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Photo with Dr. B. P. Rynard, Progressive Conservative candidate for Simcoe East includes Judith Ruth Laity (Mrs. Ken Kiefer), her mother Mrs. G. B. “Bud” (Ilene) Laity and Mrs. Rynard. The event was a tea at the Midland YMCA on Thursday given by the Midland District Women’s Progressive Conservative Association. (Congratulations to Judy on her recent retirement from the Midland Public Library) (The lady to the right of Mrs. Rynard in the background I believe is Mrs. Don (Vida) Bridges.) 

At the closing dinner of Midland’s Little Hockey League at the Georgian Hotel Thursday night the captains of the three winning teams were presented trophies by Harold Butson. Ernie Boast (died Nov 6, 2014, Ottawa ON), left, with the Junior OHA trophy, Ernie Charlesbois the NHL trophy and Barry McIlvarey the AHL, all of the “B” section. 

 Midland has had its share of national political figures during the federal election campaign that is drawing to a close. Friday at the Midland YMCA the ladies committee supporting the Liberal Party held an event attended by Lester B. Pearson, Minister of External Affairs. Mrs. G. E. Tanner, Mrs. Fred H. Bell, Mrs. Charles Onley and Mrs. Frank Hartman (Jean nee Haig). 

 

Golden wedding anniversaries seem to be all the rage in North Simcoe this year, with much more than the usual quota of citizens having achieved a half-century of wedded life. The couple above, Mr. and Mrs. Freeman French, who live on a farm just west of Waverley, marked their anniversary at the home of his sister, Mrs. W. McConnell, in Elmvale May 29. The original wedding service was also held in Elmvale. 

Low water levels of Georgian Bay and the Muskokas is causing considerable financial and operational issues for resort and marina operators. The owner of Duck Bay Camp at Waubaushene, Sid Langley watches as a crane and bucket try to deepen the boat channel into his property, at $16.00 per hour. 

Ski enthusiasts will no longer have to crowd into the tiny shack which served as a chalet at Midland Ski Resorts when next season rolls around. There’ll be plenty of room for everybody in this 90-foot building which used to serve as the community hall at Little Lake Park. Cut in three sections, it was moved to its new site early last week. Plans are also underway to have the building serviced with hydro and water. 

There wasn’t much room for any other traffic as this section of the old community hall from Little Lake tourist camp rolled out Highway 27 early last week. 

Pete Pettersen, Jutta Keylwerth and Keith Bertrand manager of Midland Ski Resorts Ltd. admire a model of the ski jump as it will look this summer during the ski meet on the August holiday weekend. The model was built by Melvin W. Smile of Hamilton. 

Dr. Swan tries on his son John’s new jacket that he and his teammates received Thursday night at dinner in the Georgian Hotel. The team won the junior OHA Ontario Little League final and also received wrist watches. Other players in jackets are Dennis Abbott, Wayne Holden and Bob Weckman. 

Huronia Museum is open again for a new season and one of the first visitors is an avid local historian and Coldwater banker Ken Hamilton. Mr. Hamilton is also the treasurer of the Huronia Historic Sites and Tourist Association. Vic Grigg, a museum staffer, shows Ken an exhibit. 

 No doubt that June was the month for weddings. 

