Buttermilk Falls — Location Location Location

The Buchanan Scrapbook

This is the front piece photo of “The Canadian Mississippi River”. The book’s caption reads: ” Buttermilk Falls at Snow Road, on Antoine Creek within sight of the Mississippi River. This picture must have been taken in the early part of the 20th century because of lack of vegetation

The Canadian Mississippi River“ Hilda Geddes MAP

Gregory C. SprouleIt’s on Highway 509 at Snow Road Station

Frankie B Gray

Stopped by not long ago and there were lots of children playing and swimming there, looked like they were having a blast! Beautiful spot

Freda Ellenbergerreally great in the spring with just a bit of ice still

Ryan Hunter-I drive by it everyday on the way to work. It feeds into Millar’s lake near the bridge that the 509 crosses the Mississippi. Theres a small cottage right next to it so if you visit, make sure not to trespass on thier section

Gregory C. SprouleBlair Paul Morrows road off 509 was at one time Morrows cottages

“The Canadian Mississippi River“ Hilda Geddes

June 15, 1915

Mrs. Jim Kennedy and some of her children were taking jim’s midnight lunch over to him at the mill as he was the night watchman. While crossing the birdge her wee son Bert tripped on something and rolled under the birdge railiing. He fell into the water and was drowned. The men searched all night , but there is quite a curren there and his body was not found until next morning.

1911 Census

Name:	Bert Kennedy
Gender:	Male
Marital status:	Single
Race or Tribe:	English
Age:	4
Birth Date:	Oct 1906
Birth Place:	Ontario
Census Year:	1911
Relation to Head of House:	Son
Province:	Ontario
District:	Frontenac
District Number:	69
Sub-District:	32 – Palmerston, Canonto (north and south)
Sub-District Number:	32
Place of Habitation:	Palmerston
Family Number:	59
Neighbors:	View others on page
Household Members:	NameAgeJames Kennedy34Mary Kennedy27Bert Kennedy4Flossie Kennedy6Ellesie Kennedy1Lottie S Kennedy2/12

 If you have not read  The Canadian Mississippi River by Hilda Geddes.. run don’t walk!

The Saylor Store on Snow Road (McLaren Depot)

History of McLaren’s Depot — by Evelyn Gemmill and Elaine DeLisle

The old Cornucopia Lodge on Snow Road

A History of Snow Road & McLaren’s Depot

Margaret Closs Lanark and Snow Road- Genealogy

Mississippi Station?

Hughes’ Rapids on Millar’s Lake.
This photo and the one above appear on page 66 of “The Canadian Mississippi River“. The book’s caption for this photo reads: ” Roll top dam at foot of Hughes’ Rapids at the head of Millar’s Lake. “

Ragged Chutes —This appears on page 60 of “The Canadian Mississippi River“. The book’s caption reads: ” Upper Dam at Ragged Chutes in river driving days. “

–Ragged Chutes.
This appears on page 62 of “The Canadian Mississippi River“. The book’s caption reads: ” Ragged Chutes in river driving days. “Ragged Chutes”

Frontenac County Ontario :
Collection of Glass Negatives
from the Snow Road area, circa 1900

This collection of glass negatives was found in an antique store in Perth, Ontario. They were taken in Snow Road or in the immediate area. Twelve of the photos appear in Hilda Geddes’ book “The Canadian Mississippi River“, published 1988, reprinted 1992, by General Publishing House, Inc., Burnstown, ON. I’ve identified those photos according to the captions in Hilda’s book.

The source of these negatives is a mystery. The Perth antique dealer told me that an elderly couple walked in and offered the negatives for sale — they didn’t leave their names and no other information is available.

I’ve oriented the published photos according to how they appear in the book, but it is possible that some or all of the others need to be “flipped” horizontally.= Charles Dobie

realted reading

Hilda Geddes — The Queen of Snow Road and the Mississippi

Geddes Rapids Bridge 1903 — Dalhousie Lake

Mr. and Mrs Geddes of Snow Road

Hilda Geddes — The Queen of Snow Road and the Mississippi

Hilda Geddes spun her tales, and we learned to understand ourselves.Her book-The Canadian Mississippi River by Hilda Geddes is one of the referencebooks I use all the time. I wish I had met her.

