Bona Vista a History

BONA VISTA A HISTORY Compiled by Karl Jaffray BONA VISTA A HISTORY Compiled by Karl Jaffray Bona Vista This booklet has been prepared on the basis of a number of sources, but chief among them a loose-leaf book entitled “Bona Vista Lake of Bays, Ontario, 1905 (more or less) – 1983.” The moving spirits were Agnes Arnup, Del Clarke and Helen Nelson, with Ms Arnup contacting former residents and editing the individual accounts written by different families. That book had a number of photographs, but as the booklet copies were produced by Xerox the quality of the pictures isn’t good. It runs to some 85 letter-sized pages, and further Xerox copies of it could be produced at cost for anyone wanting one. This booklet will try to follow the same format – a general section on the history of the community, followed by material directly relating to different families and cottages. Those descriptions will again be based on the material in the 1983 book augmented by the responses received from an appeal to members of the Bona Vista Association in January of 2010. My own recol- lections of life at Bona Vista start in 1941, when my parents first rented the J.A. Brown cottage, so the written records will be supplemented from time to time with personal memories. THE LAKE OF BAYS HERITAGE FOUNDATION IS PROUD TO PRESENT HERITAGE AWARDS FOR 2010 TO THE FOLLOWING FOUR COTTAGES ON BONA VISTA: CONNLLEY- GORDON COTTAGE; SCARFE COTTAGE; HADWEN-BROWN COTTAGE; JAFFRAY COTTAGE Establishment of the Community: Bona Vista is a small community on the west side of Lake of Bays, about half way between Clovelly Point and Britannia, and across the lake from Point Ideal. Lake of Bays is one of the group of northern Muskoka lakes. It was settled somewhat later than the lower lakes that adjoin Lake Muskoka, and Lake of Bays really never had the strong inflow of wealthy summer vacationers that marked the lower lakes in the early years of the 20th century. Lake of Bays has an elevation considerably higher than Lake Muskoka, giving rise to cooler evening temperatures. The Lake is fed by two rivers, the Oxtongue, rising in the heights of Algonquin Park, and the Hollow River, draining parts of the Haliburton Highlands. Neither watershed has ever had any source of industrial pollution. The water quality in Lake of Bays has always been very good. The community of Bona Vista was established by a number of ministers, generally Presbyterian, under the leadership of the Rev. J. A. Brown. Mr. Brown’s wife had relatives named Black who had a cottage at Norway Point. Legend has it that Mr. Brown found the summer life at Norway Point becoming too “worldly” for his taste. Mr. Brown and his wife travelled around the Lake seeking a bucolic cottage location. The DVD showing the history of Norway Point shows pictures of people playing cards and drinking at the WaWa Hotel, which was built in 1908. It is said that some of the ministers who made up a group of early cottagers at Norway Point left because of that! Many of the early cottagers at Bona Vista were ministers and friends of Mr. Brown. There is a sense in which the founding of Bona Vista was probably compared to the Israelites escaping from the slavery and fleshpots of Egypt! The WaWa Hotel burned to the ground on August 20th, 1923. We don’t know whether the ministers at Bona Vista saw that as divine punishment for the devil’s work, but some of them might have. Mr and Mrs Brown were particularly taken by the point where the Murphy cottage now stands. Mr. Brown and his friend the Rev. Dr. J. A. Turnbull decided to establish summer cottages next door to each other. The earlier book has this taking place in 1904 or 1905, and construction of the Turnbull and J. A. Brown cottages starting at that time. Construction may have taken some time. It is likely that Messrs Brown and Turnbull acquired some right to occupy the land before they acquired formal title to it. Turnbull family history says that their cottage was completed in 1910. The first cottage to the north of the Turnbull land was said to have been built about 1908, while the first cottage to the south was built in 1911 or 12, by Miss Marjorie Black, a Toronto school teacher and a relative of the Norway Point Blacks. Mr. Brown’s cottage at Norway Point was owned by him until 1908. 