Muskoka Moustaches
In honour of Movember, the Muskoka Lakes Museum is featuring men with prominent moustaches! This month the online exhibit will showcase four men from Muskoka history who sported impressive facial hair.
George Sutton
This is a picture of Mr. & Mrs. George Sutton. George Sutton was a prominent businessman in Port Carling, running his own store right beside Duke Boats before the great fire of 1931. Born in 1863 in England, he moved to Port Carling in 1884 where he opened a meat market which grew into a general store that housed the first ice cream parlour in Port Carling. When the Port Carling Library was founded in 1887, he was appointed the first librarian and served until 1891. He served as Minister’s Warden for thirty years and he and his wife, Jane, had six children.
When Jack Comes Back
In honour of Remembrance Day, this week’s exhibit features the sheet music for “When Jack Comes Back”, a song written in 1915. The song discusses a soldier, Jack, going out to “uphold his country’s honour” and fight in World War I. In the song, Jack goes to war “to get an introduction to the Kaiser […] Just to say to him, ‘Your moustache grows too high sir! Should point the other way!’”, illustrating how facial hair was a topic of political discourse.
C. F. Hazelwood
This is a portrait of Mr. C. F. Hazelwood, a farmer. He, along with his wife, Annettia, and their three daughters (Annettia, Mary Jane, and Martha), were one of the original settler families on Lake Rosseau. The Hazelwood walking trail, which can still be found in Port Carling, is named after the family as it was their original walking route which linked Port Sandfield to Port Carling.
John Frederick Pain
This portrait is believed to be of John Frederick Pain, the founder of the resort Paignton House. Born in India in 1845, Pain immigrated to Canada in 1866, hoping the climate would alleviate his poor health. When he settled on Lake Rosseau in 1869 he married Charlotte Tuck and started a family. Later, due to the success of Clevelands House, he decided to open up a resort which he named after an English town where he had spent time in his youth. Mr. Pain was known for being a gentleman and leaving much of the manual labour to his Charlotte. Paignton House continued to be ”Family run for family fun” for four more generations of Pains until the resort burned down in 2000.
