Huronia Museum – Looking Back 60 Years in North Simcoe – Sept 1 to Sept 13 1955

  • Shoe Corporation of America buys substantial interest in Fern Shoe Co., Midland Footwear Manufacturing Limited and Midland Industries Limited, announces Sydney Caplan, president of the three companies. Caplan purchased the old Adams Shoe Company plant in 1939 and moved his Fern Shoe Company to Penetang. After the war he moved the rest of his Toronto operation to a new plant on Elizabeth St. in Midland and now employs 350 people in the three operations
  • Simcoe County Council authorizes construction of a new 50 bed “old people’s home” in Penetang. After nearly three years of push and pull Penetang will get a new facility and the province will fund half of the cost and the old hospital will not be used
  • Department of Highways announces that Hwy 93 between Craighurst and Waverly will be paved
  • Tiffin elevator gets upgrades; slip is being dredged to a depth of 25 feet for 120 feet north and south and 200 feet out into the bay, a new transformer has been installed to accept the 44,000 Volt power now available, concrete flaws on the exterior of the grain silos have been repaired and new dust collectors installed
  • Effective August 31st the Church of England in Canada will be renamed the Anglican Church of Canada, the climax of 55 years of debate
  • Twelve Lafontaine residents who have chosen teaching as a career are leaving for their respective schools; Miss Mona Maurice, Ottawa; Miss Julia Brunelle, Windsor; Yolande Marchildon, Penetang; Armand Robitaille, Field; Olive Robitaille, Port Colborne; Howard McNamara, Capreol; Denis McNamara, Penetang; Patrick McNamara, Thunder Beach; Justin Maurice, Northwest Basin; Guy Laurin, Elk Lake; Henri & Cleo Desroches, Sarnia.
  • Thirty Four year old Paul Gignac of Perkinsfield died Friday morning under four feet of sand while digging a well at Balm Beach. Survived by his pregnant wife and four children, funeral services were held Monday morning, the date of his 35th birthday. His father Celeste Gignac who died 27 years ago was also buried on his 35th birthday and left a pregnant wife and four children.
  • St. Andrew’s Hospital appoints a committee to assist hospital office manager Alex Craig in controlling account receivables which have grown to $80,000.00. Government subsidies are too low to cover current charges, patients are often unable to pay the difference. Some accounts are going in for collection
  • Owing to the dry weather this summer many wells in Tiny have gone dry, on the Midland Road six families have been drawing one or two loads of water per day from the Penetang waterworks
  • 1,058 enrolled in Penetang primary schools, the Protestant Separate School has 208, 12 classes in the girls section of the Public School have 268 attending bilingual classes and 137 English classes. The boys section occupying four rooms of the old high school as well as their regular classes total 445

Click on Photos to Enlarge

2006 0020 1369

1955 may be known as the year of the peach in North Simcoe, good crops are reported. Nancy Lea 6, and her sister Mary Lea 8, daughters of Orr Lake forester Joe Lea admire some of the 75 peaches on their garden tree.

2006 0020 1367

Like their fathers and mothers before them these eight young golfers learn that no matter how long you stare at your score card the figures just don’t change. Participating in the first ever junior championship at the Midland Golf & Country Club these boys did well. Seated, Bill Moss, Stephen Bell and Sandy Campbell; standing, Peter Jackson, Bill Swann, David Bertrand, Paul Jackson and Winston Schell. Bertram emerged the winner with a 92 gross score. Bill Swann 96, Sandy Campbell 99, Peter Jackson 106. Hidden hole prizes were won by Campbell, Bell and Moss.

2006 0020 1376

Man sized Muskie, 46 inches, caught by Gordon Parker near Snake Island while trolling with a pikey minnow. The fish, held by Fred Howard, weighed 25 pounds.

2006 0020 1387

Mary Lou Edwards of Midland caught this 41 inch 18.5 pound muskellunge off Present Island with a Canadian wiggler. Fishing with her brother Bill Edwards, pictured here, they had to beach the fish to secure their catch. Bill caught a nine pound yellow pickerel on the same trip.

2006 0020 1854

New 50 ton weigh scale being installed at the Century Coal Dock on William Street in Midland. The addition was required for the large trucks now moving coal to Base Borden and the Ontario Hospital in Orillia.

2006 0020 1400

First day of school at Regent Public School. Five hundred and forty five children are enrolled this year, many pictured here are in the primary grades.

2006 0020 1720

Hugh Blair Construction is adding a second story to the Ernst Leitz Canada building on Ellen Street. New space will be used for offices and a research division, recently announced further addition to be built will be used for storage and shipping receiving.

 Ads of interest in this week’s paper;

  • Dorothy Swallow advertising Piano Theory – Fall Term Commencing September 6th
  • Gibson Company Main Street Penetang, change of ownership, now Economy Stores, same location
  • Ontario playoffs baseball, Midland Indians vs Georgetown Raiders, Midland Town Park, Sept 3rd, 3 P.M. Midland won at Georgetown 4-3 Watch them do it again
  • Under new management, LeCamp’s Clothing Store, Port McNicoll, formerly Patterson’s Store
  • Sunday Milk Delivery to be Discontinued Immediately – Penetang Dairy
  • Audrey’s Beauty Salon – Port McNicoll, Cold Wave (Lanolin) $4.75, Shampoo and finger wave $1.00, Haircutting and shaping .50cents
  • 39 plate, 12 volt, 80 – 96 ampere car battery at Canadian Tire, $7.95 with your old battery

 Marriages;

  • Patricia Rosalie Hodges, Reg. nurse, and Edward Wallace Hook, Knox Presbyterian, August 20th
  • Fleurette V. Dupuis and Robert John Lynch, St. Ann’s Church, August 20th

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s