Historic Places Days – Ice Cream Social

Historic Places Days – Ice Cream Social

by | Jul 7, 2023 | Blog

Written by museum assistant Julia Jim, who is helping to coordinate this year’s National Historic Places Days event.

As we prepare to celebrate National Historic Places Days this Sunday, July 9, at the Museum with a free ice cream social, we take a look back at one of Goderich’s own ice creamery, Bisset’s.

Bissett’s earned its popularity as one of the first dairies in Ontario to introduce milk in pre-packaged glass milk bottles. During the early 1900s, the family business decided to develop the dairy into a creamery that produced butter and ice cream for the county. An ad from The Brussels Post newspaper from 1965 promoted 2 bricks of Bissett’s ice cream at 49 cents! There are many other stories throughout Huron County’s local newspapers that dive deeper into the County’s love of the creamy, frozen dessert. An advertisement from Dairy Foods Service Bureau reminds readers that ice cream is good for you!

Within our diverse collection here at Huron County Museum, we hold many artifacts from Bisset’s Dairy and Creamery. During your visit, we encourage you to walk through our Main Street Huron gallery to view our Bisset’s Ice Cream sign hanging just outside the General Store. This is the perfect location to snap a
selfie for the National Trust Selfie Contest which runs from July 8-31!

To enter the selfie contest, simply take a selfie at either the Museum or Gaol, share it on social media tagging @HuronCountyMuseum and @NationalTrustCA and using #HistoricPlacesDays and #HPDContest2023 for a chance to win $1,000 for yourself as well as $1,000 for the Museum! There are several other great prizes available to win, including Parks Canada passes and VIA Rail travel vouchers. Draws will take place throughout the month, so post often and share what these historic places mean to you! For full contest details, visit: historicplacesdays.ca/contests/.

Historic newspaper advertisement for Willis's advertising Bissets Ice Cream bricks two for .49 cents

The Brussels Post, 1965-02-11, Page 8. Source: Huron County Digitized Newspaper Collection

Clinton News-Record, 1951-05-17, Page 8. Source: Huron County Digitized Newspaper Collection

Music at the Huron Historic Gaol

Music at the Huron Historic Gaol

by | Jun 24, 2023 | Uncategorized

Written by museum assistant Talia Collins, who is helping to coordinate this year’s National Historic Places Days event.

Despite the dreary nature of the Huron Historic Gaol, music would often fill the halls of the Gaol. This music was able to help brighten the lives of both the prisoners and the staff alike. It was a welcome relief from the footsteps of the guards doing walk around and the creaks of the metal cells doors, reminding them of their imprisonment.

One such instance of music filling the hallways was in 1951, coming from Lucille Martin, a volunteer for the Salvation Army. She recounts visiting the Gaol about once a month with her fellow volunteers to sing to the prisoners. The purpose of these visits was as an act of kindness towards the prisoners, a sentiment that was shared by many of the locals. Martin also recounted people throwing candy over the wall as gifts for the prisoners as they were walking by.

Another instance of music was from the Gaoler, Joseph Griffin’s, daughter, Winifred Griffin, who would play the organ for the local church. Her practicing could be heard throughout the Griffin’s home and the attached Gaol, bringing life to the otherwise solemn building and residence alike.

Today, music rarely finds home in the Gaol, but on Sunday, July 9, to celebrate National Historic Places Days, there will be performers at the Gaol once more! We are excited to welcome the Bayfield Ukulele Society and Elsie Puska, a skilled harp player from Huron Harp School, to liven up these halls once again with their music. Along with music, there will be games, free admission, and selfie station to take part in the Nation Historic places selfie contest. At the Huron County Museum, an ice cream social is going to be held with even more games, activities, and, of course, free admission!

Image of Mahogany pump organ manufactured by W. Doherty Piano & Organ Co, Clinton, Ontario, which produced organs from 1875 to 1960’s. Object ID M995.0007.001

Mahogany pump organ, an early 1900s model pump organ manufactured by W. Doherty Piano & Organ Co, Clinton, Ontario, which produced organs from 1875 to 1960s. Object ID M995.0007.001

Eloise A. Skimings – The Poetess of Huron County

Eloise A. Skimings – The Poetess of Huron County

by | Apr 27, 2023 | Archives, Blog, Collection highlights

Eloise Ann Skimings was a poet, musician, music teacher, composer, newspaper columnist and author. She was described as “one of Goderich’s best-known citizens” and also “The Poetess of Lake Huron”.  She was often seen in Goderich wearing elaborate dresses, hats, gloves and a parasol, and was described, by many, as “our distinguished townswoman”. 

Eloise was born in Goderich on Dec. 29, 1837, to Mary Rielly Mason Skimings and James Skimings. She had two brothers, William and Richard, and one sister, Emma Jane, who died at two years, seven months.

Eloise was one of photographer Reuben Sallows’s favourite models. Her photos were reproduced as postcards and some can be found in the Huron County Museum’s collection as well as the prints. A large oil painting of her hangs in the Museum’s Victorian Apartment display above the fireplace.

