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A Short History of Barry's Bay
Many thanks to Angela Lorbetskie and the Barry's
Bay Public Library for providing the following excerpts from a
booklet prepared for the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the
Village of Barry's Bay.
BARRY'S BAY, THE CENTRE OF
THE MADAWASKA VALLEY
"This is the story of Kuaenash Ne-ishing.---
It's Algonquin for 'beautiful bay' on the turbulent Madawaska
River. The local people call it Barry's Bay... But from the
far reaches of the past, this peaceful cove was a place of
rendezvous, a pow-wow land, not for purposes of war but a
happy summer hunting ground, where bands of aboriginal Indians, from
the Papineau and the south, feasted on the beauty and the
fruits of a lavish and unspoiled nature."(excerpt
from Barry's Bay Review, November 24, 1960)
Then a lonely cabin appeared on the shore of the
bay, right where St. Hedwig's Church now stands. A white man, James
Barry, who was a foreman for McLaughlin's Lumber in Arnprior,
had constructed it as his head-quarters. Lumbermen referred to
this camp on the Kamaniskeg Lake as Barry's Camp on the Bay...
Hence the name Barry's Bay. This was about the time the Opeongo Line
was being completed and the townships surveyed.
In 1857, in order to encourage and keep up the
settlement of the region of the County of Renfrew, the government
made an official announcement regarding the building of
'settlement roads'. The roads were to be known as the Ottawa
and Opeongo Roads, the Addington Road, and the Hastings Road.
"The construction of the first of these roads started in 1854.
It ran roughly westward along the Bonnechere Rivet and Madawaska
River to the Great Opeongo Lake. On Completion, it extended 100
miles inland from the Ottawa River."(excerpt
from "History & Integration of Poles In Canada" -
William B. Makowski, Canadian Polish Congress, Canada. 1967) It
was to build this road that the first settlers arrived. The first
men who worked on the road construction were offered 100-200
acres of land for settlement. Thus the Opeongo Road witnessed
the arrival of immigrants heading towards the forests of the
Madawaska Valley in 1860. By the end of the 19th century the
immigrants had settled in the Barry's Bay area called Siberia,
in Sherwood, Jones & Burns Townships, in and around Lake
Kamaniskeg and especially in what we now know as Barry's Bay
Village itself. These settlers, who left their homelands
primarily due to political and economic conditions were
predominantly of Polish and Irish extraction. The employment brought
about by the major road construction (the Opeongo Road) and the
lumber boom going on at this time in addition to the land grants
provided ample reasons for the immigrants to come and settle in this
beautiful portion of the Ottawa Valley. In a report dated June 23,
1862, A.J. Forrest, Provincial Land Surveyor recommended the
head of Barry's Bay as an eligible site for a town plot. The
reasons cited for this recommendation were that the proposed
site could be approached by the main road (the Opeongo Road and was
well toward the centre of the township of Sherwood). It also
had the advantage of water communication (very important in
those days) with the county on the south side of the Madawaska
River.
As noted earlier, McLaughlin's Lumber Company
already had its lumbering operations in progress for some years and
'a depot for that company had been erected within the area now
within the village. A stage coach depot and a post office which was
used a lot by lumbermen writing letters to their families were
situated at Cuthbertson's Inn on Bark Lake six miles west of
Barry's Bay. later this post office was moved to Kavolski's farm and
then again to the building site where Donna Chapeskie's gift
shop now stands.
In 1879 the first hotel (also the first
established permanent dwelling) was built in the area which was
later to become the Village of Barry's Bay. This hotel, the
Blueberry Hotel, served as a stopover for travelers, lumbermen
and settlers. It was later named the Windsor and served spirits
until 1916 when prohibition came. It then became an eating
place and apartment house. The Blueberry Hotel, owned by James
Drohan, started the nucleus for the village settlement.
During the next four decades the main means of
employment was farming, lumbering and some mining at the Craigmont
mines. During this time transportation consisted of the stage
coach, horses, the Mayflower steamer which provided a seasonal daily
communication link, mail and passenger and freight service between
Barry's Bay and Combermere and of course, the railroad.
