100 YEARS AGO Thursday, November 29, 1906

• R. L. Mortimer, editor of the Shelburne Free Press and a local representative of the Grand Trunk Railway, was one of 24 members of the Canadian Ticket Agents' Association who went on an excursion to Mobile, Alabama, and New Orleans, departing on November 7. Members of the association were present from Nova Scotia on the east to Sault Ste. Marie and Windsor to the north and west. The special train, consisting of eight Pullman coaches and a baggage car, left Detroit by the Wabash System for St. Louis at 6:35 p.m. and were to have reached the Missouri city in time for breakfast. However, an accident to the engine delayed the train and St. Louis was not reached until noon. The trip from St. Louis was over the Mobile & Ohio Railway and a further delay of two hours was caused at Cairo, Illinois, by the derailment of two freight cars on a bridge over the Ohio River. The train reached Mobile, at 5 p.m. Friday, nine hours late.

On Saturday, the association held its annual meeting in Mobile. Mr. Mortimer wrote that the trip through Mississippi and Alabama "is rather disappointing as they are in a very primitive condition, as the railway runs through miles and miles of southern pine, magnolia and scrubby oaks. The pine trees are all under 18 inches in diameter and are full of gum, what we northerners call fat pine. If there are any farming operations carried on in Mississippi in the districts through which we passed, it is on a one-horse scale, of raising a little corn and an odd patch of cotton and sweet potatoes. There are no farms with good residences and outbuildings as we have in Ontario. The farmhouses on many of the back lines of Dufferin County are equal to the majority of residences in the residential parts of Southern cities. Mississippi has 84 miles of sea coast but no good harbours."

• The Collingwood Shipbuilding Co. has under construction for the Midland Navigation Co., and will launch on December 5, the largest propeller-driven ship ever built in Canadian or American waters. It will be 486 feet over-all in length and 55 feet wide, with what is known as a molded depth of 31 feet, while her engines are of 2,500 horsepower. More than 300,000 bushels of wheat can be carried in her hold.

• The final session of Dufferin County Council for 1906 was held in Orangeville last week. Warden Platt's address referred to the change in the Public Schools Act increasing the salary of the school inspector, and intimated that it would be the duty of Council to pass a bylaw making provision for payment of the increased salary. The address also drew attention to the dispute with Wellington County respecting the latter's liability for half the cost of a cement culvert on the Erin-East Garafraxa townline, and suggested the advisability of considering what steps should be taken to enforce Dufferin's claim.

• The new CPR line from Toronto to Sudbury is now open as far as Craighurst. Trains will be run on the Owen Sound branch as far as Bolton. James Williams, for so many years the efficient agent at Shelburne's CPR station, goes to Alliston this week to assume charge of that station on the new line.

75 YEARS AGO Wednesday, December 3, 1931

• According to a despatch in the Toronto Globe, a redistribution of seats in Parliament may result in North Wellington and Dufferin being joined instead of Dufferin having part of Simcoe County.

• An increase in motor car and truck annual taxes was announced last week by Highways Minister Leopold Macaulay. The new scale eliminates the old system of taxing on a horsepower basis and replaces it with a cylinder basis. All classes of cars are affected, the increase ranging from $2 to $20. For four-cylinder cars the new fee will be $7. For sixcylinders the new fee will be $12 and for eight, $20 instead of $10.

50 YEARS AGO Wednesday, November 28, 1956

• H. White & Co. suffered a severe loss early Tuesday morning when their large grain elevator and seed cleaning plant in Shelburne was totally destroyed by fire, cause of which has not been determined.

• There will not be an election in Shelburne this year, a well-attended nomination meeting having resulted in acclamations for council, board of education and cemetery commission. John Rose will be reeve and George Albrecht, Delmer Bates, Thomas Hume and Andrew Savage will serve as councillors.

25 YEARS AGO Wednesday, December 2, 1981

• Ontario Hydro has launched a study to examine the future of its Alliston Area office, which includes Shelburne and the surrounding townships. Al Pattula, said the study "will examine all viable options for this office."

• A substantial volume of narcotics, controlled drugs and other drugs were stolen last weekend from the pharmacy at Dufferin Area Hospital, Orangeville, with the loss being estimated at $50,000.