Dipping Into the Past

125 YEARS AGO Thursday, November 6, 1884

• The voting on the Scott Act in Dufferin County last Thursday resulted in an unofficial majority for the measure of 805. In Orangeville the vote was 254 for to 143 against, while Shelburne was the only municipality opposing the act, 74 to 64. The count was not official, returning officer P. M. Barker having reported that some parties had broken into his office Sunday night or early Monday and carried off five ballot boxes, from Riverview, Ewing's (Mono), Mansfield, Banda and Coleridge, which in all, had given a majority for the Act of 152. As well, the ballot boxes from two other divisions had not been returned on Monday last, the day fixed for the accounting.

• At the Dufferin Fall Assizes the Grand Jury reported that the comparative absence of crime in the county is to them a matter of congratulations and they hoped for a continuance of the same. The cases engaging their attention were "not of a serious character." The jurors had visited the gaol "and found every department therein in proper order, with due regard on the part of the officials to cleanliness." The 15 inmates — 10 males and five females — "all ... are placed there having no other means provided for their support; some of them are aged and infirm."

100 YEARS AGO Thursday, November 4, 1909

• A terrible affair took place in Orangeville Saturday night in the store of Hughes & Norris, merchant tailors, on West Broadway, in which Bob Cook, a notorious desperado figured. Cook had returned to town from the West, where he went with his young bride two years ago, and going to the home of his mother-in-law, Mrs. Thomas Reid, on Church Street, inquired for his wife, who had left him some time ago. Not receiving a satisfactory answer, he proceeded to smash dishes and doors and terrified the old lady and her son, a young man in delicate health. A warrant for the outrage was sworn and given to Chief Constable Sam Speers and nightwatchman James Halbert to execute. About 10 p.m. the officers saw Cook in the store whittling a stick with a jackknife. When he resisted arrest, Halbert struck at the knife with his baton and seizing Cook shoved him over on a table. The desperado slashed at the constable with the knife, cutting the wrist strap and terribly injuring Halbert, whose right wrist was half severed, the radial artery and ligaments completely so, while his thumb hung useless. Cook then seized the officer's baton, dashed through the door, defied the crowd and made his escape. A telephone message received just before we went to press said Cook is still at large, although it is believed he is still in the vicinity.

• In his column The Notebook, R. L. Mortimer, editor of the Shelburne Free Press, notes that during the protest over the reeveship of Orangeville some months ago, "lawyer McKenzie, of Toronto, issued a writ for libel against Messrs. McGuire and McKitrick, of the Banner, and our old friend John Foley, of the Sun, was threatened with a term in jail. The proprietors of the Banner have been successful in securing an order from the court to make McKenzie put up $400 to guarantee costs if he proceeds with the action. If this is not done the action will be dismissed.

• Hiram Baker, a former resident of Orangeville, and at one time a stocking pedlar throughout Dufferin, was sentenced by Judge Winchester in Toronto on Saturday last to two years less a day in the Central Prison. The charge against Baker was forgery and false pretenses. He has figured in the Police Court before Magistrate Denison on several occasions in the past year.

75 YEARS AGO Wednesday, November 8, 1934

• The fifth annual banquet and get-together of Dufferin County's exservicemen will be held in the club rooms of Shelburne Curling Rink Monday night next. The veterans will meet at the armouries on Owen Sound Street and parade to the rink, headed by Shelburne Citizens' Band, which will also play a few numbers in the rink during the first part of the banquet.

50 YEARS AGO Wednesday, November 4, 1959

• Some 200 members of Dufferin County Teachers' Institute met in the auditorium of Shelburne Public School last Friday for their annual convention, and heard several highly informative and instructive addresses.

• John Root, MLA, says tenders are being called for grading, granular base and culverts for 7.35 miles of the Shelburne-Mount Forest development road, west of Signet.

25 YEARS AGO Wednesday, November 7, 1984

• Orangeville area residents reeled in shock this week as 27 police officers continued their investigation into the murder Sunday night of Monique Babineau, 9, and her brother Daniel, 11, whose bodies were found by Police Constable Murray Storey behind St. Peter School about an hour after they were reported missing.