Descendants of James ROLSTON & Jane RONEY

James ROLSTON and Jane RONEY lived in Bruce Township, Bruce County , Ontario and are both buried at Baie de Dore.

The following excerpt is from Norman Robertson's History of Bruce County published in 1906.
On a map of the township of Bruce, some three or four miles north of the town plot of Inverhuron, on the shore of Lake Huron, there will be seen the two town-plot, of Port Bruce and Malta. Those adjoin one another, and together surround the expanse of water that bears the name of "Baie de Dore".' This bay impresses a stranger who views it for the first time, as possessing in a marked degree the shelter required in a harbor of refuge; as such, however, the bay can be used to only a limited extent, owing to the presence of extensive rocky shoals extending under the waters of the bay. The two town-plots mentioned above were surveyed at the same time. In the year 1855 George Butchart had the survey made of Port Bruce, and Capt. A. Murray McGregor that of Malta. The first settler at Port Bruce was Duncan Bannerman; he was also the first merchant. In the same line of business there were Cowan & Brownlee, and Walter MacFarlane & Co., John Lindsay ran a sawmill, and Win. Turner and D. McCannell kept hotels, and Geo. Bridges did a conveyancing business. The total number of inhabitants was about 150. At Malta, Murray McGregor's two brothers, John and Gregor, put up the first sawmill; this, however, was burnt in the fall of 1858. The post-office, established in 1856, was in charge of W. Chisholm. George and John Foard were shipbuilders. In all there were about 125 inhabitants in Malta. These two adjoining villages seemed to be thriving and likely to develop into an important commercial centre, when, on July 4th, 1862, a conflagration wiped the two villages out of existence. Only one house was left. The inhabitants lost everything; not having the means to rebuild, there was no recovery from the blow, and the villages were not. The names are almost forgotten, and the locality where Port Bruce and Malta stood is now known as Baie de Dore.
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Descendants of James ROLSTON & Jane RONEY

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