As an author, she dedicated many poems to the people she encountered during her lifetime and the subject of many of her poems reflect the land, life and times she lived in. She published a book of poetry Golden Leaves in 1890, which was lengthened to nearly 1,000 poems when it was reprinted under the same title in 1904. Her brother, lawyer and lieutenant Richard Skimings, was also an author of poetry and prose. Twenty pages of Golden Leaves were set aside for publication of his verse versus 326 pages for hers.

Golden Leaves was exhibited in the Library of the Women’s Building at the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition (World’s Fair) in 1893. This book was one of only two, penned by Canadian women, to be exhibited within that library building.

Also a music teacher, she composed and published music such as I think of Thee, Alice, National March, Forget Me not Waltz, and Golden Blossoms.

The archival fonds at the Huron County Museum consists of textual records and other material created and accumulated by Eloise A. Skimings during her career as a newspaper correspondent, teacher, poet, and composer in Goderich.  During her lifetime she received much correspondence and letters, including thank-you letters, letters from her family & friends, news correspondence from her time at the Clinton News-Record, and payments for her poetry book. Some of these letters were written by well-known people of the time, from political figures to royalty. A finding aid can be found on the Museum’s website – Huron County Archives | Huron County Museum for researchers interested in reading more. 

Images at left show two-page correspondence from our collection written Jan. 27, 1903 from Clinton News-Record Editor W.J. Mitchell. The full letter reads:

Dear madam,

On installing the typesetting machine in my office I sent you a circular drawing attention to the fact that copy for the machine operator must be written wide and legibly, you have forgotten that – and your copy has to be gone over and re-written which means a loss of time that I cannot afford.

Kindly also discontinue sending us items not dealing with purely local happenings and don’t report sermons. Make your paragraphs terse and make the ___ as legible as possible and you will much oblige, Yours truly, W. Mitchell

On the occasion of Eloise’s 80th birthday, it was “under consideration a proposal to mark” her 80th birthday with either “a concert or a public entertainment of some sort…doing honor to one who has for many years helped to keep Goderich before the world” (Goderich Signal Star, Thursday, May 8, 1919).

Eloise died at House of Refuge in 1921 and is buried at the Maitland Cemetery in Goderich, ON. Her death notice was published in the Clinton News-Record, April 14, 1914. From the digitized collection of Huron’s historical newspapers.

Eloise Skimings death notice as published in the Clinton News=Record, April 14, 1921

Princess Louise Margaret was the Duchess of Connaught & Strathearn and Viceregal consort of Canada while her husband Prince Arthur was Governor General from 1911 to 1916.

The full letter at left reads:

“__ presents her compliments to Mrs. Skimings, and is desired by her Royal Highness the Princess Louise to thank her extremely for the pretty song she composed for the birthday of Her Majesty the Queen. Her Royal Highness was much touched by Mrs. Skimings’ loyal expressions and graceful poetry.” 

 

Mamma’s Bench, at right, once belonged to the Skimings family. Written on the bottom reads: “This cradle originally belonged to the Skimings family of Goderich, Ont. Eloise A. Skimings, the poetess of Lake Huron and her two brothers was rocked in this cradle.   May good luck fall on all children rocked in it. Gavin Green.” Currently on display in the Stories from Storage exhibit. 2019.0037.001 

Photo of a cradle bench that belonged to the Skimings family - from the Museum's collection.
New to the Collection: Civil War Letters

New to the Collection: Civil War Letters

by | Apr 12, 2023 | Archives, Blog, Collection highlights

“I shall have to take my chance amongst the rest. I have only once to die at any rate.” – excerpt from a letter written by Joseph Hodskinson, March 29, 1862

The American Civil War doesn’t usually come to mind when thinking about Huron County history, but a recent donation to the Huron County Archives reveals the devastating impact the war had on a Brussels family.

Joseph Hodskinson immigrated to Canada from Scotland around 1851 with his wife Margaret and daughter Celina. The family settled in the Brussels area where Joseph worked as a farmer before he joined the Civil War. It remains unknown why Joseph chose to leave his family in Canada to join the fight in America, but what is known is he would never return home.

The American Civil War was fought between the Union (the North) and the Confederacy (the South – formed by states that had seceded) from April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865. According to Wikipedia, “the central cause of the war was the dispute over whether slavery would be permitted to expand into the western territories, leading to more slave states, or be prevented from doing so, which was widely believed would place slavery on a course of ultimate extinction.” 

Historic image taken in a portrait studio of Joseph Hodskinson, his wife Margaret and young daughter Celina.
Photo of a section of an historic letter written from the American Civil War

“We expect to go to Columbus and that will be a sure fight. There is no doubt but there will be a great number of lives lost on both sides.” – excerpt of a letter written by Hodskinson on Jan. 24, 1862

Between 1862 and 1863, Joseph wrote several letters home to Margaret and Celina, describing the horrors of war. In the first winter of the war, in January 1862, he shares the great deal of sickness that hit the soldiers, including measles, small pox and mumps. In a letter home on March 1862, he describes three days of fighting at the Battle of Fort Donelson and noted that “It is the providence of the Lord that I am amongst those that was saved on the 13th Feb….the morning after the battle the field was a fearful sight. You might almost walk on dead bodies for a long distance.” A letter home on June 12, 1862, reveals that “We only have about 300 men remaining out of 1000 since I joined the army.”