In 1888, at the time when the first school in
the district was being started at Siberia Forks, the J.R. Booth
Lumber Company of Ottawa incorporated the Ottawa-Arnprior and Parry
Sound Railroad Company, (This was later sold to Grand Trunk in
1905). In 1894 the arrival of the railway train was a major
milestone in the history of the area. It almost immediately
replaced the Opeongo Line stage coach and the telegraph service and
it stretched from its origin in the east to Arnprior and
Golden Lake to Barry's Bay and Madawaska. Barry's Bay became a
supply depot and a site for a sawmill. Sometime during the 1890's,
the heavy timber industry primarily under J.R. Booth shifted
its location and Mr. Booth sold out to smaller companies. One
sawmill in the Barry's Bay area was owned and operated by
Joseph Prince who is credited by many for owning the first
sawmill in Barry's Bay. Without a doubt, the coming of the
railroad had a great influence on the development of the area
since the new services gave it economic stability. With the
coming of economic stability came more business establishments. 1893
saw the first general store in Barry's Bay. It was owned by
Frank Stafford and managed by Henry George. This store was
damaged by fire and rebuilt and expanded several times and
later was purchased by C & D Murray and, in more recent times,
by the Madawaska Valley Occupation Centre. A second hotel was
constructed by Josh Billings, from lumber purchased from the
Prince's building supplies store, now F. Yakabuski Ltd. At the
same time the first passenger train arrived in Barry's Bay
(1894). This hotel, the Billing's Hotel, was destroyed in'1899 by
fire and rebuilt. It is now called the Balmoral Hotel. The
post office was located in this hotel for a time until it was moved
to its present new location on Opeongo Line in 1936. A
blacksmith shop was also located opposite Drohan's Hotel to shoe the
many horses which were used by farmers and lumbermen alike. In 1895
County Council designated Barry's Bay for a town site - such
was the development of this community.
1896 saw the erection of the first mission church
for Barry's Bay, the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, 2 miles southwest of the village and in the
following year the St. Lawrence O'Toole chapel was
constructed. Later, when the congregation increased in size, St.
Hedwig's Church was built in 1914 under the direction of
Monsignor Peter Biernaski where it is presently located on the north
shore of Kamaniskeg Lake and the St. Lawrence O'Toole Church was
built in 1907. Later, in 1966, Father K.J. O'Brien and his
parishioners of the St. Lawrence O'Toole Parish demolished and
rebuilt on the same site, the present St. Lawrence O'Toole Church.
These churches serve the Roman Catholic denominations of the
village. By this time another church had also been built. The
Church of the Epiphany was completed in 1956 on the same site as the
old Methodist mission had stood for many years before that.
Two schools within the village were also in
existence by this time, the old separate school built in 1902 which
was located where the Brewer's Retail store now is and the St.
Joseph's separate school which was built in 1928. More schools
were constructed later. St. Mary's red separate school in
1959, St. John Bosco separate school in 1965 and the Madawaska
Valley District High School in 1967 all stand as proof of the
value the people of this area place on the education of their
children.
In the year 1905, Barry's Bay was an active
little community. Around twenty trains passed through it daily
carrying passengers and lumber. Just three years before, Mick
and Tom Murray had formed M & T Murray Lumber and they had
now received their first timber limit. J.R. Booth, an Ottawa
Valley lumberman, had been pulling his lumbering operations
out of the valley since the 1890's due to the fact that the big
stands of pine had almost all disappeared and the square timber
trade was dwindling. A smaller, more localized lumber industry
now took the place of the lumber baron's operations. M & T
Lumber had their logs sawed at Martin's sawmill on Cybulskie's Pond.
In 1911 they went into partnership with J. Omanique and by the
winter of 1914 were employing about 150 men. This partnership lasted
until 1929 and the following year saw the beginning of the
Murray Brothers Lumber Company as we know it today. A mill was
erected at Cross Lake and business was carried out there until
1952 when they built a sawmill at Madawaska and an office in Barry's
Bay. This company is now one of the largest employers in the area
and their planer is situated in Barry's Bay. The lumber industry
which played such an important part in the development of the
village in the early part of the twentieth century, still
plays a vital role in the economic situation of Barry's Bay and the
surrounding area.
In 1912, the area lost an important link in
the chain of communication and transport between Barry's Bay
and Combermere. The Mayflower, a sternwheeler which had been
carrying mail, passengers and freight went down in lake
Kamaniskeg taking all lives on board with the exception of
three persons who survived. Within the next ten years the road
services had improved. By the time the Dominion Government had
purchased and merged the Grand Trunk and the Canadian Atlantic
Railway into the Canadian National, the improved roads and the
depletion of the timber resources were steadily and surely
contributing to the decline of the rail service. The divisional
headquarters had been dismantled at Madawaska and the engine
house and turning facilities had been constructed at Barry's
Bay. The railway station (now owned by the village and used by
the Opeongo Trailblazer's Senior Citizen's Club) still stands in
Barry's Bay as does the water tower, possibly the only
remaining wooden water tank in Eastern Canada or in all Canada. Both
structures have been repaired by interested groups in order to
preserve another part of our rich heritage.
Other services were being expanded upon too. The
telegraph office quit operating in the area in 1894 but it wasn't
too long before the People's Telephone Service installed a
switchboard at the post office operated by W. Kerwin in the
building where Donna Chapeskie's gift shop is now located.
Then in 1922, a group of about 25 citizens purchased this Service
and installed a switchboard at Skebo's store where it was
called the Sherwood Municipal Telephone Company and later the
Madawaska Valley Telephone System. In 1958 it became part of
Bell Telephone and moved to its new location where the Barry's Bay
Public Library stands today.
