Attending a virtual online meeting about resources in the librairies in the Oshawa, the handout gave me some new sites to peruse.
One was the Lake Scugog Historical Society.
Lake Scugog Historical Society
I found some interesting articles. I discovered another book written on the HMS Speedy as many know its story about the sinking in 1804.
The story is always relevant to our Ball Point story as the murder occurred in the Ball Point/Washburn Island area.
The book entitled the Wreck of HMS Speedy- The tragedy that Shook Upper Canada by Dan Buchanan.
As I often do I will search for any references to Ball Point Mariposa Township. So I found an article by Dan Buchanan debating whether the Farewell Brothers Trading post was on Washburn Island or Ball Point. He has made an outline on all the historical references. I have used all those references in my previous essays written in 2019. However, it is another resource that has been summarized very concisely.
I emailed Dan asking him to be a speaker at one of our York Region meetings in 2023. Then I sent him a second email outlining my research into the Ball Point property.
I asked if he knew about any Royal Ontario Museum digs at the Point. He believes that the Trading
Post was on Ball Point based on a resource he saw. Apparently trading posts were inclined not to be on Indigenous site properties for security and business reasons but located separately but nearby. Since Washburn and Ball Point were hunting grounds for the Indigenous in the area north of Oshawa. To him it made sense that the trading post would be separate from the hunting grounds.
I remember a young girl in the 1950s seeing an rectangle dirt patch on the east side of Ball Point where the family would swim. It was across from Washburn Island. My dad told me that the Royal Ontario Museum had done a dig. He was tired of all the archeological involvement so did not allow anymore to happen. He did not ask for any reports. In other references I have seen that Kidd did some research in 1951. It would not be about that dirt patch as it is earlier than my recollection.
When I was researching Ball Point's history I wrote ROM in 1999 but the curator at the time said they only had field notes that would not be shared. She advised me to write a Archeological service in Peterborough to determine if they did a dig at Ball Point. I did not get a reply from them so left that part of my research.
Since consulting with Dan, I want to follow that lead again. But now I may say it is to determine if that rectangle patch of dirt was to determine if the trading post was there and not an indigenous site. It makes sense now since that dirt patch was very close to the water. It would not make sense to be a burial plot nor a spot for a lodge or other native housing.
So to write ROM again as well as a professor at the University of Calgary I have consulted previously.
As in my essay on the Murder at Ball Point, I always believed it is why Sharpe was killed. His death and arrest of the Native responsible led to the sinking of the Speedy. Our little Ball Point has a piece of that history.
For the full essay, go to the side links for April 12 2019 and into the April, May and some in June posts on Ball Point in 2019.
I will update as more becomes available.
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