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"Albemarle" is the title of
Lord Bury's family, the Earls of Albemarle. The Lord Bury referred to so
frequently in this History became the seventh Earl of Albemarle.
Extract from the Report of
County Valuators, 1879.
"The east side of this
township is rock, with only a few stony farms scattered through it; the
west side is sand and swamp. It has very little village property. The
average price per acre is about $4."
Extract from the Report of
County Valuators, 1901.
"In Albemarle there is a
small section of fair land at Mar, but rock and stone seems to crop up
everywhere, and roads are bad. Large sections of these townships are less
valuable now than twelve years ago, and the outlook is not bright. The
rate per acre is $3.25.''
An examination of the map
of Albemarle shows that two different lines of survey met at lot 10 [Mr.
Andrew Weir, ex-reeve, says that his farm shows that lines of survey met
at lot 15, but the maps do not indicate this.] on each of the concession
lines. The southerly part of the township was surveyed for Charles Rankin
by George Gould, in the latter part of the fall of 1855, after he had
finished his share of the survey of the township of Amabel. The northern
part of Albemarle was surveyed by the party of surveyors who surveyed the
township of Eastnor. The only town plot laid out in the township was that
of Adair, on Hope Bay, which contained 2,025 acres. A town, however,
failed to develop there, so in response to a petition the County Council,
in 1879, urged the Indian Land Department to have the town plot sold as
farm lands. This was acceded to, but not until the town and park lots had
first been offered for sale at auction at Owen Sound in October, 1880. In
1887 only 191 acres of the whole town plot had been cleared, and in that
year it was re-surveyed into farm lots.
The peninsula to the east
of Albemarle geographically belongs to the township, but it has been set
apart as an Indian reserve. It contains 15,586 acres, and is known as the
Cape Croker Reserve. Particulars respecting it are to be found in Appendix
C.
In December, 1857, the
first settlers in the township took up their lands. They were John Wood
and Samuel Atkinson, who settled on lots 31 and 30, concession 8, E.B.R.
In the month of May following they were joined by five families, who were
brought over from Owen Sound by the steamer Canadian. These were Rev.
Ludwick Kribs, [In 1852, and for some subsequent years, Mr. Kribs acted as
a missionary to the Indians at Colpoy's Bay, working under the auspices of
the Congregational Church.] Henry Kribs, Caleb Spragge, Joseph Stringer
and Ludwick Spragge. Of these the last-mentioned is the sole survivor.
Late in the fall of 1857 Henry Kribs and Joseph Stringer went to Owen
Sound in a sail-boat to obtain supplies for their families and others of
the infant settlement. On their return trip they were caught in a storm
too severe for their small craft to successfully encounter, and the
unfortunate men found a grave in the cold waters of the Georgian Bay.
In the summer of 1858
Leonard Gleason commenced to build a saw-mill at Colpoy's Bay. He had only
to move across from Oxenden, where he had previously resided, having been
sent there a year or two previous by the Indian Department to show the
Indians how to erect and run a saw-mill. The establishing of this
first-mentioned saw-mill, followed shortly after by the erection of a saw
and grist mill by Ludwick Kribs, had the effect of centring the trading of
the settlement at the little village that now bears the name of Colpoy's
Bay. A post-office was opened there in 1863, L. Kribs being the
postmaster. At one time it was expected "Colpoy's" would become the town
Wiarton now is. Seeing it had ten years of a start, these expectations
seemed warranted, but such hopes have not been realized. The village has
made no progress for many years, and being so near to the larger town at
the northern terminus of the railway, there is little chance of further
development.
The inflow of settlers into
Albemarle has never been large when compared to that experienced by the
more fertile townships to the south. As stated in a foregoing paragraph,
Albemarle received its first settlers in 1857. Four years later, when the
census of 1861 was taken, the population was only 54 souls all told. This
number in 1871 had increased to 678. Since then the census returns exhibit
a slow but constant increase, showing in 1901 a population of 1962, or
almost three times that of 1871. The several localities which received the
earliest settlers were; first, in the vicinity of "Colpoy's," next between
the Amabel boundary and the centre of the township in the vicinity of Mar,
and, at a later date, near Purple Valley. The earliest road opened was
that on the town line between Amabel and Albemarle, thence north through
Mar to Eastnor; the full extent of this was done by the end of the
sixties. [This road was largely opened out by the Government; Hiram
Parker, of Southampton (subsequently the first settler at Golden Valley),
was the contractor; William Bull was the inspector of the work.] The road
to Cape Croker reserve was also one early opened. The opening of other
roads has been done gradually as required.
