Compiled by Bonnie Chevrier
Jan. 26, 1994
25 Years Ago
No Stars shine in Shawville: The Shawville and District Minor Hockey Association was the real winner of Saturday night’s game against the CJOH No Stars.
Although the final score had the No Stars tied with the Pontiac Faded Stars, the money raised at the event put the local team ahead.
Richard Armitage, vice president of the Shawville and District Minor Hockey League said about $3,500 was raised.
“The idea is to keep registration fees affordable,” he said. There are about 180 kids playing hockey in Shawville this season.
About 700 people crammed in the Shawville arena to watch the madcap antics of the No Stars.
Players were subjected to countless tripping calls, whipped cream, pies in he face, not to mention being doused with buckets of water.
Corridor sold for $1: By a vote of 15 to 4, the mayors at MRC council voted to allow municipalities to buy the extra railroad corridor property for $1.
The old CPR right-of-way, which the MRC is converting into a recreational corridor, includes some surplus land. Where the corridor runs through a village, this extra property may have potential for development.
Jan. 29, 1969
50 Years Ago
Pontiac High stands high in basketball and hockey both West Quebec and Eastern Ontario: Pontiac High School had a busy week in the athletic field.
On Tuesday the local basketball squads played host to General Panet High School from Petawawa. The P.H.S. Bantams pulled out a thrilling 30-27 win as Robert McCord led the way with 14 points.
The Juniors fell victim to a big, strong Panet squad to the tune of 39-33. Gary Russell had a strong game for the Juniors as he pumped in 22 points while Ron Dorzek tossed in 8 more.
The P.H.S. Senior boys remained undefeated in league competition as they dumped General Panet 63-22. Wayne Wallace collected 15 points and John Atkinson 11 as the senior squad held on to their share of first place.
Wednesday the Senior boys hockey team defeated St. Joseph’s of Renfrew 5-0.
Shawville Figure Skating Association inaugurated: Shawville is now on the Canadian Figure Skating map. Last Thursday evening at the Dr. S.E. McDowell School library, eighteen parents of figure skating students met with two of the instructors, Mrs. Mary Manuell and Mrs. Joan Gray and formed the Shawville Figure Skating Club.
A carnival is planned for the latter part of March and classes continue on Tuesday afternoons with the pre-schoolers going early and school children coming to the arena after school.
Jan. 27, 1944
75 Years Ago
Local news: A prosperous financial year was revealed by reports received at the annual congregational meeting of Stark’s Corners United Church on Wednesday evening.
Total receipts from all purposes were found to be $845.00 of which $80.40 were for missions.
The annual congregational meeting received reports on Thursday evening that showed that Shawville United Church had enjoyed a prosperous financial year with total receipts of $6,340.00 for all purposes.
It was decided to proceed with the renovation of church auditorium this spring.
Disclosing their most powerful new “secret weapon”, Great Britain and the United States last week disclosed that they now have in production a revolutionary type of propellerless fighter plane, driven by jet propulsion engines and capable of terrific speed at great heights.
Several hundred successful flights have been carried out by American pilots in the United States and by British pilots with similar British aircraft in England, all without a single mishap, the statement said.
G.I. Junior: Orphaned by the bombing of Avaline, Italy, 10-year-old Tony Mao was adopted as mascot of U.S. troops on the Italian front and is strictly general issue, in conversation, garb and equipment.
Jan. 23, 1919
100 Years Ago
Local news: The Merchants Bank staff with their office equipment took up quarters in the new building opposite the post office on Wednesday last. Manager Drum has also removed his family to the apartments overhead.
Among the large number of soldiers who returned from England last week were the following from this district:
Sgt. L.E. Harris, son of Robert Harris of Stark’s Corners who went overseas in 1916 and served in France for 22 months. He was wounded in the knee at one of the battles fought near Ypres.
W.G. Chisnell, Shawville; R.A. Hodgins, Shawville; I.V. Cadieux, Quyon; R.H. McCorriston, Bristol; W.T. Olmstead of Stark’s Corners.
A strong letter of endorsement of the Salvation Army’s work at the front was written by a patient in the Davisville (Toronto) Military Hospital to the Red Shield Drive Committee. The man lost one of his limbs but was fortunate enough to get back to his own country.
The sixth match of the county schedule was pulled off at Quyon rink on Friday afternoon between The Miners and Campbell’s Bay team shutting out the visitors by a score of 5-0. The game is said to have been a fairly good clean exhibition and a good many of the fans are wondering what happened to Liberty, who not infrequently has saved the day for his team.
Jan. 25, 1894
125 Years Ago
Local News: The first fancy dress carnival of the season was held in the skating rink at Portage du Fort on Friday evening and was one of the most successful and enjoyable affairs ever held in this county. The doors of the rink were opened to the public and it was not very many minutes til the rink was well filled. The ice was in very good condition and the manner in which everything passed off, reflected credit on the manager, Mr. T.W. Fraser. During the evening selections of “sweet” music were rendered by a piper on the bag-pipes.
R. McC. Ritchie, Esq. of Bryson and T. Richardson of Portage du Fort entertained the audience for a short while with an exhibition of fancy skating which was very much appreciated by all present.
A very sad shooting accident occurred in Nipissing on Thursday the 4th inst. Two brothers, James and Andrew Growbarger, formerly of Chalk River, were out in the woods. When some distance apart, James saw Andrew and thinking it was a deer, fired. The shot struck Andrew and wounded him fatally. He lived a few minutes afterwards. They were sons of Mr. Andrew Growbarger and were well known.
At a meeting in Beachburg a few days ago, the ratepayers of Westmeath township passed a resolution in favour of granting a bonus of $35,000 to a railway to be built from Pembroke to Renfrew to connect with the A.S. and P.S. west and the O.A. and P.S. and Canada Atlantic east to Montreal.
The following account of some of the difficulties they met with whilst breaking the road into Mason’s depot: So far we have only gotten to Rock HIll and our stock of provisions is well nigh exhausted. I think we have about a roll and a half of bread left and if we don’t arrive soon, we’ll have to return. The gang is pretty well tired out wading through snow from four to six feet deep. Sometimes we encounter about three tiers of balsams across the road and these perhaps bound together by a large spruce. Just imagine how these are to be got out of the way. First place, we have to shovel away about four feet of snow before we can get a chance to cut them. There are a few odd stopping places along the road, so that we frequently have to spend the night where darkness overtakes us. Then by flickering, weird light of the camp-fire, you may discern occasional expressions of sadness in the countenances of the boys as they stand around the glowing heap after having tramped a place in the snow under the spreading balsams to afford their teams a “shivering place” for the night.
Our cotton tent is next put up and we turn in, not to sleep til morning, however, as the cold is often too great. the first thing we hear in the early morning is our boss, Mr. Judd, breaking wood to boil the kettle for breakfast. When we have disposed of this meal, he says, in his good-natured way: “Well, boys, I guess we’ll try the snow tramping again.” We then pack up our kit and make another start, two or three going ahead on snow shoes while the rest bring up the rear with the teams, which are getting pretty tired.
