Henry married 16 year old Mary Ann Hayes in 1885 and they went on to have 10 children. Once Henry’s children, in particular Thomas Henry the firstborn, were old enough to attend school, he and Mary decided to leave Blackstone in the early 1890’s and head back to the road through Foley on Lot 118A nice and close to SS#3 Foley School. However, by 1900 they were back in his father’s house on Blackstone. He still sent his children however to SS#3 Foley and hence, during the winter at least the children would have to stay with others – a common theme for many families in remote areas. With fewer and fewer pine trees to drive the lumber industry, tan bark was becoming an important source of income for the locals. Henry, a hard worker, in one day, was able to peel off the bark off 150 trees  John and Mary c 1911 Enhanced from www.ancestry.com pat19671 piling up 121⁄2 cords of tan bark down on Bower’s Bay, some 3 km north of Parry Sound. It was a hard feat for …show more content…
9, Conger). A rough track of a road existed prior to 1899, connecting the end of what is now called Vankoughnett's Bay on Crane to his brother Benjamin's and father John's farms on Blackstone. On Crane, he and Caroline had a daughter Eva in March of 1900 and during that year built a 3 room frame house on 270 acres, quite a sizable piece of property. He had not had the time to build any barns or other buildings but he had a cart track, as a lifeline from Crane to his fathers farm on Blackstone likely the first thing he hew. In addition he obtained a Free Grant on Blackstone Lake of 150 acres (Lot 15 Con. 10) in December 1905 but did not use it for the land lacks much soil and is quite uneven. Eventually, this new lot of property would be added to his father’s farm adjacent to the north (Lot 15, Con. 11) enlarging the presence of the Vankoughnetts on