125 YEARS AGO Thursday, March 19, 1885

• The snow plow going south Monday morning broke loose from the engine while going down Caledon Mountain and started out for a cruise on its own account. As it was all down grade from that point, the plow passed Cardwell Junction at the rate of about 75 miles an hour, and had it not got stuck in a big drift near Mono Road the chances are that it would not have stopped much short of Woodbridge.

On Sunday morning, another plow going north on the CPR a short distance north of Markdale struck a man who was walking toward Owen Sound on the track, lifting him on to the snowbanks alongside the tracks. It was storming so badly the engineer could not see him, but the conductor, who happened to be looking behind, saw him. They immediately stopped and picked him up, and upon examining him found he had dislocated a shoulder and was otherwise bruised but is likely to recover. He gave his name as Donald Harris,from Indiana, and is a tinsmith by trade.

• There was a partial eclipse of the sun Monday afternoon. It commenced shortly after 12 o’clock and lasted until about 2 p.m. Many citizens were to be seen looking through smoked glass. Probably the best view of the eclipse was to be had with the naked eye when the thin clouds occasionally passed over.

100 YEARS AGO Thursday, March 17, 1910

• Dundalk council has granted the request of the local school board for funds to erect a two-room addition to the public school. The crowded condition of the school necessitates additional space, and it is the purpose of the board to organize for high school work in order to get the advantage of the liberal grants which the Legislature and the County give toward such a system. The establishment of this higher educational system will also be of great advantage to the village and community.

• The debate, “That women should have the franchise extended to them,” at Shelburne High School last Friday afternoon was handled well by the scholars under captains Miller Sloan and Ed Hunter. The affirmative won by one point. Rev. George Waugh, G. P. Keys and Miss Morrison were the judges.

75 YEARS AGO Wednesday, March 21, 1935

• On Monday, a large caravan of trucks loaded with cattle left Orangeville for Buffalo, where they are paying 15 cents a pound for such livestock. This is about twice the price for the same grade at Toronto and enables farmers of this district to pay four cents a pound duty and still make a greater profit than they can make on the home market. Buffalo is 120 miles away, and a return trip can be made in 12 hours.

• The FREE PRESS AND ECONOMIST has taken the local potato price quotation (25¢ a bag) out of its weekly Shelburne Market report, explaining: “Local dealers complain that they can get no demand in Toronto due to truckers flooding the retail market at cut prices, directly contrary to market regulations. In other words, the local dealer, who is licensed, must show invoices on each sale, and although the price in the city is set at 35¢ a bag, the price means nothing if city stores buy from cut-price vendors rather than from licensed wholesalers.”

50 YEARS AGO Wednesday, March 16, 1960

• Late Saturday night, the local fire siren called Shelburne Fire Brigade to a blaze at the Hon. Earl Rowe summer resort on Mulmur’s 5 Sideroad about four miles east of Shelburne. The pumper truck, unable to reach the scene directly because of the snow depth, detoured east a block, but was stopped again. Firemen Delmar Bates and Russ Morden went on foot and found the five-room Lennox Rowe cottage had burned to the ground. Caretaker Alfred Adair, who had turned in the alarm, is said to have reported that he found no footprints in the snow about the building to suggest that the fire had been started by transients.

• The five-storey broiler barn on the farm of Ernest Heinzig, Lot 20, 6th Line of Amaranth was completely destroyed by a fire that started shortly after midnight Sunday. The estimated loss is $20,000, and would have been much more had the building contained the 26,000 chicks that were expected to arrive Monday morning. Origin of the fire was not known, but the heating system may have been to blame. Shelburne Fire Brigade was on the scene in short order but even then the fire had too much headway.

25 YEARS AGO Wednesday, March 20, 1985

• The increased use of services at Dufferin Area Hospital has been “startling,” says Administrator Mike Ord. The Orangeville Hospital, with 113 beds often cannot accommodate patients in suitable locations. The hospital is at 95% occupancy rate.

• Dufferin’s secondary school teachers want their federation to send a provincial negotiating team to deadlocked contract talks with the Board of Education.