Hometown Pride

By Jill Chapman

Peterborough County is a special place. Just ask our friends Neil Morton and the gang at PTBOCANADA.COM , who continually share fun tidbits, facts & features relevant to the culture, social climate and history of the County. Click the link below to view their list of “31 Fun Facts about Peterborough”!

http://www.ptbocanada.com/journal/2014/8/13/31-fun-facts-about-peterborough

Take special note of #18 on the list that references David Fife and the development of the Red Fife Wheat strain. You can visit the Fife family’s original cabin at Lang Pioneer Village Museum and get a feel for what early settlement would have looked like in rural Peterborough County in the early 19th century. It is hard to imagine living and thriving in these conditions while ‘roughing it in the bush’. 

Fife Cabin, Lang Pioneer Village Museum (c. 1825)

From our snowy cabin and historic Village to you, have a beautiful winter day!

Jill Chapman is the Visitor Experience Coordinator at Lang Pioneer Village Museum. She has been a member of the Lang team since May of 2012. Jill is a passionate advocate for education, the arts and fitness. When not at work, Jill might be found running through the North Cavan foothills or on one of the County’s rotary trails.

In Flanders Fields – Part 5

2016 – A year with Many Anniversaries from Canadian Military History

By Joe Corrigan

In planning the topics for my contribution to “Village Vignettes” for the year it occurred to me that 2016 marks a number of milestone anniversaries for battles with significance to our military history. Over the last 150 years, Canada has enjoyed a relatively peaceful existence. None-the-less, this year will see the 150th, 100th, 75th, 65th and 25th anniversaries of some pivotal moments in our collective experience.

The months of April and June will see the 150th Anniversary of the Fenian Raids. The Fenians were an Irish brotherhood dedicated to the cause of Irish independence during the 19th century. Shortly after the American Civil War, the Fenians numbers in the U.S. swelled to 60,000. Most of these men were Civil War veterans from both sides of that conflict. When they were discharged from the Union and Confederate Armies, most were allowed to keep their rifles (in keeping with the U.S. 2nd Amendment rights it would appear). The Fenians decided to flex their muscle and influence international politics by invading Canada and seizing it as a bargaining chip with Great Britain to gain Ireland’s freedom. Typical of most American invasion plans, the Fenians thought it was, as Thomas Jefferson implied in 1812, “just a matter of marching”. Their first “raid”, if you can call it that, took place in April 1866 at the border between Maine and New Brunswick. Despite its small scale and comic opera quality it served to galvanize pro-Confederation sentiment in New Brunswick and thereby helped bring about the union of the British North American colonies just over a year later. A much larger and more successful raid took place on the Niagara frontier, the traditional American invasion route, in June of that year. Lang Pioneer Village has been staging a Fenian Raid re-enactment at our Dominion Day event on July 1st each year since 2009. In 2016, the re-enactment will be an event of its own and will take place on Sunday, July 3rd, 2016. You can check our website www.langpioneervillage.ca for further details. 

Lang Pioneer Village's Dominion Day Re-enactment. Photo by Dawn Knudsen

100 years ago, the Canadian Expeditionary Force was engaged in combat on the Western Front as part of the British Army. After their baptism of fire in Flanders in the spring of 1915, the Canadian Corps (as now our troops numbered up to four divisions) had been moved to a relatively quiet sector. They were fortunate not to be chosen for the initial wave of the Somme Offensive which began on July 1st, 1916. This became known as the blackest day in British military history as over 50,000 of the troops who went over the top on the first day of the battle were either killed or wounded. The Canadians would participate in the battle but not until September. The Royal Newfoundland Regiment (Newfoundland was a separate British Colony at the time and did not become part of Canada until 1949) did take part in the initial attack and were virtually wiped out. Of the 780 men who went forward at Beaumont-Hamel that morning, only 68 were available for roll call the following day. The effect on Newfoundland was devastating. In some communities, every soldier who went overseas was either killed or wounded. In Newfoundland today they temper their Canada Day celebrations with the commemoration of Memorial Day. This year, Newfoundland’s provincial museum, The Rooms, will be marking the 100th Anniversary with events and exhibits. I’d invite you to visit their website www.therooms.ca for more details.

Later this year, we will be marking the 75th anniversary of the sinking of the Bismarck in May and the Battle of Hong Kong in December. The defense of Hong Kong from Japanese invaders marked the first major combat for the Canadian Army in WWII. Despite a dogged defense, our troops were forced to surrender and spend almost four years in captivity under brutal conditions in prison camps. The 24th and 25th of April will mark the 65th anniversary of the Korean War’s Battle of Kapyong in which the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry held their position against overwhelming odds and helped prevent a rout of UN forces. Finally, 2016 will mark the 25th anniversary of the 1st Gulf War in which Canadian air and naval units supported the coalition forces in driving the Iraqi army from Kuwait.  

The Bismarck

Sherman Tanks- Korea

Gulf War

Over the course of the year the “In Flanders Fields” series will explore each of these events in greater detail.


 Joe Corrigan has been Museum Manager at Lang Pioneer Village since February of 2003. He has been a lifelong student of history. His specific areas of interest are Canadian and world political, military and sports history with a particular focus on biographical works. Joe has been interpreting Sir John A. Macdonald at the Museum's Historic Dominion Day event since 2007.