It’s Wayback Wednesday, sponsored by Jamie Lockwood, broker/owner of Sutton Group Muskoka Realty!
The Huntsville Lumber Company, 1892-1929, Mill No. 2 can be seen at the southwest end of Hunter’s Bay. The Muskoka Road, the main road to Huntsville, can be seen coming through across the fields on the right and the railroad tracks can be seen on the left.
From Huntsville With Spirit and Resolve, by Susan Pryke, c2000: One of the earliest lumber companies, Heath, Tait and Turnbull, was built beside the railway at the foot of Yonge Street in 1886. The company was located on land owned by George Elliott. That year (1886) Elliott registered his subdivision and development began at the west end of town.
Heath, Tait and Turnbull’s major competitor, the Whaley Lumber Company (1890) had a large mill at the outlet of Hunter’s Bay, later the site of the Muskoka Wood Manufacturing Company. M. Brennen and Son, a Hamilton firm, operated on the west side of Hunter’s Bay from 1888 onwards, while John Whiteside ran the Riverside Lumber Company between the bridge and Fairy Lake. He had purchased the distressed Amber mill and started the Riverside Lumber Company in 1885.
By 1892 these companies jointly employed 175 men and handled a daily cut of 125,000 to 150,000 feet of lumber. That year Heath, Tait and Turnbull changed its name to the Huntsville Lumber Company.
See more Wayback Wednesday photos here.
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When we cleaned out my Aunts house we found my grandfather’s sharpening tools and donated them to the pioneer village or heritage place. Someone said to me why would you do that I said because I don’t sharpen saws and maybe alot of people can see them.
I think this is a photo from the 20’s and at that time the company was operated by Mr. Orval Tait and Mr. E.C. Wainwright. Mr. Sid Davis wrote “These two men were dead opposites, Mr. Tait liking his spirits and Mr. Wainwright his tea.”
John and Robert Whiteside jointly gathered timber rights in the Finlayson and Bethune townships, with the intention of harvesting the hardwood from those western uplands. When John passed away, Robert Whiteside of Duluth Minnesota, financed his nephews, Richard and Charles Dinsmore and Sid Davis, to operate as the Bethune Pulp and Lumber Co.
The new enterprise had no mill of its’ own and contacted Huntsville Lumber Co. to saw and stack its’ lumber. It was not an ideal situation.
When BPLco. finally built its’ own mill, Huntsville Lumber was no longer a viable enterprise and ceased operations. A world depression was looming and when Robert Beatty Whiteside passed away, BPLco lost its’ financing. It wouldn’t survive the Depression.
From comments in the notes of Mr. Davis and his uncle, I’m convinced that Huntsville Lumber operated as a band-saw mill as well as running circular saws. It seems reasonable that if Muskoka Wood had not been a band-saw mill before the fire in 1922, it was afterward.
BPLco was a band-saw mill from the beginning.
If Wendy Brown’s grandfather sharpened saws for these three companies, he was a talented man, capable restoring the edge on band, as well as circular saws. And a valuable employee since dull blades wouldn’t make you money.
My grandfather worked one shift at each lumber company a day, he sharpened the huge Saws they used. His name was Albert Bell. My mother also told me that the owner of this mills young son died from a disease and was buried where the 4 lane highway is now. I don’t know if they moved his grave it was a long time ago my mom was only around 10 when it happened.