Lintonia

Despite the conveience of my car, I must admit that the idea of catching a ferry to Lindsay sounds like a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. A number of images have come in showing the lakesteamers plying the lake.

The Lintonia at the Upper Warf

Courtesy of the Neelands Family

Headed back to Lindsay...

Courtesy of the Neelands Family

The Esturion at the Warf

Courtesy of the Neelands Family

Dressed for the Ferry Ride.

Courtesy of the Neelands Family

Rear view of a Steamer

Courtesy of the Neelands Family

Riding up the Canal to Kirkfield.

Courtesy of the Neelands Family

Arriving at the Point by lake steamer

Courtesy of the Neelands Family

And great fun was had by all!

Sturgeon Point Family Ties

I love how I can spend an entire afternoon playing with the family tree of one family only to find that it links up with another totally unexpected family.  I have been looking at the Needler Family.  William Walker Needler was a miller in Lindsay.  He and his first wife, Sara Jane Waddell, had three daughters - Eva, Mary Maud and Sara Helena or "Neenie".

Mary Maud, Sara Helena and Eva Needler, abt 1884

We have explored Mary Maud Needler Robinson's family in Mary Maud Needler & Lotta Burrows but this post is about the surprise I got in studying older sister Eva's family

Eva was married on 11 Sep 1894 in Lindsay to John Muir McLennan.  While we don't have a picture of the bride and groom, the bridesmaids which included her sisters were photographed.

The Bridesmaids - Mary Maud and Sara Helena Needler are idenitifed

but unidentified is their cousin Lottie Burrows who is 2nd from the left.

John "Jack" Muir McLennan was the third son of John McLennan (b. 31 May 1830, Glengarry Co., Upper Canada/d. 28 Mar 1916, Lindsay, Ontario, age 85 yr 10 mos 28 days/bur. Riverside Cemetery, Lindsay, Ontario) and Helen Scott (b. 31 Mar 1839 Glengarry Co., Upper Canada).

Jack McLennan at Sturgeon Point

John McLennan, Sr. was the Sheriff of Victoria co. (1885-1914) and elder in the Presbyterian Church, served as Chair of the Lindsay Board of Education (1869, 1871-72, 1874-75), together with his brother Donald McLennan ran the hardware store McLennan & Co – which in time was taken over by his son John Muir McLennan.  He was also an avid curler and played with William Needler and John Dundas Flavelle.

Eva & John Muir McLennan had one daughter - Helen Walker McLennan (b.1896) and two sons, Hugh Muir McLenann (b. 1897) and William "Bill" Needler McLennan (b.1900). 

The Three Needler Sisters and their Families

Eva & Jack McLennan with Helen, Hugh and Bill; Mary Maud & Frank A Robinson

with Helena & Eva Grace; and Sara Helena Needler - abt. 1906-7

McLennan Family boating along the shore at Sturgeon Point - Jack & Eva at the back, their sons Hugh & Bill in front

Walkie's Store is the white house on the shoreline at the bottom of 1st Street.

The McLennans boating at Sturgeon Point

Swananowa's boathouse is visable at the back as is the floating boathouse at Walkie's Store

Helen Walker McLennan never married. After serving in WWI, Hugh Muir McLennan married Alleyne Livingston Meyers.  Bill Needler McLennan married Mary Drewry Chad in 1927.

Hugh Muir McLennan, abt 1917

Courtesy of the Olde Gaol Museum, Lindsay, Ontario

Helen Walker Mclennan & her brother, Hugh McLennan, abt 1919-20

John Muir McLennan’s next oldest brother was William A. McLennan (b. 21 Dec 1864).  He also joined the family hardware business. He was married 8 Oct 1907 in to Beatrice Laidlaw.  They lived with Sherrif John McLennan, Sr. in the McLennan residence at 60 Bond Street, Lindsay. 

Like the Needler family had a cottage at Sturgeon Point.  They purchased their property on Henry Street in 1914. 

