Harry Stemp was born in Uxbridge in 1934. He started his career with the Uxbridge Times-Journal as an apprentice typesetter at age 14. He soon began writing sports for the Times-Journal and eventually owned 10 community newspapers in central Ontario including the Times-Journal. He started writing his award-winning Stemp’s Stew in 1965. The column came to an end shortly after he sold his newspaper chain in 1989, but was rejuvenated in 2006 when Harry became a regular contributor to The Cosmos.
Community support
A chat with Yvonne Harrison, of Leaskdale, prompted a visit to the cemetery behind the Siloam United Church. Yvonne and family are fans of www.geocaching.com, which alerts people to unique and interesting places around the world.
One of those places was a small cemetery located in 'Frankish Park”, which borders the west side of the Siloam United Church Cemetery.
This piqued the interest of the Harrisons who, like me, have lived here all of their lives and never ever heard of “Frankish Park”. In fact, when I mentioned this to longtime residents of both Roseville and Siloam, it was news to them as well.
On the visit I noticed that the United Church Cemetery is well maintained and fenced in, so it is not surprising that Frankish Park would hardly be noticed.
However, an opening in the fence led to an area with long grass, a small number of graves - mostly with the name 'Frankish' involved and a large number of simple white wooden crosses dotted around the small burial grounds.
The most fascinating headstone was for Matthew Frankish. It read: “In loving memory of Matthew Frankish, a veteran of the American civil war. Born February 17, 1845 at Beeford, Yorkshire, England. Died May 31, 1924”.
Imagine a Civil War veteran buried a long way from the field of battle and on a tiny plot of land in the small community of Siloam.
And it was interesting to discover in the northeast corner of the area, facing the road, was an attractive brass plaque mounted on a large, attractive granite rock. The inscription read: “This small corner of countryside honours those who have come before whose earthly vision, courage, persistence and dreams - lay at rest here”.
The plague and stone had been installed recently so obviously someone, maybe a member of the Frankish family, has decided to work on improving the area.
As I left I found it puzzling that this small cemetery could be there for many years and is just now being discovered - even by many residents who have lived in that area for years. Whenever I want to know anything concerning the history of Uxbridge Township I call former Uxbridge Museum curator, Allan MacGillivray who, again, didn't disappoint me.
Allan knew all about the cemetery and explained that the Frankish family had lived in the community and this was their private family cemetery. He was also aware that some family members were taking an interest in maintaining the cemetery as there had been recent burials and some improvements were being made to the grounds - which explains the attractive brass plaque.
The plot of the family member who was a Civil War veteran was not unusual as Allan explained that about 50,000 Canadians fought in the Civil War. A large number are buried in Canadian cemeteries.
So thanks to the Harrisons we discover another interesting part of our community that was unknown to a lot of residents until now.
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It's been a while since we have had an elimination car draw in Uxbridge but this didn't concern the Bonner Boys as they followed in the tradition of making this a fun night which raises a lot of money for community projects.
The Bonner Boys, a very active group of young men, have committed to providing a splash pad for the young people of Uxbridge Township. No small feat when you figure the project could cost $500,000 when completed. But if they put the same effort into all of their projects as they did for this event there is no doubt in my mind the youth of Uxbridge will be the winners.
For many new residents an elimination draw for a car was a new experience and those I talked to found it exciting and enjoyed it immensely. So maybe we will see more of these enjoyable fundraisers in the future. And the event was a co-operative venture as a few members of another men's group, the Gorgons, manned the refreshment areas and parents of some of the Bonner Boys supplied a wonderful buffet dinner as their donation to the fundraiser.
As well some of the late winners of large cash prizes donated some of their winnings back to the cause - which wasn't expected but certainly appreciated.
It was a wonderful night and I'm sure those attending felt good realizing that life in Uxbridge has not changed a lot. Sure the community has grown in size and the traffic can be a bit of a pain. But the strong support that is shown for worthy community causes and those who need a helping hand once in a while is alive and well. May it always be thus.
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If you have called the Uxbridge Township offices recently you will notice that you no longer get a friendly, live voice answering the phone. You are greeted by an automated, matter of fact, recorded voice that walks you through a myriad of choices which seems to take ages for you to reach the person you want to talk to.
These days we are getting used to this impersonal service. However, during my call something happened that I found very disturbing.
When one gets to the message “if you know the name of the person you want to talk to please enter it now”.
This is followed by instructions on how to use letters that aren't on your phone set. Not an unusual happening.
What got my dander up came when the operator said “for a zee press 9”. A zee? What is that all about? I couldn't believe my ears.
This is Canada. We speak proper English and, correct me if I'm wrong, but we still pronounce the letter 'Z' as zed.
It goes without saying that the U.S. has a tremendous influence on the Canadian way of life. However, there are some things they shouldn't be allowed to change and one is our language. Let's hope the employee responsible for this error takes steps to get rid of an obvious U.S. answering system and finds one that is 100% Canadian.
