ABOUT OUR COLLECTIONS

In 1936 Wilbert Stuckey (standing in the sleigh) bought the Richardson house on the SE corner of Main and Mill Streets (currently “Marie’s Valley Inn Restaurant” and is the oldest building in Grand Valley, built in 1870). He used part of the house for his dairy business and the property behind the house to the east had a large barn and stable where he kept about 8 cows.  In an era of daily door-to-door milk delivery, Wilbert and his horse-drawn sleigh or wagon became a fixture of Grand Valley.

In the early 1940s Wilbert purchased a 3-year old mare from Gordon Smeltzer of the Rockwood area. The horse was transported from Rockwood to Grand Valley, tied to the back of a Greenwood Construction gravel truck. The mare, known to one and all as “Maude”, became the milk wagon horse for four different owners of the Grand Valley Dairy. She knew the route by heart and stopped and started by voice commands.  As Maude’s delivery talents were so well known, she often became a requirement of the sale! In 1958, after almost 20 years of making deliveries, Maude was retired to Harvey Montgomery’s East Luther farm.

Just looking at this picture, the story of the horse may not have been the first one you thought of, but it was the main reason for ensuring this image was added to the collection at the Museum of Dufferin.

History of the Grand Valley Dairy:

Wilbert Stuckey took over the dairy business from his mother, Mrs. Stephen S. (Agnes) Stuckey, in 1931.  In the 1940s, after selling off his own livestock, Wilbert installed a pasteurizing plant. Wilbert’s main milk suppliers were William Graham, Morris Crane and George Young. He ran and operated the “Grand Valley Dairy” for17 years. He sold the dairy to Chester Ryan in January 1948, after deciding to go into the restaurant business. Chester sold the dairy in December that same year to John White of Camilla.  In 1956 Irvine and Vada McCrone purchased the business. Each time, Maude the horse was included in the sale of the dairy.  Two years later when the McCrones sold the milk business to Arthur Dairy and the milk processing was relocated to Arthur, Maude was retired to pasture. The McCrones kept the restaurant and dairy bar portion of the business.

The Fisher-Price plant employed 90 workers, most of whom were women who lived locally. It was at this time that working women across North America were demanding on-par wages with their male counterparts. In 1968, the Fisher-Price Orangeville employees went on strike in response to unfair wages.

Fisher-Price responded with the following statement in the Orangeville Banner: “Under the proposal to the union, all female employees will recieve at least $1.86 per hour, within eighteen months. (In some cases this represents a more than .65 cents per hour increase). This offer is the maximum we can afford at this time and continue to manufacture in Canada. This represents an annual payroll of well over 1/2 million dollars that is, for the most part, being spent in Orangeville and district. Fisher-Price is not anti-union. The above wage proposal is only part of the substantial offer which has been made in good faith and rejected by Union. It is up to the employees of the Orangeville plant whether we reopen for manufacture.”

An agreement could not be reached and the plant closed in August 1968 after an 18 week strike by employees. The company then packed up the machinery and left Orangeville.

History of Fisher-Price:

Founded in 1930 by Herman Fisher, Irving Price and Helen Schelle, the name Fisher-Price was established by combining two of the three founders’ names. The company sold their first toy, Mr. Doodle, in 1931. They were best known for their Little People toys. Mr. Price retired in 1969 and that year Fisher-Price was acquired by The Quaker Oats Company.