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REPORT DAMAGE $7,000 IN CEMETERY VANDALISM
Free Press Herald headline of May 9^th, 1962. 

Damage caused by vandals at Lakeview Cemetery following a weekend rampage will likely hit the $7,000 figure, officials estimated yesterday. Thirty-two gravestones were damaged, most beyond repair, sometime Friday night or Saturday morning, cemetery board secretary Bob Bath said. Cemetery officials thought at first vandals had fired rifle bullets at the stones. It is now believed the damage was done by a hammer or similar instrument. Large chips were knocked off corners of some stones. Others were marked on the highly-polished surface. None of the marks can be removed without extensive grinding, which means new polishing and lettering, Mr. Bath said. 

   Midland taxpayers have again been given a booster shot in their tax arms by St. Andrews Hospital Board. At a meeting Monday night the board approved a motion to pay the full amount of the debenture  debt interest of $5,800 for 1962. The amount is the current interest due on $250,000 in debentures taken out by Midland to finance construction of the new hospital several years ago. 

   Superintendent of the Ontario Hospital at Penetanguishene for 12 years, Dr. William Arthur Cardwell, 72, died in Royal Victoria Hospital, Barrie, Sunday. A specialist in forensic psychiatry, Dr. Cardwell headed the Penetanguishene hospital from 1948 until his retirement in June, I960. Born in Cobourg, Dr. Cardwell graduated from the University of Toronto in 1914, and enlisted a few months later in the Royal Army Medical Corps. During four years with the corps he was awarded the OBE. Dr. Cardwell practiced in Toronto following the war, joining the staff of the Ontario Hospital, Cobourg, in 1928. Four years later be moved to the hospital in Whitby, where he spent 15 years. In 1937, Dr. Cardwell went to the University of Toronto as a gold medal post-graduate student in psychology. Following his retirement in 1960, Dr. Cardwell acted as consulting psychiatrist to the Attorney – General’s Department. He also served on the Department of Reform Institutions’ Advisory Council on offenders. Surviving are his wife, the former Jessie Elizabeth Lord, two sons, William H. A. Cardwell, Windsor, and Dr. Robert John Cardwell, Midland; and one daughter, Betty D. Perry, at home. 

    In the market for car seat belts? Then first check if the belts bear the imprint SAE. This indicates that the belts meet the specifications of the Society of Automotive Engineers. SAE is the recognized seat belt standard in Canada, until the Canadian Government Specifications Board and the Canadian Standards Association issue their own standards. Canadian car drivers will soon be able to buy belts that meet, and even surpass the rigid SAE standards, made by a Midland firm who recently completed negotiations for the manufacture of the Davis Safety Seat Belts. President Gordon Moss of Canadian Name Plate Ltd., announced this week that his firm has been licensed by Davis Aircraft Products Inc., of Northport, New York, to manufacture the belt in Canada. Production will commence immediately. Terming the Davis product “the Cadillac of seat belts”, Mr. Moss said it has found wide acceptance with major airlines and automobile manufacturers in the United States. Trans-Canada Airlines also uses this belt. 

    Cruise ship S.S. North American will make regular weekly visits to Midland this summer it was announced recently by officials of the Georgian Bay Line. The luxury cruise ship will include Midland on its weekly Voyaguer-Historic cruises starting the first week in August. It will leave Chicago Saturday afternoon and make calls at Mackinac Island, Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo, before docking in Midland Thursday at 3 p.m. Plans include a two and half hour stopover to allow passengers to visit the Martyrs’ Shrine and other points of interest. 

