Bedford History remembered at Glendower Hall

Craig Bakay | Feb 26, 2020

There was a lot of reminiscing going on Saturday at Glendower Hall as the Bedford Historical Research Centre’s annual open house.

“All people are interested in things, it’s just what are they interested in,” said Paul Younge, who was back for another year with his vast collection of farm-related publications.

“All that old stuff is really interesting,” said Coun. Pat Barr. “Like Gramma Barr’s bread and butter pickles recipe.

“If you just read it, you’d think you sliced the onions before you peeled them.”

She said they have a lot of people wanting to donate things, which they appreciate, but “you really need to put it in something.

“We did have a lady organizing the death notices but she died.”

And, she thinks the area was a lot more colourful in the ’50s.

“We had a lot of bootleggers in the area then,” she said.

Perhaps one of the more interesting people for visitors to reminisce with on this day was Gord Sly, president of the Frontenac County Schools Museum and author of Good Old School Days.

“There were more than 100 one-room schools in the County at one time,” he said. “And the museum probably has something from just about all of them.”

He said that legally, kids couldn’t walk more than three miles to school — which accounts for why there were so many of them.

“Most of them were in farm country and there were no buses back then,” he said.

He said that in the ’70s, most of the old schools started closing down and a “bunch of teachers got together” to create the museum and preserve the memories and memorabilia.

Sly had photos from Salem School (Bedford #1) and the Oak Flats school from 1904.

One of the more interesting items on display was an old honey pail.

“That’s what the kids used for lunchboxes,” he said. “They also used old lard pails.”