The Trussler Clan - page 2 - by Hartley Trussler

George the Second (Grandpa) was the patriarch of the family living to the ripe old age of 104. His wife Sarah Brighton was a handsome refined lady, and as Grandpa often said: "The best wife any man could have." They would have celebrated their 75th Wedding Anniversary had she lived another two years. They had eight of a family - Thomas, Byron, James, Jessie, Gilbert, Albert, Oscar and Herbert. He was a good farmer and made the Trussler Farm one of the best in the area. He also was sort of a leader and had a sawmill, a sorghum mill and many other community enterprises. He was also a very sincere devout Christadelphian, a sect that was very active in Doon and other areas in the early days. They built the meeting house in Doon which I believe is a residence now. He built the stone house on the hill about 1859 and in it all the family was raised. By our present standards he would probably be termed a despot because he was the boss of the clan and shaped the destiny of the family. As they grew up he was largely responsible for their choice of wives and their vocations. It didn't always turn out as he planned but by and large proved quite successful. Realizing the boys could not all make a living on the farm he endeavoured to find them vocations elsewhere. This is a story in itself which would take hours to tell however, the Trout Creek Saga concerns most of them especially myself so I will relate it......

Grandpa was an inveterate hunter and soon after the railway (Grand Trunk) was built to North Bay he went deer hunting with the Waterloo Hunt Club to Trout Creek. That country had just been cut over by square timber lumbermen and thousands of sound pine trees were left lying to rot. To explain - in making square timber only the perfect timber was used, any trees that had knots or any blemishes were discarded. Being a sawmiller he saw great possibilities for a sawmill to cut this fallen timber and persuaded his boys to start a mill. So about 1890 nearly all the family migrated to Trout Creek... Thomas, James (my father), Gilbert, Albert, Herbert and Jessie, Mrs. Menno Stauffer. They bought a mill from Bill Carr and started operating. The mill was powered by water power from the falls on Trout Creek. They all worked at the mill for a few years but when the exodus to the Great Northwest came - Albert, Herbert and the Stauffers moved out to Alberta, where they took up land and farmed. Thomas who was a carpenter followed his trade in Trout Creek and later took up farming. This left only James and Gilbert in the sawmill. They formed the firm of Trussler Bros., which became the leading industry of the town. They operated the sawmill, a shingle mill and planing mill and later a hub mill; a chemical plant (making wood alcohol, acetate of lime and charcoal) and a logging railroad, and the Trussler Bros. General Store. The original water mill operated until 1910, then they built a new mill and chemical plant south of the town and a railway east of there, in to Mink Lake to transport the logs and wood to the plant. They sold out to Jacob Kaufman around 1920 and moved to Orillia. Their families were raised in Trout Creek but as they grew up moved to Kirkland Lake, North Bay and the Soo. The sons who went west remained there and now in the third and fourth generation are scattered throughout Alberta, British Columbla and the Western United States. Oscar fell heir to the Trussler Farm and lived there all of his life. When he retired he left the farm to his youngest son Clifford and the other boys on farms adjoining the old homestead. The girls married farmers and lived nearby. Their families too live in that part of south western Ontario mostly. Byron left home when quite young and followed a railroad career, mostly in the Western States. Unlike most Trussler's, he didn't have any family. This is a mere sketch of the George the Second Family. They were a prolific breed most of them with five and more sons and daughters. Few in the first and second generations received much education nor gained much fame; however none gained notoriety as criminals or felons either. Now in the fourth and fifth generations, there are many professional people, Lawyers, Doctors, Architects, etc. and the majorlty are successful, respected citizens in their communities.