June 23, 1992,
25 Years Ago
Golfers give $5,000 to PCH: Last Saturday, at the Norway Bay Golf Club, 110 golfers played for the betterment of the Pontiac Community Hospital.
The price of $75 per golfer included nine holes of golf and a hot roast beef supper.
One hundred and thirty-five sat down to dinner under a huge tent erected for the occasion.
No one qualified for the prize of $5,000 offered by Materiaux Pontiac of Luskville for a hole-in-one on the second green or the $15,000 red sports car offered by Shawville Chrysler and Dale Parizeau Insurance for a hole-in-one on the fourth green but Bruce Moffat of Norway Bay shot within 10 feet of the hole on the second green.
Unity message well received by Pontiac women: Molly Fripp eloquently presented her unity message to a sold-out breakfast crowd at Pine Lodge on Friday.
Every seat in the large banquet room was reserved and an attentive group of ladies responded warmly to the message of “it’s our country…let’s talk/ c’est notre pays …parlons-ens”.
From her Montreal home, Ms. Fripp organized the non-political women’s movement to inform women on the upcoming Quebec referendum. The group believes that a Canada that includes Quebec is worth fighting for and they want Quebec to choose to remain in Canada.
June 29, 1967,
50 Years Ago
The Sheriff’s party given rousing send off by entire county: Sheriff Joe and his passengers and outriders are out of the county now and should arrive at Montreal and Expo on Saturday.
While most Pontiac people are celebrating Dominion Day at the all-day confederation picnic in Shawville, those eight will be on the last leg of their journey.
Leading the little procession are Mr. and Mrs. Bill Racine of Otter Lake with Bill on a beautiful dappled grey Appaloosa and Lorraine riding her stunning Palomino.
In the wagon with Sheriff Joe Sloan is his little son Dominic and his nephew Danny Bowie, who is also a nephew of the Quebec Minister of Revenue, Hon. Raymond Johnston of Otter Lake.
Upper Ottawa Valley is site of surveying course: The Upper Ottawa Valley has become a classroom for 29 students of Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean.
These students make up the first group of External Air sponsored students who arrived in Arnprior this month and who will take part in a newly-designed practical course in surveying.
They will be working with instructors from the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources as well as from such agencies as the Canadian Army.
During the course, which will keep them busy throughout the summer months, the students will use the Canadian Emergency Measures College in Arnprior as their living quarters. The students will also go on tours of the Upper Valley visiting valley industries.
July 2, 1942,
75 Years Ago
Local News: In the sharp thunder storm which lashed East Clarendon and Bristol townships on Tuesday afternoon, lightning struck the outbuildings on the former Samuel Horner farm, occupied by Wm. Orr at Caldwell and made a clean sweep of everything but the farm home.
Destroyed were the barns, cow stable, horse stable, machine shed, ice house and granary; and with these went a quantity of machinery including binder, seeder, harrows, cream separator and three tons of last year’s hay and some grain.
Just as the storm was beginning, John Smith who lives north of Caldwell, drove his team into the machine shed out of the heavy rain.
While he was in the house, the lightning struck and rushing out he saw the buildings in flames.
He ran to get his horses out but before he succeeded in doing this, he was badly burned about the hands, arms, head and neck.
His wounds were serious enough that Constable Bud Hobbs of Ottawa who was at the fire, took him to the Pontiac Community Hospital for treatment.
The horses were also burned and lost most of their manes and tails.
The storm was a very heavy one, a high wind blowing down trees in Bristol township and disrupted the Gatineau power lines at Bristol Corners, Norway Bay and at Quyon for several hours. Hail fell for some time, but is not thought to have caused damage.
Britain, the United States, Russia pledge coordinated war effort: the United States, Britain and Russia had affixed their signatures to documents of far-reaching import. A mutual assistance pact between London and Moscow, a master lease-lend contract for supplies from the American arsenal to the red army and understandings in regard to a second European front, through such instruments the three mightiest members of the United Nations pledged their peoples and resources to a coordinated effort for the duration and in the peace to come.
June 28, 1917,
100 Years Ago
Local News: Misses Jennie and Kathleen Wilson and brother Willie of the 73rd Battery who has just recovered from pneumonia, arrived Monday to spend a few holidays at their Green Lake cottage.
Mr. J.H. Shaw received a bunch of letters from his son Claude on Wednesday night last, some written before and some after he was wounded. Claude, who is now in an English hospital, states he was wounded by a piece of high explosive shell which struck him just below the knee-cap. The sensation, he said, was like being hit with a stone, reminding him of the frequent cracks he got from the puck while playing hockey.
Everybody in town who knew Louie Ethier (Hickey) expressed regret when they learned from Wednesday’s casualty list that he was among those listed as “killed in action”.
Louie worked at the tailoring trade in this village for a considerable time and was a member of the local hockey team during its most successful season.
July 7, 1892,
125 Years Ago
Local news: The “Twelfth” as it is to be celebrated so far as we have learned at the following places in this county: Cole’s Creek, Thorne, Upper Thorne Centre and Shawville.
Farmers having low clay flats are complaining of damage to the crops from excessive rain falls.
This year the credit for observing in an appropriate manner the anniversary of the birthday of the Dominion belongs solely to Shawville so far as this county is concerned. The number of people who turned out to do honour to the occasion was somewhere between eleven and twelve hundred, according to the record kept by the gate keeper. A football match between Bristol Mines and Billerica occupied nearly all the time before dinner but it ended as it began, without either side scoring a game.
At the ernest request of a large number of the crowd, Mr. John Bryson, our newest elected member, delivered a short address.
The St. Paul’s church ladies’ aid society conducted a sale of needle work in the exhibition hall during the day and before the crowd dispersed, disposed of a number of articles by auction.
