oyer 5000 readers mib largest circulating weekly for whitchurch markham pickering and uxbridge twps copies this issue 1475 vol 53 no 37 stouffville ontario thursday january 23rd 1941 eight pages donations still coming individual farmers are leaving conations at the tribune office for the telegram war victims fund harvey swain brought in a dollar ihe other day to bring the total handed to rev duncan macgregor treasurer 11965 the fund will bo kept open and if you wish to give the amount will he thankfully re ceived and acknowledged in these columns man in park shack for past nine years takes his own life with the rcaf gormley sees two fires tuesday about five oclock on tuesday morning george fisher arose from his bed tc look out the window of his home only to see his blacksmith shop next his house in flames the shop is situated on the 3rd of whitchurch next to the residence at new gormley the fire had such a start that nothing could he saved from the building which contained a valuable set of tools belonging to mr fisher no one had been in the shop since six oclock the previous evening and the cause of the fire is a complete mystery before the flames had died down the sky to the north of gormley was illuminated and it was found that the large barns on the humphrey farm were all in flames ana report ed a complete loss it is said this latter fire started from the gasoline engine which was at the time being repaired by a garageman suddenly it backfired and set everything ablaze local lads organize beaver club lions club sponsor muchneeded hoys activity high school teachers ralph haist and gor don bailey heads new venture ctiiry johnson fatally shot him self twice in chest makes coii- usmon after brine found in his lonely shack blames pranksters who fostered him about enlisl- last thursday evening a success- lui meeting was to organize a boys beaver club in stouffville and over thirty of the village lads were on hand at the request of messrs ralph haist and gordon bailey who have undertaken the idea which was put forward by the lions club the boys are most enthusiastic and under such able leadership a longfell want in the town will be tilled feature of the organization meet ing was a talk given by mr spence local bank manager who addressed the boys on the subject of aeronaut ics mr spence who was an airforce instructor during the last war made his wellchosen topic most interest ing and appreciation by the leaders was tendered on the boys behalf for his interest shown the club plans to meet hence forth every tuesday night officers elected were chief ken klinck vice chief arnold schell sec irvin borinsky and treas bill kellington this week the boys have received a very special invitation from the girls cgit club to join with them in a sleighride party wardens chosen clarence downey reeve of swan sea was elected warden of york county on tuesday jno a mcdonald reeve of mara township was similarly honored with the wardenship of ontario county at whitby thorofjrkds pacers clash rlngwood and vandorf teams will play a league game at stouffville tonight thursday at s pm jim gibsons thoroughbreds from van dorf and joe cooneys pacers from rirgwood aro expected to provide the seasons greatest thrillers satday night nuptial on saturday evening at the mbc parsonage in town rev h shantz solemnized the marriage of coia may hisey of almira daughter of mr and mrs george hisey and william iercy douglas of inion- ville the couple were attended by- mr and mrs jack butcher of markham and after the ceremony lef on a short honeymoon they ex pect to take up farm work as their daily task in life widely known to all the town people as cuffy fred johnson was discovered on sunday evening in his shack with two bullet wounds in his chest ciayt tarr had gone iown to cuftys hut to pay caii while he was home from camp borden and made the horrible discovery dr s s ball was summoned and after rendering first aid had cuffy removed to the brierbush hospital where he died about 10 jciock on tuesday evening dr ball reported there were two distinct bullet wounds in the chest evidently fired from the 22 rifle found beside the wounded man johnson was conscious when thei doctor arrived and told him that he hari shot himself cuffy explained the presence of a knife on the bed as having been used to pull the first shell out of the rifle in order to re load it and fire a second shot information given to the press by other parties indicate that cuffy had been considerably worked up be cause of numerous jibes from pranksters who said he cuffy would soon have to go to camp borden this according to street in formation was said to have preyed on johnsons mind and led to the rash act in a written confession to the police taken at the hospital cuffy reiterated the same story a written pencil note indicated that cuffy intended to be in paradise forthwith when the first shot was fired for he directed what might be done with his meagre belongings which he hoped would provide for him a decent burial cuffy johnson spent much of his life in this district but was in tor onto for a long time after return ing nine or ten years ago the town boys got together and in one big afternoon push rushed up the shack at the south end of the park proper ty which has been his home and abode ever since a general favorite witli the boys he has been taking their jokes too seriously for he might have known that his pre sence at 5s years was not required in the army he had a horror of war and often told the writer so the determination to end his life must have been most deliberate after wounding himself with the lire shot lie doggedly emptied the cham ber of