'33 Jo ieisih Librar\ 39002015733208 YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Bought with the income of the D. NEWTON BARNEY FUND THE HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF HUNTINGDON AND OF THE SEIGNIORIES OF CHATEAUGAY AND BEADHARNOIS FROM THEIR FIRST SETTLEMENT TO THE YEAR 18.38 BY ROBERT SELLAR HUNTINGDON, Q. THE CANADIAN GLEANER 1888 Entered according to the act of parliament of Canada, in the year 1 1 by Robert Sellar, at the Department of Agriculture. PREFACE. The following work was undertaken with reluctance and solely from a sense of duty. Soon after coming to Hunting don 1 perceived that the first-settlers were fast passing away and I considered it would be deeply deplored by future gene rations that no narrative of when and how they redeemed the wilderness, no sketch of the kind of men and women they were, should have been preserved. Feeling thus I repeatedly suggested to different friends, qualified by education and long- residence in the district, that they ought to prepare a local history. Not one would listen to my representations. As time passed on I perceived that soon the preparation of such a work would be impossible, and if it was to be done at all I must needs do it myself. My occupation' was a serious hindrance to its prosecution. The publisher of a country newspaper so indifferently supported that its punctual ap pearance weekly depended as much on my labor as a printer as its editor, I could not leave ray office to gather information except at rare intervals and for short periods, and this circum stance has materially affected the completeness of the work. As the value of a history, however humble, depends upon its authenticity, the reader has a right to know the sources from which I drew my information. When I began to prepare for the work, I counted on finding much documentary material. My hopes were quenched in a very short time. Not a letter, diary, or memorandum could I obtain. Repeatedly have I gone with confidence to the families of clergymen and other educated men to ask to be permitted to examine the papers they had left, only to be disappointed. Documents which, to me, would have been of the last consequence I could not ob tain. Speaking from my experience, I would say the idea entertained by Mr Brymner, the keeper of the archives at Ottawa, and others, that there is much documentary material lying hid in families similar to that of the muniment-chests of Great Britain, is a delusion. The destruction of the pipers of the seigniory-office was an irreparable loss to me, which would have been avoided had I assumed the task ten years sooner. Mr Browning did his best to assist me, and his kind ness I here acknowledge. VI PREFACE. Failing to secure documentary sources of information, I had to depend almost entirely upon what I could glean in conver sations with early settlers, and if there ever was a history writ-ten as taken from the lips of actors in or eye-witnesses of the scenes depicted, it is that now submitted. I visited every old settler Ij:ould learn of, and thus listened to what over 300 had to say. There is such a difference among men and women in accuracy of observation and power of memory, that information of this nature has to be carefully dealt with, and the narratives I obtained I compared and sifted, and when I found serious discrepancies or had doubts as to the correctness of what had been told me, I paid more than one visit to the same person; in a few instances, as many as four or five. The work of interviewing was not only labori ous, but too often disagreeable, for my reception was not always gracious. That a sane man should neglect his busi ness and spend his substance on horse-hire to collect old-world stories, and, above all, do so from disinterested motives, was beyond the comprehension of many, and curt answers, sus picious questions, and downright refusals were sometimes my reward for a cold and fatiguing drive over bad roads. In the majority of instances, however, I was kindly received and all the information desired readily conveyed to me. The defects of the book, (and despite all my efforts, I know they are numerous) arise largely from those unavoidable in verbal sources of information, such as inaccuracy in details and in the sequence of events, and the omission of important par ticulars. Those who note errors or the absence of facts which ought to find a place in its pages, w7ill oblige me by communi cating them, so that, should a second edition be called for, the necessary changes may be made. I have scrupulously avoided genealogical details or anything approaching to family his tories, seeking to supply a narrative of the settlement of the district and nothing else. To the general reader it will be too minute; to the inhabitants of the several concessions it will not be minute enough. To hit a medium that would satisfy both was impossible, and I have sought rather to meet the expectations of the residents, without including so many details as to make it tiresome to those who know of Hunting don and her sister-counties only by name. On the lists of old settlers much labor has been spent, and yet I know they are de- fective. The man who cleared a lot seldom had the patent issued in his name, so that in the books of the crown lands department I found little information as to Huntingdon, and the destruction of the seigniory books left no other recourse PREFACE. Vll as to the other 'two counties than the memories of old resi dents. The lists for Franklin and Havelock that I compiled were so incomplete that I could not print them. Of Heraing- ford I could obtain none. In speaking of that township, I would express my obligations to Mr Scriver, M. P., for the great trouble he took in obtaining for me all the information that lay in his power regarding it. No one, with the exception of my friend Mr Younie, did as much to assist me. Touching the sources from which I have drawn my ma terial for the chapters relating to the war of 1812 and the rebellion, I would state that I supplemented what oral infor mation I obtained, by a conscientious examination of all the histories and documents I could obtain access to in Ottawa, Montreal, and Quebec. Because my narrative of the campaign of Hampton and of the encounters at Odelltown differ widely from those previously printed, the reader is not to conclude I am in error. My investigations into the campaign on the Cha- teaugay gave as great a shock to my own preconceptions of it as the account in these pages can to any of its readers. My duty was to follow the best authorities I could find, and I could not reject the despatches and statements of those en gaged on both sides in the campaign and accept the figments that have passed current in Canadian histories. In this, as in other parts of the work, I have reproduced to the best of my ability a true picture of what actually occurred, without considering who would be pleased or offended thereby. In the chapter on the rebellion I have drawn largely from the evidence given in the State Trials. The book is a realization of only part of my design, for I had in view a history of the district to the close of the second Fenian raid. That would have brought in the transition- period in its history, the stage between that of bush-farming and modern culture, the volunteer movement of 1838 and the establishment of the Huntingdon Troop; the introduction of the principle of self-government into scholastic and municipal affairs, a most important yet unwritten chapter in Canadian history; the forming of congregations, and over half came into being after 1838; the building of the Beauharnois canal, with its riots and the creation of Valleyfield ; the drift in political events, from Dunscomb's stormy return to the first election under Confederation ; the rebellion losses ; the social changes wrought in those years; in short, have completed my picture of what I consider to be the formative-period in the life of Canada. I was unable to do so, however, not from want of will or material, but of means, for in publishing the viii PREFACE. book as it stands, I had trenched so far upon my resources that I dared not go farther. Although disappointed in being- prevented from carrying out my design, I have the satisfac tion of knowing that the narrative is complete as an account of the settlement of the three counties. I believe that the book will be of more than local value, and found my belief on these reasons : 1. That it is the first to give a full account, prepared from original sources, of the events of the war of 1812 in this pro vince, for the operations in the first county of Huntingdon comprise all that happened in Quebec during these three eventful years, excepting Wilkinson's "repulse at Lacolle mill. 2. That it is original in giving a minute yet comprehensive picture of how Canada was made : of how its pioneers sub dued the- wilderness and left the country what we find it. There are numberless narratives of life in the bush, there are many county histories ; but this is the first attempt to give the experience not of one or two settlers, but of scores, not colored to make a fascinating book, or told by persons of a romantic disposition, but the unvarnished narratives of men and women whose hands were stiffened and backs bent by the toils and sufferings they relate, and not one of whom would have reduced their stories to writing. How Hunting don and its sister counties were made is a sample of how Ontario and Canada were made, and the making of Canada must form at the base of all true histories of our country. 3. It gives an almost complete history of the rebellion of 1838, for the head and front of the rising of that year was in the district that falls within its scope, while it takes up a -subject which other histories have ignored, the relations of the two races. That the book will be of permanent value I am somewhat doubtful, and while engaged in its preparation I often asked myself, Is the play worth the candle? and considered whether I should not abandon it. After debating the matter the con clusion I always reached was, that though the present genera tion might possibly regard a record of the settlement of the district of Beauharnois as trite and commonplace and dismiss it with disdain, a time would come when some future Buckle or Macaulay would turn to its pages for information on sub jects preserved nowhere else, and the thought (possibly a foolish one) that I was working for future generations, di- cour;iged me to persevere and complete my task, when I had naught else to cheer me. To the Youth of the District of Beauharnois I Dedicate This Book, in the Hope that the Record it Preserves of the Sacrifices its First Settlers Made, of the Privations they Endured in Redeeming It from the Wilderness, and in Defending It against Invasion and Rebellion, may Incite them to Emulate their Self-denying Thrift and Persevering Industry, and Deepen in their Hearts the Sentiment of Loyalty to The Mother Land and of Devotion to The Land of their Birth. Robt. Sellar. HISTORY OF THE SETTLEMENT OF THE DISTRICT OF BEAUHARNOIS. CHAPTER I. THE CREATION OF THE SEIGNIORIES. At the beginning of the present century the hardy emi grant, as he toiled upon his weary way from lake Champlain to the west, on looking down from one of those spurs of the Adirondacks which nearest approach Canada, could see a great plain, stretching northward until ended by a range of hills similar to that on which he stood, whose isolated peaks alone indicate their presence. In the centre of this vast plain, the gleam of the St Lawrence would catch his eye, and the thought could hardly fail to occur to him, that, at some distant period in the past, the forest-covered flat which stretched beneath him, must have been the bed of a great inland sea, with the Adirondacks on the south and the Laurentian range on the north as its shores, and that the mighty river before him is merely its residuum. With that portion of the plain that lies south of the St Lawrence, and is formed into a triangle by the international boundary- line, the base starting at Chateaugay Basin and the apex at St Regis, I have to deal, and my purpose is to tell how this section which, at the opening of the century, was a howling-wilderness, impenetrable save to the Indian as he sought the wild-beast in his lair, has become transformed into one of the most highly cultivated districts in the Do minion. And not alone the interest that must ever attach to narratives of early settlement belongs to the story I 4 THE INDIANS. have to tell, for it will comprise the history of a community distinct from every other in the province of Quebec. With the Eastern Townships, with which they are often erroneous ly classed, the English-speaking settlements of the district of Beauharnois have no affinity. The first settlers of the Eastern Townships were Americans, and between the customs and habits of their descendants and those of the people who live to the south of them there is no material difference, but they who dwell by the Chateaugay and its tributaries are of Old Country stock, and in character, ways of life, and speech present nearly as striking a contrast to the Amer icans, who are divided from them by an imaginary boundary- line, as they do to the French Canadians who are found among- them and who hem them in to the north and east. Thus it comes that my narrative deals not only with an isolated and peculiarly situated portion of the Dominion, but with a community distinct from the neighboring popu lations and possessing a marked individuality. My story is that of the chief settlement in Quebec of Old Country im migrants, of their struggles, their trials, and their triumphs in subduing an inhospitable tract of country, and of their relations with the French-Canadian people, amidst whom they exist like a sand bank in the sea, always threatened with overflow and extinction, yet unchanged and unmoved by the surrounding waters. Of the history previous to the year 1800 of that portion of Canada which lies between the mouths of the Chateaugay and of the St Regis little can be said, and it is a satisfaction to the enquiring mind to know, that this is not only because little has been preserved but that there was little to tell. The country was in a state of nature, and its chief inhabitants were wandering bands of Indians. There had, indeed, been a time when a race superior to Huron or Iroquois possessed the land, for the striking eminence on Nuns' island, and the smaller one on the mainland to the south of it, tell of the presence of that singular people, the Mound Builders. The mound on the island is in admirable preservation and the largest in the Dominion. No attempt at excavation has yet THE SEIGNIORY OF CHATEAUGAY. 5 been made. Considering that the district was a favorite hunting-ground, the fewness of the Indian relics preserved is singular, and attributable, probably, to the heedlessness of the settlers, who cast asidfe the fragments the plow turned up. Along the river-banks, stone arrow-heads, toma hawks, and pottery have been frequently found. On the point on the north bank of the Chateaugay, where the English river unites with it, was a considerable clearing,, which the first settlers believed had been made by the Indians and which they named Indian point. From the quantity of stone weapons and implements which were un earthed, their surmise that the clearance had been the site of an Indian village was a reasonable one. They discovered no iron relic of these times with the exception of a pronged spear, which must have required a handle two inches thick. The traces of the presence of the French during what may be termed the romantic period — the age of exploration and missionary journeyings — are equally dim. While pass ing over lake St Francis, nightfall overtook Champlain off the mouth of the Laguerre, and drawing up his canoes on the shingly beach he kindled his camp fire. From a very early date there must have been a portage-trail ,along the bank from Hungry bay to Melocheville, f < >r the south channel was used by the voyageurs. Although the great river that bounded it was thus a high way, the French obtained no foothold in the district until long after their taking- possession of the country. This arose from the insecurity caused by hostile Indians, and it was not until the subjugation of the tribes by Frontenac, after the massacre at Lachine, that it became safe to attempt a foot hold on the south bank. Isle Perrot and the north shore, as far west as the Cascades, had been dotted with houses,. before a single clearance had been made on the other bank. During Frontenac's time a seigniory G miles broad and 9 deep, was carved out of the bush, and given to Charles L.. Lemoine, seignior of Longueuil. The deed bears date Sept. 29th, 1673, and" the title given to the seigniory was Cha teaugay, a name probably derived from some place in 6 THE SETTLEMENT AT THE BASIN. France* Thirteen years afterwards the seigniory was still ¦ a wilderness, but in 1687 it is believed that, in order to hold it, Mr Lemoine caused to be built on the western point of l'isle St Bernard (Nuns' island) the windmill which still stands there, but now converted into an oratory, and the land bounded by the lake and river w^as surveyed. The lots were laid out long and narrow, so that the settlers could build their houses close together for mutual defence. When the first clearance was made is unascertainable, but from the fact that the Jesuits, who held the neighboring seigniory of Sault St Louis, and had opened a church at Caughnawaga half a century before, deemed it advisable to establish a mission at Chateaugay Basin in 1736, it may be concluded that there existed by that time a respectable settlement, f The log church they erected was used until the end of the century. It stood about a quarter of a mile below the bridge, on the west bank, where its site is indicated by a row of elms. In 1759 one hundred lots had been conceded, the habi tants paying an easy rental of 1 sol (2 cents) for each of the ordinary arpents and a fat fowl for each front arpent. The following year, a band of Indians, belonging to General Am herst's army, traversed the infant settlement. The only *Among the pioneers of Louisiana was a Chateaugay, who afterwards became governor of the French colony of Cayenne. I have been somewhat perplexed as to the spelling of the word. Up to within half a century it was more commonly written without the final u than with it. DeSalaberry, who helped to make the name famous and who was an admirable French scholar, wrote the word Chateaugay, at once pre serving the correct pronunciation and keeping in unison with the rules that govern the spelling of modern French, for the "guay".is antique if not barbarous. In the consoli dated statutes for U. & L. C. the name is given as Chateaugai. f The Jesuits visited the settlement before 1736, however, which is the date when they built a church. The edicts and ordinances of 1722, by which so many parishes were estab lished, says : "This fief having no parish adjoining it, and not being sufficiently settled for one'- to be erected therein, -shall continue to be served as a mission by the missionary to the Iroquois Indians of Sault St Louis." THE SEIGNIORY OF BEAUHARNOIS. 7 incident of their incursion preserved, is that they scalped a man and woman while working in a corn-field, and that one of the two recovered. As it was part of Amherst's policy to conciliate the habitants, the probability is that the settle ment was left unharmed, and that the outrage mentioned was exceptional. On the 25th August, 1764, Miss Marie Anne Robutel de Lanoue sold the seigniory to Madame Youville, foundress of the convent of Grey Nuns at Montreal, for $1322 and a pension of $900 a year. When the transfer took place, 1542 arpents had been conceded on the north side of the river and 2875 on the south, the settlement extending from the St Lawrence to the bridge. Except a small fringe of clearance on either bank of the river, no impression had been made on the forest, and the probability is that the settlers de pended more upon hunting and fishing than on cultivating the soil. When the nuns took possession, they adopted Isle St Bernard for a country residence, there being then an old log-house upon it, 20 x 50 feet, and about 100 arpents under cultivation, but they never lived there in any numbers, and, save in summer, seldom more than three or four were to be found. Five years after becoming owners of the seigniory, the nuns built the first dam, a short distance above the bridge, and a grist-mill, which shows that the settlement had so increased that the old windmill was no longer suffi cient. In 1774 they built the present manor-house, and the old Jesuit church was replaced by a spacious stone edifice, dedicated to St John. While a sleepy little settlement was thus vegetating at the mouth of the Chateaugay, no movement was to be marked either south or west of it. Over fifty years after the creation of the seigniory of Chateaugay, that of Beauharnois, or Villechauve, took place. It was made an exact square, 18 miles each way, and was ceded by the French king to Charles, Marquis de Beauharnois, who was then governor, so that the gift was like one to himself. His brother Claude, a former intendant, was made a partner in the gift. Neither of the brothers availed themselves of the estate, magnificent in 8 ALEXANDER ELLICE. extent at least, though the deed states that it was conveyed to them because they had formed a design of bringing out a colony from France, and because they had given assurance that the land was to be "cleared immediately." The grant to the Beauharnois brothers bears date April 12, 1729. On June 14, 1750, the French king signed a new deed, ceding the seigniory to Lieutenant de Vaisseau, Marquis de Beau harnois, for the reason that he (the king) wished to favor the design, which the marquis had formed, of planting a large settlement upon it.* Nothing was done, and, in 1763, his representative transferred his rights to the Marquis deLot- biniere for $8000. He, also, did nothing towards improving the property, leaving it in a state of nature, for, beyond a few habitants who had crossed over from Isle Perrot and squatted along the lake shore between the foot of the rapids and where Beauharnois now stands, there was not a sign of clearance in its 324 square miles. One of these was Joseph Hainault, grandfather of the late sheriff, who left Isle Pei-rot for the mainland about 1782. The number did not increase until towards the close of the century, when a steady influx from Isle Perrot and the north shore began. DeLotbiniere retained his unproductive purchase until the 30th July, 1795, when he sold it to Alexander Ellice, a member of a great commercial house in London, for 36,000 Spanish dollars. The deed states that Mr Ellice was present at its execution, and that, as he could not speak French nor the notary English, Mr Richardson acted as interpreter. One clause bound Mr Ellice to grant deeds to those wdio had squatted on the seigniory, and whose number is given as about 60. The price seems excessive, and may be accounted for by supposing that the seigniory was either taken in payment of a bad debt, or that there was at the time a speculative demand for wild lands. In support of the latter supposition, it may be stated that Mr Ellice seems to have had a craze *What the cause was for the second deed, which is simply a regrant, I have been unable to ascertain. There may have been some dispute between the heirs of the original grantees THE FIRST SURVEY. 9 for land, and through his agent in Montreal, Mr Richardson of the firm of Richardson, Forsythe & Co., hardware mer chants, was a large buyer of the land scrip offered by militia men and others. Francis Winter, an American, was engaged to act as local agent, and William Waller to make a general survey of the seigniory and lay out in lots a poi-tion of the lands bordering the St Lawrence and the Chateaugay, and this task he seems to have fulfilled in the summer of 1800. In laying out the seigniory he divided it into sections, giving them the names they still bear — Catherinestown, Helenstown, Marystown, Annstown, North and South Georgetown, Orms- town, Jamestown, Williamstown, Edwardstown, and Russel- town, being- the Christian names of Mr Ellice's children. The seigniory itself was named Annfield, after Mrs Ellice, and the chef lieu Annstown (now the town of Beauharnois), which had been selected on account of its being the only bay between Chateaugay Basin and the foot of the rapids, and the only place having water-power, which, even at that date, was utilized, for there was a small sawmill at the mouth of the St Louis, which apparently as early as 1780 began chang ing the noble pine-trees that overhung its waters into boards, which were sold to the habitants on the north shore and rafted to the city. Beyond surveying it, Mr Ellice did nothing towards settling his great estate. He died in 1804. From several old deeds I have examined, I am disposed to believe that he intended each of his children should inherit the portions to which he gave their names. CHAPTER II. THE FORMING OF THE TOWNSHIPS. With the overthrow of French rule ceased, of course, the creating of seigniories, so that, after the American revo lution, when the southern boundary of Canada was estab lished, there lay a vast tract of territory between the seigniories and the frontier, which was called "waste lands." As the seigniories of Chateaugay and Beauharnois occupied the greater part of the wedge-shaped piece of land west of Caughnawaga, there was only a ragged fringe of waste land between them and the United States. The necessity of pro viding for the soldiers who had served in the American war apparently first suggested the propriety of surveying this tract and dividing it into townships. This was done by Mr Chewett, deputy-surveyor-general, in 1788-9, when he defined the boundaries of the non-fief land west of the Richelieu, and which constitutes the present county of Huntingdon, its singular shape arising from its being formed of the gores left after forming the seigniories. Before Mr Chewett sent in his report, the political status of the province underwent a change. Up to 1791 it had been under military rule, which suited the requirements of the country 'very well. The Canada act ended this, and substituted a modified consti tutional system. The;sole territorial division heretofore had been that of the seigniories, but now the English plan of counties, and, where they did not interfere with the seign iories, of townships, was introduced. In May 1792 a procla mation was issued dividing the province into 21 counties, all of them, with six exceptions, bearing such English names as Devon, Hertford, Kent, and York. Out of the district lying west of the Richelieu a large county was formed and named Huntingdon. The choice of name governed the sub divisions, and Mr Chewett, who did not file his report until THE COUNTY OF HUNTINGDON. 17 1795, took from old Huntingdon the names Hemingford* Godmanchester, Hinchingbrook for three of his townships. Each county was allotted the right to send two members to the legislative assembly then constituted. The election was held in June, the month following the issue of the proc lamation, when Hypolite St George Dupre and C. C. Larimier were returned for Huntingdon. The poll was opened at St Phillipe and probably the two members were from that neighborhood. The thus forcing constitutional government upon the habitants was a great absurdity, for they had no conception of it and were unfitted for self-government. They took what was meant by the Imperial authorities to be a privilege as a deep-laid plot to tax them, and regarded the poll as a place to be tabooed, and whoever voted as an enemy of the country. So strong was this ignorant delusion, that twenty years after the electoral system was introduced, there were large parishes whose inhabitants boasted that a vote had never been given by them. The consequence was, that, outside the towns, for many years, the holding of elections was nominal, and the members returned went in by acclamation. These members were, with few exceptions, so ignorant that they could not read or write. The intention of dividing the land surveyed by Mr Chewett among the veterans of the American war was carried out to a limited extent only. A large portion of Godmanchester (which then included St Anicet) was so ceded and a small part of Hinchinbrook. The recipients sold their claims, which were bought up mainly for Mr Ellice at trifling cost, with the exception of a party of them*who formed a settle ment on the 2nd range of St Anicet, and which dotted the ridge from Ogilvie's hill to the Laguerre. When that settle- ment was formed, who belonged to it, and what its experience was, I have been unalile to ascertain. This alone is known, * The additional m seems to have crept in from an idea that the township was named after a person by the name of Hemming. The dropping of the g in Hinchinbrook fol lowed its ordinary pronunciation. 12 PLANS OF SETTLEMENT. that, at the outbreak of the war in 1812, it was abandoned, and when the first immigrants came, they found a row of some ten roofless shanties and of clearings covered with' saplings. What was to be done with the wild lands outside the seigniories perplexed the executive very much. The simple plan of throwing them open -to actual settlers does not seem to have occurred to those who then governed the province. Being deeply imbued with aristocratic ideas, they sought after the creation of a territorial gentry, and proposed to grant the townships to cadets of English houses, who, they expected, would get the land settled by a class of farmers who would pay them rent. Nay more, one-seventh of the land was to be reserved for the support of a clergyman of the Church of England, so that each township would have its rector as well as its magnate. Had the plan worked, we would have had in the towrnships the Old Country system of tenants and landlords — of a hun dred farmers paying rent to a little autocrat. They might as well have proposed to establish the Highland clan system. It was impracticable, and the only result of the attempt was that a number of favorites got large grants of wild lands which they did nothing whatever to improve. The plan was subsequently modified by granting each township to a leader and associates, the former paying the survey and patent-fees and selling the lots at what he could to his associates and others. It is pitiful to see how, in these critical years, the rulers of the province were trammelled by antiquated and impracticable ideas, when, under a common- sense policy of selling to whoever would clear the land, the townships might have been thickly settled by Old Country men. In 1792 Walter Dibblee of St Johns was instructed to survey Hemingford, and was followed the next year by Joseph Kilburn, who was directed to lay it out into farms, excepting the portions reserved for the clergy and for the crown. He completed his field-work that fall, and drew his plans at his home at Longueuil, transmitting them to Quebec LAND GRANTS. 13 in March, 1794. In his report, he stated that he had made the lots as uniformly 200 acres in extent as possible, with an allowance of 5 per cent, for roads, and that he had left two blocks undivided, one of 8,075 acres for the clergy and one of 7,220 for the crown. The total acreage he had divided into lots was 58,600, and of it he wrote: "The land is very good, and fit for the cultivation of any kind of grain peculiar to this country. Timbered chiefly with birch, bass- wood, maple, hemlock, some pine, butternut and elm, except the swamps, which are cedar and spruce. The land is well- watered, and there are some falls in the different rivers which will admit of good mill seats." In 1793 W. Walker Was sent to begin the survey of Hinchinbrook and was followed by Henry Holland the same season. They did not complete their task, however, for in 1801 J. Rankin finished what they had left undone. Hemingford and Hinchinbrook were erected into townships by proclamation of Governor Sir A. Clarke. The first large grant in the Huntingdon townships is dated January 3, 1779, when General Prescott deeded over 7000 acres in Hinchinbrook to Gilbert Miller, and in March follow ing nearly 40,000 acres to Robert Miller. Of these persons, I can learn nothing, and they were probably given these grants as being favorites of the government. They and others, to whom like grants were subsequently made, never visited their domains nor did anything towards settling them. Of all to whom grants were made, probably' Robert. Ellice and the other heirs of Alexander Ellice, alone realized any thing. In 1811 they got a grant of 25,592 acres in. God manchester and of 3719 in Hinchinbrook, in settlement of the land claims their father had bought from old soldiers. These lands were held, some as long as 70 years, by the Ellice family until sold to actual settlers at high prices. While the government was moving thus bunglingly in the matter of settling the townships, a movement set in which resulted in a portion of them being taken up. The agitation of the American colonists to throw off their allegiance to Great Britain was not the unanimous one that is generally 14 THE UNITED EMPIRE LOYALISTS. supposed. There was no inconsiderable number who held that so extreme a step was unjustifiable and who exerted themselves in opposition to it. When hostilities began, many who thought thus left their homes and joined the king's troops. Those who remained on their farms, where the in surgents had control, were subjected to cruel persecutions by their neighbors. The legislatures of several states passed acts confiscating the property of all who refused to swrear fealty to the new republic; that of Massachusetts went further, it ordered them into banishment. Wherever de prived of the protection of the British army, those who remained true to the king, had neither liberty of speech nor pen. It became the fashion to organize mobs to visit the houses of people whose only crime was devotion to the gov ernment of their fathers, and outrages, often too disgraceful to detail, were perpetrated upon them and their families. When a man like John Adams recommended "to fine, im prison, and hang all inimical to the cause " of separation from Great Britain, it may be imagined to what excesses the lower classes would proceed. Many loyalists from terror, for the sake of their children, or to save their property, took the oath of allegiance to the republic, but there was a noble remnant, who would not do violence to their principles, and, abandoning all their hard earnings, fled to some place where they could enjoy peace and liberty under the British flag.' Of the tens of thousands who, at the end of the war, thus left the United States for conscience' sake, a number sailed to Great Britain, many to the West Indian islands, but the greater part emigrated to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Canada. Many of the latter number came by way of lake Champlain, and of those who did, not a few took up land on the banks of the Richelieu. As the families of these loyalists grew up, the sons had to find homes for themselves, and naturally did so by moving back into the bush, and so became the first settlers of Hemingford Another, and much more powerful agency in settling the townships came into being about the same time. The sterile New England States had become overpopulated, and as the THE INFLUX FROM NEW ENGLAND. 15 manufacturing interest was then in its infancy, the rising generation was forced to look for other lands to till. In reading the chronicles of these times, it is curious to note how the country west of lake Champlain was regarded in the same light as the people of our day look upon the North west — as a field for immigration. The talk of the groups who gathered in Vermont stores or Massachusetts taverns of an evening was of the level plains that lay between the Richelieu and lake Ontario, and every summer prospecting parties set out whose, reports were awaited with feverish anxiety. Every excellence under the sun was attributed to the western country, and it is not wonderful that, even to its climate, it should have deeply impressed those who, until then, had known nothing better than the stony ridges and narrow intervales of New England. Shrewd men were not slow in turning the emigration-movement to their own profit. Speculators bought up great tracts of land as far wrest as the Genessee valley and then sent agents to go from one New England school district to another, lecturing on the Arcadias of Clinton or St Lawrence counties and selling lots at from $2 an acre upwards. From this great column of emigrants, who kept streaming towards the Black river and the St Lawrence, and settling the intervening places on the way to them, there were not a few stragglers who left the beaten path, and of those a large number of families turned northward and sought homes in what is now the district of Beauharnois. CHAPTER III. THE FIRST SETTLERS IN THE TOWNSHIPS. Who was the first to enter the townships with the inten tion of making them his home, it is impossible to ascertain. That they had settlers at a much earlier date than is com monly supposed is certain. Henry Holland, while surveying Hinchinbrook, casually jots down in his field notes that he had to suspend- work on the first concession from want of provisions, that he made a raft to go down the Chateaugay to get those he had left on lot 7, and that about four miles down he met the first settlement, which, must have been near Huntingdon village. Who that settler was is unknown; it may have been Baxter, or some other American, on lot 24 or 25. That was in 1793. In a legal document, Squire Manning affirmed that Asa Smith, from whom he bought 48, second range of Hinchinbrook, had taken possession in 1788. That the French Canadians at the Basin must have become familiar, while lumbering or hunting, with the upper reaches of the Chateaugay is obvious, and that some straggler from the column of emigrants who were passing from lake Champlain to lake Ontario may have raised his caboose in the woods to the north of the frontier-line, is probable. Of these adventurers, whether Leatherstockings tempted by the game that abounded, plunderers of the magnificent gi-oves of oak that bordered the rivers, or humble potash-makers, no record is now to be recovered. All that can be said with certainty is, that up to 1800 such settlers must have been few and far between. The earliest settler of whom I have been able to ascertain any particulars is Eustache Dupuis, and his story has a touch of the romantic. When Nova Scotia passed under the British sway, there dwelt in the Western settlement of Acadia an old French couple, named EUSTACHE DUPUIS. 17 Dupuis, who had four sons, all of whom had served in defence of the colony. Resolute in their determination not to take the oath of allegiance, the four brothers decided on fleeing to Canada, where the French flag still waved. The waters of the Gulc being blockaded by British cruisers, their only hope of reaching their compatriots on the St Lawrence was by going through New England. Shouldering their muskets and carrying a small iron pot and some peas, they traversed the shores of the Bay of Fundy, and after a journey of many privations and which lasted 9 weeks, they walked into Boston, where, owing to word coming of Wolfe's victory on the plains of Abraham, they stayed. Events moved fast. The downfall of French rule on this continent removed the great obstacle to the American colonies leaving the protection of the Mother Country, and the revolution began. As was generally the case, our four Acadians sided ' with Britain, and, after a stay of some 8 or 9 years in Boston, made for Canada. One brother found a home at L'Acadie in Laprairie, where his descendants, a numerous host, still are, another settled at Jacques Carrier, and a third went to the Northwest. The fourth, Eustache, found a wife at LaPierrc river, opposite the Sault, and stayed there some time, leaving it for Chateaugay Basin, where two of his sons, Benjamin and Norbert, -were baptized. A proclama tion being issued, declaring Godmanchester open for American refugees, and offering all who would go 3 years' provisions, Eustache, who had no land of his own, accepted the offer. In 1795 he moved his young family, the oldest being six, to lots 48 and 49, 1st range. When he came, there was no settler west of where Valleyfield now stands, though then, or soon after, Knight, of Dutch origin, built a shanty on what is now known as Knight's point. East of Knight, opposite Grande isle, lived Dunn, of like descent. Hungry bay and all west of it was a desolation, the only frequenters being the Indians, whose occasional wigwams were seen, where they pitched them for fishing or hunting, and, in winter the shanties of lumbermen, as they plundered the woods. Dupuis,. himself a lumberman, attacked the giant pines, that grew 18 FRENCH SQUATTERS ON THE LAKESHORE. thick behind his humble shanty on the lakeshore, and by the sale of masts maintained his family. His third son, Norbert Benjamin, was an infant when he came, and he was baptized et the church at the Cedars. The nearest mill was at Corn wall, and to it he went until that of Fort Covington was tmilt, and that at St Timothy. To reach the latter was ¦dangerous, and skill was needed to save the flour from being wetted by the foaming waters of the rapids. Dupuis had no neighbor for a year or so, when Genier, a retired officer, who had been granted lot 26 for his services, came, and was followed by Chretien, on lot 28, and by Delonne dit LeMay on No. 32. The Cazas came next, and being a large family of stout young men, they made their mark, all taking up lots, except Baptiste, who lumbered along the Laguerre. L'Ecuyer took up lot 27. All these men were Acadians. Cascagnette squatted on lot 50, and so became neighbor to Dupuis. On ifche point of Cascagnette's lot were buried those who died in the infant settlement, but so great was Dupuis' repugnance to using unconsecrated ground, that, when his wife died in 1828, he placed the coffin in a canoe and paddled it to the church yard of St Regis. He was a famous builder of large canoes, which were called in those days peeros, a corruption of pi rogue. These canoes were hollowed out of the largest pines obtainable and were blunt at both ends. For common use the smaller . and- speedier canoes of , Indian model superseded them. In 1835 the old pioneer sank to his rest at the good old age of 84, and was placed beside his wife. Up to the last, though most anxious to hear of their fate, he never learned aught of the parents he left so sadly in Acadia, In addition to those enumerated, J. B. Carrier took up his abode at a very early date on the site of St Anicet village, a little west ¦of Masson's store. He lived to see his 101st year. Bercier, 'Quenneville, Saucier, and Desvoyans wrere on the shore west •of him. Dupuis and the other settlers named were, in the ¦eyes of the law, squatters, for, whether entitled or not to their lots, they neglected to draw patents for them, and held them, when their titles were questioned, by prescription. Dupuis' claim to the lots he lumbered on was disputed by JAMES FISHER. 19 Ellice, but unsuccessfully. His son Antoine, for services during the war of 1812, in carrying despatches from Chat eaugay Basin to Coteau and Cornwall, was rewarded by a grant of 200 acres and the title of major. He died at St Anicet village when 94 years old. He was wont to relate the dangers he ran of being captured and shot when the Ameri can flotilla under Wilkinson blocked the river below Cornwall Meanwhile a settlement was growing up at the other extremity of the county. At an early period, possibly 1795, a Dutch American, Jonathan Wettson, took up land on the front range of Hemingford and others squatted near him None of them remained long. The first influx of permanent settlers was in 1800, when several families of U. E. Loyalists moved from Lacolle and neighborhood into Hemingford. The first to go was a Scotchman, James Fisher. He was a native of Killin, Perthshire, could speak Gaelic, and his parents emi grated to the United States when he was 12 years of age. Following the fortunes of the British arms, he left all and sought a new home at the head of lake Champlain, near Alburgh. On the townships being surveyed it was found that the boundary-line, established in 1771-2, was wrongly located in places, and that Fisher was actually in the United States and not in Canada as he supposed. Determined to make sure this time, he sought and obtained a lot in Heming ford, receiving the patent for No. 4, 1st range, in March, 1799. While at Alburgh he had married. Before sleighing went, in the spring of 1800, he moved his family, all youDg, on to his new possession. He had for his neighbor, Squire Wettson, who, by this time, had a large clearing. The road was a mere ox-track, and on the north side of it, Fisher built his house, the site of which is still marked by the apple-trees he planted and the family-graveyard, in which the hardy pioneer rests. He was followed by Frederick Scriver, who left his home in Duchess county, N.Y., in 1790, the year when it became ap parent to the most sanguine loyalists that they could not remain and hold their property without taking the oath of allegiance to the republic. He followed the stream of those, like-minded with himself, who were going up lake Champlain, 20 FREDERICK SCRIVER. and took up land near Lacolle. .. After remaining there ten years he considered he could improve his circumstances by joining in the westward movement, and accordingly took up lots 61 and 62 in Hemingford. He, also, built on the north side of the road, and a ruined foundation and the remains of an orchard mark the site. As the stream of immigrants increased, he accommodated them by opening a house of entertainment, which proved to be of great convenience. A rude road was made north of his house, winding along the low ridges to avoid the marshy land, and on the -west side of it Hypolite Senecal squatted, and a little north of him, on the east side, another French Canadian, named Durivage. This crooked road was joined by a path which led between the 3rd and 4th ranges. On the east end of it, along the Little Montreal river, a number of Americans squatted, and made such extensive clearances that, when they abandoned them in 1812, they came to be known' as "the commons," and cattle wrere sent from a distance " to graze upon them. At the west end of the road, on 48, was Messenger, on 154 Daniel Norton, who lived on the west branch of the creek to which his family gave the name, and north of him, on the main branch of it, on 189, Ebenezer Norton, all Ameri cans. Northeast of the Nortons, an important settlement was begun in 1802 by the moving in from Duanesburgh,.N.Y., of John Manning, who took up 183 and 184 on the 4th range. Whether Isaac Wilsea, familiarly styled Colonel Wilsea, preceded him on 182, it has been impossible to ascer tain, but the probability is that he did by a year or two. Of Mr Manning, who proved a leading spirit in the eastern end of the county, I will have a good deal to say. The in ducement to select his lot was the abundance of ash and elm that covered an old beaver-meadow. The place is now desolate, a few poplar-trees and the remains of an old wall alone indicating where once a bustling homestead stood. One of Mr Manning's children dying, he fenced in a portion of his clearance, and it, by his consent, became the common burying-place for the northern part of Hemingford. In the spring of 1809 he was appointed a justice of the peace, and DIFFICULTIES IN TRAVELLING. 21 took the qualifying oath in August, before David Ross of Montreal. In 1810 he and S. Z. Watson (presumably a son of Jonathan Wettson), were appointed commissioners to take oaths per dedimus potestatem, to facilitate crown lands' transactions. All the settlers named found much difficulty in getting into their new homes, for the country between the Richelieu and Hemingford was not merely a wilderness, but one broken by wide swamps. Those unable to move during winter, had to drag their goods on oxsleds over bush-tracks frequently covered by a foot of water. The late Colonel Scriver was wont to relate how he, although only a boy of ten years of age, was entrusted, when his family journeyed to their new home, with an oxsled. Falling behind, he lost his way in the long hollow a mile east of Clelland's Corners. To add to his perplexity, while making his slow way through a long stretch of water, something broke about the sled, and while engaged in vain efforts to repair the injury, darkness over took him. Realizing the danger of his situation, he aban doned the oxen, and groping his way through the thick forest, his bare feet sore and bleeding, he finally found the little opening in the leafy wilderness where his father had raised a new home. Among the sorest trials of this particular family, was the loss of their only cow, during the second winter, by the awkwardness of a chopper in felling a tree. Of these early days of Hemingford little can be said, Apparently less progress was made than in Franklin or on the Chateaugay. The mainstay of the settlers was potash, and, as it rose as high as $60 a barrel, and two men could fill a barrel in a month, the making of it yielded good wages. It was hauled on ox-sleds to Montreal by way of St Remi, which, it is right to observe here, was then an American settlement, and there were no French to be met for 4 miles north of it. Both Roxham and Odelltown were also purely American settlements,' and more populous and thriving than they are to-day. On getting seed into the land it yielded heavy crops of wheat, corn, and potatoes ; the wheat some times gave 30 bushels to the acre. The nearest mill was 22 JAMES O'NEILL. Judge Moore's, at Champlain, N.Y., and it was not until 1810 that the road to it became fit for wheeled vehicles. Boards had to he drawn from there, so that it was long before sawn lumber was used largely in building. Without having much variety of food, the settlers were never pinched. At first, Indian meal had to be mixed with the flour to make it go further, and there was no pork save what was bought in Montreal or Champlain, but that did not last long. Game, which was abundant in all the other settlements, was particu larly so in Hemingford, and venison and bear's-meat, "bush- pork" the settlers called it, were frequently on the table. The country at that time was visited by immense flocks of pigeons, and John Manning, who had a net for snaring them, was in the custom of salting hundreds of them for winter. While the south-eastern part of Hemingford was thus slowly filling up, another settlement was in progress on the eastern slope of Covey Hill. It was apparently begun by James O'Neill in the spring of 1797. He was a native of Limerick, and had been educated for the Church of England. Instead of taking orders, he emigrated to Pennsylvania, where he married. On the war of the revolution breaking out, he enlisted, and served in the Royal Regiment of High land Emigrants, seeing some active service. On the war ending he was discharged, and proceeded to Canada. After some delay, a grant of 200 acres, lot 32, was allotted to him, and he proceeded to occupy it, arriving on the 18th April, 1797. The country was in its primitive state, wild beasts abounding. O'Neill used to relate that they never caused in him a feeling of dread save once when, while returning from Champlain with a bag of flour on his shoulders, a pack of wolves suddenly rushed past, a little in front of him; happily for him, too much engaged in the object of their pursuit to see him. The year following, he got neigh bors, though not near ones, in the persons of Nicholas Sweet and his two brothers-in-law. Sweet was a native of Ver mont. During the war he served as a soldier on the revolu tionary side, was made a prisoner at the battle of Bennington, and was sent to Montreal, where he took the oath -of NICHOLAS SWEET. 23 allegiance to King George and enlisted in the British service- as a drummer. At the peace he gpt his discharge, returned home, and married. Having a hankering for Canada, he determined to make it his home, and with two brothers-in- law, Grouse and Oliver, started northward about 1798, and squatted on the three first lots of Havelock, their inducement in choosing them being the bonus of $200 offered by Wool- rich to those who would clear 30 acres on any of his lots. At the same time as Sweet and his relatives came, a family, probably Scotch and loyalist refugees from the States, moved in from Sorel, the father, 'Rach Gordon, taking up lot 17 and the son 16. The very day they arrived, the old man lifted his, gun and a small keg of liquor they had brought, saying he would look around and see if there was anything to shoot, his purpose being to hide the keg for his own use. He did not return and all search proved futile. Half a century after, when the family had gone, a rusty musket barrel, with the rings that bound it to the stock, and a few scraps of hoop-iron, were found in the woods towards the Flats, and those who had heard their parents talk of the disappearance of old Gordon, believed the relics were of him, that he had got drunk and, wandering in the woods, lost • his way, and perished. Thus the liquor-habit began its history of woe in Huntingdon. In 1801 the settlement received a large accession, the most prominent of the new-comers being Andrew Gentle, of whom, as a leading settler, a few details are required. He was a native of Stirlingshire, Scotland, and was born the year when the hopes of the Stewart dynasty were blasted on Culloden Moor. He w^as brought up to the business of maltinan and brewer, which, in those days, Avhen milk was scarce and tea almost unknown, was a good one, every town and village in Scotland having its brewer of table-beer, which -was the only beverage used at meals by the middle classes. A certificate, as to his good character and standing, from the parish minister of Dunblane, showTs he had been a resident of that place for 12 years in 1784, the year when he emigrated to America. On reaching the United States 24 THE SWEET SETTLEMENT. he got employment at his calling in New Jersey, where he lived several years and where he married again (for he was a widower when he left the Old Country), his choice being Anne Yale of Connecticut, a member of the well-known New Haven family. They moved to Vermont, where in Charlotte, a small village on Lake Champlain, he found employment at his business, which he afterwards left upon purchasing a farm of 50 acres some distance from it. Cherishing a deep love for the mother land, the abuse of Great Britain and her institutions, epidemic among our neighbors during the French Revolution, and which they carried to a great length, was distasteful to him and he wanted to get back under the old flag, to which ho was the more urged by the heavy taxes that then pressed upon the republic. Packing up his effects, he moved, as stated, into Hemingford, and occupied lot 19. Opposite to him, on 70, was Dady, on 69 was James Gilfillan, a Highlander, and adjoining were Oliver Hubbell, William Brisbin, and Samuel Covey, all Americans. The little com munity lived in great harmony and in a state of mutual helpfulness. When Sweet had earned the bonus, he bought lot 20 from Captain Ephraim Sanford, who was on half-pay, for $150, and which he designed as -a homestead. He moved on to it in 1805, which was a memorable year from a cyclone visiting the settlement. It was in June, while he was logging on his new lot, assisted by neighbors, that Sweet observed a fearful looking cloud suddenly loom up in the north-west, and move in- their direction with incredible speed. The men fled for shelter, and in the rush the oxen got abeam of a big rock (still to be seen on the south side of the road), when the yoke snapped and they ran different ways. The men got into Gentle's shanty, but the first blast lifted off the roof, when they rushed out and flung themselves on the ground, amid the roar of the storm and the crashing of falling trees. The blast soon passed to the southeast, and the men looked with awe on the destruction it had wrought. For about 1 \ miles in width it had mown a clear track through the forest, the trees being levelled. One of the oxen was found killed, the other could not be seen, and it was only after searching THE CYCLONE. 25 a day or two that it was found pinned in a hollow by a fallen tree, and with its back worn bare in the effort to escape. The poor beast was released and did good service after that. Several cows were killed, and a man, who hap pened to be passing over the hill at the time, had a narrow escape. Sweet had sown two acres with wheat,, and it was so covered with debris that it was lost. The calamity was so discouraging, that the settlers were for abandoning their homes, believing that to clear up the land, encumbered with the fallen trees, was impossible for them. The year after, Covey moved to 33, beside O'Neill, and although he was not the first settler upon it, for O'Neill was 9 years before him, tho hill came to be known by his name. With his life on Covey hill I will deal presently. Up to 1812 a number of Americans came in and there was quite a settlement from Covey's down to Sweet's. A school was opened in the barn of one of Sweet's brothers-in-law, who lived on the Havelock line, and there was preaching occasionally by itinerant minis ters from across the frontier. Sweet had brought with him from Vermont a mare, and, by-and-by, had a team, which, as the only horses in the settlement, were in request when a couple had decided to face life together, and wanted to go to Mooers, N.Y., to find a justice to make them one. After a prosperous career of eight years or so, the settle ment began to decay, the cause being the inability of the settlers to buy their lots out and out. A wealthy Montreal merchant, James Woolrich, believing that wild lands would prove a good investment, began, as Mr Ellice was doing in the western end of the county, to buy up the claims and patents of those to whom land had been granted in Heming ford, and few of whom had gone to see them. In this way, for a nominal sum, he acquired, between the years 1798 and 1816, about 12,000 acres. He purposed to hold the land in his own name, renting to tenants on terms somewhat similar to those of the seigniories. To actual settlers he would sell for a nominal price, subject to a perpetual low yearly rental, payable to him and his successors. His design was to create, as near as might be, a seigniory out of township land. He 26 DECLINE OF THE SETTLEMENT. did little to facilitate the settlement of the blocks of land he acquired beyond building a small grist and sawmill on the English river, on lot 117, about 1808. It had a run of stones for wheat and another for com, and the miller was a Scotchman, Archibald Muir, who subsequently settled in Franklin. When the settlers (several of whom had taken up lots under the belief that they belonged to the crown) came to understand that Mr Woolrich would not give them absolute possession of the land, but that, on getting over theft first difficulties, they would have to begin and pay him rent, they were much annoyed and contemplated abandoning their improvements and taking up land of which they would be unconditional owners. They were the more disposed to do so, from their knowledge that, west of them, lay a country superior to that in which they were. Every season families went past their doors to settle in what was then called Russeltown, now Franklin, and several of them, among them Mr Gentle, resolved to do likewise. The finishing-blow to the settlement came in the summer of 1812, when a procla mation wras issued requiring all foreign-bom residents to take the oath of allegiance or leave the country. With a few exceptions, the Americans declined to become British subjects, and left. Covey was among those who left at the outbreaking of the war, and his life during his stay on Covey hill was so peculiar that it deserves describing. His father, Samuel Covey, was reputed to be of Irish descent, and moved from New York state at the close of the revolution and settled at Alburgh with the other loyalists. In recognition of his sacrifices for the British cause, he received a grant of lot 33, on the 1st range of Hemingford, and not caring to live upon it himself, he gave it to his oldest son, Samuel, on his mar riage with the daughter of a neighbor-loyalist, and they went through the wilderness to take possession. They stayed (as has been related) for some time in the Sweet settlement, and then moved upwards to their lot. While building a shanty, they lodged in Gilfillan 's, which had for a door a large piece of elm-bark. Gilfillan was among those wdio had moved, off SAMUEL COVEY. 27 Woolrich's land and had squatted on 134. Covey was a cooper and he raised beside his shanty a log-shop, where he made the wooden-dishes, called keelers, used in the dairy before tin-pans were known, and tubs and pails and potash barrels. Small as was his custom he did not attend to it, for he was a born-hunter, and gloried in the wilderness in which he was placed. He shot moose and trapped beaver, being, probably, the last to do so in Huntingdon, together with innumerable deer and smaller game. The spoil he thus obtained mainly furnished his table, and Mrs Covey found the flesh of the moose to more nearly resemble beef than anything he brought, and the bones to be full of marrow. During his frequent absences, she passed the nights in terror of wild beasts, but her fear of Indians was still greater. These denizens of the forest roamed the slopes of.jCovey hill and the wilderness to the south of it in search of game, and keenly resented the intrusion of white men in their pursuits, holding that all wild animals pertained to them and carrying out their doctrine by confiscating any skins they found in their possession. Knowing this, -when she saw Indians ap proach, Mrs Covey hid any furs there might be in the house. Her greatest fright was caused by the sudden appearance of two Indians and four squaws, who coolly appropriated the cooper-shop as their place of abode. The untutored savages had no more conception of the rights of property than of the proprieties, and with stolid unconsciousness that they were doing anything wrong, plucked the ears of the corn on the scanty patch and searched over the little shanty as if it were their own. Only one place they failed to explore, the bed, and under it Mrs Covey had concealed the furs then on hand. She had raised some flax the summer before, had spun it, and got it woven at some distant settlement, and was now cutting the cloth so obtained into garments. She missed a sleeve and other portions, and managed to make known her loss to an Indian, who could speak a few words of English. He said nothing, but, when leaving, a young squaw, who had purloined the cloth, at his instance, restored it, with a pair of moccasins and some toys for the infant, 28 LIFE ON THE HILL. showing that the sense of right survives in the human breast even when the conscience is unenlightened. To Mrs Covey's great relief, her unwelcome visitors then left. Mention has been made of an infant. When it was about to be born, she had gone on a visit to her father's, wdiere she was delivered, and returned again to her lonely home on the hill-top, clasp ing the little Rachel to her bosom. Necessarily a close intimacy grew between her and her nearest neighbor, the O'Neills, so much so that when either she or Mrs O'Neill had occasion to leave home, they entrusted to one another the care of their children. Before she left the hill, four children were born to Mrs Covey. To fill their little mouths, Covey still, with the carelessness of a hunter, relied more on his gun than on enlarging and cultivating his clearance, and moose meat was more common than bread. When he had a grist, or had money, obtained by selling furs, to pur chase flour, he went to Chateaugay. At first he made the journey on foot, carrying the bag, but latterly he got a pony to bear it, and he would start out with a hatchet in his belt to blaze the trees and his gun over his shoulder. When the pony had to be fed, he fastened a rope to its neck and wrapping the other end round his wrist he slept while it grazed. For this rude life Covey was adapted by nature, for though under the average stature, he was thickset and of great strength. He was wont to relate that he was only once in peril of his life. He fired at a large bull moose and wounded it, when the infuriated animal dashed at him before he could reload. His presence of mind did not desert him, and as the brute neared him he stepped behind a small tree. With lowered head the animal did not see him move, and ran against the tree, its horns branching on either side. Before it could recover from the stun, Covey had killed it. The lake and gulf were part of his trapping-ground, and he stated, when he first saw the latter, its sides were so thickly covered with large trees, that their tops almost met. Several years afterwards, in 1825, when the Huckleberry rock was swept bare by fire, these trees were destroyed. The food of the little household consisted of the fruits of the LEVI STOCKWELL. 29 chase, boiled corn, and occasionally, wheat-bread. The wheat he raised was so affected by smut, that it had to be washed before taking to mill. The cause of his not going to Wool- rich's mill, was that the intervening country wras so wet that he could seldom reach it with a horse. When war broke out in 1812, he listened at last to the entreaties of his wife, who had long desired to leave the hill, and, selling his lot to Woolrich, he retired to La Tortue, so far inland as to be out of reach of the coming storm, having lived on the hill 7 years. At La Tortue he stayed a year and moved to Clarenceville, when he entered the army, and was one of the guides in Prevost's expedition to Plattsburgh, during which he was threatened with death on suspicion of misleading a column of the army. About 1830 he moved into Franklin and settled down with his brothers, James, Enos, and Archi bald, on 51 of the 1st range. His love of the chase clang to him and, like all hunters, he was poor. While on a visit to his son John at Gananoque, Ont., he died, at the age of 86, and the following year his faithful partner, who had accom panied him to their son's, was laid beside him. I have been minute in describing the fortunes of Samuel Covey, because no ordinary interest attaches to him, from his name being associated for all time with the only hill in the district. North of Covey hill, on Russeltown Flats, a settlement sprung up at the beginning of the century. I do not here speak of it, reserving what little I have been able to recover of its early days for the chapter on Havelock, and pass on to note the successive steps by which the settlers pushed westward from Covey's shanty on the brow of the hill, where the road, or, more properly speaking, track, bent northwards and passed over the shoulder of the hill and came out at the line between 134 and 136, where lived Levi Stockwcll and his son David, whose name has been perpetuated in that of the postoffice. Stockwcll had served on the American side in the war of the revolution and to qualify him to draw his pension lived part of the year on the American side of the line. He was much addicted to drink, and the surprise was common that one so dissipated should live so long. 30 JACOB MANNING. The road from Stockwell's west followed, with slight varia tions, its present course, and grew out of the track made by those journeying into Franklin to take up land. The first shanties encountered were those of Jacob Manning, lots 15 and 16, and his brother-in-law, Gilbert Mayne, lots 13 and 14. Manning's father, though a loyalist, was several times drafted, and escaped serving in the American army by sup plying substitutes. When the Royalist cause became hopeless he left Poughkeepsie and settled at the head of lake Cham plain. His son Jacob, when old enough to be doing for himself, went to Montreal and worked with Mayne on several contracts, one of which was macadamizing St Paul-street, about the first, if not the first, attempt of the kind in Canada. Resolving to have homesteads of their own, they visited Huntingdon, and decided on Franklin. They moved in the spring of 1804, going by way of lake Champlain. At that time there was no road, merely a rude track through the woods. Having some money, they both brought con siderable stock and made a good start. Their choice of lots was guided by the splendid timber for 'ashes that covered them, and they did not see that the land was as stony as it proved. The potash they made, they hauled on sleds by a bush-track to a point on the Chateaugay a little below the blockhouse, whence it went by canoe to the Basin. At the same time, or the year before, a German, Jacob Mitchel, who had long been resident in the United States and where he had got an Irish wife, penetrated deeper into Franklin and squatted on 48 of the second range. His name has been preserved by being associated with the brook whose crystal waters danced swiftly by his lonesome hut. He was followed by a large number of Americans, who came in both by Chateaugay, N.Y., and the Covey hill road. Strange to say, Franklin was of high repute among the land-hunters of these days. The grass was greener and more abundant than in Hemingford, abounding with springs and brooks there were no swamps, and the seasons were deemed earlier and milder. The magnificent growth of hardwood that clad the pleasant slopes was looked upon not merely as valuable ANDREW GENTLE. 31 for potash but as an indication of the richness of the soil, the stones in which were not discerned, being buried deep in the forest-litter of ages. Settlers kept streaming in, so that when the war broke out in 1812, Franklin was more thickly populated than Havelock or Hemingford. Of those who came in during this period, few proved permanent settlers. The chief of them was Andrew Gentle, who, moved by the reports of tlie superiority of Franklin, visited it in 1808 with the view to pick out a lot, when he selected No 3 on the 2nd range. His choice was decided by a spring which poured forth an abundant stream of the purest water, and beside which he built a shanty, which stood where the road now runs. It was somewhat better than common, for it had 3 windows of 5 panes each, the flooring was basswood slabs, and for the loft there were sawn boards, drawn laboriously from Woolrich's mill and which were the only ones in the settlement. These boards had a singular destiny, for they were taken one by one to make coffins as deaths occurred. Having got a place ready, he moved his family in the follow ing March, the household goods being packed in two sleds, each drawn by an ox, the sleighs being made narrow to pass between, the trees on the rude , track that led to his new home. He also brought four cows with him. That spring he got a good piece of ground cleared and planted with corn. He was not a handy man for a bush farm and never became expert with the axe, so that he had to manage to get along by exchanging day's work, he going with his oxen to log or drag for some neighbor who would chop or do other service for him. Though sometimes short he was never bare of food in those early years, which was more than some of his less provident neighbors could say, for there were instances of their having to go to Rouses Point, returning with a bag of cornmeal, which cost $3, borne by horse or ox, but by not a few of them on their own backs. The seignior, who claimed the surrounding territory though he did not attempt to collect rent, had built a small gristmill on the Outarde, and , which stood on the north side of the bridge. It was a most primitive affair, having a wheel like a 32 PROGRESS OF FRANKLIN. tub, the water striking an arm, and one run of stones, which ground coarsely. There was a sort of a bolt on an upper story, which was turned by hand. The first miller was an American, Sherman, and his death, in 1809, was the first in the settlement; he was buried in the graveyard to the west of Mr Gentle's, being its first occupant. The mill in summer was often stopped from want of water, when an old malt- mill, which Mr Gentle had brought with him, was of service, for it could grind corn roughly. In 1809 the immigration into Franklin was large, and wdiat had been an untrodden forest was fast becoming a lively community. Tho inclination was to settle along the track which in time came to be the main road, and very few were out of sight of it. Among the few was Soper, who lived where the village of St Antoine now is. The magnificent growth of hardwood the settlers coined into cash, by making potash, which was in eager, demand then at high prices. The labor in getting it to market was very great however, for in summer the only means of doing so was to drag it on oxsleds by way of St Remi to Laprairie and thence by batteaux to Montreal. Each settler generally made two trips in the year, and brought back flour aud groceries. The land, as cleared in the making of ashes, was planted with com and potatoes and some fall wheat was sown, all of which , yielded abundantly. Tho conveniences of the settlement in creased. A physician came to it in person of an American, Dr Buck, who, his practice being limited, filled up his spare time by keeping school, and in 1S11 another American, Ketchum, opened a small store alongside the gristmill. There were tradesmen of different kinds, among them being a Scotchman, Dewar, a blacksmith, -who had his shop on lot 4, 1st range of Russeltown. The want of lumber was so severely felt by the settlers that they clubbed together to secure a sawmill. The machinery was brought from the States, and the mill set agoing on lot 6 of the ninth rano-e. It was run by Joseph Towns, an American. CHAPTER IV. THE FIRST SETTLERS ON THE CHATEAUGAY AND TROUT RIVER. At the time its eastern frontier was being fringed with the petty clearings of first settlers, the district was penetrated by the Chateaugay by a considerable body of men in search of land. Those who first traversed its waters with the view of establishing homes upon its banks were Americans, and, unlike those who moved in by Hemingford, without admix ture of United Empire Loyalists. In 1790 the New York legislature had voted a sum to make a road westward from lake Champlain to the St Lawrrence, and in 1796 a trail was cut out from Plattsburgh to what ultimately became the village of Four Corners,, now known as Chateaugay, N.Y. In the early spring of that year Benjamin Roberts moved from Vermont with his family and established himself on a lot about a mile north of the present village. To get there, during the latter part of his journey, he had to drag his household goods on handsleds over the snow, the brush being too thick for ox or horse, his wife walking with an infant in her arms and he himself carrying his youngest boy. He was the first settler in Franklin county, and when Nathan Beman followed in the summer, his wife was the first woman Mrs Roberts had seen for three months. These two families were the advance-guard of the great body of immigrants which,. from that year, began to pour into Franklin and St Lawrence counties. As- they settled down, they naturally turned to exploring the country in their vicinity, and those in the neighborhood of Chateaugay very speedily followed the course of the river that bounded northward in a succession of impetuous rapids, and found, after descending the hills, that its turbulent waters expanded into a noble and placid river, which, with many a curve, wound through a wide- 34 AMERICANS SQUAT ALONG THE CHATEAUGAY. spreading plain of fertile soil. The advantages presented by the country they thus explored over the sandhills on which they had built their shanties, they were quick to perceive: the land was better and the river afforded an easy mode of access to Montreal, which then was the only possible market for the entire country south of the St Lawrence as far west as Ogdensburg. The great objection to their moving on to this new land was the fact that it was in Canada and that the more desirable portions were within the seigniories, where, in time, they would have to pay rent. Despite those hind rances, (of the latter the first-comers were ignorant, for no attempt was made to collect rent until after 1806), many ventured, and soon the smoke from the shanties of American .settlers curled over the waters of the Chateaugay. When the first ventured in is not known, but there were fewT, if any, before 1800, in which year a number began to make clearances on the north bank from where the village of Ormstown now is to Logan's Point. They made a sort of road from Chateaugay, N.Y., to what they called "The Cove," being the pool on lot 16, 3rd range of Hinchinbrook, where the shallow rapids end. From there, they drove on the ice in winter or proceeded by canoe in summer. At a very early date, probably in 1802, a road was brushed across the country from the settlement to Chateaugay N.Y., which could be used in sleighing-time. These settlers were, without exception, from the New England states, very many of them from Massachusetts, and, as became their ancestry, were industrious and handy. During winter they lumbered or made cordwood, no that every settler, when the ice broke .up, had a raft of cither square timber or cordwood to take to Montreal, and the rest of the year they spent in clearing and cultivating the land and making potash. They were thrifty and became comfortable much sooner than had they remained on the sandy knolls of Franklin county. Though they labored under the disadvantages always attendant upon living in a wilder ness, yet, as they expressed it in a song that was popular among them, they were independent, having no taxes to pay and being free from judge and bailiff The same immunity THE SEIGNIOR DEALS WITH THEM. 35 from social restraint which has such a fascination for th& pioneers of the territories, charmed those early dwellers by the Chateaugay, and, also like the population of the terri tories, they had among them not a few who were refugees- from justice. It is either a peculiar or a very small community which has not a Scotchman. As has been seen, there was one in Hem ingford, and this infant settlement on the Chateaugay bad also a representative of the omnipresent race. In 1800 one Goudy took up the lot west of Georgetown church. He did not stay long, and seeing he could do better in Montreal, he gave his place to his relative, William Ogilvie, who came from Scotland in 1802. Goudy was the forerunner of that body of Scotch emigrants who, before other 30 years, were to possess. the land between the St Louis river and the Beech Ridge. The unlooked for influx of settlers from the United States,. compelled the agents for Mr Ellice to make arrangements for granting themdots. They would sooner the Americans had not come, but as they were taking possession of the banks of the Chateaugay in spite of them, the best that could be done was to induce them to accept deeds, which were based on double the rental that the other seigniories were exacting. Other wise the terms were considerate'. The settlers were to be allowed to sit free of rent for the first tw'o years, and at the expiration of the third were charged $1, and for each of the 4 succeeding years $1.50. In the eighth year the rent rose to $2.20, and increased one shilling (20 cents) per year until the 12th year, when $3 was exacted for it and the 13th. After. the 13th year, the- rent was $5, and at the end of the 15thi year, 5 bushels of merchantable wheat was exacted in addi tion. The principle upon which the rent was based, was to> give the settler time to make his clearance and to exact rent in proportion as his holding increased in productiveness. Each deed was coupled with such galling reserves as that the settler had no right to the minerals or the stone on his lot,. that he could utilize no water-power that might be upon it„ build no mill; not even one driven by wind, while the seignior could take off whatever timber he might see fit. The seignior 36 TERMS OF DEEDS. also exacted that the settler should build a house within a year and have, within five years, 4 arpents under grain or pasture, while, under a penalty of double toll, he bound him self to carry all his grain to be ground at the seigniory mills, for which a toll of one-tenth would be exacted. If the lot was left without a tenant for a year and a day, the seignior could resume possession, or if the settler sold his lot, he had to pay a fine to the seignior of one-twelfth of the purchase- price, who, if he saw fit, could take possession of the lot on paying the sum the intending purchaser had offered. Such were the restrictions of the seigniory system, differing only from the feudalism of France in that personal service in the field was not required. As stated, the rent exacted was in excess of what had been customary for the few to whom lots were ceded, during deLotbiniere's tenure, paid 5 cents per arpent only and that is all their lots are still liable for. As will be seen subsequently, Ellice 's exaction of 10 cents per arpent was disputed as unauthorized by the French lawr, which governed seigniories. On the terms named, a number of lots between Dewittville and the forks of the English river were taken up by settlers between 1800 and 1812. The agent who negotiated the majority of these deeds, Francis Winter, died about the year ,1808, and was buried by the roadside, where some poplars still grow, on the farm he had occupied, west of Baker's (lot 1). That was the first burying-ground, and for many years was surrounded by a railing. Thomas McCord (father of the late Judge) succeeded as agent and he lived at Beauharnois, until the first seigniory-house was accidentally destroyed by fire. He did not hold the office long; only for a year or two, and was followed by John Milne, who, apparently, had been sent out by Mr Ellice in Winter's time. He was an Aberdonian, and, though a man of educa tion, of coarse, despotic disposition, greedy, and given to drink. He also took up his abode at Beauharnois, and when he came there were only a few habitants, whose huts were scattered along the shore, for they depended for a living as much upon hook and line dl spade and hoe. Of one of these habitants, fthe late sheriff Hainault has preserved a few particulars. JOSEPH HAINAULT. 37 His grandfather, Joseph Hainault, born on Isle Perrot in 1752, took up his abode where Melocheville now stands in 1782, and the following year his father was born "On his mar riage in 1802 the old man gave him a lot near his own, which was almost entirely covered with bush, but had a small house and barn upon it. Here he labored until 1808, when he exchanged for a lot farther east and off the river, so that he was deprived of fishing, which then formed part of his living; on the other, hand, game was very abundant, being- in the > midst of a -boundless forest. One fine evening in summer, returning from the field with his loaded gun on his shoulder, he saw before him, through the trees, a deer running. He fired, and though it was 3 acres and 3 rods distant from him, he succeeded in bringing it down with the one shot. One evening towards the end of winter, returning from the forest, with no other weapon than his axe, he heard his dog barking at a little distance, and saw it scratching around a hole in the trunk of a tree* He cut into the hole, and in so doing cut the nose off a young bear. cub, which at once set up a howl. Then he saw the trunk of the tree shaking, and an enormous she-bear descending- upon him. He waited till she was just going to seize him, and then struck her a blow on the head with his axe that caused her to fall. Another well-aimed blow finished her. My father wras a great bear-hunter; he killed no fewer than nine in one fall." The increase in the number, of settlers made the erection by the seignior of. a gristmill a necessity, and Mr Ellice sent, out (probably in 1800, if not the year before) John Simpson, a Scotch millwright, who built a small mill at Beauharnois, well out in the channel of the St Louis, containing two run of stones. It had not been many months in operation, until it was found to be of little use from the insufficiency of the power. In summer the St Louis dwindled to a brook ; in winter the Current was choked by ice. If the mill, which had cost a considerable, sum, was to be of any value, a better supply of water had to be got. This the agent, Francis Winter, proposed to do by cutting a feeder from the St 38 THE ST LOUIS FEEDER. Lawrence to the head-waters of the St Louis, and in 1806 a contract was made with Thomas Fingland, a lumberer who lived at Lachine, to do the work. He dug the feeder suffi ciently deep where the ground was soft, but owing to his merely making a shallow channel • across the ridge that lies north of the St Louis, the water did not run over except when the St Lawrence happened to be high. The seignior was reluctant to bear the cost of making a sufficient cut across this stony ridgej with the. result that the mill was so' little to be depended upon, .that the settlers continued to go to the mills at the Basin and La Tortue. After finishing the Beauharnois gristmill, Simpson, by order of the seigniory, built a smaller one at Howick, a sawmill at Dewittville for Daigneault & Moreau, and a sawmill for himself at the "mouth of the Outarde. The seigniory-house at' Beauharnois, burned in McCord's -time, was replaced by a commodious one, which still stands, and beside it, in 1810, Milne opened a small store, which was of great convenience not only to those in its neighbor hood but also to the settlers on the Chateaugay, for by this time the Beauce road had been cut out. Besides keep ing some drugs, Milne made pretensions to a knowledge of medicine, so that he was often consulted and sent for, which became risky latterly, when he was seldom free from the influence of drink. On one settler asking for- medicine for a sick boy, Milne declared he knew his complaint, and lifted a bottle to fill a small vial. In doing so his shaky hands let a few drops fall on the brass buttons of his vest. The settler had not been gone long, when Milne ran shout ing after him. He said he had noticed the liquid had turned his buttons green, and concluded he had filled the vial out of the wrong bottle ! His sense of humor was of a mis chievous cast, as when he. got a bundle of old almanacs and, neatly changing the date with the pen, sold them to the settlers at a yorker (an English sixpence, 12^c) apiece, and his encouraging them to clear up a bit of land for turnips with the promise of free seed, and giving them what turned out to be poppy-seed. FIRST SETTLER ON ENGLISH RIVER. 39 The settlement on the Chateaugay extended rapidly, and soon there was a succession of clearings that reached from Ste Martine to DewittvUle. Opposite the first named village was William Reed, whose name was given to the rapids, by which they are known to this day. On the rapids above (called by the habitants "la rouge") an American, John Perry, had a small sawmill on the south bank. Tlie shanties were thickest between Logan's point and Ormstown, and, with the exceptions I am about to note, were on the north bank and inhabited by Americans. The causes for keeping to the north bank were palpable, for apart from the circumstance that the land was better on that bank, as evidenced by ifci being covered with hardwood, while the trees on the south side were mainly tamarac and soft wood, it was only natural that the settlers should seek to be close to the only.road, and that they should shun the difficulty of crossing the ri.ver, which they had no means of bridging. While each year saw an increase in the number of settlers from the United States, not one passed without a Scotch family also finding its way in. Alexander Hassack arrived from Cromarty in 1801 and settled on lot 17, North Georgetown. Being pleased with the country, he sent for his niece and her husband, Jameet Williamson, who arrived at Montreal in August, 1803, the journey having taken them over four months, half of which time, however, was lost in sailing round from Cromarty to Tobermory, from whence the good ship finally sailed. The same year that Hassack came, there settled to the west of him, on lot 21, John Ralston, also a bachelor, who had been a hind in Ayrshire and boasted of his acquaintance with Burns, with whom, he said, he had worked at making roada. He had a strange peculiarity of eating earth, and while en'- gaged in conversation would nibble at the mortar of the wall adjoining or the clay at his feet In 1802 the English river received its first settler, James Wright, a Cupar shoemaker, who left Scotland in 1801, and worked at his trade in Montreal for a year. Wages being very low, he considered he could do better by taking up land, and so moved with his wife and two infant sons to a lot on 40 HOWICK GRIST MILL. the south bank of the English river, about half way between its mouth and Howick. Mr Wright lived there for several years, but from the isolated situation he had chosen, no neigh bor came. Up to (apparently) 1808 settlers, both on the Chateaugay and at Beauharnois, had to go to the Basin with their grist, "which they did in canoes, involving an absence from home of, at least, two days and much hard work, for in addition to paddling, the recurring rapids made it necessary to get out and carry both canoe and grist around them. About that time, the seignior erected a small gristmill very nearly on the same spot where the Howick mills now stand. Like the nuns' mill, it only ground the wheat, and the bran had to be sifted out by hand on reaching home. A sad acci dent attended the opening of the mill. The dam having sprung a leak, a Frenchman and his boy were engaged to draw gravel to repair it, and, in doing so, the canoe upset and both were drowned, for those who saw the accident could not swim and there was no other canoe. The miller was a Scotchman by the name of Somerville, a bachelor, an in veterate snuffer, much given to drink, and rather useless generally, much to the annoyance of the settlers, for, on the erection of the new mill, according to seigniorial law, they could no longer go to the Basin. The lot opposite the mill was held by Somerville, who managed to make a considerable clearance along the river. A track was bushed from the mill to the Chateaugay, and was difficult to struggle through, for the intervening country was then a swamp. West of the mill, and north of Ogilvie's creek, another Scotchman, An drews, settled in course of time, and proved great society to the 'Wrights, for, though some distance apart, they almost daily saw each other." One night, when Wright was on his way to see them, he heard what sounded like a human cry, and was going towards whence it proceeded, when a second shriek convinced him it was a wolf. He fled back to his home, and being swift of foot outstripped the pack. Some time afterwards, Mr Wright had another narrow escape. While chopping, his axe glanced and cut a terrible gash in his leg above the foot. He struggled to the house and Som- ENGLISH RIVER ABANDONED. 41 erville, as the nearest neighbor, was sent for. He came, but did nothing but stand and glower at the spouting blood, with his mull in hand, from which he, ever and anon, mechanically took a pinch. Knowing he would soon bleed to death, the sufferer exerted himself, and asked to have his shoemakers bench drawn near" him. With great composure he made a, very strong and long wax-end, which he wound around his leg above the wound and, then using his pawl, twisted the thread until the blood was stopped. There was a doctor by this time in the settlement at Russeltown, and being sent for, he dressed the wound, which soon healed. This accident, ia. connection with another, which happened a little while after wards, decided him on moving to the Chateaugay. He want ed a cow but could not find a neighbor who had one to selL One day, Mr Ogilvie told them he was going to Montreal, and if Mrs Wright would go with him he would help her to buy one and drive it back. This was done, and a weary journey the faithful wife had. To feed this cow during the winter, there being neither hay nor strawr, Wright cut saplings on the north side of the river for her to browse upon. As spring drew on, the ice grew rotten, and to keep poor bossie from following him, for she ran after him like a dog whenever she saw him go out with his axe, he put up a rough en closure. One day she managed to break through this and went on to the ice to reach the spot where the browse was generally got for her. When half way over the river, tlie ice broke under her. Mr Wright fortunately happened to be near, and, with the help of his wife, he took the loose boards that formed the ceiling of the shanty and la-id them on the crumbling ice. Standing on these they, with great difficulty, drag-ged crummie out, but, no sooner was she on her feefc DO ' ' than she broke through again, and a second effort had to be made to get her to land. While working to save the cow; Wright saw his three infant children standing on the bank watching the rescue, when the thought struck him, if he and his wife were drowned in their exertions, what would become of them. This consideration determined him to leave the English river and go where he would have neighbors. He 42 PROGRESS OF CHATEAUGAY SETTLEMENT. accordingly bought a lot east of Williamson's, No 15, which was occupied, by an American named Finch, to whom he paid $100 for his betterments. The Andrews also left, going to the States, where the sons became clockmakers, and, long after, one of them 'revisited the district peddling wooden clocks of their own manufacture. With their departure and that of Wright, all attempt at settlement on the lower por tion of the English river ceased. The mill fell into disuse from want of custom and was shut up by Milne, and the miller, Somerville, sold his lot to Reeves, who did not occupy it. The contents of the mill were appropriated piecemeal by those who needed them, until nothing movable remained, and the building became a resting-place for the parties of young folk who went berrying on the rocks east of the English river. A fire lit by those pleasure-makers one raw morning, set fire to the mill, which was consumed, and the dam fell into ruins. The presence of the few settlers named, together with those on its upper waters, had given the river its name, for the French Canadians had come to know it as the riviere Anglaise. Twelve years and more elapsed before another attempt was made to settle by its pond-like waters. The settlement on the Chateaugay, which Mr Wright joined, continued to prosper, as, indeed, it could hardly fail to do, for its inhabitants had not the great drawback of new countries to contend with — namely, want of the means of communication with the outside world. The river that flowed by them afforded an easy and cheap outlet to Montreal, and a good deal of money was made by the sale of square timber, masts, cordwood, and potash, the settlers bringing back in their canoes groceries, clothing, and other necessaries. The roads, moreover, were yearly growing better. The grand voyer visited the settlement, and ordered the seignior to oonstruct bridges across the creeks as far up as. Dewittville. Long timber being plenty, high ones, on trestles, were erected, flush with the banks — better bridges, indeed, than any that have, replaced them. From Dewittville a rude track, with' the worst places corduroyed, led by way of Athelstan to Chateaugay, N.Y. There was no bridge either at Athelstan AMERICAN VS. SCOT. 43 or Huntingdon. The ford at the latter, place was at the head of the rapids. Then, from near where the blockhouse stood, a blazed track, fit for ox-sleds in summer and sleighs in wrinter, ran to Franklin, coming out near Ames's, and thence there was a practicable road across the lines and on to Cha teaugay. To the north, as already stated, the settlers had a road (a very bad one, to' be sure) by the Beauce to Beauhar nois, and another along the west bank to the Basin. Carts and horses came into use and other facilities enjoyed rarely known to settlers at so early a date. The rapid progress thus made was largely to be attributed to the Americans, and their presence Was of vital consequence to the Scotch, for they showed them how to handle the axe, how to fell trees, to build log-houses, to make potash, to plant corn, and a thousand other aits peculiar to the American backwoods. If handy and full of resources, the Americans, in the long run, began to fall behind the Old Countrymen, The former did not like prolonged hard work and were ever ready to do a little trading or speculating among themselves or by going to Montreal, while the latter plodded on, day after day, laboriously clearing the land of its covering of trees and bringing it into cultivation. The Americans teased the Scotch about their broad speech, their clumsiness, their want of sharpness, and the Scotch retorted as to the shallow- character and the questionable morality of the "cuteness" on which their critics prided themselves. They were very friendly, however, and so freely intermixed, that .marriages took place. The American wives were of equal benefit to the Scotch women. They taught them those household economies unknown save in the backwoods;- to make maple sugar, to bake, to cure meat, to make cloth. One new-come out Scotch woman, on paying a visit to her American neigh bor, was struck with amazement to see how she took a quantity of Indian corn, ground it, sifted the meal, made it into a savory cake, and then served it up steaming hot at the supper-table with honey. The presence of the Americans was as that of schoolmasters to teach the Old Country folk how to farm in the backwoods, their lessons smoothed the 44 LOGAN, REEVES, AND DAWES. way and hastened their progress, and what they taught became a common inheritance for all who came thereafter to settle, for what the first new-comers learned they taught to those who afterwards joined them. Of the Old Countrymen who lived on the Chateaugay before the war it is impossible 'now to obtain the names, for there were a number who came, and, after a brief trial, went away. Of those who remained over the war the following is a complete list: On the point, at the junction of the English- river, was, Alex. Logan, a Rossshire Highlander, who had lived some time in the States. On coming to the Cha teaugay he first settled on No 34, South Georgetown, after wards moving to ' the i point. . He: was a hardy, energetic man, retaining to the last many of the characteristics of his native hills. In person, he was short and muscular, and in winter wore a buckskin coat, which had a fringe similar to that of the Indians. His farming was rough and careless, yet he generally managed to keep a quantity of whe^t for the spring, when he would give it to any newly-come settler on the condition that it be repaid in the fall at the rate of two bushels for one. He kept a large flock of sheep, for which the point was favorable in requiring little fencing, and wool, which was very scarce, he sold at 50 cents a pound. He lumbered a good deal and had the faculty of getting a great deal of work out of his men. The money he made he entrusted to no bank. Changing it into Mexican dollars or gold he buried it in the earth on his farm. He lived to a good age and was drowned in 1853 while crossing one night from Reeves' tavern to his own house. Alexander Reeves was a London tailor who came out in 1811, in a ship that had 4 guns in apprehension of the im pending war. Among her passengers was Thomas Dawes, and a strong intimacy sprang up between the two. After remaining at Montreal for 9 months, they resolved to take up land and try farming, and, in the spring of 1812, moved to the Chateaugay and raised a' joint shanty on lot 10, S.Geo. Reeves followed his trade and farming, for, though lame, lie was active, and his wife was of singular energy and strength. A TRAGEDY. 45 After a brief partnership and not agreeing very well, Dawes sold his share to Reeves, and going to Montreal got work in Chapman's brewery. Marrying a widow with some money, he started for himself in 1826 at Lachine, and largely sup plied the district with the beer it consumed. In his tours of collecting and taking orders, Dawes, who was a rugged .and energetic man, scorned both horse and vehicle, and made his rounds on foot. Finding living on the south side of the river inconvenient, Reeves 'bought lot 6, N.Geo., from1, a -Ca nadian and moved across in 1816, when he began storekeep- ing in a small way and gradually fell into the habit of entertaining travellers. Of him frequent mention will be made in subsequent chapters. To Ogilvie, Williamson, Has sack, and Ralston allusion has already been made. On 22 settled John Harvie, and on 26 Captain Morrison, and on the lot on the opposite . side of the river his brother Neil, both natives of Lochgilphead, Scotland. Neil was by trade a mason, but had taken to the sea, shipping under his brother. In 1801 their ship, of which the one was mate and the other captain, visited Montreal when they determined, before leav ing, to find homesteads, for they had become tired of the sea and Neil wished a home so far inland that his boys would not know of it. Hearing of land being open" for settlemeht on the Chateaugay, they walked up, when the captain selected the lot mentioned and Neil the ene opposite, 30, South Georgetown-, .w«here"©n he built a shanty large enoughfto serve also as a store, which he opened with a small stock of grocer ies. On the death of the captain, in Scotland, who never lived on his lot, Neil bought it and moved over on to it, as more convenient. Near Morrison lived John Stewart, »who removed to the States. The only other Scotch settler on the south side of the river besides Neil Morrison, was one named Thomson, who built his shanty on 23, which became the scene of a tragical event. On one of his visits to Montreal, Goudy had engaged a young carpenter, fresh from Ayrshire, named James McClatchie; to work for him. He developed a taste for hunting, and one day, when out scouring the woods, entered Thomson's house, and, before doing, so, left his gun at 46 NAHUM BAKER. the door. While conversing with Mrs Thomson, the children spied the gun, and the oldest boy, Archie, 8 years of age, took it and said he would shoot the rooster. He inadvertently pulled the trigger in handling it, when the bullet pierced his mother. She died that night, her last entreaty being to spare her boy. The event cast a gloom over the settlement, and its inhabitants attended her funeral in a body. She was buried in the Georgetown graveyard, and was the first committed to its dust. This was probably in 1806. Thomson left some time afterwards. The foundation of his shanty can still be traced. A long way up the river, on 14, Ormstown, settled Thomas Marratt, an Englishman. Of Old Countrymen who did not stay long, may be men tioned an enterprising man named Rankin, who built a two- story house on the line between Annstown and N. Geo., intend ing to keep tavern. It was built of sawed lumber, with board partitions, and well-finished for the times, being accounted a remarkable structure by the settlers. Rankin built beyond his means,' and in 1804 was glad to sell house and lot for $600 to Nahum Baker, a New Englander, and who, as his son after him) became the most noted of the Americans on the Chateaugay. He had served in the war of the Revolution, fighting on the insurgent side at Lexington and Bunker's hill. What is of more interest, is the circumstance that he was one of the guard over *Major Andre, the night befo're his execution. Baker was wont to tell, that when the guard was detailed, a quiet hint was given them that if they allowed their prisoner to escape no fault would be found with them. They accordingly gave him- every chance, pretending to fall asleep, while the door was left -unwatched. Baker perceived the gallant soldier get up more than once as if to leave, but each time honor conquered the desire for life, and lie heard him mutter "No, I shall not !" and resume his hard bed. When he saw him led out next morning to the gallows, Baker wept. Baker removed to Burlington, Vt, where he .suffered heavy losses from the rascality of a partner, which caused him to leave. Reaching Franklin county he penetrated into Canada by following the bauks of the Chateaugay. SCHOOL AND CHURCH. 47 The settlement progressed slowly, owing to the land being hard to bring in. The stumps being hardwood rotted slowly, which was a great hindrance. No fall wheat was sown, and : the main crops were spring wheat, oats, and potatoes, which grew remarkably, for the land was strong. For many years after it was cleared, from three to four hundred bushels of potatoes per acre was common. The Americans raised much corn. Below Round Point little potash wras made, the bush not suiting, but above there was much fine elm, which in duced many to settle. From the same motive, several Ameri cans went into the bush on the 2nd concession of North Georgetown and to the ridges on the south lots on the lower concession of Ormstown. The Americans were careless alike of religion and educa tion, and Sunday was poorly observed. An itinerant preacher visited the settlement; Dr Rogers, wdio made pretensions to be a physician. He stayed with Root, who lived on 25, preaching in what was at once his kitchen and sitting-room. On Rogers removing to the States, he wrote Root, telling him he had found a home at last, and as he observed people were more ready to pay to save their bodies than their souls, he had given up preaching and devoted himself entirely to medicine. . The first attempt at education was made in the shanty of another American, Beech, near the mouth of Eng- - lish river, where a man named Haldane acted as schoolmaster, and was apt enough with the strap at least. After that school was kept in a settler's house farther up the river; by a Scotchman named Renshaw; who was well-liked.. Beech, above-mentioned, moved t6 the Basin, where there were two or three American families at the outbreak of the war, but no Scotch. All the Americans were hunters, but a few of them made the shooting and trapping of wild animals a regular business, taking the skins and furs to Montreal to sell. The Scotch lads acquired a taste for the chase, arid made it their recrea tion. One of them, Sandy Williamson, had an exciting ad venture with a bear. While chopping, he struck a hollow tree, and the crash of the axe speedily aroused a huge bear 48 THE SCOTCH SETTLEMENT. within it, which rushed out, felling the dog that was with Williamson with a blow from a forepaw and eluding the stroke of the axe. Going for Henry Wright to assist, they tracked the animal until they lost the trail On returning they told their story, and the following day a French-Cana dian hunter started. He traced the brute to a new lair it had formed under a tree in an inaccessible position. Sending in his dog to start it out, he stood ready and on the bear's appearing fired. Unhappily the dog got between at that moment and received the charge, falling dead while the bear scampered off. After skinning his faithful friend, the hunter followed the bear's tracks, came up with it, shot it, and brought back both skins. There were not many bears, but deer were exceedingly plentiful. Leaving for a while the settlement I have been endeavor- ing to depict, I would lead the reader up the stagnant waters of the Bean river, from where it sluggishly unites with the Chateaugay, through the dense forest that enveloped it, across the ridges in whose recesses lie the springs that form its source, to a settlement of Highlanders who, by a series of sdngular events, had been led to plant themselves in the midst of an untracked wilderness. Among the grants of land with which the Imperial gov ernment rewarded Sir John Johnson for his sacrifices and services during the American war, was a property in Cham- My, which he endeavored to settle with emigrants from the Mother-country. In the summer of 1802 the Nephton ar rived at Quebec with 700 Highlanders, mostly from Glenelg, Bossshire. Of these a considerable portion were induced to proceed to Sir John's property. Those who got lots on the slopes of Mount Johnson (now called Chambly mountain) did tolerably well, but the surrounding land was so wet that the Highlanders could make nothing of it, and, after enduring much privation, determined on looking out another place for their abode. Three of the shrewdest of their number, John Boy McLennan, John Finlayson, and Finlay McCuaig, were selected in the spring of 1812 to go out and spy the land to the west On reaching St Remi, which was occupied by SPYING OUT THE LAND. 49>" quite a little colony of Americans, one of them, Abram Welcli„ hearing of their errand, came to them, and told them there was a fine tract of land near by of which they could take possession. They went with him and were satisfied, for they saw that though the flat land was wet there were .many creeks by which it could be drained and that the ridges were extensive. On consulting with the notary at St Remi, they were told that they would be quite safe in settling on the land, that it was part of the seigniory of Beauharnois, and' that once located upon it the seignior would have to recog nize them as tenants. They engaged Welch (who though a farmer knew something of surveying) to run a base-line,, which he did, and which after-surveys showed to be correct. The messengers, wearied with their journey, for they had walked the whole distance, gladly turned their faces home ward and reported to their brethren their succesa That fall, led by the three explorers named, several moved over and founded what came to be knowrn as the Scotch settle ment. Others followed, until, by 1816, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd concessions of Williamstown were fairly occupied. The Am erican squatters at St Remi and along the Norton creek, were very kind, helped them to put up shanties and showed them how to make potash. Those who did not come to Williams- town, went to Glengarry, so that not a single Highlander- was left on Mount Johnson. Altogether 60 families took up. their abode in Williamstown. They prospered exceedingly. In the forest they had an apparently inexhaustible bank. . and, besides making potash, which sold high, they made en ormous quantities of oak staves for shipment to the West Indies. The flats were covered with magnificent oaks, many trees yielding 18 3i foot staves before a knot was reached. Both potash and staves were hauled to Laprairie on ox-sleds, and thence ferried to Montreal ; the return-load being pro visions. They had no facilities as to mills, and when they had wheat to grind they had to haul it all the way to the King's mills on the La Tortue. To the Basin there was only a blazed track, and to Ste Martine not even that much. Boards for their houses they obtained by making saw-pits-<- 50 SETTLERS ABOVE ROUND POINT. and cutting them with whip-saws, for among their num ber were several who had been sawyers in Scotland. At Mount Johnson they had been joined by Norman McLeod, a schoolmaster, sent out by the Royal Institution, which allowed him £60 a-year, and whose services Sir John had obtained for them. On the breaking up of the settlement at the Mount, he elected to go with the division that, had selected Williamstown, and choosing a lot in the Scotch settlement, he continued to hold school in his own house, so that the rising generation was more favored in this than in any other of the early settlements. On Sundays he gathered the people together and held divine service in Gaelic, which was the language of the settlement. So remote was the settlement that the seignior left them undisturbed for 8 years, after which rents were exacted, but no deeds were given until Manuel surveyed the settlement in 1821. Along both sides of the Norton creek there were a con siderable number of Americans, who had come from Connecti cut, the only exception being William Struthers, who was Scotch by his father's side and German by his mother's, and who had moved over from Caldwell's manor. The most friendly relations existed between the Americans and the Highlanders. Returning to the Chateaugay, I resume the description of the settlements along its banks, ascending its waters from the point I heretofore treated of. There were at least 20 American families from the mouth of the English river to Morrison's rapids,* above which the bush solidly presented *As possibly a matter of interest to a few I give the names of the American families so far as I have been able to recover them and the number of their lots : Hall, probably 93, Anns- town; Nahum Baker, 94; George Perry, who from being weatherwise was known best as Old Almanac, on No 1 North Georgetown, where he was buried; opposite him Beech seems to have lived. Nathan Baxter, No 10; Baxter, jnr., 17; Bill and Ike Davis on 19 and 20; Auldjo probably on 25; Root on 26 ; Goodwin, a turner by trade, who made furniture and moved to Montreal, on 26; William Dunsmuir, commonly styled Doctor, on 29, who came very early. In 1807 he sold UPPER ORMSTOWN CONCESSION. 51 itself with few breaks until Round Point was reached. From there the country was uncleared save the flats along the river, which had been brushed and raised large crops of natural hay, whieh was cut and stacked and drawn away on the ice by the settlers who lived farther down. Where the village of Ormstown now stands, lived Jones, whose house was a little to the east of the grist-mill, and next to him, was one Spears, who -was a leading man among the settlers, and who gave a piece of land for a burial-place, which long afterwards was adopted by the Presbyterians and adjoins their church. Above Spears was another family of Shurtleffs, and at the mouth of the Outarde lived the Scotch man, John Simpson, already referred to as having been en gaged by the seignior to build mills. Here he had thrown a dam across the Outarde and raised a sawmill, which he managed himself, and which was of great value to the settlers both above and below it. The dam led to the river ehanging its outlet, it breaking out a new channel a little farther west, so that where the mill stood is now dry land.* At McClintock's creek was a path that led back to a settle ment that had been formed on the upper Ormstown con cession. Attracted by the fine cut of timber for potash- making, they had gone in until no fewer than 9 families were gathered together. They cleared a road, fit for ox-sleds, along the banks of the creek to the Chateaugay, and the to his friend and neighbor Ebenezer Rodgers, who turned it over to the care of Isaac Davis. Where Allan's Corners now stands lived an American family named Bullen, and two chil dren of it are buried in the island that is near. On lot 42 was Cummings, a blacksmith, and on No 1, Ormstown, John son. Two families of the same name, Philips, were on No 5, on 19 one Sylvester, and on the point of No 12 lived Shurtleff, who gave his name to the point. At the mouth of Stony ereek lived Poulin. * In the great freshet in April, 1886, the ice choked the mouth of the Outarde, when its heaped up waters sought escape by the channel it had deserted some 60 years before. In rushing through it, trees of ample girth, the growth of the intervening period, were snapped like pipestalks. 52 BEGINNING OF DEWITTVILLE. bridges they built over the runlets were serviceable when the first Scotch settlers moved in a quarter of a century after wards. Of these 9 families, who left on the breaking out of the war, all record has perished. When the Scotch came they found great heaps of ashes on the lower end of 29, where they had been leached, a succession of small patches of clearances, bearing traces of potato-hills and corn-drills, and on 27 a well: these were all that remained to tell of their years of toil, that there men and women once lived and loved and children romped and grew7. From McClintock's creek to Dewittville shanties peeped out from the bush at irregular intervals. Their inmates were all Americans, and had come in much later than those east of Ormstown, so that when they left, on the breaking out of the war, their clearances were small and soon lapsed into the forest again. At Dewittville there were several families, and it may be here noted that there is a tendency among pioneers to prefer settling beside rapids, the advantage of a ford being an inducement, while there is the prospect of the power being applied to run mills, and the unacknowledged liking even the roughest have for the motion and foaming sparkle of broken water. On the north side lived two Scotchmen, McCallum, from Odelltown, and James McClatchie (page 45) who lived first at the mouth of the creek on lot 3, but finding it wet, moved to a few rods east of where the church now stands. McClatchie was a carpenter by trade and a native of Ayr, where he was born in 1780. In 1801 he emigrated and had for fellow-passenger John Ralston (page 39) and was brought, as already narrated, by Goudy to the Chateaugay settlement, and in one of the humble homes of which he found a wife, in the person of Lucinda, daughter of William Reed (page 39). The difficulty they had in getting the marriage ceremony performed, will show how isolated the settlement was. They had their choice of going to Montreal, where there was a solitary Protestant minister, the Rev Mr Esson, or to Chateaugay, N.Y. They chose the latter, because there would be no delay from banns, and drove all the way from Georgetown to that village in a traineau, where they were married, on the TROUT RIVER. 