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SPRING 2020

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4 COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING SPRING 2020 countyandquinteliving.com

IN THIS ISSUEEach issuE availablE onlinE at: countyandquinteliving.comPRINCE EDWARD COUNTY AND QUINTE REGION

ON THE COVERThe Old Third: Victory from above. Photo by Daniel Vaughan

8TRINITY AMPSFinding the harmonic sweet spots for guitaristsby Vic Schukov

16The Old ThIRd’S FIeldS OF VIcTORYby Catherine Stutt

24PAST lIVeSPioneer cemeteriesby Lindi Pierce

32@ hOMe wITh AlAN GRATIAS Nina-Marie and Jeremy get hitchedby Alan Gratias

37SIGNPOSTSRIVeR VAlleYby Lindi Pierce

38JOhANNeS debuS’GRAVITAS by Alan Gratias

5countyandquinteliving.com COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING sprING 2020

GENERAL MANAGERAdam Milligan

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EditoRCatherine Stutt

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Photo EditoRdaniel Vaughan

PubLiCAtioN CooRdiNAtoRLeslie Osborne • [email protected]

dESiGN/GRAPhiCS EditoR: Kathern blydESiGN & PRoduCtioN: Monica Mctaggart

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CoNtRibutiNG WRitERS

Alan Gratias Vic SchukovLindi Pierce Jennifer Shea

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Johnny C. Y. Lam Rick MatthewsLindi Pierce daniel Vaughan

hoME dELiVERY SubSCRiPtioNSSharon LaCroix • [email protected]

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Orlinda Johnston • Tracey Perry

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Mr. Underwood, painted by Lynn VanderHerberg

Catherine Stutt, Editor, County and Quinte [email protected]

Last year, our good friend and community cheerleader Marlene Smith asked me to speak at her Women’s Institute meeting. I accepted, hoping I’d be hit by an asteroid before the date. Another speaker had to postpone an earlier appearance and I was blissfully bumped, with a six-month reprieve. Turns out, scheduling conflicts caused another delay, but there are threats I’m back on the list.

Marlene is not to be taken lightly. She is effervescent, kind, and hides her intense commitment to bettering her world under a loquacious demeanour. The Women’s Institute members are serious ladies. Their mission is based on truth, tolerance, and justice and they have helped so many for more than a century. Well, not Marlene, nor any of the current members, but they fly the flag of their highly respected organization and serve with dignity.

Betty Buck, Florence Chatten, Sharon French, and Ruth Chapman are forces of nature. Florence joined the WI just after the Second World War and between the four of them they have almost 200 years of service. These ladies deserved a serious discussion, not my usual shoot-from-the-hip last-minute podium appearance.

Marlene wanted me to speak about what I do, because she’s kind and thinks I’m interesting. What I do is interesting. Journalism makes it interesting. Like a

police officer, the uniform doesn’t make the man, the man makes the uniform. We have shining examples of that in our community, and I can think of two wonderful, retired gentlemen who exemplify that. They’d be embarrassed to be named, so Darryl and Phil can bask in their anonymity.

Similarly, the journalist makes the story. Trained journalists, good journalists, make every effort to get the story correct. Like law, there are rules. There are standards. There are expectations. When someone reads our work, the first element is trust. That must exist or everything else is irrelevant.

A smartphone and a social media account do not make someone a journalist. Citizen journalists are held to zero standards. That said, sometimes the posts they make are incredibly important, but again, only if the writer understands the immense responsibility.

Journalism is in crisis. We are fed information faster than we can process it. We are subject to an invasive stream of data without opportunity for perspective or confirmation.

We know things because of good journalism. We know about a virus terrifying the world, without being infected. We know of the War on Terror without boarding a plane or standing a post. We saw the towers fall without

being in New York, and we watched the incomparable Aaron Brown show up for work on his first day with CNN and spend 36 hours on a rooftop keeping us informed and sane. That’s journalism. It still matters. A lot.

Metroland’s East Region Vice President Dana Robbins said, “I don’t think in anyway, as an industry, we should contribute to that sense that the role of professional journalism, or the role of a professional journalist, is somehow less important today than it has been,” he said.

“I would suggest to you the very opposite – the role of the professional journalist is now even more important because there is so much more noise.”

When we read a story, we must be able to trust the source, and we must always, always, always, preserve that integrity.

When I end my editor’s message with, “thanks for turning the page,” it is sincere. You have set aside time to read what we write.

We’d better get it right.Thanks for turning the page.

Story by Vic SchukovPhotography by Daniel Vaughan

From early childhood, Stephen Cohrs displayed a mischievous curiosity in performing autopsies on electronic equipment.“I pulled the car radio out of my

grandfather’s 1953 Chevy, took it home, opened it up, hooked it to a battery, and made it work. By that time, the car was retired under the oak tree, so Grandpa was okay with it,” Steve laughed. “My biggest problem was keeping the battery charged, so I scrounged a spare and a charger, and we then had a radio in our bedroom. I grew up in a family where people built things and played with electronics. I always had mechanical aptitude and loved designing and building things. It was natural to me, things I could touch, things I could see.”

Stephen’s father Norm built big boats, and the kids helped with everything from woodworking the hull to installing the engine. He also built his own stereo system which Stephen fooled around with as a child: “From him, I also learned how to make speaker cabinets.”

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When Stephen was three years old, the family moved from Kingston to Ottawa where he lived for 18 years. He returned to his hometown to get a mechanical engineering degree at Queen’s University. Upon graduating, Stephen built his first stereo amplifier. “I always wanted the latest and greatest I couldn’t afford as a student, so I poured through electronics magazines, reading schematics. I picked up amplifier modules and wired them, turning it into a

finished product from bits and pieces.”His first job was in the heavy steel industry

at Stelco in Hamilton. “Predictably, I hung out with the guys in the electrical department where they built controllers. I was fascinated by all the circuitry and relays.”

