A history of Pickford Area Pioneer Families Daniel Morrison

The Northern Belle

"It was the year 1884 when myself and two boyhood friends were sitting on the loading dock at Mr. Stirling's store, located just below the hill at Stirlingville. Suddenly the stillness was broken by loud swishes, mixed with sharp blasts from a boat whistle.

"We leapt to our feet, fishing forgotten, for around the bend in the river came the Northern Belle. She was an enormous craft in our eyes with her paddle wheels churning the smooth surface of the river as she made her way to the dock."

These were the words of one of the old-timers of Pickford. He was John Eveleigh, who came here from Canada at the age of two years with his father, Joseph, and family, to settle on a piece of land at Stirlingville. The deed for said parcel was signed by Grover Cleveland. Details on this period in Pickford and Stirlingville are vague, depending on the memory of the oldsters.

The Northern Belle was one of the two supply boats responsible for the early settlement of this section of the country, for she brought in needed supplies and persons who would otherwise have looked for another place to settle because transportation was indeed a problem. There were no roads, what trails there were had been slashed through virgin timber, passable only on foot or horseback. This left the principal traffic lane the water route, which challenge was answered by the Northern Belle.

From widely assorted information and imagination, here is a word picture of this workhorse of the river. She was 46 feet long, 26 feet wide, not counting the paddle wheels which jutted out, one of each side. These wheels were six to eight feet in diameter and four feet across at the blades. She was built to maneuver in shallow water as well as deep, changing the direction by the paddles, which could turn forward or back, individually or simultaneously. Her draft was less than four feet, permitting her to travel the route from the Soo River to Stirlingville. Persons or supplies bound further up the river had to change to sailboat or other like size craft as the river narrowed and became shallower.

Other than a pilothouse and small cabin there was no superstructure on the Northern Belle. She was powered by a wood-fired steam engine. Her crew was four or five men-master, engineer, and deck hands. Occasionally she ran an excursion to Drummond Island, Thessalon, Ontario, returning to Stirlingville.

People of this vicinity owe a lot to the ship. Though her day is over, she is still remembered by the oldest citizens of Pickford.

Clifford Roe, a grandson of Samuel Roe, lives on the original farm that was settled in 1875. Mr. Roe was the first settler in that area and was a "Land Looker" for the state for several years.

About 1883 the first school north of Pickford was built on the corner of the farm where Austin Wynn now lives. It was a one-room frame building and at one time had 100 students. Samuel Roe and Wesley Wynn were two of the first board members. James McDonald built a new brick school in 1916 and Fern Baker of Rudyard was the first teacher. This school was closed in 1929. For a number of years the original school was also used as a church. The first cemetery was started on the sand ridge on the William Graham farm. Later a church was built across the road from the cemetery on the Raynard place. It was called the Bethel Church and the cemetery was named the Bethel Cemetery.

Teachers in the school north of Pickford included Bella Roe in 1884, followed by Arvid Miller, Miss Strickland, Miss Williams, Barbara Darrock, Miss McMullen, T. B. Aldtich, Agnes Wynn, Tom Barton, Milford Smith, Minnie Duncan, William McClain, Jennie Haugh, Mary Allen, Charles Perkins, Leta Taylor, Ann Duncan, Fronie Bois, Fern Baker, and. Irene Hughes.

Mr. Robert Roe had the first threshing machine in the area north of town and James McDonald had the first reaper. It didn't tie the bundles. Both were operated by horse power.

W. H. Gough Recalls Early Days Of Pickford

(From the Evening News of Jan. 5, 1938) By W. H. Goughn

To the Editor:

I shall try to give a little history and an experience during my early days in Pickford. I came to Pickford June 21, 1877. I arrived here on Sunday and started to work for Mr. Charles Pickford the next day and continued work through the summer. My first job was helping to raise a log building on the farm now owned by Harry Best. At that time the Pickford family was living in a board shanty but Mt. Pickford built a good farmhouse that summer, which is now owned by F. H. Taylor.

During the summer of 1877 quite a number of people came here, took up land, built log shanties, and then in the fall brought their families. In total there were six families: the Pickford, Crawford, Clegg, Cook, George Raynard, and William Gough families.

In those days there were plenty of wild animals in the woods. Charlie Pickford and I had an interesting experience with bears the first summer in Pickford. We were going to Donaldson and on the trail we were faced by a big bear. We drove the bear to the west of us, and for a moment stood talking about how easy it was to chase a bear. But turning around, to our surprise, we saw two large bears coming toward us. I shouted, "Let's climb a tree." We started climbing a nearby tree but Charles shouted that he couldn't climb.

When we had climbed up the tree some I looked down and right at the trunk of the tree we climbed up, sat the two bears and a second later they were making their way to climb the tree after us. We slid down the tree some and then jumped, landing on the ground a few feet from the bears who faced us standing on their hind feet. They looked at us fiercely as if they were waiting their chance to pounce on us.

One bear then started at Charlie Pickford and backed him towards the trail. When Charlie struck the trail he ran as fast as he would, hollering, "Will!" The other bear came at me, and after backing me for some distance I turned and ran with leaps and bounds to get to the trail but thinking any moment the bear would have me. When I reached Charlie I found him trying to build a fire on the river bank to keep the bears away. We rested a few minutes and thought what a close call we had, but the joke of it all was, we had climbed the tree that the bear's clubs were in, and of course this made the old bears angry.

In making my escape I lost my hat and suggested to Charlie that we go back and get it, but Charlie answered sharply, "I wouldn't take the United States to go back for that hat." With some degree of braveness I started to find my hat, and when I came to it I could see the two old bears again sitting at the trunk of the tree with the two cubs up it. And they watched me as I grabbed my hat and ran.

It was the summer of 1878 that things seemed to move ahead and development was made in many directions. More people settled here. Pretty soon we had a store, blacksmith, shop, boarding house, grist mill, saw mill, and Mr. Charlie Pickford built a frame barn.

Our first meeting place for worship was held in the Pickford home. For the first few years Mr. Donaldson walked from Donaldson to Pickford every Sunday to hold church: service and everyone in the settlement would be out to hear him preach. Then a Methodist church and a school house were built. Our first stationed minister was Rev. James Pascoe.

Weldon and Henry Pickford had our first store. In the summer they got their supplies from the Soo by boat. The name of the boat was the "John Augor" and landed at Jolly's Landing, which is now called Stirlingville. The John Augor didn't make its trips very regular. It was not unusual for the store and the whole settlement to be out of flour for days until the boat would arrive. Then everyone would rush to the store with a cotton bag to carry home some flour.