Looking back - 1947: Arden’s oldest resident dies at 94 years of age
- Details
- Published on Wednesday, April 12, 2017
By Cecil Pittman
The Neepawa Press
70 years ago: Thursday, April 10, 1947. Arden’s oldest resident laid to rest. Funeral service for the late Morris Edmund Boughton, Postmaster here since 1884, whose death occurred on Thursday, April 1, 1947, at his residence at the age of 94, was held from the Arden United Church on Friday, April 4, at 2:00 pm, conducted by the pastor Rev. A. I. A. Carruthers. Internment was made in Arden cemetery. Mr. Boughton was Arden’s oldest resident, born in Gloucester, England in 1853. In 1874, Boughton arrived in Toronto and came west in 1878. He took up his first homestead and preemption in the Salisbury district, eight miles northwest of what is now the village of Arden.
60 years ago: Thursday, April 11, 1957. Edgar B. Smee, Neepawa Motel operator, was elected chairman of northwest district, chapter five of the Credit Union Society at its annual meeting in Minnedosa last week. Mr. Smee is also the chairman of the Beautiful Plains Credit Union Centre in Neepawa.
50 years ago: Tuesday, April 11, 1967. Ms. Louise Card of Neepawa, national president of the Canadian Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs, will leave Apr. 14 to attend the board meeting of the International Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Clubs, in Rome, Italy, Apr. 17-22. She will be accompanied by Margaret McIrvine, a past honorary secretary-treasurer of the Canadian Federation and presently the honorary secretary of the International Federation.
40 years ago: Tuesday, April 14, 1977. SAAN Stores Ltd will be holding its grand opening in the town of Neepawa on Tuesday, Apr. 19. The store is located in the old Fenwicks location. The Neepawa store represents the 89th SAAN store in Canada, part of a chain that extends from North Bay, Ont. to the east, to Port Alberni, B.C. in the west and Fort St. John in the north. Manager of the store is Phil Rondeau, a native of Dunrea, MB, who has previously been with SAAN stores in Brandon and Swan River. The grand opening will begin at 9:00 a.m. with the mayor and SAAN store representatives in attendance for the ribbon cutting ceremony.
30 years ago: Thursday, April 8, 1987. The fight being waged by Springhill Farms Employees Association against the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) continued Friday, when the Springhill employees walked off the job. According to the employee union president Gerald Meyers, the walk was not a protest against the company, but against the UFCW certified by the labour board to represent employees at the Neepawa plant. At 5:00 a.m., three picketers began their walk around the plant, and by 7:00 a.m., about 60 people were holding placards denouncing the UFCW and the practices of the labour board.
20 years ago: Monday, April 14, 1997 The worst blizzard of 1997 passed through Neepawa last weekend with little more than an interruption in traffic. Emergency Measures Organization (EMO) coordinator Ken Jenkins said while communities to the south and east felt the cruel sting of winter, the bad weather almost passed the town by. “We had truckers stopped along the highway, but we really didn’t have anybody stranded,” said Jenkins.
10 years ago: Monday, April 9, 2007 A former Neepawa phys-ed teacher is being recognized with the Lieutenant Governors’ Make a Difference community award. Publicity shy Muriel Gamey said she agreed to attend the Apr. 18 ceremony in Winnipeg, only after learning she wouldn’t have to make an acceptance speech when receiving her award. “I just think there are so many other people deserving (of the award),” Gamey said last week. “I’d rather be off in the woods somewhere,” she added, jokingly. Her time in the woods played a large part in Gamey’s win, said Heather Douglas, who nominated Gamey on behalf of the Chronic Disease Prevention Committee. Gamey almost singlehandedly looks after the cross-country ski trail east of Neepawa and has further developed the area for snowshoeing and tobogganing. She also reached first time cross country skiers and snowshoers. “She is an absolutely incredible woman,” Douglas said. “It’s unbelievable the amount of work she gets done.”
