Frederick Sowden’s mansion in Souris was originally called Glenwood, after the name his father gave to the property known to most as the Mansion Grounds. It’s now the Hillcrest Museum of local history in Souris.
William Henry Sowden was bornin 1823, the eighth of 16 children of Willaim Sowden and Maria Louisa Varley.
The elder Sowden was a corn miller in Yorkshire, England before migrating to Upper Canada in 1818. He must have been successful a she purchased 600 acres of land outside of Port Hope, naming the farm Beaver Meadows. The younger William was educated in Port Hope and in 1846 at age 23 he moved to Millbrook, following older brothers John and Thomas. His brothers already held properties in and around the growing village.
W.H. quickly became involved in the local community. By 1849 he was appointed constable. In those days this was more a bylaws officer than policeman and was often a political appointment. He gradually worked his way up the local ladder of influence, becoming Justice of the Peace, essentially the local judge, in 1858. Between 1869 and 1881, he was Reeve (Mayor) of Cavan for five years, for one year Warden of Northumberland and Durham Counties and Reeve of Millbrook in 1880 and 1881 (until 1974, Millbrook and Cavan were part of Durham County).
While beginning his ascent of the local power structure Mr. Sowden found time to marry Mary Eliza Grove in 1847. They had a daughter, Mary Maria, but Mary Eliza died in 1849. Sowden then married Mary Ann (Polly) Ashwood in 1851 and she gave birth to William Frederick in 1855. They lived in a house on 33 King St West, now the site of Dr Turner’s house, a designated property in the village. At some point in the late 1860s or early1870s, he built a grand home overlooking Baxter Creek, just southeast of the current fairgrounds. Unfortunately, I can’t locate a photograph of Sowden’s mansion so perhaps its grandeur is lost to history. Incidentally, if anyone has an old photo of the mansion or the grounds and outbuildings, the Historical Society would love to copy it.
Mr. Harry Lord, a stonemason by trade, was hired to develop what became the Mansion Grounds, clearing walkways, building stone stair-cases from the mansion down to the creek, erecting bridges over the creek and digging out swimming holes in the creek. A golf course was eventually constructed on the low-lying meadows on the east side of the creek and the Mansion Grounds became a hub of local high society.
Census and business directories of the time list “the Squire” (sometimes less charitably called the “czar of Millbrook”) variously as a farmer, auctioneer, saw millowner, and distiller in addition to his political posts. Most likely he was best described as a developer and land specula-tor. At various times he owned a number of properties in the downtown area including a distillery south of the Queen’s Hotel (now an apartment building) on the corner of King and Tupper St, beside Baxter Creek. The distillery was on Distillery St, of course. Apparently, the distillery was very popular. In This Green and Pleasant Land, Arthur Thorn noted “there was a trail blazed straight from Orono to W.H. Sowden’s distillery… That’s when they used to have the whiskey the same price as the wheat”. Sowden owned most of the north side of what is now Centre St and donated the land that St Thomas Anglican Church occupies.
However, Mr. Sowden’s main interests were on the west side of the village, where he owned nearly all the land along the south side of what is now King Street from Cavan Street to Huston St extending in parts all the way to the 4th (Zion) Line. When the railway from Port Hope through Mill-brook and beyond was being planned, the station was to be on Tupper Street (County Rd10). Mr. Sowden convinced the Railway investors who were mostly from Port Hope and almost certainly well acquainted with the Sowden family, to relocate the station to the west of the village. Coincidentally, the station was placed right in the middle of Sowden’s property- who would have guessed that?
By the late 1870s the economy was quite depressed globally and things weren’t looking as bright for Millbrook and the surrounds as previously. It seems Mr. Sowdon began looking for opportunities in the new province of Manitoba and the west. As described in a previous column, he formed the Millbrook and Colonization Syndicate and in 1881 headed west into the sunset, along with a fair chunk of the local populace.
Mr. Sowden did well in what became the village of Souris, Manitoba. He owned the land of the first mill, as well as other prime properties in what became the village. His wife Polly died in 1905 and the Squire died in April 1907.Both are buried in the Souris-Glenwood cemetery. He never built a mansion, though his son Fred did, completed in 1910. It’s now the Hillcrest Museum and is a heritage site.
So, what happened to the Mansion Grounds? That’s another and not entirely complete story. For another time.