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These Memories I Leave to You

by Ryan Kidd

127 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #03-0855; ISBN 1-4120-0486-1; US$15.50, C$17.85, EUR13.00, £9.00

These Memories I Leave to You is a glimpse into the lives of the settlers around beautiful Mary Lake in Muskoka Ontario in the late 1800s. The book is rich with anecdotes and photos of these special pioneers.

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about the book      about the author      excerpt      catalogue info

About the Book The Settlers around Mary Lake arrived in the early 1870s. Unlike many of the settlers of the day, most of these families came by steamship and were from well-educated middle class families. They soon formed a dynamic community around the lake that was focused on Port Sydney. Their concerts, readings, sports and social life were unique. These people intermarried and formed a society that is still strong and has made Port Sydney a special community. The authors prepared this book through hours of interviews with older members of the area. These older people provided invaluable pictures, information, anecdotes and insights into the lives of their parents and grandparents. The book is a window through which the reader can identify with this life around beautiful Mary Lake.

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About the Author After preparing an historical walking tour of Port Sydney for the Chamber of Commerce on the occasion of the Millennium celebrations, Ryan Kidd, a retired school administrator from Peel County, decided to revisit the older people who were the sources of the information in the tour. He enlisted the help of his neighbour David Scott, also a retired educator. David is a descendant of one of the original settlers and he operates Clyffe House whose ownership has remained in this family for nearly 100 years. Together they conducted interviews with these people over a period of two years. Their ancecdotes and warm reception to the project brought life, humour and understanding to the history of the community that is shared in this book. Special mention must be made of Bill Clarke who mentored the authors and Eleanor Kidd who edited the book and who made many valuable suggestions.

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Excerpt

The people who lived in Port Sydney, at the south end of Mary Lake, and those who lived along the sides of the lake are at the heart of this book. Their lives focused on the town particularly in early days when it provided for their worldly, social and spiritual needs. Although no battle was fought here and no famous people lived here, the town and the area around the lake have become well known and attract many because of its beautiful setting and its strong sense of community spirit. The early settlers and their descendents have nurtured and built this spirit. This book, then, is their story and is dedicated to them.

The idea for the book arose when I developed a historical walking tour for the Port Sydney/Utterson and Area Chamber of Commerce on the occasion of the millennium in 2000. The information for the walking tour came from interviews with a number of older people living in the community. In every interview information and pictures were proffered that went far beyond the scope of the walking tour of the town. This information together with the enthusiasm of these older folk encouraged me to take on this project. My neighbour, Dave Scott and I spent over a year interviewing these people and collecting the information. The many hours of video taped interviews were largely anecdotal in nature and the perspectives varied greatly. After some debate we decided to abandon any effort to impose a consistent style and focus because it would detract from the freshness of the anecdotes and the enthusiasm of our interviewees. Instead the book is eleven distinctly different essays that look at our community in quite a variety of ways.

It is perhaps premature to publish the book at this stage. People are regularly coming forward with additional information. New gems keep turning up. It is, however, time to pass on the stories to you. George Johnson in his excellent book, "Port Sydney Past" must have felt the same way. Because he focused more on the village in the late 1800's and Sydney Smith's influence, an effort has been made to avoid these areas and instead build on the anecdotes from the interviews that primarily centre on the early 1900's.

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In 1877 when the steamer, "The Northern", was launched from the garden of Sydney Smith, there was a Fife and Drum Band in the Village along with a Cricket Club. Mr. and Mrs. Rumball were well educated and avid readers of the Classics, so much so that they named their son Ô Chilton Hathaway Shakespeare Rumball.' This was shortened to Chili Rumball presumably to avoid the ribbing that he must have received. Mildred Hoth wrote that: " A great many concerts and amateur plays were held. Mr. Rumball was quite talented in a dramatic way." (Although English, he had been born in France) The Rumball farm was where Hawk's Lane is today.

Harry Trollope on the east side of the lake was related to Anthony Trollope the famous English novelist.Ê Frank Somerset who came to the village was the fourth in succession to the Duke of Somerset and the Beaufort Estates. A family bible documents the lineage.

It was this group from late Victorian England along with the Clarkes who formed the core of this community. Few communities of the day had such scholarly and worldly members. Imagine these upper middle class people from Victorian England arriving on the wilderness shores of Mary Lake. Imagine these women putting on their fine lace shawls and gowns with the men wearing their smoking jackets for a dinner of venison. The conversation would sparkle with references to the novels of Dickens, Trollope, and Bronte. Imagine these people discussing the romantic poets while seated close to a fire in a cabin in the Muskoka bush. Imagine the excitement of the winter parties and a night of dancing the Quadrille as they kept in touch with their pasts.

Mildred Hoth described it as follows: "We were like one big family and had many jolly parties. We would go the round the lake in the winter on these parties."

This kind of diversion must have been particularly important when it is juxtaposed against their life of unremitting work, against the constant danger of injury and blood poisoning, against the sorrow of the loss of mothers and children in childbirth and against the loss of families and friends in Europe never to be seen again.

As they started their long trip north from Toronto, these settlers must have been caught between amazement and fear of the future. They travelled by train to Belle Ewart at the south end of Lake Simcoe. After that the passage was by steamer north to Orillia and by smaller steamer to Washago at the north end of Lake Couchiching. That must have been pleasant compared to the sooty train. That interlude was destroyed by the rough bouncing stage ride on the plank road to Gravenhurst. Captain Cockburn would then take them on one of his steamers to Bracebridge. (He was to become the first representative of the area to the Dominion of Canada Parliament) At Bracebridge the tired settlers would stock up at the little general store before embarking on the last 20 miles along the rough Stephenson Road through the stumps and swamps to Utterson.

Some of the settlers even managed to make this last stage pleasant. One story told by J.H. Osborne in Pioneer Days in Muskoka relates that: " surprisingly as it may seem there was plenty of whiskey, and the Murphy's being Irish were used to having a little of the 'cratar' and had secured a jug at Bracebridge. Mrs. Murphy, being on top of the load of furniture and having imbibed a little too freely, fell off the load at the foot of Moore's Hill and was stuck head first in a brush pile and had to secure assistance to get out".

All the swamps and hills had names. Few forgot the backbreaking work of pulling the narrow- rimmed wagons up hills like Brown's Hill at the cemetery west of Port Sydney or MacDonald's Hill west of the bridge.

The last lap of this journey was usually by foot with the stage carrying the heavy goods to Utterson and then Port Sydney. The rough road meandered among the stumps of trees, piles of brush and burning logs. Here and there the wagons, which had no springs, would jounce over the corduroy road where logs had been laid across swamps. The families sitting on top clutching their family treasures must have wondered what lay in the future.

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Catalogue Information

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