July 14, 1993
25 Years Ago
Bryson Lions and Equinox host record crowd for Community Day: Last Saturday, hundreds of visitors to Pontiac got a chance to see the wonders of the Ottawa River up close – real close.
The Bryson Lions Club and Equinox Whitewater Rafting co-hosted their annual Community Day. About 200 people took advantage of cut rates to ride the rapids that churn through the boulders along the west side of Calumet Island.
That evening, 365 sat down to a steak dinner which proves that the Community Day is a popular event for more than just the rafting crowd.
“This is our best year yet,” said organizer John Maheral afterwards.
The day attracted Ontarians in droves. In all, the day is expected to clear more than $4,000 for Lions Club projects.
Shawville High holds 50th reunion: The class of ‘43 Shawville High School graduates had a reunion at Pine Lodge on July 3.
The class reunion posed for a photo. Those in attendance were Mona (Tracy) Dean, Ella (Howard) Stewart, Verna Strutt (teacher), Clara Strutt (teacher), Margaret (McNeill) Graham, Shirley (Armstrong) Shouldice, Doreen Walsh, Everett McDowell, Mary Jay, Laura Woodley, Gladys (Telford) Hepburn, Elma (Dale) Cook, Reta (Carson) Barber, Jean (Judd) Levere, John Stavenow, Jean (McDowell) Alder, and Rev. William McDowell.
July 18, 1968
50 Years Ago
Mill and union sign first labour contract for Pontiac Division: Representatives of Consolidated Bathurst Ltd. and the International brotherhood of Pulp, Sulfite and Paper Mill Workers have signed the first labour contract for some 300 employees at the Pontiac Division of the company.
The contract, retroactive to Oct. 14, 1967 when the brotherhood was certified to bargain for the employees, calls for a a basic wage rate of $2.63 an hour for labourers with a top rate of $3.84. The rate for Class A tradesman is $3.72.
Truck fire extinguished: At 8:30 Saturday morning, Piers Ebsworth who was visiting with the Bill Brandums in Shawville glanced out the front window and noticed a truck aflame on the hospital road. Bill grabbed his home fire extinguisher (a dry chemical extinguisher) and also his carbon tetrachloride extinguisher from his car and played them both onto the burning gas which was dripping from the truck’s engine onto the ground below.
The driver, Israel Chevalier had already exhausted his own carbon tet extinguisher trying to put out the engine fire through the hood which was too hot to lift and was shrieking that if the seven ton tank of anhydrous ammonia on his truck took fire, the whole town would blow up. He was delivering the load of liquid fertilizer to Everett McDowell’s farm on the Seventh Line for North Star Feeds.
When Brandum’s extinguishers became exhausted, he got another from the home of Alec Mucha and continued to play it on both the dripping oil and the engine. The principle there was that if you can keep the ground beneath the truck free of fire, it will not spread backwards towards the tanks. Meanwhile, Mrs. Brandum had alerted the Shawville Fire Dept. by telephone and they came around with their fire truck and used their extinguisher to supplement the work being done on the engine. Then they hooked up their fog nozzle spray and the cold water did the trick.
July 22, 1943
75 Years Ago
Local News: Four Murray brothers serving in Canadian Forces: Relatives in Bristol have received word that Sgt. Pilot Frederick Graham Murray has arrived overseas. Fred Murray is the son of Mr. and Mrs. W.J. Murray and his wife the former Helen McNeill, all of Elmside section, Bristol.
Three brothers are serving in the Canadian forces, David and Stewart, overseas and Gordon in Canada.
The Shawville detachment of the Lanark and Renfrew Scottish Regiment will leave for two week’s annual training at Connaught ranges near Ottawa on July 25. They will entrain at Renfrew at 9 a.m.
Lieut. McDougall will be in charge of the party on the way to camp. Capt. K.C. Bolton will join the regiment on Monday. Twenty three officers and men from Shawville and district will attend camp.
Lac. Melville Kearns was killed in action on July 16, according to word received by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. T.J. Kearns of Quyon.
His majesty the King landed his plane on an airfield in North Africa to visit the 1st and 8th armies, the Royal Navy and air force, accompanied by General Eisenhower, Commander-in-Chief of Allied forces. His Majesty also visited the United States’ armies and air force and the French army in Africa. He invested General Eisenhower with the insignia of a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath.
A special radio communique from Moscow announces that the German armies have started a third offensive against Russia. As was the case last summer, the new assault, says The New York Times, has been launched along the winding 200-mile front from Orel, some 200 miles south of Moscow to Belgorod, just north of Kharkov where both sides have been concentrating troops for some time.
July 18, 1918
100 Years Ago
Local news: Mechanical milkers are to be introduced in Pontiac. In fact, one farmer that we know of, Mr. Daniel Shea, of Campbell’s Bay district, has had one in use for some time and the reports most satisfactory results.
Cadet Norris Hodgins, who is attending the training school of the Royal Air Force at Toronto, has been taking a few holidays at his home here, following a spell in the hospital with others of his unit who were laid up with mumps.
What is probably the final drive of the German hosts to reach Paris and secure victory this summer, began on Sunday morning with great intensity along the front between the city of Rheims and Chateau Therry on the Marne River, a distance of about fifty miles.
An American army is hotly engaged in resisting the enemy in a sector of this front along the Marne River, which is reported to have been crossed at several places by the enemy.
Among the prisoners-of-war repatriated since the beginning of the year, is Capt. A. Gillies Wilken of Edmonton, chaplain of a mounted rifle battalion. He was captured at Ypres in June 1916. There was a statement appearing in “Canada in Flanders” that he was killed.
July 20, 1893
125 Years Ago
Local news: Pawnee Bill’s Wild West Show is to visit Arnprior on Saturday.
The brethren of the Thorne and Leslie lodges, with the members of Yarm and North Clarendon lodges celebrated the twelfth at Gray’s Lake, Thorne. Despite the unfavourable weather which no doubt kept many at home, there was a large attendance and the event at this place passed off rather successfully.
Rev. Messrs. Flanagan, Charlesworth and Byron addressed the assemblage.
Regarding the prospects of the potato crop in North Clarendon, if we are to believe all we hear, some parties will have to quarter their potatoes before they can put them in their cellars.
A very severe hail storm on Monday afternoon struck in the neighbourhood of McKee’s station, Bristol and destroyed a great deal of grain, in some cases totally.
In conversation with a hay dealer a few days ago, THE EQUITY learned that there would probably be a good market for hay this year in consequence of the shortage of the crop in the old country.
The advantages of quarantine are well illustrated in a report of Dr. Montizamber to the Department of Agriculture. The Montevidean arrived at Grosse Isle, Que. on the 29th. She was not a passenger boat. One of the crew was found to be affected with small pox and the vessel was put into quarantine. Six more cases developed owing to contact with the disease before reaching quarantine. The usual disinfection of effects and vaccination took place upon landing. The last of the crew will be allowed to go tomorrow and thirteen sailed on that ship on the 9th inst. Had this case of small-pox been allowed to go and broken out somewhere in land, the consequences no doubt would have been very serious.
