The South Shore United Church and Tryon and Area Historical Society are planning a celebration honouring the work and life of Eunice and William Waddell, formerly of Crapaud, and marking completion of the initial phase of the cataloging and organizing the William Waddell Historical Collection.
The celebration, to be held on Sunday, Sept. 15, will be included as part of the morning worship service at the church beginning at 10:30 a.m. This will be followed by a time of fellowship for greeting the Waddell descendants and viewing the historical collection.
The church is located at 85 Route 10 in Tryon, and the public is invited to attend.
In 2013, after the passing of Willie as he was affectionately called, South Shore United Church received the historical collection from the Waddell Family for the purpose of preserving and cataloguing the collection.
The Waddell’s of Kelly’s Cross and Crapaud were avid readers, and for three generations saved clippings and information in scrap-book style relating to a variety of subjects. One part of the collection is a volume of newspaper clippings relating to the Boar War.
In the material added by Willie and his father, the reader will recognize the family’s dedication to the church, politics, commerce and community life. Willie always had a fascination for the discussion on a fixed link to the mainland, and in reading his hand-written comments concerning the proposed tunnel one can almost hear the humorous way William told his stories.
Willie, and his wife, Eunice, were schoolteachers. However, this short career of Willie’s was quickly replaced by other ventures: secretary at the Crapaud Creamery, operating Waddell’s store with his brother Lloyd in Crapaud and, in later years, operating Waddell’s Poultry Plant also in Crapaud. William was one of the four founding directors of the Crapaud Exhibition, a position which he held for the remainder of his life. In his retirement years, he worked diligently on his prized scrapbook collection.
Willie often expressed concern as to what would happen to his collection after he was done with it. Coming to the rescue, the South Shore United Church with technical assistance from Tryon & Area Historical Society offered to receive the collection for safe-keeping and allow for access by the larger community. Arrangements have also been made with Crapaud Library for on-site reading of sections of the collection on a rotational basis.
Future plans include digitizing the material, so it becomes easier for research and documentation purposes.
For more information, call Fran at 902-658-2509, or Jack at 902-658-2009.
