Not to press the matter too enthusiastically (it will not be until 2026 that I have been in Almonte for 50 years consecutively), I thought I might record some of my memories from the time I arrived in Almonte around June 12th, 1976 (my late mother’s birthday). What follows is the sequence of events arising from the suggestion of Senator George James McIlraith PC QC, Counsel for Messrs. Macdonald, Affleck Barrs. &c., Ottawa (where I had articled) that I might wish to apply to join Messrs. Galligan & Sheffield Barrs. &c. upon their recent acquisition of the law firm of Raymond Algernon Jamieson QC who was retiring after 50 years of practice in the Town of Almonte. Galligan was the son-in-law of Senator McIlraith.  Sheffield is now a retired member of the provincial court bench.

Martin St S

This was my proximate introduction to the Town. On Martin St S opposite Slate St I rented a small house belonging to Rev. George and Mrs. Anne Bickley while they were then living along the Mississippi River in the old stone manse of nearby St. Paul’s Anglican Church. Rev. Bickley was then rector. Little did I know at the time that the location heralded many of the ingredients that were to become salient to my half-century tenure here: St. Paul’s Anglican Church (of which I became a parishioner and warden); the LCBO (where I bought my whiskey by the case and met Harry Walker, Mgr. who later introduced me to membership in the local Masonic Lodge of which I became Master, Secretary, Historian and President of the corporate land owner); the Land Registry Office on Brougham St immediately across the street from the church (where I met JC Smithson, Registrar who also rushed me for membership in the Lodge); the house immediately behind the house I rented (then inhabited and owned by George Slade, a “home boy” from England who heated his house by the wood he chopped himself though later the house was returned to its original magnificence by Ian le Cheminant who sold the property to my erstwhile physician Franz B. Ferraris MD also a brother of the Craft). And finally the nearby home on State Street of John and Helen Levi. John was also a subsequent member of the Lodge and the owner of Levi Home Hardware and co-owner with Billy Guthrie of 77 Little Bridge St which was to become my law office. I should also add the “Doctor’s House” just down Clyde St beside the church. It was built around 1860 by Dr. William Mostyn (the first Master of our Lodge who had participated in the inauguration of St. Paul’s church upon its construction) and had to date been occupied by an Irish-born medical doctor including the then current owner, Dr. Francis Murphy (who years later ejected me from the house when I insinuated Dr. James B. Coupland DDS – leaning perilously onto the fireplace mantle – might want me to give him a drive home instead of taking his own car. My revenge for this misinterpretation was the later intelligence that upon my departure the plumbing backed up – something Dr. Murphy allegedly attributed to my Liberal voting tendencies at what had been a largely Tory political congregation. Jim Coupland was a great guy but he had a drinking problem.  He and I were friends. I eventually acted for him upon the sale of his dental practice to Dr. Naji Louis DDS (my current family dentist upon whom I rely unreservedly). I became Power of Attorney for the estranged wife of Dr. Coupland, an appointment I transferred upon retirement to her daughter Pipp Simmonds, formerly of the Caribbean where she owned a hotel resort.

Coincidentally Ian le Cheminant had worked in Manitoba reconstructing the home of Kim Graybiel who was the brother of Jan Graybiel whom I met at Glendon Hall in Toronto during undergraduate studies.  Her father had owned the Windsor Star.  She later met David and Gibb Drummond of Drummond Bldg Movers from Almonte when they had been retained to remove an historic building in Windsor, a commission overseen by a charitable group in which Jan was involved. My partner and I have since dined with Jan and her co-vivant at Jan’s family winter resort on Anna Maria Island, Florida.  It was not far from there as well that we rallied with Judge Diner and his wife Lisa and their numerous children for a memorable breakfast.

74 Mill St

This was the former law office of R. A. Jamieson QC (also a member of the Masonic Lodge). The building was then owned by Teddy Ferrel from whom I rented the office for $100 per month, a huge increase from the rent R. A. Jamieson QC had been paying – $25 per month.  The office was located on the second floor. The bathroom was on the third floor.  Sitting on the throne one could see – from a hole in the floor – the top of Raymond’s desk in the office below!  The original owner of the building was a former shoe repairman Philip Neadham whose shop was on the ground floor.  Reportedly when Mrs. Anne Bickley once brought her shoes for repair, upon leaving she said, “I didn’t get a receipt” to which Neadham curtly replied, “Who would want them but you?”