William & Beatrice had two children - James Laidlaw McLennan (b. 9 Aug 1908) and Helen Beatrice McLennan (b. 28 May 1912).  Helen married David Forbes in 1937 in England.  They had three children and she brought them back to Canada at the start of the war, eventually settling in Toronto.  The marriage did not survive.  Helen and her children continued to cottage at Sturgeon Point and in time, she retired there, where she died in November 2001.

So Eva Needler McLennan's neice was Helen McLennan Forbes... Small world...  Do you have any pictures of William & Beatrice McLennan and their children here at Sturgeon Point?

Sturgeon Point Regatta 1979

These images of the 1979 Civic Holiday Regatta recently came in... Can you find yourself?  Can you name anyone else?  If you can identify anyone, please e-mail us and use the image number.

Civic Holiday Regatta, 1979 - Image 1

Civic Holiday Regatta, 1979 - Image 2

Civic Holiday Regatta, 1979 - Image 3

Civic Holiday Regatta, 1979 - Image 4

Civic Holiday Regatta, 1979 - Image 5

Civic Holiday Regatta, 1979 - Image 6

Civic Holiday Regatta, 1979 - Image 7

and two of the canoe races just for fun...

Civic Holiday Regatta, 1979 - Image 8

Civic Holiday Regatta, 1979 - Image 8

Sailing Friends

When we speak of sailing buddies we tend to think of the kids at the Club.

SLSC 1956

We tend to forget that Sturgeon Pointers continue to sail long after their Club days have passed.  It is for these sailors that the Laser Fleet has existed for so many years and for these sailors that the Sunday Afts and Regattas continue.  We are hoping that the hugely successful Canadian Masters Laser Regatta, that was hosted here at Sturgeon Point in 2010 - and for which we won CYA Regatta of the Year - will be back again this summer.  Watch the SLSC website for details and come and volunteer.

Some of our other sailors were...

Hopkins boat - sailor not identifiable from this angle

Race Day Sturgeon Point - Fred Hopkins' boat in lower left

Ger Steward in Egoshaker - Sunday Afts, 1970s

Bill Brown & Fred Hopkins

Bill Brown & Fred Hopkins

SLSC 1999

Waiting for the gun, Radial Class, 2007 Mid Ontarios

Courtesy of SLSC

Skippers Meeting, 2011 Mid Ontarios

SLSC Summer 2011

SLSC Summer 1956

We've come a long way!  Calling all eight year olds... There is only 161 days to the start of Club... 

2012 Focus for the History Boards

This Summer's history boards for Canada Day and Civic Holiday will focus on two themes.

For Canada Day the focus will be "Sturgeon Point on the Water".  For that we will be looking for pictures of docks... boathouses... motor boats, canoes, sailboats... trips to town by boat... waterskiing... sailing... regattas... trips to other regattas... to Third Landing... swimming... being thrown off a raft... the Public Dock... Upper Warf... Sand Bar...  We want old pictures, recent pictures, photos from the 1960s and 70s...

Last year we found that focusing on two streets did not give us enough space to show all the amazing photos we received.  So this year we are focusing on 2nd Street for the Civic Holiday Regatta display.  So if you have pictures... we want to see them.  Again all decades and all families...

This year Sturgeon Point will also be participating in Doors Open 2012 in September.  We will be opening the doors of the Church, the Upper Warf and the Golf Course.  If you have pictures of the facilities or events taking place there, we would like them for the history boards that we will be creating for those venues.

We look forward to seeing your pictures.

John Dundas Flavelle & Rev John Walker Macmillan

at the Sturgeon Point Golf Course, abt 1906-1910

Cottage Interiors

The exteriors of our cottages and homes are a part of our visual landscape to such an extent that it often takes a visitor to point things out.  The Corn Cob has been yellow for so long that it never occurs to us to wonder if it was that colour when the Grantham family owned it and called it "Evelyn's Bower".  But what about the interiors?  While some pictures do exist.  With the natural wood interiors of most of the cottages, it was too dark before the flash was invented for interior pictures. Most pictures were taken on the porch and they show how much living occured there.

On the Porch at the Neelands Cottage on Lake Avenue between 5th and 6th Streets, abt 1900

But some interior pictures have survived.

