The St. Williams Forestry Farm

By R. Robert Mutrie

Introduction

With today’s concern for conservation and reversal of human encroachment on our environment, an article about the restoration of nature in Norfolk County by descendants of the Long Point Settlers is apropos as a kind of epilogue to the pioneer progress.

The goal of the early Long Point Settlers was to clear the land and plant crops for sustenance and sale. This process unwittingly created a new problem. A spreading dust bowl blew in central Norfolk County by the end of the nineteenth century. Sand dunes took over previously productive farms. Lot 24 Concession 5 in Walsingham Township was wholly taken over by the blow sand.

Shortly after the turn of the twentieth century a different kind of pioneer appeared in Norfolk County—the reforestation pioneer. A descendant of Long Point Settler Donald McCall named Walter McCall spearheaded the reforestation of the central part of eastern Walsingham Township. Other pioneer descendant names represented in the project included Horton, Price, Ferris, Mabee, Newkirk, Underhill, Cline, Butler, Heath and more.

Their pioneer ecological creation, long called the St. Williams Forestry Farm and the St. Williams Forestry Station, this is today the St. Williams Nursery & Ecology Centre.

The following article is reprinted from St. Williams: The History by R. Robert Mutrie. Published in 1988 the book went out of print soon after. It will be republished in 2011, using paperless electronic media. The title will be burnt onto the surface CD-Rom rather than on a paper label and all notification will be in electronic form rather than print.

The Forestry Farm

For a taste of Northern Ontario’s rugged wilderness in the south, a trip to St. Williams is a must. Just drive along Highway 24 or Regional Road 16 on the northern approaches to the village and you will be treated to a wholly unexpected immersion into a verdant forest landscape bringing to mind the lush images of our northern regions.

Stepping out of the car and standing at the intersection of the two roads, you can’t help but feel dwarfed while craning your neck to see the tops of the majestic white pine. The trees look like a race of giants marching grandly off into the distance, proud refugees from the two centuries of “progress” surrounding them. It is really amazing when you consider this very corner existed as a barren plot of windblown sand only just eighty years before!

When our pioneer forefathers came to this province during the closing years of the eighteenth century it had looked much like this area does now—deeply forested, impenetrable underbrush, a rugged, wild country, and yes there were mosquitoes then too.For a century or more, the area farmers set about clearing the land of all trees and brush in their inevitable push to develop ever larger arable acreages. In fact, logging became and important industry in itself during the developing years. The sons of the area farmers earned a little extra income cutting the trees and floating them down the rivers to be incorporated into ships and the new buildings of the fast growing cities. Norfolk walnut was especially prized for furniture making. Little did those enterprising farmers and their sons expect the terrible ravages of soil erosion caused by wind and rain pelting the vulnerable unprotected land they left behind. By the turn of the nineteenth century, it became generally recognized the time had arrived for reversing that process. The picture at the right taken about 1920 shows sand dunes dotting the landscape of an unplanted part of the Forestry Farm lands.

One concerned citizen was St. Williams businessman Walter F. McCall. For several decades prior to 1900, the McCall sawmill and furniture making business under Daniel McCall and then his son Walter snapped up Norfolk trees just as fast as they could be cut to craft their wooden masterpieces for home an office, unwitting contributors to the area’s deforestation. Walter McCall became conscious of the devastation being left behind by this process. He couldn’t miss it actually with the company mill right on the edge of the sane dunes of “Bunker’s Hill” northwest of St. Williams. He made it his personal crusade to turn back the hands of time and in 1905, planted a first few young saplings near the mill as an experiment.

McCall’s small planting captured the imagination of Norfolk County’s Member of the Provincial Legislature, Lieutenant Colonel Arthur C. Pratt an old family friend. A native of nearby Lynedoch, Pratt was familiar with that desolate eroded Bunker’s Hill area and took an active interest in his friend’s pioneering efforts. He was impressed with the concept of converting the blow sands into a woodlot. Pratt took the larger view of the potential value such an idea could have for the entire province should the experiment prove successful.

