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Trafalgar Township Historical Society "Documenting, celebrating and preserving the agricultural heritage of North Oakvilfe" Fall Newsletter We are pleased to say that we have been able to host more events this year. Being a new organization and having so many buildings in immediate danger- the buildings have been our main focus but we have managed to increase our social component. We had two scanning days, our heritage research days at the Halton regional Museum, our art show, and our Heritage Fair. To finish off the year we will be having a Christmas social and then our annual General Meeting in February. Please remember to renew you memberships ($25) made payable to Trafalgar Twp Historical Society for January 1, 2009. Send to Jane Watt. 3089 Jaguar Valley Drive, Apt. B2, Mississauga, Ont. L5A 2J1 Christmas Social Sunday December 7th from 1-4pm at the Palermo School House on Dundas just East of Bronte Rd. We are very happy to announce that Ross Wark will be coming to share his photos with us. His presentation is entitled "Bits & Pieces from Here & There in Trafalgar!" Please come and join us and feel free to bring a plate of squares if you are so inclined. As always bring along your photos and questions to share. September Heritage Fair The fair was well attended. We enjoyed pony rides, painting for the kids on their very own easels, school desks through the years display, a BBO, a stage coach and some hay bales to climb on as well as all the wonderful heritage displays. Our new archives table was also on display. Thank you to everyone who came out and all of our volunteers and the groups who did displays and provided valuable heritage information. Also thank you to Mattamy for sponsoring this event. Furniture and Artifacts We have had many donations this month. We now have 12 chool desks! Thanks to contributions from the Hamilton educational Archives, Oakville Historical Society and the Thames Valley Museum. Thames Valley has also donated 300 books to our collection and we now have a complete set of school books for our future Grade 3 school program. Judith Bourke has donated her very informative updated booklet "Sixteen Hollow: The Vanished Village" and Ross Wark has donated an article on the Howe's family, a 1962 picture of the collapsed Glenorchy bridge and his 2 booklets on "Pioneer Days in Trafalgar Township". Scanning We are now nearing the 1600 mark for the number of photos that we have scanned of Trafalgar Twp. We have begun providing copies of the photos on disk for people from $5 a photo and have filled two requests this month. One for Tim Horton's who boasts a very nice heritage wall display at its' store at 228 Wyecroft road in Oakville. Oakville & Trafalgar War Memorials We have worked with a committee this year to finalize names for an Oakville war Memorial. In the process of doing research it was found that there were some names that should be added to the Trafalgar memorial and some others that should be removed and put on the Oakville memorial. Please take some time and review these lists to ensure we have not missed anyone or moved anyone in error. We still feel this is a work in process and that there should have been further research but the Town has decided to publish the list. You can find the new lists at www.oakville.ca/geirqessguarememorial.htm or in hard copy at the Town of Oakville offices on Trafalgar Road. Development above Dundas Street Many of you may have noticed the landscape changing North of Dundas Street and south around Palermo Cemetery. There has been a lot of tree removal lately. The developers are preparing the land for development. We are trying wherever possible to ensure that proper archeological assessments have been completed by checking in with the Province on a number of properties and drawing their attention to areas that may require further assessments. We would like to see homes photographed before being demolished but this can not be required unless the home is on the Towns Heritage Registry. The Town staff has yet to agree to allow us to add these houses to the registry so that we can at least get photos of them inside & out before they are demolished, The staff are requiring that each home be fully researched before it can be added to the registry- of course in most instances the buildings will be demolished before this research can be completed. We have requested that this issue be added to the next heritage Committee meeting but have not had a response from the Town. We have requested that all buildings North of Dundas that were named in a 2003 Unterman report as being significant be added to the registry immediately. Heritage Report The Town of Oakville Heritage Planner has been working on a report to council on the