Carl Ahrens
Rocky Georgian Bay shoreline with turquoise water and forested cliffs
Photo: _jer

Georgian Bay

Georgian Bay and Carl Ahrens

During the years of Major-General Malcolm Smith Mercer’s patronage, Carl and Madonna Ahrens, along with their three surviving children—Laird, Sigrid and Chloris—spent their summers in the village of Leith, near the town of Owen Sound on Georgian Bay. The landscape offered Ahrens the northern, more wild scenery he craved while staying within easy traveling distance of their home outside of Toronto.

Tom Thomson, a painter affiliated with the Group of Seven, is buried in the graveyard of the Leith Church.

Historical Family Photographs From Leith

Sigrid and Chloris with Carl Ahrens wading beside a log at Leith
Carl Ahrens leaning over a log while daughter Sigrid washes his hair. Daughter Chloris waits with another bucket. Summer 1914.
Madonna Ahrens and two girls playing on the beach at Leith
Madonna Ahrens plays with daughters Sigrid (left) and Chloris (right) in 1914.
Laird, Dickadee, Chloris, and Sigrid seated together at Leith
From left to right: Frances "Dickadee" Wainwright (half sister of Madonna Ahrens), Chloris Ahrens, Sigrid Ahrens, and Laird Ahrens.
Granny Bel reading a newspaper at Leith
Isabella Hynds, a.k.a. "Granny Bel." Granny Bel was Carl Ahrens' mother, and she partially raised her grandson, Laird.
Carl Ahrens at Leith in 1914
Carl Ahrens at Leith in the summer of 1914.
Carl and Madonna Ahrens aboard the Middie
Carl and Madonna Ahrens on their boat "The Middie"
A small boat on the water at Leith
"The Middie" on Owen Sound in 1914.
The Ahrens and MacNamara families on the beach at Leith
Madonna Ahrens holding the arm of her son, Laird. Carl Ahrens holding his daughter, Chloris.
Carl Ahrens with Sigrid and Chloris at Leith
Carl Ahrens listening to his daughter, Chloris, while daughter Sigrid looks on.
Children beside a small boat at Leith
Chloris Ahrens holds onto a canoe at Leith. The girl closest to her is likely her aunt, Frances "Dickadee" Wainwright. Laird Ahrens is likely the boy in the water. Summer 1914.

Leith Today

Waves along the Owen Sound shoreline
Near the beach at Leith overlooking Owen Sound, an inlet off the main part of Georgian Bay.
Historic brick church in Leith
The Leith Church. Landscape painter Tom Thomson is said to be buried in the graveyard behind the church. There is a marker, but his body may actually still be in Algonquin Park, where he died.
Rocky shoreline and water at Leith
Creek at Leith
Historic photograph held against the present-day Leith beach
The house the Ahrens family had lived in is no longer standing, but this appears to be the section of the beach where they had been.