By Ashley Harper Written for Look Back at the Past, an initiative by the Township of North Dundas In the midst of the Great Depression, hundreds of people travelled to Winchester from all over Canada and the United States to attend Old Home Week—a grand reunion for current and former residents of the district. The idea was first proposed in the summer of 1933 by village reeve James H. Ross, who was also the owner and editor of the Winchester Press. The plan was immediately put into motion and Old Home Week Association was formed with Reeve Ross as chairman and local insurance agent Walter Moffatt as secretary-treasurer. Committees were organized, and residents and businesses all did their part to bring the plan to life. From August 4th to 8th 1934, hundreds of visitors came together in these streets to celebrate the one thing they had in common—their love of Winchester and its people. There were events for everyone, old and young, including parades, concerts, midway rides, horse races, street dancing, and sporting matches. The Press dedicated almost three full pages to covering the reunion.
One of the surviving legacies of these Old Home Weeks are two short histories of Winchester and Chesterville that were written to promote the villages and their progress. A Historical Review of Winchester, Ontario, written by Fern Workman, a long-time employee (and later owner) of the Winchester Press, was available at the reunion for just 25 cents. A History of Chesterville, written by businessman and former Dundas MP Orren D. Casselman, likely cost about the same.
Today, these brief snapshots of our communities are priceless.
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By Ashley Harper Written for Look Back at the Past, an initiative by the Township of North Dundas In the early hours of April 6, 1909, Chesterville residents were awoken to the alarm of fire and the smell of smoke. Within hours, an entire block of the village’s business core was reduced to rubble. It would become known as the worst conflagration in the history of Chesterville. It originated in a wooden-framed building on the north-east corner of King and Water Streets, which housed W. J. Nash’s tailor shop on the first floor and the Masonic Hall on the second. The flames quickly spread east down Water Street to the Chesterville Record office, destroying the printing presses, then travelled north up King to Ralph Street. Equipped with only one hand pump and pails for water, there was very little that could be done. The fire destroyed everything in its path, including Wilford Saucier’s jewellery store, Isaac Pelletier’s confectionary and fruit store, Gordon Robinson’s blacksmith shop, Joseph Fisher and Colborne Robinson’s butcher shop and the Sanders, Soule and Casselman general store. The village was left rattled by this tragedy - it was not the first they had dealt with that spring. Exactly three weeks before this incident, the Temperance Hotel and Foster’s Hall, situated at the north end of King Street, burned to the ground, and the train station and water tower narrowly escaped with minor damage. In light of these incidents, steps were quickly taken to improve the village’s fire protection. By May, the village council was preparing a new by-law to mandate that only ‘fireproof’ (e. g. brick, stone) buildings could be erected in the business section. Meanwhile, life went on in the village. The Chesterville Record was back in print on May 6, operating from a temporary office in a blacksmith shop. By the end of the summer, bigger and better buildings replaced those that were lost. Sanders, Soule & Casselman rebuilt on their former site (now Mike Dean’s). The Fisher Block (burned in 1989, now the Mike Dean’s parking lot) was erected, where Fisher and Pelletier carried on their businesses. The new Record building (demolished in 2018) was constructed and Saucier rented part of the space for his jewellery store. Wesley Hamilton built the Hamilton Block on the corner of King and Water Streets (now Louis’ Restaurant).
The response to the King Street fire demonstrates the resilience of this village and its people - something that we continue to see today. By Ashley Harper In October 2018, CDHS stumbled across an historian's dream at Barnfull O'Goodies in Morrisburg—a collection of over 100 beautifully-preserved postcards addressed to a local family, spanning a period of more than 15 years.
The remaining seven—William, George, Lizzie, Minnie, John Jr., Walter, and Louise—were born and raised in Winchester Township until the family moved to Beckstead, a small settlement south-east of Dunbar, in 1886. Mary Janet McLean, known as Minnie, was born on 4 November 1869. She was described as "naturally sweet and lovable" with an "indomitable spirit." As a child she suffered an accident at school that left her legs partially disabled, but she went on to receive her teaching degree in Morrisburg. By 1899, she was the instructor at the S. S. No. 8 (Forward) schoolhouse located west of Chesterville, where she remained until 1903.