At the same time, he started assembling stereo speakers and amplifiers from scratch which he sold to friends and associates. Electronics fever getting the better of him, Stephen ended up in Northern Telecom in

Kingston as a design engineer. “My objective was to get into the company’s digital switching division and eventually I did. That’s where they had robots to the max. I was like a kid in a candy shop; I could go for a walk in there with parts flying all over the place. I was a happy camper.”

After 17 years at Northern Telecom, he left in 1999 and did some short stints in software start-ups, banking, and health-care industries.

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In 2004, while still stoking an innate and bubbling entrepreneurial spirit, Cohrs ventured deeper into his dream vocation by targeting and joining Telus as project manager of new product implementation like phone mapping and global positioning.

Then fate kicked in. “Our 16-year-old son was a guitar player and wanted a killer tube amp. While shopping, we went down into the dungeon of an old shop. My intention was to just find a carcass I could modify. The owner sold us a Marshall 100-watt amp from the early 1970s that could be used in an arena. Andrew needed a bigger speaker cabinet, so instead of one 12-inch speaker, it now had four with enough power to drown us all out. I don’t know what I was thinking,” he laughed

After Andrew’s sonic level threatened to destroy the house, Stephen decided to build him a less destructive 15-watt amp from scratch. For that, he consulted with a tube amp building guru - Glen Wilkins, his father-in-law, a television and radio repairman, and ham radio operator. “I brought a schematic to Glen and asked him if he had the parts. He had it all in old stock and taught me everything about how tubes work. We cobbled it together from the best. It was still plenty loud.”

A very pleased Andrew later said, “I was skeptical it wouldn’t be like the rock and roll sound I wanted, but when I plugged it in it was overdriven and distorted. We were all blown away by the quality.”

Stephen said, “At first, I thought the sound had to be perfect, but my son said musicians wanted the distortion, so I loaned it to a musician I knew at Telus to test. He was

so impressed with it, he wanted one. Then one of my son’s friends wanted one, so I decided to make it look professional and incorporated some of my mechanical design skills. I woodworked the cabinets and custom covered them myself. From there, I sold homemade guitar amps, one after another. Guitarists prefer tube over solid state amps because their distortion has a pleasing sound and feel when they are overdriven.”

Stephen designed a variety of amps by mixing the flavours of various components like the ingredients in a personal recipe. In effect, he discovered sweet spots on tube operating curves.

In 2004, he started Trinity Amps out of his home. “My son tested them, and my father-in-law coached me on tubes. Trinity, like in the father, the son, and the holy ghost of tubes.”

That same year, Stephen received a nebulous email from a gearhead who said he was Billy Gibbons from Texas, same name as the guitarist for ZZ Top. “I didn’t actually believe who he was, but he had the money and wanted a certain sound amp with Tone Tubby speakers. I had never heard of them. He arranged to have them sent to me and I installed them in my custom cabinet, after a lot of email conversations with him.”

Just as Stephen was ready to ship the amp, he received a phone call from the owner of Tone Tubby, who was checking up on ‘Mr. Gibbon’s order.’ Stephen asked him if this was Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top? “I think he fell out of his chair in laughter. My anxiety level immediately rose knowing it was going to the Rock and Roll Hall-of-Famer.”

Gibbons loved the equipment. “I would be in a restaurant and he would call me and say


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‘Steve, listen to this,’ and I would have to hold the phone away from my ear as he played licks on the other end, like a kid. We have met up several times while he is on tour, and he is a terrific gentleman.”

Other famous clients soon flocked to Trinity Amps, including The Tragically Hip, Donna Grantis, Prince, and April Wine: “A lot of my stuff is one-off. When a musician asks me if I can provide a certain sound, the easy answer is always yes. I then examine my schematic library and tweak and blend them to suit, based on experimentation. Clients find me on the Internet. I call it word of web.”

Stephen and his wife Joan moved to Brighton’s countryside nine years ago to escape the stress and congestion of Toronto. In his home workshop, the master craftsman builds upholstered cabinets and amplifiers. He even has a music sampling room. “You can come and pick which sound you like and personalize the cabinet. I encourage clients to take amps home and try them and tell me what they think. I like fussy players because they give me the best feedback.”“I made one for multi-award-winning

harmonica playing blues man Harpdog Brown from the West Coast. I built one based on modifying a 1940s design and loaned it to him for a year while he was on tour. He came back and wanted one of his own. It’s a new design used by harp players who like to mic the flat-out sound of a low power amp, and roots musicians like Lynne Hanson, Canada’s own queen of Americana, who tours extensively with her Triton.”

Stephen even has a startling one-watt design that fits in a knapsack, and by comparison a


75-pound 60-watt bass amp combo. His currency is watts. Like a deaf Beethoven, he goes by magic box schematics, seeing the parts on paper, and hearing the sound in his mind.

What sets Trinity apart from corporate brands is Stephen’s willingness - or maybe delight - to work with musicians to find exactly what they really want. “In a store, a sales guy tells you what you should buy. I take your particulars and modify my design to suit your desires and playing style, something you normally don’t get when you buy a piece of equipment. We’ve chosen to cover a lot more sonic ground. People want to know their needs are being considered. I incorporate set tones like a recipe. The ingredients are the components, and if you don’t use good quality components, don’t expect good quality sound and long life out of it.”

Stephen uses old-school manufacturing techniques, based on a lifetime of opening well-made radios and amplifiers. “From examinations, I learned what works and what doesn’t, so Trinity is about personalized service, quality components, handmade for the musician. With custom covered cabinets, the sky is the limit because I do it all myself. It becomes a personal item. What we have here is a legacy product, something you can hand down to your grandchildren.”

The remainder of Stephen’s time is spent providing amp kits. “Musicians are smart people who know their mathematical chords and progressions. It hinges only on the assembler’s attention to detail and soldering, reading the manuals, and following instructions diligently.”

Nearing retirement, Stephen is philosophical. “I gave myself 20 years in this business, and that’s longer than I spent in any other company. Soon, I would like to find someone equally passionate to take it over on my 20th anniversary.”

