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The Walkerville Chicklets were a junior baseball team active ca. 1927-1930, likely sponsored by Windsor businessman Thomas Chick, of the Chick Contracting Company. The Chicklets team recruited top local prospects and developed their skills in preparation for potentially joining Chick's senior team, the semi-professional Walkerville Chicks. The Chicklets played in the Border Cities Junior Baseball League, created in 1927 and presided over by Bruck Chick; for the 1928 season the junior league had four teams: the Chicklets, plus Riverside, Walkerville Brewery, and Ford City Tigers. All players had to be in their teens and were signed to a contract. They played two games a week from late May to the end of July, with the winning team advancing to provincial play-offs. in their heyday both the Chicks and the Chicklets were winning teams that drew crowds of spectators numbering in the thousands. Their exploits were regularly reported in the Border Cities Star newspaper.

Sources: "Jr. O.B.A. League for Border Cities," Border Cities Star, 7 July 1927, p. 17; "Four Squads are Ready in Minor Group," Border Cities Star, 4 May 1928, p. 2; "All Teams to Get in Action," Border Cities Star, 26 May 1928, p. 3; Mary Feldott, "The Walkerville Chicks," Walkerville Times Magazine [n.d.; ca. 1999-2015], walkervilletimes.com/chicks.htm (accessed 28 November 2023).

The present-day County of Essex in southwestern Ontario was established in 1792 as an administrative unit within the British colony of Upper Canada (also known as Canada West, 1841-1867) by Lieutenant-Governor Colonel John Graves Simcoe. It has been governed by several permutations of municipal government. In 1800, the townships of Rochester, Mersea, Gosfield, Maidstone, Sandwich, Malden, and the tracts of land occupied by the Huron and other Indigenous groups living along the Detroit River, together with islands in Lake Erie, St. Clair and the Straits, were designated as the County of Essex and Kent. Together with areas of Upper Canada not included in any other district, the County of Essex and Kent constituted what was known as the Western District. The first meeting of the Western District Council (then composed of representatives from the Counties of Essex, Kent, and Lambton) was held at the Sandwich Court House in February 1842. After a subsequent county reorganization, the first meeting of the Municipal Council of the United Counties of Essex, Kent and Lambton was held January 28, 1850. This was swiftly followed by further reorganization, so that the first meeting of the Municipal Council of the United Counties of Essex and Lambton was held a year later, on January 27, 1851. Population growth and economic development in both of the constituent counties led to a division at the end of the 19th century, and the first meeting of a dedicated Essex County Council was held at the Sandwich Court House on January 26, 1897. Like other county councils, the various permutations of Essex County's municipal government were largely preoccupied with issues related to property, justice, taxation, and infrastructure (roads, bridges, civic buildings, etc.) in its earliest days. Over time this expanded to include planning, emergency medical services, housing with supports for low-income individuals, and a long-term care home.

The region comprises a peninsula surrounded on three sides by Lake Erie, the Detroit River, and Lake St. Clair, and has a deep history of settlement and use by Indigenous peoples, especially the Three Fires Confederacy (Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi nations) and the Huron-Wendat Confederacy. French explorers, fur traders, and missionaries were present in the area from 1640, with French settlement for farming purposes beginning in 1747. British settlement began after the 1763 Treaty of Paris transferred the region to British hands, and increased during and after the American Revolution (1775-1783) as British military allies and Loyalists from the USA resettled in the region. Fort Malden, in the garrison town of Amherstburg, played an important defensive role during the War of 1812. The 19th century brought thousands of African-American freedom-seekers who followed the Underground Railroad to the region, as well as economic migrants from Ireland, Scotland, and Germany. The construction of railways spurred the growth of industry, trade, travel, and urbanization in the county. Cycles of economic boom and bust marked the region in the 20th century, but the growth of manufacturing in Windsor (especially in the automotive sector) drew a steady influx of immigrants, especially from Italy (after the Second World War) and the former Yugoslavian republics (during the Balkan Wars of the 1990s). The early twenty-first century saw new waves of immigration, especially from the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.

Sources: County of Essex, "Early Settlement History," and "Departments," https://www.countyofessex.ca/ (accessed 19 March 2020).

Not much biographical information can be found on Fritz Johansen. He was a zoologist and a naturalist on the Danish Expedition to Greenland from 1906-1908 under L. Mylius. He was then employed by the Department of Naval Services as an oceanologist on the Canadian Artic Expedition of 1913. He served with the southern party of scientists on the Expedition from 1913 to 1916. In the 1920's, he was employed by the Canadian Department of Marine and Fisheries to undertake marine surveys off Labrador and Hudson Bay. He published a Description of the Country and Vegetation at Port Churchill, Manitoba in 1933. He would later move back to Denmark, where he died in 1957.

