From Archives Lanark
At one time, many years ago, large picnics were held in “Ends Grove.” While the women made appetizing lunches under the trees, youngsters and men folk played games or frolicked In the water. Today the breeze whispers through the grove much smaller and much thinner.
Beside the river was the neat cottage of Miss Bertha Moore, a retired civil servant who was with the National Defence treasury. Miss Moore who spent each summer here, was a direct descendent of James Ennis, for whom Ennisville, now Innisville, was named. James Ennis built his grist and flour mill at the west end of the old bridge and his home on a hill at the east end, where the George Crampton house once stood.
Farmers came with bags of grain on their backs to be ground at the mill, gone now except for part of the stone foundation. Mr. Ennls owned both sides of the river and while most of the land has since changed hands, “the grove” was never sold. It was handed down through the family to Miss Moore who was the fourth generation to inherit what was once part of a Crown grant.
Across the river on the north side, was the woolen mill, owned by Abraham and George Code. It was a three-storey frame mill, powered by water. There was a dam with a slide in the middle for timber to pass through and two open flumes that carried water to the mills on each side of the river. Spring floods sometimes tore out part of the dam and occasionally took out part of the long wooden bridge.
Across the river from Miss Moore’s cottage, where the Kilfoyle cabins stood, raftsmen had their camp with tents for the men, a cook tent and a big dining tent. It was a popular hangout for many a youngster who got a generous sample of the cook’s savory smelling food. Miss Moore always called attention to a tall pine tree at the water’s edge. It leaned out over the river and nodded slightly down river.
Raftsmen of the Edwards Lumber Company and other firms used to tie their boom rope to this tree, Miss Moore said and this explains the post office. The hotels then were the McGarry House, next to the Churchill place and the Maclaren House, which became Kilfoyle’s store. The McGarry House at Innisville was kept by Julia McGarry. She was said to have been quite a personality, and more than one person has referred to her as “a character.” Being about the only Catholic in a strong Orange town, she attended mass at Ferguson’s Falls, a couple of miles up the river. After her husband died, some of the men used to row her boat to the Falls to attend mass.
One day Mrs. McGarry had trouble getting someone to row her to church. All the Catholics gave some excuse. “Never you mind” she told them haughtily. “I’ll get some of the Orange boys to row me.” And so they did– because she was a real lovable person. Unlike Ashton which had two churches and three other former churches, Innisville had none.
Holy Trinity Church of England was closed here many years ago and the Anglicans now worshipped at St. John’s at “the corners” on the highway where you turn off to go to Ferguson’s Falls and Lanark. About a mile and a half down this road is Boyd’s United Church and “Boyd’s Methodist Cemetery.” The Methodists did not seriously object when church union came about in 1925 but they got a secret satisfaction in seeing the name “Methodist” preserved in the cemetery sign. Said one man: “I’m glad we got the sign up before the church union came in”.
A disastrous fire wiped out most of the business section of Ennisville as it was known 90 years ago. Among the buildings reduced to ashes was a grist mill, a sawmill and a hotel situated about where McManus’s store once was. The heat from the fire was terrific. The Churchill home across the street was saved and still stands, but to this day you can still see marks, on the house where it was blistered by heat through wet blankets placed to protect It. Innisville was never the same. Innisville went down in size until it began to become popular as a summer resort. Many Americans from New York state know it better than a lot of people in Ottawa.
It’s my great grandparents on their wedding day in April 1907 Walter White and Susanna Pearl Morris. The White family lived in Innisville.–Lorraine Reynolds Patoine
The Original Thomas Alfred Code and Andrew Haydon Letters – —Part 1
The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 2– Perth Mill
The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 3– Genealogy Ennis
The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 4a – Innisville the Beginning
The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 4b – Innisville — Coopers and “Whipping the Cat” 1860-1870
The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 4c – Innisville — Henry York and Johnny Code
The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 4d – Innisville — “How We did Hoe it Down”!
The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 4e – Innisville — ‘Neighbours Furnished one Another with Fire’
The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 5- Code Family– “Hawthorn Mill was a Failure, and the Same Bad Luck has Followed for at Least 50 Years”
The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 6- Code Family– “Almost everything of an industry trial character had vanished in Innisville in 1882”
The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 7- Code Family–“Thank God, no member of my family has disgraced me or the name!
The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 8- Code Family– “We got a wool sack and put him inside and took him to the bridge”
The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 9- Code Family –“I had much trouble in saving myself from becoming a first class liar”
The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 10- Code Family – I conjured to myself: “You will know me later!” And Peter McLaren did.
The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 11- Code Family –“I continued with bull dog tenacity for 12 years without salary”
The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 12- Code Family–“Had I the course to go over again I would evade outside responsibilities beyond my share, even if it cost more”
The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 13- Code Family–S. S. No. 17 Drummond, Innisville
The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 14- Code Family–Letters from Mother Elizabeth Hicks
The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 15- Code Family– Love and Runaway Marriages
The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 16- Code Family-“The fish would shoot back and forth and at time hit their legs causing them to fall”
The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 17- Code Family–“A reaper with the sickle and danced all night”
The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 18- Code Family–Family Records from the Family Bible
The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 19- Code Family–“Michell was never known to have any money, excepting at or after tax sales”
The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 20- Code Family–“Whither Are We Drifting?”– The Perth Public School
The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 21- Code Family–Franktown Past and Present Reverend John May
The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 22- Code Family–Field Day at “The Hill” (McDonald’s Corners)
The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 23- Code Family–Brother John — John Code Goes West
The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 24- Code Family– Built for the Love of his Life
When Newspapers Gossiped–David Kerr Innisville
Kerr or Ennis? More about the Innisville Scoundrel
What Went Wrong with the Code Mill Fire in Innisville?
The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 25- Code Family– A Letter from Mother
Mr. Code’s Mill Explosion in Carleton Place
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