History of Cooper's Falls,
Morrison Township

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The following excerpt was taken from, "Muskoka, Past and Present", written by Geraldine Coombe published in 1976 by McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited. The book is no longer in print, but can be found at your public library or through inter-library loan.

Emma and Thomas Cooper began to notice each other when he delivered the meat to Emma's privileged household for his father, the butcher; but Thomas, a hard-working young man, knew better than to stop and socialize in a home where undue pleasantries with a member of the "lower class" would be considered unseemly. Emma escaped the family vigilance by concealing herself in the back garden where Thomas could not fail to meet her on his way out. Their friendship blossomed and eventually they talked of marriage. When they married on March 24th, 1859, both aged twenty-two, Emma's family disowned her.

Their first child was born within the year and a second child two years later. Emma and her children were ignored completely by her family, who would cross to the other side if they should be unfortunate enough to see her on the street in Woolwich. This miserable situation greatly distressed Thomas, and when he saw posters advertising Canada as the place to make a new life he succumbed to the dream, and they emigrated with pitifully small means. On March 20th, 1864, while the ship bringing them from England was in the St. Lawrence River, their third child was born and named Albert Lawrence.

After a short stay in Toronto, they took the train to Barrie, at the head of the railway, and proceeded by boat through Lakes Simcoe and Couchiching to Washago, where they struck off into the bush for the location of their first land - Lot No. 12, Concession M, Rama township, in the County of Ontario - seven miles away. Intending to build a log cabin and take up immediate residence, they carried with them the baby Lawrence, two-year old Norman and four-year old Ada. When night overtook them in the bush, Emma held the children and covered them with her long, wide skirts, while Thomas fed a blazing fire to keep at bay the pack of wolves lurking nearby. The next morning they reached their location and began the four-day task of building a primitive cabin. Afraid of wolves jumping in the windows, they cut them high above the ground and jammed the cavities with logs at night.

For food they had fish, venison, rabbit and partridge to supplement their meagre supplies, and they planted potatoes and turnips in between the stumps of felled trees. The nearest neighbours were miles away and seldom seen. When the changing seasons, illness or bad storms made hunting and fishing impossible, the Coopers went hungry. The plants and mosses of the forest were used 'for food and medicine. They made their own yeast, probably from hops, and the children were rationed to one slice of bread each day to conserve the flour supply. The only light they had for years was from candles Emma made with animal fat.

About every six months Thomas Cooper would take animal hides to Orillia to trade for supplies, starting out in the early morning to walk the 25 miles, leading a heifer to haul the supplies back on a stone boat. To use a heifer as a work animal in 1865 was illegal, just as it is now. Thomas Cooper had acquired her for milking, but the need for an animal to help him plough and haul on his homestead was great, and he used her for this, doubtless straining as hard as the animal he drove. In Orillia he would purchase a barrel of molasses, and some oatmeal, flour and whatever other necessities he could afford, stay overnight and start for home as early as possible.

In view of the conditions in the narrow tracks, which served as roads, it was difficult for him to be back at his homestead by dusk, but this was important; for at dusk the brush wolves gathered for hunting. On one trip he was caught in the forest at dusk. He walked beside the heifer, coaxing her forward, waving lighted cedar torches. But this time the wolves closed in. As he scrambled up a tree, the wolves attacked and killed the heifer, not leaving until they had torn into her carcass and eaten their fill. Thomas then fled to the cabin, returning the next day for his supplies.

Thomas Cooper was a decisive yet kindly man who admired and cherished his small, cultured wife. Emma Cooper, a courageous woman who weighed about 100 pounds, gave birth to five more children in that wilderness cabin, attended only by her husband. One baby boy died and was buried there.

In 1876 the Coopers built a house and general store on a lot one-half mile away near a waterfall in the Black River, and this was the beginning of the post office and community of Cooper's Falls, which became much larger during the lumbering and sawmill period than it is today. Some of the Coopers' business came from lumber camps in the northeast, which sent drivers with large wagons (or sleighs in winter) to buy supplies. Emma had her ninth and last child at this location when she was 41 years old.

Thomas Cooper had dreamed of opening up a community that would give people an incentive to live good, clean lives, and he was disappointed and aroused when men connected with the lumber camps and river drives came into the village drunk. In support of temperance and prohibition, he addressed groups at home, small and large, and eventually traveled to England, Scotland and Wales on speaking tours.

When Emma came into an inheritance from her family about the time she and Thomas were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, they both traveled to England to settle this business. It was a far cry from a lonely log cabin in the frightening wilderness to a comfortable trip back to her luxurious beginnings. Thomas ensured that his grandchildren would know of their early struggles by observing a ritual each Christmas afternoon when he would gather the children around and tell them stories about pioneer days.

A granddaughter, Margaret Harding, when she was 80 years old, described Thomas Cooper to me as a man of granite, facing whatever trial or test came along and never sparing himself. He had a way of coming out ahead. But when others were involved he was a rock of thoughtfulness, courage, kindness and understanding. I never heard him raise his voice to anyone. He was the magistrate for years. When called on to settle something he would be calm and take plenty of time to talk things over. Almost always folks would make up and settle their difference."

In pioneer days, Cooper's Falls suffered from lack of easy access because navigation on the Black River was impeded by rapids and waterfalls. In 1886 the situation was greatly improved by the construction of the Dalton Road, the basis of today's Muskoka Street, running from the Muskoka Road (Highway 11) to Dalton Township on the east. Then the railway stations at Washago and Severn Bridge were more easily reached. Telephones were installed in most Cooper's Falls homes in 1911, and electricity was brought to the community in 1941.