It wasn’t long before the two Norfolk men involved the renowned Ontario Agricultural College at Guelph. The project held a special appeal for Dr. Edmund John Zavitz at that time Canada’s foremost professor of forestry. He summered at a cottage in nearby Turkey Point and, intrigued by the project, Dr. Zavitz rode his trademark bicycle over to see what was happening at St. Williams. McCall and Pratt took him deep into the sand dunes and then to the mill site to see the barren property and the new beginnings.

As a result of his visit, Dr. Zavitz set about formulating Ontario’s first formal reforestation program for presentation by Lt. Col. Pratt to a 1908 session of the Ontario Legislature for its approval.

The province took out options on that worthless 100 acres of blow sand at the northwest corner of the Fifth concession (present day Highway 24) and Townline Road (present day Regional Road 16) for $1000. It was agreed if trees could grow here they could grow anywhere!

Dr. Zavitz initially took direct responsibility for his project then chose George Lane to execute the plan as the Superintendent of the new “Forestry Farm” as it was called. Like Dr. Zavitz, Lane was also a specialist with the Department of Lands and Forests at the Ontario Agricultural College and a valuable ally in the project from the beginning.

As his right hand man Lane had with him Edward “Scotty” Telford and the two took on the logistics of creating an oasis out of a desert, a kind of pioneer challenge in reverse.

George Lane and Scotty Telford arrived at St. Williams with their families in the fall of 1908 and took up residence in a derelict weather-beaten farm house with sand to the front and back. There were only the dunes and some scraggly brush as far as the eye could see.

The new Superintendent and his assistant wasted no time in getting started. In the spring of 1909, they hired five local men, bought horses, made emergency repairs and put a foundation under the Station house, laid sod over the sandy yards, planted hedges as the first stop-gap windbreaks and built a windmill to power a pump to draw water up the hill from the mill pond. Farsighted, they built two wooden towers to be used as lookouts for forest fires. Walter McCall provided the finished lumber from his nearby mill, itself taken over by the Station in due course. Even an in-house creosote plant was built for treating the lumber.

Sand dunes on the Forestry Farm property circa 1920.

The Forestry Farm Property circa 1910.

The main house and office on the Forestry Farm 1989

The central point of the project was the reforestation of the land. The men planted 350,000 seeds that first spring. The purchase order of April 13, 1909 placed with the Ontario Agricultural College consisted of 200,000 white pine, 100,000 Scotch pine and 50,000 spruce. A small crew including George Lane, Scotty Telford, William Rogers, Ernest Hammond, Andy Horton, John Gilmore and Reese Cleverly made this first planting. It is the fruits of that seeding which we see at that corner today. In 1910, Lane ordered an additional 335,000 seeds consisting of 300,000 Scotch pine, 5,000 European larches, 5,000 Japanese larches and 20,000 American arborvitae. Area children gathered up the walnuts and hickory nuts they could find and delivered them to the Station to earn a little spending money.

Those first experimental saplings received intensive care and attention as they began to rise above the surrounding sands and soon showed signs of flourishing. As the trees matured, the men gathered cones and in a specially built processing house placed them in vats made of chicken wire for drying. The workers occasionally cranked the vats over and the seeds fell onto the canvas floor to be gathered for the spring and fall plantings. In this manner the Station soon became self-propagating.

Seeing the early success of the St. Williams reforestation project, others in the area felt encouraged to repeat the experiment on their own marginal acreages. The Forestry Station was soon harvesting and shipping out 100,000 seedlings per year to points all over Southwestern Ontario for reforesting areas of blow sand and providing windbreaks around farm buildings, orchards and fields. In addition, Lane, Telford, Zavitz and their associates provided a free advisory service to those planning tree planting projects.

Dr. Zavitz was often on the scene to watch his concept become a reality. As it developed into an unqualified success he earned for himself the title of “Father of Reforestation.” He then gained appointment as the first Provincial Forester in 1912 then from 1926 until 1934 served as the Deputy Minister of Forestry in the Ontario Department of Lands and Forests. He then continued as Provincial Forester.

