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  Hidden Ontario

  HIDDEN ONTARIO

  Secrets from Ontario’s Past

  SECOND EDITION

  TERRY BOYLE

  Copyright © Terry Boyle, 2011

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.

  Editor: Matt Baker

  Design: Courtney Horner

  Printer: Webcom

  Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

  Boyle, Terry

  Hidden Ontario : secrets from Ontario’s past / Terry Boyle.

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  Issued also in electronic formats.

  ISBN 978-1-55488-955-6

  1. Ontario--History, Local. I. Title.

  FC3061.B685 2011 971.3 C2011-901175-1

  1 2 3 4 5 15 14 13 12 11

  We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and Livres Canada Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit, and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.

  Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credits in subsequent editions.

  J. Kirk Howard, President

  Printed and bound in Canada.

  www.dundurn.com

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  Contents

  Introduction

  Acton

  Algonquin Provincial Park

  Bala

  The Baldoon Mysteries

  Bancroft

  The Bay Monster and the Shadow

  Belleville

  Brighton

  Burlington

  Cobalt

  Cobourg

  Cochrane

  Creemore

  Curve Lake

  Gore’s Landing

  Holland Landing

  Ivanhoe

  Kapukasing

  Keene

  Kingston

  Lake Superior Sites

  Lindsay

  Madoc

  Marmora

  Muskoka

  Gravenhurst

  Bracebridge

  Huntsville

  North Bay

  Oshawa

  Ottawa

  Parry Sound

  Pickering

  Port Hope

  Port Perry

  Presqu’ile Provincial Park

  Sault Ste. Marie

  Scarborough

  The Ghost of Tom Thomson

  Timmins

  Toronto

  Trenton

  Whitby

  Index

  Introduction

  History is always relevant. To understand our present and to plan for our future we need, somehow, to relate to our past. We can’t look at everything — it just isn’t possible, but perhaps we can find some doors previously unlocked, some tales almost forgotten. We can look at some chronology that creates a pathway back to the present; we can examine occurrences that remind us that the flow of time was meant to bring growth and change, evolution. This book is an opportunity for all of those things.

  A book should be an inspiration. A history book should be an invitation to review, to explore, to reminisce, to discover, to travel, to unravel. I want to take you to the past in your mind and inspire you to visit it in the present. Visit museums. Listen to our elders. Discover the stories behind the places. Learn to question when you travel, to open your awareness to all that was, is, will be, could be.

  History is alive. You can see it. Sometimes you can taste it. Often you can feel it. I love it. Let me share it with you.

  Acton

  It hits you when you walk through the doors: the massive space, the quiet, the rich earth-colours, the soft and strong textures, and a certain pungent smell that only comes from one thing. Here is Canada’s largest store of its kind and one that gives the whole town a nickname — Leathertown! This is Acton, and we are in The Olde Hide House.

  The story of Acton and its leather industry began in 1829 when Rufus Adams and his two brothers, Zenas and Ezra, arrived in the area and purchased land to farm. Ezra built a gristmill on his property. The Adams brothers opted to survey their farms into town lots and called the settlement “Adamsville.” In 1833 Rufus Adams purchased the land where the The Olde Hide House is situated today. By 1842 Abraham Nelles established the first tannery in Adamsville. The Adams brothers’ combined holdings, at that time, had reached approximately 500 acres. In 1844 the postmaster, Robert Swan, renamed the village “Acton” in honour of his birthplace in Northumberland, England.

  The ownership of the various parcels into which Rufus Adams’s original lot had been divided changed hands several times over the ensuing years. In 1856 the Grand Trunk Railway ran a rail line through it and opened the Acton Train Station.

  The tannery industry was flourishing, and in 1852 Abraham Nelles’s tannery was sold to Messrs. Coleman and McIntryre of Dundas, Ontario. It burned down that very same year and was rebuilt. It was, in turn, acquired by the firm of McCloshen and Atcheson, who turned it over to Sessins, Toby and Co.; George L. Beardmore purchased it in 1865. Thus a period of frequent turnover ended, as the tannery stayed in the Beardmore family for more than half a century.

  The Beardmore family had been associated with tanning in Ontario since 1840. George Beardmore was born in Islington, London, England, on February 16, 1818. At the age of 14 he sailed from Bristol to Canada. He returned to England in November 1838 in a bit of a quandary. He was a very religious young man and had considerable trouble reconciling his burning desire for wealth with his pastoral beliefs. April 1839 was a turning point, and he and his younger brother, Joseph, left for Canada.

  In 1840 the two brothers built the first stone tannery building in Canada, in Hamilton. The foundation for the building was laid on March 31, 1840. The Beardmores worked hard and improved, expanded and created a successful leather business. On the night of July 11, 1840, disaster struck. The tannery was destroyed by fire.

