Each week, the Gazette looks back on stories from the past. Here is what happened this week, by year…

1923

• A dreadful tragedy was narrowly averted when fire attacked a frame house belonging to Mr. James Hart of Picton and occupied by Mr. Arthur Wood and family last Friday evening. The building is on the old Benj. Pearsall farm on the back road about two miles from Allisonville. When Mr. Cyrus Pyne went out to the barn to do his chores for the night he noticed the roof of a neighbouring house on fire. Altho’ the house was half a mile away he hastened with all speed across the fields and aroused the family. The occupants of the house, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Wood, their six children and Mr. Wood’s parents, were all in bed and were quite innocent of their peril.
• On Friday evening Board of Trade Club members had the privilege of seeing a series of moving pictures showing something of the history and mechanism of the telephone. This entertainment was put on by Mr. J. A. Cokers, Manager of the Belleville district, who was assisted by Mr. Doolittle also of the Belleville office. In a few introductory remarks Mr. Cokers contrasted the present method of communication by telephone with the methods employed by the former generations. This thought was developed in the moving pictures.
• Everything is swinging along nicely and there is promise of big success at the Boys’ Work Conference. The program has been arranged and besides Taylor Statten speaking afternoon and evening, several of the ministers and boys of the County will take part. The afternoon session will begin at 2.30 and the Rev. C. L. Cowan will occupy the chair. The whole program will be alive with interest to the boys and their leaders.

1943

• Commercial fishing operations for 1943 commenced at Point Traverse on Saturday last, when Messrs. Clayton Dulmage, Burton Branscombe and Morley Helmer, set several spools of herring net in open waters off there. Off shore winds carried large fields of floe ice in the lake eastward, permitting the fishermen to set their nets in South Bay.
• No trace has been found of the aircraft missing from Mt. View air station since Tuesday of last week, officials  advised The Gazette yesterday afternoon. Nothing has been heard of it since it took off on an operational flight. There were three occupants who are also missing. It is feared the plane may have crashed into Lake Ontario. An intensive search was carried out in the South Rutland hills near Watertown N.Y. The search was prompted by reports of several farmers in the area that they heard an sir plane motor the same day the aircraft was listed as missing.
• Mountain View “Bombers” and the No. 6 Repair Depot finished the Bay of Quinte R.C.A.F. regular hockey schedule tied with nine points each and meet in the league finals at the Hume Arena, Belleville, this week. The “repair lads” picked up a brace of points Thursday night by beating the Belleville No. 5 I.T.S. sextette 6 to 2. While the Bombers has to be satisfied with a single point, as they were held to a 4-4 draw by the Trenton Air Station.

1973

• The Prince Edward County Community Centre and the Wellington Arena have been authorized grants of $10,000 and $6,354 respectively by Prince Edward County Council Tuesday night. In order to allow Picton to take full advantage of the Government’s Local Initiative Program, it was necessary to have the grants authorized ahead of the complete county budget.
• Prince Edward-Hastings MP Geo. He’s is all for Women’s Lib. During a recent question period on the House of Commons, Mr. Hees asked about opening up Canada’s military colleges to women. “Is it the intention of the government in the near future to open the three Canadian Services colleges to young women wishing to make the armed services a career, and so make available to then the same very real advantages now available to young men?” was Mr. Hees question.
• About 20 interested citizens who have been working for some years now toward a community swimming pool for Picton and area, left a meeting at Benson Hall Wednesday night convinced that the job can be done. Faced with cost estimates of up to $250,000 for the proposed plans, there has been some wavering about whether not the project could continue.

1983

• Lighting improvements in the Town of Picton will have to wait until Manager David Hickman of the Public Utilities Commission has time to put together a program. This was the decision made at the meeting of the Commission chaired by Commissioner Don Stanton, as Mayor Don King was away at the Ontario Good Roads Convention.
• A Waupoos home sustained $1,800 in damages from a chimney fire late Wednesday night. Picton firefighters were called at 12:50 a.m. Thursday to the residence of Hugh Hicks. A spokesman for the fire department said there was $1,000 damage to the house and $800 to its contents. Earlier that night, at 7:17 p.m., they responded to a call at Fairway Apartments to extinguish a fire in the garbage room. The spokesman said a burning garbage box caused minor smoke damage.
• A barn filled with farm machinery that belonged to Martin and Glen Foster burned to the ground Sunday, in a fire apparently caused by a spark from a tractor. The 116-year-old three-storey barn was located on the Northport Road, about three kilometres from Highway 49, and just across the road from the Foster’s home and service location. In addition to the machinery, there were about 600 bales of straw inside.