125 YEARS AGO Thursday, April 9 , 1885

• George Bowers has purchased the business of Honeywood Store, lately carried on by Theo Lawrence. Mr. Bowers has enlarged and refitted the premises and replenished the shelves with a large and well-selected stock of dry goods, groceries, hardware, boots and shoes, and other lines found in a first-class general store.

• The Dufferin Foundry will be out with a spring announcement next week. Messrs. Wilson Bros., proprietors, are building up a large trade. Home industries of this kind should be encouraged. Manufacturing industries, combines with a large agricultural trade, form the only solid foundation upon which to build up a town. We have the latter, and let us strive to encourage the former, especially when we have such a deserving firm as the one above named.

• Shelburne post office was robbed of the cash box containing about $4 in stamps on Wednesday evening of last week. The burglar effected an entrance by breaking a window in the rear during the absence of the assistant post master, who had fortunately removed the registered letters and money therefrom, and lodged all in the safe. The office is closed from 6 o’clock until the arrival of the evening mail from Toronto at a few minutes past 8, and

was during this interval that the burglary was committed.

100 YEARS AGO Thursday, April 7, 1910

• Those who had been getting their nerves too much worked up over the possibilities of harm wrapped up in the approaching visit of Halley’s comet, will doubtless be relieved by what the astronomer Sir Robert Ball said in an address at Cambridge University. According to him, there is no cause for anxiety at all, there being just as much chance of a collision between the nucleus of the comet and earth as there is of the Empire State Express from New York to Chicago running down the night mail from London to Edinburgh. The earth will pass through the tail of the comet about May 18.

• W. L. Walsh, K.C., of Calgary, formerly of Orangeville, has been appointed official counsel to the Royal Commission appointed to investigate the dealings between the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway Company and the Alberta government.

• One of the old landmarks of the Third Line East, Chinguacousy, has lately been removed, namely the old Presbyterian manse which was erected 65 or 70 years ago, the late Rev. David Coutts being the pastor of what was then called the First and Second congregation of Chinguacousy, now Claude and Mayfield, the site on which it was built having been donated by the late William Little.

• The Orangeville branch of the Daughters of the Empire are preparing the comic operetta, “Dr. Alcantara,” for presentation in the town hall on the evenings of April 19 and 20 in aid of the Hospital Fund. The prospects look good for a record attendance.

• Four young men from Melancthon got themselves into difficulty while in Dundalk recently. The liquid refreshments which were indulged in were supposed to be the direct cause of the trouble. Chief Hemphill laid a charge of “grossly insulting language on the street” and Police Magistrate McGregor heard the evidence in the town hall Tuesday afternoon. Upon Alex Thompson was imposed a fine of $5 and costs, while two others were fined $1 and costs each and a fourth was acquitted by the Magistrate who gave those he had convicted a very severe reprimand.

75 YEARS AGO Wednesday, April 11, 1935

• Shelburne will continue its custom of having a weekly half-holiday this year, the first Thursday in May being the starting date. Although the regular notice to the public states that the holiday will continue in October, it may be that not all businesses will do so.

50 YEARS AGO Wednesday, April 6, 1960

• Tweedsmuir Presbyterian Church recently completed construction of a Christian Education Centre, east of the church auditorium and an extension to the auditorium itself. Since work on the project started last October worship services had been held in the Orangeville District Secondary School gymnasium.

25 YEARS AGO Wednesday, April 10, 1985

• Orangeville residents are being told to boil their water after the municipal water system was confirmed as being contaminated on Sunday. The suspected cause is an unusual runoff at one of the town’s six well sites, caused by recent heavy runoffs.

• Dr. David Scott, Chief of Staff at Dufferin Area Hospital, told a press conference Monday that the hospital has“very serious problems ahead” because of the Ontario Ministry of Health’s refusal to act on requests for a much-needed major expansion. He warned of longer waiting times, deferral of tests and cancellations of surgery.