On July 11, members of COFA (Conservationists of Frontenac Addington) attended a meeting at the Barrie hall in Cloyne, where Ron Pethick, one of the organization's founding members, announced that he would be stepping down this year after over two decades as the organization's president.

He cited health issues and said he lacks the necessary energy required for the role. He also understands that the organization needs some fresh blood to foster new directions if it is to continue. Pethick said he does hope to see the organization continue and he is hoping that the members will hold elections this September.

Pethick opened the meeting with a history of COFA, which was formed in 1994, because, he said, “A lot was going on politically at that time and we needed to have a local voice in this area to make sure that certain things like resources, land management and wild life habitats and populations were properly looked after.”

In fact, it was a meeting held at that time at the Lions hall in Northbrook, which hundreds of people attended, that Pethick said resulted in the squashing of the Madawaska Highlands Regional Trust, a group whose aim he said was to “ban fishing, boating hunting, trapping, and logging in an area that stretched west to Bancroft, north to Madoc, east to Perth and south to Cobden.”

COFA was formed after the Northbrook meeting and has been up and running ever since. In 1995 the organization established the Bishop Lake pickerel hatchery, where over 11 years, 18.5 million swim up pickerel fry were hatched and deposited in area lakes. The organization also stocked 28,000 speckled trout in local lakes, along with thousands of rainbow trout and pickerel fingerlings.

In an effort to improve local pickerel spawning beds, members have helped spread 350 tons of rock in Mississagagon Lake and similarly spread another 70 tonnes of rock at Skootamatta causeway. As well, in conjunction with the Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority, an additional 150 tons was spread in Mazinaw Lake to create a new lake trout spawning bed.

Members have run hundreds of miles of trails to assist deer during especially harsh winters and have also provided herds with thousands of pounds of feed. Members have also helped to fund the rehabilitation of orphaned white tailed deer and for years have donated a $500 bursary annually to local North Addington Education Centre students. This August six lucky youngster, thanks to COFA, will be fishing at Deer Rock Lake.

Now with the hatchery no longer functioning and with Pethick making public his intention of stepping down, many members are wondering how and if COFA will carry on. They stress the need to get new projects up and running in order to attract new members. Many suggestions were made at the Cloyne meeting. One member volunteered to assist Ron's wife Dot with administrative tasks and other new ideas were suggested, which included establishing a COFA website, getting students at NAEC involved with the group and also trying to make connections with the various local lake associations to find out what kinds of projects COFA members may be able to assist with.

It is still a big unknown whether the hatchery, in which COFA has upwards of $15,000 invested, will ever be operational again, though many members expressed interest in getting it up and running. It looks as though there are members who want to COFA to continue into the future.

Long-time member Dave Dacuk shot up his hand when asked if anyone would be interested in stepping in as president and it was decided that a second meeting will be held in September, at which time elections will likely be held.

In the meantime, members were asked to continue brain storming about possible new projects for the future. Anyone interested in joining COFA or existing members who missed the meeting but have new ideas for COFA's future, please contact Lauder Smith at 613-336-2998.

This painting is of Gene Brown and her grandmother, Christina Irvine, feeding chickens on the Pettifer Farm in Denbigh. In the background is the old log and stone milk house. Christina was a McGregor from Scotland. Her granddaughter, Gene, married Irv Brown. Gene Brown is a founding member of the Pioneer Club, which evolved into the Cloyne and District Historical Society, and co-author with Nadine Brumell of the popular book, The Oxen and the Axe.

The painting was done by Carol Brown, talented local artist and niece of Gene Brown. Carol painted this from a small photograph and captured every detail as noticeable in each log and stone in the milk house. The museum is the lucky recipient of this work. As well as donating the original, Carol created a series of numbered prints for sale as a fundraiser for the museum. This work is on display for all to enjoy. The museum will be part of Frontenac County’s “Open Doors” celebration this Sat. June 13 from 10am-4pm, and will be celebrating its season opening on Sat. June 20 from 11am to 4pm.

