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Possibly includes John Summerwill on the front row.
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John Summerwill, station agent,
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Fred and Cassie Summerwill |
Fred and Cassie Summerwill with
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Gertrude Dey (Summerwill),
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From left to right:
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See Appendix 3 for a photo gallery of other members of this family |
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Extract from A Track of Time: a History of the Township of McCurrich:
The earliest history of the SUMMERWILL family was gathered from the Census. The Summerwill name has been spelt several different ways: Summerwill was the name found on the land grant documents:Summerhill was the spelling found on the Cemetery stones: Summerville and Sommerville was the spelling recorded on the Census and in the Council minutes. The family name is Summerwill today.Mrs. Lydia Summerwill, born in England about 1829, emigrated to Ontario in 1865 when she was 37, with at least three of her children. Lydia received title to 200 acres in 1885, along Concession 3, Lots 25 and 26 of the Township of McMurrich. (Axe Lake area) The granting of crown land to new settlers, either male or female, was surprisingly non-sexist: widows were considered the head of a family and therefore eligible to 100 acres; daughters of families who were 18 years and older were also granted 100 acres each, considering they met all the requirements.Six years later Lydia, was living on her own, according to the 1891 Census. Her son, James, was located nearby with his wife Mary Jack and their two children Hazel (my grandmother) and John. Her daughter, Lydia, was married to George Marshall and they were residing in Whitehall.In the spring of 1894, the Council minutes record that Mrs. Summerwill's statue labour was being "considered", and by June of 1894 a decision resulted in her statue labour being remitted. Statute labour was road work performed by tax payers in lieu of their annual land taxes. Mrs. Lydia Summerwill was recorded on the 1901 Census, still farming on her own, in the same area, but after that there were no further records. Her son, James, went on to become a well respected citizen in Whitehall and Sprucedale, as did her grandson, John Summerwill, the Station Agent, and great grandson, Leslie, who died during World War II.James Summerwill and Mary Jack received title to another 200 acres just west of his mother's farm in 1893. Within the year they had moved further north to Banbury on Lot 28 of Concession 9 (Sydney Doupe's original farm). James Summerwill, along with a neighbour, Mr. Kratz, were allotted $25.00 worth of labour conducted on Concession 10, as recorded in the Council minutes of 1896. By 1901 James and Mary were still farming there and they now had six children with the older ones attending the Banbury School. In 1901 the Summerwills were neighbours to James Farrell who was managing the Banbury Post Offices.James Summerwill was the tax collector for 1900, when he was "to be allowed 6% of taxes collected in arrears". The 6% would have been his salary for the job. By 1902 he had been elected to represent the Township as a Councillor, a post he only held for that one year. It was a year when Council members voted in favour of a raise from $1.25 to $1.50 per council meeting they attended, which was a respectable increase for 1902. In 1903, Mary and James Summerwill and their family moved into the village of Sprucedale and are covered further in the chapter, Sprucedale Grows.
Life in Sprucedale - Note by Gwen Clark
Sprucedale today is a very small community. They were more thriving back seventy years ago but still considered small. Now they have one hotel/pub, one convenience store/coffee shop, a craft store, and three churches. Many years ago they had an orange lodge as well. Also at that time they had a public school and a high school. It was the only high school in the district. Many that attended the high school came from as far away as Parry Sound (approx. 50 miles). They would travel by train to Sprucedale and board with families in town during the week. My step-father was one of the Parry Sound students. He boarded with my great-grandparents. My mother did not meet him until years later even though she also lived in Sprucedale at the time.Lydia must have been a very strong willed person as well as strong physically. According to the Free Grants and Homesteads Act, when someone was given a grant of land, within 5 years of locating on 200 acres a settler had to build "a home of at least 16 x 20 ft and to have 15 acres cleared and continuously under cultivation, at least 2 acres a year for five years". The land was dense bush (forest). It was a very hard life. The cabins they built were of course made of logs. It was common to have a two room cabin and have a mother, father and a dozen kids all living in it. They used the loft for sleeping quarters for the children and the very small bedroom for the parents. The main room was for everything else. There were no comforts such as an indoor toilet, electricity, etc. When the snow was six feet deep, going to an outdoor toilet wasn't any fun. Many people just used the bush, as there weren't any neighbours near. Many people lived miles from their nearest neighbour. They lived off the land, growing their own vegetables and hunted, trapped or fished for their meat. Nothing was wasted. The animal skins and fur were used for clothing.
Sprucedale - Photo & Description by Murray Mandley
Parry Sound and Muskoka Districts, on the edge of the Precambrian Canadian Shield, are lands of rocks, trees, thin soil, infinite number of lakes, extremely cold winters, short growing season and very hot summers. For agriculturists it is quite inhospitable. It is most beautiful in the fall as the attached picture attests.
