Georgian Bay Township
Historical Society
Russell's Store Project
The lush forests of the Georgian Bay region were valued resources for the lumber boom of the 19th century. In 1873 Georgian Bay Lumber Company built a saw mill at the mouth of the Severn River, boosting the economy and population of Port Severn.
Six years later a company store was opened to more locally service their workers and families. In 1922 the shop was taken over by the Russell family and officially called F.A. Russell General Store (Frank), but more commonly - just Russell’s Store. The store also housed the local post office. A true general store selling food, hardware, and clothing, and uniquely, selling local post cards - cards published locally by Frank and his father William, who managed the nearby Waubaushene GBLC store, - cards highly valued by today’s collectors.
Colorized, locally published postcard
Russell's Store - An engineering feat
The Port Severn store was located on the site of the current parking lot, just west of Lock 45. Originally the store faced Georgian Bay for the preferred boat access, but with road transit changing as a result of the Grand Trunk Railway extension, and completion of the Trent Severn Waterway, the entire building was rotated 180 degrees to face the (now) Port Severn Road. (Considered an engineering feat at that time).
The lumber boom faded but the store had played a vital role in transitioning the village from a rugged industrial timber camp into a tight-knit community, now focusing on a thriving tourism industry.
In later years the building became a Brewers Retail and in the mid-1960’s it burned down, with undetermined cause.
Let's imagine. . .
Below is a historical-fiction narrative inspired by what we know of Russell’s Store, but from an undisclosed author.
The bell above the door of Russell's Store jingled every time someone came in from the docks.
On a summer morning in 1898, young Frank Russell stood on a wooden crate behind the counter, watching the village wake up.
Outside, the smell of fresh-cut pine drifted across the harbour. Log booms floated on the river, and the whistles of steamships echoed across Georgian Bay.
Back then, Port Severn was still a rough-and-ready place. Many of the old-timers still called it Severn Mills, remembering the great sawmills that had built the town. Lumbermen arrived covered in sawdust. Captains stopped for supplies before heading into the bay. Farmers tied their horses outside the store and stepped in for flour, nails, lamp oil, and the latest news.
Russell's Store was more than a shop. It was the heart of the village.
On rainy afternoons, fishermen gathered around the stove telling stories about storms on Georgian Bay. In winter, families came by sleigh to buy Christmas treats. Children pressed their noses against the candy jars while their parents discussed crops, shipping schedules, and village gossip.
Frank learned every face and every story.
There was Captain McLeod [see HR-1 below], who swore he had seen a ghost ship near Beausoleil Island. There was Mrs. Henderson [see HR-2 below], who bought exactly two pounds of sugar every Friday for forty years. And there was old Mr. Walker [see HR-3 below], who spent more time talking than shopping.
Years passed.
The great lumber era began to fade. The forests that had fed the mills were no longer endless. Some businesses closed. Others adapted. Then came the construction of the Trent–Severn Waterway. Slowly, the town changed.
Instead of lumber crews, tourists arrived.
Boats from distant cities tied up near the locks. Families came looking for fishing, boating, and summer holidays. Russell's Store changed with the times. The shelves that once held logging tools now displayed postcards, souvenirs, and cold drinks for travellers.
Frank grew old behind the same counter where he had once stood on a crate.
One evening, as the sun set over the water, he watched visitors stroll through the village. Children laughed near the docks. Pleasure boats drifted through the lock. The town was different now, but alive.
"Everything changes," he told his granddaughter as they closed the store for the night.
Years later, the building disappeared, as so many old buildings do. New generations arrived. Roads changed. Parking lots replaced landmarks. People hurried past without knowing what had once stood there.
But if you listen closely near Lock 45 on a quiet evening, some locals say you can almost hear the faint jingle of a bell above an old wooden door and the murmur of neighbours gathered around a stove.
And in that moment, Russell's Store lives again—not as a building, but as a memory of the village that helped build Port Severn.
The story is fictional, but it is grounded in the known history of Port Severn's transition from a lumber town to a tourism community and the documented existence of F.A. Russell General Store near Lock 45.
​
Some noted historical references identified in the above story:
HR-1 - Captain McLeod
Captain McLeod was a prominent Great Lakes mariner famous for extensive marine salvage and towing operations in the Georgian Bay and Lake Erie regions in the late 19th century. He earned a legendary reputation for successfully rescuing and recovering vessels caught in severe gales, such as the Canadian schooner S. J. Luff off the rocks of Georgian Bay in 1892.
In addition, there are a two documented events of a Captain McLeod personally, involving tragedies on the Great Lakes, one in very early 1900’s, and the other, a very notorious shipwreck, 30 years later just off nearby Beausoleil Island. Though the captain’s name was the same for both, it is quite “unlikely” the same man, being as logs reported that the captain died when the earlier ship went down. But, such misfortune involving a captain of the same name does conjure up some ghostly images.
HR-2 - Mrs. Henderson
The Henderson family is a well-known, multi-generational name in the Port Severn and Georgian Bay regions with deep, localized roots spanning the timber boom of the 19th century, local trades, and early recreational cottage-country tourism. Hendersons were among the early pioneer and guide families, and as the area transitioned from a timber hub to a recreational destination, with the completion of the Trent-Severn Waterway, and connection to a rail line, they served early travelers and cottagers who came to fish and boat on the river and Georgian Bay.
Knowing their business, might it be possible that Mrs. Henderson was stocking her pantry each week to sell baked goods to city families now travelling northbound for week-end getaways to nature? - maybe buttertarts!
HR-3 - Mr. Walker
Walker was a prominent name in the area but there is little detail in the story to identify a particular individual or family. But the imagery of any old man liking to talk when he has a captive audience is just like many grandfathers.