In 1913, there were fourteen employees at the Station: George Lane, Scotty Telford, Ernest Hammond, John (Doc) Price, George Coombs, William (Musket) Rogers, James (Casey) Jones, William Stackhouse, Joseph Watts, Frank Price, Frank Newman, Fred Heskett, Andy Horton and Burt (Jack) Hammond.

Frank S. Newman, a student in the Forestry School at the University of Toronto came to the Station to do practical work under the supervision of George Lane, and became proficient in every aspect of the operation. George Lane died in 1915 and Newman, returning from overseas military service in 1919 became official Superintendent.

Under Newman, the Forest Station embarked on ever more ambitious projects, doubling and tripling over and over again the acreage under reforestation plots. The fledgling forest begun by Lane continued to push the “desert” back and the whole area took on a life of its own. The record of planting to that time was an impressive one. In 1920, the inventory of trees on the Station lands stood at 1,178,139 including thirty different species. Annual production of seedlings ran at an impressive 3,000,000 plants. In that year, the foresters planted another 1,800,000 Scotch pine, 1,500,000 white spruce, 95,000 white pine, 8,200 Australian pine, 65,000 Norway spruce and 1,500 Hemlock.

By 1932, the total acreage reclaimed to forest reached just over 1,100 and there were 2,162,870 trees planted. The dust bowl years in the Prairie Provinces during the Great Depression gave new emphasis to the need for natural restoration. In 1936, an impressive 5,357,665 trees were shipped to customers in twenty-six Ontario counties and two other provinces. In Ontario, the lion’s share went to four hundred people for reforestation and windbreaks. The new planting at the Station reached 2,744,700. The inventory of trees on Station lands stood at 45,195,000.

Newman expanded the Reforestation Station throughout his forty-one year career. In 1950 the reforested lands reached nearly 4,000 acres at St. Williams and Turkey Point and included 52,418,000 trees and saplings of which 44,245,000 were conifers and the balance hardwoods.

Frank Newman retired in 1954 and was succeeded by John S. Ball (1954-1956), William R. Bunting (1956-1961), A. A. Russell (1961-1964), Verdun W. Fisk (1964-1965), William Foreman (1965-1966), William E. Edwards (1966-1968), Rolf E. Laupert (1968-1982) and the present Superintendent A. (Dolf) Wynia.

The foremen at the Forestry Farm were: Edward Telford (1908-1915), Joseph Watts (1915-1933), Gordon Telford (1933-1944), Arthur Heald (1944-1969), L. C. Pattyson (1969-1978) and Ron Thayer (1978-present).

By 1970, the annual planting reached close to 2,000,000 seeds consisting of twenty species ranging from the popular pines and spruce to such exotic trees as the black locust, tulip and cottonwood. Shipments to customers ran at 6,000,000 per year.

Today there are two hundred and sixty-four acres under nursery stock production and 4,000 acres of woodlands and recreational facilities including a large picnic area open to the public, a forestry museum and a fishing pond. The woodlots and plantations now contain more than 546,000 cubic feet of standing timber growing at the rate of more than 5,000 cubic inches per year. Not bad for a former wasteland!