Long before it officially became a provincial park in 1965, the flavor of Bon Echo Park had begun to take shape decades earlier, thanks to the influence of three distinct personalities.

In a presentation titled "The Dentist, the Feminist and The Writer", local historian Margaret Axford spoke of the influence these three people had on the park, which continues to draw visitors from across the country and from all over the world.

The first was the dentist, Dr. Weston A. Price, who was born in Newburgh, Ontario, but who lived and worked in Cleveland, Ohio. Price's wife was from Brampton, Ont. and she taught in Ardoch. In 1898 Price began renting land in what is now Bon Echo in the summer months from a farmer named David Weese. In 1899 the couple acquired land in the area and Price decided to build an inn modeled on the tourist hotels of the Adirondacks. Axford stated, “He [Price] knew that the setting of the Mazinaw Rock would be a natural draw and it was the Prices who gave the name 'Bon Echo' to the area, and who gave birth to tourism in the region.”

Price, who was described by one observer at the time as a “wiry man, always rushing somewhere with a hammer in his hand” used local labor to build the inn, which consisted of the main building, five cottages, a separate staff house, a boat house, a laundry house, an ice house, numerous docks and a bridge across the Narrows. By the end of Price's second summer after purchasing the land, the Bon Echo Inn was complete. In 1901 a telephone line that originated at the Kaladar train station and ran along the old Addington Road became the first telephone line in the area.

Price hoped to attract like-minded nature lovers to the area, and because he was a teetotaler and a religious man, the inn was dry until Merrill Denison took it over decades later.

In 1901, Flora MacDonald Denison arrived on the scene at Bon Echo with her husband Howard and son Merrill, first as guests in the tower room suite of the inn. Axford said that “she would have bought the place at that time if Price had been selling it” but instead she bought a lot south of the Narrows, where she built a summer cottage. Flora and her family would spend the next nine summers there. Flora MacDonald Denison was born in 1867 in Actinolite, worked as a teacher near Actinolite, and as a dressmaker in Toronto. She later was a writer on women's rights and the suffrage movement.

It was on her annual trip to Bob Echo in 1910 that Flora learned that Dr. Price wanted to sell the inn. Differing reasons are given for Price's reason for selling. One was that his 10-year-old son Donald was ill at the time; he later died either of spinal meningitis or from a diving accident.

Flora paid Dr. Price $13,000 for the inn, Big Bear Island and numerous acres of land, and Flora's husband Howard ran the Inn from 1911-1913 until the two separated and their marriage ended. Flora then took it over and her intent was to create “a haven for artists and philosophers in an inspiring natural landscape with an incredible view of Mazinaw Rock, where visitors could renew their souls, their energies and their creative instincts.” Flora also celebrated the teachings and writings of Walt Whitman, the famed 19th century American poet. According to Axford, Flora “was caught up in his [Whitman's] democratic ideals and she saw Bon Echo as being a symbol of democratic freedom...that would always be enhanced by the spirit of Walt Whitman.”

It was Flora who had a large rock face on the lake inscribed with a dedication to “Old Walt”. As a practicing spiritualist and part of a group whose members claimed they could communicate with the dead, Flora held numerous séances at Bon Echo. One observer at the time recalled that guests at Bon Echo “often preferred a séance at midnight to a Sunday morning church service.” Under Flora's command the inn housed many notable guests, including James Thurber, Morley Callahan, Frank Lloyd Wright and the painters from the Group of Seven; the latter would often be guests when Flora's son Merrill took over ownership. Financially the inn ran at a loss, with “Flora's dreams always outstretching her financial capabilities”.

Flora died at 54 years of age on May 23, 1921 and a bronze urn holding her ashes was deposited in Mazinaw Lake just below the Whitman inscription. Her son, Merrill Denison, a writer and later a well-known radio personality, inherited the inn and its 10 square miles of property, and began some much-needed repairs. His contacts at Hart House and the Arts and Letters Club in Toronto put him in touch with many famous Canadians artists of the time, many of whom would become regular visitors to Bon Echo. Merrill's partner, Muriel Goggin, whom he would marry in 1926, ran the inn from 1923-1928 “like a general”, and it prospered during this time until the stock market crash of 1929. From then until 1934 it was closed to the public at large and became Camp Mazinaw, a boys' camp for Trinity College School in Port Hope.

