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WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, JULY 5,1 978, PAGE 7 Bdan Winter's H istorical Whitby JOHN WELSH In St. John's Anglican Cemetery in Port Whitby stands a large circular marble column, broken at the top, which markes the grave of John Welsh, one of the pioneer builders of this town. Although it is likely the column was broken by vandals many years ago it also symbolizes a useful life cut short, for he died at the early age of 48. John Welsh was born at Clones in the County of Fermanagh, Ireland, on Aug. 16, 1810, the eldest son of William Welsh, who emmigrated to Canada in 1823 and settled in Pickering Township. In 1828, at the age of 18, John Welsh found employment with Messrs. H.& S. Jones of Brockville, produce and general merchants. After five years he became a partner in the firm and went on to become the first shipping merchant at Port Whitby. Port Whitby, then known as Windsor, was founded in 1819 by John Scadding, but there was no active trading out of the harbor until 1833 when H. & S. Jones posted John Welsh to Port Windsor as an agent. Mr. Welsh built a warehouse for storing grain, and a tramway across the mud flats at the foot of Brock Street so the farmers could convey their grain to his warehouse. Schooners began calling at Port whitby and in 1833 the first records were made of grain shipments from this harbor. From that year until 1840, Mr. Welsh was said to be the one of the largest if not the largest operator in farming produce west of Montreal. In his obituary it was said that "his great experience in commercial matters together with his own energy and great Howdy! Every Wednesday from July 12 to August 23 the library will be making trips to Ashburn Community Centre from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. and Macedonian Village Park from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. There will also be a story hour with the books ava,ilable for borrowing. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, starting July 11, at 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. there will be arts ..ad crafts, stories, and movies. For something special, Friday July 14 is Circus Day!! The participants put on their own acts. make-up instructions will be given on Tuesday and Thursday before the circus. There will be prizes for the best act, best costume and best trick, so hurry, there isn't much time left. Fridlay July 21 between 1:30 an d 3 p.m. for those kidiles 5 years and up, (pre-registration required), there will be an irformal lecture-discussion on Native Indian Masks. The discussion will be illustrated by slides and display items. The children will make their own masks, from what they have learned. This workshop is presented, courtesy of the McMichael Canadian Collection "Experience 78". To finish July in style, on July 25, a Friday, a Travelling Puppet show will make a visit from 10:45 to 11:45 a.m. at the Brooklin Community Centre. There will be two plays. YMCA offers "Camp Francais" La chasse au tresor... des swimmng, nature lore, grenouilles .. . une tente . . . crafts, games, camp fires, des chansons . l'artisanat . camping skills and more. An Children will be talking overnight and Family Night about these and many more are scheduled for the second nautre objects and camping Thursday of each sessidn. activities after attending Family Night presents itself "Camp Francais" this as a particularly inviting summer. The Durham opportunity for parents to Region Family YMCA is visit the camp ground and introducing this new camp participate in presentations, into its already well estab- a camp fire and sing-song as lished Summer Day Camp well as meet the councellors. Program. The camp is Camp Francais will be designed to benefit anglo- under the direction of phones and francophones Patricia Keywan. Miss alike. Keywan, a recent graduate Camp Francais will oper- of the Ontario Teacher ate out of Heber Down Con- Education College, and an servation Area, along with undergraduate of the the Junior, Senior and Universite de Grenoble, Creative Arts Day Camps. France, will be teaching in a Activities will begin at French Immersion Program approximately 10 a.m. and in the fall. Working with her run until 4 p.m. weekdays. this summer as counsellors Four two-week sessions will be Nadine Cuoci who has will be offered commencing just completed grade 13 and July 3, and children ai will be continuing ber studies encourage to attend as many at the Universite de McGill, sessions as they like to Chantal Dube and Mario receive the maximum Lessard, both students at the benefits from the program. French high school, Etienne Ailvltién ofered at Camp Brule, in Toronto. liberality made him always the farmer's friend and estab- lished him in the unlimited confidence and favor of the community." Port Whitby, with John Welsh as its only grain merchant managed to attract a passenger trade as well as the shipping of produce. In 1836, the steamboat, "Commodore Barrie" began making regular stops at Port Whitby picking up passengers on the trip between Kingston and Niagara. John Welsh acted as agent for this boat. In 1837, Peter Perry and a