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The Picton Gazette THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 2014
PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY
Looking back in the
Picton Gazette 90 years ago — 1924
■ In a close election, Picton reeve Harry Blakely unseated incumbent mayor Newman to take the top job by 22 votes of the 1278 cast. B.H. Palmateer won the race for the reeve’s seat, while Ed Peeling won the deputy reeve position. John A. Weese won the reeveship in Ameliasburgh, William Morton won in Hillier, and A. Bongard won in South Marysburgh. D. S. Ainsworth, W.H. Gough, Fred Hubbs, J.L Hughes, and Horace Way were acclaimed reeves of Wellington, Bloomfield, Hallowell, North Marysburgh, and Sophiasburgh respectively. ■ The federal government was teetering in the balance as prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King had minority control of both the House and Senate. The Liberal was dependent on the confidence of the surging Tories to stay in power. ■ Picton Collegiate Institute celebrated its annual commencement as many students earned medals and prizes.
70 years ago — 1944
■ Cpl. A. Clapp, of Milford, lost his leg battling Nazis near the Moro River. From the military hospital, he wrote to his brother-in-law in Belleville. Clapp said there were several German troops — mostly in their teens — in the same hospital. He said they were astounded when Allied troops showed them maps of the Russian advance. Clapp said he felt the Nazis would be beaten that year. ■ Three county men Pte. Rex Shannon, Pte. Leonard Vanclief, and Sgt. James F. Jenkins were among the Canadian soldiers who returned home on the hospital ship Lady Nelson that week. All three had fought in Sicily. Vanclief credited fellow Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment member Harry Hyatt, of Trenton, and an unknown blood donor for saving his life. ■ Local hog producers formed a county association and elected Morley Williams president. They called on the federal government to introduce a subsidy program that would ensure prices would remain steady, equal to $20 per hundredweight. Many felt squeezed by rising grain prices.
60 years ago — 1954
■ Some quick thinking from Floyd Cole and Burt Lyons saved two lives during a residential fire in Woodville. The men arrived at the Reimer home and dashed upstairs through heavy smoke. Lyons led Reimer safely out of the house, while Cole had to jump through an upper bedroom window to save himself in thick smoke. The house was a complete loss. It was thought an overheated chimney was the cause of the fire. ■ Milford’s Howard Dainard showed off some rare items in his possession. Dainard had a Canadian $4 bill that was over 102 years old and he also possessed an English coin dating back to 1689.
20 years ago — 1994
■ Essroc announced it would require 35 fewer people to assist with its operations for 1994. Plant manager Leo Finnegan said the company was negotiating with union officials and hoped to offer early retirement packages to some employees rather than relying on layoffs to pare down its payroll in a sluggish economy. ■ New Year’s celebrations turned tragic at the Tip of the Bay hotel when 32-year-old reveler Douglas John Hirtz collapsed and stopped breathing. He could not be saved.
