by Terry Boyle
William Beatty was a well-educated man for his time, elected to the Senate of the University of Victoria in Cobourg, Ontario. William was a member of the Reform Party and a Wesleyan Methodist.
The Beatty brothers sold their mill and timber limits to Rathburn Company in 1871, and, only a few days later, Rathburn sold to A.G.P. Dodge and Company, who founded the Parry Sound Lumber Company.
While “Governor” Beatty worked to promote the well-being of his temperate settlement, another community was growing on the east shore of the inner harbour around a large mill built in 1873 by the Guelph Lumber Company. This settlement was called Carrington (later Parry Harbour) and posed a sharp contrast to Beatty’s Parry Sound. This was a wet community. Mr. McGee erected the first tavern, a tavern which attracted many thirsty lumberjacks. Author Adrian Hayes, in his book Parry Sound, describes some of the hotels in Carrington:
Taverns, by law, had to contain a minimum of four bedrooms with suitable bedding, beyond that required for the comfort of the tavern keeper and his family, and stabling facilities for at least six horses. There was to be both a dining room and a sufficiently stocked barroom to meet the needs of travellers. The Globe Hotel opened on November 19, 1874. This particular establishment flourished under a succession of owners, renovations and name changes. In its last incarnation it was the Queen’s Hotel. The Thomson House, owned by Robert Thomson opened for business during the summer of 1880. This was the first tavern on the site of the former Kipling Hotel, which burned on November 30, 1986. It wasn’t until 1887, when a special Act of Parliament called for the union of the two settlements of Parry Sound and Parry Harbour, that the two were incorporated as the Town of Parry Sound.
The Beatty family were also involved in shipping on Georgian Bay. They owned a steamship business called the Beatty Lines and were pioneers in the Canadian shipping industry. Tragedy befell their shipping lines early one wintery day in 1879. The eerie and mysterious tragedy was also the last voyage of the steamer Waubuno and foretold by the last dream of a young bride of only three weeks.
The Waubuno was built by William Beatty in 1865 at Port Robinson. The hull was towed to Collingwood the same year and there the machinery was installed. The Waubuno was the beginning of fame for the Beatty ship lines on the upper lakes. The Waubuno was also the beginning of Canada Steamship Lines and Canadian Pacific Steamships.
For years the Waubuno, a 200-ton wooden sidewheeler, made weekly trips between Parry Sound and Collingwood, carrying freight and passengers during the flourishing shipping trade on Lake Huron and Georgian Bay. For the Beattys this lucrative business was heaven-sent, until a young bride of three weeks had a dream — a premonition of death.
On November 20, 1879, Mrs. Doupe, the new bride, and her husband, a doctor, retired for the night. They were to make their way from Collingwood to Parry Sound and from there to the village of McKeller, a few miles north in just two days time. There Dr. Doupe would take up the practice of medicine. That night, however, Mrs. Doupe saw the Waubuno beset with gigantic waves in her dreams. She and her husband, along with the other passengers, were struggling in the waters for their lives. She had foreseen her own death. Would they still board the ship?
The next day, news of her dream spread to the captain, the crew, and other passengers of the vessel. Although the story became a joke in Collingwood, many passengers opted not to sail in the face of this foreboding premonition.
Of that fateful day, David Williams, editor of the Collingwood Enterprise Bulletin, wrote, “Saturday, November 22nd, 1879, was a wild and winter-like day. The wind blew a gale and snow squalls were frequent. All the previous day it had been blowing great guns, and the Waubuno lay at the dock in Collingwood with one of the largest loads of the season, a number of passengers, a crew of 14, and all were waiting for the gale to abate sufficiently for her to start for Parry Sound.”
Neither gale nor a bride’s dream was going to stop Captain Burkett, master of the Waubuno, from setting sail. Besides, the Captain was eyeing the Maganettawan, a new ship put into service the same year by the Georgian Bay Lumber Company. It was lying across the harbor, loaded and ready to sail. The Maganettawan had beat the Waubuno on so many impromptu races along the North Shore that Captain Burkett was determined not to be out-sailed this time.
