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20 'THE OSHAWA TIMES, Tuesdey, Februcry 27, 1962 IN WIRING DE Eluire Gedge of GM's Wir- ing Department holds up some of the components of wiring harness sets that go in GM cars and trucks Over 33,000 Ae Ag miles of wire is used in the space of a single production year, easily enough to stretch around the earth! --GM Photo Protection Plan Big Aid To City 4| 4 ity known as Sydenham Harbor "|lake trade, Although the Oshawa Harbor is not today used to the extent to which its developers thought it would be, because of the changes in modes of transporta- tion, water transport played an important part ir the early his- tory of this community. The first settlement was located on the lakeshore around the area now occupied by the harbor. 4 Settlers came to the district by }\water, most of them being Unit- led Empire Loyalists who left |their homes in Vermont, Massa- chusets, New York and Pennsyl- vania, travelling overland to the Niagara River, and then by water along the Lake Ontario shore to the wooded lands on both sides of what is now known as the Oshawa Creek The story of the harbor area is also the story of many of the first families to make their mark on the community. Through them, the harbor be- came a busy and thriving neighborhood. The lake was the only highway. The wharf which was built behind Bluff Point, in the quiet water cast of the pres- ent harbor, carried most of the trade with the outside world. When the Guys, the Conants, |the Mothersills, the Henrys and lother notable families made their homes there, @ commun- |came into being. |THE CONANT FAMILY There was a large amount of bringing Oswego, Sodus, Rochester and Buffalo to the gates of Sydenham Harbor, bringing their merchandise to the growing settlement, and taking back a luad of the prod- ucts of the settlers. The Conant family was one of the earliest to settle along the harbor area. Roger Conant, the first of the family to settle in the district, had his' first home in Darling- ton township. Later, he moved to Oshawa, to a location east of the harbor. His family became established as the principal landowners of the district. They had great faith in the future of Families Of Importance In Early Days Of Harbor numerous family in the lake- shore area settlement. They were a tall dark race which in- dicated there might at one time have been some Indian blood in their ancestry. They were Quak- ers, and were inter-married with some of the other early settlers. The best remembered was "'Quaker"' Robinson, a very dark man who wore earrings; and lived in the old white brick house where Simcoe street turns east towards the present har- or. THE MOTHERSILLS The Mothersills were an in- fluential Irish family who settled near the harbor about the year 1849. The best remem- \bered were the second genera- jtion brothers John anc Richard, who were quite different from each other. John had a rather stern aspect and spare figure. He had a farm east and south of Harmony, and not far from the base line. He was a staunch member of the Anglican Church and a strong Conservative in politics. The younger brother, Richard, was a bluff, hearty man, very approachable and much liked. He owned a farm near the lake. Although an adherent of the Anglican Church he allied him- self with a group of dissidents who left the communion. He was a Liberal in politics, which) completed their dissimilarity. Their principal point of similar Many of their d live in this neighborhood. J. O. Guy were well-known fig- a League's candidates were ann. men of wide financial, business) Thomas Hawkes, Allin F. Annis,|These were Walter Boon, Harry|to leave and municipal experience. They|/lawyer, who has served on the|H. Cawker, Dr. F, J. Rundle,|organized a series were George W. McLaughlin,|Board of Education for stxjAlex S. McLeese, Henry K. who since his retirement from/years and Captain W J. Lock,|Foote, Clifford Harman, J. B. General Motors of Canada, Lim-|former alderman and prominent|Hutcheson, Louis Hyman, Sam ited, had been carrying 'on ajbusiness man. large financial Mayor T. B. Mitchell, ex-Mayor Fr. senell, ex-Mayorfieid for the aldermanic seats.jprovement Lea: in all the wards of during the week tion, ae * + cme Jackson, and Al. Parkhill. ur; le for The election campaign was a the candidates it had The Civic Im-'ed. ex-| In addition to these, there ere 10 other candidates in the'spirited one. business; lw s still Thomas Guy and his brother, ures about the lakefront in the early days. The former owned! and farmed a large property west of the harbor, still com- memorated by "'Guy's Point", and was a_ well-known stock breeder and farmer The young- er and perhaps better known brother, J. O. Guy, was for many years the harbormaster at Oshawa, and was highly re- spected by all the sailors who came to the port. In his later! years, he conducted a grain and commission business in the town. JOSEPH MOORE Although not one of the earliest to settle on the lake shore about the harbor, Joseph Moore was working the property east of the mouth of: the creek some time before the rebellion of 1837. There is an in- teresting story told of him re- lated to that period. Mr. Moore was an American by birth, and at the time of the disturbance found himself in an uncongenial atmosphere in Canada. Feeling ran very high. His sympathie were with the rebels, and it seemed that, if he stayed, he would have to take sides. So he just put his family on a sloop that he owned, and visited up and