2018 History Note

2018 History Note: Emmertons, Hendersons and South Bruce Beach

The area considered this year is south of Concession 6, a recent addition to the Bruce Beach Cottagers’ Association. This area has been given various names but now most cottagers refer to it as South Bruce Beach.

But it was not always called that. The first published listing of cottages at Bruce Beach was in 1925-26 and in it the cottages were entered in four Divisions, with the cottage furthest south being 3a (Kennedy’s) in what was then Division 1. Later, two cottages south of the 6th were included in this Division. The Christopher cottage (# 15a) was added in 1948 and two years later, the Crozier’s place was added. Norm and Jean Crozier were the owners of the popular Bruce Beach Store, which might have influenced the decision to include their building in the Yearbook even though it was near the south end of Gordon Street and was not on the beach. In 1961, Division 1 was sub-divided into cottages “South of the 6th Concession” and “North of the 6th Concession”. At that time, cottages from 15a (Christopher’s) to 34a (Morgan Henderson’s) were in the former group. In 1973, the Divisions were changed to Areas and those cottages previously in the south section of Division 1 became Area 1 whereas those in the north section became Area 2. (It was not until 2010 that Grove names replaced Area designations for cottages north of the 6th in the Yearbook.) Since the 2012 Yearbook, 31 buildings have been included under the heading South Bruce Beach. While looking through the Yearbooks, I noticed that from 1940 through to 1950, Blair’s Grove cottages were included in the Yearbooks under the heading ‘Blair’s Grove’. This was surprising because for over 65 years, we have not considered Blair’s Grove a part of Bruce Beach.

From the early 1900s, South Bruce Beach was known as Emmerton or Emmerton’s Beach. This is the name of the family who farmed the land located immediately west of South Bruce Beach. The first Emmerton to farm in our vicinity was John Emmerton. He was English as was his wife, Caroline, and they sailed for New York in 1849 with six young sons. The oldest was 13 and the youngest was three months. After nine weeks at sea, they landed and made their way to Goderich. From there, “they took a small boat to Stoney Island and walked down the coast to claim Crown Lots 41- 44 on Con A” (Families and Farms of Huron Township 1985:23). These lots are just north of the 8th Concession. John was not a farmer. He was a bridge builder and framer and he used these skills to build the Anglican Church at Lurgan, with his son and other volunteers, in 1857. Perhaps because John was not much interested in farming, only three of his sons remained in Huron Township, farming on lots 43, 44 and 63 (A History of Huron and Ripley 1975: 175). However, some of his grandsons acquired lots in the South Bruce Beach region. It is difficult to sort these grandsons out because John and Caroline named their first-born John and three of their grandsons were also named John. However, in 1900, John Jas. obtained Lot 29. In 1911, the same or another John had Lot 30 and, in 1919, a John J. owned Lot 28. These lots are immediately south of the 6th Concession. It was Gordon, son John James and great grandson of John and Caroline, who sold the land which eventually became South Bruce Beach. The Blairs farmed on lots immediately to the south of the Emmertons giving rise to the name Blair’s Grove mentioned above.

Henderson’s Beach was the next name for South Bruce Beach. It was called this because the Henderson sisters, Elizabeth and Pearl, bought more than 50 acres of Lots 29 and 30, from Gordon Emmerton on September 8,1945 (Ontario Parcel Register for Bruce County, Book 142). About ten years later, the Henderson subdivision (Plan #483 Huron Township) was officially registered. Bill Henderson recorded information about this purchase in his memoirs which his son, Sandy Henderson (#112 Gordon St.), kindly lent me. I quote the section on Bruce Beach here at some length:

In the early days of Bruce Beach, the south end, below the 6th concession of Huron township was nothing but sand dunes and treeless. It was a favourite spot for wieners and corn roasts. We were surprised to hear one day that Aunt Pearl had bought the whole southern section for $2500.00. [ Actually, it was for $2000.00 according to the Ontario Parcel Register.] There were many who considered her very foolish to spend money on such a wasteland. She had the foresight to believe that the area could be turned into a “Garden of Eden” as she described it. She had the front part facing the lake, subdivided into lots, a front and a back row. She was charging $1000 a lot for a front row and $500 for a back row lot. In an endeavour to create interest, she gave the most southerly lot to my brothers and me hoping we would build a cottage. [The Ontario Parcel Register shows that Pearl and Elizabeth, spinsters, sold this lot to their brothers, Morgan, James, Donald and William, in 1953, for $1.00.] My brothers went ahead and erected a cottage but at the time I didn’t have any money to put in to it. [The Henderson brothers at cottage 33a are first listed in the Yearbook in 1955 and William Henderson at 32a in 1961.] It wasn’t long until people took an interest and began buying the lots and as lots became scarcer, the prices rose. ... As there was talk that there might be a third and fourth row of lots developed, the South Bruce Beach Cottagers’ Association to which we belonged, held a meeting and it was proposed that we buy the 40 or 50 acres that remained. This we did and have it reforested and a tennis court at the north end (Wm. Henderson, n.d.:104).

According to the Ontario Parcel Register, J.E. Marshall (#138 Gordon St.) and A. Blandford (#128 Gordon St.), Trustees for the South Bruce Beach Tennis Club, purchased three lots for a tennis court from the Henderson estate for $1.00 in 1962. Then, according to the South Bruce Beach Cottage Association Wikipedia page, in the spring of 1966, cottagers got together to discuss buying property behind the second or inner row of buildings to create a greenbelt and so ensure a quiet resort area, as the Henderson sisters had had in mind. In 1968, they did purchase a further 30 acres as a greenbelt and in 1976, they planted 18,500 pine trees there. By 2011, they were able to harvest 25 to 30 percent of the trees. Much earlier, in 1955, the Henderson sisters had donated land for a green area to Huron Township. This land was at the northeast corner of the 6th Concession and Gordon St. There is now a plaque there identifying this green space as the Pearl Elizabeth Memorial Park. The South Bruce Beach Cottagers Association was incorporated in 2006. Unlike most of Bruce Beach, but in common with some other parts of the beach, they have a double row of buildings. These are divided by a paved road and at least nine of the 31 buildings are year- round houses. However, in common with other beachers, they have a tennis court, protected green spaces, and a desire for a quiet summer vacation spot.

Frances Stewart
Bruce Beach Historian