At 4:00 a.m. on November 22nd, the 150-foot steamboat silently sailed out of Collingwood without even a toot of its whistle to notify anyone of its departure. The gale, which had been blowing “great guns” for two days, had moderated. The trip to Parry Sound was short and relatively safe, normally, except for a 32-kilometre (20 mile) stretch between Hope Island and Lone Rock, where boats were exposed to open waters.
The bride and her husband had no chance to protest, since they were both asleep in their cabin when the Waubuno headed out. The ship was later sighted, on schedule, by John Hoar, the lightkeeper on Christian Island. At noon the Waubuno whistle was heard repeatedly by lumberjacks at Moon River. By then a heavy snowstorm was blowing, but no one thought anything of it. The ship often stopped for a whistle-pick-up of passengers among the islands. No one suspected that the Waubuno was in trouble. There was no reason to be anywhere near the Moon River, but rather safely in on the Waubuno Channel, north of Parry Island, and less than one hour away from her home port. What was she doing at the Moon River?
Apparently, when Captain Burkett came to the end of the northern leg of the course, at Lone Rock, he ran into a blinding snow storm and 64 kilometre- (40 mile) an-hour winds. Unable to obtain a clear sighting on Lone Rock, he dared not turn into the narrow western entrance of the Waubuno Channel.
At that point the Captain turned back and headed for the gap among the islands between Moose Deer Point and Copperhead. Although his navigation was on the nose, he had no way to know of an uncharted shoal in the middle of his projected passage. Normally, this shoal was 6 metres (20 feet) down, but the southwest gale changed all that. Seeing sprouting breakers here, the Captain dropped anchors, but the anchors did not catch. Years later, divers found a small anchor lying loose on the bottom and a larger anchor standing straight up, with five turns of anchor chain around the stock. The ship had shifted and come to rest when the main anchor chain caught a pinnacle of rock on the bottom and held. There, the Waubuno tossed in the breakers. It was only a question of time before something gave. Hence the distress signals. Suddenly, the foredeck gave way, the anchor was loose, and the ship was back in the gale. Downwind was an exposed rock called Burkett Rock. The paddlewheeler found it — hard. The engine-room machinery went to the bottom, the flotation hull ended up at Wreck Island, the ship split lengthwise, and everything else disappeared.
No survivors and no bodies were ever found. All of the life-preservers were later discovered among the wreckage, but no bodies. Why were the passengers not wearing life-preservers? What happened to the passengers? A mystery!
The tug Mittie Grew was sent out to search for the missing Waubuno. At the gap in the islands south of Copper Head, the tug saw evidence of a shipwreck. Wreckage lay scattered for miles, including a paddlewheel box and a lifeboat bearing the name of the Waubuno, but no bodies and no passengers. They had simply disappeared.
A short time later, several lawsuits were brought against the Beatty business. A special panel of experts in the courts presented such conflicting testimony that the court was unable to reach a decision on the case. It was concluded that the wreck was a great mystery, which would only be solved “when the sea gives up its dead.”
The town of Parry Sound survived the blow. Passenger and freight steamers became numerous. These ships were admirably well-fitted and furnished for their service. In the South Channel between Parry Sound and Penetang, the sidewheeler City of Toronto ran daily trips. The City of Parry Sound, the Northern Belle, and the Atlantic called in to Parry Sound on their semi-weekly trips. Steam yachts and tugs of the Parry Sound Yachting Fleet, as well as those of Galna & Danter, were present in force.
Parry Sound, 1901: the Belvedere Hotel. Many
grand hotels like this one were eventually lost to fire.
Archives of Ontario
In 1888 the Districts of Muskoka and Parry Sound were formed into a United Provisional Judicial District and Parry Sound was named the District Town.
On January 21, 1926, the Georgian Bay Creamery Limited purchased River Street property and commenced operations in March of that year. The creamery closed down a few years ago, but the building had a few incarnations and is now Orr’s.