Hydro was also introduced in the Village in
the 1920's and 1930's. In 1927 a power plant was located at
Omanique's. Later it was moved to the late Frank Cybulskie's garage,
then to Jack Conway's Planing mill. At this time the cost of
producing hydro services prohibited the extension of services to the
rest of the town.
But in 1937, after the village was
incorporated for four years, the village passed a by-law to
authorize the Barry's Bay Electric Light Company to erect poles and
wires. In 1943 by-laws were passed authorizing the purchase of
the Barry's Bay Electric Light Company and the plant by the village.
In 1949 an agreement was signed to obtain power from the Hydro
Commission of Ontario (now Ontario Hydro). Barry's Bay Hydro now
serves over 500 customers.
In 1933, seventy-one years after being recommended
as a town site and thirty-eight years after being designated
as one, the village of Barry's Bay was incorporated under by-law
1184 of the County of Renfrew out of 520 acres of the Township
of Sherwood. The first Reeve was Henry J. Chapeskie. The rest
of the council consisted of H.G. Taylor, the late John
Vitkuskie, Charles J. Murray and John J. Coulas. The first Clerk was
H.L. Landon followed later by H. Skuce. The meetings were held
in the old Roman Catholic Separate School No. 6. In subsequent years
the Clerks kept the village's records in their homes and then
at the building used as a post office operated by W. Kerwin. It
wasn't until 1959 that the village built its own new municipal
offices.
Progress was slowed down in Barry's Bay during the
duration of the Depression and the second world war but resumed
again afterwards. A volunteer fire department was established
and a municipal police force was in operation until the
Ontario Provincial Police assumed the policing responsibility
for the village in 1967. In 1946 a Legion Branch No. 406 was
operating in Barry's Bay and in 1950 the first community centre in
the village was built. Later in 1980 another one was constructed in
co-operation with the United Townships of Sherwood, Jones
& Burns after the original one was considered a safety
hazard. A movie theatre was built in 1948 by the late Frank
Oybulskie and the same theatre is being used today under a different
ownership. Previous to the theatre being built, movies were shown by
Father Biernaski in the St. Hedwig's Roman Catholic Parish
Hall. In 1959 the first newspaper in the village of Barry's
Bay was born. The Barry's Bay Review, whose editor and publisher was
Arthur Ritza, ran a weekly edition from June of 1959 until early
1963. There was no newspaper within the village for the next 8
years (but the people still could obtain the Eganville Leader,
a weekly paper from Eganville) until John Zylstra opened the This
Week newspaper in 1971. This paper was later purchased by William
and Inez Boehme.
By 1960, the population of the village was 1,468
persons and 75 establishments carried on businesses in and around
it. Garbage collection was door-to-door and a village roads
superintendent was hired to supervise the roads maintenance
and projects.
Due to the number of vehicles and better roads and
main highways leading to and from the area, passenger trait service
was discontinued. In 1960, a group of residents approached village
council with regards to establishing a public library. The
council agreed with the request and a library was set up in the new
municipal building. Later the library was relocated to its
present location on Opeongo Line after Bell Canada went to the
direct dialing system in Barry's Bay. In 1960 the St. Francis
Memorial Hospital was completed in the Township of Sherwood right
next to the village on land donated by the late H.J. Chapeskie. In
1962 the Bank of Montreal was expanded on its present site to
accommodate the increasing population and business.
In 1961, the village fathers decided that a
coat-of-arms should be made up and registered for Barry's Bay. This
task was given to Frank J. Ritza and the coat-of-arms was
registered on December 27, 1961, twenty-eight years after its
incorporation. The white eagle on it represents the Polish settlers;
the harp, the Irish. The rising sun symbolizes the bright future to
the immigrants and the heirs of all nationalities in the village.
1975 saw installation of water and sewer municipal
services for the village and in 1980 an Official Plan was adopted by
council for the designation of areas in the village for
residential, commercial and industrial purposes, etc. It is hoped
that these will be instrumental in attracting new industry to the
area to ensure the economic progress of the community. In 1981 the
first municipal park was established with a play structure to
be installed under the sponsorship of the Lions Club and
completed in 1983. The first municipal garage was built in
1982.
All these community services have been brought about
and carried on by the industrious, hard-working people of
Barry's Bay and area. In 1933 the taxable assessment of
Barry's Bay was $143,225. Fifty years later, the total taxable
assessment is $1,243,055. The biggest industry in the area is
still lumbering although tourism plays a very important part
in the economy. It provides income to many businesses in the village
although many stores would not be operating were it not for
the local market (i.e. 25-50 mile radius).
It may be hard for us living here today with our
paved roads, our automobiles, our services and facilities to imagine
what it was like for those early pioneers who through their
hardships and initiative fashioned the Barry's Bay we know
from the "happy summer hunting ground" of the Algonquins.
Let us all keep in mind the heritage our forefathers have left us
and continue to pledge ourselves in this year of our 50th
Anniversary of incorporation to the continued growth of our village,
our cultures, our religions and our most important resource,
our children.
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