1605 Doe Lake Road
Lot 2, Concession 2, Muskoka Township
Wild Goose Chase Quilt Square
Property in date at the Registry Office indicates November 9, 1880.
In 1871 George Morrison came to Canada at the young age of 19. In 1878 he married Margaret McLean of Sparrow Lake and brought his bride directly to the farm bordering on Doe Lake. At the time there was no sign of a road, merely a trail from Reay a distance of three and a half miles. Nothing daunted, they began life in the bush with oxen their only farm animals. The scythe, the hoe and the grain cradle composed the farm implements and it was a hard struggle to overcome the forest so that even those tools could be used. It was not until 1882 that the road was opened so that Gravenhurst could be reached with a wheeled vehicle.
Early in the 1890’s a two story frame house was built and it is suspected that the original log house was then used as the barn. Later in the 1890’s a 40 x 60 bank barn with a stone foundation was built to house the horses and cattle. This replaced the log structure. The stone foundation was built by Mr. Niklaus Speicher with Albert Speicher working as an apprentice learning the trade.
In October 1901, Mr Morrison was seriously injured while working a stumping machine at the farm. His son John traveled on horseback some seven miles to Gravenhurst via the trail through Reay to fetch Dr. McLeay. Unfortunately, Mr. Morrison succumbed to his injuries.
Mrs. Morrison and the family continued to operate the farm until 1912 when it was sold to John (“Jack”) White. Subsequent owners until 1964 were Ortwein, Donahay, Norman, Melbourne, Kermit and Doris White.
This is private property without public access.
