I am not sure when Denis Nolan and his wife Catherine arrived in Bradford. He came from Newton Robinson but I cannot find any records of birth, I do know he was 68 when he died on Feb. 13, 1943. This making his birth year 1875.
He was the 24th Reeve of Bradford serving from 1928 – 1934. During his tenure, the municipalities of Bradford, the Township of West Gwillimbury and the Township of King signed the contract for the drainage of the Holland Marsh.
Dennis Nolan had a Ford Dealership in Bradford east of four corners on the north side of the road. On the northeast corner was the Green Block, next to the east was Mr. Stevenson's office then the Ford Dealership.
In The Bradford Witness March 17, 1943, Tom Pratt wrote:
"Another ex-reeve has passed away recently in the person of Denis Nolan, a fine upstanding man whom the electors of Bradford choose as their Reeve seven times. ---I know that the citizens always spoke well of him. I remember when cars were still young, seeing him come to church – Church of the Forty Martyrs – in a Ford car and I think it must have been the first car to enter that churchyard. I suppose it was his early familiarity with the Ford car that led him into the Ford car business in Bradford. ---Mr. Nolan left a family, a very satisfactory family at that, to carry on. I was very sorry to read of his death in the Globe and Mail."
The Nolan home was directly across the road from Fredrick Street on Barrie Street.
At the time of his death, he left behind his wife Catherine (Born 1873 and died at the age of 94 on Jan. 12, 1967), a son Jim (All I can say about Jim was that we worked with his dad at the garage. He had four boys, James, Denis, Paul and Eugene. If anyone knows more about him please send info to me), a daughter Constance, known to many people in the area as Connie, and a daughter Eileen (Nolan) Grise who lived in the Midland area.
Constance is who I feature in this history lesson.
Connie was born on Jan. 10, 1907. Going to elementary school, secondary school then University of Toronto, she became a much-loved Latin teacher at Bradford High School. Included is the BDHS class picture of 1933 – 1934; Connie was teaching then. She stayed at BDHS until her retirement in 1967.
Connie taught through two generations of students. My father Bus Culbert and Mother Lylia (Bell) Culbert had her as their teacher and my sister Nancy (Culbert) Young had her as a Latin teacher. I never took Latin but would see Connie at school.
After her retirement, some of the former students decided to take her out to eat at the Compass Restaurant in Newmarket. They met at her home for a visit before going to eat. My sister was playing the piano and every so often Connie would excuse herself to the kitchen where she enjoyed a little snort. Looking for sheet music Nancy lifted the piano bench top but quickly closed and sat down for there were a couple of “bottles” inside! Off they went to eat and Connie was having a great time. At one point she asked to go to the washroom so a couple of girls went with her. In the meantime, the server came up to the table and asked if “their 'grandmother' was feeling okay”.
I believe it was David Blackwell that said “She is not our grandmother but our Latin Teacher!”
When I was still in school I did a lot of work at the house before she moved, cutting her lawns and in winter, shovelling her snow. One day I asked her why during class shifts I often saw her going to the water fountain to take a pill and some water. “Oh yes, my Spence Pills!” I asked her what she meant and what was a Spence Pill. She told me “When I looked to see who was my next class coming in and saw Linda Spence (who later married Bill Whiteside) I would run out and take a nerve pill!!” I guess Linda liked to get her going.
Another time she called me to come and shovel off her veranda roof as the snow would drift over the upper roof and land in large drifts there. We had just sat down to eat supper so I told her I would be downright after eating. “Oh my God! I might be dead before that!” then laugh and hang up.
After I finished my apprenticeship in upholstery and refinishing she called me to come and refinish the top of her sideboard. I went to the house and removed all the treasures of the sideboard, stripped the finish off and told her I would leave it to dry overnight then come back the following day and put a new coat of finish on.
“You are going to leave all this stuff on the table? What if I die in the night? People will think I am a messy housekeeper," she said.
I would laugh and assure her that if that happened I would be sure to tell whoever that I was working on the top, then we would have a good laugh. All her furniture was tagged who would get what when she departed this world.
Around 1979 Connie felt the big house was too much for her and moved to a condo on Holland Court. She had a suite looking uptown on the east side of the building.
On Dec. 3, 1981, she talked to her good friend Rose Mac Ewan (retired from the post office and living on the southeast corner of Queen and Church Street) as they did every night. She told Rose in a slurred voice that she thought she was coming down with a cold and decided to go to bed early. She told Rose that she had turned the electric blanket on the bed to high and was in the den having a snort while waiting for it to warm up. Connie fell asleep in her chair and hopefully was overcome by smoke before the fire coming from the bedroom got to her den and she passed from this world.
Constance Nolan “Spinster” was born Jan. 10, 1907 and died Dec. 3, 1981, at the age of 74.
Gone but not forgotten by her many students and friends.
