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Wayback Wednesday: Gravenhurst Caledonia, 1882

This photo was posted by Dale Tingey in Vintage Muskoka.

The caption reads: “The bar room of a Gravenhurst Caledonia hotel 1882 . On the left is reputed to be Mat Watson a farmer from Draper township tougher than all other men of the day.

In the fall of 1882 Gravenhurst was being terrorized by the Press Gang a group of vigilantes going from tavern to tavern demanding to be treated & if not then mayhem shortly ensued. On one such evening in the fall of 1882 Mat Watson a farmer from Draper township was hitching up his horses behind the Caledonia hotel when he noticed the Press Gang enter & hearing the kerfuffle he immediately sprang to the aid of his friends who were still inside & had refused to oblige their demands. A fight soon ensued. Men fell left & right to his sledgehammer blows but he was outnumbered 6-1 until his friends got back on their feet. Every window & chair in the bar was smashed & little Billy Watson who was only 11 at the time, got jammed against the bar & was in serious danger of getting hurt when the bartender reached over the bar & lifted him up behind it just as a chair was thrown at both of them & smashed the mirror & every bit of whiskey in front of it, flooding the floor with it. Yet the fight was not over, after a full half-hour Mat Watson & his friends stood alone in the wrecked bar with all assailants unconscious or having fled the scene.”

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