Early Settlement

According to the 1842 census there was no settlement around what was to become known as Lac Mousseau and there is no mention of the former Philippe Lake road until the late 1850s (now known as Trail 50). Travel into the area was difficult either from Mountain Rd via McCloskey Trail to Meech Lake Rd or from Pine Rd through Meech Cr valley, neither was much more than a horse trail until the mid-1900s. Nevertheless, according to the 1871 census several poor Irish immigrant families had begun settling into the area around the lake.

Two of the early settlers, whose names are now associated with the area, were Louis Mousseau (LM) and Joseph Harrington (JH). The latter had built a home on lot 19, range 6 in Hull Township in 1827, in the general vicinity of today's Camp Fortune, while Asa Meach (AM) had settled on lot 21, range 10 which was closer to the lake. In 1867, Louis Mousseau moved to lot 8, range 12 of Eardley Township, becoming the first to actually settle on the lake. He purchased 100 acres from the McLarens in 1862 for $20. This property at the northeast part of the lake remained in the Mousseau family until 1905 - today one must look very carefully for the faint remains of a root cellar under the house which is located on the right side of Trail 50 at the far end of the lake.

Controversy has existed for years on whether the lake should be known as Harrington or Mousseau. Early maps show the use of both names on separate occasions. The Edwards and Herridge families who owned most of the lake from the 1920s to 1951 called it Lac Mousseau while the FDC later to become the NCC has tended to use Harrington, probably because the official residence is referred to as Harrington lodge. In the early 1960s the lake was known as Lac Mousseau (Harrington), the 2005 Master Plan uses Mousseau Lake(page 66) and a 2014 NCC website refers to it as Harrington Lake in English and Lac Mousseau in French.

With the exception of the Mousseaus all the families who settled around the lake in the 19th century were of Irish origin. These subsistence farms ranged in size from 100 to 300 acres with usually a small area of 20 to 40 acres cleared for a pasture and food such as: wheat, oats, buck wheat, vegetables and apples. Most of the farms had a few cattle, chickens and pigs and it is said that by the 1920s there were few deer and partridge left in the area. Some income was derived from bush work related to selling Pine logs and firewood or working at a small local sawmill.

For a few years a mill actually operated at the lake when two half-brothers from Michigan, W.A. Drum and W.L. Donnelly, built a mill in 1902. It was constructed at the southeast corner of the lake, the site of today's PM's summer residence. Their operation was soon purchased by Roger W. Robertson of Carleton Place who in 1911 sold it to W.C Edwards and Company. A major forest fire in the region in 1915 reduced the supply of readily available timber and the mill closed.

As elsewhere in Canada the end of the first world war marked a significant change in Canadian society. Cities with their growing industries offered employment that attracted many rural people off the land. The lumbering era at Lac Mousseau ended, many of the Irish families along Philippe Lake Road were leaving or had left. None of their farms offered long term financial opportunities, the shallow sandy soils were unsuitable for agriculture and the bush had been worked over for the lumber and firewood.

Healey's farm 1950s

By the 1920s, the only members of the original settler families that remained were the Healeys, Gillespies and Flynns. A few new families who had moved in around 1900 were also present, but the main reason for continuing to live in the area ended when W.C. Edwards, the owner of the mill and most of the land around the lake, purchased the property from his own company for personal use after the 1915 fire. With the Booths, O'Briens and Willsons building their own large rural retreats at Lakes Kingesmere and Meech, Edwards undoubtedly saw the same potential for Mousseau.

This change in the area from a lumber to leisure economy meant people thinking of leaving now had a likely purchaser in W.C. Edwards. In 1920, he purchased the Cafferty's property which had been vacant since 1906. The Healey's stayed on with Stanley and his sister Dorthy eventually being employed by the two dominant land owners the Edwards and Herridges.

W.C. Edwards was the son of William Edwards who immigrated to Canada from England in 1820 to settle in Cumberland Township, outside Ottawa. He followed his father's footsteps in 1863 and worked in the family lumber business of Cameron and Edwards. In 1868, he started his own company, W.C. Edwards and Company, at Rockland, Ontario and later started another mill and a sash and door company on the banks of the Rideau River in Ottawa. By 1899, these two businesses employed about 200 and produced from 65,000,000 to 70,000,000 board feet of lumber annually. In its time it was considered as "one of the largest in the Dominion."

In 1885 he married Catherine Wilson of Cumberland. Shortly after his marriage Edwards embarked on a political career and was elected member of Parliament for Russell. He represented the riding until 1903 when he became a senator. In 1920 he sold his mills to the Riordan Pulp and Paper Company for and estimated 20 million.

At the time of his death in 1921, he was well known and highly respected with some of the most influential people of the day in attendance at his funeral which included his neighbours Mackenzie King, Senator M.J. O'Brien and John R. Booth. In addition, a special steamer was chartered to bring his former employees up to Ottawa from Rockland, approximately 800 workers according to the Daily Citizen.

Since Edwards had no children, his properties went to his nephews, Gordon Edwards moved into his home at 80 Sussex Drive (now 24 Sussex) and his brother Cameron MacPherson Edwards acquired the Lac Mousseau property.

W.C. Edwards died in 1921 now leaving it up to his nephew C.M. Edwards and his friend W. Herridge to continue with his dream of developing the entire lake and its surrounding area into a private reserve.