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Vail's Point |
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Originally known as "Point William", Vail's Point was named after John Alexander Vail, who had ventured there to hunt and fish and trade with the First Nations people in the 1820s. In 1826, he and his son Thomas Vail (age 13) camped at the point. He built a cabin at what would later be called Lot 40, Concession 12, and eventually brought his family there to reside. William Vail was born there. In the 1830s, as settlers moved into the area, Vail's Point was in St. Vincent Township, and it became a place where fishing families lived and worked. Its earlier name was bestowed on it by Captain William Fitzwilliam Owen, Royal Navy, when he quickly charted this area in 1815, aboard the H.M.S HURON. Point William is seen on nautical charts of the area. The David Bonstiel family settled next to the Vails. Hugh Cameron settled at Lot 38. James P. Telford of Annan, had a fishing and hunting camp/building at Vail's Point. In the 1930s, a lot of apples from St. Vincent and Sydenham Township farms were shipped to go out west, via the dock at Vail's Point. It was 15 miles away from Owen Sound. In the 1930s, the old fisherman recalled were William Vail, Sidney Curtis, Robert Edmonstone, George Scott, Mr. McCrea (McCrae?), the Desjardine family, the Couture family, the Lavallies, James McReynolds and William Duke. In the fall of 1900, George Scott lost his life in the bay. In the 1930s, there was a Y.M.C.A. camp near the shore. Near it was a Military Reserve that the government owned (about 30 acres). In 1942, Vail's Point was expropriated by the Dominion Government, who needed land for a war-time Armoured Fighting Vehicles Range (later called the Meaford Tank Range). The fishermen and families had to move away before October, 1942. Orrie Vail moved to Tobermory. The site is still used by the military. - - - - - - - Sources: "Over a Century Since White Man Settled at Morley; Vail's Point: In 1826 John Alexander Vail Fished and Trapped Along the Shores of What is Now Owen Sound Bay", OWEN SOUND DAILY SUN-TIMES, undated article by Mrs. W. R.Hill of the Balaclava W.I. |
