Old Harbor in Summer and Winter: Schooner Days DCLXVI (666)

by C. H. J. Snider

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LIKE the gentleman who caught the tiger by the tail, Schooner Days has some difficulty in letting go, in the case of Frenchman's Bay. Since the last reference to this historic port and prehistoric site, many communications have come, some imparting information, more seeking it. Mr. Thomas Pizer, 177 St. Helens avenue, wrote:

Sir,—I enjoy reading Schooner Days very, very much. As I was born in Dunbarton 75 years ago, I remember old Frenchman's Bay and the activities which kept the harbor alive, but now it is only a memory. Last week you mentioned the Anna Bellchambers. This schooner was owned by my granddad, Wm. Bellchambers, and I was wondering if you have a record of the particulars of the Anna Bellchambers (schooner) disaster. My uncle, Wm. Edwards, was the skipper, and my cousin, Joe, was washed overboard and drowned. If you can find space in future issue of Schooner Days giving me a writeup of particulars of this schooner disaster, it will be greatly appreciated also by my remaining relatives.

Yours sincerely,

THOMAS PIZER,

177 St. Helens ave., Toronto.

A Capt. Pizer commanded the Belle, built in Oakville in 1854, and Wm. Pizer was the registered owner of the Anna Bellchambers in 1874. Moreover, Wm. Edwards was one of the two men, Wm. Henderson being the other, who with a horsepower dredge of some sort cut the channel through the sandbar which turned Frenchman's Bay from a pond to a port in 1853.

Knowing the Pizers to have been masters or owners of small craft themselves in schooner days we shall tell the story of the Anna Bellchambers sometime soon as it was told to us sometime ago by two old sailormen now gone to glory, Capt. Jack Marks of Frenchman's Bay, and Wm. Ward, fisherman of Ward's Island.

DUNBAR OF DUNBARTON

Another letter confirms and adds to what we know about Frenchman's Bay and corrects an inaccuracy for which we blame a local history. This concerns that friend of man and beast, the village blacksmith. Mr. W. B. Dunbar, 241 Glebeholme road, writes:

"You conclude one article by referring to Dunbarton and the one after whom it was named. The name should have been William Dunbar instead of Robert. The former was my great-grandfather who came with his family from Largo, Scotland, and settled there as a farmer in 1832. His son, William, my grandfather was the blacksmith and his shop was the red brick building on the north side of Highway No. 2 in the village opposite the new store and post office. It now serves as my garage. Robert Dunbar, another son, never lived long in Dunbarton going on to Buffalo where for a number of years he operated a foundry. I and my brother still own the major portion of the original property. I have the receipt from the Crown given under the great seal of our said Province of Upper Canada by command of His Excellency Sir George Arthur, Lieutenant-Governor.

OLD PORT AT BAY HEAD

"The original dock at the bay was not where subsequently the elevator and ice houses were built but at the north end, where the side road crossing under the railroad at the stone arch approaches the bay. Cedar piles of the original dock are still visible or were quite recently in the marsh there along what we as boys called the gut. I very well remember my father telling me that the warehouse, shown in your picture of 1878, and which was torn down within my memory, was removed from this old dock to the location beside the elevator.

"A considerable quantity of logs and lumber was shipped from this old dock. The marsh was either not so extensive or the water was higher in those days as father used to recall floating on a raft under the railroad trestle toward the village a feat which would have been impossible in the almost fifty years I have known it.

WRECK OF THE JENNY

"I can quite well remember steamers of some considerable size, at least they appeared so then, loading grain at the old elevator in the late 90's or early 1900's. About 1900 the wooden steamer Jenny loaded with pig iron put into the piers during a storm. In trying to make the open lake again she was driven on to the lighthouse pier and foundered. Most of the cargo and equipment was later salvaged by a diver but the boiler lay on the bottom chained to the lighthouse pier for years. One side of the ship lay nearby, the other washed around and lay on the bottom at the west side of the west pier. These may still be there.

CHIPPEWA A CALLER

"Excursions frequently left the piers for Niagara. I went on one occasion on the Chippewa. We were ferried over to the pier from the elevator in Mr. Spark's fishing boat. Oh several occasions I think it was the old Argyle or Garden City which took excursions.

"I am enclosing a few photos I took about 1912 or 13 which may interest you and add to your collection. Two are winter pictures (evident). The lighthouse is the last one. The old pier gave way and listed badly to the east. Temporary bracing was used for a while. Finally the old light had to come down and the pier rebuilt. The crib was built on the bay side of the sand bar to the west, launched and floated into place. The lighthouse of the picture was then erected.

"The picture of the elevator, the coal unloading elevator, which was then operated by horsepower, and the end of one ice house was taken during ice harvest. The men in the foreground are feeding ice to the elevator. The old warehouse which stood I think north of the coal shed had been torn down some years before.

20TH CENTURY SHIPPING

"The hookers are some of the last. The single one is the "Island Queen." The other picture shows, I think, the Island Queen and probably the Madeline. If my memory serves me right the latter was owned by Thos. Mansfield and skippered by his son Charles who still lives at the bay and carries on a fishing business. The steamer at the lighthouse is a sandsucker from Toronto which usually tied up in the piers after working all day along the shore."

Frenchman's Bay Lighthouse—Ice cutting opposite the big red elevator "Island Queen"—Late traffic in the vanished piers.

SNAPSHOTS OF BAY SCENES THIRTY YEARS AGO FROM MR. DUNBAR, THE NEPTUNE DISPORTING HIMSELF IN THE SURF