Video Collection

: Jean Warrington - The Cottage; Jean Warrington discusses her childhood visits to her grandmother's cottage, which had been built by her grandfather near Lake Simcoe. Her grandmother spent summers there after her husband passed away in 1933 because the family property passed to her son and she stayed at the cottage so that she wouldn't be in the way in the main house. Jean stayed with her for the duration of the summer, and that is where she learned how to swim by copying a neighbour. The cottage was built in 1925, and her grandfather had transported the wood down the 9th Line by horse and then across the hard sand on the shore of the Lake. The cottage was well-built by a Mr. Glover and was beautifully lined inside with tongue-in-groove cedar. It contained at least three bedrooms, a living room, and a kitchen.

: John Grant - Bee Research On Thorah Island; John Grant discusses the honey bee research conducted on Thorah Island by researchers from the University of Guelph. His wife Laurie was one of the people who started the study as North American honey bees have a tracheal mite and an Irish monk had developed a strain that was resistant to the mite. Because honey bees can't fly further than one mile, and there was no indigenous honey bee already on Thorah Island, it was selected as the best location for the study. The study is ongoing, and John recalls going to visit once and seeing that the Guelph students had smudge pots for smokers to make the bees docile. When their professor had told them to collect green vegetation to make smoke, John noticed they were collecting poison ivy. The Beaverton Distrcit Conservation Club was formed in the early 1990s to initiate conservation efforts for Lake Simcoe. The group regularly obtains permits to stock walleye and maintain the acreage on Thorah Island where the bee study takes place.

: John Grant - Entertainment; John Grant recalls what youths in Beaverton did for recreation and entertainment in the past. His grandfather Playfair Brown initially settled in Beaverton with his grandmother Jessie Williamson, and when he returned to Beaverton after the Second World War he noticed there was nothing for people to do. He then decided to open a gymnasium so that the boys could learn the "manly art of fisticuffs" to get them off the street and allow them to get their aggression out. He eventually ended up in Toronto as Canada's boxing promoter. He worked with Conn Smythe to build Maple Leaf Gardens. He also coached the Canadian Olympic Team, promoted many professional events in the 1920s including long distance running, and swimming. John also recalls that when he was growing up there were townsfolk and cottagers, and cottage girls would come into town to meet the town boys and summer romances would blossom, which doesn't happen anymore since many cottages have been converted into homes when the owners retired. He also recalls the Port Bolster drive-in, and in particular a tale from when he went to see the film Love Story. There he saw a tractor entering the drive-in that was pulling a trailer with a couch on it, and he recounts that "the love story on that couch was better than the one on the screen." He also talks of the Commodore Theatre as "the" place to go to in its prime, and recalls a story about his father traveling there with friends in a Model T Ford on a particularly cold day. They thought they'd drain the fluid to stop the radiator from freezing but didn't realize the fluid would freeze on contact and ended up having to walk six miles in the cold. Finally, he also talks of the Strand movie theatre, which had an Edison projector that still survives today. A resident of Thorah Island originally purchased the projector in the late 1890s, and the family retained the projector until it was donated.

: John Grant - Family Legacy; John Grant describes his family's history in Beaverton, where the originally came as cottagers. His mother and aunt dated two brothers of the Divine family, whose house John now lives in. His mother also stayed in the house during the polio epidemic in Toronto. His mother's side of the family were settlers in the 1820s on a 100 acre farm near Argyle, which was given to his ancestor as a veteran of the Napoleonic wars in return for clearing land each year. His great-grandfather, William Williamson and his wife Mary Suitor opened a pharmacy in Beaverton and lived over the store in an apartment. In the summer the heat in the apartment was unbearable, so William purchased property on Cedar Beach and built the first cottage there as a cooler place to stay in the summer. The cottage stayed in the family until the 1960s when his maternal uncle passed away in his 40s after working in uranium mines, and no one could afford to buy it out. His mother acquired another property in 1970 though so the family always had a place in Beaverton. John himself worked as a cook for a summer, and later traveled around the area in a rock band on weekends. William Williamson also opened the Beaverton telephone company and ran 12 lines out of a switchboard in the back of his drugstore. He also details how his grandmother and her siblings were afforded the opportunity to attend university and as a result, his grandmother Jessie Williamson graduated with a Bachelor's Degree from the University of Toronto in 1913. William also developed what he called invisible ink, and his son-in-law (John's grandfather) who was a soldier in the first world war told his field commander about the invisible ink William had invented and suggested it for possible use in delivering messages. John retains a copy of an official letter stating the idea who be passed on, but he is unsure of the ultimate outcome.

