Feature Article October 28, 2004
LAND O' LAKES NewsWeb HomeContact Us
A glimpse into the past: Cloyne Historical Society bus tripby Carol Morrow
The second annual Heritage Bus Tour of the Cloyne and District Historical Society was conducted on a warm, golden,
sunny October 23rd. Rated as a very successful excursion, the route
included the communities of Harlowe, Henderson, Bordenwood, and
Glastonbury. In addition to enjoying tree-lined country by-ways still
bright with red and yellow maples, the passengers heard interesting
history from guest experts with close connections to the four villages.
Space does not permit a description of all the interesting details imparted on the journey along the Harlowe Road about the old Ore Chimney Mine or about its discoverer Johnny Bey, a Mohawk from St. Regis at Cornwall. One of the Bey daughters married into the Schwager family, and the Society is currently researching these connections.
The first stop along the way was at the Harlowe United Church, where our expert was Joan Flieler. She spoke about the community being served since 1858 by a minister coming at first into homes, and about the wood-frame building going up in the late 1800s, its belfry built by Joe Thompson. Although not many stones are visible in the old section of the cemetery dating from the late 1800s, the graveyard is full. Due to a dwindling congregation, sadly the newly sided church is presently open yearly from May to September. As the community grew through the lumbering, the mine and small farming, the village store became an important mercantile hub. There have been stores on all four corners, although not all at the same time. The booming tourist industry on Gull Lake and Kash in the 1960s and 70s brought in enough people to support two stores. The community boasted a blacksmith shop, at least 2-3 cheese factories, and a school (which is the present community center), as well as several lodges, camps and cottages. The bus motored down past Viking Lodge, the oldest lodge dating from the late 1800s. A log building was the old cookhouse; some stonework indicated the old root cellar; and the remains of the horse barn was across the road. In the 1950s Kirk Cove was famous for its water skiing teams which often competed in Florida. Locally, competitions brought in upwards of 2000 people on a Sunday afternoon.
At the boundary of North Frontenac and Kennebec townships was the old Union School, so-called because it was a boundary school. Motoring on past an archeological dig and Sashas Legacy Equine Rescue facility (the former McCausland farm), our bus driver John Bolton, told about Mr McCausland making the rounds in the area with his steamer to power threshing machines and other equipment. McCauslands wood-powered steamer is in the Steam Museum in Kingston. Another point of interest was the Henderson cranberry bog which was for a short time a commercial operation. Arriving at Henderson (formerly called Dead Creek), our resident expert Reg Peterson told about their United Church beginning as a Methodist mission church, its foundation set in 1906 and completed in 1908. Its organ was paid for by money raised at a honey and tea biscuit social. He showed us a chunk of ore extracted from the once active mica mine near there. The UCW ladies of Henderson served a scrumptious lunch of home-made soup, sandwiches and desserts in their hall, the former village schoolhouse.
Our motor coach proceeded down a pretty country dirt road to the nearly vanished village of Bordenwood, passing the early schoolhouse site which presently is used as a drive shed for farm machinery, and the site of Bob Hawleys cheese factory, demolished in a fire. Dead Creek, which once boasted a sawmill, meandered along our route. We passed the Bordenwood Cemetery and nearly all of the 35 homes that populate this very remote community to reach the Peterson Farm of almost 500 acres. The Clifford Peterson house was begun in 1916, and three generations of Petersons all lived together there initially. Son Ron Peterson did the talking at the homestead, explaining how the family all worked together farming, sending cream to the Tweed creamery, picking blueberries in season, hunting, driving bus, keeping honey bees running a rural operation in the tradition sense.
Our tour ended at the former village of Glastonbury, a couple of miles east of present Northbrook, but much larger in population in its heyday. Its school sat on the NE corner of the junction and burned in 1927. The noteworthy Carscallen family owned two mills out there, the gristmill being converted into a sawmill. The Carscallens came from Desoronto and in the late 1800s had George Shier build for them the large two-story house next to Parkys in Northbrook, now owned by Peter and Mary Jane Turner. Glastonbury began as a settlement for the loggers, but as logging declined, the community died out and Northbrook on the main road became the new metropolis. The gristmill was located at a pretty little waterfall near the old Vanness place, and logs once ran down Beaver Creek there to the Salmon River. Beyond was the Ruttan farmstead. All that is left now is an old frame house sitting boarded up and lonely in a field of long grass, the woods a little distance behind.
The Cloyne and District Historical Society sponsors these tours as a community service to further interest in the history of settlement in our unique area. We wish to thank the combined effort of the UCW ladies of Henderson for their excellent lunch and use of their hall, Joan Flieler for her unique knowledge of the Harlowe United Church, the Peterson brothers Reg and Ron for their inspiring knowledge of Henderson and Bordenwood, Henry Hogg for the generous use of his bus, John Bolton, our expert bus-driver and commentator, and Margaret Axford for all the time and energy expended in the organization and research. Thanks, everybody, for an excellent time!