1909 is the first date on which Mr. Brown’s ownership of Bona Vista land can be con- firmed, and the land on which the Brown and Turnbull cottages were built was not formally acquired until 1911. Settlement of Land in Muskoka and Bona Vista Land Acquisition: It is worth discussing the general development of Muskoka. In 1818 by Treaty Number 20 aboriginal people surrendered a huge tract of land which included the parts of Muskoka and Haliburton lying south of the 45th parallel. Today we all know about the 45th parallel, because Santa’s Village in Bracebridge is said to be at latitude 45 degrees north, half way to the North Pole! The government began to show an interest in Muskoka after 1847, when a surveyor named Robert Bell ran a line from the Madawaska River to the point where Bracebridge is now located, along a line that forms the southern boundary of Macaulay, McLean and Ridout townships. Mr. Bell advised the government that the “country is uneven and hilly throughout, but quite fit for settlement...the greatest objection in respect of the whole territory is the great abundance of rocks.” Truer words were never spoken. Much of what is now Muskoka had been used by native peoples as a hunting ground, and there were a few aboriginal settlements, such as the one at the junction of Lakes Rosseau and Muskoka, now Port Carling. One principal band was under a man known by government agents as Yellowhead, - Mesqua Ukie or Mesquakie in native dialect, from which the name Muskoka is derived. They were Ojibwa, “people whose moccasins have puckered seams” of Algonkian stock, and were later sometimes know as Chippewas. In the late 19th century many of them settled on Lake Couchiching, eventually in Rama Township, but Muskoka was a favourite hunting ground. Families had traditional trapping limits. There were several families or bands, Yellowhead in the district between Lake Muskoka and Lake of Bays, and Chief John Bigwin’s family around Lake of Bays. Bigwin hunted and traded near Norway Point, on the shores of Lake of Bays, and the Lake was sometimes referred to as Trading Lake. In 1850 William B. Robinson arranged a treaty for a large tract of land, interpreted to include land hitherto unceded in Muskoka and Haliburton. Neither Yellowhead nor Bigwin were included in the treaty. Finally, in 1923 after an official inquiry the governments of Canada and Ontario drew up the Williams Treaty and paid compensation to the native people who had not been parties to the 1850 treaty. In 1852, after the Robinson Treaty, the government ordered a survey of the land south of the French River between the Ottawa and Lake Huron. It appears that a pattern of about 9 mile square townships was laid out, probably well in advance of actual boundary lines being surveyed. Townships were separated by a road allowance one chain – 66 feet -wide, and ultimately concessions were laid out, generally 14 to a township sometimes separated by a 66 foot road allowance, with each concession being divided into lots. The townships seem to have been given names well in advance of actual survey work being done. The search for appropriate names included those of illustrious politicians and, in the Huntsville area, famous engineers. Besides Franklin, where Bona Vista is situated, there is Brunel immediately to the west, and further west Stephenson and Watt. As townships became prospects for settlement the interior lines for lots and concessions were laid out by surveyors. The Severn River, draining Lake Couchiching into Georgian Bay was essentially the southern boundary of Muskoka, the name Severn perhaps echoing the boundary between bucolic England and rocky Wales. Morrison Township, lying just north of the Severn River was one of the first to be surveyed, in 1860. Thomas McMurray’s book “The Free Land Grants of Canada, from Practical Experi- ence of Bush Farming” states that the little community of Severn Bridge was the first settlement in Muskoka, in about 1858. He says that the next year five or six families came “including a few families of Prussians”. That would include my maternal great grandfather, Adalbert Lehmann, who emigrated from Oldenburg and bought 113 acres in Morrison Township on the shore of Sparrow Lake, notwithstanding that the township survey had not yet taken place. In 1859 settlers could buy land or, if they settled and improved the land fronting on a road, they could obtain a free land grant. Adalbert actually bought his land, and was unhappy when a few years later, in 1868, the policy changed and free grants were more widely available. Adalbert and his wife Kathinka and their children lived in Muskoka until 1871. My namesake Karl was born on that land. Their early family history is an illus- tration of the horror of trying to farm on rock. Rev. J. A. Brown seems to have had an entrepreneurial spirit. Many of the new cottages were built by Mr. Brown himself, and had similar plans. Many of the original cottagers owned rowboats of identical design, and there were common dining room tables and chairs, which Mr.

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