Harriet Spiers Huggard and Tom Huggard - 1925OBITUARY - With the passing of Harriet Glaspell on February 13th, Muskoka lost one of its older pioneers. Born in Ottawa on April 2, 1866, daughter of the later Mr. & Mrs. George Spiers, she moved with her parents to Muskoka to a farm in the Huntsville area, while still a small child. She attended church and Sunday school in the log church at Madill's. In March, 1885 she married Thomas Huggard, of Deebank, living there for a while and later moving to the village of Windermere, to a farm which is now the golf links. It was here that Mrs. Huggard raised her step-daughters, Lillian and Lizzie, looked after the farm and raised her own family of twelve, and cared for the sick of the community. As a mid-wife, she delivered over 200 babies. She ran the mail from Utterson to Windermere with horse and buggy.
Mr. Huggard passed away in 1926. For some time Mrs. Huggard operated a restaurant at Windermere. In November 1935, she married Frank W. Glaspell, of the Midland area, moving to Macaulay Township to a farm. They farmed here for five years and then moved to Windsor in 1944. They returned to Bracebridge ten years later and bought a home on Church Street. Mrs. Glaspell was a lover of flowers and always had beautiful house plants.
The funeral was held in the Chapel at the Reynolds Funeral Home in Bracebridge on Saturday, February 16th, with Rev. W.G. Jullan officiating. He spoke on the sterling qualities of these pioneer people and how he enjoyed hearing Mrs. Glaspell tell of her experiences as a young wife and mother; also to hear about her attending Sunday school and church in a little log church known as Madill's which still stands and is being used. The bearers were all grandsons - Russell and Leslie Huggard, Arthur Kay, Thomas Johnson, Robert Orr and Earl McMurray.
