Categotry Archives: 1950s

137 Division Street South

On January 22nd 1953, the Kingsville Reporter wrote: “Today was “D-Day” for Kingsville.” The newspaper was describing the town’s conversion from magneto to a dial telephone system. Preparation for the conversion was a year in the making, 1,500 new dial telephones having to be installed in homes and businesses in the Kingsville area. A directory supplement had been mailed to
all subscribers with dialing instructions, giving the example: “a typical number, Regent 3-9999 is dialed RE 3-9999.” The following day, the business office was transferred to the new exchange building on Main Street West. Sterling Gee, who had this house built in 1953, was a Ford-Monarch used car salesman and his business telephone number at Sanford’s Service Station was RE 3-4252.

Mr. JH Smart is putting a telephone in his office, and Mr. D. Conklin is having one placed between his mill and his house, and other business men will put in phones in a short time.

The Kingsville Reporter, February 2, 1894 p.5

It costs $1.40 to talk with London, Ont., for six minutes over the phone.

The Kingsville Reporter, May 16, 1901 p.5

The Bell Telephone people are connecting up the underground cables at the corners of Main and Division Streets. When completed the cables and wires together with poles at the corners will come down which will make a great difference in the appearance of the street.

The Kingsville Reporter, March 15, 1923 p.5

Kingsville Converted to Dial Telephone System in Seconds

[. . .] The new dial system which took well over a year to engineer and construct, was placed in operation in a matter of seconds.

[. . .] The actual conversion was carried out by a team of about 10 Bell employees working with split-second timing. The main centres of activity were the new exchange building on Main street west and the manual exchange on Division street north.

Everything was ready in advance, thanks to the extensive preparatory work during the past year. The new building had been constructed and equipped, telephone lines had been extended and rearranged to connect with the dial equipment in the new building as well as the switchboard in the manual office. New dial telephones had been installed in all home and businesses.

[. . .] The work of removing the magneto telephones from all homes and businesses also started right after the conversion and will be completed within about two weeks.

The Kingsville Reporter, January 22, 1953 p.1

Most of Local Operators to Go To Leamington

[. . .] Mrs Mildred Donaghy, night operator for nearly 25 years, is retiring on pension. Mrs Donaghy started with the company on May 1, 1928, and recalls when the switchboard was located in the old Main street office, on the property where the Greyhound bus depot is now situated.

The Kingsville Reporter, January 22, 1953 p.1

317 Division Street South

Shortly after graduating medical school at the University of Western Ontario in 1914, Dr. Clifford M. Keillor enlisted to serve in the First World War. Keillor came back from the War with the rank of Major, and married Leila Huntley on September 18th, 1918 in Wingham, Ontario. For a short time,
Clifford had a practice in Kingsville, living near his friend and fellow War Vet Dr. T.D. Campbell. But in the 1920s, the Keillors move to Ottawa where Dr. Keillor served as head of the Canadian Pension Board, Medical Advisor during WWII and later Commissioner of Veterans Affairs. Clifford and Leila moved to their newly built house in Kingsville in 1952 and Dr. Keillor became Medical Administrator in a Windsor hospital until his retirement in 1960.

Dr. Keillor, a returned man who served with the Imperial forces, has opened an office in Kingsville.

Essex Free Press, September 17, 1920 p.7

House guests at the Tally Ho during the past few weeks were [. . .] Dr. and Mrs. C. Keillor [. . .]

The Kingsville Reporter, August 9, 1951 p.3

Dr. C.M. Keillor was appointed medical assistant to Dr. John M. Nettleton, medical superintendent of East Windsor Hospital.

The Kingsville Reporter, December 31, 1953 p.1

Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Murray are residing on Division St. South in the home they purchased from Dr. and Mrs. C.M. Keillor. Mr. Murrary is head of the History Department at the Essex District High School.

The Kingsville Reporter, July 9, 1964 p.3

Dr. Clifford M. Keillor died on March 14, 1973 at Ottawa at the age of 82.

Dr. Keillor was born at Wallacetown, Ontario on June 11, 1891. He graduated from the University of Western Ontario in 1914 and interned at the Homewood Sanitarium of Guelph. From 1915 to 1918 he served with the Surrey Rifles of England in the Far East and was discharged with rank of Major. During World War II he served for two years at Medical Headquarters in Ottawa.

