Charles O. Shaw was the grandfather of Brackley, Tack, and Charles Jr. He was rather famous in Muskoka circles, he had a large tannery at Huntsville, and another in Bracebridge.
Brackley's father Charles G, Shaw started working for his father in the Huntsville tannery before ending up buying Lamb's Tannery (the Regal) in the 1930's.
The following information on the grandfather of these Omemee boys is quite interesting. The article was written by the late Bruce West in 1976, and recently republished in the Huntsville Doppler.
Looking back upon it now, it seems highly unlikely that today’s more ardent American-baiters, ecologists and defenders of Canadian culture would have known what in the world to do about Charles Orlando Shaw.
In the first place, Mr. Shaw was born in the United States. In the second place, the tannery he built in Huntsville in the early 1900s most definitely polluted the beautiful little river upon the bank of which it was situated. And in the third place, he made a greater contribution to Huntsville’s fame and prestige – and the culture of Canada generally – than any other person who ever lived in that town.
He was a small, nimble-footed man who often wore rubber-soled ‘sneakers’ which, it was said, he used to enable him to slip up more quietly behind some employee who was smoking in the wrong place or just loafing on the job. Mr. Shaw had an abiding distaste for both smokers and loafers.
His firm, the Anglo-Canadian Leather Company, employed a large number of Italian immigrants who lived in small and uniform company houses erected in a little valley which became known, rather disdainfully, as The Hollow and was situated within handy walking distance of the tannery. Mr. Shaw himself lived in a large and elegant frame dwelling that was also fairly close to the plant and boasted one of the biggest garages in Huntsville.
It was in this garage that the story began which was a real life version of The Music Man long before anyone ever thought of writing a hit Broadway show about a small town band. According to the legend, Mr. Shaw’s music-loving Italian workmen decided to form a little band of their own. One of the more serious problems in this project was that the musicians had no regular place in which they could practise.
 |
With some trepidation, a couple of them approached their rather imperious boss about the possibility of using his large garage once a week. To their delight, he readily agreed. But far more delights were to come.
It so happened that Mr. Shaw was a fairly able but somewhat frustrated coronet player, whose attempts to master this instrument were little known outside his own family circle. The astonishment among the members of the tiny Italian band can be imagined, therefore, when the great man turned up in his garage one Sunday afternoon, coronet under his arm and asked quite humbly if it would be all right for him to join them in a few numbers. He soon become an attendant at every practice.
It was not long after this that Mr. Shaw resolved he would form in Huntsville, a little Muskoka town of about 2,000, a really magnificent band. He then went to work on his great plan with typical energy and directness. First, he would need a first-class conductor. Among his phonograph records, he had a few made by Herbert L. Clark, who lived out in California and was recognized as the world’s leading coronet soloist. With incredible brashness, this small-town tannery owner contacted Mr. Clark and invited him to Huntsville as band leader. No less incredibly, Mr. Clark finally agreed.
The rest is musical history. The Anglo-Canadian Leather Company Band became one of the finest concert bands in the world. During such occasions as the Canadian National Exhibition, it shared the great bandshell with such renowned groups as the Welsh Guards Band and the Grenadier Guards Band from Great Britain. Its 100 or more members included a number of musicians who had been stolen from the great ‘March King’ Sousa in the United States. And the diminutive coronet player sitting there among the ranks at the CNE concerts – clad in one of the snappy uniforms worn by the musicians – was none other than Charles Orlando Shaw himself.
With funds obtained from his rather smelly tannery, Mr. Shaw not only bore the heavy expense of supporting his great band, but also built on Bigwin Island in the Lake of Bays one of Canada’s top summer resorts and established a fleet of steamboats which served the holiday country long and well. The tannery is gone now and so are the steamboats, and Bigwin Island has become a kind of large condominium for summer residents.
 |
Charles Orlando Shaw also had an interest in a tannery at Bracebridge. See the 1896 plan of this tannery at Bracebridge Shaw-Cassills Tannery Map 1896
Search the Ontario (Upper Canada) Genealogy Website - Make sure to use all known variations of a family name in your search!
Historical Visits to Ontario Villages and Towns Take a trip back in time to the late 19th century and explore the towns and villages where your ancestors lived, loved, laboured, laughed and played.
Ontario Images of the Past Thousands of Images of City, Town, Village and Country Life
Ontario Land Registry Records Research Thousands of your ancestors and where they lived in Ontario
Upper Canada (Ontario) Newspaper Notices Database
Ontario Genealogy Newspaper Notices Database
Ontario (Upper Canada) History and Pioneer Family Research
Queen's Own Rifles - Old Photos of Members
Upper Canada District Maps (Circa 1800)
Upper Canada (Ontario) History Books On-Line Index
Ontario County Directories Victoria, Haliburton, Hastings, Peterborough, Durham, Northumberland, Muskoka, and Old Ontario County
Central Upper Canada (Ontario) Marriage Database 22650 Marriage Records Indexed
Central Upper Canada Baptism Database 25000 Anglican, Methodist, Roman Catholic and Church of Scotland Marriages indexed
Upper Canada (Central Ontario) Burial Database 4500 Anglican, Roman Catholic, Methodist and Church of Scotland Burials indexed
Eastern Upper Canada Marriage Database Anglican, Roman Catholic and Church of Scotland Marriages indexed
Eastern Upper Canada Baptism Database Anglican, Roman Catholic and Church of Scotland Baptisms indexed
Eastern Upper Canada Burial Database
Upper Canada (Western Ontario) Marriage Database
Upper Canada (Western Ontario) Baptism Database
Upper Canada (Western Ontario) Burial Database
Upper Canada Land Petitions 51000 Records Indexed
Upper Canada Land Leases and Miscellaneous Petitions 10000 Records Indexed
Upper Canada (Ontario) Sundries Database
Upper Canada (Ontario) Toronto Insane Asylum Database
Upper Canada (Ontario) Kingston Insane Asylum Database
Upper Canada (Ontario) London Insane Asylum Database
Upper Canada (Ontario) Malden Insane Asylum Database
Upper Canada (Ontario) Hamilton Insane Asylum Database
Ontario Genealogy Historical Newspaper Collection Historical Newspaper Files from various regions of Ontario
Newspaper Genealogical and Historical Records - Thousands of entries
Ontario (Upper Canada) Map Collection Great site for locating your ancestors in Ontario
Ontario Genealogy Postcard Site - Great old-time landscape views
Upper Canada and Ontario CRIMINAL Database
Ontario Genealogy Database Index Site 500000 Genealogy Records Indexed
Need HELP With Your Family Research?
Northumberland County Genealogy and History
Victoria County Genealogy and History
Durham County Genealogy and History
Haliburton County Genealogy and History
Peterborough County History and Genealogy
Newcastle District (Upper Canada) History and Genealogy
Ontario County History and Genealogy
Upper Canada History and Genealogy
Echoes of the Past - Ontario Genealogy Home
Search the Ontario (Upper Canada) Genealogy Website - Make sure to use all known variations of a family name in your search!
Contact Ontario Genealogy
index
sitemap
advanced
site search by
freefind
20th Century Ontario Genealogy Newspaper Notices Index New March 2020
Upper Canada Ontario Surrogate Court Estate Files and Will Database New March 2019
Ontario Canada Historical Map Site New December 2018
Ontario Place Locator - 19th Century Ontario Town and Village Locations and Inhabitants
Upper Canada (Ontario) Pioneer Settler Land Locations, Census Records and Property Descriptions 
index
sitemap
advanced
site search by
freefind