he rifle and reloaded evi dently under terrible pain he gave up after the second attempt and re mained conscious long enough to tell the doctor what he had done each shot entered the chest above the heart inquest ordered over ringwool death dr s s balli coroner has order ed an inquest for friday evening january 31 at s30 oclock to en- ouire into the circumstances sur rounding the death of mrs isabel byte of ringwood who died shortly after being admitted to the brierbush hospital stouffville attempt to revive bush league here an attempt is being made this week to round out a fourteam bush league to play hockey in stouffville for the remainder of the season with so many of the boys from the surrounding countryside away from time to time and one or two of the former local league teams now in oter groups it had appeared that any formation of a league here this winter was out of the question however a group of the more in terested boys in town aided by messrs jos cooney murray holden and jack barkey have organised a league of stouffville vandorf iting- vood with fth line still doubtful stouffville has been able to line up some fifteen players including wmo former juniors and high school players at a workout on tuesday night ross wideman of dickson hill and mac clendenin from the fjtli line were a couple of welcome additions j no schedule has been drawn up yet but it is hoped that if the plan ballantrae on top in u league ballantrae hockey team won their third straight game on tuesday night to tighten their hold on first place in the uxbridge hockey league the ballantrae boys narrow ly nosed out reach 32 in what the captain of the team declared was a lucky break for us reach is in second place in the standing with sunderland third tuesday nights game was a tight struggle until the last period when ballantrae notched rather a fluky one to give them the lead slack simpson and mcnelly were the three goalgetters for the shellmen in the other half of tuesdays doubleheader uxbridge defeated zephyr 21 a crowd of some six hundred was in attendance fine herd roasted standing in stalls in devastating fire jas rennie to head markham fair board fair shows profit of us082 for ll40 exhibition james rennie reeve of markham township will head markham fair board for next season with o b heise reeve of the village as 1st vice and john scott of claremont 2nd vice the election was held at the annual meeting last week when some thirty directors attended a banquet staged in the tremont hotel in markham the last years financial report was viewed as highly satisfactory by the board total donations with the exception of grants amounted to 1 21 100 the fair handed out 290105 in prizes in cash goods and races directors for the new year are h c morris m russell earl gra- nani and robert nash of markham village walter milne pickering township lyman kennedy morris hanimlll alex davidson and george little of scarboro township w l clark ken deacon j h warriner rtbert thompson fred baggs and george cowie of markham twp associate directors jess cook soiiffville george it henry james darlington of york township alex mclcod markham jack eraser charles hooper of markham twp hon directors george hambly a h crosby w ii crosby r r corson r p armstrong james torrance george padget auditors r m ilteesor and ed clarke fully materializes games will start immediately owing to the lateness ot the season glenn gibbons son of mr and mrs john gibbons of lemonville who is in trainnng as a ground man with the ircaf school trustees appoint new secretary school trustee nolan proposed the name of rev c j smalley as temporary secretarytreasurer of the board owing to the condition of j s dougherty who has been ill 5ince middecember it was the inaugural meeting last wednesday evening and the secretarys accus tomed chair was vacant rev c e macleod said he thought the logical man to take ever the duties was the village eerk george storey mr storey feels that he has enough duties to perform said mr nolan however mr storey whonwas pre sent at the meeting in his office said he would take over the work of the tchool secretary if the boara was willing that his helper should do much of the secretarial end that is all right said mr macleod who agreed that whoever mr storey had in mind would be satisfactory to him trustee nolan thereupon moved that mr storey be named as secre tarytreasurer pro tern and this carried unanimously mr storey then seit for his helper mr smalley who tok his place and recorded the minutes dr h b freel was again named as chairman by a unanimous vote of the members and the routine busi ness was then disposed of messrs mcleod stover and aid- red were sworn in for another term mr aldred being an entirely new addition to the trustee board roy secbecks buildings ablaze are seen in stouffville and in sub urbs of toronto over 10000 loss in buildings stock and crop cause a complete mystery local hunters bag 250 pounds of fifteen hunters from stouffville and claremont locality journeyed to barrie last week to spend an after noon hunting rabbits and were re warded with a kill of 2s bunnies they averaged about nine pounds and the boys report that lii rab bits were shot in a square of a mile and a quarter the veteran jess by- er headed the hunters who were the guests of a barrie friend emboldened by their- success of a wek ago the party of local hunters returned to innisfail township just south of barrie a few days ago for a second rabbit hunt this time the ribesmen from stouffville shot down no less than 75 rabbits and two foxes we were eating dinner when a big red fox came rushing along said nels byer my gun was in the rear of