08/25/2019
For those who missed the Kagawong History Day Speech I presented regarding the Vision For Harbour Island here it is:
[It will be a heritage restoration in honour of my Grandfather Grant Rogers and a charitable organization focused mainly on helping people (particularly young people) cope with trauma its many effects...]
History Day Presentation:
Introduction: (Picture of Harbour Island)
My name is Rob Chandler. As Rick has mentioned, I am the current owner of Harbour Island. I want to thank Rick and the Old Mill Heritage Center Museum Committee for the honor of speaking at this event. I also want to congratulate them on the 10 year anniversary of the museum and deeply thank them for the tireless work they do preserving pieces of the local history. Through their hard work we can all gain knowledge of the past, our past that has helped shape a community and a country.
Rick will be showing randomly selected pictures of Harbour Island in its current state, as I speak. Harbour Island is not safe to walk around on in its current state so we’re providing this as a virtual tour. He will also be showing some of my family photos, that will be sure to enlighten some to the reason for my passion for the restoration of Harbour Island.
I was born in 1969 in the Little Current hospital here on Manitoulin. I am the third child and only Son of Marjorie (Rogers) Saari and the oldest son of Gary Chandler. Many people on Manitoulin Island are familiar with the Chandler name. My Father, Gary, moved to Manitioulin in the late 1960’s. He is a retired principal of Manitoulin Secondary School, as well as a retired farmer from Billings Township. Far fewer are familiar with my Mother, Marjorie and her family. Today I am privileged to have the opportunity to speak about that half of my roots here on Manitoulin, specifically here in Billings Township.
Having said that, I will start again.
I am Rob Chandler, Great Great Grandson of William Graham an original settler of Kagawong, Great Grandson of Mathew Graham and Jane Farquar Graham, Great Grandson of William Rogers(pictured here in front of the main lodge on Harbour Island), only Grandson of Grant Rogers and Elizabeth Graham Rogers, son of Marjorie Rogers Saari, and favorite nephew of Bette-Jean Rogers Leblanc.
My roots grow very deep in this very village. My Great Grandfather Mathew Graham’s homestead can be found still standing just off the south side of Hwy 540 as you head west out of Kagawong. One of my Mother and Aunt’s childhood homes can be found in the building on the corner of the highway just up the hill, now occupied by the candy store.
During this segment, you may hear me say, “as I recall” a lot. That, translated means, “This is my story and I’ll tell it how I want to.” I learned this method of storytelling from my (Uncle) Ed Ferguson while listening to his stories on the farm growing up. Because this is a “History” Day presentation, however, unlike Uncle Ed when he tells a story, I will endeavor to be factual.
As a young child, I lived on a farm in Green Bay, just a short mile long walk (typically barefoot) down a gravel rd from Sandy Beach on the shores of Lake Manitou. It was there, along with my sisters, Karyn and Meredith and our “extended family sister” Lexi Ferguson, that I first found my love of the water. In the summer months, when not in the hayfields or exploring our Green Bay universe we could be found cooling off in the waters off Sandy Beach. I learned to swim at a very young age. In fact, as I recall, I had to learn to swim quite well as I would dive off the dock and tow my quickly saturated diaper along with me.
When I was 7 we moved to Jerusalem. Not “that” Jerusalem, but a 500 acre farm that extended from the base of Jerusalem Hill, here in Billings Township, nearly to the shore of Lake Mindemoya. Once again, we were just a short walk down a gravel road (with shoes on by then), to the cooling waters of lake Mindemoya after long days in the hayfields. The water was always nearby and always a source of calming, cooling relief for me.
