From the beginning, Fergus claimed seniority, having been settled in 1783 while Elora, the newcomer, the kid, arose fifty years later.

From the beginning the differences were pronounced.

Fergus was Scottish and Elora was Irish, which accounted for some degree of separation.

Elora was wet but Fergus was dry, which accounted, in part, for the well-travelled road joining the settlements.

Competition between the two was a way of life. The big games were when both fielded baseball, hockey, or football teams. A member of Irvine Lodge No. 203 recalls the situation well. "It was always a grudge match when the hockey teams met. They were the Elora Rocks and the Fergus Thistles." He paused a moment. "No, wait. I think the Thistles were the lacrosse team."

The two towns shared one high school so the kids played on integrated football and basketball teams. But, after school each night, the yellow buses headed in different directions.

The rivalry two town rivalry should have ended in 1998 when a merger of several regional entities produced Centre Wellington, a catch-all for all the old names being retired. But ask a local from whence he hails, the he'll answer "Fergus!", or "Elora!".

When the slots came to town, Elora got them. Just like on the old days of wet and dry, bright lights and good times lay to the south.

When Freemasonry came to the mill towns on the upper Grand River, Elora was the first constituted. It was just four month's before Canada's first birthday in April of 1868. The founding brethren of Mercer No. 347 were a cross section of the community. The first Senior Warden was the town pharmacist, the Secretary a miller, the Tyler a retired school teacher, and the Junior Deacon a tanner. The businessmen in town had the lodge open by the time the farmers came in from the surrounding countryside. They met in an upper room of the Elora hotel which, by coincidence, was owned and operated by the lodge's first Secretary. That building later became the Odd Fellows and Rebeccas hall and today it is the home of a small live theatre company, still in the heart of Elora.

The lodge changed homes as time advanced and finally moved to Fergus in 1983 to shared the new temple built by Mercer Lodge. The sense of community was already strong. It was a bit like moving in with the kids, since Irvine helped constitute Mercer in 1876. Mother welcomed them home.

Mercer had a variety of homes. The first was in the IOOF Hall over a general store Fergus. They changed accommodation for economy when a brother offered rent-free premises over what later became the municipal offices. The free rent, of course, didn't last forever. In 1961 they erected their own building on it current site using a lot of volunteer skills. The mortgage was burned eight years later.

The location is an absolute gem. Picture a treed lot on the edge of a quiet town. Limestone is close to the surface, so the cellars don't go very deep. The back of the building is thirty feet from the Elora Gorge. The Grand River, relatively unspoiled in the up-stream reaches, has taken eons to carve its own niche through eighty feet of limestone. Man's handiwork is puny by comparison. Fortunately the gorge with its vegetation, flocks of birds and waterfowl and indigenous wildlife is a treasure protected as a conservation area.

The building itself is an ideal size---too small to be big and too big to be small.

Anyone planning to visit either of these lodges should come in the daylight hours and in the warm weather. Maybe even make it a day trip and take a picnic. My visit was in February when it was too dark to see the bottom of the gorge and too treacherous to get close to the edge.

The Wellington County Museum, formerly the county poor house, is a museum worth a visit. You can pick up all sort of odd tidbits. For example, Fergus was first known as "Little Falls". The big ones were at Elora and both prompted the harnessing of water power to run lumber and grist mills.

Fergus was named after an early settler Adam Fergusson and his six sons. The name was shortened but the family was still honoured.

Elora's name came from a more exotic and convoluted source. Captain (retired) William Gilkison founded the settlement in 1832. He was a cousin of John Galt whose namesake has since been changed to Cambridge. Gilkison's brother, also John, was also a captain. He had a ship called "The Ellora" which was named for the seventh and eighth century cave temples and sculptures at Ellora, 273 kilometres northeast of Bombay. William Gilkison named the village after his brother's ship. The carvings are curious and masterly works of stone masonry depicting the pleasures of life. The spelling has been changed, but Elora's name was set in stone.

Mercer Lodge was named for the first Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Canada.

Considering the early Scottish settlers, I asked if Irvine Lodge had been named for the once important seaport in Ayrshire. It was once a port greater than Glasgow until the river silted in and steam replaced sail.

"No," I was told, "It was named for a small river that feeds into the Grand. And it's pronounced 'er-vin', not 'er-VINE'."

You can learn a lot when you ask questions.

Happy to Meet Again !