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The settlers of Port Perry must have wondered what they could have possibly done to deserve such devastation when two fires in less than a year (1883–1884) almost destroyed their downtown area.

Powerless to rebuild, as there was not a pound of nails to be had, and hammers and saws were in scarce supply, a public meeting was held. There, the townspeople discussed the situation. The end result was the passing of a bylaw that forbade the construction of wooden buildings within the business section. The building regulations also required that the stores be given a uniform line of frontage. The previous buildings had been erected to suit the fancy of the owner, and the resulting street had been very irregular. The new plan did away with this, and now the stores lined up neatly; few towns the size of Port Perry made such a creditable showing in their business section.

Rebuilding was a busy time. Masons and bricklayers came in from all directions, and in less than a year, the business area was re-established. A steam fire-engine was purchased, and the residents breathed a sigh of relief; Port Perry prospered.

The town of Port Perry had originally been the site of a Native village. In 1821, the first recorded settler, Reuben Crandell, arrived. Others followed. Abner Hurd settled here in 1824. In 1833 Elias Williams purchased Lot 19 in Concession 6, and here he built the first home at the actual site of the future village.

Peter Perry arrived in the district shortly thereafter and eventually surveyed and divided the land into lots. His involvement in the organization of the settlement was reason enough to name the place after him. In 1854 a plank road was built to connect Port Whitby and Lake Scugog. It was originally intended to pass through Prince Albert, but Abner Hurd refused to grant a right-of-way through his property and the road was built closer to Port Perry. As a result Port Perry continued to develop and Prince Albert declined.

The settlers of Port Perry were no strangers to the destructive power of fire.

Courtesy of Scugog Shores Museum

New building regulations after the fires forbade the construction of wooden buildings within the business district. The regulations also required that the stores be given a uniform line of frontage.

Courtesy of Scugog Shores Museum

Joseph Bigelow and Thomas Paxton spearheaded a project in 1867 to build a railway from Port Whitby to Port Perry. The railway was completed in 1871, and a train station was constructed by Lake Scugog.

Those were the days when 25 steamboats sailed the waters of Lake Scugog. They transported timber, the likes of which could not be found in these parts today. Some trees were used for telegraph poles, while some for tan bark went to Fran A. Cutting at Boston, and some for paving timber was sent to Godson’s in Toronto. These paving timbers were made of cedar cut into 15.25 centimetre and 20.25 centimetre (six and eight inch) blocks, and set endwise on the surface of the streets of Toronto.

The price of whiskey at that time was 25 cents a gallon, retail, and 10 cents wholesale. If you felt dry while in town, all you had to do was go to the back of the store, where there would be a pail of whiskey and a tin cup. It was estimated that there were 25 hotels between Manilla and Oshawa in those days.

Port Perry certainly was prosperous, and much of that was due to one man, a visionary with a practical bent, Joseph Bigelow. Joseph and his twin brother Joel left Lindsay in 1851to go to Port Perry. There, they opened a general store under the name “J & J Bigelow.” The next year Joseph became the first postmaster of Port Perry. Then he bought a woollen factory and a planing mill. At the mill he also manufactured barrel staves. The factory remained in operation until 1870, when the railway expropriated his land. When the Royal Canadian Bank opened a branch in Port Perry in 1862, Joseph Bigelow became the manager and held the position for six years.

After the building of a three-storey commercial emporium called The Royal Arcade, Bigelow’s next project was to promote the construction of the railway. In 1872 he became reeve, and continued to serve in office until 1874. In 1877 he became a justice of the peace and the new owner of an elaborate Italianate house designed and built by H.R. Barber of Oshawa. Joseph planned to build a number of fireplaces with marbleized slate mantelpieces throughout this home, but his wife put her foot down. She felt that fireplaces dirtied, rather than heated, a home! When Joseph died in 1917, at the age of 89, flags flew at half-mast in tribute to a man whose insight and spirit gave reality to his dreams.

