100 YEARS OF HISTORY
A Family History In Dunany and the DCC
By Bob Hay
The Hay Family now has three generations of members of the DCC and goes back another three generations to the first founders. Bob’s grandfather, Edmund McCoy, was an early cottager. He fished and otherwise spent vacation time with Oscar MacDougall, a Dunany farmer who owned substantial lakefront property on Dunany lakes. He built on a lot on Clear Lake obtained from Oscar in the nineteen teens. Actually, Oscar was not pleased with the deal and returned to give Edmund another lot on Boyd’s Lake. So Edmund started the road between Clear and Boyd’s Lakes that now bears his name. Actually, Edmund lived in Lachute and ran the Lachute Granite Works. But he also served for a while as Superintendent of the Grenville Canal. So Edmund was involved in the town of Chatham from the canal on the South to Clear Lake on the North and the township saw fit to name the road after him.
Edmund gave the Clear Lake house to his Daughter Elinor and the Boyd’s Lake lot to his Daughter Harriet (Swaine). Another sister, Anne (Brennian), had the house on Clear Lake where the Blakes now reside. All three sisters’ families were active in the DCC. The brother of these sisters, Lorne McCoy, Bob’s uncle, was a founding member of the Dunany Country Club. He was also an Aviator (2nd Lieutenant) in the British Army’s Royal Flying Corps in World War I. The roots also go back to the Arnott family in the adjacent Gore (Lakefield) area. Edmund married Mary Louisa Arnott from Gore in Brodie, California in 1887. Mary had a sister named Flora Jane who married Thomas McRobie in 1892 and they became Bob’s Aunt Flo and Uncle Tom. Uncle Tom was also a founding member of the Dunany Country Club.
Bob remembers, in the teenage years while working in the yard behind the McCoy Cottage, regularly seeing the Raguin sisters, Dorothy and Madeleine with golf bags on their shoulders, going off to the golf course and asking if he would like to join them. He would go to the golf course to watch the Swaine brothers golf and remembers getting hit on the head with a golf ball when one of them drove off on the eighth hole.
The five Hay boys all got started at the DCC, played with friends, remain active golfers and celebrated some victories.
Claudette got the Grandchildren started on golf. Thomas started at a young age as did his two sisters. Annie played golf for 4 years at Redlands University in California as an All-American Scholar. She won tournaments and was captain of the team where, in her final year, the team ranked number one in the nation and she herself was ranked as high as 4th in the nation. Now she is an assistant pro at Oakmont Country Club in Dallas TX on her way to becoming a PGA certified pro after starting out at the DCC.
Thomas
Beyond golf, the family participated each year in the Dunany Music Fest at the DCC.