He was Medical Advisor and later Commissioner of Veterans Affairs in Ottawa until 1952, then until his retirement in 1960 served as Medical Administrator of Riverside Hospital in Windsor.

Dr. Keillor is survived by his widow Leila, one daughter, one son and three grandchildren.

Canadian Medical Association Journal, Vol. 108, 23 July, 1973 p.1543

226 Division Street South

Captain Douglas Murray was a very modern fisherman. In 1946, he was one of the first to install at radio-telephone on his boat, the “John D,” which allowed him to “contact shore at any time and get weather reports from stations two and three hundred miles away.” When Murray replaced this boat eight years later, the new “John D” (built in Port Dover) featured “a number of firsts for fishing tugs in the Great Lakes including a Sperry automatic magnetic pilot, Vicker’s hydraulic steering, and a Crossley 30-inch net lifter powered by a 10 horse power hydraulic motor. Equipment also consists of a Bendix echo depth sounder and a Jefferson Travis ship-to-shore telephone.” This home was built by Capt. Murray and his wife Leila in 1951 on the corner of Division Street South and Melbourne.

Mr. Douglas Murray, son of Mr and Mrs Lorne Murray, returned home on Sunday, after spending the summer at Killarney, Northern Ontario, where he has been building a boat for his fishing business.

The Kingsville Reporter, October 8, 1936 p.4

Fishing Boats Break Ice To Lay Their Nets

The Kingsville fishing fleet made a record yesterday. For the first time in a number of years, the boats were able to get through the the [sic] ice on the opening day of the season, March 1. The fish tug, “The John D”, owned by Mr. Douglas Murray, broke out in the morning and set their nets. After “The John D” had started out through the heavy ice which was 7 or 8 inches thick, two other boats “The Nancy R” and “The Foster Brothers” followed.

“The John D” was well supplied with boxes of potatoes, canned goods and 850 lbs. of coal for any emergency.

The Kingsville Reporter, March 2, 1944 p.8

Modern Fishing Craft Joins Kingsville’s Fleet

Yesterday the most modern fishing boat on the Great Lakes made her maiden voyage out of Kingsville as a working boat when the “John D”, Douglas Murray’s new craft, set nets.

The new boat is 70 feet overall, 21 feet wide, has a draft of six feet and displaces 42 tons of water. The hull is of five-sixteenths plate with a three-inch bow and is framed by a half-inch by three-inch frames.

Built by the Harry Gamble Boat Works of Port Dover, it has been a year in construction. Mr. Murray spending the past few months on the job himself helping to install equipment. The craft has two water-tight bulkheads, one forward and one aft. Driven by two D337 (?) Caterpillar diesel engines, it has a fuel capacity of 6000 gallons. It also has an auxiliary generator made by the Kohler Diesel Company, that develops 12 kilowatts of 110 volts of 60 cycle current.

It has a number of firsts for fishing tugs in the Great Lakes including a Sperry automatic magnetic pilot, Vicker’s hydraulic steering, and a Crossley 30-inch net lifter powered by a 10 horse power hydraulic motor. Equipment also consists of a Bendix echo depth sounder and a Jefferson Travis ship-to-shore telephone. Although not installed as yet, it will eventually be equipped with radar and a communications receiver.

Built primarily of course as a fishing tug, it also has many advantages of a pleasure craft. Believe it or not, it has a television set, steam heated pilot house with a bunk for the captain, and crews’ quarters for five people, all heated with steam unit installed by Fairbanks-Morse.

Another first in equipment are the deck spaces heated by a jet fired unit constructed by the Gamble Shipyard. All are thermostatically controlled. Twin air horns with 10-inch diaphrams have been installed, as well as a mile-ray searchlight.

The Mason Boat Works have equipped the tug with a 14-foot life-boat. Accommodation for the owner’s car was made on the deck of the boat.

The sleek craft is painted a blue-white, trimmed in brown and has a distinctive red stack.

The former “John D”, operated by Mr. Murray, has been sold to Georgian Bay interests and renamed the “Sharilyn II”. Both the old and the new “John D’s” are named after Mr. Murray’s son, John Douglas.

“Doug” Murray has been a fishing boat owner for the past 24 years, the past 16 of which he has been operating out of Kingsville. His new boat is not only a credit to the fishing industry of Kingsville, but also a credit to the town.

If you would like to see this new “Pride of the Great Lakes” in the harbor “Captain Doug” will be glad to take you aboard any time he is in dock.

