SCHOOLS CELEBRATE HALLOWE’EN
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Serving Tavistock and area since 1895 VOLUME 123 • NUMBER 6
MAIN STREET A QUICK LOOK AT OUR TOWN!
THIS ‘N’ THAT The Legion Poppy Campaign continues until this coming Sunday, November 11th - please wear a poppy and remember those who sacrificed for us - Remembrance activities scheduled see ad below … listen for the “Bells of Peace” this Sunday, November 11th at sundown … the Men’s Club members are busy preparing for their 60th Annual Roast Pork and Sauerkraut Supper set for next Wednesday, November 14th . . . the Optimist Club of Tavistock is celebrating Youth Appreciation Week with events planned - see ad page 3 . . . rotating Canada Post strikes continue since action began October 22nd centering on health and safety concerns, workload, staffing and wages!
BIRTHDAYS & ANNIVERSARIES Ginnie Weicker is 2 years old November 9th; Jackson Bray, 6; Mason Charlton, 7; Katrina McClean, 13; Keenan Ramseyer, 17; Kari Ramseyer, 17 … on November 10th Benjamin McAuley is one year old; Zoe Lind, 3; birthdays also for Derek Ramseyer; Gwen King … Evan Gillis is 18 November 11th; Megan Mohr, 15; a 7th wedding anniversary for Sean and Laura Sullivan … on November 12th Bill Mark celebrates his 68th birthday; Hadyn Ankenmann, 18; Jonah Gould, 18 … Morgan Brenneman is 11 November 13th; Cole Hartman, 16. Congratulations to all!
TAVISTOCK, ONTARIO, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2018
1.19¢+.06 HST = $1.25
IN HONOUR OF ARMISTICE 100
The Bells of Peace
When the bells toll 100 times on Remembrance Day 2018, we will recall the symbolic meaning of the ringing to signify peace after war. As part of a nationwide initiative, the Royal Canadian Legion in partnership with Veterans Affairs Canada has asked churches to ring their bells 100 times at the setting of the sun on Sunday, November 11, 2018. The Bells of Peace will create a unified and memorable act across the country. In Tavistock, St. Paul’s Lutheran, Grace United and Trinity Lutheran at Sebastopol will participate in the event. Pulling the rope at St. Paul’s Lutheran on Wellington Street in Tavistock will be Walter Fuhr, who has been in charge of the bell tower since the early 1980’s. You can hear the bell ring every Sunday morning at 9:30 a.m., but this Sunday will be different with the tolling both morning and evening. The Fuhr family has been an integral part of the St. Paul’s congregation since the formation of the church in 1880. Walter’s great uncle Adam Fuhr was awarded the contract to build the church in 1881 for the price of $720. He hired the construction crew and built the altar and interior furniture himself. The land for the cemetery was obtained from the farm of his great grandfather, Henry Fuhr. It is not known what year the bell was placed in the tower, but it was purchased from the Buckeye Bell Foundry in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is also inscribed with the name, VanDuzen & Tift, who ran the foundry from 1865 to
BILL GLADDING / TAVISTOCK GAZETTE
Walter Fuhr stands in the belfry at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Tavistock. His great uncle, Adam Fuhr, was contracted for $720 for the carpentry work for the church when it was built in 1881. The bells were made by the Buckeye Bell Foundry in Cincinnati, Ohio. 1891. From a history of the Buckeye Bell Foundry it states they “engineered their bell mountings in a very unique design: A 4” to 5” opening was made in the top of the bell. A pair of cast iron disks gripped this opening, forming the hanging method & yoke connection. The bell profile was modified … thus improving the musical quality.” To get to the bell tower at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church you have to prop up an original wooden ladder and open the hatch above the gallery to get into the attic. From there, you climb another long wooden ladder and pass through another narrow
hatch into the belfry. The wooden floor of the belfry is sloped on both sides so water entering through the gothic windows flows outward. The bells are placed side-by-side on a raised platform with steel beams under each bell. “It’s been a long time since I was up here,” Walter said. He suggested that he should oil the shafts in preparation for the upcoming toll of 100, even though he reached that mark when his aunt passed away in 1993 at the age of 104. Walter and his wife, Catherine live in the home built by his grandfather, Henry Fuhr. As a little boy, Walter recalls people
coming to the home for visitation when his grandmother passed away in 1947. “I remember dad holding me up to look in the coffin,” Walter said. Walter grew up on the farm on the 14th Line of East Zorra just southeast of Tavistock where his brother Harold and wife Barbara Ann now live. After finishing Grade 13 at Waterloo-Oxford District Secondary School in Baden, Walter applied for a job at Bell Canada in Kitchener. In mid-July of 1963 he was hired to work in the office. He was then transferred to Galt where he helped re-wire the switching office. He also remembers working
at 2:00 a.m. some nights to replace the old plugin boards to automated switchers and check for dial tones on each subscriber when Wellesley and New Hamburg were “cut over” from crank phones. Walter learned the job by riding along for months and months with senior employees and continued with Bell doing residential and business installations and repairs until retiring in 1995. He then did contract work for Bell with Entourage until taking his second retirement in 2001. He and Catherine (Nisbet) were married at (continued on page 2)
ANNUAL Remembrance Activities 2018 - NOVEMBER 7-11 Wednesday, November 7th
10:15 a.m. Sprucedale Public School, Shakespeare
Friday, November 9th, 2018
Remembrance & Wreath Laying Services 10:30 a.m. – Tavistock Public School 10:45 a.m. – Plattsville Public School 11:30 a.m. – Hickson Central Public School
Sunday, November 11th, 2018
Church & Wreath Laying Services (Padre Rev. Richard Brown) 10:00 a.m. – Church Service at Trinity Lutheran Church, Sebastopol-Tavistock 1:00 p.m. – Wreath Laying Service at Tavistock Legion Branch 518 (inside) Fellowship & Social Time to follow.