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Page 12, Whitby Free Press, Wodnesday. February 10, 1993 At a recen t meeting, Wit.y archivist Brian Mâ~ter made Jus second presntation about înterestingcharactersfrom Mitb/shistory. Ibis is the first of a three-part sentes about those characters. The soxond part of the series wýiIJ be in a March edition of TheFree Press. Mary Hopper, oldest woman Mary Hopper, a W'hitby resident for 32 years, lived in three cènures and was the oldest woman in Canada. She died when she was 103. Mary Shaddick was born in Hartland, Devonshire, England or , March 25, 1800 and died in Oshawa on Nov. ý )1, 1903. She remembered, frox i wheri she was age 5, the bonfires on the coast of the English channel when Nlson won the Battie of Trafalgar. She also remembereki the great comet of 1811. She married Richard Hopper in 1819, and they came te Whitby in 1853. Richard died at age 85 in 1885 and she moved te Oshawa. At her death, she had 142 living descendents: three children, 52 grandchildren, 55 great-grandchildren and 12 great-great- grandchildren. Her oldest living child was 84. Mary lived under five sovereigns, and was presented with a valuable coin by Queen Victoria personally. Teddy Rowe, bonniest baby In 1924, a 2-year-old boy fromn Whitby was named the 'Bonniest Baby' in the British Jams Edward Rowe, son of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas L. Rowe, was entered in the contest by Mis two aunts. The' contest was run by the Toronto Star in connection with the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley in London, England. Teddy was the winner in age 2 category - there were 60,000 other entries. Teddy received $500 for bis education, and a silver cup. On Sept. 12, 1924, Whitby council members presented hlm with a loving cup at a dinaer for Hamar Greenwood at the Ontario Ladies' College (now Trafalgar Castle School). When Teddy saw the cup, be shouted I want that." There was a tragie ending to the Teddy Rowe story. At age 6, he got scarlet fever which weakened his heart. He died at age 8, on May 1, 1930, from the flu -- bis weak heart could not cope with the illness. Wasyl Hunka, famous soldier Whitby Psychiatric Hospital was a military convalescent hospîtal during World War 1. One soldier there, Wasyl Hunka, became a national celebity. A Russian, born in 1888, Hunka served with the Canadian Expeditionary force and arrived in Whitby in May 1918. Unable to speak English when he arrived, he took English courses at the hospital. He also took manual training classes, and decided to build a model of a house. Exact in every detail, the model was six feet high, three feet long and five feet wide, weighing 400 pounds. There were stairs inside, every room was furnished and lit by electricity. When he started, Hunka knew notbing of house construction but followed plans on a piece of paper given ta him. The Governor-General, Duke of Devonshire, visited the hospital in 1918 and expressed an interest in buying the house. Hunka was featured in an article in the Toronto Star Weekly, and photo post cards, showing Hunka with the bouse, were sold at the hospital. After the war he cbanged bis naxne ta William Hunka and lived in Oshawa. He was nearly blind when, on Sept. 15, 1961, hie was struck by a car while trying ta cross Hwy 401. He was buried in Soldiers' Plot, Union Cemetery, Oshawa. Arthur Mlin, Town hall Arthur Henry Allin was a wealthy Whitby resident who gave Whitby a new tawn hall. Born in 1869, son of book-seller Lewis Allin, Arthur Allin in 1896 bought the old Gerrie Drug Store at the four corners and became one of the leading mercbants of the town. After 35 years in business, in 1931 hie retired and sold the store. But he couldn't tolerate retirement, s0 later bought back the store - at a price greater than that for whichlhe sold it. Allin gave the upstairs rooms of bis building free ta, the Witby Legion branch from its founding in 1927 te when the new Legion hall was built in 1945. A bachelor aIl his life, Allin, who made a lot of money on the stock market, was an art collecter and world traveller. He lived in the house (now Stairways) at Green and Coîborne streets. A He died in 1945, and left the store tohistwopharrriacists, Norman u ormack and F'rank Gray, who continued Allin's Drug Store until it clesed in 1969. After bequests ta family, the residue of Allin's estate was te, go ta the Town of Whitby ta build a new town hall. The estate was settled in 1950, with $113,000 going te, the Town. The Town had te, take legal proceedings because the executar was draining the estate ofmnoney. The new Town hall was built in 1959-60 (it is now the library, and was replaced by the new municipal building on Rossland Rd. in 1977. Nanie change Because of a bridge, 118 years of a piece of Whitby's histary was wiped fror the map. What are known today as Thickson Rd . and Thickson's Point were once known as Corbett's Sideroad and Corbett's Point. John Corbett settled on the site in 1830. Çorbett's point was a popular picnic spot from earliest pioneer times and was referred te in newspapers as early as 1857. In 1919, James Norman Thickson of Oshawa bought the point and subdivided it into lots for cottages. But the name change didn't occur until bridges were built over Hwy 401. Bridges were built in 1941, but net on the road ta Corbett's Point. Thickson lobbied the government ta, have a bridge built, and construction took place in 1947 on Corbett's Sideroad. Inscribed on the 1947 bridge was the name .Thickson's Road,' under the Ontarie coat of armns. It is believed that a clerk wrote 'Thickson's Road' on a map when the bridge was planned, a.nd the government assumed that was the name of the road. Thickson was amused at that the road had been named without bis permission - but was angry when the name was later removed. He got even. He had bis property at Corbett's Point officially registered as Thickson's Point. So it has remained ever since. 'Bonni*est baby,' celebrity soldier are among interesting characters from past 1