The year was 1924. The place was Paris, France. The event was the Summer Olympics. Samuel Goodwin Vance, born in Hickson, was awarded a Silver Medal in Team Clay Pigeon Shooting.

Sam Vance, a son of James and Susan (Goodwin) Vance was born in Hickson on March 30, 1879. His father was a storekeeper in the village. Sam attended public school in Hickson. By the 1891 census the family was living in Amabel Township in the southern part of the Bruce Peninsula. Ten years later, in the 1901 census, Sam was a general merchant living in Townsend Township, Norfolk County.

It’s not totally clear just where Sam learned to shoot, more specifically to shoot trap. One account has him introduced to trapshooting on the ice at Georgian Bay. Wherever he started, one point is crystal clear. He had a long and celebrated history with trapshooting.

Sam won the Canadian Trapshooting Championship in 1912 and the Canadian Handicap Championship in 1913. He represented Canada in the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium in both team clay pigeons and individual competition.

Shortly before the 1924 Olympics he broke 100 straight to tie for the Middlesex Gold Medal in England and won the Middlesex Handicap. That same year the Canadians won the British Challenge Shield with 100 straights by Sam and two other shooters … a feat that has never been equalled.

At the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris there were 69 shooters representing 12 countries in Men’s Team Clay Pigeons. Sam and his teammates won the Silver medal, losing to the US team and besting the Finland team. These were the last Games in which team events were part of the Olympic shooting program. In the 1924 Olympics Canada was the only country with 3 shooters in the top 10 in the world and Sam Vance was one of them, finishing 6th in individual trap competition.

After the highlight of competing at the Olympics Sam continued to shoot. He was the Ontario Singles Champion in 1926 and 1927: the Ontario Handicap Champion in 1928: and the Ontario Doubles champion in 1933 and 1937. He won both singles and doubles in 1927 at the ATA Eastern Divisional Shoot in Syracuse, New York . In 1935 Sam became the first Canadian ever to tie for the Grand American Handicap at Vandalia, Ohio. Most unfortunately, he ended up as runner up, losing in a shoot off.

For his years of dedication and promotion of trapshooting, Sam Vance was nominated to the Amateur Trapshooting Association Hall of Fame and was inducted in 1971: the Ontario Trapshooting Hall of Fame in 1981: and the Tillsonburg Sports Hall of Fame in 2006. He is widely recognized as “The Father of Trapshooting in Canada”.

Sam achieved success not only in his chosen sport but also in his personal and business life.

He married Edith Lillian Sommers in June of 1906. In 1912 Sam and his brother, Jim, formed the Vance Brothers Feed and Seed business in Tillsonburg. Sam stayed active in the business until his death on May 16, 1947 at age 68. Sam and Edith are survived by many great nieces and nephews, some of them still living in the Tillsonburg area.

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The photo in this story comes from the Lemp Studio Collection. It is featured in "Crossroads In Time", page 171 and called "Rowe's Store, Hickson". The caption reads as follows:
Built by Thomas J. Loveys c. 1883, the store and post office was originally operated by James and Susan Vance and located on the north side of the highway, just west of the railway. It was also used as a ticket office for the railway before the new station was built in 1904. It was purchased by the Wilfred Rowe family in 1905, burned in 1912 and immediately rebuilt in a similar style.

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Thanks to Robert Stock for providing the lead on this story and to Bruce McPherson, a descendant of Sam Vance, for his help with content.