In 1936 the inn burned down after being struck by lightning. A Toronto woman who was working at the inn at that time, when she was 16 years old, sadly recalled watching it burn. Though the inn was never rebuilt, Merrill and Muriel continued to spend the summers at Bon Echo after selling off some of the land. They kept less than 100 acres for themselves. Merrill's aim still was to preserve the area as “a meeting place as it was for the Alonquins, a center to which people would come to learn and discuss ideas in an inspiring natural surrounding.”

In 1959 he turned over the buildings and land to the provincial government to be used as a provincial park. The official ceremony did not take place until 1965. Merrill died in 1975 at the age of 81.

Axford ended her presentation defining the legacy that these three personalities left behind for all who continue to visit and enjoy Bon Echo Park. “The legacy they left was that the democratic spirit should prevail and the ordinary person must continue to have access to this wonderful place.” For those wanting a more detailed account of the history of Bon Echo and the personalities who helped to create it, a number of books on the subject are available at the Cloyne Pioneer Museum. They include "The Oxen and The Axe" (Brown, Brumell and Snider), "The Mazinaw Experience: Bon Echo and Beyond" (John Campbell), "Sunset of Bon Echo" (Flora MacDonald Denison), and "Bon Echo: The Denison Years" (Mary Savigny).

At their monthly meeting at Cloyne's Barrie hall on February 16, Shirley Sedore presented a talk on the roots of the Sedore family in the Flinton.

Shirley' s husband, Ronald Sedore who passed away in 2002, hailed from a family whose roots go back multiple generations in Flinton. Shirley began with the founder of Ronald's family, one Coonradt Sedore who was born in Germany in 1734. It is believed that Coonradt arrived in the United States sometime either in 1754 or 1755 and documents show that he enlisted in the New York militia in 1758. Other records dating from 1755 from the Old Dutch church of Sleepy Hollow, (now known as the First Reform Church of Tarrytown, New York), show that Coonradt Sedore married Antje Boeckhout, the latter, a native of Philipsburgh, N.Y. who was baptized in Tarrytown, N.Y. in 1733. Both Coonradt and Antje are thought to have lived until about 1810. In her presentation Shirley noted that there exist various spellings of both names, Coonradt and Sedore but that the family founder used the original spellings (used here) until the end of his life. The 1758 enlistment records show that Coonradt's occupation had been as a “taylor” and it is believed that he likely learned the tailoring trade prior to leaving Europe.

The couple had eight children, 6 boys and 2 girls, all born in New York State. It is believed that the family moved to Canada sometime in the early 1800's. One of their sons, John, who was born in 1784, married Margaret Thompson in Richmond Township in 1807. One of that couple’s sons named Issac lll moved from Richmond township to Kaladar, Ontario and married Hannah Yorke in Lennox and Addington. Shirley noted that Issac lll died at the age of 91 in Kaladar Township and Hannah died there also at the age of 80.

Isaac lll and Hannah's youngest son, Jonas, was born July 10, 1839 and he was the great, grand father of the present days Sedores. He was Ronald (Shirley’s husband) Sedore’s great grandfather. Jonas married Jane Clark in 1862 and they had 11 children. Their son Herbert married Isabel Robinson and together they had 8 children. Joseph was that couple’s eldest son born in 1903, one of 3 boys and 5 sisters and Joseph was Shirley's father-in-law and her husband Ronald's father.

Shirley herself grew up in Mountain Grove and met Ronald Sedore in 1953. She noted that at that time only one brother and two sisters of her father-in-law Joseph were still living. Shirley and Ronald had seven children of their own, six of whom are living. Researching a family history never comes easy or without its own special mysteries. One that Shirley uncovered was the question of one Abraham Sedore, who is definitely a relative though it is yet to be determined exactly how he is related. Whatever the case, it is known that Abraham Sedore was nicknamed “Bromie” and it is thought that he had no less than 31 children with three different wives.