• Midland Free Press headline June 5th, 1957; Bold Robber Enters Mill Rifles Till at Noon Hour. A daring thief entered Midland Planing Mill yesterday and rifled the cash register while the office staff was home for lunch at noon hour. Planing Mill Manager Frank Bray, who discovered the theft on his return, said the culprit apparently gained entry through a basement door. The front door to the office was locked.
• County Herald headline June 7th, 1957; 28,446 Eligible To Vote in Simcoe East Riding. A total of 28,446 people are eligible to vote in the four-way contest for Simcoe East Monday. In the 1953 federal election, 72 percent of the 27,479 eligible to vote at that time went to the polls. In 1949, the riding mustered 78 percent of its voters.
• Four anglers, fishing at the mouth of the Sturgeon River last week, caught four large pickerel. The fish were taken on a variety of plugs, flatfish, pikey-minnow and Canadian wiggler. Lucky anglers were Phil Mahz, Depew, N.Y., Bill Kepnser, Hamburg, N.Y., F. Keenan and son Frank of Sturgeon Bay. The fish weighed 11, 10, 9, and 7 pounds, respectively. (Sports fishing was a major tourist attraction in North Simcoe years ago, with hotels being booked far in advance of season openings. Many of the anglers were Americans. In the opening day photo below many of the cars parked near a popular local stream have New York state licence plates.)
• Reviewing his firm’s operations in Midland during the past five years, Guenther Leitz, president of Ernst Leitz (Canada) Limited, told his listeners Wednesday night one factor he found disappointing was the inability to induce more Canadians to join the staff. Addressing the fifth anniversary banquet at Parkside Pavilion, Mr. Leitz said the Canadian company had fallen far short of its original intention of employing six Canadians to one German to train them to become tradesmen.
• A sum of money, estimated to be between $900 and $1,100, said to be Saturday night’s receipts missing from the safe of Penetang’s Hotel Brule, has posed a problem for Penetang Police. A similar amount, receipts from Friday night’s business, still remain in the safe. Loss of the money was discovered by Bernard McDonald, a hotel employee, Sunday afternoon after he had been called at his home by manager Phil Robitaille to investigate the reason no one was on duty at the hotel desk. Police are also searching for Oliver Dyer, 75-year-old desk clerk who was supposed to be on duty at the time.
• Injured about the face and head when a hydro pole on which he was working broke at Little Lake Park, Midland, Monday morning, Kenneth Walker, 23, was transferred to a Toronto hospital for further examination by a specialist yesterday. Allan Walker, a brother, said Ken had been removing wires from a pole, located in the tent area of the park. Several of the old poles are replaced yearly as a safety measure, Allan said. Many of them, while otherwise sound, are worn thin around the base.
• Want Ad – For Sale – $18,500 OR OFFER — Owner’s new split-level home with wide picture window overlooking the lake and treed gardens; 29 ft. living room, work-easy kitchen, 3 bedrooms, finished recreation room with fireplace, large insulated attic, heated attached garage, patio, landscaped, air-conditioned, oil heating. 286 Fourth St., phone L A . 6-5840, Midland.
• Obituaries; A resident of Midland for forty years Mrs. Joseph Cripps died in St. Andrew’s Hospital May 23 following a coronary thrombosis, she was 73. Funeral service was held at A. Barrie and Sons funeral home Monday, May 26, with interment in Lakeview Cemetery, Midland. Rev. W. R. Auld officiated. Pallbearers were Alex Ingram, George Ingram, Marlowe Atkinson, Harold Humphries, Gerald McAvoy and Larry McAvoy. Cripps, the former Margaret Emma McAvoy, was born on the Second Concession, Flos Township Nov 12, 1884, and received her education in Flos and Hillsdale schools. In 1906 she was married to Joseph Cripps in Barrie. After spending several years in Hillsdale she moved to Midland where she continued to reside until her death. On Oct. 3. 