The following is a re-print of a past column by former Advertiser columnist Stephen Thorning, who passed away on Feb. 23, 2015.
Some text has been updated to reflect changes since the original publication and any images used may not be the same as those that accompanied the original publication.
141 years ago – Winter 1880
Drayton council in the 1870s had a reputation for meeting more often than any other council in the county, and it maintained that position in January 1880.
On the 16th, the old 1879 council met for the last time. The purpose was to tidy up some business from the previous year. Among the bills paid were $16.50 to D. Macdonald for sidewalk work on Wood and Elm Streets, and $75 to F.S. Proctor for his services as clerk during 1879. There were also bills for various election expenses.
Drayton’s new council met three days later, with J.C. Johnston, the new reeve, in the chair. At that session councillors began making the various municipal appointments for the year. Another meeting a week later gave third reading to the appointments.
Meeting again on Feb. 9, councillors agreed to rent the hall belonging to the Drayton Temperance Society for $34. That amount included all council meetings, special sessions and elections. Up to that time, council had normally met in a parlour at one of the local hotels. In response to some ratepayer complaints, council gave two readings to a bylaw regulating slaughter houses in the village,
A large turnout of ratepayers greeted councillors at the next meeting, on March 8. Two delegations, armed with petitions, requested that sidewalks be installed on Main Street, east from the Methodist Church 200 rods (about 1km), and west from the Christian Church to the village limits. Another delegation wanted some regulation of tanneries within the village, and a fourth delegation requested a donation to the Drayton Entire Horse Association.
Councillors dealt with the latter request quickly, voting a $5 contribution to the horsemen. The tannery problem provoked some discussion, which was resolved by holding the question over for further investigation and consideration.
Fearing an avalanche of sidewalk requests, councillors offered partial aid to the Main Street residents. They voted $50 to each of the groups toward nails and lumber, provided the residents provide the stringers, level the ground, and provide the labour, with the work to be completed to the satisfaction of council. Among the accounts paid that night were $13.50 to Widow Hambleton for a coffin and funeral for her young son, and $10 to each of the two auditors.
Council met again two weeks later. Though there were no delegations for more sidewalks, councillors expected them, following the aid they had granted to the Main Street residents two weeks earlier. They revoked their decision to provide a cash subsidy to those projects, and instead decided to provide nails and the wood for the walkways for the Main Street sidewalks, and any others that might come forward during the year. To reduce the cost they decided to call for tenders for 20,000 board-feet of hemlock planks, and 35,000 board-feet of pine, 2 in. thick and in widths between 11 and 13 in.
Peel council, meanwhile, met for its first 1880 meeting on Jan. 19 with returning reeve James Cross presiding. After making all the township’s appointments for 1880, councillors considered a claim for damages from John Bailey. He had damaged his threshing machine on a township road late in 1879, and claimed that Peel had been negligent in its care of the road. He wanted $20; council granted $12. The next meeting was called for the Belfast Hotel in Goldstone on Feb. 11.
That meeting turned into a two-day session. On the first day council approved 1880 salaries: $175 for the year to clerk Jim Gibson, $135 to the treasurer, and $90 to the assessor.
Under new business, the bridge on Concession 12 was in obvious poor condition, and would need work soon. A committee of councillors, all practical men, visited the site in the afternoon. The following day they brought their report back to council. The men had concluded that repairs would be difficult and not cost effective, and that the bridge should be replaced in the spring. Before adjourning, council set the next meeting for March 15.
Peel and Maryborough, and other rural townships, managed to get by a century and a quarter ago with nine or ten meetings per year, though some of those were two-day sessions. Drayton, at the other extreme, averaged about 30 meetings per year, despite several attempts to streamline the village’s business.
41 years ago – March 1980
The big news at the beginning of March 1980 was the sale of Community Telephone Ontario Ltd. to Bell Telephone.
The firm, itself an amalgamation of many small local telephone systems including the one in the Drayton area, operated 21 exchanges across Ontario, and served some 33,000 businesses and households.