Employees of the St. Williams Forestry Station in 1936

Ray Earls Harold Mayo Alex Gee

Bill Morris Fred Parsons Ace Stewart

Ker Smith Elgie Coles Burton Mills

Jack Hammond Charles Rose Freeman Raymond

Gib MacAinch Bud Price John Jackson

Harry Tricket Alex Bellas Frank Bellas

George Goosling Harry Lalone Clarence Starling

Ernest Smith William Trickett Archie Caldwell

Mel MacDonald Basil Ferris Alex Horton

Frank S. Newman Jacob Butcher James Mabee

Edward Telford Earl Parson Bert Newkirk

Charles Mudford Charles Underhill Stan Jenny

Fern Wingrove Arthur Heald William Raymond

Norm Butler Carson Trickett Archie Fisher

Jim Cline Wes LaRose Jack Dancey

Mic MacAinch James Jones Harry Carpenter

Curtis McAinch Tink Molton Roy Andrews

Roy Mayo William Shoup Harry Burke

John Heath

The Reforestation Pioneers

When the George Lane family arrived on the barren wind-swept reaches of Lot 24 Concession 5 Walsingham Township with the goal of converting it into a forest, they became modern day pioneers in the old sense of the word. Leaving behind a well-ordered existence and a comfortable suburban home on the grounds of the Ontario Agricultural College campus in the prospering city of Guelph, they settled on a sandy wasteland, “Bunker’s Hill” as the locals called it, a “God-forsaken place” as the Lanes would refer to it. The family in the fall of 1908 consisted of George aged 50, his wife Margaret aged 38, son George “Ritchie” 11 and two daughters Ina May 8 and Erma Alice 2.

They had for company Edward Telford aged 26, known as “Scotty” for his origins in Dalkeith, Scotland. He was also an employee of the Ontario Agricultural College at Guelph and came with his new bride Helen Peacock aged 23 in the Lane expedition to St. Williams.

The two families arrived by train in the spring of 1909 and were picked up at the station by Charles Woodward who would become a life-long friend of the Lanes and Telfords. He drove them around to their new lodgings and what a disappointing sight it must have been. They found only two derelict old wind-blown frame houses badly in need of repairs and a coat of paint. There was sand at the front door and more sand at the back door.

It is little wonder that one of their early projects was to make the home properties habitable. Foundations and basements were put in, the yards sodded and hedges planted. The couples had no plumbing or electricity. Coal oil and wood fuelled lamps and stoves. Keeping in touch with the world held a top priority for the Lanes and they were the first in the district with a rural phone when the service came to St. Williams.

As the forestry station developed, George Lane always concerned himself with his workers. When any of the men was absent from work, he hitched up his horse and buggy and went to their home to find out if they were ill or in trouble, and may times found both.

These were dirt poor families in that district affected by the downgraded soil conditions on the farms. In those days there was a lot of tuberculosis, at that time known as “consumption”, in the district homes, a number of which were unsanitary. The terrible disease took two teachers at the Unger School where the Lane children attended class. This was a far cry from the more genteel schools of the city. Margaret Lane worried about her children being in the company of so many rough rural children. They were sometimes even given the spectacle of fights between fathers as they walked home from their classes. Lunch for those children was little more than sour-dough bread and a hard boiled egg. They watched enviously as the Lane children opened their lunch pails to what must have looked like a feast for the less fortunate.

Spring Lake on the Forestry Farm property circa 1910.

George Lane and Scotty Telford worked tirelessly in their quest to made that first Forestry Farm an unqualified success. Lane died prematurely in Jul 1915 leaving his wife Margaret and young children. They continued to live on the Forestry Farm until 1922 when they returned to Guelph. Scotty Telford was a life-long employee of the Forestry Farm he helped pioneer. One of his six sons, Gordon followed in his father’s footsteps and worked there until retiring in 1952. He held his father’s position of foreman from 1933 to 1952.

Frank Newman came in as Lane’s successor in 1919. A former pupil of Lane the new superintendent brought with him his war bride Lalah from Aberdeen, Scotland. At first, for want of other accommodation their home was a tent pitched beside the Station pond. Here they had two children before finally moving into two rooms in the west end of the Lane house, and when the Lanes moved back to Guelph, the Newmans took over the house. The Station offices were then installed in the west end rooms. In due course, the present large station house was built for them east of the old house and continued there until Newman’s retirement in 1954. This is now the Long Point Bird Observatory.

Sources:

The Plantation Books and Records of the St. Williams Forest Station Library and Museum courtesy of Tony Wynia, Superintendant

Notes of Clayton McCall

Reminiscences of Erma Lane Murray and Madeline C. Mutrie

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