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By CLAIR AALFOUR A little old field stone house, the home of only two families since the war of 1812 will soon pass from the Western Ontario scene bc- cause it does not meet the requirements of modern Jiv- ing. It sis believed to have be- gun it? life beside what is now. Highway 2, about three miles west of Thamesford, as an army post and sewed as officers' quarters during the, war of 1812. It has been de- molished once /before, when American 1raiders, probably members of. MacArthur’s bands roamed much of this area of the province. W _, " " vs/ry-vt/j,",':";',,',' House Has Link-withWar of148L But Stephen Teeple restored it and lived there with his bride who bore him five chil- dren in the little cot.tage. Stephen himself was ' one of 11 children of Peter Temple, a United Empire Loyalist of Dutch descent who had fought Washington while a member of the New Jersey Volunteers, a cavalry 1mri- ment, in spite of the fact his three brothers supported the American cause. After the revolution, Steph- en's father had emigrated to New Brunswick where he be- came master of a trading ship on the coast/ met and mar- ried his wife, the daughter of a Quaker refugee from New York. But word came to the little maritime settlement of green- er pastures in Western On- tario after a cousin of Peter's had returned from a fur-trad- ing trip in this area. So Peter Teeple and his in-laws moved west in 1793. They settled at Turkey Point where the sail- ing, soldiering, pioneer be- came one of the first magis- trates in this area. The year was 1800, Petor was 38 and the seat of jus- tice was a. house-cum-tavern owned by James Munro. Shortly after this appoint- meme, local historian Charles S. Buck notes that he became one of the founding fathers of the first Baptist church in the district. 't The family spread out. _ Son Stephen moved to the Thamesford area and restored the little house, which still By D. J. A, _" Thirty six years ago citizens of Gait and district paid five cents to see a. two reel feature movie at Galb's first theatre. It was some 14 years after the development of motion pictures before Gait had a. theatre, but in the earliest days the movies were so crude lt was no wonder it took time for them to penetrate to the smaller communities). Probably the first local man to become interested in mo- tion pictures was'Alex Fras- er, who now operates a Galt taxi agency, He recalled that Galt’s first theatre bore. the glamorous name "The Star" When q. Movie Show Cost Five Cents. 't shows, in two walls, what are believed to have been firing slits. Perhaps the house was not completely destroyed by the Americans. Or again, Stephen, may have reinstalled them for his family's security. Whatever' the case,1hese two sears are the only remaining signs that the cottage has not always been a, peaceful farm house. The interior and the television antenna on the, root disguise that part of the past. Stephen died in 1877 and was buried in the 7th line cemetery. His father's grave, near Beachville, is now a cow pasture The house was left to one of Stephen's ,daughters but her brother Samuel lived "m it, and it witnessed the birth of his three children too. But the wheel came full cir- cle. In 1884, Samuel and his family, descendants of a man ho fought the Americans in Allan Payne, 13, house near Than and was _stoeatryd_'ror1.'smairr street whe're Barton's men's wear sto‘re is now situated. The theatre had a capacity of 156. Admission was five cents and Mr. Fraser began working in the theatre by sing- ing songs which were illus- trated on the screen by ap- propriate pictures. ' In 1900 Mr. Fraser bought the buslnesscan4 in that year the hit was a/ two reel feature showing Mary Pickford, under the name of Gladys Smith, in The Lonely Villa.. , _ s, 13, points out a walled-in area, at the back of theh 52-year-old Thamesford, which is believed to have been a gun emplacement. In 1009 Gnlt had another theatre when the Lyceum tIrs There is another smaller the "revolution. moved acros8 the border to Texas after sell- ing the farm to Samuel Tay: lor. a local farmer who never lived in the house, There are many Teeple descendants In the U.S. and Mrs. Norman Copp and Lloyd Teeple, both of Woodstock, are direct des- cendants. Mrs. Copp claims there are several in the St. Thornas-Aylmet' area. Her brother lives in Parry Sound and there is another branch in Toronto, she says. In 1908 Taylor sold the farm, now called Willow- brook, to William Henry Payne and it has been in the Payne family ever since. Wil- liam's son, Roy, lived in the cottage with his wife and their three children who were all born there. Now his son, Kenneth, and his family oc- cupy the one-time garrison and operate the farm. But Jiir2moves on and the opened:in a. former barn hn the site of the present Royal Bank by Howard Phipps and Dick Freeman. The same year Jack Green began to show pictures in the' old . curling rink. ' become 1ivdy, The Star closed early in 1910 and Jack Green's show house had a, life of about three months. The next Galt development then m t:iepmmoer Itfolf cw, in {the theatre business!' came Palace Theatre was opened, shortly alter 1913 when The In 1944 Galt had three mod, Temple was built by extending em theatres with a. total seat- a residence located where the ing capacity of 2,420: Today, Grand Theatre wasJater con- 20 years later, Galt has but sttyetied. The Temple phangcd one movie theatre, the Capi- hands in 1918, was b1oseAaryl tol, , tom‘petit/ion had suddenly ‘one at the front. It is not adequate w. Br'e" installation of modern light‘ ing, plumbing and heating and has been replaced by a modern ranch-style house be- hind. But it won't die. Some of the stone that has seen people come and go for over a, century and a. half will be used in a, fireplace in the new house-serving as a re- minder to probably at least one more generation of Paynes of the history of Western Ontario, and indeed of Canada. old buut11n6t m..- its memories and it: charm will soon pas the Western Ontario F. structure that has tals in a battle, has been u of three generations, of and the same number erations of Paynes, h nessed the birth of dren is no longer veq1 . _ J‘N'ana WJJL Fw'"'" stern Ontario scene. A ‘e that has taken part :tle, has been the home generations, of Teeples same number of gen" ', of Paynes, has wit- the birth of 11 chil- no longer required. not adequate tor the ion of modern light- lmbing and heating l been replaced by as ranch-style house be- with its b.1930”! and its quaint - - A... nails from reopened as the Regent which operated until May'mao and then closed, to he followed by the opening of the Capitol in June, 1930. The Capitol, the first building erected in Galt for the purpoae of showing mm tion pictures, operated alone until December 1938 when the Grand Theatre opened and then in September 1939 the Palace Theatre was opened, Mai” _