Annie Norlock

Excerpts from the Eganville Leader article "Little Annie Norlock and her Hotel along the Opeongo Line""

There was the sad story of the fire that destroyed Rooney's Hotel in Eganville, a hotel that was originally a family business which dated back to the 1890s.

Some of the most basic of these early hotels or taverns were called "stopping places" and many of them were located along the once-bustling Opeongo Line. They catered to the needs of the shantymen who travelled this route. When the Opeongo traffic died out so did the business. In the heydey of the Opeongo it was not uncommon for 50 or more logging crews and teams to pass by on a busy day. Business boomed at a stopping place located at the western end of the road, just a few miles east of the present-day village of Barry's Bay.

Little is known about the young gal who operated this establishment, but a description of her was given by Tom Murray in an interview with Joan Finnegan for her book Some of the Stories I told You Were True (page 13): "On the blueberry plains along the Opeongo there was a famous hotel run by a lady named Little Annie Norlock. She was killed there in a big fight. But anyhow, they used to fight in Annie Norlock's hotel there with sleigh stakes. Annie's father was a cavalry man. And big! He had fought against the Czar with bayonets, but he wasn't so good with the sleigh stakes and somebody broke his arm in a fight. It wouldn't heal up so they had to cut it off. Going to church, I used to walk behind him and carry his prayer book. He was the man who built the church in Wilno in 1875."

Little Annie's place saw some wild times. The road was rough and so were many of the men in the shanty. Annie was the eldest daughter born in September 1849 and baptized in the parish of Weille West Prussia. She was only a few months short of her 12th birthday when they sailed on the Oder from the port of Hamburg to Quebec. They left in May of 1861 and probably were on board for a couple of months. By July they were truding up the Opeongo Road to its furtherest extremity, to the so-called "Prussian Settlement" which had been established there in the autumn of 1859.

On August 1 1861 Jacob Narloch officially laid claim to two lots - 202 and 203 Range B South. The lad was veyr hilly and covered with forest. When cleared, the soil was sandy and full of stones. Most of the hills were too steep to cultivate.

Many of the first settlers abandoned their initial grants and moved on. Jacob was one of the first to relocate, moving to lots 33 and 34 in concession 3 of Hagarty Township on December 27, 1869. He left Annie on the property on the Opeogno officially transferring her title to the land on April 10, 1870.

Little Annie's business was undoubtedly very basic. It is likely that she operated out of a scoop-roofed shanty with another couple of small shanties serving as stables.

Her true story is still a mystery. One version, told by Mary Lehovich who lives near the original Norlock lots, was that someone named Annie drowned in a small lake on the property. Hence the lake is often referred to locally as Annie's Lake.

Although we will never now what really happened to Annie Norlock, we can't be far wrong to assume that she must have been a feisty little lady to operate a stopping place at the time. She was part of the wild west days of the Opeongo.

And so it should, because no matter what happened to her, she was a pioneer woman who did not fit into the traditional mold. Annie Norlock stood out in the history of the settlement of Renfrew County.

Another article can be found (on page 6) at: http://pgsmn.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/1999_V7_Issue1_Spring-r...