Scrapbook offers look back to 1990
Barbara A. Martindale- For What It's Worth July 2, 2013
Every time one of the many scrapbooks are scanned, many articles pop up to add to the history of Caledonia.
This time it surrounds a 1990 scrapbook. Can that really be 23 years ago?
Country Cousins opened in the new Meadowbrook Plaza in September of that year. Partners John Steele and John Bruzzese opened the restaurant. Today the popular Argyle Street Grill is in that same location.
Gordon Skinner, the Haldimand County Agricultural Representative from 1928 to September 1962, passed away in 1990 at age 90.
The Sachem carried his ‘On The Farm Front’ column for many years. In Haldimand's history, Gordon Skinner is a legend.
Caledonia historian Les Richardson passed away on August 22, 1990.
Other long time residents such as Reta Lamb, Warren Bates, Lorne Peart, Alex Douglas, and Leo McCarthy died that year, too.
Reverend A. Norman McMillan, after 52 years in Caledonia, went back in time to describe his entrance into the community. He said he was escorted by Wilson Avery around the town and shown through the manse on Edinburgh Square.
The large, 10-room manse frightened him as a young bachelor. His unwell stepmother arrived to occupy the manse with him and he secured the services of a housekeeper.
Rev. McMillan was the Presbyterian minister for some 39 years. He remembered a tennis court behind the church. The Caledonia Men's Club was the only service club when he arrived. There were no sewers. Population was only 1,500 in 1938.
In 1990, Karen Douglas, daughter of John and Lois Douglas, was the sixth Caledonia Fair Queen. She was crowned in August.
It was November 7, 1990 when The Sachem's headline "McBurney hands reigns down to the next generation after 25 years.” Albert McBurney's son-in-law Dennis Howden took over McBurney Insurance and years later amalgamated with Howden Insurance's owner Bill Howden (no relation) to become what it is today Haldimand Insurance.
St. Paul's Anglican Church said farewell in July of 1990 to its rector, Canon Lloyd Kersey, after 20 years.
The Sachem's publisher emeritus Harrison Martindale, with Mayor Edith Fuller and others, blew out candles to celebrate the newspaper's 135th year in February of 1990.
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