53 6th January, 1803, by Judge (in reality only a justice of the peace) Baillie, there being no minister. The young couple began life as stated at Dewittville, and remained for 7 or 8 years, making potash, lumbering, hunting and fishing. Here their first child was born, Charles, probably the first of Saxon parentage in Godmanchester, and his earliest recollection was seeing his father kill an otter in the Chateaugay. On the Hinchinbrook side was Monica, part German and part French, and who had something to do with a small sawmill, probably put up by the seignior about 1810, and there were one or two French-Canadians besides. Between Dewittville and Huntingdon there was only one clearance, on the river bank of No 9 Hinchinbrook, made by two Englishmen named Hall, who after putting up a good shanty with a cedar-lined cellar, and making a small clear ance, at the outbreak of the war left for Montreal, where they entered into business and became well-known merchants. Where Huntingdon now stands the primeval forest still waved undisturbed, but at the head of the rapids, on Somer- ville's point, there stood a half finished shanty, put up by an American of the name of Sutherland, who, for some reason, gave up his intention of settling there. Of the settlement on the Trout River, made by the Ameri cans, no satisfactory account can be given, because, unlike that on the Chateaugay, there were no Old Countrymen among them, and, therefore, no recollections of the settlement previous to 1818 are to be got. It is possible there may have been a few American squatters on its banks as early as the beginning of the century, but of that there is no certainty, and the likelihood is that, until the war broke out, no settle ment worth speaking of was to be found. While the war was in progress a number found refuge on the banks of Trout River from the draft, and eked out a living by lumbering and making potash. Reed squatted on lot 38 in 1810 or 1811, and it is highly probable that, about the same time, a small sawmill was put up at the mouth of Beaver creek. In St Anicet there were no settlers beyond those mentioned in ehapter 3. Dundee (then known as "Indian Lands"), was 54 ATHELSTAN. in the possession of the Indians, apart from an occasional American squatter along the Salmon river and Brunson on the lake. But to return to the Chateaugay. Its solitude continued unbroken until a little above the forks, where on the bank of lot 24, Hinchinbrook, was the shanty of an American, Zebulon Baxter, the forest closing in again until 28, where, in about 1809, a drunken, thriftless Ameri can, Jonathan Elliot, drifted in with the tide from across the lines, and raised a shanty below Seely's bridge. He liad two sons and a number of daughters, one of whom married a Dutch shoemaker, Daniel Vosburgh, who had come from the States and built a shanty on the Chateaugay at the Cove above Athelstan. A short time before he did so, an American, Truesdell, built a small sawmill on the Hinchin brook, and was thus the founder of Athelstan. From that place the road followed pretty nearly its present course to nigh the frontier, where a blazed track branched off, leading eastward, and which led, by many crooks and turns, to Russeltown and Hemingford. On this road there were several settlers. The first was William Reed, already mentioned as living near Ste Martine, and who afterwards moved up to lot 32, N. Geo., but when he came to understand the nature of the seigniorial tenure and that he would have to pay rent, determined to have land of his own, and in 1807 he moved up to the first concession of Hinchinbrook and settled on the Burnbrae farm (lot 25). His departure was regretted by the settlers of the Chateaugay settlement on account of losing the society of his wife, who was a clever and very eccentric woman, and who spent a good deal of her time in visiting, being welcome at every house, for she supplied the place of a newspaper and had an inexhaustible flow of caustic and humorous small talk, which she varied by songs. Her visits she generally made on the back of a bull, whose horns were ornamented with ribbons, and with which she even made trips to Montreal. She was, despite her birth, a loyal British subject. It is related of her that she fearlessly visited relatives in Vermont during the war, and on return ing found no canoe wherewith to cross the Richelieu to the CAPTAIN BARRON. 55 Canadian side. Presently the British sentry saw something white waving on the opposite shore, and taking it to be a flag^ of truce reported, when the guard turned out, and a canoe was sent off, to find Mother Reed standing alone, and chuckling at the success of her ruse. James Wright said: When I was a boy, she came in late one evening, when we were all in bed, and told my father she had made a song on the war. He asked to hear it, when she replied he would have to get up. He retorted he could listen as well in bed. We boys, who had risen on hearing her, sat beside her at the glowing chimney-nook, and she began, snapping her toothless jaws, to bawl out her ballad, of which I do not remember a word, but it amused us highly. On a subsequent visit, my father hailed her as Mother Reed, when she sharply re sponded that was no longer her name; she was Mrs Turner. Turner was a shiftless, drunken Englishman and she was, when she married him, of the mature age of 72 ! Three years after Reed had made a home for himself in Hinchinbrook, two Old Countrymen took up their abode some distance to the east of him. One of them was Captain Barron the other John Nichols. Garret Barron was an Irish Protestant, from the county Wexford, and had served in the army. During the American war he rose to be quarter master's sergeant of his regiment, and, at the close of the struggle, got his discharge and a grant of land in Caldwell's manor, where he became very comfortable. One of his neigh bors was John Nichols, from the English side of the Borders, and his daughter he married as his second wife. When father and son-in-law sold their places on tlie Champlain and moved into Hinchinbrook Barron (called captain from his rank in militia) when asked why he moved, gave as his reason that he wanted to be again in the woods. Barren squatted on 33 and Nichols on 34. Mrs Barron felt very lonesome in her new home, when her husband remarked that with 5 gallons of rum she had all the company needed. Like all old soldiers of that time, he was fond of his dram, but never got intoxicated. He was tall, over 6 feet, and in his prime must have been a powerful man. He was rough-spoken, and fond .56 JAMES MC'CLATCHIE. of contradiction, and especially prone to controversy with Presbyterians (he was an Episcopalian) and Catholics. There were two large stones, one on each side of his door, on one or other of which he was generally to be found in' fine -weather, ready for a talk with the first passer-by. He left work to his sons, and they lived poorly, as was indicated by his remark to a stranger whom he had invited to share their dinner, "Eat away; it will be long before you get as good a meal again," the bill of fare beginning and ending with potatoes and milk. Despite his provoking mode of speech, he was at heart a kindly man, and ready to share his last loaf with a neighbor. He was a Freemason and regularly attended the lodge at Chateaugay, N.Y., which he continued to call by its old name of Seventhtown. Dying at a great age, he was buried on his own lot. At his funeral, old Mr Gentle got annoyed at the long continued hammering, for there were no screws then, in putting on the coffin-lid, and exclaimed, "That will do." "Abundance of law is no break ing of it," retorted the carpenter, a bachelor named Fisher, as!he drove in another nail. None of Barron's descendants remain in the county. In the fall of 1810 another settler came, in the person of . James McClatchie, who had resolved to follow his father-in- law, Wm. Reed. It was in September that he was ready to move from where he was living at the time in North George town. He borrowed the largest canoe in the settlement, which had been formed by hollowing out the trunk of a gigantic pine, and in it he put his wife, their four children, -and all his household effects, placing it in charge of his wife's uncle, John Cantello, while he himself kept to the road and drove his live stock, — a yoke of oxen and 4 cows. That year lumbering had been unusually active, there being a great demand for oak and masts for the royal navy. Of the mag nificent character of the trees that then covered the district . some idea may be formed from the fact that when the little party got near Ormstown they found a mast, which had got adrift from a raft, lying across the river, at least 100 feet wide, from bank to bank. The only wray to make a passage LIFE IN HINCHINBROOK. 57 for the canoe was to chop it in two, which Cantello did. Pie was a big man, and propelled the heavy-laden canoe by oars in deep water and by a pole in shallow, the oxen being- brought into service to tow it up the rapids. On reaching the Cove, the canoe had to be left, and the rest of the journey made on foot. McClatchie lost no time in putting up a shanty on lot 29, where a small clearance had been made by an American, Peter Comstock, who had moved next to Reed, and cut and stacked some marsh hay along the Walker brook for his cattle. It ran short, however, for the snow of that winter was of unprecedented depth and continuance, being 4 feet on the level, and with a crust on it. The year following, the snowfall was equally great. To keep his beasts alive, he had every day to fell trees for them to browse upon, which he did very unwillingly on Sundays, for he was a strict Presbyterian, as was also his wife. The crops the following- season were abundant, and after that they knew no scarcity. East of this small settlement of five families, the bush was unbroken for 4 miles, there being no clearance between that of Nichols and Jacob Mitchel (page 30) so that my descrip tion of the settlements previous to the outbreak of the war is complete, having led the reader back to the point where the preceding chapter closed. CHAPTER V. THE WAR — THE FIRST YEAR. The War of the Revolution left, as a bad legacy, to the Americans a most intense hatred of Great Britain. This hatred, in time, came to be regarded as an essential element of American patriotism, and the rising-generation, from their childhood, by schoolbooks and otherwise, had their minds inflamed against the Mother Country When misfortune befell her, the tidings were hailed with delight at Boston and New York, and whoever assailed her was welcomed as a friend. This senseless and wicked feeling received an im petus from the French revolution, for the Americans sympa thized warmly with the effort to establish a republic in France, and as warmly resented Great Britain's opposition When the republic failed and Napoleon rose from its ruins as dictator, public sentiment changed but little, for the dictator, though the most absolute of military tyrants, was seeking the de struction of Great Britain, and that purpose covered a multi tude of sins in the eyes of the Americans. Among the most ardent of his admirers was President Madison, who persist ently endeavored to get the United States to assist him by declaring wrar against Great Britain. Justification for doing so was found in two causes. One of Napoleon's devices to ruin Great Britain Avas the issuing of decrees forbidding all countries occupied by his armies, which was the AAThole Con tinent, from having any commercial dealings with Great Britain and her colonies, and ordering the confiscation of all goods, ships, and other property owned by British sub jects. The eff'ect of these decrees was to ruin British trade, for it closed her best markets, and, in self-defence, her gov ernment issued a retaliatory decree, declaring every country occupied by the armies of Napoleon to be in a state of blockade, and, consequently, that any ships caught endea- WAR DECLARED. 59 voring to enter or leave their ports would be seized and confiscated by her cruisers. The Americans exulted over the promulgation of Napoleon's decrees, but when Great Britain imitated them as a measure of self-defence, there was a great outcry that the rights of neutrals were violated, Avhich Avas true, but the complaint came ill from a nation that had approved of and loudly applauded the principle when used by Napoleon against Britain, and who only realized its enormity Avhen it was going to affect themselves. This was the first reason given by President Madison for asking the United States to declare war against Great Britain — that, by her orders-in-council, she was infringing on the rights of free trade. His second reason was, that Great Britain, when any sailors deserted from her men-of-war in foreign ports, claimed the right to follow them on board United States' ships and take them back. The captains of too many American ships had habitually made it a practice, when they anchored near a British man-of-war, to entice her sailors to desert, offering them higher wages and better berths, and so recruiting their crews at the expense of Great Britain. To put an end to such a course, the outraged captains took the only effectual means, namely, to folloAv the deserters and bring them back This right of search was no new proceeding, it was universal among the navies of Europe; captains giving every facility to one another to put doAvn the great evil of the service, desertion. It was not until the American navy came into existence, that a body of officers was known who encouraged desertion and took deserters under their protection. On these two grounds, the British orders-in-council and the exercise of the right-of-search, the United States declared war against Great Britain. These, however, were only pre tended reasons, the real ones being a desire to assist Napoleon to crush Great Britain and to take possession of Canada. The declaration of war was not endorsed by the great body of respectable people in the United States, and even in con gress there was a large minority who opposed it The minority in the house of representatives, which formed one- third, issued a protest, in which they solemnly disavowed the 60 PREPARATIONS FOR DEFENCE. iniquity of siding with Napoleon and characterized the con templated seizure of Canada as unjust. The , declaration of Avar Avas signed by President Madison on the 19th June, 1812, and it shows hoAV imperfect were the means of communication in those days, that news so im portant did not reach Quebec until 6 days afterwards. The province Avas literally defenceless. The sore straits to which the Motherland had been reduced in her gigantic struggle against the all-conquering Napoleon, had compelled her to withdraw regiment after regiment from Canada, so that beyond a few thousand militia there were no troops. Sir George Prevost, Avho was then governor, called the legislature together, which A7oted $248,000 to enable him to raise an army and take steps to defend the province. While prepara tions were going on, the English mail came in with tidings that the Imperial gOArernment had repealed the orders-in- council several weeks before the United States' declaration of war had reached London. Thinking that the Americans would abandon their purpose of making war, on learning that what they professed to be the chief cause of it had ceased to exist, Sir George Prevost, a shallow7, flighty man, ordered a pause, to hear from Washington of their determination: it was, that the war would go on, thus confirming what eAeiy- body knew, that the alleged reasons for it w7ere hypocritical. The levying of the militia was not effected Avithout trouble. The habitants felt no interest in the impending struggle, were quite indifferent whether the British or American flag fluttered over the bastions on Cape Diamond, and disliked military service, so that the draft Avas carried out under difficulties. At Pointe Claire the habitants rose en masse, drove away the officers sent to enroll them, and moved in a body towards Montreal to coerce the government. Their numbers were swelled as they marched along, and Avhat might have proved a disastrous movement to British su premacy was happily nipped in the bud by Major Pender- leath, Avho, with a single company of regulars, suddenly attacked them before they had left Lachine, and dispersed them, killing one habitant and fatally wounding another. FIRST INVASION REPULSED. 61 Thus forced, the habitants submitted to the inevitable, and were formed into regiments, each of which Avas supplied Avith officers from the regular army. On the first Avhisper of war, the chiefs of the Indian tribes hastened to Quebec to offer their services, one of them de claring with much pathos, "The Americans are taking our lands from us e\Tery day; they have no hearts; they have no pity for us; they want to drive us beyond the setting sun." These Indians Avere given muskets, organized into bands to act as scouts, and, so far as possible, a Avhite was sent with each band to take control. On the 12th July the first invasion of Canada took place. Gen. Hull crossed the Detroit river and issued a proclamation in -which he declared his confidence as to his success and said he had come to emancipate the people of Canada from the tyranny and oppression of Great Britain and restore them "to the dignified status of freemen." The United Empire Loyalists, who then composed almost the entire population vrest of Kingston, had a lively remembrance of tho wrongs they had suffered at the hands of the United States and flew to arms. Led by Gen. Brock, and supported by a small body of regulars, they attacked Gen. Hull, Avhen the braggart and his whole army surrendered. This discomfiture, folloAved afterwards by the victory of Queenstown Heights, had the effect of delaying the invasion of Quebec, which Avas of essential consequence, as it enabled Governor Prevost to com plete his arrangements for its defence. On receiA7ing word of the declaration of war, he issued a proclamation notifying all American citizens, Avho declined to take the oath of allegiance, to leave the Province by the 14th of July. This proclamation was carried into the settlements of the county of Huntingdon by special messengers, and the news fell like a thunderbolt. Of the Americans, few had any desire to leave. Their mingling with Old Countrymen had rubbed off their absurd prejudices, and it Avas their intention to become subjects of the Crown. They Avere assured that they would not be meddled Avith nor required to bear arms, but a vague panic seized them. They perceived that this 62 PANIC OF THE AMERICAN SETTLERS. part of the frontier must necessarily be the scene of conflict, while they were filled Avith terror of the Indians, with whose acts in the Revolutionary War they were acquainted, and the rumor was that a strong body of them were on their way from Caughnawaga to rob and destroy. Their fields gave pro mise of an unusually abundant harvest, but the Americans would not wait to reap them. Packing what they could of their movables, they fled across the lines. So precipitate was their flight that there were instances where they left bread in the oven. A few on leaving said they would soon be hack, that the American armies would speedily conquer Can ada, but the majority at once made for Western New York, a great many taking up land in the Genessee valley, which was then being opened. From Georgetown all left save three families — the tAVO Baxters and Baker. The latter stayed because the father Avas too old and the son too young to move. At Ormstown a few remained, among them Horace Hibbard, who entered the British service and Avas made a captain in the 1st battalion of militia, which was quickly organized. In Franklin the exodus- AAras equally complete, one or two Old Countrymen, alarmed at the prospect of the Indians coming, joining in it. Two days after the proclamation was received all had left except the two Mannings, Mayne, Calkins, Gentle, Pettis, and Adams. In Hemingford fully half pf the fami lies left, among those who remained being Scriver, Delong, Fisher, Norton and Brayton. None of those who remained were in the slightest degree molested, and the statements in American histories, that those Avho left 'were driven away and despoiled of their property, have no foundation.* Urged by * Subjoined are the "regulations respecting American sub jects now residing in the province of Lower Canada" : First — -That all American subjects Avho shall refuse to take the oath of allegiance, and also refuse to take up arms, must leave the country, unless they shall obtain the perniission of His Excellency the Governor, to remain for a limited time, for the purpose of settling their affairs. Secondly — That all American subjects, having visible prop erty and of good character, and who w7ill take the oath of allegiance, with the exception of not being obliged to bear THE BLOCKADE. 63 baseless fears they fled of their OAvn freewill, and against the advice of their Old Country neighbors. The best proof of the truth of this lies in the fact that many who fled thus precipitately, on afterwards seeing that they had nothing to fear, returned to their farms in Franklin and on the Chateau gay, and in the former place still live many of their descend ants. John Manning of Heming'ford Avas. appointed commis sioner to administer tlie oath of allegiance.* A proclamation advised settlers on the frontier to go to Montreal or to the "blockade" formed east of where the vil lage of St Chrysostome now stands, on the Norton Creek, for protection. That blockade consisted of a slash of timber, about half a mile long and 50 rods wide. The idea Avas, that arms against the United States of America, be allowed to remain without being compellable to bear arms against the United States; but subject to leave the province wheneA'er government shall deem it necessary. Thirdly — That all Americans, being immediate grantees of the Crown, be allowed to remain, but to take the general oath of allegiance to His Majesty, and consequently must bear arms. Fourthly — That all Americans, subjects of good character, holding lands from grantees of the crown, or from seigneurs, if approved of by a committee, consisting of not less than 3 members of His Majesty's executive council, may remain on taking the general oath of allegiance to His Majesty, and consenting to bear arms; but this oath must be taken in Quebec, Montreal, or Three Rivers, before the police magis trates. Fifthly — Any American subjects of good character may, if approved by a committee of the executive council as afore said, be allowed to remain on taking the oath of allegiance and consenting to bear arms; the oath to be taken before the police magistrate as aforesaid. Sixthly — That the foregoing regulations shall take effect, notwithstanding the proclamation of the 30th June last. Government House, July 10, 1812. George Prevost. *A copy of the private instructions sent to him are before me. They, in effect, tell him not to insist upon American settlers taking the oath of allegiance unless he has reason to suspect them of being spies. 64 THE INDIAN GUARD. the felled trees would be an insuperable obstacle to the ad vance of the American army and that the settlers would be safe behind it. A very feAV of the families in Russeltown did go, but on Jacob Manning's anxiety about his crops leading him to steal back to his farm, and finding everything as he left it, he felt convinced that nothing was to be feared, Avhile everybody, except the English officers, perceived how sorry a defence the blockade Avould be against born-axemen like the Americans. After a stay of a fortnight the blockade was abandoned, though it long remained a monument of the troublous times and proA7ed for years afterwards a great ob stacle to travellers on the road to St Remi. The Indians, of whom such apprehensions were entertained, soon appeared, the first band being one of about a hundred braves, commanded by a French-Canadian, Capt. Versailles. Their appearance was terrifying enough, for beyond a girdle they Avere naked, their bodies and faces streaked with the war paint, and feathers stuck in their hair. Among them Avas a Flathead Indian, wdio had strayed from the Pacific coast, and whose English consisted of "Good George," "Much war." They were very civil to the settlers, much more courteous, indeed, than the regular soldiers proA7ed to be, and would touch not even an apple tree without permission. One good woman who regarded a band of them, who came to her house one evening, with terror, had all her apprehensions set at rest when, on looking into the shed where they Avere to pass the night, she witnessed several on their knees in prayer. They were divided into bands of 40, and Avere constantly on the move along the frontier from Lake Champlain to St Regis, doing service as scouts and patrols which was simply invaluable, for while they watched the enemy like the hawk, they were as stealthy in their movements and as difficult to catch as the snake. Though the Americans repeatedly en deavored to surprise these Indians bands, and though they \vere Constantly hovering around their lines, it is a curious fact, illustratiA7e of their consummate craft, that not a sino-le Indian Avas captured during the Avar. Of the captains in command of them, besides Versailles, there were Lamotheand A RAID INTO FRANKLIN. 65' Perrigo ; the latter afterwards married a squaAV. When they became acquainted with them, the settlers rather liked to have a visit from an Indian patrol, as it gave them a sense of security. These children of the forest carried their food in small haversack's, and, except Avhen the weather was cold or wet, rarely went near a house save to buy provisions. On the American side the alarm, on receipt of the neAvs of war being declared, Avas hardly less than on the Canadian side. The settlers belie vred that the Indians would be let loose by the British government and, expecting that they would appear at any moment, they became panic-stricken and . most of them fled West or into the interior of the country. In some cases so great Avas their trepidation, that they took none of their effects and eA7en left the tables spread for the meal of Avhich they were about to partake.. The settlers who remained in the town of Chateaugay clubbed together and built a blockhouse by voluntary labor on the hill above the riArer, opposite the graveyard, about 3 miles northAvest of the village. The State afterwards allowed them $100 toAvards its cost. The intention Avas that it would prove a defence against any invading party, as it commanded the only road that then led from Canada. Cols. Wool and Snelling soon 'appeared with a body of troops. They were heartily welcomed by the settlers, and a detachment of them- was placed in the blockhouse. In October 100 of them were sent to make an incursion into Canada. Mr Gentle and his son Hiram were at the Centre Avhen they were surprised to meet them. The commanding officer told Mr Gentle he had. been sent, at the instance of the settlers who had fled; for the property they had left behind them, but could only find old barrels and like lumber about their deserted shanties. Placing father and son under arrest, they marched to their house, where they halted all night. The rank-and-file camped out-of-doors. Seizing all Mrs Gentle's poultry they wrung- their necks, and making a roaring fire they swung a cooler- over it, and cooked the poultry, and potatoes together. In the morning, they left the family without doing any further molestation than devouring their little store of food, and for 66 THE REGULARS ARRIA'E. which they did not pay. They wore a light blue uniform. In addition to the Indians sent to patrol the Huntingdon frontier, Governor Prevost, on the arrival of a feAV regulars from England in the fall, sent a company of the 8th regiment, under the charge of Captain Mundy, to form a depot of pro visions at the junction of the English river Avith the Chateau gay. The headquarters Avere on the south bank, opposite Dumochelle's rapids, and the men Avere quartered upon the habitants. Capt. Mundy, a Scotchman of excellent character and who was much liked by the settlers, showed great energy in the task entrusted to him. He built a small blockhouse, which he filled Avith all the Avheat and oats he could buy, and made arrangements for the supply of pork, beef, and fodder, if needed. The following letter from him shows how he carried on his operations : 6th November, 1812. Sir, — I am directed by his excellency the governor-in- chief, to order you to use every method possible for immedi ately sending down the grain, potash, cattle, &rc, the property of any settler who may have quitted his land. You will also cause, with all exertion in your power, grain of every descrip tion, as w7ell as cattle, to be brought beloAV the mouth of the English river, the property of the present settlers, to prevent its falling into the hands of the Americans, AA-ho are about to invade, this country. I Avill endeavor to cause a lodgement for it, and, if necessary, a guard to be stationed for its pro tection. The consequence of non-compliance with this order, will my being obliged to resort to a very painful measure, to wit, that of destroying it on your farms, to prevent the enemy reaping the benefit thereof. You will make this known to any settlers in your neighborhood. I remain, your most obedient servant, J. Mundy, Capt. commanding To Andrew Gentle, Russeltown. Posts of Chateaugay. The plan devrised by Prevost for the defence of the province, was that as large an army as possible should be assembled at Montreal, and that depots of provisions should be estab lished at intervals along the frontier. When word should be received from the scouting parties of the likelihood of an invasion, this army w7ould march to the point threatened, AN ABORTIVE INVASION. 67 when the depots of provisions would be of service. Gen. Dear born in October took up his quarters in Plattsburgh, where he assembled a large army, with which he designed inA7ad- ing Canada. It Avas the knowledge of this fact that caused Capt. Mundy to order, the destruction of all supplies that could not be moved to his post, and the falling-back of the settlers, for it was possible that General Dearborn might cross at the Huntingdon frontier, when it Avould be of con sequence that he should encounter a wasted country and that the British troops, who would come to meet him, should find plenty of provisions at the English river forks. After long hesitation, Gen. Dearborn approached the frontier, and on the night of the 29th November, his advance left Champlain and began crossing the Lacolle «river before daylight. Captain McKay, who was in charge of the post, gave the alarm, when a desultory musketry fire was opened, and in the darkness two columns of the enemy fired into each other by mistake. Disheartened by this misadventure and finding the roads very bad, the Americans retreated to Champlain, and all in tention o,f inv7ading that season was given up. Mr Gentle (who had received a commission as lieutenant in the militia) knew that there was no reason for obeying the order in the latter part of Captain Mundy 's letter, for there Avas no prospect of an invasion by Avay of Franklin. He, however, did what he could to send, provisions to his post, and took the grain that had been cut on the deserted farms and threshed it, and Captain Mundy sent up ox-sleds and dreAv it away. That winter Mr Gentle had a serious illness, which ended in a large gathering on his right arm. On application, Capt. Mundy sent a pass, and Drs. Moss and Powell of Malone attended him until he was convalescent. He never recovered his former strength, and the whole burden of the household fell on his only sonj Hiram. With the advent of cold weather, all fears of an invasion for that season passed away, and during the winter Captain Mundy and Lieutenant Boyd were frequent visitors to the houses of the Old Countrymen on the Chateaugay. One of the subalterns, Sergeant Henderson, was a pious man who 68 THE MILITIA ENROLLED. tried to do all the good in his power. Seeing that the chil dren of the settlers were growing up in ignorance, he organ ized a class, which he taught in the intervals of his military duties, and from the lips of that honest soldier not a few of the second generation of settlers received about all the school ing they ever got. In the spring' Capt. Mundy and his company got orders to return to Montreal, from whence they Avere sent to Upper Canada. In the carnage of Little York they suffered so fearfully that the only one who escaped unwounded was Sergt. Henderson. When, at the close of the war, the survivors were on their way to England, a few of the settlers made a journey to Montreal with the express purpose of seeing them once more and bidding them farewelL The defence of the frontier, however, was not left to depend upon the regulars alone. Every settler, capable of bearing arms, was enrolled by a draft. Those of the district of Beau harnois. were formed into battalions, of which the captains of the first were Isaac Wilsie for Hemingford ; Archibald Ogilvie for Georgetown and lower end of Ormstown ; Horace Hibbard for upper Ormstown ; Garret Barron for Hinchin brook, and Louis Demers and A. Dumochelle for the Basin - The 2nd battalion w7as an exclusively French one, and in cluded all the inhabitants between the Chateaugay and the St LaAvrence. It was commanded by Charles Grant, lieut.-col., E. Henry, major; M. O. Sullivan, adjutant. The names of two of the captains were Ed. Hainault and A. Valle. An incident of the formation of the 1st battalion is worth re calling. When Ezra Baxter of N. GeorgetoAA7n AA7as drafted, his father, Nathan, an old veteran of Washington's army, presented himself in his stead, telling the officer he knew a great deal more about soldiering than his son and could be much better spared on the farm. While the first year of the war passed without an encounter on the Hinchinbrook and Hemingford frontier, a gallant affair took place at French Mills, as Fort Covington Avas then called. Its settlement dates back to 1793, in Avhich year the Indians, at a nominal rent, leased to William Gray a tract of land on the Salmon river, on condition that he Avould ST. REGIS. 69 build a sawmill. In 1798 the property passed into the hands of James Robertson of Montreal, who added a gristmill, and both mills Avere in operation until 1804 when a great freshet swept them away. Mr Robertson at once began to rebuild but died before the mills were finished, when his heirs leased them to the millwright, Robert Buchanan, who had built them. There were three of the Buchanans, Walter and Duncan being the names of the other brothers, and they came from Stirlingshire, Scotland. They were, in many respects, worthy men, and were the founders of the settlement on the Salmon river. No Americans came in until after the begin ning of the century, and for a long time the main part of the inhabitants were the half dozen French Canadian families who got work about the saAvmill, and from Avhose presence the name French Mills arose. When war Avas declared, how ever, the Americans were largely in the majority and the place had begun to assume the aspect of a village, there being a store or two and at least two taverns. On the Canadian side there Avere a few settlers, French or American, along the lake-shore and on the Salmon river; with these trifling exceptions Dundee was still a wilderness, and the silence of its woods disturbed alone by the hunter and lumberer. The magnificent timber that fringed the Salmon river was the great attraction, for oaks 5 feet across, and pines unequalled in quality elsewhere, grew upon the knolls that bordered it. Dundee Avas then known as the Indian Lands, and consti tuted part of the St Regis reservation. The story of the origin of St Regis is romantic. During the interminable wars between the French Canadians and the New Englanders, a raiding party set out in 1676 which penetrated as far as Gorton, Massachusetts. Among the prisoners taken by the Indians Avere two boys, whom they brought back to Caugh nawaga and adopted into their tribe. When they became men the difference in intellect and taste showed itself, and the superiority they affected was resented by the chiefs. The disagreements rose to such a height that they determined on leaving, and, with their wives and children and a few fol lowers, ascended the St Lawrence and raised their wigwams 70 . A MIDNIGHT ASSAULT. at the mouth of the St Regis river. Half a century later, a Jesuit, Father Gordon, joined them with a body of Mohawks, and he named the village St Regis, after the great French Jesuit, who had not long before been canonized by the Pope. In 1812 the place differed little from Avhat it is to-day, being a collection of mean, dirty shanties with a squalid population. On the breaking out of the war, a division took place, part of the Indians siding with Britain, part with the Americans, and a still larger number remaining neutral. They quar relled and even fought among themselves as to the respective flags they should follow. Those Avho cast in their lot for King George, at once enlisted into the bands that Avere formed for the patrolling of the frontier, so that the village was left entirely at the mercy of the neutrals and of the American partizans. In order to prevent its being occupied, Colonel McGillivray of Glengarry got together and sent over 48 voyageurs — French Canadian canbemen and lumbermen - — commanded by captain McDowell. This Avas on the 16th of October. On the 18th lieutenant Hall learned that the Americans contemplated an assault upon the picket, and advised his captain to withdraw to the small island that lies opposite the village, where they -Would be safe from surprise. Both he and De Montigny, the interpreter, treated the in formation and advice with disdain. On the 22nd a loyal Indian came with like information, declaring he had seen the preparations for the attack. His advdce to retire to the island was also disregarded. The night that followed was intensely dark and favorable for a surprise, so that the sentinels were on the alert. No cause for alarm occurred and as it drew towards the hour of dawn, their apprehensions grew less. About 5 o'clock the tAvo officers of the guard, lieutenant Hall and ensign Rottot, were seated with sergeant McGillivray around the camp-fire, that blazed in front of the house where the captain and the men not on duty were fast asleep. The subject of conversation of the trio was the danger of their situation, and the ensign had just said : "Is it possible that the obstinacy of our captain exposes us thus to death without profit or glory !" when a volley was suddenly A BIT OF SPREAD EAGLEISM. • 7 1 fired from the bush, and he fell dead and the sergeant mortally Avounded. Lieutenant Hall sprang into the house when a second volley Avas poured forth, Avhich killed a French Canadian private and Avounded several others, who had hardly been fairly aroused from their night's sleep. Not a shot Avas fired by the Canadians, Avho at once surrendered. One of the missionaries was caught and told to shrive the wounded and bmy the dead ; the other escaped by hiding in the cellar. The Americans ransacked the houses, among other spoil, plundering a girl of 13 years of age of the box that held her Sunday-clothes and playthings and her savings in pennies, amounting to $3. Worse than that, they stripped the body of ensign Rottot. Satisfied they had left nothing they could carry, the force, which numbered 200 men under command of major Young, marched to French Mills, carrying the paltry spoil they had found and 25 prisoners. From French Mills the party proceeded to Plat'tsburgh. Among the plunder Avas a, small Union Jack, which they found in a cupboard in the house of the interpreter, and which he was in the custom of hoisting on saints' days and other notable occasions. This flag Major Young declared to be the stand of colors that belonged to the detachment, and he was sent to Albany AA7ith the trophy. His arrival in the capital of the state Avas made the occasion of a solemn ceremony. Escorted by all the troops in the city, and with a band before him playing "Yankee Doodle," he solemnly stalked along the streets of Albany, crowded by cheering multitudes, holding aloft the flag of the- Indian interpreter, until the capitol was reached, when, AA'ith spread-eagle speeches, it Avas received from his hands and hung upon its walls as "the first colors captured from the enemy." The major was rewarded with a colonelcy. On receipt of the news of the declaration of war a block house was ordered by the American authorities to be built at French Mills. The site chosen was less than a mile from the boundary, being the first knoll met with in ascending the Salmon river on its west bank, and commanding an unob structed view northward and Avestward and across to the rising ground on the east bank, and close to t.he road that '72 . FRENCH MILLS SURPRISED. then connected Malone with St Regis. It was made of elm logs, with loop-holes 10 inches long and 18 inches apart. It was occupied by a volunteer company from Moira, and, owing to many of them having served in the Revolutionary War, modestly assumed the name of " Silver Greys." They were destined to bear the brunt of the act of retribution the British had in store for the devastation of St Regis. Col. McMillan was entrusted Avith the expedition. He assembled at Corn wall a small but motley force of 250 men. It included a detachment of Royal Artillery and of the 49th regt., com panies of the Cornwall and Glengarry militia and 30 Indians from Oka. At 11 o'clock at night of the ,22nd November they silently embarked at Glengarry House, rowed across the .St Lawrence, and landed at a point where the road from St Regis comes out on the southern bank of the St Lawrence. Here 100 men under Colonel McLean w7ere left to protect the line of communication, and the remainder of the force ad vanced on French Mills. Though the distance w7as not great the road Avas execrable and it was 5 o'clock before the bridge across the Little Salmon was reached, which Avas crossed without discoA7ery, there being no sentry. About half way to the bridge across the Big Salmon, however, a sentry was met, who fired his musket, to give the alarm. The advance dis charged their guns, and the faithful sentinel fell, pierced with 3 balls. A rush was made for the A-illage, and at the end of the bridge another sentry was found posted, who fired at the advancing force and turned to flee, Avhen he also Avas killed A few shots from the dwelling-houses, evoked the order to fire a volley, when one man, wdio stood at the door, fell dead, and resistance ceased. It wras now learned that the surprise had not been so complete as anticipated ; that scouts had brought in word of their approach 3 hours before, and that the .garrison had all withdrawn into the blockhouse, to Avhich the British noAv marched.' Drawing up in front, prepared to storm it, a messenger Avas sent demanding their surrender, coupled with a threat to destroy the village. The ReA'olutionary Areterans at once marched out and gave up their arms. They comprised 1 captain, 2 subalterns, and 41 men. Besides, 4 EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 73 batteaux and 57 stand of arms wefe taken. Col. McMillan returned Avith deliberation, bearing his spoil and prisoners, to Cornwall, from whence the latter Avere sent to Montreal, where they were, in the following month, exchanged for the Canadians captured at St Regis. Col. McMillan did not de stroy the blockhouse, probably because too green to burn, and to hold it 2 companies were at once detached by the American general from the force at Chateaugay, who stayed there until March, when a Constable company, under Capt. Erwin,' took their place. CHAPTER VI. THE SECOND YEAR OF THE AVAR. The winter passed quietly, the only alarm being caused by a sensational report in February that the enemy had gathered 2000 men at French Mills with the intention of crossing on the ice to Cornwall and so cutting communication between the provinces. The fact is, neither side cared for a Avinter campaign, and both were engrossed in getting ready for the summer. The Americans had great difficulty in getting men, and after trying volunteering had to resort to drafting. Among their contrivances td fill their ranks was that of be stowing commissions on sheriff's deputies and constables, who raised companies by imprisoning debtors Avho would not enlist. A bounty of $40 was offered, and the pay of a private in the regulars was $8 a month. In June Cuvillier, a resident of the Cedars, was sent disguised as a French merchant, to re connoitre French Mills, and he reported that the soldiers consisted of waiters, servants, journeyman shoemakers and a tanner.* He found the garrison so inefficient that he recom mended an attack upon it, to wdiich Col. Lethbridge, Avho commanded the fort at Coteau, would not consent, as the * Cuvillier 's report goes on to say that of this noble host "not more than 10 or 12 sleep in the blockhouse, the others staying in the village. The captain lodges at Stutson's tavern, the ensign at another, and the lieutenant in the blockhouse. There are 5 or 6 French families in the village, the men of which serve in the militia, receiving $10 and $11 a month with rations. These families were there before the Avar, Avith the exception of that of Lorraine, Avho was a leader in the Pointe Claire party. (See page 60). The sentries had no ammunition in their pouches." Cuvillier AA7as politely treated and being a French Canadian and known as a travelling merchant no suspicion of his being a spy Avas entertained. His report, apparently written by himself, is couched in ex cellent English. TREATMENT OF DESERTERS. 75 Captain had found no British deserters at the Mills. Up to this time, desertion had caused much annoyance to the British officers, and they had resorted to extreme measures to stop it. In illustration of this, one incident will be sufficient. An American settler lived on what was called Marsh island, Dun dee, and one day two deserters entered his house and asked if they were yet in the States. A deceptive ansAver was given, when, feeling safe, they ate what was set before them and then lay down to rest their exhausted bodies. Branson went out and, getting the assistance of a neighbor, seized and bound the two poor men, and took them in his canoe to the fort at Coteau, where they were at once shot. The reward, $20 for each, Avas placed on their coffins, from which their captor had to pick it up. This shooting of captured deserters was invariable, and knowing the danger to Avhich they were exposed, the Americans generally sent them on to Albany. The captors were not always so success ful as in the case mentioned. In the east end of the county, a settler named Moore, greedy of the reward, seized a deserter, placed him on horseback behind him, and started for Lacolle. On the way, the deserter managed to get his hands free, and pulling out a knife, suddenly plunged it into the bowels of his captor, and escaped across the lines. As the war progressed there Avas less desertion, for the hard usage to which the American soldiers w7ere subjected became widely known. Beyond the continual excitement and apprehension in separable from a state of war, the settlers along the Hunt ingdon frontier had little to complain of. Those living east of Hemingford, near the lake, were plundered of provisions without conscience by the American soldiers and once had their horses taken away, on the pretence that they had been used for drawing supplies to the British garrisons, but the settlers in the west had no such wrongs and indignities to undergo. The only instance of plundering by soldiers was experienced in Franklin. One day three American soldiers suddenly emerged from the Avoods and entering the open door of Andw7. Gentle's shanty one of them discharged his musket into the log wall, apparently to frighten the inmates. Placing 76 PETTY RAIDS. one of their number to stand as sentinel at the door, the others ransacked the house for plunder. From a pedlar, who happened to be in the house, they took his pack of dry goods and $50. On opening a trunk, one was for appropriating its contents, when the other protested against taking "the old man's clothes." Making up Avhat they had stolen from the pedlar, into three bundles, each lifted one on his back, and departed. A more serious attempt at plundering was made by three French Canadians who had been employed in making ashes on the St Antoine Abbe road, and who, on the outbreak of the war, had fled to Plattsburgh. One night they returned and stole Jacob Manning and Andrew Gentle's oxen and cows, leaving not a trace behind. During the day a messenger came from Chateaugay, N.Y., stating that early that morning, Mr Douglas, the miller, had seen three French men pass with a drove of cattle, among them a yoke of oxen which he recognized as haA'ing often been at the mill Avith Mr Gentle. Believing the men were thieves, he and his neighbors seized the cattle, the Frenchmen flying on per ceiving that they were suspected. The cattle were restored to their owners, Avith the exception of one of Mr Manning's eows, which had died from being OArer-driven. The most friendly relations subsisted between the people on both sides, and despite the patrols from Chateaugay, N.Y., there was an interchange of neighborly favors. The war had deprived the American settlers of a market for their potash, and they now, at night-time, dreAV the barrels over to their British neighbors, who sold them on their behalf in Montreal. Then there was considerable smuggling done in the Avay of spirits, which the war had made scarce and very dear in the United States. In this infamous trade Milne, the seigniory agent, engaged largely and made much money. He brought the liquor, in 10-gallon kegs, from Montreal to Franklin, by the way of the Chateaugay and the track that led southvA7ards from the Georgetown settlement, and it was draAvn across the lines in handsleds by a number of men he employed. A more peculiar contraband traffic was that in cattle. The country on the Canadian side of the lines Avas almost a DROVING EXTRAORDINARY. 77 wilderness and, necessarily, could supply few cattle, Avhile the habitants of the old parishes had none to spare. The consequence was, that the government found the greatest difficulty in providing beef for the troops. Their perplexity was relieved to a large extent by a set of daring men who, knowing that there was no lack of cattle on the American side, and that their owners were eager to exchange them for the Spanish dollars w7hich the British commissariat so lavishly spent, engaged in making the transfer. At a pre-arranged time and place, invariably in some lonely part of the woods, the American farmers w7ere in -waiting with their beasts, when the Canadian drovers appeared, paid their price, and drove them into Canada. The American military authorities were perfectly cognizant of the traffic, and did their best to end it, and so anxious Avere they to cut off all supplies from their opponents, that they announced whoever was caught engaged in it would be hanged on the spot. This proved no deterrent and it is additional proof of the good understand ing that subsisted between the settlers along the Huntingdon frontier, that no instance occurred of either betraying the other to the respective governments in the dealings they had. A track was made through the woods by the cattle smugglers from the Hinchinbrook frontier to the St Law rence, going by Cazaville, across the Scotch ridge, fording the Laguerre at what came to be known as la traverse aux vaches, a little north of the fourche a bruler, and thence to Chretien's point, where they were ferried across to supply the troops at Coteau and Cornwall. Those engaged in the traffic made enormous profits.* The omnipresence and unceasing watchfulness of the In dian bands, which prevented the American officers from guarding the frontier sufficiently to stop the illicit inter course that was going on under their noses, exasperated *A leading spirit in the traffic was an American who lived on the lake shore, Josiah H. Classon. On tar running short for the gunboats then being built at Coteau for cruising on the lake, he contrived to distill a sufficient quantity from pine knots, secured on the pine plains of St Anicet. 78 AN INDIAN HUNT. them greatly, and they made repeated attempts to break them up. Their efforts to catch them resembled those of a turtle in pursuing a lizard. When a detachment of a hun dred men or so had laboriously marched to the point Avhere the Indians had been seen, they had vanished to assail the enemy at some other point. Time and again w7hen the Am erican commanders thought they had cornered a portion of their detested foe beyond all possibility of escape, they found they had slipped away. In one instance they were nearly successful. Sam Hatch, an American, who had lived until the w7ar broke out on lot 39 of the 1st range of Hinchinbrook, became a spy for the American camp and haunted the woods in the vicinity of his old home. One day he took word to Four Corners that a patrol was staying at James McClatchie's. 300 men were detailed, and sent in haste, guided by Hatch, through the bush. They silently surrounded the house, Avhen, hearing a slight rustle, Mrs McClatchie looked out of the window, when an American officer made a cut at her Avith his sword, which she narrowly escaped. He afterwards apologized for his coAvardly act by declaring he had mistaken her head of black hair for that of an Indian. They Avere much provoked to find the patrol had left and that they had lost their journey. The evening had turned out cold and wet, and, not daring to risk a night march through the bush back to their barracks, they encamped until daylight should return. They were clad in blue swallow-tailed coats, and had neither blankets nor overcoats, so that they spent an un comfortable night, the only shelter for the rank-and-file being what they could secure by breaking doAvn the corn. The officers were very civil and, on departing in the morning, offered to pay Mr McClatchie for the provisions they had taken, which he refused. The summer passed in constant apprehension of invasion by the enemy, who had gathered a considerable force on the New* York frontier, styled The Army of the North. It did not at any time exceed 18,000, but in those days that Avas a great number to concentrate on so remote and wrild a frontier. It is to be remembered that in 1813 there Avere no rail- THE AMERICANS ABOUT TO INVADE. 79 ways and that steamboats were only beginning to be in troduced. The consequence was, that the regiments had, generally, to march eA7ery mile of the distance from where they Avere recruited to the field of action. A large proportion of the regiments composing The Army of the North had been raised in the Southern States, so that to reach lake Cham plain or the foot of lake Ontario (both headquarters of the army) they had to undergo fatiguing and prolonged marches. The intention Avas to haAe invaded Canada early in June, but it was Avell on in August before a sufficient force Avas concentrated. The chief command Avas given to Wilkinson, Avho had been bred a physician, but haA'ing entered the army and served through the Revolutionary w7ar was looked upon as an invincible soldier. Hampton, Avho was a Southern planter, had also served in the Revolutionary Avar, and was likewise held in popular esteem as a veteran hero. The most extravagant estimates were indulged in by the American papers as to Avhat they Avould effect, and it Avas regarded as certain that they would gain possession of Montreal by the 4th of July. A false report having reached New York that the army had crossed the frontier, one leading journal an- .nounced the news thus, "Our armies have entered Canada and it is ours." The conquest of Canada was spoken of as an accomplished fact. To repulse the threatened invasion Governor PreA7ost had very inadequate means at his command. Engaged as she was in a death-struggle with Napoleon, her utmost resources needed to enable her to hold her ground on the Continent, the Motherland was utterly unable to spare troops to carry on the contest in America Avhich the United States had forced upon her, and it Avas late in the summer before the few she ventured to withdraw from facing the French arrived at Quebec, and these were mostly sent on to Upper Canada, where there was more need. The defence of this province would have to rest largely upon the militia raised between Prescott and New Brunswick. The tactics of the preceding fall were persisted in — that of keeping a strong patrol along the frontier threatened, with depots and garri- 80 BRITISH PREPARATIONS. sons at central points. He aux Noix was headquarters for lake Champlain, then there w7as a body of troops kept at Lacolle, another at St Phillipe, and a fourth was formed on the Chateaugay. On the Avithdrawal of Capt. Mundy and his company, Major-General Stovin was sent to form a camp, which he did on Nahum Baker's farm. In addition to doing so, he looked more closely after the drafting and drilling of the habitants. There were no uniforms for them, but they were fairly armed and had for their chief officers men of experience. The service was intensely disliked by the habi tants, and when there Avas Avord of their being likely to march or of having a brush with the enemy, they deserted by the score. The Old Country settlers Avere also formed into a company, of which James Wright was made captain and Neil Morrison lieutenant. Those of them who lived along the river road and had oxen or horses were excused from drill, as their services were needed for teaming. The reason for keeping the camp near the forks, AA-as that it w7as uncertain which way the Americans would come in, and from Baker's the men could follow either the English riA7er or the Chateaugay, strike north towards Coteau or fall back to cover Montreal. A detachment of troops under Col. Williams Avas placed to cover the ferry at Caughnawaga and Col. d'Archambault was posted at Melocheville, as it was expected a part of the American army might descend in boats. Of the social life of the officers while waiting at Baker's for the approach of the enemy, a glimpse is given by an unfriendly observer. Mrs Baker said their house was made headquarters without asking leave or offer of payment. Her husband being an American they seemed to think he had no rights they were bound to observe. They killed his cattle to supply their table, used his grain and fodder for their horses, and occupied every room in the house except a small one, which, they left for Mrs Baker. The officers were full of life, boisterous, and given to pranks. One evening, when the fun ran fast and furious, an officer caught up a little dog and exclaiming, " Here is a Yankee !" flung it into the big box stove, which Avas almost red hot at the time. Another, catch- OFFICERS' PRANKS. 81 ing up the cat, shouted "Here is another," and sent it after the dog. Baker dared not complain, but he took a strange re- A7enge. For want of room a number had to sleep on the floor, which they did with their feet to the stove. When all were sound asleep, he crept into the room, laid a train of powder along the stockinged feet, and going out, reached 'to the end of the train from the open door with a stake. There was a flash, a cry of pain, and the sound of confusion. Deep and loud the officers sAvore, but the trick had been so neatly done that they could not conjecture how their feet came to be scorched, and one of them declared tho cat must have come alive again. On returning from delivering a despatch, Baker led out an officer's horse to make room for his own over heated animal. He was observed, and ordered to be confined in the guard -house, which AAras one of his own outbuildings. Subsequently, on being taunted about his countrymen and his declining to take the oath of allegiance, Baker retorted so warmly, that he was ordered again into confinement, this time for a day and a night, and the weather being cold and damp, he became affected with inflammatory rheumatism, which made him useless for work ever after. Mrs Baker said deSalaberry was courteous to her though rough-spoken with his men. When he came first he was very hungry and enquired what she could give him. She answered either fowl or ham. He replied he would have no ham, and to cook a fowl, with which, when served, he Avas ,much pleased, saying he did not expect so good a meal in the bush. With Sir George Prevost she was highly pleased, declaring him to be a perfect gentleman. DeWatteville she did not like. The house was empty during the day, the officers riding to the front after breakfast and not returning until towards dark. Her trouble did not last long, for immediately after the fight they left as abruptly as they had come. The rank-and-file were miserably lodged in sheds hurriedly nailed together near Baker's and Morrison's, and in barns and stables, and the over-crowded shanties of the settlers. While preparations Avere going on along the Chateaugay, and men waited impatiently for the onset, the army of the 82 THE PLAN OF INVASION. enemy ,on the northeast frontier Avas growing stronger and its plans of operation were maturing. The secretary "of war, Gen. Armstrong, meant to take chief command himself, but did not do so, when it devolved upon Wilkinson. On the 15th August he wrote from Albany to Gen. Hampton, who received the letter at Burlington, informing him of the fact and asking details as to his force. Hampton, who resented Wilkinson's being placed above him, replied not to him but to Armstrong, stating that if he was placed under Wilkinson he would resign, and urged that his command was a distinct one, and therefore independent. Armstrong, who was friendly towards Hampton, persuaded him to continue, but weakly left the point undecided whether or not he was subject to Wilkinson. The result was, that Wilkinson continued to regard Hampton as his subordinate, and issued orders to him. Avhich the haughty Southerner treated with contempt. The defeat Avhich awaited both generals did not arise from this jealousy, but undoubtedly made more complete by it. The intention from the first was, that The Army of the North should not enter Canada in a body, but that it should be divided and, striking at tAvo different and distant points, distract the attention of the small force at Governor Prevost's command. By this simple stratagem, an easy victory was confidently counted upon. In accordance with this plan, Gen. Wilkinson moved his headquarters to Sackett's Harbor, where he had 9000 men, while Hampton embarked his army on boats and crossed the lake from Burlington to Cumberland Head. These movements perplexed Prevost, Avho believed the intention was to unite both armies and attack Kingston, and to that place he proceeded with all speed. It did, indeed, look as if Hampton's army Avas to go west, for large reinforce ments arrived at Chateaugay Four Corners and French Mills, and another camp Avas formed a little east of the former place, at Colonel Smith's, named Fort Hickory, where preparations were made as if a permanent garrison Avas designed. These were merely feints, however, for Hampton's instructions were to invade Canada near Hemingford, and penetrate to the shore of the St Lawrence above Caughnawaga, Avhere he HAMPTON MOVES. 83 would find Wilkinson's army encamped on He Perrot, con veyed thither by boats from the head of the St Lawrence,. and, uniting with him, they Avere to cross to the Island of Montreal and capture the city. In compliance Avith this plan, . General Hampton broke up camp at Cumberland Head on the morning of the 20th September, and, embarking again in boats, landed at the foot of the rapids on the Big Chazy river,. close to the village of Champlain, and at once began the march to Odelltown. On hearing of the landing at Cumberland Head the proba bility of an invasion by way of Odelltown and L'Acadie w7as palpable, and Major deSalaberry, who was in command at that part of the frontier, ordered a great slash to be made in the bush on either side of the road, which was barricaded also by felled trees, forming abattis at convenient intervals, and to guard which a number of Indians were left under Captain Mailloux. In the afternoon the reconnoitring-party throAvn out by Hampton came up to these obstructions, when a skir mishing-fire Avas opened by the Indians, Avho fell back as they were pressed, for they were only a handful. The alarm was now giv7en, however, and reinforcements were hurrying up. Major Perrault first came with a couple of militia com panies, and was followed by Major deSalaberry himself with his Voltigeurs. Instead of spreading out their men into the bush and advancing in skirmishing order, the Americans persisted in keeping the road, Avhich subjected them to losses from the desultory fire kept up by the Indians and French Canadians under cover of the woods that lined it.* The road, Avhich led through a black-ash swamp, seemed to the Americans to be interminable. They were' now nearing that. part of it where a gang of men was busy getting out logs for the fortifications at He aux Noix. At the first intimation of the approach of the Americans, these logs were piled into a. rude breastwork, arid on coming in sight of it, the officer com- * Among the Huntingdon settlers in the , fight was Platt Stafford of Covey Hill. His brother Joseph served in the 100th regt. in Ontario. ¦ 84 THE CAMP AT CHATEAUGAY. manding the invaders cried halt and then began to fall back. Had they persevered, after suffering some loss, they would, unquestionably, have penetrated the Avoods, Avhen they would have emerged on the cleared country which then extended, as now, from Lacolle to the St Lawrence. Fortunately for Canada, they knew neither of this nor of the insignificance of the force in their front. On hearing the report of the officers in command of the advance, Hampton fell back next day to Champlain, and sent a despatch to Washington, stating that he found the route to Montreal by Odelltown impracticable, owing to the great dryness of the season and the absenca of rivers along it ! * On the 22nd the army took the road for Chateaugay Four Corners, where it encamped on the 24th. The tents were pitched in the field south and west of the present railway station ; log houses being put up for the officers. Gen. Hampton and his staff' boarded at Smith's tavern, Avhich stood on the ground now covered by Beman's brick-block. His haughty manners repulsed and disgusted the settlers around, who, for the first time, saw a Southern planter and the commander of no mean army. Of the many thousands of slaves he was reputed to have in the Carolinas, he had a number waiting upon him as servants. One incid ent of his residence at Chateaugay, N.Y., is still remembered. The proud old man had a magnificent black charger, which a reckless fellow, named Hamilton, determined to steal. He •coolly entered the stable while the hostlers were in the tavern, led out the horse, mounted, dashed past the sentinel, took the road for Athelstan, and was soon beyond pursuit. As fate would have it, when some distance off, he saw a patrol return ing to Four Corners, when, the road being narrow and the bush impenetrable for a horse, he sprung from its back and escaped into the woods, and the charger was recovered. * The drouth of the summer of 1813 Avas unparalleled. As an instance of its effects, the English river ceased to flow and the pools became too shallow for big fish. On going to fetch a pail of water on the morning of the 26th September, Benj. Boberts found one floundering about. He jumped into the water, caught the fish in his arms, and flung it upon the bank DE WATTEVILLE. 85- Day after day slipped by in inaction, apparently because Hampton was afraid to venture into Canada Avith the - force at his command. The regulars were mainly Southern ers, and on their march nortliAvards had suffered much from sickness, which rather increased while in camp, owing to the coldness of tho nights and the insufficiency of their clothing. .. One regiment Avhich had left Virginia with 1000 men could not muster 500 fit for a march, and there were others nearly as bad. To make up for his disabled men, Hampton sent to • Plattsburgh and other points for militia, but as they had been enlisted for defence only, they refused to join an expedition intended to invade Canada. While wasting time at Chateau- gay, Hampton kept a number of men improving the road to Plattsburgh, the turnpiking of AA'hich Avas completed on the - 4th October. On the afternoon of the same day a scouting party of Indians and French Canadians crept up to the out skirts of the American camp, killing Lieut. Nash and a private of the 33rd regt. and taking 2 prisoners, and then retreated . in safety. One of the prisoners escaped and the other was allowed to follow him. This incident greatly annoyed the - Americans and caused them to use increased A'igilance, and intensified the dread of the aA'erage soldier of the Indians, , who he knew were continually lurking in the Avoods to the north of the camp. On word reaching Montreal that Hampton was at Chateau gay, N. Y., his design of penetrating into Canada by folloAving - the Avindings of the river of that name Avas apparent, arid. preparations made to defeat it. Every available man Avas hurried to Baker's, and the additions to the barracks on the river-point were so numerous, that the place looked like a- toAA7n. General DeWatteville, one of the numerous foreign officers then in the British service, was sent to take command. of all the forces west of the Richelieu. He was a soldier of' experience, hav7ing seen much service on the Continent, been taken prisoner by Napoleon and exchanged on condition of not serving against the French. He was accompanied by several staff officers who, like himself, had belonged to the foreign legion, and, after examining the country, he selected' S6 DE SALABERRY. the house of James Wright, North Georgetown, as his head quarters. He was a plain, unostentatious man, exceedingly -attentive to his duties, and liked by the settlers. The force he found at his disposal was small and inefficient, and can be • described in a few sentences. The main -camp was at Baker's, or LaFourche as it had been named, and was occupied chiefly by sedentary militia, composed of material in whom the regulars despaired of arousing anything like military spirit. In the ravine on lot 14, North Georgetown, formed by the creek, were encamped several hundred embodied militia, and at Morrison's was a .smaller detachment. From there to the mouth of the Outarde were posted, at intervals, pickets, varying in strength from a .score to a company, and beyond them were the Indian patrols, reinforced by whites who volunteered as scouts. Among the -corps of embodied militia was the regiment of Voltigeurs, which had for its colonel Chas. M. deSalaberry, the son of a Frenchman who had been an officer in the British army, and to which he became so attached that he destined his four sons to the same noble service. On retiring on half-pay, he had taken up his residence at Beauport, a suburb of Quebec, and while living quietly there the Duke of Kent (father of Queen Victoria) arrived as commander of the forces, and a warm friendship sprung up between him and the retired officer, whose necessities he delicately relieved by procuring com missions for his sons as they came of age. Two of them died in India, and another was killed at the storming of Badajdz. The fourth, Charles Michel, entered the Duke's own regiment, and was stationed in the West Indies for 11 years, and where he saw some active service against both the Spanish and the French. While there an event happened which caused him much remorse. One morning, sitting at breakfast, a German officer SAvaggered in and, with an in sulting air, said to him, "I have just come from sending a French-Canadian to the other world." DeSalaberry at once understood that he had killed in a duel his comrade Des Rivieres, the only other French Canadian in the garrison, and indignantly sprang from his seat, but recovering himself HIS EARLY DAYS. 87 replied, "I will finish breakfast and then you shall have the pleasure of finishing another French Canadian." They fought with swords, and, despite a severe cut on the forehead he received at the outset, he killed the insolent German. A score of years afterwards, his boy asked, "Were you ever wounded in battle, father?" "No, my son." "How then did you get that scar on your forehead ?" The father staggered as if shot as he recalled that fatal morning, and turning left the room without uttering a word. The Duke of Kent took a fatherly interest in the young officer, and on the regiment proceeding to England befriended him in many ways. * In one curious instance his counsel changed the tenor of his protege's life. While on a visit to Ireland, where he had relations, he ^ell in love with a cousin and wanted to marry her. On hearing of this, the Duke wrote him a long letter, in which he pointed out how he would blast his own prospects and bring misery upon the lady by marrying on his limited pay. DeSalaberry had the good sense to take the advice, and as an aide on General deRottenburgh's staff', he accompanied the Walachren expedition, after Avhich dis astrous affair, on his general's being ordered to Canada to take chief command of the forces, he followed him to his native country. His long absence, nearly 18 years, had made an Englishman of him in speech and tastes, and he probably wrote English with greater facility than French. At the outbreak of the war he married a daughter of the seignior of Chambly, and when militia regiments came to be raised, he was appointed commander of one, the Voltigeurs, Avhich he brought into so high a state of discipline that it was the best in the service. Composed not of habitants, but of lumbermen, voyageurs, and young men from the cities and towns, irrespective of nationality, he had material into which it was possible to impart a martial spirit. When ordered to the Chateaugay he was 35 years of age and is described by those who remember him on that occasion as short in stature, and stout and strong in make ; energetic and decisive in character and, probably the result of camp and barrack-life, coarse and peremptory in speech with his men. He left the 88 ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE DEFENCE. impression of being a man of ability in his profession, and if he did not achieve anything like Avhat is attributed to him, it was OAving to want of opportunity and not of capacity. His regiment consisted of about 600 men ; their uniform w7as a grey blouse. Another noted regiment of embodied militia Avas the 5th battalion, whose members had green coats with red facings, and Avho were commonly called "the Devil's Own," OAving to their thieving and disorderly propensities. They had been enlisted in Montreal and Quebec, and were largely composed of the offscourings of those cities. They were en camped in the ravine on lot 14, already referred to, and the second son of James Wright, then a boy of 13, was sent daily to sell potatoes to them, when he Avas cautioned to stand on the bridge and, on a yorker being- handed up, to givTe back the measure of potatoes, but on no account to give the potatoes without first receiving the coin. There were no regulars except a battery of field artillery, under charge of Captain McKay. Such was the force gathered on the north bank of the Chateaugay to repulse the threatened invasion — small in number and crude in material. Whatever its commander's perplexity may have been as to its inadequacy, it was ex celled by the uncertainty as to the direction from wrhich the assault Avould come. The common conjecture was that Hamp ton would go to St Regis, and there unite with Wilkinson, sailing down the St Lawrence in company to Montreal. Then there w7ere those Avho held that it was Hampton's intention to strike across the country and meet Wilkinson Avhere Valleyfield now stands, Avhile others, who knew the country better, held it to be plain he would have to keep along the Chateaugay to its mouth, or striking off at Ste Martine, go by St Phillip to Laprairie. These doubts caused the small British force to be divided, in order to cover the exposed points, and DeWatteville ordered Major Stovin, who con tinued to hold the command at Baker's, to be in readiness to march to any one of them. The vigilant watch that had been maintained along the frontier Avas redoubled, and, in addition to the Indian guard, a body of spies Avas formed ANOTHER RAID. 89 from among the settlers in Hemingford and Hinchinbrook, Avho, from their situation and the intimate relations they kept up with the neighboring settlers on the south side of the line, had great facilities in finding out Avhat was going on in the camp at Chateaugay, N. Y., and without exciting the slightest suspicion on the part of the enemy. Among the most actiA-e of these secret-service agents was David Manning, and from the few of his reports still preserved it can be seen that he was a man of education and great shrewdness. An other of the agents, Morris Simpson, from Lacolle, Avas detected by the enemy, who made arrangements to capture him. Receiving word from a spy that he was staying at Gentle's in Franklin, a detachment was sent from Smith's, and surrounding the house at night found him asleep in bed and took him prisoner without resistance. On their return march, they halted on the flat rock south of Rockburn for breakfast, when Simpson seized his opportunity and made a rush for the bush, escaping unscathed amid a volley of bullets, and made his way back to Gentle's. This Avas fol lowed by an equally daring descent in the night-time on the house of Jacob Manning, when they arrested him and David Manning and Sam. Place, Avho were together in bed. They were ordered to dress and then hurried away, amid the entreaties of a distracted household. Neither of the Man nings had any apprehension of danger, but they knew that Place would be recognized at Chateaugay as a spy, and AA7ould be punished as such, so they whispered to him to try and escape, and they would assist him. The detachment halted on lot 48, of the 2nd range of Hinchinbrook, when Place affected to be taken suddenly ill and going apart to where a large log lay, suddenly rolled over it and fled. The Ameri cans started in pursuit when the Mannings shouted if they did not come back they would run too, a consideration which, added to their fear of the Indians, caused them to return and hurry forward with their prisoners to Chateaugay, when they w7ere consigned for safe- keeping to a log-stable, where they Avere kept for 18 days. At the end of that time they were unexpectedly led out and conducted to Smith's hotel §0 A BRAVE LOYALIST. and brought into the general's room. Addressing Jacob, Hampton asked if he would not take his best horse and go to Montreal and bring back word of the strength of the army he would have to meet. There was no danger, he Avould not he suspected, and if he did his errand faithfully he would be richly rewarded. Manning refused. "Ai-e you not an Ameri can ?" demanded Hampton. "Yes," said the sturdy settler, "I was born on the American side, and have many relations stall there, but I am true to the British flag." Annoyed at the bold bearing of the UE. Loyalist, Hampton got angry N and spoke roughly. He told Manning he was in his power and he would send them to Green "Bush, which was the name of the military prison near Albany. The undaunted back woodsman said they would be glad to go, that they Avere sick of being confined in a filthy stable, and Avould, at least, be treated like human beings at Green Bush. Seeing he was not to be frightened, Hampton took another tack, and asked if there was a fort at Montreal and when Manning, told him there w7as not, he Avould not believe him. Taking him to the window, Hampton showed him his army encamped on Boberts' farm, a scene full of life, for its thousands were striking tent and getting under arms, Manning particularly admiring the cavalry and the fine physique of the infantry. Waiting until he thought the magnificent spectacle had made a due impression, Hampton asked proudly, "Hoav far an army like that would go ?" "If it has good luck, it may get to Halifax," Manning at once replied, meaning that they Avould be taken captive and sent to Halifax, which Avas the place where all prisoners-of-war were sent. Seeing he could make Bothing of the loyal men, Hampton ended the interview, by ordering Hollenback, who Avas officer of the guard, to take them back to their Avretched quarters and keep them there for 3 days, so as to prevent them carrying information of the army's moving to the British camp. Hollenback Avho, as a resident of Chateaugay, was acquainted Avith them, was either more merciful or desired to get rid of the charge of them. "Do you want anything to eat?" he asked. "No," 'Jacob answered. "Well, then, put for home." Advice of THE INVASION. 91 which they gladly availed themselves.* That afternoon, the 21st October, the American army marched into Canada. The decisive step was taken after long hesitation, and after more than one abortive start. One Sunday, the 10th October, Hampton went so far as to send out detachments to press into service all the farmers' teams for miles around, and wheri gathered, changed his mind. The fact is, he hesitated be tween contending passions — that of fear, Avhich caused him to shrink from the dangers he would encounter in Canada, and that of jealousy of Wilkinson, which urged him to risk all and snatch the laurels that might fall to his rival. It was under the stimulus of the latter motive that he moved at last. Word reached him that Wilkinson was about to take to his boats and sail down the St LaAvrence, when he re solved to march at once upon Montreal and achieve its capture before his competitor could reach it. So far as regards provisions and transport, Hampton had nothing to complain of, for both were ample. The great lack wras that of winter clothing. After a hot, dry summer, the fall had set in early, and so cold and wet that late corn did not ripen. The soldiers, particularly those from the South, suffered extremely, and were more anxious to get into winter-quarters than to undertake a campaign. The few winter garments that had been received had been divided by lot, and the over coats w7ere reserved for those who stood guard. The army which crossed the line numbered about 5000, of whom 400 were cavalry, and 100 artillery-men with 8 six-pounders, 1 twelve-pounder, and a hoAvitzer. Before leaA7ing Chateau gay, where he had dallied 26 days, Hampton sent a despatch to Washington, in which hg pompously declared : "The Rubicon is now passed, and all that remains is to push for ward to the capital" — Montreal.f * Jacob Manning lost no time on his return in becoming a Free Mason, for he said, Avhile held a prisoner, he saAV a number brought in like himself, discharged at once, because of their connection with the mystic tie. f The American people had formed extravagant expecta tions of what The Army of the North would accomplish. A 92 izard's bold dash. The first column to move Avas that commanded by Brig.- Gcn. Izard, Avho was ordered by Hampton to move easterly from camp Douglas, familiarly knoAvn as Fort Hickory, and possess the country at the junction of the Outarde with the Chateaugay, and so protect the main army on its march on the east flank, the only one that, from the nature of the country, would be exposed, and to clear tho Avay for its adA7ance. On the morning of the 21st October, Izard, who was an active and skilful soldier, guided by Judge Smith, who knew the country, struck boldly into the Avoods, near to or on lot 36 of the 1st concession of Hinchinbrook, and made straight for the mouth of the Outarde, by way of Blacks church and the Gore.* Preceded by a band of axemen, a tolerable path was easily .made for the passage of his corps and the few waggons he had Avith him, for he Avent in light marching order, and carried only 5 days' rations. Without misadventure they struck the Outarde on the AA7est side of lot 40, which they crossed by tho ford that exists there, and then, turning east, passed doAvn the island of JamestoAvn. While the rank and file fell to, in order to form a camp, which extended from lot 3 to 1, an advance guard waded the Chateaugay, and, at 4 p.m., surprised the British outpost that Congressman (Gardiner of N. Y.), although not in sa"iu- pathy Avith the Avar-party, was so infected by the popular sentiment that he AA7as constrained to Avrite : "Wilkinson sounded his bugle : Hampton rose in his strength. From east to Avest was nothing heard but the dreadful note of preparation. From both armies came letters teeming with assurances of A7ictory. Victory ! Avas the cry of a thousand trumpets." * The only remains of this road are a few logs near Black's church — the survivors of those that formed a corduroy across the beaver nieadoAV swamp that existed there. For main7 years the road Avas used as a means of communication be tween the 1st and 2nd concessions. Tho road from Rennie's to the Chateaugay Avas little used, owing to the British authorities, after the retreat, of the Americans, closing it by frequent slashes. One of the Mathers (Mrs LeAvis McKay) said about 1830 she travelled the road, her companions help ing her to surmount the heaps of logs. spears' CAMP. 93 had been established a feAV daj7s before at Ormstown, and who fled, astounded at the unexpected appearance of the enemy. They carried the tidings to the camp at Baker's, of which Major Henry happened to be in command. Gen. DeWatteA7ille had just arrived on a tour of inspection of the posts under his charge, and he at once detached about 300 men as a corps of observation, Avho reached Allan's Corners that night, Avhere they halted. He also sent Avord to the outlying detachments to fall in, among Avhich was a small body of men at the Basin under deSalaberry. He was aw7akened from sleep to receive the despatch, when, with soldierly alertness, he aroused his men, and marched for Baker's at daylight. DeWatteville also sent a messenger to Montreal Avith a despatch for Governor Prevost, informing him of the startling fact that the long-anticipated American inA'asion had taken place. MeanAA'hile General Izard AA7as busy in preparing for the arrival of the main army, which he knew was on the way. Selecting the clearance on lot 33, Ormstown, Avhich was occupied by an American named Spears, he began to form a camp. The infantry were the first to leave Chateaugay, and folloAved what is substantially the existing road to Athelstan. At that time it followed the crooks of the river and straggled over hills, and, rather than keep to it the engineer-corps, with a strong working party, who went in advance, where they saw fit cut out ncAv bits of road. The advance-brigade reached Spears' (a distance of 22 miles) on the evening of the 22nd, where they found Izard's men in camp. In passing Athelstan they burned Truesdell's sawmill; Simpson's mill at the mouth of the Outarde had before met the same fate at the hands of Izard's corps. So slow was the progress of the main-body, that, on the evening of the 22nd, it had only reached near where Athelstan now is, where it halted for the night, while the baggage-train was far in the rear, so that the last detachment did not leave Chateaugay until the 23rd. Hampton himself left on the 22nd, and, with an escort of 20 cavalrymen, rode rapidly down the track cut out by Izard, and joined him in a few hours in the camp at Spears'. This 94 A YOUTHFUL MESSENGER. movement on his part was so sudden and unexpected that the British scouts were unaware of it until he had passed, greatly to their chagrin, more especially that of the Indians. Much expedition Avas shown in getting the main-army for ward, Avhich, considering that new roads had to be made at frequent intervals and that the soil was so saturated by the continued rain that the waggons soon converted them into a quagmire, was creditable to the energy of the enemy. The road from Athelstan to Huntingdon was so bad that portions had to be corduroyed by felling trees, in order to get the w7aggons and cannon past. In passing Baxter's lot (page 54) the soldiers appropriated his entire crop of potatoes, for which they refused to pay, although he was an American. The river was forded at the head of the rapids above the village of Huntingdon, and from the Methodist church to the end of Hunter street there was so deep a swamp that it had to be corduroyed. On Sunday, the 24th, all difficulties were surmounted and the last detachment of the army reached the camp at Spears'. It is necessary now7 to turn and see what preparations were being made to receive the enemy who had thus penetrated 16 miles into Canada without molestation. The morninor after Izard's column had passed, a boy of 14 years of age rode along the track that led from Gentle's to the McClatchie settlement. He was a son of Frederick Scriver and w7as carrying a despatch from Hemingford to Chief Lamothe of the frontier guard, and had been chosen for the duty on account of his youth, it being supposed the enemy Avould not suspect one so young being entrusted with despatches. The road Avas a mere by-Avay, and as the fallen leaves covered the track he had to keep a sharp lookout for the blaze- marks on the trees, Avhen all at once he emerged on a broad open road, freshly hewn out of the w7oods, and he at once knew that the enemy had crossed. With beating heart he quickened the pace of his pony and soon reached Reed's (Burnbrae), where he found the chief Avith 20 of his men, and to him he delivered the letter, and which he had carried in the sole of one of his boots. The chief was communicative, MACDONELL. 95 and told the boy (Joseph Scriver) that he knew of the Ameri cans having crossed and supposed, from their being so very strong in numbers, that they would not be offered battle until near Montreal. Soon after the band took their way through the forest to unite Avith DeWatteville's force in the impending struggle. Following them went a strange volun teer. The loyal soul of old Barron (page 55) was stirred by the tidings that the Americans had at last crossed on to British soil, and stiffened as were his arms he thought he could deal one more Uoav for his king and country. Keeping quiet his purpose, he one night took possession of his father- in-law's horse, the only one in the settlement, and getting on its back, clad in his old regimentals and his sergeant's savoihI by his side, struck through the woods to gain the British camp by the Chateaugay. When Nichols Avent out in the morning to his barn, he discovered his loss and guessed the perpetrator of it. Running into the shanty he cried to his wife, "Barron's gone to the camp and taken the old mare, and won't bring back eA7en a hair of her tail." In this he erred, for both Barron and the mare came back safe and sound, the former much disappointed that he failed to reach the British lines until after the fighting was over. Governor Prevost remained at Kingston until it became apparent from Wilkinson's movements that he had no inten tion of attacking that place, and that Montreal Avas his ob jective point. Once satisfied of this, Prevost resolved on withdrawing a portion of the force there and sending it to the Chateaugay, and the battalion that could best be spared was one of the Canadian Fencibles, lately formed by Colonel Macdonell. It Avas, unlike the other battalion, which was French Canadian, a mixed one, the greater portion being from Glengarry, mixed with numerous U.E. Loyalists from New Brunswick and not a few Scotch and Irish from the neAvly-formed settlements in the country south of Quebec- Sending for the colonel, the governor asked him how soon he could be ready to move with his battalion "As soon," said he, with Highland promptitude, "as my men have done dinner." That afternoon he embarked in boats with his 96 DE WATTEVILLE RECONNOITRES men, descended the St Lawrence with its perilous rapids, and, on the evening of the second day, landed with thein in the bay at Valleyfield, and at once marched them through the forest to the Chateaugay, apparently striking the Grande Marais road south of Beauharnois. Robert Morrison, who still survives among us, remembers seeing the long line of redcoats approach his father's house, Avhere they were quar tered. The journey from Kingston was made in 60 hours, and not a man fell out by the Avay. They arrived on the evenino- of the 24fch October and had not come an hour too soon to prepare for the defence. Gen. DeWatteville knew that the army of the enemy, now fast approaching him, numbered at least 5000, that they were all regulars, and had an efficient artillery-train and a squad ron of cavalry. To meet this formidable force he had only 1600, who, with the exception of Captain McKay's artillery corps and the Indian bands, were all militia, and a large pro portion sedentary-militia, upon whom no reliance could be placed. It does not appear, however, that even for a moment he contemplated allowing the enemy to advance without a struggle. On Sunday, the 24th October, he, accompanied lyj Adjutant-Gen. Baynes, Colonel deSalaberry, and Colonel Hughes of the Royal Engineers, reconnoitred their camp at Ormstown, and, observing that they would soon be ready to make another advance, saw the time had come to concert a plan of action, and this he did before returning to his quarters. The present aspect of the country betAveen Ormstown and Allan's Corners is very different from that presented to the eyes of the four officers on that memorable Sunday. It is now a great smooth plain, calculated to excite the admiration of every lover of good farming, level as a floor, edged on one side by the Chateaugay and on the other by a thin fringe of bush, the sole remnant of the primeval forest. In 1813 the square flat fields, which now present themselves in unvarying succession, were represented by a narrow strip df clearance, full of tree-stumps, which ran along the riverbank, with the forest, from which it had been carved, Availing it in and AND FORMS HIS PLANS. :-'••• 97 occasionally, where the back\voodsman's axe had so far spared it, intervening. The thick foliage of the all-pervading bush sheltered the soil from the sun and wind, with the result that the rain accumulated on its. level surface and formed a marsh, from Avhich, at frequent intervals, there were small creeks flowing into the Chateaugay. This, too, has changed. With the clearing of the bush, the land has become dry, and it is hard to realize that those fields, covered with waving grain, were once so swampy that they could only be traversed when the winter's, frost made them solid. With the drying of the land, the creeks haA~e all but dis appeared, and water only flows over their beds in the fall and spring. In 1813 the creeks Avere ahvays full and their banks were densely covered with trees. In the course of the centuries, their currents washed away the deep clay soil until they had made beds for themselves at the bottom of ravines varying from 10 to 25 feet below the surrounding level and in breadth from 20 to 100 yards. General DeWatteville's plan was to convert these ravines into rude lines of fortification. The road that ran parallel with the Chateaugay, the only possible avenue by which the Americans could advance, crossed, between Allan's Corners and Neil Morrison's, no fewer than six of these gullies. First tearing up the bridges, he ordered that the trees be. felled on the east bank of each ravine, so as to form a barricade, behind which he would post his men. By such a plan it was plain the Americans would be at a great disadvantage, that as they came to each successive ravine, they would have to rush down and struggle through the waters of the creek, all the time exposed to the fire of a foe safely ensconced behind an impenetrable slash of felled trees, and which they could leave in time and fall back # to the next ravine to repeat the same opposition with perfect safety to themselves. The entrenching of the three first raA7ines on lots 34, 29 and 28 he entrusted to Colonel deSalaberry, who, at once, set his men to work in felling trees, though they did not make much speed from scarcity of axes. The second line, which included the ford at Morrison's, the key of his defensive plan, he left 98 THE TWO FORDS. in the hands of Colonel Macdonell. The main body he con centrated at Gardner's creek, where the artillery was posted Of this he retained command, ready to make a final stand should his front lines be forced. The weak point in the plan was the possibility of the enemy going round the entrenchments, and this General DeWatteville foresaw. On the north iside there was no possi bility of flanking, for the barricades were carried into the bush a short distance, and through the bush, so swampy was it, no troops could move. Where the danger lay, was in the Americans moving doAvn the south side of the Chateaugay, and crossing it, at either of the two fords, taking the fortified ravines in the rear. The ford at Grant's rapid? was, at that time, so obstructed by large stones, that it was rarely used and only at Ioav water, but to make sure a body of militia was stationed behind a rude breastwork facing it, and 150 Indians placed in the ravine above it. The other ford (Morri son's) perfectly practicable and easy of passage, was entrusted to Col. Macdonell, Avho quickly threw up an entrenchment which fully commanded it. In all these works, Col. Hughes took little part, for, despite his position, he was far from being respected, and he and Col. deSalaberry had a quarrel on his interfering. On the afternoon of the 25th, DeWatte ville inspected the works, and approved of all that had been done. Although he did not know it, at that very time the Americans were preparing for the attack, and the gloomy October day, now darkening in its close by the rain clouds that swept the sky, was the eve before the battle. General Hampton Avas fully informed of the preparations made to resist his farther progress, and resolved that he would not force his Avay but endeavor to turn the British line of defence by a bold flank movement The south side of the Chateaugay Avas an unbroken forest, and he conceiA'ed that it would be possible for a detachment of light troops to cross at Rapid Croche (Ormstown) and march downwards to the ford at Morrison's,, where, regaining the north bank, they would take the '7 fortified ravines Avith their defenders in rear and easily capture them, when the main army \A'ould HA*MPTON TRIES A FLANK MOVEMENT. 991" move down unopposed. Without enquiring into the feasibility of a brigade penetrating 6 miles of thick Avoods, interspersed with hemlock swamps, he at once set about carrying his plan into operation. The floAver of his army, comprising the best. conditioned of the infantry, to the number of 1500, were got in readiness and, at sunset, on the evening of the 25th Oct.,. they were marched to the river side and waded through the rapids to the southern bank. Before they had advanced many hundred yards, it became apparent that it Avas im possible to proceed. The guides, tAvo in number, had assured Hampton before starting that they Avere not very well con- rersant with the country on the south bank, and soon proved to Purdy that they were incompetent. The night was dark and cold and rain began to fall, while the advance w7as thrown into confusion by unexpectedly finding themselves floundering in the w7aters of a creek, w7hich, in the darkness, they had not perceived. Gen. Purdy Avas compelled to call a, halt and wait for daylight. The long night Avore wearily on for the Americans in their wretched condition, for they dared not light camp-fires to warm and dry themselves, and their- only food the little in their haversacks. Clad in their summer uniforms, they felt the cold and wet very much. At. the first streak of day the expedition silently resumed its march, but its progress w7as necessarily slow, for, apart from the guides not having a competent knowledge of the ground, their route was over what was little better than a hemlock swamp, through which they could only advance as a body of, axemen in front of the column brushed a road. Had the guides kept closer to the river all might yet have gone Avell,, but instead of seeking the comparatively dry ground that. skirted the Chateaugay, they led the army into the intri cacies of the creek that empties near Morrison's rapids. Informed of the nature of the bush on the southern side of the Chateaugay, Colonel deSalaberry, who had been en trusted with the picket service, had sent no scouts across the river, so that the Americans continued their advance unob served until several hours after daylight, when the guards at . deSalaberry 's position near Allan's Corners were astonished 100 THE FIRST SKIRMISH. to see several American soldiers, who had straggled out to wards the river, when the alarm Avas sent to Col. Macdonell, Avho, as already stated, had been assigned the guarding of the ford at Morrison's, which was evidently the point aimed at. He at once ordered Captains Daly and Bruyere to cross the ford Avith their companies and reconnoitre, Avhile a body of the sedentary militia, composed of habitants from the adjoin ing parishes, followed in support. Capt. Daly, threading his way quickly through the Avoods, came upon a party of the enemy, consisting of about 100 men of the advance, who had made their Avay through the bush in single file, until they had nearly reached the river bank on lot No 36, Avhen a brisk engagement ensued. At the sound of the first shot, the sedentary militia, reluctantly folloAving behind, Avere seized with panic and fled wildly back to the ford, their blue tuques streaming behind. So provoked Avere the spectators on the north bank, who saw them plainly, that they were strongly inclined to open fire upon them. The Fencibles Avere of other stuff and aided by a few Indians, kept up a skirmish ing fire, during which several on both sides were hit. The Americans behaved badly, for after feebly returning the fire of the Fencibles, and not seeing their supports, they broke and fled,* one portion rushing backwards over the route they had come and another taking the more solid footing that led out to the river. The first squad had not run far, Avhen they came' in sight of the companies behind, hurrying to reach the place from whence they heard the sound of musketry. Never dreaming that the men they saw running toAvards them were their countrymen, and supposing them to be British troops rushing to assault them, they began to fire, and several were killed before the mistake was discovered, f The second squad, * Colonel King, who was Avith the detachment, said his "countrymen behaved in the most cowardly manner and disgraced themselves." f EdAvard Wilkins, a U. S. private Avho was taken prisoner, said, "I saw one man dead, and there was 1 captain, 1 lieu tenant, and several privates wounded;, shot by ourselves in mistake." PURDY SUSPENDS OPERATIONS. 101 on coming out on the river's edge on lot 43, found, the moment they exposed themselves, that they Avere under the fire of a corps on the opposite bank and surrendered, Avhen 5 French Canadians* swam across, and making the Ameri cans hold on to a pole, brought them. over. With the return of the men of his advance companies, AA7ho, as they came straggling in, brought exaggerated reports of the strength of the foe and the difficulties of the country to justify their ignominious roiit, Colonel Purdy gave up all intention of further aggressive movement. It was true that his force w7as practically intact, but they were exhausted and dispirited and filled Avith nervous apprehensions of the In dians, Avhom they believed to be watching behind every tree. The design had been that he should surprise the guard and carry the ford with a rush at daybreak, and here it was wearing on to the afternoon, and he still two miles distant from the ford, and the British fully apprised of his presence and intent, and filling the woods in front of him. He re solved to await Avhere he was until he received further orders, and proceeded to post his men on the angle of land that lies betA/een Round Point and lot 46, he covering the two river-faces Avith lines of men, while his eastern and southern approaches were protected by impassable swamps: Leaving him in this strong position, we turn to see Avhat Gen. Hampton with the main army has been doing. Pre paratory to his proposed advance, Avhen Purdy left, he threw forward a strong scouting party to clear the route along Avhich he would move. A body of Indians, who had hung round Hampton's camp all day, proceeded at nightfall to a hollow by the river on lot 19, and then, unconscious of the contemplated movement, lay down to sleep. As the Ameri cans advanced, they came upon the hollow, and saw the rodmen stretched in slumber around a small fire. They pounced upon them, killed two or three, and captured the others, which was fortunate for the enemy, as it prevented * Their names have been preserved: Vincent, Pelletier, Ver- vais, and Caron — all privates in the Voltigeurs regt. 102 HAMPTON ADVANCES. word being carried to deSalaberry of their approach, and who, not hearing from the Indian scouts, supposed all was well and was unaware of the Americans being near him until late in the following forenoon. Long before daybreak, the camp at Sear's was astir, and after a hurried breakfast the army filed on to the road, and began their march for Allan's Corners. Hampton's design, as already stated, was to attack the British lines in front as soon as the sound of musketry told that Purdy Avas assail ing the defenders of the ford at Morrison's. As he advanced, and the sluggish dawn of that dull October morning broad ened into day, signs were noted that indicated that Purdy was still far from the point of attack and though glimpses of part of his force could be caught in the openings of the bush, it was impossible, owing to the British scouts who lurked on both banks, to hold communication. This advance of the main army had been unanticipated by the British. The day previous, deSalaberry had set his working part}7, on completing the inside lines, to strengthen the front one at Allan's Corners by thickening the abatis, cutting doAvn trees so that their tops fell outwards and inter laced. Pushing rapidly forward, Hampton's skirmishers came suddenly upon a party of French Canadians engaged upon this work and guarded by 20 men, Avhom deSalaberry speaks contemptuously of as "habitant chasseurs." The guard, dis charging their muskets at random, promptly ran Avith the axemen, and did not draw breath until they passed the line of defence on lot 37 At sight of the fleeing men, the Ameri cans cheered, and pushed on faster, but Avere speedily brought to a halt, for when they came up to the abatis at Allan's Corners, which AAras flanked on the liver's bank by a small blockhouse, tho guard, composed of Voltigeurs under com mand of Lieut. Johnson, turned out and opened fire, Avhich the Americnns returned, and skirmishing Avas kept up for over half an hour. DcSalaboriy, unconscious of the approach of the Americans in front, had gone a short distance down the river, but, on TLAN OF MOVEMENTS AT CHATEAUGAY. 1 Column of Hampton's division that made the attack. 3 Second line, composed largely of Indians. 2 First British line of defence, in charge of Lt.-Col. deSalaberry. 8 Colonel Macdonell's position. 4, 5, 6 and 7 lines of defence, of which 4, 5, and 7 were protected by abatis. 9 Where Capt. Daly encountered the Americans advancing on the ford and defeated them. 10 Capt. Daly's position in the afternoon. 11, 12, and 13. Americans trying to surround Daly's company. 14 Where Purdy encamped. Scale 1000 yards to the inch.. The engraver omitted the Bloehhome. It stood between the road and the river at tlie end of line 2. 104 THE PAUSE BEFORE THE ONSET. hearing the shots hurried to his post,* accompanied by Capt Ferguson with a company of the Glengarry Fencibles and 3 companies of the regiment Canadien, to reinforce the Volti- geurs and militia. When he arrived the American skirmish ers had ceased firing and fallen back upon their supports. Satisfied that an attack in force was to be made, deSala berry prepared for it. The abatis, or timber-slash, began at the point on Bryson's creek where the clearance ended, and then bent westward and southward, following the windings of the creek, and describing a quarter circle, until the other end rested on the small blockhouse on the river-bank. At the upper end of the abatis deSalaberry posted 22 Indians, while the Voltigeurs and the companies of the regiment Canadien occupied the rest of the line, and waited in silence for the approach of the foe. In order to see him, deSalaberry went a short distance in front of the abatis, to where a large hemlock lay that had been overturned by the wind (about a rod Avest of the existing church), and mounting it, concealed by a couple of trees in front, he rapidly took in the situation He could see the Americans slowly moving along the road until they came to a clearance on lot 42, where they halted, and where a temporary camp had been formed, and prepara tions made to give the men something to eat. After a short interval, the roll of drums was heard and a brigade fell in for the attack, the main-body aAvaiting the result. This brigade was commanded by Gen. Izard, and consisted of 1500 men, covered on the left flank by a troop of cavalry, who, howev7er, from the soft nature of the ground, could not help him. The American column advanced along the road with the precision of well-drilled soldiers, and on coming within * Had the Americans proved successful, deSalaberry Avould have had to justify his absence before a court-martial. An official report, dated May 13, 1814, states Lt.-Col. deSalaberry "Avas culpable in a high degree in neglecting to report to his commanding- officer (Maj.-Gen. DeWatteville) the approach of the enemy, Avhich must have originated either in being sur prised or from a wilful neglect, in either ease highly censur able." THE ATTACK. 105 range of the abatis, the ordei\ to halt was given, Avhen a tall officer rode forward a few yards and cried out in French, "Brave Canadians, surrender yourselves : we Avish you no harm !" Before he could say more, deSalaberry fired point- blank, when he dropped from his horse. DeSalaberry shouted to the bugler, standing behind him, to sound the call to begin firing, and instantly puff's of smoke from discharged muskets issued from the circle of fallen trees, Avhile the yells of the Indians, Avho filled the Avoods to the north, mingled with their reports. As if undecided which part of the line to assail, the Americans held their fire, and silently the colurhn Avheeled on to the clearance into line, when the order to fire was given, and several volleys belched forth. At this the skir mishers', thrown out by deSalaberry along the road, jumped up and ran for cover, causing the Americans to burst into cheering, under the idea that the British were giving way Their shouts were returned with interest, and as the Ameri cans pressed forward to improve their supposed advantage were checked by the increasingly rapid fire of a foe they could not see. Halting within musket-range, the Americans poured in volley after volley. The rattle of musketry was now incessant. The fire of the companies behind the fallen trees was that of half -disciplined men — sputtering and irregu lar, while that of the Americans was delivered in the form of regular volleys, they firing by battalion. The parties kept blazing at one another for fully an hour, and Avith slight result. The British force were bad shots under the best of circumstances, and at long range, as now, were mere wasters of ammunition, for only 1 American fell under their fire and 4 were wounded. On , the other hand the American volleys were almost as ineffective. At first they supposed their antagonists were posted in the woods to the north of them, and blazed in that direction until they discovered their error. Their bullets were harmless to those behind the abatis, the greater proportion lodging in the tree-tops that rose behind it. With the sound of this noisy but harmless contest in his ears, Colonel Purdy resolved to co-operate with the column, whose movements he could partially trace from where he was 106 PURDY TRIES AGAIN entrenched. Encouraged by his success in the morning, Capt. Daly had proceeded to feel his way cautiously fonvard, until he ascertained where the American mainbody was posted, when he halted on lot 42 to Avatch its movements. Colonel Purdy was aware of Daly's proximity, and he resolved to capture him, and, after that, it might be, to advance even yet on the ford. Daly's south-flank being unapproachable from the swampy nature of the ground, Purdy detached a body of his troops to move down the river-bank and hem him in from the north. The Americans advanced so quickly that Daly had not time to extricate himself from his dangerous position, and ordered his men to defend it. The exchange of shots was lively for a minute or so, resulting in the wounding of both Daly and Bruyere. To find solid ground, in their effort to get round to where tho beset British stood, the Americans, who Avere cheering lustily in anticipation of rout ing them, had to come out close to the edge of the river. The moment they left cover, the British on the opposite bank (lot 38), which is higher, opened fire, Avhich so disconcerted the Americans that they gave up their project, at the very moment Daly's men were hurrying away, bearing him and his Avounded brother-officer. This failure, coupled with the fact that the firing in front showed that Macdonell held the woods Avith a strong skirmish line on lot 39, caused Colonel Purdy to conclude that it would not be prudent to push farther, and he gave the order to retire, when the men Avhom he had detached moved back to the position they had left near the river on lot 47, and there he aAvaited instructions from General Hampton. It Avas still in the poAver of that officer to redeem the fortunes of the day. Experience having convinced him that firing volleys into the abatis Avas as useless as shooting in the air, he had issued the order to cease firing Avhen Purdy began to move, aAvaiting the result of his advance to decide what he should do next himself. For an hour, there AA7as not a shot fired between the two armies facing each other on the north bank, save when tAvo skirmishers happened to get into line. When it became apparent Purdy had failed, two courses THE AMERICANS RETIRE. 107 were open to Hampton, first, to order an assault on tho abatis, and he had men enough to have carried it at the point of the bayonet ; or, second, to have his field-pieces brought up and clear a lane through it. Ho did neither. Apparently he desired nothing more than an excuse for retiring to the United States, and, finding that Purdy was unable to make any progress, and that Izard's volleys were futile, he sent Avord to the latter officer to fall oack on the main-body, Avhich he did slowly and in good order, deSalaberry not following him, and the only annoyance sustained being from the Indians who lay hid in the edge of the bush. By night fall the army had reached lot 7, where the baggage-train had been ordered forward, and Avhere they encamped for the night. To Purdy no order was sent, and on that officer despatch ing a messenger to ask General Hampton for a regiment to coA7er the crossing of his men on rafts, he was astonished to learn that the main army had fallen back two miles, while Hampton's command to him Avas to march his men to rapid Croche and rejoin him.* As Purdy did not choose that his men should undergo the sufferings of another night march, and this time to be tracked by a victorious foe, he ventured to disobey his superior by deferring to move until daylight, and issued the order to his troops to encamp Avhere they wrere until morning. His men Avere in a miserable plight, exhausted by fatigue and suffering from cold and hunger, to which Avas added anxiety as to their safety. They kneAV the enemy was Avatching them from every point in the surround ing bush and from the opposite bank, and that an attack was possible at any moment. Their sentries had instructions to be extra vigilant, which they scarcely needed, for the appre hension among tho rank and file of the Indians Avas such that it amounted almost to a panic. Towards midnight, the sen- ' tries on watch on the _river-bank fancied they saAV a move ment of troops on the opposite, or north, bank. At once * In a letter Purdy indicates that Hampton consoled him self for the day's discomfitures with the bottle, and wras in an'unfit condition to take care of the army. 108 A MISTAKE. OF THE' NIGHT. supposing a night-attack was about, to be made, they dis charged their muskets, and in a few minutes their comrades sprang from their comfortless places of repose, and slumbers made uneasy by dread of the Indian knife and tomahawk A moment before all was silence, but now the air was filled Avith shouts and cries, and under the trees the men responded to the commands of the officers and got into some sort of order. The officers themselves were deceived by the move ments they could dimly discern through the gloom, into the belief that the enemy was massing on the opposite bank preparatory to plunging into the river to attack them. The order came quick and sharp to fire, and the flash of volleys gleamed on the dark waters of the Chateaugay and their sound rolled far and near, carrying alarm alike to Hampton's camp and the shanties of the settlers, who believed the enemy to be again advancing. No response came from the north- bank, save a desultory shot or two, and before many seconds Colonel Purdy was startled on learning that the men he was firing upon was a detachment sent by Hampton to cover his flank — a night attack by the British across the river being deemed possible — and that he had been shooting his- fellow-countrymen and not the British. There Avas no more- sleep and at the first streak of day the men silently fell into Indian files, and, bearing their Avounded, returned Avithout molestation to the ford at Ormstown and joined the main camp, where the tidings of the unfortunate mistake of the preceding night deepened the despondency which prevailed and strengthened the feeling in fav7or of abandoning the expedition. In the afternoon Gen. Hampton held a council- of-war, at which he laid before them a despatch Avhich had arrived by a courier the c\*ening before, to the effect that Gen. Wilkinson had not yet moved, and submitted this ques tion, "Is it advisable under existing circumstances to reneAV the attack on the enemy's position, and, if not, what position is it advisable for the army to take until it can receive advices of the advance of the grand army down the St Lawrence ?" After long deliberation the council returned the answer, "It is our unanimous opinion, that it is necessary, HAMPTON DECIDES TO RETREAT. 