down the lake until the trouble was over. This was an ity was that they married sis- ters and raised fine families. ingenious method of avoiding trouble. The year 1933 was a memor- able year in the municipal his- tory of Oshawa. It marked the turning point in the financial road along which the city had been travelling in 1932, a road which brought Oshawa to the Turning Point Was In 1933 was well qualified to head a council of outstanding citizens in the emergency which existed Mr. Sinclair was not anxious to accept the responsibility, but on having the matter presented |to him as a civic duty, he ac- research in glass Measuring the optical quality of automobile windshields on a special collimator doing basic research as well as adapting glass to new uses. Glass is being used more and more as a structural material and here the "know-how" of Duplate scientists is most important. There are many engineering problems which The modern automobile windshield is almost a precision optical unit, while the rear window must bear part of car body load stresses. A far cry from the days when flat glass was 2 simple commodity, cut to size and glazed in its must be solved--problems which require up-to-date re- search facilities. Duplate Canada Limited Laboratories have the latest in original form. verge of bankruptcy. And that Today plate or sheet glass in various thicknesses is a was achieved because the peo- ple of Oshawa determined to i 7 the settlement, and in addition} The problem of plant protec-|trol of vehicle traffic, employ- A , . mon | | tion at General Motors here/ee and visitor identification, |t®, their crown grants, acquired) |cepted, and agreed to be a can- didate for the mayoralty. | jother land, and much of it came} Bas been solved |down through the family to the present generation. Thomas Conant, of the third generation, had a great passion for travel. He went several times to Europe, not a usual thing in his day. He was in Washington during the Ameri- can Civil War, visited and shook hands with President Abraham |LincolIn, the great wartime president, a remembrance which he cherished throughout his lifetime. HENRY FAMILY The Henrys were early sett- lers in the harbor district, and have made a great impression on the community. Some of the fourth generation of the family still live in and around Oshawa. The founder of the family in Canada migrated from County Cavan, Ireland, and after some wanderings in the United States, settled on a farm at formation of a group of men who are not ony useful to the company but a benefit to the| city as well. | The thorough training and) background of the Plant Pro- duction men has already been} recognized by municipal auth-| orities, in that about 25 per cent of them have been depu-| tized as special constables. The qualifications which make these men assets to the community at large, as well as to GM, are these: All are qualified St. John Ambulance first aiders, and all have fire- fighting training; many are qualified in National Survival rescue techniques; several have served on full-time and volun- tary fire departments. GM's plant protection men work three shifts, to ensure round-the-clock security and fire protection. They also see to con- through the} and enforcement of plant safe- ty and health regulations. The equipment used by the Plant Protection men is as up- to-date as their training. All buildings are fully equipped with fire - fighting equipment, which is frequently inspected for serviceability. Patrolmen on their beats report in by means of automatic control boxes, at various points in the plant. These register at the South and North Plant fire halls. In the South Plant fire hall, there's an alarm system that} records patrolmen's reports on tape, and monitors rises in tem- perature, activation of fire sprinklers, and fire alarms, throughout the plant. A built-in public - address system allows the fire hall supervisor to over- ride public address systems throughout the buildings, in case of emergency. Gordon Riehl To Head Gordon W. Riehl, incoming ge py: of the Oshawa Cham- of Commerce, first asso- ciated himself with the Cham- ber in 1950. Mr. Riehl is a chartered accountant, and a artner in the firm of Monteith, onteith, Riehl and Co. He established the Oshawa office of his firm in 1949 and it has grown to a staff of 16. Mr. Riehl is a member of the Pub- lic Relations Committee of the Institute of Chartered Account: ants of Ontario and has organ- ized the annua! tax forum for the Institute for the past three years. He is a member of Coun- cil of the Society of Industrial and Cost Accountants of On- tario, and the author of a book- let entitled "Incorporation and Income Tax in Canada", now in its third edition. Mr. Riehl sees as some of the objectives for the Chamber in the forthcoming year an in- crease in the membership, the completion of projecis already underway, and the development of a program which will help to Core realize the ambitions of the Chamber. The .chief aim of the Chamber is to see Oshawa pro- Sydenham Harbor, on the land which is now Lakeview Park. This land remained in the fam- ily until it was bought by Gen eral Motors of Canada and pre- sented to the city as a park. The most interesting figure in this family was Elder Thomas Henry, a son of the original settler, and born in Ireland. He |was a young lad when he came to Oshawa. When his father went to the Rouge River dis- trict to establish a hotel there, Thomas Henry continued to live on the farm at Oshawa, and