  Joseph Beardmore’s health failed and he returned to England on April 15, 1846. He died at the age of 33 in 1852. Two years later George re-established himself in Toronto, where he engaged in business as a leather merchant and at the same time continued to supply the trade in Hamilton. He then bought a small tannery at Grand River which was later destroyed by fire. Next, he bought a tannery in Guelph. In 1865 he closed shop in Guelph and headed to Acton, where he purchased the Sessions, Toby and Co. tannery in 1865.

  George Beardmore’s four sons all followed him into the business and became partners. They were Walter D. Beardmore, 1849–1915; George W. Beardmore, 1851–1934; Alfred Beardmore, 1859–1946; and Fred Beardmore, 1871–1967.

  The role a tannery played was extremely important to the economics of a settlement. The tannery was a great help to homesteaders who were clearing their land. The settlers felled hemlock trees, peeled their bark, and piled and delivered them to the tannery for cash during the winter months. The Acton Free Press once reported f
armers bringing bark to the tannery at a rate of 20 to 30 loads at a time, by teams, in a long string, down the main street of Acton.

  The hemlock spruce were not considered to have any other value before the Second World War, and whole stands of these trees were clear-cut just for the bark, the wood left in the bush to rot. The bark, on average, contained 8–10 percent tannin. This tannin solution produced a firm, quality leather with a reddish cast.

  In 1872 a serious fire at the Acton tannery destroyed most of the buildings, but the Beardmores rebuilt immediately. By 1876 hemlock bark was in critical supply and the Beardmores decided to move their tanning operations to Bracebridge in the Muskokas. Mr. Charles Knees, a native of Sweden, took over the Acton tannery in 1877 and tanned horsehide for shoe uppers.

  By 1887 the Beardmores, while maintaining operations in Muskoka, returned to Acton, repurchased the tannery, and began the tanning of belt leather. The Beardmores’ holdings were considerable by now and new buildings were erected. Eventually, the main Beardmore tanneries in Acton had a combined floor space of nearly 100,000 square metres (1,000,000 square feet), one of the largest tanning operations in the British Empire.

  In 1889 Beardmore and Company built a large brick warehouse (the present site of the Olde Hide House) next to the railway line. When the raw hides were brought in by rail, they were stored here and then transported by horse-drawn wagons to the tannery for processing. Finished leather was also stored in this building, while awaiting transportation by rail to other destinations. This arrangement soon proved to be unsatisfactory, as the route from the warehouse to the plant passed through a low-lying, swampy area that proved to be almost impassable in the spring months. The problem was solved when a spur line was built from the main rail line to the Beardmore plant, making direct shipments possible.

  In 1933 the warehouse was no longer required and was sold to Amos Mason for $1,500. Mr. Mason established the Mason Knitting Company in the building and continued operation until 1969. That year the property was sold to Frank Heller and Company, a firm that specialized in the production of split leather.

  In June 1980 Fred Dawkins, Ron Heller, and Don Dawkins purchased the building and The Olde Hide House Company in an effort to re-establish Acton’s leather heritage. Both families had several generations of experience in various aspects of the leather industry. Don Dawkins, the president and general manager of the Olde Hide House, his wife Faye, and sons Stephen, David, and Jamie, acquired the controlling interest in the firm in 1982.

  The nature and scope of the activities conducted in the acre-sized building have varied over the years. At one point, one-third of the building was devoted to arts and crafts studios (including glass-blowing and pottery); from 1983 until 1994 a restaurant called Jack Tanner’s Table occupied almost 20 percent of the building. Today, the entire 3,000-square-metre (32,000 square feet) structure is devoted to the merchandising of leather garments, furniture, accessories, and gifts, making The Olde Hide House not only the largest leather goods store in Canada, but the largest anywhere in the world. In 1999 nearly 250,000 visitors came from more than 43 countries, and they signed the leather-bound guest book in the store’s front foyer. Any trip to Acton should include the sensory experience of The Olde Hide House.

  Often a main industry will dominate the profile of a town, but if you like a little mystery, Acton has some of that, too. Most visitors are completely unaware that the town hall is haunted.

  The building was constructed in 1882, to house the municipal council, at a cost of $4,574. An expansive public hall and stage on the second floor, with dancing and other entertainments, served as a social centre for the village. The main floor of the building accommodated the village constable and a lock-up cell for prisoners — it’s still in place today. During the onset of regional government in 1974, the town hall was slated for demolition, but a group of concerned citizens saved the historic building. In 1983 Heritage Acton purchased the town hall for $1.00 and began renovations. They did not, however, manage to renovate or relocate the ghost!

  Some people believe Jimmy, the former caretaker of the building, is the ghost. Jimmy was a very quiet, hermit-like individual who shied away from people. Sometime after his death, in 1946, footsteps and sweeping sounds would be heard on the upper floor of the town hall.

