Published in The BANAR September 2015 by Laura Dudas. Lois Kemp has been described as Blackburn Hamlet’s “matriarch”; an original resident who dedicated her life to her family, her friends and her community. Lois passed away peacefully in her home on July 16 after suffering
Published in The BANAR April 2015 by Don Budd. Leo Mainville, a bachelor, was a blacksmith when I was a child growing up in Blackburn. His gray wooden shop with two big doors that swung wide open was located in Blackburn Corners (where the daycare
Published in The BANAR February 2015 and Gloucester Leader October 1983 by Evelyn Budd. Perhaps you have noticed that we have a street and a park named “Diceman …” and wondered why. Harold and Yvonne Diceman moved into the Blackburn area in the 1950s. Their
Published in The BANAR November 2014 by Evelyn Budd. The area in which we now live was once called Green’s Creek after pioneer Robert Green, who chose to build his home and a sawmill near the creek that ran off the Ottawa River. The community
Published in The BANAR February 2014 by Lynn Sewell. Many of you in Blackburn are very familiar with the red and white Cancer Chase signs that start popping up in Blackburn in early September but perhaps you don’t know how this all started. Here is
Published in The BANAR September 2013 by Wilbrod LeClerc The Blackburn Hamlet that we know today was first sold by the Crown to lumbermen around 1790. When the lumber disappeared, the land was sold to the first settlers in the early 1800’s. Most of these