It is amazing that some people are able to trace their family ancestors back so many generations and it was generous of Shirley Sedore to share what she has found with members of the Cloyne and District Historical Society and guests.

by Marcella Neely

Are you working on a family tree? Looking for help connecting relatives? Perhaps the Cloyne & District Historical Society can help. Genealogy can be interesting but sometimes not knowing where to start gets in the way. The Cloyne Pioneer Museum and Archives hold over 6000 entries from our coverage area, which includes Kaladar to Denbigh and Flinton to Harlowe. During the summer season museum staff can help retrieve information for you and during the off season you may ask questions online at cloynepioneermuseum.ca or send an e mail to

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Also helpful are the photos and documents on our website and on Flickr. In our files we have photos, certificates, histories of community organizations such as churches, clubs, schools and businesses. In some cases only one or two items are available and others are quite extensive. We continue to gather history in our area and are grateful for your information and photos. We are able to scan your material and return it to you, unharmed.

In an effort to preserve local history that otherwise might end up in the landfills, Margaret Axford, curator of the Pioneer Museum and Archives in Cloyne, gave a presentation titled “History in a Box”, at the Cloyne & District Historical Society’s meeting on January 19.

Axford’s basic message was: don’t give that old dusty attic shoe box the old heave-ho; it deserves a second look. Even if history is not your personal cup of tea, then passing the box on to a member of a historical society or a local museum makes much better sense than simply tossing it out.

Axford opened up one such box that came her way over a year ago via one local resident who had the wherewithal to know that the artifacts might be of interest to members of the Cloyne and District Society (CDHS).

At the meeting, Axford unveiled the contents of the box, and step by step pieced together what she found. The box contained over 150 artifacts that included numerous photographs, news clippings magazines, calendars and other documents, which tell a somewhat spotty story of one Dylan Francis, who came from Culloden, ON but also spent time in North Frontenac. An RCAF photo shows that Francis joined the Royal Canadian Air Force at some point as a young man and likely trained near Windsor Mills, Quebec, since photos found in the box showing men fixing airplanes were printed at a pharmacy in that town. The box also contained numerous clippings from the Toronto Star telling of the fates of various WW2 soldiers, likely Dylan's buddies.

We find out that Dylan played hockey in Toronto at Humberside Collegiate from another photo and that he likely married Marjorie Francis. There were numerous old photos circa the 1880s or 1890s of people that may have been his grandparents and one especially delightful photo of two young boys.

Axford spoke about the fun and excitement she feels delving into these artifacts. “It is like trying to solve a puzzle and what we are always trying to do is find out more about the local history in the area here.” She said that one Aha! moment came to her when she discovered a card from the Culloden Literary Society dated January 31, 1905, which led her to the understanding that Dylan Francis was likely the son of Viola Dylan and George Francis. A claims map of Denbigh dated 1955 places Dylan Francis in the local area though it remains unclear why that was or in what capacity he spent time here. This discovery was made thanks to a number of envelopes and Legion magazines that were mailed to Francis in the 1970s to RR2 Cloyne.

Axford said she might try to contact other historical societies in south western Ontario to see if anyone there might be interested in these artifacts. She said that if not, they will likely remain as a collection at the Pioneer Museum.

The point of the presentation was aptly summed up by CDHS member Ian Brumell. “The point here is not so much about this fellow Dylan Francis in particular but more about what it takes to put all of the separate pieces of information together to try to get the story right. That, and most importantly, encouraging people to look into those old dusty boxes they might find when cleaning out a home. If you have stuff, think first before you just go ahead and chuck it out. I remember watching and was almost in tears when one house in this area was completely demolished and everything inside was completely destroyed. When that happens you can only imagine all of the history that is being lost.”

Anyone who has such a box but holds no use for it can contact their local historical society.

by Marcella Neely

Fair fa'your honest, sonsie face:

These words come from the poem, "To a Haggis" which is a central feature of the Burns Supper. Traditionally, the Haggis is brought out in a procession led by a piper and the poem is recited.

