It is different in the boat, going to Bedford Mills. You see “stuff” you would not ordinarily see. Stuff like extensive slab docks. You can see the ends of slabs which were used to construct the road, from the road but to see so many of them lying under water silently, laid some two hundred year ago, always gives me pause. Back in 1831 Benjamin Tett (1798-1878), bought the sawmill at Buttermilk Falls. Local forests were felled and the squared timber went down the Canal to American and St. Lawrence River market centres. There is an entry in the Newboro Lock Master’s journal 1831, recording “ timber and slabs” going through the lock. Lock Masters had to record in detail, every thing that passed through the lock as well as the daily height of water. Speaking of water, the Rideau Lakes levels were raised by running it off Devil Lake at Bedford Mills: still is, and that brings us back to Mr. Tett. He built a store there at Bedford Mills, sold merchandise to his labourers, and in 1848, Chaffey’s of Chaffey’s Locks built the grist mill. In 1916 the grist-mill could no longer turn a profit so stopped operation.
I am including a couple of historical pictures that I think you might enjoy then take you on a boat ride with my cousin Alan Fleming. (On a personal note, I bet years from now, genealogists will go nuts because both my cousin and my brother (born 5 years apart are named Alan Edward Fleming!)
Tug Edmund at Bedford Mills
Bedford Mills before 1900 and gristmill built in 1847 (behind house) by William Chaffey(1810-1890),
part of a thriving community around Benjamin Tett’s saw mill (on the Hill) at Buttermilk Falls
during the time that the Tett and Chaffey families were partners in timber and forwarding in Ontario
Bedford Mills today: House and Grist Mill at rear
Slabs just under the surface of the water
Slabs at roadside
at the bridge abutment Hwy 10
In the pine on an island in the creek: Osprey
A small raft of loons
Bedores Creek
Deer at the Elbow eating lily pad leaves
wary
and Leaving us
