Bob Hatton, Examiner, 16 July 1949

A former Hudson’s Bay post is hidden under the clapboard exterior of the 100-year-old house shown top left. The house was transformed into a farm house by John Gannon, the man after whom Gannon’s Narrows, between Pigeon and Buckhorn lakes, was named. The house is now occupied by Mrs Maria Gannon (upper right), 87 year old daughter-in-law of the pioneer settler. The house is situated a few hundred yards south of Gannon’s Narrows bridge, shown in the bottom picture. This floating bridge is a connecting link between Ennismore and Harvey townships which people in the district hope will be replaced by a causeway just as the Chemong bridge was this year.

Isolated from the rest of Peterborough county for 125 years by Chemong, Buckhorn, Pigeon and Bald lakes, the township of Ennismore and part of its neighbour to the north, Harvey, have begun to overcome their handicap through the building of one causeway across Chemong Lake and rumour of another across Gannon’s Narrows between Pigeon and Buckhorn lakes. ...

But bustling life was going on all the time since the first group of settlers went into the area in 1825. Typical of the stories of these pioneer peoples is the life of Mrs Maria Gannon, whose father-in-law John Gannon gave his name to the shaft of water connecting Pigeon Lake and Buckhorn Lake.

Mrs Gannon at 87 years of age is still a lively lady with a vital interest in all that goes on around her. The day after the Chemong causeway was officially opened, Mrs Gannon was taken by her son to see it. She wanted to be there opening day, but her family persuaded her it was too hot. // She is looking forward to the day when there is a causeway across Gannon’s Narrows as well. "I’d love to see the causeway for safety," she said. She remembers when disaster nearly overtook people crossing the Gannon’s Narrows bridge. // About 25 years ago a nervous bank clerk who had collected a large sum of money from a bank in the district to bring back to Peterborough nearly lost his life trying to escape what he thought were bandits. // He was driving toward the bridge when several men started to wave at him. The men were waving to stop him because the swinging bridge had been turned out. The bank clerk stepped on the gas and hung grimly to the wheel. Both he and the car went sailing into space and landed in the water. // He was fished out with his soaking bank notes ad both were taken to dry in the Gannon home. The bills he had been so careful to guard were spread all over the furniture to dry.

The Gannons often had unexpected visitors at night before the floating bridge was put across in 1903. Back in 1887 travellers crossed the narrows by ferry. But often a strong wind whistled down the narrows and the ferry could not cross until one or two a.m. when the wind died down.

The scow could take three or four teams at a time when the weather was good. It was hauled back and forth across the narrows by a chain operating through a windlass.

Before the ferry went into operation John Chase who still lives on his farm on the north side of the narrows in Harvey township, used a raft to cross the water. In those days he was operating a sawmill.

Mrs Gannon tells of the old days in her soft Irish brogue which she learned from her parents. She was born near where the Chemong bridge was later built. Most of the neighbors of her parents were part of the Irish migration which came into the district in 1825 and later.

When Mrs Gannon’s father-in-law entered the township, he worked with the manager of the Hudson’s Bay Post, a Mr Smith, near the spot which is now Gannon’s Narrows. Old Mr Gannon helped in the post, trading with the Indians, but when Smith left, he turned to farming and it was as a farmer’s wife that Maria Gannon has lived her years at Gannon’s Narrows.

Old Mr Gannon added to the long structure which was the trading post. He and his family cleared back the land and in time had enough land for a farm. The house in which Mrs Gannon still lives is the same house, now more than 100 years old. In the intervening years clapboard has been nailed over the logs. The original trading post is now occupied by two bedrooms, on the north side of the house.

About the time Mrs Gannon was born the population of Ennismore was 862. Records of 1860 showed the township was a young growing community with 32 births and 172 children going to school and only three deaths in that year.

Mrs Gannon had 11 children, of whom nine are still living. Most of them left the township and settled in Ottawa, New Jersey, Quebec, Omemee and other centres. She has seven grandchildren and three great grand-children. Her son, Tom, runs the farm now which prospered under her husband’s hands. With modest pride, Mrs Gannon recalled the farm supported the large family and all the children were well educated as well.

But Mrs Gannon doesn’t dwell in the past. Like all the people of the district she hopes for the day cars will no longer have to slither cautiously over the wet planking of the old floating bridge. The bridge which now crosses the narrows was the first floating bridge at Chemong. When a new bridge was built in Chemong Lake in 1901, part of the old structure was floated up Chemong lake into Buckhorn lake and finally lodged across the narrows. // For the past 30 years the bridge tender of the southern end of the bridge, including the swinging bridge, has been George Freeburn. // While he has been on the job three cars have slipped into the lake, but he has managed to save them all. Little repair has been done on the bridge, he said. Many of the boards in the top planking are rotted. This top planking has been replaced occasionally, but little structural repairs have been made. // Like everyone else in Ennismore and Harvey, Mr Freeburn will not be sorry to see the last of the old, but dangerous, landmark.

From the Heritage Gazette of the Trent Valley, vol 5 no 4, February 2001