Funny how events have a way of re-directing one away from the main goal.
When I began this blog, my intent was to reveal to my readers (both of them) the reality of this amazing village as I perceive it. I wanted to get across the fact that this perception, which began to form in my early childhood, is still continuing to grow and evolve as more and more of the history of the village and stories of the people emerge.
Then came the school crisis; an immediate and real time change of course that seemed out of character with this village, and which casts a dark shadow over its future. We can only guess at what the future holds. Today's future is tomorrow's history. But I felt compelled to express my outrage at this action.
There has been no shortage of change in the village's past. Blyth has always been able to adjust to these trends and shifts in economy, technology, lifestyle, etc.. The difference with the recent changes is the fact that they have been determined by outsiders despite lack of clear justification and despite strong opposition. Nevertheless, I am confident that we will rebound and overcome these incursions.
Now I intend to get back to basics in All About Blyth. I will be offering more stories and historical perspectives, as well as some comments on current events and issues.
Jan's and my days are now filled to overflowing with studying the many old issues of the Blyth Standard that were discovered a few months ago and given to us by the Whitmore family. They have been microfilmed to preserve their content and to make them available through the Huron County Libary system. We have copies of these papers on compact disks (CDs). We thank the Huron County Library for their interest and assistance in this endeavour.
Thus we are in the process of recovering pieces of history from 1893-94, 1900-1903, 1907-08, and 1930. We will soon have additonal material from the 1940s. Of course there remain gaps in our historical record, but the fact that approximately 1200 newspaper pages of our village heritage have come to light is - I was going to say "nothing to sneeze at". (One remarkable thing about these papers is that they appear to be free of mold. Nothing to sneeze at indeed!)
In the meantime, we have had many rich discoveries coming in from Blyth people and from many descendants of yesteryear's Blyth residents. A dramatic story of a family feud ending in a brutal murder at the edge of Blyth has come to our attention. Although it was widely publicized at the time, an aspect of the event that never came up in the trial and that was never reported in the press at the time has been brought to light by a current Blyth resident.
We have been given access to the entire history of a Blyth area farm by scanning deeds and other legal documents covering the entire period from the original purchase from the Crown. Besides the obvious historical value of this material, it has been a thrill for us to see the handwriting of people who were just names to us up to now.
I hope you will enjoy the pieces that follow over the next few weeks. And feel free to leave a comment or a question at the bottom of the article. Or give us a call!
As you can see, we are just as interested in getting your stories of Blyth as we are in giving them out.
Brock Vodden
I enjoy your blog, since I used to live in Blyth, and have a soft spot for that little town. My parents, Paul and Jean (Yanchus) bought and renovated the train station and we used to live there before they sold it and we moved away.
ReplyDeleteI think my grandma was friends with the Voddens. She was Lil MacLachlan who used to run the Kitchen Cupboard store with her sister Jean Storrar on the main street of Blyth, I am thinking late seventies, early eighties.
I have such fond memories of Blyth, BPS was a lovely school, and it saddens me that the board is so short-sighted to decide to close it. Ridiculous. My husband is a teacher here in BC and the cuts to schools are a real disgrace.