Trinity Amps makes about 20 amps a year with an active waiting list and ships 100 build-it-yourself kits annually with 2,000 customers in 40 countries.

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The Old Third’s Fields OF VicTOry

Jens and Bruno– the wine warriors oF prince edward -

Story by Catherine StuttPhotography by Daniel Vaughan

Bruno speaks through clenched teeth as he recounts a tale of a fight he didn’t start. Jens, no less furious, retains a soft voice and outward calm. Bruno says with admiration,

“Jens is the nice one.” Bruno is the talkative one, and together they have quite the story to tell. A story of survival, literally and figuratively, a tale of triumph, and a journey of terror, terroir, compassion, and commitment.

Bruno François, born to French parents, was raised in Ottawa. He ran his software firm in Toronto and lived in the city’s Annex. He was comfortable in a city of 2.5 million people at the turn of the millennium. He thrived on the excitement of his industry, on the energy of the neighbourhood.

Jens Korberg, born to an accountant and teacher, lived in Herrljunga, in southwest Sweden, one of about 3,000 citizens of his hometown, fewer than 100 kilometres from the better-known Gothenburg. A small-town boy about to embark on a life-changing adventure, taking him to Canada’s largest city, and then to its newest wine region.



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One evening, Jens was on ICQ, an early Internet chat platform. He clicked on the random chat button, and there was Bruno. A chat turned into conversations, and in 2000, Jens left his charming birthplace for Canada’s largest city. “It was a bit of a shock,” he said softly in his perfect English. An interior designer to Bruno’s software architect, they had diverse skills.

Successful in their careers, settled in their relationship, surrounded by friends, they enjoyed the good life for half a decade. Bruno’s business was highly stressful and was taking its toll. Bruno doesn’t do things halfway. It’s all or nothing, full speed, total commitment. It was time to reassess. They thought about a truffle shop, researching, experimenting, gathering equipment, looking at designs.

They considered buying the neighbouring basement bar when it came up for sale. They thought about starting a vineyard.

One evening, during blind tastings of pinot noir in the wine club they started, someone asked if they had heard of Prince Edward County, Canada’s up and coming wine region. They had not. Now, the very name is a symbolizes victory for the couple.

They fell in love with Prince Edward County on the first visit, appreciating the history and countryside, eventually finding a small property with good soil, drainage, and a steep southern exposure ideal for pinot noir and

cabernet franc. As a bonus, 99 per cent was suitable for planting.

By 2005, they were owners of an old barn and a lovely piece of property in Hillier on Closson Road, calling it The Old Third. They wanted the circa 1840 Greek Revival Crandall House across the road, but it wasn’t for sale for another year. In the meantime, they had vines to plant and a barn to restore. Gone was the stress of the software business, enter so much work, so many uncertainties of agriculture, the newness of the community, and that shared vision and drive.

Bruno’s grandfather made Calvados in Normandy, so it was a bit of a family tradition, this pursuit.

In 2006, the Crandall House was theirs, and despite the grand name and a mention in The settler’s Dream, all claims to splendour dissolved upon closer inspection. “We loved the idea of a Greek Revival style home,” recalls Bruno. “They are more prevalent in early American architecture, and to see one in Loyalist country was interesting. We wondered what the builder was thinking. The American Revolution was still a recent memory, the County was populated with those loyal to the Crown, and someone built a home reflective of American independence. We wondered what the neighbours thought, and it intrigued us. Was it poor form, an insult, or daring?”


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The romance of the home ended when they saw the splayed foundation, the sagging supports, the layers of panelling and wallpaper, and renovations over the years Jens in kindness could only call rough. They saw the potential, though, and dove in. At one point, with the basement once again sturdy, they turned to the sagging ceiling, installing a large beam. It was a struggle, a fight, a chance to use inappropriate words in several languages, and when they were done, they stood back in admiration. Bruno turned to Jens and said, “We shall not be defeated.”

That became their mantra, and became a battle cry a decade later.

The first Old Third harvest was 2008 and the wine released in 2010 to great acclaim. “We believe in the supremacy of terroir. Single vineyard wines and single orchard cider. We don’t blend. We’re here because we want to see what our vineyards will produce.”

They sell only from the winery, wanting the personal connection with customers, seeing the reaction to their small-batch vintages with very limited availability. “To us, small equals independence.”

They sold out every year from 2010 to 2016, when the bottom fell out of their world.

The first strike was an email from the Vintners Quality Alliance Ontario (VQA). It instructed them to cease and desist using the names Prince Edward County and Ontario on their banner, which innocuously read, “Producers of fine wine and cider in Prince Edward County.” Given that’s what they did and where they did it, the logic was unclear.

Jens, the nice one, the guy who doesn’t use social media as a political platform, posted a screen grab on the winery’s Facebook page. “It went viral,” Jens noted. They didn’t respond to the VQA email and a month later received a letter ordering them to comply or they would be subject to a $10,000 fine.

Membership in VQA is voluntary and there is a fee. There is a requirement to submit wines for approval. Bruno is not a fan of tasting panels, preferring direct feedback from his friends and visitors to The Old Third. “Our customers know who we are and where we are. We sell out every year; our customers aren’t looking for VQA approval; they’re looking for The Old Third.”

One of Bruno’s favourite parts of being a winemaker is the people they meet, the friends they make. He called one of them. A lawyer. A former Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor of Legal Affairs and Policy to Prime Minister Stephen Harper

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and currently Principal Secretary to Alberta Premier Jason Kenney. To Bruno, he was a friend with expertise.

The letter kept referring to the VQA Act, which they examined in minute detail. Lawyer Anglin pointed them in the right direction, and there were many heated discussions, no doubt with Bruno’s teeth clenched and Jens desperately trying to remain the voice of reason, but this was trying even his good nature.

They learned new phrases, like ‘petty bureaucratic tyranny’ and the ‘doctrine of absurdity,’ a colloquial term leading the pair to believe it could not possibly be the intent of the legislature to create a law that produces absurdity. “We were being told the law prevented us from saying where we lived, where we grew our grapes, where we did business, and where we paid taxes.” Living in a home reflective of architecture originating in the birthplace of democracy, the irony was not lost on the lads.