Editor’s note: This is an edited version of a eulogy given by writer Michael Dawber at the funeral of Hilda Geddes, a historian, columnist and storyteller in Snow Road Station, Ont, who died March 13 at the age of 93. By Michael Dawber The English novelist E.M. Forster wrote that “our final experience, like our first, is conjectural. We move between two darknesses.” It is the contribution we make to our community, to society, and to one another that lights the way between those two doorways.

Hilda Geddes spent nine decades making that contribution. Her contributions were enormous and freely given. Like her father John, whose remarkable diary describes the life of Snow Road Station, a hamlet west of Perth, for more than half a century to 1966, Hilda recorded in 1988 the day-to-day existence of this community, which is my home too, for close to 30 years, almost as long as I have been alive.

Like the Yukon’s Edith Josie, Hilda was a community storyteller renowned far beyond her home. I am sure everyone who live in the area has read her words, heard her stories and, through them, experienced this remarkable place. Hilda has been a fixture of Snow Road for so long that the two are part and parcel. In her book The Canadian Mississippi River, Hilda wrote: “I have always had an affinity with the big Mississippi River and the K&P Kingston and Pembroke Railroad, having been born beside both.

While I was growing up, I always had the feeling that the K& P Railway and the Mississippi River would go on forever, my home from 1912 being beside the Snow Road station. During the 27 years I worked for the federal government in Ottawa, I never lost my roots at Snow Road. She told me her interest in storytelling began after she retired from the public service in 1967. In the mid-1970s she was asked to compile a historical sketch for the Presbyterian Church centenary, and from there began a 25-year exploration of this community and the Ottawa Valley beyond.

She told the collective story of this vast place in a way accessible to everyone, with humour and character, in six books and countless newspaper columns. Hilda could spin a long yarn from earlier days, and obviously enjoyed the spinning. I will never forget the afternoon Hilda and her brother Ralph told me the story of lightning striking five different places in the family home, the two of them each building the tale higher with burning telephone lines and smoking mail sacks. And another of her many stories was a tale about the excursion trains to the Renfrew Fair. “This train was scheduled to leave Renfrew around 9 p.m., but usually would wait if all the passengers were not on tap. On one occasion, however, it pulled out on time and some of our crowd got left behind. They had gone to a movie, thinking the train would wait.”

Instead, it pulled out on time, and when they arrived at the station, all they saw were the red rear lights going out of sight. They hired a taxi hoping to catch it at Renfrew Junction, but again it had left. They went ahead hoping to catch it at Opeongo, with the same result. They were forced to stay in Renfrew all night and come down on the morning train. They were a “sheepish looking bunch.”

She said her one regret was that she had not begun her work 50 years ago, when living memory reached back to the pioneer days. It gives you pause to realize that the Wright Brothers flew at Kitty Hawk only four years before Hilda was born. The youngest generation now could not imagine the reality of that time without the stories of our elders to remind us. Hilda wrote once, “Today, our memories of the old Snow Road as told by our parents are fading, and one wonders if the following generations will ever hear of it, or remember it if they do hear the story. This was at the root of my desire to chronicle all the data I could …” We are all fortunate that she had that desire.

More than 2,500 years ago, the Greek poet Sappho wrote, “I say that, in another time, someone will remember us.” Thanks to the commitment of Hilda Geddes, we can know we will all be remembered, and so will she.

27 Mar 2001

If you have not read  The Canadian Mississippi River by Hilda Geddes.. run don’t walk!

The Saylor Store on Snow Road (McLaren Depot)

History of McLaren’s Depot — by Evelyn Gemmill and Elaine DeLisle

The old Cornucopia Lodge on Snow Road

A History of Snow Road & McLaren’s Depot

Margaret Closs Lanark and Snow Road- Genealogy

Mississippi Station?

McLaren Left it All to the McLeod Sisters–His Maids!