Captain Arthur Flowers, M.C. (ca. 1987-1960) was a British-born military careerist and First World War veteran became known as the outspoken owner of the Pelee Hotel on Pelee Island, Ontario. Born in Wiltshire, England to master mason Richard Flowers and Harriett (nee Sheppard) Flowers, Arthur Flowers joined the Royal Field Artillery in 1892 and served throughout the British Empire with the British Army for 33 years, including service in India, Egypt, Africa, China, and France. These formative imperial military experiences made him a lifelong and vocal supporter of the British Empire and Canada's ties to Britain, about which he wrote numerous letters to the editor of the Windsor Star during the 1930s.

As a Quartermaster Sergeant stationed in Edinburgh, Flowers met Annie Theresa McDiarmid, an examiner in a local hosiery factory and daughter of master watchmaker Thomas McDiarmid and Annie (nee Peace) McDiarmid. The two were married in the Church of Scotland in 1912 and relocated to India when Flowers was stationed there. In September 1914 Flowers' regiment was called back from India to join the British Expeditionary Force's efforts on the European front of the Great War; Annie returned to Britain in November 1914. Flowers' wartime service included being wounded at Mesopotamia ca. 1915-1916, winning the Military Cross (M.C.) for service in France, and being twice cited for bravery in despatches.

Around 1925, Arthur Flowers left the British army and he and Annie immigrated to Canada, settling in Essex County, Ontario. After operating the Pelee Hotel on Pelee Island for 18 years, the Flowers spent seven years in Leamington, ten years in Windsor, and nine years in Amherstburg, until Capt. Flowers' death in 19160. He was an Anglican by faith, and a longtime member of Masonic Lodges in Edinburgh and Amherstburg. Arthur and Annie did not have children of their own but were survived by nieces and nephews.

Source: contents of fonds.

The Faculty of Education, University of Windsor, was established on July 1, 1970, becoming the seventh faculty in the university. It replaced the Windsor Teachers' College, which had been founded in 1962, after the provincial government accepted the recommendation of the MacLeod Report that teacher education should be placed in the universities. The new Faculty of Education was located in the original Windsor Teachers' College building in South Windsor, with students using the athletics, social, and library facilities on the university's main campus. The long-term plan was to construct a new, purpose-built building for teacher training, but in 1992 the Faculty of Education instead relocated to a main campus building on Sunset Avenue recently vacated by the university's School of Business.

As of 2022, the Faculty of Education provides pre-service and undergraduate programs (both consecutive and concurrent) for teacher candidates, and graduate and continuing education for postgraduates and qualified teachers. Its mission statement explains that the Faculty "promotes the professional and scholarly growth of teachers at all levels as reflective, caring, competent and innovative educators," adding that its "undertakings are informed and shaped by a commitment to equity and social justice."

Sources: Contents of fonds; "Mission and History," Faculty of Education, University of Windsor, https://www.uwindsor.ca/education/about (accessed 30 November 2022).

The Canadian Abortion Rights Action League (CARAL) was a feminist group formed in 1974 (as The Canadian Association for Repeal of the Abortion Law) that focused on reproductive rights for women in Canada. Founded in protest of the incarceration of Dr. Henry Morgentaler (jailed for providing medically-supervised, safe abortions), its stated goal was to legalize abortion in Canada. It provided financial support for Morgentaler's challenge of the 1969 Abortion Law, lobbied for improved access to birth control and abortion services, and raised awareness of abortion-related issues. Provincial and local chapters were formed across Canada during the 1980s, and in 1982 it established a research arm known as Childbirth by Choice. In 2003 CARAL published a major study on abortion access in Canada; in 2004 it closed its operations. Its functions were taken up by two other groups in 2005: the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada/Coalition pour le Droit a l'avortement au Canada (ARCC-CDAC) and a reproductive health resource group, Canadians for Choice (CFC).

Cheryl Vance (nee Hemstreet) was raised in Windsor, Ontario's South Windsor neighbourhood. As a child she lived with her family on Riviera Drive, and attended Glenwood Public School and Centennial Secondary School She worked for several years in university administration at the University of Windsor, before becoming a Human Resources Specialist in Mississauga. In 1997 she settled in London, Ontario with her husband Jonathan F.W. Vance (a professor of History at the University of Western Ontario) and worked thereafter as a full-time stay-at-home mother, raising their two children.

Source: Correspondence between S. Glassford and J.F.W. Vance.