the car but daw- mi hare had his handy and he ran along a brush pile and headed the fox off evidently reddy did not realize he was on the other side of the brush for he bounded to within ihrty feet of him so that dawson brought him down with a well aimed shot said he there were in the party nelson byer jess byer peter byer who is here from western canada walter and e e byer frank and vincent baker dawson hare walter ward of claremont was also in the group three large barns 80x34 20x38 and 30x60 stand in ruins as a re- sul of last saturday nights lire on the farm of roy seeheck on the maikhampickering townline about a mile north of no 7 highway in addition seven horses one pony nineteen head of cattle mostly hghproducing milch cows 100 capon chickens about 1200 bushels of grain and over 50 tons of hay and countless other items were totally lost roy seeheck is a successful young farmer married 11 years ago when he went on the farm which he pur chased from the smith bros cause of saturday nights devastating blaze is a complete mystery we had completed the chores about six oclock and no one was in the barns from then until i saw the buildings in flames about 7 oclock as i was going down the road about hait a mile south of my place bound foi green river to get my hair cut said the owner to the tribune as he explained the early stages of the fire some fellow coining from the north in a truck yelled as he apparently saw the fire and im mediately i turned around i saw the flames mr seebeck said he ran back and the wholo place all the build ings were in a whirling mass of flames with the help quickly gathered we rescued the ten pigs but could not get near anything else for the terrible heat every animal was roasted in its stall it was a still cold night and this made it comparatively easy to save the house and a driving shed some distance away the sturdy cement silo withstood the terrific heat and stands now unscarred monarch over the ruins there was not a stick of timber left standing from any of the three structures however which oined together into one immense barn the buildings were wired for electricity two years ago while vithin the past year mr seebeck in stalled a mechanical milker all this is now a total loss there is insurance on both the barns crop and contents but it will not of course cover the loss estim ated around 10000 this area southeast of stouff ville has been notorious for serious fires in only a years time there being no less than three large barns burned within a year one of the w taylor place then the trail barn and now the seebeck barns one or two smaller fires may be added to these all in the one section saturdays fire illuminated the sky and could bo seen for miles in slouffvillo it gave the impression of boing only a mile away instead of six miles south tankard final at unionvi pos the final game in the tankard scheduled for wednesday morning between stouffville curlers and the winner of unionville and agincourt was postponed on account of soft ice stouffvilles two rinks took their first round with a decisive win over locust hill owing to both the tjnkard and ihe district cup games being played on the same day the local club were unable to raise sufficient players for each and no representatives where present from here to contest the cup series pioneer markham miller is dead hercward d milne norwood rd toronto died early tuesday he was the oldest surviving son of the late capt thomas a milne who was a member of a pioneer markham family for many years mr milne owned and operated a flour mill in mark ham subsequently he spent 30 years with the maple leaf milling co while with them he travelled extensively in the north country and the west indies he had been retired for ten years he was a mem ber of markham masonic lodge surviving are his widow two daughters mrs ross maccorquo- daie and mrs ii b legate owen sound and shot one of the two foxes brought home still other hunters vero in the party from toronto over hundred see oes installation on tuesday evening january 21 1941 jubilee chapter no 163 oes in stouffville witnessed the installation of new officers for the coming year in a picturesque cere mony mrs edna hunter ddgm was the installing matron assisted by mr l p sutton miss annie marsh grand marshal of the grand chapter of ontario mrs maude entwistle and mrs margaret squir es all of toronto also past matrons and patrons of the local chapter over one hundred guests attended the dinner preceding the meeting convened by mrs pearle nolan and her committee which was followed by a short toast list presided over by mr william griffiths the following officers were in stalled worthy matron mrs lillis paisley worthy patron mr william griffith associate matron mrs elizabeth griffiths secretary mrs ina woodburn treasurer miss anne lehman conductress mrs pearle nolan associate conductress mrs hattie storey chaplain mrs susan shankel marshal miss jane barkitt organist miss luella hold- en adah miss eflie harding ruth mrs florence johnson esther mrs stella drewery martha mrs ida malloy electa mrs alice shaw warder mrs dunelda fairies sen tinel mr j borinsky no inquest ix suicide case on enquiry wednesday afternoon from dr s s ball coroner we are advised that there will be no in quest into the death of fred john son after conferring with the authorities at queens park the cor oner said that a thorough investi gation already made is deemed to be all that is necessary it is rumored however that the police will continue their investiga tion was 97 on sunday 97 yeirs of ago on sunday sir william mulock went arminarm with hon howard ferguson to at tend a dinner on monday