    Well-known throughout Midland, where he was a carrier with the post branch since 1954, Gordon Burtch died suddenly in St. Andrews Hospital yesterday morning. He was in his 52nd year. Mr. Burtch was stricken with a heart attack in his William Street home early Tuesday morning. Mr. Burtch, who served overseas with the Fort Garry Horse, was for a time on the caretaking staff of Midland Armory before joining the postal service. He was formerly a sergeant with the Grey and Simcoe Foresters and had served as poppy fund chairman of Branch 80 Royal Canadian Legion, for several years. Surviving are his widow, the former Jennie McConkey, a son, Jim, Midland, and two daughters, Pearl (Mrs. Bert Lacroix), Midland, and Betty (Mrs. Allan Harper), Stouffville. 

25 YEARS AGO – 1937
Plans were being made for a week of celebrations, starting July 18 to mark the silver jubilee of St. Margaret’s Roman Catholic Church,  Midland. * * * The amalgamation of the Midland and Penetanguishene intermediate and junior baseball clubs was being discussed with Jim Shaw and I. C. Sheppard, representing the respective clubs. * * * Building of a new power line from Waubaushene to Fergusonvale was commenced. The line was to carry 38,000 volts. * * * Extensive celebrations were planned for May 12 and the day proclaimed a public holiday in Midland and Penetanguishene to mark the coronation of King George the Sixth. The Free Press published a special coronation edition. * * * Work was starting on a new highway from Coldwater to Waubaushene over the Sturgeon Bay hill. * * * For the first time in the history of the United Church the Presbytery of Simcoe was held in Coldwater with Rev. J. Pickering of Barrie presiding. * * * At a conference of representatives of various organizations in Midland, it was agreed a program of town beautification should be prepared and a permanent committee appointed by council to prepare and supervise such a program. * * * Midland’s Madrigal choir, under the direction of Douglas Major, presented a variety choral concert at Midland YMCA. * * * Port McNicoll’s reforestation project got under way with the planting of 8,000 trees in Coronation Park. 

 NO HIKE IN GENERAL LEVY, TAXPAYERS LUCKY IN TAY
County Herald headline of May 11, 1962. 

Township property owners learned this week they will pay the same taxes as last year following a hold-the-line budget handed down Tuesday by council. It set the general rate at 9 mills and commercial levy at 11 mills for 1962, the same as last year. With an assessment of just over $5 million, each mill represents $5,000, Clerk Ralph Dalton said yesterday. MPDHS RATE UP – High school rate for 1962 will be 9.5 mills. The township will pay only 8.2 mills to the county this year, a reduction of .8 mills from last year. 

    Claiming there has been “more medical progress in the last 20 years than in the preceding 20 centuries,” Ken Sims, a representative of a Montreal pharmaceutical firm, went on to mention such “miracles of modern medicine” as penicillin, broad-spectrum antibiotics and tranquilizers. Mr. Sims was addressing members of the Penetanguishene Lions Club at their regular meeting last night, when he cited the role of the pharmaceutical industry in this achievement. He claimed the medical revolution which has taken place in the last three score years resulted in increasing the life span of Canadians by almost 10 years.  

    The new autopsy room at St. Andrews Hospital has been praised as “the best in the county” by Dr. Grant Colpitts, Barrie pathologist who serves the Midland hospital. This statement was included in a report to the St. Andrews Hospital Board this week by Alex Craig, hospital administrator. The new-room is expected to be ready for operation shortly. 

    Midland Y’s Men are again appealing for assistance for a program that has brought community-wide benefits for more than a decade. On Tuesday night, nine teams of canvassers will knock on the doors of homes lying on the west side of King Street, Midland, to raise funds for their summer playground program. It will be the club’s annual peanut sales drive. Funds raised in the project will be used to provide competent leaders and assistants for a summer recreation program that includes swimming and water safety classes, organized games, group projects, craft classes and other wholesome fun. Team captains for the drive are Charles Walton, Harold Wilcox, Bob Voorzanger, Allan James, Bill Barnett, Jack Bridges, Ross Thompson, Harold McAllen and Walter Kluck. The Y’s Men are asking citizens to give generously. 

