Wayback Wednesday, sponsored by Jamie Lockwood, broker/owner of Sutton Group Muskoka Realty!
This photo of B.H. Cunnington, one of the first settlers of the area, in a birchbark canoe, was taken sometime between 1890 and 1895 and can be found in the book Tourist Accommodations on Lake of Bays by Doug and Helen Cunnington.
Boyce Henry (B.H.) Cunnington was born in England in June, 1854. Around the age of 15, wanderlust struck him and he made his way to Canada. Little is known of the actual voyage, except that it took six weeks and was so rough that B.H. never wanted to return to England.
B.H.’s first stop was in Mayfield in Peel County, just northwest of Toronto where he went to work for a farmer as a Home Boy. A Home Boy was a lad whose passage from England was paid by someone, often a farmer, for whom the boy would then work until the debt was paid off. In general, he was well treated by people in that area, but one farmer he worked for went insane, beheaded his wife and burned her body. Witnessing this, Boyce ran away and hid in a snow drift while the farmer, looking for him, passed close by.
B.H. spent nine years working in the Mayfield area, where he met Prudence Gray. (Prudence was related to Col. Jim Gray, a well-known auctioneer for many years in Muskoka.) Wanting to marry and start his own family, he was attracted to the Free Land Grants in Muskoka and decided to obtain one and get established before bringing Prudence to join him. So, B.H., along with many others, set off for Muskoka for what he believed was prime farmland like he had known in the southern part of Ontario. His original grant was for 189 acres, 100 on Lot 21, Concession IV, and 89 acres on Lot 22, Concession V in Franklin Township, fronting on Lake of Bays opposite the entrance to Portage Bay and located northwest of the now Port Cunnington Community Centre and extending to Cockshutt Bay. He must have arrived late in the season, as he had to construct a dugout to live in for the first winter. As with most other settlers to Muskoka, the “prime farmland” was in actuality prime “Canadian Shield”, seemingly growing nothing but rocks!
Later, he purchased the property where Port Cunnington Lodge is situated today and opened Port Cunnington Lodge as a tourist resort in 1890.
– With excerpts from the book, Tourist Accommodations on Lake of Bays by Doug and Helen Cunnington. The book, along with many others from the Lake of Bays area, is available for purchase from Joanne Cunnington. You can reach her at 705-635-1466.
See more Wayback Wednesday photos HERE.
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