Ahhh...The Cottage Life!: Charles W. Mack

Showing posts with label Charles W. Mack. Show all posts

Belfountain

Posted by Lorac Sunday, 28 February 2010 7 comments

The last post I said I would show some more of the park in Belfountain. I will give a little history of the town too!
The first settlers arrived before 1850, and in 1852, the village was called "Tubtown". This was a reference to a local blacksmith, Archibald McNaughton, who used large octagonal iron tubs to cool hot metal. The tubs sat outside his shop, which occupied a prominent place in the village, next to the town pump. Fortunately, this name did not last long. A post office was opened at Belfountain (some sources cite it as "Bellfountain") by Thomas J. Bush in 1853.

In the town, in the 1870's, there was a grist mill powered by the Credit River to produce flour. This is an original stone from the mill which is displayed in the park. I like the way the sun shone on the water in behind and the shadow of the wheel.

The origin of the name appears unclear, although it may have come from the French "belle fontaine", or "beautiful fountain" - a reference to the clear waters of the Credit river. The bell-shaped fountain was built to honour the village. The stone work is all from local stone, quite beautiful. Unfortunately , as it is winter, it is not on.

Charles W. Mack, the inventor of the cushion-back rubber-stamp, purchased the land in 1908 and put stone masons to work on ideas he acquired while traveling.

Charles W. Mack building the caves and
dam for his summer retreat home called Mack's Park

The waterfall made by Mack, was supposed to be a miniature Niagara Falls.

A lovely set of stone stairs, obviously the work of the stone masons, leads nowhere. In fact there a few sets of stairs in the park that do not lead to anything other than into the forest around the park now. At one time they led to the summer house for C.W.Mack. Stone walls surround the area made from local brown stone and limestone.