: John Grant - Moonshine On Thorah Island; John Grant recounts some stories of moonshiners growing their own grain and distilling their own alcohol on Thorah Island in an effort to stay self-sufficient during prohibition. It was called Thorah Island honey, or sometimes Thorah Island bang. The last still was dismantled in the 1970s but evidently parts can still be found on the island. John discusses how one had to be caught with the coil of the still in their possession in order to be charged, and how there was a signal system worked out between the island and Beaverton so that the island residents knew when the RCMP would be coming to do a raid. The signal was seen one day and when the police arrived they followed a trail to the fence and saw the coil of the still had been thrown over. After producing a warrant to search the property, the property owner stated that it only allowed a search of his property and not the neighbour's, so he ended up avoiding charges. John also talks about a man he met several years ago who had only left the island twice in his life - once to serve time in jail, and once to participate in the Second World War. Some of the moonshine manufactured on the island, and it is claimed that some of it ended up working its way to the United States, where prohibition lasted longer. There was also a rumour that some of it was distributed by Joseph Kennedy.

: John Grant - Preserving Lake Simcoe; John Grant discusses the significance role of Lake Simcoe in the past as well as the important efforts made to preserve the lake both culturally and environmentally. He discusses how Roche's Point on Lake Simcoe was discussed as a possible location as the capital of Ontario, which was owned by one family but has been dedicated on a 999 year lease to the Conservation Authority (although the family still retains the right to hunt on the property. He then goes on to mention that he has served four terms as an elected municipal councilman and as such was the Durham Region and Brock Township representative on the Board of Directors of the Conservation Authority where he became aware of the fact that sport fishing on the lake is a $200 million/year industry. He also mentions the challenges of keeping the lake healthy - including keeping phosphorous levels down, which is harmful to the lake because it depletes oxygen and the cold water fishery suffers for it. From the 1970s until the 1990s trout and whitefish were almost entirely depleted and eventually had to be restocked by the Ministry of Natural Resources. Thanks to combined efforts from the Authority, the Ministry, and farmers and municipalities the phosphorous has diminished and trout have begun to naturally reproduce again. John also discusses how difficult it is to balance conservation efforts with waterside development, as well as understanding which authorities are responsible for what and securing funding in order to maintain conservation efforts.

: John Grant - Thorah Island In The Past; John Grant discusses Thorah Island's past and the continuing pioneer spirit there with a number of anecdotes. He talks about how Beaverton is the ice fishing capital of Lake Simcoe as there are more departures from the Beaverton harbour than anywhere else. He discusses the ingenuity of ice hut construction, including one man who used the hut as his home and had to cut a hole out of one side to make room for his feet when he laid down to sleep. He also mentions how the Thorah Island harbour included a small store and post office, and how the first day issue of a stamp from that post office ended up being highly sought after. An archaeological dig was also established on one corner of the island where a settlement of native Canadians was discovered dating back to 2500 B.C. Additionally Keith Bissell, a teacher from Scarborough with ties to the island wrote the Ontario song often sung in elementary school. Only one person lives on the island during the winter in a three floor building that may have originally been intended to be a hotel, but never came to fruition after rail transportation began to dominate over water shipping. John also recalls a story of a couple who honeymooned on the island in 1935 in a small wooden hotel on Centre Rd. where there was no running water or electricity. Electricity didn't come to the island until approximately 1955 by underground cables from the point of Mara, rumoured to be a result of the vice-President of Ontario Hydro purchasing a cottage on the island. The first cottagers on the island were said to be three sisters with American husbands, and another early cottager was a shipbuilder by trade and thus built a cottage using dowel pins and dovetails, and no nails.

