On Hwy 534 between Nipissing Village and Restoule, the route passes through the once panhandle of Gurd Township. In the middle of the panhandle is a road named Barber Valley, owing to the original family that settled the low lying area to the north of the highway. It's southern terminus is at 534, and it is this place that is known as Hotham. I've always found this to be a peculiarity, driving past Barber Valley Road on Hwy 534 there are no signs indicating the presence of a hamlet, nor is there a substantial number of houses that would lead one to believe they are in a town. However, on maps, even to this day, the place is marked as Hotham. I never gave the name much thought, other than it is English in origin. So recently I typed that name into a search engine, and followed the links, discovering its true origin.
Hotham is a small town in the East Riding of Yorkshire in England, boasting a population of 233. To leave it there would not inspire intrigue, so further on I go. If one recalls my earlier note about Trout Creek's connections Australia, particularly sharing the same name with the city of Melbourne for a period following the towns founding, then this next part will strengthen connections with the island continent.
In 1853, Sir Charles Hotham was appointed lieutenant-governor of Victoria, Melbourne being it's capital. Hotham's tenure was not long (2 1/2 years), nor was it overly popular (he enacted policy to balance the budget and end corruption), although he was initially greeted with much support. This appointment predates the founding of Trout Creek (then Melbourne), Ontario by 15 years, which leaves plenty of time for a supporter of Lt. Gov. Hotham to have lived in Melbourne, Australia under his rule, emigrate to Canada, and venture on to the present sites of Trout Creek and Hotham.
If we are to entertain the possibility that Trout Creek's founders were Australian, then you'll allow me to indulge in a theory, or say, a creationist story of sorts. Perhaps having enjoyed their time under Lt. Gov. Hotham in Melbourne, and feeling somewhat like outcasts once he fell from favour, the eventual Australian founding fathers of Trout Creek ventured out, and came to Canada. Perhaps it was a group of people, settling Trout Creek first (the area of Hotham was not settled until after the Chapman family has settled at what is called Chapman's Landing just north of Nipissing Village on the South River), arriving by wagon (Trout Creek's founding predates the building of the rail line). Perhaps after a few years there, some ventured out further, to a place 30 km by road (or 20 km as the 'crow flies'), to Hotham, naming it after their beloved Lt. Gov. (the Barber Valley is a somewhat fertile farmland, something or a rarity in the Almaguin Highlands, as is the area surrounding Trout Creek).
This may all seem too flimsy, or too transparent of a theory for some for it to be substantiated. However, it seems more than just coincidental that two named places in Canada, in close proximity to each other (Trout Creek being in the former South Himsworth, and Hotham being in the former Gurd, two neighbouring townships), share those names (or history), with a city in Australia and the man who governed it.
There will never be a conclusive answer to this, as all those alive then have since past, unless somewhere in some dusty attic lies a book written of such accounts. I believe there is enough evidence to suggest some kind of link between the two, but we are perhaps at the extent of drawing it.
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