Photo of a section of an historic letter written from the American Civil War

We are getting prisoners from them every day and they all say the Rebels are all starving for want of both clothes and bread and I think it is impossible for the war to last much longer.” – excerpt from a letter dated Jan. 2, 1863

The war would continue for two more years, but Joseph would not see the end of the war, nor would he make his way home to his family in Brussels. He died later that year.

Historic image of the Ballatyne home on the bank of the Maitland River. There are a number of people standing on a wide front porch.

After Joseph’s death, Margaret and Celina remained in the Brussels area. Celina married Thomas Ballantyne in the fall of 1862 and the couple made their home on the bank of the Maitland River in the spring of 1863. The home is pictured above with the family sitting on the front porch around 1892. Shown here, from left to right, are Jack Ballantyne, Thomas Ballantyne, Celina Ballantyne holding Bill Strachan, Margaret Hodskinson, Annie and Alex Strachan, and Jenny and Joe Ballantyne.

Celina and Thomas had a daughter named Annie who married Alexander Strachan in Brussels in 1889. The couple owned a dry goods store in the village. 

The Huron County Museum would like to thank Ann Scott and Marion MacVannel for their recent donation of these letters and family photographs to the archival collection. Joseph was Ann’s three times great grandfather. If you are interested in learning more about our research services or making a donation to our collection, contact the Huron County Archives to arrange an appointment.

Image of a newspaper clipping of Celina Ballantyne's obituary
Meet the Maker: Huron Candle Works

Meet the Maker: Huron Candle Works

by | Feb 10, 2023 | Blog, Huron Made

The Huron County Museum Gift Shop is adding to its selection of products made by area artists and makers and we are pleased to now carry the work of Huron Candle Works. Hand-poured in Seaforth, the candles celebrate the elements of Huron County: Bluewater Shores, Silo, Sunset, and Woodland. If you would like to pick up some of these candles, the Gift Shop is open during regular Museum hours and does not require admission to come in to shop and to support local! Learn more about Huron Candle Works below!

Who are you and what do you make?

We are Huron Candle Works, a home-based, two-person adventure to create and make beautifully-scented candles in Seaforth, ON. We make candles with fine fragrances that take time to curate and make for all who love them. We are all about unique, small and local.

How did you start making candles?

We have always loved the smell of gently layered fragrances that speak to us and our love of nature and storytelling. This has been a journey of inspiration and discovery. Knowing we would be moving to Huron County, our path began last year in our small downtown Toronto condo with non-stop street cars adding a background sound track to our scent tests! We spent months curating fragrances for our first release of four candles. We had friends and family do many blind smell tests to help fine-tune our choices.

Photo of a computer screen with hands at a keyboard creating candle label design.

How would you describe your work?

Our candles are 100 per cent natural, clean-burning and sustainable soy wax. They burn long and clean and help to cleanse and gently scent the air in any room environment. They come in two sizes, 8 ounce clear or amber glass jars with screw-on metal lids, as well as four ounce metal tins, perfect for travel, study and a companion with a good book!

We both have artistic backgrounds. One of is a photographer and graphic designer, so the visual appearance of the labels is important from an aesthetic point of view and as a visual connection to elements found in Huron County. Our design aesthetic is like the land, simple, strong and memorable.

What inspires you?

For several years, we had been exploring Huron County as the place we would eventually move. Now here, we love the life, the people, the landscape, farming communities, and yes, even the winters!

The elements found throughout the county such as sunsets, golden fields, Lake Huron, woodlands, and rivers are just a few of the inspirations that we try to offer through scent. The sense of smell is such a visceral part of us all – and is our greatest challenge when trying to connect a representative scent with a physical thing. It has been fun to try to bottle the inspiration we feel into every candle with whom people can relate.

Photo of a roll of stickers and hands applying sticker label to candle jar

What do you like most about being a maker?

We are new to being makers and it has not been without a huge learning-curve and mistakes along the way! But as we see and hear from people who enjoy our candles, we still feel humbled and honoured. We are still at the early part of our journey and still feel it is a bit of a dream. A dream that brings us a smile and great satisfaction that we are connecting the land and people of the County to all who light up one of our Huron candles.

If someone likes your work and wants to see more, where can they find you (besides the Museum Gift Shop, of course!)?

We keep a small footprint. We are hyper local and want to keep it that way. We keep our social network tight, and can be found on Instagram at, @huroncandleworks where we have a fun and casual feed that is friendly, inclusive and interactive. We can also be found at our online store website, www.huroncandleworks.ca. As we slowly introduce new candles, checking in on the website will keep people current on what is being created.

In addition to a few local businesses, we can also be found at local community markets through the year. If you are out visiting a community market, please drop by and say, Hello!