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I found, only she used a broken telegrah cup for her crystal. In it she saw some startling pictures of my future. The event bore out all of them, including recognitions of my future occupation and of my longevity. One of them startled me into trying to correct her. She had told me I was going to marry a slender, graceful girl, a brunette " with a lovely face and a lovely voice." At the time I fancied my self in love with a short, blonde girl, and told her "you're wrong." She replied " you haven't met this other girl yet. You haven't even seen her. You will soon." How right she was. That Fall I met the girl who later became my wife, and fully corresponded to the pic ture seen in the telegraph cup. Mrs. Jacklin was easily one of the best " sensitives'" -- as the French psychical researchers call them--I have known. Old Names Aside from the Jackson home, I well remember, among others, the Turner place (formerly the Romain house) with its beautiful lawn extending towards the lake. Many of the old names come back to me,--Christies, the Ptfllen Pointers On Tennis boys, younger than I, and two sis Ned Jackson was older than I ters Carrie and Amy McLeod who and uncommonly strong, but if sang in concerts and at family afraid of nobody else, was in awe parties, -- the former, now Mrs. of his father, a typical Victorian Wainwright, is still living in Oak General who believed strongly in ville. discipline. However, the General Early Banker took a liking to me and I have al But of the Oakville figures of ways been grateful to him for introducing to me certain Indian that long gone time, the one I condiments and beverages and for remember best, next to the Jack his pointers in the game of ten sons, was the local banker, Thom nis, of which I was then an enthu as Howarth. Poor Tom came to a tragic end, but in those days was siast. It was here, a couple of years' always laughing and joking. Tom later, that I had one of the earliest was one of the early so-called adventures in the psychical re '"camera fiends' 'and took a trick search that has been for me an shot of me wheeling myself in a wheelbarrow. I showed this later almost lifelong study. Rain had stopped the day's play, to the editor of a New York press and at luncheon I heard a strange syndicate and it duly appeared in not a few American newspapers. story told by one of the players. Tom Howarth had been a jackQueer Powers " Beyond Sixteen Mile Creek," he of-all-trades in his youth, including told us" there lives a negro wo a spell as a sailor before the mast. man of queer powers. About a He told me how he was once week ago two fellows (today he stranded in Liverpool seeking an might have used the word " guys" ) other ship berth and answered an started off to get her to tell their ad offering a shore job. A stooge fortunes. They had quite a walk was wanted by an alleged hypno ahead of them, and after crossing tist putting on a local show. When the bridge at the foot of the Tom admitted he could climb he Lower Middle Road one said "I'm was hired at once. The theatre not going any farther. That old was crowded the night of the show fool can't tell me anything I don't and Tom was " chosen' from among know." He was persuaded to go those volunteering to be hypno on, but Mrs. Jacklin (I have only tized. After barking like a dog lately learned her name) refused and going through various other to have anything to do with him, stynts, the " hypnotized" Tom was saying, according to the narrator: ordered: Prompt Action " This old fool can't tell you any " Climb the balcony posts to the thing you don't know." The other man, it seemed, was told plenty." top gallery." Up Tom went, hand This was enough for me, so to over hand. Then the command Mrs. Jacklin I started immediately came: "Now climb down!" Back after luncheon. The weather had came Tom's answering call: "Not cleared to a sunny, quiet summer unless you pay me twice what you day as I followed the 6 th Line said you would." Only prompt ac around the bend of the 16th. Bug tion prevented the audience from gies were passing and when the wrecking the theatre. Of course I shall always have horse broke into a trot the dust ran up the back wheels and hung a soft spot in my heart for Oak in the windless air. You had to ville. How could it be otherwise with the happy memories I have . hold your breath till it cleared. Mrs. Jacklin was a crystal gazer, cherished these many years. Trips In 1892, 1954 Give Wide Contrasts First Fountain Scooped Gallons Of Sundaes By H. ADDINGTON BRUCE come to the store afterwards for ice cream." The store would sometimes sell 40 gallons of ice cream a day. It was made on the premises by the proprietor, the late William Fer rah, from cream brought in from farms in the surrounding country side every morning. "David Harums," " Sunny Jims", and banan» splits