At one time, Parry Sound hosted numerous tourist hotels. There was the Montgomery House owned by Joseph Calverly in 1881; this hotel served lumbermen and miners. The Canada Atlantic Hotel, operated by C.A. Phillips, had a beautifully appointed dining room. The Mansion House, on the corner of James and Mary Streets, was situated where the Brunswick Motor Hotel stands today. The Victoria House was on James Street, and just outside the town limits was Rose Point Hotel, owned by W.R. Thomson. There, guests enjoyed cruises on the Thomsons’ steam yacht, the Carlton. And there was the Hotel Belvedere situated on the hill looking out over magnificent sunsets on Georgian Bay. It was a three-storey structure with double verandas. Fire took this glorious hotel down in the 1950s, and today it is the Belvedere Heights Home for the Aged.
Gone are all the grand hotels, the ships and the yachts. Some beautiful old homes remain. Industry has been kept at arm’s length and the cultural life has found a niche of its own. There is The Festival of Sound (no pun intended) and Art in the Park. The surrounding townships have artists tucked away in every corner — inspired by this rugged land. The waterfront is beginning to develop, with two fine restaurants and an airplane service. The main street has potential but remains, as yet, undeveloped. The new four lanes of highway 400, north from Barrie, are begging for a new vision for this town. William Beatty had a dream and saw it come forth. What will the new dream be?
Pickering
In 1669 a French trader by the name of Pierre arrived at the Seneca village of Ganatsekwyagon, just east of the Rouge River in Scarborough. From there he set off across country to Lake Huron. In October of that year, Francois de Salignac de Fenelon, the first missionary to arrive in what is now Pickering Township, landed at Ganatsekwyagon.
Francois settled near the shore of Frenchman’s Bay and opened a mission school. His first winter there was one of the worst winters on record. The frost penetrated so deeply that the ground remained frozen until June. As a result, Fenelon ministered to starving Natives at Frenchman’s Bay. Food was so scarce, he was reduced to gnawing on the fungi that grew at the base of pine trees. Poor diet and rudimentary conditions led to the death of many women during childbirth. His main concern, at the time, was to prevent the Iroquois from placing live babies in the graves with their dead mothers. His attempts often failed, since few of the remaining women in the village were able or willing to care for the tiny orphans. The missionaries themselves attempted to care for the helpless infants, but were not often successful.
In 1791, surveyor Augustus Jones was authorized to survey the land between the Trent and Etobicoke Rivers and divide it into a series of townships. When Jones arrived to survey Pickering Township, he named Duffin’s Creek, a stream of water flowing into Lake Ontario, after a trader by the same name. Although he seems to be somewhat of a myth, Duffin is said to have lived there. His cabin, it is said, was always open to travellers, one of whom found the door ajar, signs of a struggle, and blood on the floor. Duffin was gone and never seen again.
William Deak, another fur trader, settled at the mouth of Duffin’s Creek in 1799. Between 1801 and 1807, a small group of houses formed a settlement at Duffin’s Creek. In July 1807 David W. Smith, surveyor-general of Upper Canada (1792–1804), sold an 850-acre block around the creek to Timothy Rogers, a prominent Yonge Street Quaker. He began to build a sawmill and a gristmill near his house, southeast of the Kingston Road bridge, but four years later he was forced to sell his property and enterprises to settle his debts. He considered Pickering Township to be the centre of Quaker settlement in Upper Canada. Roger’s grandchildren settled in both Pickering and Newmarket and pioneered the Imperial Oil Company development in Canada, as well as the Elias Rogers Coal Company. Although the Quaker population had increased the size of the settlement, it still only consisted of a few homes. By 1825 the population had reached 675.
During the early 1830s, Charles Fothergill, the noted naturalist, author, and politician, conceived an elaborate plan for a new community to be called Monodelphia. Churches, a tavern, a printing office, some mills, and a distillery were all part of his plan. Fothergill’s plan failed, but his scheme brought further construction of homes and he himself lived there from 1831 to 1837.
In 1846 the population of Duffin’s Creek was 130. There were now four churches, a grist-mill, a brewery, a tannery, several taverns, shoemakers, tailors, a blacksmith, and a wagon maker in the village. The excellent harbours, at both the mouth of the Rouge and at Frenchmen’s Bay, were used for shipping, and Duffin’s Creek was navigable for small boats as far up as the Kingston Road.
