Meetings

Meetings are held in the Brockville Tabernacle (the former Shrine Hall) on the Second Concession on the 2nd Monday of each month except in October when it is the 3rd Monday at 7:30 p.m.

Our meetings always have an interesting speaker on an interesting topic to assist the researcher in Leeds & Grenville and other areas.

Guests are always welcome and there is a chair waiting for you on the 2nd Monday of the month.

Upcoming Meetings in 2010

Location: Brockville Pentecostal Church on Parkdale Ave. East

Time: 7:30 pm

The People & the Forwarding Trade in Eastern Ontario

On January 11^th, 2010, the Rev. John Reynolds will present a unique view on the “Trade and Transportation in Eastern Ontario, circa 1770 to 1810”. Entitled “What a Surprise”, John will open the roll of transportation on the growth and survival of Prescott as a shipping centre with special attention to the Vaudreuil Locks on shipping. Who were the Movers & Shakers? John brings these tidbits of information together in an informative and interesting presentation.

Rev. John Reynolds originates from St. Thomas, Ontario; the heartland of the Col. Talbot Settlements. He worked for 15 years as a meteorological technician. While employed in this field, he spent time in Western Canada, the high arctic, Central Ontario, and the Maritime Provinces.

In 1983, John was ordained into the United Church of Canada where his undergrad studies were English and History with a concentration on native studies including the pre-confederation of Canada. Rev. Reynolds has lived in the Prescott area for the past 20 years, and for four years, was the Chair of the Forwarders Museum in Prescott. Rev. John is now retired, lives on 17 ha of land north of Prescott, (and according to John,) volunteers for far too many organizations.

One Hundred Years of Light

On February 8^th, 2010, Kevin Wheeler will be discussing fuels and devices used to produce light during the period 1780-1880. Examples of these devices will be exhibited.

Kevin Wheeler was born and grew up in Cornwall Township near the loyalist village of St Andrews . He worked in the pulp and paper industry in Cornwall , Gatineau , and Hawkesbury as a Chemical Engineer and entered the teaching profession in 1960 as a chemistry and math teacher. After teaching in Ottawa , he transferred to Brockville in 1965 spending most of the next 30 years there.

The World of Trains

On March 8, 2010, Paul Sheppard will be presenting a story on Trains. He enjoyed trains from boyhood onwards, and counts himself as having become a rail-fan in his late teens, around the end of the 1950's. Since then, he has been an interested observer of the railroad scene, present and past. To his interest in full-size railroading, he can add a number of years of running a model railroad layout in his basement. His talk will give some details about these fields, but will also attempt to explore the reasons, emotional and psychological, behind such a hobby. He will take us on a couple of short journeys in words, which will express this long-standing fascination with the world of trains held by himself and so many others. Enriching the presentation will be a selection of photos through the years, from his own collection.

Paul Sheppard was born and raised in Barrie , Ontario , and graduated at the U of T in 1964. For three years he worked in the Personnel and Planning Department of London life Insurance Company at their Head Office in London , Ontario . He then took teacher training at Althouse College , and joined the English Department at Oakridge Secondary School in London , where he taught for two years. In 1969 he and his wife moved to Brockville , where he taught English at TISS until his retirement in 1998. He continued as an occasional teacher at TISS, and as a tutor-marker at the Alternative School and the T R Leger Adult Ed School, until the spring of 2004.

His extra-curricular involvement has included seven years on the Board of Governors of St. Vincent de Paul Hospital, a term on the Brockville Museum Board, volunteering for Meals-on-Wheels and the CPHC, and recreational singing in the Operatic Society, the Community Choir, and the international Men's Barbershop Harmony Society, in which he has been a local leader and also a member of the Provincial Executive.

A Bolton Family Presentation

April 12, 2010

On April 12, 2010 Terry Edwards will speak about his search for and discovery of the hitherto unknown grave site of George Bolton and about the Bolton Family.

Terrance T. Edwards: Born in Toronto and raised in Richmond Hill , Ontario , Terrance (Terry) was one of six children of a tight knit family. Humour and wit were common staples of the Edwards clan and this certainly affected Terrance’s writing style. Terry is a graduate of Ryerson University, with a BAA in Urban and Regional Planning, and also has a Certificate in Public Administration, with Distinction, from St. Lawrence College. Terry had a 30-year career in Municipal Government and due to a disabling back problem was forced to change his focus. To maintain his sanity, he decided to finally compile over 30 years of material, from his genealogy hobby, into book form. Terry’s first book was actually a children’s book written and illustrated by him, in 1993, in response to his young daughter’s curiosity. It was self-published, in limited numbers in 2007, as a gift to his daughter.

His first foray into historical writing is “On the Trail of George Boulton, UE, a Loyalist Ancestor from Elizabethtown Township , Leeds County , Upper Canada ”. It was written, primarily, for the sake of his children who descend from George Boulton UE. More books are in the works. One on the Ker Family of Valcartier, another on John Phillips his wife’s Loyalist Ancestor, and of course, his own family histories on the Edwards and Pyms. Terry firmly believes that Family History is important to our future generations. He is married, the father of three and stepfather of two more children. He has been a Big Brother and served on the Board of Directors for the Big Brothers of Newcastle . In addition, Terry has coached children’s softball teams and assisted with children’s curling instruction. In addition, to his interests in history and genealogy, Terry is an accomplished artisan producing works in acrylic, oil and stained glass. His other literary accomplishments include short stories, and poetry.

The Old Mines of Leeds County

On May 10^th, 2010, Allen Steimburg will present a unique picture on the history of mining in Leeds County which would at first appear to be dull and without anything of intrigue happening. Nothing could be further from the truth. It was not without its scandal, wheeling and dealing and violence. Speculators defrauded investors and disappeared into the night. Also, it is somewhat startling that very little is known of the mining operations in Leeds, or that it had ever taken place. Most people were aware of mining in such places as Sudbury and Timmins; …but “Brockville”!?

To date there are approximately fifty three known mines within Leeds County, of which only one, the Canadian Wollastonite mine near Seely’s Bay is in production. Leeds does by times render up some of its hidden treasures such as garnets, gemmy diopside, rare octahedral pyrite (iron pyrite), rare chalcopyrite (copper pyrite) and calcite crystals which were previously unknown in Leeds County. In 1944, Second World War production of quartz crystals for use in radios was undertaken at Black Rapids, and near Gananoque, to support the war effort.

Al Steimburg has been involved with geology since about the age of ten when almost any rock looked like a treasure. After leaving high school, he accepted a position with the Geological Survey of Ontario where he worked on a geological mapping crew north of Elliott Lake. With the completion of that job, he accepted a position with the Bondar & Clegg assay company in the position of assay technician until a downturn in the mining industry and in 1999 he retired from Bell Canada.

Since 2002 he has been researching the mining history and mineralogy of Leeds County as a Mining Historian / mineral collector / explorationist. Rare or uncommon mineral and crystal specimens from Leeds have been added by Al to the National Mineral Collection of Canada at the Geological Survey of Canada, The Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto and the Canadian Museum of Nature.