possibility of designating Palermo as a Heritage District. We have loaned all our archival material on Palermo to the planner to assist in the completion of this report. Palermo & St Jude's Cemeteries: Council voted this month to designate both these cemeteries. This is the happy ending of a two year campaign to ensure these cemeteries are protected. We were particularly concerned about Palermo who will be surrounded by development shortly. Palermo is the oldest cemetery in Halton region and had been overlooked by the Town when other later pioneer cemeteries were designated. Thank you to all of you who came out to meetings and write letter of support! The Town recently removed the Lawrence Family stone from the Palermo cemetery. They assure us it is being kept safe. The Lawrences were a significant family in Palermo being the owners of the Palermo Foundary~ one of the largest industries in Halton at the time and "rivaled only by Massey Ferguson". If you have a chance please call the Town cemeteries division and ask them why they have removed it and when it will be reinstalled. 905-845-6601. We have included below a short history on Palermo Cemetery- much of the information is thanks to John Shearman. Kaitting House at 237 Dundas Street West has been approved by Oakville Town Council for Heritage Designation. Palermo Hotel at 3015 Dundas. The owner of this property challenged its designation at the conservation review Board last month. We gave a statement at the end of the hearing but were not delegates due to a change in direction by the Town. The Town had assured us they would work with us to put forward a strong case but after the deadline for registering as a delegate had passed changed their mind so we were only permitted to make a statement. We had 3 of our members also come out to the meeting - 2 of them representatives of the Hagar family who had originally owned the property. The Town did not provide a strong case and chose not to cross examine the owner so that some errors were not challenged. The final report from the Commission has not yet been released. Bowbeer Home 3369 Sixth Line This home will also be going to the Conservation Review Board but the hearing has been postponed. Upcoming Heritage Events Oakville Historical Society would like to extend an invitation to you to join them on November 4 to hear Mike Filey speak on "Old Toronto" for more details www.oakvillehistory.org or call 905-844-2695 Palermo Cemetery on Dundas Concession! SDS lot 29: In 1818 a parcel of land in Lot 30 Concession 1 south was sold to Duncan McQueen, James Hopper,and James McBride by Charles Teetzel for the sum of two pounds and ten shillings. The agreement said the land was "forever for the sale and proper use of a place to bury the dead for them and as many of the inhabitants of Trafalgar lying between the Twelve and Sixteen Mile Creeks as may think proper to join them; as also for a Meeting House and a school house should the same at any time be required". A log church was built in 1812 on the low where the cemetery now is. The Wesleyan Methodists were first mentioned in an article m the CIuistian Guardian in 1851. (Two frame churches stood on either side of the cemetery and can be seen on the 1858 Tremaine map.) In 1867, 17 years before the general union of Methodist churches, they united and built the present church. At the time of the union, a small minority continued to worship in the small frame church. Eventually it was closed and used as a stable. (Taken from a history by Rev. M.J. Aiken -1962) There are 329 entries in the transcription done by Halton Peel Genealogical Society with the earliest 2 listed is for Alexander Rose died Sept 27 1813 and Elizabeth Hager Feb 12 1815. TThe Memorial Plaque standing in the cemetery was erected in 1997 by The Canadian Methodist Historical Society. "In 1808 Elder William Case, of the Ancaster Circuit of the Methodist Episcopal Church, began to preach in the homes of pioneers in Trafalgar Township. This property was deeded in 1818 for a burial ground and a meeting house. By 1824, the Trafalgar Chapel had been built here. "The Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada united with the Wesleyan Methodist Church of Great Britain in 1833 to form the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Canada. However, several dissident preachers met here on March 10, 1834, to organize a continuing Methodist Episcopal Church. On June 27, 1835 in this chapel The Rev. John Reynolds was elected and consecrated to the office of Bishop. "A Wesleyan Methodist Chapel was also built on this site in 1848. Both were replaced in 1869 by the present church a short distance to the west now known as Palermo United Church. "Erected by the Canadian Methodist Historical Sociely at Palermo cemetery - 1997,".