President’s Message

Dear Members and Friends,

Thank you very much for your continuing support of NVDHS. Our mission is to preserve and promote the cultural heritage of the Village of Newcastle and its immediate environs. We are proud that we participated in the design of a Heritage Park that will be part of the new housing development by Wilmot Creek, at the west end of Newcastle. That Heritage Park will honour Samuel Wilmot and his achievement in developing Ontario’s first full-scale fish hatchery in 1868. 

During the month of November, we have been honouring our Veterans with a display in the Historical Room. This is a “must see” display as we pay tribute to many local Veterans who sacrificed so much for our freedoms. Everyone is welcome. 

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
~ Laurence Binyon, “For the Fallen” 

We have purchased new computer equipment to better serve our stakeholders. We continue to focus on the considerable task of digitizing our records and artifacts so that information is readily accessible and available. 

I hope everyone was able to visit us at the Orono Fair. The NVDHS participates in this event annually. The theme of our presentation was Great Lakes ships. 

Our website is a huge success. We now have over 300 unique visitors to our site per month and the numbers are growing steadily. Please visit the website. It is updated regularly and is very informative. We also have an active Facebook page, where we also post news, photos and event information.

The Newcastle Santa Claus Parade was on Sunday November 18 and our float was themed “Once Upon a Time.” Visit our website and/or our Facebook page to see a slideshow of all the participants. 

I would like to welcome two new Directors to the NVDHS; Marillia Hjorngaard and Ken Crichton. I would also like to thank Tammy Rogers for her contributions as Director to the NVDHS.

On behalf of the NVDHS, I extend our best wishes to all of our members, friends, and supporters for a Merry Christmas and a happy holiday season.    

Yours sincerely,

Tom Wallace

Dear Members and Friends of Newcastle Village and District Historical Society (NVDHS),

Thank you very much for your continuing support of NVDHS.  It is indeed a pleasure to be a part of this Organization.

With regret, the NVDHS mourns the loss this summer of former President of NVDHS Alan Kirby and longtime member Arthur Wynn. 

On June 9, we participated in Doors Open Ontario. Leslie Wilson (Stephenson) and Brian presented your Society’s Doctor’s Travelling Kit at the Doctor’s House in Newtonville.  The Kit dates back to 1849 and is always on display at the Society. Greg and Dorella Forget presented historical pictures and movies at the Newtonville Community Hall. It was a huge success. 

The Doors Open event is a yearly event in many communities throughout Ontario. It is a great way to get a history lesson on the community. The Oshawa Doors Open event is scheduled for September 29. I learned that the earliest known baseball game was played in Willow Beach (between Port Hope and Port Granby) in 1803. Apparently there was a nearby court room and the judge, jurors, accused, witnesses, court clerks et. al. enjoyed a game of baseball after court adjourned. There is still much debate about the history of baseball which was founded as a cross between rounders and cricket but Abner Doubleday or Mr. Spalding have been given some credit for inventing baseball in 1839 or 1845. I like the Willow Beach story. 

The wedding dress of Anna Vincent is on display at NVDHS. Anna married Chester Daniel Massey in 1886. Chester was grandson of Daniel Massey, the founder of Massey Manufacturing.

We will be at the Orono Fair again this year. The theme of our presentation is Great Lakes ships.  Historically, Newcastle was a large shipping port so there is a lot of material to discuss. I am looking forward to this presentation. Please visit us at the Fair.

Next time you visit the NVDHS please have a look at the sculpturing over the front door.  It has the words Fortiter, Defendit, Triumphans… Triumphing by Brave Defence. These words are on the coat of arms of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK. The sculpture also includes a Lion in a Castle. It looks like the Lion is protecting the Castle.

We are working in conjuncture with Clarington Heritage Committee to develop a Heritage Park by Wilmot Creek to preserve the history of the fish hatchery. Samuel Wilmot opened Ontario’s first full-scale fish hatchery in the Village of Newcastle in 1868.  It is Newcastle Village history and we must preserve our past.  

We will be offering a display during Remembrance Day to honor all Veterans who gave so much for our Freedom that we enjoy today. Please visit us during this period. 

Respectfully submitted,

Tom Wallace  

Dear Membership of Newcastle Village and District Historical Society (NVDHS):

Thank you for your continued support of the NVDHS.

