The thing that is the most fun about working or volunteering in a museum are the surprises that you discover in everyday work.

The Dufferin County Museum and Archives is currently undertaking a project that will create a virtual record of all the military veterans who have ever had a connection to this area.

Service men's and women's names and records are being compiled from dozens of sources ranging from the internet to the actual names on plaques in churches and legions. Anyone who was born in Dufferin, resided in Dufferin, or died in Dufferin County is being included. The job is expected to take two to three years to complete.

The federal Department of Veterans Affairs gave us a small grant to get the project started and several volunteers have been concentrating on the actual research. We started on World War I and will work into World War II. Korean War, Vietnam and Afghanistan service personnel are also being added to the list.

As with all research, however, we found a few surprises waiting from Dufferin's past. A volunteer discovered the obituary of an early resident and it stated that he was a veteran of the civil war. How cool was that, but was there more?

George Goetchius If I had remembered local history, then I would have had a suspicion of local connections to early American history.

"The Yellow Briar" was the Canadian best seller of 1934. It was written as a fictional story of a local Mono township lad named Patrick Slater, supposedly the author.

Patrick was orphaned on his way to Canada in the late 1850s. When he landed in Montreal he joined a family called the Irwins on their way to settle at Mono Mills. Years later the lad falls in love with the Irwin's daughter and to avoid scandal he leaves and fights in the American Civil War. He later returns to take care of the aging Irwin parents.

It is a wonderful, heart warming story that is full of tales of early Dufferin County. Although fiction, I should have guessed that it may have also have been based on real people and actual events.

After much research, we have found that indeed Dufferin County to date has actually had at least five local boys who in real life went off to fight in our neighbouring country, perhaps for pay, perhaps for love; we will never know why.

James Norris, who farmed in Melancthon for over 50 years, died March 4, 1915 and was buried in Badjeros Cemetery. His obituary read in part, "Mr Norris was born in England about 1840 and came to Canada as a youth. When the American Revolution (sic.) broke out he was full of the vigour of young manhood and having a taste for the risk and romance of war he enlisted in the Northern forces as a member of a cavalry regiment from Ohio. As a colonel of the war he returned to Canada and took up farming in Melancthon."

Another soldier was Hugh McKenna, a well known Mono pioneer. His obituary also lists him as a "Civil War Veteran." The ORANGEVILLE SUN on May 12, 1864 announced that "Mr. Richard Hewat has joined the Signal Corps of the United States Army. From a letter we learn that although only a few weeks enlisted he has already earned the confidence of his superior officers."

Not all of our research had a happy ending however. In the Aged Peoples Ward at the County Jail we find in April of 1921: "John Lewis, a veteran of the American Civil War, passed away, deceased hailed from the Mono Centre neighbourhood." We have been able to find records in the USA on the great military career of this forgotten soldier.

Another man, however, remains more clouded in time. William Bradford of the 8th Iowa Volunteer Infantry was six foot four inches, with grey hair and blue eyes. He had a distinguished career. He had moved to the United States to find work and somehow joined the military. He fought at Shiloh and at Petersburg and was eventually captured at Jonesboro, Virginia. His wife assumed he was dead and claimed his pension.

However, an article in the ORANGEVILLE SUN of May 7, 1896 has the story. "One of the early settlers in Shelburne was a soldier during the Civil War. He fell into the hands of the enemy and was in the Andersonville prison. Mr Bradford now resides in Melancthon."

It is interesting to note that at the time the article was written he had another wife and never claimed his pension.

In a small grave in Little Falls, N.Y. lies another Civil War veteran, George Goetchius, who also served with the North and died Dec. 30, 1908. He was a very well known Orangeville businessman in the 1880s, running a cigar store and billiard parlour on Broadway. He moved to Toronto when he was 70 and opened the College Inn Cigar Store. His widow, Dulcie Wallace of Orangeville was more than 28 years younger than her husband.

I guess the story is to never assume anything when it comes to Dufferin County history. We now have found veterans from the Napoleonic wars, War of 1812, Boer War, Crimean War and even a young man from Amaranth who ran off to support the rebels in Spain in 1937.

If any of our readers have veterans connected to Dufferin County, give us a call or e-mail collectionsassistant@dufferin museum.com, as we want to make sure that everyone is remembered!