The City of Windsor, Canada's southernmost city, occupies the northwest corner of Essex County along the shores of the Detroit River and Lake St. Clair. Incorporated in 1892, its roots stretch back much further. Indigenous people of the Three Fires Confederacy (Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi nations) knew this area as Wawiiatanong, and, along with peoples of the Huron-Wendat Confederacy and the Attawandaron (Neutral) nation, inhabited the area for countless generations before and after the arrival of Europeans. The French presence began with exploration and fur trade activity from 1640; Jesuit missionaries established a mission here in 1728; the first French settler families received land grants in 1749. The area came under British rule in 1763. In 1797 the village of Sandwich was established as the legislative seat of Upper Canada's Western District and an influx of British settlers followed. The village became a significant stop on the Underground Railroad after 1833 saw slavery abolished in the British Empire, and many African-American freedom seekers settled there. Sandwich prospered and achieved town status in 1858, but over the second half of the 19th century it lost ground to the small settlement further east (initially known as The Ferry, Richmond, or South Detroit) that named itself Windsor in 1836. Windsor benefitted from being made the western terminus of the Great Western Railway in 1854, gained town status in 1858, and was incorporated in 1892. A little further east, the company town of Walkerville took root in 1858 around the Hiram Walker & Sons distillery; further east again, the village of Ford City (home to the Ford Motor Company of Canada and many of its workers) was created in 1913 and became the City of East Windsor in 1929. Further east still, the primarily residential Town of Riverside was established in 1921. Collectively, these small communities spaced out along the river were informally known as the Border Cities, and shared a newspaper, the Border Cities Star.

In 1935 the Ontario government amalgamated Sandwich, Windsor, Walkerville and East Windsor into a larger City of Windsor, in order to save money on municipal governments. In 1966 Riverside, the planned-but-not-completed community of Ojibway, and parts of the townships of Sandwich East, Sandwich West, and Sandwich South were annexed to Windsor in order to expand the city's land and tax base. In 2003 a portion of the neighbouring Town of Tecumseh directly south of Windsor was annexed as well, creating the city's boundaries as they exist in 2020. Over the course of the 20th century the City of Windsor grew to become Canada's fifth-largest manufacturing centre, often led by the automotive sector. It continues to serve its historic role as a transportation hub for travel and trade within the Great Lakes system, and is frequently cited as the busiest crossing point between Canada and the United States.

After completing postgraduate studies in dermatology at Columbia University, Dr. Ricky Schachter joined the staff of Women’s College Hospital (WCH) in 1946. She operated two weekly dermatology clinics out of the hospital’s outpatient department. The clinics proved to be so successful that a division of dermatology was established within the year with Dr. Schachter as its head.

Under her leadership, the WCH’s dermatology program grew from a small outpatient clinic to Toronto’s largest and most diverse academic dermatology program. When WCH achieved its status as a fully affiliated teaching hospital with the University of Toronto, Dr. Schachter became the first woman to head an academic division of dermatology in Canada. Former colleague Dr. Neil Shear explained, “Her energy, commitment and vision stimulated students to enter the field of dermatology.”

Dr. Schachter is also remembered for her commitment to developing new and innovative approaches to patient care. Her greatest professional success came in 1976, when she established the Phototherapy Education and Research Centre (PERC) at WCH. It was the first program of its kind in Canada to provide complete psoriasis care in an ambulatory setting.

Dr. Schachter was also a founding member and first president of the Toronto Dermatological Association and in 1978 she became the first woman in Canada to lead specialists in dermatology when she was appointed President of the Canadian Dermatological Association. During her career, she also received the Lifetime Achievement Award of Merit from the Toronto Dermatological Society in 1989, the Order of Canada in 1998 and Canadian Dermatology Foundation Practitioner of the Year in 2005.

Dr. Schachter remained head of WCH’s dermatology program until her retirement in June 1985. Her passion for the field was apparent through her outstanding ambition and care for her work, students, and patients. In recognition of her leadership and contributions to WCH, the Ricky Kanee Schachter Dermatology Center officially opened on November 1, 1991.

As head of Council and Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation of the City of Windsor, the Mayor is an integral component of the administration of municipal government. Through the Ontario Municipal Act, the Mayor is given several rights and responsibilities: to preside at all meetings of Council; to expel or exclude any persons guilty of improper conduct at Council Meetings; to ensure the laws governing the municipality are properly executed and obeyed; to supervise the conduct and performance of all officials of the municipality to ensure that any negligence, carelessness, or violation of duty is prosecuted and punished; to communicate to Council any information or recommendations necessary for the good of the municipality; and to sign all by-laws, debentures and promissory notes on behalf of the municipality. Additionally, the Mayor is responsible for directing municipal spending priorities and overseeing the functions of municipal government to ensure all actions taken by the administration are consistent with Council policies. Since 1954, the Mayors of Windsor have been Arthur John Reaume (1951-1954), Michael John Patrick (1955-1964), Wilfred John Wheelton (1965-1969), William Charles Riggs (1969), Frank Wansbrough (1970-1974), Albert H. Weeks (1975-1982, Elizabeth Kishkon (1983-1985), David A. Burr (1986-1988), John Millson (1989-1991), and Michael D. Hurst (1992- ).

