Writer: Andrew Hind
Muskoka Heritage Place is home to more than a dozen historic buildings from across the region. The largest structure is also the one that’s probably most overlooked: the Boles Barn. We’ve all seen barns, right? Nothing special.
I can confidently say the barn is indeed very special, and as such I included it in my book Vintage Muskoka.
Here’s an excerpt:
Once upon a time, hundreds of barns dotted Muskoka, many built by settlers claiming farm acreage under the provisions of the Free Grant and Homesteads Act of 1868. As recently as half a century ago, numerous examples of these imposing structures stood along our rural highways and byways. Today, they are increasingly few and far between. Perhaps one day soon, there will be none.
That makes the preservation of the Boles Barn at Muskoka Heritage Place all the more valuable as a window into our region’s collective past.
For Clarence Boles, the idea of his family’s barn enduring into the future is reassuring. At least part of the Bole family heritage will be preserved, he reasons. “The farm where the barn once stood is all grown over now,” the 77-year-old laments. “You’d never even know there was a farm there at all. It’s completely gone back to nature as if everything my great-grandfather, grandfather, and father accomplished in their lives is gone.”
“Everything,” he says, “except for the barn.”
The Boles farm (Lots 7 and 8, Concession 2, Stisted Township), located about 2.5km west of Aspdin, has deep roots. Settled by Clarence’s great-grandfather, it was one of the first to be established in the township.
Elisha Boles was born Oct. 6, 1846, in Nassagawey Township, Halton, the son of English-born Joseph and Eliza May Boles. In 1868, the 22-year-old wed Mary Dunn (born April 8, 1848, of Scottish ancestry). The young couple initially lived in Halton, but the promise of free land lured Elisha and Mary north to Muskoka in 1871, where they began the task of clearing land of trees and rocks for a home, pasture lands for horses and cattle, and creating fields for cultivation. They would have built a barn during the process of creating the homestead, but it wasn’t the impressive structure standing today at Muskoka Heritage Place. Instead, this barn would have been far more modest in dimensions and method of construction, and there is a good possibility it may have been made of logs.
Like most of Muskoka’s settlers, Elisha and Mary struggled in the harsh landscape. But they persevered. Even the loss of their home in a fire didn’t dampen their resolve. They simply rebuilt and moved forward. Elisha and Mary raised three children – John Wesley, Annie Marie, and William – and three grandchildren when daughter Annie Marie died delivering a fourth, stillborn child. Elisha and Mary also built a second home on the property for eldest son John, born in 1866, and his partner Mary Ann Fraser.
John and Mary Ann went about unconventionally creating a family. When Elisha built them their house, there was some urgency to the matter as the couple were not legally wed and yet were expecting the arrival of a child. The birth of the baby, Barbara, born June 6, 1898, was a minor scandal in the area. But John and Mary Ann didn’t seem to care. They doted on their little girl.
Not long after, a surprise, another gift of sorts, showed up one morning on the porch of John and Mary’s home: a tiny baby boy whose destitute family could not afford to keep. John and Mary scooped up the child and raised it as their own. They named him William. John and Mary were only legally married in 1901, after which three more children followed: James, Wesley, and another boy they named William. The first William was known as William Sr. and his half-brother William Jr., but as they were not father and child, they would more accurately be William Boles the Elder and William Boles the Younger. Confusing.
To complete the Boles family story, purchase Vintage Muskoka:
Directly from Andrew by maelstrom@sympatico.ca
Amazon: https://www.amazon.ca/Vintage-Muskoka-Andrew-R-Hind/dp/B0CJ4FJPWT
