Trout Family Reunion 2018

Family Reunion at Trout Hollow


     Forty-five descendants of Henry George Trout (1770-1852) attended a family reunion in Meaford, Ontario, the weekend of August 11, 2018.  The reunion was centered around a Saturday hike of Trout Hollow Trail, a segment of the popular Bruce Trail which leads to the site of the Trout family cabin and sawmill where naturalist John Muir lived and worked in the mid-1860s.  On Sunday twenty-five family members met in the nearby town of Erin to visit the Charles Street dam, originally built by Henry Trout and his oldest sons in 1826.  The occasion was a huge success given that the last family-wide reunion was held in 1966 and that most of us were meeting each other for the first time.


     The idea for a reunion was first hatched in September 2017 when I attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the recent improvements to Trout Hollow Trail.  There I met Kent Hudson of Feversham, Ontario, and his cousin Carol Weber.  Kent and I had traded emails for several years about our common ancestry, but this was our first meeting.  The ceremony was held at Riverside Hall, a converted schoolhouse that is today a community center.  Our hike that day was led by Robert Burcher, a local historian, researcher, and writer, who was one of several members of The Canadian Friends of John Muir who discovered the Trout mill site in the late 1990s, and who helped excavate and document the findings.  Robert has a passion for John Muir and is a gifted storyteller.  I had visited the site once before in 2013, but this day was especially pleasant and informative with Robert as our guide.  Afterwards Kent and I discussed how this would make a great family reunion and the planning began immediately. 

     I have been studying my family history for about 15 years and in the process, have had the good fortune of making contact with many cousins from many different branches of the family tree.  I began contacting them immediately.  I crafted a simple email, introducing myself and offering a bit of family history and attached an invitation to the reunion with a request to forward to other family members.  Through a succession of follow-up emails, posts to social media, and advertisements with groups such as the Ontario Genealogical Society we eventually received affirmative RSVPs from more than 40 family members, far exceeding my expectations.

History

     Henry George Trout was born in Westminster, England, and was baptized 1 July 1770 in Saint Martin-in-the-Fields Church.  He was the son of George Trout (1747-1821), a distiller and Doorkeeper for the House of Commons.  Their account and history can be found in Trout Family History (1916) by William H. Trout, and The Trouts from London: William Trout Branch (1988) by Peter M. Rinaldo. 

     In 1790 at the age of 20, Henry joined the English army as a private in the 29th (Worcestershire) Regiment of Foot.  Two years later Henry transferred to the Queen’s Rangers under the command of John Graves Simcoe, and May 1792 arrived at the port of Québec, Canada.  Henry served for ten years, and as this was a time of relative peace, his unit was tasked primarily with developing Upper Canada by clearing land and building roads.  

     When his unit was disbanded in 1802 Henry returned to civilian life, settling in Bertie Township which is today part of Fort Erie, Ontario.  There he operated a hotel, a ferry across the Niagara River to Black Rock, a stagecoach service, and a farm.  With his wife Rachel (née Emerson), he began raising a family of ten children.  But when the War of 1812 broke out, he was called back into military service as an adjutant with the rank of Lieutenant.  The war completely destroyed Henry’s property and livelihood, and successfully petitioning The Crown for war relief, he received land grants in Erin, Ontario, where he resettled his family in 1821.

     The Henry Trout family were among the first settlers in Erin.  Pioneer life was difficult and a considerable change from their previous life near Fort Erie.  Henry and his oldest sons dammed the Credit River and built the first sawmill in Erin.  The mill provided lumber for a comfortable home on their farm, as well as a store that traded potash for use in soap-making and fertilizer.  Though the mill and store were sold after only a few years, the Trouts would continue working as millwrights and builders for several generations following.  Henry lived the rest of his days in Erin and died in 1852.  His daughter Charlotte Trout McKee (1812-1877) inherited the family farm and lived the rest of her life there, but the rest of the children eventually moved on, mostly settling in other areas of Ontario.

     Henry’s second-oldest child William Trout (1801-1877) married and began raising a family in Erin, working as a millwright and builder.  But in his early thirties, he settled his family elsewhere following work.  His family made their home in several communities in the region including Norval and Hurontario (which is today Collingwood), but by 1847 they had settled in Meaford where they would live the rest of their lives.  William is often referred to as “Elder” William Trout, as he was one of the founders of the early Disciples of Christ church in Meaford, helping to build the first meeting house and leading worship there.  Many members of the Meaford community, including his own children, were baptized and married by Elder William.

