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The TALES you probably never heard about

H.G. MACKLEM – EX-WARDEN OF COUNTY DIED IN TORONTO

H.G. Macklem Direct Descendant of Two Pioneer Families

11 YEARS REEVE OF CHIPPAWA

[Welland Tribune, 3 August 1915]

The late Herbert Gay Macklem, who died at his residence, 112 Bedford Road, Toronto, July 29th last, was born at the Village of Chippawa, Ont., August 20th, 1857, eldest son of Jas. F and Adelaide A. Macklem, the former a descendant of James Macklem, of the earliest settlers of the Niagara district-prior to the year 1800, and the latter, the youngest daughter of the late Col. John Crysler of Crysler’s Farm, a battlefield of 1812-1814. H. G. Macklem was educated at Trinity College school. Port Hope, and subsequently resided at the village of Chippawa, representing that municipality as its reeve for eleven consecutive years, during one of which he was elected warden of the County of Welland. He removed to Toronto in 1901, where he resided until his death. He is survived by his widow, second daughter of the late Lewis Ross, formerly of Port Hope, who represented the county of Durham for eleven years in the Dominion Parliament. Two children, a son and a daughter, Herbert, manager of the Imperial Bank, Niagara-on-the-Lake, and Laura; also a brother, and his aged father. Mr. Macklem was a lifelong Conservative.

Welland Tribune
3 August 1915

Died: 29 July 1915
20 August 1857-29 July 1915
Bright s disease
Father: James Francis Macklem
Mother: Annie (Adelaide) Crysler

44TH REGIMENT CONTINUES TO SECURE MANY RECRUITS

[People’s Press, 3 August 1915]

Welland Boys are Coming Forward With Alacrity-Recruits Secured Since Quota Left Wednesday now Number Over Sixty

WAR NEWS AND NOTES OF LOCAL INTEREST

Recruiting is still going on with alacrity at 44th headquarters. The concentration camp on the island; which was vacated by the quota which left on Wednesday is beginning to present a scene of activity again. Already over sixty recruits have volunteered for overseas service and in this number, Welland form a large percentage as follows:

Welland Honor Roll

Wm. Steers

Chas. Martin

Walter Mullis

Leslie D. Harvey

Robt. Mitchell

Elton S. Morris

C.A. Pike

Allan Crooks

Melrose H. Dickie

Charles Sage

Reginald C. Rendall

Wilfred J. Major

Nick Saltarelli

Herbert J. Monck

Leonard P. Basqill

Jas. Irvine

John D. McPherson

This quota will be in command of Lts. Dewart and D.S. Bartle of Niagara Falls. Lt. Dewart is now attending officer’s school at Niagara and Lt. Bartle is in charge of the camp.

Lieutenant Volunteers

Frank Logan and Fred Anderson of Niagara Falls have taken out Lieutenants’ commissions with the 44th regiment and have volunteered for overseas service.

Thorold’s Sons to the War

W.E. Cusler, teller, in the Thorold branch of the Imperial bank, is the latest recruit from Thorold to offer himself for overseas service. Mr. Cusler has made many friends at Thorold. He leaves for Niagara Wednesday, where he will take a course in training before leaving for the front.

Another of Thorold’s young sons, in the person of Roy Grenville, son of \Reeve and Mrs. Grenville, has enlisted for overseas service , and left Wednesday with the contingent from Welland for the fourth overseas contingent for Niagara camp, Mr. Grenville is a brother of Miss Ina Grenville, now serving as Red Cross nurse at the front. During the past two years Mr. Grenville had been in the employ of the local branch of the Quebec bank, where he made a great many friends, who will doubtless miss his smiling face and congenial ways, and who will wish him a safe return.

Enlisting With Dragoons

Thirty-two men have enlisted with the 2nd Dragoons at Welland for overseas service. It is expected they will go to concentration camp soon. The Dragons have discontinued enlisting for the present.

WELLAND FACTORY EMPLOYEES TO GIVE MACHINE GUNS

[People’s Press, 3 August 1915]

At a meeting in the Town Hall, Welland, on Saturday night, the Welland Machine Gun Association was formed by representatives of all the local factories. The purpose of the association is to circulate a subscription list among the employees of the factories to purchase machine guns, and, if possible, it is intended to have these guns used by the recruits from the 44th regiment. J.D. Payne was elected chairman of the association and Geo. Day, Secretary-Treasurer. The executive consists of one representative from each factory.

At a meeting Saturday night in Toronto the Acting Minister further announced that over one million dollars had been received by the Government in voluntary gifts from Canadians for machine guns.

In Hamilton an association has been formed and though it has not yet started out on a canvas which is to be made of the city, a matter of $128,000 has already been promised toward the fund.

