At Home in Tay Valley: Celebrating Our 200th Anniversary

By Burnstown Publishing House

In 1816, the British government founded the Perth Military Settlement, to help address a number of issues it faced following the War of 1812. How to protect Upper Canada against future attack from the United States. How to demobilize vast numbers of soldiers. How to relieve conditions at home as industrialization began changing the way people li

• Language: English
• Publisher: Burnstown Publishing House
• Release date: Nov 30, 2015
• ISBN: 9781772570212

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5 Leckie Lane

Burnstown, Ontario K0J 1G0

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Copyright © 2015

Rogers, Kathleen (Kay), Editor

At Home in Tay Valley

PB: ISBN 978-1-77257-020-5

All rights reserved. Except in the case of brief quotations embodied in a critical review and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher or author, or, in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from Access Copyright (Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency), www.accesscopyright.ca.

One Yonge Street, Suite 800, Toronto, Ontario, M5E 1E5.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Rogers, Kay, 1947

At Home in Tay Valley / Kay Rogers

Lanark County, Tay Valley Township, Bathurst, North Burgess, South Sherbrooke

Editor: S. Code

Cover and Interior Design: W.D. Clements

FRONT COVER:

Barn-raising on the farm of J.D. Moodie, Scotch Line, June 30, 1886.

See Scotch Line Memories, by Glenn Moodie. Photo courtesy of the Perth Museum.

BACK COVER:

Adeline Miller, likely leaving for church, circa 1900–10.

Photo courtesy of Betty (Jordan) Miller.

FRONTISPIECE:

Map of Tay Valley Township. Courtesy of Tay Valley Township.

Published and Printed in Canada.

At Home in Tay Valley

200th Anniversary — Perth Military Settlement

Kay Rogers, Editor

Dedication

To the memory of my parents, Peter and Marjory Rogers, from whom I acquired my love of history as well as the rewards associated with community engagement.

To my partner, Cathy Cameron.

To the memory of all those who came before.

Frontispiece

The former townships of Bathurst, North Burgess, and South Sherbrooke were amalgamated in 1998.

The township was renamed Tay Valley Township in 2002 in recognition of the river that meanders across our landscape, continuing its historic role of linking communities.

Contributors to At Home in Tay Valley.

Front Row: Betty Miller, Roy Kirkham, Gerry Noonan, Alan Jordan, Keith Jordan, Maxine Jordan, Ruth Miller-Baker, Alex Cuthbertson, Bud Van Alstine, Pat Mackler.

Middle Row: Irene Strong Kirkham, Kay Rogers, Dorothy Blair, Doris Kirkham, Theresa Kirkham, Susan Freeman, Helen Earl, Karen Ennis, Sharon Beattie, Arlene Stafford-Wilson, Jackalyn Brady, Alan Preston, Karen Prytula, John Ferrier, Alvin Kelford, Glenn Moodie.

Back Row: Susan Code, Ken Blair, Brenda Kennett, Nancy Erwin, Ellen Good, David Zimmerly, Roy MacSkimming, Don Beattie, Pat Donnelly, Dan Woods, Nick Mulder, David Truemner, Ron Coleman, Claudia Smith, Paul Consitt, Gord McCallum, Elmer Dodds, Claire Dodds.

Photo courtesy of the photographer, Bruce Rigby, taken in November 2014.

Absent: Art and Helen Bowes, Simon Brascoupé, Nat Capitanio, Kenn Chaplin, Annie Dalton, Allan Davidson Deacon, Lynn Davies, Carl and Doris Ferguson, Gerry Greenslade, Barbara Jordan, Tobi Kiesewalter, Aili Kurtis, John McKenty, Nancy Miller Chenier, Diane Miller Duncan, Frieda Moodie, Mabel Noonan, Mark Noonan, Susie Osler, Cathy Phelan, Aiden Pierman, George and Verna Perkins, Diane Quinn, Carol Ritchie, Heather Sheratt, Paula Sherman, Jim Stone, David Taylor, The Taggart Family, Franc Van Oort.

Table of Contents

The truth about stories is that’s all we are.

