Temiskaming Treasure Trails
Vol. 2 1886-1903
by Peter Fancy
Between the years 1886 and 1904, settlement roots dug deep into the northwest comer of Lake Temiskaming. This second book of Temiskaming Treasure Trails shows these settlers struggling for farmholds, begging the Ontario government for help and finally striking more than clay soil beneath their feet.
While the Oblates' Société de Colonisation du Lac Témiscamingue ushered new members from as far away as France into its Quebec cantons, C.C. Farr quit as chief trader of the Hudson's Bay Company's Old Fort at the Narrows and moved his family across the upper lake to a deserted lumber depot in Bucke township. Two years later at Wabis River's muddy, Dymond Township mouth, bachelor William Murray built a log home. With Farr's post office at Haileybury, Crown Lands Agent John Armstrong arrived to found Liskeard townsite at Murray's Wabis River farm. And between these two earliest settlements, rivalry to rule New Ontario began. While C.C. Farr coaxed settlers from his native England, John Armstrong petitioned his Ontario government employer for special help.
In the meantime, losing business to the thriving stores of Ville Marie and reduced to outpost rank by Mattawa headquarters, the old fur trading Fort at the Narrows faded away. And as Lake Temiskaming's big pine timber also disappeared, saw log merchants came to scavenge leftovers. So the two towns slowly grew-competing with sawmills, with hotels but together clamouring for railway connection south, until the Grand Survey of Northern Ontario prompted the government to start laying the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway from North Bay. Then at Mileage 103 its workmen stumbled on to silver.
While farms and minerals replaced furs and pine timber during these brief Temiskaming years, a sense of New Ontario community emerged. Born out of isolation, its social character knew self reliance. And rival personalities could find private rooms in their common house. A Temiskaming house worth building.
Go Here for List of Illustrations | Go Here for preview of the extensive Index.
ISBN: 0-088954-366-6 | WMPub#1182 | 8½" x 11"
240 pages, Hardcover with Dust Cover | $24.95
ILLUSTRATIONS
240 pages, Hardcover with Dust Cover | $24.95
01. Timetable-Chemin de Fer de Colonisation du Lac Temiscamingue 6
02. Lake Temiskaming map - 1887 8
03. Montreal River mouth 10
04. C.C. Farr's Humphrey's depot house 12
05. Humphrey's depot original barn 12
06. Baie des Pres' dock 15
07. Lake Temiskaming steamboats 16
08. Gillies' Depot, Quinze Lake 17
09. Gillies' Depot, Quinze Lake 17
10. Montreal River bridge, Lower Notch 20
11. Meteor under steam 21v
12. Bucke township map - 1887 23v
13. Land holdings, Haileybury P.O., 1891 30
14. C.C. Farr's Haileybury store 31
15. Dymond township - 1891 32
16. Baie des Pres' hotel 34
17. Sketch of New Ontario townships 37
18. Seasonal levels, Lake Temiskaming 39
19. John Armstrong 40
20. C.C. Farr's Haileybury house 42
21. Liskeard subdivision - 1894 43
22. John Armstrong's Liskeard house - 1894 46
23. Haileybury subdivision - 1895 48
24. C.P.R. train, Mattawa to Gordon's Landing 49
25. Gordon's Landing 50
26. Atkinson's Feltham garden 56
27. John and Christina Oslund 59
28. Haileybury - 1896 60
29. Meteor unloading at Haileybury 61
30. James Atkinson 62
31. Frank Atkinson 62
32. Stephen Atkinson 62
33. Siegfried Atkinson 63
34. Liskeard subdivision - 1897 67
35. Oslund's West Road, Bucke township house 68
36. Haileybury Anglican church parsonage - 1897 72
37. Phoebe Atkinson in Farr's house, Haileybury 77
38. Emily Farr, Phoebe Atkinson, Captain Percy on the Meteor 77
39. Sharp Lake portage, August 1898 79
40. High Rock Island, Lake Temagami, August 1898 80
41. Lake Temagami region map 81
42. View from Farr's front porch, Haileybury, 1898 86
43. Mill Creek bridge, Bucke township 88
44. Grand Survey map - 1900 90
45. Haileybury - 1900 91
46. Dr. Codd and wife Nellie in Haileybury parsonage - 1901 93v
47. Woods-Maguire wedding, June 27, 1900 94
48. The Dredge Queen 95
49. Canada House hotel, Thornloe 97
50. Temagami Ojibway display, Pan American Exposition, Buffalo,N.Y.1901 101
51. Temagami Ojibway display, Pan American Exposition, Buffalo, N.Y. 1901 102
52. Southwood excursionists, land at New Liskeard, May, 1901 103
53. Thornloe advertisement 105
54. Logging on upper Montreal River 105
55. Thornloe subdivision, Paget Syndicate, 1901 107
56. Haileybury Anglican Church 108
57. Gordon's Landing, Lake Temiskaming 109
58. Atkinson-Elston wedding 1-10
59. Thornloe subdivision - 1901 III
60. New Liskeard subdivision - 1902 116
61. Lawlortown subdivision - 1902 118
62. T.& N.O. railway route map - 1902 119
63. Armstrong and Sharpe streets, New Liskeard - 1902 120
64. New Liskeard town councillors - 1903 122
65. Temiskaming and Hudson Bay Mining Company executive 123
66. Booth timber slide on Mill Creek 123
67. New Liskeard subdivision - 1903 125
68. New Liskeard subdivision - 1903 126
69. William Murray, Catherine Ann Beavis, Tom McCamus at New Liskeard 130
70. Willet Miller's Long Lake map - 1903 136