WELCOME TO THE NORTH GRENVILLE HISTORICAL SOCIETY!The North Grenville Historical Society is a group of dedicated volunteers whose first objective is to arouse and stimulate public interest in the heritage and history of the people and places of the North Grenville area; including the historical townships of Oxford-on-Rideau and South Gower, the historical town of Kemptville; and the hamlets of Pelton’s Corners, Heckston, Oxford Mills, Burritt’s Rapids, Oxford Station and Bishop’s Mills.
We also advance education by improving the public’s understanding and awareness of the history of North Grenville by hosting events, supporting programs, producing educational materials and scholarly articles and operating the North Grenville Archives, which is owned by the Society. The purposes of the Archives are to collect, classify and preserve information and artifacts relating to North Grenville and to maintain this material as a resource centre accessible to members and the general public. Our constitution makes it clear that the Society is to be “carried on without purpose of gain for its members, and any profits or gains to the organization shall be used in promoting its objectives.” UPCOMING MEETINGS AND ACTIVITIES
fall fundraising eventIn order to continue to offer the programmes and services that the NGHS provides to the community we have to conduct frequent fundraising events. THE HUNTER'S MOON DINNER at the W.B. George Centre, Kemptville Campus; 7:00 pm, Saturday, 21st October 2023, promises to be one that all can enjoy. It will feature a full course buffet dinner based on recipes from "Butter the Size of an Egg" our highly successful heritage cookbook, catering by Erick LePors, of Dial a Chef, live music by Mary Moore's jazz quartet, "Four on the Floor," costumes, dancing (if you are so inclined), cash bar, door prize, raffles, and good company supporting a worthy cause.
Tickets are now available at $50 per person. We have a Title Sponsor at $1000, but we are still looking for Silver $500 or Bronze $250 sponsors. Or consider buying a table of eight for $400 and reselling to your friends or colleagues. For further information or to reserve tickets, call 613 258 4401 (Wednesday to Saturday, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm) or email nghshistoryhub@gmail.com. UPCOMING PUBLIC MEETINGOur next meeting will feature a talk by Harold Tompkins, a longtime member of the Society, volunteer, and member of one of the earliest families to settle in North Grenville (then the Township of Oxford-on-Rideau). Harold will talk about the history of his family and their farm to introduce Tiffany Eng Moore, a professional paper conservator, who will describe how she treated the 1828 original deed to the Tompkins farm to preserve it for generations to come. All are welcome. Free admission. Refreshments. See the attached poster for a view of the frarmhouse and the deed in the background.
previous public meetings and activitiesOn September 13th our first speaker of the season was Michael Whittaker.
As a child, he often had a random find in his pocket. As an adult, he became more focused on different collectibles, but this talk focused on tools. One unusual tool found in an antique shop more than 30 years ago stimulated his collecting. Generally, old-fashioned, hand-forged bladed tools are his focus, and he is a firm believer one is not enough. With two, one can compare and contrast. More than two moves into the range of a study or collection. Consequently, he has slowly acquired small groups of similar tools for similar tasks. As form follows function, tools tell tales. 
Previous events
On 23 July 1923, almost exactly 100 years ago, G. Howard Ferguson was sworn in as Ontario's 9th Premier. Dr. David Shanahan will relate how this small-town boy, born into a political family in Kemptville went on to play a role on the national and international stage.
The meeting will be held on 8 March 2023, at 7:00 pm, at The History Hub, 148 Prescott Street, Kemptville 
KIDSKLUB
Our last public meeting was held on Wednesday, 12 October 2022. Our speaker was be Dr. Judith Klassen, an ethnomusicologist and curator of Cultural Expression at the Canadian Museum of History. In addition to research and collection development in areas of sound, puppetry arts, and other aspects of expressive culture, she is currently undertaking a research project that examines the complex and sometimes mythologized histories of popular music in Canada. She examined the many and varied ways this iconic musical instrument pushes boundaries and challenges convention, using examples from the guitar collection of the Canadian Museum of History.
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“to arouse and stimulate public interest in the heritage and history of the people and places of the North Grenville area." 
The Society gratefully acknowledges ongoing substantial support from the Municipality of North Grenville
Support our fundraising efforts
Click on the thumbnail for more information and recognition of our sponsors. Please consider supporting them with your business.
BECOME A MEMBER!Click on MEMBERSHIP to register as a member of the Society.
NGHS is looking for qualified volunteers in two particular areas--board governance and IT software implementation. Please contact Ken Mews at nghsociety@gmail.com, if you are interested.
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Tradespersons - professional or amateur - play an important part in preserving architecture of old. Like the buildings themselves, the knowledge of building, maintaining and restoring traditional buildings will be lost without proper attention. Guest speaker Jim Stinson will discuss the importance of employing appropriate practices when working with built heritage, as well as the need to preserve buildings from the past instead of replacing them.
Jim Stinson is a practitioner of traditional woodworking and an advocate for the preservation of craft. He enjoys a teaching position in the Heritage Carpentry and Joinery program at Algonquin College in Perth, Ontario. Jim owns and operates a firm specializing in heritage carpentry and fine woodworking. Why not come out to one of our fun activities at the History Hub? The North Grenville Historical Society held a trivia quiz night this Thursday May 19th. Try your knowledge in seven categories including general knowledge and local History. Should there be enough interest in kids’ trivia, we will add a kids’ round. The cost is $10.00 per person or $20.00 for a team of four. All funds raised will be used by the Society to bring more new programs to the community. Prizes will consist of gift certificates from local businesses.
