Heartbeat of the village 

Looking back over our village’s history we expect to learn about churches and schools, and the development of municipal affairs, but it is the little incidents that mark our individuality. Here are but a few of Creemore’s little heart beats captured for posterity as published in The Creemore Star:

October, 1902

When the very first settlers came to the top of the hill north of the future village, “Creemore was a sea of mud and was known as Mud Lake. During that time they had to step from log to log to pass over it. There was only one building and it was used as a shoe shop.”

December, 1903

Here is a published letter challenging the very idea of married women getting the vote: “I hearby challenge the judges at the recent debate. Rev. J. A. McConnell may prefer to meet me in public debate on the question of Women’s Franchise. That married women should not be allowed to vote, I am prepared to defend my contention from Scripture. F. Mackay.”

July, 1907

In recent years generous people of Creemore have opened their purses and hearts for families who have met with misfortune. In 1907 they were just as generous. Here is the story of a woman who lost the greater part of her income. “That the hearts of the people are in the right place was demonstrated here the other day in a practical manner. Miss Ann Neely was unfortunate to lose two cows within the last few months, and it was from that the greater part of the income was derived. It was very generally felt that the loss was too much for her to bear alone. Accordingly, a subscription was set up and within a very short time $50 was contributed and handed to her to assist in replacing what she had been unfortunate in losing.”

November, 1908

Unemployment is a scourge that appears to have always been with us as the following story declares. “Tired and very hungry, a man who had evidently seen better days, arrived in town on Thursday evening on his way to Toronto. He had walked from Collingwood and said he had nothing to eat all day, and the manner in which he stowed away the provisions provided for him was ample evidence of the truth of his statement. He said he had left Toronto two weeks previously in the hope of finding work in the country but all he got was two days work unloading a boat in Collingwood and now he was tramping back to a family of motherless children with nothing for them.”

February, 1910

Miss Elizabeth Lawrence, who lived on Elizabeth Street in 1910 had an experience that could have imperilled her life but turned out to have a happy ending. “She was on the train that was conveying a large number of pleasure seekers from Toronto to the annual ‘converzione’ at Whitby Ladies’ College on Friday evening and when about ten miles out of the city, as the coach was crowded and somewhat close, she went out on the platform for a breath or two of fresh air. The car just then gave a lurch and the next thing she remembers she was sitting on a snowbank and the red light on the back of the train was disappearing in the distance. After recovering from the first effects of the shock she got up and made her way to a nearby farmhouse, where she was kindly treated and put to bed. A telephone message to friends in the city brought a conveyance out the next morning and she returned with it. How she escaped any greater injury is a marvel.”