They combed the Act and discovered it was well written. “There are good reasons for some wineries to join the VQA, depending on their business model. A lot of wineries count on restaurant sales for a large portion of their income, so VQA membership is beneficial to them. We don’t sell anywhere other than from our winery, so it affords us zero benefits. The VQA was overly optimistic in their benefits from it.”

They went to court, with an army of moral support behind them. Speaking with CTV News, Bruno said, “When we got that order, it was insulting, and it was wrong, and that’s why we fought it. How can we operate if we can’t say where we’re located? We didn’t come out here to be fighting these kinds of trivial and ridiculous and petty bureaucratic battles.” The Old Third prevailed. They would not be defeated.“The Appellant is describing, factually,

the location of its vineyard,” the Ontario Licence Appeal Tribunal wrote in its decision. “If one accepts the VQA’s position, the Appellant could not say Hillier in Prince Edward County, nor even Hillier, Ontario, because ‘Ontario’ too is a controlled term.” That, the tribunal said, “is indeed an unreasonable if not an absurd consequence.”

Bruno and Jens were vindicated. “It was the most wonderful feeling when the order was quashed. It was a huge expense to defend something we should never have had to defend. We should never have had that fight. Now it’s a precedent in Ontario and guideline for other jurisdictions.”

The pre-hearing and post-decision support was overwhelming. Although they are now somewhat legends in the industry, it was not their intent. “We did it from outrage,” said Jens. The order was wrong morally and technically.”


The Old Third has always had great responses to its wines on an international level and amazing support from people around the world. “This was a whole different animal,” said Bruno, still a bit in awe. “We’d get people detouring on a trip from Montreal to Toronto who had never been here before because they saw the little guy win against such a huge machine. We had emails from people who had never been to Prince Edward County or tasted our wines sending support.”

The Old Third resumed, but another foe was on the horizon – one not so easily tamed. As the VQA fight was ongoing, Bruno’s health continued to decline. He’d had high fevers and weakness for several years, but they’d come and go. He was young and healthy, living the charmed life of a winemaker. Or so he thought. Doctors were unable to diagnose it, and he grew increasingly frustrated. Again, he turned to a friend he made through the business. Alan Bernstein, inaugural president of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, saw Bruno’s decline, and said, “Let me help you.”

As Bruno sees it, he owes his life to Dr. Bernstein, a fellow County resident. “He got me in front of the right people, and we learned I had lymphoma – stage four. He literally saved my life. He and JoAnn offered us their Toronto home during my chemotherapy. There is nothing I wouldn’t do for him. We cannot begin to express our level of gratitude.”

Bruno became the centre, the priority, Jens recalls. “We had to close the winery many days and the vineyard went to ruin. In 2017 we bought chardonnay and in 2018 we bought Riesling. We had no crop of our own those years and only a small yield in 2016. Other than a few batches those two years, we are an estate winery by decision and the wines are from our vineyards. It humbled us. There are a lot of reasons people buy grapes and it made us a lot more understanding.”

In 2019, The Old Third enjoyed a small harvest, although the road ahead will not be easy. “We realized we were almost back to the beginning. The vines are still there, but those two years where the vineyards were abandoned will affect us for years.”

Thankfully, there was a safety net in the form of a silent partner. A Canadian diplomat approached Bruno and Jens about 10 years ago, offering to invest in both the winery and their potential. After the diagnosis, they shared the dire news and offered to return the investment. “He told me to get better,” said Bruno. “That’s all he said. He is in it for the long run and realized it was just going to grow. He’s a wonderful addition to The Old Third family.”

When asked why they stay, after the battering of the last few years, neither


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hesitates. “Because we love it,” says Jens. “What else could we do that we love so much,” echoed Bruno. “We make a living, although the last few years have been hard, and we’ll struggle for a while. We get respect. We’re on the cusp of something great.”

This is their community. “The people we’ve met are by far the greatest riches. When we were going through the battle with VQA and with cancer, we’d have down days. We’d be depressed and looking at a pile of bills and our friends would lift us. We’d fill our home with the joy of friends or go to their place. I’d go through it all again just to meet these people and understand on such a personal level the goodness in people.”

They see a trend in the younger crowd, laughing as they now remove themselves from that demographic. “Millennials get a bad rap, but they’re aware of the good things in life. When I was that age, I drank cheap beer and ate crappy pizza. Now people in their 20s appreciate the finer things. Someone in their early 20s could be a lifelong customer. We’ve sold tens of thousands of bottles and people open those at their tables with loved ones and celebrate special occasions. That’s

lovely. They think of us for a moment and often will send a message. That helped us through this. We need to be there for them, for their celebrations.”

To assure that can happen, they will bring the vineyard back to full production, rejoice in Bruno’s good health, and continue to build the business. They will grow on their events and pop-up dinners with well-known chefs, host weddings and corporate events, and share their love of winemaking.

Jens wants to return to his popular although neglected food blog and is working on a cookbook showcasing traditional Swedish recipes. Bruno is thinking about teaching, says he needs to teach, to share the craft, and he wants to build a walled English garden.

They know none of this will happen overnight, but as they agree, “we’re in this for life.”“Everything has a lot of good,” notes

Jens. “This is our home. I don’t picture us anywhere else. Life will take you where you’re supposed to be.”

They’re meant to be in Prince Edward County, Ontario, and no one can keep them from shouting that to the world.


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Story by Lindi PiercePhotography by Daniel Vaughan

past liVesBeside a busy road in Presqu’ile Provincial Park stands a poignant reminder of lost history. A Brighton historic sign locates a cemetery active in the early 1800s; up to a dozen European settlers found their rest here. By the 1940s only one stone remained; by 1969 it had disappeared. A 1956 photo is all that remains to mark the grave of Parmelia Sutcliffe, who died in 1865 at the age of 34.



