Buried Antiques

After leaving Gwillimbury (i.e., the Holland Landing) says the Gazetteer of 1799, “you enter the Holland River and pass into Lake Simcoe, by the head of Cook’s bay, to the westward of which are oak-plains, where the Indians cultivate corn; and on the east is a good tract of land. The Gazetteer also noted that a peninsula in this basin some French ruins are still extant; and then it says, “between two large promontories is the harbour of Penetanguishene, around which is good land for settlement.” “Penetanguishene,” he finally added, “has been discovered to be a very excellent harbour.” Sailor’s Song

A “continuation of Yonge Street” was at a later period surveyed and partially opened up by the military authorities, from a point on Kempenfelt bay, a little east of the modern Barrie, in direct line to Pentanguishene; but the natural growth of the forest had in a great degree filled up the track.

In 1847, the Commissioner of Public Works, Hon. W. B. Robinson, the highway in question, sixty-six feet in width and thirty miles in length, was thoroughly cleared out and made conveniently practicable for general travel.

Dr. Thomas Rolfe, in his Statistical Account of Upper Canada, appended to his book on the West Indies and United States, spoke in 1836 of the region which we have now reached, thus: “The country about Penetanguishene on Lake Huron is remarkably healthy; roads to it, crossing Lake Simcoe, excellent. In the summer months,” he says, “it is delightful to persons who are pleased and entertained by the wild grandeur and simplicity of nature. The pure and transparent waters of the beautiful bay, and the verdant foliage of the vast woods on the east side of the harbour, form a very picturesque scene.”

Capt. Bonnycastle visited Pentanguishene in 1841. He was present at one of the periodical distributions of government presents to the Indians under such circumstances, Penetanguishene and its surroundings must have presented a peculiarly interesting appearance.

“I happened to be at Penetanguishene, “Capt Bonnycastle says, “when the unfortunate Pou-tah-wah-tamies and nearly two thousand other Indians arrived there, the latter to receive their annual gifts, the former to implore protection. [They had been recently removed from their lands in the United Sates by the U.S. authorities.] I had never seen the wild and heathen Indians before,” the Captain observes, ” and shall never forget the impression their appearance, on an August evening, with everything beautiful in the scene around, made upon me to do honors to the commandant of the British port and his guests, these warlike savages selected for the conference a sloping green field in front of his house, whose base was washed by the waters of the Huron, which exhibited the lovely expanse of the basin, with its high and woody background, and the single sparkling islet in the middle.. Behind it rose the hill which, cleared of timber, is dotted here and there with neat dwellings of the military residents. He then describes the dresses of the Indians, their painted faces, and their war-dances.

“The garrison,” he says, “is three miles from the village, and is always called the Establishment; and in the forest between the two places is a new church built of wood, very small, but sufficient for the Established Church, as it is sometimes called, of that portion of Canada. A clergyman is constantly stationed here for the army, navy, and civilians.”

In regard to the provisions supplied to the soldiers and others, Capt. Bonnycastle has the following remarks: “A farmer, Mr. Mairs, on the Penetanguishene road has introduced English breeds of cattle and sheep of the best kind. He was, and perhaps still is, he says, “the contractor for the troops, and his stock is well worth seeing. Thus the garrison is constantly supplied with finer meat than any other station in Canada, although more out of the world and in the wilderness, than any other; and, as fish is plentiful, the soldiers and sailors of Queen Victoria in the bay of the White Rolling Sand live well. “Penetanguishene means” the place of the falling sands;” the reference being to a remarkable sandy cliff which has been crumbling away from time immemorial, on the western side of the entrance to the harbour.

A diagram in the Canadian Journal, illustrated by Mr. Sandford Fleming shows a sketch from a cutting a little below Jeffery’s tavern in the village of Penetanguishene, serving to show the manner in which the soil has been removed from the side hill and deposited in a position formerly under water by the continued mechanical action of the waves. Not only does the peculiar stratification of the lower part of the terrace confirm the supposition that it was deposited on the shore of the ancient lake, but the fact that such excavations have been made in this land-locked position, where the waves could never have had much force, goes far to prove that the lake stood for a long period at this high level.” (From the successive subsidence here spoken by Mr. Fleming, the island known as the Giant’s Tomb, in the entrance to Georgian Bay, has a peculiar appearance, that of a colossal grave elevated on a high platform or pedestal.)