109 for the preservation of this army and the fulfilment of the ostensible views of the government, that we immediately return by orderly marches to such a position as Chateaugay (Four Corners) which Avill preserve our communications Avith the United States, either to retire into winter-quarters or to be ready to strike beloAv." This decision gave great satis faction to -the army, which began to prepare for its return to Chateaugay by immediately marching to its old camp at Spears', Ormstown. The Indians, under Lamothe, were Avatch- ing their every move, and caused their sentries much uneasi ness. On tlje 28th they surprised a picket, killing one or more and wounding several.* On that day, after dinner, the first division started for Chateaugay, for the army retired as ' they advanced, in separate detachments, and moved so slowly, owing to the state of the roads and the length of their baggage-train, that their old camp at Four Corners was not reached until the end of the week. From that place, on the 1st November, Hampton sent a letter to Washington, tender ing his resignation, and another to .Wilkinson, to inform him that he could not, from want of supplies, form the junction with him at St Regis which he now asked, and "proposing, instead, that they should combine their forces at the head of Lake Champlain and attack Montreal from there. After a brief rest, the wearied soldiers resumed their march for Plattsburgh, where they went into winter-quarters, the greater part being soon disbanded and Gen. Hampton re lieved of his command. * I have been unable to locate with certainty the scene of this midnight surprise, but am disposed to assign it to the river-bank on lot 11, where the skeletons of two men were turned up by the plow many years afterwards. The tra ditional account is, that the Indians were lurking in the vicinity afraid to advance farther from being unable to see. While watching, an American, presumably to light his pipe, struck a light, revealing his surroundings, when the Indians fired and rushing to the spot would have killed all, had the darkness not favored the escape of the Americans. On the river-bank on lot 13 a skeleton was exhumed with buttons bearing the stamp U. S. 11th regt. 110 THE POSITION OF THE SETTLERS. Having now given a description of what is popularly knoAvn as battle of the Chateaugay, but which, in reality, was only a bungling attempt by the Americans to force the British position, needlessly abandoned after some skirmishing, I Avill give details of the encounter Avhich would have ob- scured the preceding narrative, necessarily somewhat con fused, as it involved the description of the simultaneous movements of two bodies of troops, one on either bank of the Chateaugay. In brief, the fight consisted in Hampton's de taching, at the site of the present village of Ormstown, a strong brigade across the river, to carry the ford at Morrison's and take the. British lines in the rear, and the plan miscarried in the manner already described, Avhereupon, after a weak effort of his own with the main-army to force the lines in front, Hampton gave up his projected march on Montreal and went back to whence he came. Considering that the Americans had three men to one, and had the advantage in discipline, equipment, and artillery, their conduct is indefen sible, and it is not surprising, that one of the officers, engaged Major-General Wool, afterwards wrote : "No officer Avho had any regard for his reputation, Avould voluntarily acknowledge himself as having been engaged in" the Chateaugay encounter. To turn now to the episodes and consequences of the col lision between the two armies, T may remark that the settlers along the Chateaugay looked forward to the hwasion Avith Avell-grounded apprehensions that it would end in their ruin: instead, it resulted in improving their circumstances. The presence of the troops at Baker's camp and all along the road to Allan's Corners, caused a keen demand for Avhatever sur plus provisions they had, and Avhich they sold at Avhat they considered extravagant prices, Avhile any service they ren dered was well-paid. The English speaking settlers had been formed, as stated in a former chapter, into a militia company, Avith James Wright captain and Neil. Morrison lieutenant, but they were never called out, being of more service as teamsters, and were kept engaged in conveying stores and supplies from the Basin. From the moment they heard of Hampton's arrival at THE WOUNDED. Ill Chateaugay, the settlers lived in a state of constant appre hension, and were ready for flight at any moment When the Americans did come, the news was unexpected, and the day of the contest saw each family prepared to fly should they force the first line. When the word came towards nightfall, that the Americans had been baffled on both sides of the river, and Avere falling back to their camp, they Avere far from feeling secure. Their belief, and it Avas shared in by the troops, was that the Americans would renew the attempt, and that they would ultimately succeed. The day had been an exciting one. First the roll of hostile musketry in the south woods and the hurrying forward of men and stores to the. front, then the dreadful pause before Hampton made his attack, broken by the arrival of the wounded The first of these poor sufferers, Avere several men of Purdy's command brought in by soldiers of Macdonell's regiment, who carried them out of the woods and across the ford to Neil Morrison's. Two doctors Avere in waiting, and a rooifi was emptied and placed at their disposal. Of the wounded 2 died, and their bodies were buried by the river's edge, close to the ford . Others of the wounded, especially those from deSalaberry's position, were placed in canoes and taken doAvn to the camp at Baker's, the groans of the poor men, as they floated past, sinking deep into the hearts of the compassionate dwellers by the tranquil river. Among those most active in thus conveying the Avounded, was Sandy Williamson. The surgeon at Baker's was rough and harshly treated the poor fellows, which evoked the compassion of Mrs Baker, who slipped in, while he was absent, to ease their pain or to give them some dainty. The doctor suspected this, and once asked "If that woman had been giving them anything ?" to which the orderly replied evasively. Their groans at first were terrible but they all eventually recovered. Sixteen prisoners Avere taken in all, and of these the first three that were captured Avere brought to Gen. DeWatteville's headquarters at Wright's, Avhere they were examined. One of them was so ravenously hungry that he paid more atten tion to the piece of bread that had been given him than to 112 THE GOVERNOR ARRIVES. the general's questions, when an officer remarked, "Let him eat first and then he will speak." :. On word reaching him that the Americans had attacked in force, General DeWatteville despatched every man that could be spared to reinforce deSalaberry and hurried forward sup plies of ammunition, while he superintended the preparations for a final stand on Gardner's creek, should the advance-lines be abandoned. In the course of the afternoon, while all were busy, the governor, Sir George Prevost, arriv7ed from Montreal accompanied by Colonel Baynes, adjutant-general. After a short conference with DeWatteville, that officer and Lieut- Colonel Hughes rode with the governor to the front. • When they reached Allan's Corners, the enemy had desisted from the attack, and deSalaberry made his report of the engage ment in person, on hearing Avhich Prevost said, "The action which, you have performed does you and your countrymen great honor, the whole of you being Canadians." DeSala berry, Avho, .reports , this speech of the governor, adds, "I hope he is satisfied, though he appeared cold." The vice regal party remained until dark, when it became evident fighting was over for the day, when the governor rode back. The story has been preserved that, on his way, he halted to speak to Macdonell, who had moved forward with his men to reinforce deSalaberry .if required and lay in Avaiting at the second ravine. After some conversation, the governor, who recalled his parting with Macdonell at Kingston six days, before, asked, "And where are your men ?" "There, sir," replied the hardy Highlander, pointing to the sleeping forms that covered the sides of the ravine, and then he added significantly, "there is not one man absent." The governor stayed at Baker's overnight and returned to Montreal next morning, where his presence was necessary owing to the uncertainty regarding Wilkinson's movements. His last command to DeWatteville Avas to stand on the de fensive, which was, as w7e ,-will see, too literally obeyed. When the firing had ceased and it Avas known there Avould be ' no more fighting that day, the belief Avas that the Americans had merely suspended the struggle until next DE SALABERRY'S REPORT. 113 morning. General DeWatteville, Avhose instructions Avere to keep on the defensive, and whose plan was to fall back on Montreal as pressed by the enemy, stubbornly contesting every inch of the way and laying waste the country, sent his orderlies round to the shanties of the settlers, to tell them I to pack up their movables and to be ready to leave with their families as the army fell back, setting fire to their buildings and all property they could not carry, so that the Americans would find nothing in the shape of subsistence. The order brought consternation into e\-ery household. Carts were hurriedly packed Avith Avhat avos deemed most valuable, and stood at the door, Avhile the horses munched their hay in harness ready to be hitched. Children were dressed for the journey and on e\-ery hearth there was a fiercer blaze than usual, so that the supply of brands should not fail when the moment came to apply the torch to hay-stack and roof tree. If the invader came, the loyal settlers by the Chateaugay Avere determined he should find neither shelter for himself .nor fodder for his horses, and resolute men sat by their glowing chimneys awaiting the command to sacrifice all they had accumulated by years of painful labor. The anxiety at the front was scarcely less, for a night attack ' was looked for. The Indians were thrown out on both sides of the river as scouts, and the troops slept with their guns in hand around the camp-fires. At one of them, probably that which blazed in front of the small blockhouse on lot 38, deSalaberry wrote the 'following account of the part borne by his command during the day : On the Chateaugay River, 26th October, 8 p.m. Sir, — In the action of this day, which began by the enemy attacking our advanced pickets, in great strength, on both sides of the river, the enemy has been obliged to abandon his plan. Our pickets, supported in time by the Canadian Light company, 2 companies of Volrigeurs, and the light company of the 3rd Embodied Militia, behaved in the bravest manner. After the action, we remained in quiet possession of the abatis and posts we occupied previously. The enemy's force appeared to me to have been at least 114 THE ENEMY FALLING BACK. 1500 men, with 250 dragoons and 1 piece of cannon. Three of our men, who saw the American army passing at best part (place) make it out amount to more. There Avere about 30 cannon with them. I cannot conclude without expressing the obligations I owe to Capt. Ferguson, for his cool and determined conduct and his extreme readiness in executing of orders. Capt. Daily, of the 3rd Batt., in gallantry cannot be surpassed ; he contended with 50 men against a force ten times in number. Captain Daily is wounded in three places. Capt. Bruyere behaved with gallantry and was wounded. Capt. J. Robertson and Jochereau Duchesnay have evinced great gallantry, and so, indeed, have many officers employed, particularly aide Major SulliA'an, whose braA7ery has been so conspicuous. Capt. La- mothe, with a few Indians, exposed himself very much, and so did Capt. Hebden of the Voltigeurs. By correct information there appears no doubt the enemy have returned to the Outarde. This report is made by woodfire light. I have the honor to be, Sir, Your most obedt. servt., DeSalaberry. To Major-Genl. DeWatteville. • Tavo officers wounded. Light company, Canadian regiment, 3 killed and 4 privates wounded. Voltigeurs, 4 wounded. 3rd Batt, light company, 2 killed, 6 wounded, 4 missino-. DeSalaberry, Lt.-Col. This letter, like all the others preserved, is in Eno-lish, and written neatly and correctly; indeed, to judge from Iris letters, nobody Avould suspect the nationality of the gallant colonel. The seal is apparently a bit of moistened biscuit, wax not being available at his outpost. The night Avore away amid painful apprehensions, intensi fied for a time by an outburst of musketry, and much relief was felt among the settlers, Avhen the news came in the morning that no Americans Avere visible from the British lines, and that fhe report of the scouts was that they were falling back to their old camp ground at OrmstoAvn. With this Avelcome neAvs, came fresh reinforcements from Montreal, chief among Avhich Avas 250 men under Captain deRouville, A RECONNAISSANCE. 115 a brother-in-law of deSalaberry 's. At the same time Mac donell moved up Avith his command to Allan's Corners, Avhere as ' strong a force Avas concentrated as possible, in antici pation of a second attack. In compliance Avith the order of his general, deSalaberry detached Capt. Ducharme w7ith 150 men to reconnoitre in front, which he proceeded to do with all caution. Feeling their Avay up the river bank, they came upon the scene of Purdy 's night-mistake, the riArer-edge being streAvn Avith dead. Continuing their stealthy course, they surprised sev7eral pickets, whom they made prisoners, and finally came in sight of Hampton's camp on lot 7, which they carefully prospected. Satisfied that the enemy had abandoned the country betAveen their neAV camp and Allan's Corners, Ducharme returned, and as he did so ordered a party to dig two trenches on lot 41, in w7hich were laid the dead of the night-mistake, and among whom were tAvo officers. Tavo elms mark their last resting- place by the ri\7er-edge. Swimming the river to the other bank, Purdy's late camp was explored, and a large quantity of guns, haversacks, provisions, and the like, Avere picked up. The bodies of two dead horses were also found. Ducharme's report did not shake the belief of DeWatteville and his officers that the Americans intended to renew the attack ; that they w7ould go back to their OAvn country Avithout making a second trial does not seem to have been conceivable by them. The day was spent in preparation, and the mys tery as to the enemy's intentions was deepened when, towards night, word was brought in by the scouts that they Avere falling back to the camp at Spears'. Next morning, the 28th. Lamothe with his Indians was ordered forward to watch the enemy and during the day a party of militia went up the road for a couple of miles to destroy the bridges built by the Americans across the creeks and so hinder their anticipated return. On that day, when the first detachment took the route for Chateaugay, the astounding fact that the American army, substantially intact, had abandoned its purpose of marching to Montreal and was in full retreat to Avhence it came, flashed upon the minds of the handful of soldiers new 116 THE AMERICANS NOT FOLLOAVED. concentrated at Allan's Corners, and their rejoicing Avas in proportion to their astonishment. The greatness of the re sult, reA'ealed to them the importance .of the encounters in Avhich they had been engaged, and, thenceforth, for all time, Avhat would otherwise have been passed over by the histo rian as skirmishes incident to every campaign and unworthy of narration, came to be regarded by him among those con flicts which decide the fate of peoples and nations. Had the American army been less cowardly, they could have captured Montreal, and the fall of Montreal would have resulted in the forcible annexation of Canada to the United States. Never did consequences of greater moment result from so in significant operations. Those engaged in them were rewarded in proportion to their issues and not their severity, and it is unfortunate that those, like Macdonell and DeWatteville, when rewards were being bestowed by the provincial authori ties, Avere beyond the Atlantia and had no representatives in Canada to urge their claims, although it is possible neither of these war-worn A7eterans attached any importance to the skirmishing in which they took part on the banks of the Chateaugay. Owing to Prevost's injunction, on no account to assume the offensive, the Americans were not assailed in their retreat. On the 28th, Neil Morrison was given $16 to induce him to go as a spy on the enemy's movements. He penetrated as far as McClatchie's, on the 1st concession of Hinchinbrook, and ascertained beyond all doubt that Hampton Avas falling back to his old quarters at Chateaugay. Despite this posi tive information, not the slightest attempt was made to molest the retreating army, which moved safely back through 20 miles of bush, where 50 men could have seriously harassed them and a few hundred might have routed- them. Much to their surprise, the Americans had not a single shot fired at them from the moment they broke up camp at Ormstown, and reached Chateaugay Avith the loss of a few waggons, that broke down or for which the horses died. In all the course of the war no better opportunity of inflicting a heavy blow on the enemy was allowed to slip. After they had gone, an THE KILLED AND WOUNDED. 117 officer indeed arrived capable of such exploit, the gallant Gordon Drummond, who must have chafed when he learned of the invader escaping with impunity.* The curiosity felt by the settlers in the fighting, led them to visit the scenes of it the day after, and they examined everything minutely. The slight execution done by the American volleys was explained by the appearance of the trees under which the British had lurked, for their branches were lopped off and their trunks high up studded with bullets, so that, in after days, the youth of the settlement when in need of ball, Avould go to the scene of encounter and fell a tree, in order to pick the lead out of it. The equal. harmlessness of the fire of the British was explained by their lack of practice and the steadiness which drill can alone give. James Wright relates that, Avhen deSalaberry and his regi ment, returning to the camp at Baker's; halted at his father's house, "the men amused themselves during their rest by setting up a mark and discharging their guns of the loads they had put in on the day of the fight. DeSalaberry, Avho had a beautiful double-barrelled piece, joined in, but he and all his men made such very bad shooting, that I no longer wondered that so few Americans had been killed." Of the enemy's loss nothing certain can be said. DeSala berry, in a letter to his wife, puts it doAvn at 100, but that is a gross overestimate. A contemporary American account puts it at 36, and Gen. Hampton himself at under 50. The British loss is given in the general-orders at 5 killed, 16 wounded, and 4 missing. It is a curious commentary on the popular impression which ascribes to the Voltigeurs the sole * One officer, Major Perrault, Avho had charge of the post at Lacolle, realizing the opportunity that had been missed, was for pursuing the enemy across the frontier. Writing on the 9th November, he states that the scout, Simpson, had just come in and informed him that Hampton's force was retreat ing in divisions to Plattsburgh at the rate of 10 miles a day, and Avere in a w7retched state. He proposed to his com mander, Colonel Williams, that they should be cut off, but nothing Avas done. In a few days more they were beyond reach. 118 TWO ANECDOTES. ' credit of the engagement that their only loss was 4 Avounded.* The settlers of those days believed that not all who died were so fortunate as to get graves. They had stories of stragglers who lost themselves in the woods and perished, and from the cries of the wolves, which were unwontedly loud, they suspected they nightly banquotted on their re mains. A relief to these dismal surmises, is this authentic incident. After it was Avell assured that the Americans had gone, the soldiers in front were either withdrawn to the camp at Baker's, or despatched to meet Wilkinson. A ser geant with 12 of the Voltigeurs, however, were left as an outpost in the blockhouse at Allan's Corners. This block house, Avhich has been so frequently mentioned, was a small log building, intended for a guardhouse. For many years after the war it was used as a barn and stable. One night they came rushing tumultuously into James Wright's house, declaring ghosts Avere abroad. Mr Wright got up and went back to ascertain the cause of their fright. They had been scared by the unearthly cries of a catamount ! A counterpart to this, as showing a Avoman's courage, was an incident at Baker's. Some time after the fight, 3 Indians entered the kitchen, Avhen all were out saA7e Mrs Baker and her husband, wdio Avas lying near the fire unfit to move from rheumatism. They demanded rum, knowing it Avas from there that the daily ration Avas served to the troops. Mrs Baker answered it was locked up. Crazy for drink,, an Indian seized an axe and SAVung it over her head, without changing her determination. He then advanced toAvards her husband and declared he Avould split open his head unless •she shoAved them where the rum was. On the stove stood a * The general-order is that of the 27th October, 1813, and gives the details of loss thus : Killed. Wounded. Missing. Glengarry Light Infantry . . 3 4 . Voltigeurs .4 3rd Batt., flank co'y (Capt. Daly's) 2 . . 7 ... 4 Chateaugay Chasseurs 1 . . . 5 16 4 S>" 1 A BOLD SCOUT. 119 cooler of boiling water. Stepping up to it, Mrs Baker quickly scooped up a dipperful, and told them quietly if they did not go out, she would scald them to death. They left and on the officers returning she told them of her adventure, when they caused search to be made for the Indian's, who were punished by being confined for a while in the guardhouse. The- ration of rum here alluded to had a disastrous effect upon the morals of the whole country. The physicians of those days believed spirits were an essential to the main tenance of health, so that each soldier got his daily glass of Jamaica rum. The militia-men being treated in like manner, habitants, who had hardly known the taste of liquor before, became habituated to it, while intemperance among the Old Country settlers got a fatal stimulus. It Avas apparently the second week in November before any reconnaissance of the frontier was made, when Lieut. PoAvell was sent by Gen. DeWatteville with a strong patrol. Lieutenant Powell found the country clear and penetrated into the United States as far as the blockhouse, 2 miles from Chateaugay, which he burned.* He reported that he would have gone farther, but had no guide. When Powell returned to Wright's from his excursion, which was on the 13th November, he found that Gen. Gordon Drummond had arrived, who, being DeWatteville 's superior, assumed command. He had come to complete preparations for disputing Wilkinson's passage doAvn the St Lawrence and to prevent Hampton's co-operating with him. To effect the first purpose, he sent over the two 3-pounders which they had at Baker's to strengthen the batteries that had been erected along the river above Melocheville, and personally inspected the positions taken up there by Col. Deschambault, Avho was in command. To effect the second, the checkmating of Hampton, he ordered DeWatteville Avith his force to march *In all U.S. local histories, the burning of the blockhouse is represented to have been done by the Americans them selves. The official correspondence preserved at Ottawa settles the point, it being perfectly explicit. It was burned in the afternoon. 120 THE FRONTIER EXAMINED. to Lacolle, where, with other detachments posted there, he intended, aided by the fleet, to have attacked Hampton. This design was frustrated by that general falling back from Chazy to Plattsburgh, and was happily rendered superfluous by the tidings of Wilkinson's defeat at Crystler's Farm. Gen. Drummond appears to have stayed at Wright's until the end of November, when the troops went back to Mont real for winter-quarters. Their discomfort on the Cha teaugay had been extreme — wretched accommodation, scant rations, cold wet weather, and marches over roads deep with mire. One French officer wrote that his experience at Baker's and Allan's Corners had led him to "believe that a man is capable of enduring, without breaking down, more misery than a good dog." Before all left a reconnaisance Avas made of the frontier, apparently Avith a view to ascertaining whether it was pos sible to attack the enemy's position at Chateaugay Four Corners, and to obtain information of the situation there the seigniory-agent, Milne, was engaged. His connection with the illicit traffic that was going on (page 76) had made him familiar with the frontier and brought into his employ a number of reckless Americans who would not hesitate to act the spy on their countrymen. Accompanied by Milne, deSalaberry marched with his force from Allan's Corners after dinner on the 23rd November, having, in addition to the infantry, a detachment of the 19th Dragoons. Next morning, he sent forward Milne and Barron, who had been sent as a guide, to secure intelligence. Milne's letter is so interesting in its details, that it would not be AA7ell to relegate it to the appendix : Davis House, Chateaugay, 26th November, 1813. Sir, — In obedience to your orders, I proceeded, in advance of your party, at 8 o'clock on the morning of the 24th, Avith Capt. Barron, by the road followed by Gen. Hampton's army in their retreat, and, from near the Lines, Avent eastward to the first house, from whence I sent a man, under pretext of business, towards Four Corners, to ascertain, as far as pos sible, the strength of the enemy's force, tho position of the milne's letter, 121 pickets, &c, and to return to me at Capt. Barron's. From thence, I proceeded to Capt. Barron's, where we got at 4 o'clock p.m. He sent his wife across the Lines 5 miles, for one Hollenback (from whom he has occasionally received intelligence), in order that he might affirm before me on oath his losses by the Indians, for which Colonel Boucherville promised remuneration. Mrs Barron returned at 8 o'clock, saying that Hollenback having killed a heifer, had baked it, and was gone to the camp to sell it in pieces, and that on his return, which was hourly expected, his father Avould send him forward. The night becoming exceedingly dark and rainy, so much so that he could not have found his way (having only a footpath through the woods) I, for the same reason, was obliged to remain till morning to wait him. At 9 o'clock a.m. of the 25th his father came to Barron's. He stated that the weather having been so bad, his son had not returned, but that he had brought the account to which he w7ould SAvear. This I put off, by saying that the person who had produced the account must qualify it, and desired him to send down his son directly. The old man, who had no knowledge of the force at Four Corners, said that 4 days before there Avas no guard at Major Smith's, but there was one between that and Four Corners. Leaving Capt. Barron to collect intelligence from the son, I Avent to Reed's, where, after waiting about an hour, he arrived. Reid had been at several houses on the main road leading from Four Corners to Salmon river, where he had an opportunity of seeing several people Avho had been lately at Four Corners, some1 of whom state the force there at 1000 men, others at 800, and 600 men, with 2 pieces of heavy ordnance, at or near the camp in the S. E. section of Four Corners. Small parties were marching and countermarching from Four Corners to Salmon river, numbers of waggons w7ere passing towards Salmon river with provisions, &c, for Gen. Wilkinson's army. It is said the men at Four Corners compose one regiment and a small party of Gen. Hampton's army left in charge of his sick and wounded. A sergeant of the regiment informed him that they were 1000 strong, and expected to winter there. He Avas informed that they were lodged in huts and branch tents on the edge of the woods, at the S. E. section of Corners, on an eminence. He cannot state Avhat number of dragoons there are, but that they ride much in patrols during the night, and he has seen their tracks. On his way up, he saw, at about 100 rods from the blockhouse, towards the Corners, a small patrol of men about twilight. * * * 122 preparing for Wilkinson. Capt. Barron was to have followed me down as soon as Hollenback came to his house. I presume he will be here to-day, and I will report to you the information he has got from Hollenback. Apprehensive that your men would be short of provisions, I caused Capt. Barron to send his son and another with 3 head of cattle. I suppose they have come as far as Trout river forks last night, where they have been benighted. I arrived at (Neil) Morrison's last night, an hour after midnight, and from the horrible state in which , you found the roads you will alloAV I have not lost time. The roads from the Forks to the Province Line are much worse (if pos sible) than those you passed, the thin mud among the logs and tree roots being near belly-deep. I have the honor to be, &c, J. Milne, Lieut -Col. deSalaberry, Asst. Q. M. Command advance of Chateaugay. Emb. Militia. On the ,27th, deSalaberry reported to Gen. DeWatteville that he had arrived at Vallee's (who probably liA7ed at Dewitt- ville), and enclosed Milne's letter. It is questionable if the expedition Avent any farther, for it appears to have returned to the camp at Baker's at once Avithout having effected any thing, and to find that Gen. Drummond had gone to Cornwall. With the retreat of Hampton all anxiety as to his movements ceased on the Huntingdon frontier, and, instead, those of Wilkinson filled tho minds of its settlers with apprehension. • Every resource at the disposal of the military authorities had been exhausted to prevent the expedition passing doAvn the St LaAvrence, from lake St Francis to*lake St Louis. At Coteau a really strong fort grew up under the direction of Colonel Scott, and the same energetic officer undertook even a greater task, that of so obstructing the south channel that boats could not pass it. This he effected by sinking rafts of huge logs. On the island below Port LeAvis he threw up a battery* and from the guard there stationed it got the name it bears, Grenadier island. The gunboats on lake St Louis Avere * On Caza's point, beloAV St Anicet village, there is ap parently the remains of an earthwork. That it Avas a battery, throAvn up at this time, I have no proof. battle of crystler'S farm. 123 too few and small to engage the approaching flotilla, for the dispersion and Avreck of which the batteries and the violence of the rapids were relied upon. After spending two months at Sackett's Harbor preparing for the descent on Montreal, Wilkinson set sail, the first week in November, Avith 7000 men in About 4 miles above the forks, the beginning of the settle ment on Trout river was encountered, and which was almost exclusiA7ely composed of Americans, who Avere a poor lot, indolent and shiftless, and earning a precarious living by 140 JOHN M ASSAM. potash-making and lumbering. The first Old Countryman to take up his abode on Trout river was George Elder, a cooper by trade, who came from GlasgoAv in 1817, and stayed the Avinter of that year Avith David Bryson, getting out oak staves. When summer came, he went up the river, and arranged Avith one of the American squatters on Trout riA'er, Abram Sutton, who lived on 48, to stay Avith him and make staves, which he did until 1819, when he bought the better ments of a squatter named Brewster on lot 50, Godmanchester, and his family arrived from Scotland. About the same time, James Terry, an Englishman, and who had served in the navy, came in and squatted on the Elgin side, building a shanty, 10x12, a little to the east of where the Holbrook bridge stands. He Avas undoubtedly the first Old Country settler in Elgin. As a stout Englishman, Terry kept up Christmas, inviting Elder to his feast, which A\Tas primitive enough, and Avhen New Year's day came Elder reciprocated. Besides, these isolated representatives of the two nationalities cele brated the respective anniversaries of their country. In 1821 Brewster got into trouble. Going to Montreal and repre senting his circumstances as good, he had purchased largely on credit from Moreau & Daigneault, who, on discovering the truth, sent a bailiff to take him prisoner. Getting Avind of this, he fled across the Lines, Avhen the defrauded firm seized his betterments on lot 1, 3rd -range of Elgin, consisting of a clearance along the river, and sold them to George Elder, who did not like the lot he was on, for $200. Moving across the riA'er he put up a shanty and now began in earnest to make some clearance,. Avhich he had not attempted on his old lot, and Avhich he sold to John Massam.an English Catholic and un married, who lived for several years alone, his solo companion being a clog. His son Robert, a cabinet-maker, he sent for from Quebec, but a short time's experience disgusted him AA7ith the privations of bush-life, and he fled by night 'to Quebec, where ho stayed until he married, Avhen he came to Trout river and lived Avith his father, avIio, until a very old man, was tho only Avheelvvright from Huntingdon to Fort Covington, and made all the ox and horse carts needed. ARAM MOE. 141 Beyond a few additional American families, there was no change in the settlements in Hinchinbrook, and except the isolated clearances on tho Chateaugay between Huntingdon and Athelstan and on the first concession, it remained in a state of nature. On the 1st concession, John Campbell settled on 600 acres Avhich had been granted to his father, a UE. Loyalist Avho lived at Caldwell's Manor, for having served in the militia during the Avar. With the declaration of peace Franklin gained largely. in population. Doubtful of the seignior's title to the lands, Milne dared not prevent their former occupiers returning to them, while the locality was too remote for any agent of the cfoAvn to know of Avhat w7as being done, for the decision had been come to, that no person who declined taking the oath of allegiance should be eligible to own land in Canada. Among the new-comers was Jonathan Priest, a native of Massa chusetts, who moved on to a part of Jacob Mitchel's lot in 181G, and who was the first to introduce a wheeled vehicle, for he brought a waggon and team. He was instrumental in making the road to Montreal somewhat more passable, for, at his solicitation, several settlers went with him in 1818 and helped to corduroy the Avorst of the sloughs near St Chrysostome. Up to that time, the settlers had dragged their barrels of potash on sleds to St Remi, where they hired carts. In 1817 Aram Moe left CaldAvell's Manor and bought the lot opposite Mr Gentle's. His Avife, who lived to over 90 years of age, in speaking of their moving into Franklin, said : We bought from an American named Masting, paying him $200 for his improvements. Before the sleighing was over, we drove to it, following the bush-track that led over Covey Hill and doAvn to Stockwell's. We carried an axe to remove any tree that might have fallen on the track. We stayedto rest in Gilfillan's and when I saw the hens roosting in one end of it, I thought they would get their eggs handy and without hunting for them. There was an apple-tree in front of our lot when we got it, which had been in bearing several years. We got in a good crop and it yielded well, for 1817, unlike the two years before, was one of plenty. The old seigniory-mill (page 31) was going at Ames's, and made such 142 GAME. coarse flour that we had to sift it before using. I did not like the work, and said one day I hoped it would burn down so that we might get in its place a decent mill Avith bolts. Sure enough, the first word we got next morning was that the mill had been burned down. That would be about 1825. The seignior did not rebuild the mill, however, and Ave had to go to Chateaugay, N.Y. My husband drew the potash he made through a track in the Avoods that came out below the blockhouse. People Avere very friendly and shared every thing they had. I have had a neighbor send 6 miles for a drawing of tea on hearing I had got some from Montreal. With the year 1820 the decadence of the district as a hunting-field may be said to date, for then settlers began to flock in. Of the abundance of game that prevailed previous to that period, we can have little conception. In every direction the deer-runs could be met with in the woods, all leading to some creek or river. Deer were to be met not singly, but in herds, and as the early settlers, more manly than the pretended sportsmen of our own day, never shot them unless when needed for food, they multiplied long after the settlement of the district began. Old Mr McClatchie boasted that 365 deer had fallen to his rifle, and of these he had only killed one on the crust, and then from the necessity to get food. To his rifle fell probably the last moose seen in the district, and which he shot near Avhere the bridge crosses the tlinchinbrook south of Herdinan. Catamounts Avere rarely met with, but bears, especially near SAvamps, were plentiful, and occasional stragglers haye been killed in Teafield as late as 1870. Of all wild beasts, Avolves were' the most annoying, and they (for the safety of sheep and young cattle) were hunted and shot without mercy. Beavers were trapped as late as 1820, and otters Avere also occasionally shot. It has often been denied that salmon frequented the Chateaugay, but on this I have had abundant evidence. Up to the time the sawmills got fairly going, they were plentiful during their season, and in the rapids opposite Huntingdon AA7ere speared as late as 1825. Of the flocks of pigeons, quails, ducks, and, more rarely, of geese, the statements of the early settlers Avould be incredible Avere they not so well substantiated. In COLONEL SCRIVER. 143 the spring and fall they darkened the sky like clouds and where they lit vegetation was destroyed. Few of the Americans w7ho left at the breaking out of the war, returned to Hemingford, and up to the period when the tide of immigration set in from the Motherland it Avas sparsely settled, there being a thin fringe of clearances on the front range and, scattered here and there in the woods to the north, the shanties of migratory French Canadians and Americans, who earned an irregular livelihood by making potash and by hunting. Few as the permanent settlers were, they made an effort to establish a school, and securing the services of a daughter of Squire Manning, turned a log shanty, which stood on a knoll by the roadside on Senecal's lot (page 20), into a schoolhouse. This Avas during the second year of the war, when the teacher w7as a girl still in her teens. She had had no opportunities of learning beyond those afford ed under her father's roof, where, in the long winter evenings, the younger members of the family received lessons from him and their oldest brother DaA-id (page 89) Avho, like his father, was an excellent English scholar and well-informed. From want of text-books, her teaching was mainly oral, but with the help of a copy of Hume's England, Webster's Speller and the Bible she succeeded in turning out creditable scholars. She taught until 1816, AA7hen she became the wife of John, oldest son of Frederick Scriver (page 19), and around Avhom, for the ensuing years, the history of Heming ford may be said to centre. His quiet though laborious life on the paternal bush-farm Avas interrupted by the war, when he Avas drafted Avith the other young men of the settle ment into a battalion of the militia. Stationed at Isle aux Noix, his ability in managing men and his handiness in woodcraft did not remain long unobserved, and he Avas taken from the ranks to assist in raising of fortifications, the con struction of barracks and on any outside service that required tact and knowledge of the country. When the U. S. men-of- war Julia and Growler attacked the island, he was assigned the responsible post of commanding a squad of volunteer sharpshooters, Avho poured in so galling a fire from the bushes 144 AN OLD SUBSCRIPTION-LIST. that lined the shore, that it hastened the striking of the flag of the enemy and the surrender of the two ships. When peace Avas declared the gallant young backAvoodsman returned to Hemingford with a considerable sum in silver — the pay he had received for his services and which he had, with characteristic thrift and self-denial, saved. The money thus obtained he devoted to securing a home of his own. In the fall of 1815 he bought lots 105 and 106 and the following spring made a considerable clearance, and on the east side of the road erected^ suitable barns and a stone-house, in vyhich he installed Lucretia Manning as mistress, and to her assist ance his after-success was, in no small measure, due, and, probably, to her influence in part, at least, may be attributed a meeting of the settlers held in her new home, on the 19th October, 1816, to endeavor to build a better schoolhouse and to secure a grant from the fund of the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning. The meeting decided upon building a schoolhouse on the south-west corner of the cross roads on lot 105, and resolved "that it shall always, on the Sabbath-day, be devoted to the use of religious worship." John Manning, John Henigan, and Frederick ScriA-er Avere appointed to carry the project into effect, and a subscription- list was opened, which is so curious that I print it in full : We, the subscribers, being desirous to promote literature in the township of Hemingford, promise to pay towards building a house for that purpose on lot No 105, in the said township, the several sums in cash, and quotas in labor, to our several names respectively annexed. October 19, 1816. Cash Dollars. Days Labor. John Manning 20 15 paid John Schryver 10 10 Frederick Schryver 15 20 paid Wm. Schryver 5 6 paid John Hennagin, jr. 2 6 Nathan Peterson 3 paid Joseph Hennagin 2 6 paid Joseph Clevelin 2 6 Reed $3.90 CLEVELAND-STREET. 145 Days Work. Louis x Eshten Derwazh $4 5 Judgment on the James Cross 1 4 same by me, Joseph Eward Simson 2 4 Churchill, J.P. for Daniel Hennagin 2 6 the town of Mooers Samuel B. Hudson 2 4 paid John Lindsay 2 6 David H. Hennigan 1 4 paid Joseph Lindsay 1 "3 John Henegin 4 paid S. Sewell 16 paid John Wallis 5 paid Aaron Smith 10 paid Zekiel Dewey 10 paid Freeman Sweet 5 2 Rolleat Snickall 5 Richard Lindsay 2 4 paid in wood Joseph Brisben 2 4 William Wallace 3 Isaac Wilsey 5 paid in shingles James Woolrich 6 paid. The names being evidently all autographs, I print them as written. The enterprise, thus spiritedly begun, dragged from want of means, and it was not until 1820 that the schoolhouse, which also served as church and toAvn-hall for over a score of years, Avas finished. The effort to obtain a grant from the Royal' Institution was not successful.* The Nathan Peterson, mentioned in the foregoing list, had squatted on lot 100 and on that opposite to him afterwards came Truman Cleveland, both Dutch Americans. The side- road they opened came to be known as Cleveland-street. In 1821 Cleveland, on the north side of the concession road, built a sawmill on the Little Montreal river, which, despite its paltry appearance now, had in those days an abundance of water and the mill cut 100 M feet of lumber each season. BeloAV the mill was the landing-place for the canoes in which •When the old schoolhouse, which was a fairly -finished block-building, came to be superseded by a better, it Avas sold and moved to another site. It is now (1887) occupied by Mrs Thomas McClelland. 11 146 ROAD TO ST. EDWARD. the settlers made the difficult and tedious passage to the Richelieu with their potash. In 1819 Isaac Proper, a Ver- monter, moved in from Chazy, and settled on lot 9, having for neighbor, on 10, Daniel Scriver, a brother of Frederick. Mr Proper's oldest son, Nelson, said : We moved into Canada in May, Avhen there was only one road, that by Clelland's corners. There were very few settlers in the toAvnship and they were all Americans or of American descent, depending Avholly on potash, and living poorly. There Avas no house between Clelland's corners and Sweet's, and I remember the swamp on 66 was crosswayed and floated. There was no house between that of Frederick Scriver and of his son John. The road that passed my lot (150) followed the ridge to Nesbit's mill, whence there was a bush-track to Russeltown, that was little used. The roads thus referred to were mere sled-tracks, and Hem- ingford's lack of means of communication Avas the great ob stacle to its progress. Its isolated situation can hardly be exaggerated. Cut off by great swamps to the north, bounded by the United States to the south, and Avithout navigable rivers, the settlers underwent the most exhausting toil in getting their potash to market. When the water was high enough, they floated the barrels down the Little Montreal . river, having frequently to plunge into the current to lift the canoes OATer shallows, or to drag them on ox-sleds to Cham plain, and send them by the Chazy to Montreal. During the season of sleighing, they were driven to the city by Laprairie. It is 30 miles to Laprairie from Hemingford, and St Edward is half-way. As far as the latter place the country was in a state of nature, forest and swamp, the one so rugged and the other so deep, that to traverse the 15 miles with an ox-sled Avas a day's journey when everything was most favorable. Colonel Scriver perceived that if the township was to be peopled, an outlet must be secured, and his opportunity soon came. In 1817 the legislature passed an act to provide for better communications in the county of Huntingdon (that is, the old county, which stretched eastwards to the Richelieu) and Colonel Scriver urged, upon the commissioners appointed under it, the claims of Hemingford. They examined the GRANTS TO MILITIAMEN. 147 ground, and decided on opening two roads, for Avhich they gave out contracts. The first was from the farm of William Struthers, near St Remi, to the farm of James Allen, Russel- town Flats, which was taken by William Brisbin for $1600, but owing to the governor's declining to ratify it, the work was not done. The second contract was for cutting out a road from La Tortue to the Hemingford line, which was taken by Colonel Scriver for $2000. It was 9 miles long and crossed three swamps which had to be crosswayed. The work was of a most difficult nature but by October, 1819, the contract was fulfilled and the amount paid. The new road was exceedingly rough and one or two seasons passed before wheeled vehicles could go over it with ease. The swamps so difficult to span then, now comprise the finest land in the province. From the opening of this road, the prosperity of Hemingford dates. It will now be perceived that during the interval between the close of the war and the setting-in of immigration, the English-speaking settlements made little .progress, and, apart from that of Franklin, barely held their own. The lands thrown open in Western New York and in Ohio were more attractive to the New Englanders, and they no longer came to Canada in any numbers, while to the British immigrants, who Avere being landed by the shipload at Quebec, this dis trict up to 1821 was barred, for the representatives of the seignior could not concede lots and the crown would not sell. There were divided opinions among military men as to what was best to be done with Huntingdon. Believing that a renewal of war with the United States was probable, a number contended that leaving the country along the frontier a wilderness was the best defence for the settlements behind, while others held that an invading^army would meet with more serious hindrances were it peopled with loyal settlers. That was General Drummond's view, and he advised the Imperial government to divide up the county of Huntingdon among such of the regulars as had served under Macdonell, Meuron, and DeWatteville as would consent to stay in Canada and become farmers. The government did nothing. 148 THE FIRST CENSUS. Some time after, the provincial legislature passed an act to reward all who had served in the militia with grants of wild land, and to which the Imperial consent was obtained Under this act the larger portion of St Anicet was drawn by officers of the French battalions, and part of Godman chester and Hinchinbrook. The grant to a lieutenant-colonel was 1200 acres and ranged downwards to 100 to a private. Owing to the number of formalities and the amount of fees exacted by each official, few of the rank-and-file proved their claims, and they sold their rights for mere trifles to the land- sharks who haunted taverns and market-places, and Ellice and Woolrich obtained the larger share of the grants made in Huntingdon. The officers, however, drew their land and then did nothing with it, complying with none of the con ditions upon which the grants were made, and waiting until they became valuable from the labors of settlers on adjoining lots. About 165,000 acres were thus granted of the town ship land in the province, and, in subsequent years, these militia grants caused no end of wrong and hardship to actual settlers, who unwittingly went on improving lots, believing them to be crown lands,, which they discovered in course of time were claimed by French gentlemen or their heirs who lived in Quebec and more remote parts of the province. The seignior's agent declining to concede lots did not deter the habitants of the north shore and of Longueuil from pressing into Beauharnois, and the settlements near Ste Martine and the town of Beauharnois increased rapidly after the peace. On the census being taken in 1820 it was found there were 2205 people living in the seigniory of Beauharnois, of whom fully half were French. Of the 433 families who lived by farming, none (whether French or English-speaking) had received titles from the seignior. The population of the seigniory of Chateaugay Avas more dense than it is to-day, for it numbered 3530, accounted for by the number who lived by lumbering and boating. CHAPTER VIII. THE FIRST PARTY OF IMMIGRANTS. On the 21st April, 1820, there beat down the Firth of Clyde a small barque, named the Alexander. Her passengers were not numerous and came chiefly from Lanarkshire : weavers, shepherds, and farm-laborers who determined to improve their condition by emigrating to Canada. They proved to be so congenial in disposition that, before a week was over, they were as one family, and before anchor was dropped at Quebec, after a weary voyage of 45 days, they had become so attached to one another that those who in tended taking up land resolved not to separate, but endeavor to settle together. Taking the steamer for Montreal, the Lady Sherbrooke, they landed there after a passage of 36 hours. Enquiring for lodgings, they found that a brother Scotchman, Shields, who had been out a year, had rented a house which was too large for him, and they bargained with him for several rooms, into which they crowded, and lived, of course, as befitted their means, very economically. Having thus provided for their wives and children, the heads went to search for land, which, strange to say, though the pro vince, with the exception of narrow strips along the St Lawrence, was in a state of nature, was not easy to get. There was land, they were told, to be had in Terrebonne and to the south of Chambly, and on examination it was found to be of fair quality, but they were surprised to leam that they could not obtain an absolute title, and would haAre to pay a small perpetual rent. Still greater was the astonishment of the Scotchmen when informed that the priests levied tithes and the large churches they saw were built by taxes levied by law. Ardent Radicals one and all, and, as such, detesters 150 SEEKING FOR LAND. of all union between church and state, such a condition of affairs on American soil and under British rule, shocked them, and after debating the matter over they resolved that, on no condition, would they settle upon parish-land, and they turned their attention to the townships, where, they Avere told, British and not French law pre\7ailed. One of their number, who had relatives in Vermont, went to see the land there, and others visited the Eastern Townships. When they came back and compared notes, they decided that no place they had visited would do. Vermont was hilly and stony and the desirable lands in the Eastern Townships were held by companies who asked extortionate prices for them. When despairing of finding homes in this province and about to set out for Upper Canada, which in those days, when even the Lachine canal was not built, was a terrible journey, they learned that the government was giving out lots in Dundee. A delegation of three was despatched to report, the others agreeing to wait until they returned. They walked all the way up to Cornwall. While resting in the inn at Beaudette they met surveyor-general Bouchette, Avho, on learning their errand, directed them how to proceed, and told them if they were not satisfied Avith Dundee, they would be sure to get free township land in Godmanchester, for his errand had been to prepare for opening it and Hinchinbrook for settlement. They asked when lots would be given out, and on his answer ing in a year, they said that would not do, they must get homes for their families at once. Pointing across lake St Francis, to where the wooded shores of the county of Hunt ingdon swam in the distance, Mr Bouchette told them they could go and squat there, and he would see that the lots would be secured to them when the surveys were made. They parted ; Mr Bouchette going to Quebec and the prospectors holding on their Avay to Dundee. Crossing to St Regis they saw the agent, and he had no sooner told them that the lands he had to give out were subject to Indian-rent, than they gave up all thought of them, and started to make their Avay back to Montreal by the Basin. With two Indians as guides, they hqd their first experience of travelling through the bush THE LANDING. 151 One of them, in relating what happened, said while they were struggling Avith the. branches, which scratched their faces and tore their clothes, the Indians glided through the thickest bush like fish in water. On reaching what seemed to them civilization at Fort Covington, though the settlement was primitive enough, they were able to find their own way, and striking Trout river at the lines walked on to Huntingdon, resting at Palmer's, who, from his own door, shot a duck for their entertainment Next day, as they trudged along the west bank of the Chateaugay and had passed the meadows, they were surprised and delighted to encounter a settlement of their own countrymen, who hailed them with rapturous welcome, and, learning their story, urged them to come and live with them. They would gladly have consented, had it not been that the Avords parish and seigniory terrified them. They would not become subject to French law and they would not pay rent. Ferried from the Basin to Lachine, they rejoined their companions in Montreal and related all they had seen and heard. The immigrants had been 3 weeks now in Montreal, and it was necessary they should come to a decision as to what they should do. After long consultation they resolved that they would trust Bouchette 's word and go to Huntingdon. It was, they argued, township land, Avas free from rent and French law, and therefore equal in privi lege to any they eould get in Upper Canada. A bateau was hired, and a portion of the party, for a number of the women and children were to follow, sore Avearied by delay and strangers in a strange land, Avalked out to Lachine and em barked upon it; in all, representatives of 17 families. On the 1st of August they were landed on a point on lot 17, close to the line of 16. The point* which would have been the Plymouth rock of Huntingdon, was -afterwards washed away by the rising Ayaters of the lake. Standing on the bank was a negro, Henry Bullard, who came running from his cabin, which stood on lot 20, now7 Port Lewis, on seeing the bateau steer for the shore. The day was rainy and com fortless, and a sort of shelter was made for the women and children by piling up chests and boxes and forming a roof 152 ROUGHING IT. with blankets and brush, laid on poles. They had barely finished it and crowded under its shelter to escape a thunder- shower, when the rain penetrated the frail covering and left them soaking wet Despite their discomfort, the poor people were pleased with what they saw. The noble trees, that thickly covered the ground, were their admiration, and they did not know enough to be aware that the location was hardly one that an agriculturalist would have chosen, for while there was much good land it Avas broken by low ridges, and had great stretches of marsh both in front and rear. The latter feature, however, was not so prominent as it is now, for Avhen they landed the lake Avas exceptionally low, and continued to be so for several years. Whether, the soil was good or bad gave them no concern, for, singular to say, among the 17 there was not a single farmer. Two or three had done farm-work in their capacity as day-laborers, but the only one among them who had eArer held a plow was David Anderson, and he Avas a shepherd.* Their notion was that whoever got to be proprietor of 100 acres became a laird, and passing rich. The first duty was to get up shanties, and here they were at a disadvantage, for, excepting the negro, they had no neighbors to direct them, and none of them knew how to raise a shanty in Canadian fashion. Several of them were tradesmen, however, and rigging up a whip-saw turned the trees into boards. So slow was their progress, that it was six weeks before enough houses were up and the tents abandoned, greatly to the joy of the women, who long remembered what they suffered until the shanties were ready. Bullard's wife was a French Canadian and she was forward in showing the Scotch gudewives how to cook bush-fashion, making rum an indispensable ingredient, even in baking. As they soon found where the liquor went, they dispensed with her tuition. She subsequently deserted Bullard, who disap peared soon after. He had moved over from Glengarry that •He left Scotland in 1819 for Miramichi, but not liking New Brunswick- 4iad moved west. In Montreal he fell in with the'Alexander party and decided to go with them. THE SETTLEMENT. 153 spring, and when the party arrived was eking out a miserable living by fishing and hunting. After they had taken possession, one of their number, James Brown, was sent to Quebec to secure titles to the lots. He had an interview with the governor, Lord Dalhousie, who listened with deep interest to the narrative he had to tell and assured him of his aid. In the fall, Mr Bouchette visited them, and arranged for laying out the lots. He was exceed ingly friendly and gave . many hints as to bush-life and farming. He had much difficulty in understanding the broad Scotch of the settlers, and made himself popular with some of them by making a present of snuff. There Avas no order in the locating of the settlers, who, indeed, worked very much in common. The most western shanty was that of Thomas Marshall on 19, and they straggled along the lake shore eastward to 14, where James Paul and Robert Barrie lived together in a low caboose. As shelter was provided, word was sent to Montreal for their families, who came as opportunity presented itself. The captain of the bateau which brought the first party, took a kindly interest in the settlement, and stopped Avhenever he passed. On one occasion he sold them a quantity of flour at $3 a barrel, for it was cheap that fall. Of the experience of one family I can give a few details. Marshall, having got everything ready, went to the city to bring up his family.'1 Early in November, they left in a Durham-boat, and in, three days- reached Coteau, where, frost having set in, she could not get into the lake for ice. A canoe being expected, the wayfarers made beds of their wraps and lay down by the water's edge to be in readi ness, the mother having for her pillow the weaver's stone, for the loom formed part of their baggage. The canoe at last came, and was that of the negro, Bullard. When Mrs Mar shall stepped into the humble shanty her husband had pro- Added, she said she considered it a palace, so proud was she of the first house she could call their own property, though she complained of the floor being "shoogly," owing to tho uneven sawing of the boards. The Durham-boat continuing fast, the canoe had to make several trips for their effects. 154 NEAV YEAR'S DAY IN THE BUSH. The fall was a remarkably fine one, and the leaves being perfectly dry, the children were set to gathering and packing them into bolster-slips for the beds. December, though colder, was equally fine, and no severe weather was experienced until near its close, after Avhich there were heavy falls of snow. The settlers found the cold very trying, owing to their ignor ance in choosing fire-wood. Not knoAving the difference in trees, and naturally inclining to those easiest to chop, they cut all sorts, and it Avas hard to keep up a blaze with sAvamp- elm and green bassAvood. Their houses, too, except the few that had been built shanty-fashion, were very cold, and they huddled around the great open fire-places when the west Avind came screeching across the lake. In the mornings, they noted often that the blankets were frozen stiff with their breath None of the Avomen had e\rer baked bread in Scotland, and Mrs Bullard's lessons were not first-class. They had no hops, and preserved leaven by covering it in a chaudron, for there was not a stove in the settlement, so the bread was sour and heavy. With the advent of the ice, their communication was re stored with Montreal, and they had many visitors to view the country and see about joining them. That winter, Peter McFarlane, a book-keeper fresh from a Glasgow counting- house, Avith his worldly goods stoAved in a traineau, drove up the Chateaugay from the Basin to aboA7e Huntingdon, where there was a lumber-road to the Laguerre, and thence made his way to the settlement, of which he became . an active member. < Every one was welcomed and- the settlement grew until the string of shanties reached from Port Lewis to Hungry bay, when it was considered worthy of a name, and Avas duly called "Dalhousie Settlement," in honor of the governor.. On New Year's morning its inhabitants were aroused at daybreak by Black Bullard firing a shot before each door, Avhen he Avas reAvarded by a glass from the care fully hoarded bottle. The day so ushered in, their first New Year in Canada, the settlers observed with the hearty cus toms of their mother-land and that night, from the shanties where they held their merry-making, rose in the frosty air MONTREAL FRIENDS. 155 the sound of Scotland's songs and many an old story was re told of the land their heartstrings were knit to. I may note that the settlers retained not only the social but the moral cus toms of their native land. Of their number, Hart and Dick had been prepared as secession preachers, and they, on alter nate Sundays, preached in the house of Thomas Brow7n, which happened to be the largest. Neither was adapted for the toils of the bush, and both left the following summer, but after their departure, though no public services were held, Sunday Avas rigidly observed, and there was none of the hunting, fishing and card-playing that was too common in other settlements. Of Hart's unfitness for the bush, it is enough to relate that, on going out, he would wrap the edge of his axe with rags, to prevent its cutting him should it falL The Scotch citizens of Montreal, then few in number and bound together by closest bonds, took a deep interest in the new settlement, the first of its kind in Lower Canada, and did what they could to assist it. Two active promoters were Alexander Shaw and John Hunter. Sandy Shaw kept a tavern on the corner of Commissioners and Grey Nun streets, which had been a place of resort for the immigrants while in the city. He died of the cholera in 1834. Hunter had been a ship-chandler in Leith, and emigrated in 1819, opening a grocery-store on Bleury-street. During the early winter of 1820, he heard of a young Scotchman lying ill of the jaundice, and went to see him. Finding he was poorly attended, he induced his wife to take him into their house, and where he speedily recovered. The young man was James Brown, on his way back from seeing the go\7ernor at Quebec. The topic uppermost in his mind, and of which he was never tired talking, was the settlement on the shore of lake St Francis, Hunter, who was of a singularly sanguine temperament, caught his guest's enthusiasm, and recommended all whom he could influence to throw in their lot with the party in Huntingdon. While hopeful as to their future, the settlers were uneasy as to the delay in securing deeds for their land, and had sent James Brown to Quebec to see about them, when he took ill on the journey as stated. He brought with 156 TEAFIELD. him no patents, but his report was favorable. He had seen Lord Dalhousie, who told the settlers not to be discouraged, and the head of the crown lands department led him to believe he (Brown) would be appointed agent. A stone mason by trade, his father had given him an education to fit him to be an architect, and his knowledge of civil engineering he now turned to account. He defined the limits of the lots of the settlers, and, on the occasion of a visit from his friend Hunter, after the New Year, he explored with him the eountry to the south, and determined on opening a road to the Chateaugay. Accordingly in February all the settlers who could be spared from home followed him to brush the Erie as he defined it. His object was to open the road left between 16 and 17, and considering that his only instrument was a make-shift theodolite he had contrived out of a field- eompass, he ran it with singular straightness, for he came out on the Chateaugay within an acre or two of the time line. One evening, after a hard day's work running the line, the party made preparations to camp. The snow Avas trodden down, a fire lit, and branches cut for sleeping upon. While the two chain-boys Avere felling a dry pine to replenish the fire, it, proving hollow, suddenly fell, and nearly killed Mr Brown, grazing one of his legs. While sitting round the camp-fire after supper, singing songs, and all grateful for the narroAv escape, one of the party proposed that the swamp should be named in memory of the event, when it was agreed that it should be known as Teafield — from their having par taken of their supper upon it. On the line thus run, a road was finally brushed out by 7 of the young sons of the settlers, so that it was possible to pass froin the lake to the Chateau gay. Tn the middle of March, Hunter made a second visit, examined the land, and accepted from Brown the lot at the outlet of the road, 17, range 5, on which he at once erected a shanty, and left his eldest son, John, and a Canadian in charge. There were other visitors ; among them several who had been passengers on the Alexander. As the lake-front was taken up, BroAvn proposed they' should settle on the new line, THE SECOND SUMMER. 157 which he designed as a concession, the farms to run east and west Peter and Parian McFarlane were given the first lot and the next lot fell to William Caldwell. To get to them, it was necessary to do some brushing and to blaze a track, which done, Caldwell moved in during April, taking the McFarlane brothers, who were unmarried, as boarders. John and William Hamilton had to go farther to get lots, for the Teafield spread its dreary waste to the south of Caldwell's, and they settled on 17, 4th range. As spring approached, Thomas Brown crossed the lake to secure a cow. There were several old country families along the river front, and back of the stage-road. From one of these he bought a cow and calf. On reaching the lake, he found that the. frost which had followed the thaw had covered it Avith glare-ice. Borrowing a horse and traineau, he tied the cow on the sled, and it being too small for the calf also, he swung her round his neck, and holding her legs drove safely across. When spring came,, there was no grass for bossy nearer than the point on 20, which had been chopped some years before by lumbermen in getting out masts. The neighbors wondered what Mrs Brown would do with a cow, for she had been city-bred. She soon showed that where there is a will there is a way, for she not only found out how to milk but to make excellent butter, as much as 71b a week. The calf was a heifer. The cow's two subse quent calves were steers, and those came to be the first yoke of oxen in the settlement, for, like most Scotchmen, the first effort of the settlers was to get horses, though they soon found they were not adapted for the Avork they had for them to do. That spring, the trees were tapped, and the first maple-sugar made ; several families managed to secure enough sap to make 601b. With the reappearance of bare ground, began preparations for getting in the crop on the small patches they had chopped around their shanties. Potatoes were planted and a little wheat sown. Ignorant of the use of the hoe, the settlers spaded the soil around the stumps. They had a long wait until harvest, and it needed all their courage to sustain them. Provisions could be only obtained by going 158 THEIR LAND IS CLAIMED to Coteau or Fort Covington, long distances to sail in th#* canoes they managed to buy or make, and often they were m"r- sore need. One family lived on peas alone, and the diet df others, who had some money left, was not much more varied. Every day saw the bush driven farther back, for, despite heat and mosquitoes, the settlers did not relax their exertioris in chopping. The trees that were suitable they burned, and conA7erted into ashes, which they paddled in canoes' up to the newly-opened store of Alex. Ogilvie on the Laguerre, and sold them for 12£c a bushel, Avhich was a perfect godsend. An honest penny was also earned by making cordwood, which was sent on rafts to Montreal. During the summer tAvo of the settlers left, Barrie and Rorison, for Scotland, the former for his wife the latter to see to some business. They were wrecked on the coast of Ireland, and reached Glasgow in a destitute condition. Barrie safely returned, but Rorison, whose craze for bush-life had not been satisfied, started to resume it, was again wrecked, and this time was lost with the ship; A number of settlers came in during the summer and took up land beside the Caldwells in what is now known as Newfoundout. The harvest proved a bountiful one, the yield of potatoes being marvellous in the eyes of those whose experience had been confined to Scotland, and of wheat one settler could boast of having 20 bushels from one he had sown. This ended all fears of scarcity, and the winter AA7as faced with good spirits and much better preparations to resist the cold. Their great anxiety Avas the delay in issuing patents for their land. They had now ascertained that the lots they occupied had been granted many 'years before to militiamen and to officers who had taken part in the Avar of the American revolution, and of the purchasers of the claims of these men or their representatives, Edward Ellice Avas the most un compromising. His agents in Montreal told the settlers they had either to buy or leave, and laughed on being asked if, choosing the latter alternative, they would pay for the better ments. Platt and McDonell, who held from 16 to 19, were equally firm, but asked more moderate' prices. The settlers AND THEY HAVE TO MOVE. 159 contended that as the conditions upon Avhich the grants had been made had not been complied with, as no settlement duties had' been done and no patents issued, the lands had reverted to the croAATn; that they had gone on them in good faith, at the recommendation of the surveyor-general and on assurances from the governor, and therefore they should be conceded to them. The settlers had both equity and Liav ori their side ; Ellice and his co-proprietors had political in fluence, and the latter prevailed. Lord Dalhousie was much annoyed at the situation in Avhich they 'were placed, and assured James Brown, who .went to see him, that the best that could be done Avas to giAre them lots in other parts of the county. The settlers would gladly have paid for their land and remained where they were, but they had no money, so, perforce, had to accept the new lots, which were mainly in Elgin. Adam Patterson was the first to move, and the entire settlement turned out in the spring of 1822 to tramp the road to the Chateaugay to permit of his going to his new lot, which was on the 1st concession of Elgin. While troubled with the prospect of being compelled to abandon the improvements they had made by so much pain ful self-denial, two incidents occurred to them of a trivial nature, but which are deserving of record as they served to distract the minds of the settlers from the seriousness of their situation. Thomas Marshall, despite his being a weayer by trade, was the most handy man in the settlement with tools, and Avas never at a loss to provide a makeshift on meeting difficulties. He had brought the works of a clock with him from Scotland, and made a case wherein to set them, which was of shape and material so strange that Barrie declared it might be worshipped without breaking the commandment, for it was like nothing on the earth and he was positive there could be nothing like it in heaven. Marshall grew most ex pert with the axe, and when a boasting Yankee lumberman chanced their way and declared he had never seen the man who would chop with him, he took him up. The American chopped 5 cords in two days, Marshall 5|, and would have done more but for well-meant interruptions by his neighbors 160 WILD BEASTS. who, at first, considered him foolish to have accepted the wager. The other incident was less pleasant. A straggling American named Cunningham had been given shelter for the winter by Paul and Barrie in return for his work One Saturday night Wylie gave a merry-making, at which every soul in the settlement was there. Cunningham and Paul were the fiddlers. During the evening Cunningham left, saying he needed a new string and shortly after returned On Thomas Brown and his wife returning to their shanty, they found the dog, which had. been letVoutside, inside, and knew ithad been entered. Flying to the chest where they kept their money, they found the lid open and their own little stock of cash safe, but a sum of money entrusted to their safe-keeping by Barrie, stowed at the other end, had been taken away. The deed caused the greatest excitement, and it was agreed that every house and individual should be searched. Next morning (Sunday) Paul who had his suspicions of him, saw Cunningham go towards the bush and watched him. He cut some cedar and in gathering it up, made a motion as if thrust ing something into the snow. On coming in Paul reproached him for cutting brush on such a day, the more so as their broom was good enough, when he replied that the bush was such a nice one he could not resist lopping its branches. Watching his chance, Paul went to the spot, and underneath the snow found Barrie 's money. Afraid of the consequences if he told Barrie, who Avas an exceedingly strong man and who he knew would be very angry, he did not tell him, but re proached the thief privately, who confessed all, and accepting a feAV coins to carry him back to the States, disappeared. That winter the first death took place, an infant of 13 months, the daughter of Thomas BroAvn. She Avas buried in an island that lay near his house, and, by common consent, it wras used for many years as the burial-ground of the settle ment. The settlers Avere in no way troubled by wild beasts. There were bears in the Teafield, but they never strayed their way and wolves Avere equally unknown. Deer were abundant, however, and venison in its season, was a welcome A'ariety to GOING TO MILL. 161 their monotonous diet. Of fish they had a fair supply, the lake at that period abounding in them. Black Bullard would come in with his canoe filled, and let the settlers help them selves without price. There w7as no Indian camp near them, and the only redman seen by them, AA7as when one would pass on a hunting-expedition. A queer encounter Avith one was that of two of the settlers, who, while far down towards Valleyfield in search of a horse that a Canadian had stolen, came suddenly upon an Indian in full costume, with rifle and tomahawk — "a perfect picture" as they described him. They Avere abashed and someAvhat terrified by the imposing ap pearance of the savage, and one of the canny Scots sought to propitiate him by offering "the piece" he had brought with him. The Indian graciously accepted the bread, and though he could not speak English showed his good-Avill by signs. The hopes of the settlers as to a favorable solution of their land difficulties were revived in the summer by Bowron, who, by political influence, had got the appointment as land-agent which had been promised to James Brown, and who now left for Quebec, where he was engaged to build, lighthouses on the island of Anticosti, and spent the remainder of his life in building and overseeing such structures on the St Lawrence, dying at Quebec about 1845. Bowron sent for the settlers to meet him at Hunter's house, when he made a plausible speech, promising to faithfully fulfil to them all the assurances the governor had made to Brown. Soon after they dis covered that their ostensible friend was in treaty to buy up the claims of the gentlemen who held grants for their land. This decided them to leave at once for the lots for which they held location-tickets. To the idea of moving they had become more reconciled on finding out many of the draw backs of their present situation, the greatest of which was distance from mill. They had to go to Fort Covington, Williamstown, Coteau, or St Timothy, all of them inA-olving long and dangerous voyages in frail canoes, which they were awkward in managing. Often were they overtaken by those 6udden squalls characteristic of lake St Francis, and not only had their bags of flour soaked by water but had hairbreadth 12 162 PREPARING TO LEAVE. •escapes with their lives. Thomas Brown Avith a neighbor on one occasion went to St Timothy mill. In returning, a storm arose and they had to make for the shore of Hungry bay. There Avas no house near and the marsh on eveiy side was full of water. By chance, a hunter passed the second day and gave them a light, so that they had a fire. For two days and nights they were compelled by the storm to remain* their only food a fish thrown up wounded by the gale. Another : settler who had gone to Williamstown to buy a bag of flour, -was detained 3 days by the wind So great was the diffi culty in conveying boards from Fort Covington, that they found it easier to saw them by hand. On a boat that went to the Fort for supplies, the settler who held the paddle gave much uneasiness to the others by steering boldly across from headland to headland, instead of coasting along shore, and one of them repeatedly called out to him "Keep close to Crete; keep close to Crete." They brought back in their boat a young pig or two and other supplies. It Avas true the lake had also its advantages, as it gaA7e them Avater communication in summer and formed the best of roads in winter, but, on the other hand, the Teafield behind isolated them, except during sleighing, from the interior of the country, and by this time they had learned the soil was better along the Chateaugay and Trout river. Ellice's agent threatening to eject them unless they Avould buy their lots, the settlers almost unanimously determined upon leaving. The only concession they could wring from him was leave to return and cut the hay that might grow7 on their clearings until such time as new owners went into possession. The privilege AAras of no value, as their new lots were at too great a distance to allow of hauling it. In the fall (1823) they, set out to see tlie lots provided for them in Elgin, and found a guide to them in a negro, Black William, who was an escaped slave and deformed from a timber having fallen upon him at a raising. He Avas unmarried and lived alone on 3, 1st concession, maintaining himself by hunting.* Be- * The poor man died in Malone poorhouse at an advanced age. THE SEQUEL. 163 side him there was only one other resident in the interior of the toAvnship, an American of the name of Palmer, who had temporarily left his own place in Constable in order to make potash in the Canadian w7oods. He had a shanty and a small clearance where the Presbyterian church now stands. On ascertaining their lots, the settlers put up shanties, and re turned to their homes by the lake. All that winter was spent in preparations for moving, and early in the spring, while the sleighing Avas still good, they abandoned forever the clearings and betterments they had made with such in credible self-sacrifice. All did not leave that spring, a few remaining in the hope that the threat to eject them would not be acted upon, but they also, before other two years, had to follow, and only three remained and paid the claimants of their lots, and they did so because by this time they had live stock for which they could not get hay in Elgin. Thus ended in disaster Dalhousie settlement, whose early days were so promising, furnishing an early warning, often since repeated, but of little influence upon public men, for the same mistake has been made in the Northwest, of allowing crown lands to pass into the hands of other than actual settlers. While the dispersion of the Old Countrymen led to the more rapid settlement of Elgin and the southern side of Godmanchester, it had a decided effect upon the future prospects of St Anicet, for had they been allowed to remain, they would have spread over the municipality, which would haA7e become, like the others in the county, the seat of an English, instead of a French-speaking population. The subsequent history of the settlement is so strikingly illustrative of the political changes in the province, that I give it, although it extends beyond .the period to which this narrative is designed to be confined. The lots wrested from their first settlers found, in course of time, purchasers, and again the land along the lake w7as occupied by about a dozen Irish and Scotch families, who plodded on quietly, redeeming the wilderness and converting it into desirable farms. They lived in peace for over half a century and might have gone on in the even tenor of their ways had not Mr Ellice, in 1867, 164 INVASION OF TOAVNSHIP RIGHTS. sold the seigniory and with it the land ¦ he owned in the county of Huntingdon. The company that bought his rights was active in realizing every dollar possible, and the portion of Teafield they had acquired, they sold, for a trifling sum, to the late Mr Demers of Valleyfield. After taking off the scrub bush that coA7ered it, sawing what was large enough and selling the remainder as cordwood, he conceived the idea of disposing of it for cultivation. The proposal seemed to be preposterous. The land is loAver than the St LaAvrence and subject to frequent overfloAV, and where it is not covered with peat has a thick layer of black muck oArer the clay. Asking only a trifle down and giving long credit for the balance, secured by mortgage, there was no lack of applicants from the parishes adjoining Valleyfield. They managed to raise crops by burning the surface of the muck and soAving in the ashes. If they got a good burn and the season was dry, they raised fair crops of oats and barley; if the weather was unfavorable, they left. The population on the swamp has been a changeable one and, even now, few have their lots, miserable as they are, free of mortgage. In less than 10 years there was a row of shanties with stovepipes sticking out of the roof from Ogilvie's hill to the seigniory-line across land which it had been believed nobody could have been tempted to live upon. The Old Countrymen on the lake- shore vieAved the unexpected incursion in their rear with as tonishment, and believed it Avas only a matter of a feAV years when the poor people Avould be starved out, and Teafield, ex cepting the patches of good land, which rise abov7e its dreary expanse like islands, would relapse into desolation. As they increased in numbers, it was suggested to the neAv-comers that they should have a church of their own, and there Avas an opportunity of buying a discarded wooden one in an adjoining parish which had erected a large stone edifice: The habitants fell in with the proposal and petitioned bishop Fabre to form them into a parish. The church Avas got cheap, Avas removed in pieces and re-erected on a knoll at the eastern extremity of the SAvamp. On the 6th February, 1882, the bishop issued his decree constituting all that portion of the county of Hunt- THE OLD SETTLERS OVERBORNE. 165 ingdon that lies east of the plank-road and north of Godman chester, a parish under the name of Ste Barbe. He referred his decree to the commissioners of his diocese, who made their report, when the lieutenant-governor issued his proclamation, dated 12 June, 1882, declaring Ste Barbe to be a parish Avith civil powers. Of these movements the Old Countrymen kneAV nothing whatever, and when they did hear of their French neighbors in the Teafield getting a church of their own, they did not perceive that it was going to affect them. They were rudely awakened to the fact that it Avas otherwise. In the seigniories, Avhen a new parish is formed as the Catho lic bishop of Montreal constituted Ste Barbe, it is not only a parish for ecclesiastical purposes but for municipal also, and the dAvellers in Teafield, all natives of seigniories, considered they could do in Huntingdon what they could in Beauharncis, and not only elect a fabrique and church-wardens, collect tithes and levy assessments to pay for their church, but organize a municipal council. A council was formed and imposed a rate. The Old Countrymen were thunderstruck. They knew that in seigniorial territory the Catholic bishops can initiate the proceedings that result in the formation of municipalities, but their belief, which had been shared in by the entire English-speaking population since the conquest, was, that outside the seigniories they had no such power and that in township or non-fief land the legislature and the qounty councils alone had the right to erect municipalities. They asked if French law Avas to prevail in the county of Huntingdon, and the Catholic bishop cut it up into munici palities at his pleasure? They appealed to the courts and to the legislature to protect what they believed to be their rights, and met Avith the reception to be expected from men dominated by clerical influence. While the case is not finally decided at the time this is* Avritten, the prospect is that the descendants and successors of the men who chose the lake-shore as a place of residence, because they believed in Huntingdon they Avould be clear of seigniorial and parish law, will be driven from their homes by the operation of the A7ery laws they sought to escape. 166 NAMES OF FIRST SETTLERS. Note : An absolutely correct list of the settlers at the lake- shore it was impossible to compile when I began to collect information. The annexed is substantially correct. An 'as terisk indicates those who Avere passengers by the Alexander. All Avere natives of Scotland. Knowing nothing of the pro cedure in settlement, they fancied they could live together and have their farms adjacent, so the front on the lake was laid out so as to give each family 5 acres and the shanties were put in a line, forming a little village. For this reason, any attempt to give their location would be misleading. I should have liked to have given the names of those who landed on the 1st August, but failed to recover them : * Robert Allan, only stayed a few weeks, and afterwards settled on the Chateaugay ; David Anderson, shepherd; Dum fries-shire ; * Robert Barrie, mason, New Monklands ; David Brown, plasterer, Beith ; * James Brown, mason, Glasgow ; *Thomas Brown, weaA7er, Campsie ; *Thomas BroAvn, carpen ter, who kept with his brother James a grocery on the Spout- mouth, GlasgoAV ; William Caldwell, weaver, Pollokshaws; Dick, who had studied for the ministry, entered into business at Glasgow and failed ; *Archd. Fleming, carpenter, Paisley ; *John Gillies, laborer, Ayrshire ; *John Harper, Paisley ; *Dr Fortune, Paisley ; * Wm. Hamilton, baker, and *James Haniilton, helper on farm, brothers, from Motherwell ; Jacob Hart, divinity-student, Hamilton ; * Robert Higgins, carpenter, Paisley; * Peter Horn, Aveaver, Campsie; * Thomas Marshall, weaver, WishaAv; * James McArthur, weaver, and * William McArthur, Aveaver, brothers, from Paisley; Gilbert MacBeth, weaver, and James MacBeth, mason, brothers, from Beith; Parian McFarlane, carpenter, and Peter McFarlane, book-keeper, brothers, from Glasgow; James McNair, farm-: helper, Inverary; Robert Nelson; *Adam Patterson, plasterer, Glasgow ; *James Paul, mason, New Monklands ; John Potty, sailor ; * Rorison, merchant, Glasgow ; *James Tannahil), mason, Tinnock ; * Hugh Wiley and * John Wiley, masons, brothers, from Paisley. CHAPTER IX. DUNDEE. From 1760 the western extremity of the county of Hunt ingdon was regarded by the goA7ernment as an Indian reserve.. The Indians clustered at the point, named St Regis, and did* not occupy the country east of Salmon river, but Avhen the- townships came to be laid out, it Avas deemed desirable that sufficient territory should be kept for them to supply their- prospective needs, and Chewett, the surveyor, left a length of ten miles of territory before running the line for Godman chester. Bouchette, who visited St Regis at the close of the Avar, says about '50 dirty hovels, with enclosures attached,. wherein potatoes and corn Avere raised, composed the village,, and that its inhabitants were indolent and shiftless. A large church, 100 x 40 feet, had been erected in 1795 and there was. a resident priest, Avho, however, made no effort to improve the temporal condition of his flock, and in 1820 the govern ment agent reported that not half of the inhabitants derived any part of their living from tillage, they depending upon hunting and fishing alone, eking out a livelihood Avith the pensions, or presents, allowed by government, which, for a number of years after the close of the Avar, were much larger than they are now. As the Indians were making no use of their land and there being no prospect of their doing so, it was deemed better that they should be permitted to lease it to settlers, as had been done 50 years before with the lands they had held in Glengarry and Stormont. Repeated efforts had been made by the government to elevate the Indians,. with no success. The agent, Chesley, told a parliamentary committee in 1846 that during his connection of 32 years with the tribe "several attempts had been made to establish schools at St Regis but they have been invariably opposed 168 AN EARLY MISSIONARY. and put doAvn by the priests." A philanthropic soldier, Major Penderleith Christie, took 6 Indian boys and placed them in the school, erected at Chateaugay, in 1829 at his own expense. On hearing of it the governor, Lord Sydenham, doubled the number and paid the expense out of the public funds, but from the inefficiency of the teacher the experiment Avas not successful. Not discouraged, on Major Christie's finding the right man for such work in the Rev. E. Williams, a Caughna waga Indian who had become a Protestant and been educated for the Episcopal ministry in Connecticut, he opened a school #t St Regis, the attendance at which rose from 17 to 40 in two months, Avhen the priest interfered, and commanded the parents to Avithdraw their children from the school under the pain of his displeasure and the anathema of the church. All saA-e 7 left, and Avith these Mr Williams persevered until the arrival of Earl Gosford as governor, who, at the request of the Catholic bishop of Montreal, AvithdrevA7 the salary of $96 which the government had allowed and, what was more fatal, the permission of the gOAernment to live on the Indian reserve. The school was closed but not Avithout fruit, for there are a feAV Protestant families belonging to the tribe, now resident on Cornwall island, Avho are by far tho most comfortable and intelligent, and whose origin is to be traced to the forgotten labors of Mr Williams. The trite remark, of the Indians being a decaying race, is not sustained by records of this reserve. In 1820 its inhabitants numbered 300, in 1827, 348, in 1837, despite their losses from smallpox in 1829 and cholera in 1832, 381, and in 1885, 1,136. Before the war. of 1812 a few American families had settled in Dundee. Of these Benjamin Phillips lived on 12, Orlando Branson on a point, or marsh island, farther west, and Joseph Spencer on 23, 2nd concession. On the Salmon river were a few families, of whom all record is lost. All Avere probably squatters, for there is% no certainty that the Indians granted leases before 1817, on the 3rd of August of Avhich year a ntarsh island on Salmon river, Portage island, Avas leased to Hypolite Emlotte dit Perikicr, Avho several years aftenvards transferred it to Peter Cameron, who made the island notori- THE SKYE SETTLEMENT. 169 ous by distilling whisky upon it. In the spring of 1818, an American, Jonas Schryer, from Alburg, Vermont, moved across the line and leased the east half of No 30 and all of 29 in the Broken Front. To shelter his Avif e and three chil dren he raised a shanty of logs, having one gable built up with mud and stones for the fireplace, and roofed Avith splinters of cedar. He Avas very poor and to obtain pro visions, had to labor at potash-making day after day. When winter came he borrowed a yoke of oxen and dreAV a load of boards from Fort CoA'ington, with Avhich he made his house somewhat more comfortable, though to the last, the children could amuse themselves by sitting at the fire and looking up the wide chimney AA7atch the tree-tops waving OA-erhead. The same spring that Schryer moved into the Avestern por tion of Dundee, an important settlement Avas formed on the eastern extremity. Late in the fall of 1816 a ship arrived in Quebec Avith a number of Highland immigrants. The pro longed voyage made it impossible for them to proceed to Ontario, which was their intended destination, and they waited over the winter at Lancaster, being given the use of the barracks that had been erected during the A\7ar of 1812. While the women rested in this rude home in the new Avorld, the men worked at what they could get, many hiring them- seh'es to farmers. The people of the vicinity took an interest in them, and the Ross's, who AA7ere then the leading business- firm, told them they believed land could be had on the south side of the St LaAvrence by lease from the Indians, arid a bargain Avas eventually struck with the chiefs for a range of lots starting from the Godmanchester line. During tho winter of 1817 small clearings were made and shanties erected ; the Glengarry farmers making several bees to do the work, and being aided by Ross the lumberer, who had men getting out masts, and w7ho indicated the lines of the lots. These Glengarry men worked with a will all day and at night gathered in one of the new shanties and sang and danced and drank until a late hour, yet rose to renew their good-hearted task next morning Avith unimpaired vigor. Seven shanties in all vrere completed and, while the crossing 170 SPEARING FISH. was still good, their future occupants moved over and took sion. Starting at the east the order was Wm. Campbell, Ang us McGillis, John Tolmie, Ronald, Angusand Norman McDonald and William McPhee. Except Tolmie all were from the Isle of Skye, and had come in the same ship, and they named the settlement NeAV Skye, but in course of time it came to be known as the Isle of Skye. They brought over sufficient seed with them and the season proved favorable, for after that harvest they never kneAv w7ant. Their Glengarry neigh bors continued to take an interest in them, and often came over to help by bees. On one occasion the evening jollifica tion was so prolonged that the keg ran dry, when the hosts, zealous for Highland hospitality, while their guests Avere sleeping, sent two of their number across the lake to get it refilled, and they were back long before the morning dram was needed. The liquor used at that time was Jamaica ram. Once started, the settlement grew. William McPhee, who was the most comfortably situated of the band, having brought over with him two cows and a yearling, got for his neighbor a A'ery decent Irish couple, John Seaton and his wife. They had no family and left early. West of them Avas Roderick Murchison. To the east, the settlement extended rapidly doAvn the lake shore, Duncan Stewart, Duncan McNicol, and 3 McMillans settling in 1820. The lake at that time Avas much Ioavci- than it is now, so low7 that there Avas a fine sandy beach, on which the young lads raced up and down on their horses, for they never troubled Avith oxen. The St Lawrence Avas then Avell-stocked with fish, Avhich so 6Avarmed in the bays that the habitants came from far and near to fish in them during the season, so that at night 40 or 50 canoes could be counted. The mode of fishing then Avas wholly by the spear, which was practised during the day as Avell as by night. The Highlanders, almost all of whom had fished at home, entered into the sport Avith gusto. The marshes were also valuable for more than the hay which they afforded, for they Avere visited by such flocks of geese and ducks that, when they rose, they darkened the air like a cloud. When the flocks of pigeons were seen coming from EDUCATION. 171 the Glengarry side, the men and boys hastened to the water's edge, each armed with a long pole. A peculiarity of the pigeon is that, while crossing water, it skims its surface, and rises as it reaches land. Noticing this, the settlers struck them dowrn with their poles just as they rose from the water's surface to wing a higher flight, and those who were dexterous sometimes killed 4 at one blow. Wild swan were occasionally met with, but the king of American edible birds, the wild turkey, never, so far as I have been able to learn, A'isited Huntingdon. Deer came trotting daily in the dry season to drink at the lake. The great river furnished a road to the settlement Avhich was all they could desire, for, with one or two exceptions, they had all come from the Highland coast and boating to them w7as second nature. If the weather was fine, they crossed on Sundays to attend the services conducted by the Rev John McKenzie at Williamstown, and to them he Avas pastor for many years. On sacramental Sundays the Avhole settlement was deserted. If any were sick, Dr McLeod of WilliamstoAvn was sent for, and his services AA7ere gladly given. To build a big boat, that would do to go to mill or market, was a joint undertaking, and it was duly launched and moored in the creek, named in old maps Sherwood. When salts were made, the settlers carried them through the woods in bags upon their backs to the creek, and when the big canoe Avas loaded, started for Salmon river, generally taking at the same time a grist. The round trip took two days and one night. For 10 years there was no road, except the footpath that connected shanty Avith shanty. The first road was that to Laguerre. In winter the custom was for each settler to make at least one trip to Montreal in a traineau Avith his surplus butter and pork. The road taken was by Laguerre to Huntingdon, and thence to the Basin. In nearly every family Gaelic was the common language, but a reasonable desire was shown by the older people that their children should learn English, and a teacher was secured in Patrick McGregor, who continued to follow his profession in the neighborhood for many years. He was so cruel as to 172 THE INDIAN LEASES. disgust his scholars with learning, and all the more so that he had little to impart. He was a spare, gaunt man, and his favorite mode of punishment, striking Avith the back of his hands, Avas so severe that the blow often drew blood. As his scholars declared, they, might as well get a slap from a skeleton. He taught at first from house to house. The second teacher was Alexander Crawford, sadly given to drink, who gave place to Duncan Campbell, a lame weaver, who taught in a shanty on McDonald's point. Afterwards a school was erected farther west, at the creek, where a burial- place by common consent had been chosen. In 1821 the settlement got a blacksmith in Jas. Fraser.on Gardiner's point. He conducted business in primitive style. If -the job was a small one, he told his customer to take up Avhatever task he Avas engaged upon on the farm, Avhile ho w7ent to his shop and lit his forge. Customers complained that he kept them longer in the field than he ought, and that the change of work was not altogether to his disadvantage. o © The clearances were confined for many years to the knolls, but gradually the swamps, which were covered Avith a splen did growth of black ash, were cleared and drained and fine farms formed. The fires of 1 825 left Dundee untouched, and, alone in the county, it has never suffered to any extent from .burned soil. From the year 1820 the settlement of the toAA7nship pro ceeded actively, the Indians in that year granting about 40 leases. The terms were liberal, $5 a year for 100 acres, the leases being for 99 years, and then reneAvable until 999 years elapsed. A few leases were for 1000 years, or so long as grass greAV or Avater ran. The leases issued after 1822 were all for 30 years, unless the occupants could shoAv the}7 had a promise for a longer period. A condition was inserted in a majority of the leases inflicting a fine of 8 per cent, on the sum received when the land changed hands (lods et v7entes), but Avas never exacted. The leases Avere negotiated for the Indians by Isaac LaClair, their agent, and signed by a majority of the chiefs — Avho Avere all men of mark. In all of these old leases, the reserve is styled "the Indian reservation JOHN DAVIDSON. 173 of Kintail." The rents Avere made payable on the 1st of February in each year. The scarcity of money and the necessities of the Indians caused the amount generally to be taken in kind, and the Indian had often unhealthy pork or an undesirable heifer palmed upon him. For three days at the beginning of February the Indian chiefs attended at Dundee lines with their agent, and squared accounts with the settlers. Even with the privilege of paying in provisions, many settlers were most negligent in settling the rent, and as the agents were supine, arrears were alloAVed to accumulate for 20 years and over. From the first, the Indians were good neighbors, keeping to their reservation, and rarely seen east of the Salmon river unless hunting or seeking timber for making baskets, which they traded with the farmers. No objection was made by any settler to their felling trees suitable for their petty manufactures. The free issue of leases stimulated the influx of immi grants. On leaving shipboard, Highlanders naturally gravi tated towards Glengarry, the great settlement of their kindred, and where nearly all had relatives, more or less remote. Even those destined for the West made Glengarry their halfway stopping-place, to renew those old friendships which are so precious to the sons of the heather. Thus it came, that in those days there was always during the summer a floating population of immigrants in search of homes, and on Dundee being thrown open they naturally moved into it, the dividing line being only the St Lawrence. The abandoned clearances on Salmon river became again the scene of life and activity, and for over 3 miles below the boundary-line there was a succession of good farm-houses with an excellent road on the river-bank. At Peter Cameron's, referred to already as a distiller, there was a large and finely kept garden and a race course. The rising of the lake-level and the crumbling away of the river bank, have destroyed these scenes of prosperity. On Salmon river John Davidson established himself, and proved to be the leading-man of the young township. He -was a native of Perthshire, and had gone a poor boy to Dundee, where he was taken into the household of a Mr 174 ALEXANDER GARDINER. Ogilvie, Avho OAvned a small factory, and who' gave him work and Avhose daughter he subsequently married. He was un fortunate enough to be drafted into the army and served 7 years abroad, and on his discharge at the peace in 1817, emi grated to Canada, where he earned sufficient money as a travelling-merchant to enable him to start in 1819 a small store at Dundee lines, and his log shanty, consisting of one room, was the nucleus of that village, to which he gave the name of the fair toAvn by the Tay in Avhich he had spent the greater part of his life — Dundee. His family, accompanied by his brother-in-law, Alex. Ogilvie, arrived during the folloAving summer. The same season saw also two other arrivals. Henry McDonald, a miller by trade, from Melrose, Scotland, on landing at Montreal, heard of an opening at Fort Covington, and on going there Avas engaged by Robert Buchanan, the owner of the grist-mill, who had been there for 16 years.*- Patrick Buchanan, a youth of 17, and a cousin of the Fort Covington Buchanan, arrived from Scot land the same year, and has left many descendants. He at once engaged in boating, and for half a century no one was better known than Captain Buchanan. It Avas either in 1819 or 1820 that the first Irish families settled in Dundee, and of whom the more prominent Avere Patrick Bannon on 28, B. F. and John Ashburn on 27. They were feAV, howeA-er, and it was not for over 20 years afterwards that they began to come in, and, buying out the Highlanders, formed the settle ment in the neighborhood of St Agnes. Among those who came in 1820 to see the country was Alexander Gardiner, who had emigrated from Renfrewshire, Scotland, that sum mer, and who was in search of a farm. He hesitated between Dundee and St AndreAvs, when his brother-in-laAv, Hugh Brodie, Petite C6te, proposed to leave it to the lot, — a not in frequent mode of deciding a difficulty among the devout Pres- * Mr Buchanan caught enough of salmon at his dam not only for immediate use but to fill several barrels for winter consumption. Although not one has been caught in it for half a century, Salmon river Avell 'deserved its name in those days. WANT OF ROADS. 175 byterians of the last century. After earnest prayer, a half penny was tossed up, and thrice the side that stood for Dundee came uppermost. In February, 1821, Mr Brodie's team brought him and his family from Montreal to lot 10, the betterments on which he had bought from an Irishman, James Curran, and whose shanty stood a few yards Avest of the residence of Peter Gardiner. Glad to gain its shelter, they enjoyed their first meal in .the form of a bowl of oat meal brose. Though the oak had disappeared, the ridges were still crowned by great pines, one of which, having grow7n on its site, furnished Curran Avith the 3 lower logs of his shant37. The level land between the knolls and ridges was swampy and unfit for cultivation. Mr Gardiner was totally unacquainted Avith the use of the axe, and Avas afraid to cut doAvn a tree in case it should fall upori him, but in this and other duties his neighbor Edward Aubrey, an American^ who had come in two years before, taught him. On the ridges very good crops were raised, the grain having to be carried on the shoulder to mill, for the flats were too Avet to admit of a horse going on them. That summer he had one cow and the following had 3, Avhen Mrs Gardiner, who was a notable dairy-Avoman, began making cheese, for which a market was found in Montreal. Mr Gardiner Avas an ex emplary man in more respects than those of thrift and industry. In the season of 1821, Father Brunton, as he afterwards came to be affectionately called, arrived in Fort CoA'ington from Scotland, and began preaching to the people there, being greatly encouraged by Robert Buchanan, who was looked up to as the leader of the settlement. When, in 1827, the church was formally organized, Mr Gardiner was chosen one of its elders. The same year that he took up his land, there settled a short distance west of him, on lots 30 and 31, Broken Front, James Farlinger, of U. E. descent, and who in 1823 became his son-in-law. The settlers along the lake in St Anicet and Dundee, had difficulties peculiar to themselves to contend with. The numerous marshes prevented the construction of roads, and up to 1835 there was hardly one fit for wheels. The grist 176 LUMBERING. had to be shouldered by the settler and to drag his barrel of potash he had to resort to the ox-sled. Horses were few because of little use, and the first settler to own one was Jonas Schryer. Mr Davidson's store Avas situated on the east bank of Salmon river and behind it stretched a deep SAvamp, impossible to cross unless when frozen, so that the settlers could only get to it by going round by Fort Covington The customs' officer Avas vigilant, and extorted duties ori Avhat they were taking home, for, in a petition to the legislature, dated 12th November, 1820, Mr Davidson alleges "that the prosperity of the settlement formerly called Indian lands, now designated by the name of Dundee, is much retarded from the want of a public road. In their present situation, many of the' inhabitants are under the necessity of passing through a section of the U. S., in going to and returning from market (Dundee lines), and are consequently liable to pay heavy duties at the American custom-house. Under these circumstances Ave pray for aid to enable us to open a road on the British side of the lines." No notice Avas taken of this representation, and tAvo months afterwards he sent in a petition from the settlers praying for aid to make a road across the SAvamp to Davidson's store and wharf, Avhich Avas their outlet during navigation. The French Canadians dom inated in the assembly and viewed with undisguised illwill the progress of the townships. On the 17th February, the committee to whom Davidson's petition and similar ones had been referred, reported that the petitioners ought to have considered the inconveniences of the places in Avhich they had settled while selecting them and that the laAv of the pro vince they had come' to Avas that roads are a charge upon the soil, therefore no aid from the public purse could be given. Undismayed by this rebuff, in the Avinter of 1823 Mr David son renewed his request, telling the assembly that: "A serious inconvenience experienced in our settlement is want of roads, the village of Dundee being separated from the rest by a swamp nearly one mile Avide, through which the inhabitants have been unable from poverty to make a road, so that the only Avay that they can have communicatian is by crossing WANT OF ROADS. 177 the province-line, in doing which they are exposed to the rapacity of the U. S. custom-house officers, Avho never fail to exact a duty of 16-J per cent, on whatever passes to or from our market, or, Avhat is worse, detain our property." To help the settlers to make a road Mr Davidson asked $400. The assembly took no notice of the petition. Mr Davidson's representation as to smuggling had another side to it. Until the railwray w7as built to Ogdensburg, the entire tract of country between that place and lake Champlain depended for its supply of manufactured goods being brought by teams from Plattsburgh and Rouses Point. The expense of the long land journey so added, to their cost, that they were much dearer than goods brought from Montreal, so that the Americans along the lines bought the greater part of their dry-goods and harchvare in Canada, and while the Dundee storekeepers sold smuggled tea, tobacco and whisky to Ca nadians, they found their best customers for what they brought from Montreal in Americans, who were rarely in terfered w7ith by their customs officers, who interpreted the law to mean, that what a farmer bought for his own use was not smuggling. o© © The clearances were confined to the ridges and the knolls that so abound in Dundee, and on these crops of potatoes and com were raised, the main dependence being potash-making and lumbering. In Avinter the woods were dotted with lum bering shanties and an immense quantity of timber taken out. On the Pine Plains, especially, the timber was magnifi cent, and so abundant that it withstood the ravages of the axe for over 20 years, when it became the desert sandy plain of to-day. Men acquainted with the lumber districts of the Ottawa declare that they saw nowhere pines to compare with those west of Hungry Bay; pines so straight and tall that they were made into* masts, and sticks ranging from 80 to, 120 feet long were hauled out to the lake every winter. From Moquin's bay, St Anicet, back to the 2nd range was a mast-road, and there were others, all straight and smooth, as they had need to be to permit the passing of the great spars, which would take several yoke of oxen to haul them or, as 13 178 TRADE AT THE LINES. was preferred, horses in tandem. To drive the animals needed no small skill, and there were those Avho could boast of handling successfully 20 horses hitched in tandem to a mighty mast. Of the great lumberers were Angus Roy Mc Donald of Cornwall, Bagg & Waite, Perrault, and Moquin. The last wras a Quebec merchant. The making of potash Avas too profitable a trade to allow the storekeepers of Fort Covington to monopolise it, so, shortly after his coming, Mr Davidson added an ashery Avith pearling-oven to his establishment, and Charles Marsh who had opened store beside him, did likewise. He was an American and had been a clerk in Frothingham's, Montreal, who had started him in business. He entered into partner ship with Peter Cameron, Avho had made a racecourse on Portage island, and, after a fast and short career, failed. Frothingham started him anew, when he showed he was a changed man and did a large business so long as Dundee retained its trade, especially in the manufacture of potash and pearl-ash. Other early storekeepers were McCutcheon and Wells & Cleveland. The first-named committed suicide from despair over losses in lumbering, when his clerk, Nor man McDonald,* continued the business, and some time after wards Patrick Buchanan added another store to the number, taking, in 1840, his brother-in-law, David Baker, as partner. Up to 1848, all these stores did a large and profitable busi ness, which AA7as by no means confined to trading Avith the settlers of Dundee. In those days tea, tobacco, whisky, and* a few lines of .dry-goods Avere much cheaper in the United States than Canada, and these stores, all situated within a stone-throw' of the lines and with buildings built half across, sold more to customers in Glengarry than Dundee. During the Avar when the importation of spirits from the West Indies wras stopped, the American distilleries received a great im- *He published a book in NeAv York in 1827 entitled "Moral Maxims and Reflections," which I have not seen. He was a man of education and talent. He prospered so Avell in business that, at one time, he was the largest shareholder in the City bank. POTATO AVHISKY. . 179 petus and they discovered the art of making mash from potatoes. By 1817 the country was overspread with small distilleries making potato-whisky and the use of their pro duct became general in Upper Canada. The people of the lower province continued to prefer Jamaica rum and did not begin to look at whisky until it became so very cheap that the more ardent and palatable spirit had no chance. From 1822 whisky gradually superseded rum, uritil it finally sup planted it. St Lawrence county early became famous for its ' Avhisky, and Franklin county, at one period, had no fewer than 17 distilleries. The chief distiller w7as one Parish, who had a village named after him, and Parishville whisky was knoAvn far and wide. The importation of spirits from the States, under any conditions, was then illegal, but there w7as no serious attempt made to enforce the law7, and, on summer nights, barrels Avere rolled by the dozen from the Dundee storehouses into boats that conveyed them to dealers on the north side of the St Lawrence, and in Avinter long strings of teams came from Glengarry and Stormont to exchange grain and pork for whisky, tobacco, and tea. By the barrel, Parishville whisky was sold as low7 as 18 cents a gallon. It is a striking fact, that not one of the merchants engaged in the traffic retained any portion of the immense profits they- made for a long succession of years. , The contraband traffic was only a part of the trade of Dundee lines, Avhich included large exports of potash and lumber, the former being conveyed to Montreal in the kind of barge called Durham boats, so named from being modelled on the boats used on the canals in the county of Durham, England. I hav7e found reference to them in U. S. despatches during the AA'ar, but they were rare on the St Lawrence until 1817, Avhen they began to be numerous, and were so palpably superior for river navigation to the bateaux then in use, that they superseded them. In 1817 the collector of customs re ported that 835 bateaux had passed Coteau and only 268 Durham boats; in 1820 the proportion Avas reversed, 561 Durham boats to 430 bateaux, and the former carried four times the freight of the latter. The bateau of those days 180 DURHAM BOATS. was an open boat of about 20 feet in length, 6 Avide, and 3 deep, sharp-pointed at both ends, propelled by 4 oarsmen and steered by the captain with a long oar. When the wind favored, a square sail was set. On the dowmvard trip they could carry 15 tons; on the upward, less than 5. Being open the freight Avas exposed to damage by wet, and the crew tied up the boat and went ashore to cook, and frequently did so at night to sleep. The French Canadians who manned these boats endured great hardship and were often in peril in running the rapids. The Durham-boat was in every way ' superior to the bateau. It Avas from 60 to 80 feet long and 12 to 15 feet wide, and decked, giving a roomy and dry hold. Flat bottomed, its cargo capacity was great, from 50 to 70 tons. There ran along each side, a broad plank Avith cleats, on Avhich the men stood to pole the boat along in shallow Avater. In deep, a centre-board was let doAvn and sail set, a large spread being made; the boat being sloop-rigged. Oars were only used when required in the rapids. The crew con sisted of 8 men and a captain. Such were the boats that, for over quarter a century, maintained communication between Montreal and the country west of it. Their naA-igation re quired skill, boldness, and superhuman exertion. On getting into swift-Avater, the creAV ranged themselves at the bow of the boat. One stepped on to tho plank that ran along the side, dropped his long ash-pole into the Avater until it struck, bottom, then placing the head of the pole against his shoulder-blade, pushed Avith all his might, Avalking, as the boat slowly stemmed the current, to the stern, when he re turned to the boAV and so on. As he passed doAvn, another boatman stepped out Avith his pole, until all 8 Avould be so engaged. The Avork was most exhausting, and caused the skin on the forebreast and shoulder to become callused. Where the rapid was too swift to be thus overcome, or Avhen the boat was heavily laden, oxen or horses were hitched on, as many, if the boat AA7as large and the Avater Ioav, as 9 span, and painful accidents Avere of occasional occurrence, from their being unable to overcome the rush of water, and the boat being swept backwards and dragging them to a Avatery grave. STEMMING THE RAPIDS. 