The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.
Karen Bachmann is the director/curator of the Timmins Museum and a local author.
A few news items from 1947 for your reading pleasure. For all the art lovers out there, Miss Helen Chisholm of the national art gallery came home to spend Christmas at her residence, 8 Maple St. S.
According to the news item “Timmins is proud to be the home town of Miss Chisholm, who has made quite a name for herself in the field of art … This past summer, Miss Chisholm was one of a group of artists who enjoyed a series of classes at Banff, Alberta, that scenic resort in the Canadian Rockies. The classes were in charge of A.Y. Jackson (a member of the Group of Seven). We anticipate still greater achievements from Miss Chisholm, another of Timmins’ offspring who aspire to a brilliant future.”
For those of you who think that nothing happened in Timmins, here is your gruesome story of the day. It appears that the body of a local trapper was found frozen in the Mattagami River.
Said trapper was found with a bullet in his chest and a .22 revolver at his side; a high powered rifle was also found a few feet away.
The discovery was made about 15 kilometres downstream by game warden Don Sylvester.
Doctor Minthorn, the local coroner, determined that the shot to the heart was fatal, but the bullet and guns were sent to Ottawa for testing.
Police believed that if the bullet came from the revolver, the death might have been a matter of suicide; if it came from the rifle, it was murder. Stay tuned.
A strike vote was taken at the Hollinger Mine. The question “do you want to go on strike” elicited a resounding no vote – in fact, 1,393 miners voted no, while 249 said yes.
However, the vote was declared illegal by Ralph Carlin, agent for local 241 as it was not administered by the union. The vote was actually the idea of 22 Hollinger employees. The question was put to the employees by these individuals. Mr. Carlin stated that the question was unfair because there actually was no issue at the present time.
“It was only logical that the employees vote no. We instructed our union men to vote no. No one wants a strike while there is still a possibility of a peaceful settlement.”
It appears that there was no strike.
A sad day indeed – the Timmins Arena, a fixture in the community since 1914, burnt to the ground on Feb. 23, 1947. The building was located on Second Ave., roughly near where the Post Office sits today.
The fire was discovered at 11 o’clock on the Sunday morning in question while two broomball teams were playing a game. five youngsters were charged by police after an investigation.
The fire started in a dressing room where the boys were playing with matches. The tinder-dry building went up in smoke threatening the houses on Second Ave. and Birch St.
Luckily, firemen prevented the flames from spreading.
The arena had been built by the Hollinger Mine for the community in 1914 at a cost of $50,000.
For the rest of this article, please go to the Timmins Daily Press website: http://www.thedailypress.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3375815