At the recent Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the NVDHS, the membership elected a new Board of Directors. Those Directors elected are Erla Jose, Sher Leetooze, Myno Van Dyke, Paddy Duncan, Jordan Clement, Tammy Rogers, Roger Farrow, past-President Robert Malone and myself.

At the first Board meeting following the AGM, the Officers were elected by the Board. They are Tom Wallace – President, Myno Van Dyke – Vice-President, and Paddy Duncan – Secretary. Sher Leetooze will continue in her role as Treasurer of the Society.

It is indeed an honour and a privilege to represent the Membership and all stakeholders as President of this great organization.

The NVDHS is located in the Newcastle Community Hall and is open to the Public on Tuesday and Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to noon. We are committed to preserving the history of our Newcastle and District community and educating our membership and general public of our great history. On that note, I look forward to you, our members, to always share your knowledge of particular events and items of historical importance that will enhance the presence of the NVDHS in our community. This newsletter is a small part of that education.

In April, we sponsored a presentation by Peter Klose on gravestones that were recently discovered in the Orono area. On June 9, we are participating in Doors Open which will feature many historical buildings in the Newtonville / Port Granby area. During the next few months there will be many exciting activities, including, of course, the Orono Fair during the second weekend in September.

We continue to gratefully receive items, artifacts and documents of historical value, and make those items available to the Public. We recently completed a display of local Native artifacts dating back to the 1800’s.

It is a true pleasure to write my first President’s Report in the Newsletter which includes an arti-cle on my family: the Toms family.

I look forward to providing continuing updates on your NVDHS.

The people of Newcastle and District, and their many contributions to our lives and freedoms, will never be forgotten.

Sincerely,

Tom Wallace
President NVDHS

As I write this, Spring is officially around the corner, yet flurries persist! As the old ball player said, “It’s not over until it’s over!”

On Tuesday, March 27, our Annual General Meeting will be held in the Historical Room, Main Floor, Newcastle Community Hall at 7 p.m. All members  are most welcome to attend  and enjoy cookies and cider!  There is usually a “show and tell” at the end of the meeting where individual members  present artifacts or papers and explain the significance behind them. Since it is our AGM, members present  will be asked to approve a slate of Directors to serve on the Board for the period March 28, 2018 to March 27, 2019. As of this writing, all nine currently serving Directors have indicated a desire to serve for the forthcoming Society year. One Directorship remains open, so I would encourage any member to step forward and stand for election as a Director.

Let me know in advance if you wish to be considered by the membership for a Directorship on the Board. We expect Directors to take part in the pleasant work of the Board and to make a commitment of their time to attend  Board meetings and other events in which your Society participates. Please contact us if you would like to stand for election as a Director. As a matter of parliamentary procedure, I will call for nominations from the floor at the meeting, as well.

Our plan this year is to once again have two feature speakers, one in early April and the other in early October. A notice to members will advise you of the speakers, their topic and time/dates. This information will be covered in our Newsletters.

As you know from previous Newsletters, we were disappointed in the negative response we received from the Federal agency responsible, two years running, to our application for a grant. That money was intended to finance a relatively modest but important project to convert our records (photos, documents, historically significant letters, etc.) to an appropriate data base so that, in future, members and the public at large would be able to access this information electronically. With our “never say die” attitude, the Board will explore other avenues of winning a grant, including engaging representative politicians to support future applications. The amount we applied for at approximately $15,000, so it any members and/or their companies would like to provide support, it would be greatly appreciated and appropriately recognized.

You may have noticed in our last Newsletter, we adopted a new logo style for the Society. It appears on this Newsletter, as well. Credit for this fine piece work falls to Paddy Duncan, a Director. Paddy typifies the kind of contribution Directors make to the on-going growth and well-being of your Society.

So far this, we have participated in the Sports and Leisure Show at the Rickard Center. We plan to participate in a number of forthcoming events during the year, including the plan mentioned in the last Newsletter of group or organized individual visits to the Historical Room for a brief introduction to your Society and what’s ahead. These visits would include a tour of key parts of the historic (1923) Community Hall itself. Building management has confirmed to our secretary, Myno Van Dyke, their willingness to permit such tours.

I do enjoy talking to you through our Newsletter!

Regards

Bob Malone

Our latest adventure, as is the case at this time of year, was our participation in the Newcastle Santa Claus Parade on November 19. Unlike many other area parades, ours is held just after dark, so that all can enjoy the fireworks which kick off the event! Our float was “created” by several dedicated members of the Society and our overall participation was coordinated by member, Shellie Jackson, as she has done in past years, as well.

