April 17,1996
25 Years Ago
Fire hits Main Street: Electrical problems are cited by the Quebec police force as being the probable cause of a Saturday afternoon fire which heavily damaged a Main Street building.
The QPF has ruled out arson and is still . . .
investigating the fire which broke out at 4:30 p.m. at 322 and 324 Main Street, a building which was office to a construction company and three apartments, two unoccupied at the time.
Two men working in the building at the time tried to put out the fire but to no avail. Shawville-Clarendon Fire Department arrived and had the fire out by about 7 p.m.
Quick-thinking bystanders managed to save some of the items in the occupied apartment.
No damage was done to the neighbouring buildings.
Quyon, Luskville residents want to keep town names: People in the municipality of Pontiac know where they live, but they’re not sure Canada Post does.
A number of ratepayers at the April 9 council meeting in Luskville complained about a change in their postal address and they accuse the municipality of being part of the problem.
Residents of Quyon and Luskville have been dismayed to see their village names no longer appearing on their mail. Instead, they see only the name “Pontiac” denoting their place of residence.
“If they take out “Quyon” and put in “Pontiac” I’m in big trouble,” said James Stewart of Quyon. Because he lives on Highway 148, he fears abandoning town names would make his house difficult to locate.
April 21,1971
50 Years Ago
Dam at Island One endangers waters of Ottawa River at Coulonge: There is pollution on the one mile stretch of the Ottawa River which borders Fort Coulonge, caused by the fact that the water does not flow along that stagnant mile.
The big Upper Ottawa Improvement Company boats cannot reach open water though the river has been ice-free for almost two weeks.
Almost everyone alive in Fort Coulonge has a word to say about the serious condition which has developed because of the filling in of a stretch of the upper channel to make a road to Island One.
The island used to be a beauty spot in Pontiac and the channel was being used more each year as vacationers discovered its birch lined beauty and appreciated the quiet waters there.
Good news: The good news at Fort Coulonge is that the new high school construction is on schedule. Most of it is of regular two tone brick but the two end wings, both north and south are of an entirely new type of brick used for the first time in this area. It is called, appropriately, “Coulonge Brick” and is double size and of a very pleasing sand and clay combination of colours.
April 18,1946
75 Years Ago
Local News: A large audience was delighted with the three-act comedy “The Life of Riley” which was presented at Shawville Theatre on Friday night last by the Quyon Young People’s Association of St. John’s Anglican Church.
Last week proved to be an excellent maple syrup week. One farmer tapped here Monday and made 10 gallons from 150 trees during the week. The sap ran every day Monday to Friday, the warmer weather then has stopped it and we feel it is now ended for this year.
Mr. Dalton Richardson, general merchant at Charteris has sold his business establishment to Mr. Gerald Lang.
Excavation for the large freezing plant of the McKinley Bros., started last week but had to be abandoned on account of the depth of frost in the ground.
The annual meeting of the Women’s auxiliary of Pontiac Community Hospital was held on April 9. At this meeting there were 25 articles mended, 6 new articles completed and 15 dozen surgical
The conveners of the work committee of the Red Cross, Mrs. N.A. Drummond, Mrs. A.F. Fokes and Mrs. C.J. Caldwell have finished and sent in the last of the garments and quilts from this unit after continuous work since the war began in 1939.
A well-organized attempt to re-establish nazism was believed to have been smashed following seizure by American and British troops of 1,000 ringleaders of the plot in the American and British occupation zones in Germany and Austria. The undercover movement had been in operation since before May 1945.
April 14,1921
100 Years Ago
Local News: The Shawville Board of Trade (recently organized) has been looking into the question of procuring a supply of electrical power for the town, realizing that power is the one great essential to the further advancement of the place. Negotiations with that object in view, have been going on between the board and some interests who have power to sell, but nothing definite has yet been decided. How simple the whole thing would be if we had a hydro-electric commission governing the water powers in this province.
The automobile business began to show notable activity last week with the arrival and disposal of several new cars by our local dealers. If the country is passing through a period of depression and hard times, as the pessimistically inclined would have us believe, there seems to be a good many people who are not sorrying about it, if the lust for cars is any indication.
Subscribers of the Pontiac Rural Telephone Co. Ltd. are advised that the 1921 phone directory will not be issued until June next.
It would be well to remember that so long as Canada continues to import foreign products in excess of her exports, the Canadian dollar cannot get back to one hundred per cent basis. And don’t forget that this adverse exchange affects the price of every sort of goods you buy. The remedy is – buy goods made in Canada.
On the first day of June, 11,000 census-takers armed with huge portfolios and the authority to delve into one’s history and career in the most minute detail will sally forth across the breadth and length of Canada.
April 15,1896
125 Years Ago
Local News: John Coughlin, brakeman of the P.P.J. railway, injured while coupling cars at Aylmer on Friday, the 3 inst. died on Thursday last.
Some of our citizens on Main Street were luckless enough to have their cellars filled with water last week, owing to the spring freshets for the carrying off of which the provisions are not as complete as they should be. In this connection it may be stated that complaints are numerous about the “lake” which has formed on Main Street.
Mr. A. Richards of Billerica we regret to learn had the misfortune to lose by fire on Sunday evening last, his barn containing 14 tons of hay; stable containing 3 horses and 6 sets of harness, two large sheds. His implements stored in one of the latter, were saved.
Mr. Shea, a young evangelist, is at present holding a series of revivals at Radford.
One of the grandest spectacles that our citizens have witnessed for some time is the “Ice shove” on the Quyon River which this spring has assumed gigantic proportions. In fact, Tom goes so far as to liken it to the world-famed Giant’s Causeway in Ireland. Mountains of ice are piled up in the pond above McLean’s mill and the sight furnishes quite an attraction for the young folk in the evenings.
According to announcement, the patrons of the Lily Cheese Factory met in the town hall of Shawville on the 7th inst.
Captain Davis is at work touching up the “Belle Ritchie” to have her in readiness for the approaching season’s traffic.
The editor of one of the horsemen’s journals predicts a heavy demand this year for horses for the British service. He estimates a call for 10,000. The low prices of recent years have quite reduced the supply and there is every reason to hope that the editorial forecast is correct.
Those who have received letters from Ottawa lately will notice that the envelope has borne a new date stamp and canceller. The canceller is in the shape of a Union Jack, long enough to cancel four postage stamps.
