Feature article, March 25, 2005

Feature article March 25 2005

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Record Lake Trout caught in Palmerston Lake On Saturday, March 19, Mark Lemke, owner of Lemkes Contracting in Ompah, caught a Lake Trout which weighed in at the Double S Sports and Marina at a whopping 21 lb. 4 oz . The lake trout was caught in Palmerston Lake in Ompah, Ontario.

Denis Bedard, president of the Ompah Conservation Association, said, This is one of the largest fish taken from this lake in quite a whileobvious proof that fish like this are out there.

Feature Article - December 20, 2007

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Feature Article - December 20, 2007 Local couple to join Christian Peacemakers by Jeff Green The anti-uranium protest at the Robertsville mine has had a range of impacts on the community in the surrounding region, forging an alliance between environmentalists and Algonquin communities at the same time as it caused a rift between people on both sides of the debate in North Frontenac and Lanark Highlands.

For retired United Church ministers John and Caroline Hudson of Snow Road Station, the uranium protest has resulted in the re-awakening of their Christian calling, and this month they are going to Chicago for an introductory course with the International Christian Peacemaker Teams.

The Hudsons have lived on an island on Palmerston Lake since the early 90s, on a lot that is part of the Palmerston Highlands subdivision. Caroline Hudson describes the island as their “haven” and the perceived threat from a potential uranium mine just upstream from them is a threat to that haven.

The Hudsons came to Palmerston Lake at one of many crossroads in their lives, partly in response to an illness.

They were married when John was 24 and Caroline was 19. For the next 15 years, John worked in the municipal world in Lanark County as an assistant to the county engineer and in the roads departments of several municipalities, while Caroline was a contract worker for several hospitals specializing in medical records. They were raising four children.

Then came a major shift in their lives, when they both “felt a calling” - as Caroline described it in an interview last week from the renovated construction trailer that is parked at the side of Road 509 just outside the gate of the Robertsville mine.

“We both quit our jobs, and spent the next seven years in school at Carleton and Queen's,” Caroline recalled.

The were both ordained and were sent to Northern Alberta, but it wasn't long before they returned to Eastern Ontario, after John was recruited to do chaplaincy work in the Kingston prisons. He worked at Millhaven and Kingston penitentiaries throughout the 1980s while Caroline took on a parish in the Cataraqui and Westbrook regions of Kingston.

In 1990, they were preparing to go to Brazil on a six-year exchange program with the Methodist Church of Brazil when John became ill with what Caroline describes as a “severe breakdown”, which she now surmises came as the combined result of the stress he had been under working in the prison system and a family history of depression.

John went on a disability and Caroline had to scramble to find a posting, as she had resigned from her Kingston parish. She worked at Queen Street United Church in Lindsay for six months before taking on a job as the Minister of Mission and Stewardship in the sprawling 300-parish Bay of Quinte Conference of the United Church.

Meanwhile the couple moved to Palmerston Lake, where John recovered from his depression by working with the builders who put up their house on the water.

He eventually returned to the ministry, serving as a parish priest in the Balderson-Lanark parishes until another illness, this time an enlarged heart, forced him to retire in the year 2000. Caroline retired as well, since doctors thought that John's condition was fatal.

“They were quite astounded when he recovered,” she said, “and they now believe his condition was caused by a virus.”

The couple has been living quietly on Palmerston Lake for the past 5 or 6 years - until, this past summer, when things changed again. “I had no idea this past April that anything was going to happen, but a lot has happened and what we are doing now is something that definitely springs from our faith,” Caroline said.

Since they have a long association with Kingston, John and Caroline travel down Road 509 to Kingston on a regular basis, and this past July they could not help but see the protest camp that went up at the Robertsville mine. They became involved in the protest in early July, seeing the uranium exploration as a potential threat to their household and, more poignantly, as a social justice issue.

Caroline and John could see that tension was rising at the site as the summer wore on, so Caroline contacted Nan Hudson (no relation) at the United Church to find out if she had any contacts with the Christian Peacemakers Team.

Nan Hudson contacted Jim Loney, the Canadian co-ordinator of the peacemakers, and an assessment team came to the site.

“The Peacemakers sent a team of four to see whether the situation was such that they might be helpful, and one of the criteria for them is, there can be no violence committed. Their whole position is anti-violence, preventing violence. They wanted to be sure that the Algonquins were not going to carry out violent actions, which was the Algonquin stance all along, and was repeated many times,” said Caroline Hudson.

A rotating four-member team, made up mostly of volunteer reservists, spent a couple of months at the Robertsville site, and during that time John and Caroline Hudson acted as the unofficial hosts for the Peacemakers, inviting them to their house for a shower and a meal on their off days, and spending time talking with them about the program and what it is devoted to around the world.

“Their role was to try and lessen tension,” said Caroline Hudson, “and that happened a couple of times in incidents with some of the local people. If violence were to ensue, the Christian Peacemakers would take note of any violation of human rights, as a witness. They try to prevent any escalation, and they have a role as witness. Sometimes that's been a very important role. I was so impressed by their commitment to non-violence.”