The Kingsville Reporter, March 18, 1954 p.1

Top Honors to “John D” At Fishermen’s Regatta

Pennant decorated tugs of the Kingsville, Leamington and Wheatley fishing fleets sailed past in review on the calm waters of Lake Erie on Monday for the official opening of the new government harbor in Kingsville.

Geo. N. Scroggle of London, district engineer for the Dept. of Public Works cut the ribbon. [. . .]

Paying tribute to early fishermen who fished without equipment like ship-to-shore radio, radar or fathometers and whose prices were in relation to their catches. Mr. Scroggle said that Kingsville was in a favored spot on the new St. Lawrence Seaway, pointing out that the seaway will serve the greatest industrial area not on tidewater.

Newly improved at a cost of $300,000 the Kingsville Harbor was a hive of activity with the gaily bedecked tugs flying pennants and distributing colored balloons for the opening ceremony.

For the rbibon [sic] cutting ceremony presided over by Mr. Scroggle, S. Murray Clark, M.P., and Mayor Harold Cull held the ribbon taut.

During the afternoon’s program fishermen set nets in the harbour and lifted them so that the onlookers would have an idea how the fishing industry is carried out on the lake.

In the meantime fishing boats divided into power classes raced on the marked course outside the harbour.

The “John D” piloted by owner Doug Murray took the free-for-all race. Other winners were Carl Fraser’s “Scuffy”; Frank O’s “Coronet”; tie “Alex B” of Wheatley piloted by Ray Getty; the “Henry J” with Henry Tiessen of Point Pelee, and the “Clarence Aulder” piloted by Clinton Baltzer.

The Kingsville Reporter, August 9, 1956 p.1

133 Division Street South

The 1950s are known as the decade of car culture. Leading up to World War II, automobiles were becoming more accessible, however manufacturing for the war effort limited availability during the early 1940s. The economic boom of the years following the war included full employment, innovative manufacturing and increase in residential construction. This prosperity allowed for the emergence of a middle class lifestyle that also included car ownership. This home, built in 1950 for James and Anna Savanyu, was the first house on Division Street South to feature an attached garage
incorporated into the original design.

There was a lively time on Main street on Saturday morning last, and we are not surprised that Salmoni’s staid old delivery horse became razzle-dazzled over the affair, and got hurt as a result. Several members of Gosfield South council, including the clerk, came spinning down the street in an automobile. Many people stood still and looked at the unusual spectacle in amazement and after the machine has passed Salmoni’s store, his old horse which had been standing in front of the store, dreaming over the possibility of having to make three more trips to the lake before dinner, was so completely mystified that he took after the machine and sailed down to Miller’s corner as if he were delivering a hurry order for a bunch of radishes at 12:30. At the corner the auto was so far in advance of him that he became discouraged and made straight for the entrance to Smith’s law office in the Conklin block, missed the mark and came to sudden stop against the brick wall. He was caught and led back to the store thoroughly disgusted with himself. The next time Gosfield council decides to ride in an auto they should give a few hours notice, so the whole town may not run the risk of being turned topsy-turvy.

The Kingsville Reporter, June 1, 1905 p.5

One would fancy from the speed made by some automobilists that the drivers feared his satanic majesty was after them in an aeroplane.

The Kingsville Reporter, May 15, 1913 p.5

There are fifty autos in and around Kingsville.

The Kingsville Reporter, April 23, 1914 p.5

The new silent policeman recently installed at the intersection of Main and Division Sts., is sticking to his post well, and his directions are being quite closely followed by motorists.

The Kingsville Reporter, June 30, 1921 p.5

Two business men stood on the corner of Main and Division Streets on Sunday and in thirty minutes counted 310 autos all going south.

The Kingsville Reporter, April 30, 1925 p.5

New Stop-And-Go Light

A new stop-and-go light is being installed in the centre of the four corners to take the place of the one taken out some time ago. It is a similar light to those now in use in the city of Windsor, and has three lights on a side or twelve in all. This will obviate the necessity of a director of traffic at the corner at any time, excepting to catch the autos that run against the lights and then there will be “something doing.”

The Kingsville Reporter, September 9, 1926 p.8

JOBS DEPEND ON AUTOMOBILES

Three quarter of the residents of cities and large towns in Canada depend upon automobiles for transportation to and from their jobs, and for their business, it is reported by Federation of Automobile Dealer Associations of Canada.

The Kingsville Reporter, March 13, 1952 p.2