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10- PORT PERRY STAR - Wednesday, September 8, 1999 "Scugog's Community Newspaper of Choice" 0 by P aul Sketches of Scugog is a hist local resident and historian P: in the Port Perry Star each mo HIS SEPTEMBER is a par- ticularly important month in the celebration of this community's history There are at several notable events taking place. compile. In addition to summarizing each year's events, Peter has developed articles on various points of interest in the community such as Seven Mile Island, the Ross feed mill on Water Street, and the Kent Gardens. The Mechanics Institute, at the corner of a = SRE STII REN i Queen and Rosa Street in 1856, later became the Baptist Church, and is now for the display of crafts at the Port Perry Fairgrounds The first is the annual Port Perry Fair. This year heralded the opening of the refurbished arts and crafts building. The fair board has had the building raised and the floor restored. This building started out as the Mechanics Institute in 1856 and was located at the north east corner of Queen and Rosa Streets where the Stonemoor Daycare Centre is now locat- ed. Mechanics Institutes were the equivalent of today's public libraries and were the site for public lectures on various topics. The building was purchased by the Baptists in 1863 and an elegant tower and steeple was added to the entrance. In order to erect a newer facility, the Baptists gave the building to the Fair Board. The steeple was removed and the building moved to the Fair grounds in 1927 where it has been used as a display area for arts, crafts and produce ever since. The second event of note is the launch of Port Perry Star publisher Peter Hvidsten's book Out Of The Ashes. This book is a monumental 300 page work summarizing all the events of this century as they have been covered in the Port Perry Star. The events of each year, beginning with 1900 are chronologically set out in an easy to read format. The work is profusely illustrated with an incredible array of accompanying photographs. A few years ago Peter expressed his desire to establish his own millennium project. Out Of The Ashes is the result. This book has been a labour of love for Peter and has taken several years to Regular readers of the Port Perry Star will have noticed several adver- tisements asking for old photographs. Many have responded to this adver- tisement and Peter has amassed an extensive archive of photographs on the community's past. He has been relent- less in his search for previously unpub- lished photographs, particularly of the people who have influenced the commu- nity. Many of these are included in the book. In addition to gathering photographs Peter has traveled extensively across the province in an effort to collect post cards of this region. Many of these post cards are also reproduced in the book. Samuel Farmer, who became the owner of the Port Perry Star newspaper in 1907, wrote the first extensive history of the community in 1913. This work entitled On The Shores Of Scugog has been a standard reference work. It was extensively revised in 1934. Mr. Farmer died in 1948 and the family continued to run the newspaper until 1963 when Per Hvidsten purchased it. Per sold the newspaper to his son Peter in 1976. Peter took on Don MacLeod as his partner in 1995. Peter Hvidsten has followed the footsteps of Samuel Farmer by produc- ing his own book, Out Of The Ashes. In doing so he has set a new standard for the recording of local history. Scugog is indeed fortunate to have a newspaper owner who takes such an active interest in the preservation of the area's history. The launch of Peter's book will take place on Tuesday, September 14 at the Scugog Centre beside the new arena. The event will begin at 6:30 p.m. displays and book signings. A short informal introduction will take place at 7 p.m. Peter has invited a number of people interested in local history, including several "Old Timers," to be there. This promises to be a great evening of celebrating our past. The third event of historical impor- tance is the Lake Scugog Historical Society's first Cemetery Walk. This event has been planned to take place the same week as the launch of Peter's book. This event will take place in the Pine Grove cemetery in Prince Albert on Sunday, September 19. I will be con- ducting the walk and we will stop at gravestones of people who have made a significant impact on the community. These are the memorials to our com- munity's pioneers, men and women who dedicated their lives to building the community we now enjoy. By read- ing the dedications on the headstones, we can only find the skeleton (pun intended) of the history of the commu- nity. With a little research, the details reveal some fascinating stories. Romance, tragedy, success, failure, even a little bit of scandal, all this can be found in the Pine Grove cemetery. The community which we now know as Prince Albert was begun by the Hurd family in 1824. That same year they were joined by the Dayton family and the little settlement became known as Dayton's Corners. It was the first major settlement in the area. Pine Grove cemetery was the first official cemetery in the community and is one of the oldest in this part of Ontario. The first recorded graves date back to 1831. The Cemetery has been expanded over the years and is now more than three times its original size and is the burial place for people from all over Scugog. Launch of local history book and cemetery walk highlight Sept. activities SAMUEL FARMER Port Perry Star publisher 1907-1948 and author of "On The Shores of Scugog" The difficulty in planning a walk such as this lies in the challenge of selecting a small number of gravestones from such a vast area. There are more than 7,000 graves in the Prince Albert cemetery and our walk will take an hour and a half. This means that we will only be able to stop to talk at about forty or so graves. The walk will begin at the south end of the cemetery where the cemetery began and will get underway at 2 o'clock, rain or shine. It will last for about an hour and a half but participants are free to leave at any time. There is no charge for the tour but the Historical Society hat will be passed around at the conclusion of the walk. Samuel Farmer, author of "On The Shores of Scugog" seems to be looking over the shoulder of Star publisher Peter Hvidsten, seen with his new book "Out Of The Ashes". IF YOU HAVE ANY OLD PHOTOGRAPHS OF PORT PERRY AND AREA YOU'D LIKE TO SHARE - GIVE PETER A CALL AT 905-985-7383