     William built and operated a sawmill on the Bighead River a few miles from his home.  A small cabin was also constructed near the mill to provide shelter for the long days and nights spent working there.  Making ends meet was difficult for the Trouts, and in 1857 the mill was modified to make broom, rake, and tool handles.  In this endeavor they had limited but moderate success, as most farm work at the time was performed by hand and tools were in high demand.  

     In about 1863 the Trouts hired a young man named Daniel Muir who had come to Meaford from Wisconsin following his passion for nature and botany.  Daniel worked at the Trout mill for several weeks, then left to meet his brother John who had also crossed into Canada “botanizing”.  But as winter approached and with the American Civil War in full swing, rather than going home the brothers returned to Meaford and found work at the Trout mill.  After the war Daniel returned home, but John continued working at the mill, living in the small cabin there.  Though John had no prior mill experience, he had an engineer’s mind and made many improvements to the mill and substantially increasing its efficiency and output. 

     Tragically in February 1866 the mill and cabin caught fire and burned to the ground.  Lost were many of John’s possessions, including drawings and botanical specimens, but also the whole winter’s production of tool handles.  It was a terrible financial loss for the Trouts but they eventually recovered.  

     John Muir was forced to move on, and would later become a leader in environmentalism.  He was instrumental in the founding of the U.S. National Park system and was co-founder and the first president of the Sierra Club.  But he would maintain his friendship with the Trouts for life.  Several letters of correspondence between Muir and the Trouts can be found in the Meaford Museum.  A sketch of the cabin at “Trout Hollow”, drawn by Muir himself also survives, a copy of which can be found in the aforementioned Trout Family History, written by his friend, and my 2nd great-grandfather William H. Trout.  

Reunion Events

     The reunion officially began at 10am Saturday, August 11, at Riverside Community Center in Meaford.  Several family members brought and displayed their family pictures and artifacts.  In fact it might be fair to say that never before had so much Trout family memorabilia been convened under one roof.  Kent Hudson had one of the original land grants to Henry Trout signed by King William IV in 1832, as well as Henry’s lieutenant uniform epaulette.  Margaret Williams brought a large collection of photos and documents, including a large hand-drawn family tree from the 1966 Trout reunion, which she also attended as a young girl.  Cousins Daphne Howe and Tara Renner shared their large collections of photos and letters, and my sister Barbara Corbett gave out booklets detailing the history of the Ellen Trout Zoo located in our hometown of Lufkin, Texas.  If I have any regrets from the weekend it was not having enough time to see and study and copy everything that was shared that day.  For a day at least, the little Riverside Community Center was transformed into a Trout Family museum.

     We began our hike about 10:45 that morning, traveling north along the 7th Line then east along Side Road 12/13 before entering the forest and hiking along the river bank.  We paused several times to take in the beautiful scenery and for our guide Robert Burcher to describe the local flora and fauna from an historical perspective.  

     When we arrived at our destination we were greeted by the recently-installed  plaques marking the mill and cabin site and outlining their discovery and historical significance.  Though nothing remains today of the original structures, the millrace and pond are still visible.  Robert was able to further give us a sense of the layout using volunteers holding ribbon to mark building outlines.  He told of how the site was located and verified using a combination of old maps and descriptions found in Trout Family History and elsewhere.  Robert described the artifacts found in the archaeological dig, which are now housed in the Meaford museum.  He brought with him, on loan from the museum, a fragment of fine china that he found by good fortune when the site was first discovered, helping to confirm its location.  We wrapped up the storytelling by taking several group photos, and began the return trek to the community center for lunch and fellowship.  

     Following the reunion several family members paid a visit to the Meaford Museum, and were hosted by Margaret Williams who volunteers there.  We were greeted by several recent additions to the John Muir exhibit including artifacts from the Trout mill, photographs, as well as a small collection of rakes and tool handles that date to Muir’s time in Meaford and which may have actually been manufactured at the Trout mill.  We concluded our reunion the next day in the town of Erin with a visit to the Charles Street dam.  

     Peter Rinaldo in his account of past Trout reunions muses:  “In recent years, many of the branches of the family, such as the Texas Trouts and the Renners, have had their own reunions.  This, rather than a reunion of all the Trouts, probably will be the pattern in the future.”  Though it takes at least two data points to make a pattern, on this I am hopeful we can prove our cousin Peter wrong.  Our 2018 Trout Family Reunion was a certainly a successful beginning.

Saturday before the hike of Trout Hollow

Sunday at the Charles Street Bridge in Erin