ARCHY SLOAN FIRST FAMED FAMILY MEMBER TO BE RECOGNIZED WITH GRAVENHURST HERITAGE STORY BOARD

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com

GRAVENHURST — What’s the hurry? Where’s the fire?

Tyler Sloan had to rush back to Vermilion, Alberta, this week for firefighting training.

The great, great, great grandson of Archy Sloan would have been proud of him.

The 22-year-old, who graduates in November, had a baptism of fire this past month when his class responded to a call to go to Jasper to help put out hot spots.

It’s the kind of thing Archy did more than a century ago when he was the town’s ‘Fire Official, Police Chief and Mayor’ — and prominent entrepreneur.

That’s the story behind a Gravenhurst Heritage Committee story board erected last week outside the Gravenhurst Fire Department, former town hall, police station and jail — all of which Archy Sloan was once in charge of in the early 20th century.

Recognizing a familiar significant pioneering family in Gravenhurst was rectified Aug. 22 when Archy Sloan was honoured at the Gravenhurst Fire Department where a century ago he was the Town Fire Official.

His legacy lives on enshrined here at the corner of First and Harvie streets with the lovely garden treatment. And just a block from the Brock Street intersection where he rang the fire bell five times a day and jailed unruly residents in the basement of the tower fire hall building.

The star treatment last Thursday was the result of efforts by former residents Rusty Draper, Ian Hunter, Robin McNabb and Allan Boyd who pushed the town to correct an “oversight” in recognizing the Sloan family name.

Notably from later when Archy and his wife Sarah (Passmore) opened their Ice Cream Parlour in 1915, which became the famed Sloan’s Restaurant.

There’s already talk of similar recognition on the main street for the iconic blueberry pie “must stop” landmark on Muskoka Road next to Passmore’s Meats.

The Sloan family, Tom, left, Tyler, Murray and Myra, Sheila, Marley, Amy, Rob, Mary and Logan Craig were pleased with the overdue honour.

It was also an opportunity for a rare Sloan summer family reunion at the cottage of Mary Craig-Sloan who still has a part of the family’s property on Lake Muskoka off Brydon’s Bay Road.

They also got to bury the ashes at Lakeview Cemetery of Gordon Sloan’s last son, John Gordon, who died this past winter.

Relatives from Arizona and Baltimore (Sheila and Tom Sloan, the wife and son of Malcolm Sloan), and Rob and Amy Sloan (son and daughter of Janet Sloan) were among those who flew in for the dedication, interment and lunch after at the Muskoka Bay Club.

Also on hand was Elsie McBride, the sister of Gordon Sloan’s wife Dora.

“We’re very happy,” Craig-Sloan told me of how the day went and the family honour.

It’s a great story and one that GHC chair Michael Wayling and Gravenhurst archivist Judy Humphrey and their committee worked hard to put together in adding yet another significant historical story board around town.

Archy Sloan did it all from the mid 1800s to a decade after the First World War, helping grow Gravenhurst as the Gateway to Muskoka, a legacy his son Gordon built upon with Sloan’s Restaurant. Photo Light of Other Days

The Gravenhurst Heritage Committee honoured another great Gravenhurst pioneer.

Archy Sloan Dedication August 21,2024

Logan Craig posted this You Tube video. CLICK OFF CC FOR TO HEAR IT.

See also on Facebook, this town ceremony video introduction:

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/wRQiHtvDVWfCGg4S/

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