181 To prevent such a calamity, each of the crew hung a small hatchet at his waist Avhen the rapids were reached, so as to be ready to cut the toAV-rope. Rounding the points Avas the critical operation, and at Split Rock there Avas a windlass to supplement the strength of the crew and tow-horses., In this slow and painful manner not only goods but immigrants were conveyed from Montreal, and hundreds of settlers in this district so made the journey. What some of them suffered is now inconceivable. With favorable weather and plenty of water in the rapids, the passage was endurable; when Avet, water -low, and winds contrary, it w7as worse, than the ocean-voyage and Avhat Avomen and children endured is not to be described. They Avere usually overcrow7ded, per haps 200 crowded into one, arid if the weather was cold or wet, or the passage of the rapids difficult, they Avere forced into the hold to give the crew full scope on deck, perhaps required to land and walk to the head of the rapid to lessen the draft of the boat. The holds were low-ceiled, dark and foul-smelling, and without a vestige of accommodation for passengers, who slept on the floor, and from the time they went on board until they left Avould not taste cooked food. With a favorable wind, the trip from Montreal to Coteau would occupy a couple of days; Avhen wind and draft of Avater were unfavorable, it took from 6 to 14 days. On the down-trip the boats dared not enter the rapids with a head wind, and there was often a fleet of them anchored at Coteau waiting for a change of wind. The Lachine canal Avas not aA'ailable until 1825 and ' the- Beauharnois not for 20 years more. From a very early date the rapids between lakes St Louis and St Francis were partially avoided by four short canals cut across' the points on the north shore. They were so very small, the locks being only 6 feet wide with 1\ feet of water, that they were of little use until 1817, when the Avidth of the locks .was doubled and the water deepened a foot. No further enlargement was attempted, and until the Beauharnois canal was opened any boat that, drew7 more water than they afforded, had to be dragged and pushed up the rapids in the manner described. 182 EARLY STEAMBOATS. The first Durham-boat that hailed from Salmon river was the Dundee, owned by Thos. Farlinger.and Robt. Buchanan.* She Avas succeeded by a much larger boat, the Glengarry. Others folloAved, until Durham-boats that claimed Dundee as their port became numerous, for Fort Covington and Dundee were the outlets for the vast expanse of country that the Salmon river and its tributaries watered, and Captains Bu chanan, Farlinger, and Lucas made regular trips. The first steamboat to ply the waters of the Salmon river was a very small A'essel that had been built in the States, named the Jack Downing. She ran as ferry between Fort Covington and Cornwall in 1835 or 1836, Avhen her engine was taken out to be placed in the Henry Burden, popularly knoAvn as the cigar-boat, from her hull being composed of two cylinders, on which the deck rested like a raft, Avith the one paddle-wheel in the centre. On the opening of the Beauharnois canal, Masson, Finchley & Farlinger bought the Rob Roy, and. as business increased built the Lord Elgin, Avhich proved to be too long for the crooks of the Salmon river. Competition came from Augustus Martin of Trout river, Avho built at- Dundee, the George Frederick, which made regular trips to Montreal under Capt. SaAvyer of Fort Covington, who: claimed to be the first to run the north chan nel of the Long Sault. Then the Fashion, commanded by Captain Charles Dewitt, extended her route to Dundee. The Star, the Blue Bonnet, and. the Salaberry succeeded those boats, the latter being the last that made Dundee a regular place of call, for,- owing to trade changing to other channels, the traffic that once made Dundee lines the busiest place west of the Basin, deserted it. The progress of Dundee furnishes nothing of special interest. More than those of any other part of the district, its inhabitants engaged in lumbering and boating, Avhich had a hurtful influence on their habits,and made farming a second- * His eldest son, Thomas, Avent to Liberia as a missionary and subsequently became governor. He died there of fever, leaving a considerable fortune to his relations on the Salmon river. REA7. DUNCAN MOODY. 183 ary consideration, so that, despite its land being taken up so early, it was later in being brought into cultivation than that of the adjoining toAvnships. The establishing of schools and churches received little attention until 1830, and for many years tho only school in the toAA7nship besides the one in the isle of Skye Avas that at Schryer's corners, which opened with Hector McRae as master, who Avas given to drink and cruel in his punishments. The lot adjoining the school came to be used as a place of burial, and Edward Schryer and many others of the first generation rest there. In the schoolhouse" the Fort Covington ministers occasionally preached. The Baptist, Rca- Nathaniel Culver, made it one of his stations as early as 1824, and, during his incumbency of the Presbyterian church, the Rev John Savage preached frequently and accept ably. One of the first teachers Avas Alexander Cameron, who belonged to Dundee, Scotland, and had been a divinity- student. He exerted himself in several ways to benefit those he had come among, giving religious instruction to the young on , Saturday afternoons, distributing tracts, of Avhich he had : brought Avith him across the Atlantic tAvo boxes, and preaching on Sunday. He Avas a good singer. After making a trial of farming, he left for London, Ontario. No effort Avas made to secure regular religious services and the year's passed until 1832, when the settlers Avere sur prised and pleased by the arrival among them of the Rev Duncan Moody. He Avas born at Kilmailie, on the banks of Locheil, in 1808, and Avas educated for the ministry at Glas gow, whither his people had removed. On the completion of his studies he Avas urged by his older brother, Charles, to go to the East Indies as a missionary, but,on his dying from cholera, he followed his own inclination of going to Canada. He arrived at Montreal in, the summer of 1832 and at once waited on Dr Mathieson, who had been at college with his brother. The doctor told him there were se\7eral openings, but that Dundee had a special claim upon him, seeing he could preach in Gaelic. He journeyed to Salmon river and met w7ith a hearty welcome, a call being signed by nearly every Protestant in the township. On the 31st October the 184 JAMES FRASER. Quebec Presbytery ordered his ordinatiop and induction, which took place on the 28th December. The people were too poor to build a church and even if they had been able, it would have been of little service, for the roads Avere such that they Avere rarely fit for travel. He arranged to preach regu larly at 4 stations — the lines, in the Skye and Aubrey school- houses, and at Laguerre, with occasional services in private houses. A kirk-session was formed March 21, 1833, and its first regular meeting was held in the house of Malcolm Smith, 3rd concession, on July 16, with the minister as moderator and James Fraser and Donald McFarlane as elders. In many ways James Fraser was an example of what an elder ought to be, and his influence was felt in Dundee long after he was laid to rest. In all difficulties that arose his advice was sought, and he was the means of settling many a dispute and of maintaining that harmony which is so grateful in a com munity. He was the originator of a Sunday-school in his neighborhood, maintained a prayer-meeting, and did much otherwise towards promoting a living-faith among his fellow- men. Mr Moody boarded at Dundee village and continued to do so after his marriage with Miss Farlinger until 1837, when he bought lot 12, 4th range. Mrs Moody says : The toAvnship was well settled in 1837 but the people Avere very poor, so much so that when any of them Avould offer money to my husband, he, knowing their circumstances, would say, "Keep it for your children." Our lot had hardly any clearance on it, and the people Avere very kind in giving their assistance. My husband' had only to mention that there was work to be done, and in the morning, a number would be at the door. "We have come," they would say, "to do so-and-so to-day, Mrs Moody; but we have had no break fast." My father gave me a horse and 3 coavs. Mr Moody being city-bred' knew nothing about farming, and when he wanted the horse I had to harness it. He could make little use of the animal in his rounds, for the roads, except in the driest times or in winter, were only passable on foot. It was a day's journey for my husband to go to the Fort and back. He made his pastoral journeys on foot, and often had to sit on a log, take off his boots, and pour the water out of them. The journey to Laguerre he found the most fatiguing and on coming in he would often remark that he had felt so ex- BUILDING A CHURCH. 185 hausted that he would have been thankful had any of us gone to meet him with a crust. Although the settlers were poor, there was no actual privation among them. There were very feAV Irish in the neighborhood of St Agnes w7hen Ave came to live here ; they moved in gradually, buying out the Highlanders. The building of a church Avas begun in 1839 on lot 8, 2nd concession. It was a plain, frame building, and all the con gregation Avas able to do was to enclose it. The seats were slabs laid on four water-beech legs, and the only one that had- a back was the pew for the minister's family. The pulpit, which was high, had a canopy after the old-fashion in Scot- land,.and the precentor's box was set in front. In the forenoon the service was in Gaelic, the English in the afternoon, and both extremely long, Avhich Avas rather trying where the seats were so contrived that they neither supported the back nor rendered a few winks possible. Books being scarce, the pre centor read the psalms two lines at a time, which he did in a droning tone, so as to retain the run of the tune. The sacra ment was administered once a year and was a season of great importance and solemnity. The services, in which Mr Moody was assisted by neighboring ministers, began on Thursday and did not close until Tuesday. Family worship was com mon in the township and on the catechising of the children great stress was laid. Before Mr Moody's death a sufficient sum Avas raised to plaster the church and put in pews. To the last he was no burden to his people, Avho gave little beyond presents of produce and aiding in bees. His modest Avants were met by his farm and the small allowance from the clergy reserves. He died in 1855, and it can be said of him, that he did more to recommend the gospel to his people by his daily life than by his preaching. Long before it had a minister,, Dundee had a physician, and a well-educated. one, in Dr John McGibbon. He was a graduate of Glasgow college, had made several voyages in a whaler, came to Canada, resided some time at Cornwall, and in 1824 moved over to lot 16, B. F., adding afterward several adjoining lots. The land he selected was wet and hard to manage, and in redeeming it he underwent much hardship. 186 LIST OF LEASES. His practice yielded him next to nothing. He was early ap pointed a justice of peace and agent for the lands OAvned by Ellico, and, as will be recorded in its place, took a prominent part in suppressing the rebellion of 1837-8. As showing the value of land Avhen he came, it may be stated he bought a lot from Dupuis for a coav. Note. — The following is a list of leases granted up to 1838. The date of lease does not ahvays correspond with that of settlement, many lessees having lived on their lots some time before getting deeds and others delaying going on them after receiving leases, while a few resold Avithout doing settlement duties. Where lots are passed the record has been lost or the leases are recent. Remarkable to say the government has not a complete list of the leases granted : Lot. 1st Concession. 14 Farquhar McLennan 1819 3 Angus McGillis 1819 15 Farquhar McRae 1819 5 Ronald McDonald 1819 16 Alexander McRae 1819 6 Angus McDonald 1819 19 Alexander Gardiner 1821- 7 Norman McDonald 1819 20 Jacob Aubrey 1819 8 William McPhee 1819 24 Aaron Foster 1821 9 John Seaton 1819 -25 Henry C. Bagley 1821 10 Louis & Norbert Dupuis 3rd Concession. 1819 5 & 8 Donald & Dougald Me il Antoine & Joseph Dupuis , Kinnon 1819 1819 9 Finley McRae 1819 12 Benjamin Phillips 1819. 14 Murdoch McRae 1819 13, 14 & 15 Robert Colquhoun 1 ,. f Patrick Timmons | 1S1Q 1821 I0 '( Patrick Garrity ) X81U 16 & 17 JohnMcGibbon 1819 16 Donald McFarlane 1819 - 18 & 19 John Handley 1819 17 John Seaton 1819 20&21 HoratioBrunsonl819 19 Hiram StockAA7eather 1823 27 Richard Fitzpatrick 1819 20,21 & 22 James Curran 1821 28 Henry Jackson 1819 4th Concession. 30 Jonas Schryer 1819 3 John Cameron 1821 30 Nicholas Farlinger 1819 5 Thomas Cross 1821 32 & 33 Henry C. Bagley 1821 6 & 7 Allan Cameron 1824 34 John Moore 1818 8 Daniel O'Hare 1819 2nd Concession. 9 John Deny 1819 3 Duncan McMillan 1821 10 Francis Logan 1819 4 Donald McKinnon 1819 11 John Miller 1821 5 Dougald McKinnon 1819 12 Duncan Moody 7 William Frazer 1820 13 William Miller 1819 8 Murdoch McAuley 1819 14 Samuel Miller 1821 LEASES. 187 15 Samuel Miller 1837 16 do do 1822 17 John McRae 1821 18 Rufus Campbell 1819 19 & 20 James O'Brien 1821 5th Concession. 6 Oliver Classon 1821 7 William Aubrey 1819 11 Malcolm Smith 1821 12 Moses Miller 1821 7ch and 8th Concession. 5 & 6 David Thompson 1819 Broken Front. 26 Patrick Benson 1819 27 John Ashburn 1819 29 Jonas Schryer 1819 B, C, D & N Jghn Davidson 1819 A John Silver 1823 2 marsh lots, Lucy Brunson 1821 Gardiner's Island, Angus Campbell 1819 Marsh Island, Amable Casinet 1819 Sucker Island, Jacob Hollen- beck 1821 L Angus Plamondon 1821 I Wijliam Ross 1825 Bittern Island. 1 Hyp. E. dit Perikier Utley farm, Henry Utley 1825 2 Duncan Gillis 1820 Alexander Campbell 1820 Robert Colquhoun 1819 George Truax 1819 Petite Chenail. John Lamasney 1819 1819 1819 Isaac Leclair 1818 10 William Empey 1820 11 James Summers 1820 Donald Grant 1820 John Grant 1820 Village of Dundee. 1 George B. R. Gove 1821 2 Patrick Buchanan 1828 3 James Peck 1821 1213 George Truax Patrick Gallagher 5 & 6 John Silver 1821 CHAPTER X. ST. ANICET. Until the hapless Dalhousie settlement came into exist ence, the only habitations in that portion of Godmanchester township noAv knoAvn as the parish of St Anicet, were those of some dozen French Canadians on the lakeshore. The most easterly was Genier, and from his shantyJ paltry clearances occurred at intervals until Moquin's bay was reached. None of them paid attention to farming, their dependence being placed upon lumbering, so that their clearances Avere simply patches for com and potatoes.* St Amour, by trade a black smith, came alone and squatted Avhere the Catholic church stands. He kept two large black dogs and Avas suspicious of strangers. It Avas understood that he had fled from his natiA-e place, near Quebec, on committing some crime, and lived in dread of those he had injured coming to take ven geance upon him. After leading the life of a hermit for a number of years he Avent back to his native-place on learning that it AA'as safe for him to do so. Out of sight of the lake there wras only one settler, Antoine Bouthillier, Avho had re ceived a grant of the land . w7est of the Laguerre, and Avho liA7ed in a house on the high bank of that river a short dis tance above its mouth. The record of the first English-speaking settlement has been given in chapter 8. The second Avas begun in the fall of 1820, Avhen Duncan McNicol crossed from Glengarry, where he had landed the year before, and squatted on 56, * Their order, as near as I can ascertain, was, Genier lot 26, L'Ecuyer 27, Chretien 28, Delorme 32, J. Bpte. Caza 35, St Amour and Carrier on point where St Anicet village is built, Bercier 39, Quenneville 41, Saucier 42, Desvoyans 47, Dupuis 48, Cascagnette 50, Moquin 51, and Joseph Caza 52. TORRAMORE. 189 supposing it to be crown land, but afterwards learned it was part of a thousand-acre grant to deSalaberry. He soon had for neighbor Duncan Stewart, and the folloAving spring, Avhile the ice wras good, three brothers of the name of McMillan, Avho had emigrated from Lochaber in 1819. Duncan, the last survivor of those who came out, and who Avas known better as "Torramore," said : ' My father was working. as gardener for Sir John Johnston at St Andrews Avhen we heard of government land being thrown open in Huntingdon, and Ave crossed on the ice, bringing 3 cows Avith us, for which we found plenty of feed in the marsh hay, Avhich then greAv high enough to hide an ox. We put up a shanty, roofed Avith split basswood slabs, and hoed in potatoes and corn among the ashes of the little clearance we made, which yielded w7onderfully, so that after that fall we had to buy little provisions. There was a lumber-road to Trout river, but no settlers off the lake. Lumbering was in full blast and the finest cedars I ever saw w7ere taken out of the BeaA7er, as we called the swamp east of Dupuis' corners, many being 2| feet thick at the butt and straight as an arrow7. The oak was all gone, but the pine was no more than touched. We all went into lumbering, which was an injury to us, and we would have done better to have stuck to our land. We rafted a good deal of cord wood to Montreal, and I have stayed there a fortnight with a raft before I got it all sold. The price ranged from $2.50 to $4 per cord for maple, according to the supply It cost so much for help to run tho rapids and took so much time, that it seldom paid us. The only produce that brought money was potash. For the best, we got half money and half trade. For inferior, the storekeeper would pay only in goods. Our grist we took by canoe to Williamstown, or by canoe or on our backs to Fort Covington. In going by Avater to the Fort, we were subject to be detained by storms, and often had, in the spring and fall, to put in to some island and wait for one or two days for the lake to go dow7n. I have known settlers to be thus caught without food and sleeping in the wet grass. Very often the grist got injured by the waves. Mrs Alex. Grant (lot 11) was the first to be buried on lot 12 and Benjamin Phillips was the second. The bit of land belonged to the Broken Front and the Indians gave a deed of it for a burial-place. The great fires of 1825 did not do damage west of the plank-road. All the land we and our neighbors had squatted on, proved to have been granted, mostly to French 190 LAGUERRE. Canadians avIio had served as officers in 1812, and we had to pay them for it, Avhich we found hard, although they gave us easy terms. In 1822 this settlement got an important addition in Donald Rankin, Avho came from Argyleshire w7ith a large family of sons, avIio have many descendants. One of the sons opened a store, but the situation w7as not favorable for business. Like Dundee, the nature of the country Avas such that to make roads AA7as beyond the ability of the settlers and the government Avould give no assistance. The chief means of communication Avas the lake with its numerous creeks, up which canoes penetrated distances which their present dimen sions make incredible. Of the early settlers of St Anicet and Dundee it may be truly said the canoe Avas their Avaggon. As the largest of its streams, and w7ith branches Avhich traversed the country east and w7est, the Laguerre naturally became the centre of tiade. Near the mouth of it, on the east bank, a French Canadian, Fortier, set up a blacksmith shop, and to reach him from the other side customers had to SAvim their horses. Alexander McBain, whose people lived on the north side of the lake, visited the Laguerre in search of timber limits, and in 1820 took out several rafts, and con tinued to lumber each Avinter thereafter. The canal-like reaches of the riA7er, Avhich with its branches penetrated a tract of country that could not otherwise be reached save when wdnter hardened the sw7amps they drained, Avere so many roads provided by nature, and McBain perceived the ad- A-antages they offered not only for lumbering but for trading. The lands along Trout river were filling up fast, and the Laguerre was the natural outlet for the back country to the south of it. Colonel Davidson also perceiA-ed the encourage ment there Avas to commence business on the Laguerre and assisted his brother-in-law, Alexander Ogilvie, to open a store on its banks. The land along the Avest bank Avas owned by Bouthillier, Avho had inherited it from his father, avIio had received it for military service. A lot w7as bought from him where the west branch flows into the parent stream, and here Ogilvie built his store. He Avas the son of a Dundee manu- JOHN MCPHERSON. 191 facturer, had left Scotland in 1820, and clerked Avith Colonel Davidson, so acquiring a knowledge of storekeeping. Shaw, an American, who had squatted on the Ridge-road, agreed to put up the necessary buildings, and raised a store, dwelling- house, and ashery, with a Avharf, part of which can still be traced. He was a handy man and did the Avork writhout a single bee, his only help being his son and a yoke of oxen. When Ogilvie took possession, the place Avas solitary enough, there being only one neighbor, a French Canadian, avIio had squatted on the opposite bank, named Monroi. Bouthillier's shanty was near the mouth of the river, Avhere the site of his garden is marked by aged apple-trees. There was a foot- track to Huntingdon and a sort of a road that angled along the ridges to Dundee, over which oxen could struggle in a dry season, but Avhich Avas little used, communication by water being so much more easy. Recognizing that connec tion with Trout river was essential to his prosperity, he engaged Shaw to cut out an ox-track to the Ridge, Avhere it connected with the one that led to Trout river. The first immigrants to settle near him were John Harvey and William Brodie, Lowland Scotchmen, Avho AA7ent on to 42 and 43, 2nd range, which they reached by blazed tracks from his store. Both Avere industrious men, and Brodie was the first in the towrnship to have a field entirely clear of stumps. In 1823 Lalanne laid out the south end of lot 35, facing the concession-line into a village, which he named Godman chester. The lots Avere issued, in 1824 to whoever Avould pay $2.70 per half acre lot. Part of these McBain had pre-empted, and in the fall of 1823 built a store. Immigrants Avere now arriving weekly, seeking by the Laguerre a Avay across to Trout river and Elgin, but, so far, none had sought homes near its banks. McBain was now the means of inducing several to come, and the best description I can give is in the words of John McPherson : We belonged to Strathspey and with a number of neigh bors left in the spring of 1823. We embarked on the Monarch at Fort William, which sailed round to Tobermory and lay there for a fortnight, for the remainder of those who 192 THE SCOTCH RIDGE. had engaged passage. The price of tickets was $25, and the ship provided rations. In other 6 weeks we arrived at Quebec. Our intention was to settle in Glengarry, and we made our way to Lachine, where there was a great number of Durham boats, loading and unloading. Our baggage was carefully weighed, and the charge Avas 50 cents the hundred weight. It took the boat 10 days to reach Lancaster. We were detained off He Perrot by a head wind, but the length of the passage was mainly due to the difficulty in poling and towing the boat up the rapids. There were 8 men and the captain, four to each side with poles, and as the boat was overcrowded, it was a wonder none of the children were knocked overboard. At the foot of the first rapid, a number of us got out, we being told we could get in at the village above, which, they said, was only two. or three miles away. But we found it a weary journey, and when Ave got there, not a sign of the boat, and it was next day before she ar rived, the rapids having been extra difficult to OA7ercome. We bought bread from the habitants, and I recollect one of the passengers on coming out with a black loaf being asked what it Avas, answering, "They told me it was bread." Ill-looking as it was, we were1 glad of it. Well, we were landed at last at Lancaster and my father, Avhose first name Avas Donald, and others Avent out to look for land and were disappointed, for the lots that Avere not taken up Avere either very wet or stony. Hearing there Avas land at Beaudette,* he walked to that place but found that all the vacant lots were swimming in Avater. While there he met McBain, Avho suggested to him to cross the lake to Huntingdon, and, on his persuasion, got into his Avherry, for he Avas about starting for Laguerre. He led him to the land west of Avhere he was erecting his store, and advised him to squat on it, saying he believed it was still OAvned by the crow7n. He did so, and began to raise a shanty on 37, second range of 1st concession, and that fall, when the ice Avas forming, the family moved over, and Ave were not alone, for four others of our fellow- passengers came also and settled beside us, namely, William Campbell, who was a shoemaker and Avho Avas going to Avork for McBain, on lot 36, John Grant, also a blacksmith, on 38, and another blacksmith, Angus Mcintosh, on the west half of •In an old map, this is given as Baudet, the French word for donkey. It is curious if that is the original Avord and that it came to be corrupted into Beaudette, which signifies nothing, so far as I am aAvare. DIFFICULTIES. 193 38, and Avith Wm. Campbell stayed Alex. McDonald, a shoe maker, who took up the other half of lot 39. There Avere no roads and the paths that led from the landing-place on the river to our shanties we blazed with the axe; duiing the first year, we often lost ourselves. It was a hard winter for all of us, being new to the country and having to carry all our pro visions from the Glengarry side. One day, towards spring, my father with McDonald and Mcintosh went 0A7er for potatoes, and on returning found the crack had so Avidened that they could not jump it with the bags on their back. Mcintosh pitched his own and father's to the other side and offered to do the same with McDonald's, Avho, however, thought he could fling it himself ; he did so, and it landed partly in the water. Well, they fished it out, and before they got to their journey's end, that bagful was frozen. So little did any of us know about chopping, that a tree my father felled came crashing down on our shanty, and had the bass- wood scoops that formed the roof not been strong, it would have done damage. Because it Avas so easy to chop and split, we preferred basswood for firewood, leaving the beech and maple, and had poor fires in consequence. By spring we had a good clearance, and got in corn and potatoes with some wheat. That summer we bought a cow from McBain. It was curious how animals were brought across the lake in canoes. Two canoes were lashed together, and the forelegs were in one and the hindlegs in the other. If it came on to blow, cattle would not balance themselves, but horses would. I only know of one instance of a cow being brought over in a single canoe. One of the Cazas did it, and charged a dollar. Any of the habitants on the lakeshore would ferry a pas senger over for 50 cents. We cut hay for the cow on the Beaver, and earned it two miles in bundles on our backs. We had a good crop that fall, and never wanted for food there after, and the only time of scarcity was in 1836, when early frosts prevented the grain ripening, so that, the following summer, oatmeal was not to be had, and I travelled to Huntingdon and Dewittville and as far as several miles below Ormstown before I could find anybody who had a quintal to sell. We got William Breaky, who had settled on part .of lot 28, 2nd con., and the only one near us who had a yoke of oxen, to come occasionally to help to log and break up the ground, and I may tell you that oxen will not drag more land in a day than a bushel will sow. The country was so wet between our place and Breaky's that it was a day's journey for him to reach us, and he had himself to carry 194 ANOTHER NARRATIVE. the yolce in crossing the swamp between the hill and the river. By-and-by we managed to get a pair of steers, and Avhen they grew to be oxen we counted ourselves rich, for then we made great progress in clearing the land. We made a good deal of blacksalts, and that was our only way of getting money. We went to mill by canoe to Fort Covington, and if the weather was not favorable, it would be a week before we got back ; sleeping on the islands and bringing back the bags wet on the outside from the spray of the waves. Old Kerr, the baker, used to say we left Avith flour and brought back dough. With our neighbors we had a share in a large canoe, which would carry ten hundredweight. The bush was so thick and high that we never knew when there was a storm except by the sound in the tree-tops, and often we have gone down the river anticipating no trouble, to find, when we left the mouth, that the Avaves were chasing each other on the lake. Our first school Avas in Grant's house, Mrs Grant being the teacher. After that we managed to get a schoolhouse built, Avhen Robert E. King, who had been a clerk with McBain and was well qualified in every way except his habits, taught. , The Rev John McKenzie of Glengarry visited our settlement, baptizing and marrying as was required. It turned out that the land we had settled upon had been con ceded to the Hon Mr deBoucherville, and we had to pay him for it. The nationality of the first settlers determined the char acter of the settlement, which, became an almost exclusively Highland one. Angus McPherson adds many interesting details: My father belonged to Invernessshire, and sailed for Ca nada in 1826. He took up lot 39, for which he paid $2.50 an acre to Colonel deRouville, who claimed a large tract. Like our neighbors we built our shanty on the front of the lot, but finding it wet and unpleasant my father raised another on the ridge, and, in course of time, his neighbors to the east of him did likewise, and it came to be known as the Scotch or Highland ridge. There was a good deal of fever and ague in those days and the storekeepers sold quite a quantity of quinine. There was much in Canada that struck the settlers with surprise, and they, coming from Avhere game-laAVS Avere strictly enforced, wondered to see men freely fishing, and shooting deer and partridge at pleasure. My mother had never seen a snake until she came here and the first Avarm night, Avhen the air was filled with sparks, she Avas greatly A POET. 195 alarmed, thinking it wras raining fire, and could not believe the spectacle was due to flies. Knowing no better, my father, on cutting up the trees, dragged the pieces with a rope to the house, and continued to do so until a neighbor showed him hoAv to construct a handsled. It was a long while before my father got a yoke of oxen, and until he did, Breaky would come with his, receiving payment in day's work in return on his own farm. During the first winter, my father had occa sion to be aAvay one night and before leaving forgot to show my mother hoAv to heap the ashes and keep a gathering-coal for the morning. She thought she left it as usual, but, on rising on the morning, found the fire had burned out. There were no matches in those days and there was no flint and steel in the house, and it Avas too far to go through the snow to the next house. So she went back to bed to keep warm and remained in it until, father came. He took down the musket he had brought with him from Scotland, and pouring some powder on the pan and placing a bit of punk in it, drew the trigger, and secured the means of restoring the fire. To take our first grist to mill, my father gave a blanket to a Cana dian, who hauled it in his traineau through the w7oods to Fort Covington and back again. Our shanty was so buried in the bush, that in chopping a tree in front of it, it fell differently from the direction my father expected, and crashed against the door, which it forced open and the tree-top lodged on the shanty-floor, giving my mother a fright. There were wild beasts around us, and we lost a 3-year old heifer, which Avas found dead, Avith the marks of a bear's claws in its torn back. There Avas a clearing on the top of a knoll on our lot, in which, on hoeing in corn and potatoes, we found bits of pottery, shells, and arrowheads, leading us to suppose that Indians had once had a camp there. As no bones were found, it could not have been a burial-place. Among the settlers Ave had a poet, Wm. McEdward, who lived a little west of us, and who came in 1830, He had been a shepherd in Scotland and his education was limited to the ability to read print, so he composed his verses mentally and then dictated them to some one who could w7rite Gaelic. In 1836 he Avent to Montreal to have the poems of Peter Grant and Dougald Buchanan, copies of which he had brought Avith him, reprinted, and added 17 hymns of his OAvn, one of which has Canada for its subject, and is devoted mainly to reproving the laxity with Avhich its people keep the Sabbath and the like. When he came back wfth the book he was thin and pale, and his friends believed he had denied himself in the city to make ends meet. The 196 THE VILLAGE OF GODMANCHESTER. book was printed by J. Starke & Co. in 1836, and the edition was disposed of by the poet's travelling far and near among his kindred Celts, he realizing sufficient to pay off the balance due on his farm. McEdward sang his own hymns, and as he had a soft, sweet voice, it was . pleasant to hear him. He always wore, Avinter and summer, a S otch bonnet, and a hoop Avas slipped into the croAvn to extend it to shade his eyes in summer. ., When, .the Avcather required it, he enveloped himself in a large Rob Roy plaid. He never worked much but went about among the neighbors a good deal, and was a capital story-teller, delighting to relate ghost and fairy tales. When, at the end of one, he Avould be asked "Is it true?" he would reply, " Weel, weel, I don't know; I just tell it you the way I heard it." His visits Avere other than social however. He was a Baptist and of a pious spirit, and never failed to visit those who suffered under sickness or other trial, and his prayers were deAout and earnest. His ideas of Sabbath ob servance Avere very strict. Thus one day he saw a settler come into church with a fine new blue bonnet of genuine Scotch shape. To have asked him where he had bought his cap would have been to violate the Sabbath, so he refrained, and next day Avalked 5 miles to get the desired information, which resulted in his renewing his headgear. His daughter married John Campbell, who had been a fisherman in Scot land, and who lived on lot 60, 1st range, who was also a Baptist and travelled about a good deal, preaching when he found opportunity. He went as far in his trips as Heming ford. His sermons Avere very tiresome. McEdward one day was complaining of the laziness of his son-in-law, re marking that fishermen were always lazy. "Ay, and shep herds too," caustically rejoined his neighbor. The poet died in 1856 when- 80 years of age and is buried in Laguerre churchyard. Campbell moved to Michigan three years after wards. The hamlet at Laguerre, which was the centre of this and the other settlements adjoining, promised during its early years to become a village. Ogilvie and McBain employed many men in their asheries and in lumbering, and black smiths, coopers, shoemakers and other tradesmen gathered around them. All winter the country presented a busy scene from the teams hauling timber and cordwood to the river-bank and the oxsleds of settlers, many of whom came from a considerable distance, with black salts and potash to MASTS AND MAST ROADS. 197 exchange for store goods. When the ice left, the riA-er was so full of rafts that canoes had difficulty in picking their way, and bateaux came in from Montreal Avith goods and later on in the season, with immigrants. The trade in ashes was large and remunerative, as may be judged when Ogilvie averaged 250 barrels each season, and pearled 50 barrels. McBain did as large a business in ashes, although he directed his attention mainly to lumbering. On the flats along the river he cut a great quantity of oak and pine, immense lots of masts, oars, and flatted timber of all sorts. The bateaux could not take full loads from the wharves OAving to the sandbar at the mouth, so the balance of their lading was sent off to them in another boat. The freight to Montreal Avas $1 the barrel of potash. An interesting subject connected with the early days of the district, is that of prices. Up to 1835, when the supply began to be exhausted, the great article of export was timber. What Avas most sought for was masts and oars, and as the woods were plundered of these, square timber grew in im portance. The mast-trade was exceedingly profitable, and as the price was in proportion to the length, exertions Avere made to get them out of the woods wdthout trimming. To this end, mast-roads were formed, and of these there were tAvo of such length that they led from the lake to the 4th range. The oldest ran back by where Cazaville noAA7 is, arid after it had ceased to be needed for lumbering, was used as an ordi- nary road, so that Avhen the side-line between 48 and 49 was opened, Castagenet had difficulty in getting* people, avIio pre ferred the old to the new road, to cease trespassing on his lot. A little to the east of this road, Bagg & Waite cut out an other which 'angled across the country to the westrbranch of the Laguerre. It passed over several hills, one so steep that a rope was attached to the mast and given a turn round a beech tree, and two men paid it off to let the mast go down gradually. One day the rope snapped, when the nigh team were rendered unfit for further service. After that a chain was used. The sled that bore up the head of these masts, was so massive that, by itself, it was as much as a yoke of 198 ATTEMPT TO BUILD A CHURCH. oxen could draw. With 20 horses, or as many oxen, attached to a mast, and with many men, the noise made the woods ring, and they could -be heard long before they hove in sight. Of one white-pine mast, got out for McBain, a memorandum has been preserved It Avas 84 feet long, 25 inches at the butt and 18 at the small end. The average price settlers received for delivering pine at the stump was $20, and rock elm $25, paid in goods. It was worth as much more if de li A7ered on the rafting-ground. White-ash oars, from 15 to 19 feet long, 4i inches square at one end and 2 at the other, and 6 inches Avide at the blade, averaged 80 cents a pair. Cordwood wras almost given aAvay. The most of the maple on the Scotch-ridge was sold standing at 12^ cents a cord to French Canadians, who rafted it to the city, and as late as 1834 it Avas only Avorth 15c. Delivered at Laguerre it Avas worth $1 a cord. Ashes seldom Avent beloAV 12ic the bushel. The groAvth of the place suggested the building of a church and a knoll on the east side of the river was selected. Ogilvie offered to give the lumber on condition that the others paid him in ashes and farm-produce for the labor. He put up the frame and piled beside it the boards he had brought from Dundee, but the settlers were inert and nothing more was done, the frame standing until bloAvn doAvn. The knoll, Iioaa7- ever, was utilized as a place of burial. A negro, knoAvn by the name of Cyrus, on returning hi a canoe with John Bartly from Dundee, was droAvned near the place of landing and Avas buried there. Soon after a Mrs McManus died, it Avas sup posed of ship-fever, and the woman Avho had attended her, Mrs Duheme, had the body hurriedly committed to the same place. Some time after, Mrs Duheme alleged that on going to milk her coav in the pasture one evening, the ghost of Mif McManus appeared and reproached her for placing her body in unconsecrated ground. Next day, Mrs Duheme got men to exhume the body and placing- the coffin in her canoe took it to the -burial-place at Caza's point. The third body to find a resting-place was that of William, father of Angus Mc- Pherson, who passed aAvay,at a good age, in May, 1828. The change that came over the place ere long postponed the pro- mcbain's death. 199 ject of building a church, and it was not until 1847 that work was begun on the church that now stands, and Avhich was completed about 1850. The school alluded to by John McPherson as tho first built, was erected in the village during the summer of 1829, and that winter, Robert King, who had been a clerk with McBain for a number of years, engaged as master, the rate of fees to be 25c per month for reading, 12 ic extra each for writing and ciphering;, "grammar and book-keeping to be paid for as may be agreed for with the schoolmaster." The trustees, the three leading men of the place, Ogilvie, McBain, and L. Duheme, undertook to see that the agreed number of scholars attended, that the fees were collected, and fuel provided. Doubtless they had to advance the fees and take them out in trade from the parents, for nioney was not in circulation. Thus in 1835 we find Ogilvie arranging with the farmers to pay at. the rate of a bushel of corn per scholar for a winter's schooling of 155 days, the corn being valued at 70c a bushel. This reduction in fees is accounted for by the government's then contributing a grant of $80. The second signature to this list is that of John Kerr, a Greenock baker, who had to flee from his connection with the radicals, and Avas a passen ger on the Alexander in her memorable voyage of 1820. After Avorking a short time at St Johns, he took up lot 37, 2nd range. An irreparable blow was dealt the place in July, 1830, by the death of McBain. He had gone to Quebec with timber, which he had sold well, and on his Avay back bought a boat load of goods for his store, which he accompanied. Leaving the boat at'Coteau he was rowed home by his brothers, and joined his family in great spirits. It being Sunday, business was suspended, and after dinner, on his father and brothers preparing to go back, it Avas proposed that the family should accompany them as far as the lake. The day had been sultry and they had not gone far until it was seen a thunderstorm was approaching. They hauled up at Dr Fortune's, who was living in Bouthillier's old house, to wait until it passed over. While gathered in the sitting-room, McBain's father, who had 200 JOHN MACDONALD. been sitting at the window, rose and asked his son to take his chair. He did so, and dreAV his eldest daughter on to his knee. A minute or ,so after, there was a vivid flash, followed by a stunning crash of thunder. When the occupants of the room recovered their sight after the dazzling light, they saw McBain and his daughter stretched on the floor. Their first impression was that he had fallen in a faint, but on loosening his clothes it Avas seen that the bolt had traA-ersed his body, Avhich quickly turned black. A steel watch'-chain that he wore was conjectured to have conducted the fatal bolt. His daughter was prostrated for some time, but ultimately re covered. The sudden and entire suspension of his business and the removal of its leading-spirit, gave a blow to the embryo village from which it never rallied. After an in terval of some tAvo years, his widoAV married John MacDonald, who had come to Canada shortly before. He was a native of Alvie, Invernessshire, had seen much of the Avorld, and was an excellent man of business. With indomitable energy and good management he did much to restore the prosperity of the place, and would have succeeded but for circumstances over which he had no control, and which will be noted pre sently. He lumbered and made both pot and pearl ashes on a large scale, shipping between four and five hundred barrels yearly on his own Durham boats. He had opposition in John Gibson, Baker & Buchanan, Alex. McDonald, J. B. Charlebois, and John Graham. Associated with his father- in-law, Colonel Davidson, he assisted in getting the road made from Huntingdon to Dundee, towards which a grant Avas made by goArernment in 1831, on the report of grand- voyer deLery, who visited the county in October of that year. The con tract for forming a crossway o\7er the swamp on lot 32 was taken by David Hunter, and was long known as the Hunter road. The constructing of this road was of great consequence to the settlement that had grown up to the east of it, and to which one of its first settlers, John Higgins, gave the ap propriate name of Newfoundout, for it was, indeed, a neAV discovery in the labyrinth of swamps that surrounded it. NEAVFOUNDOUT. 201 James Higgins Avas the first to move into it. He came from Limerick in 1826 and went to work on the Rideau canal, leaving his family in Glengarry. The second spring he took up part of lot 36 on the 3rd range of Godmanchester, which he soon left on finding it Avas claimed, and went on to 39, second range, where he was joined by several of his country men, who, like himself, had a hard time of it. One spring there was great shortness of provisions, the boats being de layed in making their first trip to the Laguerre from Mon treal. One day, Avhen there Avas not a mouthful of solid food in one of their houses, two Americans came who desired to cross the lake. Higgins conducted them to the lake-shore and ferried them over, and with the money they paid him he bought peas, wdrich he shared on his return, and before they were done supplies had arrived. The record of the settlers in New7foundout is simply a repetition of that of other portions of St Anicet — a contest with low-lying ground, hard to clear and worse to drain, with the added draAvback of feA7er and ague. That affliction Avas almost unknown in other parts of the district, but in the Newfoundout settlement no family escaped. It was, however, of the mildest type, the tertiary, and yielded readily to treatment. As the land w7as brought into cultivation it disappeared. The shanties clustered closely on the ridge that runs across the lots, and the road naturally grew out of the track that was made from one door to the next, which accounts for its crookedness. On the ridge they grew corn and potatoes and depended on selling ashes and timber for money ,to buy other necessaries and pay for their lots, many of which were claimed by Ellice. The eastern end of the settlement wras mainly occupied by Highlanders ; the western by Irish Catholics ; all 'living in a state of harmony and mutual helpfulness. The extreme eastern end of the concession was occupied in the days of Dalhousie settlement (page 158) and two brothers, John and Malcolm Currie from Cantyre, settled on lot 20 as early as 1824. They were followed by Archibald McMillan, Andrew McFarlane, John Sterling, Malcolm McLellan, Hugh Mclntyre, Duncan Living stone, and in 1830, by Peter McNaughton. In 1827 an event 202 THE DECLINE OF LAGUERRE. happened in the settlement which shocked the neighborhood. James Feeny, an Irish Catholic, well-known subsequently as a bailiff, had come in 1826. He had a bee, which was well attended, and towards the close of which, as the drink took effect, there Avas some quarreling. The day had been warm, and after all had left a thunderstorm, of unusual A'iolence and continuance, burst. The night Avas so dark and wild, that few7 were able to reach their homes. James Macarthur (page 166) never reached his. Search was made'in vain. Not a trace could be discovered and his disappearance was a mys tery until, a number of years afterwards, a skeleton was found in the bush at the rear of the lake lots. From the brass buttons among the shreds of clothing there was no doubt about the remains being those of the missing man. Whether he had been murdered by a neighbor, Avhose violence Was notorious and Avith Avhom he had words at the bee, or been killed by a tree falling upon him, was never ascertained. The change Avhich steam was working in the modes of transport, was quietly superseding the Laguerre as a port. Steamers began calling at St Anicet village and wharves near © © © it, and trade AA7as diverted to them, and Laguerre decayed •with the Durham boat and the bateau, which alone could navigate its waters. The final bloAV to its prospects was dealt in 1849, when the clam at Valleyfield Avas completed. Low-lying at the best, the additional height of water over spread the flat on which the streets and square of Godman chester had been laid out, and, one by one, the owners left, selling out to Mr MacDonald, until, from the road to the lake there was not a house left, and Avhere once stood stores and dwellings, asheries and wharves, there uoav remains hardly a vestige, and Avhat from 1822 to 1850 w7as a scene of activity and the chief business-centre of the county, is now pervaded by rural calmness and the river drifts sluggishly to the St LaAvrence unfretted by the keels of the bateaux that once traversed it in quick succession and oi the rafts that con cealed it. The village of St Anicet had no existence until the church was built and no trade until the Beauharnois canal was ST. ANICET VILLAGE. 203 opened. Its site and the land in rear of it were held by deBoucherville. In 1823 he sold lot 37 to James Leslie, a mason, and his brothers and father joined him two years afterwards. They were from Badenoch, Scotland. The year after Leslie sat down by the lake, a hive of habitants w7as throAA7n off by the overcrowded seigniory of Berthier, avIio bought the land in Godmanchester owned by gentlemen in that vicinity. The neAvcomers sent back such good reports, that a furore arose, and French Canadians from Berthier and De ITsle came crowding in, so that by 1826 all the unoccupied lots in the front ranges were taken up. With their advent, Father Lavalle, the missionary of St Regis, began to make regular A-isits, and held service in the houses of Dupuis, Caza, and others on the lakeshore, for in 1820 the bishop formed the Avestern end of Huntingdon into the mission of St Anicet. Fathers Dufresne, Blyth, and Marceau kept these services up. On Caza's point Avere a few. graves, Avhere were buried those w7ho died at a season Avhen it was impossible to convey the bodies to a cemetery, for well on to 1830 it AAras tho custom of both Irish and French Catholics to take their dead in canoes to Flanaghan's point, near SummerstoAvn, or to St Regis. To remedy this, during a 40 hours' devotion, Avhen several priests were in at tendance, the burial-place at Caza's point, lot 35, was blessed and a large cross erected, and it was used until the church was built. In the spring of 1827 the bishop of Montreal issued a decree constituting Godmanchester a parish under the name of St Anicet, but no steps towards getting a church were taken until 1835, when subscription-lists Avere passed round and the contract given to John Mcintosh and Baptiste Caza, who began to build it in 1837. The site chosen Avas the point on Avhich the village now stands, although it had then only one Resident, Bouthillier, who had removed from the Laguerre. In 1838 Edward Dupuis put up a house near him. The building of the church proceeded sloAvly and was not finished until 1840, Avhen it stood a commodious and sub stantial stone-edifice of the ordinary design of those days. The priest appointed, and who came in 1835, Father Poirier, 204 PATRICK CURRAN. lived in the vestry until 1843, when a presbytere Avas pro vided. It deserves to be carefully noted, that no pretension was made at that time to the Church of Rome having power to levy either fabrique taxes or tithes in township lands'. The parish constituted by the bishop in Godmanchester was merely a canonical parish, the church was built by voluntary contributions, and the salary of the priest was met in the same way, by subscription. When, in 1845, St Anicet was set off from Godmanchester, and constituted a distinct muni cipality, the proceedings were civil and w7holly independent of ecclesiastical authority ; indeed the limits of the munici pality and of the parish were not the* same. It was not until after 1850 that the hierarchy felt themselves in a position to extend French law to the free toAvnships, and claim the power to tithe and tax in them and to initiate proceedings to cut them up and create parish-municipalities. — Once the St Anicet church Avas up, houses began to cluster round it. Dr Fortune built the third house and ended there his days. Joseph Parent opened the first store Avhere the present church stands, and in 1841 Dr Masson came beside him. Parent built a wharf, and induced the Porcupine to call on her round trip, for she went from Montreal to Ottawa, thence by the Rideau canal to Kingston, and then back to Montreal by the St LaAvrence. She was a small A-essel with a high-pressure engine, and called regularly for tAvo seasons. She Avas supplanted by the Rob Roy, which, plying between Montreal and Cornwall, made more frequent visits. Before Parent built his wharf, Delorme on lot 32 had erected one, at Avhich the Highlander (brought to the lake in 1837 to convey troops) called a few times, Avithout finding sufficient inducement to continue. The French had no school until 1834, \A7hen one wras opened on 38 and a second was started on the Quesnel concession Having now given an outline of the manner in which the front ranges weie settled, I turn to those in their rear, and as the opening up of the southern part of St Anicet and the northern of Godmanchester is due to Irish Catholics, I cannot do better than give the narrative of the oldest of them, Patrick Curran : A HOME IN THE WILDERNESS. 205 I was bom in Kilkenny in 1798, and left Ireland in the spring of 1820 Avith a number of other emigrants for NeAv- foundland. When I reached St John I found that.owing to the large number who had come out that season, work was hard to get. I got odd jobs on the wharves and remained until August, when I left in a trading schooner for Quebec, with the intention of going to my cousin James Curran, avIio lived then near the lines at Fort Covington, but shortly afterwards moved into Dundee. The journey from Quebec to Montreal I made in a small steamer, one of the two then running. From Montreal I started on foot. The Lachine canal had been begun and there had been trouble between the French and Irish laborers on it, ending in riots. I was told it would not be safe for me to go through tho French country just then, when there was such a bitter feeling against the Irish, but I started, w7orked a while for a habitant near Coteau, shearing wheat, which I did not 'like as it was thistly, and reached McKie's point, wrhen one of the famiiy agreed to cross me. There Avas a strong wind blowing down the lake, so that the canoe drifted as far as lot 7. I started at once to walk to Fort Covington, following the shore. For a long way there Avas not even a foot-track, but I came to one at last, and the first house I saw was Genier's. J. Bte. Caza ferried me over the Laguerre. The road, or track, followed the shore, going out to the points, so I passed St Amour's, saAA7 his two big black dogs and his bit of clearance, which was planted with corn. I got to Joseph Caza's hut, Avhich stood west of Mo- quin's, and stayed overnight. In the morning Mr Caza launched his canoe and conveyed me to the Fort and I joined my relative. I worked about the Fort for a year, when I resolved to take up land, and hearing that lots were going to be issued in Godmanchester I went with John Smyth, an Irish Catholic, who had been Avorking at an ashery in the Fort, in December, 1821, and squatted on lot 44, 4th range, and spent the winter in making a clearance and some potash. There was not a road then in the township, only the tracks made by the lumbermen, who had just then begun to get out square timber. Up to then they had only taken masts, and the woods were not plundered. We worked hard, living by our selves in a little shanty, with no neighbors, and before the snow left had two barrels of potash, which we drew to old Marsh at Fort Covington, and got $5 the cwt, or $40 the barrel. It paid good wages then to make potash. That summer (1822) Lalanne and his men stayed in our place while engaged in surveying the township into lots, and on Bowron's 206 THE IRISH RIDGE. coming and being made agent I drew a location-ticket for 37 on the 5th range, but I did not go on to it. That summer ShaAV and Force, both Americans, came to live on the Ridge and were followed by a number of their countrymen, until from Clyde's Corners to Lee's came to be knoAvn as the Yan kee-ridge. They had no intention of staying, but just came to make potash and do something at lumbering. They Avent through the woods plundering the best of the timber. There might be about 30 families of Americans on the Ridge and near it. That winter I hired with Shaw Avho'was getting out square timber, and in the spring of 1823 took up 38, 1st range, and went, to live on it, afterwards moving to 33, 2nd range. The first time I passed where Laguerre village Avas laid out, there was just one hut, inhabited by a Canadian named Monroi. Alex. McBain had come in 1820 from Glen garry to begin lumbering, and tAvo or three years afterw7ards he built a store Avhere Monroi's house stood. I Avas married in June, 1823, and had to go to St Regis, where Father Lavalle performed the ceremony. The Irish came in strong eA7ery summer, especially between 1832 and 1836, filling up the back ranges, the French keeping near the lake. The first Irish settlers besides myself and Smyth, Avere Edward Walsh, Edward Smyth, William and Jas. Higgins, James and Michael Finnegan, Cornelius Daly, and the McGintys. They Avere from all parts of Ireland and most of them had worked on the Rideau canal. There was nothing else but Irish on what is knoAvn as the Irish ridge. They did not know then of the stones, but looked at the fine cut of timber for ashes and the dry soil. At the end of the 2nd range, several of the Irish who first came out lived for a while, the Higgins, John Murphy, William Sullivan, and Daniel Keefe, avIio had to move, from the land having been granted and those who held it asking more than they could pay. The great want of the country Avas roads, and for many years Ave had no other Avay of drawing anything than in Avoodshod sleds, or jumpers, dragged by oxen through the roads, to the Laguerre, Avhere both McBain and Ogilvie had stores and asheries. I built a big canoe, that AA7ould hold 2 barrels of potash or take 50 bushels of grain to the mill at the Fort, and the custom of the settlers on the Ridge was to haul their ashes or grain as far as the creek (the east branch of the Laguerre) at my place, and take the one to the stores at Laguerre or the other tq the mill. When a canoe could not be used, a bag of wheat was thrown across a horse's back and a Avay found through 'the woods by the blazes on the trees to the Fort. The first WILD BEASTS. 207 road to be opened was one from Huntingdon to Laguerre, for Avhich the government gave a grant. That w7as in 1834. Barlow had the contract for the portion between lots 32 and 33, and had to crossAvay the swampy portions. There Avere two springs near O'Hare's corners that you could not pass until that was done. The roads in Newfoundout and the Irish ridge Avere not laid out, and greAV from the tracks that were naturally made between shanty and shanty, Avhich accounts for there being so crooked. There was splendid pine all over, and I have seen masts 110 feet long and trees that squared 32 inches. Our being near the St Lawrence Avas an advantage to us, for it made the timber on our lots be of value, and brought us in money Ave sorely needed. The fire of 1825 did not do much damage to the growing timber. It ran over about 30 acres on Castagenet's lot and burned deep holes in the swamps, which are still to be seen, and the creek went dry. Wild beasts Avere plentiful for over 20 years after I came, and I shot from first to last a great many bears. The largest one, I killed on lot 30, 3rd range. I heard one was in the habit of jumping into an old log shanty in which a neigh bor had stored his oats. I watched and when he came and stood up scenting round before entering, I sent a ball clear through him and carrying with it a streak of fat. He turned on me quite fierce, and it took tAvo more shots to kill him He was rolling in fat. Deer were plentiful, and I ran doAvn with the dogs one Avinter 7. There were a few wolves.' James Higgins, I remember, shot one that had killed a number of sheep. There w7as a good-sized beaver-meadow on my lot, with the dams still remaining, but the beavers had gone before I came. The meadoAv yielded hay, which was of great service. I was the first settler to get a yoke of oxen, which was in 1822, and their services being in great demand I had to change work with my neighbors very often. It was a long while before horses were of any use to us. The settlers were often bare enough, but I never knew of anything like want. They had ahvays enough to eat. You may say the landAvas at first cleared by whisky. ItAvas bee. after bee to log and burn, and there was no bee without whisky, and after the work Avas done, they would stay to talk and drink. The bane of these times Avas whisky. It Avas about 1829 that the first school was opened. The government gave a small grant, Avith which an old log-house that stood on lot 31, 1st range, Avas bought from James Higgins and another was put up on lot 41, 3rd range, at the same time. The first teacher in Higgins' school was a Scotchman named King, who was very 208 FIRST OCCUPANTS OF LOTS. capable. He lived in the attic above the schoolroom, and there he died the first winter. He was succeeded by Finlay McPherson. Note. — The following is a list of the first occupants of lots. Like the lists that will be appended to other chapters, it is only approximately correct, for it is compiled from the recol lections of old settlers, there being no' written data available. The omission of the names of French settlers is not through design. Repeated attempts in St Anicet and other parishes, demonstrated that, from the frequent changes and other causes, it was impossible to obtain of them the required in formation Avith anything like fulness or accuracy. I grate fully acknowledge the assistance given me by Mr John D. MacDonald of Laguerre in preparing this chapter. He is one of those Avho take a patriotic pride in the history of the country of their birth. 3rd Range. 20 Matthew Mathieson Neil Mathieson 21 John Rankin 22 Thomas O'Leary 23 Terrence Quinn, jr. 24 Henry Thomson, a negro 25 Heny Jackson, a negro 26 Thomas R. Higgins Peter Beauchene, jr. 27 Michael Gaynor 28 Patrick Reardon Timothy O'Ready 29 Dennis O'Connor James O'Connor 30 James Higgins John Mulverhill 31 James B. O'Connor James Clyde 32 James O'Connor Charles O'Connor 33 Murdoch McPherson 34 Thomas Glynn 34 Maurice O'Connor 35 Thomas O'Rielly John Moriarty • 36 Richard Savage William Kelly 37 William O'Leary Martin Curran 38 Patrick Finnigan James Finnigan 39 Edward Walsh Michael Griffin 40 Maurice Leehy Thomas Leehy 41 Thomas Shane Patrick Barrett 42 Thomas McGinnis Bernard Cosgrove 43 W. & J. McGinnis Thomas Gilassy 44 David McCarty Allen Watson 45 William Watson John Harvey 46 Jean B. Hart Xavier Quenneville 47 Jere. Stowell, w7ho sold to Hugh Curran and Samuel Clark 43 Samuel McNarland William Hassan 49 John Doyle Michael Moore 50 Moses Clark FIRST OCCUPANTS OF LOTS. 209 2nd Range. 20 John Bartly Malcolm Currie 21 Bernard Bartly Richard Finn 22 Patrick Ferris Thomas Quinn 23 Archd McMillan Peter Qinn 24 Andrew McFarlane Dennis Sullivan 25 Peter McNaughton John Sterling 26 Malcolm McLellan John Currie 27 Peter Currie Hugh Mclntyre 28 Duncan Livingstone John Breaky 29 Michael Quinn Terrence Quinn 30 Michael Kerby Lawrence Sullivan 31 John Higgins James Higgins 32 Richard Higgins 33 Leandre Duheme Patrick Curran Amable Charlebois 34 M. & P. Beauchene 35 Theodore Caza Alexis Bray 36 John MacDonald Wm. and Thos. Gold 37 John Kerr Patrick Finnigan 40 Henry Thomas, a negro James McGauly William Smyth 41 John Sinclair William Sullivan 42 John Murphy Cornelius Daly 43 P. Shaughnessy Joseph Adams 44 William Brodie John Harvey 45 EdAvard Smyth William Alsopp 46 John Stewart 49 Duncan Mcintosh 52 James Black 53 Andrew Thompson James Black 54 Alex. McLachlan 55 Angus McDonald Neil McGillis 56 Duncan McNicol 57 Donald McLean 58 John McLean 59 Dougald McLachlan John Loney 60 James D. Stewart Peter SteAvart 61 Alex. Stewart 1st Range. — Dundee Road. 36 Wm.Campbell James Leslie 37 John McPherson 38 John Grant Angus Mcintosh ' 39 Alex. McDonald Angus McPherson 40 Alex. & Donald McGregor 41 William McEdward George Dupuis 42 Harvey StoAvell Alex. Stewart & Colin Mcintosh 44 Josiah Classon Ewen Cattanach 45 Amable & Francois Quesnel 56 Duncan McNicol 57 Donald McLean . 58 Hugh McLean Alex. Cameron 59 Neil Ferguson Malcolm McLean 60 Hect<*r McLean Neil Chisholm 61 Duncan Stewart 16 210 FIRST OCCUPANTS OF LOTS. THE LAKE FRONT. As regards the lots east of 20, the names given are those who succeeded the occupiers during the days of the Dal housie settlement, (chap. 8). In a few instances, the lots west of 20 were held by squatters or tenants before those whose names are given, Avho were the first to make improvements as proprietors. 8 David Dourie 12 Wm. H. & Thomas Evatt* 13 James Feeny 14 William Macarthurf Thomas Brown 15 John Wiley 16 James Cluff 17 John McDonell 18 Malcolm Campbell 19, Finlay Campbell Donald Campbell 20 Thomas Kennedy 21 Donald McKillop 23 Archd. Cameron 24 Malcolm Stalker James McGowan ^ 25" Duncan Rankin Dennis Martin 26 Honore Genier 27 David L'Ecuyer 28 John Ross Hugh Rankin Patrick Curran 29 The Chretien family 30 James Curran Donald McKenzie 31 Donald Livingstone Antoine Quesnel, Avho sold to Edward Chapman, who opened a tavern 32 Amable Lemay, dit Delorme John Sinclair 33 John Mcintosh 34 and 35 J. Bte. Caza Antoine Bouthillier and son Michael 36 John MacDonald 37 Peter Leslie John Leslie 38 Bouthilliers 39 Benj. Norbert Dupuis 40 Registe Belanger Benj. Bercier 41 Frs. Lajeunesse J. Bte. Paride dit Aubin 52 John Black 53 Donald Rankin 54 Alex. Roy Cameron 55 Peter McNicol 56 Donald McNicol 57 John, Peter, and Angus McMillan 58 Hugh McLean Alex. Cameron 59 John Ferguson John Campbell 60 Neil Chisholm Duncan Stewart •They were the sons of an officer who sent them to Canada to make homes for themselves, and were intelligent and well- educated. They put up a sawmill driven by wind, and sold to James Tully, who came from Griffintown. He put an engine into the mill, which did not pay. fBy a slip of the pen, his name is given on page 202 as James, which was that of his brother, who succeeded him. CHAPTER XI. BEAUHARNOIS. Until the canal was opened, Beauharnois was the only village on the river-bank between Caughnawaga and St Regis. St Timothy consisted of a mill and a few houses; Valleyfield had no existence. The traffic was all on the north bank, along which there was a continuous settlement, with several villages, larger and more prosperous then than they are now. The building of the canal and the growth of Valleyfield I will treat of further on. Beauharnois as a village may be said to date from 1820, when the bishop formed that portion of the seigniory that lies between the St Lawrence and the Chateaugay into a mission, named St Clement, and a church was begun. How meagrely populated the country was is evidenced by the register, for in the wide extent of it com prised in the mission there were only in 1820 - - 142 baptisms - - 26 marriages - - 63 deaths 1821 - 148 " - 24 " - 112 " 1822 - - 142 " - - 16 " - - 57 " The cause of the large number of deaths in 1821 I have been unable to ascertain; probably it was due to smallpox, which periodically visited the parishes. The agent for the seigniory, Milne, made no effort to induce people to settle, and it does not appear that any lots were conceded in his time. Those who desired were allowed to take up lots and paid rent, but received no deeds. This was partly due to a legal doubt as to who had authority to act for the seigniory. One of the heirs, George, sailed in a ship for South America, which was never heard of, and a certain number of years had to pass before his estate could be administered.' The other reason was the desire of the 3rd son, Edward, to have the tenure of the seigniory changed to free and common soccage, so that he 212 THE OLD MILL. could give purchasers absolute possession. The Imperial government in 1822 had passed an act giving power to seigniors to so commute the tenure, and Mr Ellice tried twice, in 1823 and 1826, to take advantage of the neAV law, but was baffled by the officials at Quebec, the whole sentiment in that city being against the destruction of the seigniorial system, and who raised all manner of technical objections. The grist mill having fallen into a state of disrepair, Milne, in 1820, employed two immigrants, newly arrived from Scotland, to refit it, and those two men, Peter Macarthur and William Donaldson, became prominent in the district. They had in tended going to Ontario and it illustrates the then travelling facilities, to state that Macarthur, as the quickest mode at the season when the roads were deep Avith mud, walked from Montreal to Kingston. While resting at Cornwall, he called to his companions to look out of the tavern window and see the mail, an ox-team yoked with beech-withe traces to a cart Disappointed with the stony character of the country on the route, he returned to Montreal, AA'here his two younger brothers, Daniel and Alexander, had hired out as shearers until he came back Avith his report. His employment by Milne decided their destination, they taking up farms on the Chateaugay. The fall (1820) was an exceedingly dry one, and on Macarthur's hurrying to Milne's house to inform him the mill was in danger of catching fire from the adjoining bush, he was told it Avould be no great loss, as it wTas about worn out and was insured. The machinery of the mill Avas very primitive, the poAver being derived from a wheel set in a chamber that had been holloAved out of the rock at the rapids and driven by the force of the current. After reneAV- ing the machinerv, Macarthur built several mills for the © «• ' seignior, putting up no fewer than four in the following eight years — Ste Martine, HoAvick, St Timothy, and Norton Creek. The renewal of the Beauharnois mill was Milne's last official act. He had been detected by Richardson, Forsythe & Co. in misappropriating funds, and retired to Ste Martine, where he led a disreputable and secluded life, losing the esteem even of his poorest neighbors, and on his death there Avas buried in ARRIVAL OF THE NEW AGENT. 213 Georgetown churchyard, where he fills an unmarked grave. In June, 1821, the new agent, Lawrence George Brown, arrived. He Avas a member of a respectable Aberdeen shire family and was of good -education. When he visited Beauharnois, he found only two houses besides the manor- house and a church in course of construction, where the present stone-edifice rears its front. Arrangements were made* with Richardson, Forsythe & Co. to give, up their agency, so that the entire management was Arested in Brown. To assist him.f Robert H. Norval, who belonged to Fifeshire, arrived during the fall, and he Avas to keep the books, a set of which were opened with the year 1822. Brown's in structions Avere to develop the resources of the seigniory and render it a source of profit. The first step in the new policy was to induce immigrants to settle, and to do this the land had to be surveyed. Charles Archambault was employed to conduct the new survey. He began on the Chateaugay, running aneAv the old lines and changed the numbers of the lots. Although deeds Avere refused, immigrants Avere readily granted permission to take up lots, a privilege of which a number freely availed themselves. Despairing of getting the tenure changed, Mr Ellice, in 1826, ordered Brown to grant deeds of concession, and by the end of 1827 20,000 acres had been conceded to 228 different persons. The terms differed slightly from those of the former deeds (page 36) in that there was no sliding-scale as to rent duiing the first years. The settler paid $10 for a location-ticket, sat rent free for three years, and after that paid $10 a year rent. The inability of Mr Ellice to sell the land was against its being taken up, for the immigrants had been mainly induced to cross the ocean in the hope of becoming owners of places of their own, and recoiled from the proposal to become *• * It is probable that Mr Ellice made the transfer in person. He visited the province twice before his Avell-known visit in 1832. f Brown had need of a secretary, for he wrote so vile a hand that he could not read his own manuscript when he forgot its subject. 214 THE MODEL FARM. tenants even on easy terms and with security of tenure. If the immigrants were shy about becoming censitaires, the habitants had no hesitation, and after some experience Brown preferred to deal Avith them, and he filled whole concessions with French which Ellice desired should be peopled with his own countrymen, for he looked forward to the time when one of his sons should go and live upon the seigniory. The new policy, combined Avith the equally important in novation of steam navigation, caused Beauharnois to grow into a vdllage. The first steamboat was the Perseverance, which plied between Lachine and Cascades, calling at Beau harnois or any other way-port when required. When she started I have been unable to ascertain, but she was certainly on the route in 1820, her chief business the conveyance of military stores for the fort at tho Coteau and the passenger traffic with Ontario. With the exception of the road to Ste Martine arid another that had been cut out from the Basin to St Timothy, there Avere no roads. In 1825 there were not over a score of houses, to which there were large additions made in that year. John Ross and William Becket came from Montreal and began business, and for the next score of years the only store worth speaking of was Ross's. A commodious manor-house was built on the east bank of the St Louis where it enters the lake, and an office alongside of it. The lot attached was reserved and in 1827 Avas used as a model- farm. Brown represented that the habitants succeeded poorly because of their ignorance of farming and contended that all they needed was to be shoAvn how to do better. Operations were began on an extravagant scale and conducted in a still more wasteful manner, so that during the 14 years it was maintained it cost the seignior OA7er. $20,000. That it did some good is unquestionable, for there Avas a yearly distribu tion of young stock and seed-grain among the farmers. When Edward Ellice, the younger, visited Beauharnois in 1838 he pointed out that the farm could be of no advantage to the habitants ; that the example it set was one to be shunned rather than imitated. In February, 1828, an agri cultural society was organized, the inducement being a THE CHOLERA. 115 government grant of $200. Brown was appointed president, but the moving-spirit was the secretary, Mr Norval, Avho Avas an enthusiast in agricultural improvements, and AA'ho really carried on the work of the society for the next 20 years. Two shows were held, the first at Huntingdon, where $72 in prizes were awarded, and the second at the stone-tavem, Ste Martine, with $123 in prizes. On 12th October, 1829, a plowing-match took place on the farm of Jacques Forand, west of Ste Martine, when 7 Old Countrymen and 5 French Canadians entered. As the country became more thickly settled and the funds increased, the number of places where the shows were held were added to. About 1829 a Aveekly mail was secured, coming from Montreal by way of the Basin. Henry Bogue was postmaster. In that year St Clement ceased to be a mission and became a parish. ' So sloAvly did the village grow, that, in 1832, it had only 300 inhabitants That summer was made memorable by the manner in which the cholera scourged it A steamer touched at the wharf on its way to the Cascades, laden Avith immi grants, several of whom came ashore to buy milk. When she left, it became generally known there were cases of cholera on board. Next day the disease proclaimed itself, and for the ensuing fortnight its raA7ages were appalling. In one household, six took breakfast in apparent good health ; before 8 in the evening, four were dead. Whole families perished, and the fatality was hardly less terrible than itr; suddenness. A lady noted a neighbor pass by to his own house, and a feAV hours afterwards saw a coffin carried to its door. She asked who it Avas for. It Avas for the neighbor she saw so short a time before. The dead were buried as they died, being put into rude coffins without preparation, and committed to the graA7e within a couple of hours of drawing their last breath. Amid the horrors of that aAvful fortnight, four men did honor to human nature. John Bryson, servant to Brown, and his coachman, Robert Finnie, (father of Dr Finnie of Montreal) with two Canadians*, volun- * I have been unable to recover their names. ' 216 THE REV. WALTER ROACH. tarily devoted themselves to attending the sick and burying the dead, and Avere unwearied in their labors. Remarkable to state, all four escaped the contagion. On the twelfth day the mortality abated, and in a few days more the disease dis appeared, after carrying to the grave 73, or one-fourth of the total population — an unprecedented mortality. Aftenvards, to the mode of treatment adopted Avas ascribed much of the excessive death-rate, the physician, Dr Fleming, insisting that no liquids should be allowed. One patient, given up as lost, in her intense thirst rose, in the absence of her attendants, and finding in the kitchen a pan of water in which the dishes had been washed, drank the greasy water as the most grate ful draught she ever tasted, returned to bed and — recovered. Dr Fleming, a young man who had arrived from Glasgow a year or tAvo before, Avas smitten by the contagion as it Avas abating, and died. His body Avas prepared for the grave by the two devoted men already named. The year after this visitation a minister came, the Rev Walter Roach. He was the son of an Edinburgh bookbinder, was born in 1806, and after assisting his father in his trade, was educated by him, at a great sacrifice, for the ministry. He was licensed in 1832 and, there being no opening for him in Scotland, early in the summer of 1833 landed in Canada The residents of the village having been long eager for a minister, he visited Beauharnois and preached during Julj' and August, the seigniory-agent using his influence to form a congregation and induce him to stay. Mr Roach Avas a man of fine presence and- agreeable in manners, but of ordi nary ability; in the pulpit, loud and self-complacent. The efforts put forth were successful, and, on the 1st December, he Avas inducted as minister of Beauharnois, AA'ith a congrega tion composed of 14 heads of families, 36 adults and 39 children under 12. The folloAving spring, work-Avas begun on a church, the corner-stone of which was laid by Brown on the 23rd June, 1834. It was opened on the 15th March, 1835, and was the finest Protestant church in the province outside of Montreal. The entire cost avos borne by Mr Ellice, who retained the title of it until he disposed of the seigniory, DEATH OF MR. ROACH. 217 Avhen he transferred it to the Presbyterian church of Canada. In those days, the English-speaking element predominated in influence if not in numbers in Beauharnois, and up to about 1850 it was essentially a Scotch village. The congregation .grew until its attendance averaged 70, and it had a prosperous Sunday-school, which was started in 1835. The first collision Avith the incoming tide of French Canadians was in 1843, when the priest forbade the use of the Bible in the school. The Catholic ratepayers being in the majority, the Protestants had no redress, and AvithdreAA7. A site Avas giA-en free and subscriptions Avere collected, of which $200 came from Mon treal, to erect a school, Avhich was opened and the education imparted within its walls Avas so superior to that of the older school, that a few Catholics dared the frown of their clergy man and sent their children to it. While Beauharnois had a common-school, it had several excellent teachers, among them being James Richardson, Avho subsequently distinguished him self on the geological survey. The disruption proved a serious blow to the Beauharnois congregation, owing to so many of the families at Chateaugay Basin throwing in their lot Avith the Free Church, and Mr Roach found it useless to continue to hold service there, which he had done, on alternate Sundays, for 8 years. Thereafter he confined himself to Beauharnois and a charge he had estab lished at St Louis de Gonzague. In 1849 his career abruptly closed. In the summer of that year cholera visited Canada for the third time and again scourged Beauharnois. Mr Roach was devoted in attending upon tl»e sick. On the fore noon of the 27th August he entered the pulpit apparently in his usual health, and proceeded with the service in his cus tomary manner. While in the midst of his sermon, his face suddenly grew ashy pale, and his voice faltered. Abruptly halting, he uttered the words, "We add no more," and repeat ing the Lord's prayer dismissed the congregation. After a brief rest in the vestry-room, he recovered so far as to be able to walk to his house, leaning upon a friend's arm. He had no pain and as he rallied from his fit of Aveakness, it was thought there was no danger. In the evening, however, he 218 EARLY COURTS. became worse, the dread disease developed itself in malignant form, and in a few hours the first duly inducted minister of the district had gone to his rest. Beauharnois grew slowly, having no industry or traffic to attract population, and being simply the outlet for the sur rounding country and a convenient place of supply. In 1848 it contained only 150 houses and 750 inhabitants. About that time grain-buying began, and under its stimulus Beau harnois knew its palmiest days. In 1826 Brown Avas ap pointed a commissioner for the trial of small causes, and held frequent courts until the office was abolished. The first judge to hold a court was McCord, who Avas appointed for this and the Missisquoi district in 1842. In the chapter on Franklin further details will be given regarding- the agents of the seigniory and their management. CHAPTER XII. CHATEAUGAY. At the time when, in other parts of the district, the sound of the settler's axe was only beginning to awake the echoes, the seigniory of Chateaugay wras showing signs of decay. Every lot in it had been conceded by 1801, and along the riA7er there Avere in 1820 fields that had yielded 50 con secutive crops of Avheat, and were lapsing into barrenness. The outlet for .the greater part of the lumber made in the district, the place where the cribs Avere built into rafts, and which took on their crews to run the Lachine rapids and to make the voyage to Quebec, the Basin was a bustling place, where much money was spent, wrhere lumbermen were always to be found in greater or less number— a place Avith great stores of pork and biscuit and all manner of lumber men's supplies. To regulate the trade, the legislature passed an act in 1817, requiring all rafts coming down the St Law rence to halt at the mouth of the Chateaugay, to be measured and inspected, in order to see that their draft and strength were sufficient to meet the strain of the Lachine rapids and that they had a competent pilot and adequate crew. A small fee was to be paid for each raft, the surplus, after defraying the salary of the inspector, to go toAvards improving the channel of the rapids, which was not done. The first in spector was James Milne, and who remained in office 5 years His report for the first 3 years was — Rafts of Fees Cribs of Fees Cordwood. 25c each. Lumber. 50c each 1818 624 $156 1819 480 120 1820 468 117 All this, of course, did not come down the Chateaugay, but a fair proportion did. Milne was also collector of customs, for 910 $455 1017 508 613 306 » 220 RAFTING. American goods and produce seem to have passed to Mon treal during sleighing in considerable quantities ; mostly cattle, in all probability. In 1820 Milne reported that he had collected duties on entries to the value of $60,000. In 1823 the office Avas abolished, the new collector at Coteau, James Simpson, changing the system. William Dalton, an Irishman, who had married a Canadian and opened a tavern on the north side of the river, opposite the present steamboat landing, succeeded Milne. In 1826 Arthur McDonald was made inspector, the duties of which he delegated to Moses Dalton. The rafts frequently formed a field in front of Dalton's, with, perhaps, 200 lumbermen lounging about drink ing. Fault was generally found by Dalton with the equip ment, and as he kept oars and poles for sale, he made something beyond his fee of $2. He took the draft of the rafts and directed which channel Avas to be followed, none over a certain draft being permitted to take the southern channel. Extra hands and a pilot Avere hired ; the latter was frequently an Indian. It was rarely that a raft Avas wrecked in the rapids, but injuries to the raftsmen Avere common. The chief danger was to their feet, from the logs opening and closing Avith the force of the Avaves. During the short period in the spring when rafts could pass down the Chateaugay and its tributaries, the Basin presented a busy scene. No sooner had the ice moved, than the rafts appeared, and for a period that A'aried from a week to a month, according as the weather affected the height of the water, they continued to arrive. As many as 500 raftsmen would be gathered at the Basin at one time, and, being mainly young men, they celebrated the close of their AA'inter's work in modes that were not profitable to themselves. When the last raft had left, the Basin relapsed into its former dullness. Lumbering reached its height in 1825, after which it began to decline. In 1823 tAvo brothers, James and John Macdonald, sons of the barrackmaster at Laprairie, opened a store and ashery on the east bank, 5 miles from the Basin; and built up a busi ness that brought in a fortune to John, who became its sole OAvner. He Avas intelligent and Avell-educated, with polished THE FARMTNG OF THE HABITANTS. 221 manners, and plausible of speech, and would have represented the county in parliament had it not been for his unpopularity arising from his grasping disposition. Of the many hundreds of immigrants passing up the river each season, none at first showed any disposition to settle at the Basin, although there were plenty of habitants anxious to sell, for the fate common fifty years ago to all old French parishes had overtaken Chateaugay. Years of wretched abuse of the soil had exhausted it, and its owners were unable to wring from it eA'en a bare subsistence. How destructive of the fertility of the soil were the practices of the habitants, until they learned better from the example of the Old Countrymen, will hardly be noAv credited. The lots in the seigniory of Chateaugay had been laid out 3 arpents wide by 25 deep. The owner of a lot ran a rail-fence up the centre, dividing it so far as his clearance extended. One-half he cropped for two years, then he left it and cropped the other-half for the same period. On the half that was not plowed, he pastured his cattle, but as he did not seed it, grass and clover seed being utterly unknown to him, the unfor tunate animals got a sorry bite the first year, and needed all the range of half the clearance to maintain life, upon which the weeds were encouraged to grow to supplement the thin fringe of grass. The cultivation of the portion cropped was execrable. The plow was of the model their fathers had brought from Normandy; a clumsy wooden implement that hung between a pair of high wheels, which was drawn generally by two yoke of oxen led by a pair of ponies. So late as 1836 this style of plow was to be seen at work, with a man guiding and another driving. The report of the Beau harnois agricultural society for 1829 notes Avith satisfaction that the habitants were adopting the plow introduced by the Scotch. The land was skimmed by the rude plow described, which broke the upper-crust of it Avithout rule or method. No manure was used. An important bit of work for those habitants whose dunghills had grown inconveniently large during the winter, was to haul them on to the Chateaugay, before the ice got weak, and let them float to the St Law7- 222 DIET OF THE HABITANTS. rence. Pickles of different kinds of grain were sown along side of each other, so that in the fall, when they were ripening, the aspect was that of brilliant patchwork. The chief grain sown was wheat. When the soil had grown so exhausted that it was certain weeds Avould be more plentiful than grain, wheat continued to be sown, for the habitant held that it would be mistrusting Providence to sow anything else. Wheat was the only kind of produce he had to sell. His forefathers, when Louis was king, had exported wheat to France, and he knew if he could get a bag or two to Montreal, he would be paid its price in Mexican dollars to load the brigs that sailed to the Clyde. Wheat always brought a good price; rarely going below $1.20 the minot, and, as it did in 1828 and 1836, rising as high as $2. To farm without making wheat the leading crop was incomprehensible to the habitant of that time, and he regarded the fields of potatoes and turnips, of hay and oats, of the Scotch stranger with amused wonderment. Livestock he had none to sell. He had a hog or two for his own family-use, Avhich he killed after St Michael's day. To supply the wants of the town- population and of the lumbermen pork was imported not only from the United States and Ontario but from Great Britain, and Irish pork topped the market. The report of the Montreal agricultural society for 1821 declared it was a shame that the city should be dependent for its supply of beef on the United States: that not OA-er one out of the 20 beasts slaughtered by its butchers came from the rich farm ing-country in sight of Mount Royal. They urged reform, spoke of rotation of crops, of meadows and turnip-soAving; of improved breeds of cattle and fattening on corn ; of the money the habitants were losing. They spoke to the wind : Jean Baptiste went on attempting to raise Avheat, until, in 1827, mildew appeared, and the crop thenceforth became so subject, on old lands, to scourges of one kind or another, that he was forced to change his course and copy a leaf from his English neighbor. Raising few or no potatoes, and beef and mutton equally rare, the diet of the habitants consisted of bread (in summer-time more or less sour from leaven being WHAT THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING FARMER HAS DONE. 223 used instead of yeast and black and bitter from the presence of the moose-pea) and pork, boiled in making pea-soup. The -soup was invariably good, the housewives having retained the custom of their ancestors in keeping the pot of stock always on the simmer. This diet, of bread, soup and pork, simple and strong, Avas also healthful, as was proved by the absence of disease and the longevity of the habitants. On fast-days, when pork was forbidden, they had boiled kidney-beans and fried flour-pancakes, and a favorite dessert was sour, thick milk (called in Scotland "lappered") beaten up with an equal quantity of fresh milk and a small amount of maple sugar. Of tea they had no knowledge, and the only article of groceries they bought was molasses, of Avhich, after the opening of the trade with the West Indies subsequent to the Conquest, they came to know. Potatoes they regarded a luxury. If a bit of land was left after sowing what wheat they had, the strip was finished with a few potatoes, which were roasted in the oven, when they baked bread, and eaten with butter as a treat. The everyday clothing was all home made, but from the opening of stores, with the advent of the British, the latent taste for finery began to be developed, and the wasteful expenditure in personal and domestic habits came to be a frequent topic of the cure's discourses. Famine overtook the habitant, as can be seen by the numerous pitiful reports made by parish-priests and others between 1828 and 1840, but three circumstances prevented its becoming acute, as in Ireland, and tending to his extinc tion: 1st his wants being so simple, it was long before the soil failed to supply them; 2nd, the boundless extent of virgin land that surrounded him, and to which he moved when driven by necessity; 3rd, the advent of the Old Countrymen. Altho regarded with such jealousy, his presence resented as an in trusion, the advent of the British farmer was an unmixed blessing to the habitant. He introduced new methods of culture, broke the conservatism of ages, and practically demon strated how the exhausted lands of the province could be restored to fertility. Whoever doubts this, may compare the -state of agriculture in counties like Beauharnois, where there 224 THE SCOTCH BEGIN TO SETTLE. has been an admixture of the English element, with those counties on the lower St Lawrence Avhere those who do not speak French may be counted on the fingers. But ev7en in these counties the force of British example has been of saying efficacy. The implements they used have disappeared and better methods have been adopted. Counties in which, so late as 1845, the habitants Avere reported to be on the verge of want, are noAV thriving, and there is a slow but steady improvement and a gradual accumulation of wealth. The preservation of the habitant is due to the stranger he is too often taught, as the first article of his patriotism, to distrust and dislike. The unfortunate condition of the habitant, at the period of which I treat, had been aggravated by storekeepers and moneylenders. The rapacity of these men cannot be ex aggerated. The want of forethought, Avhich enables the habitant to be happy by his not clouding the present with care for the future, rendered him an easy prey to the ex tortioner. When pinched for food, he would, for example, sell his oxen to the storekeeper, and then pay him rent for their use, or borrow a few dollars on his bon, at what seemed to be a trifle, for a month, not perceiving that he would be unable to pay then, and that the yearly interest ranged from 50 to 100 per cent. In every parish there were a few men grown rich by such methods, and who held the habitants by the score at their mercy. When the inevitable came, when the habitant could no longer get credit, his farm passed into the hands of the usurer and its occupant drifted to the city or into a new settlement. It was at the juncture when the Basin Avas thus being abandoned, that the English appeared. In the deserted farms, in the fields overgrown by Aveeds and brush, the Scotch immi grants perceived the possibility of, makmg comfortable homes with less labor than by going into the bush. The lots were offered cheap, and before many years there were a number in their hands, and being transformed by ditching, fencing, proper cultivation, and rotation of crops into a state of pro ductiveness. The habitant Avatched them with astonishment, THE INDIAN CORN YEAR. 225 and, it came to be a proverb with them, that an Anglais would get rich on a farm where a French-Canadian would starve.* The Scotch farmers were as so many unpaid instructors in their midst, and although they were slow to abandon the methods of their fathers ajid prejudiced against adopting in novations, example had its effect in the course of, years; the old implements disappeared, better buildings were erected, grass-seed, beans and barley were introduced, potatoes grown as a regular crop, and stock fairly cared for, with the result of changing the condition of the habitants of the Basin from one of hopeless poverty to comparative comfort and indepen dence. Among the first to come in were Robert Finlay, John Dale, George Burrell, who opened a tavern, and Charles Dewitt, who were quickly followed by James Holmes, Daniel Craig, Robert Ellipt, James Clark, Joshua Walton, George McFadden, John Aitken, George Niven, William Watt, Robert Lang, Thomas Taylor, Thomas Duncan, John Cooper, Matt. McLean, and many others. The movement began about 1827, and continued until 1840, when, notwithstanding a number had left, there were over a score of families established along the banks of the Chateaugay for 5 miles above its mouth. The year in which the Scotch farmers began to settle, 1827, was known among the habitants as "the Indian corn year." Wheat being a. total .failure, .starvation stared them in the face, and to get food they loaded their traineaux with cord wood, and drew it on the ice to Montreal.. As they could only take a third of a cord on their pne-hprse rigs, they rarely got over a dollar a load, Avhich bought 3 bushels of salt. Returning home, and completing a journey of 30 miles, •Patrick Shirreff, the famous East Lothian farmer, who visited the parishes along the south side of the St Lawrence in 1833, in his book of travels, remarks : "In many instances, soil of the best quality did not yield more than two* seeds of wheat, while the crops were intermingled with truly luxuriant indigenous tares, thistles, and sweet-clover. I had often heard of the French Canadians clinging to their farms until starved from them — that is, until the soil did not yield them food to subsist on, and I had here evidence of the process and result of such an agricultural system." ia » 226 THE HORSE-BOAT they next morning started up the Chateaugay for the lines, where they traded the salt for corn, at the rate of 2 bushels for one of salt. On getting back to the Basin, they got the corn ground and managed to bake bread by sifting the meal and mixing the finer with the coarser after boiling it. Salt was then in great demand in Franklin county, for, from its isolated situation as regards NeAV York, it was scarce and dear. Until the railway was built, it paid well to haul salt to Malone and adjacent villages, and Macdonald made much of his money by sending there trains of teams in winter with salt, and smuggling back tea, whisky, and tobacco. The Basin in those days Avas a place of considerable traffic, for until the Beauharnois canal was opened, the Chateaugay was the main outlet of the district ; the highway, both sum mer and winter, for immigrants and their supplies and the export of potash and lumber. When the stream of immigra tion fairly set in, a regular ferry between Lachine and the Basin became a crying necessity. The steamer that plied to the Cascades would occasionally, when a large load offered, as a favor take the channel inside Nuns' island, but she was no more to be relied upon than getting a bateau to hire when wanted. The loss and inconvenience immigrants sustained in getting across the river was very great. Gregory Dunning, an American who lived at the Basin, was the first to supply the want, and he endeavored, so far as wind and waves would permit, to make a trip each day, and in this he was aided by the Cascades steamer, which would give him a tow up the lake, casting his boat loose opposite the island. This was a great convenience, and he ferried over many hundreds of im migrants every summer, and, on the return trips, transported much potash. A sailboat, however, soon ceased to meet the . requirements of the public, and on a boat propelled by horses proving ajfailure on the La Tortue ferry, from insufficiency of custom, it was proposed to her owners to move her up to the Lachine and Basin route, and, as an inducement, a number of the storekeepers along the Chateaugay took shares, which were placed at $20 each. The boat Avas placed on the route about 1828, and her captain and chief owner was Silas Dick- THE FIRST STEAMER. 22T enson, an American. She Avas propelled by 6 horses, which transmitted the poAver by their feet, they thrusting the treads on which they stood away from them. Peter Sinclair (after wards a settler on the Ormstown concession) stood in the centre with a whip and kept them going, earning the Avhim- sical title of "engineer of the horse-boat." It was found that the route was too long for the same team to come and go, so it Avas arranged that the landing-place should be lh miles above Lachine. She could take a large load, the habitants driving on to her with their carts, and paying 50 cents. The charge for passengers Avas 20c, and for them the accommoda tion was not good. A railing protected passersby from the horses, but one afternoon a pensioner, returning from Mon treal, where he had been drawing his allowance, fell upon the moving track and was trampled to death. Both he and his companion were drunk. Qhe was of great convenience and made the Basin the outlet for a large extent of country. Her wharf was close to the present steamboat-landing, and was built by a Canadian, Pierre Reid, the horses being stabled at Dalton's. On John Smith's, an American and relative of Gregory Dunning's^ beside whom he lived, building a wharf opposite his tavern, the boat ran up to it, which was about a mile farther, and he stabled the horses. This annoyed the residents near the old landing, who did not like the boat's passing them, and 6 of them clubbed together to purchase a. rival in the shape of a steamboat. When steamboats were first introduced on the St Lawrence, it Avas the popular belief that one, sufficiently powerful, could not be built to stem the current above Montreal, and when an enterprising American Avas building one as a ferry to Laprairie his project was laughed at. One summer day in 1819 he demonstrated, in the presence of a great assemblage, that it could be done. His A-essel, the Montreal, w7as small, and had a high-pressure engine, so weak that it took her from 2 to 3 hours to make her up-trip. This boat, superseded by a larger and much more powerful vessel, was for sale, and the malcontents got her for $1500. She proved a failure. Unless under full way, she was hard to steer, and her boiler being weak she lacked 228 TRADE LEAVES THE BASIN. ih power, and was constantly running aground. This gave her a bad name, while, at the same time, the horse-boat service Avas improved. By doubling the number of horses, and having a fresh team for each trip, she was able to run to Lachine and to pay less regard to the wind when it blew fresh. Both, however, were running without profit, and Dickenson offered to either buy or sell, when the Montreal fell to him. While she ran, she used a wharf erected by Michael Connolly alongside of Reid's, and Avho had left his farm in Ormstown to begin tavern-keeping at the Basin, and did not succeed. His property, after passing through seA-eral hands, was bought by John Jack, a Greenock blacksmith, and a man of genuine worth. The house he kept in connection Avith his smithy, was a true place of rest for the weary tiaveller, and Avas in such high repute, that many made it a point, even at a sacrifice, to push on and spend the night there. Perceiving that the horse-boat could not cope with steam and renewed competition being threatened, Dickenson was anxious to change, and on his relative, Horace Dickenson, of the Transportation company, replacing his boat on lake St Francis by a larger, he bought the discarded boat, named the St Francis. AH went well for a time until Dickenson's death, when the company was dissolved and the steamer was bought by Jacob Dewitt, Avhen competition was reneAved. Passen gers were carried at nominal prices and one boat endeavored to attract patrons by engaging a piper. The Dewitts pre vailed eventually, after losses for which the subsequent profits did not recoup them, and they ran the Chateaugay, with John McEachern as captain, for a long period, extending their operations by placing the Fashion, an elegant Aressel, on the route to Beauharnois. The traffic had grown to such an ex tent, that, up to the opening of the Beauharnois canal, the Chateaugay made two trips a day to Lachine, and generally with a barge lashed on either side of her. The fate .of Dundee and Laguerre eventually overtook the trade of the Basin, which left it for new channels. When the district began to be settled, Laprairie Avas its outport, and thither, through the woods from the southwards or along the CHARLES FOREST. 229 river-road that passed by Caughnawaga, wended strings of carts and traineaux according to the season Laprairie Avas deserted for Chateaugay, which, in turn, was left for Caugh- nawraga and Beauharnois, until the time came when the St Lawrence route was superseded by the railway. While it was the highway to Montreal, tavern-keeping flourished at the Basin, and no fewer than 16 came into existence. Of their owners, the statement that can be made of all those in other parts of the district stands true, the money they got by liquor-selling did no good to them or to their families. When a bridge was placed across the Chateaugay I have been unable to fix definitely, but it is doubtful if there was anything better than a temporary one before 1830. The ice in 1843 carried it away, when the government gave a grant to replace it by a more substantial structure. The old grist mill (page 7) was now obsolete, with its two run of stones, and its bolts upstairs, to which the habitant had to carry them, and pay a penny (2c) a bag for the privilege of passing his grist through them. It was rebuilt about 1833, and the dam was raised. From the heightening of this dam, dates the ceasing of the Chateaugay as a fishing-stream. It was too high to jump for the multitudes of fish which had there tofore resorted to the upper Avaters to spawrn. The nuns at the same time built a saAvmill. The existing gristmill was built in 1856. The old mill was used for some time as an axe-factory and is now a ruin. The spiritual needs of the settlement attracted attention, and in 1831 one of several catechists and lay-readers, Charles Forest, sent out by a Church of England missionary associa tion, took up his abode at the Basin. He taught school, but his field otherwise Avas limited, the families, with a feAV exceptions, being Presbyterians. He visited the country farther up the river, and was gratified to find a number of families belonging to the denomination in whose interests he had come, and arranged for a fortnightly service in Orms town. Archdeacon (afterwards Bishop) Mountain visited him in February, 1832, and was told by Mr Forest there were 45 unbaptised children in Ormstown. The Archdeacon could 230 A CHURCH IS BUILT. not go there, so, after baptizing 3 children, he left,, arranging with Dr Bethune, in passing Montreal, that he should pay Ormstown a pastoral A'isit. In that year the Rev Alex. Gale, Presbyterian minister at Lachine, began to visit the settle ment. Services w7ere conducted in the house of James Lang, a man of sterling character and of singleness of purpose, who came from Scotland in 1831. In the summer of the following year the Rev Walter Roach (see page 216) visited the settle ment with a view to a call. A congregation was formed, and he was inducted in Mr Lang's house on the 1st December, 1833, when 14 heads of families gave in their names, repre senting 36 adults and 39 children. * Mr Lang and his father, who was living with him, had been elders of the West Kirk of their native place, Greenock, and they were chosen for the same office in the newly-organized congregation, and to the duties of elder the son added those of precentor, and until he reached his three-score and ten led the psalmody of the little body of worshippers. Mr Roach worked assiduously to estab lish the congregation with Avhich he had been entrusted. There being pressing need for a place of meeting and a graA7e- yard, in February, 1836, a lot was bought above the bridge. Mrs Jack's mother died while the transaction was pending, and her body was kept 10 days until the deed was passed, when the first grave was opened to receive it. Before that the Protestants had buried on the DeAvitt farm. Prepara tions for building were begun that summer, but the w7ork went on slowly from want of means. Besides the work they did, the people contributed $600, and Mr Roach collected a like sum by visiting Quebec and Montreal, and a brick church, 40x36 feet, was raised and opened for use in 1840. Means were lacking to seat the church, and benches w7ere formed with boxes and planks, which sometimes gave way. Whether to lessen the chances of such catastrophes, or from the volunteers sitting together, the custom sprang up of the women occupying one side and the men the other, Avhich .survived until its demolition in 1881. Eventually Mrs Mac- donald and Mrs Caldwell were instrumental in getting seats, which, rude as they Avere, added to the comfort of the people. REV. J. BOWLES DROAVNED. 231 The settlement at the Basin differed from all the others in the district, in that the English-speaking farmers who joined it bought their lots ready for the plow, so that they experi enced none of the privations or vicissitudes attendant on re deeming land from the bush, and of which it is the purpose of these pages to preserve some record. In course of time the disadvantages of being planted in the midst 'qf a population who had little in common with them became manifest, and it began to dwindle, when the French reassumed the lots they had sold, and the English population came to be represented by a few families clustered between the bridge and the mouth of the river. Before leaving this settlement, a painful inci dent in its history has to be noted. The minister of the Con gregational church established at Russeltown Flats, anxious to extend .his connection, in 1840 established a preaching- station at English river, and gradually Avorking down, as he became acquainted, held occasional services at the Basin. The connection thus formed seemed to be so encouraging, that it was severed from the Flats congregation, and in 1843 Cha teaugay Basin and English river were constituted into a separate charge, Avith the Rev J. Bowles as minister. One Sunday evening in January, 1848, while driving home after preaching, he came down upon the ice. When near the bridge, the horse broke through, and dragged the cutter with its occupants, Mr Bowles and a lady, into the water. He was swept under the ice and lost. Buoyed up by her clothing, the lady was drifted by the current against firm ice, and, shouting for help, was rescued. CHAPTER XIII. STE. MARTINE AND THE COUNTRY SOUTH OF IT. Passing up the Chateaugay, habitants clustered as thickly on its banks, as far as the junction with the English river, in 1820 as they do to-day. The road on the west bank was the one used for reaching the upper settlements, owing to its having feAver hills and from the absence of bridges. Ste Martine from its situation, at the end of the Beauce road and a convenient stage-length from the Basin, naturally became a village. At first, it looked as if the village would be on the west bank, that .it would spring up around the stone-taA7ern, but the erecting of the church and mill on the opposite side caused a change. The first house in the upper- village, and which stood not far from Bean-river, was that of Frs. Vallo, who built it before 1812. In 1820 the bishop divided the seigniory into two missions, the portion north of the Cha teaugay constituting one, and that south of it the other. The first he named St Clement, the other Ste Martine. The names were chosen arbitrarily, and had no local significance, as some pretend. In 1823 a small chapel was built, the site of which was next to the existing edifice. The same year the seignior built a grist-mill, the work being entrusted to Peter and Daniel Macarthur. No dam was needed, a log being bolted to the rock to direct the water to the Avheel, which wras very high, some 16 feet, and narrow, on the under shot principle. Macarthur continued to build all his wheels thus until he saw the American plan of making them low and broad enough to take in the whole current of a narrow stream. The building still exists and is utilized as a carding- mill. The stones, two in number, were brought out from Scotland, and there were no bolts, the fariners getting back the stuff entire. It did an immense business for its capacity M. A. PRIMEAU. 233 » -i . . and paid the seignior its cost several times over. The first miller was Granbois. The village received a great impetus from the exertions of a man remarkable in his sphere, Marc Antony Primeau, who opebed a store, started an ashery, and carried on lurhbering on a great scale. Centring his operations in the lower village, which he called Primeauville, he successively built a sawmill, tannery, carding-mill, and a brewery and distillery, which were managed by a Scotchman of the name of David Michie. The whiskey made Avas colored to resemble brandy, which greatly assisted its sale. When at the height of his prosperity, plank-roads had a great reputation, there being a craze about them which it is hard now to understand. Mr Primeau conceived the possibility of lifting Ste Martine out of the mud by the building of such a road. His first proposi tion was to plank the road to Beauharnois, which failed from the people of that town refusing to help. He thereupon re solved upon striking across the country, and opening a road to Ste Philomene, and thence to reach Caughnawaga, which had assumed importance from the proposal to build a railroad from there to the States. Primeau carried out his project, and the road was opened for traffic about 1849. ;Tt was of im mense benefit to the district, by opening a more direct route to Montreal than that by Chateaugay Basin, which it entirely superseded, but was a dead loss to all who put money into it, the habitants using a hundred subterfuges to escape paying toll, while the perishable nature of the plank soon made it no better than a clay road. An able and successful business man, Primeau was unscrupulous and harsh towards those who fell under his power. The business he built up disap peared at his death, and the name Primeauville Avas forgotten, and the place came to be known as the lower village. Be sides Primeau, Trottier has to be mentioned as a prominent storekeeper, arid Dominick McGowan, an Irishman, who established himself in the upper village in 1833. The old name of the rapids at Ste Martine — rapides pSche aux saumons — indicates how plentiful the king of fishes once was in a river where he has been unknown for sixty years. On 234 THE BEAN RIVER. the rapids above, known by the English as Reed's or Camp bell's and by the French as "Par-rouge," an American, James Perry, had a small saw-mill previous to 1820. Of the priests who ministered in the parish, the name of Father Power deserves to be preserved. He succeeded Father Chartier, who went to the Grande Brule and bore a prominent part in leading the rebels in 1837. Father Power was of Irish descent and had been educated by Father Mac donell of Glengarry and first Bishop of Kingston. He spoke French fluently, but was ahvays glad to fall in with those who spoke English, and cultivated the acquaintance of the Scotch settlers on the Bean river and elseAvhere in his neigh borhood, impressing all as a man who sought to do what was right, and considerate, in speech and act, of those who differed from him in creed. One instance will suffice to illustrate the upright character of this noble Irishman. In the spring of 1835 Avheat was scarce. Two Americans, calculating upon a rise in price, waited upon Father Power and offered him $2 a bushel for the tithe-Avheat he had on hand, which was above the current price. He refused, and kept it to sell to the habitants on reasonable terms for seed. He came about 1833 and left at the, close of the rebellion for Ontario, where he rose to be bishop of Toronto, and died through his devotion to his people during the visitation of cholera in 1849. West of Ste Martine the habitants gradually extended, and began to creep up the Bean-river, where they were followed by the Scotch. Archibald Cameron, now of Tullochgorum, says: My father (Donald) was a native of Strontian, Argyleshire, and a blacksmith by trade. We sailed for Canada in 1832, but arrived in Montreal too late in the season to permit of our going to the part of the upper Ottawa we had in view7. While waiting in the spring for the opening of navigation, my father paid a visit to the Rev Mr Colquhoun at George town, and who had come out in the same ship with us. He was urged to settle in Chateaugay, and, after examining the country, he bought lot 14, east concession of Bean river, which was held by a Canadian, who had a clearance of several acres on the river- bank. There were about 20 French families on the river, none of whom had been settled THE SCOTCH SETTLEMENT. 