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Page 12 Letters from Friends and Former Citizens Mr. John F. Farmer, President, Port Perry Star Co. Ltd. Dear Mr. Farmer: 4 BN Weekly Newspapers -- ing district. I \ DN HTS | is TTT GIT IS | TIER 2 THT HES 11 Nem Hill TTT RS TTT HITHER fo HITE W. R. Brock Co. Supersilk Ltd. NER rT RZ LETTER FROM CANADIAN WEEKLY NEWSPAPERS ASSOC. Office of the President, Wetaskiwin, Alta. Association and its 535 members across Canada, it gives me great pleasure to extend our best wishes for your continued successful service to Port Perry and its surround- | DEPARTMI AANA AZ August 24, 1957. Congratulations to The Star on the occasion of its 50th An- niversary! The publication of a Golden Jubilee edition is a monumental, yet facinating task which is well ; worth the effort. I feel sure | that the citizens of Port Perry will appreciate its historical value and enjoy reading the wealth of information it will con- tain. Very often the files of its! weekly newspaper are the only, recorded history of a commun-' ity. You are to be commended for searching out this informa- tion and presenting it to your readers in a special edition, Tt will be interesting reading for the citizens of today and recall many pleasant memories for the oldtimers who are still around. On behalf of the Canadian Yours sincerely, Wm. Draayer. AVNER OCIS "NT STORE a Our store is 75 years of age this year and much of our success is due Ig = to the fine advertising service of the late S. Farmer and of the present firm, . IE 5 We were first known as the Wm. Brock Department Store, then became 15 = Brock Bros. (H. B. Brock and F. W. Brock), later we were F. W. Brock and E ol Son (F. W. Brock and A. W. Brock) and now are known as A. W. Brock Iz | Department Store. B 12 i 5 Yes! business is good, but consider the help we have: v 5 ( 8) Savage Shoe Co. A. Bradshaw & Son, Ltd. 51 5 | Dack Shoe Co. Ganadian General Tower Co. g 4 = Hewgfson Shoe Co. Turnbull's Ltd. g bE < 'Sisman Shoe Co, Armstrong Linoleum ol 74 Dominion Rubber Co. . Geo. H. Hees Co. 1g oh g Wabasso Cotton Co. 'Monarch Knit = 3 A pkg i Io Hanson Sock Co. Canadian H. W, Gossard Co. 12 ; 7 i Bata Shoe Co. Tooke Bros., shirts IE / Wa - Dominion Linoleum Co. Caldwell Towels = Ail i Score Sporting Goods . La Parisette Slippers % in g Canadian Wallpaper Co. Circle Bar Hosiery g 7! g W. R. Johnston, Suits Walkers Overalls = 7% i Standard Whitewear, dresses Haugh Overalls . ' % 57) 2 Gordon Mackay & Co. Packard Slippers : H Penmans Ltd EZ TNITZASTTEZ, Congratulating the 'Port Perry Sar for their handling of our advertising for the last half century. Kitchen Overalls RZ SII PORT PERRY STAR HISTORICAL and MEMORIAL EDITION Changes in Merch. andising in the Half Century One cannot read the columns of the old papers without noticing the great changes in the goods and prices of these goods. The biggest changes are of course in the finish that pro- ducts of today received as compared to 1900-1910. There were almost no packaged goods, very little ready- made clothing, no stream lined cars or other stream-lined goods. In fact just the opposite was true. It was usual to consider the most arnate ob- jects as the most valuable, carriages, furniture, clothing and even houses and. business buildings had elaborate scrolls, and furbelows, We have here some of the items that were listed for sale in the co- lumns of the Star before 1910. Jones, Dunk & Co. advertise new spring laces--the daintiest and nicest. Swiss Lawn Embroidery and inser- tions at 8c. yd. Women's neckware in very attractive designs. Corset covers from 2b6c. to Tbe. Colored dress lusters. . 200 yards white vest- ings to clear. Boys wool sweaters to clear at 49¢c. Fancy Silk striped and figuréd Eoliennes at' $1.00 yd. W. G. Monet offers dry wood at $1.60 per cord. Also-Christy stiff hats at $1.50 and carpet beaters .25c. H. Doubt and Son offers "the King" hats for men and the "Invictus" shoe for men. I wish you could see the picture of this shoe, a smart patent leather top and vamp with contrasting light leather upper, the whole built on classic lines with a sharply point- ed toe and selling for only $4.60 pair. David Adams; broker offers loans ZHI EE ENA RS IIR ST RSA TRS RAITT SIZ; ZAC TRS RSS RS RS -and many others, - [TTHITTHIRZS IZA ZS ITZ 'and: for a time thereafter his daugh- .| chester and Epsom. Prior to the rail- ZAC with interest up to 5%. Marshall Stonehouse has furniture for the bride and groom and John Nott offers a tremendous cut in parlor suites. Miss O. Waddell has the latest in spring styles, shapes and trimmings in her millinery parlor. The kitchen cabinet was the newest and handiest thing for the up-to-date kitchen. Butter paper was printed at the Star Office. All kinds of patent medicines gur- ing all sorts of unpleasdnt ills were offered for sale. Not only the medi- cines but detailed account of the symptons and cures effected. Purdy's Cash or produce store had 6 bars of Comfort soap for 16¢c. Jap- an and Ceylon Black tea at 26c. lb. Layer figs at 15c. 1b. Salada Tea advertised that it was the only tea always sold in flavour keeping lead packages and never in bulk. The Post Office Reprinted from the issue of Feb. 19/53 Quietly and without ceremony or celebration Port Perry's Post Office marked 100 years of mail service sometime in 19562. Postmaster for almost a quarter of that time is Geo, Hull who started in his twenty fourth year as postmaster on Feb. 1st. Mr. Hull, as far.as history reveals, is about the fifth person to hold that position during the 100 years. The original postmaster was Joseph Bige- low, the first reeve. Mr. Hull succeeded John Burnham in 1980. Mr. Burnham died in 1928 ter Mrs. Marion Orde carried on his duties. Prior to Mr. Burnham a Mr. Hurst held the post and it is believed that one or two others also 'held this position; . The Post Office and mail service