VENNACHAR

NAME: Vennachar COUNTY: Lennox Addington ROADS: 2WD GRID: 1 CLIMATE: Snow in Winter BEST TIME TO VISIT: All Year

COMMENTS: Few residents remain REMAINS: Church and Store

Vennachar was a colonization town settled in 1861 when the lumber industries began heading northward in search of new forests. By 1865 Charles McKenyon opened a store/post office and mail came once a week. Soon there was a school, a tannery, 2 carpenters, a Methodist Church, 2 bailiffs and about 60 people. The town continued to prosper and in the later 1800's new industry included: 2 blacksmiths, a cabinetmaker, 2 more churches and 2 sawmills. By 1900 the famed Vennachar House Hotel opened followed by cheesemakers and a new school. Disaster struck in 1903 when a local forest fire started. The fire burned everything in its path including the village. Only one church (still standing) and one home were left after the ordeal. A rebuilt store/post office lasted until 1970. The 2nd re-built school lasted, but is now gone too. The church went through refurbishing at some point and is the last vestige of years gone by. Services were held here until 1975. Just north was another ghost village called Glenfield that was founded on lumber and farming. It was a satellite community of the larger Vennachar and relied on the latter for its church, store and school. There was a sawmill here built by William Livingston, who also acted as the hamlet's postmaster. Jacob Snider, another prominent resident set aside a large parcel of his land for the local cemetery, which is still well-maintained to this day. The post office lasted until 1929. Unlike some ghost villages in the Canadian Shield Glenfield still has some open areas where one can imagine homes once existed, as the area has not been totally reclaimed by the forest. Vennachar and Glenfield are located in the modern Township of Addington Highlands. Take Hwy. 41 north to Buckshot Lake Rd and head E. toward Vennachar from Vennachar Junction. Take Matawatchan Rd. north to the Glenfield Cemetery sign and head west to get to Glenfield. Submitted by: Clayton Self

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