Lake of Bays Heritage Foundation

Memoir

Billy Langmaid’s Supply Boat

"Billy would blow the boats whistle and stop at larger docks for nearby cottagers to come and pick up their order"

A charming feature of earlier times at Lake of Bays was Billy Langmaid’s grocery delivery service to cottages around the south end of the lake and on the Muskoka River. John Langmaid and his wife Eliza settled in Baysville in 1871 and raised their family of 10 children. John was very fond of music and the home was central to the village’s musical scene.  He worked as a shoe maker and operated his workshop in the family home. He made shoes and boots for the many river-drivers working in the logging industry as well as fine shoes for men and women of the day. One of his children William (Billy) opened a general store in the original family homestead in 1904. Billy Langmaid eventually took over a larger store in the building now operated in Baysville as Miss Nelle’s Café. (Nelle Connelly worked for Billy in the store and eventually bought the building.) Groceries were delivered to docks for a period of time in the 1930s when cottagers did not have their own cars.  Billy would stock the boat with people’s orders and also carried extra items for spontaneous purchases. “Billy would blow the boat’s whistle and stop at larger docks for nearby cottagers to come and pick up their order,” recalled Marianne Girling (nee Featherstonhaugh). “He would stop at the dock at Hillcrest and all the children would gather at the boat because he also sold candy for a penny – jawbreakers and gum, for example,” she added. 

The delivery boat was actually owned by Lou Green, who lived at the Portage. The boat was about 35 feet long and had a steam engine located in the centre. A roof covered most the full length of the vessel and canvas sides could be lowered when needed. The hull was painted white but no name can be detected on the side in old photographs. A spotlight was mounted at the front of the roof with the whistle further back. 


Lou Green was one of the Green family members who have lived at Lake of Bays for well over a century. Family members continue to reside outside of Baysville and in Huntsville. An earlier generation of Greens operated Island View Cottages on Bayview Road. 


The boat carried an ice box so the meat could be delivered to customers. It is not known how far the boat would travel to make deliveries although one old postcard shows the boat at the main dock at Bona-Vista. 


“Billy sold and delivered fresh meat, although his butchering skills and knowledge were uncertain. He once told my mother that one cut of meat was beef and a second was veal, but he had just cut them off the same haunch,” said Marianne Girling. 

“Our cottage on the river was close enough that kids would also walk into Baysville to buy candy at his store,” added Girling. He had a slot machine where you could put in coins and sometimes win candy.” 


Elmer Green (Lou’s nephew) once lived on Bayview Road and remembers how the kids would paddle out to meet the supply boat as it journeyed up the lake. “Billy would sometimes toss us an apple or an orange. It was during the depression and that was like a gift from heaven for kids like me,” recalls Elmer Green.


Billy Martin’s supply boat whistle must have been an endearing sound. Sadly, it is one we will never hear again on Lake of Bays. It symbolizes the slower pace and simpler needs of past times. The old steam boats are mostly gone now and those that remain attract large crowds around the Muskoka Lakes. Lake of Bays is fortunate to have the restored Bigwin now in the water at Dorset.  


Based on an interview with Marianne Girling in December 2010 and Elmer Green in January 2011.

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