were among the dishes moit favored by the customers. "We also served all kinds of sodas," said Mrs. Chamberlain. "We made all our own syrups. They were the real stuff." Ferrah's was the first soda foun tain to be installed in Oakville, but dispensing sodas and ice cream was only one part of the store's business. For many years it was Oakville's biggest bakery. When Mrs. Chamberlain worked there, two bakers were employed. The store's red wagons, in which bread was delivered to houses each day, were long a familiar sight on the town's streets. A great variety of cakes, pastries, and candies were made in the establishment, and its products enjoyed a high reputation with Oakville families. The beginnings of Ferrah's bak ery go back to Oakville's early years. The business was originally owned by a Mrs. Mary Wilson, wife of George Wilson, a lake cap tain. It was located in a frame building on the south side of Col borne Street, at Dunn. This bakery was purchased by John Ferrah and his son Robert shortly after their arrival in Oakville from Scotland in 1854, In 1868 they moved the business to the south side of Colborne east of Thomas, where they later built the store shown in this picture. It ii now occupied by Carload Groceteria. SUNNY JIMS AND DAVID HARUMS! THE JOURNAL. Oatowlile-Trwfa/Lgar, Ontemmail. lame, June VI, I had just passed my Matric. to Varsity and, incidentally, my seventeenth birthday in the early summer of 1892. The spirit of youth moved me to visit my friend Ned Jackson and his father, Gen eral Jackson, both survivors of the Indian Mutiny, who now lived in a fine old house that still stands on the Lakeshore Highway a mile or so from the heart of Oakville. In 1954 and 1955 I spent part of the summer with my sister, Mrs. Carlisle Pemberton, in Oakville, and naturally found the town imieh changed. Small Village tn the nineties, Oakville was fctMe more than a small village surrounded by farms. It could boast, though, not a few mansionlike homes, mainly towards To ronto, peopled by folk adept in the art Of gracious living. That art still, lingers in Oakville, but I found it a bit hamered by industrial "pro gress" and the crowding of the streets by gasoline-propelled ve hicles not yet in evidence during the years when I knew Oakville well. John and Robert Ferrah, his son, became celebrated for their excellent bread and also their wedding cakes. Ferrah senior used to work in his bakery, starting each day at 4 a.m., until he was past age eighty. His son carried on the business after the father's death, and wai in turn succeed ed by his son, William Ferrah, who died in 1934. The bakery was sold, but lasted only a few years under the new ownership. It is a fitting postcript that the proprietor of Oakville's first soda fountain should have a cairn erect ed to his memory in Lakeside Park, He didn't forget the town where he had fared so well, and in his will left an unstated amount for the beautification of Oakville parks. Former Parks Board Secre tary Len Cornwall said this week that when he retired from that post, two years ago, more than $15,000 had been contributed by the estate. Stores Of 1857 Gave Remarkable Service And Wide Variety Ten merchants were enjoying a flourishing business during Oak ville's first official year as a town, offering a variety of merchandise ranging from Paisley shawls and buffalo robes to Yarmouth herring and Cross and Blackwell's pickles. Pioneer businessmen included James Arnott, Charles Reynolds, Mrs. Martyn, R. W. Coote, John Urquhart, Gage, Hageman and Co., three tailors and the Oakville Weekly Sun. Most stores were of the general variety, which was the forerunner of today's department store. A soda or sundae in Ferrah's ice cream parlor was a treat greatly relished by the young people of Oakville back in 1911, when the accompanying picture was taken, and for some years afterwards. The view of the store interior with its bright, colorful soda fountain, its cakes and candies, will evoke nostalgic memories in many a citizen today. The young woman clerks in the picture are May Tuck, (the late Mrs. George Kemp), on the left, and Bertha Hannah, now Mrs. Stanley Chamberlain, of 489 Chamberlain Lane, who loaned us the picture. The store was opened in 1909," recalls Mrs. Chambrelain. " I start ed to work there on May 22, 1910, and was there for seven years. We used to work from 8 o'clock in the morning until 6 in the even ing, except Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, when we worked until 10, and Saturdays, when we would be going until midnight. On Saturday evenings in summer there would often be a band con cert at the lake, and people would POST OFFICE MUSEUM Mr. B -A Town Founder First Postmaster In 1935's Shingled Structure Oakville's first post office build by D. Snider. He carried the bags ing is serving the community to on horseback, for which his