Living Room & Dining Room of the Neelands Cottage on Lake Avenue between 5th and 6th Streets, abt 1900

The picture of the Gibson girl that shows up at the Neelands Cottage also shows up in the Barr's Cottage.

The Barr family - Daisy Barr, Margaret Barr, Ethel Roper Barr, CD Barr, Howard Barr, abt 1915

This picture of the Barr family was taken in CD Barr's cottage which stood on Lake Avenue between the current Barr Cottage and the Macmillan cottage.  It has since been demolished.  It is an unusual photograph because it also shows the maid standing in the doorway.  While "staff" are no longer common at The Point they used to be a part of everyday life.  The Kennedy's sleeping cabin on Lake Avenue used to be tucked back against their hedge across from the garage.  It used to house their staff that came with the family from Toronto.  Staff was then supplemented from the surrounding farms and from Fenelon Falls.

Dr. Bill Graham's great uncle Bill Graham in the Living Room of the Frame Farmhouse on the Graham Farm, early 1920s

The Graham family frame farmhouse still stands across the drive from the brick farmhouse that was built in the mid-1920s.  The brickhouse was built on the site of the original log home that had been built in 1866.

Dining Room at the Appleton Cottage, Sandy Point Road, 1930s

The picture of the Appleton's dining room shows that electricity had not yet been installed with oil lamps hanging from the ceiling, as sconces and free standing lamps.  On the left hand side you get a tantalizing glimpse into the kitchen beyond.

A bedroom at the Kennedy Cottage on Lake Avenue, 1950s

The picture of a bedroom in the Kennedy Cottage shows two guests visiting... while the guests are long grown, the furniture is still there!  And not much had changed in this picture from the late 1980s...

The Dining Room at the Kennedy Cottage on Lake Avenue, 1980s

This is a terrific picture, likely dating from the late 1980s or early 1990s, showing the winterizing of the Benson Cottage on 3rd Street.

Benson Cottage on 3rd Street - Bill Harris, Lois Benson, Charlie Gray and Pat Benson, undated

Size-wise, the Benson's wood stove had nothing on the Thakes' furnace...

Nap time in the Living Room at the Thake's Cottage, 2nd Street, abt 1995

If you have any interior pictures of your cottage, we would love to see them.

Another Flavelle Connection...

Well it is a small world out there and we never need to get to six degrees of separation here at The Point.  We have had an amazing response to my request on information about the Campbells.  Here is some of what we found out.

Edwin William Dundas Campbell was born in Toronto on 11 Sep 1905.  His brother, Gilbert Dundas "Soup" Campbell was born in Toronto on 25 Dec 1908.

They were the children of Edwin Thomas Campbell (b. Aug 1869 Toronto/d. 1934 Toronto) and Lulu Olivia Dundas (b. 17 Nov 1869 Elmira NY).  Edwin T and Lulu were married in Toronto on 8 Nov 1899.  They lived a 496 St. Clair Avenue East in the Moorepark neighbourhood of Toronto. 

Now this is where things get fun.

Lulu was the daughter of John Dundas & Martha Carpenter of Elmira, NY, and the granddaughter of William Dundas & Olivia Higgenbotham.  Lulu and her brother William Dundas (anyone... anyone... starting to sound familiar...) were raised in Toronto by their father's aunt, Lydia Brunker "Lottie" Dundas and her husband, Laurence Maguire.  Young William Dundas went on to be a merchant in Lindsay (how surprising!) and in 1902 married Rose Edna Hockin.

Lottie's brother was Joseph Rutherford Dundas (lovely cottage at the bottom of 2nd Street) who married Amy Caroline Jones... and who took in his sister's children and trained them in the dry goods business.  Their Sturgeon Point cottage was inherited by their daughter Ada Dundas, who married William Rundell.

Cottage of Joseph Rutherford Dundas

Lottie's sister Dorothea Brunker Dundas married John Flavelle... whose children Joseph Flavelle, John Dundas Flavelle, William McElroy Flavelle and Margaret Flavelle Milner had such a huge impact on the community.