have come a long way since the early pioncer days of 18562 when Post Of- fices sprung up here and in. Man- way days, which have come and gone, the mail was brought from the front to the back townships once a fort- night, - The present building which was un- der construction in 1912 is almost 40 years old. Very few structural chan: ges have taken place, but the amount of mail handled has greatly increased. The scarcity of post office boxes and. the cramped quarters of the post of- fice is a good indication of the growth of the village and district. "The first 10 or 15 years that I was here there were always one-third of the boxes empty. Now they are full and | we have a waiting list of 30" pointed out Mr. Hull. There are 354 boxes and new additions planned call for an extra 756 boxes. Biggest change in the system of handling the mail was the advent of the automatic cancelling machine which Mr. Hull purchased himself in 1937. "I bought that at a Postmast- er's convention for $285. Now-a.days it would cost $1,250 so I figure that I made money. We would be lost with out it. The arduous task of hammer- ing away was no longer necessary. It speeded up the service considerably especially at the big Christmas rush. The Hydro "Explanatory note: Before the days of Hydro the village had a steam gen- erator which supplied a limited a- mount of electrical power. This gen- erator was housed in the red brick building at the lakefront next to the Master Feeds building, and its chief function was to supply light from dusk till midnight. Aparently it did not function in the day time and would not have. supplied sufficient power to run a respectable electric motor if it did. . At one point in the papers we came. across an item ask. ing folk to use as little electricity as possible so that the lights would re- main bright for a hockey match in the arena. 4 "HYDRO", as taken from the paper of March, 1928. It was a big undertaking to instal hydro. The initial investment for which we bedame responsible was $10,881,66. This amount we promised to pay within 80 years. . A provision of the agreement was that no princi- pal should be paid for three years. That gave the System a. chance to make good before the principal pay- ments became due. The investment has made good: financially as all the obligations have been met without in- curring one cent of debt to the tax- payers--the system has paid for it- gelf. Some $7,000. has been spent in extending the service since it was in- stalled five years ago, Extention has been made to Prince Albert and to TRANSL I QUEEN STREET AFTER THE FIRE OF 1884 . Large -blocks of power have been sold to the Port Perry Creamery and the Milling Co. These two businesses use about 100 H.P. between them. One of the beauties of Hydro is that it can be used 24 hours a day and can turn the wheels of industry as well as light our homes. The mill used to spend about $3500 for power and the service of an engineer but since they Well that was in 1928, just five years after the hydro came 'to Port Perry. Now one would need to search far before one found a home without some electricity and most of us would scarcely know how to live without It. and hundreds of poles. We can use electricity for many tasks, washing machines, refrigerators, ironing, wat- er heaters, toasters, and electric table stoves. have installed Hydro 'the power bill [3% has been reduced to about $1800. Both 3 these businesses have special meters 5 called demand meters which measure |§ the actual power consumed. With the old electric light system [& the lights went out promptly at 12.00 | £8 o'clock (midnight) and if you needed |g to get up in the night you had to|§ It was also |& needed for those early breakfasts that | $f many a working man had before day- 2 The cost of the street lights |$ under the old system was $25.00 per |% light, with hydro the cost was just |§ light the coal oil lamp. light. $16.00 per light and they stayed on all night. . The Hydro was well received at the 5 Our gasoline engine was | § Wall- Brooks Limited Star Office. a chronic invalid and we frequently had to call in Wes. Hadley or Charley Rundel to fix the thing up. Even then it would frequently stop, just |¥ when we were most rushed. Now ex- | § cept for rare occasions we can count |$ on our magical servant to do the job $e without fuss or bother. We now have 19% miles of wire CONGRATULATIONS It has been our pleasure to have serviced the Port Perry Star for a few of the 80 years of publication by the Farmer family. ge . Our best wishes for your future years. Oshawa, Ont. Photo-Engravers 81 - to come. ' In our 27th year in Port Perry we wish to offer our congratulations to the Port Perry Star on the occasion of their:50th Anniversary. During the early 50 years Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Farmer made a distinst contribution to the life of this community. May the tradition be carried on in the years REESOR FUEL and LUMBER v PHONE b7TW Scugog. DIRECT e | + : IMPORTERS OF THE coLor 1€ Coal OFFICE 73 RESIDENCE 313W IZSIIITEL STE eS TT SIH ZZ ZS TE | Bob Archer Motors In January of 1926 Mr, Harold R. Archer was appointed Pontiac dealer for this area by Mr. R. S' McLaughlin of Oshawa, under the name of Harold R. Archer Motor Sales, on Queen Street, Port Perry, for some thirty years. the dealership and the name of the business was changed to BOB ARCHER MOTORS, and is now located on Water Street, opposite the park. ~«The- Archer family has been serving the people of Port Perry and district for 60 years. May we extend our congratulations to the Port Perry Star Co. Ltd. upon this occasion of their 50th Anniversary. 3 -BOB° ARCHER MOTORS PONTIAC, BUICK, G.M.C. TRUCKS, FRIGIDAIRE APPLIANCES, SUPERTEST PETROLEUM PRODUCTS He operated In 1956 his son Rohert V. Archer received ct -- Dealer in PORT PERRY, ONT. oS TT TS a Te TIT ZHI [TRS ZAI AI SY i -- L 5%