Settlers at Silver Lake

By Guy Scott

The very first settlers to the Kinmount area did not arrive via water (the Burnt River), but via the Bobcaygeon Road at Silver Lake. The original Bobcaygeon Road was very primitive (read muddy), but it was still preferable to the canoe route up the Burnt River. The road reached Silver Lake in 1856 and the first land claims were the first 10 lots in Concession A, Galway, on the east side of the Bobcaygeon Road. The corresponding lots on the Somerville side were mainly in the hands of land speculators and were also less attractive than the Galway lots. Land was also free in concession A, but on the west (Somerville) side of the Bobcaygeon Road were to be sold. Thus, the earliest settlement concentrated in Galway.

The Bobcaygeon Colonization Road was at the heart of the Silver Lake community. Sometime in the 1930s, the road between Bobcaygeon and the Union Creek junction was rebuilt and commissioned as Highway #500. In 1964, the system of Ontario highways was reordered and the route changed to #649. When many provincial highways were downloaded to the county in 1998, the road was again renumbered County Road 49. Many old timers still call it the Bobcaygeon Road.

Going north along the road from the north boundary of Harvey Township, there were 6 free grant lots before reaching Silver Lake. These were the earliest settler locations. Thomas White selected Lot 1 in Concession A. He immediately opened an inn-tavern to cater to travellers along the Bobcaygeon Road. In the primitive road conditions of the day, White’s Silver Lake Inn was about a day’s travel from Bobcaygeon village. (It could be a long, tough journey up the Bobcaygeon Road!) The inn lasted for many years and was only closed when the railway reached Kinmount and destroyed through traffic on the Bobcaygeon Road in the 1870s.

Lot 2 was patented by William Leeson. Shortly after settling on lot 2, his wife became gravely ill. Feeling she would not live through the winter, she had her husband hitch up the ox team and tour the property so she could select her own burial site. A plot along the Bobcaygeon Road was chosen and Mrs. Leeson became its first internment. Other burials followed, and the Leeson plot became the Silver Lake Cemetery. It is said the number of burials in the landmark ranges between 30 and over 100. There are only a couple of old tombstones left, but in recent times the township erected a funeral cairn in honour of the Silver Lake settlers who lie buried here. The cemetery is well kept to this very day. William Leeson was an educated man who served as the first clerk of the United Townships of Galway-Snowdon et al. Lot 3 was homesteaded by John Lambert. This farm became quite prosperous as evidenced by the large frame barn erected along the road. The Lamberts eventually bought out many of the neighbours holdings and ran a major farm operation for several generations. It was the last farm in operation along the road at Silver Lake. Lot 4 in Concession A was homesteaded by John Coulter in 1856. The Coulter Family also spread out along the Somerville side of the Road and claimed the following properties:

Lot 1, Concession 1: Henry Coulter (south half) and Andrew Coulter (north half)

Lot 1, Concession 2: Andrew Coulter Jr. (south half) and George Coulter (north half)

By 1861, the Coulters had an impressive 22 acres cleared and under cultivation. But the land was not great farmland and the various Coulter families eventually flowed back south to farms in Verulam Township. By 1881, only Andrew Coulter was still living at Silver Lake. Henry Coulter also cashed in on travel along the Bobcaygeon Road in the earliest days. Lot 5 in Concession A Galway was settled by Robert Purdy, while Lot 6 was granted to a retired soldier, Thomas Carshore. Silver Lake itself divided lots 6 and 7. The lake was considered the centre of the community. Thomas Probert (lot 7, north of the lake) was one of the first prominent citizens of the community and township. He was elected the first reeve of Galway Township in 1862. He operated a store-tavern-post office in 1859. The original name of this first post office along the Bobcaygeon Road was Galway. In earliest times the Bobcaygeon Road was nicknamed the Galway Road, but the official title was always the latter, the term Galway Road was later given to a concession road further up the Bobcaygeon Road that still perpetuates the name today. In 1874, the post office name was changed to Galena (no doubt in honour of the mines just up the road), but this name was abandoned later in 1874 in favour of Silver Lake Post Office.

Post office holders for Silver Lake included:

Thomas Probert, 1859-1871

Thomas Shields, 1871-1874

Joseph Clements, 1874

David Hunter, 1879-1880

Eliza Hunter, 1880-1881

Andrew Coulter, 1881-1899

William Coulter, 1899-1903

Edgar Harrison, 1904-1927

The Silver Lake post office had a checkered history. It was closed twice, 1875-1879 and 1888-1891, but each time reopened! Somebody in the community must have had political clout because the post office kept rising from the dead. But the last time in 1927, the Silver Lake Post Office finally passed into history.

North of Silver Lake up until Galena Hill, a number of retired British army soldiers called pensioners were settled around 1860. After 30 years of service, all British soldiers were entitled to a pension and 200 acres of land. The Silver Lake group were discharged, likely from the Fort York garrison and given land, sight unseen, along the newly opened Bobcaygeon Road. I say sight unseen because they likely would have refused the rough, swampy lots they were granted along the Bobcaygeon Road. The pensioner grants were as follows in Concession A Galway:

John Hurst, lot 11

Anthony Lawrence, lot 12

Edward Owens, lot 13

John Healey, lot 14

Hugh Gough, lot 15

Peter McNulty, lot 16

James McGuire, lot 17

Ralph Byrne, lot 18

On the Somerville (west) side of the Road were the following:

Lot 3: Edwin Kelly (south half) and William Small (north half)

Lot 4: Richard Stewart (south half) and John McGahey (north half)

Lot 5: N.G. Arnberg (south half) and Henry McGee (north half)

Lot 6: James Dalton (south half) and James Gallohan (north half)

Dalton and Stewart were pensioners for sure, and probably the others were as well. Richard Stewart was hired as the first school teacher for USS #1 school at Silver Lake. For a year, he held classes in his log shanty until a school house could be built. All these new pioneers were over the age of 50. They had spent their military careers in various outposts of the British Empire such as at India, West Indes and Africa. They were totally unsuited to be pioneer farmers and received lousy farming lots to boot! The only positive aspect was that many brought their families with them that included many young men who quickly adapted to the rigors of farming on the south flank of the Canadian Shield. Sons and daughters of the soldiers were also eligible for land grants, and many of the next generation relocated in the area. By 1870, most of the pensioners were gone from the Silver Lake settlement. The Maguires, Owens and Byrnes families moved north and occupied better land at Union Creek. The rest simply disappeared; some dying and the rest simply moving away to greener pastures.

The land behind (east) of the Bobcaygeon Road was never settled. It was rough and inaccessible. Much of it remains Crown land to this day. Two attempts were made to push concession roads east; one at Silver Lake and one now called Park Street. John McLennan built a small sawmill on lots 5 and 6, 5^th concession Galway, tapping into the creek flowing into Silver Lake. The sawmill never prospered and was soon gone. Thomas Hoy, Christopher Irwin, M. Palmer, Lewis Fry, Will Cosh, Will Wilson, John McElwain, and Will Maxwell all claimed lots east of Concession A in the later era after 1868 when land was free grant, but these lots were mostly used as wood lots where winter firewood was harvested. The was just too much good land further north. The Silver Lake settlers hung on their rocky aces as long as traffic lasted along the Bobcaygeon Road. The coming of the railway to Kinmount in 1876 severely diminished traffic on the Road and Silver Lake slipped into a steep decline.