HISTORY OF PORT SYDNEY

This picturesque town is situated on the shores of beautiful Mary Lake and the upper North Muskoka River. 
Indians traveled through this area regularly on their way to what is now Algonquin Park. Their families were frequently left on the shores of Mary Lake while the hunters went on to the north. The Indians were of the Rama Tribe and came from Orillia area. A chief by the name of Menominee camped on the lake in the 1860's and 70's.

The lake was surveyed by Alexander Murray in 1853 and he called it Mary's Lake after his eldest daughter. It was not long after that in the late 1860's that the first settlers arrived. By that time the areas close to Lake Ontario were well settled and rather than have the flood of settlers coming from Europe go further west, the government built settlement roads into the region. Cheap land and great stands of pine lured settlers into the area.

This began a period of thirty years where lumbering was the main activity around the lake. The settlers who thought that they could farm were soon disappointed after they cleared the land and found that the thin topsoil soon washed away. The pine trees belonged to the government and the only employment was in the forests and in the mills. The largest mill of the four around the lake was owned by Sydney Smith after whom the town was named and who was a benefactor to the town.


 

                                                                                                   

Albert Sydney Smith, after whom the town was named, saw the possibilities of the area and took over an abandoned mill at the site of the present dam in 1871. He envisioned a community along the south end of the lake, and by 1873 a plan was created for the village.

Early in 1897, the residents of Port Sydney decided, as a community co-operative venture, to build a cheese factory beside the river. By July it was turning out abut 300 lbs. of cheese every day, and providing an important market for the local farmer's milk. Partly as a result of this development, Sydney-Smith decided to build a new, larger steamboat, whose duties would include gathering cans of milk at all the local landings, as well as towing timber rafts to the various sawmills and running regular market trips to Huntsville. The new steamer was built on skids on the east side of the river, just north of Sydney-Smith's sawmill, close to the spot where the old Northern was launched twenty years before. She was supposed to be ready by June, but work took much longer than expected. Not until July 15th, did she actually hit the waves. She was christened the Gem, which seemed oddly comical, since she was a stubby little craft with a distinct tendency to roll as she puffed along...The Gem was 35 feet in keel by 10 feet in beam, and registered 6.12 tons.

                                    
 

In 1886 the railroad by-passed Port Sydney to the west at Utterson. Although the lumber industry and some farming continued to provide wealth, the future of the town seemed doomed. The beauty of the setting, however, began to draw people from Toronto. The homes that usually would have disappeared were turned into summer homes. The boarding house began to fill with tourists. The steamships carried visitors. Other hotels were built. A new future for the village began to develop.

By 1900 the clean beauty of the region began to attract city people from Toronto and from the sooty cities to the south of Lake Erie. People flooded the Muskokas to get away from the filth, smells and disease in the summers. Great lodges were built on the large lakes of Muskoka. This era of construction soon followed on Mary Lake. Clyffe House was built in 1905. Over the years 25 lodges and inns were constructed mainly centred in Port Sydney. Despite the fact that the town was by-passed by the railroad in 1886, steamships plied the lakes and brought vacationers to the lodges.

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF UTTERSON

Acknowledgement and Credit: Permission is given for the use of the photographs shown here, as well as the information found in the Research Committee of Muskoka Pioneer Village (now Muskoka Heritage Place, Huntsville, Ontario). Publication ‘Pictures from the Past: Huntsville & Lake of Bays’.

Prior to 1885, before the railway went through, Utterson was on the main road linking Bracebridge to Huntsville, Burk’s Falls, Parry Sound, and all the country in between. It was a natural stopover for those going on to other places. After the railway arrived, stages continued to come and go from the lumber camps for the weekends. The cattlemen used to bring their cattle to the railway two or three times a year. The drivers would stay over in Utterson until the cattle, yarded at the station, had been loaded.


The need for accommodation was met by the Commercial hotel and the Central Hotel. The Commercial Hotel was located on the present parkette across from the Country Corner Store – later known as The Utterson General Store and The 141 Cafe. It was owned and operated originally by Patrick Clarke. At the time the Commercial was destroyed by fire in 1939 it was in the possession of Mr. James McKenzie.