to build the old stone house which is still one of the interesting of his great contributions to Oshawa was the founding here of the Christian Church, of which he became an ordained minister and leader. It is now the Centre Street United Church. Thomas Henry was president pany, and was for many years) harbormaster. | The Robinsons were another} 'gress, both economicaily and as ja place in which to live. The} |Chamber, therefore, is interest-| fed not only in projects which will improve the economic cli- mate of Oshawa, but also in i projects which are of benefit to G. W. RIEHL jthe community along education- lal and cultural lines features of Lakeview Park. One} of the Sydenham Harbor Com-) | solve their own problems, and to place in municipal office men capable of solving them. | Thus the municipal election held on January 1, 1933, was jone of the most momentous in jthe city's history. It had sev- jeral unusual features about it. \In the first place, it was the first year in which aldermen| jand other elected officials were jelected by general vote of the jwhole city, instead of by the ward system. It also marked a reduction in the size of the city council from 12 aldermen to 10. The great thing about the election, however, was the spon- taneous movement of the citi- zens in an effort to save the city from default, which result- ed in the election of a council of much above the ordinary calibre. Mayor Thomas Hawkes had intended to run for the mayor- alty. He had been appointed by council to that office in April of 1932, and felt that he was en- titled to seek a ful! year of office. But with splendid public spirit, he agreed to stand aside in order that Mr Sinclair could be elected by acclamation. Then came the problem of se- curing strong candidates for the city council, men of experience and ability. There were 10 alder- men to be elected, but the Civic Improvement League did not wish to name 10 candidates. It was satisfied tc nominate six men of proven ability, so as to give these men control of the council, if elected, and to leave the other four seats for other nominees. The six men chosen as the CIVIC LEAGUE FORMED The movement of the people) concerned about Oshawa's fi- nancial future culminated in the| organization of the Civic Im- provement League. This body) took upon itself the task of se-) curing outstanding candidates] for mayor and aldermen and electing them. There were various reasons behind its organization. Chiefly, | however, it was brought about) by the fact that the city re-| quired to borrow over $290,000 to meet debenture payments due on December 31, 1932. At that time, it owed some $400,000 to the banks because of arrears| of taxes. The banks were un-| willing to grant the further| credit required unless some ac- tion was taken to meet the situ- ation boldly by having a council of men competent to deal with such an emergency. These were the considerations| which led to the formation of) the Civic Improvement League just prior to the election for 1933. Its first job was to secure an outstanding citizen as mayor, one with broad civic and finan- cial experience SINCLAIR AS MAYOR The choice of the league fell jon W. E, N, Sinclair, KC, He jhad previously served the city| }as mayor in 1910 and 1911. Since! }1911, he had represented On- tario Riding in the Ontario Leg- jislature. He was an avid stu- 'dent of municipal affairs, and| the initial work done by t a building site to the ful safeguard against errors the future, he qualified land surveyor, This determines just where and how the builder should work to utilize the natural characteristics of lest. Expert surveying can not only save a great deal of money but it can also in location which could be a source of inconvenience or even financial loss in A VITAL SERVICE... IN A GROWING COMMUNITY The success and final result of any engineering or construction project depends, to a great extent, on basic raw material to be processed for many purposes. It may be shaped or bent, laminated or tempered, and merged with modern automotive styling. Glass composition may be altered to provide for heat absorption, and at the same time, control of visjbility. As a structural material, glass must be tempered to withstand unusual loading and stress. Meeting the ever-increasing demand industry is making on the use of glass requires extensive research to develop these new applications. At Duplate Canada Limited Labor- atories a highly trained staff of technicians is constantly scientific equipment to provide the complete scientific solu- tion to any problem--whether the field of research is basic or experimental. Through Duplate's broad research programme many new adaptations in the uses of glass have been developed. New uses are constantly being discovered. Old concepts are constantly being revised. A continuous effort is made to contribute to the knowledge of glass science throughout the world. %» modern miracles in glass made by. DUPLATE DUPLATE CANADA LIMITED OSHAWA, ONTARIO °T.M. REO' Jor brighter safer living! We Cre Proud IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF OSHAWA - WHITBY Jo Be Playing A Part AND DISTRICT INDUSTRIAL COMMERCIAL & RESIDENTIAL BUILDING Extending Best Wishes To All Our Clients LAND SURVEYING AND ENGINEERING Courtesy of ... DONEVAN AND FLEISCHMANN ONTARIO LAND SURVEYORS ENGINEERS 11 ONTARIO ST. OSHAWA MEL-RON CONSTRUCTION 114 GREEN ST. TELEPHONE MO 8-5841 GENERAL CONTRACTING -- ESTIMATES WHITBY, ONT. RONALD C, DEETH MELVIN D. GORESKI 725-5632