In 1827, John Galt, the well-known writer, had been at Penetanguishene. He was on his way from York to make an exploration of the Lake Huron west of the Canada Company’s Huron tract, from Cabot’s head in the north to the Riviera aux Sables in the south. For this purpose, a government vessel, the Bee, lying in Penetanguishene harbour, has been placed in his disposal.

In his Autobiography he gives the following incidents of his journey from the shore of Kempenfelt bay. “About half-way to Penetanguishene,” he says, ” we were compelled by the weather to take shelter in the farm house, and a thunderstorm coming on obliged us to remain all night. The house itself was not inferior to a common Scottish cottage, but it was rendered odious by the landlady, who was, all the time we stayed, “drunk as a sow, Huncamunca.’ ( A character in Fielding’s burlesque tragedy “Tom Thumb the Great”. She is the daughter of King Arthur and Queen Dollallolla and is entirely faultless, except she is a little given drink, is a little too much of a virago toward her husband and is love with Tom Thumb.) Next day we proceeded,” he continues, “to the military station and dockyard of Penetanguishene by a path through the woods, which, to the honour of the late Mr. Wilberforce, bears his name. Along it are settled several Negro families. As I walked part of the way,” Galt says, ” I went into a cottage pleasantly situated on a raising ground, and found it inhabited by a crow-like flock of Negro children. The mother was busy with them, and the father, a good-natured looking fellow, told me that they were comfortable, but had not yet made any great progress in clearing the land, and as his children were still too young to assist.”

We reached Penetanguishene, “Galt then says,” the remotest and most inland dockyard that owns obedience to the meteor-flag of England, “where, by orders of the Admiralty, his Majesty’s gun-boat the Bee was placed at my disposal. By and by,” he adds, “the letter from the Admiralty was a curious specimen of the geographical knowledge which then prevailed there, inasmuch as it mentioned that the vessel was to go with me on Lake Huron in Lower Canada. In the village of Penetanguishene,” he then informed us,” there is no tavern. We were therefore obliged to billet ourselves on the officer station there, of whose hospitality and endeavors to make the time pass pleasantly till the Bee ready for the lake, I shall ever retain a pleasant remembrance. He then describes his voyage in the little gun-boat as far as Detroit, and his examination of the river subsequently called the Maitland, and the site where Goderich was afterwards built.

Since 1840, the Rev. George Hallen has been a resident clergyman at Penetanguishene. From him have been obtained the following particulars of detachments of military stationed from time to time at that post. In 1838 a detachment of the 34th regiment Lieut. Hutton commanding. In 1838 also, there were some incorporated Miltia there under Colonel Davis. In 1840, a detachment of the 93rd Highlanders, under Lieut. Hay. In 1844, a detachment of the 84th regiment, under Lieut. West. In 1846, a detachment of the Royal Canadian Rifles under Lieut. Fitzgerald. In 1851, some of the Enrolled Pensioners, under Captain Hodgetts.

In regard to the Navy, in 1843, June 8th, the Minos, a large gun-boat, in charge of Mr. Hatch and three men, arrived to be laid up. In the same year, the steamer Experiment, Lieut. Boxer, was stationed there. In 1847 also, the steamer Mohawk, commanded by Lieut. Tyssen. In 1850, the same steamer, but commanded by Lieut. Herbert. The place was also visited by Captain Ross, R.N., when on his way to the North Seas; and by Lord Morpeth, Lord Prudhoe, and Sir Henry Harte.

