History of the Greater Harvey Historical Society
EARLY DAYS OF GHHS
The first meeting of the Buckhorn Historical Society was held on September 27, 1984 with eight members in attendance.
At the next meeting in October of 1984, the name of the society was changed to The Greater Harvey Historical Society to include the entire town of Buckhorn (part of which is in Smith Township) and surrounding areas.
The members of the society decided that they would like to publish a book on the history of Harvey Township and started to collect information on churches, schools, cemeteries, early events and many family histories/photographs, and began interviewing people from the area.
In 1992, the society released their historical book titled Harvey Township An Illustrated History.
With the profits from the sale of our books, the society erected two commemorative monuments, one at Nogies Creek Cemetery and the other at Sandy Lake Cemetery.
In 1999, David Kemlo was approached by the Buckhorn Library to become a director of the society. Pam Dickey attended with him and was soon nominated to become the President. A position that she held a number of times in the past 6 years and now hold again in 2005. David has remained as a Director of the society for the past 6 years and recently received an award for his hard work and dedication. Both David and Pam along with numerous individuals work endless hours for the benefit of our community.
When Pam became president, she found that the society had collected over a 1000 family photographs, many of which still remain unidentified, along with a number of family bibles and interesting artifacts, one of which is the original deed for land owned by Sir Sanford Fleming with his original signature.
With the merging of Galway, Cavendish and Harvey, and the growing interest world wide in family genealogy, the executive decided it was time to charter a new course. One of our primary objectives was to find a home where we could share our wealth of data.
The Township council was kind enough to provide us with a large storage room in which we preserve our archives along with the areas we now use as our library, research facilities, and computer room.
The Greater Harvey Historical Society and Archival Centre has continued to grow, due to dedication and hard work. We continue to collect family histories, books for our library and have received numerous heritage items from many individuals who like us wish to preserve their heritage, yet keep the items in their community.
Due to the fact that we are 5 minutes out of Bobcaygeon we also include the surrounding areas within our research, extending into the Victoria County Region.
What started as a small group of individuals trying to preserve their heritage has turned into a large group of individuals who enjoy receiving our wonderful newsletter, attending our functions, and helping us collect and preserve information, not just for ourselves, but for our children’s children and for generations to come.
We have two locations, our main office for genealogy and research is at the Galway Hall, located at 388 Galway Road. We are open here on the 2nd and 4th Fridays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. from April 14 to October 27.
Our second location is a display of historical artifacts, information and pictures from the Kinmount area. It is at the Kinmount Railway Station. We are open there on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. from Victoria Day weekend (May 20 2023) until Thanksgiving weekend (October 7 2023).