  The architect hired to work on the restoration project in the 1980s actually managed to photograph the shadowy outline of a human form on the empty second floor. On another occasion a reporter, touring the building, was taken upstairs and suddenly felt a cold shiver down one side of her body. She thought a window had been left open, but soon discovered that the windows hadn’t been opened in years.

  In the fall of 1997, a reporter from Acton’s Halton Cable Network slept overnight in an attempt to capture Jimmy on film. Although he felt nothing unusual, he left his camera turned on, just in case. The next day when the film was developed, he discovered a fleeting image of a floating light in the shape of a face. The shape was suspended in space. Jimmy was well-known for not wishing to be disturbed at night.

  Whether you like a sensory experience or an extra-sensory experience, Acton will give you both, so be sure to add it to your itinerary.

  Algonquin Provincial Park

  Algonquin Provincial Park stretches across 7,725 square kilometres of wild and majestic lakes and forests, bogs and rivers, cliffs and beaches, making it the canoeists’ and campers’ paradise of Ontario. Algonquin is Ontario’s best-known recreation camping facility — but it has a history that’s sometimes less than pretty.

  Small groups of Natives dotted this corner of the province where they fished, hunted, and savoured the berries that grew plentifully here. Algonquin was the generic name given to these Natives by the French. The name was once thought to have derived from Algomequin, meaning “those on the other side,” but a newer theory is that the word comes from the Micmac Algoomaking, meaning “at the place of spearing fish.”

  It wasn’t long before the Natives had company. First it was the fur trappers, who discovered the area and moved in to take advantage of the abundant wildlife. Next, in the early 1800s, army surveyors arrived, among them Lieutenant Baddeley of the Royal Engineers. He was following orders to survey a route to link the “old colonies” in Upper Canada with the “western outposts” of the province, since most of the colonization roads ended there. At about the same time, two pioneer families, Dennison and Dufond, also settled in the district.

  Industrious loggers pushed their way up from the Ottawa River in search of the great white pine trees, the primary wood in demand in Britain. Their need for wood could not be satisfied until the last pine was felled, and the loggers’ path was easily followed, as it was a trail of devastation. The lumber gangs lived in remote, primitive camps throughout the area and felled and squared the giant pine. When the spring came they drove them down swollen tributaries into the Ottawa River and on to the rest of the world.

  Tom Thomson in Algonquin Park. Always a struggle to paint or fish! He was known to lose painting supplies when passion rocked his boat.

  Archives of Ontario

  The lumber companies were many in the 1850s — McLachin, J.D. Shier, J.R. Booth, Barnet and Gilmour, and many more. The government felt that once the timber had been cleared, the land would be suitable for homesteading. The settlers disagreed. They found the soil sandy and shallow and had to turn to trapping or working for the lumber companies in order to survive.

  By the latter half of the 19th century, the Algonquin area was in a state of utter devastation. Lumbering had increased so rapidly and over such vast expanses that the people of Ontario were greatly concerned about the future of the forests, the water, and the wildlife. Concern was also voiced about the waterways, because the Algonquin region was the headwater for five major rivers: the Petawawa, Bonnechere, Madawaska, Oxtongue, and Amable.

  It took vision and government support to resolve the situation. Alexander Kirkwood had the vision. Mr. Kirkwood was born in Belfast, Ireland
, in 1822 and lived there until 1846. He left for America that year and farmed there until coming to Montreal in 1853, where he again he took up farming. While working with Robert Nugent Watts at Rivière St. Francis, he wrote an article for the Montreal Agriculturist entitled “Drilling of Wheat.” Malcolm Cameron, minister of the Department of Agriculture, read the article and sent for Mr. Kirkwood. In a matter of days, he was dispatched to Europe to report on “the growth and management of flax on the Continent of Europe.” Upon his return he was given an appointment in the Crown Lands Department and remained there until his retirement.

  During those years he was a tireless worker. He wrote for many publications and became interested in Canadian fisheries. He and J.G. Murphy, of the Cree Grants and Sales Department, published a joint work on the “undeveloped lands of northern Ontario.” This work attracted interest and praise. Mr. Kirkwood ultimately introduced systematic forestry into Canada. It was through his foresight that the Algonquin Forest and Park was set aside for natural use and enjoyment. (Thank you, Alexander Kirkwood).

  In 1885 he began to advocate controls on trapping and on the cutting of timber in the area. He wrote to the land commissioner of Ontario, the Honourable T.B. Pardee, to suggest that they create a park and name it Algonquin National Park, in honour of the Natives who once occupied the region. Nonetheless, it was not until 1892 that a Royal Commission was set up to study the feasibility of Kirkwood’s idea. Finally, in 1893, an act of Parliament was passed that designated the region a conservation area “for the use and enjoyment of the people.” In lieu of “national” they chose “provincial,” and Algonquin Provincial Park was born.