Along with the sale came an announcement that rates would increase 80%. Prior to regulatory approval, affected telephone users had the opportunity to voice their comments at a series of hearings, including one at Drayton on March 4. Elbert van Donkersgood led the local committee formed to oppose the new rates.
More agreeable news came from the Peel and Maryborough Mutual Insurance Co. Its annual statement came out in early March, and showed a considerable increase in business during 1979. Assets stood at $1.6-million; liabilities at $446,000. Premium income was up 18% to $706,000, and claims for the year totalled $375,000, resulting in a sizable increase in reserves.
A Ministry of the Environment survey showed that 94% of Drayton’s septic systems were substandard, and some severely so. More serious were the contaminated wells: about a dozen of the village’s 120 wells produced severely contaminated water. The MOE suggested the village construct a lagoon-type sewage system, with the lagoons on a 106-acre parcel owned by Arend Flinkert in Maryborough. The report concluded that a deep well drilled for the village’s health clinic in 1967 had sufficient capacity to supply most of the village.
Meanwhile, new construction continued. Council reached an agreement with Albert Meisler to develop eight lots facing Queen, Mill and King Streets. He would be responsible for bringing the streets up to standard and providing storm drainage.
Hockey season reached its peak in March, with Drayton teams involved in playoffs. The Intermediate team took on Ripley in a five-game series and disposed of them handily. The local Dragons were much less successful when they began a series against the Goderich Panthers, losing the first game of the series 10-7. For the second game on March 21 at Goderich, Drayton area fans chartered two buses to take enthusiastic supporters to Goderich.
The PMD Minor Hockey group organized a full-day tournament on March 8, with play beginning at 8am. House League, Tykes, Atoms and Pee Wees filled the day with steady play. The event concluded with a fundraising dance in the evening.
Other Drayton organizations made plans for events. The Kinsmen scheduled the first of three local talent contests for March 29, featuring Hoppy, a popular Kitchener broadcasting personality. The Rotary Club was busy organizing a walkathon, with proceeds earmarked for the paving of the parking lot at the arena.
A petition to the Wellington County School Board from 11 parents in the Yatton-Wallenstein area caused some concern. They wanted their children to attend Floradale school in Waterloo region, rather than Centre Peel and Drayton schools. The latter already was experiencing declining enrolment, and some feared that it might be closed after the loss of more students. Floradale was only a couple of miles from their homes, while Centre Peel was about six and Drayton 13.
On March 10 the PMD Arena Board set its budget for 1980. The board requested $20,000 in operating grants, and $27,000 in capital grants, most of the latter allocated to paving the arena parking lot. Board members were delighted with arena manager Peter Robertson’s report that his conservation program had reduced electrical consumption by 30% in January. Costs of operating the arena were reduced considerably by the fundraising activities of various user and community groups, including Rotary and the Hockey Moms.
Light snow cover frustrated local snowmobile enthusiasts. The Lake Conestoga Snowmobile Club, working with the Ministry of Natural Resources and the conservation authority, laid out a 75km trail around the lake, but lack of snow in February and March made it largely unusable. The club, founded in 1974, had grown to 50 members by 1980.
Drayton’s Figure Skating Club began a major fundraising drive, asking supporters and friends to save proof-of-purchase labels for 11 Colgate-Palmolive products. The firm promised to give 10 to 40 cents for each one turned in. Several businesses volunteered to be collection points.
Drayton’s Curling Club held its combination awards night and annual meeting on March 24. Ron Schieck and Ken Fisher skipped the top teams during the season. The club ended the season with 46 paid-up members and a surplus of $886.
A downtown business location, vacant since summer 1979, seemed destined to remain so.
An auctioneer tried to sell the Drayton Variety and Pool Hall on March 22. The only bid offered was far below the reserve. The business had closed with the bankruptcy of Bob and Shelda Geff, the last operators.
*This column was originally published in the Drayton Community News on Feb. 19 and March 4, 2005.
