Robert Burns address delivered by the Rev. A. O. Cossar
- CA ON00156 2023-014
- Item
- 27 January 1879
Cossar, Andrew Oliver
Robert Burns address delivered by the Rev. A. O. Cossar
Cossar, Andrew Oliver
Ribbons from Deseronto's 100th Anniversary Homecoming
Four ribbons from ‘Deseronto’s 100th Anniversary Homecoming 1989’, a red one for first prize, a dark blue for second prize, a white for third prize and a pale blue for ‘I particpated’. Duplicate ribbons were discarded.
Town of Deseronto
Research notes and photographic slides relating to Belleville's architectural development
Research notes on architectural styles and photographic slides of Belleville homes and other buildings prepared for a Hastings County Board of Education project and proposed video by Catherine Milne, Instructional Media Developer of the Hastings County Board of Education's Instructional Media Centre and Bill Piton, a teacher.
Hastings County Board of Education
Research materials on Charlotte Sills
Research notes and newspaper clippings about Charlotte Sills, compiled as background information for a cemetery tour held in June 2023.
Spice, Patti
Research materials of Al Cleary
Various electronic files of research notes made by Al Cleary in his time as a volunteer at the Community Archives of Belleville and Hastings County. They include research on mills and dairies of Hastings County, Ontario; research for patrons of the Archives and notes on the history of the Belleville Fire Department.
Cleary, Al (Allan)
Research files relating to Deseronto and the Rathbun family
Research files compiled by Ken Brown for a proposed history of the Rathbun era of Deseronto, Ontario. The files contain draft chapters, photocopies of newspaper articles and email correspondence.
Brown, Kenneth Murray
Reproduction photograph of Belleville Station and locomotive 6027
Reproduction of a photograph showing the station at Belleville, Ontario, with Canadian National locomotive 6027.
Reproduction of a photograph of St. Michael's Hockey Team
Reproduction of a photograph by Robert McCormick of the St. Michael's A. C. Hockey Team of 1919 (based in Belleville, Ontario).
Members listed are: J. Frawley, J. Barrett, D. Fox, J. Cummins, D. Callaghan, J. Cummins, A. Meagher, L. Barrett (manager), H. Smith, M. Black, Jack Barrett (mascot).
McCormick, Robert
Reproduction aerial photographs of Deseronto, Ontario
Reproductions of two aerial views of Deseronto, Ontario, from originals at Library and Archives Canada. The photographs were taken in the winter of 1918.
1) is a reproduction of LAC copy negative PA-022792 which shows the west end of Deseronto, looking east toward Ungers Island (described here: http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/ourl/res.php?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&url_tim=2020-01-14T20%3A44%3A38Z&url_ctx_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=3310002&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fcollectionscanada.gc.ca%3Apam&lang=eng)
2) is a reproduction of LAC copy negative PA-0213876 which shows the area between Green and St. George Streets, looking north from the mill pond in Deseronto (described here: http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/ourl/res.php?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&url_tim=2020-01-14T20%3A50%3A18Z&url_ctx_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=3600315&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fcollectionscanada.gc.ca%3Apam&lang=eng)
Canada. Department of National Defence
Report on a tour of Western Canada
Report on a tour of Western Canada to study what the author describes as "the Oriental problem in Canada."
Smith, W. G. [William George]
Registration certificate for Sampson Clarke
Certificate of registration for the national purposes of Canada of Sampson Clarke of Deseronto, Ontario.
Canada Registration Board
Collection consists of two items:
Ball, Frederick Harold
Records transferred from Belleville Public Library
This collection includes records of the Belleville Public Library itself, as well as reports and publications of other local organizations which were collected by the library. These include City of Belleville and County of Hastings reports and publications of the Moira River Conservation Authority.
Belleville Public Library
Records of the Women's Study Guild (Belleville)
Minutes, texts of talks and financial records of the Women's Study Guild, originally formed at the John Street United Church in Belleville, Ontario.
Women's Study Guild
Records of the Trent Valley Quilters' Guild
Minutes, photographs and administrative materials relating to the Trent Valley Quilters' Guild. Includes scanned copies of all materials.
Trent Valley Quilters' Guild
Records of the Hastings County Historical Society
Minutes, correspondence and photographs documenting the activities of the Hastings County Historical Society.
Hastings County Historical Society
Recording of Duncan brothers talking about life in Deseronto, Ontario
Recording by Don Duncan, made November 26th, 1990, comprising two older recordings.
(01:16) The first is of Jack and Bill Duncan (Don's father), made in 1967. The two men reminisce about their early days in Canada. Jack [John] was born in 1896 and Bill in 1889. They arrived in Deseronto in late 1906 and worked for the Rathbun Company for a short while, having been brought in to break a strike. They were originally from the Midlands in England and were a family with five children, the youngest being four months old.