—Thomas King

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgements

Setting the Stage

The Lay of the Land — Jim Stone

Place Names — Karen Prytula

Unearthing Local History — Brenda Kennett

The Omàmiwininì

The Omàmiwininì — Paula Sherman

The Settlers Arrive

The Settlers: Rich in Hope — Kay Rogers

Exodus — Dan Woods

The Pioneering Ritchie Family — Carol Ritchie and Kay Rogers

My Menzies — Jackalyn Brady

Descendant of the De Meuron Regiment — Elsie (née Darou) Foster

From Cork to Bathurst — Gerry Noonan and Mark Noonan

Clifton Farm — Paul Thomas Consitt

The Lally Family — Lynn Davies, Diane Quinn, and Aidan Pierman

Sustaining the Family

Hearth and Home — Kay Rogers

A Year in the Life of a Lanark County Farmer in 1850 — F. John P. Consitt

The Importance of the Basswood Tree — Claudia Smith

Arduous Work — Ellen Good with Heather Sherratt

One Bathurst Woman in the 1930s and Her Labours of Love — The Mather Family

Hard-Earned Cash

Making Ends Meet — Nick Mulder

Mills of Tay Valley — David Taylor

The Lanark Greening Apple — Kay Rogers

The Prospector — Tobi Kiesewalter

Say Cheese — Kay Rogers

Scotch Line Cheesemaker’s Home in the 1930s — Kenn Chaplin

Our Sugar Bush — The Ennis Family

Getting Around

Roads and Tolls — Kay Rogers

Harness Bells — Pioneer Era and Memoirs

Romantic Perth–Westport Stagecoach — Perth Courier, August 3, 1934

Schooling

Schooling — Kay Rogers

Community Life

Community: The Heart of Who We Are — Susan Code

Government Response to Community Need: The Great Fire of 1870 — Kay Rogers

The Belle of the Ball — Cathy Phelan

The Blacksmith of Fallbrook — David Taylor

Scotch Line Memories — Glenn Moodie

Gatherings at the Boweses’ — Art and Helen (née Dodds) Bowes

Truelove Memories — Doris (née Truelove) Kirkham

Childhood Memories of Fallbrook — Helen (née Ennis) Earl

Merry Month of May — Arlene Stafford-Wilson

Connecting Neighbours — The ABC Association

Back to the Land in Brooke Valley — Susie Osler

Special Memories and Other Stories

Bud’s Recollections — Bud Van Alstine

Growing Up on Ferrier Road — John Ferrier

Give the Auctioneer a Wink — George and Verna (née Barr) Perkins

Deacon Family History and Stories — Allan Davidson Deacon and Freida (née Deacon) Moodie

Jordan Memories — Alan Jordan, Betty Miller (née Jordan), and Keith Jordan

Retired Dairy Farmer and Auctioneer — Alex Cuthbertson

The Mystery of the Unidentified Woman in the Family Photo Album — Pat Donnelly

Memories of One Old House — The Miller Family

Irene Kirkham: A Strong Sense of Place — Susie Osler

Won’t Be Long ’Til Sugar-Making — Carl and Doris (née Cousins) Ferguson

Valley Girl — Nancy Erwin

The Comedy Kings of Christie Lake — John McKenty

Anna and William McLaren: Otty Lake Pioneers — Donald Beattie, Sharon Beattie, and Roy MacSkimming

Horse Stories — Ken and Dorothy (née Heney) Blair

Basswood Lounge — Claire Dodds, Elmer Dodds, John Ferrier, and Alvin Kelford

Discovering My Tay Valley Roots — Ron Korry Coleman

The Lure of the Lake

Cottaging — Kay Rogers

Breezy Heights — The Taggart Family

Sending the Kids into the Woods — Kay Rogers

A Shoal Story — Rover Scout David Truemner, Camp Opemikon staff, 1960–63

The Past as Prologue

The Past as Prologue — Susan Freeman

Bibliography

Foreword

IT IS SAID that if you want to know the direction you are going, you need to know where you started from. Therefore, it is with great pleasure that I present to you, At Home in Tay Valley, a book about our founding, our history, and our community. You will read about the Algonquin and about the early settlers, and why they left their home countries to settle in this wild, vast place of trees, rocks, lakes, rivers, and swamps. You will read stories from the past, as well as stories by the descendants of the early settlers.

At Home in Tay Valley tells how these ancestors of ours travelled over land, up rivers, and across lakes, carrying all they owned; turned forests into farmland; built schools; dammed rivers and streams to power mills to saw lumber, ground grain, debark logs, and later, provide electricity; mined mica; wove textiles; made cheese; and with the help of the original local inhabitants, learned to make maple syrup. Half a century after the first settlers arrived, they became citizens of a new country: Canada. A few years later, a railway ran through this area uniting our country from coast to coast. Our ancestors were part of all of this; they helped build our country.

