John Henry Bird / Hannah Craig
Settler of township lots: Lot 10, Conc. 6, Guilford (Stanhope area)
Location: Map point is the approximate location within this 100 transected by Kennisis Lake Road north of Pine Lake.
Land acquisition: 1884 from John Findlay. Ontario Land Parcel Register - Guilford (Image 85).
Dates of residency:
- 1901 Census of Canada, Guilford:
- 1911 Census of Canada, Guilford - Hannah Bird and her son James
Interesting facts:
The years before 1885 saw a steady a steady influx of homesteaders to West Guilford, including John Bird. In Quest of Yesterday by Nila Reynolds. Published by The Provisional County of Haliburton, Minden, Ontario 1973 pg. 155
John Bird represented Pine Lake on the 1900 committee that merged the Maple Lake Church with the 21 member congregation at Pine Lake Church, both of which met in school houses, to build the frame Maple Lake Church at Clarke’s Corners. Source: Ibid pg. 326
Archie Bird, barely 17, laughed at his mother's objection that he was too young for the [lumber[ camps, gaily promising her he would be home to celebrate the First of July. Bird never completed the portage journey from Pine Lake to Kennesis - his body was found washed up on the beach and his canoe with this rifle lashed to the gunwales, mute evidence that on its last voyage the waves were running high. Archie was laid to rest at the Methodist cemetery after the memorial service on July 4th, 1909. Thus Archie Bird kept the promise carelessly given to his mother. For Mrs. Hannah Bird, already once widowed, it was her second experience of receiving a dead son. A child by a previous marriage had been killed in a logging accident near Dorset in 1892. A third boy, Pte. Benjamin Bird, was to die in 1916 during the battle of the Somme. Source: Ibid pg 165
John Bird lived by trapping; his hunting shack was built on the present location of Redstone Lodge. Ibid pg. 69
One of the men most closely connected with the development of the Peterson [Colonization Road] was Robert Bird, road builder and pioneer of Sidney township, Peterson County. Mrs. Jane Cooper of West Guilford believes him to be related to her father, John Bird, an early settler in both Harcourt and Guilford townships. Ibid pg. 34
Son Pte. Benjamin Bird died in Courcelette, France on 16 Sept.1916 at the Battle of Somme, Picardie, France at age 36.
Preceding landowner:
- 1865 The Crown to The C .L. & E. Co
- 1883 John Findlay (not listed in Settlers of Algonquin Highlands family tree)
Succeeding landowner:
- 1919 Richard Thomas Scott (Hanna's son from first husband, James W. Scott) for $1
- 1962 Murray Barry