THE HISTORY

In 1867, the Reverend Robert Norton Hill, a Methodist, came to Muskoka to seek land for himself, his four sons and two daughters. He located 700 acres of good clay/loam soil on the shores of Peninsula Lake, east of Huntsville. He blazed a Trail called Hill’s Trace (now Highway 60) and as the first pioneer in the district he opened a Post Office in 1878 called “Hillside”, which later became the name of the community.

In 1868, Thomas Rowland Hill, the eldest son, when he was 18 years old (and eligible to apply under the new Free Grant and Homestead Act) claimed lots 19 and 20, concession 14 (193 acres) in Franklin Township. Rowland, like any claimant, was required, within five years, to clear and have under cultivation at least 15 acres and to have built a house, fit for habitation, not less than sixteen by twenty feet.

In 1878, Rowland married Annie McRobert. The couple’s first home was replaced in 1887 by a large brick home with a beautiful view of Peninsula Lake which was named “Bayview Farm”. Here they raised four children: Leonard, Caroline, Belva and Gordon. Rowland was a most successful farmer and like all the men of the Hill family was a great lover of horses.

Development happened at a rapid pace. In 1867, the Hills were the first pioneers to the area, the year of Canada’s Confederation. In 1885 the steam railway reached Huntsville. In 1886 work started to make the waterway navigable between Fairy Lake and Peninsula Lake. By 1889 the canal work was complete and made “Pen Lake” accessible to tourists and cottagers by steam boat, just 22 years after the first settler arrived on foot. In 1895 a fine fishing lodge (Deerhurst) was established to appeal to those in search of peace and tranquility, without the necessity of “roughing it”.

From 1905 to 1926, Rowland Hill was the Postmaster of the Hillside Post Office which was located at his home at Bayview Farm. Annie passed away suddenly in 1925 and Rowland died after a brief illness in 1936 at the age of 85 years. Bayview Farm was sold to Lang Moffat in the 1954. The Moffats, who had been vacationing on Lake Peninsula since the early 1900s, modernized and enlarged the main house and built a caretaker’s cottage where the Boon family lived year-round. They helped the Moffats raise sheep, a few head of cattle and stable eleven horses. The Moffats called the estate Wonderview Farms but retained that name themselves on the sale of the property in 1991 to Rupert Brendon and Christine Coleman. Rupert and Christine maintain the heritage property as a working farm having raised registered Black Angus cattle and Muskoka Lamb. Today they board horses.

SOURCES: Hillside Pioneer Memorial United Church Centennial History (1992)Penlake - Reflections of Peninsula Lake (1994) Huntsville - More Pictures of the Past (1998)