Some years after Burns' death in 1796, the Burns supper was developed as a means of celebrating his poetic genius on the anniversary of his birth. Recitation of his poem "To a Haggis" became a central feature of these suppers, which included the consumption of this traditional Scottish dish along with neeps (turnip) and tatties (mashed potato).

On January 24, the Cloyne and District Historical Society is putting on a Burns Supper at the Northbrook Lions Hall. Following supper there will be readings of Burns' poems and singing of Burns' songs. His writings are in Scots, the traditional language of lowland Scotland. It uses many words that are close to English but others that are quite distinct (e.g. burn = brook, bairn = children). Those attending will be provided with written translations of the poems being presented.

Those interested in looking into the lives and times of local pioneers in and around the Cloyne area will be happy to know that the Cloyne Pioneer Museum and Archives is now open for visitors. The museum, which was expanded last year, held their official season opening on June 21 and guests were treated to a barbeque lunch and old time musical favorites courtesy of a local band, Pickled Chicken.

J.J (Red) Emond, president of the Cloyne and District Historical Society (CDHS), highlighted the society’s many accomplishments this past year, which included hiring new staff at the museum, placing two new museum signs on Highway 41, the completion of the new 2015 calendars that are available for sale at $15 a piece, the installation of new display cases in the museum, and the posting of photographs from the museum and society on the photo-sharing site Flickr.

He spoke of the success of the recent bus tour to War Museum in Ottawa Red, thanked all of the board members and volunteers for their ongoing work, and congratulated CDHS member Ian Brumell for being honored with the June Callwood Outstanding Achievement Award for Voluntarism earlier this year.

Emond also highlighted the society’s goals for this year, which include increasing membership, completing the landscaping around the museum grounds, completing more interviews with locals in the area, and planning for the society’s annual events such as the Robbie Burns Supper, the historical bus tour and the annual toonie party.

Marg Axford, the curator and archivist at the museum, mingled with the guests as they perused the many new displays. These include a special World War 1 section with photos of young men from the area, many of whom fought and were killed in the war, plus a number of WW 1 artifacts including a tin hat, a bayonet and newspaper clippings. Other new displays include the paintings by the late local artist, Wini Gutsell, and a new display highlighting a portion of Skootamatta Lake that was settled by the Obornes, a local family. Other permanent displays include various artifacts and documents from the 1850s onwards that focus on settlement, mining, logging, tourism and other local history in the CDHS catchment area, which runs along the Highway 41 corridor south to Kaladar, north Denbigh, west to Flinton and east to Harlowe.

For those who have yet to visit the Cloyne Pioneer Museum and Archives, it is well worth a trip. The museum is open daily until September 2 and is located at 14235 Highway 41 in Cloyne. Regular monthly meetings of the CDHS take place at the Barrie Hall in Cloyne at 1pm on every third Monday beginning again in September.

Historical Society

The Cloyne and District Historical Society is asking both North Frontenac Council and Addington Highlands Council to support their application to the Ministry of Transportation to add a tab to the Cloyne Village signs saying “Home of the Pioneer Museum and Archives”. Addington Highlands joined North Frontenac in supporting the endeavor.

Support for waste reduction act; change in direction on OPP funding.

Council supported a letter from North Frontenac to MPP Randy Hillier asking that he support the Waste Reduction Act that is before the Ontario Legislature. If passed, the act will result in municipalities having less financial responsibility for funding recycling programs. The producers of recyclable materials would be forced to take up the slack.

Council also supported a letter to the province from the Ontario Association of Police Service Boards asking that the proposed billing regime for OPP service be altered because it penalizes municipalities that have a relatively large proportion of seasonal residents.

Rink fees waived

Rink fees were waived for Ashley Wood, who is running a fund-raising hockey tournament in the name of the late Cody Wood. The money will be going to the grade 12 class at NAEC, which would have been Cody's graduating class.

Anyone want a $150,000 contract?