When Lulu first came to Sturgeon Point is not known, but she does appear in the 1880 picture of the Dundas clan camping at Sturgeon Point.

Lulu Olivia Dundas is No.11 on the legend and that makes her the small child sitting on a stump directly in front of the tent.  Her grandfather, William Dundas (No. 2) is sitting in the chair - it may be a wheel chair.  He died in 1885.

Lulu & Edwin T Campbell bought the cottage on 1st Street in January 1909.  From them is passed to their son Edwin W.D. Campbell and his wife, Kay Lucas.  As Edwin & Kay had no children, the cottage then passed to Harold Edward Grover, then to Alice M. Armstrong and then inn 1985 to its current owners.

Ed & Kay were well known for their wonderful Saturday night parties with Ed's extensive jazz collection and a well stocked bar.  These parties were usually attended by June & Bill Mclean, Amy & Clair Stewart, Marg & Jick Macmillan, Flavelle & Hazel Barrett, and John & Betty Kennedy.

Later Ed & Kay left 1st Street and moved down the Point to Sandy Point Road, where the Saturday night parties also included Irving & Jean Chalmers, Fluff & May Macmillan and the Appletons.

They are also fondly remembered by their Lucas and Bain nieces and nephews.

Campbell Cottage on 1st Street

I am doing some research on the 1st Street cottage that belonged to Ed Campbell and his wife, Kay Lucas, daughter of Village Clerk Gavin Lucas and his wife Maud Paton.  Kay was also the sister of Eleanor Lucas, who married Jack Bain, and of John Lucas who married Elma Everist.  The Lucas family cottage was down on Henry Street.

The Campbell Cottage on 1st Street

Ed Campbell worked for Canada Packers.  He and Kay did not have any children and so it passed out of the family after them, but before that the cottage had belonged to Ed's parents.  Ed and his brother "Soup" or "Soupy"... how appropriate if your last name is Campbell! ... grew up there as children.

Can anyone help me with the first name of the Campbell parents?
Can anyone tell me Soup Campbell's real name?

Any help at all would be really appreciated.

Heretics and Colonizers by Nicholas B. Breyfogle

With all the confetti being tossed over the publication of Greg Holt's new book Curiosity Killed the Hedonist, it was brought to my attention that Nick Breyfogle latest book Heretics and Colonizers came out in November 2011.

Nick is an Associate Professor of History at Ohio State University.  In his latest book,  Heretics and Colonizors, is based on his 1998 Ph.D. thesis Heretics and Colonizers: Religious dissent and Russian Colonization of Transcausasia, 1830-1890 (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia).  

In this new book, Nick "explores the dynamic intersection of Russian borderland colonization and popular religious culture.  He reconstructs the story of the religious sectarians (Dukhobors, Molokans, and Subbotniks) who settled, either voluntarily or by force, in the newly conquered lands of Transcaucasia in the nineteenth century.  By ordering this migration in 1830, Nicholas I attempted at once to cleanse Russian Orthodoxy of heresies and to populate the newly annexed lands with ethnic Slavs..."

Nick "focuses throughout on the lives of the peasant settlers, their interactions with the peoples and environment of the South Caucus, and their evolving relations with Russian state power. ... Although the settlers suffered greatly in their early years in hostile surroundings, they in time proved to be not only model Russian colonists but also amongst the most prosperous of the Empire's peasants.  Although banished to the empire's periphery, the sectarians ironically came to play indispensable roles in the tsarist imperial agenda.

The book culminates with the dramatic events of the Dukhobor pacifist rebellion, a movement that shocked the tsarist government and received international attention.  In the early twentieth century, as the Russian state sought to replace the sectarians with Orthodox settlers, thousands of Molokans and Dukhobors immigrated to North America where their descendants remain today.

Nick drew "on a wide variety of archival sources, including a large collection of previously unexamined letters, memoirs, and other documents produced by the sectarians that allow him unprecedented insight into the experiences of colonization and religious life."

Nick's book is also available through Amazon.com