125 YEARS AGO Thursday, September 18, 1884

• St. Paul's Church, Shelburne, held its annual Harvest Home services in the church Sunday last. The church was beautifully decorated with mottos, evergreens and the usual varieties of grain, etc. Rev. Mr. Rooney delivered the morning sermon, Rev. Mr. Marsh the afternoon sermon and the incumbent, the Rev. H. G. Moore, the evening sermon, all three services being largely attended - in fact, a large number were unable to gain admittance in the evening.

• Enormous crowds are attending the Toronto Industrial Exhibition. Lord Lansdowne, Governor General, visited it on Tuesday. The reception of Hon. Oliver Mowat, which took place on Tuesday, also attracted thousands to the city. The Globe estimates that there were between 12,000 and 13, 000 in the procession.

100 YEARS AGO Thursday, September 16, 1909

• Says the Orangeville POST: That Orangeville needs a sewage system is being made abundantly evident, if the town's reputation as a health resort is to maintained. If open cesspools are allowed to breed disease germs, only the most robust of our citizens may survive. The matter is becoming a scandal and the odour emanating from the cause is unbearable. It is impossible to leave a window open on some of our best streets, and the nuisance is on the increase. The health of the community is of grave moment, and immediate action is imperative.

• On more than one occasion in the past few years the band room of the 36th Regt. Band in Shelburne has been entered into in the night by unauthorized persons and the bass drum, cymbals and any other noise producers that were available taken out and a determined attempt made to make the night hideous by a combination of strange sounds. Monday night, the bandmaster saw to the locking of the door himself after the practice. The two keys have not since been out of the possession of the persons supposed to carry them, yet at about 1 a.m. Wednesday, the night was again made hideous by individuals who procured instruments, uniforms and torches and held a bacchanalian street parade.

• Whitfield post office, which opened in 1854 and until recently had daily mail, saw its service cut this spring to three times per week, and now the office is to be closed up.

75 YEARS AGO Wednesday, September 20, 1934

• Police are investigating what is believed to have been a deliberate attempt to take the life of Wellington County Constable Bayne, of Belwood over the weekend. Summoned to a point on the Orangeville-Fergus Road at 4 a.m. Sunday to investigate a reported accident, he missed death by inches when a bullet crashed through the windshield of his car and grazed his clothing. There was no sign of an accident and the shot is thought to have been fired by the person responsible for the call. The shooting is being investigated by Provincial Constable Mennie.

• On Sunday, the Leavens Bros. had their plane and auto-gyro at the Clifford Reid farm, 4th Line of Melancthon, just west of Shelburne, and a large number from town and country took advantage of the opportunity to go up in the air and see what the town and surrounding country looks like from aloft. The Leavens Bros. were at Honeywood Friday and Maple Valley Saturday, and have also had the machines at Rosemont and other points in the district.

• The new paving on Highway 9 between Orangeville and Arthur has been completed. The last unpaved portion was east and west of Grand Valley.

50 YEARS AGO Wednesday, September 16, 1959

• Anew building is being added to Shelburne's roster of religious edifices with the starting of construction Monday of the new Bethel Bible Chapel on Main Street East. The new structure will seat about 200 persons, and adequate parking is provided for at the rear. The new building will replace the present Bethel Hall on the 8th Line of Amaranth, which was opened in 1922.

• Gordon Wilson, of Orangeville, suffered shock when he received the side-effects from a bolt of lightning which struck the drive-in theatre property. He was standing beside a car at the time.

25 YEARS AGO Wednesday, September 19, 1984

• On the heels of an overwhelming local victory, Perrin Beatty, 34, was appointed Monday as Minister of National Revenue in the new cabinet of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. Set as 'watchdog' on the department when the Progressive Conservatives were in opposition, the MP for Wellington-Dufferin-Simcoe gained national recognition when he headed a PC task force on Revenue Canada that took a cross-country tour.

• An adjournment was granted in an Ontario Municipal Board hearing on Orangeville's proposed non-profit housing development near Rotary Park, to await an Ontario Supreme Court decision on the same issue.