The Superior Restaurant

The Charos Bros (George,Terry and Peter) were my example of hardworking interlopers to Almonte. My first luncheon in Almonte was at the counter in the Superior Restaurant.  My server was Mrs. Gladys Currie who, since the moment of her introduction, has continued to be a faithful friend and companion. Last August she celebrated her 90th birthday. She looked after the gang of regulars (John H. Kerry, Garry Davis, W. Ross Taggart OLS, Nicholas Magus, Joe Sensenstein and I) who – for about 30 years – met every morning during the business week for breakfast.  I remember smoking a cigarette at table.  If someone unwelcome proposed to sit at the same table with us, one of our members (who shall remain nameless) whispered to us, “Sit wide!” From the breakfast table I witnessed Louis Peterson of Peterson Ice Cream fame on lower Mill Street, run his car up the side of a cement truck parked outside the restaurant on Mill Street.  His back wheels kept spinning until the workmen lifted his car off the side of the truck and Peterson peeled forward as though without notice.

John H. Kerry became my foremost supporter and my first (and lasting) client. I got to know his family (and worked for all of them on occasion). He also introduced me to his accountant Don Johnson (son-in-law of R. A. Jamieson QC) who later engaged me to do the corporate legal work for the Almonte Pharmacy of which John’s son and daughter-in-law were the principals. Coincidentally John’s youngest son ended working for Jack Levi (and his son Tommy whom I had also met as a boy when living on Martin St S) at the Hardware Store.

77 Little Bridge St

Jack Levi and Billy Guthrie lured me as a tenant from 74 Mill St. Within a year I had purchased the building from them. I drove a hard bargain – they reduced their asking sale price by $50. The building was located just down the street from the Town Hall, where Raymond Jamieson had once been the Clerk but had since been replaced in succession by Robert J. France and Desmond Houston. Years later when I was initially denied a Heritage Grant by the Local Architectural Advisory Committee for repair of the building (a replacement dual front door for a building built about 1863 because there was no photograph of the original door) Des rose above the objection and authorized the payment.

My office was adjacent the Thoburn Woollen Mill, a vast complex initially occupied by Garry Davis (antique dealer) but subsequently purchased for conversion to condos and offices by Stephen Brathwaite (the artist and entrepreneur who restored the face of downtown Almonte to a credibility nearing its original appeal). Stephen’s fame came to me initially because he formerly dated Margo Miller, daughter of people who were friends of my parents. Stephen was the brother of Noreen Young of Puppets Up! television fame, later to become central to Light Up the Night! at Christmas with Wayne Rostad (for whom I was also latterly employed when he retired and moved from his country estate on the Blakeney Side Road to Nova Scotia).

Immediately adjoining my law office building was Baker Bob (whose Nanaimo bars I still adore and to whom I later sold my grandfather’s sterling silver pocket watch with wind-up key); and, I met Michael Dunn (son of Marie Dunn, realtor, who was the first agent I consulted when buying my first house). Michael provided valuable information regarding the train track going over Little Bridge Street – the persuasive influence of Bennett Rosamond to the Montréal financiers during the construction of the B&O Railway.  Getting a train track built into our small town with bridges constructed over rivers was no mean task.

Years afterwards I met Mary Rosamond, a descendant of the original woollen mill operators.  She and her husband His Lordship James Knatchbull Hugessen of the Federal Court of Appeal invited my partner and me to dine with them at their residence along the river and in their lovely ski resort on Lac Mont Tremblant, Québec.  There we met his clerk, now Mr. Justice Alan Diner of the same court and Alan’s girlfriend, fiancé and wife Lisa. Correction: we dined there with Alan and Lisa but I had actually met Alan previously while having lunch beside the Ottawa River with Janet Mitchell (who had been a frequent acquaintance when I lived on St. George St in my first house). Alan was running by and stopped to pet my French bulldog Munroe.  We ended inviting him for dinner in Almonte that evening – rather than meet, as he had planned, the same evening with friends at the end of the summer and upon his return to work for a law firm in downtown Toronto. Alan and Lisa subsequently stayed with me for an overnight visit.

Anthony St. Dennis (another Lodge member) is the chap who engraved the first brass plague for my office.  He was an employee of the people who engraved coins and bills for the Government of Canada (the British America Bank Note Company). Tony also engraved other gold accessories of mine; and, initiated me to engraved letter head which I proudly used until computers came along.

The British American Bank Note Company was formed in 1866, just one year before Canada’s Confederation.  The company was established in Montreal by a group of engraving and printing craftsmen.  Before the company’s creation, two separate groups went ahead with plans to start a Canadian company that would engrave and print postage and revenue stamps, bonds and other financial documents, for the nation in waiting.  These groups also recognized the opportunity to serve the bank note printing needs of Canada’s chartered banks, which at the time had to go abroad for their paper currency requirements.  With a rapidly growing economy, further opportunity existed in the printing of bonds, debentures and other securities for companies and municipalities.

