Hi Alick:
I hope you are closing in on identifying your canoe, possibly through the thwart tag. Looks to me that there may be some connection to Rice Lake, possibly through Herald Bros., but Dick P. and others can certainly help you more in that vein than I. The words "Rice Lake", as commented on above, obviously take on a different context for different folks. Some of us comprehend it more broadly as a geographic description; others like to limit it only to the registered trade name affiliation. The comment was raised:
"Some people may generically call all of these Rice Lake canoes, but Rice Lake is the trade name of only one, started in 1899."
Rice Lake is a body of water, to the south and east of Peterborough, Ontario. In the early days of canoe-building in Ontario, watercraft from the area were often generally described as "Rice Lake canoes". The main builder of them was Daniel Herald. Other canoes built in nearby Lakefield and Peterborough, similarly often got lumped in generically as being "Lakefield" types, or "Peterborough" types. Often, when these things got to foreign shores, they were simply referred to as "Canadian Canoes", no matter who exactly made them. This is why I made the point earlier about 'lineage' as well as trade names. Trade names came along later, often taking advantage of what the general public were already doing - using geographic location names to identify or differentiate between canoes.
When Rice Lake Canoe Co. incorporated under that name in 1899, it was simply an effort by Herald Bros. to use the moniker that most folks already called their canoes - Rice Lake canoes - and had been doing so almost since their father, Dan, began building in 1862. Indeed, as Dick Persson pointed out, it was the same moulds, the same workmen, the same products built in the same place for almost 40 years. Locals used the term "Rice Lake canoe" as an easy way to distinguish Herald's work from the Lakefield crowd, and the Peterborough builders. In changing the company name, the brothers simply capitalized on established name recognition. This is documented by canoe historian and noted authority, Roger MacGregor. Others did the same: Gordon and Strickland became "Lakefield Canoe & Manufacturing Co.", before undergoing four more revisions to that corporate name, all including the place name "Lakefield". That did not make any of their products less or anything other than a Lakefield canoe. In Peterborough, PCC arose from the ashes of Ontario Canoe Co., and became known far and wide for its products. Although it began in 1893, using the corporate name "Peterborough Canoe Co.", it did not get around to registering a trade mark until 1911, 18 years later. And, when it did so, it was NOT the name Peterborough Canoe Co. which was trade marked, nor was it even the oval shaped decal with red center and gold belt surround. What was registered were the three simple words... "The Peterborough Canoe". The company protected for itself the geographic origin name commonly in public use. It seems that generic inclusion and reference was rampant everywhere.
So, besides trade name, incorporated or otherwise, when looking for origins of things, I believe it best not to restrict a search by focusing on trade names, but to look to lineage and geography. Such was the reason behind my original comment. And living as I now do, on the shores of Rice Lake, across from where Dan Herald began the Rice Lake canoe-building tradition, I have begun to appreciate why locals take pride in generically referring to things originating here... to distinguish us, of course, from inferior things made elsewhere.
I hope you manage to trace your great old canoe to its builder, whether it turns out to be from here or not.
