Building a Log Barn in 1840’s Nottawasaga

by Jim Campbell, OBP Vice President, Duntroon.

In the early 1900’s my great-great-grandfather, Donald Blair, with only a Grade 3 education, made the effort and took the time to write down memories of his early days in the community now called Duntroon, then known as Bowmore, or Scotch Corners, the first and main settlement of Nottawasaga Township, County of Simcoe. I believe he arrived there sometime around 1840, which would have been six years following the arrival of the first European settlers (not accounting for the Jesuit missionaries of the early 17th century). Below are some excerpts from Nottawasaga’s history booklet, first published in 1934 for its Centennial Celebration and then again for Canada’s Centenial of Confederation, and compiled in large part by Donald’s grandson, who, following his death, himself ended up as the focus of a 1982 book, somewhat inaccurately titled “Jay Blair, Nottawasaga’s Last Pioneer“.

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