235 OA7er 12 years. There were two English-speaking families, Hugh Henderson, a shoemaker, on lot 13, and Robert Pringle on lot 21, on the south- Avest' concession. They had come the year before. The road from the Chateaugay had been opened on our side of the Bean river as far as lot 26, and on the other side from lot 3 to lot 22. Both roads were passable for carts. There was a bush-track to the Norton Creek, another on lot 21 leading to the Williamstown concessions, and a like track on lot 26. The country to the east of us was covered by bush without a break. The settlement grew rapidly during the 3 years after we arrived, and of the families that came the folloAving remained : that of John Lowry lot 3, north-east concession; David BroAvn lot 15, John McLennan 41, and John McRae 44. On the south-east side of the river, James Ritchie lot 3, who made beer on a small scale up to the year of the rebellion ; James Cameron lot 2, Peter Henderson 9, and John Taylor and Edward Harsted on 22. My father set up a forge and got all the work he could do, while the other Settlers did fairly well. A great quantity of potash was made, and neighboring settlers sold their ashes to those who dwelt on the Bean river, from their facilities for leaching. The river was not the shallow, stagnant creek it now is, but had water enough to float large timber down, and I remember one white pine log that was 4 feet across at the butt. A good deal of charcoal AA'as made, and draAvn to Montreal. The school Ave went to Avas that on the Irish concession, Avhose settlers were. honorably distinguished by maintaining a good one from their first coming, and which we reached by a path, through the Avoods. The prospect for several years was that the Bean river would be an Old Country settlement. After the rebellion, however, the French came crowding in from St Isidore, Laprairie, and Longueuil, until they occupied all the vacant lots. After that the Scotch began to sell out, so that now (1886)' only two families remain. The St Urbain con cession was an unbroken bush when we came, but in 1835 there were two houses, which stood where the church now is, and beyond them there Avas not another for a mile and a half. So wide a belt of bush separated us from the Scotch settlement (page 49) that there Avas no intercourse, but my father was told of it, and that they had Gaelic service on Sabbath, and he made up his mind he would try and reach them. So one fine Sabbath in June he followed the track that led southwards and, in due time, got through the bush and struck what is now known as the St Urbain road. After he had gone along it for about 2 miles, he began to see groups 236 THE BEECHRIDGE of people, in twos and threes, ahead of him, and all going the same Avay. He followed slowly until the schoolhouse was reached, and into which the people passed. When my father entered the services had begun, and he was much struck by the appearance of Norman McLeod (page 50) who conducted them. He was short in stature, and thin, with dark piercing eyes, and long flowing grey hair. His text was I. Kings xix: 5 and 6-, and my father considered it as good a sermon as he ever heard. When the benediction was pronounced, an old man stepped up to him and taking him by the hand asked in Gaelic, "You are a stranger here ?" and my father answered that he Avas, in the same language. The old man, on finding my father was a Highlander, took him by the arm and intro duced him to the preacher and all the people, and insisted on his going home with him for dinner. The friendship begun that day between Finlay McCuaig and us was of long con tinuance. In the spring of 1835 I was sent to stay with him and attend Mr McLeod's school, for he still taught, though over 80 years of age. I liked him well. He was very kind to the scholars if good and just as severe Avith them if they did not do Avhat was right. If ever there were two good men, it was he and Finlay McCuaig. McLeod was. a relative of Dr McLeod of the Barony, Glasgow, and was an excellent English as well as Gaelic scholar and, when it became necessary, preached in both languages. He died, I think, the following spring. The schoolhouse was on lot 27, a mile east of Blackburn's corners, which Avere so called from the name of the man who kept tavern there. The 1st, 2nd, ,and 3rd concessions were fairly settled, and the people were comfortable and contented. The 4th and 5th were surveyed by Livingstone and thrown open for settlement in 1830 and rapidly taken up, and, unlike the Scotch settlement, the popu lation was varied. The land looked well, being covered by a fine growth of hardwood, the name Beechridge being given to it from the number of large beech trees, and the new comers did well by making potash and drawing cordAvood to the city, but after the ridges Avere cleared there w7as little inducement to remain and farm the stony land. On the death of McLeod the people sought a successor and the Rev Thomas McPherson, avIio had lately arrived from Scotland and was a brother-in-law of Dr Muir, was called and inducted in Dec, 1836, when a church was built on a site given by Pearson Nichols on lot 17, the contract being taken by one Robertson, an Englishman. Afterwards, on proving NORTON CREEK AND McGILL'S CORNERS. 237 to be too small, 15 feet were added to it. Mr McPherson, after remaining 6 years, moved to Lancaster. Of great benefit to the settlers throughout Williamstown was the opening of a store and ashery at Norton preek by Nichols & Cantwell, about the year 1826. They were both Americans by birth, though Thomas Cantwell was almost an Old Countryman, his parents, having been Irish Protestants. While a clerk with Jacob Dewitt of Montreal he became intimate with Pearson Nichols, who was a remarkably shrewd, active man, and who had become acquainted with the district of Beauharnois from his operations in smuggling goods from the States into Montreal. Their first store was a log building which stood near the mill, and here they sold an immense quantity of goods to the settlers, taking payment in ashes. So profitable did their business prove, that branch stores were opened at the Flats, Franklin, and Hinchinbrook. Nichols continued his smuggling to the last, his death -in 1834 being caused by the exposure it entailed. Mr Cantwell carried on the business until 18fi3, when he retired with no inconsiderable fortune. The gristmill was built by the seignior in 1829 and was occupied by Robert Wheatly, an Englishman, who did not succeed very well owing to there being little grain to grind. When the mill was built the country was so near its primeval condition that the Macarthurs, on leaving. their work on Saturday afternoon to spend Sunday with their families, lost their way in making for the Chateau gay, and another time were in danger from wolves. From its situation, the seigniory-agent thought a village would spring up around the mill, and named the place Brownville, after^himself. The expectation was not realized. Along the creek there was some land tit for cultivation, but most of it was wet add to the southwards stretched great swamps, so that the attraction to settle was slight When the lots began to be taken up, it was found necessary to pull down the mill- dams in order to drain them, so that the prospects of the vil lage (now called Norton Creek) growing were blasted Thos. Oebbie opened the first store at McGill's corners, and on his leaving for Howick, was succeeded by James Walker, who 238 DECAY OF THE SETTLEMENTS. sold to John McGill, and who did a large business. With his brother Hugh he did much in clearing the land. John had for neighbor a half-pay officer, Peter Meagher, an Irish Catholic and the only justice of the peace for a long Avhile. His nearest neighbor was William Blair, wdio was a mile below him, and beyond his place Nichols had a saAvmill. William Wiley and John Moore were first on the north Norton Creek concession; the south concession was taken up, almost exclusively, by Irish Catholics, none of whom came early. Where the concessions ended on the creek were three brothers, John, Martin, and OAven Dunn, remarkable for size and strength. Stacy was blacksmith at McGill's, and beside him was Newlove, a gunsmith. At Hope's corners, named after George Hope, now known as Holton, a school Avas opened about 1830, and in it one of the first Sunday-schools in the district was held. . After 1840 the French began to move into the unoccupied lands of Williamstowm, and before other ten years the people of the Beechridge and Scotch settlement saw themselves com pletely surrounded by them, and placed at the disadvantage of being cut off from their fellow-countrymen in RusseltoAvn and on the English river. One after another left for Ofltario or the English-speaking settlements in St Malachie. About 1850 there was a large movement to the London district in Ontario. The fewer they became, the greater the motive for leaving, for apart from the w7ant of suitable society, they found it difficult to keep up school or church. In the Scotch settlement, of which every lot Avas at one time occupied by Old Country families, only six are now so held, and thus the oldest settlement in Chateaugay founded by immigrants from Britain, and for 30 years the most promising, may be said to have become extinct. The church that was once crowded to the door is now7 attended by a handful. CHAPTER XIV. FROM REEVES S TO ORMSTOWN. The first indications of the stream of immigrants that Avas about to set in, and which was to result in redeeming the upper Chateaugay from the wilderness, were to be observed in 1820, when several arrived, among them being William Carruthers, a Glasgow blacksmith, w7ho set up his forge beside Reeves's house, William Donaldson, Peter. Macarthur and his brothers, who obtained lots by purchasing the better ments of American squatters. Peter Macarthur paid $1200 for his 100 acres, which was considered an excessive price, despite the extensive improvements that had been made. In 1821 Alexander Graham, afterwards known as Squire Graham^ got lot 30. He was from Can tyre, Scotland, and possessing some education and being of a peace-loving disposition, he made a very good magistrate. His common course on a case coming before him, Avas to speak privately to the parties and advise them to settle, adding significantly, "If you don't, it will be the worse for you." About the same time William Gardner, who came from Glasgow, secured lot 14. With 1821 ended the dormancy of the settlement, which, with the addi tions noted, had barely maintained its population and was dragging out an isolated and obscure existence ; the few dwellers clustered, with one or two exceptions, on the north bank, living as one family and with no ambition beyond pro viding for their daily wants. Mr Ellice had resolved to fill up the seigniory, and ordered the making of surveys, the building of mills, and the advertising of its advantages for settlers. The stream of immigrants which his agents suc- ceeeded in directing up the Chateaugay set in strongly and aroused the section into new life and activity. The narrative of one of those who came in that year will present a correct representation of the Chateaugay settlement when 240 WILLIAM GRANT. he joined it, and of the drawbacks the newcomers had to overcome. Said William Grant : I thought of going, on my arrival from Scotland at Mon treal, to Perth, Ont, but my uncle, who had come out before me and was living in the city, said, "No; they are opening up the seigniory of Beauharnois for settlement and that is nearer Montreal." He went up with me, in June, 1821, to Beau harnois to see the agent, Brown,, and we took passage from Lachine on the Perseverance, a. small steamer that had begun to ply between that place, and the Cascades. Brown in formed, us what surveys were in progress and where the lots were that we could get and the terms. Hiring a cart we drove to the Basin, arid stayed at Dalton's overnight. At breakfast I remember there was a young Scotchman, newly out, who remarked that this "maun be an awfu country, for the, beasts the fouk kept were maist bulls, and had kept rowtin a' nicht." Dalton laughed heartily at the mistake, which Was not so inexcusable for the bullfrogs filled the country then by millions. The settlers on the Chateaugay said the frogs repeated the rhyme : * William Ogilvie ! William Ogilvie ! Ralston 1 Ralston ! Williamson ! Williamson ! Wright ! Wright !* We, had pigeons, cooked in a variety of ways, at each meal, for the country was black with them. We walked from Dal ton's up the north bank of the Chateaugay, along which ran a tolerable road as far as Alex. Reeves', (lot 26, North George town). I chose lot 32, on account of the rapid, for I had been used to the sound of running water in Scotland. I then returned to Montreal and came back the following year with the necessary stores for settling. With the help of my neigh bors I put up a log house, 20 x 18 feet, and I walked up to John Todd's, Dewittville, which was the nearest sawmill. I found him living in a small house with little comfort, but doing a good business. In the one room of his shanty, 18 of us slept that night. I bought what boards I wanted, for which I paid $8 the hundred pieces, equal to about 1000 feet. Owing to so many settlers coming in, he had put up * The names of early settlers, already referred to. In dif ferent places, fancy interprets varied sentences in the croak ing of the bullfrogs. In Ontario the words "More rum; more rum !" are generally attributed to these water-drinkers. PERILS OF THE RIVER. 241 the price, which afterwards fell to $6. I made my purchase into 2 squares to raft down the river, and in prying one over the shallows on McNown's rapids, I slipped and fell, when the other square moved over me, so that I could not rise. After a while I got an arm out and reached my pole, when I pried up the lumber and crawled out. There was nobody with me nor near at hand, so that, had I not succeeded, I would have perished there. In running along through the long grass at Rapid Croche (just behind where Prejent's hotel now stands) a black snake sprang up and, in a twinkling, wound itself round one of my naked legs. In the impulse of the moment, I seized the reptile's head and jerked it away. All the way up to where Ormstown now stands, there were bits of cleared land here and there — the Meadows — the hay on which the settlers were allowed to cut by giving half to the seignior, for whom the Brysons acted and kept his stock. David Bryson was living in the old blockhouse at Allan's corners that had been put up in 1813, and above him lived William Bryson. Alex. Mcintosh had come out that spring and was on lot 43. They were the only families between me and Ormstown, where old Jones lived. After a stretch of solid bush, small deserted clearings began again, which had been made by the Ameri cans before the war. That same fall, Paddy O'Mullin, John Buckley, and Robert Leishman came out. The two first- named were Irish Catholics. O'Mullin was a blacksmith, and as the only one for many miles did well, and had soon a larger stock than any other settler. He lived on No 1, Orms town, and Buckley on No 2, who only stayed a year. I went up with him, John McConachie (who had taken up lot 34 after I came) and Squire Graham, to help Leishman to put up a shanty on his lot, No 25, Ormstown. In returning after our day's work, in the dusk of the evening, the canoe bumped against a stone in Rapid Croche, and we were all thrown out except Buckley, who was steering. We managed to scramble back into the canoe, Avhich, from having been split by the collision, soon sunk, and we were left floundering in the water. We could touch bottom, and got safely ashore. There being no house near, we walked to a barn on No 16, used for keeping hay cut on the meadows by William Bryson, and got in among it. I took off my hoots, and next morning they would not go on, so I had to walk barefoot over the ground white with frost to John Williamson's, where we got break fast. That winter I spent in clearing the land, cutting the trees into cordwood, which I piled on to a raft I formed of cedar. We had a cold winter with a great deal of snow, and 17 242 OPENING OE ROADS. the break-up did not take place until April, which came in very warm with rain. The result was a great and sudden freshet, and my raft was swept away by the ice and lost. It was a great blow7 to me. There were about 3000 cords of wood lost in like manner on the Chateaugay that spring. We made a good deal of money that Avay. On reaching the Basin with our rafts, we took on 9 Indians, 4 with oars on. either side, who got a dollar apiece, and a pilot, who charged $2. The channel of the Lachine rapids we ran is the same as that now used by the steamboats, and there was no danger except at the foot, where the big waves washed ov7er the raft. We had splendid crops for many years, and could hardly sow too little seed. A peck of wheat or a" bushel of oats to the^ acre was enough, and finer grain could not be wished for. The first grain I sowed was oats. They were put in on the 26th June, but the fall being late they ripened, and I had a splendid crop. Being a new crop on the river, the other settlers took them and gave me wheat in exchange, 1 bushel for 2 of oats, so I had enough for bread, and never wanted. The potatoes were equally good in yield and quality, and we fed so many to the pigs that the big pot was seldom off the fire. Pork sold cheap, $3 to $3.50 a hundredweight, but we had lots of it to sell. We made little potash, the timber not being very suitable, and paying us much better to sell as cordwood. Our chief need for money was to buy clothing, which was dear in those days, and many went to work a while in the quarries at Caughnawaga, Avhere they were getting out stone to build the first Lachine canal. The year I settled the road was passable for carts as far as Morrison's; from there up the bridges were down and many obstructions, in the shape of trees felled so as to block the roads, done partly, I understood, during the war, and made worse by Milne to keep the Americans from returning to their lots. I helped to take away many of the logs. I cannot give the year, but it was soon after I settled, that Brown and the Grand Voyer came along. Brown asked me wdvy I did not make the road across my lot. I answered I did not know where the line was left for one, for I had been told the present road Avas in the wrong place. "That is a mistake," replied the Grand Voyer, " the road is on the true line and is proces-verbaled." After that the settlers worked away to make the road more passable, but it Avas not until about 1829 that good bridges were built by the seignior, aided by a grant from government. The same year that Grant settled on the Chateaugay, also ROBERT BRODIE. 243 came what proved to be its leading spirit, Robert Brodie. He had A7isited Canada in 1815 and worked a while on the farm of Sheriff Boston, returning to Scotland. His old home in Ayrshire did not content him, and in the spring of 1822 he sailed from the Clyde on the True Briton, which chanced to have among her passengers those who were destined to be first settlers on the English river. Brodie's intention was to have gone to Ontario, but a visit to the Chateaugay pre possessed him in its favor and he bought from the American who held lot 20, North Georgetown. A man of means and capacity, and who AA7as soon comfortably established, few im migrants passed his door Avithout receiving help and disinter ested advice. On the state of the settlement when he came, after 20 years' desultory labor, the folloAving incident throws light. The lot to the west of him, Ralston's, had still a strip of bush running to the river. In crossing this one day, Sandy Campbell saw two cubs on a tree. He climbed up to it to catch them, when the bear appeared and began scrambling after him to protect her young. Swinging outwards, Camp bell dropped to the ground, and ran for Brodie's. The animal, too content to rejoin her cubs, did not pursue him. A settle ment where bears made their dens could not be far advanced. Primitive as it was, it now received its first minister. To Hugh Brodie of Petite Cote there came late in the fall of 1822 a minister newly arrived from Scotland, the Rev Alex. McWattie. Unable to do anything for him in Montreal owing to his want of credentials, he sent him to his brother- in-law, Robert Brodie, bearing a letter of introduction, in which he stated that it would be easier to corn than water him, which implied the sad cause of McWattie's coming to Canada. Of his antecedents little can be said, for, naturally, he was reticent as to his past life. It is supposed he was a native of Fifeshire, and he studied at Glasgow university, probably closing his collegiate career in 1805. Of what church he became a licentiate is uncertain — probably Burgher or Relief, and he received a charge in Dumbartonshire. What ever the denomination, it had to suspend him for his intem perate habits, and he had to seek a home abroad. He was '244 THE FIRST GEORGETOWN CHURCH. ^accompanied by his wife, a lady-like person who had evi dently seen better days, and who wore a heartbroken ex pression. She was a native of Newcastle. The settlers were too well satisfied to get a minister to enquire into his ante cedents, and Peter Macarthur gave an old shanty for a home and the neighbors stocked it with provisions. At the be ginning of 1823 McWattie and his wife (they had no family) -with all their effects, Avere driven on the ice from Montreal, and took up their abode in the humble hut prepared for them. On the 26th January, 1823, he signalized his entry into his ministerial duties by baptizing seven children. For a long while afterward, he was in frequent request for the same duty, for there were families with men and women grown who had not observed the first gospel ordinance. He was a good preacher and so many attended to hear him, that it became necessaiy to have a larger place of assembly than the settlers' houses, and the proposal of building a church was at once entertained. It was agreed to put up a church .at Howick and another at Allan's corners, when the seignior •stepped in, and offered lot 15, South Georgetown, as a glebe, the choice of that lot being made because of the burying- place that had been established upon its river-front. The brothers, Henry and James Wright, framed the building, which was about 40 X 60, and designed to answer both as church and manse, a partition dividing it in the centre. The .settlers assisted heartily by bees, and the church avos speedily ¦completed. He, however, did not confine himself to it, but ^preached on the English river and at Rutherford's, near Ormstown. A life of usefulness was now open to McWattie, but in vain; his old habit of self-indulgence overcame him, and his dissipation became odious in a community by no mean's squeamish about drinking. An intelligent and agree able companion while sober, he was a fool when drunk, and he drank to such excass that he became helpless. In his cups he abused his patient wife, for whose sake he was tolerated. ; So great was his craving for drink, that on visiting a neighbor who was laid up by a sore leg, on seeing him apply aqua f ortis to it, he insisted on getting a drink, and took it diluted mcavattie's DEATH. 245'. with water, without apparent harm. For him to pass from- the pulpit to the nearest tavern was nothing unusual, though he had this characteristic, that he would not perform any ministerial duty while affected by drink. On one occasion,, when sent for to baptize a distant family, he arrived under the influence of liquor and insisted on being allowed to sleep- off its effects before proceeding. As the exhortations of such a man commanded no respect, those who attended his services did so from a sense of duty, but the number dwindled, until,. near his end, he would preach to half a dozen. Of the con tributions of the settlers he was soon independent, for he- took up lot 11, South Georgetown, and proved to be. a. good- worker. In 1829 he sold that lot and devoted his attention to clearing and cultivating the glebe. When he came he^ appointed elders and dispensed the communion, but that observance he speedily dropped. He preached with consider able force and the manuscript of several of his sermons- which have been preserved, shows fair literary ability. He- commented on the chapters he selected, and on reading that. passage in Second Corinthians, where Paul narrates the trials he had undergone, he quaintly remarked, "Ay, ay, my breth ren, doubtless Paul's sufferings Avere great, but he was never in so cold a place as Canada, nor had he to chop doAvn trees.'" The poor man spoke from personal experience, for his exist ence depended upon his labors as a bush-farmer, and, as the church-end of his house ceased to be used for its' proper pur pose, its floor was utilized for threshing upon. In the spring; of 1830 death relieved Mrs McWattie of her sufferings; he continued to live alone, his neighbor, Mrs Elliot, doing what she could for his comfort He was often absent, and when, he said he was going to Duncan's mill, it was known that he Avas bent on a booze with some boon companions in a neigh boring drinking-place. His end was horrible. As 1831 was- drawing to a close, he went one night to bed. There Avas no- one in the house, and when the first neighbor visited it next day, he found him writhing in agony, from extensive burnst about the head and breast He lingered two days and died' unable to give a coherent account of the accident that had. 246 schools. befallen him. It was supposed he had gOne to bed after drinking heavily, and aw7akening during the night rose to light his pipe, for he was a heavy smoker ; that in gathering a coal at the open fire-place to put in his pipe, he had fallen on the burning logs and received the fatal injuries. A day or so after the New-Year he was buried beside his wife in Georgetown church-yard, where, though often proposed, no headstone marks the last resting-place of the first Protestant minister of the district. His register of births and marriages (he kept none of deaths) was irregularly filled, and on his death disappeared. As only marriages by ministers of the Episcopal church, Kirk of Scotland, or church of Rome were then legal, many whom McWattie married settled all doubts by being remarried. On the legitimacy of an heir to a farm on English river being called in question, the missing register was hunted up, copied by Robert Robertson, the schoolmaster, and a bill passed by the Quebec legislature making authentic all its entries. In personal appearance^ McWattie was, as the people expressed it, a decent-like man, of a fresh complexion, and with a good voice and manner. He would be about 50 years of age at the time of his death. The first year or tAvo of his stay by the Chateaugay, Mc Wattie eked out a living by keeping school in a shanty at the end of Brodie's house, and until a more capable school master, came, who arrived in the person of a young man named Robert Robertson. He had been a fellow-passenger with Brodie on the True Briton and subsequently marrying a young woman whom he met on board, Avas content to assume the school McWattie Avas mismanaging. He was an excellent scholar and had been tutor in a gentleman's family in Scotland. Although he had no experience in managing a school, he speedily established a reputation that was wide extended and attracted a large attendance. On the govern ment making the offer of $40 to any school that might be built, the settlers agreed to erect one ori Peter Macarthur's farm. Before it was raised, a quarrel arose as to the location, which ended in the dividing of the lumber and the building of two schoolhouses, one ori lot 14 and the other on lot 32. the canoe-line. 247 Robertson selected the former, and as he grew older his habits and disposition changed, and he left behind him, on his death in 1855, the memory of a useful and pioUs man. The other school, Grant's, had Adam Patton for teacher, who took up a lot in South Georgetown. The first teacher the settlers west of Allan's Corners had was Alex. Shepherd (or Stewart), who was supposed to have left Scotland for his extreme Radical ism, and who taught in Robert Lindsay's shanty. Then came David Lind, well-educated but addicted to drink, for whom George Rutherford fitted up an old log-house on lot 17 as a temporary school. Preparations were made in the winter of 1826 for building a school for him, but before it was finished he died. The school, that of Stoney creek, was meant to be a warm building and had two layers of slabs for the ceiling with turf on top, and, after all, the first teacher, Adam Patton, complained of his heels being frozen. He was succeeded by (Squire) Harrison, who taught a few weeks, and by James Shields, a young Irishman of talent, Avho subsequently entered the U.S. army, served with distinction in the Mexican and civil wars, and was retired with the rank of general. After him came James Darby, a one-armed Englishman, a good teacher but unmerciful in his punishments. As immigrants pressed in, the need of providing means for conveying them into the interior of the country became urgent, and Reeves gradually made their transportation a business. Immigrants found no difficulty in hiring carters to convey them from the Basin to his hduse, but farther they did not care to go, often could not go, for the road was not passable for over 5 miles beyond his house. Reeves supplied canoes, which went as far as Huntingdon. These canoes, like all the others used on the Chateaugay in those times, were of the pattern of Robinson Crusoe's. The largest available pine- tree was sought out, felled, and had the top cut off, when the trunk was shaped and hollowed. T^ie canoes averaged 3 feet wide by 30 long, and were generally managed by 3 men, two to row and one to hold the steering-paddle. When rapids were reached, the men jumped into the water, and thrusting a stick through holes at bow and stern, worked the canoe up, 2481 reeves's stone tavern. half-lifting, half -pushing it zig-zag among the boulders Avhere the water was deepest. The work was severe and slavish and told on the strongest constitution. Each rapid had its name. Thus the rapid at Ormstown was rapide croche, the one above it, blotted out by the dam, rapide coteau, and the next, a mile farther on, rapide savage. That at Dewittville was emphati cally named the portage, for it Avas too shallow and rapid for the canoes to be pushed, and they and their loading had to be carried, the help of a yoke of oxen being called in. The rapids at Huntingdon were too long to be passed (they were named the long rapids) and the canoes ended their journey at their foot. From Reeves' to Huntingdon, nearly 30 miles fol lowing the windings of the river, was a long day's journey and, strange to say, the up-trip did not take much longer than the down-trip, the current making little . difference in summer-time, when the water was low, and the men pre ferred low-water, as then the danger of striking boqlders and upsetting Avas less. The loading in ascending was immi grants and their baggage and provisions, and in descending potash. The load w7as 2 barrels (9501b.) but there were canoes large enough to take 3. The charge for conveying a barrel from Huntingdon to Reeves's was a dollar, and thence to the Basin was as much more for cartage. So large was the trade, that Reeves started 3 or 4 canoes daily and the entire upper country depended upon them for maintaining communication with the outer world When a settler Avanted anything, he hailed one of Reeves's canoes as it was passing and gave his message, and was sure to receive, on its return, what he ordered, for both Mr and Mrs Reeves were punctual and honest. Dumochel, envying the profit of the trade, started a line of canoes from his tavern abovTe Ste Martine, but did not succeed. As travel increased, Reeves enlarged his house, until it consisted of three lengths of logs, when he built a large stone-house, which stands now, changed in use, a monument of early times on the Chateaugay. Its walls were raised by John Metealf of English river, in the summer of 1834. He left his work on Saturday in apparent good health and did not return, dying of cholera. DR. SYME. 249 Connected with canoeing on the river, a sad accident oc curred in 1825. It was the spring time, just at the break-up when a canoe, having in it Willard, an American hunter, and two squaws with a papoose, came down and touched the bank at Sandy Williamson's, where Willard was advised to stay all night. He answered, "No; I have a shilling burning a hole in my pocket, and will go on to Reeves's tavern." He was a hard drinker. Resuming their voyage, the canoe got safely to Wright's when it was nipped between two cakes of ice and sank. The papoose floated ashore and crowed when brought into Wright's house, and the squaws were rescued with some difficulty, but Willard never rose, and had probably been stunned by a blow from the ice. Frost setting in after wards, Williamson on going carefully over the ice saw the gleam of the drowned man's powder-horn at the bottom of the river, and so got the body, for which his poor wife, wh© had come up from the Basin, where was their home, was in waiting. A few years before that a French-Canadian known as Mackinaw, perished by the river. He was sent by Reeves with another Canadian in a canoe to Dewittville. They had a bottle with them, and overcome by drink Mackinaw insisted on lying down to sleep at Milloy's rapids. The night was cold, and on his companion returning for him next morning, he found the body frozen. East of Reeves, William Greig, a Scotch blacksmith, bought 91 and 92, Annstown, and his farm became the place for drilling the militia companies. On the opposite side of the river from Reeves, came to live, some time before 1830, a young man fresh from college and some service as a sea- surgeon. Dr Syme was a native of Fifeshire1 and, despite his falling into the social habits then prevalent, obtained a high reputation, in this not belying the size of his head, which was remarkable. An advice he gave a friend would put an end to the use of patent-medicines and much self- prescribing, "Be quite sure you are sick before you take medicine." He met a premature death in 1851 by falling from the bridge which connected Reeves' tavern with the opposite bank. He was followed by Dr Harkness, also a 250 stores. graduate of a Scotch college, who settled on lot 18, Ormstown, afterwards moving to Godmanchester. Until the settlers cleared land sufficient to supply their wants, they depended upon provisions brought from Montreal, and to supply them a number of stores came into existence along the river. The first was that of Alexr. Rutherford, whose father, George, went to live on lot 16, Ormstown, in 1823. The means of communication with Montreal were so imperfect that both Reeves and Rutherford were often out of the commonest necessaries, and a settler would often make a long journey to them and be unable to get a pound of either meal or flour, and he deemed himself fortunate if he could borroAV a loaf from the good- wife. Rutherford was an honest, considerate man, and, in a scarce time, when he got a quintal of oatmeal, would divide it among his customers according to the number of their families, giving. this one two quarts and another^ 4 or 6. After him Crowley kept his store, with a good assortment of goods. Douglas & Wilkinson began busi ness on lot 25, N. G., and did a thriving trade, adding an ashery, a blacksmith shop, and a tannery, the last beside the creek. In 1830, Robert Sutherland gave them competition on lot 27. An old account gives an idea of the prices then current A scythe cost $1.10 and a handle for it 50c. Calico was 20c a yard, sugar 10c a pound, and shingle-nails 8c a pound. In 1827 WidoAV Cross, with a numerous family, and accompanied by her brothers, the Selkirks, bought lot 2, Ormstown, from O'Mullin, and kept a small store, which grew into a profitable business under her sons John and Robert, who added an ashery about 1833, and who gave in exchange for ashes, then worth 10c a bushel, peas and pork. The number of stores along the river bore no comparison Avith the drinking-places that sprang up, for taverns the majority of tbem could not be called, haA7ing no accommodation for travellers. They were an unmitigated curse to the settlers, and the cause of untold misery. At first the general drink was rum, sold at 60 to 75c a gallon, but soon superseded by Yankee whisky. On the opening of a passable cart-road to the lines in 1830, pedlers passed down from the States, calling at every house, selling WILLIAM CAIRNS. 251 tea at 25c which previously cost 75c," tobacco at 10c, and whisky at 25 to 40c a gallon. When from bad roads or weather they failed to appear in time to refill the jars, the grumbling vvas general. This abundant supply, of a cheap spirit proved the ruin of hundreds of industrious men, and of those days niost painful tales could be told of the results of its consumption — of sudden deaths, accidents, fights, and even homicides. One night three men left a drinking-rplace on the river, where they had been quarrelling. One failed to reach his home. A fortnight afterwards his body was found in the Chateaugay, bearing plain marks that he had been killed. His two companions were arrested, taken to Montreal, and tried, but were acquitted from want of proof. Long afters- wards, on his deathbed a farmer told how, kept awake by the quarrelling of the three men, he watched them, in the clear moonlight, pass down to the Avater's edge and saw7 only two go over. On stealing down to see what had become of the third, he found the body, stark and stiff, hid in the wheat that grew luxuriantly. Next night he -watched, saw one of the men return, lift the body, and throw it in to. the riA'er. Fear of incurring the A-engeance of relatives, caused him to hold his peace. The instigator of the crime, for his companion was overawed by him, died miserably some years afterwards. The drinking-habit led to many misunderstandings aggra vated by Old Country antipathies, for, in those days, the feud of Highlander and Lowlander was revived on the Chateau gay, and neighbors quarrelled when the sense was obscured by drink, giving rise to numerous petty lawsuits, which were tried by Squires Graham and Brodie, who held their courts at Douglas & Wilkinson's, Sutherland's, or David Bryson's tayerns, or the schoolhouse. Their clerk Avas the school master, Robert Robertson, Of the state of the country when the immigrants began to crowd in, Mrs William Cunningham gives a good idea : My father, William Cairns, belonged to county Derry, and we sailed for Canada in 1823. On landing at Montreal my father fell in with an Englishman who had a small contract on the Lachine canal, and who said he had bought a lot on 252 ALEX. STEEL AND PETEtf REID. the Chateaugay the summer before, and offered it for £50. My father bought it, and we drove to Lachine on our way to take possession. The captain of the steamer agreed to leave us at the Basin, but on the way something went wrong with the engine and she returned to Lachine. The freight-house was full of rough men, so we camped on the wharf, and had to stay there two days before the steamer was repaired. On reaching the Basin, Gregory Dunning agreed to cart our baggage, and we started after it on foot, grandmother, nigh a hundred years old, on top of the load, for she had insisted on accompanying father. When we got to Reeves's, we found the road to be unfit for wheels, and so stayed there all night and left next morning in two canoes, which landed us on our lot, on which was a small meadow, made by the Americans, and on the , river-bank was a shanty the Englishman had started to build and which was ready for the roof. He had soAvn that spring some peas and turnips. We got the shanty finished and as we had brought a coav with us from Montreal and a good stock of provisions, we were not poorly off Grandmother died 3 weeks after our arrival. David Bryson was our nearest neighbor. Robert Williams came the following year, and settlers came crowding in after that The year of the Miramichi fire, it w7as so dark that we had candles burning, and even the pigs were like to die from the smoke. One woman came to our house in terror of being burned, and said she would "dook in the river gin the fire came up." Several who went on to lots had to abandon them, from being too wet or from Avant of means, the absence of timber suitable for making ashes being a great lack in tiding over the interval until the clearing yielded enough to maintain the settler's family. This was partially supplied by rafting cordwood to Montreal, Avhere it brought $2 to $2.50 a cord While a number of the immigrants had some means, there were' many who had nothing beyond an axe. On the best lots on the north bank being occupied, the immigrants quickly took up those on the south side. Probably the first to do so was Alex. Steel, a carpenter, from Forfarshire, who went on, in 1820, to the lot that had been abandoned by Logan (page 44) many years before. Above him, about a year later, an Aber- donian, Peter Reid, selected 20 of Jamestown, being induced to do so by its having 2 acres of an old American clearance. the oatmeal mill 253 The shanty he raised was considered a large one, yet in threshing grain in the loft, as he had to do until he got a barn, he had to half-kneel to find room for the sweep of his flail. On the extreme east, William Miller, from near Glas gow, took up lot 3, S. G., and a number of years afterwards his son James opened a tavern below7 Reeves's, which was a well-known halting-place for the stage. The seignior re quired the settlers to make the road across their lots, and, about 1827, employed Thomas Barlow to construct the necessary bridges. One settler, Michael Connolly, suffered by the straightening of the road. He had erected a large building on 5, Ormstown, designed for a tavern, Avhen the alteration of the road left it in the middle of a field. He went away and on the lot coming to be sold by the sheriff in 1830, an old soldier, Sergeant Younie, bought it and became one of the best-known settlers on the river. With very few exceptions, the settlers from Reeves's to Ormstown were Scotch, and they missed nothing more in their new homes than oatmeal. To mush and jonny-cake they did not take kindly, and wearied for the substantial parritch and toothsome oatcake of their native-land. Oats they raised, but there were no means of converting them into meal, and what oatmeal was to be had was brought from Montreal, and was consequently difficult to get and very dear. On one of his visits to Montreal Peter Macarthur saw a farmer, named Evans, erecting near Lachine a small mill to make oatmeal, placing it at the end of his barn and to be driven by horses. It struck Macarthur he could make one too. Healing of a pair of stones being for sale at St Johns, he went for them with his cart, and then proceeded to make the gearing. The mill was started in 1828 and was hailed with satisfaction, there being instances of old men tramping 30 miles with a bag of oats to get the long-wished-for meal. The mill required 6 horses to drive it, though 4 sufficiently heavy to do so were eventually secured. It ground from 75 to 85 bushels a day, and was kept busy, save a short time in summer. The charge was 10 cents a bushel or the fifth quintal of meal, and the offal, and the seeds kept the horses 254 THE NORTH GEORGETOWN CHURCH. * fat. On hearing of what Macarthur was doing, Brown warned him that he was infringing upon the seignior's rights and would be prosecuted. Macarthur defied him to stop his mill, pointipg out that it was not driven by steam, water, or wind as specified in the deed, but by horses, which was not pro hibited; further that it Avas no injury to the seignior as it did not grind wheat, and none of the seigniorial-mills made oatmeal. To this Brown replied that the laAV gave the seignior the, exclusive right of grinding grain, irrespective of how it was done, and that if Macarthur had no oatmeal mill, the farmers would grow more wheat. That the law Avas not clear on the point, as indeed it could not be, for oatmeal was unknown to the framers of the ordinances that regulated the seigniories, Avas shown by Brown's not taking legal proceed ings to stop the mill, but he had Macarthur otherwise in his power. For work done by him in building the Norton- creek and other gristmills, the seigniory was due Macarthur a balance of $3000, and from this Brown deducted $100 a year as the A7alue of the mouture, and, altogether, kept him out of $800 that was justly due him by Ellice. In building the Howick gristmill an oatmeal mill Avas added, and in time all the seigniorial mills were so fitted, when the horse-mill became obsolete, but in its day it did good wrork, and Avas the means of forcing the seignior to provide for the manufacture of oatmeal as well as flour. Before he broke Avith the seigniory, Macarthur built, at Norval's request, a threshing- mill for the model-farm. Its principle Avas that of beating the straAV and then shaking it, and was driven by a sweep attached to a crown wheel. With two horses it Avould thresh as much as any modem mill, but it did not clean the grain William Donaldson, on a neighboring farm, thought if Mac arthur could grind with horses, he might saAv with them, and put up a sawmill to be so operated, Avhich did not pay. The difficulty and danger found in crossing the river to go to church, suggested the erection of one on the north bank, which was set about in 1837, and by the fall of the following year a neat building was completed on lot 25, N.Geo. It was not long used until necessity for it was done away by the FIRST OCCUPANTS OF LOTS. 255 people turning out in bees and erecting a trestle-bridge, Avhich they handed over to Turcot on condition that he should allow those going to church pass toll-free. The new church found use after the disruption, when Mr Fettes organized a highly respectable congregation within its walls. Henry Wright, on whose place it was built, was a stirring man, who engaged in many different occupations before the close of a long life. Before he left farming, he competed one fall, at the show held at Reeves's, with potatoes, which had a paper attached de claring the arpent of which they were part had yielded 410 bushels, 1 peck, and 7 Sb. NORTH GEORGETOWN 31 Daniel Morrison RIVER FRONT. James Ogilvie . 1 Francois Valle 32 William Grant 2 Louis Leclere 33 Alex. Mcintosh 3 Jules Daudien James Cowan 4 John Simpson 34 John McConachie 6 Alex. Reeves 35 Blyth 10 Nahum Baxter 36 James Bryson < 14 William Gardner 37 Alex. Bryson 15 James Wright 38 John Bryson 16 William Donaldson 39, 40, and 41 David Bryson 17 Alex. Williamson 42 Neil Campbell 18 Vachon & Lachapelle 43 Alex. Mcintosh 19 Peter Macarthur W. McWhinnie 20 Robert Brodie FIRST CON. OF ORMSTOWN. 21 John Ralston 1 Patrick O'Mullin ' 22 John Harvey 2 John Buckley 23 Archd. Campbell Widow Cross 24 Zebulon Baxter 3 William Cairns 25 Henry Wright 4 John Carlyle Douglas & Wilkinson's store 5 Michael Connolly Denio's tannery Alex. Younie Dan. Kinghorn's black 6 Robert Williams smith-shop 7 John Cunningham Presbyterian church 8 John Williamson 26 Capt. Morrison 9 Robert Lindsay Robert Sutherland 10 Samuel Cottingham 27 Peter McKellar 11 Robert Allan 28 John Simpson 12 William Bryson J. Reid 13 Alex. Mills 29 Robert Morrison 14 Thomas Marratt 30 Alex. Graham 15 John Sangster 256 FIRST OCCUPANTS OF LOTS. 16 David Rutherford 17 Alex. Rutherford 18 Dr Harkness 19 Robert Nichol 20 John Carmichael 21 Thomas Sadler 22 Edward Jones SOUTH GEORGETOWN, RIVER FRONT. 1 Alex. Logan 2 James Logan 3 William Miller Robert Robertson 4 William Carruthers 8 Robert Henderson 9 Dr Syme ' 10 Robert Henderson 11 Rev A. McWattie 12 Andrew Brown 13 William Reeves 14 Capt. Ogilvie 15 Glebe 16 Archd. Ogilvie 17 John Muir 18 John Boyd 19 William Anderson 20 James Williamson Craig Brown 21 John Cunningham 22 Daniel McArthur 23 Thomson, followed by David Baxter 24 Robert Robertson 25 John Taylor 26 William Greig 27 William Hamilton 28 Andrew Glen 29 Archd. Campbell 30 Duncan McCormick 31 Duncan Campbell 32 John Graham 33 John Morrison 34 Alex. Steel 35 Thomas Steel 36 Alex. Finlayson 37 Duncan McCallum William Gilchrist 38 Hugh Morrison 39 and 40 Hendry Craig 41 John Wilson Adam Paxton 42 James Cullen 43 Henry Craig Robert Greig 44 James Gilbert 45 Adam Patton 46 Rose Lily Archd. McCormick 47 David Bryson JAMESTOWN — RIVER FRONT. 1 Michael Connolly 2 John Harvey 3 Wm. and AndreAV Porter 4 John Scully 5 Robert Cairns 6 James Cairns 7 Donald McCornrick 8 William McEwen 9 John Munro 10 William Bryson 11 William Smellie 12 Matt. & Patk. Kavanagh 13 Robert Allan 14 Samuel Baird 15 James McKegan 16 Robert Johnston James Mills 17 Thomas Thomson 18 Samuel Crutchfield 19 David Bryson 20 Peter Reid 21 John Sadler 22 Nolan 23 Reserve. CHAPTER XV. THE ENGLISH RIVER. The same year (1821) that the settlement on the Chateau gay received so great an impetus from the setting in of the tide of immigrants, a beginning was made on the English river. From its mouth to Duncan's at St Chrysostom it re mained in a state of nature. RceA'es had bought Somerville's lot at Howdck, but no person lived on it, and he sent men each summer to cut the hay that covered the clearing. On coming, one bright summer day, to begin this task, they found a brood of snakes sunning themselves on the roof of the log-barn that stood on the lot, and, attacking them, suc ceeded in killing 18, not one of which was less than 2 feet and a number nearly 3 feet long. Of the coming of the first settlers into this desolation, where so shy a reptile as the snake of this province flourished unmolested, William McKell tells the story thus : My father (Matthew) was a shepherd, and Ave belonged to Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire. We sailed from Scotland in the spring of 1821 and stayed about Montreal during the sum mer. It would be in September that my father, accompanied ' by David Wilson. and Arthur Ritchie, hearing there Avas land to be had on the Chateaugay, started on foot to see it. They stayed overnight at Reeves', where Milne happened to be, and he told them the seignior would assign no lots that year, but next spring would open a large stretch of territory for settle ment, and urged them to wait. On my father asking what he would do with his family until then, Milne affered the use of the blockhouse. Being told there was good land on the English river and anxious to get homes at once, my father and his companions accepted the offer of Brown of the Grand Marais to -pilot them through the woods, and, joined on the way by Captain Ogilvie, they walked over next day and examined the land along the east bank, where they picked out lots. A fine flat on the river edge, a natural meadow, decided Wilson in his choice; the other two selected lots on IS 0 258 NARRATIVE OF WILLIAM MCKELL. which there was a good deal of oak. The prevailing timber was black hemlock, and the oak was considered, apart from its own value, to indicate better soil. They set to work at once, Captain Ogilvie trying to establish the bounds of the lots by measuring, for the survey was not completed. They knew nothing about chopping, and in felling the hemlock trees they lodged. On Mrs Wm. Ogilvie's walking over to see the new settlers, she took up an axe and showed them how to do. Poor bits of shanties were raised, the boards for the ceilings being supplied by Baxter, and brought round in a borrowed canoe by Logan's point. In October the families came from Montreal to take possession. Poor as were their habitations they proved Avarm, being embedded in the bush. That winter William Gardner and Stephen Patterson came in and joined us. There was not a track of a road to be seen. It was said there had been a bush-road that led to the States, but that, during the war, the British authorities had ordered to be closed by felling trees across it. There Avas a fair track half Avay across from where Howick now stands to the Chateau gay. At the mouth of Norton creek there was a small clear ance with traces of a house and a feAV apple-trees, but no other sign of anybody having been before us until you reached Duncan's at St Chrysostom. The winter was spent in chopping and the spring came in fa\7orably, so that the first potatoes we planted were ready for use in six weeks. The other crops did well. Our nearest mill was at Beauhar nois, but as it could not be depended upon, we went to the La Tortue mill, near Caughnawaga, which took 3 days, the journey, being made in a canoe. Soon after Ave came, how ever, the Ste Martine mill Avas built. The bush being almost entirely hemlock, there was no chance for making ashes, which was a great drawback, and the settlers for the first years depended on going to the States or lumbering nearer home to earn enough to pay the seigniorial rent, which, small as it may seem, was a great burden to people who had noth ing for many years to sell. It was a common saying, that the settler Avho got in arrears for 3 years' rent ($30) might as well leave. Many went to Avork on the Lachine canal to earn a little. During the summer of 1822 the lots were laid off by Livingstone, and the seigniory fined us $20 each for having taken possession without leave. The survey showed that my father and Ritchie were on the same lot, when we moved to lot 97. That season settlers came in thick, and before very long every lot was taken up. Alex. McArthur and Alex. Taylor squatted on the west bank, which had not been sur- WANT OF FODDER. 259 veyed, but they were compelled to leave by the seigniory- agent, and got lots on the other side. .Until the dam was built the Norton creek . was as large as the English river. There were no trout or salmon in the last-named, but it abounded Avhen we came with large pike. Both bears and wolves were numerous, having their dens in the swamps and ridges on both sides of the river. My father had 3 sheep killed by bears, and a dead horse we left out was picked clean to the bones by wolves. This reference by Mr McKell to wild beasts, recalls a strik ing incident. While the Ste Martine mill was building, David Wilson and his son were employed in blasting out the tail-race. One Saturday afternoon a younger son, Robert, left in a canoe to bring them home for the" Sunday. On the return journey, they got out at the rapids opposite where Howick now stands to carry the canoe to the head of them. It was a beautiful moonlight night, and while doing so, sounds were heard from the top of the bank where Mr Gebbie's house was long afterwards erected. The sounds were so varied and human, that the boy took them for those of men calling them to come up the bank to them, and was about to de so, when his father told him it Avas a pack of wolves. The settlers were, with a few exceptions, Lowland Scotch, in politics liberals to the verge of radicalism and, in religion, largely dissenters. They were an intelligent and industrious class of men, and comparatively few had been farmers, being shepherds or tradesmen. Among the exceptions was Dennis McNulty, an Irish Catholic, who came in among the first They were long in getting into stock from the difficulty in providing feed. Trees grew to the water's edge, so that there were no natural meadows along the English river, and those who got a cow or a yoke of oxen had, until they cleared enough to seed down, to draw hay from a great expanse of wild meadow on lots 14, 15, and 16 on the Australia con cession. One year, after the settlers had cut what they needed, by the carelessness of some smokers who visited the meadow in the fall, it took fire, and the stacks were con sumed, causing much hardship that winter. In choosing 260 THE SCOTCH CONCESSION. their lqts on the river, these early-comers were guided solely by their comparative dryness, selecting those that had a high site for their shanty and first clearance. In this way, the most stony and undesirable lots were first occupied, but for many years their owners did best, as the ridgy land Avas brought under crop, while those Avho had low-lying lots had to work out half the time to earn money to buy provisions. For a long time lumbering gave employment during the winter, and great quantities of oak and pine vrere taken out. Of the size of the pine that grew, a canoe made by the Indians, 4 feet wide by nearly 60 long, is proof. Daniel Craig in 1823 tried to erect a saAvmill at Aubrey. Knowing from the case of Duncan at St Chrysostom, that if he got the mill running he could defy the seignior, he endeavored to raise the building rapidly, cutting the tops off the trees on the site he selected high enough up to make the posts. Before he got the machinery in place, word was conveyed to Beauharnois of what he was doing, and a stop put to his pro ceedings. Craig, an ingenious man, ended his days at the Basin. Back from the river, on the east side, the bush improved, hemlock being replaced by a splendid growth of elm, black ash, and hardwood. This attracted several and in 1822 James Davies and John Neal ventured into the first con cession, which ultimately came to be knoAvn as Craig's, or the Scotch concession. They intended to live together and built a shanty on Davies 's lot. When it Avas ready, all the expedients they tried to light a fire failed, and they started for the nearest shanty, that of Henry Bennie and Wm. Smyth, two young Scotchmen who had just settled on 92 and 93, and carried back a small pot filled with embers, a distance of 2 miles. The bush was remarkably thick and they did not dare to go far without blazing the trees. Their house hold goods and provisions they. had to carry on their backs from the river. They were joined by Robert Hunter, John' Craig, and John Metcalfe, and the first birth on the concession was that of a son to the first-named. William Miller says : Hearing of the new lands that had been opened, I .visited ITS FIRST-COMERS 261 with my father the district in the summer of 1823. As we passed Ste Martine we saw the men at work on the first gristmill and the first church. There Avas no road on the English river, simply a foot-path on the east bank. The west bank had not even a track and was unsurveyed. There were very few settlers, and they were poor, having just come in. I did' not fancy the river lots, and chose the one. I did on the Scotch concession on account of the fine bush upon it, hickory being especially plentiful. We returned home by Beauharnois in order to see the agent. We asked first for lots on the Grande Marais, which Brown refused, saying that he meant to keep that concession for the French. We went to take possession in the fall, going in a canoe to Capt. Ogilvie's, whence Ave carried our goods on a handbarrow through the bush to the English river, where we placed them in another canoe that we borrowed. We got along smoothly until we reached Goundry's rapids, when the canoe stuck fast in the rocks. It Avas now late in the day with appearance of rain. I said I would go and look for help and started up the river bank, until I came to Allan Caldwell's (lot 96), where I met a number of men returning from a bee. I told our situation when one said, looking at the gathering darkness and the rain that had begun, that he "wadna gae down the creek for a dollar." I made my AA7ay back with difficulty, running into the logs that strewed the banks, and found my father pre paring to pass the night in the canoe. I said it would not do for us to stay there on such a night, and just then I saw a light at a distance, and we started for it. Although it did not seem to be far off, I thought we would never get to it, for they had been knocking down trees and it was hard to get through them. The shanty was that of Charles McNulty, who made us welcome, and we found Dickson there like ourselves, finding temporary shelter. In the morning, they would not let us leave until we had breakfast, when we took another canoe to the head of the rapids and carried to it the loading of the other, when we sailed up to Houston's (94) where was the footpad that led into the Scotch concession. The trees stood very thick and the only guide was the blaze. We stayed with a neighbor until we got a shanty of our own and that fall brushed on our lot. The Avinter was a very snowy one, and on going back for the remainder of our effects and a cow, we had to leave the latter with Robert Brodie. We worked hard all winter and made quite a clearance across the ridge. We had a good burn, and planted it in the spring. The yield was wonderful, for we dug 200 bushels of 262 THE IRISH CONCESSION. potatoes, besides the corn we cut. We never had any scarcity. Settlers came in so slowly tha't it was often difficult to get hands enough to raise a shanty. The first road we cut out was along the base-line, which was done in 1825. That was the year of the Miramichi fire. The country was full of stifling smoke, which caused a feeling of sickness, and it was so dark that we had to stay indoors. There was" fire here and there around, which, besides destroying much timber, burned holes in the soil and obstructed passage in the bush by toppling over large trees. My father was both a weaver and a shoemaker, and Ave came from Kilmarnock. There were only three shanties in the concession when we went in — Robert Hunter, a carpenter, and afterwards engineer on the boats to the Basin, who came from Lochwinnoeh, James Davies, from Kilbirnie and John Neal from Kilbarchan, who lived to gether, and John Metcalfe, a mason, from the north of England. For many years Ave were troubled with wild beasts and at night in Avinter, ingoing from shanty to shanty, women would carry a fiery stick to scare the wolves. One night, when her husband was away at Avork, Mrs Metcalfe Avas aroused by a pack around her shanty, and looking out of its sole window, a square of four panes, she counted 12. The wooden-latch on the door was all that stood between her and them. One of the settlers, William Linus, went out hunting, lost his way, and when found his feet were frozen, which caused his death For a long time, and until the roads got anyway good, we went to mill in a canoe or carried the grist. The concession in front of the Scotch, that of the Norton creek, although throAvn open at the same time, was filled very slowly. At the mouth of the creek AA7as John Lang, from Beith, who settled in 1822 and to the east of him was James Wylie. The first to move into the concession were William Airston, Alex. Currie, and Owen and Martin Dunn. At the same time tho third, or Irish, concession was settled, and of it I cannot do better than give Avhat w7as told me by the last survivor of its first-settlers, Mrs David McClenaghan : We belonged to county Derry and sailed from Lough Foyle in the Harrison, Avhich had 300 passengers, in May, 1824. We had a calm passage of 6 weeks. My husband, who was a gardener, got work about Montreal, where I remained until July, 1826. Before that he had been up the Chateaugay with his brother George and taken up lots on this concession, built a shanty and made a clearance. There Avere several howick. 263 before them. The first to move in Avas Samuel McKillin and his son David, three brothers, William, John, and Charles Abbott, and Nathanael Lannan, and, I think, an American, George Beach. The Abbotts and Lannan were related, and came from county Cork, and, like some of the others who took up land, had worked in making the Lachine canal. All the first settlers, except Beach and William Thompson, who AA7as English, wrere Irish Protestants, which gave the con cession its name. When T ^e, the sight Avas disheartening; the bush was mostly tanv- , ! the land was swimming in water. When you left thesv. s you had to step from log to log. A good deal of the land^had been burned over, and some of it was covered with bushes, which Ave called alder- land, and a good part with brule grass, which Ave cut in September and made into hay. There being no timber fit for making potash, the settlers had a hard time of it until discharges Avere made to drain the land, and enable them to grow grain. It was 5 years before Ave were able to raise wheat, but before that we had splendid crops of potatoes and corn. Most of the settlers worked out Avhen they had a chance. My husband acted as gardener to Colonel BroAvn at Beauharnois for 11 summers, getting a dollar a day, and but for that we could not have lived until the land was brought iri. There was no road when I came, and the outlet was across lots to the Bean river and so on to Ste Martine. The settlers were cheerful and hopeful and helped one another in a Avay people don't do now-a-days. We were long in getting a school, and the one first built Avas on the same place as the present, only on the opposite side of the road. I think it was in 1834 it was opened and the first master Avas Suther land, who only stayed 4 months, when Ave got an excellent teacher from the city, named LoAvry. Ministers came occa sionally to preach in it, especially the two Laws, Isaac and James, who were Covenanters. About 1S50 the old settlers began to sell out, several to the French, in order to go west, and have not left a soul to represent them. The lower side of the concession Avas so wet that none cared to go on what afterwards turned out to be the best lots, and the French got them. William, a son of John Abbott, distinguished himself in the United States, and the graduate of the humble log school- house of the Irish concession rose to be a member of the Senate. Quitting the Irish concession we find ourselves again on the English river opposite the site of Howick, and 264 ANDREW STEWART. Andrew, a son of its first settler, John Stewart, Avill tell how it came into existence : My father was a native of Methven, Perthshire, but lived in Edinburgh, where he was doing a good business as a book seller and bookbinder. Having several sons, a A7isitor from America advised him to emigrate for their sakes, and we sailed from Glasgow on the 3rd April, 1822, in the brig Jean of Irvine, which was the first ship owned by Alex. Allan and of which James Allan was cabin-boy. There were only 22 passengers and we were landed in the mud at Montreal, for there was no wharf, after a voyage of 7 weeks and 1 day. My father's intention Avas to go to Ohio, but he was advised to keep near Montreal, where there was a ready market at high prices, and he went up the Chateaugay. My father fancied 76, on account of the rapid, and applied to Brown for it, who said that the surveyor, Livingstone, had not sent in his report, but he would give a permit for the lot, and so my father, although there Avere others a year before him, was the first to get a deed for land on the English river. We came to our neAV home by way of Caughnaw7aga, and the carts took us to Rousseau's at the mouth of the English river, and wdiere the road ended. We went up the Chateaugay to Captain Ogilvie's, and thence had everything to carry. The mill-road, which had been cut out in 1804, had groAvn up again, and the chief sign that it had been was a rotten bridge across the creek. We arrived here on the 1st of June. My father having some money set a number of men to work in clearing the land, and built a good-sized house, the lumber for which we got at Todd's mill, DeAvittville, and brought it down the Cha teaugay and up the English river on rafts. It stood where the road is noAV, a feAV yards from the bridge, and it came to be the best known tavern (named the Caledonia) on the English river. Until it Avas ready Ave lived Avith AndreAV Glen. My father set up two kettles by the side of the river, where a large amount of potash was made, renting them to neighbors wdien not used by himself. AboA-e us AA;e had a number of neighbors, but were some time before we had any east of us, and not until James Holmes took up the lot on Avhich was the old clearance (made by Somerville, see page 40), and from which we .had got hay for our cows. Some years after wards the grand voyer came, accompanied by Brown, and held a meeting in our house, when he made a proces-A'erbal for a road from the mouth of the river upwards on the base line. This eventually . caused much trouble, for when the French settled beloAV us, they would make the road on the A SAWMILL IS BUILT. 265 river-bank, Avhich brought it out quite a distance from the road above. No 3 was then held by Gougeau, who did all he could to prevent them crossing his land to get to the road, and there was no end of trouble, which Avas finally ended on Brown's driving up the riv7er and coming to a halt at the turn, owing to a deep ditch Gougeau had dug. He induced Gougeau to give a right-of-way to join the tAvo roads for $50, and that accounts for the jog you find between 72 and 73. I cannot give the year, but it was some time about 1826 that the seignior engaged the Macarthurs to build a sawmill. The dam Avas erected by Henry Wright and Avas carried away, like a number of others, by the ice. Before it Avas thrown across the river, the settlers ran the rapids, which, except when the water Avas very high, was not dangerous to do. One day Dickson came along accompanied by his son. My mother advised him to leave the boy, when the father said there was nothing to fear. Near the foot of the rapids the canoe upset and the boy was drowned. The father took the body and buried it on his farm, Avhere there are 3 graves. The saw7mill was rather a primitive affair with a high and narrow wheel, not suited to streams that chvindle in volume during the summer. The power was so weak that David Wilson, reputed the strongest man in the district, undertook to hold it, and actually did so. His father managed the mill. The erection of the dam, necessarily high to suit the Avheel, raised the level of the river, flooding the low lands for quite a dis tance above. Wilson's OAvn flat AA7as drowned, and for his damage and those of others the seignior refused indemnity. The mill ran until July, 1830, when it Avas accidentally burned. The seignior let to tAvo Americans, Raymond and Lyman, the building of a sawmill and gristmill, which was to include a run of stones for oatmeal. They made a splendid job, and completed Avhat Avas then^the best mill in the province. _ They introduced the broad wheel of small diameter, by Avhich all the water is made use of. They had trouble in procuring a settlement Avith Brown, and kept possession for several months after their completion, during which time they operated the mills. In the summer of 1832 they handed them oyer, when Robert King was installed as miller, and the verdict of the settlers was, that if ever there was an honest and just man it was him. Two Americans, Sears and Thomson, rented the sawmill. The building of a gristmill assured the. future of the place as a village, and Arthur Ritchie, who had been selling grog in his shanty, determined to cross, and built, in 1833, a tavern on the north-west corner of the road where it 266 THOMAS GEBBIE. crosses mill-street. He did not live long to occupy it He was a weaver by trade, very intelligent, and much given to theological discussions, his views tending towards those of free-thinking, and he occasionally lectured or preached to the settlers. He had gone to church on the first Sunday of 1834 and while walking home with 2 friends, and criticizing what Colquhoun had said, he dropped dead. That year John Wil son, whose father had come from Scotland in 1816 and been very successful at Buckingham on the Ottawa, opened a store and tavern on the opposite corner (the east) to Ritchie's, and still (1887) lives there. John Gordon, a shoemaker, Avho had left East Lothian two years before, lived in Ritchie's house until it was bought by Peter Coutts in 1836, who kept store for 45 years, and was highly esteemed. Mr Gebbie, several years afterwards, bought a lot adjoining from Mr Gordon and put up a long, low building into which he moved and succeeded well. Before this, however, a bridge Avas built. The customers of the gristmill mostly lived on the east bank, and had to carry their grists across by walking the boom, which all could not do, so a bridge was a necessity. The seignior engaged Sears & Thomson to build one, the settlers on the east side of the river assisting; my father gave $25. A substantial bridge w7as raised. Like Raymond, they had trouble with Brown in obtaining Avhat was due them, but they brought him to time, for on his driving the governor, Lord Gosford, while on a visit to him, up to Fort Covington, to see that place, they had Brown arrested, and would not release him until he gave security to cover their claim. BroAvn was extremely mortified at the indignity, and shunned the' States thereafter. In the fall of 1848, on the ice on the river taking, 3 Canadians started to cress from Lavade's to David Wilson's and Avere drowned. When Mr Gebbie took up his abode in Howdck, about 1840, there were only three houses, apart from the mills. Mr Gebbie, Avho had been a grocer in Galston, emigrated in 1833, and came directly to WilliamstoAvn, from his ob liging disposition and uprightness of character obtained the confidence of the people and became the leading man of busi ness and largest property-holder in Howick, as the village was named after Lord HoAvick, at that time a member of the cabinet. In July, 1833, the seignior ceded in trust to John Stewart, David Wilson, and Charles Stewart a lot for a school- house, which was built and John Clark placed in charge. THE FIRST CURLING MATCH. . 267' The west bank of the English riA7er remained unsettled long after every lot on the opposite side was occupied. In 1827 Manuel was employed to make a survey of it, and that fall two brothers named Carson drew lots. One of them, Robert, said : We landed in Montreal from Belfast in the summer of 1827. We belonged to county Armagh. A friend told us about the lots to be given out on the English river and we drew 17 and 18, both being covered with the finest timber. My brother, who had a family, had to go at once to have a home for them, but I waited in Montreal to earn a little money, and followed him in 1830. The road had then been cut out as far as Norton creek but Avas very bad and not fit for wheels except in a very dry time. At Elliot's (lot 74) the cart Ave had hired stuck, and we had to borrow a yoke of oxen to pull it out of the hole. There Avere only two horses on the river when I came, and there was no road past the creek for several years afterwards, for it was I who took the job from the seignior to open the road upwards across the unconceded lots. When George Atkinson, an Irish Catholic, and who- settled the same year as my brother, died, there was no road to take the body from his lot, and it was put in a canoe and conveyed to Ste Martine. That Avould be about 1835. We had a hard time until we could raise enough to keep us. We had food enough, but the money for boots and clothes was hard to come by. I have shouldered a bushel and a half of wheat to Ste Martine mill. My brother started a small ashery ¦ and he allowed others to use the kettles on paying $2.50 per barrel of potash. We brought a cow but there was no pas ture nearer than a meadow a mile aboA7e us, and my wife, with the baby, paddled up morning and night to milk her. We cut fodder for winter on the beaver meadows west of us. The Indians then came in great ntlmbers to pick berries on the rock, and they drew up their canoes on my lot. The water from the unconceded lands troubled all the settlers along our side of the river, coming pouring doAvn on us and drowning the crops. It was not until a dozen years after .1 came, that the seignior agreed to dig a discharge, which gave us relief. The early days of the English-river settlements were un eventful, yet there are a few occurrences which are worthy of preservation. Noted for the enthusiasm of its farmers in curling, it is interesting to know that this dates from the time ,268 THE SMALL STILLS. of shanties Avith roofs of basswood scoops. In the winter of 1825 the ice was in such prime order that James Davies, a keen curler in Scotland, thought it a pity it should be allowed to pass unused and proposed to William Miller that they should have a game. They made blocks of wood, and going on to the creek had the first "gemm" played in the district, and of which Miller was the winner. The happy thought of substituting Avood for stone removed the obstacle to the roaring game, and thenceforth curling Avas the recreation of the English river district. About two years after the intro duction of curling, the first plowing-match was held. At one of the change-houses that had sprung up, William Airston and David Wilson, senr., got bantering as to which Avas the better plowman, and decided to have a trial. There being no land sufficiently cleared on the English-river or the creek, they had to go over to the Chateaugay, when the match took place on Captain Ogilvie's farm. A great croAvd gathered to witness the match, of Avhich Airston was declared to be the winner.* Allusion has been made to the drinking-places which existed, and which were not peculiar to the English-river. The cheapness of Avhisky and the non-enforcement of the license law caused them to multiply, and they sprang up all over the district and in most unlikely places between 1825 and 1845, and were the cause of untold misery. Wherever an immigrant who had been a smuggler in the Old Country found a home, he erected a still; and of such persons the English-river had several. The most famous of its small stills was that of Daniel Gruer, who had learned the art of usquebagh-making in his native hills. His product obtained so wide a reputation that he could not. supply *the demand, though he charged more than double, 75 to SO cents per * The English river ploAving association is the oldest in the district and one of the oldest in the province. It was organ ized in 1851, in the fall of which year it held a match on the farm of Moses Douglas, when the highest prize was $2.50 and the loAvest 50c. William Woods was chairman of the association and Alex. Ross secretary. A SCHOOL IS RAISED. 269 gallon, what ordinary Avhisky could then be got for. His spirits he distilled from barley malt. "To switch the bowies" (to prevent the fermentation running over the tubs by beat ing it) was the occupation of the neighboring boys. Despite the excise laws, Gruer continued to make more or less until his death. To change to matters more worthy of record, the settlers on the English river exerted themselves soon after they had established themselves to secure the means of education. William McGregor, a son of John McGregor, lot 14, S.G., and often called Doctor McGregor, from his affecting knowledge of medicine, opened the first school in a log-barn belonging to Henry Bennie. Previous to that, whatever education any of the children on the river received was by going over to the school kept by McWattie, which necessitated their living with friends on the Chateaugay, so that feAV were sent. On the 28th January, 1828, a meeting was held in the house of Stephen Patterson, when it was agreed they should erect a school to qualify the children of the settlement "to be useful either in church or state," that "no particular religious creed be taught the children" with their tasks, but "that a Sabbath- school may be opened" and the schoolhouse be open as a place of meeting for any religious denomination. It Avas agreed to buy from John Wilson 2 acres of the front of 91, and a com mittee was appointed, with Neill Primrose as chairman and James Craig as secretary, to carry the proposals into execu tion. Those present subscribed Is 6d apiece (30 cents) to pay for the land. The work was vigorously commenced, bees being held to clear the site and roll the logs into the river, and on the 9th December the walls were raised. At the close of that day's work, a meeting was held, when the settlers organized themselves into a scholastic association and chose Henry Bennie, John Metcalfe and Barney Duigan as trustees, with Robert Hunter as chairman and Arthur Ritchie secre tary. On learning the legislature had passed an act offering to pay one-half of the cost of schoolhouses that complied with certain requirements, it was resolved to put up a larger and bettor building, which would also accommodate 270 RIVERFIELD. the teacher and his family. In the fall of 1829 the settlers again held bees but the project dragged for want of means, so that in June, 1830, the committee bound themselves personally for a loan of £10 ($40) at 6 per cent, from Lewis Lamont to finish the building, and it wras completed that fall and William McGregor installed as teacher. The building was an excellent one, a frame, clapboarded, and the people of the English-river section were proud of it. Its total cost was $300. A strange incident attending its opening, was the refusal of its use to McWattie to preach in, and a decision that it be only open to those "licensed by government to perform all the functions of a regular clergyman." With the first Sunday of 1831 a S. S. was opened by Mr McGregor "for the purpose of in stilling a principle of morality in the young and and rising generation in this settlement," nothing in the proceedings, however, was to be tolerated of a nature "to cause divisions amongst the people, on account of the many different prin ciples o.f religion held by the community." The collections at the meetings on Sunday it was resolved should be applied to buying a school library, but they were so trifling, seldom going over 20c, that this had to be dropped Great difficulty was found in maintaining the school, from the inability of parents to pay the fees, 20 cents a month, and the managers having no power to levy a general tax. In October, 1831, it was agreed that those who were not members of the associa tion in building the school should not be allowed to send their children to it unless they paid $1 entry. A government grant, averaging $40 a year, greatly assisted, but the school, which was attended by from 40 to 60, was maintained at no small sacrifice on the part of those upon whom- the burden fell. McGregor continued to teach until the end of 1832, when James Easton succeeded him and was followed in 1835 by Wm. Smyth, an excellent teacher. Adjoining the school- house there came to live, about 1830, an old pensioner, Sergeant James Ferguson, who added to his income by working at his trade, that of a shoemaker. There were a number of old soldiers among the first settlers. On the west bank three lived, side-by-side, Murray, Johnson, and THE CHOLERA. 271 Primrose, all sergeants who had seen service under Welling ton. Mrs Murray had followed the regiment for 30 years, and had been previously married to a sergeant who was killed in action. On giving up* school, McGregor, in com pany with Lewis Lamont, opened a store at the same place, now known as River'field, and occupied by Robert McLeod. In securing so large a lot for the schoolhouse, the settlers had in view the using of part for a burying-ground, for which the need was felt, the custom being to convey in canoes the dead round Logan's point to the Georgetown churchyard or carry them across frbm Howick. The portion cleared in the winter of 1828 Avas apportioned in lots to the 36 subscribers to the purchase of the land, and Avhen a second bee was held in 1830 to clear more of the lot, there was a grave, a death having happened in the Scotch concession. In the spring of 1831 a good fence was erected. It was well a place of burial had been provided, for there was soon sad need of it. In the beginning of August, 1832, a Canadian died in the sawmill after a brief illness. Nobody knew what ailed him, but before the week was out word came from Montreal of cholera, with a description of its symptoms, which were those of the poor man. The Canadians around Ste Martine were decimated, 40 dying within a mile of Reeves's. In the village, every member of one family perished, when the house was burned as the easiest mode of disinfection. Among the Old Country men there were only sporadic cases. The wife of Matthew McKell milked the cows in the morning, was dead before night, and buried with her daughter next day. McKell him self died while rallying from an attack. The wife of tailor Coutts died unattended and was coffined in a rude box as she died. The Scotch concession lost two of its pioneers, John Metcalfe and John Neal. The saddest incident of all was on the Chateaugay in the family of Duncan McCoig, newly landed from Scotland. In the morning the sons rudely coffined the remains of their father and took them in a canoe to the Georgetown graveyard. On returning from their sad errand, they found their mother had died, and had to repeat the same melancholy duty, for no neighbor would come near the 272 CHURCHES. house. The prevailing belief that to give a drink was to ensure death caused much suffering among the sick and, doubtless, several deaths. Tp the entreaties of one poor wo man her daughter yielded, seeing that hope was past, and brought her a cupful of spring-water. It revived her, she got more, and recovered. The first religious services held on English river were those by McWattie in John Lang's house. The providing of a schoolhouse did away with the necessity of going to private houses, and any preacher who came along held service in it. Colquhoun and Muir both regarded the English-river as a regular station. The majority of the settlers had been seceders in Scotland and their relations with them were not harmonious, so that they encouraged the visits of ministers of other denominations, at one time having services . con ducted by a Methodist. About 1840 the minister of the Congregational church at Russeltown was induced to hold a fortnightly service at the schoolhouse, and the attendance was deemed sufficient to justify raising a church, and a small ' building was erected by the roadside, near Wylie's creek, and Avas fairly attended. After the drowning of Mr Bowles (page 231) no successor was available, and the congregation united with, the Free church. In 1838 a number of settlers offered sufficient inducement to the Associate Presbyterian Synod of the U S., commonly known as the Covenanters, to secure regular visits from a minister, and in 1843 were formally organized, electing elders and constituting a kirk-session. A frame church Avas constructed on Houston's, lot 94, and a call extended to James Law, Avhich he declined. Work on the church stopped for want of funds, and it remained in an unfinished state (available for use during summer alone) until the Rev James Fettes arrived in November, 1846, as a delegate from Scotland in the interests of the Free church. He passed the wdntcr among them, and aroused intense sympathy for his denomination, so that the requisite funds were subscribed, the church Avas moved doAvn to beside the burying-ground at Riverfield, and completed, and a strong and earnest congregation formed. TULLOCHGORUM. 273 The lots between Howick and the mouth of the English river were secured by the French, who were so slow in taking possession that James Brown, who went on to lot 58 in 1832, found there was not a house between his and Caldwell's. The land between the English river lots and those on the Chateaugay remained in a state of nature until about 1850. For this there were several reasons, the frequent changes in the ownership of the seigniory, the desire to convert the land into free and common soccage tenure, and the expense of opening discharges to make the flats habitable. When it was decided to throw open the land contained in the penin sula formed by the two rivers for settlement, the work went on quickly. The surveys were made by William Barrett, assisted by William Edwards, between 1845 and 1848, and as soon as they filed their plans, the lots were taken up, largely by the sons of neighboring farmers. They were double ranges and were better knoAvn by the names given to them than by their numbers — Tullochgorum, Fertile Creek, Australia, Cali fornia, Milwaukee, and Chicago. The first name was derived from an incident in its settlement. In 1848 Neil McEwan bought 38 and celebrated the completion of his house with a jollification, during which the giving of a name to the new settlement came up, when McEwan, who was in a convivial mood, suggested Tullochgorum, and Tullochgorum it was, and the party danced, as only Highlanders can, the reel of that name. Nobody suspected the extraordinary fertility of the land on this concession. Some time before 1830 a party of farmers from the Chateaugay had occasion to journey across it, which they did by jumping from logs and tree-roots, and Avhile resting on a dead tree on No 1, S. Geo., and viewing the water that lay around, one of them exclaimed, "This will never be land," in which the others agreed. In those days it was flooded by the water from the Flat Rock and converted into a shallow lake, covered with cattails and scrub poplar. Its wetness saved its fertility, for the fires that periodically swept amorig the trees left the soil untouched. The lower end of the concession was settled in 1851, when the road was extended from Howick, and the year following Thoihas IS 274 FIRST OCCUPANTS OF LOTS. Chisholm made his way to the upper end, hauling in the lumber for a house by a bypath that ran along the ridges. With the opening of discharges, the land was brought in without difficulty. Fertile Creek concession was opened simultaneously, and was of the same character. The other concessions were different, being largely high and stony, and coA7ered with good bush. An old Highlander, abandoning his farm in Williamstown, Avas asked where he Avas going. "To California," he answered, to which country there was then a rush. His reply gave name to the concession on which he was making his new home, and it naturally followed that the adjoining one should be Australia. After the first burn, the land on these ridges gave a great crop of fine wheat, which suggested Milwaukee, the Al wheat of the market in those days, and Chicago. The seigniory did well by the sale of the lots on those concessions, charging from $4 to $6 an acre, according to the quality of the soil. 87 Charles McNulty 88 Dennis McNulty 89 Dickson WILLIAMSTOWN— ENGLISH RIVER CONCESSION. 58 James Brown 67 (?) James Wright 72 Andrews Laviolette 73 Gougeau John Elliot T4 & 75 Somerville Alex. Reeves 74 Bisson J. Elliot 75 James Holmes • T6 John Stewart 77 John Sawyer 78 Arthur Ritchie 79 Matthew McKell James Knox 80 David Wilson 81 Daniel McArthur 82 Alex. McArthur 83 James Wilson 84 James Blair 85 John Currie 86 Hamilton 90 Robert Robertson 91 John Wilson 92 Henry Bennie 93 William Smith 94 James Houston 95 William Kerr 96 Daniel Craig Allan Caldwell 97 James Wylie FIRST DOUBLE OR SCOTCH CONCESSION. 112 John Doherty 113 Robert Craig David Fife 114 John Cousins 116 Allan Caldwell 117 James Davies 118 John Neal 119 Robert Hunter 120 William Miller 121 Thomas Maloney 122 James Donald FIRST OCCUPANTS OF LOTS. 275 123 John Craig 124 George Thomson 125 Patrick Handlin 126 John Metcalfe 127 Daniel Owen 128 Alex. Maxwell 120 William Hazlie Arthur Hazlie 130 William Stewart 131 William Linus SECOND DOUBLE OR IRISH CONCESSION. 132 Robert McClenaghan 133 David McClenaghan 134 George McClenaghan 135 Robert Adams 136 Francis Brennan 137 Samuel Egleston 138 Nathanael Lannan 139 Charles Abbott 140 John Abbott William Abbott 141 Samuel McKillin 146 John Roy 147 James Gordon 152 George Beach 153 Andrew McCracken 154 William Scott James McCracken . Thomson GEORGETOWN CONCESSION OF RIVER LOTS. 1 Howick village 2 John Stewart 3 William Gardner 4 Gagnier 5 Samuel McClymont 6 Malette 7 Hugh Henderson 8 William Currie 9 John Devine 10 John Lett 11 Michael Gaynor 12 Donald Gruer Daniel and Robert Gruer 13 James Murray 14 Johnson 15 Neill Primrose 16 William McKell ,1.7 William Carson 18 Robert Carson 19 and 20 Alex, Logan 21 Reardon 22 William Currie 23 John McKell 24 Malcolm McFarlane 25 William Lang 26 George Atkinson 27 Nathanael Lynch CHAPTER XVI. FROM THE CHATEAUGAY TO THE ST. LOUIS. When the lots along the English river and the Chateaugay were occupied, it became necessary to open up more of the seigniory for the immigrants who continued to come, and it was decided to survey the land contained between the Cha teaugay and the St Louis. Of the settling of that portion of it comprised in North Georgetown and Jielenstown a better idea can be given by adhering to the narrative of the first to commit himself to its inhospitable wilds, than by separate descriptions of each concession. After perusing his simple tale of hardships endured and of indomitable perseA'erance under conditions the most discouraging, the reader will agree that the name of John Symons is to be honored for the in trinsic qualities of the man apart from the accidental circum stance of his being the pioneer of the wide expanse bounded by the two rivers named. In numerous coQArersations, the writer learned the following details : I was born in Paisley in 1803, and was brought up to be a silk-weaver. Hearing that a beginning was about to be made in my department of that trade in Lowell, Mass., I resolved to emigrate, and sailed for Quebec in the fall of 1827. On landing in Canada I found I had made a great mistake in endeavoring to reach Lowell by the St Lawrence route, and that a long and expensive journey was before me. I fell in with the husband of an old neighbor, Robert Boyd, and he insisted L should go and see his wife, especially as he lived near Laprairie, which I would have to pass through on my way to the States, for there was then no outlet to New Eng land by Quebec. He had a farm near Dunn's mills, about 5 miles west of Laprairie. I was kindly received, and was induced to forego my intention of pushing on to Lowell until the spring; the more easily because the weather had turned cold. I put my hand to whatever work there was doing. Boyd had an ashery, collecting the ashes from Caughnawaga and neighborhood, which was visited once a Aveek. I learned the whole art of potash-making that winter, and it was lucky ALONE IN THE WILDERNESS. 277 for me that I did. Boyd had bought a farm on the Chateau gay the year before and prepared to move on to it before the sleighing left, and I assisted, which was the cause of intro ducing me to that section. I got acquainted with the settlers, Sandy Williamson and Robert Brodie especially ; I liked them and they liked me, and they were very urgent I should give up the notion of seeking work at my trade and take up land, they promising to assist me. There was a vacant farm at that time on the river, but it was beyond my means, and I told them that I would have to start at the beginning and clear a farm for myself. Williamson, who was a great hunter, knew every inch of the country, and he advised me to take up a certain lot on the fourth concession, which was then being surveyed. I worked all that season among the settlers on the river, learning a great deal, for I knew nothing what ever about farming. One day in the fall Robert Brodie started with me to find the lot recommended by Williamson. There was a lumber-road, formed by Macaulay's men, that winded out and in across the country to the St Louis, and as the season was dry we had no great difficulty in going over it. When we reached the St Louis we found the surveyor's pickets of the lines, but the lots had not yet been bounded. Williamson told me to take the third lot, and Brodie, starting at the river, stepped the 10 acres which should have brought us to it, but did not, for we knew nothing about the gore-lot being so wide, so were 4 acres astray. Well, Brodie picked out a knoll as a site for my shanty, and after looking at the timber, we returned home, and I went to Beauharnois and took out my location-ticket, paying $10 for it, and agreeing' to pay 10 cents rent per acre a-year. After the New Year some time, my friends made a bee and drove out to my lot. Driving their horses and oxen round and round they tramped' a place in the snow where it was intended to build, and going to work, the trees were soon falling, being shaped into logs, and 'placed one upon another, so that before it got dark my shanty was complete. No sawed lumber was used, the floor and roof being split basswood logs. They left me in pos session of it, and I was emphatically alone, for there was not a living soul nearer me than 5 miles. At that time there was not a clearing west of the. corner of the Baker concession on the St Louis road; in fact, the land had not been surveyed. It was solid woods or swamp in every direction. Where St Louis village now is, there was a hunter's cabane, a little east of the site of the Catholic church, where a son.of Bourbonneau, a tavern-keeper in Beauharnois, lived when he was out on the 278 HARD WORK. chase, and not another sign of life. I wrote to my wife to join me, and went to work, chopping day after day, alone, in order to haA7e a decent home ready for her and the children, never resting until Saturday afternoon, when I dropped work and went to Brodie's, to stay until Monday, when I took back with me proA'isions for another week. One day my axe glanced, and cut my right foot. I bound up the wound as well as I could and lay in my shanty unable to move and suffering intensely. Saturday and Sunday passed and I knew Brodie's folks would be getting anxious. I made shift tp crawl, rather than walk, OA-er to their place, and found that they were about to start for my shanty, fearing that something had befallen me. The wound soon healed, though it still affects my walking, and I was once more at work. When the snow melted, I found the knoll on which my shanty stood was an island, and that my lot was knee-deep in water. I had not foreseen that it was so wet a lot, and soon became convinced I could do nothing with it, for there was no outlet and the water would have to lie until dried by the July sun. I hurried to Beauharnois, and asked Brown to change the lot. He said he did not expect me to live on land that was under water, and gave me a ticket for lot 33, which was the one I asked for, because it had a ridge on it I set to work on it with a will to make up for lost time. Having no help, I could not log, so I just brushed the trees as I felled them, and, dibbling round the fallen trunks, planted potatoes and some corn. The track to the river being very bad at that time, I did not go to Brodie's for Sunday, so that for 11 days I did not see a human being. One windy day I was chopping a large rock-elm, and from the wind blowing on the top was uncertain which way it would fall. I was watching it intently, ready to move out of the way when it would begin to topple over, when a voice behind me said in French, "It is not going." I jumped in astonishment, and saw a French Canadian. For years after, when he would meet me, he would laugh as he recollected my surprise. The constant clutching of the axe affected the sinews of my hands, which were unused to such a strain, and the fingers remained bent for the rest of my life. Of the desolation of the country south of me I had soon experience. I thought it would be a great advantage to have a direct road to the Chateaugay from my lot, and I determined to see if I could not get one. I started one Avarm afternoon, scrambling over logs and some times going on my knees under them, and every noAV and then climbing up a trunk to find out where I was going. I NEIGHBORS. 270 always found I was surrounded by the trunks of blackened trees, and the ground coA'ered by fallen ones, water, and cat tails. So desolate was the scene and hopeless-looking the prospect of finding a way out, that the veiy dowg that was with me sat down at the foot of a tree and yowled. Night came on as I got a sight of a clump of green spruces, which stood w here the Ormstown concession now is, and as I pressed on towards them it grew quite dark. I came to a creek, and to find the direction of its current, put my hand in its water. Just when I felt that I could struggle no longer, and might as Avell prepare td pass the night where I was, I heard a noise. My first thought w7as — a bear. I shouted, and, to my astonish ment, got an answer. It was people on their way to their homes in the Ormstown concession, and I speedily joined them, and found the way to the Chateaugay. There were wild beasts in the forest, but they never gave me any annoy ance. I only met a bear once. I Avas on my way to Brodie's ¦ one Sunday morning, when I suddenly heard the trampling of feet on the dry litter, and shortly saw two bears approach ing me. The advice Sandy Williamson gave me for such a contingency, flashed upon me, and I bent my head until I could look between my legs and began dancing and capering. The brutes looked at ine for a moment or two, and then, affrighted by the strange spectacle, turned and fled. Another time, John McConachie was helping me to chop, and on his having to go over a pile of logs, stepped up them, and was astounded, on raising his head over the top log, to find him self looking in the face of a bear, which Avas scrambling up the other side. With a yell, he jumped down, and came running to me, but the bear did not follow. I got up a shanty on my lot, but before I had it ready, my mistress and the family arrived, and they had to stay in the old one for a while. I got two neighbors about the same time, Wilham Patton, Avho had been a farmer in Scotland, and James Stewart ; they sat down on either side of me. I had been saving my ashes all along, keeping them covered with elm- bark, and was most anxious to get a kettle and begin making potash. I had not a dollar and my neighbors were little better off. Stewart had enough to pay a French Canadian for sawing trees and making leaches and that was all, so I went to see if I could not get a kettle on credit. On entering Douglas & Wilkinson's store, I found Sandy Graham and Mr Brodie sitting there, and they burst out laughing at me, for I had no boots on and my trousers were rolled up above my knees, for I had to wade a great part of the way, and was 280 FIRST WHEAT. dirty, ragged, and wet I told Douglas my errand and said, as an old clerk of Richardson, Forsythe & Co.'s I thought he might be able to oblige me. Brodie cried out he would be my surety for the payment, and Douglas agreed to get me a Three Rivers' kettle, which were the best, for they are thickest at the bottom. It arrived the week after, when I bargained with McConaehie, who had a yoke of small oxen, to drag it into my lot for $4. He started in the morning and it was growing dark w7hen the oxen stuck within sight of my lot, being fairly beat Next morning they were tackled to it afresh, and the kettle was placed on the line between Stewart and myself, for we were partners. That kettle was the saving of the fourth concession, for it brought to us the only money we could get for several years wherewith to buy pro visions and pay our rent. Each settler could make two barrels, sometimes three, in a year, and as it was worth from $30 to $40 a barrel, the amount was of great consequence. We let neighbors have the use of the kettle and other ap paratus for $2 a barrel, and, at least, 120 barrels were made 'in it. My potatoes turned out a remarkable crop, but the corn, from being planted late, did not ripen. Before winter set in, there Avere several lots taken up, and we could now have bees to log. The wetness of the land was the great drawback. James Dryden and James Hunter placed their shanties back on the bank of the creek to have a dry place, and a sort of a road began to be formed along it out to the St Louis. James Benning, an. excellent farmer, who took my old lot, had to make a sort of a raft to get at his work in the spring. Several came and, after a short trial, left. There was Herring, a first-rate farmer, who Avas fairly starved out. He went and took up land near Ottawa, and became prosper ous. George Steel boarded with me while trying to clear the lot he had taken up. One hot day, he came in from Avhere he had been brushing, up to the ankles in Avater and Avith the mosquitoes very bad, and, putting on his coat, said he would not take it off again. He left all and, after several changes in life, died a wealthy banker in Chicago. The land was fairly drowned and we kept dinging at Brown to open dis charges. He resisted, thinking he could force us into doing the work alone, but Ave set the right way about it, and the seignior was compelled to assist in making sufficient dis charges. It would be the second fall, I think, Avhen I sowed my first wheat. I went across the brule' to the Ormstown concession, and bought from Hood half a bushel of fall wheat, which I carried home on my back. I was afraid it Avould be BUTTERED PEAS. 281 too late for soAving if I waited until my potatoes (which were in hills) were ready to dig, so I pulled up the shaws and raked the ground, sowing my wheat. When I dug the pota toes, I hoed back the soil with the seed wheat in it, as well as I could, and the next season I had a wonderful crop. I was a poor thresher, having had no experience, yet I had 16 bushels to take to Beauharnois mill, and had the straw been right threshed would have had 20. That Avas the first wheat grown on the fourth concession, and all my neighbors had to get a pickle of the flour. Some of us had got coavs and sheep, but none were able to buy a yoke of oxen, and for Avant of them we suffered much. The French Canadian carters charged us $1.50 a barrel to haul our potash from where Bougie is, about a mile east of the church, to Beauharnois, and a dollar more if they came up to the kettle for it, and often could not get them even at these prices. On an occasion Avhen there were 13 barrels ready, I determined Ave should haul it our selves. None of the others being willing to run the risk of going in debt for a yoke, I started out to the river, calling. first on Williamson, who had no money on hand. I walked to Captain Ogilvie's, where I got the loan, and bought tlie oxen. They did all the hauling, I charging half a dollar to take a barrel to the mouth of the creek, or a day's work, which wras generally given in preference. It would be about that time we got our first teacher, an elderly man Avho had been in a good Avay in Scotland, named Graves. I gave a spare building for a schoolhouse, and as there were only nine scholars to go to it, the fees had to be high, and were fixed at 4s 6d (90 cents) a month. It was well spent money, though hard for us to get, for he brought on the children wonder fully. He was an odd man, and would often, instead of rising in the morning, have the children stand round his bed, while he woukl hear them with his head on the pillow, and on fine days would leave the schoolhouse and take them out for a walk and teach them as they went along. Our food was coarse, chiefly potatoes, arid often difficult to get, but there never was anything like want. We shared with one another, and if a family ran short, they borrowed until they got a fresh supply. Everything had ' to be carried on the back from Beauharnois or the Chateaugay. One neighbor, who was going to have a bee, started to get a supply. The day was very hot and he trudged along wearily with his bag on his shoulder. On reaching home, he told his wife what he had been able to get, a quantity of peas and 2 pounds of butter. She opened the bag, but there was no butter, simply 282 THE OTHER CONCESSIONS. a greasy paper. We had great joking as we supped the peas, that the butter Avas in them though we could not see it, for it had soaked into them. The settling of the 3rd concession followed on that of the 4th, Robert Sinton and Archibald McEwen going into it in 1830, when lots Avere first given out, and James HoAvden finding a home on the 2nd the same year. In 1831 David Tait, an intelligent and worthy man, who lived to the patri archal age of 90, arrived from his native parish of Cockpen, and joined them. Like the 4th concession, the 3rd was a mere frog-pond during the early part of the season and to find dry spots for their shanties the settlers had to go to the rear of their lots, which brought them close to the 2nd. The saving feature in the land was the splendid bush that covered it, more especially on the 2nd concession, and which, turned into potash, maintained the settlers until discharges were opened and crops could be raised. How thick the bush was, melancholy proof was supplied by a painful incident. Two daughters of Neil Conley, both girls in years, went out to gather sap, for it wras sugar-time. They could not find their way back to their father's shanty. In their wanderings they separated1. The youngest Avas discovered by the searching parties that were speedily at work, but of the older not a trace could be found. There were all manner of surmises to account for her disappearance ; the most favored, that she had been kidnapped by Indians. Years rolled by, the land became cleared, and on 23, 2nd con., the fragile skeleton of the little maid Avas found. So dense was the forest, that the searchers had failed to see her, although within hail, almost, of the home she sought in vain to find. I could fill a page or two with the experiences of the settlers on these concessions, but they Avould be but a repetition of those giAren in Mr Symons' narrative. They, in time, reaped a rich reward, for the soil was of the best. In 1837 the settlers of the two concessions joined in raising a school, of which the first master Avas Thomas Cross. The lots on the 1st concession were passed by the Old Countrymen, who judged, from the timber on them, that the soil was light. In this they Avere CHARLES LAROCQUE. 283 mistaken, for the hemlock that abounded on this concession was second-growth, and the land equal to any in the district The few Scotch families now on it, went in after 1840. The "New Lands," as the concessions in the neighborhood of the St Louis were called, came to have a great name among those seeking homes, and were taken up as quickly as surveyed. At the lower end of the 5th range OrmstoAvn, about 1835, a settlement of Old Countrymen Avas formed, including four brothers of the name of Selkirk and Charles Robertson. Some years afterwards they were joined by a few othera They had much difficulty in sending their potash to market, having to float the barrels down a great discharge that had been dug out to Bryson's creek, and thence to the Chateaugay, until the 4th concession road Avas opened, which was not for many years, for a great swamp stretched between lots 4 and 10, dividing the concession and rendering communication between the two ends, except on foot, impracticable. When it became probable the tenure would be changed, the seignior stopped conceding lots, which checked the settling of the New Lands for several years. When deeds of free and common soccage could be given, the concessions were speedily filled ; the 5th range mainly by habitants from Ste Martine and the Basin, who paid $4 an acre. Along the St Louis the French Canadians kept creeping upwards from Beauharnois, but it was not until about 1834 that the first house was built on the site of the present village of St Louis de Gonzague. It was a small store, and stood on the southwest corner of the 4th concession road, owned by Charles Larocque, in many regards one of the most remarkable men the province has produced. His mother Avas a Highland woman, and he combined the best qualities of both races. After spending a number of years in the North west, he returned to his native province and entered business, opening stores at different points and carrying on a large trade in lumbering and contracting. Wholly uneducated, he had to rely on his prodigious memory for records of his transactions, and it rarely failed him even in trifling details. His store at St Louis he placed, in charge of his nephew 284 TITHES VS. PROGRESS. Isidore Larocque, afterwards the keeper of the first tavern in Valleyfield. When, in 1835, Gilbert Cook and his brothers, "natives of Cantyre, took up lots, Larocque 's was the only house in St Louis. Many Scotchmen followed the example of the Cooks, until they formed quite a settlement along the road that divides the 6fh and 7th ranges, and, slowly and with many hardships, redeemed a section of country now almost exclusively held by French Canadians. Below St Louis village, feAV Scotch settled along the river, due in part to BroAvn's being desirous to give the lots to the French and to his demanding $15 for the survey, instead of $10. Habi tants on the St Lawrence front drew them, and occasionally worked at making clearances for several years before sending their sons to occupy them. The bringing into close contact of the two races in the St Louis district, had a peculiar result. Watching the Old Country farmers, the habitants began to imitate them, by raising coarse grains and roots, by going in more for live-stock, and even seeding down an occasional field. The priests were alarmed for the effect upon their tithes, and exhorted their hearers to shun the innovations of the Anglais and to do as their fathers had done, continue to raise Avheat When Father Saya came he took a disinterested vieAV of the matter, and told his flock they would benefit themselves by copying the farming of the Scotch. A decision of the courts, which finally established that pease is grain and therefore liable to tithe, removed in great part this singular objection of the priesthood to a change in culture. So few roots did they raise, that hardly a habitant had more potatoes than would last over New Year, and, the Scotch settlers added largely to their incomes by selling to them in the spring. Mr Symons, finding in his neighbor at the corners, Charles Larocque, a congenial spirit, became intimate with him, and on his proposing he should join him as partner, he left his farm and took- up his abode in St Louis about 1841, Avhich, even then, was only a place of two or three houses. Mr Symons entered into his new sphere of life with the same ardor as he had shown in subduing the wilderness and was, SAWMILL AT ST. LOUIS. 285 before long, engrossed in many projects. After Wakefield's election he was at dinner with that gentleman, along with Daly, known as "the everlasting secretary," and Derbishire, the Queen's printer. In the course of conversation, the sub ject of seigniorial-tenure came up, and Daly abruptly asked Symons. what be had against the rule of the seigniors that he wished it ended. "Where I find most fault is," answered Symons, "that the seigniors are like the dog in the manger: what they will not use themselves, they will not let others get." He went on to explain that the settlement in which he lived suffered much from want of a sawmill, yet the seignior would neither build one on the rapids at St Louis nor allow anybody else to do so. Wakefield, on hearing this, said he was not aware that such was the case, and he would see to it that whatever powers were not wanted by the seignior would be sold to private persons. He was as good as his word, and singular to say, on the night following the day on which intimation was given to Mr Symons that he could have the power, Colborne's sawmill, built a few years before farther down the river, was burned by two habitants who alleged that its dam was drowning their land. Setting to work Mr Symons built a mill at the foot of the rapid, not being allowed to run a dam near the head of it, on account of. the land that would thereby be drowned. The country aboA7e was still in a state of nature, and only two proprietors had to be settled with, one being Cote, who owned the present show7-grou*nd The mill did famously until July, when the water failed, with a great stock of logs uncut. In casting about for a remedy, the report that lingered among old settlers, that a cut had been made from the St LaAvrence as a feeder early in the century, came to Mr Symons's mind and he applied to Mr Norval for information. He knew nothing of the circum stance and disbelieved in it, and, when asked to do so, searched in vain among the seigniory records for any refer ence to it. Shortly afterwards he accidentally stumbled upon a small parcel of papers, which related to the feeder in ques tion, consisting mainly of correspondence between Mr Rich ardson, the then seigniory agent, and Mr Winter, the. local RE-OPENING OF FEEDER. agent and surveyor, and Thomas Fingland, who had under taken the work. The locality of the canal and its dimensions were described. Armed with these documents, Mr Symons set out, accompanied by a French employe, to search for the long-lost canal. Said Mr Symons : Surveyors had run a line for a projected road from the head of the Beauharnois canal, then being built, to Hunting don, and I knew it must cross the feeder. We found the line, and carefully followed it through the bush, walking so far that I was afraid we had missed it, when my feet suddenly gave way and I found I was in a ditch of mud and slush that reached my waist. I called out to the man, that I had found what we were looking for. We were so thirsty that, before exploring it, we made our way to the lake, a mile distant, for a drink. The feeder was pretty clear but stagnant, which I found was due to the cut across the ridge to the north of the St Louis not being deep enough, over which the water was trickling. The feeder had been dug 3| feet deep, and I saw that all that was needed was to lower the cut across the ridge, and there Avould be abundance of water in the St Louis at the driest season. Satisfied that the project was entirely feasible, I sent an application to the company that then owned the seigniory to join me in doing the necessary work When Mr Symons' letter was laid before the directors, one of them asked what sort of a man this was who proposed to take water from the St Lawrence and give it back to it again, when he was answered that he was not a rich man, but one who never failed in anything he undertook. Authority was given, and having the seigniory's assistance Mr Symons cleared the feeder, and so widened and deepened it that, thenceforth, there was sufficient water for his mill and the seigniory's at Beauharnois. The cost was $4000, of which the seigniory was to pay half. By this time the company that held it was in difficulties, and, unable to pay cash, proposed that Symons and his partner Larocque should take the 1400 acres of unconceded land that lay alongside their property at $4 an acre, and the $2000 go in part payment, which they had to do, but lost by the transaction, for much of the land was marshy, and there was no road between St Louis and St Timothy until Mr Symons undertook to make one, which he did by laying the swampy portions with mill-slabs and ST LOUIS VILLAGE. 