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Does that really matter?During the 1960s in Prince Edward

County a remarkable couple, Loral and Mildred Wanamaker, convinced losses like this mattered, set out to do something about it. The result was cemeteries of Prince Edward county, by township, 537 large format hand-typed pages of records. Camping in churchyards from 1962 to 1967, they recorded names, dates, and details on memorial stones in some 80 burial places. The book is a priceless resource at the Marilyn Adams Genealogical Research Centre in Ameliasburgh, Prince Edward County.

The book is an antidote to memory loss. Working 60 years ago, the Wanamakers were already conscious of irreversible losses taking place. “We know of 10 or 20 stones that were well kept 20 years ago, now not a complete stone remains as a marker.”

Reasons for that require a look at the pioneer experience. Death was part of everyday life; early burials took place in a special corner on the family farm. Farm burials were subject to overgrowth, damage by livestock, cultivation. Properties change hands. Memory fails. An occasional reminder is a clump of trees in the centre of a plowed field, perhaps protecting graves of early family. Later, churchyards too fell into decline as early churches became dormant, congregations scattered.

Memorials themselves are impermanent. Early wooden grave markers vanish, simple limestone slabs with names scratched on become illegible. Stone gathers moss, inscriptions fade. And stories disappear.

People were once more cavalier about gravestones. Reuse had been going on for


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centuries when the builders of Bongard’s 1873 Methodist church flipped a rejected 1869 grave marker and carved the church datestone on the reverse. Stories abound of tombstones used as stepping stones and doorsteps.

The expression ‘pioneer cemetery’ implies an inactive cemetery, managed by a municipality, or maintained by volunteer groups. Some of our oldest cemeteries however, such as the circa 1840 Rose Cemetery in Waupoos, are active, with plots available, although they are the resting place of early pioneers. Some of our forebears were buried in urban pioneer cemeteries (or those which became urban as populations grew) like the old Methodist Cemetery (circa 1828) marked by a plaque on Belleville’s Dundas Street. The nearby pioneer Taylor Burying Ground is inaccessible behind fencing on private property.

Town churches too, like St. Thomas Anglican Church in Belleville, or Old St. Mary Magdalene in Picton, preserve the resting places of pioneers, the towns’ first citizens. The archaeologically significant 1989 cemetery study at St. Thomas investigated 579 graves dating from 1821.

Consider the hundreds of family plots and farm burial sites, and the matter of connecting with the ancestors becomes challenging.

And really, why should we care?Eighteenth and 19th century cemeteries

have much to offer. Their silent stones tell us our own family history. They recount the settlement story of our province. They

reveal the social history of their time.Modern folks feeling disconnected from

community find solace in tracing family connections. Genealogist Dan Buchanan recalls spending days at the Ontario Archives 20 years ago, scanning microfilm records for family history. Now genealogy records are readily available at home thanks to a host of online resources. These tools invariably send seekers to the stories revealed by old cemeteries. There is comfort in finding one’s own place in the family story, touching the names of ancestors on old stone in a pioneer cemetery.

The area’s earliest settlers arrived as refugees after the American Revolution. On June 16, 1784, a small party arrived in the wilderness on the Bay of Quinte shore in today’s Adolphustown. A child died soon after, its tiny body interred in what would become the historic United Empire Loyalist (UEL) cemetery. The UEL Heritage Centre and Park invites visitors into the first - and for some, final - landing place of the Loyalists. Plaques, a monument, and preserved gravestones eloquently recall early settlers and, “those whose wooden markers have disappeared.”

Pioneers from across the Atlantic add their voices to the settlement story. So much history is contained in words chiselled onto the oldest stone in the Trumpour Cemetery near Adolphustown:

“Jas Cumming Esq. d. Sep. 25 1817 aged 42 years A native of Perthshire Scotland who died at Picton C.W.” (Canada West)

As Loyalist families outgrew their original land grants, children moved


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further afield. Throughout the south of the province, matching names on gravestones track the Loyalist diaspora. Names like Huff and Trumpour are found in Lennox and Addington, Prince Edward County and beyond. Is there a connection between a Clapp buried at Hay Bay, and those in a family plot in Milford? Although only a genealogist could establish connections absolutely, it is intriguing to spot matching surnames on grave markers throughout the area.

It is tempting to connect the UEL surname Purdy on a stone in a Loyalist Cemetery at

Cataraqui to others as far away as Union Cemetery on Purdy Street in Colborne. What of one A.E. Purdy, who shared his quest to understand the pioneer story in his long poem in search of owen Roblin? He lies beside the mill pond in Grove Cemetery, Ameliasburgh, a few feet from Owen Roblin. For genealogists it’s a science, for the rest of us, it’s enough just to say the names.

The silent stones of old cemeteries recount the fragility of life: infants and children, young wives lost in childbirth, victims of accident and illnesses fixable today. Remarkably, inscriptions also remember folks who lived well into their 90s without medical care. Gravestones even relate the impermanence of communities born in pioneer optimism.

At Thanet, along the Old Hastings Road, only a cemetery remains of a once thriving settlement.

They tell stories that break hearts even now. A row of five stones at Old St. Mary Magdalene Church recalls the July 1866 Smith’s Bay drowning, when Lydia Ann Pierce stood on the shore and watched her beloved children perish in a happy excursion gone horribly wrong.

Odd stories emerge. A stone in the same churchyard remembers William Pierce who died on February 31, 1860. The marker is a

replica, the original vandalized, perhaps by someone who couldn’t abide inaccuracy.

One historic burial ground in PEC is deeply embedded in wine tourism. Visitors to By Chadsey’s Cairns near Wellington discover over wine tasting the picturesque fenced graveyard they passed on entering is not the cairns of the name; the truth is even more curious.

Old cemeteries tell us a lot about the attitudes and beliefs of our ancestors. Picturesque cemeteries like Glenwood in Picton and Cataraqui Cemetery were part of the 1850s garden cemetery movement. Health concerns about crowded churchyards led to legislation banning city burials, and the creation of planned rural cemeteries. Garden

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cemetery design was inspired by 18th century landscape gardening, picturesque settings providing comfort to the grieving.

