Story of Tecumseth Twp. Beaver Dam Creek (By H. J. Wilcox, Sept. 1965) This stream is shown on the 1965 map of Simcoe County as originating on Lot 20, Con. 3, Tecumseth Township and joining the Innisfil Creek on n.h. Lot, 17, Tecumseth. Several miles west it becomes part of the Nottawasaga River, just south of Thompsonville. The map calls it the Penville Creek, just why we do not know. There is less live water today, in the Penville branch than in either the Bond Head or Newton Robinson branches. Springs on Lots 1 and 2, Concession 8, West Gwillimbury keep the Bond Head branch alive the year round, while those on Lots 2 and 3 in Con. 9, West Gwillimbury, do the same for the Newton Robinson branch. Springs on Lot. 18, Con. 4, Tecumseth, settled on by Adna Penfield, after whom Penville was named, were the main source of the Penville branch. The strongest of these, on n.h. Lot 18, was harnessed some 60 years ago to provide water under pressure for Penville village and the surrounding farms, which it is still doing but leaves no overflow. About the same time, the five stands of oak and white pine, first in the "Coffey" and then in the "Cerswell" bushes on Lots 22 and 23, Con. 5, were cut off, which affected the flow of water considerably. We will turn aside here to recall some memories of the cutting of this beautiful timber. The saw mill was set up in the bush, along with stables, cookhouse, bunk house etc., and the squared timber was hauled to Bradford on huge wagons drawn by steam engines. These must have proved too expensive for they were soon replaced by horses, but not before they had torn out all the crossings in Bond Head's new cement sidewalk system. The village of Bond Head is famous for many things, one is that it is also the dividing line between two branches of the watershed under discussion. On the west side, Roy Dixon's pond has long provided enjoyment for the younger generation, while on the east side, the overflow from George Shephard's well kept the stream alive which supplied Andrew Carter's steam chopping mill until Mr. Carter suspended operations in 1917 or 1918. It is claimed by some that this stream also ran a sawmill in Bond Head at one time, but this has not been corroborated. Hunter's History of Simcoe County names Andrew Cerswell as one of the first settlers in Tecumseth, opening the forest in 1819 and taking out the patent on north part Lot 24, Con. 4, on June 21, 1823. Another member of the family, John Cerswell, settled on Lot 23, Con. 7 in 1833. He also acquired 22 acres in order to build a dam across the creek below the junction of the Bond Head and Penville branches. This dam, the remains of which can still be seen, ran one of the old vertical type sawmills. Registry office records show that James Armstrong received the patent for s.h. Lot 22, Con. 7, on March 1, 1825, that he sold 221/2 acres in the s.e. corner to Asher Foster for 68, 15 sh. in 1828, who in turn sold it to John Cerswell in 1829 for 200. The difference in price would indicate that the mill had been erected int he meantime, especially as the records also show that Mr. Cerswell obtained Lot 23 (200 acres) from the Canada Company in 1833 for 75. On this property he built perhaps the most ambitious house in the township, which is being restored by the present owner, Dr. John W. Scott of Toronto. Mr. Armstrong deeded one acre of land adjoining the 221/2 acres to "Mears et al" in 1840. From the journal kept by the Rev. Featherston Lake Osler we learn that these men were trustees of Trinity Anglican Church, that the land was a gift from Mr. Armstrong for the erection of Trinity Church and the first rectory in Tecumseth and West Gwillimbury, and that title was later vested in the Lord Bishop of Toronto. Further down stream are the remains of another mill dam on n.h. Lot 21, Con. 9, which was built by Hiram Bigelow. Mr. Bigelow must have been a large land owner. According to Hunter's History he received a patent for Lot 12, Con. 6, in 1823 and that he operated the first grist mill in the township on Lot 20, Con. 9, in 1832 or earlier. This is a mistake. He lived on Lot 20 and his children attended school at S.S. No. 11, later known as Wilcox's school. Hunter also says that he was operating a sawmill before he built a grist mill and the he had a "race" of scooped out logs one-quarter mile long to bring water the the wheel. I have been told that he tapped the Newton Robinson branch of the creek and carried it back up stream a distance of over a mile to empty into his pond above the dam. These logs may have been part of this watercourse, but the late Mr. George H. Baycroft told me that he, Mr. Bigelow, had a sluiceway of hollow basswood logs running up through Lot 20, Con. 9 and into Lot 20, Con. 8, down which he floated timber cut off the high land. These mills, along with Law's brickyard located on the east bank of the creek and just below the dam, became the centre of a thriving village which disappeared, according to Mr. Baycroft, because Mr. Bigelow would not allow the erection of an hotel on his property. It is not known how long this community lasted and water shortage was probably its trouble, but in 1861 Henry Carter and John Wilcox bought the property which has once held the mill pond. The exact location of the brickyard had been forgotten until the hurricane in 1954 uncovered