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next to what was Watson’s blacksmith shop was occupied by ‘ Neilson and Million, carriage makers. The white'building , to the north of it was built by William Midford about ’74. and was opened as a store by him in the latter part of ’76. : Mr Midford, who came in ’64, will always be associated with the musical side of Teeswater of those ear‘y days. He brought in a melodian. and the instrument was requisitioned for all the conterts and church festivals held at that 'time. 'l‘..e large building on the flat near the bridge was built in 1877 by M. Hadwen. The upper flat was used by W. and J. Button as a planing mill; while, across the street, in She‘ton’s old stand. was their furniture store, marked, as some may remember, by the sign af “The Big Bedstead”. The ground "lat was used by A. G. Midford as a foundry. Buttons bought Fraser’s saw mill and built a furniture factory next to it. This factory was afterwards moved across the street. With the Buttons was associated William Peasant. It was very unfortunate that these men were allowed to leave Teeswater. The foundry was converted into a woollen mill in ’7 . After Buttons left, the Whole building was used as a woolen mill by Sommerville and Purvis, and subsequently by the latter alone. ."ext to Irving’s tavern, Dr. J. Gillies built a drug store; and the Hughes building was erected by James Agnew for a shoe shop and drug store. On the site of G. T. Redburn’s shot) stood the little old building which is opposite the Reformed Presbyterian church. It was the office of a man named Chesley, Teeswater’s first lawyer. C. R. Morrison was, the next. and J. J. Stephens, who came in ’81, was our 111s“ resident lawyer. It was in the old drug store that Dr. D. Stewart began his practice. He died in 1913. On the site of G. T. Redburn's house stood [ht house and harness shop of Thomas Stephens w ho was men of the village several times. The block where M. Goetz’s shop stands was occupied by two bui dings one of which was a meat shop and the other a Store. Just {0 the north as s the old Zinger Hall, on the site of James Johnston’ s first blacksmith shop . The store was erected by Abrahm ‘\ ilson. Next to it is the store erected by W'. McVe'ty. ?he News was established in 1874 by G. T. Haggard He was followed by Thomas Fairbairn, who was its editor *‘or many years. _ [\Ve have, tried to picture for the reader the buildings .at stood on main street prior to 1880. The changes that nave ocurred since then have all been for the better, so that today Teeswater posseses a main street which compares favorably with that of any village. The principal change has been the placing of Edmund Square on sale. The mun- icipality applied for an Act of Parliament in the 90’s, ask- t‘or permission to sell this land. As soon as it was granted, John McLean, who was in business here in the 70’s and resumed in ’89. purchased a lot, as also did George Button and R .J. Hiscox. The fine stores these men built, and the erection of the Public Library, filled the wes‘~ side of the Square. But while the old buildings were passing away and being replaced by better, the men who put them there were also passing away, not to be replaced here . That old land mark, the saw mi11,vwas pulled down in ’78; the builder had died in 1874. G. McKibbon left in ’77. The “ re of the west called James Fraser, Thomas Shannon and Hex Gibson. John Marshall, George Parr and many others mined the number that moved to Michigan. Very few of the men who were here in pioneer times died here. The men who were leaders in the community in the early days were very enterprising and it was largely the lack of capital that prevented them from accomplishing great things for the village. first shed built The year ’78 was said to have seen the most building. In that year the R. C. church the foundry and the new school were all erected. The school alone would make an interesting story but we will not linger longer than to pay our respects to Miss M. Sharpe who has taught here so laithfully for many years. It will never be known how much of the success of Teeswater Old Boys and Girls has been due to her, for she has helped to mould the character of most of us. I: was in the early 80’ s that the broad guage replaced the narrow guage railway and the road was taken over and operated by the C. P. R. ' The lack of apparatus for fighting fire caused the viilage to establish a system of water works in 1889. There are some things of which our village is proud and rightly so. Our park. consisting of 28 acres, is one that any place might envy. A Mr. Thompson who died here many years ago left some money to buy a park. This money was used to pur- chase some land on Elora street, which was not at all suitâ€" able for the purpose. It was re-sold and the splendid property now known as the Park was purchased in 1896. The Thompson bequest was not nearly enough to pay for it, so the village issued debentures for the balance. These have all been paid The Fall Fair which‘s in. the PW: * ‘ ,most sr , ‘ _ ' virs ntario. .- I-U - . r" l '2' .. been as, ‘ guy 50 years . The one was held in the Town Hall; and after the drill . which used to stand near Wm.- Gordon’s barn, was , the exhibits were shown there and the stock in Gib- son’s field adjoining. Any one who visited those old shows cannot fail to remember the large number of quilts that 1 were strung on ropes around the building. It seemed to he on quilts rather than fancy work that the ladies lavished 1 their labor in those days . Now the Agricultural Society has a fine hall and buildings in which to hold its exhibitions. The race track is a good one; but it is just a question . whether the people standing'around the wire have any more fun than the people who stood on the main street in the old days and watched the horses race along the 6th. from 1 Alex. McKee’s hill to the corner. 1875-1876 A. Gibson «- 187 7, James Fraser 1878, T. Shannon 1879, James Fraser , 1880 - 1881, T. Stephens 1882, T. Fairbairn 1883, T. Stephens 1884 - ’85, W. R. Thompson 1886 - ’87 - ’88, T. Fairbairn 1889, L. A. Brink 1890 â€" 1891, T. Stephens 1892 - 1893, J: Campbell 1894 - ’95 - ’96, W. R. Thompson Another institution of which we as citizens are proud, is our Library. It was first organized about 1870. It was reâ€" organized in 1876. It then had about 300 volumes. Things did not go very well and it was re-organized again in ’81. I': was located in the Town Hall, and was open one night per week for changing books. Often there was a debate the same evening. Since then the Library has grown until we now have 5000 volumes many of which, being now out of print, are of great value. From the Town Hall the books were moved to what was known as Struther’s Drug Store While the books were with Struthers, the Board opened a reading room in what is now D. Ferguson’s garage Whl(- used to stand just behind Hiscox Bros.’ store. When the books were moved to Thomas Braden’s store a reading room was transferred there. One who was long associated with the library as librarian was Miss Lizzie Braden. After her death, her sister succeeded her. The Board took advantage of the Carnegie Fund, and in 1914 the present library was built. In 1915, the Town Hali' was re-modelled, and we nov have a public building of which our citizens are justly proud. In 1918 the village took over the electric light plant. Teeswater has since joined with the surround‘ municipalities in a movement to secure Hydro; and this we hope will be accomplished at an early date. There is much we would like to write concerning people, things and events; but the printer reminds us that our space is limited. So we must conclude; and although we cannot, perhaps, appropriate all that David said regarding his favorite city that it was “beautiful for situation and the joy of the whole earth” â€"â€" we can at least say as did the great Apostle with regard to himself and his home town, that Teeswater people (past and'present) are citizens of no mean city. CLINTON STREET LOOKING NORTH THE REEVES 0F TEESW’ATER M-H.61LLIE5 1897, D. Stewar - ‘SD. 1898, w. R. Orr- - 1899 D. Donaldson 1900 - '01, L. A. Brink 1902, s. R. Brill :5. . 1903, P. Purvis .g’?‘ 1904 - 1905, D. Eerguson 1906, w. J. Hard'y 1907 â€" 1910 - 1914. ' (Dart) D .Ferguson ,~= 1915, ‘ (part) B. Mallough g 1916-’17-’18â€"1,10Feyl“ - '03 - ’09, '~' .L. A. Brink _ '11 - '123‘13. §. 11- 3““ /3..