There are residents of Utterson today who can still recall a number of the interior details of The Commercial. A centre hall plan, lounge on the right, complete with potbellied stove, captain’s chairs, and spittoons. Behind the lounge was the dining room. The kitchen was across the back. To the left on entering, prior to prohibition, there was a stand-up bar room, which later became a pool room. Tobaccos, both smoking and chewing, were sold. The second floor contained bedrooms, a parlour, and a parlour bedroom. The third floor dormitory was occupied by permanent residents. The hotel had its own livery stable.

The earlier Central Hotel was built and run by Robert McNairney. It stood on the corner next to the present Post Office.


Three general stores also once flourished in Utterson. The G.W. Lankin store was by far the largest and, after a succession of shop keepers, it was last in operation as the Utterson General Store and 141 Cafe until that business closed in the late 2010s. Mr. Lankin carried a full line of goods. Food, flour, feed and furniture, hairpins to harness, bolts of cloth, boots to bedding were all sold there. Once the motor age arrived, Mr. Lankin wasted no time in setting up a truck with his merchandise. Each day of the week the driver would call on those who had settled in the northwest as far as Bent River and in the west as far as Ufford. News of recent happenings would be passed along, and messages from one family to the other would also be passed along. The G.W. Lankin store housed at one time the switchboard of the Watt Municipal Telephone Co., and it remained there until they moved to their locatoin on Old Muskoka Road. The company was taken over by Bell in the 1950s.

Creason & Son, General Merchants Utterson. This store stood on the west side of where Thatcher-Winger Associates once had their studio. The picture below offers a rare opportunity to see the interior of their store The post office was, for some years, located in Creasor’s store (1897/1898 – 1928).


The picture shows Mr. Leslie Creasor and John Brimstead standing proudly behind the counter. We assume the store had just been decorated for the Christmas season – note the decorations on the ceiling. The oroginal photograph clearly shows wooden cases of bar soap on the floor in front of the counter. We also can see Sailor Boy table syrup, a crock of what could be pickled eggs, basket of fresh eggs at 35 cents a dozen, Qaker rolled white oats, Eddy wooden stove matches, Fray Bentos Bully Beef, Red Rose and Salada loose teas. Mr. Creasor stands behind the children’s favourite – the cent candy case, with its set of beam scales.

Jack Clarke’s Store, Utterson. This store was located alongside the Commercial Hotel and provided one thing the others did not – gasoline from a pump. Livery service, horse-drawn in winter, Model T Ford in summer. The barn held as many as 60 horses and was a great asset to hotel patrons as well as residents of the area. The barn was torn down in 1946. Jack’s sister, Mary Appoloney, had an ice cream parlour and confectionary shop in her brother’s store, with its own separate entrance. Within six months of Jack’s son, Peter and his wife,Elsie, taking over the business, in 1948, the store burned. It was at this time that they purchased the G.W. Lankin store.

The busy railroad station in Utterson was build in 1886 and serviced both passengers and freight until it was dismantled in 1968. In 1886 the Northern and Pacific Junction Railway opened its line to Nipissing Junction from Gravenhurst. The Northern and Pacific became a part of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada in 1892 and later, in 1923, the Canadian National Railway.


With the even numbered trains running south and odd numbered trains running north, the railway provided the villagers with a means of transportation. Communication was made possible by the availability of telegrams and night letters, with an agent being on duty both day and night. Freight would arrive from as near as Bracebridge, Orillia, and Midland, and as far away as London, Goderich, Kingston, Morrisburg, and Montreal. Cost for shipping freight from Bracebridge to Utterson cost as little as 35 cents for 100 pounds and from Midland to Utterson cost to ship three thousand pound the charge was four dollars and eight cents. In the picture above the groups of uniformed men shown are volunteers in the 1911 Canada Militia 23^rd Regiment, leaving on a special train for a two week training course at Niagara Falls.

Unfortunately Utterson Station, like so many others, is now no more than a whistle stop, a far cry from the hive of activity it once was.