Reports from the front tell of the wonderful efficiency of these guns, not only checking the enemy, but in permitting the troops to remain under shelter while a few of these guns do the work of many rifles.

A machine gun costs in the neighborhood of $1,000.

Dr. E.W. Wright, Brooklyn, N.Y., has sent $50 to Kingston to help buy a machine gun for the 59th Regiment. He closes his letter: “Good workmen must have good tools, and surely the Canadians are the best ever.”

SOLDIER NEARLY DROWNED AT FALLS

Sixteen-year-Old lad Gallantly Effects His Rescue

WATERWINGS COLLAPSED

[Welland Tribune, 3 August 1915]

Niagara Falls, Ont., July 30-Private Marshall of the 19th Regiment guard at the Toronto Power plant, narrowly escaped drowning at Dufferin Islands this afternoon, when a pair of water-wings on which he was paddling around collapsed. He owes his life to Victor Simson, the sixteen-year old son of Mr. and Mrs. H.E. Simpson of 147 Clifton Avenue, who went to his rescue while all hope seemed to be gone. Simpson jumped in with his clothing on, and was hard to put to reach shore with the unconscious militia man.

Although nearly a hundred persons were in bathing a short distance from where the soldier was floundering helplessly about, Simpson was the only one to realize the man was drowning.  The soldier had gone down three times when Simpson dived and hauled him to shore. Private Marshall was revived by the pulmotor from the Toronto Power Company’s plant.

H.G. MACKLEM – EX-WARDEN OF COUNTY DIED IN TORONTO

H.G. Macklem Direct Descendant of Two Pioneer Families

11 YEARS REEVE OF CHIPPAWA

[Welland Tribune, 3 August 1915]

The late Herbert Gay Macklem, who died at his residence, 112 Bedford Road, Toronto, July 29th last, was born at the Village of Chippawa, Ont., August 20th, 1857, eldest son of Jas. F and Adelaide A. Macklem, the former a descendant of James Macklem, of the earliest settlers of the Niagara district-prior to the year 1800, and the latter, the youngest daughter of the late Col. John Crysler of Crysler’s Farm, a battlefield of 1812-1814. H. G. Macklem was educated at Trinity College school. Port Hope, and subsequently resided at the village of Chippawa, representing that municipality as its reeve for eleven consecutive years, during one of which he was elected warden of the County of Welland. He removed to Toronto in 1901, where he resided until his death. He is survived by his widow, second daughter of the late Lewis Ross, formerly of Port Hope, who represented the county of Durham for eleven years in the Dominion Parliament. Two children, a son and a daughter, Herbert, manager of the Imperial Bank, Niagara-on-the-Lake, and Laura; also a brother, and his aged father. Mr. Macklem was a lifelong Conservative.

RECRUITNG IS PROECCEDING RAPIDLY

[Welland Tribune, 12 January 1915]

Recruiting for the 44th Regiment for home and overseas service is proceeding rapidly and for three days Capts. McLennahan and McGarry have been busily engaged in making medical examinations.

The vacant Quality Beds Factory has been leased as a barracks for the quota which is to go with the third overseas contingent. This quota will probably train here for a month or two.

LADIES PARIOTIC MEETING

A meeting has been called by Mrs. Crow for Wednesday (tomorrow) afternoon at 3 o’clock in the town hall, of all the ladies of Welland and vicinity, who are interested in the patriotic fund campaign.

The object of the meeting is to arrange for supplies to be given to the men on the three days of the campaign, next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. These supplies will materially aid the work by enabling the workers to compare notes and talk over plans.

44TH REGIMENT
VOLUNTEERS WANTED

For Home Service, preference given to men who volunteer for Overseas Service. Only men who are medically fit and between the ages of 18 and 5 years will be accepted. For overseas Service, married men must have the consent of their wives, men under 21 years of their parents and any man the sole support of his parent or parents must have the consent of that parent or parents; all consents must be in writing.

Application for enlistment be made to

Capt… N.G. Fite, Fort Erie
Capt. C.J. Ingles, Orderly Room, Welland.

THOMAS COLTRIN KEEFER

Eminent Engineer Took Part in Building Welland Canal

[Welland Tribune, 12 January 1915]

Ottawa, Jan. 7-Thomas Coltrin Keefer, C.F.C.M.G., L.L.D. one of Canada’s most noted engineers, died at his home here today in his 94th year.

In the death of Mr. Keefer one of the links with the Upper Canadian pioneering age is severed. Born at Thorold, Ont., in 1821, he played as a boy where he was destined to return and play an important part in the performance of one of the biggest engineering feats of the time-the construction of the Welland Canal after having worked as a lad at construction work on the Erie Canal.