At Home in Tay Valley brings our history to life, gives us pride in the blood, sweat and back-breaking labour of our forebears, their mutual support and co-operation, and their strength, fortitude, and integrity as they developed our community and, in so doing, allowed us to be at home in Tay Valley today.

I invite you to discover this rich history, and enjoy the stories and tales as we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the arrival of the first settlers. On behalf of Tay Valley Township Council, I wish to thank Kay Rogers and the many contributors to At Home in Tay Valley for their efforts.

Keith Kerr

Reeve, Tay Valley Township, 2003+

Warden, Lanark County, 2015

Preface

THE YEAR 2016 marks the 200th anniversary of settlement by Europeans in what is now Tay Valley Township—settlement that began in 1816 as part of the Perth Military Settlement. For Tay Valley Township’s 200th Anniversary Working Group, compiling the rich history of the township was an obvious legacy project. As the editor, my vision had two components. The first was a book bee: a collaborative community project with a host of contributors. The second was to weave together the historical record with personal stories, illustrations, and photographs.

The township’s geology laid the groundwork for human activity on the land, from the days the Omàmiwininì (Algonquin) camped by its lakes and rivers, to the agricultural and mining pursuits of the settlers, to today. Naturally, At Home in Tay Valley begins with the lay of the land. While the settlers arrived in 1816, they were not the first people to live here; the Omàmiwininì had arrived many years before. This historical record, therefore, includes an account of the Omàmiwininì as provided by an Algonquin scholar.

At Home in Tay Valley then responds to the question of why the British government encouraged people to immigrate to this area and why people wanted to leave their homes to start a new life in a strange land. At Home describes how the settlers sustained their families, earned cash, and travelled. Schooling—a priority for the settlers—is looked at in the context of creating an education system in Ontario.

At Home honours community: the heart of who we are. It provides a snapshot of the cottagers and campers lured to Tay Valley Township by our many lakes and rivers.

Last but not least, At Home considers how the past may provide clues for our community’s future.

Throughout, At Home in Tay Valley includes stories and special memories of the people who know it best: the people of Tay Valley.

The more I researched and met with people, the more I came to know that this book only touches the tip of the iceberg. Complete volumes could be written on any one of the topics covered here, not to mention the role and contributions made by churches, the agricultural and other community organizations, and co-operative and independent business ventures. What’s more, there are endless stories and special memories still to be captured. I hope others will pick up the torch and delve deeper into the rich history of our community.

At Home in Tay Valley is one of several legacy projects planned for 2016. The net proceeds from the sale of this book will be directed to an initiative dear to my heart: an annual history scholarship to be presented to a student graduating from the Perth and District Collegiate Institute or St. John Catholic High School, who has been accepted into an apprenticeship, college, or university program and who has demonstrated a keen interest in history. Donations in support of the scholarship are most welcome. Contact Tay Valley Township at www.tayvalleytwp.ca, or 613–267–5353.

Kathleen (Kay) Rogers

Pike Lake

Acknowledgements

BARN-RAISING, QUILTING, AND threshing bees are all collaborative projects. Fittingly, the making of At Home in Tay Valley has also been a collaborative project: a writing bee, an interviewing bee, a reading bee, a photography bee, and a behind-the-scenes supporting bee. In short, At Home in Tay Valley is the outcome of a wonderful, many-faceted book bee.

I am grateful to the sixty-plus people listed in the Table of Contents who contributed their stories and expert accounts, as well as the talented artists and photographers whose images speak a thousand words: Simon Brascoupé, Nat Capitanio, Annie Dalton, Gerry Greenslade, Aili Kurtis, Gord McCallum, Franc Van Oort, and David Zimmerly.

As readers will discover, several chapters were drawn from interviews. I wish to thank Bruce Rigby for organizing the how to do oral history workshop with John MacDonald, Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographic Society and respected expert in the field, as well as John for his wise counsel. Bruce helped with the interviews, as did Graeme Gordon. Graeme warrants special mention for making copies of the interviews for those interviewed, as well as for the local archives in order that the complete interviews will be available for future researchers. In addition, Graeme made arrangements with Professor Sali A. Tagliamonte, Department of Linguistics, University of Toronto, to have transcripts made. Bridget Jankowski, a researcher in the Department of Linguistics, did yeoman’s work co-ordinating production of the transcripts so we received them in a timely fashion. Professor Tagliamonte’s area of research is language variation and change, which includes regional phraseology and accents; and, yes, Tay Valley township’s accents and phraseology piqued academic interest.

