The Way We Were – September 27, 2023

25 Years Ago - Sept. 23, 1998

Raptors a soaring success: Swooshing, soaring, diving, attacking, entertaining, the birds of prey at Cushing Lodge did just that.
On Sunday, bird-lovers from far and near gathered at Cushing Lodge, just past Ladysmith to witness a demonstration of birds of prey in action.
Trainers Julie and Richard Ellis of Park Safari in Cambridge, Ont. and their live exhibits, an owl, hawk, falcon, eagle and vulture, performed aerial displays for the attentive audience.
Flash, a six-month-old Harris hawk, who performed at Cushing Lodge, can attain speeds of up to 300 km/hr when diving for his prey.
Ellis explained trainer hawks are often used at international airports to discourage migratory birds from flying in the vicinity.
Each year JoEllen and Geoffrey Cushing and their four children host this raptor demonstration at their spectacular lodge in Thorne.
Pontiac doctor will advise Rock: Rural Canadians have a new voice in the federal Department of Health, and it comes in the form of Pontiac’s own Dr. John Wootton. The Shawville doctor will be responsible for advising Health Minister Allan Rock on how to improve access to care for rural Canadians.
“A lot of federal programs that exist are intended for all Canadians,” Dr. Wootton told THE EQUITY. “But because of distances, some programs may not be as accessible to those in rural Canada.”
“As we modernize medicare and continue to help Canadians maintain and improve their health, it is essential that the perspective of rural Canada is reflected in all of our work,” Rock said in a written press release. “Dr. Wootton will play a key role in bringing that perspective to the work of the department and in advising me on rural issues as they relate to health care and health promotion,” he concluded.
As the position of executive director is new, Dr. Wootton has been bombarded with interview requests from media across the country. The doctor says if he can handle all the media attention, he can handle the work.

50 Years Ago - Oct. 3, 1973

United Church women sponsor Scottish show: It was standing room only at the Onslow School auditorium in Quyon Friday evening as a record crowd turned out to the Scottish Variety Concert put on by a group from Ottawa, a group which delighted the large audience with every member.
From the senior member of the group, Mr. Allen Matthews, down to the youngest, Kendall and Christine Webb, the ten and twelve-year-old great grand-daughters of Quyon Octogenarian Joe Heatherington, who was present to see and hear it all, as they danced the Highland Fling and the Sword Dance and the Sailors Horn Pipe like veterans.
Art Radbourne was superb in several duets with his talented daughter Nancy who in addition to singing, playing the pipes, on occasion accompanied most of the singers on the piano.
Brian Williams was the principal piper while Malcolm Dewar, the well-known old time fiddling champion was at his all-time best.
Hostess Janey Duff was star at all-new evening cattle show: The innovation of an evening show swelled the ring-side to capacity for the Annual Holstein Show held in conjunction with the Shawville Fair.
Nine exhibitors paraded sixty-eight animals before Judge T. Robert Flett, Oshawa, to be placed.
J. Donald Duff and Son won the Premier Breeder and Exhibitor Banner, as well as the Breeders Herd Class, Reserve Grand Champion Bull and Reserve Junior Champion Female.
One of the nicest attractions at the show was the hard working Miss Janey Duff. As Holstein Hostess, she was kept busy handing out the ribbons to the exhibitors and during the classes she gave a factual explanation of what was taking place in the ring.

75 Years Ago - Oct. 14, 1948

Local News: A basket containing five potatoes has been left at this office by Mr. Russell Elliott of Charteris which weighed 10 pounds, 4 ounces. This is the first basket that has come into this office but THE EQUITY believes that the crop of potatoes has been very good in this district although some growers complain of a rot in their crops.
In a meeting in Hynes’ Hall in aid of the Canadian Institute for the Blind, it was moved and adopted that a committee for the blind be formed in Shawville and the vicinity. The duties of that committee will be to liaise with the National Institute for the Blind through their district office in Hull to provide information and help to the blind of Shawville and district.
The Autumn Convention of Women’s Institutes of Pontiac County was held in the United Church at Quyon with the members of Quyon branch under the presidency of Mrs. Fred Fraser as hostesses. Representatives were present from Beech Grove, Elmside, Bristol, Clarendon and Shawville. The county president, Mrs. Earl Findlay presided, assisted by Miss Hilda Graham, secretary-treasurer.
It has been arranged by the aid of the branches to care for a European child for a year through the “Save the Children” plan.

100 Years Ago - Oct. 3, 1923

Local News: Mr. P.J. Masson, accompanied by his daughter, Sheila, left on Monday for Toronto. Sheila is going to attend school at Toronto and also take music and singing lessons. She is a former pupil of Mrs. W.A. Hodgins, under whose direction she made rapid progress.

Ernest Elbourne, 15 years old, of Ottawa, died on Friday while undergoing an operation for in-growing toe nails.
On Sunday evening, the Harvest Festival service was held in the Methodist Church in Austin. The church was tastefully and very beautifully decorated by the ladies of the congregation with the gifts of flowers, fruit and vegetables. The church was crowded to the doors. The pastor was in charge and preached the sermon, taking for his text: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he reap.” A supper in continuation of the service, was served on Tuesday in the temperance hall and was followed by a public meeting in the church.
Following up their unbroken success of the latter part of the season, the Bryson baseball team figuratively ran away with the county championship last Tuesday when at Chapeau Fair, they trimmed the Allumette Island team to a peak, scoring 18 runs to their opponents solitary one. Spectators aver the match was altogether too one-sided to be interesting. The Bryson team have thus become possessors of the Championship trophy donated by Rev. Father Murray of Campbell’s Bay, who himself is an ardent baseball enthusiast.
Three young men, Alphonse Landry, de Guise and Bernard de Salaberry were killed in a hydroplane disaster near Roberval, Que. on Wednesday last. The last mentioned victim was the eldest son of Col. de Salaberry of Ottawa, formerly of Bryson.

125 Years Ago - Sept. 29, 1898

Local News: Threshing mill men say the yield of wheat this year and the quality of grain is better than anything they have seen for a number of years past.
A rich find of molybdenite was made a few days ago on Calumet Island on the property of G.C.I. Co. It was made as the result of directions given by Engineer Leopold Meyer. Several workmen has been blasting and within three hundred feet of the first blast, the molybdenite in paying quantities was found. Molybdenite is used in hardening steel and also in shotting silk. A great quantity is used in Belfast every year for the last named purpose. A gang of men has been put to work and every blast shows a larger percentage of molybdenite.
There was another rich find of galena made on the Bowie property, Calumet Island on Thursday last. A shot was put in along the face of a hill and a large quantity of ore of particularly pure quality was thrown out. Mr. R. Richie had a valise full of the specimens so found in Ottawa on Friday and they were the admiration of all who saw them, including an old and experienced miner who happened to be in the city at the time.
While the Ontario crops have been exceedingly good, the fruit crop has suffered. This season the fruit is the worst in years, according to reports from all sections. There will be no apples for shipping. Most of them are wormy or small, so that they cannot be marketed with any profit.
Very imposing indeed were the ceremonies held in Quebec on Wednesday last at the unveiling of the monument on Dufferin Terrace to the founder of the city, Samuel de Champlain, 230 years ago. In the forenoon there was a procession of labour organization and benevolent societies. At two o’clock, after Lord Aberdeen’s arrival, the monument was unveiled amid a salute of guns from the citadel and the warships of the British North Atlantic squadron in the harbour. Sir Wilfred Laurier, Lt. Gov. Jette, Premier Marchand, Hon. Mr. Duffy, Judge Routhier and M. Klezhowsky, consul general of France gave addresses.