Our farm was adjacent to the West Bay community (Now known as M’Chigeeng). We were fortunate to be welcomed into the Corbiere Family in West Bay just as I have imagined settlers were welcomed to Kagawong and helped with the task of survival in this northern wilderness. My sister Meredith and I became close friends with Dale and Lisa Corbiere, two of Ronnie and Melvina Corbiere’s children our age. We spent a great deal of our free time in their home and camping either on their beach on Lake Mindemoya or in the woods of Jerusalem. We learned native culture, relationships and even some Ojibwe. For example, I was given the name Pasquali as my “native” name by Glen Corbiere. When I see Glennie, to this very day, he greets me with my honored native name and always a smile. I asked Ronnie Corbiere once what this name that Glenn had given me translated to in English. He looked me in the eye, laughed and said, “It means One who doesn’t belong”. Not as good as the one Kevin Costner got in “Dances with Wolves”. He also taught me other Ojibwe words such as the translation for the English word “boat”, which in Ojibwe is … “boat”. Being teased in the Corbiere family was always received and given with love and affection and truly meant we were part of their family and they were part of ours. This remains unchanged to this day. The Corbiere family also has a longstanding connection to Harbour Island that remains unchanged to this day. My brother Jason has fond memories of catching his first fish on Harbour Isand and the smell of Melvina Corbiere’s scones as she cooked them in the large cabin on the point of the harbour.
During my childhood years we had little contact with our Mother’s side of the family. After my parent’s divorce, and our Father’s remarriage to Penny Dollar Chandler, our mother had moved to Thunder Bay and then on to Edmonton so it wasn’t until my late teen years that I began to even know of our family history in this area. I recall a boat trip to Harbour Island when my brother Jordan was about six months old, which would mean I was about 14 at the time. I recall walking the rocky shore of Harbour Island by myself. I recall the waves and the wind and the beautiful view from the westerly shore. I remember thinking what a wonderful place it was while I threw rocks in the water. What I was blissfully unaware of was that I was standing on the shore of an island that my Grandparents Grant and Elizabeth Rogers had once owned, near a yacht club that they had a hand in building some 40 years in the past. In fact, I was standing on the very lot that they had purchased in 1942 from King George VI.
We left the calm waters of Harbour Island that day crossing the rougher waters of the North Channel back to Manitoulin in our open bow SeaRay. That would be the last time I would set foot on Harbour Island until November of 2017.
I went on with my teen years still oblivious to my connection with Harbour Island, but fully aware of my love for the water and boats and fishing. I had the wonderful opportunity in my 16th and 17th summers to work at Northernaire Lodge in Evansville for the Rusche Family. It was there that I was exposed to the extraordinary fun to be had at a fishing resort on Manitoulin. Working there, compared to farming did not seem like work at all. There are too many memories to share in this short span, but I will sum it up as lasting fond memories and friendships that have spanned the following 35 years, so far. It was, by far, the happiest time I can recall of my teens. It was the same experience so many teens had shared on Harbour Island through the years.
Onward to my late teens and early twenties when I rekindled relationships with my Mother’s side of the family and learned more of our history on Manitoulin. Imagine my surprise at hearing that my Grandparents had owned Harbour Island and that my Great Grandparents had lived there year-round during the forties. I learned all of this, as I recall, after my Grandfather passed away, so to my great disappointment, I have never had the opportunity to question him about it. This knowledge and the knowledge of other facts relating to the mortgage he held throughout the fifties and into the sixties on Harbour Island that he was never able to fully collect, planted my seed of desire to one day return the Island to our family.
Almost exactly to the day, 75 years after my Grandfather, Grant Rogers, signed the deed to Lot 5 on Harbour Island and 68 years after his regrettable decision to sell the entire island, I signed my offer to purchase the island back. After having my offer accepted, I travelled north from Tennessee and crossed the cold waters of the North Channel on a sunny day in late November to see what treasure I had been so anxious to purchase all those years. You have been looking at pictures of what I found. Buildings in various states of decay, vandalized and picked over from years of abandonment, surrounded by a jungle of poison ivy and sumac…IT WAS MY PARADISE! Approximately 8 weeks later in December of 2017, after scraping together enough money for a down payment, my goal of one day owning Harbour Island, whose shore I stood on at the age of 14 was realized.