Scugog Island, across the lake from Port Perry, extends 16 kilometres (10 miles) in length and measures four kilometres (2.5 miles) wide. The name Scugog is a Native word pronounced Scu-a-gog, meaning “submerged or flooded land.” Peter Jones, a Native missionary who worked among the Mississauga tribe on the island, called it Whu-yoy-wus-ki-wuh-gog, meaning “shallow muddy lake.”

The island was first surveyed in 1816, by Major S. Wilmot. At the time a number of Mississauga Natives inhabited the island and vicinity. A paper, read before the Canadian Institute on January 12, 1889, by A.F. Chamberlain, on the archaeology of Scugog Island, indicated earlier habitation of the island by the Mohawks. There is a legend told that, at one time, the Mississaugas enticed their Mohawk enemies to Paxton’s Point, where the Mohawks were subsequently killed in battle.

The first white settler on the island is said to have been Joseph Graxton, who came in 1834. On November 3, 1843, the Mississaugas of Lake Scugog purchased 800 acres of the island that subsequently became known as the Scugog Indian Reserve. The government hired William Taylor to build the Natives 12 houses and three barns. It was an attempt to assimilate them into the ways of non-natives. Some farm machinery was also supplied, but these efforts did not, as they say, “grow corn.”

In 1847, according to the missionary’s report, the Native population totalled 64. In 1866 the band numbered 38, and other island residents on the island numbered 800 in total.

It was no easy task to settle this island, as cattle had to be transported by barge from the mainland. The first task was to construct a ferry or scow that required two men to each oar. Many tragic stories have been told of the old ferry. Sometime in the 1840s, John Thompson, with George Gilbert and his 17-year-old son, started out on the ferry from Paxton’s point to the island. The lake was rougher than expected and the frightened animals started to struggle. A team of horses and a yoke of oxen were being held by young Gilbert, but to no avail. They carried him overboard, and when George Gilbert attempted to save his son, they were both drowned.

Another terrible accident involved John Thompson and his wife. John went to work at the mill, and his wife left the children in the house while she went a short distance to ask a neighbour to stay with her overnight. Although gone only a short time, her house and children went up in smoke.

Scugog was also the setting for a murder with a strange and tragic aftermath. This occurred shortly after the Farewell family had opened a trading post on Washburn’s Island on Lake Scugog for barter with the Natives. One day the Farewells left their agent, John Sharp, in charge of the post. When they returned they found him dead. A hunt for the murderer followed, and it was discovered that a Native named Ogetonicut had done the deed. The motive was to avenge the murder of his own brother, Whistling Duck, who had been murdered by a white man. Ogetonicut was arrested, and after a preliminary hearing it was decided that the trial would have to be held at the Newcastle courthouse. Newcastle was the new district town planned for the districts of Northumberland and Durham, to be located at Presqui’le, and the murder had been committed within that judicial district. Ogetonicut was taken to York (Toronto) to await transportation to Presqui’le. A government schooner named the Speedy was chartered to take the officials who needed to be present at the trial down the lake. The party was made up of the following persons: Judge Cochrane, Solicitor General Robert Isaac Grey, Sheriff Angus McDonnell, High Bailiff John Fisk, interpreters Cowan and Ruggles, Mr. Herkimer, Captain Paxton, and Ogetonicut.

According to local lore, Ogetonicut’s mother travelled from Lake Scugog to the shores of Lake Ontario, near Oshawa, to watch for the Speedy. When she caught sight of the vessel sailing by, knowing that her son was onboard, she began to chant against those who had taken him away.

The Speedy never reached Newcastle. When, during a snowstorm, it rounded the point near Presqui’le, the ship disappeared without a trace. Neither the Speedy nor her passengers were ever seen again!

Many Ontario towns had turbulent beginnings but, like most of them, Port Perry survived its fires, its native struggles, and its developmental challenges. Today, it is a beautiful “bedroom” community. It is much enjoyed as a graceful town with excellent dining, shopping, theatre, and simple beauty — all just an hour from downtown Toronto.