Friday, June 22, 2018 5 Brooklin Town Crier What began as a Facebook connection of longtime Brooklin residents has evolved into a unique organization dedicated to preserving the area's history. Today, the Brooklin Heritage Society is a registered non-profit group, having been recently given the designation by the Ontario Historical Society. Its beginnings were innocent enough. "A bunch of us met on Facebook," recalls Lynda Cormack, "and we decided we should get together at local coffee shops. Next thing was, we connected with others we'd known as children in the area. Pretty much everyone has been here for 50 years or more." She sharpened up old photos using iphone apps, uploading them to the Facebook group that is now nearly 400 strong. Reunion to homecoming From that came an annual reunion during the Spring Fair which started at the Fairgrounds but moved to the Legion's patio in its third year to enable some of the less mobile folks to have easier access. The sixth reunion took place this year with an age range of 30 to 92. However, as Cormack and fellow member Betty-Jean Blyth point out, they opted to change the wording from reunion to homecoming since reunions tend to occur every once in a while. They wanted this gathering to be annual. As everyone reminisced about days gone by, sharing photos and the like, they urged Cormack, a self-professed history buff, to do something, anything. "They kept telling me, 'You gotta do something with all this,'" she said. "It sat in the back of our minds for several years." But do what, since nothing of this sort had been done out here before? A bunch of them, now 11, began gathering dribs and drabs of memorabilia dating back decades. They unearthed an amazing array of photos and artifacts that pointed to Brooklin's important role as an agricultural centre as far back as the early 19th century. The Mill's mementoes Cormack, in fact, was given a large box of photos and mementoes by the family of the original owner of the Brooklin Mill, Charles Wilson. The box was hand delivered to her by Wilson's heirs who drove it up from Kingston. Today the mill is the Brooklin Montessori School. That box has never been seen outside the Wilson family, but it will be shared with other Heritage Society members at its June 26 general meeting upstairs at the Legion. Blyth says her own family lore points to her mother's grandfather being the region's first postmaster general. She hasn't yet been able to verify it though a cousin claims to have proof. Her history has an important local flavour, too. She originated Group 74, a women's service club, in 1974 when it appeared there'd be no Spring Fair parade for lack of organizers. How hard can it be, she wondered to some friends? They decided to take up the challenge, and the parade was reborn. A well-traveled lady in her younger years, Blyth says that wherever she went in the U.S. or Canada, people would ask where she's from. They couldn't identify with Whitby (nor Oshawa, for that matter). "But Brooklin?" she recalls. "Oh yes, everyone knew Brooklin. I put it down to the fact that for years we had some of the top teams in lacrosse, hockey and baseball. Everyone seemed to knew of one of them." Once, Winchester One interesting fact, among so many: Brooklin wasn't always known by that name. "The community was actually named Winchester," Cormack describes. "Till 1947 when it was found out about a community near Ottawa of the same name. We had a post office here and apparently once there's a post office you can't remove the name of the community. Whitby, at one time, tried to remove Brookoin completely. Then in 1968 it became part of Whitby but they did not take away the name." As the photos and artifacts pile up, Blyth says it's important to remember their purpose. "We're focused on Brooklin as a community from years back and trying to keep the community going and retain its roots. But really we're the soul, the core, of the village." Ken Montague of Vibrant Displays Masonic Hall 14 Cassels Rd. E., Brooklin 905-449-8230, knmontague@aol.com Sunday, June 24 through Wednesday, June 27. 11:00 am to 7:30 pm. Thursday, June 28 through Sunday, July 1. 10:00 am to 8:00 pm. A Special BTC Feature Brooklin Heritage Society: It Takes A Village... By Richard Bercuson This bag came from what is now the Brooklin Montessori School continued on page 6 Some members of the Brooklin Heritage Society at their recent reunion/homecoming. (from left to right) Chris Alderson, Susan Kydd Richards, Jennifer Bailey Hudgins, Betty-Jean Blyth and Lynda Cormack Armstrong