maughan.ca
a collection of family histories

Charles Garner Parks

Charles Garner Parks (born +/- 1808) came to Canada from Ireland circa 1840. He married Mary Ann Johnstona> on 31-May-1837. They settled first in Toronto. Mr. Parks had studied for a lawyer in the old land and farmed at Trafalgar (Village of Bronte) before settling in Troy, Ontario. He was living in Bronte at the time of the 1871 census.

Excerpted from A History of the People of Troy, published 1947

The Parks girls were considered beauties for looks. Robert Park's mother's people were Wilsons. Mr. Wilson was married in England in the year 1838 to Aramanda Colley, who died in England, and Mr. Wilson came alone to Paris (Ontario) to run a gristmill, and then to Troy. The first mill burned down and when, a little later, his second did also, he went to Bronte where he ran both a farm and gristmill. He came back to Troy and built a new gristmill. Later it was torn down and moved to Lynden, it is thought, about 1880. When his oldest daughter was twenty years old, she left the home of her aunt in England and came out to Canada to keep house for her father.

Robert B. Parks Jr., (born 1873, died 1950) who married Lillian Woolman (born 1880, died 1973), is head of the only Parks family living here at present. Their children are: Arthur, who married Marjorie Kerr, and Dorothy, who married Ward Cornell.

After you cross the bridge you come to a lane leading north to the big stone gristmill. It was run by Mr. George Wilson, Bob Parks' grandfather. Mr. Parks' folks lived in the gristmill with George Wilson. They were eating dinner when someone came in with grain. Wilson got up, leaving his meal to wait on the customer. The little lad, Harry Parks, aged four, followed his grandfather. The family thought he knew it, but he didn't, and the little fellow fell in the water. They drained the mill race and found the little body. The gristmill was run by steam as well as water power. About 1880 the mill was torn down and moved to Lynden, where you may see some of it in Thompson's mill at present.

East of the store, on the corner of John Street (now Hunter Road [btn lots 8 & 9 con 3]) and the main road, lived Bob Parks Sr., who was a wagon-maker and blacksmith. Bob Parks invented the lance-tooth saw, ancestor of the cross-cut saw, but since he had no patent to protect him, saw makers from Galt copied his ideas. He and his sons excelled in tempering the steel ends of drills used in blasting operations.

Parks' Draw Lime Kiln at Lower Troy Sideroad or John Street

Here we may digress a bit and talk of lime kilns, as that was the main reason there is a John Street in Troy. A lime kiln was built up of lime stone and lined inside with free-stone, which came from the north of Beverly, because this stone, when heated, glazed over and became hard and solid instead of turning into lime. Rockton Hotel is built of this free-stone. Sometimes hard heads or granite boulders were used as lining. These melted and the colours ran beautifully and they were much in demand as door stops. There is a small door at the bottom in front of a lime kiln, where the wood goes in. They burned dry pine, pine roots, oak, maple and anything that makes a hot fire. The wagons loaded with stone were driven up on a driveway which was built up on a level with the top of the kiln at the back. The stone was not dumped in haphazardly, but must be placed carefully and built up to form an arch over the fire in an orderly fashion to get more stone in. When the kiln was full, a fire was lit and kept burning, hot, for from forty-eight to sixty hours. It took longer if the fuel smoked up the lime. The soot must be burned off. If the fire burned up through on one side, the top must be plastered over. Usually two kilns were built side by side so that one could be fired as the other was emptied. A draw kiln was so constructed so that lime could be drawn out as the fire burned. The lime was taken on wagons to Brantford (Ontario) for building purposes - plaster and mortar - and it was used in making artificial gas. Of course, anyone for miles around might get it too. The limestone had to be quarried. Men used hand drills about six feet long. After sufficient holes were drilled, they were partly filled with blasting powder which resembled gun powder but came in lumps more the size of beans. A fuse was attached and powdered stone placed on top and tamped down solid. Then the fuse was lit and everybody ran to a safe distance. Bob White, who lived next north of Bob Parks' wagon shop, was a driller and loader of the broken stone.

Next we climb the hill which some call "Drunkards Hill" (on hunter Road, 2nd hill north of present day Dundas Street). The devil was locked up in an old barn on this hill, so Matt. Nisbet declared. Perhaps he knew, for he was one of the people who lived on the hill. Wes. Coleman and Charlie Parks lived on top of the hill too.

Location of Lime Kilns and Sawmills

There were nine lime kilns in Troy: one run by Adam Misener, situated near Troy falls; two run by Bob Parks, situated on the creek west of the hollow on John Street; two run by Wes. Coleman, situated a little back, over the hill; two run by Warner & sons, situated a little further north of the above, and two run by Thad Cornell situated about half a mile north on the west branch of the creek, near the "spring".

Odds and Ends

There was a house across the road from the brick store where lived John Gamble, but before he had it Pete Poulton lived there. After he moved out, it and another house which was south, in the upper sideroad, were moved down and joined together, making the house where Bob Parks lives at present.

Robert T. Parks 1838-1905

Robert married Annie E. ? who was born in 1845 and died in 1935.

Margaret Eliza Parks

Charles Barrington Parks

Richard Francis Parks 1844-1932

Mary Ann Parks

Arthur Filgate Parks

Sarah Josephine Parks 1850-1929

Whittemore Parks

Bessy Garner Parks

William Beresford Parks 1858-1925