If all of the McLeans had stayed in Dundas, it's unlikely that this postcard collection would exist. This distance means that postcards and letters would have probably been their primary mode of communication, since they would not have had regular access to telephones and visits were likely few and far between. The first two cards, dated 1904 and 1906, were sent to the McLeans when they were in Beckstead.
In March 1907, Minnie bought a home in Chesterville (now 69 Main Street South). Shortly after, Minnie, her parents, and her sister Louise moved into the village, while her brother John moved to the homestead with his wife and children. When Louise married that fall, she went to live with her husband, Shaler Hill, in Winchester. Although both John Jr. and Louise remained close to home, the collection includes a number of postcards from them and their families—usually about going to visit, updates on the children and their schooling, or birthday and holiday wishes.
Caroline and Minnie were left alone in the McLean home. They lived together in Chesterville for another decade. Most of the postcards are from this ten year period between 1908 and 1918. They are from both friends and family living in various places across Canada and the United States. The messages discuss births, birthdays, holidays, deaths, and other significant events. But they also mention little details that provide glimpses into daily life and the more mundane side of things—knitting instructions, school, sickness, and even a tale of a "silly man" who refused to pay his train fare. When researching people who lived so long ago, it is often easy to forget that letter writers weren't faceless entities, and individuals in photographs weren't just stern, stiffly posed figures. The postcards give these people voices and personalities and create connections to their community. They remind us that these people weren't so different from us.
That spring, Caroline sold the Chesterville property to her daughter-in-law, Mary (Gallinger) McLean, wife of William. The family matriarch would spend the rest of her life with Louise and Shaler, eventually moving with them to 126 Strathcona Avenue, where she died on 11 April 1928, a month after her 85th birthday.
These cards will forever be a part of the legacy that they left, along with the many descendants spread across Canada and the United States. Research Materials: Several resources have been prepared for those wishing to read the postcards or research the McLean family. They can be downloaded here:
By Ashley Harper With the advanced polls now open for the 2021 Federal Election, it is the perfect time to bring out these treasurers from our collection: voters' lists for the village of Chesterville from the years 1890, 1932, and 1949. Voters' lists contain the names of those who are eligible to vote. Prior to 1935, municipal lists were compiled—these were used for provincial and municipal elections. Federal voters' lists were created in 1935. Municipal lists, like the ones in our collection, differentiate between who is able to participate in each type of election, with sections for those who can vote at the municipal or provincial level, or both.
Voters’ lists can help fill in the gaps created by these restrictions. As they are taken more frequently than censuses, they are also useful for finding those that moved frequently. Federal voters’ lists from 1935 to 1980 are available on Ancestry (paid membership required), and Library and Archives holds lists from 1935 to 1988 (click here to find out more). The information in these records can vary depending on the year they were taken, the area included, and whether they are municipal or federal lists.
There is also a “description” column that uses abbreviations such as “O and M F” and “T and M F”, which means owner/tenant and manhood franchise. Manhood franchise is a reference to universal male suffrage; in other words, men had a right to vote regardless of whether they owned land. The 1932 and 1949 municipal lists contain the same information, but they replace concession numbers with street names. It is important for researchers to note that the numbers used in the addresses are not house numbers—they correspond to the municipal lot plan. House numbers were introduced in the district during the 1970s, with Winchester adopting a numbering system in 1972, and Chesterville following in 1978. Voters’ lists for areas outside of the villages continued to use lot and concession numbers into the 1990s as rural civic addresses were not implemented in Stormont, Dundas, and Glengarry until 1993. The federal voters' lists are a bit different, and those from 1935 to 1980 include less detail than municipal lists. They do not generally state the marital status or juror eligibility of each voter. When it comes to rural areas, they usually do not contain addresses beyond a rural route (RR) number. However, the parameters of the polling division are described at the beginning of each list, which can help narrow down where an ancestor lived. One positive difference with federal lists is that they include a voter’s occupation. Some municipal lists also included occupation. The following is an excerpt from the 1949 municipal voters' list for Chesterville: For comparison, this is an excerpt from the 1949 federal voters' list for Chesterville: While these three small-town voters' lists can tell a lot about the community, they can also provide insight into broader Canadian society and the changes it underwent over the years. The results of the Women's Suffrage Movement in particular are clearly visible. In 1884, land-owning widows and spinsters (unmarried women) over the age of 21 were given the right to vote in municipal elections across Ontario. In 1917, women in Ontario (except those who were indigenous) were given the right to vote in provincial elections. Federal franchise was extended to female relatives of soldiers the same year as part of the Wartime Elections Act, then to women in general (again, with the exception of indigenous women) in 1918.