an area of brick paving in a cultivated field. A bit of a legend surrounds the name, Beaver Dam Creek. No one knows for sure, if anywhere, the beaver dams were located, the dams which supplied peltries to the early French traders and then to the English and Dutch merchants at Albany on the Hudson River by means of the Iroquois tribes and especially the Senecas, located at the mouth of the Humber River. These Iroquois roamed over this district for nearly one hundred years after they had eliminated the Huron tribe to the north. Lot 21, n.h. Con. 7, is believe to be the spot. In 1840 James Banting, his wife Anna Thompson, and their children, Charles, Elizabeth, Robert, Susanna and Jemima came from Ireland and settled on this property. It was later divided between the two sons, who became known as Beaver Dam Charlie and Beaver Dam Robert. This may have been to distinguish them from others of the same name. Six brothers of James came out at the same time, of whom, John, progenitor of Sir. Frederick Banting, settled at Thompsonville and Col. Robt. T. at Cookstown, but it lends color to the legend of the Beaver Dams. Also when the family of John Wilcox located across the road on Lot 21, Con. 8 in 1849 then named their farm "Beaver Vale", which name it still retains. After the disappearance of the mill ponds and the beaver dams Beaver Dam Creek became a slow, meandering stream which could easily be jumped across in many places, but it has had through the years its shard of excitement and near tragedy. In the afternoon of May 28, 1921, a warm and humid day, the stillness was broken by a sudden roar. It was water from a cloudburst, coming through the bush on Lot 22, Con. 7, carrying everything in front of it, trees, fences, culverts, bridges, even buildings and livestock. The blacksmith shop in Newton Robinson was left sitting up on the townline roadway while the bridge there and the nearby bridge on the tenth concession line, plus bridges on the seventh, eighth, and ninth lines and on 20 sideroad in concession ten were all washed out, the seventh line bridge being pushed upstream. These wooden bridges were all replaced by concrete. Simcoe County replaced the townline and eighth line bridges. The Provincial Government paid for those on the seventh and ninth, while Tecumseth paid for others. The township council had been on their annual road inspection tour and were unable to get home that night. This cloudburst, which seemed to centre over Lots 2 and 3 in Con. 8, West Gwillimbury, raised a flood as well, on the north branch of the Holland River. Fences were mostly of rails at that time and rails were piled high at any natural obstruction, but most of them lodged in D.K. Harvey's bush at the 10th line, Tecumseth. Mr. Harvey agreed to let anyone salvage rails who wished to do so, but so great was the confusion of rails, mud, stumps and other debris that attempts were soon abandoned. Aside from the help from the province with bridge building there was no compensation. Each can stood his own loss. Beaver Dam Creek was in the news again in 1954, this time with terrible consequences. On Oct. 15, a miserable, wet day, which had caused both man and beast to take shelter where possible, seven inches of rain fell on land already saturated, but it was after dark that trouble really started. Three cars were swept bodily off the road at the eighth line bridge by the swiftly rising water. Four occupants of one car managed to cling to the willow tree from which they were rescued by rope and ladder, but the bodies of five occupants of the other two cars were not found till the following day when the waters subsided. Irwin Joyce, returning to his home in Beeton from Bible College in Toronto, was the first victim. He had abandoned his stalled car and had almost reached safety on foot when he was swept to his death. The other car, approaching from the west, had not yet reached the bridge when ti was washed up against a nearby elm tree around which it teetered fro some time, but finally broke loose and was carried about 15 rods across the field. The four occupants, Mr. and Mrs. Otto Haw, their uncle, John Haw, and a neighbour, Robert Edgar, all of Baxter, managed to get ont he car roof while they were awaiting rescue. Neighbours and a number of Beeton residents, working by car light and with the help of the county road maintainer and draw ropes cut out of nearby barns were able to float a small boat, down into which all four clambered and were being hauled to safety. The late Mr. Garnet Speck of Beeton told me that they had the rope in past the third knot, when the front of the boat was pushed under the water, throwing everyone out and a gallant rescue attempt through raging waters ended in failure. Damage in this flood was very heavy. Rising water the following day trapped and drowned a large number of cattle on the pasture farms in the swamp and two of the new cement bridges were destroyed. The bridge on 20 sideroad buckled while the one on the ninth line just disappeared. It was found next day where it had been undermined and where it sank to the bottom of the creek. Four years later, the county, determined that enough was enough, built a new and much larger bridge on the eighth line and raised the roadway eight feet and away went the swimming hole, the haunt of three generations of young people.
