This ongoing series from Barrie Historical Archive curator Deb Exel shows old photos from the collection and one from the present day, as well as the story behind them.
62 Finlay Mill Rd., Midhurst
The tradition of churches was to provide clergy with housing: a parsonage, rectory or manse in the case of a Presbyterian minister.
In 1903, this traditional cottage-style farmhouse dwelling on Finlay Mill Road, overlooking Willow Creek, was purchased from Alex Finlay Jr., for use by the minister of the Midhurst Presbyterian Church, likely Rev. M Robertson at that time.
The classic Gothic Revival home sits next to the land where a sawmill once stood from 1845 to 1910. The sawmill had been owned by Amos Cummings until about 1862 when David Garvin purchased it, along with 700 acres of timber.
Garvin had come to Canada about 1827 from Ireland, his crossing a disastrous one when his ship hit an iceberg. Garvin, one of the fortunate ones rescued from the terrible accident at sea, survived to marry a Bradford girl, Melissa Lemon. The couple lived in Flos Township until about 1852, when they moved to Vespra Township to farm and pursue David’s interest in the lumber business.
It was under Garvin’s management that this mill would have the first circular saw in the area.
It was not the first mill. however. In 1825, George Oliver, Thomas and John Mair, equipped with land grants, took advantage of the drop in elevation downstream from the bridge over Willow Creek, to establish both a sawmill and a grist mill.
The settlement would be known as Oliver’s Mills until it was renamed Midhurst in 1864. Five mills, a distillery and an electric power plant would operate on Willow Creek. The water-powered generating plant at Midhurst once supplied the Town of Barrie with its electricity.
In 1875, Alex Finlay would buy the Garvin sawmill on Willow Creek, as well as 348 acres of timber.
Finlay had been born in Forres, Moray, Scotland, in 1808, coming to Canada and settling in Strabane, Ontario. When Finlay passed away in 1890, from ‘la grippe’ or the flu, the mill was handed down to his sons Alex Jr. (who later served as reeve and deputy reeve), John and William. It was William Finlay that donated the land on Doran Road where the Presbyterian Church would be built.
(For those itching to add a ‘d’ to the name ‘Finlay’, the correct spelling is Finlay with no 'D' and longtime Midhurst residents are quick to set the record straight on that — even if the name has been spelled otherwise on documents and maps!)
Midhurst, Minesing and Edenvale were part of the same pastoral charge and Presbyterian ministers lived in Midhurst until 1918. Following that, the Presbyterian ministers lived in the Methodist manse in Minesing.
The Midhurst manse was rented in 1918 and sold in 1927.