rate of day, as a museum. Through the pay was £13 a year. According to enterprise of Mrs. Hazel Mathews the contract, he had to make the author of " Oakville And The Six two-way trip in one and a half teen," the d i l a p i d a t e d little hours. Revenue of the Oakville shingle - covered structure that office for the year 1838 was stood, abandoned for many years £55 4s 9d. of which the post on the south side of Colborne master, Colonel Chisholm, retain Street near the bridge was re ed £13 12s 6 %d as his commission. moved to Lakeside Park and res He was succeeded in the position tored- Known as the Old Post by his son, Robert K. Chisholm. Office Museum, it houses a collec In 1844 the latter announced his lion of objects and documents re intention of giving up the job be lating to the history of Oakville cause of the long absences neces and the district, which have been sitated by getting wood for the steamboats. He recommended John assembled by Mrs. Mathews. Urquhart to succeed him, but as First Ever Until this building was erected the Urquhart declined, Chisholm about 1835, Oakville had no post remained as postmaster until 1856. office. It was served from the Tra He engaged an assistant, John Bar falgar office, located in the gen clay, in 1847. At Bronte In '51 eral store of Alexander Proudfoot, In 1851 a post office was estab the postmaster, at the comer of the Dundas street and the 'Ninth lished in Bronte, the Oakville Line. This was the first post office office ceased to be a `bye" route established between York, now To for Trafalgar, and a man named ronto, and Dundas. It served the Hiram Weeks yas given the con southern section of Trafalgar and tract for carrying the mails daily an area extending 30 miles to the along the Lakeshore road from Toronto to Hamilton, in the winter. north. When the vclume of mail for the In summer the mail reached Oak southern part of the township grew ville by steamer, and the post heavy enough, a post office was master was paid £5 a season for established in Oakville, and Col carrying the mail, on foot, from William Chisholm, Oakville's foun the post office to the wharf. When the Great Western Rail der, was appointed postmaster on the strength of ten years' experi way came through Oakville in 1855 ence as postmaster at Nelson. His it received the contract for carry eommission, dated October 6 , 1835, ing the mails. Mail for Trafalgar and issued by Thomas A. Stayner, and Bronte came to the Oakville Postmaster - General for Upper station, and was taken to the post Canada, is preserved in the mu offices at those places by waggon. Mail for the Oakville post office seum. was carried from the station by Heavy Timbers bus, for more than sixty years. The building, twenty feet square, Deputy Promoted is made of 1 2 -inch planks four Robert K. Chisholm retired as inches thick. It was set on timbers postmaster in 1856, and was suc a foot square. In those days the ceeded by Robert Balmer, who had postal service, which was under served as his deputy. By this time the jurisdiction of the British gov the original post office had be ernment, was very far from being come far too small for th« in as efficient as it is today, and the creased business it was called upon rates of postage were very high. to handle. Robert Balmer erected It cost four and a half pence, the a frame building on his property equivalent of nine cents, to send on the north side of Colborne a letter from Oakville to Toronto. Street about half-way between A letter containing more than one George and Thomas, and leased it theet cost extra. Envelopes had to the government as a post office. not yet come into use, and the This building remained in use for letter was folded, held together more than 50 years, when rented with sealing-wax, and addressed quarters were obtained in a build »n the side which was left blank ing in the middle of the block be for that purpose. Stamps were not tween George and Dunn Streets, used. The date of mailing and the on the north side of Colborne. ·mount of postage were written on The building vacated was for »ach letter .If postage was prepaid some years used as the office and nhe amount was noted in red ink, printing plant of the Oakville Star. alack ink being used when the Up until comparatively recent tetter was sent postage collect. times, the post office was a centre Twice Each Week of community life, where residents Mails were received and dis going for their mail would stop patched at Oakville on Mondays and chat. The introduction of ind Thursdays. Mail was transport house-to-house mail delivery in ed to and from the Trafalgar post Oakville a few years ago put an ffice, of which the Oakville office end to what had survived of this was for some time a " bye" route, custom. salutes Oakville ...on its Centennial Celebration Your M r. 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