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Hart Doran Dies |
Obituaries To Comment on this article Click Here Submitted by Mike Sterling |
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The Doran family have been a fixture around Southampton for decades. The family lived on Grovesnor Street for years and then built a home right behind their original on River Street. That's where Hart's father Nathan and then Hart and his wife Marion lived. The three Doran Boys Ralph, Maurice and Hart were famous for being able to do things. Hart's sisters were equally talented. The entire family was musical. Five years ago a woman stopped me in front of their old house. She commented more to herself than to me. "That was a happy house.... always music coming out the doors and windows" With their father the boys built wooden boats down at the Southampton Harbour and in Sauble Beach where they did commercial fishing. A model of their net system is on display at the Bruce County Museum. Their rebuilt boat The Sauble Clipper was famous. Hart was one of the kindest and most colourful men you could ever meet. He could tell wonderful stories and had a great way about him. Everything he said was with a smile and he was a great help with anything. He had all sorts of skills. Here are a number of stories he told that will touch on some of them: Boat Builder Nathan, his father was a much in demand wooden boat builder. The long hull straked boards were lapped and sealed. The curve of the hull was important and Nathan would ask the boys to get up very early to steam the boards so that they could bend easily to the hull shape, when he came in after breakfast. When it came to Hart's turn, he had figured out that he could sleep a bit longer by boiling the boards. His dad was happy with the results of 'Hart's Steam Process' House Fires Hart's mother and father had come from Meaford way and they had a terrible house fire up there. This made his mother terrified of flames. The old house on Grosvenor had a wooden stove in the kitchen. The pipes went right up through the kitchen ceiling to the main rear bedroom and then meandered over to a wall and up a short chimney. There were two big bends in the pipe and they would build up with dangerous creosote. The family would shuffle Mrs. Doran out of the house for some shopping by secret agreement and light a tremendous fire in the stove. The boys would position themselves with buckets to quench any flames that got out of hand and combust the build-up in the pipe. The old floor in the bedroom still shows the results of the stoking episodes. The Cold Horse Marion and Hart lived in a number of houses over their joy filled marriage. At one time they lived on the banks of the Saugeen. In winter you have to stay clear of the drop off because you may slip on the ice and end up in the cold and frozen Saugeen, breaking through the ice. Both man and animal have suffered such a fate One day a horse did just that. Hart and the neighbors pulled it out by rope and managed to 'struggle' it up the bank. Now what to do? No owner was available. No suitable barn was nearby. The horse would die of hypothermia, so Hart just walked the horse over to their house and in the front door. The horse stayed until recovered and Marion and Hart loved the new guest
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The Nose of the Minister Hart was in a number of business enterprises. He became enchanted with raising chickens. He did so in an old building at the south end of Grovesnor now gone. It was handy and large enough to accommodate Hart's modest supply of chickens. He had a few too many roosters as partners, however, and the flock began to grow alarmingly to around 10,000. The neighbors began to complain about the smell. People in Southampton are not 'fussy' about a little home grown business, but the assault on their olfactory glands was too much so they petitioned the Town Council for a ruling on Hart's Chickens. Not wanting to confront the Council and his friends without an expert witness, Hart contacted a man of God, the local United Church Minister for a ruling. It could be that the Minister suffered from severe sinus trouble, who knows? Hart kept that secret to himself. Hart brought his expert and the Town Council was not impressed and ruled against capitalism and for the neighbor's noses. Hart was not upset. He had tried his best and sinus afflicted expert had not been eloquent. Let's Dig a Well' Nobody on the north end of Grovesnor has ever succeeded with a shallow well. For some reason they don't come in with any success. Hart wanted one for his garden so he enlisted a local professional expert to come in and put in a well. Three young men arrived and they came with proper tools. Three days later all the young men were exhausted and the driving points were broken or lost at $75/ each. They gave up, but Hart did not. He enlisted me to help him and he 'witched the yard' We decided to use a back hoe that Hart ran with a lot of expertise because that was one of his professions. Now a backhoe is not a neat way to dig a small hole. Backhoes like to dig big shallow holes or even larger in diameter deep holes. They don't mind picking up stuff or pushing it around. We dug a hole that was at least 30 feet in diameter and 16 feet deep finally breaking through the culprit that had defied the experts. It was a strata of 3 feet of gravel that broke so many sand points. Now the real work began. No water was found with the big shallow hole, but nice sand made pounding the points possible, but how far did we have to go and how wide would the hole be? Neighbors began to gather to see the folly unfold. But Hart's witching had been well done and at 38 feet we struck 7 feet of water. Hart was happy. Marion was less so because the hole had overrun her garden and threatened her patio, which was on the brink of toppling into the ever expanding scar. The house foundation was not far behind. After we installed a 42" in diameter casing with proper ladder and pump at the bottom, Hart beamed. We had gone down 38 feet in about 60 solid hours of work He had not been denied. He had avenged the 'Minister's Nose' caper. If you ever did a well with a man, he is your friend forever. Hart's Mark Doing renovations around Hart's boyhood house, I was able to save and use an old brick that Hart had scribed 85 years ago with the initials HD. At the same time I found in the wall an old slingshot that he had placed there for safekeeping. Look at Hart's picture again. He has a twinkle, does he not? |
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