St. Andrew's at Strange

Photo by Barry Wallace

It's hard to imagine anything stealing the visual impact of the superb Scottish stonework of the former Presbyterian Church at Strange, on Weston Road, north of the King Sideroad.   But the white wrought-iron gateway does just that in the bright spring sunlight.

Westbrook's Nobleton Meat Market

My wife Linda (Cairns) Wallace met her 3rd cousin Eva (Cairns) Westbrook for the first time almost two years ago, at Eva's home north-west of Nobleton, in King Township.   Eva was 94 years old and my wife was almost three decades her junior, but they were of the same generation of an extended Cairns family and they were both great-great-granddaughters of Thomas and Ann Cairns of Campbeltown, Argyll, Scotland.   My wife's great-great grandfather, William Cairns, and his much older brother Adam Cairns, came to Canada in the first half of the 19th century and settled on a farm which is now part of Cold Creek Conservation Area, on the 11th Concession of King Township.   Five generations and more than a century-and-a-half later, the two Cairns cousins, Linda and Eva, never knew of each other.   By chance, they did come to know each other and a meeting took place.   One of the outcomes of that fateful get-together was a sharing of photographs by Eva, who apologized for having so few old Cairns photographs.   With so many siblings through so many generations, old photos became scarce.   What Eva did share with Linda were some photos from the mid-1900s when she and her husband, Harold (Mike) Westbrook operated the Nobleton Meat Market on Highway 27, in the centre of the village.   Those pictures are the ones you see here.

     

Mike Westbrook is pictured shortly before his death in 1961, at the age 48.   His widow, Eva, is now 96 years of age and lives in the country near the abbatoir that her husband Mike operated in connection with the butcher shop in the village.   Pictured below is a new photo of the building that was once the Nobleton Meat Market.

Photo by Barry Wallace

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Barry Wallace

Tulips in eclipse

Photo by Barry Wallace

A few days past their prime in the garden and yet these tulips,  

back-lit by the afternoon sun, are still a joy to behold.

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Barry Wallace

1,000 visits to Cold Creek ~ each one different

Students on the high ropes course

Photos by Barry Wallace

Eastern Bluebird

Eastern Comma

Cottontail

Red Admiral

Red Squirrel

Mourning Cloak

Bog Walk Spring

Afternoon Spring Shower

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Barry Wallace

Rest time

Photo by Barry Wallace

Mom keeps an eye on new colt taking a break near Keele Street and Highway 9.

Kettleby Valley Creek ~ Tyrwhitt Park

Photos by Barry Wallace

This lovely stream powered several mills in Kettleby for almost 110 years, between 1825 and 1934.    According to Elizabeth McClure Gillham's Early Settlements of King Township, this stream was known locally, in the mid-1800s, as the "Boiling Spring Creek".

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Barry Wallace

Constable John Fisk of King died 1804

My wife and I were watching CFTO news on Sunday evening and there was a story about the 13th annual Ceremony of Remembrance for Ontario's fallen police officers.   As the tv camera scanned the  inscribed wall of  names of fallen officers, my eye caught one in particular:  John Fisk, King Township, 1804.

I was instantly transfixed by this revelation.   I had no idea this person existed in this highly visible and historical setting.   The ceremony this year  added three  new names to the Wall of Honour.   Two were from  1854 and 1919.   The third was York Regional Constable Garrett Styles who was killed last  year on June 28, 2011.

As for John Fisk, he  was the first known police officer killed in the line of duty in Canada.   He was born  in 1752 at Wallingford, Connecticut and  served in the  Continental Army during the War of the Revolution guarding prisoners.   After resigning his commission , he moved to Massachusetts and married Lavinia Higby Dean.   They moved on to New York and Vermont, raised six children, and finally settled in Canada on a 210-acre farm in King Township.   John Fisk was made High Constable of the Home District (Town of York).   He was also an auctioneer and pound-keeper.   On October 7, 1804, he was transporting a prisoner to court in Newcastle on the HMS Speedy, one of only two schooners which made up the Provincial Marine on Lake Ontario.   The vessel never arrived.   John Fisk, his prisoner and  another approximately 20 people on board, including the Judge of the King's Bench and the Attorney General of Upper Canada were lost in what was believed to be a fierce storm.   High Constable Fisk's body was never recovered from the lake.      More than 200 years later, John Fisk is remembered and honoured in two places in Ontario.   There is a plaque in his honour near Trenton, and his name is inscribed on the  Ontario Police Memorial Wall at Queen's Park in Toronto.

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Barry Wallace