1000. THE TIMES TRAVELLER by BARNEY MOORHOUSE For Reproduction Rights Call Access 1.800.893.5777
SPECIAL EDITION – A New Beginning
When the Walkers approached me to write a weekly column to celebrate The Times’ approaching 100th anniversary little did we imagine that this would be continuing into 2015. But here we are, the 1000th column, and counting.
Readers have credited me with too much imagination suggesting that I have made up much of the content. Not so! Every word is from The Times’ archives.
Two humourous anecdotes come to mind. One involving a tourist who asked at the front desk for the location of Kelusky’s general store explaining that s/he didn’t want to miss out on the fantastic sale prices. S/he was referred to the date at the top of the column for, as you may well know, Kelusky’s had long since closed the doors.
Then there was the Lands & Forests notice that Sunday fishing was to become illegal. Apparently a Conservation Officer fielded many irate calls while directing the callers to the date at the top of the column. Upon reflection, perhaps it wasn’t so funny for the C.O.
Following is my column from December 20, 1994 – a special Times’ edition celebrating 100 years – 1894-1994. The Times, by the way, remains one of the few independently owned and operated newspapers in Ontario, if not Canada. (Update – White Pine Media purchased The Times during the summer of 2018 just before the COVID-19 crisis. People are still succumbing to Covid-19 in 2023. )
THE BANCROFT TIMES – ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF HISTORY
On November 7, 1894, The Times made its first appearance on the streets of Bancroft in the form of a prospectus. The paper boasted the motto: “independence but not indifference”. It was located in a livery stable, upstairs behind the Easton store.
Evidently the paper was well received for on December 7, 1894, it began to publish a weekly edition on a regular basis. The Kingston Daily British Whig, on December 13, 1894, announced: “John Bremner is ‘no pessimist’; he has founded The Times at Bancroft, Hastings, and fully expects to grow up with the country and become a success. It promises to be a lively journal, a credit to the village it is going to immortalize.”
John Bremner continued to publish The Times until 1897 when ill health forced him to sell the paper, incredibly, to take up farming. A notice in The Times indicates that “Mr. J. Bremner, ex proprietor of The Times, has purchased Mr. Jas. McCaw’s farm. Mr. Bremner has not been enjoying the best of health…and we trust the change will be beneficial.” Bremner moved to the farm in September 1897.
Bremner sold The Times to the Morrison brothers, D.H. and W.E. Were they Americans? The Times reported that, not long after they took over, Miss B. Morrison, of Sault St. Marie, Michigan, “sister of the proprietors, arrived in Bancroft Saturday evening on an extended visit.” D.H. was the former owner of The Grand Valley Star and W.E. had reportedly worked for “The Tribune.”
In 1899 W.E. left The Times. It announced: “Mr. W.E. Morrison has severed his connections with The Times, and left yesterday morning (Wed. Aug.9, 1899) for Finch, Ontario, where he takes charge of a newspaper.”
W.E. was last mentioned in the March 13, 1902 edition: “W.E. Morrison, late of The Times, left Toronto last week for Vancouver, B.C.”
For a farmer John Bremner appeared to have enough time to remain rather active in village affairs. In 1899 he advertised in The Times as “Commissioner for Taking Affidavits etc. and Bremner’s Boarding House,” (located at the corner of Hastings St. and Flint Avenue, across from Sargent’s Store.) During the election of 1899 Bremner acted as the returning officer. In the same year a notice in The Times announced the passing of “Mrs. John Bremner (nee Ann Dick) 1840-1899.”
In 1900 Bremner attempted to establish a second newspaper, the Bancroft Recorder, a politically oriented paper, but it faired poorly. Undaunted, Bremner became the Clerk of Faraday Council and in February of the year he “disposed of his farm adjoining the village to Mr. Frank Kelusky.”
It was a busy year for Bremner for he was also elected the 1st Vice President of the North Hastings Reform Association at Madoc, in March. In all Bremner was associated with publishing for 44 years in Bancroft, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. He retired from the printing business in 1938 to write a book, but passed away in Moose Jaw in 1945.
Over the years The Times has moved quarters to various locations within the village. On October 1897 it moved from its Hastings Street location to the Davy Block on Bridge Street. Next, in October 1899, it moved to the Mullett Block where it resided over E.L. Weiss’ Jewellery store. Most recently it called today’s Bancroft Pharmacy building home until 1963 when The Times moved to its present location, the former Bancroft Frigid Lockers building. (Update – White Pines also publishes Bancroft’s second weekly, THIS WEEK, and moved THE TIMES to the office of This Week, next to Home Hardware.)
D.H. Morrison ran The Times for 21 years, selling to H. (Harry) Price in 1918. Price officially took charge January 1, 1919. In 1927 S. (Stanley) R. Walker, joined the paper as an apprentice and remained until leaving to serve overseas with the “Hasty Pees” in W.W. 2. During the war Price struggled to turn out a weekly journal laboring long hours and suffering from a shortage of manpower, for the type had to be handset in those days.
Following W.W.2, Walker returned to The Times, attended Ryerson Polytechnical Institute to learn to operate a “linotype” and entered into a partnership with Price on January 1, 1946, a year following Bremner’s death. Price and Walker remained partners until Price’s death in January of 1957.
S.R. Walker bought Price’s interest in The Times and continued publishing the paper until 1965 when, at age 54, he died of a heart attack. Mrs. Eva Walker (wife) formerly The Times bookkeeper, and her eldest son Frank, assumed leadership of the family paper. The Times is a member of the Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association and in 1978 Mrs. Walker won the prestigious President’s Award.
Frank Walker left The Times in 1979, Mrs. Walker retired in 1980 and sons David, Dean and Roger bought the family business and have run The Times to this day. Congratulations guys and a Happy Belated Birthday. May The Times be timeless. (December 20, 1994.)