For the Love of Money-Gillies Gilmours and the McLarens

Logging Down the Line From Snow Road to Lavant to Carleton Place to Appleton to Galetta

Snow Road Ramblings from Richards Castle — From the Pen Of Noreen Tyers

Summer Holidays at Snow Road Cleaning Fish — From the Pen of Noreen Tyers of Perth

Snow Road Adventures- Hikes in the Old Cave — From the Pen of Noreen Tyers of Perth

Summer Holidays at Snow Road Cleaning Fish — From the Pen of Noreen Tyers of Perth

Mr. and Mrs Geddes of Snow Road

Geddes Family by Hilda Geddes– If you have not read  The Canadian Mississippi River by Hilda Geddes.. run don’t walk!

John A. Geddes was born near Elphin, on the Maberly Road, one of the younger sons of Ebenezer Geddes and Catherine Ferguson. The family moved to Snow Road while John was a very small child and he remained there for the rest of his life. In 1904, John A. married Blance Allan.

For a time Mr. Geddes was employed as a clerk in lumber camps and then after a long bout with typhoid he purchased the General Store at Snow Road in 1912. In 1914, he became Postmaster and in 1915, caretaker/agent for the CPR station.

John A.’s General Store was the center of village life, one came here to shop, pick up the mail and to take the train. More than just a place of business, it was here that the local “Wind Jammers Club” held forth, playing checkers and swapping yarns. Mr. Geddes also ran dances in a converted store house on his property and he was an active member of the Presbyterian Church, the International Order of Odd Fellows and was for many years Secretary of the School Board.

Mr. Geddes died 20 April 1966, a week before his 85th birthday, and Mrs. Geddes followed him on 27 May at 85 years.

Hilda Geddes was the daughter of John A. Geddes. Like her father she was very active in the community. She was the organist at the church, pianist at the family “dance hall’, first president of the local Women’s Institute, active in the Rebekah Lodge, and Secretary-Treasurer of the church. Since her retirement she has rented summer cottages including one built out of the remains of the old Snow Road Station.

In 1940 she entered the Civil Service in Ottawa where she worked in various departments until her retirement in 1967. While in Ottawa Miss Geddes was in little theatre in Ottawa, including receiving a “best performance by and actress” award for one of her roles.

Miss Geddes has written several books about the history of Snow Road Station and area.

 The Canadian Mississippi River by Hilda Geddes.. John and Blanche Geddes

Clipped from The Ottawa Journal,  15 Jul 1954, Thu,  Page 12

 The Canadian Mississippi River by Hilda Geddes..

Clipped from The Ottawa Journal,  03 Jul 1958, Thu,  Page 23

The Geddes Snow Road Station fonds contains a series of yearly diaries, kept by Mr. Geddes from 1907 until 1966, that detail his life and the activities in and around the village of Snow Road Station, Frontenac County, Ontario. Towards the last years of his life, Hilda Geddes, his daughter, helped him keep his diaries; for this reason, the diaries actually record his death and events for a little time after his death. While the diaries form the bulk of these records there is also a series of business records that detail some of Mr. Geddes business activities at Snow Road Station. These include account books, a ‘letter book’ from the station and other business records.

Hilda Sophia Geddes-Hilda was the daughter of John Adam Geddes & Blanche Allan

BIRTH	13 Nov 1907 Snow Road Station, Frontenac County, Ontario, Canada
DEATH	13 Mar 2001 (aged 93) Snow Road Station, Frontenac County, Ontario, Canada
BURIAL	Crawford Cemetery Elphin, Lanark County, Ontario, Canada
PLOT	533

Come and visit the Lanark County Genealogical Society Facebook page– what’s there? Cool old photos–and lots of things interesting to read. Also check out The Tales of Carleton Place.

Information where you can buy all Linda Seccaspina’s books-You can also read Linda in The Townships Sun andScreamin’ Mamas (USA)

The Saylor Store on Snow Road (McLaren Depot)

History of McLaren’s Depot — by Evelyn Gemmill and Elaine DeLisle

The old Cornucopia Lodge on Snow Road

A History of Snow Road & McLaren’s Depot

Margaret Closs Lanark and Snow Road- Genealogy

Mississippi Station?

McLaren Left it All to the McLeod Sisters–His Maids!

For the Love of Money-Gillies Gilmours and the McLarens