The scenic landscape was a social microcosm. Upper class Victorians ensured their departed would lie in the loveliest sections with mausoleums, family plots behind cast iron fences and imposing obelisks topped by draped urns.

Grave markers expressed the almost universal Christian ideas of resurrection and hope of an afterlife. Weeping angels, willow trees, joined hands, lambs and angels and broken trees all held meaning for the Victorians, reinforcing the belief in death as sleep from which the faithful would awake.

The simplest rural cemeteries stir the same emotions. Grassy knolls, ancient trees, and weathered rail fences offer weary modern folks a

fine and quiet place, in the words of the poet. There’s a deep peace in an old cemetery; noise of traffic or media replaced by wind in the trees. Picturesque spots, selected perhaps to be a source of comfort to the long ago bereaved are perfect today for walking, reading, sketching, or photographing, writing – or reflecting on mortality.

The Rose Cemetery, once called the Old Dutch Burying ground after Hessian pioneers, is a peaceful spot at the bottom of a precipitous hill. The oldest decipherable stone was once dated at 1842. Old stones, soft slopes with tall white pines, the lake a nearby presence, Rose Cemetery is a fine resting place.

In Northumberland County, the burying ground of puritan-plain Cramahe Hill Christian church taking the long view over distant hills, suggests a good spot to spend an afternoon, or eternity. The 1809 White Chapel, a New England style meeting house, known for its now vanished wooden grave markers, sits calmly behind a decorative gate on a cul-de-sac in busy PEC. Ancestors of many locals rest under ancient pines on a hill in Cherry Valley’s former Wesleyan Methodist


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churchyard (1862). And peace is guaranteed at Mountain View Wesley Union Church cemetery, begun in the 1840s, nestled under an escarpment, bordered by deep woods, or Beach Road Cemetery near Warkworth, very old stones teetering on substantial hills under deep evergreens.

Historic burial grounds are history portals inviting us to imagine pioneer families’ lives and work.

On Lower Massassauga Road, PEC, the Wallbridge family plot stands behind a farm fence in a windswept corner of an open field. Elias Wallbridge was committed to the earth here in 1821. The Pettet family plot on private property near West Lake tells stories from 1799 and the stones of the Dempsey Cunningham pioneer cemetery, the earliest dated 1819, are mounted on a cairn in a field on the farm.

Pioneer cemeteries tell us our family story but relate our collective history as well.

Old Hay Bay Church, a clapboard meetinghouse north of Adolphustown, was built in 1792 by Methodist Loyalists only eight years after their landing in the wilderness. In the churchyard opposite stand the gravestones of early circuit rider William Losee and his wife, and a memorial to pioneer brothers Solomon and Paul Huff. A row of

plain columns mark the graves of 10 young church members drowned on the bay in 1819, within sight of their families waiting for them at church.

Another such site is Quaker Hill, an almost forgotten corner nearby. Here a fenced enclave shelters the grave markers of Quaker settlers and recalls the church built here in 1798. Many Dorland ancestors, the family

name synonymous with the early Quaker community in Bloomfield, lie here. The 1896 Friends Church cemetery at Wooler is a related stop.

Some graves speak for those whose voices mattered little. Oral history relates the burial place of black slaves Joe and Mary on the Allen Mill property in Waupoos. The Wanamakers were told of graves of “two negro boys belonging to someone in Kingston” buried at Green Point. Also in that area were the graves of several Indigenous residents lost to measles or smallpox.

During the years since the Wanamakers identified losses of pioneer cemeteries, efforts have been taken to slow the race against time. Ontario Bill 126 (2010) was enacted to protect inactive cemeteries. Although managed by municipalities (grass is cut, signage updated) it’s left to families, volunteers, and heritage groups to resurrect neglected pioneer cemeteries: to clear brush and locate, protect, and repair old stones. The urge to tidy up is as risky as it is exhausting. Further damage can be done by exposing stones to

water and frost damage, cleaning with harsh chemicals or using metal channels or bolts to reassemble broken markers. Embedding stones in masonry walls has been successful when carefully done, although when stones are removed from their context something is lost.

Over time, many have responded to the sight of broken stones in abandoned cemeteries,


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untangling and setting upright stones tangled in brush and weeds. The Clapp family story is preserved at Milford thanks to those efforts, stones gathered in a cement base, Joseph and Nancy Clapp’s markers telling the pioneer milling story.

In Smithfield east of Brighton, a carefully walled grouping of early grave markers is the oldest memorial in that area. Sitting on private property, the stones preserve the memory of John Drummond Smith and descendants who settled on the creek here in 1793.

Annual cemetery services in some communities honour both the pioneer ancestors and, hopefully, the folks who have done the work of restoration. At 1830s Hazzard’s Corners Cemetery near Queensborough a committee has worked for years to cut grass, restore graves, and create records. A UEL Association of Canada document recounts the restoration of the Garrison pioneer cemetery near Blessington by descendants of Zenas Ross, UE.

This improving spirit is not new. The Burr Pioneer Cemetery in PEC rests behind attractive gates bearing the dates 1822-1927. A fieldstone cairn bears a tablet presented by “the ladies of Burrs” in 1928 to recognize

“the untiring zeal of Reverend Dr. W. K. Burr in restoring and beautifying our cemeteries,” and a memorial to the pioneers.

Life’s wanderings, death’s rest. These few stand in for the hundreds of pioneer resting places waiting for us - to visit, to research, to help. Pioneer cemeteries remain because of people who know their history, waiting for those who one day will want to learn.



At home with CQL’s Alan Gratias Nina-Marie and Jeremy

“Getting hitched come dance with us,” the invitation proclaimed over a charming photo of Nina-Marie Lister and Jeremy Guth. The announcement beckoned us to an August celebration at their Soup Harbour farm close to the Point Petre extremity of the County.