Some say I purchased a mound of rotting buildings and poison ivy for far too much money. I say I purchased a piece of my heritage back at a bargain. I purchased the buildings that contain the wood and the nails that my Grandfather and Great Grandfather helped fashion into what would become a colorful piece of Canadian History. I purchased the poison ivy that my Mother and Aunt dutifully planted in rows in their childhood imaginary gardens… their “palm trees”, as they have referred to them. I didn’t think it was possible to develop a fondness for poison ivy, but as I look into her eyes and watch her travel back in time as I listen to Auntie Bette (who just turned 80) recall her garden of Palm Trees in her stories from so long ago I can’t help but form a kindred bond somehow with that irritating plant that has flourished to a point of actually resembling the size of palm trees…and to an extent that resembles the jungles of the Amazon. The good news is that the jungle started so many years ago has provided a natural barrier to some of the looting and destruction.
My Vision: (various pictures)
My vision for Harbour Island when I purchased it was simple. First, “weed the garden” and second, put every board and nail possible back in place, as it was so many years ago so that it can be enjoyed in that state by all who venture onto her shores from this time forward. Simple right?
I have learned throughout my career in construction that a large project is nothing more than a series of relatively simple tasks put together in a specific order, repeated for a specified time. I have also learned that one set of hands may not be enough to complete the project in the specified time. Unfortunately, my lifetime, will not be adequate for just a few sets of hands and my limited financial resources to complete. Buildings continue to decay at a rapid rate and we have lost 2 more since I bought the island. Therefore, my plan has had to evolve to include far greater resources than I personally have.
Approximately six months into my adventure, I convinced one of my best friends and Masonic brother that he should join in my quest to restore the resort and use it for a purpose. Emmett Woods (Sonny as he is commonly known), never having been to Harbour Island, or Manitoulin for that matter, has no personal attachment to Harbour Island, but shares with me two traits that all Masons share as a common bond. The first being trust in God and the second being the pursuit of serving our fellow man. Grant Rogers was a Mason also. So too was Grandad Chandler. Tjey were men who worked for their family and community. They were men who would give of themselves for others. I recall a story from an elderly man in Little Current sitting next to me on a barstool at The Anchor Inn, who told me of being arrested by Grant Rogers when he was a town policeman. When he discovered the man couldn’t afford to pay his fine to be released from the town jail, my Grandfather paid his fine for him so he could go home to his family. It is this example that I put forward as I announce our vision for Harbour Island. Service to your fellow man.
Our Vision (picture of Harbour Island)
My childhood taught me work ethic and perseverance. My decisions were not always the best ones. I was no saint. My Grandfather was not either. None of us are. As I have matured, however, many more of my decisions have been governed by a willingness to work hard, not let fear stop me and most importantly, being kind and generous with others. Through helping others, we help heal ourselves.
With that in mind:
We intend to donate the portion of Harbour Island (approximately 10 acres) that holds the buildings of the resort and the marina to charity. We are establishing a nonprofit corporation to do the following:
Restore the historic resort to be as close as possible to its’ original state mainly through merchandising, donations, loans and grants.
Run the resort as primarily a youth camp where young people who struggle to find their way in this modern world can work, stay and learn in a place without the modern distractions of the internet.
Have a place for boaters, families and groups to enjoy a taste of what was in a sort of living museum.
At times provide a location for counselling for the many issues that people struggle with including ptsd, drug and alcohol abuse and grief from loss.
Assist in raising money for the Shriners Hospitals and other worthy charities.
Teach survival skills, combined with learning native culture and the history of bonds and friendships formed with neighbors, as Harbour Island is also a neighbor to our family from M’Chigeeng.
Sonny and I will not sit on the board, nor will we draw salary from the nonprofit. This is not at all about personal gain. We will simply continue to support this venture as much as possible and continue to contribute to our vision. It is our intention to establish a trust to ensure this “Gem of the Great Lakes” continues to provide safe harbour long after our time on earth is done.
We trust in God, ourselves and our fellow man to see that this happens.
Currently, we are looking for interested people with the appropriate skillsets to serve on the board of directors for this endeavor. We will accept any help offered from anyone anywhere who shares our spirit for this goal of restoration, preservation and service.
Please feel free to contact me to discuss. More details will be announced as they become available in the coming months.
For now, however, you will find me on Harbour Island at every opportunity, tending to the “Palm Trees”.
Thank you.
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