It never fails that if John H. Dick catches my ear at coffee hour, he’s got a story or two for me. This week being the first week of the new year, he was reminded of the start of a new year 71 years ago…
On New Year’s Day 1945, he’d been out visiting his fiancee Helen when the sky grew dark and foreboding. Reluctantly, he realized he’d have to leave off visiting and make his way back home to Ruthven while that wasstill possible.
He arrived home safely, but the storm followed him and grew, and John and his father saw cars lining up along the road near their house. The drifting snow had made the roads impassable and John went out to see if anyone would like to come into the house. In total, John’s parents and the three children hosted 39 stranded travellers that night.
John’s mother set out every piece of food she could find — snacks for 39 — and in the morning, John took the horses and stoneboat into Ruthven to ask for anything edible they had.
It was noon the next day before any cars were able to make progress.
According to John, the roads never did open completely that year. Drivers dodged around the drifted snow until it melted in the spring. In those days, there were no municipal snow removal services so farmers did what they could for the roads around them.
While we were sitting around the table listening to John remember that day, he remarked it would be great to see a newspaper article describing the storm and wondered if such a thing might be possible. As it turns out, there is an archive of The Leamington Post, Leamington’s weekly newspaper, and the years between 1907 and 1995 are completely searchable via OurOntario.ca. John’s snow storm was the headline article published in The Leamington Post on January 4, 1945. We were all excited to see John’s memory confirmed in print, but sad to learn that not everyone was as lucky as the travellers John’s family took in. Unfortunately, one Kingsville man, Lambert Tofflemire, age 68, died from exposure that night.
You can read the entire issue and other issues of The Leamington Post by clicking this link.
