MAP AND REFERENCE #11 (LINK)
The history of island B58 in Woods Bay of Georgian Bay of Lake Huron in the District of Parry Sound, south section being parcel 2073 (the cottage island or Dennis island).
The small island B57 was originally crown land under Patent number 4504. The cottage island B58 was originally crown land under Patent number 4178. The cottage island was sold by the Crown to Dennis J Flynn and the deed was registered on Oct. 23rd. The small island was sold to Dennis J. Flynn and the deed was registered on Nov. 12th, 1914. Dennis J. Flynn was an attorney from the city of Oklahoma. He was a friend of Judge John Calvin Pollock of the Supreme Court of Kansas and later of the Federal Court. Judge Pollock was an avid fisherman and had a Canadian law clerk who brought him up to Woods Bay to fish somewhere around 1888. Eventually he bought the Island of Delight. He convinced many of his friends to buy up here also. Justice Van DeVanter bought island B 56 (now Robert’s Island); the steel baron Mr. Scott bought Scott Island, (Isl.271 and Isl. 272) Calhoun bought his property in Blackstone Harbor and most importantly for our purposes Dennis J. Flynn bought 6 islands up here including islands B. 58 and 57.
The small island is 7/10 of an acre and is shown on a survey by David Beatty dated 1910. The cottage island contains 6 and 1/10 acres and is shown on a plan of survey by David Beatty dated July 21st 1911.
The abstract of title for the large island states that the transferee (Dennis) had 18 months from Sept 27th 1912 to make improvements on the island having a value of at least $300.00. The unusual thing is that on the front steps of the cottage, (top step) there is a date of 1911, which suggests that was when the cottage was built but that appears to be before the transfer was registered !!!
Lucile suggests that the early settlers all camped up here for several years before they bought and 1911 may have been the first year that Senator Flynn camped at the island. The abstract of title for the small island has the same condition but it was waived by the government by order dated Aug. 15th 1915. On Nov. 19th, 1937 by transfer number 21007, Dennis Flynn transferred both properties to his son Olney (Budge) F. Flynn an oil producer and mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma for $7500.00. Olney was married to Ailene L. Flynn. By transfer registered July 31st 1959 as number 42002 both properties were transferred to Peter J. Lehman a stock broker who lived at 489 Walden Avenue, Buffalo New York for the sum of $7500.00. The lawyers for the Purchaser were Green & Limbert of Parry Sound.
Peter and his wife Susan got to know about the property because they went fishing at the Pierce’s fishing lodge in Woods Bay. (Isl B.273). They told us that when they came to the Island they bought for the first time they drove up to Scotts Marina in Parry Sound from Buffalo, bought a boat (the “ All Mine”) and drove it in through a pouring rain even though they had never driven in before. The Lehmans had one adopted son Johnny–as he got older he would drive in by himself from Parry Sound late at night–frequently hitting rocks on the way-there is one rock out beyond Iron City Bay that is known as Johnny’s Rock because he took out the bottom of the boat on that rock. Johnny and his young friends lived in the kids room. They are the ones that did all the writing on the doors of the rooms upstairs. Pete and Sue were part of the cocktail circuit up around Woods Bay. When entertaining at his cottage, Pete would always sit on the sofa bench beside the window. Pete was a stock broker and a large shareholder in Colgate Palmolive. The Lehmans loved the cottage and would never have sold except that Peter had some financial reverses through commodities trading and the bank forced him to sell.
Tim and Barb had been looking for a cottage in the area. In fact they had put an offer in on the Scott island but by that time it was owned by 4-5 people and they couldn’t get any agreement on what they wanted to do with the island. When they got to the Lehman’s island one day for drinks, Tim asked Peter how the sale was going. Peter said he had excepted Tim from the real estate listing so he could have it for the listing price less the commission. Tim immediately offered Peter what he was asking. Peter accepted and the deal was done. Barbara sort of stood there like an idiot never having seen the island or the cottage except once when she had been on the porch for a cocktail party. She didn’t really get to see it until the day they went over to take possession. Tim assured her she would like it.
On July 24th 1979 Peter signed a formal agreement to sell the cottage island to Barbara Sargeant in trust for Timothy Sargeant. On August 10th 1979 the cottage island was transferred to Barbara A. Sargeant .(At that time you could have 2 principal residences)
The sale price for the cottage island was $42,920.00 Can. and the chattels were declared to be worth the nominal sum of $1000.00. While the transfer was registered as of that date the Sargeants as per the agreement with the Lehmans did not actually get possession until August 31st 1979. For liability purposes the island was subsequently transferred to Timothy’s name on Jan 24th 1980 (transfer goes from trustee to beneficial owner) and back into the name of Barbara Sargeant (for natural love and affection) on Nov. 17th 1980 and into the name of Barbara and Timothy as joint tenants on June 29th 1993. The frequent transfers were for tax or liability purposes.
After the deal closed the Sargeants got to thinking it probably would be a good idea to purchase the small island behind (Isl. B57) rather than let it go to someone else on the open market so on March 21st 1983 Peter Leman and the Sargeants signed an agreement to sell the small island to Timothy W. Sargeant . The sale price was $4307.00 Canadian.( On June 2nd 1983 Price Taylor determined that for tax purposes the FMV of the small island was $2000.00 Canadian as of January 1st 1972.) The purchase price sounds off because the purchase price was in American and when registering we had to change to Canadian dollars.
Woods Bay Community Association