With the generous support of the proprietors of Foodland Supermarket and our own Dollar Plus store, we had over 1,500 candy canes to distribute to the kids along the Parade route. With my wife, Rosemary, and Shellie, we valiantly tried to keep up with a fast-moving parade while keeping the kids happy. It took some doing and, early on, I lost sight of our Float altogether as I was mobbed by the kids!

Recently, your Society hosted a group of ladies from the Ebenezer United Church in Courtice. They had expressed an interest in what we do and in our Historical Room on the ground floor of the Newcastle Community Hall. The event went very well and I believe the group enjoyed their visit. Present on behalf of the Society were Directors Erla Jose and Myno Van Dyke and the three of us spoke to the ladies. Also present were two other Directors, Greg Forget and Sher Leetooze, and a past President, Leslie Wilson, so no questions went unanswered. Our presentation was followed by a brief tour of parts of the Community Hall itself.

The success of this event spawned an idea! In 2018, why not plan a series of similar visits by interested groups or individuals to our Historical Room and, with the consent of Building Management, follow our presentation with a tour of parts of the Building. These events on selected dates would be advertised in local papers, periodicals and, by arrangement, promoted by local organizations. In addition to this idea, we are currently mapping out those activities your Society will participate in or offer during 2018, including two General Meetings with speakers.

At our Annual General Meeting scheduled for March 27, 2018, our financial report for the calendar year 2017 will be presented for approval of the membership. As a businessman, I can say that your Board of Directors has exercised a commendable degree of fiscal responsibility during the year.  We remain grateful for member support with annual dues and for donations. And, the annual operating cost grant from the Municipality is most appreciated.

Finally, as I have mentioned in past reports such as this, we do have a vacancy on our Board. I would be more than happy to meet with any interested member who might wish to serve on the Board. We are not particularly seeking someone steeped in local history; rather, a dedicated and interested person willing to participate in Society activities would be most welcome.

Compliments of the Season. Hope Santa is good to you!!

Regards,

Bob Malone, President

As I write this piece, it’s the first day of Fall.  You wouldn’t know it after the past, several marvelous days and a few more forecast to come. Someone is bound to blame it on global warming !

The Summer was pretty quiet, but for the Heritage Day celebration your Society staged on June 25, 2017, the week before the official date of Canada’s 150 Birthday. We  rented the main hall of the Newcastle Community Hall and filled it with “family” tables where long time residents, many with agricultural backgrounds, were able to display family artifacts and history of their family experiences through time. I manned the “Railroads of Newcastle and Orono” table, wearing my genuine engineer’s cap! Everyone appeared to enjoy themselves. One lesson: future events such a Heritage Day will require more robust promotion through the variety of media platforms now available to us.

Your Society Historical Room on the ground floor of the Newcastle Community Hall is open to the public every Tuesday and Saturday mornings between 9:30 a.m. and noon. On September 30, the Room will open at 9:30 a.m. and remain open until 3 p.m., as we participate in Durham Region Culture Days, where the focus is life on the family farm over time. We  expect to have at least two antique tractors in the Hall’s parking lot (now being confirmed)!

And, on October 7, the Room will be open from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m., as we participate in the Business Improvement Area (BIA) celebration of the Newcastle Fall Harvest Fair! Both are free events, so do make an effort to visit your Historical Room!

The Fall of 2017 is already looking busy !

At our Board of Director’s meeting earlier this Summer, we adopted a new logo style. It appears in this Newsletter. The new logo is part of an effort to raise our profile with a more professional look.                                           Nothing, though, will take away from the plain, hard work performed by your Directors as the Society makes its contribution to the cultural well-being of the Community. We help make history live!

Following two successful years of the Doors Open event in which your Society played a major role in 2016 in Newcastle and, earlier this year, when the event was held in Kendal, the 2018 event is planned for Saturday, June 9, 2018 in the Newtonville/Port Granby area. I serve on the Board of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario, the Doors Open vehicle, so a number of your Directors will likely be on board to assist with the 2018 event !

Finally, once again, I would like to secure the help of a professional to conduct our annual audit, on a pro bono basis. If you would like to perform this once-a-year task, we would be very grateful. My  e-mail address is:  ro**********@*****il.ca

Regards,

Bob Malone, President