Millbrook Central Ontario Lacrosse Champs 1881
1950 Women’s Ball Team Millbrook
1905 Presbyterian Ball Team
By Dan Bourgeois
This is a great time of year for sports fans.
The Raptors made the NBA playoffs. The Senators and Habs advanced to the NHL’s “real” season. The Leafs are out on the golf course (sorry, I couldn’t help but add that). The Blue Jays are back, sort of, and the Peterborough Lakers are soon to start their lacrosse season.
The early European settlers in this area had little free time, but as homesteads were established, land was cleared and planted. Small communities developed and there was some opportunity for more entertaining pursuits. There is a rich history of sports locally. Over the years, Cavan and Millbrook teams have won championships and some local citizens have competed both nationally and internationally in a variety of individual sports.
Lacrosse was likely the first team sport to be played in our area. Its origins are widely agreed to be through the First Nations. By the mid-1800s teams had been organized throughout the area and were by all accounts a force to be reckoned with. On July 1st, 1867, the first Dominion Day (now Canada Day), the Millbrook Club beat a team from what is now Akwesasne First Nation near Cornwall. Akwesasne lacrosse players had a formidable reputation which continued into the 20th century. My father-in-law and his brothers played them occasionally in the 1930s. The games were “hotly contested”, to put politely. The Millbrook club was Central Ontario Champions in 1881. In 1887 a team from Plum Creek (now Souris), Manitoba won the provincial Championship. Eight of their players had been part of the migration from Cavan and Millbrook to Manitoba in the early 1880s.
Baseball was the other big summertime sport. Its roots lie in the English games of Rounders and Cricket. According to the Baseball Museum and Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, the oldest verified account of what would be considered baseball was played on June 4th, 1838 in Beachville, a village in southwest Ontario. Mind you, there were five bases, not four, but the rules were otherwise similar to the modern game.
Pretty much every local community and church had a team. The Millbrook league consisted of four teams; the Methodists, Presbyterians, Anglicans and Independents (one wonders which side God was on in the playoffs). Apparently, the clergy could get involved in these secular activities; the 1905 Presbyterian team coach was Preacher Johnson.
Baseball games and tournaments were a part of most community and church summer picnics. The teams would play locally as well as further afield in Northumberland and Peter-borough County. In 1871, school teacher William Stott, who played for the Cavanville Baseball Club, wrote to a friend “We are going to Perrytown in Hope (township) next Saturday to play a match against the Garden Hill Club. I anticipate a splendid time, as there area great number of fine young ladies in that vicinity.” As they say, getting involved in sports is a great way to meet people and make friends.
By the 1930s across Canada, women’s softball teams were forming up. Local “girls” teams were active in the 1940s through 1970s. The Millbrook girls’ team played across the region, from Lakefield to the north, Nestleton to the west and Newcastle and Port Hope to the south. An article in the Millbrook Chronicle from June 1962 notes “These games are well worth watching and the interest and crowds are building up.” The 1950 team included Dorothy Stevens, who became a much-loved teacher; the multipurpose room in the Millbrook Old School is named in her honour. Kae Dalgleish, who wrote the chapter on sports in the local history This Green and Pleasant Land, was also on this team.
Come winter, the ponds in the area provided ice for curling sheets and skating/hockey rinks in most communities. Snowshoeing was also a popular pastime; there was an active snowshoe club in Millbrook in the early 1900s.
Of course, hockey drew the biggest crowds. By the 1890s,there were leagues across Canada, including locally. There were two thirty-minute periods, the teams playing seven a side. A photo of the Millbrook team of 1910 shows seven players, so no substitutes.
In 1924 the Cosmos Rink Club built an outdoor lighted skating and hockey rink with a clubhouse, close to Needler’s Mill in Millbrook, allowing night time games to be played. The Memorial Arena opened near this site in 1951. Over the years, numerous old timer and youth hockey teams and leagues have come and gone.
Minor hockey has been a fixture, with a number of teams winning Ontario Minor Hockey Association Championships. As an example, the Millbrook Calhoun’s IGA Atom team made the front page of the Millbrook Highlighter in April 1987 by winning the Atom D Division Championship, sweeping the final series. Their record was 71 games won, 7 losses and 1 tie. Their banner, among others, hung proudly in the old arena, but are not to be seen in the new community centre.
Many other sports have been played locally over the years, but I’ve run out of space. Maybe some other time.