1956, Mr. and Mrs. Cripps celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. In a fall three years ago, Mrs. Cripps broke her leg but was able to get around in a wheelchair. Her hobbies consisted of knitting and quilting. She is survived by her husband, four sons, Dalton, Newmarket; Allen, Iron City; Albert, Midland and William, Willowdale; one daughter, Mrs. Lorne Faragher (Goldie), Midland; one sister, Mrs. Robert Humphries of Midland and 11 grandchildren. **** A resident of Midland for more than half a century, Harriet Ellen Bissette died May 10 at St. Andrews Hospital following a short illness. She was 82. The funeral was held May 14 from her residence at 292 Princess Street to St. Margaret’s Church, where Rev. F. Voorwerk celebrated mass, Pallbearers were John Bissette, Paul Bissette, Bernard Goneau, Murray Kearns, Gerald McNamara and Ernie Nicholson. Interment was at St. Margaret’s Cemetery. Born in England in 1875, she came to Haliburton as an infant and there received her education. She and Fred Bissette were married at Lindsay in 1889 and settled in Midland. Mr. Bissette died in 1948. A member of the Roman Catholic Church, Mrs. Bissette was active in church work. As early as 1924 she was a promoter of the Canadian Messenger and was interested in the St. Vincent de Paul Society when it was active here. Mrs. Bissette was the only woman on the Cemetery Board when it was first established. For at least 12 years she was president of the Catholic Women’s League. During the war years she convened for St. Margaret’s on the Red Cross, sewing in the church basement, reported deaths of servicemen to St. Michael’s Cathedral, assisted in blood clinics and at the soldiers’ banquet at the close of the war. *** Funeral service was held Friday, May 31, for Wilfred Martin who died unexpectedly at his Penetang home after suffering a heart seizure. The funeral was held from the Beausoleil funeral home to St. Ann’s Memorial Church where Father J. Kelly, assisted by Father J. Marchand and Father L. McGough, officiated. Pall bearers were Ed. Desrochers, Walter Spearn, Ken Tannahill, Gerard Bourgeois, Bob Stewart and Jos. Desrochers. Interment was in St. Ann’s Cemetery. Born in Penetang, July 17, 1892, Mr. Martin was a bachelor and had spent his entire life here. A butcher by trade, he was well known in town. A Roman Catholic, he was a 3rd degree member of the Knights of Columbus, and a member of the Holy Name Society. Surviving are one brother, James of Montreal; and five sisters. Miss Helen Martin and Miss Loretta Martin, Penetang; Mrs. Ada Bakewell and Mrs. Mary Marshall, Toronto; Mrs. Rose Russell, in North Bay.
• 25 YEARS AGO –  Masons, Odd Fellows, Orangemen and citizens paid tribute to Arthur Bugg, former mayor of Midland, at funeral services held at his residence. Midland Citizens’ Band headed the funeral cortege to Lakeview Cemetery. * * * Ontario Premier Henry had been served notice to appear as a witness in a Hydro probe which was being conducted by Mr. Justice Orde in Osgoode Hall. * * * Hannah Kennedy, one of the earliest residents of Penetang, died at her home. * * * Miss Hilda McDonald was appointed the superintendent of the Penetang hospital. Her duties were to commence June 1. Mrs. Mac Donnelly, the superintendent of the nursing school, remained in charge until Miss McDonald took over her duties. * * * Captain Robert Dollar, closely identified with Midland’s early days, died at his home in San Rafael, Cal. He was 88. * * * Midland’s lacrosse team was holding down top spot in the district league, after handing Stayner an 11-6 defeat in Stayner.  * * * Midland council had hit a snag in its public works program. Council held a special session to determine how it would finance the work planned for 1932. The problem was left in the hands of a special committee. *** Bessie Lovering of Coldwater, Elizabeth Ruth Carr Topping, Doris A. Trill and Mable Beatrice Baker, all of Midland, formed the graduating class of St. Andrews Hospital School of Nursing. Graduation exercises were held in the YMCA. * * * In a Georgian Bay League fixture, a ball team from  Penetanguishene defeated a Midland YMCA aggregation 17 to 11.
• Last week at a dinner attended by 325 persons, the management and 150 employees of Ernst Leitz Canada celebrated their fifth birthday in Midland. It was a happy occasion and an important one. In the past five years, Leitz Canada has not only made a major contribution to the up-building of the economy of North Simcoe but has become a by-word all across this nation and throughout the United States for top quality precision optical instruments. The reputation which was once enjoyed exclusively by the parent plant at Wetzlar has now been acquired in no small part by the Midland factory.
• Preparations for what Pete Pettersen is sure will be the biggest summer ski meet in the world are swinging into high gear. The three-day civic holiday event, which will feature top jumpers from Canada, the United States and Europe could draw as many as 50,000 people to Midland from August 3 to 5, Pete said Monday.
• Penetang tennis enthusiasts will concentrate on junior membership during this season, says Ted Light, newly named president of the Tennis Club. Miss Helen Dubeau is secretary-treasurer.