Heritage

Don Reinhart is known beyond Headwaters for his stint as the no-nonsense auctioneer on two seasons of TV’s “Storage Wars Canada”.

Beyond Joanne and Martin Woudenberg’s busy floral counter are rows and rows of antique furniture, wall decor and collectibles.

Jon Medley, a lifelong antique hunter and collector, took over the sprawling, packed-to-the-rafters Inglewood Antique Market in 2018.

Alanna Babka and Bonnie Schneider met playing in a baseball league, and have bonded over breathing life into cast-off collections.

At John Wright’s new Erin antiques outpost, artwork and chairs hung on pegs fill every inch of wall and English-country vignettes cover the floor.

Settlers in the 19th century came here to farm, and to do that they had to clear the trees. Their success with that was thorough and dramatic. So was the impact on the landscape.

Facing a crisis was part of daily life for the settlers of these hills and they had no outside help to see them through. What they depended on instead was inner strength, creativity, resources at hand and good neighbours.

A new museum exhibit called Our Voices, Our Journeys celebrates local black history through the personal stories of a Caledon congregation’s pioneering contributions to Headwaters.

For 75 years Ontario students had to pass demanding provincial exams to get into high school. Preparation was rigorous and it was widely believed rural teachers weren’t up to the job.

Live entertainment flourished in these hills a century and more ago. Before new technologies like the cinema changed everything, the stages of our local town halls were filled with performances that appealed to every taste.

From the mid-1870s until 1925, magistrate Joseph Pattullo had to pass sentence on a range of human foible and sin. The record suggests he usually judged the accused with fairness and sensitivity.

Getting to Upper Canada took determination – and good luck.