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In the pages of this history booklet, we shall endeavor to take you with us

on a voyage of time and distance up the Grand River East or Boughton River, as it is now known.

This voyage will take you through the years from the mid 1800’s to the present time. We hope to make you aware of the vast changes in times and cultures during the past one hundred and fifty years.

You will become acquainted with the people, places and events that have formed our history. The most important of these being the river itself.

The Boughton River, flowing out of the Boughton Bay and thence from the Northumberland Strait as it does, formed a life line for those people who made their homes and settled the land on the north side of the riverbank.

The communities directly affected by the Boughton River’s progress are Howe Bay (Little River), Little Pond, Annandale, Poplar Point (Big Run or River- view), Cumberland Hill, Dundas, and Bridgetown.

In compiling the research for this book, we have interviewed many people who have generously shared their memories, materials and time with us. We are very grateful to those people.

This book is our way of capturing the fleeting span of time and presenting our children with a picture of the community life that preceded them.

We hope it will also encourage them to hold fast and protect the valued traditions and cultures which were forged along the banks of the Boughton River.

Perhaps some day their children upon reading this book will say, “Those Were The Days!”

One of the ways in which the past opened up to us while researching this book was through the diaries of James Norton, who kept a journal faithfully for several decades. Mr. Norton was a broad minded person who commented on world events as well as his own farm and community. James Norton was a grand- father to Howard and Gerald Norton, Annandale.

We would encourage some of our readers to keep a daily journal now so that future generations can relive the past just as we did in “James’ diaries”.