Our Beginnings - Charter Night, August 3rd, 1939
This came about as a result of the untiring efforts from members of the Owen Sound and more particularly, Hanover Rotary Clubs. The Hanover Club became our sponsor, and we are grateful to these good neighbours and shall ever extend to them our thanks and appreciation for their sponsorship, advice, co-operation and continued interest in our welfare throughout the years.
By May, 1939, twenty of Walkerton's leading citizens had agreed to take up the duties of forming a new club, and the charter was applied for.
The first recorded meeting of our club was May 4th, 1939. Two weeks later, our fledgling club was host in our Town Hall to a group of 50 Rotarians form Tara, Owen Sound, Hanover and Wiarton. Speakers from these clubs extended their best wishes for our success, and the late Dr. Pilkey from Hanover, presented us with a Rotary Wheel.
On August 3, 1939, Past District Governor Dr. Thomas. J. Carney of Alma Michigan presented our new club with its charter. The ceremony was held at the Town Hall. In the newspaper report which followed, the late J.A. Wesley, editor of the Walkerton Herald Times, wrote the following:
"What was declared by many guest speakers present as the most colourful event in district Rotary history was staged in the Town Hall, Walkerton, on Thursday evening last, when what is known as 'Charter Night' of the newly-formed Walkerton Rotary Club No. 5059, was consummated amid speeches. song and story around a supper table that added to the myrth, merriment and magnitude of the event it was to commemorate.
With Rotary members present from all over the district, as well as several distinguished guests there from the American side, a total assembly of about 160 sat down to the banquet. From the time the chairman shouted 'Gentlemen be seated,' to the jumping to their feet when the strains of 'Auld Lang Syne' were sounded as a hint that the bigs doings were over, there wasn't a dull moment in the repertoire."
Dr. J.H. Polkey, President of the Hanover Club, presided as chairman for Charter Night and an address of welcome was given by Mayor Harry Watts. Past District Governor Dr. Thomas J. Carney delivered an inspiring address on Rotary. He stated that Rotary was the beginning of service clubs, having been founded in 1905; he stated that Rotary in smaller towns was going places; he thought the Town of Walkerton was going to make good in Rotary, and that politics and religion are never discussed at Rotary.
President John Thomson of the Owen Sound Club presented the Canadian Flag to our club, remarking that the Union Jack is a democratic flag and our Club should also be democratic. Mayor G.H.D. Martin acknowledged the gift.
Rev. John Preston of Eloise, Michigan, and a former resident of Wiarton, in presenting the United States flag, recalled that it was 28 years since he had come down from Wiarton to Walkerton on a very sad mission and, as he walked into the Sheriff's office with the ballot boxes, he fell onto the shoulders of the Sheriff and his assistant and all three cried together, the Liberal party having been ousted from power after being in control of the Dominion for 13 years (1911 was the year in which Reciprocity of Free Trade elections were held). He felt that the presentation of his flag to another country was a sacred thing, and hoped we would give it a respected place in our Club. "As a Michigan Rotarian, I put into your keeping the flag of the United States of America," he concluded.
Carl Larsen, in accepting the flag, pointed out that between Canada and the United States runs the longest undefended boundary in the world, demonstrating how universal peace may be maintained between nations. "I had the honour of serving under the Stars and Stripes before coming to Canada," concluded Mr. Larsen, "and now consider it a grand thing to have the flags of these two great nations hanging harmoniously together in one hall."
Rotarian Alvin Kurtz of Hanover made the presentation of the Gong and Gavel, which gifts were accepted by Col. Roy Robertson. This was followed by an invitation by Carl Larsen to each guest to take home a copper mug bearing the Rotary Wheel as a remembrance of Charter Night.
District Governor H. Norheim of Owasso, Michigan had the honour of entwining the flags, and Rotary pins supplied by the Paisley, Port Elgin, Southampton and Wiarton Clubs, were presented by Vice-President Alex Campbell of Wiarton. On pinning the insignia on our President, Wes Freeborn, Alex said he hoped the Crown Attorney would never be able to pin anything on him! Rotarian Allan Nelson acknowledged the gifts and told of the service which these emblems entailed.
President of the Durham Club presented us with a Rotary Wheel, accepted by George Schwindt, and Legion