: John Grant - Thorah Island Today; John Grant recounts how when he first ran for city councilor, he traveled to Thorah Island and was told that he was the first to come to the island to campaign and once he was in office, he could count on the people of the island to support him. He describes how the island has a small harbour built in the 1930s and only recently rebuilt, with one dirt road circling the island. He purchased a property there in 1993 on the north side of the island. As someone who enjoyed hearing stories of the island, he recalls how the Chippewa First Nations sold the island in the 1870s, and it was eventually divided into eleven 100-acre lots for European use. The deal was re-ratified in the Williams Treaty in the 1920s, and the Chippewas still retain seven acres for camping, hunting, and fishing. The original farmsteaders had sheep, cattle, grain, and tried to be as self-sufficient as possible, though barges were still necessary to move livestock and goods. Descendants of the original settlers still live on the island, and John repeats a saying that if you buy property on the island but aren't related to anyone on the island, you will be in 20 years.

: Margaret Baker - Changing Innisfil; Margaret Baker describes the changing landscape of Innisfil from new housing developments to the way the beach has changed. She mentions the difference between the lots formerly owned by two Goodfellow brothers on the 8th and 9th lines where one has changed into a new housing development, leaving little trace of the former farm, and the other has yet to be developed. She also talks of how the beach looks different each time she sees it, although the private beaches haven't changed much. She also discusses how her grandmother's cottage was small but well-built, and now cottages seem to be large and used for year-round living rather than just summer residences.

: Margaret Baker - Teaching; Longtime Innisfil resident Margaret Baker recalls her career as a teacher at Huronia and Warnica schools, 1957-1975. She begins by recalling her visits to Innisfil as a child where she would go to Goodfellow beach and visit her grandmother, Susie Goodfellow, and get lemonade and homemade cookies. She didn't have much to do with Innisfil until 1957 when she needed a job. She went to a job fair at the teacher's college and talked to a delegation from Innisfil, where she applied and ended up being accepted. She started teaching at Huronia School from 1957 to 1967, which was the largest school in Innisfil with three rooms (and later five rooms after an addition was constructed). Her first pay cheque for her yearly salary was $2800, which was $100 more than in Barrie and was a significant amount of money at the time. She then transferred to Warnica School, which was a shock to transfer from a five room school to a multi-room school, but after 17 years she quit teaching to have children.

: Margaret Baker - The Goodfellow Family; Margaret Baker (née Goodfellow) recounts the stories of the first Goodfellow settlers, two brothers from the Bradford area who came to Innisfil each with an axe and an ox between them. They stayed on the last working farm on the 9th Line for many years. Marg's Lane and Ward's Lane were named after her and her father by her grandmother, Susie Goodfellow (née Warnica), although she didn't realize it for many years. Her father left Innisfil to move to Eatonville, but eventually came back in his senior years. Her grandparents James and Susie Goodfellow were teetotalers and did not smoke, but her grandmother had a strong sense for business. Her father helped build the canal along Goodfellow Avenue and planted the trees along the banks of it. A sumac tree on Bill Jack's property was planted by Margaret's grandfather, who died in 1934, and still stands today.

: Margaret Baker - The Warnica Family; Longtime Innisfil resident Margaret Baker describes tracing her family tree and discusses her great-grandfather, John Lyon Warnica, and his family. She began her research by wanting to investigate if she had any United Empire Loyalists in her family. She had heard that the Hollingshead and Soules families were, and mentions that David Soules was one of the first settlers in Big Bay Point, but his niece who later came to the area and she can trace her lineage back to the Mayflower. Margaret can trace her own lineage back to the American Revolution and secured the distinction of U.E. (for United Empire Loyalist) though she had some difficulty finding the documentation that her grandfather's wife Sarah's maiden name was Soules. Her husband Brian also prompts Margaret to share a story about her great-grandfather who used to say "when I die, bury me a little bit closer to Rebecca," his first wife of three. Margaret also describes a photo of him as older man in a portrait with a number of his children and his young wife holding a baby, and Lizzie Drury (daughter of Sarah and her first husband Charles) who was adopted into the family but looks different from the others. She also goes on to detail how Sarah Soule's first husband Charles drowned after going out on the lake with his wife's cousin Samuel (though Samuel survived). Sarah then ended up marrying John who already had five children, and together they had three more children. John eventually married Elizabeth Sibbald after Sarah's death and had three or four more children. Alfred Warnica, John's brother, who had a family of eight children also tragically died with his son on the lake, and later Sarah's uncle James Soules also died unexpectedly in a snowstorm.