There is now a total of about 80,000 eligible voters in the provincial riding of Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, and about 85,000 in the federal riding of the same name. In the past two decades, voter turnout in this riding has hovered around 50-55% for provincial elections and 60-65% for federal elections. No matter which party or candidate you support, it is important to vote and make your voice heard. Information on how to vote in the 2021 Federal Election in Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry can be found on Election Canada's Voter Information Service webpage. Scanned PDFs of the 1890, 1932, and 1949 Chesterville voters' lists are available here:
Searchable typed versions are also available here:
By Ashley Harper In the years that followed World War I, communities across the world began building memorials for those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Today, most of the towns and hamlets in North Dundas have some sort of tribute – those that are grand structures, like the towering monument at Morewood’s main intersection, and others that are more modest but no less heartfelt. One of the early communities to erect a cenotaph in the district was Nation Valley, a small settlement southwest of Chesterville. The area lost four men during the war: Sgt. Harold Merkley, Cpl. William Moodie, Pte. Howard Hess, and Pte. Henry Coughler. Profiles for each of them can be found at the end of this article.
At the beginning of the month, it had been announced that a monument would be erected for soldiers from Chesterville and the vicinity, but it is unclear weather the article was referencing the cenotaph in Chesterville or Nation Valley, or a joint project. A list of donors published in the Record included residents of Chesterville, Nation Valley, Bethune Bush, Dunbar, Grantley, and other areas, which gives support to the theory that one community cenotaph may have originally been planned, but more research is required to know for sure. Whatever the situation was, that memorial was put on hold at the end of December 1921 due to funding issues.
The monument, made of black and grey Egyptian granite, stands over six feet tall. Small maple leaves adorn the corners of each side, and a wreath of them is displayed on the cap of the stone.
The ceremony was performed by Rev. William Brown, the Methodist minister from Chesterville. Local dignitaries were present, including Dundas MP Preston Elliott and MPP W. H. Casselman, Grenville MPP Howard Ferguson, and Winchester merchant Aaron Sweet, the latter of whom served as chairman of the ceremony. Ontario Premier E. C. Drury was also scheduled to be there. After the dedication, attendees were served lunch at George C. Merkley's grove, which adjoined the school property. It was estimated that 500 to 600 people, young and old, were present that day. The Chesterville Citizen's Band provided music and sports were held for the children, including a baseball game between Winchester Springs and Morewood. In the fall of 2014, the North Dundas Township Council discovered that the land where the monument was located was privately owned by the Munro family; a few years after the school closed in 1966, the school board sold the land to them. To ensure that the public would always have access to the cenotaph, the Munro family worked with the Township and the Chesterville Legion to have it moved to Veterans Memorial Park on Queen Street East, where Chesterville's own war memorial was (and still is) located.
Soldier Profiles Sgt. Harold Adam Merkley (1895-1918)
Cpl. William Brown Clark Moodie (1883 - 1917) William Brown Clark Moodie was born on 12 December 1883 in Winchester Township to James Moodie and Bethia Barbara Clark. He and his family lived with his maternal grandparents, Rev. William and Elizabeth Clark, at Lot 10, Concession 2 of Winchester Township. He remained there until at least 1901, but by 1906, he and his older brother Frank were living in Calgary with their uncle, Walter Moodie. William was working as a carpenter and living at 818 7th Ave. West in Calgary with Frank when he enlisted on 8 May 1915. He was originally attached to the 56th Battalion but later transferred to the 49th Battalion in January 1916. In September of that year, he was promoted to corporal. A month later, he suffered a gunshot wound to the neck but recovered and resumed duty. No photos have been located of Cpl. Moodie, but his attestation form described him as 5 feet, 10 inches tall and 165 pounds with a dark complexion, brown eyes, and brown hair. By the time of William’s death, his parents were living in Vancouver and most of his siblings had married and moved away from the district. The only one to remain was a brother, Norman Moodie, who resided on the family farm. Pte. Ransom "Howard" Hess (1899-1918)
Pte. Henry Coughler (1885-1918) Henry Coughler was born on 27 August 1885 in Winchester Township to William Christopher Coughler and Agnes Rosetta Beckstead. As a boy, he lived with his parents at Lot 7, Concession 3. He eventually moved Shaunavon, Saskatchewan and enlisted in Regina on 27 November 1917. While overseas, he served with the 28th Battalion and the 1st Depot Battalion (Saskatchewan Regiment).
