Edgeworth
Golden Wedding Anniversary
Mr.
and Mrs. James Edgeworth, of 80 Westmount Avenue, Toronto, celebrated
their golden wedding anniversary on 9 Feb this year. They are natives of
Norfolk County, Ontario, wedded in Bolton, Peel County, by Reverend
Peter Nicol, at the Presbyterian manse in 1887.
Messages
of congratulations came to the happy couple from Rt. Hon. R. B. Bennett,
Hon. Howard Ferguson, Hon. Earl Rowe, John R. McNichol of Toronto, and
Col. A. C. Pratt of Simcoe; also felicitations from residents of Norfolk
County, Hamilton, Woodstock, Windsor, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Vancouver,
where Mr. Edgeworth is known as one of historians of the Canadian
pioneers.
Mrs. Edgeworth,
nee Charlotte M. McKnight, is a daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. James
McKnight who came to Windham Township, Norfolk County, Ontario, from
County Down, Ireland. Mr. McKnight was a large lumber dealer and saw
mill operator in Norfolk County in the early days before John and
William Charlton. He had the first [sic] saw mill in Norfolk County.
Mr.
Edgeworth's family came to Norfolk County from Perth, Scotland. Mr.
Edgeworth's mother was the schoolmate and life-long friend of the Hon.
Alexander MacKenzie, one of the early premiers of Ontario [sic].
Mr.
Edgeworth is a member of the Norfolk Historical Society and is an
executive member of the "Men of the Trees" in Canada. He is
widely known in Canada and the United States as the developer of the
famous Edgeworth Memorial Tree Park at Teeterville, Norfolk County,
Ontario.
Mrs. Edgeworth's
great avenue of service is church work; Mr. Edgeworth devotes all his
time to the writing of Ontario history with trees.
Mr.
Edgeworth's unique park at Teeterville contains trees planted by
relatives of most of the great men and women of our time. For example,
the Foreign Mission Tree was planted by a nephew of the immortal David
Livingstone; the Public Utility Tree was planted by a daughter of Sir
Adam Beck; the Poetry Tree was planted by a niece of Pauline Johnson,
the Indian poetess; the Aboriginal Tree was planted by a grandson of
Chief Brant; the Education Tree was planted by a grand-daughter of Dr.
Egerton Ryerson, Founder of the Ontario Educational System, etc. etc.
This
Tree history of Canada draws tens of thousands of tourists to Norfolk
County every year.
This
love of the historical recording of the lives of the Canadian pioneers
brought Mr. Edgeworth much in the company of the late John Ross
Robertson, founder of the Toronto "Telegram." These two
Canadian of Scotch descent had much in common; pioneer history, Masonry,
Presbyterianism and the progress of the Conservative party.
John
Ross Robertson, founder of Sick Children's Hospital in Toronto, donor of
the great paintings of pioneer Toronto to the city, the moving spirit in
Masonry -- was one of the great men of Canada, highly esteemed by Mr.
Edgeworth.
Mr. Edgeworth's
brother, the late John Edgeworth of Toronto, gave his $25,000.00 home to
be used to help the great work of the Sick Children's Hospital in
Toronto.
On a wall of the
Edgeworth summer residence at Edgeworth Park, in Teeterville, Norfolk
County, then hangs this motto given to Mr. Edgeworth by his friend the
late John Ross Robertson:
"If
there is any kind word I can say, or any good deed that I can do, let me
do it now -- for I shall not pass this way again."