Until the railway age, transport by water was the most practical method. On the river and the lakes sailing and steam vessels multiplied with the decades, some of them built and owned in the United States but many others of Canadian construction and register. Although none of the lists of ships can be assumed to be completely accurate they sufficiently indicate the character and dimensions of the merchant fleet. In 1800 three schooners and a sloop are shown on Lake Ontario. During the War of 1812 many navy vessels, of from three to a hundred guns, were hastily built, most of them at Kingston. Some were lost in action and the remainder were broken up not long after the end of hostilities. It was then that a large numbers of ships were built for commercial purposes, principally to carry freight but also passengers.

Penetanguishene is situated at the bottom of a bay extremely shallow on one side, and is a small military and naval station, as noted in Rev. A.W.H. Rose’s Travels in Canada published in 1849. He writes that there is a nice little society out of the way of Upper Canada. The probability is, however, that it will, as a naval and military depot, have to be eventually shifted to Owen Sound, where there is a military reserve specially retained in the survey, as, from the number of shoals about Penetanguishene, the island, & c., the harbour is said generally to close up with the ice three weeks earlier, and to continue shut three weeks later than at Owen Sound. Pentanguishene port was abolished in 1847; and Collingwood was the primary terminus on Lake Huron of the Northern Railway of Canada, is the place of resort of the steamers and shipping of the upper lakes.

From Poulett Scrope’s Life of Lord Sydenham, we learn that Penetanguishene was visited by that Governor of Canada in 1840.

The following account of the removal of the British post from Drummond’s Island to Pentanguishene in 1828, has been also derived from the Rev. Mr. Hallen, who gathered the particulars from the lips of Mr. John Smith, aged 80, still living (1872) near Penetanguishene, formerly employed in the Ordnance Department at Quebec, and then as Commissariat Issuer at Drummond’s Island.

“Mr. John Smith and his wife remained on the island till the 14th of November, 1828, when it was given up to the Americans Lieut. Carson commanding a detachment of the 68th regiment was there at the time; and Mr. Smith well remembers Lieut. Carson giving up the keys to the American officers, and that ‘ they shook hands quite friendly.’ The government sent the brig Wellington to take away the British from the island, but it was too small, and they were obliged in addition to hire an American vessel. Mr. Keating was at that time Fort adjutant at the island, and Mr. Rawson, barrack master. Smith arrived at Penetanguishene as a Commissariat Issuer on the 21st of November, 1828. He does not remember any vessels at Drummond’s Island. He says that Commodore Barrie came up in the Bullfrog, and that the gossip of the island was, that he was the cause of its being given up to the Americans. Mr. Keating, the Fort adjutant, was afterwards Fort adjutant at Penetanguishene, where he arrived in the spring of 1829, having been detained at Amherstburgh, he died in the year 1849.”

“Mr. Smith said that, as far as he recollects, the detachment stationed on the island were of the 71st Regiment, under Lieut. Impett; of the 79th, under Lieut. Matthews; of the 24th under Lieut. James; of the 15th under Lieut. Ingall. ( The last named officer lived afterwards at Pentanguishene.) In 1828, there were at Penetanguishene 20 or 30 marines, under the command of lieut. Wooden, R.N. In regard to the four gun-boats which are sunk in the harbour, Mr. Smith said they were sunk there before 1828, he remembers the name of only one of them, the Tecumseh.”

Mr. Hallen remarks; ‘The account I heard these gun-boats when I came to Penetanguishene was that they were brought here, I think, from Nottawasaga bay after the American war and were sunk to prevent rotting. Vessels must have been built at Penetanguishene,” Mr. Hallen adds, ” as I remembered a place on the Lake shore, about five miles N.W. of Penetanguishene, being pointed out to me as the ‘Navy Yard.’ many of the logs were still there.”

The Bee, which conveyed Mr. Galt when on his voyage of exploration along the western coast of lake Huron, was sold by public auction in 1832. In that year the first great reduction of naval and military establishment at Penetanguishene took place. Step by step the process went on until the ancient depot was finally extinguished; and in 1859 the stone barracks were converted into a Public Reformatory.

