Blackstone Lake Historical Background

Mr. Blackshaw had discovered Blackstone Lake and liked it. Just before the WWII he purchased a small peninsula from the Armstrong farm with a good view of the lake. There also was the road passing just 300 m to the north if he could get road allowance permission — and that would grow into an enduring issue to many of the ensuing owners.
At the time of purchase Orville was a retail salesman on his way to being an assistant manager in Toronto. He was born in Leith beside Owen Sound, where his great-grandfather, Samuel, had landed from England in 1838. As Samuel had been an oat miller and grocery merchant in England, he began his new life as the local miller. Within the decade, however, Samuel resorted to mixed farming on 60 acres of Free Grant

After nearly 15 years enjoying the lake, a half century old hardware store back in Owen Sound, Christie 's, came available to him and he moved back to his old grounds to take charge. As this would consume a lot of his time, and perhaps he had had enough of fishing, he sold his investment in Blackstone to Mel House in about 1952 who would develop it into Rock Garden Camp.
As the relationship between the Brears and Blackshaw are somewhat complicated below a two pronged family tree is shown to better understand how the Brears came to know Blackstone Lake.

ohn and Harold were introduced to Blackstone Lake by their half-cousin, Orville Blackshaw. Although the brothers were born in Detroit, Michigan and were living in the suburb of Grosse Pointe, the Brear family was quite familiar with the Parry Sound area, for that is where their father, William was born.
William Harry (b 1878), a blond and blue eyed boy, born in Maple Is. just north of Whitestone Lake or 41 km north-east of Parry Sound, to John and Annie (née Ward) Brear was the eldest of 12 children. John Sr. had arrived from Quebec in the mid-1870s anglicizing the family name to Brear from the French norm Brière. John and Annie were one of the first settlers in the area.
As the eldest son to a farmer it would have been normal for William to have inherited most of the land and become himself a farmer. By the time he came of

at the end of July 1916 to see his parents, siblings and friends, most of whom were still farming or employed as labourers. It was likely that at this time they would have gone over the tragedy that befell William 's 13 year old sister Sarah Ann, for she had drowned on a July day in 1910. This sorrow may have only lightly touched William for Sarah had only been a baby when he left the farm as a young man. All other indications are that the rest of the time was a joyous reunion. John Sr. had split up his farm to at least 3 of his sons and had started a venture in being a mink fur farmer as he aged. He left Maple Is. with Annie, in her last year 1928, to Burks Falls to live with their daughter,