287 covering them with the soil dug from the ditches. The opening of the sawmill, with the consequent stimulus it gave to lumbering, brought in a number of French Canadian laborers and tradesmen, who put up shanties around it and the place began to wear the appearance of a village, to which the name of Rocqueville was given. On acquiring the 1400 acres, quarter acre lots were sold along the river for $30 a-piece, and the village, a long, straggling one, greAv apace. About 1846 Mr Symons (with the consent of the seigniory agent) added to his saAA7mill a gristmill, which was copied from the Athelstan mill, and its construction still further added to the business of the growing village. To help it on, Larocque offered the glass, nails, and shingles for a church, and, about 1846, a wooden building was raised, and a priest of many virtues, Father Saya, was the first to hold a regular charge. He was a strong temperance man and used his influ ence repeatedly to defeat all attempts at opening a tavern. As the place grew the inconvenience of having no place of entertainment for visitors was felt, particularly by Mr Symons, whose house was almost a place of public resort Represent ing this to the priest, an understanding was come to, that there should be a tavern and one only, and this compact has become traditional, for though St Louis is ten times larger now than it was then it has still only the one house of accom modation. As to church matters among the Protestants, they, from their communication being better with Beauharnois than with South Georgetown and" Ormstown, attended service there, and the Rev Mr Roach visited them regularly, and preached once a month in their houses. In 1842 the seigniory made present of 50 acres for a glebe, and on it a temporary building was raised as a place of meeting, and a congregation of nearly 50 families organized, to whom Mr Roach preached every third Sunday. The disruption broke up the little assembly, fully half following the Rev Mr Fettes, and building a good church at the eastern end of the village. 288 FIRST OCCUPANTS OF LOTS. NORTH GEORGETOWN. 1ST CONCESSION. 1 Francis Turner, came in 1842 3 John Galbraith, 1846 14 Win Douglas, 1844 15 James Carruthers 16 John Carruthers 18 Rev Dr Muir 19 Alex Galbraith, 1854 20 Thomas Watson, 1848 21 George Penny, 1842 22 Philyre Martin, 1844 23 Michael Martin, 1844 25 Walter Patton, 1844 2ND CONCESSION. 2 John Howden 3 James Watt 4 Andrew Hunter 5 Robert Brown and Alex. Craik 6 William Bursell and Jas. Martin 7 Thos. Bursell and James Brady 9 McNab 11 Lawrence Quig and Anthony Rigg 12 George Downs 13 Jean Perrot and Joseph de Grosselrers 14 Joseph Perrot 16 James Brodie 16 and 17 Peter McArthur 18 Alex. McArthur 19 Daniel McArthur 20 Robert Brodie, jr. 21 Robert Brodie, senr. 22 Duncan McCormick 23 James Hall, sold to Win. Hamilton 24 Andrew Elliot 25 James Dryden and Wm. Cochrane, who sold to James Tassie 26 James Howden 28 William Kilgour 3RD CONCESSION 1 and 2 John Alexander and Robert Alexander 3 John Somerville and James Alexander 4 William Donaldson, first; Samuel Bursell, son-in- law, 2nd 5 Robert Sinton 6 David Tait 7 Lewis Younie 8 Hugh Cowan, 1st ; Adam Paxton, 2nd; William & Thos. Thompson, 3rd 9 Duncan Campbell 10 Archd. McEwen 11 John McCormick 12 A. McEwen, jr., & Andrew Bennet 13 John Thompson, 1st; Robt. Brodie, 2nd; A. McDougalL 3rd; Wm. Anderson, 4th, and John Mair 5th 14 Robert Wilson, 1st, and Wm. Black 2nd 15 James Hunter, 1st ; Hugh Cowan, 2nd; Robert King, 3rd 16 John Lockerby 17 Neil Conley 18 T. & J. Pullen, 1st; Hugh McEwen, 2nd 19 Wm. Wilson & John Watt 20 Henry McKendrick and Wm. Leith 22 Donald McCoig 22 Andrew Bennet and Neil McNaughton 23 John Cheyne 24 Andrew McFarlane and Wm. Maxwell 25 John Elliot, 1st; Wm. Hall and Jas. Alexander 2nd (FIRST OCCUPANTS OF LOTS. 26 William Morrison 22 Cornelius McKeegan and 27 Roy James Cowley 4TH CONCESSION. 23 Robert Beatty 1 Anthony Rigg 24 Captain Cook 2 James Dryden 25 Archd. McKellar 3 James Hunter 28 Duncan McMillan 4 John Symons and James 29 William Wright Benning 30 John Heron 5 Hugh Symons and John 31 Adam Tennant and John Richardson Somerville 10 Michael Lynch 32 Ralph Young and James 12 John Sawyer Stewart 13 Charles Cumming 33 John Symons 14 Duncan Cumming 34 William Patton 15 William Hall, junr. 35 William Hall, senr. 16 John Hastie and Angus 36 William Kemp and John Menzies Hope 17 John McCoig BEAUHARNOIS ROAD. 18 John McNeil 7 John Anderson, 1844 19 Edward Thompson 8 George Mitchell, 1841 20 Alex. Cumming . 9 Robert Sutherland, 1846 21 John Cumming and Robert Dunn's mill, built Patrick O'Mullin 1869 HELENSTOAVN, SIXTH RjfcNGE Cadastral No. 107 St. L James Anderson 105 William Baird 93 James Tait No. 87 St L. John Gardner 69 David Brown 68 George Swanston 67 William Hunter 30 StEt Robert Dunn Occupants of lots in Ormstown will next chapter. be found at end of SO CHAPTER XVII. ORMSTOWN AND JAMESTOAVN. The settfement of the end of the 4th concession next the Chateaugay followed on that of the upper end. In appear ance it was riot inviting. The great fire of 1825 had swept over the section, leaving a wide track of blasted forest, the great pines standing, white and naked, like a forest of masts as far as the eye' could reach, while, where the land was wet, the fallen trunks' were matted by a thick growth of alder- bushes. The first to move in were John McNeil and Edward Thomson, who took up lots in 1829. The sons of the latter built a small sawmill on the creek which ran through his lot, called Evident, about 1840, which ran for several years. As the outlet of the lands west of it, which were all swampy at that time, it was a considerable stream, and kept the mill going until well on in summer. , Duncan Cumming, son of John, says : We came to the concession in 1831, when the only settlers before us at the south end of it were Thomson and McNeil. There was no road, and we had to carry what we brought in loads on our backs through the bush and brule. Owing to so many immigrants having come in that season, provisions were scarce, and oatmeal and flour were the same price that winter, $5 the quintal (112 lb). In the spring we ran out of food entirely, when, hearing John Harvey had peas, mother and I walked to his place, got a bushel for a dollar, and carried home the bag on our backs, by turns. The land was so very wet that many, in despair of making anything out of it, left. Oh, it was nasty, working in water nearly up to your knees. So little of the land was fit for raising grain, that for a long while we lived by potash-making, and the first year we made 9 barrels, for which we got $5 a 100 lb. It was a number of years after we came before a road was cut out to the Chateaugay, and horses were only used in sleighing-time. At the north end of the concession the road was opened as far as John Richardson's, who was a tailor, ORMSTOWN CONCESSION. 291 but the swamp that intervened between his lot and McNeil's, was not spanned until 1841, when it was taken up by French Canadians, and is now a tine flat of fertile land. Alexander Cumming started a small still, which had the repute of making the best Scotch whisky in the district. In his narrative of exploring the country between his new home and the Chateaugay, John Symons expresses his aston ishment at encountering people who had settled on the Ormstown concession. That concession was surveyed by Manuel in 1826 and 1827, and before he was done settlers began to move in, and who were mainly young, unmarried men, few of whom knew7 "anything about farming, being weavers, shoemakers, coal-miners, and the like. The first settler on the lower, or eastern end, was Alexander Fisher, a young man from Longue Pointe, whose people had sent him into the bush to be out of the way of evil companions. Mrs Robt. Barr thus tells the story of the coming of her people : We belonged to Houston, Renfrewshire, and left in June, 1827. I had four children and my husband's parents, and my brother, Peter Lindsay, accompanied us. We had been advised to go to Sandy Shaw's when we reached' Montreal, and telling him we. wanted an empty house to stay in until we got land, he soon quartered us. My husband went to Mr Brodie of Petite Cote to make enquiry about a relative for whom he had a letter, when Brodie advised b,im to go to the Chateaugay. The men started off to hunt land, and went up as far as Trout river. The lower Ormstown concession had just been thrown open and everybody advised them to go in there, that the land was so good it wTould prove the garden of the district They examined it and went to Beauharnois to draw lots 5 and 6 on the second concession, but they met at the seigniory-office William Rice coming out at the door after securing them and No. 7. My husband and Lindsay then took 5 and 6 on the 3rd rafige, and coming back to the eity, we started together for our new home. At Lachine Ave went on board Gregory Dunning's bateau, and it took all day to get to the Basiri Next day carts brought us up to David BrysOn's. The roads were muddy arid I thought Canada a very dirty sort of country. The Brysons were very kind and offered us houserOom until a shanty was built, but we would not hear of that, there being so many of us, and asked for the use of their cow-stable, Which we cleaned out and put up 292 THE FIRST TO MOVE IN. beds in. Building a shanty proved a long job, for my hus band was a carpenter and he wanted to put up a good one. He squared the logs and forming a sawpit, they turned out boards with two frame-saws he brought with him and boarded the floor, ceiling, and roof. It was a good house. While they worked, I cooked and took out their provisions to them. There was no road and the land was so cut up with SAvamps that there was no travel through the bush, and the only way to get out or in was to follow the creek that comes out below Allan's Corners. As soon as we got settled down, I left to pay a visit to Hugh Barr and his wife on Trout river, who had been old neighbors in Scotland. Tying my shoes and stockings in my handkerchief and pinning up my skirts, I started, carrying my babe on my haunch. It proved to be a fearfully warm day, and I suffered much from thirst, for I could not bear the Chateaugay water, from its being soft There was just one house at OrmstoAvn, that of old Jones. A Frenchman passed on horseback and made signs he would carry the child, but I wadna trust him. Being new to the country and afraid of the bush, I asked if I would have to pass through any on my Avay, and was told no, but after I passed Dewittville there was nothing but woods until I reached Huntingdon, where there were only a few houses. I asked at one my road, and the woman said that Mrs Barr had just left, that she had had a quilting-bee (I neArer let on that I did not know what that was), and she pointed her out Avith others ahead of me. I started off, but did not overtake them. When I came in sight of Mr Barr's shanty, they recognized me and came running out, and he got well-water, and mixed home made vinegar and maple-sugar with it, and bade me sip it They were real glad to see me and so was I to meet them. When the house was ready, it was impossible to draw our luggage out to it, and it was a month before the New Year when there was frost and snow enough to allow of an ox- team going in with a load There were other settlers who went in at the same time as we did. There were Robt Beatty, an old soldier, who had a pension, AA'ho went on to lot 2, 2nd concession, and with him James Brown, who had drawn No.l, stayed until his family arrived from Glasgow. He was a jokey, clever man, and a Deist. He came to a miserable end. Widow Hood, who came from Alloa, and had several grown-up sons, went on to lot 1, 2d con., and being strong in help (two of her sons were ship-builders), had a house finished before any of us. Rice was an Englishman and an old soldier, lacking a thumb that was shot off, and had been in the country some A HARD STRUGGLE. 293 time, living at St Laurent; he did not move on to his lots, but sent up a man to chop and make ready. We spent the winter in enlarging our clearance and were eager about it. At the sound of every tree that fell, we would give a youp, and I Avould start it, so glad was I that a bit more opening in the woods was made. I Avent out and helped, brushing the tops of the trees, so that the men would have room to work. It was very lonesome and so difficult to get provisions in, having to Avalk sometimes through two feet of snow7 on the river to Reeves's to buy what we wanted. I have often walked there myself. Rice had sent a cow to his man, and on it proving farrow, he wanted to sell it, and we bought it, and a grand milker she afterwards proved to be. We got some hay from David Bryson that kept her living until the spring, and then I went, over to the ridge and cut the yellow flowers (mayfloAvers) and brought them over to her by the basketful, for we had her tethered to a stump, being afraid we would lose her in the bush. We had a good bit of clear ance ready when seed-time came, and I helped to log it. The potatoes we got to plant, we had to carry in from the river. Besides the potatoes, we planted some corn, and both did extraordinarily well. When the potatoes were dug, Ave hoed in some fall-wheat, which yielded abundantly. To carry it to the barn, my husband made a barrow of light cedars, and a heavy lift it Avas. We made no potash for several years, being unable to buy a kettle and coolers, so we saved our" ashes, storing them under cover and digging, a hole in the centre to put in the new hot ashes, so that they kept well, and at the first snow sleighs came in, from as far as Boyd's at Dunn's1 mill, and bought them, the price running from 14 to 20 cents the bushel Our mill was at Huntingdon, and we carried out and in the bags to some house on the fronfcj.the bags going by Reeves' canoes. The Avetness of the-land was our great vexation. The water came down upon us from the lands of the 4th and 5th concessions in streams, and in sum mer Jay about us in green pools. It was a Avonder there was no fever and ague, but there was not There being no proces- verbals in those days, it seemed impossible to get discharges opened. For two years running our crops of grain were drowned out, and we had to buy wheat to pay the seignior. The settlers were poor enough, but never Avanted for food, there being aye enough of potatoes and jonny-cake, and we were as hearty and conteuted-% lot of people as you Avould want to know. We missed oatmeal more than anything, the old folks especially, but after a while we always managed to 294 FILLING UP OF THE LOTS. buy enough for them. My husband was often for giving up and going to a city, but I urged him to hold on, telling him his pay as a carpenter would not keep us all, and that the land was our own and would be a home so long as we needed one. We never got oxen. Several years after we came we bought a mare from James Sadler. Once discharges were cut and the land dried, the settlement got on fast I cannot tell the year the road was cut out to. Paddy Mullin's; it was a good Avhile after we came. It w7as not of much use, from the water running into it. The road mentioned by Mrs Barr came out a little below Point Round and Avas the only outlet in that direction for a number of years, and until the concession-line was continued out to the 4th concession, which was effected with difficulty. Farther west, there was a path that followed the creek that empties below Ormstown. The side-line to that village was not suitable for travel until about 1840. The bulk of the settlers came in 1830, when John Cook, the Tates, William Elliot, Leitch, Ovans and others came in. The Tates were brothers and highly respectable Englishmen. Thomas opened a store on 12, the first on the concession, subsequently moving to the corners, when the road was opened to the village. . That road Ought to have . been on the allowance left for it 4 acres farther east, but was placed where it is to suit the grist mill, then planned. The worst lot on the concession was 15, which James Sangster describes as having been covered with hemlock and having no hardAvood, and so Avet that nothing would grOAV until it was ditched, arid to do that they had to Avait for the tree roots to rot. Until then the family lived by the father's labors, who was a shoemaker, and the young men made potash elsewhere. On the opposite side of the road were the McGerrigles and Robert McClenaghan, Pro testants from the North of Ireland, and John Campbell, who came in 1827. Waddell, a brewer by trade, started a small brewery behind his shanty, which was the ruin of not a few. On the lots secured by Rice, was a ridge covered with a fine maple bush, to which, up to a late date, the Indians came every spring to make sugar. In 1832 a schoolhouse Avas raised on the corner of 13, of which Logan was appointed UPPER ORMSTOAVN CONCESSION. 295 teacher. He took up a lot, but was a poor hand at clearing. It was said of him, that, to avoid the fatigue of working in the sun, he would go to felling trees in the summer-nights by the light of the moon, and in his nightshirt! .Once the settlers got a start, the concession advanced rapidly, and there are now no finer farms in the province. There were not the same drawbacks to contend with in the upper end of the concession as in the lower, for the land west of the side-line road Avas more easily drained and more generally covered by hardwood bush. The first to take up lots were William Graham, David Drummond, John Russell, Jas. Leggatt, Archd. McDougall, and Jas. Kennedy, who moved on lots towards the close of the season of 1827 or in the year following. These families were all from Scotland, and were followed by a fresh accession from the same country, John McDougall, Robt Wetherston, and James Cavers. The road by which they got in was the path made by the American squatters (page 51) before the war, along the east bank of McClintock's (then called Smith's) creek, and the bridges they had made across the smaller streams that flowed into it Avere still standing. The first-comers, of course, selected the lots with these old clearances, which gave them quite a start, for they got some crop in at once, and they fared much better than their neighbors. All the settlers were poor, Russell being the only one that had brought money with him, and the first few years was a struggle for 'existence, the land being so wet that no seed could be put in until June. Had it not been for potash, they could not have stayed. As it was, it was potatoes three times a day with the most of them. Russell, a worthy man, opened a store on his lot, and did a fair business for a number of years. James Whithall, an Englishman, who came out in 1832, gi>7es this account of the state of the settlement : I landed at Montreal on the 22nd May and left at once to see my brother, William. I crossed from the Chateaugay road at Cain's, and came out on the Ormstown road-line at William Watson's. The land was simmering in water and I had to walk mostly on .'ogs. In crossing a creek, a rotten 296 ' REV. JAMES MILLER. piece of Avood gave way, and up I was to my middle. I asked if there was#no better road, and said if there was not, it was the last time I would travel it. When my brother's lot was reached, we found he was not at home, having gone to put up another house on a more favorable spot. Burton, who was with me, had been along with my brother as a coal- hawker in London, and as we got on top of a hill and my brother's new house came in sight, with himself on top shing ling, Burton put his hands to his mouth and gave the coal- hawker's cry, when my brother sprang up and cried, "That is Burton." He was overjoyed to see us. Sammy Carruthers was helping my brother to finish his house and proposed I should buy his lot, No. 45. I wanted to go to Upper Canada, but finally was persuaded to buy. It cost me $100, and for 5 or 6 years I could not raise enough off it to keep my family. My brother was poorly off and glad to get the small legacy I brought him. The timber had been plundered off my lot, and the hemlocks would not make ashes. I burned a heap once, and after I had done so, a lad told me it Avas no use to leach such ashes, which sickened me with potash-making, and I turned to clear my land. To get my grain ground, I had often to put a bag on my head, arranged something like a night-cap, and walk along the logs that crossed the swampy bits to Dewittville. The year before James Whithall came in, the concession- road had been chopped its entire length, but was not made passable for vehicles. A better road to the river than the trail along the creek being a necessity, the chopping out of the side-line road to Ormstown was begun in 1831, and was finished the following year, though it was not until the grist mill was opened at Ormstown that it was stumped and made fairly passable. The jog of 4 acres between the upper and lower ends of the concession was done by the surveyor, in order to accommodate the line to the bend of the river, so that the lots might average 100 arpents each. Amid all their struggles, the settlers- of the upper end of the concession were not unmindful of the need of education for their children, and in 1830 they put up a schoolhouse on the site of the present, hiring one Hall, who taught for a year, and was succeeded by the Rev James Miller, who during his stay of less than a year preached alternate Sundays at Ormstown THE RIVER FRONT. 297 and Huntingdon. He was succeeded by John Donaldson, who became closely identified with the concession. On leav ing, Mr Miller taught a while in a new schoolhouse on Moore's lot The Moores were Irish Protestants, and industrious and substantial. From the upper OrmstoAvn concession to the St Lawrence there were no settlements, the country being a tamarac swale, with clumps of pine on the ridges. The 4th and 5th ranges were surveyed by Livingstone in 1836 and 1837, and Edward Sproul was the first to move into the upper end of it, which he did in April, 1838. He was an Irish Protestant and had been for several years a resident of Hemmingford. He made a straight track through the bush on lot 38, 3jxl con., to his lot, 37, and which was the outlet until the road ;was made by the yellow house 10 years later. Archibald, a, son of Hugh McKellar's, followed, and took up 38. Others pressed in, and the few desirable lots were secured. They were sold in free and common soccage. The black flats had no attraction for English-speaking farmers, and were overspread by Canadians. Much of the tamerac, before the lots were sold, was cut into railway-ties and sent to England. On the north bank of the Chateaugay, between Ormstown and Dewittville, the lots were slow7 in being cleared, James Sadler, who went on to lot 45 so late as 1835, says: "When I moved on the lot was early in the spring and I put up a log shanty with a sheet for the door, and managed to chop enough to get in a lock of wheat, oats, corn, and potatoes, and after that we had enough to eat. The stony, ridges Avere best then. There was quite an old clearing, on Furlong's point, and a small one in front of No. 44, both" said to have been made by the Americans before the war,v;but the only opening on my lot was on the creek, where the deer had made a lick in coining to drink The country back of my lot was full of deer and wolves." McEwen and Pace were among the first on the river and were followed by Michael Furlong, who came in 1824 and was joined the year after by James Finn, who, like him, came from Wexford, and whose presence led to the forming of a considerable Irish Catholic settlement 298 CATHOLIC CHURCH BUILT. 40 & 41, bought by the Finns, had been taken up by 2 brothers, Scotchmen of the name of Anderson, Avho after doing some work, gave up the idea of being farmers and went to Mon treal. Before them, however, had been Americans, for there were small clearances and a well upon them. That fall or in the following summer, they were joined by Patrick Mullin, John Murphy, John Scully, Patrick and Mathew Kavanagh, William Milloy, and Frank Hughes, who all settled within a communicable distance of one another. They were drawn together accidentally, for none had been neighbors in Ireland Their struggles for the first five years were painful, owing to there being no timber on their lots fit for making potash. There were occasions w7hen, for three months at a time, they had no bread, and lived mainly on potatoes. Poor as they were, they manifested a laudable anxiety to have a place of worship, and in 1827 they took the first step by fencing in a graveyard on lot 40, given by James Finn, the first to be buried being a child of James Keegan's. In the following year the contract was given to the brothers Wright to frame and put up .a church, which was finished so far as to permit of being occupied for occasional service. The ten families who had erected the church were not content. They must have a resident priest, and they put up a log house to the south of the church and on the riA7er bank. The first priest left, under a cloud, and was succeeded in 1832 by Father Moore, a South of Ireland man, who remained many years and commanded the respect -of the Protestants by his moder ation and his efforts to promote the best interests of his people. He Avas a well-read man and delighted in gardening . and other pursuits which were novel in the backwoods. In front of his house his name bloomed during the summer in flowers. In 1832 a belfry was added to the church, and at the raising of the bell Father Moore indulged in a practical joke. All the male portion of the congregation gathered to hoist the bell, which, with their imperfect appliances, had to be done by main strength. When about 5 feet clear of the ground, the priest, who was standing behind the group, took out ¦ of his pocket a sun-glass and concentrated with it the THE OUTARDE, CONCESSION. 299 sun's rays on a piece of punk upon the rim of the bell, when it burst into flame. One of the men conceived it to be a miracle, and exclaiming "Glory be to God!" sank upon his knees. His example was infectious, and the good father had difficulty in controlling his features. In 1835 the church Avas plastered and finished, and for a long series of years it was the only place of worship west of Ste Martine, and was attended by the settlers of Huntingdon as well as those of Chateaugay. It continued in use until 1861, when, on the 13th of October, the new church was opened at Ormstown. The old one was then levelled and the only indication of its site, are the tombstones in the disused graveyard. The settlement of the concessions on the JamestoAvn side of the Chateaugay, above Ormstown, began in 1825, when a number of immigrants, mainly North of Ireland men, took up lots and placed their families upon them while they worked on the Lachine canal. Of these Francis Smith, a Tyrone Catholic, was the first to make much of a clearance, having several sons. He was led to select the lot he secured from a fine intervale of 10 acres, Avhich is now a stony field. James Ross, who had chosen number 3, but did not intend to live upon it until the Lachine canal Avas finished, allowed Smith the use of it and he raised his shanty on the bank at the mouth of the Outarde. The rapids being too deep to ford, he built a scow. The difficulty of communication with the north side of the river was a great draAvback to Smith and his brother settlers, for there was no bridge at Ormstown until 1842. The Outarde flowed through solid woods, un tenanted save by wild beasts, and wolves were so plentiful and bold that they came at night to Smith's door to snatch up the scraps that might be strewn around it. Matthew W. Harrison, a schoolmaster from near Dublin, took up t,wo lots the same year as Smith, and when the population increased sufficiently opened school in his shanty, where he taught with success. He was "a character" — that is, his individuality was strongly marked. ' Among his peculiar habits was draw ing in his firewood in the shape of a log long enough to afford him a seat at one end while the blaze of the other warmed 300 SQUIRE HARRISON. him. His substitute for a table was still more ingenious. Spreading the food on the floor of the shanty beside the trap-door to the .cellar, he sat down, and enjoyed his meal as heartily as if his legs had been beneath a mahogany table instead of dangling in the cellar. He kept no cart or other vehicle, and gathered his hay and grain by dragging them with a horse into a stock in the centre of the field. After his marriage late in life, he built a good house and bought fine furniture, of which he took slight comfort, for visitors found a mahogany table upset across the door of the parlor, and the room thereby fitted to hold grain. He was early ap pointed a magistrate, and in that capacity gave peculiar decisions, the most singular being one where a man, who had long been at enmity with his neighbor, brought him up on some trumpery allegation. The Squire ruled that the court adjourn to alloAV of the two men being shut up in a barn alone to fight it out. This was done, and the quarrelsome pair settled their differences for the time being by giving each other a hearty pounding. In sitting on a case at Dewittville, the trousers of his worship were so dilapidated that one of* his knees was exposed, but he maintained the dignity of the bench by carefully covering it with the lapel of his coat With all his oddities and miserliness, the Squire was a good teacher and neighbor, and a useful man in his generation. His severity with his scholars avos lightened by the humor and drollery of his native country. Thus, on the occasion of a quarrel among the boys, which had involved a number in something approaching a riot, he held an enquiry which made clear to him. who were the ringleaders. . Addressing the school with due gravity, he said the custom was, in the Old Country, to have such disputes settled by a boxing-match between the leaders, and if both sides Avould agree to such* an arbitration, he would superintend the fight and see that it was fairly conducted. The boys eagerly agreed, when he ordered the two leaders to strip to their trousers. Picking the two next most culpable in the row as seconds he directed them to strip also, assuring them that was the correct style When the boys faced one another on the schoolroom floor, THOMAS TAYLOR. 301 waiting for the word to begin, the teacher suddenly drew out his taAvse and laying it on the four pairs of bare shoulders, leathered the lads round and round the room, amid the shouts and laughter of the onlookers, and even of one of the sufferers who was more tickled by the teacher's witty craft than stung by his lash. On the river front was Terence Smith, who,' in 1831, set up a still and made poteen, to the injury of himself and his neighbors. On Jamestown island, James McCartney, an Irish Protestant, built a shanty on lot 7 in 1828 and Avas its first settler. He was followed by William Brown and Thomas Taylor, who was a superior man in muny respects. He was a native of East Calder, Scotland, and had been educated for the Baptist ministry, but, unable to get a charge, became a schoolmaster, in which capacity he acted both in his native country and in England. In 1826 he emigrated, and, having a family, was advised by Mr Snowdon and Mr Brodie of Petite Cote to take up land on the Chateaugay. In putting up his shanty, he asked the neighbors to make it long enough so that one end might do for a school-room, which was done, and there he taught the children of the settlers, who could give him little compensation, for 5 or 6 years. On the Sundays he held divine service in the little school-room. Like too many of the teachers of his day, he was very severe. Among the first settlers on the Outarde was Richd. Hamilton, who lost a son in 1830, while planting potatoes, by a tree being blown down upon him, an event that made a deep impression upon the settlement, and which the father, commonly known as the Duke of Hamilton, did not long survive. The first settler on the Outarde, lot 44, was an Irish Catholic, Francis Hughes, who came in 1827. Of the days of the first settlers on the Outarde the following narrative by John, son of Robert Woodrow, gives a graphic sketch: We came from county Down and landed at Quebec on the 10th June, 1830. Several other ships with emigrants came in at the same time as ours, so that the steamer for Montreal was overcrowded; had 1100 on board. We were so close 302 THE OUTARDE. packed Ave could not lie down. In lake St Peter the steamer, the Richelieu, ran aground and we lay there half a day. By the time we landed at Montreal six or seven children were smothered. Complaint was lodged with the mayor, and I understood afterwards that the captain was punished by the suspending of his license. Our destination was the Gore, where we1 knew the Hendersons and Wilson, and we started for there. At the Portage (Dewittville) we stayed overnight with Todd, who was a kind man to the emigrants. He told my father that the Gore was a poor stony place and that he should, instead of going there, take up clay land There was a carpenter, George Stewart, working at Todd's at the time, and he said he had 3 lots on the Outarde, with 20 acres cut and burned, and he would give us one, with the use of part of the clearance, and assist in putting up a shanty, if we would pay him in work Father accepted the offer, and w7e moved on to the lot, on which a stick had not been cut, living in a tent of hemlock boughs until we could get a shanty raised. On the burned clearance we logged a piece arid planted 12 or 14 bushels of potatoes, which we bought from Sangster, below Ormstown, and I carried them on my back, 1£ bushels at a time. In the fall we dug 340 bushels of the finest potatoes I ever saw. We have no such crops now. One year we had oats as high as Billy Finn, and he was the tallest man in the settlement, 6 feet 3 inches, and that, too, on land you would now declare the plow never passed over, for it is a stony ridge to-day, though then you would only see a stone peeping out here and there. I have sown oats as late as the 5th July, and reaped a bountiful crop, without a speck of rust, and planted potatoes on the 11th July, which grew full size, but were soft and we fed them to the cattle. The country Avas heavily timbered, particularly south of us, where there was great black ash and elm. I remember once of my father standing in the middle of our lot and asking me, "Will we ever get cleared this far back ?" To-day there is not even firewood on that very lot There was no road when we came or for 10 years after; we had no use for one, having neither horses nor waggons. We had to tramp along a blazed track that followed the Outarde to the rapids, where we crossed the Chateaugay in a canoe, and many a time I had to return home on finding the canoe on the other side. If we had ashes or produce to market, we had to carry or drag the load as we best could, and hire a horse and cart on crossing the Chateaugay. By arid by we joined in building a flat boat, big enough to carry a horse and cart, and it was LAND O'CAKES. 303 tied up at Hamilton's, with a good landing on either bank The second year of our settlement I carried a bag holding 1| bushels of rye to Henderson's mill (over 13 miles) Trout river. It Avas easier carrying it back, for they took big toll in those days. I had to go there, for the mill at Huntingdon had been stopped from injuries received during the freshet — the great July freshet of 1831 — which filled the river with lumber and many farmers fished out good lots of 3-inch pine plank. Macarthur had started his oatmeal mill and we went to it by canoe, carrying the bags round the three rapids to make sure they would not be wet. When the bridge was built at Orms town we cut out the road, but it was long before it was of much use, it was so full of holes. My father hearing the neighbors talk of the Land O'Cakes, thought it must be a good settlement to have such a name, so that the year after we came he sent me tc visit it. The only way into it was a shanty-road cut out by Colborne, the lumberman, and it started from opposite Marratt's (lot 14, Ormstown). I fol lowed it and came Out at where the Fitzgerald brothers lived, and who had settled there the same year as Ave did. They were anxious I should get my father to moA7e, but I saw that the land was poor, with a few good intervales. John Helm of Elgin, Alexander, and some more afterwards joined them. They had a hard time for want of an outlet, their only road being the ridge that runs out to the Chateaugay 3 lots below Ormstown, along which they dragged their barrels of potash and then put them on a canoe of Peter Reid's, and took them to Cross, or whoever was buying. In returning home I thought I would save part of the way by taking a short cut across the bush and lost myself. As there were wolves, I climbed a tree and did not close an eye all night. At sunrise I took my bearings as well as I could and struck, after a while, a lumber-road, which I thought was the one I had left. It was not, and I came out at the Blockhouse. I remember well old Mr Craige exclaiming, on seeing me, "Where hae ye cam frae?" Ori telling him, and adding that I A^as very hungry, his re mark was, " My puir laddie, come awa in." I made a hearty breakfast of porridge, bread and milk. The great drawback of the settlement, the want of a proper outlet, was overcome about 1840, when the seignior built a bridge across the Cha teaugay. After that, rapid progress Avas made on our side. When we came the Yankee war-road (the path cut out by Gen. Izard, see page 92) was quite plain. It ran the length of our lot: and crossed the Outarde by what we called. "the Yankee rapids" and then ran down the island to Terry's. 304 EARLY RESURRECTIONISTS. That there would some day be a village oil lot 23 of Orms town was apparent, from the fine water-power that ran in front of it, but it was slow in coming into being. In 1823 Thomas Sadler, a county Cavan Protestant, went on to 21, attracted by "the American clearance on the point, and set up his forge,'for he Was a blacksmith. About the same time Edward Jones acquired 22. He was also a North of Ireland man, had served in the army, and enjoyed a sergeant's pen sion. Although a tall, strongly-built man he did not care about work and led a lazy, drunken life, varied by bickerings with his wife, in a squalid and exceedingly dirty shanty which stood on what is now village lot 283. In 1834 he sold to a Montreal bailiff, Robert Lovell, Avho chanced that way on a legal errand, and left a lot he had done almost nothing to improve. Lot 23 the seignior would not sell, reserving it as a mill-site and for the prospective village. The clearance on its front, made by the American squatters, was in charge of David Bryson, who raised an occasional c*rop of oats off it A level bit, west of the side-line road, was used for many years as the place of assembly for the militia, when the farmers turned out on the King's birthday, answered the roll-call, and were treated by their captains. In the old burial-place of the Americans a grave was opened early in the winter of 1829 to receive the body of Andrew Foster, who was killed by a tree falling upon him while working on his lot, 34, 1st con. Ormstown. Word was sent to a son of the lumberman Moreau, who was studying medicine and anxious to get subjects. Accompanied by his brother, who was studying law, they drove up from Montreal, resurrected the body with difficulty, from the ground being frozen, and started for their father's camp, near Dewittville, on their way to the city. They had been observed at their unhallowed deed, and the alarm being given, their traineau was pursued. Being hard pressed, they flung the body over Finn's bridge. Their pursuers passed it unobserved, and kept right on. Near Dewittville they missed their prey, but after a while got again on the scent, and, on arriving at Moreau's camp, found the two youths innocently engaged in cooking a late . CHURCH MATTERS. 305 supper. They denied all knowledge of the deed, until, on searching the stable, their horse wras seen to be covered Avith foam. Forcing the youths to go back with them, the sturdy backwoodsmen compelled them to carry to the sleigh the body from where they had flung it, to recoffin and bury it. On the west side of 23 lived the brothers McNeil and Leish man, who came in 1822. The first movement towards creating a A7illage on 23 Avas an effort, in 1829, to build a church, a log- building, 20x26, that stood at the north-west end of the present church. The intention of the farmers was that McWattie should use it instead of going to Rutherford's, but he became so discredited that it was left unfinished, and in the summer of 1831 the Ormstown settlers joined Avith those of Georgetown in endeavoring to secure the services of a o © reputable clergyman and one whose official acts would be legal. In August, 1831, a memorial was signed by the settlers of the English river and the Chateaugay, praying the Glas- goAv Colonial society to send them a minister. They stated that "in the various settlements the lands are mostly occupied by Presbyterians, and a very great majority are by birth, principle and education, attached to the doctrine and discip line of the Church of Scotland." In furthering this memorial Dr Mathieson was the sole agent, and during the summer be fore McWattie's death he frequently visited the Chateaugay, preaching, baptizing, and even re-marrying several couples who had grown dubious as to the legality of the knot Mc Wattie had tied. The Glasgow society favorably considered the request, and induced the Rev Archd. Colquhoun, a young man newly married, to accept the charge, they guaranteeing him $500 a-year for a limited period and assisting him in paying the expense of going to Canada. ' A short time afte'r his ordination by the presbytery of Lochcarron, July 14, he sailed for Quebec, where he landed in October, He was favorably received by the people of' his new7 charge, into which he was formally inducted on the 14th November, and took possession of a small house that had been provided until a manse could be built. In anticipation of his coming, the Ormstowoi and Jamestown people united in providing a better 21 306 REV. ARCHD. COLQUHOUN. church than the log-building, which ultimately fell to William Cross, who used it as a shoe-shop. The body of a good-sized frame-building was raised beside the site of the present, and after it had been- partially boarded work was suspended from want of means. When Mr Colquhoun arrived it was rendered fit for occasional use, but it was not floored until 1835. Until then, the sleepers in front were covered with loose boards. In rear the people sat upon them, with their feet on the ground. Of an ardent temperament, arid finding the state of society and his surroundings otherwise very different from what he had anticipated, Mr Colquhoun applied himself to work a change by pulpit denunciations, and before many months he had come to look upon the leading members of the Georgetown congregation as his enemies and the enemies of the Gospel, and described their conduct and the consequences it would entail with such force and plainness that they nick named him "Brimstone Colquhoun" and favored the proposal to give a call to another minister who would preach in the new church that was begun on lot 25, North Georgetown, but, owing to subsequent events, was not completed until a num ber of years afterwards. Mr Colquhoun's position in George town grew so unpleasant that he decided on leaving it and on going to Ormstown, which was now formed into a separate charge. Misunderstandings, chiefly financial, arose in time between him and the Ormstown people, followed by painful recriminations, which were ended, just before an examination by the presbytery was about to be made, by his accepting a call in Ontario. He left Ormstown in the spring of 1835. From the time he withdrew, the adherents of the Georgetown congregation were without religious ministrations other than those supplied by the Montreal ministers and Mr Roach; Dr Mathiesori, especially, continuing to take a deep interest in them, and again he was the means of getting them a minister. In the beginning of April, 1836, he welcomed on his arriA7al in Montreal James Creighton Muir, who had been sent to Canada by the Glasgow Colonial Missionary society. Mr Muir was born in Dumfries, in 1799, was educated at Edin burgh, and was licensed as a minister of the Kirk of Scotland DR. MUIR. 307 in 1832. After acting as tutor for a short time in the family of Justin McCarthy (father of the historian) he obtained em ployment in his proper calling as city missionary at Port Glasgow, which he folloAved for tAvo years, when he decided on going to Canada, for which he sailed, by way of New York, in February, 1836. Dr Mathieson advised him to choose either Georgetown or Beechridge, both of which were anxiously waiting for ministers. As the sleighing was about done, no time was to be lost if he desired to recross the St Lawrence, and on the first Monday in April he started for Beauharnois. Dr Muir noted how cautiously the driver led his horse on the ice at Point Claire, and the rapidity with which he crossed. Leaving him at the house of the Rev Walter Roach, whom he found, with his then Old Country notions, engaged in a rather unministerial task, namely, taking away the banking of his house, the driver turned his cariole at once, and dashed for the crossing over the lake. The necessity for his haste he found out was the dangerous state of the ice, an aAvful instance of which had been given the preceding week, when a newly married couple, in return ing from their wedding jaunt to Montreal, had broken through and disappeared, horse and all, in the twinkling of an eye. Mr Roach gave him a most hospitable reception, and drove him that week to Georgetown, the first house he stayed at being that of Robert Brodie, who Avas an elder of the church- Mr Roach then took him to Huntingdon, in order to intro duce him to the Rev Mr Walker. To reach the house of the- latter (now occupied by Dr Cameron, No. 190) they had to pick their way among stumps, while back of it was the virgin forest. As one of the sights of the place, Mr Walker took his guest to the bank of the river, where, in a clump of trees stood the wigwam of one of those Indians who made a prac tice of coming to the upper waters of the Chateaugay to camp during the winter, returning to Caughnawaga, when the ice broke up, with a canoe-load of furs and skins. The Indian they found engaged in skinning a muskrat for dinner. Having preached several times in the Georgetown church and in the English-river schoolhouse, a call was presented to him 308 REV. JAMES ANDERSON. in the end of June, but from the presbytery in those days meeting seldom he was not ordained and inducted until the 29th September into a charge which he retained until death released him 45 years afterwards — a continuous pastorate without precedent in Quebec, and all the more remarkable that, from his fragile appearance, his people anticipated he would die young. His first duty was to A'isit and prepare a list ofj his congregation, when he found he had 110 families under his care, of whom only 10 had children over 14. years of age, shoAving that the overwhelming majority were young couples, recently come out, who had only infant families. Of the 110 families, 65 lived on the English-river. To meet the wants of the rising generation, he organized four Sunday- schools in different parts of his charge, which were attended by above a hundred children, and formed a congregational library. He preached regularly at South Georgetown, in the English-river schoolhouse, and in the church at Brodie's. In July, 1838, a session was formed and the sacrament w7as dis pensed for the first time on the 5th August, Avhen there were 180 communicants. The call presented to him was accom panied by a guarantee that he would receiA7e a yearly salary of £90 ($360) payable in advance.' Col. Brown, the seigniory agent, had subscribed £10 of. the amount, and that Avas the first money he got. Of the total stipend promised he. for a long term of years, never got over £50, and he used to say that had it not been for the £10 from the seigniory (after-' wards increased to £20) and the £30 he got from the clergy • reserves, he could not have lived. The Sunday-school organ ized Avas not the first on the Chateaugay, for John Harvey (page 45) who was a conscientious man, had been in the habit of gathering the children of his neighbors in his house and hearing them read the Scriptures, which he explained. Resuming the -narrative of church affairs at Ormstown," peace was restored to the infant congregation by the indue- ¦ tion, on the 14th July, 1835, of the Rev James Anderson, who was born at Cromarty in 1797, and was sent to Canada by the Glasgow Colonial Missionary society. xAfter reserving a sufficient portion in front for the expected village, the seignior THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 309 divided the rear of lot 23 betAveen the Presbyterian and Epis copalian congregations, the latter receiving the eastern half. The congregation, not being able to build a manse, Mr Anderson bought a village lot and built, in 1838, a house at his own expense. He Avas a good man "and an excellent preacher and served his people disinterestedly, for up to his death, in 1861, he received little from them. For a long time the annual subscription was $2, and the feAV Avho gave $1 were considered liberal. From his flock he never got more than F>200 in any one year, and could not have lived had he not received an equal amount from the clergy reserves and the seignior. On his being settled over them, the congrega- © O ' © © tion were desirous of completing the church, but it Avas 1839 before it was lathed, plastered, and otherwise finished, and until then there were no proper seats, except those a few of the farmers had made for themselves. When John Donaldson, the schoolmaster of the upper OrmstoAvn con cession, got married in 1838, a friend told him, as a favor, to take the bride to his seat, which had a back ! Most Of the work on the church was done by the farmers holding bees ; the finishing Avas paid by a subscription, largely paid in wheat. Long before that time, hoAvever, the Episcopalians had a church. The missionary, Charles Forest, urged the adherents of the church he so zealously ser\7ed to secure a place of worship and obtained some outside aid towards its cost. In 1831 the corner-stone of the foundation of a small church was laid by a son of Colonel Brown's, and on it was raised a good frame building, Avith a gallery at one end: It was built by Hugh McKinnori, a Highlandman, who also did the carpenter work of the Presbyterian church and of the one at Brodie's. Want of means delayed its completion, -and it Avas not until early in 1834 that it was formally opened by Archdeacon Mountain. It . stood at the Avest corner of the side-line road, and in its rear was a burying- ground, in which Robert Williams was the first to be laid. In 1836 the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel gave a grant of $2500 a year for providing missionaries in Lower Canada, when the Rev. William Brethour, an Irishman, and 4J10 THE GRISTMILL. who had been laboring for some time in Leeds, Avas sent, and when in March, 1837, Dr Mountain, now bishop, visited the congregation, over 70 were presented to him for the rite of confirmation, at which he expressed great surprise. The -concessions back' from the river had a large proportion of Jrish Protestants, mainly Episcopalians, and of Englishmen, so that the new church started with equally good prospects as the Presbyterian. When the old church had to be re placed, the new one was erected on ifae high ground north of the creek, and the site of the old church and graveyard is now covered Avith the houses of the village. There w7ere now two churches in the place and nothing more, until, in 1837, the seignior finally decided to erect a .grist-mill, for which there had been long a crying-need On this becoming known, a tavern Avas opened by Robt. Beatty in a log-house that had been erected by LovelL David Ruth erford in 1834 built what was at the time and for years after wards the largest tavern in the district. He was told by his neighbors that he was making a mistake by building it on his own farm, for there would be a village yet on 23. He scouted the idea of trade ever passing his door, and the new tavern, named the "yellow house" from the color it was painted, did a large business. In 1835 he rented the place to John McEachern, but Avhen the building of the mill was determined on, he gave up his lease and rented from Lovell Jones's old log-house until he could get a taA'ern of his own built, which was to be of brick. A substantial two story house was raised, which is still used as an hotel. The brick were made near to it, at the side of the creek. McEachern boarded the men who built the mill and for the next 40 years no house was better knoAvn than McEachern's, it being the usual place for all district meetings. The build ing of the mill was marked by the exercise of one of the extraordinary privileges vested in the seignior. Alexander Mills, a carpenter by trade, carefully preserved the pine and oak on his lot for future use. Brown ordered the contractor to go to his lot and take what he saAV fit, which he did, and Mills had no power to prevent him. The com- PROGRESS OF ORMSTOWN. 311 pletion of *the mill was delayed by the rebellion and was not ready to do work until the crop of 1839 Avas harvested, when one McDonald was miller for a short time, follow.ed by Needier, an Englishman, who became popular and made money. With the building of the mill, Wm. and Robt. Cross opened a store and did a large trade. On the registrar of Huntingdon, D. K. Lighthall, being notified to remove to Ormstown, or rather Durham, as the infant village was then named after Lord Durham, a warm friend of the Ellices, he secured the room above Mr Cross's store as an office, and opened his books there on the first of January, 1842. An innocent pun amused the neighborhood. Sergeant Younie called to see the new premises, and glancing round the room the old soldier exclaimed, "This is a light-hall." William McNaughton, a carpenter, who had been in the district since 1831, decided on taking up house in the new village, and on its completion it was the fourth. A blacksmith came in, Thomas Porter, who set up his shop in 1841. By this time roads were being opened out to the back concessions and in 1842 a fine bridge was built, giving the people of Jamestown ready access, and leading to the building, in the year follow ing, of a sawmill at the south end of the dam by Enos Mills, the American who had built the bridge, and William Cross, with whom the seignior made the same arrangement as Avith the Thomsons on Evident creek, granting a lease for 7 years, at the end of which period he had the privilege of taking possession at a fixed valuation. In 1844 John Gibson arrived and erected a tannery, which was greatly needed and did well. David Rutherford, finding that business passed his door to the new village, moved into it himself, building a large frame tavern, which hastened his financial ruin. The yellow-house was rented by the government as a court-house, and there Judge Guay held one or two terms until Justice McCord was appointed for the district, and it was used on several occasions as the polling-place for the county. Con vinced by his own experience and what he saw around him of the sin of using intoxicating liquors, Wm. McNaughton, in conjunction with Jas. Lockerby, Edward Sadler, J. W. Bryson, 312 FIRST OCCUPANTS OF LOTS. William Lindsay, and many others, organized a temperance- society, and some time afterwards built a place for its meet ings, at his own expense, Avhich Avere encouraging in their nature, and led to similar societies being organized in the surrounding country. The hall was used by the Methodists, who began to hold meetings about 1844 ; the first preachers were Charles Gage and John Lowrey. When a congregation was organized OrmstoAvn was included in the Huntingdon circuit and served by its ministers until 1855, Avhen it got a clergyman of its own. The church was built the year before. jamestoavn, - 4 Andrew Strachan outarde concession. 5 Alexander Strachan 23 John O'Mara 6 John Stewart 24 Finlay McMartin ¦ 7 John Rodgers 25 Richard Hamilton 8 Wm.Brow7n 2 OwenCollum George Sparling 9 James McCartney 26 William Patterson 10 Thos. Taylor 2 John Tassie 27 Edward Murphy 11 Peter Robidoux 28 Patrick Murphy 12 Win. Finn 2 PtkMcMahon 30 Robert N. Walsh 13 James & George Murphy 31 George Wilkinson 14 Jacob Monique 32 S.Wilkinson 2 John Skillen Henry Whitaker 33 Patrick Smith 15 Louis Monique 34 Francis Smith 16 Joseph Lapointe 35 Nich. Smith 2 Hugh Smith ormstown. 36 & 37 MattW. Harrison 1st concession. 38 AndreAV Stewart 23 Village of OrmstoAvn 39 Thomas Stewart 24 Archd. and James McNeil 40 Robert Wopdrow 25 A. Leishman 2 A.Dickman 41 John McCaffery 26 A.Struthers 2 Jas.Crothers 42 Hugh Boyle 2 Jno. Gorman 27 Daniel McNeil 43 John Hamilton 28 John McClintock 44 Francis Hughes 29 William Smith 45 James McKee 30 William Trcmblay 46 James Carley John Sinellio 47 Andrew Cowan 31 Matthew Furlong 48 Wm. Hamilton 2 J.Hughes 32 Maurice fr John "Murphy Robt. Sadler 33 Peter McEwen 49 Jno.&Ab. Sadler T. Murphy 34 Hugh Morgan the island 35 AndreAV Foster 1 Donald Abercrombie 36 James McNown 2 Terry Smith Hugh McNown 3 James Ross 37 Donald McEwen first occupants of lots. 313 424344 45 46 38 John Pace 39 John Todd 40 James Finn 41 John Finn William Milloy Patrick Finn Matt. W. Harrison William Nolan Thomas Sadler James Sadler Alex. Stevenson 47 John McDougall 48 Paul Monique 49 William Nolan 2nd concession. 1 James Brown 2 Robert Beatty 3 Rose Lily James Harvey 4 David Sinclair 5, 6 & 7 William Rice 8 Thomas Barrington 9 Robert Lindsay 10 Thomas Barrington 11 William Smellie Thomas Hood 12 Thomas Tate 13 John Tate 14 Henry Tate 15 James and Geo. Sangster 16 Charles Robertson George Elliot Edward Sadler Thos. and David Broderick William Leach 21 John Campbell 22 John Clark \23 Robert Rember, 24 Robert Rember _ 25 Richard Crothers 26 John McDougall, 27 John McDougall 28 Robert Wetherstone 29 George Douglas 30 James Cavers 171819 20 Young senr. , junr. 31 William Cavers 32 John Young 33 Samuel Greer 34 William Dodds 35 Arthur Moore 36 John Russell 37 John McGregor 38 John Panton 39 Thomas Chambers 40 George Turner 41 Patrick Richard 42 James Liggett 43 David Corkindale 44 Hugh McConville 45 MatheAv and Wm. 46 John McKeo 47 Archd. McDougall 48 James Kennedy 3rd concession. 1 William Hood 2 Francis Hood 3 John Wylie 4 David Ovans 5 Peter Lindsay i 6 Robert Barr' 7 John Lockerby 8 Adam Lynch 9 Alex. Waddell 10 William Knox 11 James Bothwell 12 James Grant John and Francis Cain 13 John Rollo 14 Thomas Harlev 15 & 16 John Miller John & James McGerrigle 17 & 18 Alex. Fisher 17 John Cook 19 & 20 Robt. McClenaghan 21 William Sproull , 22 Peter McEwan 23 John Brown 24 William Patterson 25 John Haig 26 George Brock 314 FIRST OCCUPANTS OF LOTS. 27 Andrew Brock 9 George Ainslie 28 Joseph Hodgin 10 & 11 George Brock 29 JohnSinton 13 & 14 Robt. McMillan 30 Michael Turnbull John Rankin, senr. 31 John Bryden Patrick Kelly 32 David Drummond Charles Kelly 33 Thomas Beattie John Campbell 34 William Graham Dennis Campbell 35 James Hall James Whittal 36 Archd. Muir 6th concession. 37 Isaac Philipson 1 Archd. McGill 38 John Fletcher 2 Neil Cook 39 William Hodgin 3 Gilbert Cook 40 John Liggett 4 Donald Cook 41 Neil McLachlan 5 & 6 Neil Mcintosh 42 Hugh McKellar 11 Robt. Rodger 43 Joseph and John Delorme ! 12 John Cowan 44 John Whittal 13 & 14 Wm. Haire 45 Samuel Crothers 15 Mrs Cowan 46 Benjamin Burton 16 Robt. Murray 47 Irwin Armstrong 17 Anthony Wood 48 David McGill 18 Wm. Johnston 4th concession. 19 William Thomson 1 Robert Selkirk 7th CONCESSION. 2 James Brady 5 Archd. McCormick 3 John Simpson 6 Duncan McCoig 10 George Ainslie 7 Alexander McCoig 14 James Bacom 8 Edward Thomson Walter Bryden 9 David McCoig William Cavers 11 &»12 Chas. Archambault William Traverse 13 James Sangster John Beattie 14 Nicol Porteous Francis Beattie 15 John McKay 38 Edward Sproull 17 William Grieve 39 Archd. McKellar 19 & 20 Robt. Rodger Martin Caveny ' Lumsden 5th concession. 8TH CONCESSION. 1 & 2 Wm., John, and James 1 John McEwen Selkirk & Wm. Bothwell 2 John McCracken 3 Charles Robertson 14 Daniel Murray 4 James Ainslie 15 John Russell 5 John Lang 16 John Sawyer 7 Dougald McNeil 17 John Sawyer, jr. 8 John Carruthers Taylor CHAPTER XVIII. HUNTINGDON In 1820 the sole indications of life on the site of the future village, were the sawmill of the Percy brothers at the upper bridge and the house of Palmer at the head of the rapids (page 139). These were the only openings in the forest, and beneath its shade the Chateaugay flowed in silence, unfretted save, at long intervals, by the ripple of the canoe of some lonely dweller on its banks as he journeyed to visit a neigh bor equally isolated, or broken by a raft that glided, ghostlike, with its current to the St Lawrence. The end of the days of desolation were at hand ; the dark curtain of the woods Avas to be rolled aside and life and activity break the silence and stagnation of ages. The Chateaugay, where it sparkled over limestone-ledges for nearly a half-mile, marked out the site of a village as a distributing-centre for the settlements that immigration now assured would spring into being, and it so happened that it preceded them. Huntingdon Avas an out growth from Dalhousie settlement, one of its visitors, John Hunter, becoming its founder. His eldest son, John, told me thus how it came to pass : In January, 1821, Rtfccompanied my father from Montreal to Dalhousie settlement, the purpose of our journey being to select a lot. We put up at David Brown's house, where I stayed, my father and James Brown, who professed to act for the government, going across the country to the Chateau gay to see the land there, and where he selected lot 17 (Major Whyte's), and returned to the city. I stayed with the Browns until March, when my father came back Avith two train loads, comprising the outfit and provisions needed for settlement. Along. with him, was a French Canadian, Joe, whom he had hired to help in clearing the land. Starting through the bush, we reached the Chateaugay, and the 5 of us, (for the teamsters helped, and we all had axes) set to work at once in felling trees. It was near 3 o'clock in the afternoon when 316 HUNTER'S FOLLY. we began, and soon after dark AA7e had the frame of a shanty up, 12 X 14 feet, and piling into it hemlock boughs for beds, slept sound all night, warmed by a fire, which had a big back log to prevent its setting fire to the Avail. Next morning my father went up to the sawmill OA\7ned by the Percy brothers (James, Robert, and L)avid) and bought a load- of boards, so that Avhen Ave completed the walls of the shanty, Ave closed it in and made it comfortable. The folloAving day, father left with the two traineaux for Montreal, and Joe and I had to shift for ourselves. Our only neighbors, beside the Percys, were Palmer and Pollica. Three weeks after, William Allan came up from Montreal, by Avay of Dalhousie settlement, and finding his way out to us by the Teafield, he stayed all that summer. He was a hearty man and a good singer of Scotch songs, and Ave enjoyed ourselves very much, the novelty of our situation not having worn aAvay. Mrs Pollica baked our bread, and we managed the rest of the cooking. Louis Pollica came the same spring as we did, and with an old man, Du- mourier, lived in a shanty beside the mouth of Cowan creek. They were poor and lived by day's work. After a Avhile, when immigrants came thick, Pollica kept a sort of a tavern, ¦though whisky was all he could give them. Late in April father paid us a visit, walking along the Chateaugaj7 from the Basin, and by Avhich time Joe and I had a piece chopped. Father was a great walker, and thought nothing of .going to the city in a day, his only rest that while crossing the St Lawrence. After remaining a Aveek, he Avent back to Mon treal, taking Joe with him, avIio was to return, but he did not, so Mr Allan and I passed tho summer alone. We missed Joe, who Avas a good fellow and spoke fair English. While high water lasted, the river was full of raft*, and during that time Ave had no lack of company. -¦ college for two terms. To economise, he took both the arts and divinity courses together and yet devoted his evenings to teaching in a night-school. Privation and ovenvork broke him down and he was advised to seek change of life and climate. He sailed in 1827 for Canada, having in view an old acquaintance of his family, David Anderson of Elgin, who heartily welcomed him and his coming Avas looked upon as opportune, for the settlement had been long in want of a schoolmaster. He entered upon his duties at once, and until a schoolhouse could be built, he moved from one neighbor to A DEBATING-CLUB. 393 another, beginning at Helena and ending at Charles's, teach ing a week in each shanty, the scholars following him. He had completed four rounds before the school was ready for occupation, which Avas in the summer of 1828, and hence forth, until, long afterwards, the stone-church was built at Kelso, the humble log-house ansAvered for a place of worship, and behind it a burying-place was formed, the first body in terred being that of Archd. Fleming. Attending the fellowship meeting, the schoolmaster expounded with so much accept ance, that he was asked to preach, and for two years held regular service on Sundays. Although a Presbyterian, his belonging to the United Secession body caused Dr Mathieson and Dr Black to look askance at him, and there was no prospect of his being ordained. On his marriage in the fall of 1830, he took up a farm, which he had to relinquish, being unequal to the hard labor, and accepted the Huntingdon school. His health continued to decline, and he died in 1832. His grave, that of the poor scholar, is among the unmarked and unknown behind St Andrew's. There was other evidence in Elgin of intellectual life beside the organizing for worship and education. In the winter of 1832 a number of the settlers formed themselves into a debating-club, for which John Danskin drew up the constitution and by-laws. The meetings Avere held weekly in the schoolhouse. The rules required that the two leaders should open the debate with written essays, and the leaders were generally the teacher and Robert Barrie. What the latter lacked in scholastic gifts he made up for by a ready humor that set the audi ence (the room would be, crowded) in a roar, his store of stories, and an insensibility to defeat. These meetings not only gave much innocent pleasure but stimulated thought and gave, the members of the club the habit of expressing themselves in public. The material progress of Elgin was unaided by government grants. What the people accomplished in the way of build ing bridges and roads they did themselves. For a period that goes beyond the limit of this narrative, that curious ridge that spans the township, and named the hogsback, was to 394 A SKETCH OF the chief outlet from the 1st and 2nd concessions to Athelstan, a cart-track folloAving its windings. Instead of giving the narratives of individual settlers in Elgin as I haAre done of those of other localities, I thought it Avell to combine into one what several told me and present a connected picture of a settler's life, Avhich wijl make plain to readers unfamiliar with the bush, much that has been alluded to. In the townships all unconceded land was given free to actual settlers. For instance, on an immigrant arriv ing in Huntingdon, he would call on the crown-agent, Bowron, and ascertain what lots were still ungranted. visit them and choose one. For that lot, contaiping 100 acres, the agent would give him a location-ticket on his paying $12. The conditions of the ticket were, that he should erect a house, live continuously on it, and make a certain amount of clear ance within 3 years. If he did not, the lot reverted to the crown; if he did, he could apply for a patent, or deed, from the government giving him absolute possession. In Hunt ingdon, as has been seen, much of the land had been conceded to non-residents, and many of the difficulties in settling it arose from that circumstance, for these absentees not only held their land at exorbitant prices, but refused to make roads or ditches through them, increasing the hardships of those in their vicinity and keeping the country back. Had the crown issued the lands of Huntingdon solely to the men who stood ready to go and live upon them, it would have been settled in a much shorter time and made much faster progress than it did. Having secured a lot, the next step of the settler was to erect a house upon it, which was a simple matter. In choosing a site for it, there avos slight scope. Covered by a dense forest, he could not Avell tell where there was eminence or hollow and the best he could do was to pick out the driest spot he could find near to where the future road would be made. Then he turned to cut logs for the walls, choosing, if he could, those trees that were of medium-size and lightest grain, for heavy logs Avere difficult to handle Avhere help was scarce. When sufficient were cut, the raising took place, and as many men as possible THE SETTLER'S LIFE. 395 were got together. The logs, notched at the ends, were laid, one by one. The first few w7ere easily got into place, but as the wall rose, the lifting of green logs by main strength into their place strained the muscles. * On the ease with which the shanty rose and its comeliness, all depended upon whether there was an experienced ax-man to take the lead. If there Avas, a square and shapely hut was the result, if not, there was an unsightly and rude abode. The size varied with the necessities and means of the settler; the common sizes Avere 12 feet square and 12 x 18. In front was the door, purposely made large to allow of big baek-logs being hauled in. At one end Avas the fire-place; at the other the solitary window. When the walls were up, the rear one would be higher than the front, to allow of a slant for the roof, which Avas made either of basswood or elm bark, or, what was better, basswood troughs, that is the rounded slabs split from basswood logs, which are curved, and when placed over lapping, the convex edges resting in the concave centre of the one next it, shed the water perfectly so long as they remained sound. The openings between the logs and roof were packed with moss, as were also the interstices between the logs of the walls, which were afterwards plastered Avith mud. If the floor was dry and hard, it was left as it Avas; if not, planks split from straight-grained basswood logs were laid down and hewed as smooth as practicable. In many shanties, the only sawn boards used were those that formed the door and framed the window. One end of the shanty was devoted to the fire-place. For this flat stones were gathered and, if it could be got far or near, enough of lime to make some plaster, with Avhich a wall, called a Dutch back, was built against the logs, ending in a frame of sticks, generally cedar poles, which formed the chimney, and which, when plastered inside and out, became perfectly fire-proof. Lime in Elgin was never scarce, for an abundance of flat lime stones, called shell-lime, could be picked up on every lot, and were easily burned by being put into a log-heap. The chimney finished, the shanty was ready for occupation, and in its construction not 3 pounds of nails had been used. 396 SHANTY FURNITURE. 1 Coining from across the seas and separated from toAvn and city by almost impenetrable w7bods, the settler, even if he had the money, could not get furniture. In a few rare cases, a mahogany "kist of draAvers" had been painfully brought from Scotland, and, more often, that outAvard sign of respect ability in old times, an eight-day clock ; as a rule, the settler had nothing at first but the trunk and boxes which had con tained his clothes and goods, and they answered for seats and table. Bedsteads were generally made by the settler himself out of poles picked up near his shanty, shaped Avith help of ax, adze and auger, bottomed with elm bark and placed end to end at one side of the shanty. The fire being on the floor Avas difficult to keep in if the wood Avas green (Avhich it gen erally was, for years elapsed before settlers adopted the plan of having a year's supply ahead) and gave no end of trouble to the housewife, whose cheeks were either scorched by its flames or her eyes smarting from smoke. The bigger and drier the back log the steadier the fire, and settlers who had the luck to have a horse often trotted the animal into the house hauling one they could not have handled. Few shan ties had andirons, their place being supplied by two flat stones, and on these smaller sticks Avere piled, resting against the backlog. Matches being unknoAvn, when the fire did go out, a trip had to be made to the nearest neighbor and a smouldering punk, carefully covered from the wind, brought back. The cooking utensils comprised a frying-pan, "the big pot," and the chaudron, or Dutch oven, a flat pan that answered as an oven, sometimes of tin, more often of iron, but always Avith a tight lid. When the dough Avas ready, it was put in the chaudron, which Avas placed upon a heap of hot coals carefully raked from among the blazing logs, and heaped around its sides. In its bed of glowing ashes, the bread cooked quickly, and its progress Avas judged by occa sionally lifting the lid and thrusting a knife into the doughy mass, tho wetness or dryness of the knife shoAving how7 the heat Avas affecting it. Where the housewife Avas skillful as sweet and wholesome bread Avas the result as ever came out of the finest oven, but, alas, for the first settlers whose wives SHANTY FARE. 397 had never seen household bread baked in the Old Country, the loaves produced Avere commonly sour and heavy. Their difficulty was in the raising of the dough, generally effected by leaven left over from the last baking, and sour as vinegar. There was little variety in food. For many years deer were plentiful, but feAV settlers cared about hunting, so that veni son was not common, and soon tired of. The deer fat Avas preserved and made into candles. Bear meat, named bush pork, was much more palatable than venison, but many a settler never tasted it. From the first, as to-day, pork was the staple animal food, for after the first crop of potatoes a pig was easily kept The main article of diet, however, was cornmeal, in the form of jonny-cake or porridge. In Elgin the saying went, that their bill of fare, three times a day, was "parritch and a spune." The impossibility of getting oatmeal, was a sore cause of complaint among the Scotch, with whom potatoes made up poorly for "the halesome par ritch" and jonny cake for the farls of their youth. Milk was far from plentiful. Having no pasture, the cows wandered through the woods, returning with half -filled bags and the milk so often tainted from wild garlic or other herbs they had eaten as to be unpalatable. The wisdom of these cows in finding their way in the woods w7as remarkable. To enable their being found, a bell was hung round their necks Tea was an unattainable luxury to the majority, and its place was supplied by roasted corn or a toasted piece of bread soaked in hot water. Few of the Old Countrymen cared about the herbs which the American squatters used, though those who acquired a taste for sage or hemlock tea found it not ungrateful. The dress of the settler was a serious matter, for in those days, when the steam-loom Avas unknown, cloth was .very dear, and the daily attire of himself and family, after the stock brought from the Old Country was exhausted, was a thing of shreds and patches. From no one cause, did more suffering arise than from the cold in winter owing to the lack of clothing, men facing it in cotton shirts and the women in print dresses. As soon as able, the settler bought two or 398 LET NOT AMBITION MOCK three sheep, and their avooI the wife or daughters spun and dyed, Avhen the yarn was taken to some settler (and there was no scarcity of such) to weave. Where a mill was not near, the fulling was done by hand, but in no case, for many years, Avas dressing of the cloth permitted — the thicker and heavier the cloth the better. A pair of pants of such fabric and a flannel shirt was the daily wear of the men, and many had none else for Sunday. The women wore calico dresses in summer and flannel in winter. The Scotch settlers brought Avith them "their Sabbath claes," but found such scant oc casion for wearing them in the backAvoods that they decayed more from time than use, seldom being taken out of the kist except for a funeral or a preaching — the former, in a country made up of young and healthy people, an event so rare that settlers for a radius of a dozen miles would flock to one, the latter unknown in one Sunday out of a dozen. The first sheep were almost exclusively Cheviots, and their supplant ing by Leicesters was a doubtful improvement. So much for the indoor life of the settler. His first task, after getting his shanty in habitable shape, avos to make warfare on the trees. There, on every hand, they stood, walling him in, even shutting him out from sight of sun arid star, of all sizes and kinds. Here was a monarch who reared his head far above his fellows and whose trunk a giant could not, with outstretched arms, span; there the sapling that a child could snap. Littered on the ground were the remains of old trees in every stage of decay, from the veteran overthrown by the last gale, carrying in its fall a score of its neighbors, to the trunk half resolved into the soil that had for ages fed it. Where the land Avas low, — swales was the local term — the trees formed thickets that Avere impassable, and in the swamps cedars shut out the day. Unlike the forests that covered the greater portion of Ontario, the bush of this district had a thick under growth, which made the clearing of it more laborious. All the trees of value for export — the oak, pine, and white ash — had been taken away before the settlers came, so that those left were available only for potash, and had it not THEIR LOWLY TOILS. 399 been so much of the timber was fit for making that alkali their hardships would have been intensified. The trans ferring of the trees into potash was laborious. Our settler, having no oxen, would begin work by forming a plan-heap. His object being to make a clearance round his shanty, he would select two of the largest elm or ash trees that greAV close together, and endeavor to fell them so that they would lie side by side. Deciding on his trees, the swinging axe would gash their sides, and if an expert hand, he could so cut them as to secure their falling in the direction he desired. The axes used were, in those days, mainly made by the local blacksmiths, and weighed not less than 5 lbs. The settler bought them as they came from the anvil, with an edge about an eighth of an inch thick, paying $2 for one, and afterwards slowly ground it himself on a grind stone, every shanty having one at its door. The helve, or handle, he shaped out of the hickory trees in his bush. When he had felled the two large trees that were to form the foundation of his plan-heap, he cut off their branches, and then turned to the smaller trees that stood near, felling them so as to be conveniently rolled by the handspike on to the pile. When the heap became as large as he had strength to make it, fire was applied. Even in dry weather the heap would burn slowly, and necessitate constant watch ing, so as to keep the glowing logs close enough together to make them blaze. When all was burned save, probably, some black remnants of the thickest trunks, the ashes were raked into a pile and covered by sheets of elm bark in case of rain. By neglecting this precaution many a settler saw the results of a week's toil lost by a thunder-shower wash ing the strength out of the ashes. As near to water as possible the leaches were made, formed of battened boards or elm bark peeled in long slices. In these troughs the ashes were packed and water poured upon them, which, soaking slowly through, escaped from a hole at the lower end in lye. As the buckets filled with lye, they were carried to the potash-kettle and emptied into it The kettle was a large circular pot, that held .20 pailfuls.' .It Avas slung OA'ier 400 POTASH. a hot fire, which kept the lye boiling violeritly, and as it boiled aAvay more was added, until the mass became so thick that it would not boil, when it was stirred into a molten mass and ladled into a barrel, as black salts, worth generally $6 the 1121b. The labor involved may be guessed from the fact that it took 15 bushels of ashes to make that quantity. When an ashery was convenient, the ashes were sold as taken from the plan-heap at 12£ cents the bushel, which saved the leaching and boiling, which could be done more cheaply and quickly in the asheries, which were spe cially fitted up for their work, and the majority of which had also ovens, for converting the potash into pearl-ash The narratives of settlers given, have shown the great im portance to them of the money potash brought, and it was exceedingly fortunate that the district had sufficiently ad vanced in husbandry before it was discovered by Leblanc that potash could be made much more cheaply from salt than wood-ashes. Had potash then been worth no more than it is to-day, large sections of this district must have remained unsettled. When a settler had a yoke of oxen, or could "change works" for one, he would go on felling the trees on an acre or so Avithout regarding how they lay, and then, choosing a dry time, burn the brush and smaller limbs. The field would then be a blackened fallow, covered with the charred trunks of the fallen trees. A bee would be called and these would be hauled by oxen and rolled into heaps, to be burned into ashes. Any way it could be taken, the work was dirty and exhausting, especially in hot weather, when the settlers, black as negroes, toiled in piling the logs together to burn them. In the land, thus cleared, potatoes or corn Avas planted with the hoe, arid perhaps a handful or two of Avheat dragged in with a bush. The virgin soil never failed to respond with a generous yield, and the best crops ever known were pro cured by this rude cultivation. Insects or blight of any kind was unknown, and the only enemies were the wild beasts of the woods, which at night would help themselves BUSH FARMING. 401 to a late supper off the settler's clearing. The farming of the backwoqds was unique. When the first crop of potatoes was taken up, fall wheat, either red or white chaff, was sown, and for many years never failed. The clearings, im bedded in the woods, were sheltered from the blasts of winter, and the snow lay deep and even until April, so that winter-killing was impossible. From the same cause, the soil was kept moist in summer, and the sunlight warmed it without producing drouth. The humidity of the atmosphere, caused by the ever-present bush, Avas the best possible for plant-life. Then the virgin soil was not only rich in vege table food but free from those Aveeds that are now the farmer's plague. After hilling the potatoes, the settler had no need to hoe them. Harvest was thus described by an Irish settler of Godmanchester: "Whate as high as your head, and when you scraped away the dirt where you planted potatoes, you found them like a hen's nest." Plen tiful as the yield was, when the clearings Avere small potatoes- had to be carefully hoarded, and with the setting-in of cold weather the seed-end was carefully cut off each mess as selected for food, and laid away for spring, thus saving the cutting of Avhole potatoes for planting. When the land came to be passably clear between the stumps, timothy was sown, and it grew wonderfully, the crop being often so abundant that it had to be spread on the stump-tops to cure. Clover was then almost unknoWn. Haying was most laborious, from the unevenness of the land and the number of stumps-, and, owing to the greater moisture of those days, was later, sometimes extending into Sept'r. Toiling under an August sun, the mower would halt to take off his shirt and wring it, dripping with perspiration. One more nice in his ways, took a spare shirt with him, so that one was always drying. Of the feats in mowing in those days, big stories have come down, but that men have cut 3 acres in a day for a wager i3 undoubted. The grain was reaped with the sickle and jstooked, Old Country fashion. About 1835, John Gilmore and David Cairns, left Huntingdon on a visit to relations in Ohio, where they saw, for the first time, a cradle. Cairns 27 402 LIVESTOCK was so delighted Avith it, that he brought one back, which led to their adoption, and the disuse of the toothed hook. The first blight to visit the Avheat was _smut, which was a dreadful catastrophe, as the. mills then had no means. of cleaning it, and the bread was as black as if the flour had been mixed with soot. Following the smut, came rust, and to it (though I am now beyond the days of first-settlement) succeeded the fly, which rendered the groAving of fall wheat impossible, and led to the adoption of Black Sea wheat. It was so difficult to thresh, that something more poAverful than the flail was needed, and it was found in the niggerhead — a heavy log about 10 feet long, studded with oak pins. The wheat was strewn on the barn-floor, or a clean bit of ground, and a horse dragged the niggerhead over it. The first thresh ing-mill was brought to Trout river by David Elder. A very interesting subject is opened up on coming to speak of fruit-trees. The first apple-trees were brought from Cald well's Manor and vicinity, and so early as 1812 there Avere trees in bearing in Hemingford and Franklin, and ten years afterwards they were being exchanged for grain with the boav settlers. In 1828 there settled on the river below Hun tingdon John Cassidy, who was a gardener by trade, and he started a nursery. Unquestionably, however, almost all the trees came from the American side of the line, and consisted of natural fruit. Owing to the ^difficulty in fencing, orchards were not a success with the earlyjsettlers, and, on the clay, apples were not plentiful until of late years. The live-stock was drawn mainly from the French parishes, and therefore Canadian horses and Canadian cows were pre dominant, and for their size there is nothing better in the Avorld. The lumbermen Avere of some service in introducing heavy teams and imported many large yokes of oxen from the States. The first impetus to the improvement of cattle was the . obtaining of bulls from Henry Hoyle of Lacolle, who was a noted breeder in those^early times. The sheep were generally good, being off imported stock obtained from the Scotch farmers on the island of Montreal. As the settlers became able to pay for service, a number of horses, more or INDEPENDENCE. 403 less thoroughbred, came from the United States. As early as 1835 the father of the Somerville brothers sent them as a present a Clydesdale stallion and several Leicester sheep. The horse was badly bruised in the voyage and had to be left at Lachine to recuperate. He Avas of grey color and a good specimen of his breed. The settlers were unable to patronize him and after holding him for a season or so, John Somerville sold him to a resident of Ottawa for $200, Avho resold him for a good figure, and he died from bursting a bloodvessel while going west. In 1845 John Somerville brought out another Clydesdale, a black, named "Clyde," Avhich left numerous progeny.- He was sold subsequently to Robert Graham of Hinchinbrook. Another horse brought out with him was secured by Mr Dods of the Island of Montreal, he tossing with Mr Somerville for the choice. The one he selected was the handsomer of the tAvo but proved to be inferior as a stock-horse. I have got beyond the date of -which T Avas treating, how ever, and will return to the settler during his first years in the backwoods. Every fall and spring he would turn to the stumps, endeavoring to reduce them in size by burning, and tearing up their roots, but years would pass before their hold on the soil loosened sufficiently to be pulled out by a yoke of oxen and hauled into piles to be burned or to form a fence round the rude fields. The toil was unceasing and exhaust ing. Not only had the clearing to be labored, but it had to be enlarged, and every yard gained on the bush told on the constitution of the settler, a majority of whom became broken- down and aged before their time. But the life had its com pensations. There was the sense of satisfaction, inexpressibly sweet to men who had been laborers or tenants in the Old World, that they Avere land-owners and that they were Avork- ing for themselves — that, for the first time in their lives, they were lords of a portion of God's footstool and their own mas ters. This feeling of independence Avas strengthened by their being free from all the restraints of organized society and almost totally exempt from taxation. All the paraphernalia of law Avas unknown in the backwoods and the only taxes 404 THE DAWN OF they paid they did not feel, being the custom duties, then •only 10 per cent, on whatever little imported goods they bought. To people who had been ground down by taxation, to whom the rate -collector, the sheriff's officer, the poor- house master, the factor, the magistrate, the county gentry, had been objects of terror, the relief in being placed where •no one domineered over them and no one exacted a portion of their earnings, was a solace for the pinching cold, the coarse food, the exhausting toil of the Canadian bush. Such an Arcadian state of matters could not last long, yet in Hun tingdon it continued until 1845, when the adoption of a municipal system involved taxes, and the increase of wealth necessitated the establishment of a simple system of ad ministering justice. The burdens were nominal, however, for another quarter of a century, and it was not until Con federation was adopted that the Canadian farmer felt that a portion of his earnings were going to pay taxes. Again, there was the gratification that came to the settlers from a sense of continued progress; every week saw some improve ment effected or the bush rolled farther away. The sunlight no longer struggled through interlacing branches, but fell in one golden volume upon the clearing hollowed out of the woods. The prospect widened. The day came when the leafy >curtain was so far lifted, that the inmates of one shanty could see their neighbor's, and in time the hills to the south ward stood revealed, and the sense of loneliness that had so long oppressed the family passed aw7ay. By this time -the settler felt he could afford a better house, and a block house — one of logs hewn flat on their face — would rise, with pitched roof and an attic-room, and when the family entered it they thought it a palace, while the shanty was used as a pighouse or stable. With improved circumstances, however, there came no increase of happiness — rather the reverse — for as hope merged into its realization it Avas found that the joy of expectation was greater than that of possession. A community of settlers struggling in making their first •clearances were bound together by the strongest ties of >mutual helplessness, and the knowledge that they could not BETTER DAYS. 405* exist without the aid of their neighbors, broke doAvn all feel ing of exclusiveness, and their hearts warmed to one another just as their hands were extended to help one another. No democracy is so perfect as that of the backwoods ; no scheme of socialism can ever approach it. If a settler was in want, he had but to ask if his neighbor had to give him ; if one was sick, his crops would be put in or reaped as the case might be. If there Avas a widow, there would be bees to help her ; if orphans they would be adopted. Of the hun dreds with whom the writer conversed in preparing this; book, all save one, a woman, admitted, that, despite its privations and excessive toil, the happiest period of their lives was when they were struggling for existence in the bush, and many spoke with bitterness of the exclusiveness,, the ostentation, and other forms of selfishness which came with increasing wealth. Living as one family, the settlers of a concession shared the advantages of any superior capacity they individually possessed. One would haA7e an aptitude for making ox-sleds and the like, another for framing buildings, a third skill in treating sick animals, and in every settlement was one man the tacitly recognized leader and spokesman. Thrown upon their own resources, almost as much as if wrecked on a desert island, the settlers developed in themselves unsus pected capabilities. Extraordinary expertness with the ax came from daily use, but necessity forced them to be car penters and waggon-makers, shoemakers and harnessmakers, and even to try tinkering and blacksmithing. From the small tanneries that sprang up all over the district, where they sold their hides, they took in exchange sides of leather, which were made into boots by shoemakers who passed' from house to house, and the boots so made the settlers made a shift to patch themselves. Clothing was commonly made by the women, except the coats, Avhich were cut if not also sown by itinerant tailors. Until their clearings were large enough to raise sufficient food, their struggle for exist ence was a hard one, all the potash they could make going in exchange for provisions. There Avas no other mode of 406 THEIR RELIGIOUS LIFE earning money. Labor was cheap yet it was rare to find a settler able to pay for it. An able-bodied man counted himself fortunate to get $7 to $8 a month and board, and in harvest the highest that was paid Avas 50 cents in cash or a bushel of wheat for a day's Avork that lasted from sun rise to sunset. A tradesman, a carpenter for instance, would be paid 75 cents a day, and in no case more than a dollar. During the Avinter, expert axmen got $15 a month in the lumbering-shanties and in the spring $1 a day was offered to men for running rafts and the pilot got no more than $1.25. Modes, therefore, of the settlers earning money apart from making potash, could hardly be said to exist, and pinch ing economy was requisite. It was not strange that, under such circumstances, they came to place an undue value upon money, and that, when better days came, and the necessity to save and deny no longer existed, there Avas a tightening rather than a loosening in the hold upon the world's sub stance, and that the old age of too many was made odious by a miserly and covetous disposition, which gave tone to these of their descendants. The constant struggle for existence diverted their minds from other concerns, and it cannot be said truthfully of any of the settlements in the district that they had, at first, a religious tone. The seemly habits of the Old Land were suspended, if not lost, in the backwoods, and the. Sunday Avas devoted to visiting, to idling, and, among the youngsters, to fishing and hunting. In no case, however, was work done upon it, and if it had not to them a spiritual value it was, at least, a day of rest There Avere no clergymen and the lay preachers, whether itinerant or local, commanded slight re spect. When the effort was made, as years passed, to estab- ; lish churches, the training of the settlers stood in the way. The Scotch, mainly members of the Kirk of Scotland, had never been called upon to contribute to the support of their minister, and their dropping a copper coin into the collection- box had represented all they gave. It was the- same with the North of Ireland settlers who were Episcopalians and to a degree also with those who were Presbyterians. Being AND MORALS. ' 407 called upon to support their minister came strange to men who had never been accustomed to give for such a purpose, and as a consequence, even for their limited means, their contributions were scandalously small and given reluctantly. While it will not do to ignore their more energetic methods, undoubtedly the more vigorous growth of the Methodist and secession Presbyterian churches is to be accounted for largely by their members having been trained in their native land to the habit of giving. But though these infant settle ments were not religious in the sense of observances, they were in morals. The poverty and crowding together in small shanties had no deteriorating effect on their self-respect arid they were truly a well-living people When the day's work was over, and the family gathered around the blazing logs, with perhaps a neighbor or two dropped in to see them, there was plenty of fun, but it was innocent The father talked Avith his wife as she sat at her Avheel of his work and the simple "news", of the settlement, the daughters, engaged in carding wool or some other task, joked with the neighbor lads, while their brothers were doing the same with the girls of some adjoining shanty. There were husking bees and. quilt ing bees and other less regular gatherings, and each family made it a point to have two parties in the year, at which the guests were welcomed with a heartiness unknown in more re fined days and the amusements, singing and dancing, engaged in with a gusto that told of pure hearts and simple tastes. In Elgin the singing in concert of Scotch songs by Thos. Brown and William Morison Avas famed far and near and Robert Stewart played the fiddle to the dancers. New Year's week Avas a period of festivity, while Christmas was passed un noticed. , The shadow to the picture was the prevalent drinking customs. The cheapness of whisky removed the chief check on its use, and for what a bottle cost in Scotland or Ireland, the settler here could buy a couple of gallons. It was used habitually and its use gave rise to nearly all the calamities that befell the settlements. Were it not that it would pain their desceridants, a harrowing catalogue could be given of 408 SCHOOLS AND those who met their death from accidents while drunk, while it was the ruling cause of failure to families in the battle of life. That the liquor used did not affect these hardy first settlers more, was owing to its weakness and their active habits in the open air. A stronger spirit came into use in course of time. In Elgin William Wattie, in Godmanchester, Donald Mcintosh, and others on the Ridge, built stills in which they made whisky from barley after the Old Country method, and it was followed by the more potent spirit of highwines that Molson began to make in Montreal. Con sidering the universality of the drinking-custom among the early settlers, it is most remarkable that its hold should be so slight among their descendants. Then not a house was to be found without its jar; now it is the exception to find a house with one. Then no bee or social gathering could take place without the circling bottle; now, it would be aa insult to offer it. The schools of these early days were uniformly bad When a man was too lazy or too weak to wield an axe, he took to teaching without the slightest regard to his qualifications for the position. Men who could not read words of many syllables and whose writing was atrocious, were- installed aa masters of schools. Worse than their ignorance Avas the bad habits that characterized the majority, for drunkenness was common, and a teacher seen without a quid of tobacco in his mouth or smoking while setting a copy or puzzling over a sum was exceptional. Discipline was deemed by these usurpers of the teacher's office as the great qualification, and their cruelty was past belief. The petty tyrants vented their irritation after a debauch '; or when out of tobacco, upon their helpless scholars, girls as well as boys, with a severity that was revoltirig, and for which there was no compensation in what they taught. The main study was the catechism. With the impartiality of indifference, the teacher heard each scholar recite from the catechism of the church to which he belonged, the strap descending when a word was missed. There was great lack of schoolbooks, and the family Avas counted well-off that had a couple of readers for the children. SCHOOLHOUSES. "' 409 Many of the scholars having no book, the reader was passed along the line. Copies were universally made out of fools cap, the master "setting" it with a heading. No other pens than quills, plucked from geese or other fowls, Avere known. Ink was scarce, and often supplied by boiling the bark of the soft maple. In many schools, there was not an arithmetic, the master giving out sums which the scholars copied on their slates. Male teachers were universal, and it took over 25 years to convince parents that women could manage boys, and that a good female teacher was very much better than an indifferent male teacher. The schoolhouses were in keeping with their masters, some times unfloored, and if floored it was with loose boards. The benches and desks Avere of a rude description. They were ahvays log buildings, and in one school a couple of short pieces were worked loose by the boys, making, in warm weather, a convenient exit. The roofs were coA-ered as often with slabs or boards, eked out with turf, as shingles. What the scholars suffered from cold is not to be described. The modern woodpile was then unknown. The fuel was drawn in log lengths, and the first boy in the morning had to apply himself to chop off enough to start the fire, and as it needed replenishing, the master detailed one or two boys to renew the task. Each family supplied half a cord for every scholar sent under a certain number. Walking several miles through the snow, insufficiently clad, and having only for dinner "the piece" they carried, such pursuit of know ledge could only have been possible to the hardy children of a hardy race. Occasionally the schoolmaster occupied one end of the schoolhouse as a dwelling, so that the scholars were tickled by hearing what passed on the other side of the board partition and by the oft appearance of the wife to consult her husband. One master utilized the loft above as a winter roost for his heris, and, when they scraped, a shower of dust descended on the heads of the scholars below, who would be excited by suppressed merriment when, on a biddie's clucking, they overheard the remark of the house wife, "Eh, but the gudeman will hae an egg the morn." 410 GRANTS TO EDUCATION. Up to 1829 the only government aid towards education was extended through the royal institution, Avhich Avas badly managed by an irresponsible body of placemen. The Wil liamstown school was the only one in this district that derived a yearly grant from it, and Norman McLeod re ceived $120 from 1825 until his death. An occasional grant was made to the Huntingdon school. In 1829 a laAv came into force by which a small allowance was allotted each school, -ranging from $10 to $80, the average being $40. This act Avas followed by another, making grants towards the building of schoolhouses of from $40 to $100 each in proportion to their cost, and under this stimulus nearly every settlement erected one. By subsequent acts, small subsidies were given to keep up the schools, but they were paltry and irregularly paid. In 1833 it was enacted that $16 additional be paid English schools that taught French, and vice versa. It is superfluous tostate, that every English school was returned as teaching French and every French school as teaching English, so that the act was annulled The grants were distributed by county visitors, who were supposed to examine them once a year. Charles Archam- bault, one of its representatives, was visitor for this district, and discharged his duties in an easy manner. He would listen to a scholar read a few sentences and, with the Avords, "Good scholar; good scholar," pass on to the next. The $1.80 allotted as prizes for each school he seldom had, and excusing himself by saying he would pay the best scholars 4d apiece at his next visit, passed on to the next school. Like many others in similar positions, he embezzled the school grants. Having no power to levy a rate to sustain them, the maintenance of the schools depended on the few zealous settlers w7ho took the lead in their management and on the small fees paid by the scholars. The salary of the master never exceeded $200 and often fell under one hun dred. Up to 1828 there were only 6 schools in the present district; in 1829 there were 13, with 650 scholars, all English. In 1831 the number rose to 41, with 1300 in attendance, of whom about one-fourth Avere unable to pay fees. Bouchette, FIRST OCCUPANTS OF LOTS. 411 writing of his visit to the district in 1828, states that the French had no public schools. "Among the few French Ca nadians," he says, "who haA7e any wish to give education to their children, the practice prevails of taking a teacher into the house of one individual and collecting there the children of as many parents as are desirous of this benefit, each pay ing his quota of the expense. Of these private schools there are not more than 4 or 5. Their benefit is very limited, and little else than the catechism is taught." The first French schools were tAvo opened in the seigniory of Chateaugay in 1830, followed by one in St Clement, and, in 1831, by one each in St Timothy and Ste Martine. 1st concession. John Fee Village lots, John Donnelly, sr. 20 Michael Fee William H. Caldwell Henry Wilson Beattie 3 & 4 Edward Donnelly 5 Captain William Wallis 6 Thomas Wilsie Elias Wallis 7 Joseph Scriver 8 David Russell James Forbes 9 William Moore Peter Horn 10 Jno. Potty; 2 Jas. Crawford 11 William Glennie 12 John Cunningham 13 John Ronald 14 Charles Crawford, senr. 14 Wm. Marshall; 2 John McBean 15 John Wattie Aleic. Thomson 16 Duncan SteAvart John Graham 17 William King, junr. Thomas King 18 William Johnston John Patterson 19 Charles McFaul Patrick McFaul 20 Joseph Scriver 21 Holcomb & Latham 2nd concession. 1 Anderson & Henderson 2 William Dickson James Spencer 3 James Gavin 4 Andrew Buckham 3 & 4 James Donnelly 5 Alex. Shaw Gilbert McBeth 6 Andrew & William Morison 7 Parian McFarlane David Browrn 8 Peter McFarlane David Anderson 9 William Mclntyre 10 James Johnston William Wattie 11 James Glennie, senr. 12 John Wagstaff Barnabas Lanktree 13 Alex. Shearer 14 Thomas Way James Wilson 15 William Watson 15 William Hay 16 William King, senr. 17 John Richardson 412 FIRST OCCUPANTS OF LOTS. George McDonald 17 & 18 Stephen McCrae 19 Neil Mathieson 20 Samuel McCane James Ewing 3RD CONCESSION. 1 George Elder, senr. Gabriel Buckham James Tully 2 George Ewart John Elder 3 Alex. Smaill Robert -Smaill 4 James Tannahill John Gillies 5 Thonias Brown William Smaill Rorison 6 James Paul Robert Barrie 7 Thomas Lanktree, senr. 8 William Wattie John Caldwell 9 William Ruston Nicholas Ruston 10 John Ruston 10&11 Edward Charles Major Hingston 12 Thomas Stott John Seely 13 Hiram Seely William Stewart 13 & 14 John Anderson 14 Hugh King 15 & 16 Donald Mcintosh William Mcintosh Alex. Mcintosh 4th concession. 1 CI. R. James Bowles, 1838 2 John Caldwell, 1833 3 William Morison, 1833 4&5 Ephraim Pelton, 1836 6 Robert Nelson, 1838 7 Thomas Lanktree, 1844 8 William Stark, 1837 9 Mrs Thorn, 1833 10 Merrill Cooper, 1830 11 Barnabas Lanktree, 1833 12 Robert Henry, 1833 13 William Carr, 1841 9 Cr. R. Wm. Minor; 2 Joseph Carr 9 James Learmont 7 Joseph Corpron Robert Moore 2-6 Page Brothers 2-6 John BroAvn 32 Page ; 2 Thomas Cairns 31 Andrew Gilmore 30-1 Gargett 29-31 George Sayer, senr. 28 Samuel Lamb Thomas Cairns 27 Robert Raven William Rose 25 & 26 Robert Murray 24 William Lamb 23 Z. Baxter 5th concession. 27 Hazel ton Moore 28 J. Elliot; 2 John Seely, sr. 29&30 Major Hingston 31 Thomas Hingston CHAPTER XXI. HINCHINBROOK. When the tide of immigration set in, the first to penetrate into Hinchinbrook was James Hamilton, whose narrative I give entire : I am a native of Motherwell, Scotland, and left the day after my marriage for Canada, being accompanied by my brother William. We took passage from Greenock* on the Alexander. On getting to Montreal, we helped a while in the search for land made by our fellow-passengers, but left ou a visit to our uncle in Vermont before a decision was come to. We thought very little of Vermont, and when we heard where our old friends went, we determined to join them, and set out for Dalhousie settlement in March, 1821, and cast in our lot with theirs. The land had been all taken up facing the lake, so we had to move back, and the first solid land ungranted was south of Teafield. James Brown, who as sumed to have authority, gave my brother lot 20 on the 4th range, and to me lot 17. We made some sugar at Wylie's, with whom we stayed, and then we moved to our lots, agree ing to make the first clearance on mine, for my brother was not married. My wife, of course, had to walk, and she was (jhe first woman to cross from the lake to the Chateaugay. We raised a shanty, and fitted the ground for a crop by hewing down the trees, lopping off the branches, and planting potatoes and corn between the logs. We had bought potatoes in Glengarry and corn in Fort Covington. As we had to carry everything on our backs, neither horse nor ox being able to pass Teafield, we cut the potatoes into seed, to make the burden less. As it was, w7e sank to our knees in water in places. My brother carried a grindstone on one of our trips, the heaviest load ever so brought. The season was favorable and we had a large crop, but were troubled by the deer digging up the potatoes with their hoofs and eating them. In October, after husking the corn and storing it away, the three of us, my wife, brother and myself, started to see if we could not get a more cheerful location by the river's bank, for we were just buried in the woods and saw 414 burned out. nothing, and decided on moving to a ridge, Avhere the riA-er takes a fine sweep, on lot 15. Satisfied with our choice and talking cheerfully of our arrangements for moving, we walked through the bush to the site of our shanty, when, on arriving at it, Ave were astounded to find the house in ashes — a spark from the open fireplace, we conjectured, had fallen among the corn husks that strewed the floor and set the shanty ablaze. Everything was~ consumed, even to my Avife's rings, and we Avere left homeless and destitute. We had just daylight enough to return to the river, and found shelter for the night in a corner of the house that Hunter was building. On vieAV- ing the deA-astation the fire had wrought, I exclaimed that I did not care if my axe was spared, but it too had been in the flames. I took the head to Dalhousie settlement, where there Avas now a blacksmith, an Englishman of the name of Hatton, who had extemporized a forge on a large tree stump and he retempered it so hard that it flew into pieces on my putting it to use. We tried to OA7ercome our misfortune and set to work, and, unaided, put up a shanty of round logs on our new location, being the first house on the Hinchinbrook side of the river, below the village Fortunately Ave had some money and our big chests had been left in Montreal, and for these, after a winter spent in chopping 5 acres, I went early in the spring. They were brought up in a traineau to river Beaudet, and from there up the Laguerre and out by a lumber-road to Marshall's, and then down Trout river. That season (1822) we had a good crop of Avheat, corn, and potatoes, but Avere sadly troubled by the favor the squirrels showed for the corn. There Avas no settler on the Hinchinbrook side of the river besides ourselves until the summer of 1822, when James Arm strong and James Gardner arrived. Of the desolation of the country I cannot give you an idea One afternoon Mr BoAvron and myself walked back from my clearance to the Outarde, to see what the country there was like, Avhen it came on dark, and we could not find our way back and had to camp until daylight. The potash-kettle Ave bought in Montreal, was brought up by canoe from the Basin. In November I went to Pointe Claire for a coav, which a relation of my wife's, Robert Benning, had secured for me, and this I led by a rope of withes, carrying a load of 161b. on my back, and driving a ewe lamb. Such Avas the state of the road, or rather track, that it was after dark Avhen I reached Dewittville, where, on learning my Avife had been confined, I left my charge and started for home. The night was so dark that I could only tell where I was by throwing chips into the river and being INDIA.N VISITORS. 415 guided by the sound of their plashes. On getting opposite the point on lot 14, I called out to Armstrong, who crossing with his canoe, tookvme over to the south bank. On reach ing home I found my wife well, but the child (our first-borri) dead. Singular to relate, in the wilderness this country Avas then she had had medical attendance, for Dr Fortune had been staying with us. In bringing home my 4-footed com panions next day, I feared the lamb Avould not take the water, but on seeing crummie, to which she was much attached, plunge in, she followed. After that my brother and I bought each a 2-year old steer, and that was our first yoke of oxen. To feed- our livestock during the winter, we had cut a stack of beaver hay at the lake, and this Ave dreAV in on nairoAv sleds, each attached to an ox, during sleighing, leaving most of the load sticking to the branches along the narrow road. Our neighbor Hunter brought from Montreal the first horse, and this we borrowed to take our wheat to Percy's mill at Brighton Hollow7, a bag being slung at either side. The road was wretched, and to make a passage over a mudhole near Athelstan a long slab was placed, which the horse Avalkod, the only one I ever knew to do the like. The land we settled on Ellice claimed, and we ultimately had to pay $360 for it The year of the Miramichi fire I lost a heifer from being smothered by the smoke. The flames came very near the shanty, but I lost nothing else. Up to that time there was no slash or brule in the woods. While the fire was burning, 3 young bears crossed my clearance, the only time I ever saAv that animal. I lost 2 or 3 sheep, and blamed the woh-es, whose cries we heard almost every night. For many years after I came, the Indians visited us every winter, making Avigwams of poles covered with birch bark, the smoke coming out at the top of the poles. They slept with their feet to the fire and their heads to the poles. The point opposite my house was a favorite camping-spot, and when the river came to be well settled, they moved to the Outarde, and their last camp was at the mouth of the Hall creek. The men hunted, and the women sought for dry logs among the snow for fire wood, did the cooking, and made baskets. They were harm less neighbors, but if they got "drink were furious, and then the women would fly to the woods pursued by the men yelling and flourishing their tomahawks. In the spring they made sugar and as soon as the river opened left in their canoes for Caughnawaga. Owing to most of the land from Hamilton's down to the seigniory-line being claimed by Ellice, its settlement Avas 416 SETTLERS CRUELLY WRONGED. much hindered, although Brown encouraged applicants to go upon it and make clearances, telling them that though the seigniory-office was not prepared just then to give them titles, bargains would, in a short time, be made with them for the purchase of the lots. Not a few of the lots were occupied under these representations, and there came to be a row of shanties from Dewittville to Huntingdon. There being much fine elm, they cut it down and made potash, by which they lived, for the land was wet, save the strips they cleared on the river-bank. Their uncertain tenure of the land troubled them much, and when a message came from Beauharnois for the heads of the families to attend there on a certain day, they thought their suspense was to be ended. On arriving they were separately admitted into the office where Colonel Brown sat, with his clerk and two strangers. They were questioned as to how long they had been on their lots, their number, Avhat the land was like, and par ticularly what buildings they had raised and how many acres they had cleared After all had been examined, the settlers were, told by Col. Brown that he Avas not yet pre pared to give deeds, but when he was they should have the first offer. They withdrew satisfied, but a month or so after wards they learned that they had been the victims of a dis honorable scheme. Ellice held these lands as he held those of Dalhousie settlement, merely by the purchase of the loca tion-tickets of those to whom they had been granted. He had no patent, and could get none uritil proof was furnished that the settlement-duties had been performed. The object of sending for and examining the settlers was solely to as certain how much land they had cleared and what improve ments otherwise they had made. When they were gone, the 2 strangers who had sat listening to them and who had noted their answers, made affidavit that the settlement-duties had been performed, whereupon the government issued a patent to Ellice for the lots, when a demand was sent to the settlers to either pay $4 an acre or leave. With an exception or two, the defrauded and broken-hearted men had to choose the latter alternative, and it was fortunate for them that at that ALEX. JOHNSTON. 