Lakes in the Digby Granite, Victoria County, Ontario Canada

Digby is bounded by Laxton on the south, Lutterworth (in Haliburton County) on the east, Longford on the north, and Dalton on the west. It is almost entirely in the granite region and is very rough and rugged. As is usual in the Laurentian rock country, lakes are very numerous. There are eighteen lakes in Digby alone and forty in Digby and Longford, as compared with nine in all South Victoria. The most important of the Digby lakes are Victoria in the northeast, Smudge in the centre, Fishog in the southeast, and Head, on the Laxton boundary.

The only arable land is in the southeast and southwest corners. The pioneers here were the Foleys, McFadyens, and Powers. The population today totals less than one hundred.

Digby has produced some of the finest pine in the county but was already stripped bare forty years ago.
(F.) The Huckleberry Plains of Dalton.

Dalton township is named after Dr. John Dalton, (1766-1844), a famous English scientist, who did much to establish the Atomic theory of the constitution of matter.

Dalton's municipal neighbors are Carden on the south, Digby on the east, Ryde (in Muskoka District) on the north, and Rama (in Ontario County) on the west.

It is almost entirely made up of glaciated granite. Three streams, the Black River in the north, Cranberry River in the centre, and Head River in the south, flow across it from east to west. At least two-thirds of the township consists of huckleberry plains. Its scanty apportionment of arable soil lies chiefly near the Head River and the southern boundary, though small streaks of farming land may be found along the valleys of the other rivers. The Gardiners, Montgomerys, and Thompsons were amongst the earliest settlers.

Scotch and Irish Presbyterians dominate the present day population. The latest census figures are as follows Races:
Irish, 184;
English, 149;
Scotch, 114.

Denominations:
Presbyterian, 225;
Methodist, 183;
Anglican, 22;
Roman Catholic, 12.

Uphill is a village of half a hundred people near the south end of the Digby boundary. It was long made famous by its tavern keeper, John Calhoun of the North Star Hotel. Dartmoor in the south, Sadowa in the west, and Ragged Rapids in the northeast have been rural post offices. Sebright is a village of about fourscore inhabitants scattered on both sides of the Rama-Dalton boundary where the Monck Road crosses it between the first and second concessions of Dalton.

It has been estimated that Dalton has 25,000 acres of non-agricultural lands which are well adapted for reforestration.

One of the most picturesque figures in the municipal history of the township is Joseph Thompson, who was reeve for a quarter of a century. Thompson was a great hunter and many legends have been handed down concerning his prowess in the wilderness.

The Wilderness of Longford

Longford township derives its name from a county in Leinster, Ireland.

It is the most northerly of all the townships in Victoria, being adjacent to Oakley (in Muskoka) on the north, to Anson (in Haliburaon) on the east, to Digby on the south, and to Ryde (in Muskoka) on the west.

The municipality is wholly within the granite area and is dotted with more than a score of small, nameless lakes ,which are all drained to the southwest by the Black River system.

Longford has no inhabitants. It was first bought in 1865 by the Canada Land and Emigration Company and later sold by that corporation to John Thompson, of Longford Mills, north of Orillia. Thompson stripped the township of all timber, driving the logs down the Black River to his mills. At the present day most of Longford belongs to William Thompson, of the Longford Lumber Company, Orillia.

Northern Townships

Victoria County

Add/Correct a Link

Comments/Submit Data

Copyright 2002-2024 by Canadian Genealogy
The WebPages may be linked to but shall not be reproduced on another site without written permission.