No photos of Pte. Coughler have been located. His attestation form described him as 5 feet, 6 inches tall and 140 pounds with a light complexion, brown eyes, and brown hair.
By Ashley Harper Collection Highlights is an ongoing series that aims to shed light on some of the interesting items that have been donated to CDHS since its incorporation in 1984.
This suit is made of a thick wool fabric and consists of a vest, jacket, and a pair of pants. It would have typically been worn with a white shirt and collar (they were often separate), along with a tie.
At the time this suit was made, most clothing was still produced by hand, though with the added help of certain textile machines. Standardized items became mass produced and many pieces could be purchased from catalogues and clothing stores. It was no longer necessary for the average person to go to a tailor, but those seeking custom-made garments (such as for special occasions) usually still relied on these skilled workers. The excellent condition of this suit can, in part, be attributed to the quality of work done by S. W. Boyd. Simeon William Boyd was a native of Williamsburg Township, where he was born in 1868 to parents Nathaniel and Christie Ann (Weaver) Boyd. As a youth in the 1880s, he apprenticed under Alexander Cameron, a merchant tailor in West Winchester (now Winchester). Eventually, Simeon branched out on his own, and by 1891 he was working in Buckingham, Quebec. At the end of the year, he married Anastasia O'Neil and within a short time the couple moved to Chesterville. From 1892 to 1898, he operated a tailoring business on the northwest corner of Mill and Victoria Streets (now 2 Mill), opposite the McCloskey Hotel. At the beginning of 1899, he moved his shop to the Kearns Block on Main Street, which burned in Sep 1991 and is now the parking lot between PharmaChoice and Scotiabank. S. W. Boyd’s business moved to Winchester on 3 August 1903 and remained there until at least late 1915. The exact location of his shop has not been found, but it is known that the family lived on St. Lawrence Street. Simeon's former master, Alex Cameron, was still in business on Main Street during this time. By 1919, the couple and their four children had moved to Ottawa, where Simeon worked as an insurance agent until his death in 1933 at the age of 64. He and his wife, along with two sons, are buried at Maple Ridge Cemetery in Chesterville.
From this, we know that this suit was commissioned by Simeon Casselman. Simeon Barnett Casselman, known as Sim, was born in 1874 and was the youngest child of Philip Arnold Casselman and Catherine Elizabeth Sutherland. He was a resident of the Grantley/Goldfield area, having lived his whole life on the family farm at Lot 6, Concession 1 of Finch Township (now 14412 Casselman Road).
After they were married, Sim and Jean went on to have a large family of seven children: Margaret, Marion, Donald, Douglas (died young), Harold (killed in action in WWII), John, and Eleanor. The couple remained at the Casselman farm for the rest of their lives, with Sim passing in 1956 and Jean following in 1967. Both Sim and Jean, along with several of their children, are buried at the Grantley United Church Cemetery.
Sim was ill for some time prior to his death, so his daughter Margaret and granddaughter Mary (daughter of Donald) were living on the home farm to help care for him. After he passed, Mary was given this suit, which she held on to for over sixty years before donating it to CDHS. Over a century after it was made, it now lives on to tell the story of S. W. Boyd, Sim Casselman, and their families. |
CDHS publishes articles about interesting photos, artifacts, people, events, buildings, etc. that relate to the history of Chesterville and District. If there is something that you would like to see, email us at [email protected]
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