125 YEARS AGO Thursday, April 16 , 1885

• Reports have been received of another massacre by Indians at Frog Lake. The troops from Ontario and Quebec have undergone great hardships on their march, but only a few men are on the sick list or unfit for duty. General Middleton has passed Humboldt and expects to reach Batoche’s Crossing, where Riel’s rebels are encamped, by about noon on Saturday when engagement is expected. Battleford will be relieved early next week by Col. Otter.

• A young man, who lives near Shelburne, left on Good Friday to visit friends in Mount Forest. On his arrival at Orangeville he boarded the Credit Valley train. Imagine his horror and surprise when the conductor asked for tickets for Brampton. The mistake was not so serious, as he had friends in Brampton, where we expect he spent a pleasant time.

• Messrs. Irwin Bros., the celebrated Shelburne furniture men, undertakers and cabinet makers, have kept running all winter with their usual compliment of hands, while firms doing a similar business in other towns have been forced to close down. Having recently built an addition to their premises and added a new engine and boiler, besides making other improvements, they reasonably expect to do an increased business during the coming summer.

100 YEARS AGO Thursday, April 14, 1910

• Writes editor T. F. E. Claridge,of the Shelburne ECONOMIST: We believe it is up to Shelburne Council to make a radical change in the management of the Fire Brigade question. A move that might help considerably would be to give some monetary return, however slight, to the Chief and to the Captains and Lieutenants of the Hose, Reel and Chemical sections. Some provisions for making good the harm done to good clothing when there is not time to don the usual equipment or old clothes might also be found advisable. We know the mere mention of anything sounding like “salary” will scare some few ratepayers stiff — but these same ratepayers would be the first to set up a howl if their property was on fire and the brigade slow to respond to the alarm.

• The last ring of the body of the new steel tank at Shelburne waterworks on Academy Hill is being placed in position this week. By the time the top is placed on, the new tank will certainly look some in the way of size. Its capacity will be half again as much as that of the old wooden tank.

• Orangeville high school board is asking the town council to grant $5,000 to enlarge the school building in order to establish a branch of agriculture. If such a branch is established the government will give an annual grant of $1,200 and Dufferin County will also give a grant of $500, making yearly revenue of $1,700 from this source alone.

• A Shelburne citizen says he and his family had a good look at Halley’s Comet Tuesday morning at about 4:45. It was in the eastern sky in quite plain view above the horizon and plainly visible to the naked eye.

• A delegation from Orangeville, composed of the Mayor, reeve and a number of councillors, was in Shelburne Tuesday evening having a look at the town’s street lighting system with a view to installing the tungsten system in the county town.

75 YEARS AGO Wednesday, April 18, 1935

• A meeting of the Dufferin Trustees’ and Ratepayers’ Association in Shelburne Friday was principally taken up with discussing resolutions to be considered at the Easter Convention of the Ontario Education Association. The meeting was not in favour of school boards being required to state salaries when advertising for teachers, but supported making music a compulsory subject. It was not in favour of township, county or community school boards.

• There was a large attendance at Knox United Church, Shelburne, Friday evening for the organ recital given by Gordon Douglas, the church’s organist and choirmaster, assisted by a chorus of 30 voices.

• An amendment to the School Act, introduced in the Legislature on Saturday will require rural school boards to pay their teachers a minimum annual salary of $500 or forfeit township grants.

50 YEARS AGO Wednesday, April 13, 1960

• Orangeville Council has rescinded a motion passed previously to submit the matter to a ratepayers’ vote, and granted a franchise to the Consumers’ Gas Company to install natural gas pipes in the town.

• Shelburne’s business section has been noticeably improved by the installation of brilliant new street lights.

25 YEARS AGO Wednesday, April 17, 1985

• Orangeville Hydro workers voted unanimously Monday for a strike.

• Dufferin’s $3.2-million expansion of the County Courthouse got the green light from the Province on Monday.