    Midland Junior Chamber of Commerce named 13 executive officers for the 1962-63 term at a meeting held May 3 in Bourgeois Dining Room. Elected were: Arthur Ambeau, president; Bob Bates, 1st vice-president; Gerald Lalonde, 2nd vice-president; Gary Wood, secretary, and Gordon Maroney, treasurer. John Nicholson, Ronald Parker, Kenneth Mackie and Bill Mitchell, were named to a one year term as internal directors. 

    A well-known young Penetanguishene native, Lucien (Luke) Gregoire, died April 21 in Penetanguishene General Hospital after a brief illness. He was in his 34^th year. Born and educated in Penetanguishene, he married Theresa Gignac here in 1950. He had been employed as a cutter at Fern Shoe Co. for over 16 years. He was a Roman Catholic and a member of the Holy Name Society. Mr. Gregoire was particularly fond of hockey, curling and bowling.  Surviving besides his wife are two sons, Larry and Peter, and one daughter, Susan, all at home. His mother, Mrs. Claire Gregoire lives in Penetanguishene along with one brother, Urbain. He also leaves four sisters, Mrs. Gerard St. Louis and Mrs. Adrien Lepage, LaTugue, Que., Mrs. Harold Robitaille, Penetanguishene and Mrs. Clement Gignac, Perkinsfield. Funeral service was held April 23 from Beausoleil’s funeral home to St. Ann’s Memorial Church where requiem mass was said by Father J. Kelly, burial was in St. Ann’s Cemetery. Pallbearers were Marcel Lacroix, Ronald, Philip, Louis and Norbert Desroches and Maurice Robillard. 

    An item from the January 11, 1923, Midland Argus. – The last place in the world one would expect to find a unique treasure hunt taking place is in the interior of a great grain elevator. Yet every year during the three autumn months, from September to November, when the wonderful “wheat rush’’- takes place from Western Canada, there occurs a queer treasure hunt in the huge terminal elevators at the lake port of Fort William, Ontario, where tens of millions of bushels pour in from the prairies for transshipment across the Great Lakes. From all parts of the Great Canadian west, tens of thousands of wheat laden freight oars come hurrying into Fort William, each car to be dumped in a few moments time. At the elevator the man in charge of the ‘‘cleansers” watch the golden grain as it pours through, to see what strange treasurers the cleansers will winnow from the yellow flooding tide of cereal. The most common articles to be sifted out from the grain are of various lengths and size. When it is taken into consideration that harvesters are continually using knives for cutting binder twine, it is easily understood how so many knives get mislaid, and eventually find their way into the grain. Hundreds are annually salvaged from the wheat. Bottles of liquor, and many more empty, the cleansers separate from the wheat. Probably the full ones come from tramps or smugglers, and the grain offers a handy place for hobos to throw empty ones when they have finished drinking. Paper bundles containing leftover food scraps are also common.  An odd find made recently was a side of bacon.  Hammers, saws, wrenches and other tools are fairly common. Now and then a cheap watch bobs up and less frequently a gold one. Occasionally a ring is found and often bundles of keys. Letters, bank books, un-cashed checks made their appearance more often than the average man would expect. In one case the owner of un-cashed checks worth several hundred dollars was located; the checks had traveled nearly a thousand miles in the wheat. A dead prairie chicken in a fair state of preservation once reached the terminal elevator. A cat alive, though very weak and almost suffocated came pouring out with the grain. It was revived and  adopted at the elevator. Stranger still was the arrival of a human corpse, that of a man who had been hurriedly placed on top of the wheat at a lonely way point where passenger trains did not stop in order to get him to the city. Unfortunately the word of the body’s coming was mislaid and so it was added to the list of strange finds. A cash registry, empty, and a pair of lady’s new dancing shoes with silk stockings carefully tucked in are two more articles whose presence in the wheat is particularly mysterious. How all these things got into the wheat would make a wonderfully interesting story if it were possible to trace them back. But as it is not one can only conjecture on the queer causes that led them to be there.