1622/1624 Housey’s Rapids Road

Lot 28, Concession 8

Twisting Star  & General Store Quilt Squares

 
(Crossing the bridge from the church side, Bass Lake is on the right and the river to the left leading into Kahshe Lake.  You can see the Twisting Star Quilt from the bridge on the left. The General Store Quilt is at the top of the hill.) These properties are now individual private residences.

  
Post Office – The post office operated from 1876 to 1957 and was located on this property at the top of the hill. From 1957 to 1968 there was only postal service during the summer months. (There was also a post office in Lewisham from 1882 to 1927 and another in Barkway from 1878 to 1957.) Mrs. Iva Break says “I would walk to pick up the mail at the grocery store in Housey’s Rapids by myself and I would wait and wait for the mail and it would be pitch black.  It was scary by the bridge.”

Store – Vern Taylor (Barb) son of Alfred Taylor who owned the store said that their family came ‘because it was really bad in the depression. My Father was a professional pianist and he played for the silent movies. When the talkies came in he lost his job.  My parents saw the ad in the Toronto paper for the store. They came up to see it in March 1934 by train.  Mr. Hill met them at the Kilworthy station and brought them up Kahshe Lake. My Mother was terrified because there was 3” of water on the ice. They bought and moved up in the spring of the same year.  We sold ice, dynamite, and shells for guns, milk pails, brooms, and horseshoe nails.  We sold dry goods: lots of canned goods and bins with rice, flour, dates, raisins, and beans.  Some people would just buy 5 or 10 lb. instead of the 100 lb. ones.’
Mr. Carl Break remembers ‘Mr. Taylor had a little truck and he would pick up 100 lb. bags of flour and sugar.  After that Lorne McWade would bring them in. Roads were not so good then.”

Women’s Institute
The building that was used for many years by the Housey’s Rapids members was across the road from the store. The organization was a group of dedicated women in the community. In 1948 the Housey’s Rapids and Barkway Institute’s held a meeting and decided they would help improve the cemeteries as written by Florence Rebman in the Tweedsmuir History. These ladies accomplished many other good deeds for the communities and each year hand sewed a quilt as a fundraiser and added to that by having a bake sale with homemade goodies each summer. They made delicious pies, butter tarts, cakes, and cookies!