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Paying tribute to great ones who have led the way
As we start out in a brand new year, it seems appropriate to look back and remember those who have inspired us in our careers. Over the years, several come to mind who I consider to have been mentors, among them long time Gazette editor Phil Dodds, Trentonian columnist Oral Kelly, and several others. Every year, conservationists travel to the Barrie area to attend the Latornell Conference, but few likely know the history to the name of the conference. I had the privilege of knowing Art Latornell as a personal friend, someone who went out of his way to guide me in a career choice that has been richly rewarding. Sometimes that’s all it takes, just meeting the right people and gaining inspiration from their unfettered enthusiasm. Latornell was like that and his passion and dedication to conservation was infectious, and at the Latornell conferences I have attended over the years when I worked with Quinte Conservation, I heard others speaking publicly about the same inspiration that he gave them in order to follow their dreams. As a columnist, now entering my 50th and final year of penning prose, I have met many nature columnists, but none has inspired me more than Doug Sadler, who passed away five years ago at the age of 92. Doug’s column “Come With Me Quietly” ran in the Peterborough Examiner for almost 50 years. At the age of 88, Sadler was in the audience when I gave a talk to the Peterborough Field Naturalists almost a decade ago. At the microphone, I paid tribute to this man who had inspired me so with his knowledge of the natural world. In a moment of friendly banter I commented that I had been trying to beat Sadler’s lengthy record of column writing, but that I could never seem to catch up! Without missing a beat, Sadler retorted from his table
OUTDOOR RAMBLES TERRY SPRAGUE
that I had a good chance now since he was retiring that year from writing his column! Doug was an amazing naturalist, and even more astounding in his ability to write a column. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of the natural world around him and he enjoyed nothing more than sharing that knowledge through his column. Doug possessed an intimacy with nature that others can only dream about acquiring one day. It wasn’t so much that he could identify everything from birds to butterflies and mosses to mammals, but he had a gift of putting everything he saw together like a jig-saw puzzle, and come up with a story of why these things were where he found them, and how they all tied together into the natural scheme of things. His columns, while drawing on serious subjects, would often be sprinkled with humour, and one column I remember in particular spoke of a camping trip he was on. Even on a late night emergency walk to the washroom facilities, he described the scene poetically and with colour, and he said, “I could see the overturned canoe’s bottom reflecting in the moonlight; doubtless, it could see mine too.” I never met Terry Carr, although I corresponded with this valued member of the Elliot Lake’s Penokean Hills
Field Naturalists on a number of occasions. Before he died, he won the Ontario Nature Richard’s Education Award for his untiring efforts with the field naturalists in the Christmas bird count, winter bird feeding program, and field trips to exciting locations. “Only Terry could make a trip to the dump exciting,” commented a Penokean Field Naturalists member. He served as president of the Elliot Lake naturalists group and was on the board of Ontario Nature. His love of nature and concern for the environment was an inspiration to everyone who knew him. Four months earlier, J. Fenwick Lansdowne also passed away. Lansdowne was probably my first introduction to wildlife art, at a time when wildlife art was just coming into its own. Those who remember the Toronto Daily Star’s weekly magazine, The Star Weekly, can likely recall the featured paintings in its weekend editions. Earlier critics compared his work to that of 19th Century John James Audubon. Lansdowne’s work now fetch several thousand dollars, certainly appreciated in value from when he used to sell his paintings to family and friends for under two dollars apiece. Prince Philip once wrote, “Lansdowne has the exceptional ability to capture moments with a seemingly effortless assurance but which can only come from intimate knowledge, immense care and remarkable talent.” I never knew Lansdowne, and it would be several years before I would meet another gifted artist, Robert Batemen, when we both served as board members of the Federation of Ontario Naturalists. Both wildlife artists have instilled in me a respect and admiration for wildlife artists and their work. We lost Dr. Martin Edwards last year, a Kingston
Field Naturalists member and good friend, who amassed an incredible checklist of birds from around the world. His memory has been immortalized through the renaming of a property on Amherst Island, owned by the Kingston Club. I was with Edwards one day on a field trip on Amherst Island when we stopped to listen for the cricket-like notes of a rare Henslow’s sparrow we all felt sure would be present in an open field along one of the sideroads. Hard of hearing, Martin put to use an outdated hearing aid in order to amplify the weak notes of this elusive bird. Cranked up to full volume, he panned the pocket device in front of him with the ear piece embedded deeply in his ear. He failed to pick up the low chirp of the Henslow’s sparrow, but he had no problem hearing the curious Hereford across the fence directly behind him that let out a loud bellow that almost blew off the top of his head! During this mentoring process that I have gone through since becoming actively involved in natural history in the 1960s, these incredible people have given me, without any conscious effort on their part, the impetus to forge ahead, and continue to learn. They have provided a greater context and allowed for a more rapid depth of understanding of those things that I observe whenever I am out in the field. While it is sad that the likes of Martin Edwards, Helen Quilliam, Orval Kelly, Doug Sadler, Art Latornell, Terry Carr and Fenwick Lansdowne are no longer with us, their spirit lives on. For more information on today’s topic, please e-mail tsprague@kos.net or phone 613-476-5072. For more information on nature in the Quinte area, be sure to check out " www.naturestuff.net .