: Rosemary Campbell - Innisfil In The 1940S And 50S; Rosemary Campbell (née Fagents) came to Innisfil in July 1944 as an 11-year old, and though it was different from the city she came to love the area. She originally arrived on Concession 8 (now known as Innisfil Beach Road), which only had about five farms between the 20th and 25th sideroads - owned by the Dietrichs, the Webbs, the Andrades, the Lambs, and the Flagels. From the 25th sideroad down to the lake were all cottages. The area had one small general store called Vic`s Market, just west of the 20th sideroad. Once or twice a week she and her family traveled to Barrie for provisions since offerings at Vic`s and in Stroud were limited. She recalls that there were few cars in the area at the time and many people still traveled by horse and buggy or horse and cutter. There were no churches nearby so gatherings were held in family homes. The Andrade farm was located on a lane now known as Adullum. Roads were all unpaved until 1955. She attended Nantyr Public School located at the 20th sideroad and concession 7, which was approximately a three mile walk. After she left for high school, a new school was built in 1955 across from Lakelands Community Hall. She also recalls William Lamb who used to cut ice at the bottom of the 8th Line and his company was called Lake Simcoe Ice. Rosemary`s brother George Fagents helped deliver ice to cottagers in the area. Her family home was a small cottage that needed insulation upon their arrival and had no indoor bathroom but did have a small pump in the kitchen sink. The house was demolished two years. She also recalls that she had a dog called Pup who had a harness and sled, and Pup would come to meet her in the winter on her walk home from school. She left at age 16 to go to school in Toronto and would notice many changes on visits home even in the 1950s. Rosemary concludes that she is thankful to have spent time growing up in Innisfil and despite the many changes, she will always have her memories.

: Rosemary Campbell - The Andrade Family; Rosemary Campbell (née Fagents) discusses the pivotal role of the Andrade family in her youth and their mark on the Innisfil area. She and her family came from the city with the Andrade family, and she notes that several street names are based on members of the Andrade family or were names from the Bible that the family selected. She also points out that the family was incredibly helpful to her and her family when they moved. They originally moved to the area to start a goat farm after Mr. Andrade developed stomach issues and was told he should try goat`s milk to heal his ailment. They eventually had 16 children, and Grant Andrade eventually became a Reeve in Innisfil.

: Rosemary Campbell - The Fagents Family Property; Rosemary Campbell recounts her family's arrival in Innisfil and the construction on their property in the 1940s. She begins by discussing how when her brother got married in 1951, he built a house for their mother at the back of his property, though Rosemary was married in 1952 and therefore didn't stay very long. She recalls that she was helping shingle the roof the day her husband-to-be arrived on their wedding day. Several years later it was moved on tree skids to Willard Ave. (which was named after William Lamb's son Willard), and the house was the first at that location. Her mother paid $300 for the piece of property, which is now 2147 Willard Ave. The house still stands today and transferred to Rosemary after her mother's passing in the early 1990s.

: Shirlie Toro-Fralick - Being A Woman In The Armed Forces; Shirlie Toro-Fralick discusses her time in the armed forces as a member of the entertainment unit during World War II. She begins by explaining how a drunken officer "helped" the females of Shirlie's unit into their bus with inappropriate touching. Shirlie explains that while some men respected and supported the female entertainer troops, others viewed them as "playthings". There was an opinion among some of the male soldiers that once a woman joined the forces, she was ruined. Shirlie explains that not all men shared this opinion. She states that most of them knew that "we were just boys and girls there to do a job".

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