My special thank you to Sandy Campbell and Carol Rigby, who generously offered to read the draft manuscript. Their suggestions were invaluable.

I wish to thank all those who helped with the maps and other images for the book. Ken Watson, Barry Crampton, Karen Hunt, and David Taylor researched the trail the first settlers took from Brockville to Perth in 1816. Graham Sibthorpe enhanced a number of old photographs. Jan Rawling photographed several historic photographs and artwork. The Canadian Canoe Museum, Ontario Parks, Past Recovery Archaeological Services, the Perth and District Historical Society, the Lanark and District Museum, and the Perth Museum all contributed photographs free of charge.

I wish to acknowledge Tay Valley Township Council for their confidence in me and this project. Thanks to the members of the Tay Valley Township 200th Anniversary Working Group, as well as Noelle Reeve and Kristine Swaren, both dedicated Tay Valley Township staff members, for their ongoing support; Michael Glover and Annie Dalton, owners of the original 1816 Ritchie family homestead and ECOTAY Education Centre, for generously offering ECOTAY for the official launch of At Home in Tay Valley.

Books and publishers go hand-in-hand. My sincere thanks to Susan Code, editor, and to Wendy Clements, graphic designer, as well as Tim Gordon of Burnstown Publishing, for his support and expertise in niche market books such as At Home in Tay Valley.

It has been a privilege and a pleasure to meet and work with so many wonderful people during this book bee that has resulted in At Home in Tay Valley.

Kathleen (Kay) Rogers

Setting the Stage

Winterscape. Photo courtesy of the photographer, Gerry Greenslade, who lives in Tay Valley.

The Lay of the Land

or Geology’s Role in the Human History of Tay Valley Township

Jim Stone

PEOPLE ARE INTERESTED in the geology of a particular region, because it helps to explain the shape of that surface of the ground and because of its impact on the lives of those who live in the region. A geological explanation provides some insight into why some areas are forested and others not; why farms are in some locations, and why rivers flow where they go; the location of mineral and water resources; and how geology affects lake acidity. An understanding of the geology can also give some insight into the possible future landscape. All these elements are included in this overview of the geology of Tay Valley township.

Tay Valley township, which covers an area of 550 square kilometres, is home to the Fall, Mississippi, and Tay rivers, more than thirty lakes, numerous creeks and ponds, wetlands, swamps, forests, and agricultural land. Due to the arbitrary nature of settlement surveying, the township straddles two major geological zones in Canada —the Canadian Shield and the St. Lawrence Lowlands.

On the surface (so to speak), the township is not marked by high hills, large faults, large eskers, impressive volcanoes, dinosaur fossils, meteorite craters, or deep valleys. The land is quite flat, with the highest point at 200 metres above sea level located in the northwest of the township, and the lowest point 122 metres above sea level on the shores of Big Rideau Lake. In general, the surface of the land slopes from higher ground in the west of the township to the lower ground on the east side of the township.

When examining the geology of the township, it is useful to remember that geological knowledge relates only to the geology at the surface, except in the few places where either mines or wells have been dug. These surface rocks have been dated as more than a billion years old by measuring the rate of radioactive decay of some elements in the rocks. Yes, granite is slightly radioactive.

A bit of history: It seems that more than 1.3 billion years ago, when this area of North America was at times under water, large flat beds of limestone were laid. Between 1.3 billion and 1.1 billion years ago, these rock masses were compressed horizontally by moving continents, and the sea bottom was slowly pushed over the land. This slow motion buckled the rocks, burying some, lifting others, covering some with molten magma, but ultimately pushing up to form a large mountain range along the east coast of what is now North America, the Grenville Mountains. The geologic term for mountain building is orogeny, and the Grenville mountain formation seems to be the earliest reference to the township as an orogenous zone. The roots of these mountains were subjected to continuous pressure, heat, and deformation, which largely hardened the rock. This slow cooking at about 750°C and twenty miles deep over the next 200 million years slowly changed limestone to marble, and changed sandstone to gneiss (pronounced nice). Some molten magma invaded cracks and weaknesses in the rocks and, in some places, formed large bodies. The additional heat further changed the existing rock. The mountain building deformed the rocks in a northeast–southwest manner.

Map by CGIS Spatial Solutions, courtesy of Tay Valley Township.