In 1856 the Grand Trunk Railway opened a line between Oshawa and Toronto. The railway benefitted the milling operations of the district. Each mill was served by a spur line of the Grand Trunk. By this time more than 50 percent of the township had been cleared of trees.
The U.S. Civil War in the 1860s hastened industrialization. War orders from the northern United States kept mills humming and encouraged farmers to put more land into wheat. Despite this, by the 1870s Pickering began to decline. Even at that time, many people could not afford to purchase Ontario farms and had headed west to homestead. The best pine and hardwood had already been exhausted and the remaining woodlots were cut again and again to pick up a little more ready cash. Many local flour mills ceased operation and were torn down or destroyed by fire.
Frenchman’s Bay Harbour Company received a $70,000 grant in 1875 to improve the harbour. It was put to good use in the construction of a lighthouse, a wharf, and a 50,000-bushel grain elevator at the bay. The formation of a tiny village, with two hotels and numerous houses, evolved. Wagons often lined up on Liverpool Road to unload barley for breweries in the United States. Later, the imposition of duty on the barley closed off the market, and the harbour activity began to fade.
In 1881 the Pickering News described the village as a growing community and drew particular attention to Pickering Woodworks and other local industries and institutions. Pickering College, a residential secondary school built by the Quakers near their yearly meeting house at Pickering, was among those institutions. The college stood on five acres of beautiful grounds with a winding, tree-lined drive that lead up to the fine red-and-white brick structure that crowned the hill. Sectarian difficulties within the Society of Friends (Quakers) in Canada forced the closure of this Quaker-run school in 1885.
Pickering was incorporated as a village in March, 1953, and on January 1, 1974, it was amalgamated with the Town of Ajax to become Ajax-Pickering.
Today a walking tour of the quaint village of Pickering allows the visitor to step back in time. Beginning at the eastern edge of the village, a 19th century home, circa 1898, numbered 145 Kingston Road, has managed to survive the march of time; at 135 Kingston Rd. E. stands a typical Victorian house built circa 1887. South on Mill Street is the Friends Cemetery where 15 or more Quaker families, who had joined in Timothy Rogers settlement, were buried. Apparently Rogers, too, lies here in an unmarked grave. The Quaker Meeting House, built around 1867 at 117 Kingston Rd. E., is now the home of the Doric Lodge. It was built as the Canada Yearly Meeting House to serve Upper Canada. The first session took place on June 28, 1867. The stone regency cottage at 124 Kingston Rd. E. was built around 1850. The attractive two-storey frame house at 107 Kingston Rd. was built circa 1911 for Dr. Fields, a general practitioner in the village.
A good example of late Victorian architecture incorporating polychromatic brickwork and Romanesque arched windows is a home, vintage 1870, at 97 Kingston Rd. E. Next door is a well-prese
rved red-frame cottage with an inviting entrance, built around 1842. This is one of the earliest houses in the village. Immediately opposite is a well-maintained Greek Revival white-frame house, built around 1880.
Turning north on Church Street and walking on the west side there is a white frame cottage, 22 Church Street N. This building was built circa 1880. A picturesque brick house with pointed gables at 68 Church Street south was built circa 1880. This home features a decorative front veranda with gingerbread and brackets. The spire of St. Francis de Sales Church (circa 1871), on Church Street S., was an early landmark in Pickering village.
North on Church and west on Randall Drive is St. George’s Anglican Church, built circa 1841. This church was built of brick that was supplied by the Grand Trunk Railway in exchange for a railway right-of-way. Church lands extended at that time as far south as the present 401 highway.
At 22 Linton Road is one of the earliest properties in the village. This 1.5-storey Ontario cottage, built around 1843, was an adaption of the Regency style popular in Ontario from the early 19th century.
Winding through the back streets are a host of historic buildings. For example, 23 Elizabeth Street is an archetypal Gothic Revival cottage. And there is much more!
Far from the death and starvation of the first winter here, Ajax-Pickering is now almost a suburb of Toronto. As a matter of fact, there is continuous development from Toronto through Ajax-Pickering, and Whitby to Oshawa. Despite all of that growth, the historic village of Duffin’s Creek remains visible.