The Acton Free Wednesday April 1971 Mobile home parks under township jurisdiction by Mr Barber muat be operated on a seasonal basis only and permits issued the do not cover mobile home parks Ontario Department grounds In a letter to Mervin Esqueslng A copy of the letter meeting Sudiparkswouldcomeunderthe Tourlsmhaselnrilleditsstandon Barber a resident of was mailed to Council The department pointed out of the township the licensing of seasonal camp near the First line of and read at Monday nights campgrounds like the one owned fetter went on AFTER YEARS as a grocery store this building becomes an animal clinic later this month Mr and Mrs Ernie Marks operated their grocery store here for the past years Before that the proprietors were John Wood John Kingshott and Nelson and Co In this old picture John Nelson stands his store Pet clinic next with Amelia Nelson Kennedy leaning on the gate Nelson Scott Minnie Nelson and Margaret Nelson Warren in the garden The picture is lent by Mrs Wood niece of Mr Nelson and widow of Mr Wood two of the owners over the years Marks grocery closes store dates to 1 880s A grocery store from well before the turn of the century Marks store no longer stocks lifes staples In a week or so the brick building on Mill St E exchanges bread and butter for dogs and cats The building will become a part of the Georgetown Animal clinic operated By the veterinarians there Mr and Mrs Ernest Marks have operated the store for 24 years coming up to Acton from Mr Marks will continue in the real estate business and is the towns budding inspector They will continue to live in their home which adjoins their former store Stay In house We like it too well here to leave said Mr Marks this week We have made lots of friends in Acton and the town has been good to us Their five children were all brought up in Acton and all live fairly near in county All near home Son Martin his wife and three children live in Burlington son Peter wife Joann and two children live In Acton and hes on town council Daughter Marilyn husband Ken and four children live in Pauline and her husband Bernard Kent and three children live in George town The youngest daughter and husband Archie live in Acton and have two sons one born in March Both Mr and Mrs Marks have been active in the community during their years here Mrs Marks had a long spell in hospital recently bat is recuperating well at home Built store It must have been about that Benjamin a merchant from decided to come to Acton to do a larger business He bought the lot then a vacant commons and built the brick store and house behind as pictured in the old photograph accompanying this article Nelson and Co took over the grocery and dry goods business and members of the family maintained it for many years there The original Mr Nelson came from England to Canada about or and was a tailor in before buying the store in Acton His son John worked in the store for a while before changing to farming about 1901 Another son Nelson became a tailor in A daughter Amelia married John Kennedy who had the store for many years Another daughter Miss Minnie Nelson also worked there It was Mr Kennedy who had the brick ad dition put on the side of the house He became a prominent citizen of the town John Wood bought the business about and the widowed Mrs Kennedy and Miss Nelson continued to live in the house before moving to When Mr Wood retired John Kingshott had the store for a short time before Mr and Mrs Marks came to town A letter from Eden Mills Eden Mills Ont Nov Dear May Well its been a year of building and rebuilding Most important of course is the fact that Ted got to work right away to get the mill back in operation He fixed the low part up first as it had had less severe damage He used by plywood boards for the roof working on it one very blustery day late In November We were quite anxious watching him emerge on top of the roof clutching such a sail The asphalt shingle he put on top is a nice greygreen looks good with the old stone He also poured a new concrete floor and put in new and larger windows During the summer he has been working on the mam part of the building Hes taken the walls down so that the whole building will be the same height I must say we were rather relieved when he finally took a huge stone off the door lintel Roger Haines who has bought the house opposite the store is carting the spare stones away to use In renovation Exciting I tod His house by the way used to be the old inn and they were very excited one day when they discovered a huge old fireplace behind the plaster To continue with the mill though there was great interest one Saturday morning when a portable crane arrived on a truck The operator lowered special supports and with great skill swung a huge old barn beam into place as the roof tree Ted hasnt quite finished the lob but it will look very nice when its done especially as he has been able to match the shingles very As for me the have built me a good garage It is at the road level of course but tucked back into the hill between the maples so it really isnt very noticeable and spoil the view from Bettys window thank goodness And I now have several spotlights strategically placed and on a two way switch Rotten pears The summer and the country have been as lovely as ever One really big thrill this fall was when we harvested the first crop of pears They were delicious what I had of them Unfortunately we didnt store them properly and thej rotted while I was away for a couple of weeks Ill know better next year Funny thing happened around the end of September I was sitting out in the sun late one afternoon when I became aware of several flights of a large number of sparrows They seemed to be stopping in the field above the fence and then taking off again in lots of about and going into the biggest of the maple trees There were thousands of them They must have been perching on all available twigs The whole bee was shimmering The same thing happened for four or five evenings and then they were gone Halloween again last night Betty asked me to act as one of the Judges of the costumes This is becoming an annual event for me and I enjoy it The children really show a lot of imagination We even had a computer this year There were such a lot of children of age They dont go round to the houses yet but I can see that in a few years well have to buy our apples by the bushel All for now With love Val DEBBIE JAMES shows off the train made by men on the committee under Jim Gibson Staff Photo