number of other new arrivals in Whitby formed the Windsor Harbor and Road Company, and built a larger warehouse at the harbor. They also obtained a government grant to begin building piers and docks. In 1844, more government money was granted to the harbor, and James Rowe and James Cotton, two local contractors, built more extensive wharves at the harbor, and a small light house was placed on one of the piers. The year 1848 proved to be a disastrous one of the mercantile community of Canada, and many grain shippers suffered, but John Welsh came out unscathed. At this time heformed a partnership with James Rowe and John Watson in the James Rowe & Co. which built large warehouses at the foot of Brock Street. James Rowe & Co. was the major shipping company at Port Whitby until the death of Mr. Rowe, in 1869, and carried on for another 10 years under the proprietorship of Mr. Watson. The company shipped grain out -of Whitby harbor, and imported products for sale in the stores of Whitby. One of the problems faced by the company was finding ballast to fill the empty schooners returning from shipping grain from Whitby to Canadian and American ports. Mr. Welsh came up with the idea of bringing back blocks of limestone eut by the prisoners at the Kingston Penitentiary, and soon a brisk trade was taking place in grain and stone. Mr. Welsh used the stone to build a store at the corner of Brock and Front Streets. This store was later owned by James Rowe who sublet it to various merchants. The building was demolished before the turn of the century. James Rowe and John Welsh were prominent Anglicans at Port Whitby and they agreed to supply blocks of limestone free If charge fo the erection of a church. The result of their generosity is St. John's Anglican Church, the oldest contin- uously operating church in Whitby today. The limestone shipped by John Welsh to Whitby harbor was used to build a one-storey house on Dufferin Street, now Pre-schoolers should be accompanied by an adult. This show is brought to you, courtesy of C.O.R.L. For the kiddies up to eight years of age, on Tuesday July 25 at 1:30 to 2:00 p.m. at the library, there will be another puppet show. The subject of this show will be product safety in the home. The show will be sponsored by the Federal Consumer and Corporate Affairs Ministry. This week's new word is, POLY;NOMINAL - adjective, of pertaining to, or consisting of many names or terms - The polynominal lists of voters are listed every year for the people to view. A fool may give a wise man counsel. Marie 655-3061 Brown's drop-of covered by stucco, and a large two-storey farm house on Garden Street for a Scottish settler named John Thomnson. Much of the Kingston limestone was used to construct basements for Whitby homes in the 1840s and 1850s. James Rowe operated a shipyard at Port Whitby and named one of his schooners after his partner John Welsh. Another boat he called "The Prince of Wales." About 1855 John Welsh retired from business due to illness. His death on May 31, 1859 was a sad occasion for Port Whitby. Mr. Welsh was well liked and it was said that any Irishman who landed at Port Whitby found a friend in John Welsh. John Welsh was truly one of the builders of Whitby, and is buried only a few feet from the church for which he supplied the building stone in 1846. Teens on Patrol starts its work Two Whitby students are among the seven young people who strated their duties as Teens on Patrol in Durham Region parks last Wednesday. The students, whose job is to try to limit vandalism, are Crystal Hedges and Ann Byford. The seven students will patrol 12 parks and recre- ation complexes for nine weeks during the summer. Their duties, according to Project Leader David Hoover, are to speak to park patrons to increase their awareness of vandalism, and to patrol the parks. Since they have no police powers, the students will report any incidents of vandalism to their area supervisors. The Teens on Patrol project, associated with the Durham Region Police, was suggested by Whitby resi- dent Kathleen Chung who is in charge of a Whitby vandalism study for the Oshawa-Whitby Social Plan- ning Council. The TOP project worked very well in Rochester, N.Y. where it originated, she said. Sergeant Roy Hobbs of the Durham Regional Police travelled to Rochester earl- ier this year to see the TOP program in action. The students make written reports each day and at the end of the summer, a grad- uate from the faculty of education at the University of Toronto will make a full report to the federal govern- ment on the success of the project in Durham Region. DENTURE THERAPY CLINIC i1m..m. St. W. Whitby 668-1464 ROOFING - SHINGLES & FLAT DECKS A Good Job for My Good Company Established ii 1941 Bonded with Consumer's Protection Bureau General Home Renairing Service FREE ESTIMATES Prop. G.A. White - RR1, Brooklin - 655-4741 'Mention This AD for 10% OFF Fresh Cement in Stock $310 per bog MITCHNELL "BTEm OOKUN 6w-I e* BEAUTIFUL cuts, 0 perms, sets, iveryti me! Add bounce, curl and direction to straight hair with a permanent or eut your hair in one of the new geometric styles. LA CONTESSA BEAUTY LOUNGE 119 Green St., Whitby 668-9262 bu i i n C SI centure L