At a certain stage in life when farewells are more common than births, an occasion like this is an immediate lock. For us, Nina-Marie and Jeremy represent the best of the ‘new County’, not only accomplished in their fields, but tireless in their dedication to creating the foundations of a flourishing County, whether it be conserving wildlife habitats, preserving pristine shorelines, or building hospital and library infrastructures. They see the preservation of the south shore of the County as legacy work and they inspire others by example. They recently donated to the Nature Conservancy of Canada for the purchase and protection of a 38-acre property from their neighbour.

Nina-Marie and Jeremy are marrying each other and their causes in one of the most idyllic setting to be imagined.

Soup Harbour is a wildlife oasis tucked off Country Road 24 adjacent to the Point Petre Wildlife Conservation Area. As you make the turn on to the Soup Harbour Road, you enter a Brigadoon time warp. The diary barn and outbuildings are intact, the meadows and pastures pristine, and the endless shoreline is teaming with animal life. The simple frame farmhouse is perched on a point of land surrounded by the flat blue limestone rocks of Point Petre. The weather never stops, and the shipwrecks are plenty. Did I mention quiet? A hundred acres of tranquility, except for the incessant chatter of crickets, frogs, warblers, bitterns, and herons. ‘Quiet’ is the rarest and most valuable commodity on earth and Soup Harbour has it in spades.

As Jeremy likes to point out, “we grow wind down here.” Because the weather isn’t cooperating on the getting hitched day, the ceremony is delayed an hour to allow that wind to blow away the rain clouds and usher in open skies and becalmed waters. It does so on cue, and the guests gather for the exchange of

vows at the entrance to the barn looming proud at the water’s edge. The polyglot officiant, the bow-tied Nik, a Professor of Architecture from McGill, reads selected literary passages in several languages to the whoops of the celebrants and clinks of champagnes flutes. Nina-Marie wears a white beach dress with a traditional German blumenkranz, a stunning flower crown around her forehead. Jeremy has a white boutonniere in his shirt. With Nina-Marie in flat shoes, they are the same height which makes ‘The Hitched’ easy to distinguish from Nina-Marie’s four sons (Noah, Lukas, Rhys, Edan) who average 6’4’’ and tower in the background.

There are many young men and women scurrying about carrying out official duties and preparing the interior of the barn for dinner and dancing. It is part glam, part chill, and part spontaneous.

Joanie and I first met Nina-Maire in unusual circumstances about 15 years earlier by chance on the 401. An oil tanker had jackknifed heading west near Pickering in the middle of January. Because of the spreading oil slick, there

Photography by Johnny C.Y. Lam


was a lockdown on any car movement for six hours. We noticed the car next to us with four small boys, including twins who looked about two years old, and a cat prowling about the rear window. We offered our frazzled car neighbours mandarin oranges and extra food we happened to have packed from a dinner party the night before. Turned out Nina-Marie and her first husband lived just down the road from us in North Marysburgh.

Fifteen years after our 401 introduction, Joanie and I mingle with guests after the wedding vows have been celebrated. A few brave souls follow the suggestion on the invitation to bring bathing suits and frolic on the slabs of limestone cascading like a staircase into the water. Nina-Marie and Jeremy greet their friends with the glee that infuses an occasion like this. Nina-Marie can be scary, as in scary smart, articulate, and beautiful. She is Graduate Program Director and Professor in the School of Urban and Regional Planning at Ryerson University in Toronto. From 2010 to 2014 she was a visiting professor at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. If that’s not intimidating enough, she is also the founding principal of PLANDFORM, a studio practice in landscape, ecology, and urbanism. Today, she is simply the gorgeous bride who can’t stop smiling.

Because Nina-Marie is a recognized ecologist and landscape designer, she travels widely, and her work is featured at international forums. It was at such a conference where she met Jeremy Guth who works in a related field. Jeremy too is a recognized conservationist, specializing in

trans-boundary collaboration. He is a trustee and director (Large Landscape Conservation) of the Woodstock Foundation in New York. He founded the singular ARC Solutions to create wildlife crossing infrastructure for North American roadways. Animals love his solutions to crossing interstate highways. He moved to Canada in 1982 to attend the University of Toronto and lived for a long time outside of Montreal in Senneville where he served three terms as councillor. Jeremy was the key figure in the successful designation of the Village of Senneville as a National Historic District. That was then, and now on this glorious day of nuptials, the sun is out and the groom in a pink shirt over beige linen shorts, beckons us inside the barn where trestle oak tables designed by neighbour Glen Wallis are set for dinner, each with flower arrangements by Floralora.

The food is all locally sourced and prepared by the caterer Seasoned Events, whose principles Chef Scott Royce, Kyle Otsuka, and Karin Desveaux present at multiple

food stations - farm stand crudités, cheese and charcuterie, beef Brisket, and BBQ chicken. The wines, Closson, The Old Third, Lighthall, Long Dog, and Huff, and micro-brews, are also County side, making this an island-sufficient feast. Nina-Marie’s brother Matthew is the emcee for the evening. He

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and her other brother Jonathan are funny and poignant in their take on Sis Nina-Marie. More toasts, stories, and introductions interrupt several stages of the party, greeted each time with din and revelry. Without formal seating arrangements, table hopping, food sharing, and wine swapping is on the menu with new friends and old friends sha-shaing through the merrymakers. I am perplexed by how many long blonde hairdos and black spikey tops are suddenly appearing as a fashion statement until Joanie leads me to a bin of wigs at the door. “Take one,” she says slipping a blonde bob over her brown hair. “De rigueur on the dance floor.”

A convoy of lads appear from nowhere and move the dining tables away. The Beams, a psyche-indie band, have taken the floor, and the party mood shifts to Barn Dance Disco. Some, including several Boris Johnson look-alikes, are quick to strut their signature moves, others wait for Nina-Marie and Jeremy to take the floor. The Barn at Soup Harbour has become a festival of light and sound. Wigs as a disguise loosen inhibitions. There are dance moves out there and body contortions I have never seen before, and I become convinced we should dance more, especially with faux hair pieces.