417 juncture the lots on the Gore concession w7ere being giA7en out, and to it they moved. The first settler on the 7th con, or the Gore as it came to be known by, was Samuel Foster, a Connaught Protestant, who had come to Canada in 1819 and lived in Montreal until the fall of 1823, when he moved on to lot 10, several young men accompanying him from the river settlement to put up his shanty. Before the snow left next spring, Haws and Peak followed from the river, and, though they had pick and choice, made Avhat proved to be poor selections of lots. Mrs Peak said : My husband was an artilleryman, sent out from England at the close of the war, and discharged at Prescott, where I was married to him when a girl of 15. On hearing of land being giA7en out free in Huntingdon, Ave came over in 1822, and squatted on lot 12, on the river. Unable to pay what Ellice asked for it, we moved with Haws to the Gore. Haws was aU E. loyalist; his father had to leave a 200-acre farm in Maryland and fly to Canada. They stayed first at Quebec. and then moved to Sorel, where Jasper enlisted in the service of the Northwest company, and spent a good part of his life under them. We had two coavs when we moved to the Gore, and cut beaver hay to feed them. Such as it Was, we never wanted for food. Nightly we heard the screaming of the wolves, and once my husband, while driving home at night, was folloAved by a pack, which did not come near him however. In the spring of 1825 the Johnstons, Peterkin, and Arm strong followed the example of Peak and Haws and a sur vivor, Alexander Johnston, supplied this narrative : We belonged to county Tyrone, and sailed from Belfast in the spring of 1823. Our design was to go to Ontario, but on landing at Montreal my father (John Johnston) met Todd of Dewittville, whom he had known in Ireland and who induced him to come to Huntingdon county. We took up lot 11, on the river, and had to leave it owing to the trouble with Ellice. All we got from LoAvrey, who bought it from Ellice, for our 2 years' improvements was. $35. We moved in the fall of 1825, 3 weeks before the great fire broke out, and put up .our shanty on 11. The land was all in splendid maple, which was easy to burn, and the stones, being covered with leaves- and forest litter, we did not see. When the smoke and fog of the fire came we were in great distress; surrounded by the bush on every side and unable to see a rod ahead. Foster on coming , 418 THE GORE AND to visit us, had to feel along the fence we had put up to reach our house. The tongues of the cattle hung out a foot, and they would not oat grass or hay, so we sliced potatoes for them and gave them what slop we could to keep them alive. When the smoke lifted, we saw fire all around us, and my brother and I had not our clothes off for 11 days, fighting it, to save our property. The leaves had fallen, and the flames ran in every direction. On the Outarde the fire raged fiercely, and felled so many trees that vye were unable to reopen our outlet to the river until the winter was well on. That winter there was barely enough snow to put out the fires. Our road was just a blazed track, coming out on 10, and Ave either dragged our loads on ox-sleds or carried them. At the river, we crossed in a canoe to the track on the other bank which ran from Dewittville to Huntingdon. Our mainhold at first was potash-making, and dragging the barrels across the creeks was awful work. If the water was too high for the sleds to go through, we would fell a hemlock and roll the barrel across upon it, reloading on the other side. Oxen were so slow that when Ave could carry the load, Ave did so, and a number of us Avould start for Huntingdon in the morning, each with his bag of grist on his shoulder, and return before dark. One settler, Murray, an Irish Catholic despite his name, who was a very powerful man, could carry 2 bushels. Foster, in 1827, Avas the first to get a horse, but had no harness for it, and many a bag it bore on its back to and from mill. Haws after that got an old black horse. We never had any actual scarcity, though our food Avas coarse, chiefly potatoes. The year of the frost (1836) the tops were killed, so that they did not ripen properly, and were not good eating. So soon as the land was fit for it, we had had splendid crops of both fall and spring wheat. I remember of our getting 4 bushels of red chaff wheat from Upper Canada, and reaping 96. We had plenty of hay from the first, there being beaver-meadows here and there, especially one great meadow on Foster's. There was no pine on the Gore to speak of, but on the Outarde there was a fine cut both of it and oak. Settlers came in thick and before 6 years every lot was taken up. They Avere all Irish, and mainly Protestants. One settler, Lavery, was a main instrument in inducing many to come, for he wrote glowing accounts of the settlement to his old neighbors in county Down. The Coulters are descended from James who came in 1828 and Henry who came in 1831, the year when William Anderson and Law arrived. The Hendersons and Wilsons came in 1829. We kept up the celebration of the ITS DRAAVBACKS. 419 Twelfth of July from the first year Ave came, always having some kind of social gathering. We escaped both visits of the cholera. In the fall of 1831 there was fever and ague in eA7ery ' other house, and it continued a year or two after. We Avere divided about the cause. Some ascribed it to the vapor from the rotting stumps, and the water we used, for there Avere few wells sunk, and surface-water was all we had, but as the disease was almost all among men who had hired out to help farmers on the river during haying, we thought they had got the infection there. Ship-fever was brought by im migrants, but did not spread to the settlers. Our first religious services were conducted by the Rev Mr Merlin, who came to us so soon as he heard of the new7 settlement. After preaching at Black's, he walked over through the woods, and preached in one or other of our houses in the evening. He made all his journeys on foot, and would come when asked for a wed ding. After that, Wesley Palmer and John LoAvrey, the two Methodist local preachers, came occasionally. The catechist, Mr Hervey, Avas the first Episcopalian. Our great drawback was an outlet, the reserves for sideline roads being in sections so wet that we could not make them. After a great deal of op position Ave got the road opened to Dewittville, and later on the one to Huntingdon. These recollections may be supplemented by those of Archd. Adams, a nephew of the Armstrongs, and Avho joined them in 1825: The settlers had a good many draAvbacks and had a sore struggle for years. The potash w7as often hauled out to the Hinchinbrook, the track that way being drier than out by Muir's. It was consigned at first to Reeves, avIio told the settlers he would sell for them in Montreal at the highest price and charge nothing if they would take the price out in' trade. He made money both ways, however, declaring the ashes had graded low and charging high prices for his goods, 25 cents a yard for calico and $1 a pound for tea. After wards they sold in Huntingdon to McNee, who took delivery at Athelstan. While everything was so dear, all the lumberers paid for men was $6 to $7 a month. After clearing a bit of land, we put in corn and potatoes, and, in the fall, wheat, which, on being reaped, gave place to rye, which I have seen on what is now the poorest land on the Gore 6 feet high. The rye was used mainly for bread. The living was plen tiful but poor. The mills having no machinery for clean ing the grain, the bread was often black, from smut or 420 SCHOOL AND CHURCH. weeds. At a bee, the food AAras bread and hot w7ater colored by having had a piece of toasted bread boiled in it, and w7ith- •out sugar. In Elgin I have heard at bees the variety was potatoes in their jackets and champit The only year of real -scarcity Avas 1837, caused by the frosts in August of the year before. The potatoes having been first frosted and then winded became bitter, which caused many to vomit them. That year flour was $5 a quintal, and oatmeal $5.50. I brought two or three loads of meal from Montreal that sum mer, and to one man, who had no money, I gave half a hundred on credit. That fall, when he had a glass, he told me he would never forget me, for when I had let him have the meal he and his* family had been without food for three days except the milk of their solitary cow. There was often ¦scarcity between the last of the old crop and the new one, but -neighbor shared with neighbor. The Rev Mr Merlin visited the settlement from the first, coming once a month or once in •three, according to the state of the roads. To these tAvo narratives, little can be added of the history of the settlement of the Gore. In May, 1828, an immigrant named McKinney died of ship-fever — the first death in the settlement. He was buried in a comer of Hawrs's lot. A year after another immigrant, a woman, died, and was also buried there, whereupon Haws gave an acre to be set aside as a graveyard. In 1829, when a schoolhouse was mooted, it was placed on this reserve, and a brother of Dr Harkness engaged as teacher. This schoolhouse was used for religious services. In the early winter of 1837 Bishop Mountain found his Avay to it and in his diary he says : "In a schoolhouse of squared logs I preached, administered the Lord's supper to 32 communicants, baptized 11 children, and churched the mothers." The settlement was equally divided bet-ween the two denominations, Episcopalian and Presbyterian, and this delayed their uniting to put up a church, and caused *ame feeling. On the old school being burned, in 1838, from a coal dropping between the flooring, it was not rebuilt, but one placed on Foster's lot and another on Johnston's. The refusal of the former on one occasion to the Presbyterians, when the Rev Mr Austin came to hold service, led to their building a church. A misunderstanding prevented the Epis- THE MUIRS AND McNAUGHTONS. 421 copal church being placed on the Gore, and it was built at Herdman's comers. Returning to the lots on the river left by the founders of the Gore, I would note what became of them. Col. BroAvn Avinked at a succession of squatters who occupied them, for they Avere enlarging the clearances and making them more A-aluable for the purchasers he aAvaited. In the summer of 1827 Archd. Muir walked along the river in search of land,. and Avas attracted by a clearance on the long bend in front of 10, the crop on Avhich indicated, to his experienced eye, superior soil. He set off for Beauharnois and bought the lot for $300 and gave the squatter upon it, Masson, $100 for his improvements. A skilled farmer of the Lanarkshire school, Muir set to work Avith his two sons to reclaim the land, and long before his neighbors had a large portion under crop. The year after William Cowan settled west of him and in 1831 John Donnelly, who had a large family of sons. That year three of the McNaughtons came, drawn to this section from their relationship to the Muirs, and in 1832 the father Avith the remainder of the family arrived. It is related of the old man that the relative who accompanied ' him to find a lot, exclaimed to a son, after several days* search, "That father o' yours is bound to settle in a swamp!" Like the Muirs the McNaughtons were good farmers, arid knew the soil that would prove best, and cared nothing aboilt lumbering or potash- making. Taking up lots on both sides of the river, for there were several sons, the section came t'o be known as the Muir and McNaughton settlement, and their modes of working land and managing stock had its effect in raising the standard of farming. There stood on Muir's lot an old shanty, put. up by lumbermen, and this in 1830 A\as fitted up as a school and a half -cracked being, named Dalzell, engaged as teacher. It was not until 1834 that the road was opened fit for vehicles to Huntingdon, and? until then the traffic was by canoe or the road on the Godmari- chester side. On the beautiful reach- of the river opposite 9, a sad fatality took place. Two girls were rocking themselves in a canoe when it upset A French Canadian/Louis Giroux, 422 BOVD SETTLEMENT. Avas passing at the time on horseback, and gallantly plunged in to their rescue. Sad to relate all were drowned, the horse included. The concession lying between the river and the Gore, now called Boyd settlement, was begun in 1823. In the fall of that year John Grant settled on 10, which he had drawn as a free . grant. He Avas from county Wicklow, Ireland. A fortnight after John Telford moved in. His daughter, Mrs Robson, gave these particulars of his coming : My father Avas a Cumberland farmer, and we left England in 1818. After visiting Upper Canada my father returned east, convinced that he could do better near Montreal, owing to prices being so low in Ontario, wheat selling there at 50c a bushel in trade. In the fall of 1823 he came to Huntingdon and secured this lot, cleared a bit and put up a shanty, also cutting a stack of wild hay, which w7as plentiful along the Outarde. We were then living at Moulinette and in Feb'y, 1824, left for our new home. We drove up the Laguerre, crossed by the Shaw road to Trout river, and then down. We brought 6 coavs, 2 young beasts, a yoke of oxen, and 8 , sheep. Up through Muir's lot there was a rude lumber-road which ran back to Foster's on the Gore, and this took us to ¦our new shanty. Except Grant, we had no neighbor east or west of us. The woods stood thick around us, although they had been plundered of the best pine and oak. During 1824 Wm. Irwin settled east of us and James Logan in 1826 a good bit to the west. The year of the Miramichi fire we had a dreadful time of it. It Avas so dark we often could not see 3 feet away. Our chief care was to saA7e the stacks of wild hay cut for the winter-feed of our live-stock, and w7e Avere kept « busy sweeping away the leaves (and they Avere unusually plentiful that fall) from the ridge on which they stood. We succeeded and lost none of our animals, which my father as cribed to putting some salt in the water he gave them. The fire left the bush on the ridges, but made an awful slash on the low grounds. When we came the Outarde was a fine -dear stream, but so many trees fell into it and across it during the fire that it got choked and after that the swales never dried, and we had fires every other year, making matters worse, but,' after all, they helped to clear the land. Wolves were not plentiful when we came, but increased afterwards. One fall, when there was a little snow on the ground pre venting the sheep from running Avell, the wolves killed 12 JOHN BOYD. 423 out of 14 ; 8 Avere found dead on the spot, and 1 within 20- feet of where the schoolhouse noAV is. Deer Avere very plen tiful. In 1826, when the snow was deep with a crust, my brother with a dog ran down 6 in one day and 6, the next. On going on the 3rd day to haul them home, 5 more were killed-. The Americans came and killed a great many for the sake merely of their hams and their hides. In 1832 my father, while haying on a lot he had bought on the river, ate some green peas, which were at the time in the pod. Old Mr Muir brought him home ill with cholera. Dr Bell was called in and his treatment included the withholding of all liquids. My father died in an agony of thirst, calling for water. Muir took the disease but recovered. There were no other cases. The filling up of the concession went on slowly, owing to the land being held by Ellice and other non-residents and the immigrants were either unable to give the prices asked or would not pay for land until the free grants were ex hausted. The want of a road to it and the long stretch of swamp between it and the village also retarded its pro gress. In 1831 John Boyd went on lot 15, being the first to go so far west. As he had a large family and was joined by his brother William, their work began to tell and as others went in beside them the name Boyd settlement came into use. For many years the only mode of access* was a track that followed the ridges through to the swamp, which was crossed by stepping from log to log. Up Boyd's lot there was a track to the Gore. Another road to the new settlement passed up 12. Except in a very dry time, even an ox-sled could with difficulty reach the settlement, antr when the swamps were full everything had to be carried on the shoulder. Until the land was ditched, potash-making was the main reliance of the settlers, who, with a few ex ceptions, were from the North of Ireland. James Flynn, who arrived in 1832, was the first Catholic. The Kellys, who came so late as 1837, found the settlement still in a backward state. Robert Kelly said : I bought my lot (12) from Ellice, for $4 an acre. It was all bush, and the flat south of the Otitarde was a dreadful1 swamp, often preventing passage to the Gore. The only way to get a little cash was to make black salts, which were placed 424 THE ATHELSTAN ROAD in a trough hewn from a basswood log and dragged by oxen to Huntingdon. Everything was very cheap, a cow with calf would fetch $8 to $10, and I have sold butter for 8c. The .first wheat I got was a bushel given me by Wilson on the Gore for helping him to thresh. I carried it on my shoulder home, often like to drop it, for the water was high, and then to mill, and it was the first flour we had. My wife, of course, ,knew nothing about baking but having heard hops were necessary, got some and mixed them with the dough, and our . first loaf came from the chandron as hard as flint and bitter as gall. When she learned the right way, none could beat her for good bread. In the spring of 1838 I got a cow, and cleared up enough of broule land to sow 2 bushels of wheat, and from that time never wanted bread. I have had oats eaten by bears in the back fields. Our great trouble was want of roads. The settlers on front opposed our opening a concession-line, as they would have to help to make it, and wanted us to be content with opening a side-line through 12 to the road they had made on the river. We stood out for a regular front road and ultimately got it, though it Avas years after before the side-line road was opened to Huntingdon, compelling us to trespass on our neighbors to get out. On a move being made to join the school at Muir's, at Watt's hill, and our own into one, the present stone schoolhduse was \ built, and it served as church and a place for public meetings. The lower end of the concession, that east of Robson, was somewhat longer in being opened up, owing to the Avant of a road to Dewittville and the difficulty of clearing the land, the flats having been repeatedly burned over and the fallen vlogs intermixed with scrubby second-growth, but by 1834 all the lots were bought and a thrifty settlement was in progress. Owing to their nearness to the village, it would be sup posed that the lots between Huntingdon and Athelstan would have been quickly taken up, but such was not the case, and there was a large settlement on the 3rd range when the land • between it and the Chateaugay was untouched. This was partly due to its being owned by non-residents and partly to the belief that the land was poor, from its being covered with soft wood, mostly second-growth poplar and hemlock, with some pine. Except in summer, it was a marsh, and during that season, on Sunday afternoons the lads and lasses SLOWLY SETTLED. 425 of Huntingdon roamed the expanse, knoAvn as Canova's swamp, as far as 26, picking blueberries, and between Nel son Vosburgh's clearance on its river-point and Baxter's on 24 there was no house, as there was none from Baxter's to that of Claud Burrows in front of 21, where the village began. From being held by non-residents, no labor Avas put on the road, which became notoriously bad at a time when all roads Avere execrable. For hauling it was useless, so that the journey to Athelstan was made by canoe as far as Munro's hill, and when the water was too low for loaded canoes to go up the shallows, the freight was landed at "the oaks," as the burial-place by the road-side on 28 was named, and where several of the American squatters and a few Old Country people rest The current belief, that a number of Hampton's men were buried in it during the retreat, has no foundation. A little farther up, a bridge Avas thrown across the river to give an outlet to the settlers on the Elgin side, and named Seely's bridge, from his living at the west end of it. At the other end of it, about 1827, a store and ashery was started by an Englishman, Wilson, who was succeeded by Joshua Lewis, andwho,'on removing to Hunt ingdon, sold to M. G. Teel, an Italian, who disappeared soon after. On the grant of $1200 being given to make the road from Franklin to Huntingdon, a considerable portion was absorbed by the section, namely from. 22 to 26, on the river, held by non-residents, who had thus their property improved at the public expense and that of the actual settlers. In 1834 William Rose, a farmer from Aherdeen, and a neighbor, James Reid, who had been, for a short time, an ensign in the 78th, came in search of land, and the former bought out Vosburgh and the latter Richard Cattom who had a clearance on 27. George Blaik settled beside Mr Rose, and gradually the lots to the village came to be taken up? although as late as 1840 the greater part were unimproved. Once the land was cleared and ditched, it was seen there was no more fertile flat in the district The first Old Countryman to settle near Athelstan was James McBeth, who left Dalhousie settlement in 1822 and 426 MAJOR GARDNER. took up 18, range 3. Two years afterwards, Allan Munro came from Ontario, to see about 1700 acres in Hinchinbrook that his mother had inherited from her brother, a Scotch officer, Deneen, who had served in the war of 1812. Munro selected as his abode that portion of his land (lot 28, range 5) on which John Elliot Avas squatted, who moved to 20 on the 3rd and built his shanty by the brook, and where he had several other Americans for neighbors. To convert the tim ber on his land into lumber, Munro set about building a sawmill on the rapids of the Hinchinbrook, but was unable to complete it, when he sold to McNee, the Huntingdon store keeper, who ran it for 2 years, when he found a purchaser in a prominent newcomer, Thomas McLeay Gardner, who had been unsuccessful as a farmer in the Lothians, and emi grated from Scotland in 1827. Accompanied by two neigh bors, George and David Pringle, and by David Sandilands, a Fifeshire farmer, he came to Huntingdon in search of land, when Bowron told them all the crown lots had been granted and they would need to buy, recommending them Avhere to go. Hiring a canoe, they paddled up to the junction of the Hinchinbrook with the Chateaugay, where lived one Kater, who readily sold to Gardner, who subsequently bought the adjoining lot from Judge Gales, making 400 acres. He built his house near the mouth of the present feeder. Sandilands bought the adjoining property and built beside him. On the river, a short distance above him, a Dutch American, Hogle, had a sawmill. The road to Powerscourt was a Avretched one, being the old track cut out by Hampton, which bent east at Sandilands' house and followed the ridge. Work on the new road, by the river-bank, proces-verballed by the grand voyer two years before, was begun that August Mr Sandilands had three sons, one of whom, George, Avas a superior man, and made his influence felt for good, taking a part in all public matters. He was an ardent Liberal in politics, as, indeed, were all the immigrants of that time, save the feAV who had a little money and affected to be superior to the common herd. William Gardner took part of 18 and opened a store and pearling-work, and assumed charge of the ATHELSTAN. 427 sawmill. Going back to Scotland for his family, Gardner gave such glowing descriptions of the locality in which he had settled, that he created quite a stir in the East Lothians, and a number of his neighbors decided on emigrating. On the ship in which he sailed in 1828 were John Pringle, Alex. Lumsden, and James Johnston, and a number followed. On arriving, Lumsden raised a shanty on the east side of the road near the present bridge as a home and on the other side of the road a shop, for he was a blacksmith. These were the first houses in Athelstan. Going largely into lum bering and the sawmill being kept busy, people were attracted to the place, and it soon became large enough to get a name and was known as StMichaels, until, 30 years afterwards, it was called Athelstan. In 1832 the growing population was provided Avith a school, placed some distance north of it, to suit the settlers on the Elgin side. It was a low pa vilion-roofed log building, placed by the road-side on 28. Thos. Taylor (p. 301) taught the first year and held service on Sunday. Sir John Rose attended this school as a pupil and subsequently taught it for a term. In 1834 William Kerr, who had been a calico-printer in Glasgow, and had given up business from losses by endorsing, came and Gardner proposed to him to join in raising a gristmill, and he agreed, supplying the funds. The mill (noAV used as the oatmeal mill) was built by Waldie, a mason, and was fitted up in a very cheap manner, the spindle of the wheel resting on a hemlock knot. It had 2 run of stones, one for flour and one for Indian meal. Following this, Kerr was induced to make advances towards building a distillery, which, how ever, never began operations, the poor gentleman having lost his all. Soon after the sawmill had been opened, Patrick Grady started a tavern at the corners east of it, and was in duced by Gardner to move into the infant village, and in 1838, beside the gristmill, a house was raised which became known far and wide. To show that whisky-selling was even more profitable in those days than now, it may be stated that a 40-gallon barrel, for which Grady would pay Mitchell, the storekeeper on the Lines, $10, he took in $60, besides what 428 THE RIDGE ROAD. the family used or gave in treats. In addition to Kerr and Gardner, Rose and Reid, several others came avIio brought some money with them. There was Patrick Walker on the 1st concession, Alexander Copland, an Aberdeen advocate, John and R. B. Somerville, Dr Shirriff and Dr Whyte. The last-named, who came in 1836 from Elgin, was a physician of reputation, who did not practise, and a very intelligent gentleman. Drawn from a class different from their neigh bors, and not having to plod daily to earn their bread, they formed a small circle of their OAvn, and exchanged frequent visits. They endeavored, so far as the changed surroundings Avould permit, to keep up the customs and style of the Old Land, but the imitation Avas rather pitiful. During the Avin ter each in turn gave a dinner, which was attended with much formality. On the ladies withdrawing, the toddy was brought in, and there were few of the company who left the table without disposing of 5 tumblers. When, iu consequence of the rebellion, Huntingdon became a military station for a few years, and the society of officers was added to the select circle, the dissipation and whist-playing increased, with other extravagances added, as horse-racing. On the Avhole, the ex istence of a sort of gentry during the early period of Hun tingdon's history, was nOt of any benefit, and it is veiy remarkable that all who brought money with them from Scotland lost it. Behind Athelstan, on the 6th concession, a prosperous settlement sprang up, the first to go in being John Pringle. His son. James, gave the following account of his early days in the bush : In 1827 my brother John went to Canada and the family followed in 1828. We took 10 weeks to reach Quebec from Leith, and it was a tAvo days' journey from Lachine to Dewitt ville. On arriving at Huntingdon aac found carts could not go farther, the road was so bad, and we embarked in canoes at the head of Palmer's rapids which landed us at Allan Munro's. From Allan we bought part of 25, 6th concession, at $1.25 per acre and half of 22 from an American named Phillips, who left for the States. How long he had been on his lot I cannot say, but he had a clearance of only about 6 acres. The only other settler on the concession was Samuel THE LOST NATION. 429 Hudson, who lived on the other half of 25, and left in 1835, when he sold to Dr Gibson. We moved into Phillips' house. There was no road, just a track over which oxen could drag a sled. The land Avas so very wet that my father bought 15 acres of ridge on 24 until his own land was fit to cultivate. There was a splendid bush and we made a great deal of pot ash. Fire had never touched the woods and did not until 1840, when a great one raged along the Outarde. The winter after we came was fine and what we got in during the spring- yielded Avell. For several years our only crops were corn and potatoes. That summer, 1829, Malcolm Munro came in, and took up 300 acres at the upper end of the concession. He was a Highlander and had a large family. James Waldie, John McWilliam, and Wm. Anderson came in 1836. Owing to the land being so Avet where the alloAvance for the con cession road lay, we could not open it Avhere it ought to haA'e been, and laid it out so as to keep the high ground. It was several years after we came that the road was cut out, when each settler did his OAvn portion. My eldest brother, John, died of the cholera in 1832. He AA7as in no way exposed, but, from the first report of its having reached Montreal, was iu mortal dread of the disease. He never left home, yet took ill and died in 4 days. Dr Bell, who attended him, said it was Asiatic cholera. One of my sisters caught the infection but recovered The lots to the rear of those on the ridge road, and on the 5th range, remained in a state of nature to a much later date, from their being held by non-residents who asked high prices for them, and one, Nye, would not sell at all. The flat west of the Outarde bridge had been terribly SAvept by fire during 1825, and the outlets so choked by fallen trees that it was converted into a deep swamp. When it did come to be re claimed, the roots of great cedars were found under the second-growth timber that covered it When a settlement came to be made in this dreary expanse, which was towards 1850, it was named "the lost nation," and the title has re mained, although it long since lost its appropriateness, the section being a fine and accessible one. The Samuel Hudson mentioned by Pringle as living at the corner of the brook road, had, with his brother Robert, moved from Eaton, in the Eastern Townships, to Fisher-street, Hem ingford, at the close of the war. Robert had served with 430 THE BROOK ROAD gallantry at Lacolle mills, and was with the army at Platts burgh. On seeing how the men were being swept from the stringers of the bridge as they endeavored to cross the Sar- anac, he took it upon him to countermand the thoughtless order that was sending brave men uselessly to death, and expected to be punished therefor. Instead of that, he was promoted to be lieutenant. In 1823 he moved into Hinchin brook, taking up 25, range 6, and his brother followed in the spring of 1825. Tavo nights were spent on the road. The second Avas in the house of John King, Avho had come in 1823. He was a Scotchman and a bachelor, in which state he continued until his death. He was very kind to the new comers, producing table-linen and silver, relics of his family in Scotland, and which contrasted queerly with the rudeness of his small shanty. Years* afterwards, he lost all by the burning of his house while absent. He w7as a carpenter by trade and had come with Robert Higgins and Archibald Fleming, a mason. These were the only neighbors the Hud- sons had, save Baxter, already referred to, and Wells, also an American, who lived opposite to him on the south side of the road. Robt. Hudson, anxious for the education of his family, induced a sister-in-law, Miss Cross, to open school in his house, and she taught in 1825, followed by his sister, Mrs Leggatt After that Major Gardner had a governess, no public school being opened until the one already referred to, near Athelstan. The settlement along the road between Athelstan and Herd- man, proceeded very slowly, there being no settler beyond King until 1825, when James Terry left Elgin and took lot 26, and, east of him settled John Kennedy, John Trainer, Robert Johnston, John Kelly, and Stephen McCrea These Avere all from the North of Ireland, and, except one, Pro testants. Their countrymen on the Gore turned out to put up shanties for them, and it Avas long remembered that in going to raise that of McCrea they could hardly find their way, owing to the darkness of the smoke of the Miramichi fire. The start the settlement thus obtained it kept, and im migrants came thickly until eA7ery lot was occupied. The road so late as 1829 Avas a mere track along the bank of the Hin- HERDMAN'S CORNERS. 431 chinbrook. In that year something was done to straighten it and chop it out, but it Avas not until 1832 that, with the aid of a small government grant, a rude bush road was formed. The origin of the hamlet at Herdman's corners does not date far back. In 1826 an American, Henry Sweet, from Champlain, bought 29, and sold a couple of acres to Duncan Campbell, who opened a store and pearling-work on the east-side of the road. He continued to carry on business until 1838, when, disgusted by the collapse of 'the rebellion, with which he sympathized, he went back to the States. Of the coming of the family who gave their name to the corners, Arthur Herdman said : Our family sailed from Belfast in 1830, and we left Mont real for Huntingdon by way of Laprairie and Russeltown, reaching the house of William Gibson (whose wife was my sister) after a two days' journey. My father, Henry, bought 30, and my brothers chopped out a clearing and put up a log- house, into which we moved that fall. Sweet and McCrea were our neighbors, and had only small clearings. We had a yoke of oxen, and made much potash. It was terrible work dragging out a barrel in a sled over the dry logs to where a cart could be used. The settlers were poor but hopeful, and the household was thought well-off that had a loaf baked in the chaudron on Saturday for Sunday. In 1832 Perkins Nichols and Duncan Campbell opened store on the south-east side of the corners, and in 1836 my brother Paul started tavern opposite them on the north side of the road. The taking up of lots proceeded more actively east of Herdman than west of it. Nearness to Franklin induced settlers to move in and John Black, Joseph Arthur, Archd. Mather, William Gibson, and James Downs came in 1820, and formed a small neighborhood. Being entirely ignorant of bush-life they had a hard time of it at first, and but for mutually assisting each other could not have held their ground. In 1822 Hy. Rennie and Robt. Gibson came, the first securing 35 in a singular way. The lot was vacant and the first who took possession. would secure the patent One of the Duffins fancied the lot and hearing of Ronnie's intention to settle on it, determined to forestall him. Getting word of 432 black's CHURCH. this on a Sunday, Rennie set himself to defeat him. As he could not legally take possession on Sunday, he Avas con strained to wait at Arthur's until another day begun. There Avas no clock in the settlement, so he and Arthur sat up until the cock crew, Avhen, knowdng it would be about 1 o'clock Monday morning, they sallied forth, reached the lot, and SAVung their axes with such good effect that by daylight there could be no question as to who was in possession. His shanty was erected on the little hill east of the graveyard. From his lot being midway between Rockburn and Herdman the school came to be placed upon if, the first teacher being Christy Campbell. In 1829, by a great effort, a small church Avas built, Avhich stood in the present graveyard. It was a frame building, with balloon-roof, 24 feet square, built by Brewster and McHardy, and subsequently 6 feet was added to it for a belfry. In 1831 Mr Rennie lost an infant son, who' was buried beside the church, which began the use of the plot as a graveyard, he givdng a deed for an acre and keeping a burial register, which his nephew (James Rennie) has continued. The Rev Mr Merlin preached as his other appointments permitted. When asked as to his next visit, he would reply, "I will come sometime." He was not punc tual and the congregation were always kept waiting. Wm. Taylor of the 1st concession precented. No contribution was made towards Mr Merlin's salary. The situation of the church was convenient to the residents on the 1st concession for the only road east of the Powerscourt side-line to the 3rd concession Avas the military road cut out by the Americans during the war. It followed the line between 34 and 35 until the swamp was reached, Avhen it bent east and came out opposite to the present church. Lewis McKay, who visited Huntingdoh for the first time in the fall of 1822, and drew lot 35, range 3, said "the Blacks Avere engaged reaping their first crop, and, though the season Avas diy, the only Avay I could get to Athelstan was by passing up the war- road to the 1st concession, and along it to Powerscourt, where I took the Chateaugay road. The country was very wild at that time and I often trapped beavers to the north THE PEDLAR STORY. 433 of my farm. Venison was the only meat we had, and I shot deer from my own door. Bears gave us a good deal of trouble, for they came from the swamps to the. north in search of food." The first settler at Rockburn Avas Matthew Shearer, whp took up 44 in 1821. Selling to Robert Rennie he moved to Russeltown, and his name became associated with a story of a pedlar alleged to have been murdered at the Flats in the fail of 1826. Shearer, from being involved in the radical riots, fled from Scotland in the fall of 1819 and eventually , drifted to Hinchinbrook, where Robert Gibson became his neighbor, and with whom he lived. On transferring his loft to Rennie, he worked with several farmers in Franklin, finally marrying and settling down at the Fhits, where he had a small house next to John Forbes. One day, in Sep tember, 1826, there came along a French Canadian pedlar, with a great pack of goods, and was readily given permission to stay overnight. His goods were much too fine and costly for the settlers, and finding, after a considerable stay, that he could not sell them, he resolved to cross into the United States, and succeeded in getting a man to convey his goods thither. For their kindness in entertaining him, the pedlar presented Mrs Shearer (a daughter of William Brisbin) with silk enough to make a dress and left behind a box and other valueless articles, until his return. As he never came back, - t the story got abroad that he had been murdered, and it was generally believed. It was entirely unfounded, for. the cause of the pedlar's non-return was, that on the road to Platts burgh he met an American, A. Rand, who purchased his stock of goods in bulk, Avhen, having no need to go back to the Flats, he struck out for fresh pastures. Shearer moved to. the Bay of Quinte, where he throve, and probably remained1 unconscious of the unjust suspicions he left behind him. The fine water-power of the MitchelbroOk at Rockburn was turned to account in 1829. James Allen, unable to re store his mill at the Flats, for the seigniory-office was now zealous in upholding its privileges, resolved on building a gristmill in Hinchinbrook, and there was a great bee to 89 434 ROCKBURN raise the frame that fall. He operated it successfully until he left the country, w7hen Robt. Needier bought his property and supplemented the Avater-poAver by a steam-engine. Fol loAving the erection of the grist-mill, William Dunlop, some distance farther doAvn the stream, placed a sawmill. On the upper Mitchelbrook Thomas Blair, about the same time, btiilt a saAvmill, and in 1836 the Craiks engaged Nelson JProper to erect one on their lot. At a much later date, David Craik, a born-mechanic, bought a part of Blair's lot arid proceeded to build a small gristmill. Near to these mills oil the 1st concession, a Scotchman, George Blain, opened a tavern. The stream that thus supplied power to so many mills in the short space of 2 miles, chvindled as the country got cleared to such an extent that all have been abandoned except the one originally erected by Allen and noAV owned by John SteAvart. There Avas no store at Rockburn until 1862, when one Avas opened by AndreAV Oliver,' and the place assumed the character of a A7illage. The forest east of Rockburn was first broken by a party of Scotch, who landed in Montreal late in the summer of 1820 and worked at quarrying stones and at the laying doAvn of water-mains until the folloAving spring, when they drew lots in the eastern extremity of Hinchinbrook and moved, by way of St Remi, to occupy them. Leaving the women and children with the settlers on the Beechridge and Franklin, the men pushed forward to erect shanties. The families were those of William, Andrew7 and James Lauder, William Easton, Henry Wilson, David Lecky, and William Craik. None of them kneAv anything about bush life, and Craik in attempting to fell his first tree, began by nicking it all round, when Gentle, Avho came over to see him, arrived opportunely to direct him. All remained and succeeded in making homes for themselves, except Lecky, avIio left. Craik was a man of education and some means, and about 1830 opened a store and pearl-ash ery on his lot, by the side of -the road, near where the spring is, and did tolerably AA-elL In accord with the natural laAV of settlements, the nationality of the first-comers determined its future. Other Scotch fami- THE FIRST CONCESSION. 435- lies moved in and up to a comparatively recent period Rock-4 burn and neighborhood was mainly Scotch and Presbyterian. East of Craik Avas John Manning (page 20), who had left, Hemingford owing to losses entailed by misplaced trust, and. who had bought 44 from a squatter, Asa Smith, who claimed . to have come in from the States in 1792. Mr Manning took, possession in 1820, enlarged Smith's clearance and erected, suitable buildings. In the early spring of 1822 he moved his family, severing his connection Avith Hemingford, which the people of that township regretted, as he had been their chief man of business and their only justice of the peace. It- is proof of how much public sentiment has advanced with regard to the liquor-traffic, that this worthy man had not a doubt as to the legitimacy of manufacturing and selling whisky, and the first summer completed a building fitted, up for distilling potato- whisky, to supply the material for, which he planted 10 acres, and that fall, no excise laAvs then hindering, the manufacturing was begun. The spirit was sold at 25 cents a gallon. The squire lived to regret having ever had anything to do with the liquor-traffic, and gave his , influence to the side of temperance. As a magistrate his. services were sought in other than his judicial capacity, and, in disregard of the statutes, he performed the marriage cere mony. He died in 1854, attaining the patriarchal age of 89,. and was buried on his farm. t The 8th concession was not taken possession of until sub- , sequent to 1830. Three brothers, Matthew, Hugh and James ; Simpson, Hugh Calhoun, William Small and William Lindsay (the two latter Scotch, fhe others Irish Protestants) were the • first to go in and had many difficulties to contend with, the chief being the want of an outlet, their only road being a- track through the bush to Rockburn. A fine cut of black • ash and elm was their support for many years, they turning- it into potash. The settlement of the first concession began with the cen- . tury (page 54) and, at the time immigration set in, Avas, fairly t occupied. Of the condition of the concession and its progress ¦ I can give no better account than that told by Wm. Taylor : 436 WILLIAM TAYLOR. My father Avas a weaver in Paisley; a man of natural ability and deep piety, Avho preached on Sundays to a small knot of Baptists, avIio, in those days, represented that denomination in. the small Scottish town. Among his hearers w7ere Matthew Tannahill, brother of the poet, and David Coats, Avho after wards became the great thread- manufacturer. I was born in 1801 and when I became old enough learned my father's trade. In 1820, the radical year, trade was very dull, so that I could not find Avork, and my thoughts were directed to emigrating. The government was offering unusual inducements to go to Canada, — 100 acres in county Lanark, an axe, nails, glass, etc., and $10 in money — and I joined the first party of 300, which sailed in the . Buckinghamshire from Greenock on the 19th April, 1821. From Lachine, the passage was made in 30 Durham boats, the emigrants helping to tow them up the rapids, a Canadian heading the tow-rope arid Ave falling in behind him. We Avere carted back to our lots in the bush The land was stony and the poor people had a hard time of it, though those who persevered eventually made comfortable homes for themselves. Towards spring the settlement was visited by Jacob Hart, who had been educated by the Rev Dr Ewing, Independent minister of Glasgow, as a missionary, and who came to Lanark to see the Huttons, with Avhom I tived, a family with which he was connected by marriage. He told me that he was living in the county of Huntingdon, {p. 155) where the land was much better. In April, 1822, I determined to go and see for myself, and footed it the entire distance, being ferried across at St Regis, and coming down on the American side to Chateaugay, from whence there Avas a rude road to the 1st con. of Hinchinbrook, not straight, but angling across the lots until it got to the centre of them, when it ran east. The first settler's house after crossing the boundary-line was that of Joe Silver, a Canadian, who had just sold to Adam Patterson but had n«t left. Then came 5 Americans, who afterwards sold out to Old Countrymen and left, and after them a Dutchman, Kidner, on 27, Avho sold to Wallace, which brought me to McLatchie, Avho held then 600 acres and was very comfortable ; still farther east were Peter McGregor and his father-in-laAv, Captain Barron, and John Campbell. I was so pleased with the land that I determined at once to remain, and walking to Huntingdon I found Mr - Bowron and took out my location-ticket for part of 30. Pitten- wricht, an Aberdonian, took up the lot opposite me, which he sold afterwards to Donald Fisher. George Gillis drew part of 31 and as he was, like myself, a single man, we Avorked mooney's mill. 431 together, making potash. Our living was potatoes and sa"lt and salt and potatoes. Gillis sold in 1824 to William Burns. To make a little money I hired out the fall I came, at $6 'a month, to Peter Campbell, and remained with him 15 months. Being ignorant of farming this w7as an advantage to me, for Campbell had to tearh me even to moAV. In 1824 an Irish Catholic, Charles Mooney, arrived and built a sawmill on the east side of the Hinchinbrook, and afterwards, in 1828,^a gristmill on the west bank. The latter was operated by a breastwheel 30 feet high and the machinery Avas very simple, mostly of wood, Sandy Lumsden making what ironwork there was. The stones were hewn out of boulders in the adjoining field. They moved slowly and turned out poor flour, but for all that, the mill was a great convenience. His coming in duced a number of his countrymen to follow, and every Irish Catholic immigrant met on the road Avould ask the way to, Mooney's. At the east end of the concession there settled the McMullins, Felix McCormick, James Condron, the Duffins, (Henry lived on the site of the Catholic church) and the Mc-, Donaghs. The Learys came later on. A few years after he built the mills, Mooney sold the property to one Murray, who died market-clerk of Montreal. The same year that the saw mill was built, John Mitchel, a Dutch Yankee, built a store at the lines, on the road to Chateaugay, where all our trading had heretofore been done. The neAv store was very convenient and Mitchel was liberal, giving credit to the new settlers, who had often to get trust for their first axe. They paid in pot ash, which Mitchel hauled to Athelstan and sent to Hunting don by canoe, having a large one for that purpose, which held 3 barrels. From Huntingdon to the Basin Reeves took them in his canoes, and often conveyed for Mitchel as many as a hundred in a season. An American from Plattsburgh, Stand-( ish, established an ashery and store iri the fall of 1825 at the lines, but shortly after sold out to his clerk, George McCoy, and the place is still known as McCoy's lines. He shipped in, a season as many as 120 barrels of pearl-ash. Near by, Judge, Smith had a store, and sold a great quantity of whisky. Our' first school was opened on 34 in 1827 and was taught by Miab Hudson. She and subsequent teachers boarded round, on©.. week for each scholar, and the subscriptions to the salaujf Avere paid in grain and orders on the storekeepers, with very, little money. My wife taught in 1828 arid 1829, and on our marriage, I settled down in earnest to improve my \a,t0. The Rev Mr Merlin was our first minister, though Adam* Patterson and a few neighbors engaged for a short time a 'V438 buck's mill "Baptist, Elder Smith. We had occasional visits from Metho- fdists, but the first Canadian one was Father Hotchkiss, Avho ^began to visit us in 1838. He belonged to Missisquoi bay -and had been a blacksmith. He was just suited to the back- Avoods, and could talk about and give advice on building, -Cattle, farming, and so on, so that even the Catholics were -eager to see him and get his opinion. He wras a loud, strong preacher, but had so limited a stock of sermons that he gave ¦tis one on Noah three times. He preached in the schoolhouse. ¦On Mr Merlin ceasing to be able to keep up his visits, the Black church was unused. One winter night John Mcintosh ¦^was driving when he passed a standing sleigh. Thinking ^something was wrong he halted and turned back, when he , found it was a neighbor and his wife, who had lost a mitt, -for which they were searching. They were going to a prayer- ¦roeeting at James Gamble's house, and asked Mcintosh to go "with them, which he. did. He attended one or two after wards, when Mrs Black said she had the key of the church, 'and as it was not used, they might meet there. They did so, and that led to the Franklin minister including the Black rChurch in his appointments. There was not a wheeled vehicle iused on the 1st concession when I came or for years after; it Avas all ox-sleds. Clearing an acre of land was counted in -those early days worth $10. The school at PoAverscourt was •Opened in the winter of 1833. The Johnston bury ing-place .at Powerscourt is not a A'ery old one. It contains a good :many Irish Catholics, whom, for some cause or another, the priest would not bury in consecrated ground. , This narrative is sufficiently full regarding the 1st conces sion. A little south of Powerscourt, Holcomb & Latham, =while they kept store at Huntingdon, built a small saAvmill, which, on their failure, they transferred to a creditor, a Mont- -real merchant named Buck, by birth an American, in payment 'of their debt. In 1827 Buck built a gristmill on the Elgin ^side, in which he gave some interest to Holcomb, whom he •engaged as manager. The mill was of tlie greatest service to 'ihe settlers, who came to it from great distances. In 1833 »Fisher Ames was engaged as manager, when the mills were '^refitted and a run of stones put in to shell oats. The small Sawmills on the Chateaugay and its tributaries from 1830 to ..,1850 did a large business in sawing pine lumber^ which Avas <6ent to Quebec. In the winter of 1833 MajOr Gardner made OLD BURIAL PLACES. 439 a great effort to have a large output, the sawmill being kept going night and day. The spring of 1834 came early, and the rafts he had ready started and went doAvn easily until the Blockhouse was reached!, Avhen it was found the ice below was firm. After waiting a good while, it moved, when the rafts followed, but the water fell rapidly, and there was noli sufficient to float them over the rapids at Ste Martine. The cost of teaming the lumber to the Basin swallowed the profits^ and the season was long remembered by lumbermen as a dis/- astrous one. In those days farmers never paid for saAving, giving half the lumber as toll. Hemlock Avas rarely drawn^ millers having a prejudice against saAving it, especially in» winter, from its flinty nature being hard on their saws. The western end of the 1st concession road was long in being chopped out, the settlers using the track made by the old American squatters that circled round to Mitchel's. About 1835 the road was cut out on the proper line, and the cedar- swamp that lay Avest of Burnbrae was cross- Avayed, and manjj years elapsed before it was covered with soil and converted into a solid roadbed. Speaking of Burnbrae, the only deatji frem cholera on the concession occurred there. Mr and Mrs Walker had visited the city, and he returned ill with tho disease. Dr Shirriff was sent for, succeeded in overcoming the attack, and went to bed, congratulating himself on thjb recovery of his patient, but did not sleep long until he wa» awakened by Mrs Walker, who cried that she w7as \7ery ilk The doctor rose and entered her room, when he found her ij» a state of collapse, and she died in the morning. j Note. At the close of this chapter, I would direct attentioi» to the neglected condition of the graves and burial-grounds of the first settlers. No effort has been made to preserve them* and, in a few cases, the plow passes over the bones of those who led the way into the wilderness. Surely something mighi be done to ensure respect for the f eAV square feet of land tljcw now claim. In Hinchinbrook the grave of Capt. Barton (p. 56) will soon be lost sight. of, and it is the same with others. • TBe interesting burying-place on the Chateaugay, named in the foregoing chapter "the oaks," is in danger of falling a prey lb the plow. CHAPTER XXII. FRANKLIN AND THE CONTEST WITH THE SEIGNIOR. The era of immigration affected Franklin less than any cither part of the district The northern section had, as al- 'ready described, been taken up by Americans; the southern was held by non-residents ; the crown had no lots to grant. Compared with the western part of the county, it was an old settlement, and, therefore, does not present the same material for narration. In 1826 Amos J. Fassett, an American, opened store on the upper road, on the gore lot, and did business for about 6 years. He was backed by Keyes&Hotchkiss.for whom he bought ashes. At Stacy's corners, in 1830, George Smith, ?who had moved from the Hill, began a blacksmith shop. It niay be here remarked, that stores and taverns were more numerous along the frontier in those early days than they are now. At one time or another every cross-road has had its store or tavern, and much business Avas done at corners which are noAV deserted. The decline of the drinking-habit reduced the number of taverns, and as roads were opened and improved, business centred more in the villages. On the Moe 'place (lot 4, 9th range) stood the first school, built probably iibout 1822, which had a succession of teachers, mostly from the States and none of them competent, until a son of Wm. Easton took charge. This old schoolhouse remained in use ; ,|intil- the stone-schoolhouse, long the place for council and • public meetings, was erected at Stacy's corners, or Manning- ¦ ville as it was then called. That name passed with the post- dffice to the hamlet at the point where the road crosses the Outarde, which, 40 years ago, was a busy place, sawmills Vjtjeing built on either side of the bridge, and eventually a tannery was opened and a store by Ames & Fargo. About il830 Cantwell & Nichols opened a branch store at Franklin ¦Centre which did a large business. While on his deathbed FRANKLIN CENTRE. 441 in 1834 Nichols bequeathed half an acre of his farm, 13, as a graveyard, and he was the first to be buried in it. William Cantwell said : "I came from Troy, N. Y., in 1835, when I bought the Franklin store from my brother. This section, even then, Avas pretty much under bush, and there was not a French Canadian at St Antoine, on tho Black river, or in St Jean Chrysostome. It was not until 1840 that the French began to move into the Black river country. Potash was the great commodity, and I have sent away 85 barrels at once. They were sent on sleds, dragged by two yoke of oxen, to St Remi, and sometimes they took 2 barrels when the road was good, but generally one Avas a load. There was not a buggy then in the county." The opening of a store at the corners added to its importance. Job Douell, an American, opened tavern, and after keeping it some time sold to a brother countryman, Abram Samson, who was succeeded in 1837 by an Irish Protestant, Thomas Wilson. Willis Pelton, before that, opened a whisky-shop, a class of places numer ous all over the country. After 1835 the whisky was nearly all smuggled. It could be had at Malone for 20 cents the gallon, was worth 80 cents at Franklin, and $1 at St Remi. The business of smuggling was followed systematically and immense quantities of liquor brought in. About 1830 a schoolhouse was built on the site of the existing one, large enough for meetings on week days and Sundays, and Avithin its walls, eventually destroyed by fire, the Rev Mr Townsend and others held service. Some time after the war an Ameri can physician, Dr Walbridge, took up his abode on lot 18, 2nd range. He was found dead in his bush, having been killed while dragging a tree home for firewood. He was suc ceeded by Dr Austin, who lived near or on 16. Walbridge's lot was bought by Robert Dunn in 1821, and who became a prominent settler. On 14 was Jacob Abbott, a native of Maine, who kept travellers from an early date. He was .the first to introduce a wheeled vehicle, getting an ox-cart made in Montreal, which he used .in going round to collect ashes, for he had an ashery. In 1825 he sold to Frederick Border, an Irish Protestant, who, until his death at an advanced age, oc- 442 TREATMENT OF THE HIGHLANDERS. cupied a prominent position in the tow7nship. He Avas the cause of others of his countrymen coming to Franklin, among them being Jas. Tate on 13, range 3, and his brother William. The growth of that section of country which forms a gore between the old Hemingford and Hinchinbrook lines, ex tending from the, Flats to near Rockburn, was blighted for 25 years by an attempt to prove that it Avas part of the seigniory of Beauharnois. From the beginning, there had been a doubt as to how far the seigniory extended south wards. Anxious to have the country settled, the first seign iory-agent, Winter, told those who were purposing to take up land in what is now Franklin, that he would make them safe by giving them permits, which feAV accepted, the majority regarding that an unnecessary precaution, being persuaded that not only Russeltown and Edwardstown, but a strip of Williamstown were outside the bounds of the seigniory, and therefore belonged to the crown. Milne was so dubious about the seigniory owning these lands that, in a case where he wished to favor a family, he would not give a deed. When Brown came all doubt as to the designs of the seignior were ended. The Hon. John Richardson and he resolved to begin with the Williamstown settlers. The Highlanders were sum moned to attend at Beauharnois one day in October, 1821. Asked what they had to say for themselves, they told how they had sought homes nine years before in the forest, (p. 48) and how, when informed that the owner of the seigniory claimed the land they had selected, two of their number had gone to visit Milne and wanted to arrange with him, tor they wished to act honestly, and lie refused to deal with them in any way and, thereupon, they had taken possession. Richardson perceived the simple character of the men and he proceeded to bully them. Affecting to be in a rage, he denounced them as trespassers and land-robbers, whom he would cause to be punished with the full rigor of the laAV — he would take their lands from them and imprison them until . they paid what they were" due. The unsophisticated children of hill and glen, without a friend, unable to com municate with those around them, for they spoke Gaelic RUSSELTOWN THREATENED. 443 alone, were struck dumb, and when, as a great favor, they were told they would be allowed to compromise by paying lump sums in proportion to the length of time they had held possession and by agreeing to become censitaires, they complied, and signed an obligation to that eff'ect, the amounts ranging from $25 to $200, and which they had much diffi culty in paying. The next move was made upon the Russel- town settlers. Manuel Avas sent to make a survey. The settlers would not let him; told him their lands belonged to the king, and that Ellice could not treat them as he had done their Highland neighbors. Manuel returned to Beau harnois and reported that many of the settlers had been in undisturbed possession for nigh 20 years, that they had clearances of 30 arpents and over, with fine orchards, and were not the stamp of men to be imposed upon. There the matter rested, and as year followed year without further molestation, the settlers concluded Ellice had abandoned his claim and gave no more thought to the matter. It was in the spring of 1828, while they were plodding along at their weary work of subduing the wilderness, that they were astounded by the announcement that Mr Ellice had taken steps to make good his claim to their farms. They had never doubted that the land they held belonged to the crown, and it Avas in that belief they had gone on improving it; indeed, many had .paid for it under that supposition, for not a few lots had changed hands several times, and ahvays at an advance in price in proportion to the increased improvements. No settler had troubled himself about applying for a patent, for so long as the government did not disturb them, they were not anxious to settle with it. The demand of Mr Ellice, that they recog nize him as their seignior and pay rent, shattered their dream of faHcied security in their possessions and set them enquiring into the foundation of his claim. The question Avas a rather involved one, and turned upon the correctness of the surveys of the boundary-lines between the seigniory of Beauharnois and the Huntingdon townships. In 1787 W. Chewett was ordered to survey the township of Godmanchester, which then included St Anicet. It was of course essential for him to 444 THE MERITS OF THE CASE. establish the western boundary of the seigniory, and the proper way to have done so was to begin at the boundary (which had been then legally established) between the seign iory of Chateaugay and that of Beauharnois, and from that point measure 6 French leagues, which would have brought him to the Avestern limit of the seigniory of Beauharnois, and the starting-point for the neAv township he was to sur- A7ey. Instead of that, he started at St Regis, and measuring eastward struck the river Chateaugay which he followed until he either arbitrarily fixed the western boundary of the seigniory or, what is probable, accepted some old post that a preA'ious surveyor had planted. Having settled in his own way the seigniory's landmark on the river-bank, he ran his line north-west to the St Lawrence. The following year Henry Holland Avas sent to survey Hinchinbrook. Without examination, he accepted Chewett's line as correct, and con tinued it south-east until it struck the province-line in the centre of 51. In 1791 Joseph Kilburn Avas engaged to sur vey Heihingford, and just as Chewett and Holland had established the western boundary of the seigniory, it ie}\ to him to ascertain its southern boundary. This he did by starting from the south-east landmark of the seigniory, which had been established, and ran a line south-west until it intersected that run by Holland. This he struck half a mile north of the. United States, when he concluded that the western line of the seigniory Avas to that extent short of the six leagues. Alexander Ellice, Avho Avas then seignior, demanded compensation for this deficiency, and, in 1801, the government, Avithout enquiring into the merits of the case, ceded to hiin 6600 acres in the township of Clifton, Sherbrooke county. Thus the matter rested for over a quarter of a century, during Avhich the settlers were pain fully and slowly subduing the forest and changing an un productive wilderness into a fertile country. The agents of the seigniory, the Hon. Mr. Richardson and Colonel Brown, perceived this. They envied the prosperous settlements Which fringed the, southern border of the seigniory and resolved to appropriate them under the pretence that they SUPERFICIES OF THE SEIGNIORY. 445 fell within its limits by virtue of the old and forgotten surveys abov7e described. If these surveys were correct, the claim of Mr Ellice's agents was indisputable, and the whole question therefore turned upon their accuracy. Nothing could be plainer than the limits defined in the original deed by the French king. The Marquis of Beau harnois was to have a square of land 6 leagues long facing the St LaAvrence, and .6 leagues deep, the side-lines to run south-west A square of this size would contain 254,036 arpents. The questions to decide Mr Ellice's pretensions were : Did his seigniory have a front on the St LaAvrence of 6 leagues; did his side-lines measure 6 leagues in depth; did they run truly parallel ? Thus tested, it was ascertained, 1st, that instead of a river front of 18 miles, he had one of 18J, CheAvett having made a mistake in allowing half a mile more to the seigniory than it was entitled. 2nd, that the west side-line wras unduly prolonged by Holland, and, instead of being short, as judged by Kilburn, was the reverse. 3rd, that Chewett had run his line on the wrong angle, and by going too far west, had given the seigniory a breadth in rear of 19 miles instead of 18. In addition to all this, the three surveyors had oA'erlooked the circumstance that the St Lawrence took a bend from the dividing-line between the seigniories of Chateaugay and Beauharnois, and that the great projection of land northward, including Grande Isle, should have been taken into account, and the southern boundary been made to conform to it, by slanting it north ward from the end of the eastern-line. The result of all these errors was, that if the boundaries of Godmanchester and the other townships were to be accepted as the boun daries of the seigniory, then it contained 32,000 arpents more than the deed of the French king authorized, and the farms of Manning, Gentle, and the 150 others east of them were part of the surplus. To these representations, Ellice's agents had but one an swer, that the surveys placed their lands within the limits of the seigniory, and the settlers pleaded in vain that Ellice could claim no more land than his deed gave him, namely, 446 THE MEETING AVITH BROAVN. a square of 18 miles, and the gores between the township lines and the true limits of the seigniory Avere simply un conceded crown lands. No error of a surveyor could increase the bounds of the seignior beyond what he had legal title to. It was in vain. The agents of the seigniory saw the catch the error in, the surveys afforded, and laid claim to all the land east and north of the boundary-lines of the townships as drawn by Chewett, Holland, and Kilburn. Knowing what was brewing for them, the settlers appointed a committee to wait on Felton, the agent for the crown lands, who lived at Sherbrooke, and negotiate for the issue of patents for their lots. Mr Felton declined, saying he had no authority to interfere with lands about which there was any dispute. Hearing of the effort to obtain titles 'from the crown, Brown decided to proceed to extremities with the settlers, and, as a necessary preliminary to instituting actions against them, had to offer them deeds of concession. In the summer of 1828 he notified them he would visit Russeltown and to meet him and show their titles to holding the land they oc cupied. There Avas a large gathering, for over 150 families were affected. None had any deeds to shoAv beyond the conveyances of those they had bought from, but a feAV had permits from Francis Winter, as agent of the seignior, auth orizing them to take possession of the lands they were upon. These Brown scoffed at, and demanded that all should take deeds of concession from him. They refused, contending that their lands were outside the seigniory. He threatened them, when one of the settlers stood forward and said they AA-anted no law and, as a compromise, if he Avould accept of a copper and a quart of Avheat as rent per acre, instead of the 12 coppers per acre he demanded, they would take deeds of concession. He laughed at the man and left tho meeting with the assurance that the next visit they Avould have would be from the bailiff Without any delay, writs Avere served on 13 of the settlers most prominent in resisting the seignior's claims, among them being such old residents as Andrew Gentle, Aram Moe, William Adams, and Ichabod Allen. The demand made upon them was, that they take THE SETTLERS ORGANIZE. 447 deeds of concession from the seignior at $10 yearly rent per 100 arpents, pay up all arrears of rent, including lods et ventes, where there had been transfers, or settle for the past by paying the lump sum of $800. Unable to bear the costs of so many suits, the settlers, at a meeting held in the school- house at Moe's, agreed to abide by the decision of any one, and John Manning's was agreed upon. Money to defend the test-suit was hard to get, and in the hope of swelling their own poor contributions, an address, dated 12th January, 1829, was issued to the censitaires of the neighboring seigniories stating that the time had "arrived when the great question is to be tried, whether the seigniors are to extort Avhat quan tum of rent they please, or whether the tenant has a remedy in law to reduce and establish the amount," and asking1 aid for the defendants in the .cases then before the court of King's bench, Montreal, which disputed the amount of seign iorial rent as well as the liability to pay it, as they were "mostly of that class whose misfortune in life it is to be poor and unable to support the defence." The response to this ap peal was discouraging. On the 27th April, 1830, 11 settlers* met at the house of John Forbes and drew up a plan of levying a subscription of $8 per lot, payable in instalments, which was generally fallen in Avith. In the hope that the government might be induced to intervene in their favor, Manning went to Quebec, and laid the matter before the governor, Sir James Kempt, who expressed himself as averse to interfering, as being little acquainted with the affairs of the country, in which he had arrived a short time before, ' and this he proved by asking such a foolish question as if the settlers would not be as well to have their lands under the seignior as the crown, followed by his statement that he "understood if was a common thing for seigniors to claim beyond their limits in Canada." He closed by telling Man ning that he would leave the matter to the courts, adding *The 11 were John Manning, Aram Moe, Abraham Samp son, James Duncan, David Gordon, Daniel Parham, Nathan Pettis, Abraham Welch, Perkin Nichols, Robert Dunn and Jacob J. Manning. 448 A DECISION. that he "thought you Americans are a little troublesome" — a gratuitous insult to a U. E. loyalist like Manning. The ease proceeded slowly, and when it came up for argument, Duval, who appeared for the defence, simply pleaded that the lot occupied by Manning was ungranted land and therefore belonged to the croAvn. This threw the onus of proof upon Ellice, and as his counsel could not show that he had a title to the lot, the court in February, 1831, dismissed the action, with costs against him. The settlers were jubilant; if the government would not help them, they Avould fight the wealthy seignior alone, and henceforth they maintained a defensive union, each settler to pay in proportion to the land he occupied, and Squire Manning being chosen their agent. Fortified by this decision of the court, he again visited Quebec, and asked the governor to grant the settlers crown patents for their lands. No promise w7as given, and he had to leave the papers for "future consideration." Subsequent events proved that the governor w7as being influenced against the settlers, for the interests of Ellice were those of several of the most prominent citizens of Montreal, men like Peter McGill and John Richardson, and more than one of whom had a seat in the council. To keep up appearances in a case where the right of the croAvn to 32,000 acres was at stake, something had to be done, and the something re solved upon by the council wras designed not to protect the interests of the government but to strengthen the claim of Mr Ellice. They ordered that Kilburn's line be retraced, naming on the part of the crown Alexander Stevenson and the seigniory choosing Olivier Arcand. The instructions given by the government to the two surveyors revealed the true intent. They were not, as the settlers supposed, when they rejoiced on hearing of the order for the survey, in structions to examine whether Kilburn had laid down his line in the right place, but whether the line was properly drawn, and to replace his wooden posts with stone ones. Nobody disputed the straightness of Kilburn's" line; the con tention was that, while it might be the best line ever drawn by surveyor, it was in the wrong place; that it was laid kilburn's line. 449 dow7n over a mile south of where it ought to bo, and that the correctness of his starting-point and not the straightness of his line was what ought to be looked into. Stevenson and Arcand came on in 1830, discoA7ered the old post at the north-east corner of the seigniory, followed up Kilburn's line to the Outarde, set stone-posts at intervals, and reported that they had found Kilburn's line a straight one and had re-established it. Their proces-verbal was accepted and thus the government, in a sense, committed itself to acknoAA7ledging Kilburn's line the true boundary of the seigniory. All this was unknown to the settlers, AA'ho waited impatiently for the answer of the governor to Manning's request to grant them patents.v In December they were thunderstruck to read the. legal notices that Ellice was about to apply to have the un conceded lands of* his seigniory converted from seigniorial'' tenure into free and common soccage. They saw at onco that the scheme had, for one of its objects, the investing him with a title to the lands they held, which he would obtain by the regrant from the croAvn, taking the line of Kilburn as the southern boundary of the seigniory. Manning called a meeting of them to decide on Avhat should be done, and was the more keenly instigated in doing so by the defec tion of Abraham Welch, w7ho criticised the steps he had taken and insinuated that the funds contributed by the settlers had not been properly applied. The meeting took place in the Flats schoolhouse (Kirkfield, it was then termed) on the 1st February, 1832, which was packed to the door. The squire read a long address, in which he elaborately and ponderously described Welch as the personification among them of the spirit of evil, and himself as the pilot Avho had steered the ship so far successfully and was willing to again brave the storms that lay between them and the haven of rest. The meeting sustained the squire in all he had done, re-appointed him as their agent, pledged themselves to sustain him, and charae- 'terized Welch's conduct as "spiteful, malicious and perse cuting." The meetings thus resulted in reconstituting the association for the renewal of the contest with the seignior. ' Their first act Avas to send a memorial to Quebec, praying to 30 450 ELLICE COMMUTES AND be declared possessors of the lots held by them, their second a protest against the regrant of the seigniory, as prayed for by Ellice, and asking, if their prayer were not granted, that, in any back claims he might make, he be limited to the rents authorized by the old French law, namely 2 coppers, or 1 copper and a quart of wheat, yearly, for each arpent. The government handed the documents to Ellice's agents for reply, and a controversy ensued in which the legal acumen Avas on one side and right and equity on the other. The case for the settlers was wordily and blunderingly presented by Manning and Jacob Dewitt, then one of the members for the county ; the strongest points they made being that the de cision of the court in dismissing Ellice's action against the 13 showed he had no legal title to the lands in dispute, while, it was asked, "What better title can that man have who has cleared and cultivated the land, who, with the very sweat of his brow, has fertilized and rendered it productive ? It is true the settlers took possession of their lands, but they did so when they were wild and uncultivated, and it is only now, when their labors have rendered these lands valuable, that the seignior makes an attempt to wrest them away, or, at least, to impose heavy and burdensome conditions upon the retention of them."' The papers were referred to a special committee of the executive council, who made their report in December 1832, which, though long, may be summed up in few words. The question was, where lay the boundary-line between the lands of the crown and those of Ellice ? In the opinion of the coriimittee, it was the line run by Kilburn, and re-established by Stevenson and Arcand, therefore as the crown cannot set up a claim to the strip fof 32,000 acres in dispute, John Manning and the other settlers were still less competent This decision was a severe blow to the settlers, but in no way shook their resolve to fight for their rights to the bitter erid. All opposition being quashed, the proceedings to extinguish the feudal tenure of the seigniory were hurried. John Davidson of Dundee was named by the crown to value with the Hon. Mr Bell the unconceded lands, and, in doing so, they deducted as valueless 8000 acres of Teafield, 10,000 acres VISITS THE SEIGNIORY. 451. of Blueberry rock, and 5000 acres devastated by the fire in 1825, and which afterwards (Tullochgorum was comprised in the section) proved to be the best land in the seigniory and sold by it for a high price. The remaining 95,000 acres of unconceded land they estimated at 60 cents an acre, and the fine of 3 cents, being one-twentieth, was tendered and accept ed by the government, which, in May, 1833, issued a procla mation declaring the unconceded lands of the seigniory to be held by Ellice in free and common soccage. And thus, for the sum of $2765, Mr Ellice became absolute owner of oyer one-hundred -thousand acres of land. The prospect now was black indeed for the settlers ; the government had not only refused to come to their assistance, but had cut away their main defence ; their opponent was one of the wealthiest and most influential merchants of his day. For 20 years and over they had labored to make homes for themselves, and now, apparently, their properties wrere to be at the disposal of a seignior, and they were to be treated as trespassers on the lands they had redeemed from the forest. All the spirit of independence and sense of right which characterizes back woodsmen revolted at the thought, and they resolved to lose all rather than be defrauded. Their resentment was not so much towards Ellice, whom they believed to know nothing of the merits of the case, as against his agerits, more particu larly Brown, whose rapacity and duplicity had long made his name a byword in the district, while his lewdness disgusted decent people. His taking advantage of Kilburn's' error 'in running the Russeltown boundary was regarded by the sett lers solely as a scheme to obtain money to maintain him in the extravagant and shameless mode of life he. maintained at Beauharnois. The year the tenure of the seigniory was changed, Mr Ellice visited Canada. The first Sunday after his arrival at Beauharnois he went to the door of the Catholic church, and, with Peter McGill standing by his side, announced, as the congregation came out, that he would be at Reeves's tavern on a certain day to hear any complaints his censitaires might- have. There was a large gathering, and he was overwhelmed 452 ANOTHER OFFER. with astonishment at the number and variety of the grievances of the people, and finally grew irritated and angry. Brown kept many back from speaking by fair promises, but enough came out to show Ellice how the people had been Avronged. When old Mr Elliot of English river stated the grievance of the settlers with regard to the mouture, the answer, that he had not received a penny from the revenues of the seigniory, that he had been even drawn upon for $2000 to pay for the Norton creek mill, silenced his astonished hearers, for it is hard to complain to a landlord Avhose property is a source of loss to him. They kneAv that, between lumber and rents, a large sum was paid yearly at Beauharnois, and their indig nation Avas subdued with pity for the London magnate who was being bled by his servants. Mr Ellice impressed the settlers as anxious to do what was just and he made many promises, which, as he left Brown to perform them, were not fulfilled. Touching the question of the Russeltown lands, he declined to interfere, letting it remain with his lawyers. After a brief stay, he departed, leaving behind him an agent, named Bull, professedly to assist in the seigniory office, but in reality as a check on Brown. Negotiations were re-opened Avith the settlers, and in July, 1-836, the seignior made a written offer to give clear deeds for $4 per acre for lots marked by their surveyor "superior," S3 for lots marked "middling," and $2 for "inferior," one-fifth of the price down and the remainder as agreed upon, Avith interest. The offer was to remain open until the end of the year, and all who did not accept were to be prosecuted for unlawful possession. None accepted the prof erred terms, and in 1837 fresh actions were taken out against a number. By consent, those against Squire Manning and Jeremiah Dunn Avere selected as test-suits. Before they were called in court, a change took place which caused indefinite delay. The sum mer of 1838 young Ellice arrived in Canada and happening to be at Beauharnois on the outbreak of the rebellion, was so disgusted by his arrest and treatment Avhile a prisoner, that he returned to England determined to get quit of the seigniory, and the following year he succeeded in inducing THE SEIGNIORY IS SOLD. 453 Mr Scott, a London banker, to purchase it, and who ap pointed Lewis Lyman of Montreal his agent. Owing to severe losses in his business, Mr Scott was unable to retain the seigniory, Avhereupon he organized a company, the Lon don Land company, to take it over for $750,000, of which $150,000 Avas paid to Ellice, who was elected a director. Edward Colville, of a noble Scotch house, a lad of 23 and fresh from college, Avas sent out to manage for the company. BroAvn, Avho had been retained by Ellice to look after his interests until the whole of the purchase-money was paid, soon threw his wiles around the lad and led him into ex cesses which destroyed his usefulness. This was his associ ate's object, for, above all things, he desired to see the former regime restored with himself in his old position. The change of proprietorship caused a stay in the proceedings until 1844, when they were resumed in a desultory manner, which was particularly harassing to the farmers, who ardently desired the question settled, and well they might, for so long as their right to their lots was disputed they did not care about improving them, and shuffled along, from year to year, as they best could. The settlement was almost at .a standstill, and the young people, who, under other circum stances, Avould have spread over the adjacent country and formed strong English - settlements in Edwardstown and along the Black river (now occupied by the French), left, for Ontario and the United States. About 1835 a craze pre vailed regarding the Bay of Quinte, and there was a. large emigration to that fine district. Roads and water- discharges were neglected, and whenever any improvement AA7as mooted the cry was, What use to Avork for the benefit of the seignior ? As they Avould get no compensation for their betterments, should the cases go against them, the old log-shanties and the meagre clearings were enough for them to lose. The uncertainty as to title affected their credit. Storekeepers did not like to trust them too far, and as they could not give mortgages, they were at the mercy of the money-lenders. To their honor be it said, tlie settlers took no advantage of their situation, and all obligations on their 454 THE SETTLERS MEASURE THE SEIGNIORY. lands were paid. The stagnant appearance of the settle- unent was no reflex of the minds of its inhabitants, which were kept awake by never-ceasing anxiety. Hopes of an early . decision of their suits were born to be blasted, and rumors excited them but to die away and be succeeded by others as unsubstantial. There were spies in their midst and wires were pulled to cause divisions and bickerings among them, but these maneuvers of Brown were futile, beyond exasperating public feeling. The Land Association, as they called their union, stood intact, and when Fisher Ames moved into Franklin it gained an unwearied and fertile-minded secretary. The weak point in the case of the seignior, that he could not prove his right to more than the 254,016 arpents granted by the French king, was perceived by Ames, and he perseveringly pressed the government to order a survey of it, and here it is to be noted that, after the union, the government ceased to be the obliging friend of Ellice and refused all assistance to defeat the farmers. /Ihe persistent efforts of the settlers to obtain a decision on /their cases were baffled by the lawyers for the seigniory, «vho entered demurrers and made motions with no other end than to weary the defendants and impoverish them by the costs, for which frequent assessments had to be imposed New actions were, constantly being taken out, with no other view, of course, than to frighten the weak into yielding and , to annoy resolute opponents, for one case would settle the •merits at stake as well as fifty. The settlers retorted by taking steps to dispute the title of the. seignior to much of the land that had beeri heretofore considered as his beyond dispute. William Barrett and William Lalanne were em ployed to make a survey of the seigniory. The Avork was one of danger and difficulty Mr Nicolson of the seigniory- office was deputed to prevent the survey being made, and, sustained by a strong posse, he vigorously hunted- the two engineers. Ordered by the seigniory -office, the habitants along the river -forbade them to put a foot on their farms. Foreseeing this trouble, the winter had been chosen to do the work, and the surveyors scanned the shore from the DEATH OF BROWN. 455 ice. Where the current was rapid this was dangerous, ands on one occasion, the spot where they had levelled their in struments was open water next day. The chief difficulty was providing shelter for the party at night, and this was undertaken by Joseph Towns and William Wilson, who suc ceeded in securing board and lodging. Creeping along the ice that edged the bank, even where the rapids foamed anc> roared, the surveyors fulfilled their task, and when January, 1847, closed, they had obtained a correct outline of the river front of the seigniory. The running of the sidelines was easy, and when they completed their calculations, they de monstrated with mathematical precision that the seigniory contained 32,503 arpents over the 254,016 secured by the French king's deed. They petitioned the government to order a new survey of the seigniory and to reinvest in the crown whatever surplusage of land might be found. The lawyers of the seignior pleaded French law and custom as- to defining boundaries, and insisted that Kilburn's line, re established by Stevenson and Arcand, was final as to the southern limit Of the seigniory and that the letters-patent issued in reconveying the seigniory in free and common soccage confirmed the title to all other lands in dispute. This latter contention would have been unanswerable had the letters -patent described the extent and limits of the seigniory, which it did not, merely naming its divisions, as* Jamestown, Russeltown, and Edwardstown, without defining their boundaries. The year 1851 had not passed many days when Colonel Brown suddenly died, and thus an obstacle to a settlement of the wearisome dispute was removed. There were other circumstances favorable to such a result. The company which bought the seigniory had been obliged to relinquish it, for owing to Colville's mismanagement the receipts had . barely sufficed for the expenditure, and they arranged with Ellice to take the property off their hands, he to retain tlie payment of $150,000. James Keith was appointed successor to Brown and he applied himself to bringing the dispute with the settlers to a bearing.' John Rose, now Sir John 456 A CONFERENCE Rose of London, then an advocate in Montreal, was entrusted Avith the case, and as the government of the day was amen able to the influence he could bring to bear, an adA7antage Avas gained upon the settlers they had long dreaded. What successive governments had refused, namely, to give the use of the name of the crown in the actions carried on against tHem, the Morin administration agreed to, and Mr Rose was informed that all pleadings against the settlers could be made in the name of her majesty, provided a bond was furnished to save the crown from costs. Actions were taken out against 17 settlers and the request to select one of them as a test-case Avas peremptorily refused. The settlers saAV the ground of their defence thus cut awray, for it would be preposterous to contend that the crown owned their* farms when the crown prosecuted them to surrender them to Edward Ellice. There is no more shameful instance in Canadian history of the government lending its powers to a private individual to further his selfish ends. It was in the hope that, some day, the government would vindicate their cause, that the back woodsmen, who had spent their lives in giving value to. the property sought to be wrested from them, had cheered them selves through the long struggle, and noAV, instead of that, the government had sided with their enemy. Nelson Manning, whO had taken his uncle's place on his becoming incapaci tated by age, Avent to Montreal to consult with Mr Cherrier, then at the head of the bar. He advised a settlement on the basis of what they would have to pay the croAvn for the land if .they won the suit. On the lawyer for the association, Andrew Robertson, stating he coincided with the advuce, a compromise with the seignior began to be entertained, and negotiations were instituted. They dragged over a year, and until 1853, when a personal conference was arranged to take place between the committee of the settlers and Mr Keith at Mrs Young's hotel, Franklin Centre, on the under standing that if no agreement was reached, Avhat was said on either side should not be used as evidence in court On the meeting taking place, Frederick Broder began by asking Mr Keith if it was like a gentleman to be disturbing loyal RESULTS IN A SETTLEMENT. 457 men in their holdings. Keith rose to leave the room, saying if such talk Avas to be tolerated the meeting could have no good result. He was persuaded to remain and the business for Avhich they met taken up. The committee frankly stated that if they Avon the suits, and their farms declared to be crown lands, they would have to pay the government 75 cents per acre. If the seignior would agree to take that and give them a clear acquittance, they were ready to pay him. Mr Keith demurred. That the seignior Avould win the cases, he declared himself satisfied, and the settlers would have to pay the $6 per acre he was selling other wild lands at, with damages in addition, but he was Avilling to take much less to amicably settle a dispute that had now lasted over 25 years. Finally it was arranged to pay a dollar per acre. To come to an understanding about who should pay the laAv costs of the seignior was more, difficult, for Keith insisted that the settlers should pay them all. When asked what they amounted to he could not tell, but roughly esti mated them at $2000. Finally, he said he would agree to the seignior paying $200 of the amount, whatever it might be. The conference was suspended to allow of the committee consulting with the farmers in attendance outside. Nelson Manning pointed out that if the bill of costs Avas left to the laAvyers, there was no telling how large a sum they would have to pay. He suggested that they offer a lump sum and then they would know where they were. To Mr Keith he pointed out, that whereas $1000 was a small sum to Mr Ellice it was a serious one to the farmers, and that as they were yielding so much in acknowledging his title to their lands, he might make a financial concession. His words had their weight with both sides, and on the committee tendering $800, Mr Keith accepted, and the conference ended. It was subsequently ascertained that the seignior's taxed costs were $3000 and the association's $1600. In apportioning how the dollar per acre should be raised, the settlers agreed that all who had held lots ov-er 30 years should pay 60 cents per acre, those who had held lots for a less period 80 cents per acre if on the high land and $1.40 on the flats, making the 458 THE END OF THE CASE. average of one dollar an acre all over. The costs, including the $800 to be paid to the seignior, amounted to $2,400, and they were assessed on each lot. , A few of the members of the association dishonorably refused to pay their share of the costs, which had to be made up by the others. And thus ended the most famous lawsuit the province has known; famous on account of the parties to it, a body of poor backwoodsmen against a wealthy London merchant and prominent English politician, and famous from the stake at issue — the homes of 200 families and the right of ownership to 32,500 acres. Neither side could claim victory. Ellice got a portion of the money he sought; the backwoodsmen vindicated their claim that their land was not seigniorial, which the government soon after acknowledged by including the larger portion of it into the reconstituted county of Hun tingdon and still later into the township of Franklin. The removal of the incubus of the laAvsuit wrought a wonderful change. Once more assured that the lands they cultivated were their own, the farmers set about improving them with spirit. The neglected aspect of the country disappeared and in 5 years more progress was made than in the 26 during which the renowned contest had lasted. One settler, James Lamb, a Scotchman, alone refused to enter into the agree ment, and retained Andrew Robertson to defend him. The case^ was carried to England. He won, but he lost his farm, which went to pay his costs. CHAPTER XXIII. RUSSELTOWN AND EDWARDSTOWN: HAVELOCK AND FRANKLIN. Of the country that spreads in wide extended flats at the foot of Covey hill, I will endeavor to give a consecutive his tory from its first settlement. The stony ridges and gravelly slopes, which form the base of Covey hill, spring abruptly from a plain of fertile soil, watered by the Black and English rivers, Norton creek and several brooks. When the first- comers gazed down on this plain, they named it "the flats," and that title has adhered to the north-western portion of it. When the great inland-sea, that stretched from the Adiron dacks to the Laurentians, receded, and when Covey hill reared its head as an island in its icy waters, it left a thick deposit of alluvial soil around its base, with a number of small streams trickling through it. On these flats sprung up a heavy growth of black-ash and elm, which the New Englanders, forced to leave their own sterile valleys in search of new homes, Avere not long in discovering. When the first of these pioneers set up his shanty on the banks of Allen brook or of the English river is not known, but it is doubt ful if it was before the beginning of the century. The only authentic record of these first-comers is contained in the narrative of the son of one of them, Willis C. Roberts : My father, Benjamin, was of English descent, and lived at Deerfield, N.H. He sided with Britain in the revolutionary war, and, so soon after the peace as he could do so, he moved into Canada, and took up land in Stanstead. What caused him to leave there I do not know, but in 1811 he moved west ward and squatted on lot 16, 5th range. There were other settlers before him, very few, however, and I cannot give all their names. Humphrey Brayion was among them, and his shanty was on 205. My father did not like his location, for, owing to the brook being filled with driftwood, it was liable to sudden floods, and one spring his shanty was surrounded with water for quite a while. I was born in Sept. 1813, and 460 WILLIS C. ROBERTS. my mother being very ill a neighbor walked to Laprairie, which wras the place where the nearest doctor lived. On the following New Year's day my parents were invited to a merry-making at Sweet's (p. 22). My mother, of course, took me, but left my two little sisters behind, getting a son of Brayton's to remain in charge. About midnight the lad was . awakened by a crackling sound, and saw the rafters over head on fire. Snatching up the youngest child he rushed out, and driving the pigs from their pen, laid her in their nest, and returning brought out the other girl, being burned by a falling coal in doing so. Neither of my sisters Avas clad and the brave boy was barefoot. Everything w7as con sumed. We spent the winter in Sweet's house, and in the spring my father rented David Stockwell's farm, lot 9, 4th range, and he prepared a new place for himself beside it. Stockwell was a blacksmith, and for many years the only one in this section. My father was the first to take up land betAveen him and the flats, but he soon had neighbors, for Robert Hunkins squatted on 173 and Daniel Gordon on the opposite side of the road in 1818. In that year the settlers along the track, for it was not a road, that led to Franklin, were as follows : East of St Remi, the settlers were French; Avhere the village is now, lived Dewey, Struthers and Robt. Dunn, and west of them the woods Avere unbroken until Beechridge was reached, where a Dutch American, Hope, had built his shanty. The settlers on the flats in passing homewards, picked up the shell limestone that abounded on his lot, and burned them in their log-heaps to secure the lime necessary for the lye-leaches. Why the Beechridge got its name is hard to say, as spruce was the predominant tree. Leaving Hope's clearance, the woods closed in again and con tinued until the Norton creek appeared, and on its banks were several houses. First were two of the Nortons, and James Block, whose shanty stood Avhere Thomas Cantwell afterwards built. On the Avest side, where the gristmill stands, was a Dutchman, Burgot, Avho afterAvards put up a large blockhouse and lived a long Avhile. In the fall of 1813 two sons of his were Avorking in the bush Avhen they heard the roll of musketry to the north of them, and realized that an engagement Avas going on, for they had not heard that Hampton had crossed. Hurrying- to the house, they snatched up their rifles and pushed across the country to the Chateau gay, reporting themselves at the British headquarters before sunset, Avhen the officer, glancing at the stalwart frames of the loyal backwoodsmen said : "I am glad to see you, but the A SHAKING QUAKER. 461 job is done," — the Americans having fallen back. The next houses to that, of Burgot were those of Proper and Mosher, the latter an American deserter, Walker, and another of the Nortons. Now came an unbroken stretch of forest, 3 miles long, for, until 1820, there was not a clearance in or near the site of the village of Chrysostom. As the track turned south wards to the flats, three Canadian families Avere met, Sylvia, who came in 1815, Richard, and Percheron. On the north side of the English river were Levi Grimshaw, Avho came, accompanied by Petty, from New England in 1812. Petty on 205, and Goodwin on 16. Brace was on 15, and raised a large frame building still standing (1887) and which he sold to Samuel Brisbin, when he moved down from the hill. The next shanty was that of an Old Countryman, John Wil son, an Irish Piotestant, who came in 1818. He put it up on a spot that faces the existing church door, but failing to get water, built another on the west side of the road. His neighbor to the Avest of him was James Allen, who, probably as early as 1815, erected a small gristmill, with a single run of stones, on tho brook which bears his name. Next to him was Wm. Campbell, a Scotch shoemaker, who came in 1818 with his brother Hugh, and who had beside them, on lot 206, a singular character, Zebulon Huntington, a shaking Quaker, who had been a farmer of some consequence in Vermont. On leaving he invested the proceeds of his real estate in live stock and drove them before him into the Canadian wilder ness. He cut some hay for them on the beaver -meadows along the brook, but seldom fed it, preferring to winter his beasts on broAVse. Each morning in winter he started out with his axe over his shoulder, followed by his drove of cattle, and felled trees for them. Sometimes he killed one, by a tree accidentally falling as they pressed around him. You may think it poor feed, but the truth is, the tips of the maple and basswood are very nourishing and so well relished that coavs will leave hay for browse. I have known the wives of settlers go to a tree when felled and break off the branch points, which crack off easily in frosty weather, to feed their cows. In course of time Huntington cleared, to secure browse, the side of the hill on lots 128 and 9. He had also a large flock of sheep, and at times was troubled by wolves. When he suspected a pack of them being near, he sounded a conch- shell he had, and we would1 hear it sound until after midnight. Huntington was useful as a source of supplying the settle ment with oxen and cows. He wras of a peculiar nature, seldom speaking, and passing neighbors without notice, and 462 A PATRIOT. was currently believed by them to dance naked round the trees, "whipping the devil round a stump." He had a fine family of daughters ; his only son was killed by a cyclone in the West One day he brought home a few yards of calico which his wife had asked him to get, and, on coming in from the stable, and finding her tearing it into strips, he got into a rage at what he considered her wanton destructiveness of property, and never after spoke to her. She was shredding the calico to make a quilt. He had a most wonderful memory, and could repeat what he read or heard without mistake. He moved to Ohio, Avhere he died. West of the lot of this strange man, whose name is perpetuated in that of the brook that waters the w7estern end of the flats, lived John, Charles, and Alanson Allen. With the few exceptions named, all the set tlers Avere Americans, and a light-hearted, improvident class of New Englanders they were. The outbreak of war caused, in the majority of them, no apprehension sufficient to drive them awray, and the few who did leave, returned, though none entered the British service save my oldest brother, who enlisted in the Invincibles, and fell at Chrystler's farm. Either not hearing or unheeding the bugle w7hen it sounded to retire, he remained and fell pierced with many bullets. The slash of timber made east of Chrysostom (page 63) named the American blockade, gave the settlers no small trouble, as they were refused passage with their teams, and would have been shut out from their only market but for Abram Welch, who had got authority to pass the lines. Welch was a singu lar being, Avell-educated and of great natural ability, -but a notorious swearer, and so wild in manners that children were terrified of him. He came from the state of Maine and had imbibed in his youth free-thinking notions and confused the simple-minded by arguments from Paine, delighting to shock the religious. One Sunday, while the Methodists were flock ing past his house to a quarterly meeting, he hammered with all his energy on the roof of a new building he was erecting. His speech was the worst of him, however, for he was honest and abstemious, and freely lent his aid in surveying land, at which he was surprisingly accurate, and in building. He settled first on 14 and 15 and then moved west to 136. During the war he acted as a secret agent for the government, for though an American he was loyal to Britain, and rendered valuable service to the settlers in taking loads of potash to Laprairie and returning with much-needed provisions, for the clearances then made were insufficient to sustain them. The magnificent cut of timber that surrounded their shan- THE SETTLERS. 463 ties appeared to those American squatters to be a source of inexhaustible wealth, and potash-making was their constant avocation. Bees were of almost daily occurrence, for as soon as one had a sufficient* quantity of timber chopped, he called in his neighbors to log and burn, when there was a jollifica tion, but nothing to that when the barrel was filled, hauled to Laprairie, and the proceeds brought back in the form of provisions and a replenished keg. It was working in the woods by day, and fiddling and dancing at night. Had they gone soberly to -work, and cleared the land for cultivation, they would have become comfortable, instead of leading a careless life with only the potash-kettle between them and starvation. Patches of corn, wheat, and potatoes Avere raised on the knolls, but what they grew was insufficient, and the bulk of the provisions Avas brought from Montreal. Of the difficulties of the journey thither it is impossible to now form any conception. There were no bridges save a floating one across the La Tortue, and long stretches of swampy land had to be traversed. With an auger and axe to replace the runners as they wore out, the settler started with his barrel for Laprairie and often a week passed before his return. A fair day's journey for a yoke of oxen was 16 miles, and 20 was counted good. Horses were useless, for, owing to their stepping quickly, they smashed sled or cart against the suc cession of obstructions. If the ground was dry, causing the sled to rub hard, and he did not intend to bring a return load, the barrel was laid on a sort of cradle, cut from a large log, which was left behind at Laprairie, and the oxen returned light. The bush in those days differed from the present, in being so free of underbrush that in an hour's travel the axe would not have to be used once. Winding out and in be tween the forest monarchs, the settlers drove their ox-sleds in every direction, as fearless of losing themselves as the Arab in his native deserts. The first impulse to the prosperity of the settlement came in 1820, when an American, James Duncan, quietly threw a dam across the English river at St Chrysostom, and raised the frame of a sawmill. He knew he was breaking the law, 464 ST. CHRYSOSTOM. that it was illegal to build a mill in the seigniories without the consent of the seignior, but he relied on a decision lately given, that where a seignior neglected to build a mill Avhere required, or AA7hen a mill AAras in running-order Avhen he be came cognizant of it, he could not compel the owner to remove it. Duncan acted in concert w7ith James Allen, and as soon as the frame of the building was ready, Allen floated down upon a raft the machinery of a small sawmill he had failed to Avork from want of w7ater. Long before word reached Beauharnois, the mill was going and had cut beards to enclose itself. The agent," Richardson, w7as furious and threatened all manner of penalties, but Duncan defied him. According to law Duncan could not renew or rebuild the mill after notification by the seignior, but this difficulty he got over by quietly replacing each timber as it showed signs of decay, which he did without difficulty, being an excellent mechanic. For over a quarter pf a century the mill was a thorn in the side of the seigniory people, not only because it absorbed profits they elsewhere monopolised but because it sawed the timber Avhich the settlers plundered off the un- granted lots. Up to this time the settlers had roofed their shanties Avith elm bark and floored them Avith split basswood, but now they got boards, and entered into the profitable business of rafting sawed lumber to Montreal. For a long while Duncan was the only resident of Chrysostom, and did a large business. He did not confine himself to the lumber- trade, for he erected an ashery and built a canoe large enough to carry down to Reeves's 7 barrels at a time. The existing gristmill is on his mill-site and Mr Boyd's residence stands Avhere his shanty did. About 1828, an American shoemaker, Ichabod Munsill, set up beside Duncan, and on the south side of the road, Avhere Robert SteAvart noAV is, an Englishman, John Parriby, opened a blacksmith shop. There was no appearance, however, of a village until after 1840. On the double concession the first Old Countryman to take up land Avas John Severs, AA7ho had been a butcher in Hull, England, and lived, on coming to Canada, for some time at La Tortue before moving to EdAvardstown, w7hich he did THE ENGLISH RIVER. 465 about 1820, opening a tavern and store as the needs of the country required them and being the means of bringing mariy immigrants in, until the lots between the English river and Norton creek Avere, with few exceptions, occupied by English and Irish families. Among the first of the latter, was that of Andrew Currie and of the former Geo. Toynton, whose grave is near the Episcopal church. William Creasor, with his sons Philip, William, and John, all stout Yorkshire- men, were prominent settlers. In 1828 the population wraa sufficiently large to justify the erecting of a school, when Capt. Severs gave the land for it, specifying in the deed that part was to be used as a burying-place and that the schoolhouse was to be open for the preaching of the gospel by any Protestant minister. Robert Hope was teacher and had 36 scholars during 1829. A large and prosperous school was maintained during the week, with service on Sundays, conducted by Methodist, Presbyterian, and Episco palian clergymen for over a score of years, when, owing to the English- speaking ratepayers having become outnum bered by the incoming French, the school was appropriated by the Catholic commissioners, who, despite the stipulation of the granter of the land, refused the use of it for worship, and now (1887) are taking steps to compel the Protestants to pay their rates towards its support, although, from the sectarian character of the tuition imparted, they cannot send1 their children to it. The stream of immigrants, once directed into Edwardstown; naturally spread wherever there were vacant lands open for settlement, and thus all the concessions north of that I have been describing were filled The first to seek a home on the English river, south of the Norton creek, was Malcohn Ross, from Lochalsh, Invernessshire, who raised his shantjr. on the river-bank on lot 8, in the fall of 1821, and one oT whose sons is now a great railway contractor. The folloAV- ing year, James Hamilton, who had kept a grocer's shop in Glasgow, took up 10, 11, and 12, intending the two extra, lots as farms for his boys, John and James. He placed his shanty by the river, but was so troubled by freshets that lie 81 ' •46*6 THE HUNGRY MONTH. removed to the ridge that skirts the stream some distance b,ack The presence of Ross induced several Highlanders to cbme beside him, among whom was James McDonald, who .cpuld not stand the hardships of the bush, and being con sumptive sickened and died under his roof. The young mountaineer was buried on the clearance and a railing set around his grave. The present oAvners (Morris brothers) itave plowed over it. On 3 Avas Sandy Taylor, who found help to make a living by fishing out oak from the river, for m those days its bed was strewn with the wreck of rafts. 'IJhe flats along the upper waters of the English river were dotted with giant oaks, fellows that yielded logs 3 feet square, and from 30 to 40 long, which took 3 yoke of oxen to , drag, and so heavy that rafts of cedar often failed to float them out of shalloAV water. On 9 was Colin McCrae «md Daniel Mcintosh held 18. Josiah Black says: My father owned a printfield at Partick and we sailed from the Clyde in 1827. In Montreal my father fell in with a shoemaker, Gardner, who had a lot for sale on the English liver, one of those that had belonged to Hamilton, and which "they had found necessary to sell. We went to Lachine in a boat towed by horses, and a bateau Avas hired to take us to the Basin, where w7e were landed at Smith's tavern. Carters it|ere hired to take our baggage and my father and the rest oif the family went with them, while we boys set off in carts up the Chateaugay with a friend, White, a sea captain. We landed at Bryson 's, Allan's corners, and stayed overnight Having got directions how to go, Ave walked down the river «nd crossed at Ogilvie's, and found a fair track to the English river, Avhich we crossed on a dam at HoAvick, which had just been finished. We followed a footpad along the riA'er, and the captain halted at every house to ask for bread and milk for us boys, for Ave had become ravenous, but not one could «pare a morsel. It was what the settlers called " the hungry month" (August) and they had not enough for themselves. The captain, who got an occasional glass of grog at the shan ties, cheered us Avith the assurance Ave would get plenty when We reached Hamilton's, but when we did, we found they were 'like the rest, and were out of bread. Father with the sup plies had not arrived, and the captain took Hamilton's advice, -although it was now evening, to strike across to Severs 's, Which we reached at dark, and the bread and milk Mrs Severs THE NORTON CREEK CONCESSIONS. 467 hurriedly got us, was the sweetest meal I ever sat down to. The carts had great difficulty in getting along, part coming * by the Beechridge, but finally reached Duncan's. They had begun to cut a road from his mill down along the river, but" it was barely passable. Duncan yoked his oxen to a sled, and the men taking axes to chop out any obstructions, they got our effects to the shanty Gardner told us was on the lot. We found it had been used for leaching ashes, and was in a great mess. Sunday as it was, we had to set to work, and got it cleaned out, made fit to live in, and slept there that night. Lumbering and potash were the mainhold of the sett lers until the land was cleared. It was somewhat remarkable, that the people south of Norton creek had little intercourse with those north of it, which was due to that stream being, so to speak, the water shed of two distinct modes of communication with Montreal. Those north of the creek found an outlet by Beauharnois and the Basin ; those south of it, by St Remi and Laprairie, and their material interests therefore lay in with the settle-;' ments on the flats, Covey hill and Hemingford. How little, communication there was betAveen the lower and the upper settlements on the English river is shown by the fact that the road from Howick to St Chrysostom was not continuous until 1832, when the seignior gave James Houston the con tract for cutting out the portions that were untouched. The two concessions divided by Norton creek were settled be tween 1826 and 1830. The timber that covered them was mixed with a number of pine-roots left by the lumbermen, of whom McGillis was chief, and which gave the settlers much trouble to get rid of. There being so little bush fit for making potash, the settlers worked out a great deal, going I to Montreal and wherever public works were in progress tq earn a little until they had clearances large enough to sup-..' port them. The south concession was largely occupied by : Irish Catholics, and their presence was the cause of inducing others to come in and take up the land to the south and east., Archd. Craig, who bought 96, north concession* from Allan Caldwell in 1826, was a Paisley silk-weayer, but despite his calling, proved to be a successful settler, being the first to get a yoke of oxen. He set up a loom and; with Samuel 468 AUBREY. McClymont, did the work of the neighborhood. On 119 William Gray opened a tannery in 1843, Avhich did a fair business. Aubrey had no existence until a late date, the point on Avhich it is now built remaining covered with trees. In 1852 AndreAV Orr bought 500 acres from the seignior on the Avest side of the English river with the water-privilege •and built a sawmill that fall. The work it gave attracted French Canadians and a small village sprang into existence. In 1849 the seignior offered for sale the lands on the west side of the English river, south of Aubrey, and the lots were chiefly bought by French Canadians at $6 an acre. Returning to the Russeltown flats settlement a few points in its progress may be noted. At the close of the war James Allen placed a gristmill of primitive construction on the brook i which bears his name. The gearing being all of wood it soon wore out, when he brought, in 1820, from Napierville John, Parnby (p. 464) to renew it in a more substantial manner. When seigniorial rights were more sharply enforced, Allen, after persistent threats of lawsuits, moved the machinery to Rockburn in 1829, as has been narrated, the more moved to do so, as, from the Allen brook beginning to fail, the mill was frequently stopped during summer. In 1822 a great boon was bestowed on the settlement by an enter prising American firm, Keyes & Hotchkiss, who hired John Wilson to clear for them half an acre on lot 205, and pro ceeded to build a store thereon. They dealt largely in potash and lumbered heavily, giving much work and facilitating the supply of groceries and provisions. The ashes they shipped to Laprairie in rude carts drawn by 2 or 3 yoke of oxen, ac cording to the state of the roads. The development of the lumber-trade gave a much-needed stimulus, securing employ ment to the settlers during the dull season of the year and circulating money that would never have come otherwise. Keyes & Hotchkiss soon had a competitor in another Ameri can, John Forbes, who built a store near where the Presby terian church stands. Each spring he sent down the English river an immense number of logs, but made little by it. In the fall of 1831 he sold out to two brothers, James and ROADS. 