Albemarle was united for municipal purposes to
the united townships of Arran and Amabel by a by-law of the United
Counties Council, passed 29th December, 1857. This union lasted for three
years, when Amabel and Albemarle were separated from Arran by a by-law
passed September 26th, 1860. On June 18th, 1869, this latter union was
dissolved and Albemarle and Eastnor were united into one municipality. To
the corporation of these two townships an addition was made June 21st,
1872, by uniting to it the townships of Lindsay and St. Edmunds. On June
8th, 1877, the three northerly townships were erected into a separate
municipality, and for the first time Albemarle was free from a partnership
in municipal affairs.
The first reeve of the united townships of
Amabel and Albemarle was Ludwick Kribs. To attend the meetings of the
United Counties Council at Goderich he had to make the following
roundabout journey: He first of all sailed to Collingwood and there took
the Northern Railway to Toronto, thence by Grand Trunk and Buffalo and
Lake Huron Railways to Goderich. He was allowed on the pay sheet for a
mileage of between 200 and 300 miles. The necessity of travelling such a
roundabout route speaks conclusively as to the impassable state of the
roads throughout the county of Bruce in the early sixties.
On January 1st, 1870, Albemarle having been
separated from Amabel, became the senior township of the northern
townships on the Peninsula which formed the new municipality then created.
The first reeve was Thomas H. Lee, [The following are the names of those
who have filled the office of reeve of Albemarle—Thos. H. Lee, 1870, '71,
'72, '73; Ludwick Spragge, 1874, '75, '76 and '77; John Shackleton, 1878,
'79; John H. Whicher, 1880, '81, '83, '84; Dr. H. Wigle, 1882; John
McIver, 1885, '86, part of 1888, '89 and 1895; Thomas Rydall, 1887 and
part of 1888; Eph. Cross, 1890; T. S. Cotton, 1891, '92; Andrew Weir,
1893, '94, '96, '97 and 1900; Thomas Crane, 1898. '99; William Chisholm,
1901, '02; John Pruder, 1903, '04; E. Andrews, 1905; John Ashcroft, 1906.]
while the two offices of clerk and treasurer were filled by John
Shackleton. When the
time came (at the end of 1877) for the breaking of the municipal tie which
united Eastnor, Lindsay and St. Edmunds with Albemarle, trouble arose over
the finances and four years of litigation and arbitration followed, the
costs of which ran up into the thousands. [The details of the suit are to
be found in 45 and 46 IT. C. Queen's Bench Reports.] The settlement was
finally reached in July, 1881, at a joint meeting of the Councils of the
two municipalities, held at the "Half-way House" (W. Colwell's), when on
motion of F. W. Stuart and R. Davidson, the united townships of Eastnor,
Lindsay and St. Edmunds agreed to pay the township of Albemarle $300, in
two payments (January 1st, 1883, and January 1st, 1884), with interest, in
final settlement of claim. Each party to pay their costs of suit. This
offer the Albemarle Council accepted and so closed this long and vexatious
litigation, which might have been settled by the same method years before,
and saved the large sums paid in law costs.
The report of the county valuators in 1879
enabled the people in the north to see that they had been too highly
assessed by the County Council in the past; on this being pointed out, a
committee was appointed, which reported that for five years the assessment
of the northern townships had been too high, and recommended that 50 per
cent of the indebtedness of each municipality on account of rates be
remitted. (The amount of indebtedness of Albemarle on the 1st January
previous was $2,781.67, showing arrears for about four years.) The
remission of $1,292.72 of county rates proved a great relief to the
finances of the municipality.
There are not many names in Albemarle of which
the origin can be given. Mr. John M. McNabb, of Southampton, says that
Cape Croker bears the name of John Wilson Croker, who was Secretary to the
Admiralty; and Colpoy's Bay of Sir John Colpoy, an admiral in the British
Navy, both names being bestowed by Capt. Bayfield during his survey of
Lake Huron and Georgian Bay. Prior to this the bay was called Sturgeon
Bay, and is so named in a map now in the Department of Archives at Ottawa,
prepared in 1792 for Lieut.-Governor Simcoe.
The prospects for the future of Albemarle can
hardly be said to be as bright as those cherished by the more southerly
townships; the extent of rocky land precludes the thought of it. The past
has witnessed the lumberman gather in rich returns from her forests, and
the cleared farms, where the land has been arable, have well repaid the
labor expended thereon. This is attested by the numerous comfortable
farm-houses to be seen throughout the township. One of these, it might be
said in passing, is possibly the finest up-to-date ' farm-house in the
whole county, namely, that of Mr. John McIver, and there a hospitality is
extended by the owner and his good lady that accords with their big and
handsome house. Mr. McIver's success has come from engaging largely in
stock raising, and it is most probable that the future prosperity of
Albemarle will be in carrying out this branch of farming. |
