Some 70 people gathered last December 9 at the St. Peter’s Anglican Church to celebrate Cookshire’s legendary Dew Drop Inn, and help launch a new book by Winston C. Fraser. The book is called Dew Drop Inn: Lasting memories of a Cookshire Landmark. It’s about his aunt Susie and Uncle Ken Fraser, the heart and soul of the Dew Drop enterprise.
The Inn was in a little yellow house on Main Street just across from St. Peter’s Anglican Church, but it offered a panoply of services. Starting in 1930, Ken and Susie rented rooms to as many as 15 people at a time, sometimes served 50 meals a day, and ran a general store. Susie was also a hairdresser, gardener, expert quilter and needle-worker. And Ken was a sign painter, taxi driver, gas station operator, and storyteller.
Sadly, the Dew Drop Inn was torn down in 1994, and its site became a parking lot for the adjacent pharmacy. But Winston Fraser has lovingly brought the Inn to life again in his book, through myriads of memories, photos, news clippings, drawings, and many a fine tale. Designed and produced by Winston’s brother, Jim Fraser, the 181-page paperback is a goldmine of Fraser family history, from the time that Ken’s Scottish ancestors and Susie’s Irish forebears immigrated to the Townships. And it recreates the ambiance of Cookshire for the better part of the 20th century, when the Dew Drop Inn was a magnet for the local English-speaking community and for travellers, too.
At the standing-room-only book launch, Winston’s boyhood friend Jim Robinson, with Susan Fowler, regaled the audience with guitar and songs. «Friendliness prevailed at the Dew Drop Inn,» was a line in a song specially composed for the occasion. Winston’s daughter, Elaine Fraser, emceed the event, and a hilarious «unrehearsed play» recounted Ken’s and Susie’s romance and the start-up of the Dew Drop Inn, beginning with Ken’s aversion to farming and a certain ornery cow.
Then Winston sat down to sign books. Many books.
He had invited everyone who assisted in his research for the book, and he gave them each a complimentary copy. «I appreciated the involvement and participation of folks who took the time to recollect, and assemble their thoughts and pass them on to me,» he said, adding that it «pays tribute to the respect and love that they had of Ken and Susie.»
Dew Drop Inn is Winston C. Fraser’s fourth book, and it is available for $15 at Townshippers’ Association and at the Eaton Corner Museum. It offers a personal, human take on local history, and offers many affectionate chuckles. Well worth the read.