Bill recalls arriving in Napanee and waiting for a flat car to take them down the company's railroad track to Deseronto and the poor state of the property they were initially housed in (03:00). Bill thought it was a chicken house – and there were rats in the place.
Bill bought a kettle for 75 cents. His father told him to take it back, as it was three shillings in English money. Bill refused to take it back, so they had tea made in the tin kettle, as they didn't have a teapot.
(04:49)They moved into a house across the street and got hold of furniture and a woodstove. Their father, John, worked at bringing up logs from the water, while Bill worked in the sash and door factory for the Rathbun Company.
(05:54) There had been a strike in Deseronto and the Duncans were being used as strike breakers. The winters were bad – snow piled high so that you couldn't see people walking on the other side of the street.
(07:00) Jack's teacher donated a basket of groceries for the family's first Christmas in Canada.
(08:19) Bill was laid off because he asked for $1.50 a day instead of $1.25. His father was laid off shortly afterwards. He worked at a charcoal-bagging firm for a few weeks. They were both out of work for a few weeks.
(10:45) They walked to Corbyville to the cement works but couldn't get work there. They nearly got run over by a train. They stayed in a boarding house in Belleville and had sausages and fried potatoes for breakfast. They got work on construction sites in Corbyville for $2 a day each.
(13:15) They went home for Christmas with the money they'd saved. It was a good Christmas – two ducks and a Christmas pudding were cooked on the old woodstove, with difficulty. Jack got in trouble for eating the leftover duck while the rest of the family were out.
(14:45) They got the wood for the stove from the Rathbun mill for about a dollar and tried to dry it at the back of the stove.
(15:25) Both the men were out of work after Christmas. Maria worked as a housekeeper for ten cents an hour. A pound of butter was 21 cents, eggs 15 cents a dozen and a whole calf's liver was 5 cents.
(16:40) John and other unemployed men were set to work by the Town breaking rocks with a manual drill. Bill couldn't bear to watch, because he feared his father would be hit with a sledgehammer. John was employed to go out on the frozen Bay in a cutter for a day but didn't get paid.
(19:30) Bill worked at a farm, splitting wood, and was paid with a bag of potatoes worth 50 cents. When he got home his shoelaces were frozen solid.
(21:40) Bill and his father worked at the iron works. John was unloading coke. Bill got a night job there breaking up slag at the furnace and dumping it in the Bay.
(24:13) They walked to Point Anne to see if they needed any workers.
(24:50) The authorities in Deseronto told the family that there was work in Stirling.
(25:57) Memories of Jim Wilson, an East End Cockney. He and Bill would go to the Post Office in Deseronto and stand in front of the radiators there in front of the windows for an hour or two to warm up.
(27:13) Bill rolled his own cigarettes with Betty Blue tobacco.
(28:04) The family stayed in Deseronto until May 1907, then moved to Stirling. Bill and John went to Stirling first to meet the Reeve (Mather), who ran the general store in Stirling. They got to know the Reverend F. A. Robinson in Stirling. John got work almost immediately. Bill got work with the village blacksmith, Burkitt. He and his father were also involved in building a house for a man called Ward in Stirling, for $1.50 a day.
(30:50) They got a house opposite St. Andrew's Church in Stirling. Bill worked for the blacksmith until the following May. The Clydesdale horses used to fall asleep on him when he lifted their hind leg.
(32:29) Memories of people in Stirling: Les Kennedy, Don Burn, Andy Anderson, Jessie Montgomery ("a blonde bomber").
(33:26) John Duncan used a team of horses to clear an old cemetery in Stirling to make way for a park.
(34:20) Jack worked in the General Store, where they operated a barter system for farmers. Bill got interested in joining the ministry.
(36:40) Discussed why they left England: John was a shoemaker who was involved in the trade union movement, which made it hard for him to get work. Bill was the only one working, earning 26 shillings a week. It was their mother, Maria, who was the biggest influence on the family's decision to leave England. Bill thinks it was a good decision, as the family is now professional and better off than they would have been in England.
(41:50) Very quiet discussion about Art [Arthur Duncan, born 1904] who worked in Stirling.
(45:15) Maria Duncan singing 'The Man who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo' in the 1950s.
Duncan, Don
Scanned copy of hand-written family tree showing seven generations of descendants of Hugo Berghardt Rathbun (1812-1886) and Louisa Storm (1820-1885) of Deseronto, Ontario.
Items produced to mark CN Railway Week in Belleville, May 21-27, 1978.
Schedule of activities held in Belleville, Ontario during Railway Week, June 22-28, 1964. Includes photographs of locomotives. "Debbie Wade 1964" is written in ink on the front cover.
City of Belleville