The enumeration of the stores disposed of by public venue, on Thursday, the 15th of March, 1830, and six following days, at Penetanguishene, will not be without pathos. at all events, those who have, at any time, made boats and the appurtenances of boats one of their hobbies, will not dislike to read the homely names of the articles then brought to the hammer.

It will be observed that no mention is made of a certain memorable anchor laboriously dragged from York as far as the Holland Landing en route to Penetanguishene, but taken no further, becoming, when half embedded in the earth there, an object of perpetual wonderment to beholders: a thing too ponderous to be conveniently handled and removed by an ordinary purchaser, let the amount paid it be ever so trifling.

The following, then, were the miscellaneous articles belonging to the crown advertised to be sold to the highest bidder on the 15th and following days of March, 1832, at Penetanguishene, and so, we may conclude, disposed of accordingly; – The Tecumseh, schooner, 175 tons. The Newash, brigantine, 175 tons. The Bee, gunboat 41 tons. The Mosquito, gunboat, 31 tons. The Wasp, gunboat, 41 tons. Batteaux, three in number. Thirty-two feet cutter. Two thirty-two feet gigs and their furniture. One whale boat. One jolly boat. One nineteen feet gig. Twenty-two pounds old bunting. Canvas, mildewed slightly, 366 yards. Canvas, of all sorts, cut from frigate sails, 2170 yards. Old canvas, 491 yards. Packing cases,23. Iron casks, 12. Iron bound casks,8. Wood bound casks, 24. Chest common, 2. Chest top, 2. Cordage, worn, 988 fathoms. Cordage, in rounding, 318 fathoms. Cordage, in junk, 28cwt. 20lbs. Cordage in paper, 1 cwt. 3 qrs. 1lb. Covers hammock, 5. Iron old wrought, 12 cwt. 3qrs. 16 1/2 lbs. Rigging, Durham boats, standing and running in part, 2 sets. Rigging, boats, standing, worn, 1 set. Sails for a 32 gun ship, 1 set brigantine sails, 1 set schooner sails, 1 set Durham boat nails, 18 in number; boat sails 18 in number; unserviceable stores. Axes felling, 8. Bellows, camp forge, 2 pairs. Blocks, single, 11 inch.1. Blocks, double, 10 inch, 1. Brushes, tar, 15. Buckets, leather, 14. Chisels of sorts, 12. Compass glasses, 1. Cordage, 552 fathoms. Glass, broken, 16 panes. hammocks, 16. Locks, stock, 1.Mallet caulking,1. Oars, fir, 7. Paint, white, 1 qr. 2lbs. Paint, yellow, 2 qrs. 18 lbs. Planes, 10 in number. Punts, boats, 1. Saws, crosscut, 5. saws, hand, 6. Saws, dove-tail, 1. saws, rip, 3. Spout for pump, 1. Sweeps, 4. Shovels, 9. twine, fine, 3 1/2 lbs. Twine, ordinary, 17 1/4 lbs. seines, 1.

The document which supplies us with the foregoing list announces that, “the stores will be put up in convenient lots, and that a deposit of 25 per cent will be required at the time of sale, and the remainder of the purchase money previous to the removal of the articles, for which a reasonable time will be allowed.” The whole is signed- -Wm. Henry Woodin, Lieutenant commanding, June 18th, 1832.

The Ontario 1807Act was passed providing a grammar school in each District, the masters to be paid out of public funds. The grammar schools and their wide geographical spacing precluded attendance by any except those who were nearby or could afford to be boarders. A petition from the inhabitants of the Midland District in 1812 was typical of a criticism that was widespread:

By reason of the place of instruction being established at one end of the District, and the sum demanded for tuition in addition to the annual compensation received from the public, most people are unable to avail themselves of the advantages contemplated by the Institution. A few wealthy inhabitants, and those of the Town of Kingston reap exclusively the benefit of it in this District. The Institution, instead of aiding the middling and poorer classes of His Majesty’s subjects, cast money into the lap of the rich, who are sufficiently able, without public assistance, to support a school in every respect equal to the one establish by law.