Headline News

Bierworths celebrate 73rd anniversary

June 20, 2018

Lyla and Carl Bierworth have spent more than 70 years holding hands. / SUBMITTED

By Sarah Sobanski

Two Bancroft trailblazers have celebrated their 73rd wedding anniversary.

Family, friends and staff gathered at Hastings Centennial Manor June 12 to congratulate Carl and Lyla Beirworth on more than 70 years together, daughter Nancy Wuycik said.

Wuycik said the pair met when one each of their siblings got married. Their siblings were quite a bit older than Carl, now 94, and Lyla, now 93, she said. Her dad was the baby of his family.

“Farming communities the way they are, I think a lot of different families helped each other out over the years, and I think small community too, that’s certainly how they met,” she said.

Carl and Lyla were married on June 12, 1945. It was a small ordeal with two witnesses, Carl’s sister Goldie and her husband, Sherwood Vardy. A few signatures and a justice of the peace later and things were official.

“They were very, very early settlers,” Wuycik said of the family’s history in the area. “They’ve lived there their whole lives.”

She said cresting over the hill past Bancroft’s airport used to be called the Bierworth settlement or homestead.

“They used to walk into town to get groceries and things like that. There was a story that said my dad’s father or grandfather had walked into town and carried a 100-pound bag of flour back, on his back, on foot. They’ve been farmers their whole lives in the area,” Wuycik said.

Locals will know the family from Bierworth Readi-Mix Concrete, started by Carl and carried on by his son Bob and his sons. Carl and Lyla lived in the house set ahead of the business, across from

Millennium Park and beside Park View Dental, for 70 years.

Before he started Bierworth Readi-Mix Concrete, Carl had his business on the other side of the house, where The Auto Clinic is now.

“Dad started out there. He and his father had that garage. My dad became a mechanic and when my grandad passed away my dad continued on,” said Wuycik. “It was a Supertest gas station and then he sold cars, he sold well tiles, acetylene — did all sorts of excavating, bulldozing and things like that.”

She said Carl sold the business to his cousin before taking up the “cement business” and noted that he and Lyla were greatly involved with St. Paul’s United Church.

“They’ve been pillars of the community for many, many, many years,” she said.
Carl suffered his first stroke in 2014. Wuycik said both her parents’ health began to decline after that. Not long after they would move into the manor where Wuycik said they are “both quite content,” especially because they can still reside in Bancroft. She said “the care is awesome.”

“They were quite thrilled that the manor would do [the celebration] for them… It’s heart-warming really… I can’t thank the manor and Nancy Mountney enough… Mom and Dad were just blown over by all the attention,” she said.

         

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