Proudly serving the community of Essex and surrounding areas.
Vol. 136
A LOOK INSIDE Fighting the rise of prescription drug abuse PAGE 2 ________________ McGregor comes together for local cancer patients PAGE 4 _______________ Gosfield North learns farm safety PAGE 5 ________________ Support poured in for Rocks and Rolls PAGE 9 ________________ Many support Relay for life PAGE 17 ________________
Thursday, June 16, 2016
Issue No. 24
On a ‘Quest’ to preserve history
Young harpist wins provincial competition PAGE 22 ________________
Looking For A Good Home
“DUSTY” See Page 7 for adoption info.
Local Questers, many in period costume, pose for a group photo at their Spring Council Meeting and Vintage Luncheon.
by Jennifer Cranston The Ontario Provincial Organization of the Questers held its Spring Council and Vintage Luncheon at Cooper’s Hawk Estate Winery on June 9. Questers is a volunteer organization that raises money to donate to historical sites, museums, scholarship, and fellowship programs that encourage the
conservation of historical buildings and antiques. Questers is chiefly an American organization that is spreading into Canada. It boasts over 700 chapters, with 9 of them being in Windsor-Essex County. There are 150 members locally. Denise DeLuca Walsh is Second Vice President of the Ontario Questers Board. She is
very excited about the International Convention of Questers coming to Windsor in 2019. She said she is looking forward to sharing this region with convention-goers through historical wine tours. Individual Chapters meet once a month. Meetings can be outings to historical sites or gatherings in people’s homes, and can include presentations.
As it turns out, DeLuca Walsh explained, most Questers are collectors of antiques. Each has their own focus. Some collect vintage clothing, while others might collect hats or purses, or even needle point and eye glasses. You name it, someone has a collection. “I have seen the most unusual antiques in people’s homes,” she said. Local Questers also
teach in the community and at Elder College. Local author and historian Patrick Brode was a guest speaker at the Spring Council. He has written the book “The River and The Land: A History of Windsor to 1900.” He explained that his book begins with French settlements of the 1700s and covers up to the turn of the 20th century. His talk on Thursday focused on a chapter in his book about Windsor’s role in the American Civil War. This region was a haven for Confederate spies, draft dodgers, Southern sympathizers, and even pirates. “There was lots of stuff going on, lots of dangerous stuff that the government didn’t want going on,” he said. He said that until now no one has written a comprehensive history of Windsor. Until the 1930s Windsor was 35 villages along the river. Brode said his next book will cover from 1900 to 1945. He will explore how Windsor went from 35 separate villages to the fourth largest industrial
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