It’s Wayback Wednesday, sponsored by Pharmasave Huntsville!
In this week’s photo, participants in the Orange Parade on July 11, 1959, cross Main Street at West Street.
According to The Canadian Encyclopedia, “The Orange Order was founded as a political and religious fraternal society in the Irish province of Ulster in 1795. It takes its name from the Prince of Orange, King William III, who reclaimed Britain’s Protestant monarchy when his forces defeated those of the Catholic King James II at the Battle of the Boyne, 12 July 1690…
“[In Canada] since the 1960s, several factors have contributed to a waning membership: the reality of—and members’ failure to adapt to—the growth of Canadian nationalism, a decline in the British connection, the rise of the welfare state and declining need for fraternal societies, ethnic diversity, secularization and alternative means to spend one’s free time. While the Orange Order today is multicultural, its membership has declined considerably, standing at around 5,000–6,000 people scattered throughout a few hundred lodges across the country.” Read more here.
“Huntsville Orange Parade 1959” by Elva Gardhouse, via Wikimedia Commons, is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 / Cropped from original.
Last week we shared these photos:
We’re sure that many Doppler readers remember—and have fond memories of—The Book Case. The building was originally home to George Wilgress’s law office, constructed in 1894 and, prior to that, brothers John and Robert Scarlett ran a store in that approximate location, which was established in 1871. In more recent years the building was home to a restaurant—Café Wilgress—and is now a rental property simply called The Wilgress. (Photos by Dr. N.E. Hunt in the 1980s, courtesy of Muskoka Digital Archives)
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I think this will be of interest!
ORANGE PARADE (excerpt from my Father’s Memoirs)
“1910 was also one of the years the Orange celebration was held in Huntsville. To any of you who have not seen the Orange celebrations in all their glory…you have missed something. Early in the day…the 12th of July…the bands could be heard tuning up and , as our house was not far off Main Street, we were able to hear and then to see this opening practice…a generous helping of whisky and beer helped the musicians get in tune…and then the parade down Main Street…led off by Chief John George Watson…the Chief of Police (and only policeman)…then King Billy on his white horse, and then the different lodges in all their pristine glory…all sorts of colours, but mainly orange and blue. The ladies of the lodges…with blue umbrellas and orange or white dresses or orange umbrellas; the men in the lodges with their, usually only one, white shirt with orange armbands and blue ties and badges…and numerous styles of headgear.
Mother, good Church of England member that she was, was quite disgusted by the chaplain of one lodge…with the Bible on a sort of wooden shelf attached to his neck by orange cords…staggering along and finally falling. Dad said the chaplain must have got under the influence early in the day…which we kids presumed meant getting some divine stimulation.
Along the line of march were numerous soft drink and lunch counters set up, and the hotels did a tremendous business.
The lumber mills (and there were at least four of them) closed on the 12th. Even the tannery, with its preponderance of Italians took the day off for this important event.
There were baseball games, horseshoe pitching etc., and in the evening a monster dance…”a good time was had by all” and King Billy really was King for a day.
It was requisite that all politicians from the Member of Parliament and the Mayor down be Orangemen…so one could see all of the elite in politics that day. Even some of them seemed to be a bit stimulated.”
My dad clearly had a remarkable memory, and a wonderful sense of inquisitiveness. He was only seven years old in 1910!