The Boyd Papers - Fall 2025

Hard to believe, but here we are in October. Another one gone! Must be age but the months are getting closer. After a very hot dry summer we seem to be into a dry fall. Some rain would be nice. The fall weather has been so nice we still have people coming to Bobcaygeon on the weekends. Boat traffic in the Canal started off slowly but has been steady in August and September. There doesn’t seem to be as many American yachts this year (I wonder why!). One boat in the early summer had a banner on the side saying ‘we did not vote for Trump’! I don’t think many of us were worried about their voting habits, even though they were strange!

   The museum has been very busy this summer; we did not have a summer student again this year so Carolyn and I were in every day (it has been a long summer!) Not many rentals in the three library abandoned rooms so our book tables have been up for most of the summer. I tell people book sales keep the lights on in the building. $30 to $40 a day, Thurs. Fri. & Sat. are the best. Doesn’t seem to be a lot but at the end of the month it looks pretty good! These books are all donated so it is just time in culling and putting them out with tables in order of type, ie. fiction, non-fiction, Canadian etc. One of the Board members drops by and straightens the tables for us. Locals love it as we do not have a book store in town.    

  In the former MTO (far end of the building) we have set up Sheila’s kitchen. We received a lovely pine harvest table and six chairs as well as a pine hutch. We set the table with Sheila’s last set of dishes and added other items, the Boyd wicker carriage, rocking chair, gramophone etc. items that Sheila would have had in her space in the Boyd home.

 On the TVs we have photos that Herb Orgill took of the interior of the Boyd home and because everything went to auction after Sheila died, we would have had no idea of what the house looked like, or what items were in the rooms. So, on two TVs, one in the entrance room and one in the lower gallery showing the interior of the Boyd home and one TV in Mossom Boyd’s office shows the barn. We put Willy Boyd’s interior/exterior shots of his house on the TV in the lower gallery,  but unfortunately the house had been turned into a nursing home. However, we have good interior shots of the magnificent woodwork and general layout of the   house and its exterior. Luckly, we took these pictures before the house disappeared.

  Grand home of W.T.C. Boyd built 1889 (Belcher - architect) with the rebuilt dry stone wall.

On the business end of the Foundation, Donna Godwin from the City helped us prepare a 5 year Strategic Plan. When Donna asked where we hoped to be in five years Carolyn said she hoped we were alive in 5 years! This plan should help us chart a course to follow. The ‘strat’ plan is on our website if you would like to see it. This plan, we hope, will be accepted by the membership at our annual meeting later this month. This plan should help us plan the next five years with the emphasize on fund-raising and the necessity of finding ways of raising sustainable funding. I feel that we should be looking at the CKL for help in keeping the doors open. However, we shall see what the Board decides. Both the Olde Jail in Lindsay and Maryboro Lodge (Fenelon Museum) are receiving funds from the City for helping to maintain their museums. Like libraries, museums generally do not make money but we are valuable institutions to give locals and visitors a place to go that does not cost a fortune, but adds to the overall experience of that town or in our case village. It is quite amazing the number of summer visitors that say ‘each place they visit they search out a museum to learn about the place, town or village they are visiting’. Think about it, where else would you go? 

   The Board as been lax this summer and we have not had fund raisers other than book sales and entry donations. Joyce B. had the music group ‘Vintages’ in one evening (very good!). We had to cancel our annual Antiques and Collectibles Show as we only had 9 dealers willing to come. It would have been a poor showing in the Curling Club arena. The Show has been our largest fund raiser for the past 23 years. The antiques dealers are all of an age also. Early in the spring we had ‘Art at the Boyd’. Artists selling their work inside and outside, of course, it rained and was quite cold. However, the artists were pleased with the turnout! We should develop this event. We have an enviable location sitting on the Canal in the heart of the Village.

   We welcomed Ruthann Wilson back as our volunteer event organizer, so hopefully we can come up with some good ideas for the winter and next year. We have invited Michelle Bassie-Brown to come and give us a talk and slide show of her photos of wildlife around our area. She is donating her time. 

   I feel at this time assistance from the City will be necessary and welcomed. When the library moved out we have been on a downward spriral as the library basically paid the expenses on at least 60% of the cost of running the building. We also had help in furnace replacement, snow-plowing and grass cutting, it was a good partnership. The Board however seems to be reluctant to involve the City in this building. We speak to the CAO of the City tomorrow.

   Carolyn, our intrepid ancestor searcher, looked into the family of Winnett Boyd’s wife, Monnie St. George Boyd. Just a simple remark in the office ‘I wonder where the St. George name came from?’ That question is all Carolyn needed and away she went. We now have more information about the St. George clan then we will ever need. Fascinating all the same and the name now has faces connected to it. It also adds to our genealogy charts.  

  I have decided to step down from the Chair-ship of the Foundation this year. 25 years is really to long and with the new by-laws this should be a position that changes every 3 or 4 years. It is sometimes easier to just let the time roll on and not rock the boat. However, it also becomes a little stale. At this year’s annual meeting a new chair and board members will be up for renewal.

   I will remain in the museum but someone else can steer the ship!

   I will be showing 1940’s wedding gowns this winter as a tribute to ‘war brides’. It was an interesting time of hastily arranged marriages, lack of material for gowns, and pared down weddings. A number of Canadian soldiers married overseas or potential brides back with them after the war. This proved to be a challenge for new wives and the groom’s families. It will be interesting!

 Anyway all for now, after a beautiful fall we will see what winter brings. Those who have decided not to cross into the States as a anti-Trump sentiment, enjoy the winter. We understand a number of people will be travelling to Mexico instead of Florida, time will tell. I have a feeling the first cold snowy days will see Bobcaygeon empty out once again!.

Till the spring

Barb    

PS - Bobcaygeon will by 150 next year (2026)