313 St. George St

The little house on St. George St was just up the street from both Jack Smithson (and his wife Rachel, son Bob and daughter Beverly) and also Mr. Robert Hill (after whom is named one of the streets nearby where my partner and I now live at the end of Spring St). Sadly Hughie Whitten died where the round-a-bout is now located at the edge of town one stormy winter’s eve while traveling with Bob Hill’s son. Janet Mitchell (who lived nearby) dated Hughie Whitten. I met them both socially at my little house on occasion.  Hughie was the son of Maisie Whitten whom I later learned was the widow of the owner of the Almonte Hotel where – as I heard from RA Jamieson – the first Penny Farthing bicycle in Almonte had been careered non-stop down the stairs of the hotel (from the second floor), through the hallway, down the front entrance stairs and across of the road (well, in truth, he never made it completely to the other side of the road because it was under repair at the time so he lost the bet which had been posted in the downstairs pub of the hotel). Raymond told me the story when accounting to me that his family had been the first in town to have a chauffeur, a grand piano and a Penny Farthing.  It was then that he corrected himself on the bicycle and acknowledged the chap in the hotel who had one previously; hence the story.

4 Laura Crescent

This was the last house we owned in Almonte.  My partner had moved from our condo in the By Ward Market, Ottawa to Almonte after his retirement. The name “Laura” was one of the daughters of Albert Thomas Gale, the developer of many of the residential properties in Almonte. One of my first legal encounters in town was with Alan Gale (Albert’s son) when I reported that the corporate owner (Meadowdale Homes) of the properties had not filed the required annual reports with the Government of Ontario.  It was a small but irritating infraction which technically contaminated the legitimacy of the associated conveyances. I don’t think Alan Gale or his colleague Frank Kremarik ever forgave me the insolence. Kremarik had coincidentally inhabited (and built) the large brick home adjacent our own on Laura Crescent.

Lanark Township

One sunny day Nicholas Magus (my friend from the Superior Restaurant) sold me 25 acres so I could walk my dog Lanny (a Yellow Labrador).  I sold the property several years afterwards through James R. McGregor (realtor) when I tired of mud on my car from the country roads.  Jimmy McGregor (another Lodge brother) was a native of Almonte.  He had climbed out of the mines in Sudbury vowing never to return.  Initially he worked for Albert Gale Real Estate but then commissioned me to incorporate his own company. He died when his car hit a rock cut on the Wolf Grove Road. The police called me to ask that I inform Jimmy’s parents (because I was his lawyer). Jimmy and I had travelled together to Grand Lodge in Toronto on one occasion. I had suggested we share a room to cut costs.  Jimmy had objected, saying he snored.  I resisted.  When however we hit the hay I learned of what he had spoken.  He must have suffered severe sleep apnea.  Within minutes I was at the hotel’s front desk attempting to get another room!

During that Grand Lodge rally I met Dalton Caldwell from a Lodge in Ottawa.  He and I became friends. He was a colourful sort who liked his spirits. When I became Master of Mississippi Lodge No, 147 in Almonte, Dalton and I regularly traveled to other nearby lodges together. Typically of the Masonic Order one’s introduction to one another is strictly casual.  When I first met Dalton he was – as we all were – attired in formal evening wear.  His discrete appearance (and his large Lincoln Continental) disguised that he was a taxi driver. This elevation did not however dissuade our alliance.

Conclusion

I cannot resist one last serendipitous event.  My first public social outing in Almonte (that is, apart from the private dinner with Judge C. James Newton and his wife Betty and her “friend” Jim Collie of Collie Woollen Mills in the Village of Appleton) was an art show upstairs at the Town Hall.  As I backed up to inspect a painting, I bumped into a chap.  I turned to apologize and saw to my amazement that it was John Cameron, a former colleague of mine from boarding school at St. Andrew’s College in Aurora, Ontario. When he asked, “What are you doing here?”, I replied, “I live here!”  He was visiting his parents, Col. John and Mrs. Peggy Cameron who then owned The Glen, a mansion on a 23-acre parcel at the end of Malcolm Street.  John had taken over the law practice of Senator Henry Hicks in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia. Coincidentally Henry Hicks was an acquaintance of my father, who was the former Commanding Officer of Greenwood Air Force Base in Nova Scotia. My father grew up in New Brunswick so he came by his maritime roots legitimately.