By about 900 million years ago, the Grenville Mountains had been eroded, and the roots of these mountains exposed to another 400 million years of erosion. About 500 million years ago, the area seems to have been submerged under sea water, and horizontal beds of limestone and sandstone were laid down over a large area, including all of what is now Tay Valley township. Ripple marks can be found in these beds, indicating that the rocks were formed by underwater deposition. Since then, these beds have been little changed except for their almost complete erosion in the western part of the township.

Most of the township, except for small areas northeast of Perth and in the central part of the township, has a surface geology made of the Canadian Shield. In eastern Ontario, the main feature of the Shield is called the Frontenac Axis.

The Frontenac Axis is a southeast extension of the very hard and old rock of the Canadian Shield that covers much of Canada and extends from the area of Algonquin Park southeast across the St. Lawrence River (forming the Thousand Islands) to link up to the granitic Adirondack Mountains to the southeast in upper New York State. The term shield was coined only in the early 1900s, to describe a large area of exposed Precambrian (between 540 million and 4 billion years ago) crystalline and metamorphic rock. The shield rocks form the ultimate bedrock, even where they are overlain by the softer and more flatly bedded rocks typical of the lower Tay River. Most of the bedrock of the Frontenac Axis that underlies the middle to upper reaches of the Tay River is made up of granites and gneisses, with several lines of crystalline marble.

This shield bedrock is very old, typically from 700 million to 1,500 million years. It is made up of igneous rocks (formed from molten magma or lava), such as granite; metamorphic rocks (formed by heating pre-existing rock under pressure for a long time), such as crystalline limestone (also known as marble); and gneiss (originating from granite or sedimentary rocks). Granite (from the Latin word for grain) is largely composed of quartz (up to twenty per cent), feldspar (up to sixty-five per cent), and mica, and does not have bedding or layers.

The intrusive granite is the main surface bedrock in Tay Valley township. The predominant colour is pink, reflecting the high proportion of feldspar in which potassium is the dominant element. Quartz, and to a lesser extent feldspar, is highly resistant to weathering, which makes this a very hard rock, particularly in comparison with limestone. One has only to visit local cemeteries to see how limestone tombstones have weathered much more than their granite counterparts.

Linked with the intrusive granites are smaller pockets of very dark and dense rock found to the west of Christie Lake. These rocks are of a similar age as the granite, and have high contents of iron and magnesium, but little quartz. All these igneous and metamorphic rocks are very hard and resistant to erosion.

Precambrian shield granite bedrock with metamorphosed sediments.

Photo courtesy of the photographer, Gord McCallum.

The second most common surface bedrock in the township is crystalline marble (1,000–1,500 million years old). This is a whitish rock with flecks of mica in it. It is found in four main bands lying over the granite, in a northeast–southwest direction. One of the features of this rock is that, in comparison to granite, it is softer and dissolves in water, albeit slowly. It is interesting to see that even though the marble surface is limited in the township, many of the lakes in the township—Black, Pike, Christie, Farren, and a small part of Bennett—have marble as a significant part of their shoreline, and also reflect the general northeast–southwest orientation of the marble bands. The consequence for these lakes is that the calcium carbonate of the rock forms what is known as a weak acid in the water of the lakes.

Island on Pike Lake showing off its striations.

Photo courtesy of the photographer, Gord McCallum.

A major property of this acid is that it can maintain an equilibrium acid level when additional acids are put into the water, particularly when the lake receives a sudden load of acid, as it does during the spring melt, with the consequence that the acidity of the water in the lake remains unchanged. This has positive spinoffs for the aquatic life in the lakes, as the water is highly resistant to acidification due to this geological influence.

In addition, the softer rocks, such as marble, and the rocks of intermediate hardness, the gneisses, have been more susceptible to erosion over millions of years than the harder granites. As a result, today’s Precambrian bedrock in the township has granite ridges aligned roughly in a northeast–southwest alignment, with intervening valleys where the softer rocks had been eroded. This topography is easily seen in aerial photos, as the lakes are more or less aligned in this direction, along with the swamps and creeks.

While the substance of the underlying bedrock is important for understanding the basic shape of the surface of the land, the current shape of the surface is the result of relatively recent modifications (in the past million years), by continental glaciation and by post-glacial events, such as the flooding of the region near Perth by the waters backed up by the retreating glaciers.

In the past million years, there have been four advances and retreats of continent-sized glaciers, with a lengthy period in between one retreat and the next advance. These ice sheets were more than a kilometre thick, and during their advances scoured, eroded, and shaped the rock underneath them, pushing all soil before them. When the advances stopped and the glaciers started to melt, they left characteristic deposits of sand, rock, and gravel. The last of these glacial periods, called the Wisconsin stage, began about 80,000 years ago and ended in the Tay River area about 12,500 years ago.