The township is having difficulty finding a contractor willing to put in a furnace and air conditioning system for $150,000 at the Flinton Rec. Hall and township office building.

“All of the contractors who looked at it have either decided not to bid, or have made a bid and then pulled it, saying they did not have the time to do the job,” said Clerk Jack Pauhl.

The township will try to get the job done, and will cut the air conditioning part of it, if necessary. The project is being funded by a grant that will need to be returned if it cannot be completed.

Conservation Authority fees

The Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority is asking for $4,034 from Addington Highlands in 2014, a marginal decrease of $165 in the levy. The decrease comes from the fact that the growth in property assessment values in Addington Highlands lags behind that of Ottawa, the major funder of the conservation authority.

Quinte Conservation, on the other hand, is asking for a $1,087 increase, bringing the levy to Addington Highlands to over $15,000, a hike of 7%.

“I move that we send them a letter asking them to come back with a lower increase,” said Deputy Reeve Bill Cox.

“You did that last year and it didn't make a difference,” said Clerk Jack Pauhl. “I could get them to come to a meeting and explain their budgetary needs."

“They explained before, but it is not the explanation that I want to hear,” said Cox.

Councilor Helen Yanch seconded Cox's motion to send a letter and it was approved by Council.

After listening to Ojibway Elder and Queen's University Professor Eileen (Sam) Conroy speak so passionately about turtles, it is hard to think of them as other than magnificent and magical creatures worthy of our care and respect.

Conroy, a retired teacher who currently works with the Ontario Arts Council teaching native arts in the schools, delighted guests and members of the Cloyne and District Historical Society with her storytelling prowess. I could not attempt to mention here all of the mesmerizing topics that she covered; suffice to say that most of her tales and tips focused on turtles, the creature whose name was given to this continent in her people's oral history and who ways are what keep our bountiful waters naturally fresh and pure.

Conroy, who lives on a farm near Madoc, has been a volunteer at the Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre in Peterborough for many years and said that she has always loved turtles. She got involved with the centre, which is the only one of its kind in the province, after finding an injured painted turtle that had been hit by a car on the side of the highway. She took it to the centre in Peterborough and because she wanted to witness it healing, she volunteered to feed it every day. She has been volunteering at the centre ever since.

In her talk she spoke of the amazing abilities of turtles - how they clean the water, how snapping turtles can live to be 500 years old and how they carry with them throughout their lifetimes over 16,000 eggs. She said that this area is a haven for turtles but unfortunately last summer in a 100 metre stretch of wetlands just north of Kaladar, 105 dead turtles were found in one week after being struck by cars as they were trying to cross the road to lay their eggs. “ That,” she said, “is a sad fact”, but she added on a more positive note, “People in this area have taken the lead in allowing wild life to thrive here. They have not drained their wetlands and filled them in, which is a very good thing for turtles and why so many turtle species, even one of the most endangered, the Blandings turtle, thrives here.”

She said it is best to help turtles to cross the road by carefully picking them up and placing them down always in the direction they are heading. For the more feisty snappers, a shovel can be used to carry them across the road, again, always in the direction they are heading.

Conroy related her people's creation story of this continent, Turtle Island, how it came about following a flood and how the muskrat brought forth from the bottom of the deepest depths a tiny piece of soil that was laid on a sea turtle's back and eventually formed the continent. She spoke of Nanabozho, the teacher/trickster who gave the turtle its shell to cover its heart since it was so concerned about the well being of others by keeping the waters clean.

What exactly is it that makes Sam speak so enthusiastically and skillfully to groups and students about turtles and native traditional stories? "I think it's because I am beginning to have an understanding of how everything fits together; how the trees, the animals and plants and we are all part of something special and how we need each other and need to be respectful of each other. I want to make sure kids especially have an opportunity to learn about this when they are little so that they don't have to wait until they are my age to find out.”

Sam encourages anyone who finds an injured turtle to immediately contact the Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre in Peterborough by phone at 705-741-5000. For more information about the centre and on the care and handling of healthy and injured turtles and their eggs visit the centre's website at www.kawarthaturtle.org