The Esquesing Historical Society was founded on 1 January, 1975 in Georgetown, Ontario, to collect, preserve, research, publish, educate and disseminate information about the history of the geographical township of Esquesing in Halton Region. The Esquesing Historical Society Archives were established in 1982 in cooperation with the Georgetown Branch of the Halton Hills Libraries at 9 Church Street, Georgetown.

We collect, preserve and publicize the history of Esquesing Township, Halton County, Ontario. We also have items from neighbouring townships of Trafalgar, Chinguacousy, Caledon, Erin, Eramosa and Nassageweya. Sometimes items related to an Esquesing citizen is from further afield. The communities we cover are Stewarttown, Georgetown, Acton, the Scotch Block, which included the villages of Mansewood, Peru and Speyside. Norval was known as McNabsville. Limehouse, Ashgrove, Terra Cotta, Glen Williams, Ballinafad, Milton Heights, Dublin, Churchill, Glen Lawson, Dolly Varden, Silver Creek, Hornby east and west, Whaley.

The Sjobaks were a Swede-Finn family living in Thunder Bay. They arrived in the early 20th Century, with three second-generation sisters born during the Great Depression. The Sjobaks were closely involved with several Thunder Bay institutions.

Basil Ellery was born in 1914 and died in 1998. During the Second World War he worked in the Great Lakes shipping industry, mainly in Thunder Bay and Owen Sound/Midlands. After the war he moved into one of the various neighbourhoods built by the War Time Housing Initiative.

Joseph Placide Theodore Bertrand was born in the Ottawa Valley in 1880 and came to Thunder Bay in 1900. He became an active member of the lumber industry and travelled Northwestern Ontario extensively. He also had a passion for history, shown in his published book Highway of Destiny, as well as the posthumously published book Timber Wolves, which was a mixture of history and his firsthand knowledge of the lumber industry. Bertrand died in 1964 at the age of 84.

Cecil Seaman was an enthusiastic contributor to the Thunder Bay community and served many organizations including the Boy Scouts of Canada, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Trinity United Church. He served as secretary for Lodge 650 and as founding President of Lodge 10. He also volunteered in the community with Meals on Wheels and the Cancer Society. Cecil worked at Saskatchewan Wheat Pool for 49 years before he retired from the position of Director of Electrical Services. While working at the company as an electrician's helper, Cecil designed/invented a trough bending design used in grain handling. Whether he was successful in receiving a patent for the design is unclear. Cecil died in Thunder Bay at the age of 90 on Jan. 14 2003.

Karl Olafson was born in Sioux Lookout, Ontario in 1930, the son of Swedish immigrants. His father had come to Canada for employment with the Canadian National Railways, and Karl spent his early years as one of the 'railway children'. He left home to obtain his early schooling in railway school cars, and then schools in Winnipeg and Sioux Lookout. Following bouts of illness which delayed his schooling, Olafson had only achieved a grade seven education by the age of 16 when he was forced to leave school after his father became ill. Olafson contracted tuberculosis at 17 and spent months in the Fort William Sanatorium and later the King Edward Memorial Hospital in Winnipeg. It took him eight years to achieve his goal of working for the C.N.R. which he accomplished by bypassing the mandatory company medical examination. Prior to working for the C.N.R he worked as a taxi driver in Winnipeg, a Forest Ranger in Northwestern Ontario, and a drapery installer. He spent 30 years working for the railway and later wrote his memoir A Sentimental Journey.

Thomas Henry (Harry) Smith was a teacher at Port Arthur Collegiate Institute who had a strong interest in the history of local education at the Lakehead.

Benjamin Cowan was born in May 1911 in Fort William to Jacob Cowan, the eldest son of his father's second marriage, and sixth of nine children. The Cowans were early members of Thunder Bay's Jewish Community, their father was an immigrant from Odessa and their mother's sisters from England. Cowan attended school in Port Arthur before going to the University of Toronto where he received a BSc in 1932 and a MSc in 1933. He worked in the pulp and paper industry from 1927 to 1942, before he served as a Lieutenant with the 1st Canadian Medium Artillery Regiment during WWII. Following the war Ben Cowan and Eli Cowan founded E&B Cowan, an engineering consulting firm for the pulp and paper industry. The firm later grew to an international scope and was the source of many innovative improvements to pulp processing. Following a long career in engineering, Cowan died in Thunder Bay on February 25 2000.

Gordon Burkowski is a Thunder Bay native and second-generation Canadian Car employee, having followed in the footsteps of both parents. Educated at Lakehead University, McMaster University, and Oxford, he served in both union negotiations and human resources.