Loyal Orange Lodge

July 2022

What’s in a date? Here we are in July, the second half of the year, with days already growing shorter. The good news is that this year the July 1st parades and summer fair were back again, giving us a glimmer of what we have come to think of over the years as a ‘normal’ summer.

Graysville L.O.L. #1514 now abandoned

It just happens that this update is being written on July 12, a day that conjures up memories of ‘Orange’ parades that were once a regular part of local summer celebrations. Many of the first post-1870 homesteaders to this area were staunch Irish Protestant Anglophones. They are credited with changing the name of the local Riviére aux Îlets-de-Bois to the Boyne River, in honour of the Battle of the Boyne, in which Protestant King William of Orange defeated Catholic King James. Back in the days when ‘LOL’ stood for Loyal Orange Lodge, branches were active locally in Carman, Graysville, Miami and Roseisle. For several generations, July 12th parades ‘with fife and drum’ were a prominent feature of local summer festivities. For more on this aspect of local heritage, visit the Dufferin Historical Museum’s fine display of L.O.L. artifacts and read Dr. T.J. Harrison’s history of the Graysville lodge (copies at museum and library).

As we know from our overview of local history, the new wave of settlers rapidly changed the economic and socio-cultural character of this area. It also created tension and resulted in confrontation with the predominately Métis population who differed from the newcomers in their culture, language, religion and view of land ownership.