Jan. 27, 1993
25 Years Ago
Pontiac suffers through mild winter: The lightest winter snowfall in at least 13 years has Pontiac hotels and snowmobile outfitters counting their losses.
Harold Storie, president of the Pontiac Snowmobile Drivers Association says revenue from memberships is half what it was last year, meaning a loss of about $34,000.
This translates into fewer people using trails, getting their machines serviced, buying food and fuel.
Lee Laframboise of Bean’s Service Station in Shawville said his business is down at least 25 per cent. “Everything I do revolves around snow and there is none,” he said.
Paddy wagon piles into ditch: Tuesday morning, a Quebec Police Force paddy wagon transporting three prisoners and two guards made an unscheduled side-trip on its way to the Campbell’s Bay courthouse from Hull.
The vehicle apparently hit a patch of black ice, spun out and lodged itself in the ditch, spilling its’ criminal contents at the intersections of Highway 303 and 148 near Shawville.
No one was seriously hurt in the accident but it is reported that Constable Beausoleil, the first officer on the scene, had a moment of trepidation when it looked as though the prisoners may have escaped.
As it turns out, the five were all safe and secure at the PCH for a once-over by medical staff.
Feb. 1, 1968
50 Years Ago
Derailment blocks CNR track 19 hours: On Saturday morning, eighteen freight cars were derailed ten miles east of Bristol and it took until seven o’clock the next morning for the work crews to finish clearing and repairing the track to allow the 62 car freight train to carry on to Bristol Station.
No one was hurt. The train had been going west from Ottawa and until the line was cleared, the regular weekend CN trains used the CPR tracks to Pembroke.
New doctor for Shawville coming in June: The long bemoaned shortage of doctors in Shawville may be alleviated towards the end of June if the present plans of a young woman doctor in Montreal become realized.
Dr. Michele Laughton-Gregory, a graduate of the University of Montreal Medical School who has interned at Hotel Dieu and at Notre Dame Hospitals in Montreal is hoping to move to Shawville after the current school term is over.
Dr. Laughton-Gregory and her six young children will be taking up residence in Shawville during the summer. She has been in private practice in Montreal and has wished for a rural practice, hence the move to Shawville.
Jan. 28, 1943
75 Years Ago
Local News: On Sunday morning many of our townspeople listened to a re-broadcast of a hockey match in England in which our own Lindsay “Red” Dale was the officiating referee. “Red” has been overseas about two years with the R.C.A.F. He is a son of Mrs. Robt. A. Dale who tuned into the broadcast too late to hear her son’s name announced.
Stark’s Corners United congregation held their annual congregational meeting in the church hall on Thursday night. There was a good attendance and Rev. A.F. Fokes was in the chair.
The new hall has been completely paid for and during the year a kitchen was added and repairs made to the church and shed.
Shipment of large quantities of fuel to French Africa has caused drastic restriction in the sale of gasoline in the Eastern States says The Christian Science Monitor. These measures for the conservation of gasoline have officially cut pleasure driving and considerably hampered economic activity of large parts of the American population.
The most important item in the framework of the mobilization of military and economic power is the organization of a new French army under the command of Gen. Henri Honore Giraud.
Joseph Stalin was named by Time magazine as its “Man of the Year” for 1942. P.I. Prentice, publisher explained, “The choice of any man of the year is in no way an accolade or a Nobel Prize for doing good. Nor is it a moral judgement,” he added. “The two criteria for the choice are always these: who had the biggest rise to fame and who did most to change the news for better or for worse.”
Jan . 31, 1918
100 Years Ago
Local News: The Dominion Fuel Controller is calling attention of the urgent need of increasing the production of wood for fuel to relieve the coal situation which is bound to become more serious till after the war. His advice is to secure a reserve supply of wood fuel and he approves of the steps which some cities, towns and even villages have taken to accumulate a reserve.
Mr. C.A.L. Tucker, our genial station agent, has purchased the residential property on King St. acquired some time ago by Mr. Fred Dale from Mr. R. Morrison.
The “Neverwasers” improved their status in the hockey world last Wednesday night when they put it over the Star Ladies team in the return match which was pulled off at the local rink on that occasion, but they required several minutes’ overtime in which to break the tie and so had nothing much to crow about.
Telephone rentals notice: Subscribers of the Pontiac Rural Telephone Company are respectfully reminded that rentals for the first half of 1918 are payable in January.
The Otter Lake mail service which has been performed by Mr. Wm. C. Smith for the past three years was taken over by Mr. James D. Horner.
Quite a number of young people are busy portaging hay and oats up river in Dunraven. The road is very good across the swamp after you leave the cow path.
Jan . 26, 1893
125 Years Ago
Local news: We are sorry to hear that Mr. Benjamin Judd of Thorne with several members of his family have been stricken with typhoid fever.
A very pleasant evening was spent at the house of Mr. Thos. Reid on Thursday last by a number of young people from Bristol Corners and the young folk of our neighbourhood.
The P.P. Railway Company have reduced the rates on parcels from 35 to 25 cents. Return tickets at a reduction to single fare rates are now issued on the road.
Death has been particularly severe in its visitations to the home of Dr. Harper, inspector of superior schools for this province. On Thursday, his 13-year-old daughter, Jessie, succumbed to that fell destroyer, consumption. This is the third daughter the doctor has lost in the last two years.
Mr. James McCord, son of Mr. Thos. McCord of North Clarendon came down from Mattawa on Thursday last with one leg broken below the knee, the result of an accident he sustained the day before. It seems he was rolling a barrel of herrings and another man employed at the same job, allowed a barrel to roll against McCord’s leg, breaking it as above stated. He was driven out to his father’s on Friday morning by Mr. R. Hobbs.
Robert Bolam, one of our boys, has caused quite a sensation among the girls, by leaving Bryson.
The Conroy Mills at Lake Deschenes with the many improvements and addition now being made to them will rank among the largest on the Ottawa. The firm have decided to lay tracks throughout the lumber yards in the spring and use a small locomotive similar to the one at Buell and Hurdman’s for shunting purposes.
It is wonderful the attraction there is every other Sunday at Knox church for that young man from South Onslow who drives a chestnut horse. We prophesy marriage.
