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Gilberts: Prairie Siding ferry operator Alex Reaume was a legend

This week, I'm dusting off one of Jim’s columns from 2007.

This week, I’m dusting off one of Jim’s columns from 2007.

I am not really sure why I am so intrigued with Alex Reaume. It might have been stories my grandmother recounted about this one-armed ferry operator or maybe it was the picture I found of him shepherding a class of students across the Thames River in the 1920s before the first Prairie Siding bridge had been constructed.

Gilberts: Prairie Siding ferry operator Alex Reaume was a legend Back to video

Maybe he symbolized for me a quieter, gentler time when life was not so fast and there was more of a sense of community. Whatever the reason, I have found myself, over the years, thinking about him and wanting to know more about this man and his personality.

Not long ago, I met his grandson and he shared a March 1937 Chatham Daily News article about Alex Reaume.

According to this article, Alex R. Reaume, then 74, was born in the Township of Dover in 1863 and as a result “was entitled to recognition as one of the pioneers of the county.”

The newspaper made........

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