History

A River Family Mother's Day Tradition

Great Grandma Capitola Dingman was born in 1891, one of 14 children from a second-generation pioneer family of Alexandria Bay. . .

Volume 18, Issue 4, April 2023
Marilyn L. Schaaf

Howe's Southern 'Brother' Doesn't Disappoint

The 'Pinkie', likely honouring one of Qantas’ past navigators, was a Canadian-built DASH-8 twin turboprop designed to land on tiny airstrips anywhere, and in this case, on ‘Howe Island’.

Volume 18, Issue 4, April 2023
R.M. Doyon

Building the Ice Rink in Clayton!

At the end of a night of skating we kids would be told to grab the shovels and clean the rink . . .

Volume 18, Issue 4, April 2023
Melody Brabant

"Spring Fit-out" on the Great Lakes, Part I

In the mid-19th century, as many as one hundred ships wintered in such ports as Oswego. As soon as the ice melted, Oswego came alive like a bear awakening from its long winter’s nap.

Volume 18, Issue 4, April 2023
Richard Palmer

Life on Grindstone Island in the 1930s – 1940s

Weekdays, there was a routine that never changed; out from the warm bed under the feather-tick cover, we emerged to put feet on the cold flo

Volume 18, Issue 3, March 2023
Manley L. Rusho

Remembrances of Rebellion: The Odyssey of Stephen S. Wright

93 English speaking rebels were transported to the penal colony of Van Diemen’s Land. Stephen Smith Wright was one of these men, and this is his story . . .

Volume 18, Issue 3, March 2023
John C. Carter

Mudlunta Island Architecture

Once I had Philip's information, including that the Mudlunta resident C.V. Schuyler was married to Alice Britton, it was possible to quickly find the right people to research.

Volume 18, Issue 3, March 2023
Sherry LB Johnson & Philip Britton

The Thousand Island Park Great Fire of 1912 Heroes

The summer of 1910 was unseasonably hot and dry, and the population of TI Park had grown to about 12,000. The area was primed for trouble, and that summer, three major fires nearly destroyed the Park.

Volume 18, Issue 3, March 2023
Susan G. Mathis

‘Irish Bard’ Finds Family Roots on Wolfe Island

In the wee hours before Christmas Eve, Jannet Walsh suddenly bolted upright in her bed. Or what she believed was her bed . . .

Volume 18, Issue 2, February 2023
Brian Johnson

"A Near-Fatal Case of Mistaken Identity" and a John Fielding Tribute

With all the discussion about guns in America, I started to reflect on my own close call. While I was teaching high school in Brockville in the '70s . . .

Volume 18, Issue 2, February 2023
John Fielding & John Stencell

“Bringing Camp to Dad… One Last Time”

It was February 2005. My 83 year old Dad and I sat in the sunroom at my parents’ cottage in a tiered living retirement community in NC. As always, Dad’s thoughts turned to the family’s seasonal camp on Chippewa Bay, NY.

Volume 18, Issue 2, February 2023
Bruce Mallette

Doc to the Rock

My Aunt Eleanor (Calhoun), my father’s sister, was pregnant; we were told that she was having trouble with the pregnancy, and she needed a doctor.

Volume 18, Issue 2, February 2023
Manley L. Rusho

While the Women Only Wept: Loyalist Refugee Women in Eastern Ontario, by Janice Potter-MacKinnon

I chased down this book a few years ago, while researching the first wife of Joel Stone, the founder of Gananoque. What a fascinating read it turned out to be!

Volume 18, Issue 2, February 2023
Sherry L. B. Johnson

What a Honeymoon!

We explained we had a US licensed car and a number of sails we were taking to Toronto. “No!” The customs officer said, “and if you cross this line,” . . .

Volume 18, Issue 1, January 2023
Ralph Boston & Sherry L.B. Johnson

An Old Ice Boat

Somewhere around 1943, my cousin John (Dano) and I had a winter project to fix up an old ice boat. We had been working on this old ice boat for several days now, salvaging parts from all over . . .

Volume 18, Issue 1, January 2023
Manley L. Rusho

Fate of the Schooner "Maggie L"

Captain Merton H. Mellon was at the helm of his small two-masted schooner, the "Maggie L.", sailing down the St. Lawrence River on the night of November 1, 1929 . . .

Volume 18, Issue 1, January 2023
Richard Palmer

Winter Duck Hunt on Grindstone Island

It was two days before Christmas in the early 1950’s. I was up at 4 am, dressed and out of the cellar door with my flashlight in hand. I headed to the boat house . . .

Volume 17, Issue 12, December 2022
Manley L. Rusho

Is the Architect as Interesting as His Architecture?

Franklin Townsend Lent’s works are among those that have been researched as the early development of resort architecture in the Thousand Island region of Upstate New York and Ontario . . .

Volume 17, Issue 12, December 2022
Sherry L. B. Johnson