Spring 2004
Grand River
The Branch display was up at Port Maitland’s Festival of History and Caledonia’s Heritage Days. We also transported the display to Lyndock, Port Ryerse, Burford, Simcoe, Woodstock, Paris. and Brantford.
Education/Outreach:
Bill Terry UE spoke at Elgin Branch OGS and at the Men’s Club, St. Paul’s Presbyterian church, Simcoe. Marilyn Branch UE and granddaughter Culver LeClerc UE spoke at Mount Hope Historical Society, and Doris Lemon UE gave her costumed dramatization of Loyalist wife Mary Titus Williams at Brant Women’s Probus Club, Brantford and Kitchener Sorority Club.
The Branch is making progress reaching out to schools and presents the Teacher’s Education Book if a school has not received it. To date, of the schools contacted, not one copy has been seen by the Grade Seven teachers. A coloured copy of the First Parliament of 1792 and small flag are also presented. We have a transparency overhead presentation. Doris Lemon UE presented Loyalist history, a story from Sarah’s Diary, and writing letters to grandmothers with quill pens to classes at Bracebridge. She was joined by Ellen Tree UE and Bob McCarey UE at Woodstock, and Simcoe was served by costumed Marilyn Branch UE, Culver LeClerc UE, Marilyn Haslinger UE, Bob McCarey UE and Doris Wilson UE. Culver also gave costumed readings to Caledonia schools.
The Branch is continuing the Map of Norfolk-Loyalists in The Long Point Settlement and Their Lots, and requests that UEs with ancestors in Norfolk, Burford, and Windham submit names and lot numbers to Doris Lemon UE. When a great number are collected, a feature of classroom presentations will be the drawing of lot numbers from a tricorn, (Editor’s note: Or a bicorn??), and pinning them on a map.
Marion McDonald UE, Doris Marcellus UE and Eleanor Chapin UE represented our Branch when Charlotte Gray introduced The Life and Times of E. Pauline Johnson, Tekahionwake at Chiefswood, Pauline’s girlhood home.
The Branch has continued to support the Loyalist Library at Eva Brook Donly Museum, Simcoe, $350., the UELAC Bernice Wood-Flett Scholarship Fund, $250, and Project 2014, $250. This is above the $1018. forwarded after Loyalist Tribute. The Branch received $737.00 in a 2003 Heritage Grant based on 2002 outreach expenditures. Appreciation is expressed to the Ontario Ministry of Culture.
One of the most interesting meetings was presented by Clayton Barker, Burford Historian on Burford’s Early History and Connection to the Loyalists. Details and names are printed in Branches, Nov 2003. Everyone is invited to tour the Mohawk Chapel, Brantford at our April 18th, 2:00-5:00 and join our Executive for dinner nearby.
Fall 2004
Grand River
Cathy Thompson UE, Marilyn Haslinger UE, Imogen Givens UE and Doris Lemon UE met several classes at Eva Brook Donly Museum in Simcoe.
Marilyn Branch UE gave a costumed presentation to St. Luke’s United Church Women in Oakville on the background of the American Revolution with an introduction to the lives of Martha Soverign and Timothy Culver who settled in Long Point.
The book, 90th Anniversary of the Burning of Dover in the War of 1812, by Doris Lemon UE, was presented in Port Dover, referring to Colonel Campbell’s raid and the burning of Dover Mills in May, 1814, and General McArthur’s mighty mounted army burning mills and subsisting on the residents of Norfolk in November of that year. Reports were read from Officers in the Field to their Commanding Officers as recorded in the highly recommended ten-part series, The Documentary History of the Campaign upon the Niagara Frontier in the War of 1812–1814, edited for the Lundy’s Lane Historical Society by Lt. Col. E. Cruickshank.
The Loyalist Day 2004 flag raising, at City Hall in Owen Sound, was attended by Mayor Ruth Lovell UE, Town Crier Bruce Kruger UE from Bracebridge and piper Bill Millman of Owen Sound. Branch members David Morrison UE and Cody Thompson UE unfurled the flag.
A genealogy workshop followed at the gala opening of the spectacular new Grey County Archives at Rockford. Bill Terry UE and Carol Terry UE greeted visitors and collected the names of UEs who may be interested in forming a local branch. Genealogist, Cathy Thompson UE, held a seminar with handouts. Exhibits were manned by Helene Weaver, Jim Sweet UE, Doris Lemon UE, Marilyn Haslinger UE and David Morrison UE.
The Branch’s Thirtieth Anniversary Banquet and D-Day Remembrance was held September 18th in Simcoe with David Moore as our guest speaker with a visual and sound presentation of his trip with thirty students to battlefields of World War Two.
Our first project for Project 2014 was Loyalist Tribute and we raised $ 1,018.
We are now listing Loyalists and sons and daughters who settled in Norfolk and including Windham and Oakland, now in Brant County. A companion handbook is being compiled wherein references for research purposes will list each Loyalist in the Settlement. All UEs are invited to submit their ancestor’s lot number as soon as possible in the hope this project can be completed by 2014.
The branch paid tribute to charter member, Doris Wilson UE, as she celebrated her ninetieth birthday. We congratulate her as recipient of a Senior Achievement Award that was presented by the Lieutenant-Governor in Toronto. Doris was nominated for many works including her long-time community volunteerism, loyal support and effort for Grand River Branch and the writing of Sarah’s Diary. Congratulations Doris!
Doris Ann Lemon UE,
Education/Outreach Chairperson