Thornbury and Meaford Family Connections

 
My mother's father's family came to the Meaford and Thornbury area of Ontario from New York state in the late 1700s after the American War of Independence. My grandfather and grandmother moved to Aurora when they graduated from medical school at the University of Toronto in 1919 but Grandad never lost his love of farming. He planted apple and pine trees and kept bee hives and sheep on a property he bought near Stouffville. The farm had sandy soil like the soil along the shores of Georgian Bay. 

Thornbury is between Collingwood and Meaford on Highway 26. It is a picturesque village with a vibrant main street. The Beaver River enters Georgian Bay here and Chinook Salmon and Rainbow Trout move upstream to spawn in the spring and fall. There is a fish ladder beside the Thornbury Dam and the river below the dam was loaded with salmon and trout. We watched workers from the Ministry of Natural Resources as they netted fish at the ladder to weigh and measure them before releasing them again in the river. 

Meaford is about twelve kilometres northwest of Thornbury. The mascot of the town is a scarecrow called Shubird. The town was decorated with dozens of scarecrows which sat on benches, steps, and chairs and dangled from every lamppost in the downtown area. One lady I talked to said she made 25 scarecrows for the Scarecrow Invasion celebration. 

The Meaford area has many apple orchards but the trees today are all dwarf varieties that make picking much easier. Both towns have stunning vistas of Georgian Bay and have retained the architectural history of the past. We stopped at Goldsmith Orchards, a farm market between the two towns where an abundance of local produce was available. I bought a half bushel of Courtlands in memory of Grandad Devins' love of orchards and apples. 

The market sold a pie called the "Thornberry Pie", a play on the town's name. I looked online for a recipe and couldn't find one but found a list of the fruit ingredients on the market webpage. I bought one and baked it for Thanksgiving dinner and it was rich but delicious!! One pie could serve 10 to 12 as it is so full of fruit. It contains a fruit mix of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and apples with a crumb crust. I must try to recreate it sometime. 

I like to think of the "what ifs" when I visit places like this. What if Grandad had returned to Thornbury or nearby Clarksburg to start his medical practice instead of Aurora? My parents met in Aurora so I assume I would not be here today.

Grandad was supposed to graduate in 1918 but was delayed a year due to his assignment with the Canadian armed forces during World War 1. He did graduate in 1919, a year after Grandma. 

This picture is from the University of Toronto yearbook from 1919 when he was 24 years old. His "main hobby, bees" helped pay for medical school.

DEVINS, CLIFFORD J.

"Steady, calm, and self-possessed, His hands, his feet, could never rest."

"First saw light on a cold 9th of Nov. day, 1895. Matriculated at Meaford 1911. Wielded the hickory*, and a drummer for two years. Started Medicine with '18, hope to finish with '19. Main hobby, bees."

Here is the link to a post I published a couple of years ago that contains more Devins' family history.

(* I assume that "wielded the hickory" refers to his 2-year stint as a teacher before he entered university)