Educated at Upper Canada College, Toronto, the late Mr. Keefer commenced his engineering career in 1836, being employed for seven years on canal work, later going to Ottawa, where he was engaged to construct a water works. Montreal and Hamilton also secured his services in the capacity of a water expert.

Railway engineering was his forte. His enterprise and forthrightness in this regard did more for the development of the Prairie Provinces than any other living man, or indeed any Canadian who devoted himself to Canadian development.

In early life he trekked out west, and became imbued with its potentialities and with its capacity as a granary for the Canada of the future. The lure of the west captured him, and he conceived the idea of constructing transcontinental railways. In 1851 Mr. Keefer conducted the preliminary surveys for Grand Trunk Railway, and in 1861/70 he wrote a series of letters advocating the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and one of the satisfactions of his lifetime was to see at least two iron trails stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Mr. Keefer’s primary interest was the opening up of Canada. For this reason he gave his entire attention to the construction of harbors and waterways as well as railways. He was alternately engaged as engineer for the Montreal Harbor Commission and in surveying the St. Lawrence for purposes of navigation.

Pen as well as transit was used by the late Mr. Keefer to further his ambitions. His essay on “The Influence of the Canals of Canada on Her Agriculture” written in 1849, earned for him Lord Elgin’s praise. In 1850 he published his work on the “Philosophy of Railways.” Besides being an engineer of note, the late Mr. Keefer was considered an authority on international trade, or, at least, trade with the United States, and in 1851 he was sent to New York by the Canadian Government to assist the United States Counsel to report on the inter trade relations between the countries north and south of the 49th parallel. In 1852 he was again sent to the United States to prepare a second report on the same subject. These reports led to the reciprocity treaty of 1854.

The other important positions held by the late Mr. Keefer are as follows: Canadian Commissioner for the International Exhibition at London, 1862; Chief Engineers of Railways in Upper and Lower Canada; Executive Commissioner for Paris, Exhibition, 1878; member for International Jury for Agriculture and Engineering; officer of the Legion of Honor, and member of the International Deep Waterways Commissions, 1895.

For his work in engineering and other fields he was honored by the Imperial Government C.M.G, British, American and Canadian engineering societies; McGill University and the Royal Society of Canada, of which he was President. He also served as President of the Canadian and American Engineering Societies in 1878 and 1888, respectively.

The late Mr. Keefer was descended from United Empire Loyalist stock.

WELLAND NEWS

[Welland Tribune, 17 August 1915]

Mr. And Mrs. Vance Carey of Cincinnati were visitors here the past week. The former is a well-known former resident of Welland and Fort Erie. Vance Carey was the son of Michael Carey and Jane Overholt of Welland.

WILLIAM BAXTER

MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR MR. W. BAXTER

VICTIM OF LUSITANIA DISASTER

[People’s Press, 1 June 1915]

On Sunday morning last a memorial service was held at the Baptist Church, Welland, for William Baxter and his little son, who was murdered by the Germans on the Lusitania.

The pulpit and Mr. Baxter’s empty pew were draped with black, and the pastor, Rev. Cowan, gave a very impressive sermon.

Mr. Baxter was a true and faithful member of the Sons of England, and forty-two representatives of the Order turned out to pay their last tribute to their brother who was a victim of the foul deed.

The Sons of England wish to thank the Baptist Church for allowing them to take part in the service, also the choir who rendered some appropriate hymns and anthem.

ELIZANA BUCHNER MARSHALL

[People’s Press, 1 June 1915]

On Friday, May 28th, the remains of Elizana Buchner, relict of the late John Marshall of Crowland, were interred in Doan’s Ridge Cemetery. Service was held at the homestead and was conducted by Rev. Mr. Turnbull of Crowland Presbyterian Church, of which congregation she had long been a member.

Mrs. Marshall was born in the township of Crowland, on February 18th, 1841, of United Empire Loyalist descent, the daughter of the late John Bender Buchner and Jane Learn. She was 74 years, 3 months and 7 days of age at the time of her death. Her husband predeceased her within a few days of eleven years.

There are left to mourn the loss of a kind and faithful mother, five sons and one daughter, namely, W.S. of Vancouver, B.C; John C. of Niagara Falls, N.Y., Arthur W. and Warren W. at home; Edward E. of West Lorne, Ont., and Ella, wife of James Ives, Chippawa, who were all present at the obsequies. The five sons and son-in-law bore the casket to the grave, followed by a large concourse of sorrowing friends.

Mrs. Marshall also leaves twelve grandchildren and one great grandchild; also one brother, Alem Buckner of Tonawanda, N.Y., and one sister, Mrs. George Storm of Humberstone, to mourn a void and loss which is irreparable.