During the approximately 70,000 years of glaciation, the surface of the land was scraped down to bare rock by the huge weight of ice and then further eroded by the moving ice, which dragged rocks along the surface, leaving scratches (known as glacial striae) in the rocks and, in some places, polishing them. These striae indicate the flow direction of the ice, which in the township is generally from the northeast to the southwest. The surface layer of the hard granite was polished by this action, which can be seen about seventy-five metres west of Conlon Drive on the Scotch Line. In some cases, large boulders (known as glacial erratics) were moved miles by glaciers in the direction of the flowing ice, finally coming to rest on rocks of a very different kind. Another important result of the glaciation was that the surface of the land under the ice was compressed and sunk under the weight of the ice.

When the ice started to melt, and the front of the continental ice sheet melted faster than it advanced, the melting waters formed rivers, which flowed under and through the ice in tubes, washing bits of rock, sand, and gravel through these tubes. These were sorted and deposited along the length of the tube, and when the ice sheet finally melted, the deposits (known as eskers) were left as long, sinuous deposits of sand and gravel on the surface of the bare rock. There are several eskers in the area, but the best example is in the Playfairville area along the Mississippi River. There are also smaller deposits, such as along the northern edge of the Tay River at Bolingbroke, which have been turned into a sand quarry.

By far the greatest glacial deposits in the township are the large till deposits of unsorted sand, gravel, and boulders that were generally mixed with the lower portions of the ice and deposited where they lay by the melting ice. These were deposited more or less over the entire township in depths varying up to two metres or more. One can generally identify the till-covered areas in farmland by rock piles in fields, or along fencelines as collected from the soil by generations of farmers.

The melting of glaciers released large amounts of water into the land, which had been depressed by the glaciers to such an extent that these lands were below the sea level of the time. This caused an inflow of salt water that mixed with the freshwater melting of the glaciers. In eastern Ontario, the area just south of the melting glaciers was flooded by sea water rushing up the St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers (which were not recognizable, as the earth’s surface had been pushed below sea level) about 13,000 years ago. This body of sea water is known as the Champlain Sea, which extended up the Ottawa Valley to the Petawawa River and southeast in almost a straight line to the St. Lawrence River. It has been estimated that the sea’s surface may have been as much as 150 metres above the current level of the Ottawa River.

During the 2,000-year life of the Champlain Sea, clay was deposited on the sea bottom. The Tay Marsh between Perth and Port Elmsley is one such deposit; others include the flat areas southwest of Perth along Highway 7.

Where there is a sea, there is seashore. The Champlain shoreline is generally indistinct and non-continuous, but parts of it have been found to the northeast of Perth. The seashore was not static, but moved according to the amount of water in the sea, as well as the slow rebound of the land. Given the flatness of the underlying land, a sea-level drop of several feet would have resulted in a significant receding of the shoreline.

The Champlain Sea and its shore gradually receded from west to east. It is generally acknowledged that the Rideau Lakes, being lower than most of the Tay River watershed, were covered by the Champlain Sea at one point. One map shows that the Chaplain Sea extended to Bobs Lake. While the sea existed, it acted as a settling pond for silt and clay that was being washed into it by streams draining the recently exposed land. Now these flat clay deposits form the basis of numerous swamps and farms.

More recently, geology has had an impact on human settlement activities. For Aboriginal peoples, the rolling nature of the land provided lakes and rivers for transportation routes and fish, particularly at lake outlets where the spring run of pickerel was an important harvest, but generally limited land activities to hunting and gathering rather than agriculture.

With the onset of European settlement, the rolling hills and intervening swamps made it difficult to build roads. Where the land was flatter, the challenges of road building were exacerbated by the large swamps formed on the clay deposits left after the Champlain Sea retreated.

At first, settlers harvested tree products, and geology had an influence on these, mostly through the fertility and depth of the soil. According to one source: Early surveyors’ notebooks reported the shallow soil of the Shield was dominated by species such as hemlock, white pine and sugar maple. On the sedimentary plain, sugar maple was still most dominant and other common species were beech, elm, basswood, hemlock, cedar and ash.[1]

While not a good agricultural area in terms of soils or climate compared to parts of the province closer to Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence Valley, the township provided some mineral resources for settlers when the timber had been harvested