This picture is of the Hendershot House as it was in 1950. This was the house that the Crosby Hendershot family lived in until his health failed and he moved to live with Laura, his daughter and her husband Jim, in roughly 2005. Crosby died in 2009. According to a conversation Crosby had with Laura
Here’s a rendition of the Stevensville Cider Mill as I, more or less, remember it. This image was produced by ChatGPT after many edits and modifications. In another post I comment on the difficulty of coaxing an AI program to give you just what you want. For example, the Creek directly behind the Mill was
As you can see from other posts on this blog I have been studying and commenting on the history of Stevensville, my home town. Among other things this involves looking at old documents collected and saved by friends and family members. In some cases this can be tedious and time consuming. The type of documents
I just happen to be one of the last kids to go through good old SS#9 on Airline St. Back then, in the 50’s, we started Grade 1 in the little one room school house on the north corner of the school property (out by the road). Both grades 1 and 2 were handled in
One of the things I’ve always found interesting is how various stretches of land in the Stevensville area have been used, developed, and re-organized over the years, and especially since my childhood. From my pre-1970 perspective these areas include: The Creek (Black Creek) The Grove (which is now known as the “United Empire Loyalist Park”)
Memories of the Village I Knew Whenever I return to Stevensville – the small town where I grew up – I am struck by the changes. My memories of the town are of people and places as they were in the 1960s. I moved away after getting married in 1968 and left most of those
We’ve decided to visit some small towns in our area of Ontario this summer. The first one was a week or so ago – a visit to Floradale, just a few km outside of Elmira. This has been a small community with many Mennonite families, but as one long time resident told me, it is
(**Sources to be added.) The problem of publicly-funded Protestant/Catholic schools was an outcome of the history of Canada. When the British defeated the French in 1763 Canada was populated with mostly RCs, but the official religion of the British Empire was Anglican (ie., non-Catholic). To avoid internal fighting the British govt gave the residents of
Nellie McClung was an activist and “suffragette”, elected to the Alberta legislature in 1921. This article is about the development of “responsible government” and universal suffrage (the right of all adults to vote) in Canada. The granting of responsible government – where citizens rather than autocrats made decisions about governance – was a process that
A few days ago I heard that Eddie Shack died at the age of 83. I was never a fan of the Leafs, but it was hard not to be a fan of Eddie Shack. About a decade after Shack had retired (in 1975) I was involved up to my wahzoo in minor hockey. I
The evolution of the modern guitar is a complicated one. Stringed instruments with some of the features of modern guitars have been used for about 4,000 years, as can be attested by archaeological evidence from digs in Egypt, Greece, Mesopotamia, and elsewhere where organized human civilizations have been found. The guitar didn’t really start to
Kaitlyn Leis from Mathew McCarthy on Vimeo. I was digging around in the Waterloo Region Record blogs today and stumbled upon this nice video of Kaitlyn Leis and the steam powered locomotive of the Waterloo Central Railway that runs from Waterloo to St. Jacobs. The video is from Mathew McCarthy’s blog A Reason for Being.
Adolph Hitler ordered the seizure of thousands of pieces of art during World War II. More than 1500 paintings by Matisse, Picasso, Renoir and Chagall (among many others) were found in the Munich apartment. These had been seized during the war by the Nazis and deemed “degenerate”. They were thought to have been destroyed many
The old Waterloo Post Office building was built in 1912 and has undergone many renovations over the years. The original corner clock was removed in 1956, because it had fallen into disrepair. A modern clock was added in 1969, but itwas replaced in 1987 with one based on the original drawings and specifications. This restored
We’ve recently been bombarded with news of the upcoming British royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton, and there is suddenly renewed interest in the British monarchy. The CBC, for example ran a phone-in last Sunday in which people were asked “Will the royal wedding renew interest in the monarchy in Canada?” (or something
In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie, In
In Part 1 called How Conestogo Got Its Name – Part 1 I offered some background into the relationship between Conestogo Ontario and an area in southeastern Pennsylvania where the name originated. Actually it is not correct to suggest that Conestogo Ontario was named after the town called Conestoga in Lancaster Pennsylvania. As I mentioned
A 400-year-old book described as “the first written history of Canada”, and containing one of the earliest and most treasured maps of the country is scheduled to be sold this month at a British auction of rare volumes and historic manuscripts. Marc Lescarbot spent two years in New France shortly after the first settlement in
Growing up in Canada only 10 miles or so from the American border, I’ve always had an ambivalent feeling about the anti-American sentiment expressed by many Canadians. My initial experience of the U.S. was Buffalo, New York, a decaying industrial city just over the border. Buffalo had grubby old factory buildings, real movie theatres, powerful
