Ripley woodworker makes statement with Secord Monument replicas

Harold Galloway of Ripley believes the Municipality of Kincardine should not have destroyed the Dr. Solomon Secord Monument which sat for a century in front of the Kincardine Library in downtown Kincardine.

The issue was discussed extensively by his coffee crew last fall.

When the Kincardine Record published the story, “Secord family upset over destruction of monument by Municipality of Kincardine,” Nov. 24, the group became incensed with how council so cavalierly treated David Secord of Calgary, the representative of the family, and the whole monument issue.

Then, someone suggested the crew build a likeness of the monument and put it on the former site.

Galloway, who owns and operates Harold’s Woodworking in Ripley, decided to make a political statement of his own.

Just before Christmas, he arrived with a miniature wooden Secord Monument for each of the six guys who regularly meet at the coffee shop.

“I started out by making a replica for myself to see how it would turn out,” says Galloway. “Then I made a replica of the three pieces of the monument once it was dismantled and lying on the ground.

“I have those mounted on a board in my shop, with the following sign, ‘This is what happens if you ignore history rather than learn and educate from it’. I’ve had people in the shop from Kincardine and they don’t know what it is. How can you not know what it is?

“I think the Secord family has every right to go after the Municipality of Kincardine.”

To read about the Secord family’s response to the destruction of the monument, click here: www.kincardinerecord.com/story.php?id=17397



Harold Galloway (right) of Harold’s Woodworking in Ripley presents a Secord Monument replica to members of his coffee crew, Dave Walsh (left), Tom Lambert and Eric Howald; absent, is Robert Ross; photo by Bill Young, also a member of the crew