Alver R.
Dobson, formerly of Simcoe, now President of the American Book and
Printing Company of Mexico City, addressed the Rotary Club of Simcoe
at their luncheon on Monday last.
Mr. Dobson is well known in
Simcoe. His father, Henry Dobson, formerly kept a book store and
telegraph office on Norfolk street, next [to] the Wallace Anderson
hardware store, where the southern half of the Bank of Montreal now
stands.
He bought
this book store from A. J. Donly in 1882 and sold it again to D. B.
Wallace about 1886, when he and his family went to Toronto.
His
son Alver went to Bowmanville from Toronto and bought a book store
there. And in 1891 he sold out and went to Mexico City where he has
been ever since.
He
has visited Simcoe at different times during the past 35 years, and
is now on a month's visit to Canada after an absence of nine years.
Mrs.
Dobson accompanies him. She was formerly Miss Ethel Harris of
Courtland. Mrs. C. V. Thompson of Tillsonburg is her niece, and they
have come to see her and Mr. Dobson's brother, the Rev. Perry S.
Dobson, d.d., principal of Alma College, St. Thomas. They have also
spent some three weeks in Northern Ontario.
Mr.
Dobson began his address in a reminiscent mood and referred to their
coming from their farm at Courtland to Simcoe and taking over the book
store 44 years ago. Jack Madigan was then the telegraph operator and
it was he who taught Mr. Dobson to manipulate the keys.
He
referred also to a scar on his nose which he received from a fall from
one of the high bicycles that he attempted to ride in those years.
Coming
to Canada after so long an absence he found the changes very marked,
especially in the towns and cities. The farms had not improved so much
and he suspected that the money that would otherwise have gone into
paint for the barns had been used to buy motor cars.
When
he saw the improved machinery that was now used on farms and the
conveniences that had been introduced, he felt tempted to buy a farm
in Canada again and try to make up for the hardships they had to
endure in his day.
