Feature Article August 14, 2002
LAND O' LAKES NewsWeb HomeContact Us
The Cutlers of Welland and Horseshoe Lakeby David BrisonLeo and Muriel Cutler, from Welland Ontario, have been coming to lakes near Arden for a very long time. Leo is 89 and he first made the trip to Buck Lake with his parents and grandparents in 1913, when he was only eight months old. Muriel, 88, joined Leo and his family on a two-week trip to Buck Lake when she was 16 three years before they were married. She tells the story of how she was first invited along, His mother said that she would like to find someone who could keep Leo [who was an only child] company at the lake. His grandmother said, Well here she is that is how I got to Buck Lake.
Arden has changed considerably in Leos time and so have the ways that summer visitors experience life on the lakes. Leo thought that our readers would like to hear about those changes from his 89-year perspective. His memories are like snapshots of summer vacations, but knowing full well how snapshots fade and are then re-constructed in ones memory, Leo read up on the history of the region before my visit so that he could make sure that he had the dates and scenes right. What he couldnt remember, Muriel supplied. When Muriel thought Leo was lagging some in his story, she jumped in and picked up the pace and she supplied a lot of the names and dates.
Their effortless collaboration in telling their stories has been honed to perfection over the 69 years of their marriage.
The Cutlers (Leo, his grandparents and parents) connected with the Arden area through Sam Lambert, the owner of a lumber company in Welland who, in the early 1900s, was cutting first growth timber and floating the logs down the Salmon River to Tamworth. Lambert had built a house on Buck Lake for his logging operation. When he was done logging he told Leos grandfather that he could use the house even though he didnt own the property it was on. You have squatters rights until somebody objects, is what he told the Cutlers. Leo can remember the float booms coming down the Salmon River hauled by a little boat.
The trip from Welland to Arden was initially by train and took one day. The Cutlers took a train first to Toronto and then switched to another train that took them directly to the station at Arden Dale. At Arden Dale, we would unpack our stuff at the freight shed. Joe Gendron, a foreman, gave us permission to load all of our supplies on a hand-pumped jigger car. We would take the car on the track down to the trestle at the Salmon River. Gendron lent us his boat which we rowed down to Buck Lake, got our boat and rowed back for our supplies. It took about two days for us to get everything in, recounted Leo.
Around 1922, they began making the trip by car, first in a Studebaker open touring car. The trip by car took two days. They would leave Welland very early in the morning and make it to Trenton via a very rough and dusty Highway # 2. It took a full day to get from Trenton to Buck Lake. Leo recalls, We would bring five extra tires the air pressure in the tires was 70 and they frequently blew. We would stop for a picnic lunch and the men would repair the tires. On one trip from Welland to the lake, we had 21 flat tires. The trip was shortened to one day when the old Highway #7 was built in 1932.
Fishing was what lured the Cutlers to the area and made the hardships getting there, and the primitive conditions once they arrived, worthwhile. The fishing was out of this world, Leo said. The favourite fishing spot was from a wooden bridge that is just down the river from the Cutlers present cottage on Horseshoe Lake. They didnt have their fishing pictures with them but they plan to send them up so we can put them in the paper.
Leo and his parents moved down to Horseshoe Lake in 1931 when their Lambert house was torn down. They initially rented from John Dean who was told he could take the lumber from the Lambert house and build cottages. Leos parents bought a place across the water from the Dean cottages and in 1969 bought one of the cottages, then owned Clifford See.
Leo can vividly remember Arden in the early years of the century. There were seven stores, four of them grocery stores which I can name: Hughes, Matson, Harry Alexander, and Bence. He also can recall the Pringle House which sat high on a rock cut in the village of Arden. It was a grand hotel and was frequented by wealthy people, he said. The hotel burned down and Leo saw flames from a boat on Buck Lake. He thinks it was in 1928 but cant verify that and would like anyone who knows for sure to notify the paper.
Muriel and Leo Cutler are as interesting as the stories they have to tell. They are both what we would call today high achievers. Muriel went to business school and graduated with honours. She then worked, with brief periods at home raising two children, for lawyers, the R. Tim Construction Company, a hardware store, and an insurance company. I worked all my life she said proudly. Leo established his own sign-painting firm in Welland (Muriel says that, he was the best sign painter around). He then became a municipal assessor. Daughter Rhonda, who spends the summers with her parents at the cottage, chipped in, Dad took a three year correspondence course from Queens and got the highest mark in his graduating class. He got a ring for that honour.
Leo was also a star athletic in Wetland and is a member of the Welland Wall of Fame. His main sport was baseball. He pitched the only no hit/no run game at Burgar Park, striking out 14. Among other sporting achievements is the winning of many Bait and Fly-casting tournaments in the early 30s.
He continues to play golf at 89 and as I was leaving demonstrated his golfing form in his back yard, driving plastic golf balls.
