Creemore Bids You Welcome
It’s called serendipity: the appearance and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.
It has been my plan for the last month to tell you that you have been reading chapters from my latest book, Creemore Bids You Welcome. Each month for the last two and a half years you have been reading a chapter. What!?! You didn’t know I had
another book? I haven’t. I just never got around to having it published.
The serendipity arose on Sept. 16 when to my surprise there was a photo in The Echo of the sign standing along the road just west of Creemore. The sign said, Creemore Bids You Welcome. That was the very sign that gave me the inspiration for the title of my book, even though it was never properly published. A great big thanks to John Graham who provided it. When I started school in Grade 1 in Creemore I walked past that sign every day. Yes, we walked to school in those days. The words on that sign became my first extra curricular reading success. I never forgot that sign and here I am, 80 years later, telling you about it.
Two short chapters from the book remain. The first is about our public library. Not much was available in the years leading up to 1930. In Creemore’s early days there was a small library of sorts called the Mechanic’s Library, which was housed in the newspaper office. Although no records exist, it is likely a group of interested citizens set things in motion. In 1921 the assistant inspector of public libraries was in town. The next month it was reported that two rooms had been rented in room above Corbett’s Drug Store, now Creemore Pharmacy, and that they were being made ready. Soon there would be a collection of the finest books on its shelves. Membership would be fifty cents a year.
Regarding municipal affairs there was much to deal with. From the start of the century up to 1930 a great deal of change came to Creemore. The village had its own governing body. In 1889 the village was incorporated. Before that it was governed by the Township of Nottawasaga.
Many civic minded men took over the interests of the community giving freely of their time and often dealt with problems seeming insurmountable at the time. In December of each year a public meeting was held. The reeve and councillors summarized the accomplishments of the year. They made a few predictions, sometimes hinting there would be no reduction of taxes. The Creemore Star each year published a financial report with every item, no matter how small, listed. Taxes for 1907-08 brought in $1,675.27. Interest at the Merchant’s Bank was $15.18. Paid out was $25 for the rent of Leonard’s hall. A coal oil can costing 70 cents was paid to W. Young. This was likely for the needs of the jail. Elections were usually held the first Monday in January if it wasn’t the New Year. Occasionally the reeve and councillors were returned by acclamation.