Sign-up is required to attend and the deadline is Wednesday May 18. Should you wish to sign up, please text message me directly at (613) 853-1112, stop by the History Hub at 148 Prescott Street, or email, kerlyn@rogers.com We also have a book club which meets on the last Thursday of the month, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm to discuss historical fiction. Books can be purchased at the hub for $10.00 which includes snacks and great conversation. Kids Club is the third Saturday of the month between 9:00 am and 11 am. Starting in June. Special craft workshops and board game nights will be held every second Thursday, board games June and crafts July. Trivia nights every three months, starting in May. 
Our Annual General Meeting was held at 7:00 pm, 13 April 2022, at The History Hub, our brand new location at 148 Prescott Street, next door to Bubba & Buggs.
We were delighted to have Janet Carlile as our speaker. Her topic was "Lies your Grandmother Told You; Canadian Antiques." We learned more about heirlooms and antiques and the price they now bring in a declining market. Attendees were encouraged to bring one object per person and Janet them what she knew about it. 
Before scientific groundwater mapping, settlers in rural eastern Ontario relied on folk knowledge and homemade tools to find and bore wells for drinking water. Learn about how the dowsing rod and the well boring auger shaped popular understandings of the earth and water beneath your feet.
Forrest Pass is a public historian with interests in cultural and material history. He has curated exhibitions at the Canadian Museum of History and the City of Ottawa Museums and is presently a Curator in the Exhibitions and Online Content Division at Library and Archives Canada. His historical writing has appeared in a variety of magazines and journals, including Canada’s History, the Journal for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism, and Water History, where the research for this lecture recently appeared.
Hiding in Plain Sight: People, Places, and Communities in the Borderlands
Before the international boundary was arbitrarily drawn at the 49th parallel, the Plains Metis People and Nation called the borderlands of the Northern Great Plains home. A space where many Indigenous Nations competed, cooperated, and traded, this region was transformed as Canada and the United States forcibly redefined the political, social, and economic landscape. For the Plains Metis, their presence in these borderlands is largely erased after the 1885 Resistance. This presentation will challenge that erasure by using photographs taken by and of Metis individuals and families living in these borderlands in the post-1885 period. Drawing on material culture studies, this conversation will show how Metis individuals and families were able to remain in their communities as active participants in a rapidly modernizing North America. Dr. Katie Pollock is the Curator of Central Ethnology at the Canadian Museum of History. Her current research draws on material heritage as primary source to highlight the critical role of Metis women and their artwork in the continuity of family and community on the Northern Great Plains. To be invited to participate, email nghsociety@gmail.com 
Bluenose or The Bluenose, if you prefer, is probably Canada’s most famous schooner. Launched in 1921, she was designed by naval architect William James Roué as both a fishing vessel and a racing schooner. She won the Fisherman’s Cup, the championship of the fishing fleets of the northwest Atlantic, five times between 1921 then and 1938. . .and is still featured on the Canadian dime. “Designing Bluenose” will be based on work that Amanda Gould and Jeff Noakes have been doing towards a series of exhibitions on Roué and the collection of his materials that were donated to the Canadian Museum of History in 2015. The latest effort is an online exhibition that is scheduled to launch on October 22nd to mark the 100th anniversary of the first race won by Bluenose. Jeff will speak about Roué’s journey towards becoming a naval architect and designing Bluenose, and then Amanda will talk about the material aspects and conservation treatment of his original design plans for her.
Amanda Gould is a paper conservator at the National Museum of History and Director of Archives of the North Grenville Historical Society. Jeff Noakes, Ph.D., has been the Second World War historian at the Canadian War Museum since mid-2006, and is also the curator responsible for the William James Roué Collection at the Canadian Museum of History. He is the author or joint author of books, book chapters, exhibition catalogues, and articles on subjects related to the First World War, the Second World War, the Cold War, and the Arctic. This talk will be presented virtually at 7:00 pm, on the 20th of October, on Zoom. Since we had some deplorable Zoombombing during our last talk, this event will be by invitation only. If you don’t receive an invitation by email by the 18th of October, email us at nghsociety@gmail.com explain why you would like to participate, and we will send you the instructions. 
Captain Angus Walters of the Bluenose with the International Fisherman's Trophy (photo by W.R. MacAskill) reproduced from the Canadian Encyclopaedia
The image used with the kind permission of Nova Scotia Archives on the poster is a photograph of Bluenose also by photographer W.R. MacAskill and hand-coloured by Elva MacAskill. There are also two small details from the original plans by William James Roué at the bottom of the poster. 
Local author and historian Tom Graham, along with local naturalist Dr. Fred Schueler, lead you on a tour of Bishop's Mills, site of the Great Fire of 1943. The presentation included accounts by local residents--including Mervin Robinson, the only living survivor of the event. The fire that destroyed six buildings, started in his house.
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PUBLICATIONS
Click on PUBLICATIONS for details on our exciting new publication--Butter the Size of an Egg; A Heritage Cook Book
The Society publishes a Quarterly newsletter, articles, and occasionally books
(Click on PUBLICATIONS for a list of past and current material). |