At some point the conversations between the Hudsons and the Christian Peacemakers turned to the Hudsons themselves.

“Some of them began saying that we were just the kind of people they would like to have involved. They also talked about how important it was in their lives, in their understanding of their own Christian faith, to be involved in this kind of work. It was something that kind of moved us into saying that this just might be what we are called to do. You wonder in retirement what you have to offer the ministry, and this might turn out to be something for us.”

The Hudsons were each interviewed for 90 minutes to see if they are suitable candidates, and they are going to be traveling to Chicago in late December, where they will spend a month sleeping on the floor of a church and undergoing intensive training to simulate field experiences, undergo role playing and study different non-violence techniques.

At the end of the month, they will undergo another interview, and if they are approved, they will become Christian Peacemaker reservists. They will be required to be available for at least one two-week mission each year, although many reservists serve more often. Assignments range widely, with the most intensive being in Hebron, Afghanistan, and other global war zones.

“I still really have no idea where this is leading for us,” said Caroline Hudson, “except that I know it springs from our faith.”

And what do their children think about this latest adventure?

“I think they are saying 'There they go again'”.

Oct 30/08 - Inside North Sherbrooke

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Feature Article - October 30, 2008 "Inside North Sherbrooke" Book Launch in ElphinBy Jeff Green

Isobel Graham, Barbara Howell, Beryl Stott

The North Sherbrooke Historical Society was formed three years ago, and last weekend at the Elphin Presbyterian Church, the society marked the occasion of its greatest accomplishment thus far, the publication of a book, “Inside North Sherbrooke, Volume 1”.

To celebrate the book launch and foster further research, the descendants of the families referenced in the book were asked to bring a story or an artifact for a show and tell event.

Inside North Sherbrooke is organized into 14 chapters. Some of them are about specific buildings, such as the McConnochie and Weir houses, and the Elphin Presbyterian Church itself, while others are about families and individuals, such as the Love family, and Elizabeth “Granny” Miller, who was born in Scotland in 1818, emigrated to North Sherbrooke in 1822, and lived a long and productive life, eventually having 43 grandchildren. She died in 1903.

Many of the settlers who built homesteads in the McDonalds Corners and Elphin areas, and towards what became Snow Road and Mississippi Station, arrived in Canada in 1821 on a ship called “The Commerce”.

They were given land grants, and although they were expected to pay the government for the land, the amount of effort required to clear land, build homes and survive in the harsh climate, left little extra money. In 1836 all of the settlers were granted the lands they had been working for 15 years.

Using old photographs, scraps of family history, and genealogical records, “Inside North Sherbrooke” paints a picture of how local, national, and international events shaped the way communities developed over the first 150 years of settlement in the former North Sherbrooke and Palmerston townships. North Sherbrooke is now part of Lanark Highlands and Palmerston is now in North Frontenac.

A gathering of the Wilson clan of Elphin, circa 1900.

At the book launch/show and tell, there were people connected to most of the 14 chapters in the book, and their stories added an additional context.

One of these people was Heather Gordon, whose great grandfather Samuel Gordon obtained the recipe for what is reportedly an old native salve from a local doctor. Samuel Gordon refined the salve and began producing it, and he eventually got a patent for it in the 1930s.

Although Gordon's Salve is no longer a commercial product, the secret family recipe for it remains intact, and Heather Gordon brought with her a small jar that the family made this past summer.

Mona Winterburn is descended from Solomon Benedict, an Abenaki from the Trois Rivies region of Quebec who moved to Robertsville Road partly because of the abundance of ash trees there. Making ash splint baskets was the family vocation. Mona, who lives between Elphin and Snow Road, brought examples of family-made baskets that were sold for many years in the Muskoka region.

Barbara Griffith brought a thick volume that is all about the Love family, who are the subject of a chapter in Inside North Sherbrooke, and Jim Brownlee had a family bible that was brought over from Scotland.

Other stories, such as the relationship between the McDougall and McDougalds, including the existence of Dougall McDougald, brought to the fore the strong Scottish Presbyterian roots of North Sherbrooke that persist to this day.

After the show and tell, the host of the book launch, Beryl Stott, introduced Barbara Howell and Isabel Graham, two other key members of the historical society who have played key roles in the publication of the book.

Inside North Sherbrooke is available at Wheeler's Pancake House. Through the photographic work of photographer and book designer Mary Ferguson, it includes many contemporary photos of log and stone farmhouses and barns that have survived to this day or been refurbished.

In researching the book, Beryl Stott came up with many historical photos that are reproduced in its covers, and the text includes a lot of detail that paints its own picture of how people lived their lives in the pioneering days of North Sherbrooke and Palmerston townships.

The book has been purchased by the Kingston Frontenac Public Library and will be available from the Sharbot Lake branch.