When I spot the wood-fired pizza set up outside for midnight snacks, Joanie and I take advantage of a pepperoni slice to slip into the night, discreetly returning our dishevelled wigs to the bin. A few days later we return to Soup Harbour House to debrief on all fronts and scan Johnny Lam’s wonderful photographs of the evening. Stewardship of the south shore is back on the front burner. I ask the newlyweds what secret of a successful partnership they would like to share. “Give your partner plenty of space and support,” Nina-Marie offers. “Love nature together,” Jeremy adds.

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signpostsRiver Valley

Story and photography by Lindi Pierce

Old communities reveal the past for those inclined to look. For a traveller between Frankford and Stirling, one not distracted by the Oak Hills golf course or the Sager Conservation Area, the pioneer community of River Valley is waiting with stories. An old red brick schoolhouse and a shaded cemetery beside peaceful Rawdon Creek offer a place to pause and a base for exploring.

Roads named for early settlers radiate in several directions, hugging the contours of hills and watercourses. Sagers Corners Road runs uphill toward Oak Lake. Rosebush Road crosses Rawdon Creek and heads west through river-bottom farmland to the Trent River. The Rosebush family settled along the river in the late 1700s, during the lumbering days.

The intersection at Sagers Corners once boasted a tavern, flour, saw, and grist mills, and a log schoolhouse on land settled by Michael Sager in 1839. An old millstone lies in the cemetery on land donated by the pioneer. Understandably, the settlement was known as Sager’s Corners. Still is, in some circles. Brothers Dave and Francis farm the family property.

The 1881 christening of the new brick schoolhouse as River Valley School led to the adoption of the name for the entire neighbourhood. The school doubled as a community church; teachers would tidy on

Friday afternoons in preparation for divine service. Grace Bush recalls 90 youngsters once attended in winters, when older boys were freed from farm work. Since 1969, the historic hall has served as the Women’s Institute Hall catering to community events.

Grace, son Steven, and daughter Trudy live in a multi-family red brick farmhouse in the hills above Sagers Corners. The family has farmed this land for 151 years; acres of soybeans leave some time for Steven’s whimsical metalwork sculptures, displayed about the property. In the fall, his replica of a rare John Deere Waterloo Boy tractor amazed passersby.

Local historian Steven likes a yarn. Their road was once called Pig Road, after the death by misadventure of several free-range animals. Salmon were so numerous in Rawdon Creek that Grandma Bush could cross on their backs. Girls would walk the fence lines between farms up to Oak Lake to hear summer band concerts. Then there’s the 1980 flood, when Oak Lake overflow ran straight through their farm shed on its way downhill, and Rawdon Creek ran three feet deep over the bridge.

Truth or tall tale? Find out in River Valley.


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About Johannes Conductor Johannes Debus has been Music Director of the Canadian Opera Company since 2009. His 2020 season includes performances of hänsel und Gretel and The Flying Dutchman. Debus conducts regularly at the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, Staatsoper unter den Linden Berlin, and Frankfurt Opera, and has appeared in new productions at English National Opera and Opéra National de Lyon.

Debus graduated from the Hamburg Conservatoire before being engaged as répétiteur and, subsequently, Kapellmeister by Frankfurt Opera where he acquired an extensive repertoire from Mozart to Thomas Adès. At home in both contemporary music and the core repertoire, he has conducted a wide range of world premieres and works of the 20th and 21st centuries. He enjoys an ongoing relationship with the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.

Johannes and his wife, the celebrated violinist Elissa Lee, put together the music festival known as Wellington Water Week, in partnership with the Festival Players. Inspired by Stockholm’s World Water Week, the week-long festival highlights the arts community in a celebration of water. They discovered the County through friends (“not from the New York Times”) and spend as much time as possible in the area.

I asked Johannes one last question, the one about what secret to a successful marriage he would like to share. “Learn to be wrong, even if you know you are right.”

Sa itarg’SG r a v i t a s Q u o t i e n tG r a v i t a s Q u o t i e n t i s a m e a s u r e o f o n e ’ s r e s e r v e s o f i n n e r w i s d o m .

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Q&AJohannes Debus answers 15 Gravitas

questions with alan Gratias

Name oNe uNiversal rule of frieNdship?trust.

What makes your heart staNd still?the tragedy of a misplayed penalty shot.

if you kNeW the truth, hoW Would you reveal it?With care.

if you Were goiNg to lauNch a NeW prohibitioN, What Would you outlaW?Birkenstocks with white tennis socks.

hoW Would you like to reWire your braiN?“so that i may perceive whatever holds the world together in its inmost folds.” (Goethe)

if you Were to ask for diviNe iNterveNtioN, What Would it be for?to clean up our human mess.

What are you fatally attracted to?Wine gums.

give oNe example of life’s absurdities. organic food in plastic wrap.

Why do We sometimes crave chaos?Because it bears a maximum potential of creating order.

hoW do you stay clear of the rocks aNd shoals?i find my lighthouse.

WheN do reality aNd faNtasy merge?every night at the opera.

What takes you doWN the rabbit hole? the World Wide Web.

if We come iNto this World With sealed orders, What are your orders?“ever tried. ever failed. no matter. try again. Fail again. Fail better.” (Beckett)

What Would you like to morph yourself iNto?the apple tree in the Garden of eden before the snake took possession of it.

What triggers aN epiphaNy iN you?the endless shapes of clouds.

Discover your Gravitas Quotient at www.gravitasthegame.com

By Alan Gratias





















Family Owned &Operated – Since 1857 –‘From our Sawmill, to your Home’

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Sawmill Manufacturersof Hardwood & Softwood

Lumber

WholesaleKiln Dried Hardwood

Operation

LumberyardShowroom | FurnitureBuilding Supplies

Custom HomeBuilders

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PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY AND QUINTE REGION · Headline ideas: Propelling your business in a digital world Color Alternative: depending on pieces, use red only for holiday Gold: 0.25.100.0