Umfraville (ghost town)

Umphraville (aka "Umfraville") is the last of the ghost towns as one heads north along the Old Hastings Rd. from Ormsby. The area is extremely hilly, rocky, well-forested and swampy. Of all ghost town locations I have been to this one is the hardest to fathom as its population supposedly grew to 260 and was larger than Bancroft's 250. I really have my doubts over this number as it must refer to the residents its post office served to further abroad residents. The area has been fully reclaimed by the forest and to have that many people living here in the 1800's with such little evidence seems suspect.

Umphraville was founded in the 1860's by Irish settlers Dermot "Darby" Kavanaugh and his brother Patrick on the Old Hastings Rd. well north of Ormsby. They are claimed to have taken lots 55 and 56 in Dungannon Township in the area where the road crosses Egan Creek. (However, lots 55 and 56 in Dungannon Twp are actually located in what is now the downtown core of Bancroft. Darby had actually moved to Bancroft in 1897. Instead, they may have taken Lot 7 and 8 which is where Egan Creek crosses the road- check the map link below). Darby opened a combination store, hotel and post office.

William Jorman built a flour/saw mill on Egan Creek (apparently wheat and oats were grown in Umphraville). Benjamin and William Spurr opened a 2nd general store which lasted til 1890.

At its zenith Umphraville apparently had 4 churches, a school, a cheese factory, a tinsmith, a shoemaker and blacksmiths.

When the Central Ontario Railway passed well to the east, the settlers here fled.

All that remains are a few cedar and stone fences, a wooden home, foundations, a barn and its cemetery. The cemetery is about 1 km or more west of the Hastings Rd. along the Umphraville Rd. at the north end of the village. The cemetery is quite far back in dense bush so I think its clear this one-lane dirt road existed back in the 1800s. There are about 20 headstone markers or less on the property but it has been estimated that there may be 100 buried here. The most famed tombstone is that of Bridgeta Cavanaugh (with a "C" not a "K"). She was the wife of Patrick (check the photo below).

For the heart-wrenching story of pioneer, Anatasia Kelly, and the story of the Umfraville Cemetery read the link below. Many of the infants who died early deaths are buried in the cemetery without markers..http://www.countryroadshastings.ca/current-issue-s2.php?command=viewArticle&ID=46?tFeed=3

Post Office Records

D. Kavanagh 1864-1899 Resignation

Thomas Kelly 1899-1902 Resignation

James McCabe 1903- 1916 Closed R.M.D.

Heading south from here you will hit these other ghost towns (in order): Ormbsy, Thanet, Murphy Corners, Glanmire and Millbridge. All have write-ups with photos.