469 Wm. Cochrane, who had neAvly arrived from Lanark, Scot land. They had considerable money but little knowledge oi business, especially of business in a new country. They were made the dupes of all the rogues in the vicinity, gave credit to men who never intended to pay, bought what they had no need for, and kept a large staff' of idle men. They opened a branch-store in castle clouts, Huntingdon, which received no more attention than their business at Russeltown. The crash came in the spring of 1833, when the Montreal credi tors took possession of the assets. The young men sailed for Scotland, which they* never reached, the ship being wrecked on the way. Of far greater benefit to the settlement than the coming in of business men and the development of the lumber-trade, Avas the construction of a leading-road. Up to 1832 the road from St Remi to Stacy's corners was simply the track beaten out by ox-sleds. In 1831 the legislature granted $2400 tb turnpike it, and Squire Manning, Robert Dunn, and John Forbes were named commissioners to expend the amount The first difficulty to be met was the line to be folloAved. Grand-voyer de Lery visited the county and held a meeting in Craik's store of those interested. It was represented that although the road, in great part, angled across the lots, yet it kept the best ground for a dry, hard road, and to remove it would cause inconA7enience to those Avho had built along the track. The grand-voyer agreed and prepared a proces- vcrbal, directing that the new road should follow, the existing track, his deputies to straighten any crooks where advisable. As to the short bit of road from Stacy's corners to the line's there was more trouble. The people wanted it to go between lots 48 and 49 ; the owner of the land, Aaron Priest, de manded that it follow the township-line. The grand-voyer acceded to the request of the people and Priest appealed against his proces-verbal. Meamvhile the work on the main- road Avas begun. The deputies who staked it out straight ened the crooks by taking sights from one prominent shanty to another, which accounts for the road from Stacy's to Stock- Avell being a succession of angles. From there to the flats, the 470 A MAIL. old track was abandoned, and the road placed on the dividing- line between Russeltown and Huntingdon. The work on the flats Avas, heavy, logs having to be hauled to cross-way the swampy portions, which were numerous. Under the sweep ing provisions of the proces-verbal, the owners of lots at a distance on either side were brought in, and the road- officers used their powers in an arbitrary manner. One of them, Lewis Norton, so exasperated the settlers, that they rode him on a rail. So much of the money went in paying officials and buying tools, so heavy and clumsy as to be of slight use, that little was left to' pay the farmers, who re ceived only $2.50 per lot. It shows the cheapness of labor in those days, that David Manning took a contract of 110 rods of new road for $1.45 per rod. On Priest losing his appeal, the road Avas completed, and in 1835 the commis sioners reported that it was open from the province-line to St Remi. This was not all, however. A grant of $1200 had been given to form a road from Stacy's corners to Hunting don, of which Squire Manning was named superintendent The same course Avas adopted as with the other road, the existing track being adopted, Avhich caused it to angle across the lots from Black's church to near Athelstan. It was com pleted in the fall of 1832, the average sum paid each farmer for making the road across his lot being 25 cents a rod. In his report, the squire states that, when he began, the road was impassable for a loaded waggon from Huntingdon to Rockburn; when he finished, one could drive the Avhole way. If such Avas the case, it did not last long, for during the next ten years it was not uncommon for waggons to be so firmly imbedded in the mud-holes by the Chateaugay, that the horses had to be unhitched and leave them for the time being. The year that a grant was made to open the road, a mail was established, leaving Montreal weekly for Squire Man ning's house, by Avay of Laprairie and St Remi. The first carrier, Harty, died, and on the failure of the storekeeper, Fassett, who had taken over the contract, it was given to Hiram Gentle, at $160 a year, who held it until 1837. He left Manning's in the morning, and called at the several SCHOOLS. 471 offices on the route — John Forbes oh the flats ; Thomas Carit- Avell, Norton creek ; and St Remi — reaching Laprairie in the evening. The following morning, he started homewards. The journey was made at first on horseback, but on the completion of the new road Mr Gentle used a wagon, and carried passengers, the fare to Laprairie being $1. The bag was a light one, and contained only three newspapers — tha Vindicator for Reid at Norton creek, and the Herald for Jacob and Squire Manning. The saying about New.Englanders, that the church aii& the school appeared without delay on the hill-top of every valley they entered, is not substantiated by their record in this district, for in all their settlements they were careless alike about religion and education. The Russeltown colony- was no exception; so heedless, indeed, about Sunday that they often lost count of the days of the week, and, in making engagements, spbke of "the day after to-morroAv" and the like. Brayton was a close communion Baptist, professed to be a religious man, and, occasionally, held services. He was of a singularly lymphatic temperament, so much so that in praying he sometimes dropped asleep, and during his prosy exhortations shared the slumbers of his hearers. A Baptist minister, Elder Smith, straggled into the settlement from the States and stayed about a year. He was so given to drin^,. that he often preached with a handkerchief bound round his forehead to ease the headache of a late debauch. The first graveyard was formed opposite where the Presbyterian manse now7 is, and there the settlers buried until about 1820, when they abandoned it, owing to graves being so hard to dig, for a new spot on 205, where the soil is sandy. The first to be buried there was Fanny, a daughter of James Allen, and this spot was used until the church was built. Both these, old graveyards are now plowed-land, and the sole trace they win furnish in future years will be the upturning of bones. The first school was opened in a disused shanty on the Stafford place in the winter of 1819, and had for teacher Aikins, an American, of worthless character. An effort was made to secure a permanent school, and one w7as built on the north ^72 THE RUSSELTOWN CHURCH. side of the road on lot 11, 5th range, the spot still being marked by two apple-trees, and to which the children went for miles around. The master, Alexander, was a deserter from the U. S. army, and an excellent teacher. On Goodwin settling on 169, about 1830, a schoolhouse was built on the west side of his lot, and used by Methodists and Episcopalians for service on Sundays, and it became the custom to bury in rear of it. All trace of this burial-place, which lies near the western fence of the enclosure of the show-ground, is ob literated. The use of schoolhouses for worship was now to be superseded through the efforts of a Avoman The wife of John Forbes was full of energy and fertile in resources. Soon after coming to the flats she began to agitate the build ing of a church, and the work was undertaken. She begged for it on both sides of the lines. Money there was none, so she took the subscriptions in cheese, grain, lumber, and the like. She also purchased cloth and set the girls to making it into articles of wear, which she sold, and collars and breast- fronts (then called dickeys) became common. ProA-iding a framer, the settlers turned out and raised the building, all the outside work of Avhich was done by bees. The building was raised in 1826 but not finished for some years afterAvards. It was to be used by the Methodists and Congregationalists, and a minister of the latter denomination, an Englishman, the Eev James Noll, was secured about 1830, part of his salary "being paid by the Canada Education and Home Missionary Society. He remained until 1836. During the incumbency of the Rev J. Bowles a deed was secured for the property, and he was entrusted with its registration. On his death by drowning (page 231) all trace of the document Avas lost, and the church remained vested in Mrs Forbes, who in 1853 transferred her rights to the Church of Scotland in Canada on. condition that they added a steeple to the building and paid her $100 which she claimed Avas due her. ( Before the settlement had a clergyman it had a well- qualified physician in Dr Austin, who came from the States in 1824, and took up his abode on lot 6, 5th range, subse quently moving into Franklin. He was handsome in person ST. ANTOINE ABBE. 473 and agreeable in manner and became popular. The habits of those around him had their influence, and from a temperate man he became a drunkard. He often foretold that he would be found dead on the road, and, sure enough, he was dis covered one cold night insensible on the highway with a jug of whisky. He was carried to a house and placed before the fire, but all efforts to restore him were in vain, dying in the morning. On the Black river and west of it a few American families continued to live, among whom were Alard, Pettis, Samuel Brisben and Gould, a Methodist local preacher. Pettis was a good mechanic, and, for Brayton on 169, put up the first frame barn. In 1829 an Englishman, John Parnby, bought out one of them, Seaman Brown, who occupied the lot upon which St Antoine Abbe village is now built, paying $80 for the betterments. Another Englishman, James Parmalee, came beside him and set up a blacksmith shop. James Cassidy, an Irish Catholic, bought out Joseph Allen and w7as followed by P. Brady in 1835 and other of his countrymen until they formed a little colony. Between the flats and Covey hill wound, for a few miles east of Stockwell, a track which the new road replaced in course of time. On it a feAV American families lived, but, generally speaking, the clearing of the country south of the flats was the work of Old Countrymen, chiefly Irish Pro testants. The first was Joseph Allan, a member of a good English family, who ran away from school, and went on board a ship for America. The vessel was wrecked on a desert island off Newfoundland, which he, with only sixteen others, reached, and/ lived there 6 weeks before rescued by a vessel bound for Quebec. He drifted into Huntingdon and secured the east-half of 134 about the year 1820. He had west of him the family of James Gilfillan (p. 24) who- moved to 135 on being forced to leave Woolrich's land, and beside him came to live Jos. Larabee and Chas. Colston, related by marriage. The old man died in 1818 and several years later his widow sold the lot to two Englishmen, Jeremiah Dunn and William Wright, distinguished for strength. Going 474 THE NEAV ROAD. to Champlain for provisions, Wright bought a barrel of pork, which he emptied into a sack and carried home— a burden of 2001b. To the north of them Avas a Scotch blacksmith, James Douglas. Despite these and a few others, the new road settlement was essentially a North of Ireland one, its founder Daniel Mannagh, who Avent on to 128 about 1823. He Avas from Monaghan and on the trouble arising in Sher rington with regard to the tenure of the land, a number of his brother countrymen, who had found where he AA7as, mo\7ed beside him. Among those who did so between 1826 and 1830 were James and Robert Dundas, John and George Fiddes, Wm. Saunders, Thomas and James McCort, Christo pher Irwin, Joseph Ball, Joseph McKee, James and Andw. Keese, and Miller. To the east of them Avere Thomas Doris Palmer, known as Peem, and Joseph Stafford, who was on 126. What is true of the Ulstermen on the new road, is true of the Irish Protestants as a whole who came into the eastern end of the county, — they Avere a hard - working, thrifty, self-denying and persevering people. Land which the Americans thought could never be reclaimed, they trans formed into good farms, and in a feAV years wrought a marvellous change in the aspect of the country. As they took up their lots, they cut their share of the concession- road that crossed them. Receiving no government help, it w7as long before it was complete, and it was not until 1839 that it was possible to pass over it from Stockwell to Hem ingford. The road from the flats to the top of Covey hill was more actively pushed, and Avas fit to use by 1837, Avhen the old road that started from 33 and came out at Stockwell fell into disuse and ultimately closed. The experience of W. C. Roberts upon it during the fall of Miramichi fires- is> worth preserving: "I was (he said) coming down Covey hill with a load of corn, when I saw the fire darting from the west Unhitching the oxen, I ran with them and just got across in time. Although there was little wind, the fire passed like lightning over the ground, the extreme dryness of the soil from great drouth and the thick covering of fallen leaves being favorable. You may suppose Iioav quick the fire ran, COVEY HILL. 475 from hens dropping dead into it from their roosts on fences and trees. Where the sled was left happened to be a hollow, and being moist around it, the fire did not touch it or the corn. Many settlers had outbuildings burned and the smoke from the mucky land to the north was so pungent that we were like to be suffocated. The low ground Avas badly burned, and long tracks of blackened trees channelled the forest." From the point in the east, where the land begins to rise, to the Hinchinbrook line, a length of a dozen miles, came to be known as "the hill." From the account given in chapter III. it has been seen that the eastern face of the hill had settlers from an early date, but the western remained in a state of nature until long after the northern ranges of Franklin and Havelock Avere thickly occupied. This was owing to the drawbacks attending living on steep slopes and to the land being held by grantees, who demanded a high price. To what has been related of the old -O'Neill settlement, there is little to add. As the immigrants came seeking for land, the Americans sold out to them at reason able prices, many crossing into Clinton county and others going to Ohio. Among the first to buy were Geo. Marshall and John Gray. Once the movement began, it proceeded smartly, and what was once an American settlement became British in its tone and customs. Two of the more prominent settlers were John Edwards, who had been in business in Dundee, Scotland, and who bought part of 81 in 1834, and, 2 years later, William Barrett, an Englishman, and' a surveyor by profession, bought the east half of 81, and during a long life pursued his calling, getting much to do from the seignior. On lot 30, an American, Aikins, who sometimes preached, built a small sawmill on the Allen brook about 1832, and Capt. Edwards raised another, which proved to be of great benefit to himself and to the neighborhood. The McDiarmids first lived at the foot of the hill, subsequently buying Covey's old lot, 33, on to which they moved, and were among the best knoAvn residents. A block log schoolhouse, built by William Brisben about 1825, and which stood opposite where the Union church noAV is, was the only place for meetings up 476 ROBERT STEVENSON. to a late date. West of the settlement, on the summit of the hill, lived William Danford, who made a living by hunting. Mrs Mountain of Cornwall held 2400 acres on the second range, a grant to her father, Major Scott, for losses during the American revolution. Abram Welch was her agent, and the price was $3 and $2 an acre, according to quality, in instalments. Her dealings with immigrants formed a striking contrast to those of Ellice and Woolrich, being con siderate and honorable. In 1823, an Englishman, John B. Oldham, bought from her 89 and the following year an American, Humphrey Tolman, settled beside him on 90. In 1826 came the Stevensons, the advance of the class who were to possess the western portion of the hill. Robert Stevenson said : We belonged to county Armagh where my father was in comfortable circumstances. Receiving urgent letters from a brother in Ohio he decided to join him, impelled thereto by the consideration that he could establish his numerous family in a way of doing for themselves more easily than in Ireland. He sold out and we sailed from Newry in May, 1824, and had a splendid passage, dropping anchor at Quebec on the 28th day from weighing it at Newry. A steamer came along side, and Ave stepped on board of it in good health and spirits. On arriving at Montreal father complained of feeling poorly, and it soon became clear he was ill of the ship-feA-er. One after another took it, until the Avhole family, ten in number, Avere down with it, save myself, Avho avos the oldest. Not one could help the other even to pass a cup of Avater, and I had tq attend them. I can give you no idea of the misery of that time. The doctors came twice a day, and it Avas half-a-guinea each time, and there were, of course, other expenses. All got better in time except my mother, who Avas the last to become sick and the trouble kept to her longest. One of the doctors, Dr Stevenson, took a more than common interest in us, per haps from our name, and he advised father to move out of the city, for ho said the family would not gain strength by remaining in our lodgings, and he would get mother admitted to hospital. By this time father had found out what a mis take he had made in sailing to Quebec instead of New York in order to reach Ohio, and giving up the idea of going there he Avent out to Sherrington, where he heard land Avas for sale, and bought a lot with a clearance and a shanty on it We MOVES TO THE HILL. 477 went and took possession, and all got well as the doctor said we would. Poor mother, lying in the hospital, Avas Avorried in her mind about us and was eager to get away. Dr Steven son warned her that if she left she would be liable to a relapse, but she insisted on leaving, and father got a covered waggon and brought her to Sherrington. He had hired a woman in Montreal to keep house for us until she recovered. Well, she took the feA7er, and, in her delirium, Avas outrageous. On the fifth day after leaving the hospital, mother had a relapse. On the eighth I Avent to the French settlement and bought some chickens, one of which I took and made soup with. I made it as nice as I could, and when it was ready I raised my mother's head and held a spoonful to her lips. She swallowed it, and I asked her if it was good. She answered "yes," the last word she spoke, for on giving her another spoonful she choked and I felt her stretching out her body and stiffening in my clasp. I knew she was dying, but said nothing to the children, who were playing in the room beside us, for they were too young to know what death was, and father was out at the time. After that, we had no more trouble from sickness, and we got on fairly well, the land giving us plenty of food. I hired out with Joseph Scriver and in the fall of 1825 went with him to Elgin, to see the lot he had bought there. Some snow had fallen and we found it disagreeable crossing the creeks, which we had to wade. We went to Athelstan along a sort of lumber-road and then up to Powers- court, and along the first concession, the only shanties on which I recollect were those of Horn and Brown. We built a shanty and made a little clearance. I felled the first tree, a small maple. Having thus prepared for his moving in next spring, we returned home. My brother Thomas and myself, wanting to have places of our OAyn, resolved to move into Huntingdon, and selected lot 91 on Covey hill. We started from home in December, 1826, to take possession, and came by way of Clelland's corners. The settlers after leaving there were, Goodsill, Sweet, Robson, Spearman, Brisben, George Marshall, William O'Neill, Keenan, who lived on a lot owned by Shedden, the mill-owner at Mooer's, N. Y., David Musgrove, Oldham and Tolman. These were the only settlers between Clelland's corners and our lot. That year James Hall came and took up the west half of 90 and Hugh Carson went to live on 93. William Haire and Francis Anthony came that winter and were followed by William Brooks, the Brown brothers, and William Hamilton. In fact, the settlers came so quickly, that in a few years every lot fit for cultivation 478 EARLY ABSTAINERS. on the hill was bought. All were North of Ireland Pro testants and nearly all had, like ourselves, been a while in Sherrington. The country was in a state of nature, and we barricaded our doors at night, for the cries of the wolves and panthers were awful. At the south end of my brother's lot Colston had a bear-trap, using corn as bait, in which he caught several. We were all poor "and depended on potash for the means of procuring food. The hill was covered with beautiful timber, mostly maple, with some birch, there being very little black ash or elm. The first year my brother and I made 4 barrels, which we drew by way of the flats and St Remi to Montreal. It took generally five days to go, and one to come back. The money we applied to meeting the in stalments on our land. One of my sisters came to keep house for us and father carried to us at intervals provisions. We often ran short, for neighbors from Sherrington in search of land would stay in our shanty, and the supply would give out sooner than father calculated upon. Forbes had opened a store on the flats, but it Avas more of a groggery than any thing else, and he had seldom provisions to sell. Our neigh bors were often pinched themselves, so that if you were starving they could not give you a bowl of flour or meal. The first fall we got out of provisions altogether, and for two days had nothing more than the milk of our only cow among the three of us. We were mowing at the time and kept on working, hoping every minute . to see father come in sight. On the second day my brother gave out from weakness and had to go and lie down, but I kept on, and that evening father came. The land yielded good crops of potatoes, corn, rye, and wheat, and when a settler got clearance enough there was «o more lack of food. On finishing a barrel of potash, we turned to and cleared the land fit for cropping. The want of a mill near us was a great draAvback. We had to shoulder our grists to Shedden's mill, at Mooers, N.Y., and it took a day to go and another to come back. The first year we had to roll our logs by hand, but the second we had a yoke of oxen, and horses began to be got, but were used mostly in taking grists to mill, two bags being tied by their mouths and slung over the beast's back. There being so much heavy Avork to do, bees were common and at every one there was Avhisky, which was so plenty from its cheapness that on going into a house they would sooner offer you a tinful of it than of water. Several of my neighbors besides myself did not like the drinking and quarrelling that resulted, and although there was no talk then of teetotal societies, 5 of us agreed in 1837 to BENJAMIN JOHNSTON. 479 abstain for one year. We all kept our pledge and finding the benefit of it continued to abstain, and, for myself, I did not taste liquor for 5 years. Our example at bees, in refusing to taste, had its effect upon others, and many followed our ex ample. On the authority of the grand-voyer, I suppose, David Manning had cut a road between the 1st and 2nd ranges, 18 feet wide, but it was grown up with saplings when we came, and each of us had to cut out the road in front of our lots. Mrs Mountain was good in allowing us credit for work done in cutting the road across vacant lots. It was a long while before it was fit for wheels. It was 1839 before the byroad was made. In 1829 father joined us and in 1831 the neigh bors united in building a school on our lot It was well- finished and comfortable. Miss Parham (afterwards Mrs N. Manning), was the first teacher and she was a good One. The Rev Mr Dawes and the Rev Mr Bond (afterwards Bishop) preached in it when they visited our settlement and, after a while, it was made a station by the Methodists of the Heming ford circuit. The Rev Mr Merlin did not visit us. One night, after it had stood about 5 years, the schoolhouse was set fire to and destroyed with all the schoolbooks and Bibles left in it. It was burned from hard-feeling that had arisen regard ing its location and the payment of the salary of the teacher then engaged, an excellent one, Mr Bird, to whom more had been promised than some were willing to pay. Although ours Was a Protestant Irish settlement, Ave had no set observance of the twelfth of July, beyond not working and spending the day in visiting, until lodge 41 was organized by Samuel Orr, who was the heart and soul of it, and was chosen the first riiaster. When the Irish Protestants had overspread the eastern half of Covey Hill they pushed westward until all the vacant lots were occupied. Benjamin, (son of Edward) Johnston thus told of the experiences of those who took up land at the Franklin end : We belonged to county Cavan, and my father's cose illus trates much of the cause of Ireland's troubles. He married young and when he had only a holding of 3 acres. He soon found that what had been enough for one would not do for two, and on the birth of his first child, he asked and obtained a reduction of rent. After he had two children he found himself worse off than before, and asked another reduction in rent The landlord, refused, telling him it would be no kind ness, that to comply would be only to encourage him to remain 480 LEASING STOCK. and raise a family of beggars and that he had better emigrate. He took the advice and we sailed to Canada, and father occu pied a lot in Sherrington. He believed the land to belong to the crown and helped to dispute the claim to make it seign iorial. When the case went against the settlers, he would not stay and pay rent, and followed those who had left for Covey Hill, which was in March, 1831. I recollect our halting at Stevenson's to rest ourselves, and that the roof of their shanty was made of basswood scoops. Our lot was 46 and we brought with us a horse and 3 cows, which we would have been better Without, for, the first winter, hay to feed them cost a dollar the hundredweight. • The land was covered with as handsome a bush as could be imagined, the trees being large and set so .Wide apart, that you could drive a yoke of oxen, there being no underbrush and few fallen logs. There were many butter nuts, some of them 3 feet across and giving 3 logs without a branch; they were of no value then, and had to be burned, giving us much trouble, for it is wood difficult to burn either green or dry. On the 2nd range there was a good deal of hemlock, which caused it to be shunned, for the settlers thought the land was poor where it grew. It was a mistake in this case, for the 2nd range is better than the 1st. There was no sign of the land being stony, and it was not until cleared and it came to be cultivated that we found out how plentiful they were. There was no road, and we went which ever way we liked through the bush, carrying our loads on the shoulder. I recollect of Marshall Hall going all the way to the Flats to buy a bushel of rye, backing it home, and then carrying it to the mill at Rockburn to be ground, and home again, all in one day. Not a few backed meal or flour all the way from Champlain, for at times it was not to be had any nearer. None of us cared about cornmeal or rye bread, and it was a while before we had wheat. Both it and the rye were very subject to smut, causing the bread to be bitter. The settlers for the first few years, and until their clearances yielded them enough to live upon, depended on potash-making. They were all Irish Protestants, excepting Hugh McGarr, a Catholic, on 23, who did not stay, selling out to Wm. Brooks. Those who wanted stock and could not buy, sometimes went to Robert Dunn of St Remi, who would rent a cow for three years on condition that she be then returned along with^ her first calf. The steers he thus obtained he made oxen of, and leased out at $12 a-year. When he died, he owned a great number of cattle all over the country. When land was seeded down, we had immense crops of hay, two ton and more to. the FIRST OCCUPANTS OF LOTS. 481 acre, so that feed became very plentiful and not only were the log barns filled, but you saw stacks all over the country. AQ the lots were quickly taken up, except 49, which Vanvliet, the owner, did not sell until about 1850, and 48, owned also by an outsider, McCallum, who had Frederick Broder living on it in charge when we came. The 3rd concession, except the lower end, where Jeremiah Dunn and Archd. Muir lived, was also late in being occupied. I cut out the road myself upon it towards 1850. The settlement on the 1st and 2nd ranges wraa delayed in getting a school owing to disputes between the east and west ends of it as to the location. Finally it was decided to have two; one was built at Stevenson's and the other on> Hall's lot, 45, about 1836. The northern portion of Franklin Avas late in being opened up, owing to its being inaccessible and to the dispute with the seignior. Those who went in, squatted, Welch marking the boundaries of the lots for them. When the seignior sent sur veyors, the settlers pulled up their stakes. Between the 7th and 8th ranges there was a prosperous little settlement formed between 1830 and 1833 On lot 11 Charles Meehan had a small sawmill. THE NORTON CREEK 113 CONCESSIONS. 114 Williamstown Side. 115 96 James Hay ; 2 Allan Cald- 116 well; 3 Archd. Craig 117 97 Thos. Gould; 2 D.Stewart; 118 3 Ralph Murdoch 119 98 James Knox; 2 Jas. Wiley 120 99' Alex. Currie 121 100 David Smith 101 James Henretty 1 102 William Wiley 2 103 William Allan 3 104 John Campbell 4 105 James Easton 5 106 Neil McNulty 6 107 Charles McNulty 7 108 John Moore 8 109 Archd. McDonald 9 110 James Black 10 111 Robert Carr 11 112 John Kelly 12 32 James Bulger Thomas Bulger Andrew Walsh James McDonald Bernard Harkin John Dunn William Gray James Rossiter Philip Mclntyre Edwardstown Side. Barnabas Diggins Martin Dunn Owen Dunn John Fitzwilliams William Airston Robert Pullar Thomas Fitzsimmons' Patrick Fitzsimmons Robert Jamieson Joseph Chatel Pierre Mabe James Blackburn 482 FIRST OCCUPANTS OF LOTS. 13 William Blair 9 Colin McRae, 1826; James ' 14 Peter Rooney Craig, 1841 &45 Daniel Cross 10 HughCarr;2 Josiah Black ' 16 Luke Bulger 11 James Hamilton 17 Michael Maher 12 Alex. Black ENGLISH RIVER CONCESSION. 13 David Davies; 2 James ' 1 John Lang, 1829 Middlemiss, 1829 « 2 Alex. McRae 14 John Tool an; 2 Moses 3 Alex. Taylor Douglass 4 John Angel ; 2 Daniel Mc- 15 Frs. Robidoux : Intosh; 3 Thos. Bruce 16 John Charters, senr. 5 McKay; 2 JohnRobb 17 John Charters, junr. 1829 18 Daniel Mcintosh (J Duncan McRae, 1826 19 Ichabod Munsill . 1 John Mitchell 20 John Wilson , 8 Malcolm Ross 21 James Duncan I DOUBLE CONCESSION. I failed to get numbers of lots, but the folio-wing list of £ames, furnished by Mr William Creasor, gives the order of the settlers : A'orth. Norton Creek. Andrew DeAvly ¦ Davis Walter Claflin William Gleason, £ lot — — Santoire " ^Pierre Arbor Timothy Gorman " James Walker fatrick Gregory John Severs. 2 lots Philip Hart William Creasor James Swords Andrew Currie T honias McComb George Toynton James Tassie St Chrysostom village South. George Wheatleay (given erroneously on p. 237) Philip Burhart (Burgot) William" Ryan Michael Dcolan George Hart Timothy Gorman Daniel Mosher Philip Hart William Barron Hugh Levy William Creasor Duston, A lot John Becket " John Briggs Robert Grasby Carr lot John Gregory, John Sylvia Francis McComb, i lot William Briggs " D. Proper John Charters CHAPTER XXIV. HEMINGFORD. The movement of Old Countrymen into Hemingford began* soon after the Avar, Avhen a few took up lots, but they did not remain. The first to stay Avas William Robson, a Nor thumberland shepherd, Avho came to Montreal in 1816, near Avhich he rented a farm. In 1818 he bought 70 on tha 1st concession of Hemingford from an Irishman, Dady, for $800, and added to his purchase until he had a block of 600 acres, for he desired to give his 7 sons a farm a-piecel All strong-bodied, industrious men they speedily effected a- great change in their lots and made a great deal of money by potash. East of them on the same road, and tAvo years. after their coming, Thomas Clelland, a native of the upper Avard of Lanarkshire, bought 13, and began to work at hi& trade, that of a blacksmith. On the 26th April, 1822, he Avent to a bee at the corners, now7 known by his family, name, to raise a barn for Daniel Scriver, when he was killed by the falling of a bent. He was buried in an acre of land given by Colonel Scriver, and was the first of the great num ber since interred in Avhat is now the general burial-place *f oil the Protestant population of Hemingford. On the roaci between the 3rd and 4th concessions James Brownlee was the first of the immigrants to take up land. He said : ^ I came from near Carluke, Lanarkshire, and was brought up to be a carpenter. Trade being bad, in 1819 I took pas-> sage for myself and wife on the Rebecca for Montreal, paying- 8 guineas each. We had a good voyage, and on reaching; Montreal, I found work at my trade. The following year? there was great dullness in business and I resolved to try farming, and bought 142 from a man I happened to meet at . St Johns. In November we started to take possession, ancH i * His tombstone says 1823 — an error to be accounted for- by its erection long after his death. 184 THE MCFEES1 AND MCNAUGHTONS. had great difficulty in reaching Scriver 's corners, owing to a heavy snowstorm that came on. The schoolhouse that stood where the store of Scriver brothers now is, had just been •finished (p. 145), and we found shelter in it, and the day following got to my lot, ori which was a shanty and a small clearance. The snow all melted and the frost came out of the ground, so that my brother and myself were able to delve «, good bit of the clearance. The frost did not set in until ^fter the New Year. On the ridge in rear and front of my ¦ iiou'se, was a string of clearances made by American settlers, which they had abandoned when the war broke out. These Clearances were called "the commons," and farmers in Sher rington sent their cattle to graze upon them. In 1822 my brother-in-law, Archibald Stewart, came from Scotland, when I sold him my lot and took up 179, on which I opened a store soon after, and did a good business. Thomas Stewart took up 97 about 1824. In 1832 I went to town to buy goods, and the two days I was there proved to be the worst days of the cholera, which was then raging. If I buy goods (I said to myself) they may be the means of introducing the infec- fiion into Hemingford, and so I returned without making any purchases. I wound up the store and devoted myself to farming. There was no pride in those days. When there was preaching in the old school, Mrs John Scriver came ¦dressed in a flannel gown of her oAvn spinning, and a square vide shelter he bought 50 acres adjoining his lot on 108 with & shanty from Comfort Bray ton. We arrived in Hemingford ori the 11th September. We had neighbors and a passable roaa but McNaughton had neither, the path to his shanty being a. track that followed the ridge, in order to avoid the swamp. Our dependence was on potash, and if settlers had not timber' on their lots suitable for making it, they just Avent into the reserves. . ; In 1822 Andw. Starnes, a merchant who had 1000 acres ia the vicinity, built a sawmill on the Little Montreal river, d short distance north of Cleveland's. At this mill was the landing for canoes, for, when there was plenty of water, the, settlers preferred floating down their potash as far as Napier ville, and bringing back a return load by canoe, to the weary' journey through bush all the way to Laprairie. The first Old Countrymen to seek a home on the road that^ runs north from Hemingford village were Robert Moore, Avhoj squatted on No 5, Cr. R., and Graham, who took up a lot a^ little north of him. This would be in 1820 or 1821. Both, Avere Irish Protestants and on Moore's visiting Molltreal irV the fall of 1822 he fell in with John Reay, who had been his. neighbor in Carrickfergus, and Avho had just arrived from) Ireland with his family. Moore advised him to try Heming-'. ford, which he visited and bought No 1, 200 acres, from; Joshua Odell, on which he raised a shanty. In the springj of 1823 he brought his family from the city, and they, found the location a most lonely one, for there was not &4 house between them and what is now the village, and to' the north of them, were only Odell and Moore and.jGraham,j both of whom subsequently went west. Reay, who was a., man of sterling qualities, set manfully to work, and, although; a linen-weaver by trade, succeeded in creating a comfortable ; home in the bush. He toiled hard and endured many priva-; tions. Wild beasts abounded, and he lost calves more than; once by prowling bears. As the country filled up, he resumeA, his old work as a weaver, only now it was woolen yarn in- 48.6 REV. JOHN MERLIN. stead of flaxen he handled. The first one to settle near him, was John Reid, and he, like the bulk of the immigrants for many years, was an Irish Protestant. There was a great influx of immigrants into Sherrington, and the overflow naturally passed into Hemingford. »- The acquisition of the year 1823, however, was the Rev- John Merlin. He Avas bom in Maghera, county Deny, Ireland, in 1781, and, Avhen old enough, was apprenticed to be a mason. Having aspirations beyond his trade, he sought to, qualify himself for the ministry, and attended several sessions at GlasgoAV and Edinburgh. Unable to get a church after his ordination as a minister of the Irish Presbyterian church, he obtained a succession of situations as schoolmaster, end taught for some time in an academy in Dublin. Despair ing of getting a charge, he resolved to emigrate, and sailed fl rom Belfast in 1823, leaving his wife and 4 children with her people, who lived near that city, until he provided a home for them. On his arri\7al at Montreal, he called on the Rev Henry Esson, who advised him to go into the neAv settlements in .the county of Huntingdon, toAvards which the current of immigrants was setting. He acted on the advice, and after examining the country and living in it some time finally selected 184 as his home, and the neighbors raised a shanty for him. In 1825 his wife and family joined him. The people were so \'ery poor that they could pay him no salary, and all he received for many years was occasional presents from the better-off among them. To live, he had to cultiA7ate the land and teach school, which he kept at first in his oAvn house. He Avas engaged as master of the school at Scriver 's corners, succeeding several Americans who had taught for brief periods, and in 1828 induced his neighbors to raise a school next his dwelling-house, which he kept open several mpnths in the year. There Avas a great scarcity of text books, the New Testament and Webster's speller being the only ones knoAvn for a long period. When a family moved in, whose parents desired their children to be taught geo graphy, it was regarded as an astounding innovation, and, after that, if a scholar could got hold of any American school- HIS LABORS. 485F i book he brought it. From the first month of his arrival he began a system of itinerancy which he maintained until too.. feeble to bear the fatigue. While absent on his western ap pointments, which occupied a fortnight of each month, his. wife endeavored to fill his place in the schoolroom. From the Sherrington-line to the Gore of Hinchinbrook he had an-. pointments, and maintained religious ordinances when, but for him, there would have been none. His journeys were! made, as a rule, on foot, though latterly he used a horse. In, going to the Beech ridge, where he preached once a months, he floated down Norton creek in a- canoe when the watei* permitted. He was far from punctual, and his expectant,, congregation was frequently on the point of dispersing wheiv he appeared. In, his labors he was-, perfectly disinterested asking for no recompense and being offered none until the: . later years of his pastorate, when the circumstances of hi* parishioners had improved. His fee for marrying was mod-, erate — two dollars — which he rarely received. His lack o£^ punctuality caused some inconvenience at a good many wed dings. At one the hour came and went without tiding© of him, the fun and dancing were kept up until midnight. without his arrival, and finally the guests set out, by the bright moonlight, down the road he would come to see what hindered him, and met him leisurely returning from a visi^ ; to a distant settlement. He performed the service and the merry-making lasted until daylight. In marrying he insistecP on crying the banns. Some time after he came, finding there was sufficient material, he organized a session, Alex. Walker* a worthy ScOt, John Reay, and the minister's brother, Joseph being the first elders, and held regular communion-seasona in the old schoolhouse at the village which answered untif ' AH 1842, when a stone-church was built. All the while he hacf maintained his connection with the church in Ireland, which- did nothing for him. Yielding to the remonstrances of his ' brethren, in 1841 he and his congregation united with the Church of Scotland in Canada, when he became entitled to a share of the revenues from the clergy reserves. On the visit to Montreal Avhen he received the first payment, he was 488 A REVIVAL. accompanied by Dr Black to the wharf from whence the La prairie boat sailed. The day was gusty and the river had an ugly look. Mr Merlin expressed some apprehension as Co the boat crossing in safety. "What!" exclaimed the Dr., "you are not afraid of losing your life ?" "It's no that," answered Mr ^erlin with unselfish simplicity, thinking of those at home whom it would benefit, "it's the money in my pouch" — some $60. In 1855 he resigned on a retiring allow ance from the clergy reserve fund, and 11 years afterwards ended his long and useful life. Before Mr Merlin came Hemingford was visited at rare intervals by ministers from the States and Townships who (Field services. Among these was the famous Bishop Hedding, who preached at Scriver's corners. Mr Judd, an English man, who had lived in Roxham, and who was a Methodist focal preacher, made stated visits to the corners, and after him Mr Kilburn, an American, . who pursued his trade as cooper on the outskirts of the village and did something in saedicine, held alternate ' services with Mr Merlin. He was a: Baptist and a consistent Christian. From the first Method ism had obtained a strong hold upon the settlers of American descent, prominent among whom were the Scrivers and Odells, end quite a number of the immigrants fell under their in fluence, for those were the days of protracted meetings, at which personal influence was exerted in the most direct and stirring form to awaken souls to a sense of their duty. In 1834 the Methodists set about raising a church, in which jfchey succeeded with much difficulty, the greater part of the subscriptions being made in produce and labor. When closed in, its use was tendered to the Presbyterians for, (ft them, a someAvhat singular use. The holding of revival (Services had been adopted by the American Presbyterians who were his neighbors, and Mr Merlin had resolved on fol lowing their example. He announced that "a four days' service'' Avould be held, in Avhich he would be assisted by the Rev Mr Foote of Champlain, N. Y. The announcement aroused Avidespread interest and it became evident that the echoolhouse would not hold all who intended coming, where- CHURCHES. 489 upon the Methodists tendered the use of their church. The order of the services w7as to open with an enquiry meeting ip the schoolhouse, which was held at about 10 o'clock, and from it those who attended walked to the Methodist church, at ll o'clock, Avhere an expectant congregation was found in wait ing, and a service similar to that of Sunday, except that the prayers and sermon were of an awakening character, was held. Like meetings were held in the afternoon and evening. So deep an interest was awakened that the meetings were continued for a fortnight instead of four days, and a large number declared their resolve to turn to God. Of these the greater part became Methodists or fell away, for the regular ministrations of Mr Merlin Avere not calculated to draw and hold the young, being monotonous and prolonged, never last ing less than two hours. The second year after the Metho dist church was built, 1836, Hemingford was included in the Odelltowri circuit, and thereafter enjoyed stated services. * The Episcopalians, of whom there AA'as a fair proportion among the North of Ii-eland immigrants, were late in organ izing. In the fall of 1838 William Dawes was engaged by a society in Montreal as a travelling missionary among the settlements bordering on the Richelieu. He was an active and earnest worker and established stations in every settle ment where there Avas sufficient encouragement, which he visited once a month. In January, 1840, Bishop Mountain visited Hemingford for the first time, confirmed 65, and stimulated the movement to build a church, and one was raised in 1845 in the north-eastern part of the toAvnship,. known as the Starnes neighborhood. The Rev Mr Boiid succeeded Mr Dawes, who was ordained and died the death of a martyr while attending immigrants stricken with ship- fever during the dreadful summer of 1847. The Roman Catholics were riot numerous in the township until after 1840, for there was no influx of them while the Ulstermen were pouring into it from Sherrington. There were, however, a few families, the first to come that of Daniel Heffernan and the second that of John Ryan, in 1828, who lived first on 145 and afterwards bought out the Nortoris-on 490 INFLUX FROM SHERRINGTON. 112. In 1843 they united to raise a church, forming a ceme tery in rear. Previous to the building of the church, the Catholics buried in a small plot near Johnsons station, close to the raihvay-track. The settlers of Hemingford were peculiar in that feAV of them came directly into it from Montreal. The majority lived one or more years in Sherrington, which they crowded into under the belief that it was ungranted crown land and left owing to a dispute similar in nature to that waged be tween the settlers of Russeltown and Ellice. Sherrington was debatable land, and on those who contended that it Avas granted land winning the day, the Old Countrymen left, being resolved that they would not pay rent. They were the more induced to do so from the land not being inviting, consisting in great part of stony ridges Avith marshy inter- A-ales and from the neighborhood being a rather turbulent one. For instance, in April, 1823, after a row of more than usual violence, part of Captain Wallis's company of militia was sent to arrest the ringleaders. Two of them, John and Michael Kenny, they found working in a fallow, Avhen they ran to the house, and on the militiamen surrounding it, John thrust a gun through a chink of the door and threatened to shoot. Col. Scriver rushed forward and grasped the barrel, and in turning it upAvards the fellow drew the trigger Avhen the bullet lodged in the shoulder of Ben Spearman. The brothers w7ere seized and sent to Montreal but were not pun ished. After repeated application, the legislature granted $300 indemnity to Spearman. In surveying Hemingford, a portion was, as already described, set apart for croAA7n and clergy reserves, which, by mistake, was in excess of the one- seventh prescribed by law. The excess was designated blank lands, and Avere left unsurveyed. The reserves constituted the eastern and northern parts of the toAvnship, and into them the people from Sherrington passed, among the first being John Orr, a county Cavan man, Henry Figsby from Monaghan, and John Jackson, also from Ulster. They found on the crown reserves a number of French and American squatters, who had gone into the bush to make potash, Avith COLONEL SCRIVER, 491 no intention of remaining and who readily sold their better ments at from $50 to $100 and moved to another part of the bush to repeat their speculation. If there was nobody on the lot, and it suited the immigrant, he forthAvith took possession by raising a shanty. The government had made no provision for selling the lots, and its agent who had charge of them lived at Sherbrooke. In course of time he (Mr Felton) A7isited the toAvnship and demanded high prices for the lots under penalty of ejectment. Col. Scriver, Avhen matters were coming a crisis, went to Quebec to intercede for the settlers.- During the disastrous attack on Plattsburgh, he had an opportunity of showing some kindness to the captain of one of the regiments. That captain Avas noAV governor- general, and Colonel Scriver sought and obtained an intervieAv with him. Sir James Kempt recognized in his visitor the braA7e backwoodsman whom he had met on the Richelieu and cordially acceded to his proposal, namely, that the settlers should pay 50 cents an acre, for, being reserves set apart for the benefit of certain funds, they could not be given free. This favorable arrangement quieted the appre hensions of the settlers. Many years afterwards, on the blank lands being surveyed, patents were issued to those in possession on paying from 75c to $1.25 per acre according to the quality of the land and situation. By this time Col. Scriver Avas carrying on an extensive and profitable business at the comers then known by his name and noAV designated Hemingford village. The first store there was opened by Bartlett Nye, in a 10-foot square shanty, which he abandoned' in a year or two, when Joseph Corbin and the colonel under took the business, which Corbin left in 1826 to build, in company with Finlay McNaughton, a saAvmill on Norton creek. Borri with the trading-faculty and always ready for a dicker, the business prospered in the colonel's hands, and- although the settlers had no money they never need leave' his store without what they wanted, for they could "turn in" their lumber, their produce, or their labor in payment. He was considerate in his dealings with the settlers, and to his help in their struggles during the early days, many 492 WILLIAM BARR. owred their subsequent prosperity. At first he kept liquor and sold large quantities, but becoming convinced of the immoral character of the traffic, in 1831 he gave up keep ing it and became a rigid total abstainer himself. Probably there was not, at that time, another country store in the province that did not sell intoxicating liquor, and in this, as in several other respects, Colonel Scriver was in advance of his age. His shrewdness, energy and executive ability would have made him a leader anywhere, but in Hemingford his preeminence Avas enhanced by his being then the only man possessed of resources that enabled him to assist others. He always kept a number of hired men and Avhether it was lumbering or potash-making or clearing up 'land did so on a scale that nobody else could emulate. To the improving of existing roads, and the opening of new ones he labored strenuously. When the government grants to roads were being made, he was a persistent petitioner, but Hemingford got less than its just share. His request was that assistance be given to open the road between the 3rd and 4th ranges, to complete the road eastward, and to make good the road from the Napierville line to the province line. To the latter, in 1832, $800 was given, to make "the road from the province- line on No. 10 to the house of John McFall." In 1834 $600 Avas given to make passable the road from Stockwell to Vicars (then called Mannagh's corners), when communication Avas possible from "Hemingford to Franklin, and the upper road was less used. The same year an additional grant of $600 was made to the road from Clelland's northwards. In October, 1831, a mail was granted from St Remi to Heming ford, Colonel Scriver being postmaster. The trials and disadvantages of settlers in Hemingford Avere so similar to those already described of their neighbors in Havelock that one narrative will suffice, and I select that of William Barr : We belonged to county Tyrone, and sailed from Belfast in the spring of 1830. My father and mother died soon after leaving port. I was led to this part of the country by a married sister, avIio had preceded me and lived in Sherring- MILLS. 493 ton. I bought for $400 lot 66 on the 2nd range. There was a shanty and a bit of clearance, made by a squatter. From Clelland's corners to Covey hill was solid bush, with the ex ception of the clearings of Clelland, the Robsons, Sweet, and the-Spearmans, James and Simon, both .blacksmiths by trade and Irish by birth. The road had been straightened the year before, and the pieces across the swamps cross- wayed. Before that, the road had crooked, southward- to avoid the swamps. Francis and William Horn, two as decent Scotchmen as ever lived, and William Pullar came the same year as I did, and settled near me. My father, thinking it would be better to take linen than money, had packed up 500 yards with a quantity of thread. I found it hard to exchange. Colonel Scriver took part, and from him I bought a yoke of oxen. I had sufficient money to furnish my shanty save to buy a stoA7e, and I went to William Horn to beg the loan of $20. Remarking that by lending a man generally lost both his money and his friend, he said he would trust me, and when, the following spring, I went to ' repay him he refused to accept of any interest, and on pressing him, he exclaimed, "Weel, weel; give me a day in hairst," and so I sheared a day for him that fall. I set at once to clear the land and make potash, which was then selling high, $25 to $30 per barrel, in order to pay for my lot. My lot was finely covered with maple and elm but it was fearful workchopping in summer — often had I to take a drink from the brook every few cuts. That winter I did a good deal at lumbering, and became very expert with oxen. In 1835 I joined with Hosmer Corbin, who belonged to Champlain, in -building a 'small* saWmill on the creek that runs through my lot and did very well, selling the lumber chiefly to Colonel Scriver. Corbin brought 50 pigs in the spring from Champlain and they were turned loose in the bush In the fall they came out fat, fed mostly on beech-mast. In 1838 Corbin left me and built a mill for himself on the English river, on lot 117, and Colonel Scriver at the same time raised his tannery a short distance above it. Several years before Corbin built his sawmill, an expensive gristmill, with oatmeal-mill attached, was erected on the same lot by Colonel Languedoc of St Edward, replacing the old. Woolrich mill. He sold them to Humphries Nesbitt, andi while in his hands the gristmill was burned. The sawmill and carding-mill he kept running for many years. In the eastern end of the township, in 1835, Andrew Starnes built 494 A MAD AV0LF. a small gristmill on the Little Montreal, but that stream proved insufficient to keep it going during the summer, and, after a feAV years' trial, it Avas abandoned, and the farmers had again to rely on Judge Moore's mill at Champlain, or Shedden's at Mooers, both on the U S. side. Previous to 1829 there were only two schools in the town ship—one at Scriver's corners and the other in the Robson settlement, which Avas opened about 1827, and stood at the corner of the sideline. Shortly after the Robsons raised a block building near the site of the present one, which had Duncan Young as teacher. The building Avas occasionally used on Sundays by itinerant preachers, the more frequent being Methodists. On the Rev Isaac Law's visiting the English river, a congregation in connection with the U. S. Associate Presbyterian synod was organized. In speaking of the Robson neighborhood -I would relate, in the AArords of Richard SAveet, an extraordinary event that happened in it : In April, 1824, Mr Merlin Avas sleeping at the Robsons, when he heard a commotion among the liAre-stock. Waking the household, they Avent out, when they found a wolf chasing the cows and sheep round the yard( the brute barking and snarling. Rousing the adjoining family of Robsons (Walter's) and securing a lantern, they came to my father's, tow7ards Avhich the Avolf had run. Hearing the noise, my father rose and Avent out. While they were telling him of the cause of their coming, the pigs were heard squealing in our pen, and presently the Avolf jumped out, holding a pig by the ear. Roger Robson fired, but the gun did not go off Bringing it to the light in the house, they found the cause to be that the flint had slipped. Replacing the flint, they issued forth, and the Avolf being still in the yard, gnawing the pig, Robson fired and broke the brute's leg, when it went close to the barn. Father's gun Avas in the barn, and slipping in, he got it and going up to the wolf fired into its breast, killing it. The wolf acted most savagely, snapping continually. Bringing it into the kitchen to skin it before the fire, they found it to be of unusual size and with only 3 legs, one having been lost in a trap. While skinning, mother suggested that they ran some risk, for the brute might be mad, and, sure enough, lier con jecture turned out to be true, for every animal, except the sheep, it had bit became mad. Some of the sheep died from A JOINT SHOT. 495 their injuries, but none went mad. We supposed it Avas be cause the avooI had cleaned the teeth of the virus before entering the flesh. Cows and pigs Avent mad one after an other and had to be killed, and all the dogs. A bull of Robson's, while mad, was a dreadful sight in his fury, which was stopped by a shot. We had a cow that Ave thought had escaped, but in August she too turned mad. We had used the milk in the interval and Avithout harm. The horses that night were in a stable some distance apart and so escaped. My father lost every horned critter he had, and the Robsons 7 or 8 The symptoms in dying began with paralysis of the hindquarters. The pigs were full of droll antics when seized. Wild beasts were very plentiful about that time, and deer Avere seen in herds, often of half a dozen. One day when all the men were away, a dog was seen to have a splendid deer at bay close to the big stone by the road. The only man in the house was a travelling tailor, Jim Segar, Avho got the gun and went out, but the flint would not work. Mother ran for a coal, Avhich went out; she returned for a second, and dropping it on the priming while the tailor pointed the gun, the charge exploded, and the deer killed. CHAPTER XXV THE REBELLION. When, five days after Wolfe's victory, Quebec surrendered, the English found that the responsibility of providing for the government of the people they had overcome Avas thrust upon them. Gen. Murray, soldier-like, solved the difficulty by issuing a proclamation declaring French law abolished and English established, and naming certain of his officers to attend to its administration, a colonel being chief judge. For fifteen years that system prevailed, English civil and criminal law administered by military officers, and during those years French law was as dead in Canada as if it had never existed. The lawyer left the Custom, of Paris on its shelf in his library, and, pleading before a gentleman who held a commission in a marching regiment from George HL, quoted from the statutes of Great Britain, from Coke and Blackstone. The notary was in a perplexity; Pothier he laid aside and attempted conveyancing after the English style. No tithes were collected, no body of churchwardens levied tax to build or repair church or parsonage; whatever' the habitant gave towards the support of religious ordinances he gave of his freewill. The military commandant was considerate and respectful toAvards the subjugated people, even going so far as to issue a general-order that officers and privates on meeting a religious procession should salute by touching their hats, but on the point that English law and English precedent should prevail he was inflexible. The habitants were satisfied For the first time they knew a government that respected the rights of property. For generations the word government had represented to them officials who appropriated their grain and cattle for the king's service and impressed the young men into his regi ments. From the despotism of rogues who robbed both them and the king and by their pilferings reduced the BRITAIN CONCEDES SELF-GOVERNMENT. 497 colony to a state of beggary, the habitants passed under the rule of soldiers AA'ho paid for every bullock and minot of grain and preserved them undisturbed in their holdings. The first murmurs of discontent came from the priesthoods The conquest had reduced them from a paramount position over their flocks to one of obligation and they intrigued for the restoration of their former privileges, for they had dis covered that, without the compulsion of the law, the habitant would pay neither tithe nor fabrique-tax. In an evil hour for posterity, the Imperial government decided not only to put an end to its military rule, but to divide Canada into .two provinces. That Great Britain, in entering upon the seven years' Avar, acted wisely in concentrating her strength upon the overturning of French rule on the continent of America, cannot be assorted. ^ Her success rendered possible the independence of the American colonies, Avhich meanly took advantage of the enormous sacrifices she made to free them from the menaces of the French power, which had encircled them on the north and west and threatened their existence, w7hile it threw upon the Imperial government the most perplexing problem a constitutional country can be called upon to deal with — the treatment of a conquered people. The success of British arms had cleared the Missis- < sippi, the Alleghanies, the great lakes, the New England northern frontier, and the maritime provinces of the element that had so long imperilled the existence of the American colonies, which thus reaped all the benefit, while it left the management of Canada as a bad legacy to England. Three courses were open to her — to abandon Canada, which several military men advised, to hold it as a conquered country and govern it as she governed Bengal, or to introduce a large loyal element and give it self-government as a Avhole, in the expectation that the new element would control and in time assimilate the old. The Imperial cabinet rejected the first proposal and adopted a bungling compromise between the other two. Canada Was divided into tAvo provinces, thus ensuring the perpetuation of the national divisions it was not only the truest statesmanship but the truest kindness 498 HOW THE FRENCH CANADIANS USED THE GIFT. to the French to blot out. Had Canada been left a unit, the moulding of the two elements would have been effected by this time. It was divided, with the result that the stream of immigration which would naturally have 0A7erspread the waste lands behind the French parishes on the St Lawrence, swept past them, because few immigrants had a mind to make neAv homes in a province with a French legislature. In the 16 years after the province of Upper Canada was created, it added 80,000 English-speaking immigrants to its population; Lower Canada did not add 8,000. By this orie error of dividing Canada in 1791, we have a divided Canada still. The settlers of Upper Canada used the privilege of self- government entrusted to them to their great advantage; the French settlers of the lower province accepted the, to them, novel boon suspiciously, and used it gingerly at first, and then perverted it into an instrument to undo Avhat Wolfe and Murray, Amherst and Haldimand had done. Before five years, the ministers in London realized their folly in localizing and giving to a recently subjugated people the poAA'er of self- government. Every mail brought them despatches from the governors telling of attempts to restore French rule, and before long; there was established a chronic war between the legislature and the executive — the one struggling to re establish French law7 and customs the other to maintain English law and institutions. The liberals of England heard of the struggle and misapprehended its nature, supposing it to be a struggle between people and prerogative instead of one where popular institutions Avere being used to destroy British connection. No governor more clearly realized the situation than Sir J. H. Craig, and he wrote bitterly to Lon don of how, at every point, the legislature Avas endeavoring to restore the old regime so far as change of circumstances would permit, how all his efforts to promote the settlement of the townships were thwarted, and how he found the priests endeavoring to estrange the habitants more and more from the British government. The priests Avere not alone. The cities of Quebec and Montreal abounded in young men de- TREATMENT OF THE TOWNSHIPS. 499 scendants of officials in the time of Vaudreuil and Bigot, who, despising trade, hungered for office. The endowing of Lower Canada Avith a legislature opened a career for them. They fanned into life among the habitants the Avorst preju dices to secure their election, and notaries and lawyers who took their religion from Voltaire and were lost in admiration of the American republic, appealed for votes on the score that they were true sons of the church and devoted to the French nationality. Craig complained that the house was largely made up of advocates and notaries, and that of the other members 2 signed by mark and 5 could scarcely scrawl their names. In this assemblage the two Papineaus gained the ascendency, and round the tavern stoves in the evening harangued the habitant members, Who next day (evening sessions were unknown) voted as they had been instructed without debate. The aim of the leaders wras the establish ment of a French Canadian republic, and every move they made, no matter under what form, had that end in view. All that had been effected during the period of absolute rule, in the way of reconciling the habitants to the new order of things, was undone, and the conviction was implanted deep in their minds that the driving out of the English was possible, and a song was popular among them which had for its burden that Napoleon was the ' man who was going ¦ to help them to do it. In no more mischievous form did these national aspirations show themselves than in the opposition to the settlement of the wild lands of the province by immigrants. Not only were grants refused to open them by roads, but A-otes to provide the new settlements with means for the administra tion of justice and registry offices were rejected. East of the Richelieu were populous settlements of intelligent and energetic men who were unrepresented in the house. In 1823 the council sent down a bill to give them 6 members. Papineau declared that the interests and feelings of the in habitants of the townships did not correspond with those of the French Canadians, and therefore he would not consent to allow them a voice in the legislature. The bill was killed 500 THE TENURE ACT. ly an amendment that Avould have added 18 French Canadian members. A proposal to unite with Upper Canada was voted down on the ground that such union would endanger the peculiar law7s and institutions of Lower Canada. So de termined was the opposition to union with the upper prov ince, that the money required to build a canal between lakes St Francis and St Louis was steadily refused. From the year 1807 it AA-as the avowed purpose of the house of assembly to retain the province of LoAver Canada as the exclusive inheri tance of the French Canadians, and the demand was that seigniors wdio had vacant lands should be compelled to con cede and the parish system be extended to the townships, so that the children of the habitants might find homes for themselves. This, in a hundred forms and under innumer able pretences, Neilson, Papineau, Viger, and Cuvillier en deavored to accomplish. To prevent the extension of the parish system to the townships, however, eA-ery governor Avas resolute, and in 1826 the matter was set at rest by the Canada tenure bill, passed by the Imperial government, which declared the tenure of all land outside the seigniories to be that of free and common soccage, and gave power to the owners of seigniories to convert the tenure of unconceded lands. This act, received with shouts of chagrin by the dis affected, really saved the townships, and their settlement proceeded apace. But if the King could give the people of the townships assurance that they should enjoy their proper ties under English law, he could not give them representation, and until 1830, while Papineau and his followers were de claiming against the tyranny of being taxed without repre sentation and of the preciousness of self-government, the 80,000 English-speaking settlers between Salmon river and lake Memphremagog had no more to do with the making of the laAvs or the spending of the taxes they paid, than the trees they were industriously hewing dow7n. The senti ment that denied the townships representation was at last the means of giving it to them to a partial extent. A scheme was prepared by the house for Frenchifying the province and in order to ensure its passage by the council, a feAV ENGLISH NAMES DROPPED. 501 members were allotted the English settlements. Under this act, the old counties Avere swept away and neAv ones- with French names substituted. Huntingdon Avas blotted out and Beauharnois, Laprairie, and L'Acadie took its place. It Avas the same everyAvhere. The old English names of the counties Avere superseded by French ones. So far as regarded the Old Countrymen of old Huntingdon, they found them selves electorally no better off under the new name than the old one, for the act provided for only one polling-place and it was located at the town of Beauharnois, from 30 to 50 miles distant from the bulk of them. The new distribution of seats increased the French repre sentation and emboldened its leaders, who now defied the -executive and succeeded in bringing the business of the province to a standstill by refusing the supplies. For their conduct they could give many plausible reasons. Like all irresponsible bodies, the legislative-council had deteriorated, and charges of filling offices with incompetent relations, of passing bills favorable to private interests, and of conniving to conceal frauds upon the revenue, could be substantiated. With all its faults, however, this fact must be recognized, that but for the council the townships wTould not have been settled, and that the existence of an English-speaking element in Quebec is due to it. Under all the ostensible reasons given by the agitators, the councillors recognized that their true motive was the subversion of the crown, and to thwart them they lent their influence to the successive governors. Had the imperial government conceded the demand upon which the agitators finally concentrated their strength, that of an elective council, the English element would have been wiped out. To sticklers for constitutional rights, like Sir Jame.; Mackintosh, it seemed monstrous that the Avill of the majority in Lower Canada should not prevail, overlooking the fact that the majority were clamoring for the constitutional powers in question with the object of Avrenching the province from England and of expelling the English people from within its bounds. Was the Imperial parliament going to grant constitutional powers to the Lower Canada legislature which 502 MEETING AT HUNTINGDON. would enable it to undq on the floor of its house all that Wolfe had effected on the plains of Abraham ? A majority of the members at Westminster saw this, and refused the demand; they were denounced as despotic by men, able and generous, who carried their theories of self-government to that extreme that, on the same principle, the victor in a fair fight would restore to the vanquished weapons to renew the battle. There were a few among the English who, while acknow ledging the service the councillors were doing the minority, could not let it condone their conduct otherwise, and who, therefore, to a certain extent supported Papineau in his de mands by fav7oring the reform of the council. Then the American element in the townships, which at that time was large and influential, sided Avith him, in the belief that his success would lead to annexation. This blatant Yankee ele ment in their midst, whose resolutions were quoted by the French agitators as representing the English sentiment, an noyed the Old Countrymen greatly, and they followed with meetings and resolutions declaring their determination to uphold British connection. Such a meeting took place at Huntingdon in 1833. It was announced to be held in the schoolhouse on the south side of the river, but so large was the attendance that it was made an out-door meeting. The speakers did not mince matters, and the sentiment of the brawny men Avho stood thickly around, clad as they had left their work in the bush, Avas shown by their shouts and exclamations to be that they Avould fight to the death in resistance to the threatened attempt to take the province from under British sAvay. The meeting, like all the others then held in the townships, refutes the popular notion that the causes of the rebellion in both provinces were identical. It is safe to say that had Lyon McKenzie been a resident of Montreal instead of Toronto, he Avould have shouldered a musket to put down rebellion instead of leading one. The class to which he belonged, the Scotch radical, was the predominant one on the banks of the English river, the Chateaugay, and Trout river, yet nowhere in the province THE ELECTION OF 1834. 503 were more resolute opponents to Papineau, nor more eager volunteers for the Queen's service. In Ontario, the rising was measurably one in vindication of civil rights; in Quebec the appeal to arms was to restore French domination. But the Huntingdon meeting was more than* an expression of sentiment, for at it the important decision was ccme to, that, despite their distance from the poll, they would nomi- *nate a candidate at the approaching election and endeavor to break the custom of the county's sending supporters of Papineau. A subsequent meeting Avas held at Brodie's, N. Georgetown, to nominate a candidate, when Wm. Bowron was decided upon, and an exciting canvas was begun, as may be imagined when a staid man like the Rev Mr Merlin was led, in the course of a sermon at Hemingford, to ex hort his hearers to support the crown by voting for Bowron and Primeau. No sooner Avas the benediction pronounced, than Colonel Scriver rose to protest against what had been said, when he was anticipated by Joseph Merlin, who re monstrated with his brother for introducing the subject on such an occasion. Refused the use of the schoolhouse, Wm. Lalanne, John Hynes, David Heffernan, and David Manning called a meeting in favor of Dewitt, which Avas held on a pile of boards in the A-illage. There were four candidates, Primeau, an advocate, of the Cedars, who sided with the British, Bowron, and the two retiring members, Jacob Dewitt, a hardware merchant of Montreal, and the surveyor, Charles Archambault, a man of no principle. Dewitt, an American, acted with Papineau in the hope that his success would bring annexation. Archambault, anxious for his return, ap proached Bowron 's friends, and told them they were mistaken in supposing he Avas in league with Dewitt, and that if they would drop Primeau, who had no chance, and vote for him, he would instruct his supporters to vote for Bowron. They fell into the trap, and when the Old Countrymen went to Beauharnois to vote for BoAvron, they carried out loyally the agreement with Archambault by voting for him also. A large number of votes had been polled before it was found that Archambault was playing false, and that his supporters 504 THE NINETY-TWO RESOLUTIONS. Avere voting not for Bowron but Dewitt. The Old Country men were indignant, and refusing to vote any longer for Archambault, they were hustled out of the polling-room by the French, and no more were allowed to vote. Being in a hopeless minority, they could not assert their right by force. A Montreal lawyer, Armour, who had come to represent BoAvron, appealed to the returning-officer, who told him to quietly bring his friends to the back of the building, and he would take their votes through an open window, which was done. It was soon plain to be seen that the contest was hopeless, and Bowron withdrew his name. The poll ended by declaring Dewitt and Archambault elected. Before the next general election the law was changed, so that in stead of one polling-place for the county, the returning-officer moA*ed from village to village, continuing in each a certain number of days. From that election dates the active inter ference of the Old Countrymen in public affairs, and the quick succession of events intensified their interest. When the new house met the famous 92 resolutions were sub mitted, which embodied every imaginable grieA7ance without declaring the animus that dictated them — namely, the desire to expel the English-speaking inhabitants of the province and to convert it into a French republic. That this could be accomplished Papineau was assured, for he declared "not only were republican institutions to prevail throughout the whole of this continent, but America w7as destined, at some future day, to give republics to Europe." The American residents in Huntingdon village called a meeting to endorse the 92 resolutions, Avhich was held in the schoolroom where Oney's house stands. Joshua Lewis presided, Ames read the 92 resolutions, and a resident of Malone, Hutton, harangued in their support. Brown and Norval with others of a dif ferent way of thinking were present, and changed the com plexion of the meeting. When the house refused to vote the supplies and brought about a deadlock, it became apparent a collision was approaching Avhich would decide whether the province Avas to continue part of the British empire or be changed into a French republic. While Papineau Avas ad- THE OUTBREAK OF 1837. 505 dressing immense gatherings in the parishes, the people of the toAvnships met to organize in self-defence. At the meet ing in Hemingford, which filled the Methodist church, Col. Scriver caused a sensation by rising and saying that he knew he was suspected by a majority present because he had supported Dewitt and because he believed many of the reforms advocated by Papineau were necessary, and which he wished to see effected in a constitutional manner, but AArhen the real issue came to be, as was now the case, whether the province was to be French or British, his sword and fortune were at the service of the crown. The old militia companies were filled up and volunteer ones formed wherever English was spoken, and the determination expressed that they would show Avhether they were, as styled by the church-door orators, intruders and trespassers in a colony where the union jack floated. As no overt act took place in the district of Beauharnois during the first year of the rebellion, it would be beyond the scope of this book to touch upon it, further than to note its influence upon what followed in the succeeding year. The rebellion of 1837 failed from three causes, 1st the cowardice of the leaders, 2nd the failure of the aid anticipated from the Americans, 3rd the decision at the last moment of the hierarchy to discountenance the revolt. The utmost clemency Avas shown to such of the leaders as were caught, none being executed, and a number, like Cardinal of Chateaugay, who was one of the members for Laprairie (the seigniory of Chateaugay was then part of that county), and Dr Perrigo, were left untouched. Mercy to the van quished was not mercy to the province, for had a stern example been made in 1837 there would have been no rising in 1838. The leniency of the government Avas misconstrued by the habitants into proof of its weakness, and the fellows who were set at liberty swaggered about the parishes boast ing that the bureaucrats did not dare to punish them. How the ignorance of the habitants was imposed upon by the demagogues who were leading them to ruin, it will suffice to state that many were induced to take up arms under the 506 THE NEW PLOT. representation that the throne of William IV. having been filled by Victoria, they ran no risk in rising against a girl. The leaders w7ere guilty of worse than misleading a credulous people; the accession of a new sovereign required the mem bers of the house to be resworn. Four months after they had taken the oath of allegiance to Victoria, they were in arms to overthrow her authority in Canada. The outbreak stimulated the placing of the militia in an effective condition, and the forming of volunteer companies. Arms for the Beau harnois district were hurriedly sent to Caughnawaga, whence they were brought in carts, and from the 1st December the younger men were kept on guard, receiving 20 cents a day and rations. When spring approached, so convinced were the authorities that all danger had passed, that the com panies were disbanded six Aveeks before the expiration of their term of enlistment. On the surface, everything wore a most tranquil appear ance; the agitation that had filled the province for a score of years with its clamor had ceased, and the habitants had resumed their ordinary occupations. Unhappily their sub missive aspect was assumed to cover their purpose of making a second attempt to drive out the English. Their late failure had taught the leaders several lessons, by which, safely en sconced in the United States, they profited in devising a fresh conspiracy. Ascribing their Avant of success to the betrayal of their plans and the incompleteness of their or ganization, they devised a society elaborate in detail and secret in operation. It was called the Raquet or Chasseur society, with four degrees, and, after the manner of secret societies, its oath Avas administered impressively and under threats of vengeance if violated. The signs and passAvords were simple yet effective. During the summer of 18^8 emis saries traversed the province, initiating members and forming lodges, and carried on their propaganda so unobtrusively that the authorities had no suspicion of what was going on. In the counties of Beauharnois and Chateaugay the women were the most active in promoting the society, and by them the oath was frequently administered. So very quiet and THE AMERICANS HELP THE REBELS. 507 friendly were the Canadians, that the' Old Country people were completely thrown off their guard, and believed that, in the catastrophe of the preceding fall, the insurrection ary idea had perished and that the French had become reconciled to the existing state of affairs. The calm, how ever, was so profound that it caused suspicion among a feAV, but none scouted the idea of a second rising being brewing more emphatically than Colonel Brown and Mr Norval, and no other two in the district had greater facilities of knowing what was going on, or were more thoroughly acquainted with the Canadian character. The degree of deception used is indicated by men like them being so completely deceived. The providing of arms and material was a more difficult matter than the obtaining of recruits for the lodges, and for the means to purchase them the leaders depended mainly upon the Americans. All over the Northern States of the Union large meetings were held,, at which resolutions of sympathy for the French Canadians "in their aspirations for freedom from the British yoke" were enthusiastically adopted, and, in defiance of their own neutrality law, sub scriptions were opened to buy arms and ammunition to make war against a nation Avith which the United States was at peace. Along the northern frontier, many of those American sympathizers formed themselves into secret socie ties, called Hunters' lodges, the object being to aid the French Canadians in their effort to convert Canada into a republic not only by collecting subscriptions in their respec- tiA'e neighborhoods but by organizing military companies, to march to their support when tho flag of insurrection was raised. 'These Hunters' lodges were most numerous in Ver mont and in St Lawrence county, N.Y. Despite the contri butions of the Americans and the sacrifices made by a few of the Canadian leaders, the Chasseurs were indifferently provided with arms when the time of rising approached. What muskets they had Avere mainly old flint-locks that had been used in 1812, and these Avere eked out by daggers, pikes, and pistols. The pikes were made clandestinely by the parish blacksmiths. Stranger than even these rude 508 THE REBEL PLAN. weapons, was the boring of logs to make wooden cannon. If arms were deficient, the leaders had, by means of the Chasseur or Raquet lodges, undoubtedly secured a fairly or ganized body of men, and were thus in a much better posi tion than Avhen they took the field the year before. How the authorities obtained Avord of what was going on has not yet been fully revealed, but there is no question that the first definite information as to the extent of the danger was made known through the Catholic ecclesiastical authori ties of Montreal. Apart from the consideration that they foresaw the second rising; would be a second failure, and were anxious to prevent the impoverishment of their people, their act was one of self-interest. The rebel leaders by this time had imbibed American ideas of church and state, and had adopted as one of their measures of reform the aboli tion of tithes. Careful as the priesthood had ever been to identify themselves with the French Canadian nationality, sparing no effort to impress the habitants that their patriotic aspirations were indissolubly blended with the church of Rome, they had no intention that they should be realized if it cost them the power to tax and tithe. Better British rule Avith tithe, than French Avithout. The information sup plied to Sir John Colborne Avas so precise that he kneAv not only the plans of the conspirators but the extent of their resources. He Avas Avarned too late to be able to nip the plot in the bud or even to w7arn the militia officers in the districts affected, and all he could do Avas to organize to crush it before getting headway. The rebel plan, in brief, was that there should be a simultaneous rising in the corner of the province that lies Avest of the Richelieu, and that the American contingent was to join them by way of lake Cham plain and by crossing the frontier of New York state. With the triangle of country in their possession they would have a base of operations against the rest of the province. The night of the 3rd November Avas fixed for the rising and the chief blow was to be struck by the habitants of the county of Laprairie, which included the seigniory of Cha teaugay. They Avere to attack and capture the barracks at THE RISING AT THE BASIN. 509 the village of Laprairie. The chief agent AA7as a habitant, one Desmarais, who had devoted his time to inducing- his neigh- bors to join the movement, and it is proof of his energy, that no other section was so Avell-orgariized. He had been implicated in the rising of 1838 and there was abundant proof for his conviction, but the government, in its mistaken clemency, had set him at liberty. The seigniory of Cha teaugay he entrusted to Cardinal, who Avas to make a night- march on Caughnawaga, surprise the Indians and seize the muskets and ammunition Avith w7hich the government had supplied them the year before, and then proceed to assist in the attack on Laprairie barracks. Cardinal was a slow and somewhat heavy man, regarded by many as soft and stupid and by a few as cunning and ambitious. He w7as certainly callous and ungrateful. The steamer from Lachine, the Cha teaugay, Avas late that Saturday, and it Avas dark when she reached her wharf. She had a full load, and among her passengers were a number of Old Country farmers. The night was cold and Avet and the roads bad, so that it Avas some time before they got under Avay. The first to get as far as the bridge was John Lewis Grant, a Lachine farmer, AArho was on his way to his brother-in-law, John McDonald, to Avarn him that the Canadians had marked him, among those they had designated for assassination.* In front of Mrs Duquette's tavern he met a great crowd of Canadians, who seized hold of his horse's head, and dragging him from his gig, carried him, for he was half-drunk, into a room, where they searched him, thinking he was the bearer of despatches to his brother-in-laW. There Avas no letter but they found a pair of pistols in his pocket, which Duquette * There was a plot to kill McDonald. It had been arranged with a worthless fellow to do the deed for a sum of money, and was given a knife and pistol as instruments. The plan was that the assassin was to go with a neighbor to McDonald's store and ask him to examine a pile of the bons storekeepers then issued, and, while so engaged, either shoot or stab him. The neighbor refused with horror, and caused, too late, Mc Donald to be warned of his danger in the manner stated. 510 SEARCHING THE HOUSES OF appropriated. Shortly afterwards, a string of other pas sengers came along, Avhen they also were halted and made prisoners. One of them, John Stewart of Howick, resisted, when Duquette drew his sword and threatened to run it through him, when his sons persuaded him to submit The crowd was constantly increasing and all were in great glee, laughing and gesticulating. That the province would be theirs writhin a couple of days they had not a shadow of doubt. By-and-by Canadians appeared who had been sent for, chasseurs and raquets who had repented at the tAvelfth hour and been forced to turn out by patrols sent for them. Meanwhile two detachments of considerable strength were marching down the river, A7isiting the houses of all the Old Countrymen. The first house they went to was that of John McDonald, and surrounding it knocked loudly for ad mittance. McDonald, who was getting into bed, asked their errand, when they shouted they were going to declare their independence that night. Delaying to give them admittance, threats of setting fire to the house were made. His servant advised resistance, but McDonald said two could do nothing against so many, and told him to go and hide and seize the first opportunity to fly to Beauharnois and let Col. Brown know that the Canadians were in arms. The servant having hid under a bed, the door was opened, when the rebels crowd ed in. Their leader, Jean L. Tlfibert, a neighboring farmer, ordered him to dress and go with them to his store, for Mc Donald Avas a merchant as well as a farmer. There they seized some powder and shot, but touched nothing else. Re turning to the house, they searched every nook of it for arms, finding a gun. Reforming their ranks they began their march to the bridge, taking McDonald with them as prisoner. At the house of every' Old Countryman they came to they halted and rousing the inmates from their sleep demanded instant entrance under fearful threats. Taken thus unaware, resist ance Avas impossible, and amid the tears of wife and children, the head of the house, and, if he had any, his grown-up sons, were compelled to leave their beds, to huddle on their clothes and be taken away as prisoners. The hardship was THE OLD COUNTRYMEN. 511 the greater from the nature of the weather. A piercing blast was sweeping over the country and at intervals heavy showers fell, so that the prisoners, as they dragged their weary way through the mud, were chilled and drenched by wind and rain. At one house the goodAvife appeared to answer the summons, and declared that her husband was from home. The Canadians knew better, and told her unless- he appeared they would set fire to the barn. She pointed to the chimney, where he had taken refuge, whence he was dragged with laughter and his wife w7as compelled to supply a piece of rope to tie his arms behind his back, the man. telling them he would live to see his captors yet hung with it. In the house of James Holmes, they found the Rev7 Mr Roach, who had come to hold service on the morrow, and marry a couple on Monday. He also was made prisoner, and there was neither service nor marriage.* At Dickson's house was Robert Findlay, who, on hearing the errand of those who were demanding admittance, jumped out of his bedroom window and made for Caughnawaga, told the Indians of the, rising, got them to ferry him over to Lachine, whence he was driven to Montreal and was the first to give Colborne in- *This house-to-house visitation did not pass off as harm lessly elsewhere. A few miles east of the Basin, at La Tortue, two sturdy Yorkshiremen, warned in time of the rebels' ap proach, stood at either side of the door, musket in hand. The Canadians fired a volley, when Aaron Walker fell back dead in his wife's arms. David Vitty, after discharging his gun, stood his ground, and shouted he would pierce with the bayo net the first Canadian who crossed his threshold. A second volley was fired, and he was wounded in four places. The rebels then rushed in, and found Mrs Walker, clasping a nine months' old infant, bending over her dead husband. Recog nizing among them a neighbor, she said, "You have murdered a man who never injured you." "It is good for him and you too," he replied, as he roughly pushed her aside. Vitty, who was dabbled ali over with blood from his wounds, asked for a drink, and as one of the household was raising it to his lips, a French Canadian dashed the cup to the ground. A troop of Hussars, from Laprairie barracks, warned by a messenger sent by Walker, were heard approaching, Avhen the rebels fled. 512 THE ADVANCE ON CAUGHNAWAGA. formation that the outbreak had taken place. Every house was searched for arms, but beyond a few fowling-pieces none were found. When the party reached Duquette's they had, 19 prisoners, who were led to Madame Boudria's office, where Cardinal had his office. He received his neighbors with com placency, the majority of whom, a feAV months before, had signed a petition to the government to condone his offence ©f sharing in the rising of 1837. The leaders consulted, when, the farmers were released, excepting McDonald, an Irishman, McLean, who had acted as drill-sergeant to the militia the year before, and a young Aberdonian named Innis, who pro voked the Canadians by telling them the Huntingdon men would soon be down to whip them. The release of the pas sengers by the steamer was refused. The party sent to visit the houses between the Basin and the bridge, took all the arms they could find but made no prisoners. Having finished their task of making sure that the Old Countrymen had no arms, the order to fall in was given, when Desmarais picked out 150 as the corps to capture the arms at Caughnawaga, and, at the first streak of daylight, they started. About a third had muskets, the others pikes and staves. The road was a mud-track, but, where it would permit, a semblance of military order \A7as maintained, the men marching in platoons. Generally they presented the appearance of a scattered crowd, making their Avay as they best could on either side of the road. Many by this time had come to think seriously of their situation and the enter prise upon which they Were bound. Ignorant as, with the exception of the leaders, they all were, they knew that re bellion wyas punishable by the halter, and they felt that to disarm Indians in daylight would not be so easy as sur prising Old Country farmers in their beds. Any attempt to fall behind Avas checked, however, by the threat that all who turned Avould have their brains blown out. Afterwards one of the rank and file related a conversation he had upon the road with Cardinal, Avhich showed that getting the arms of the Indians Avas not all he aimed at He told his follower that their American friends objected coming to their assist- * CARDINAL OUTWITTED. 513 ance until they had achieved some success which would give them the status of combatants. "If," argued Cardinal, "the Americans come now and are captured, they will be hanged as murderers; if they come after we have obtained the stand ing of belligerents and are captured, they will be treated as prisoners-of-Avar," and so he saw in the disarming of the In dians, and the capture of their village more than a merely prudential step. Qn reaching the vicinity of Caughnawaga, the Canadians were ordered to halt and lie concealed in the woods, which surround the place, while Cardinal and Duquette would go to the village to reconnoitre. Quietly as they had advanced and early as was the hour, they had been observed by a squaw, who was looking tor her cow, and she,, young and fleet of foot, fled with the intelligence that armed men were lurking in the bush. A brave was sent out as a scout, and he. speedily returned, confirming the girl's statement. George Delorimier, the head-chief, to whom he brought the word, connecting the presence of the Canadians with the tidings Findlay had brought during Hhe night, concluded at once, that the rebels meant, improbable as it might seem, an attack on Caughnawaga. The bell Was ringing for first mass arid part of the congregation had assembled. Delorimier sent the priest word, who stopped the service, while messengers passed from cabin to cabin summoning the braves to as semble at the may -pole with their arms. All this was done' with the silence and secrecy which are characteristic of the Red Man, so that when Cardinal and Duquette came walking into the village unconcernedly, and as if paying a customary visit, they could not tell by any sign that the Indians were aware of the force they had within hail in the woods or that they were ready to fight them. Cardinal went to the store of Delorimier and sounded him as to the arms and ammuni; tion the Indians had and where they w«re kept, said he would like to see the chiefs and hinted he would pay a good price for any guns they would sell him. In further conversation with the chiefs, he told them the whole province had risen in arms during the night and that they were sure 34 514 INDIAN CRAFTINESS. to make Lower Canada independent. If the chiefs would join them, or even lend them their arms, they would not only be well paid, but would be allowed to keep their seign iory under the new government. When asked what they wanted the arms for, Cardinal said to go and aid in taking Laprairie. He used no threats, did not tell them if they did not give up their arms, he would take them by force; in fact, thought he was going to succeed by diplomacy. When word was brought that all was ready and that the braves of the tribe had assembled at the flagpole prepared for fight, the chiefs threw off all dissimulation and made their two tempters prisoners. Wondering what detained Cardinal and Duquette three others of the leaders came walking carelessly and unarmed into the village to find out, when they like wise were detained. If they advanced into the Avoods, the Indians knew that the Canadians, after firing a volley, which might do them some injury, Avould scatter and fly, and so escape them, which would not suit their designs. They re sorted to a very simple stratagem to capture them. Picking out a few of their number, they sent them into the woods to endeavor to induce the Canadians to come into the village. By this time the habitants had grown restive. Exhausted by the excitement and exertions of the preceding night, cold and hungry, they wrere in no mood to fight the Iroquois, so that, while waiting in the bush, many took the opportunity of stealing off to their homes. Lapailleur Avas noAA7 left the sole leader, and, on seeing a few of the Indians approaching, among them a chief, and apparently AA'ithout arms (they had their tomahawks and scalping-knives concealed under their clothes) he concluded that a friendly arrangement had been made by the leadei-s who had gone to the village and went forward to meet them, accompanied by one of his men. After the interchange of a few friendly Avords, one of the Indians playfully snatched away his pistol, which Avas his sole Aveapon, when his companion ran back to the Canadians and ordered them to advance. Lepailleur forbade them to fire and said they were going to settle matters Avith the Indians like brothers, and the Indian messengers confirmed this by a THE REBELS MADE PRISONERS. 515- general shaking of hands. "Would they not come to the village?" The Canadians answered, "Perhaps if we go to' the village you will make us prisoners." "Don't be fright ened," retorted the chief, "I will take care of that." Thus assured they walked towards the village, and on coming in sight of it saAv the Indians drawn up in line. With fatal in decision they did not fire, and in a few moments they were- surrounded, the Avar-Avhoop sounded in their ears, their guns were wrested out of their hands, and they were made pri- - soners, the Indians thus capturing the band without striking - a blow. Disarmed, the Canadians had to bear the jeers and laughter of their captors as they examined the mode in which many of them had loaded their guns. Getting their canoes ready, the Canadians Avere marched down to them, and, with only 2 or 3 Indians to each as a guard, w7ere forced to- take the paddles and row themselves over the St Lawrence to Lachine and captivity. On reaching the north bank, from the earliness of the hour and the day being Sunday,. only a solitary trooper Avas to be seen. Here was a second; opportunity to escape, yet no effort Avas made to break away, and they passed on to the prison, which two of them, Car dinal and Duquette, left for the scaffold, and 4 for the hold of a convict ship.* The sight of the captive rebels, as they Avere marched through the streets of Montreal, had a strong. effect in deterring sympathizers from rising, and the effect- was deepened when it became known that, on reaching the jail, the prisoners had been eager to save themselves by turning Queen's evidence, and that even Cardinal's hrother-r in-law had made a deposition criminating him. But the Indians were not done with the Chateaugay rebels. Finding7 out next day that they had established a guard-house at the , * Desmdrais Avas not among the prisoners. When the Ca nadians were Avaiting in the bush, he suspected all was not o-oing well, and, being on horseback, he rode to the outskirts of the Avood, and on learning of the capture of the poor men he had helped to delude, returned to Chateaugay and subse quently escaped to the United States. Newcomb, a Canadian Yankee, also got away. The Indians took 75 prisoners. 516 BEAUHARNOIS WARNED. Basin, they haunted it, and, during a heavy shower of snoAv, Pv band of them suddenly dashed into it, seized the muskets, ftnd kicked the astonished guard out of doors before they knew what had happened. After that, a well-known Indian o.ppeared one day on horseback at the headquarters at the bridge, with a message which he alleged came from the chiefs, to the effect that they wished to have friendship re-established Avith their French brothers, and if they would send some of the patriot chiefs they would talk over their differences and, perhaps, make an alliance w7ith them. The rebels deliberated over the message, when it was decided to send the deputation asked for. They had just entered the Caughnawaga Avoods, when they were pounced upon and sent prisoners to Montreal. Among the captured was an American, a brother of Jacob Dewitt, and the Indians arguing that whatever belonged to the rebels was fair sj5oil, a party of them, bearing raft- oars, boarded the steamer Chateaugay and began rowing her to Caughnawaga. They were with difficulty induced to give up their prize on the representation that the A-essel was needed for the Queen's service. It will be recollected that when the Canadians surrounded the house of John McDonald, he told his servant to hide himself arid to take the first opportunity of fleeing to Beau harnois to give the alarm tO Colonel Brown. This the young man, Bean; did, for, so soon as the rebels had left, he slipped out to the stable, saddled a horse and struck out for Beau harnois. By riding hard, he entered that town by midnight, and drew rein at the door of John Ross, the leading store keeper, to enquire where he would find BroAvn. He was told, and Avas turning his horse's head, when curiosity caused Mr Eoss to ask the object of his errand at so late an hour, Avhen be told him of the events at Chateaugay- — of the Canadians having risen in arms and of McDonald's being taken prisoner, and then hastened on. Mr Ross, Avho Avas captain of the vol unteer company, at once dressed and proceeded to Avarn his men to get under arms. On Bean's rousing Col. Brown, he re ceived his story with incredulity, until, on cross-questioning, he found that it was too true, Avhen he hastened to the man- THE VOLUNTEERS. 517 sion-house to Avarn Mr Ellice, and then went to Mr Ross's to get out the volunteers, and was gratified to find that already a dozen had assembled. The astonishment of the group in Ross's store is not to be described. Of all events, a seconil rebellion was the most unlooked for by them. Living in the heart of a French population they had not detected a sigri of preparation, and even yet thought that Bean must have mis apprehended what had passed at McDonald's house. Only one of them, John Bryson, had no doubts on the subject. He told how, that evening, he had gone to pay an account to a, French Canadian, when a dispute arose, during which the man exclaimed to him, "In two or three hours see Avhat will happen to you damned English." He did not understand then what he meant, but he did noAV. Others had remarked that while the Canadians had gone early to bed and no lights were to be seen in their houses, they had noticed in passing men peering out at the windows, more particularly of Pre- vost's tavern. These men were watching; for the arrival of the contingents from Ste Martine and St Timothy, which Avas to be the signal for them to come forth. From there being a \Tolunteer company in the village, and the capture of the seigniory-house with its inmates being regarded as an undertaking of responsibility, the disaffected of Beauharnois did not consider themselves capable for the task alone and had stipulated for outside help. When Lord Durham came on his mission to Canada, EdAvard Ellice, eldest son of the seignior, accompanied him, and took up his residence at Beauharnois, Brown moving out of the mansion-house for his accommodation. He had kept up great style, Lord Dur ham, among other notables, paying him a visit, and on the night of the rising had several guests. The design was to have surrounded the mansion-house so soon as the inmates had gone to bed and taken possession. Time passed and neither the St Timothy nor the Ste Martine contingents ap peared. The watchers in Prevost's had noted the arrival of - the horseman, his calling on Ross arid Brown, and the as sembling of the volunteers, and had sickening doubts- that they had been betrayed. It was long after midnight when .518 THE OUTBREAK. Dumouchel rode up to Prevost's, with the word that the Ste Martine men w7ere collected behind the Catholic church, and were waiting impatiently for the St Timothy force. It was resolved to strike without waiting for them, so, w7hile Col. Brown was out on his errand to see about getting the volun teers under arms, the party at the tavern sallied forth and -divided, one portion going towards the house of Ross the other to that of David Norman, a storekeeper, who was quartermaster of the volunteer company and kept their arms. Norman had been notified by Ross of the rising, .' and as the rebels Avent along the street they met him while ¦ hurrying from house to house rousing the members of the company. He was seized and taken to his store and ordered to open the door. He refused, and, despite threats of im mediate death, persisted in refusing, whereupon the door was burst in and the muskets together with a barrel of powder taken possession of. The moment the men left Pre vost's, the village suddenly burst into life. Every windoAv Avas lighted and men, women, and children filled the streets, excitedly shouting and running hither and thither. The houses of nearly all the English-speaking residents were entered and the men made prisoners, among others those of Duncan the baker and of Robert Wilson, carpenter. The party detailed to go to Ross's store met on the way Robert Finney, whom they took prisoner.* They had scarcely done so, when several volunteers appeared, whereon the rebels fled, except one, who fell on his knees and begged for mercy. In another part of the village, a volunteer, Robt. Johnson, stopped a man on horseback, and made him prisoner. He proved to be Louis Dumouchel, a tavern-keeper of Ste Martine. While detaining him until assistance should come, Dumouchel took advantage of his captor's attention being momentarily dis- . tracted, to put spurs to his horse and gallop yelling up the hill, when he was answered by a chorus of shouts, which was the first intimation the volunteers had of the force at the Catholic church, and Brown and Ross at once decided that it was necessary they should advance with the few men they had and cover the entrance to the seigniory-house. This was THE MANSION-HOUSE CAPTURED. 519 done, and the men formed in line at the gateway. Hardly had they done so, when, through the darkness of that stormy night, the Canadians, with a tremendous yell, came rushing down the hill and across the open field at the foot of it, the voice of their leader, Joseph Dumouchel, shouting "Ho, my comrades : f orward !" and firing their guns. Colonel Brown was shot in the thumb, but no one else was hurt, the Cana dians having aimed too high. Firing a few ineffective shots, the volunteers ran into the house, where they found Mr Ellice helping the ladies- into the cellar. Colonel Brown told him there was no use in resisting, and counselled surrendering on the best terms they could. The cowardly advice was assented to by Ellice, and the Canadians were admitted on promising to respect the ladies. They rushed in, when the few volun teers, some 10 or 12, handed them their muskets. Brown asked what they meant by such conduct, when he received a hurricane of ansAvers from the excited crowd who swarmed everywhere. "We have suffered long enough," "the Cana dians must have their rights," and "we want the country for ourselves." The premises were searched, and 11 barrels of cartridges and some dozen muskets were found, at which the rebels were much disappointed, for they had believed, from Colonel Brown's having been entrusted by the govern ment with the distribution of arms for the district, that several hundred muskets and three cannon were stored on the premises. The Canadians were beside themselves with joy over their success, and confidently expressed their belief that the province was theirs. So well-informed a man as Dr Brienne said 6000 Americans w7ere to have crossed the frontier that night, but his followers declared the number was 30,000, and that they would have to pay no more seigniory - rents and dues and no more tithes ; all their American allies had asked was that they make way for them and they would do the rest. Mr Ellice was disgusted and cowed by Avhat Avas going on around him. He Avas a big, sof tish sort of man, without much energy or presence of mind, and who, had he not been wealthy, would never have been heard of. At that time 520 EDWARD ELLICE, JUNR. there Avas an infatuation as to the efficacy of constitutional government as a sovereign remedy for the. ills of society. The creation of the American republic had started it, the French revolution had aided to develop it, and the prolonged agitation over the reform-bill had grafted it in men's minds that there was a' magical efficacy in the government of the people by the people, and constitution-making was regarded as of the first importance. Mr Ellice w7as one of the circle df whose opinions the Edinburgh Review was the exponent, and he had rather pitied those who were opposed to granting the demands of Papirieau. It was a great shame to deny the French Canadians a full measure of self-government, most illiberal to distrust how they would use it; remove all checks arid throw the entire responsibility upon them of governing themselves, and you will see what wonders will be wrought. Such were the sentimerits of this Englishman on the 3rd November, 1838; on the 4th November of the same year he had not a word to say in favor of the virtues of paper- constitutions or of his protegees. In one hour the French Canadians had turned a friend into an enemy, and a theo retical politician into a practical one, prepared to acknow ledge that the Imperial authorities ought to be satisfied on two points before entrusting a dependency with self-govern ment, 1st, that its people possess sufficient intelligence to use it; 2nd, that they are loyal to the head of the empire. When it was intimated to him, that he was to be taken a prisoner to Chateaugay Basin, he was overcome with fear that his life was in danger. Before daylight, he, along with Ifrowri, Ross, Norman, Onslow, and Bryson were put iri carts, and, guarded by some 40 men, started. On reaching Norval's house, which was outside the village, a halt was cried, and the rebels bursting iri the door entered his bedroom. Altho' taken unawares, Mr Norval resisted, when he heard the voices of his friends outside shouting to him to submit When he had dressed, he was hurried out, and, being placed in the caleche beside Brown, their wrists were tied together. All the other prisoners were similarly bound, except Mr Ellice, who had also a seat for himself, probably on account of his CAPTURE OF THE STEAMER. 521 being a very stout man. The procession then dragged its way to Chateaugay, over roads deep in mud and under a pouring rain. What galled Mr Norval and the others most of all was that the Canadians who Avere treating them in such a manner were their intimate neighbors, whom they had helped in their necessities a hundred times, and who, up to the last hour, had professed the greatest friendship. When the cavalcade halted in front of Duquette's tavern at Chateaugay bridge, the rebels came swarming around it in scores, and were greatly elated on seeing Ellice and Brown prisoners. On Mr Ellice's alighting, the coachman, Finney, Avheeled his horses to return to Beauharnois, when a rebel raised his musket A comrade beside him prevented his drawing the trigger by seizing his arm, and shouting to Finney to halt; he left his seat, which was taken by a Ca nadian who drove the team to Ste Martine, where the horses, fine blacks, were used as mounts by the rebel leaders. At 10 o'clock the exultation of the party at Duquette's was dashed by Edward Dalton, who came riding at post-haste with the intelligence of the capture of Cardinal and his party. It was now all the leaders could do to hold the habi tants together, and even they felt that circumspection was needed. The decision was come to, that the passengers by the steamer be allowed to go on promising not to bear army and that the Beauharnois captives with McDonald be kept in close confinement, as they might be of value yet in com pounding with the government for their own safety. In the afternoon they were removed to Mallette's house, and con fined in a large room; the shutters were closed, a guard posted, and all cominunication with the outer world cut off, even the wives of the prisoners being denied permission to see them. When the party at Beauharnois had disposed of Ellice and the others by sending them to Chateaugay, they began pre parations for their next eriterprise, which was the capture of the steamer Henry Brougham, which plied between Lachine and the Cascades!, forming a link in the communication with Upper Canada. She was to leave the Cascades before day- 522 THE PRISONERS AT THE PRESBYTERY. light, and Avould touch at Beauharnois on her way down about 5 o'clock. The plan proposed by Charles Rapin (then a bailiff and afterwards a well-known hotel-keeper) Avas that a few men should be on the wharf as usual to catch the lines, and that, when securely moored, a rush should be made by the party in concealment behind the buildings. EA'ery thing turned out as anticipated. The steamer came unsuspectingly up to the Avharf, was. moored, and captured in a twinkling by a number of Canadians rushing on board. One of their number, Rochon, a carriage-maker, unscrewed the starting- bar of the engine and took it away, so that the vessel could not possibly escape, but, to make doubly sure, a hole was bored in the hold and she w7as scuttled at the wharf. The passengers, 17 in number, and who were all from Upper Canada, were made prisoners, and taken up to Prevost's tavern. Ultimately they were, removed to the Presbytery, where Mrs Ellice and the ladies who had accompanied her from England were also placed. Altogether there were some 40 prisoners in the house, and, except overcrowding, they had nothing to complain of, the priest, the Rev M. Quintal, being exceedingly kind. A strong guard was kept round the doors, and they were not allowed to go out. The other Old Country people, who w7ere not confined here, were yet, in a measure, prisoners, as the sentries posted on the different roads would not let them pass. Very few remained to be thus treated, for, after the surrender of the mansion-house, the majority of those who apprehended molestation, took canoes before daylight and escaped to Lachine. The w7eek that followed was an exciting one to the rebels who, to the number of about 500, held possession of the village. There was a succession of rumors causing marches and counter* marches to Chateaugay and Baker's. Among the leaders there was only one stranger, Chevalier Delorimier, a Mon treal notary, who maintained a disguise by dressing in grey and wearing green goggles. On the forenoon of the 10th there was great excitement caused by a small steamer seen approaching from Lachine. It ran close in shore and then headed for the Cascades. It was laden with arms for the THE REBELS AT THE BASIN BREAK UP. 523 Glengarry militia and its menacing Beauharnois Avas a piece of bravado. The rebels felt that they were more likely to be assailed from the land-side than from the lake, and in a field westward of the A'illage, above Buisson point, they converted a stone-fence into a barricade and flanked it Avith wooden cannon. This was the only direction in which defence was needed, for to the south the village was covered by the camp at Baker's and to the east by that at Chateaugay. Sir John Colborne 's plan was to assail the rebels both from the east and the west. Colonel Carmichael was stationed at Cornwall Avith a detachment of regulars and he was instructed to organize a force to attack Beauharnois from above, while Captain Campbell was ordered to cross with the Lachine brigade to Caughnawaga, and with the Indians march pn Chateaugay and, breaking up the camp there, pass on to Beauharnois. Campbell used the utmost secrecy in his moA'e- ments, crossing the river after dark, and advancing swiftly on Chateaugay, but it was to no purpose, for the rebel camp had broken up that morning. After a week spent in drill, the decision had been come to that they would unite w7ith the rebel army at Napierville, where they believed there was a huge army, including a large number of Americaps. On the morning of the 10th they started, taking with them Ellice and the other prisoners, 11 altogether, in carts, and bound with ropes. The week spent by the prisoners had been a miserable one. They had not lacked for food, the priest and the nuns having daily sent them baskets, but close confinement in a dark room had told upon them. When Ellice one day opened a shutter, the guard levelled his musket at him. After that, as a favor, candles wrere alloAved them. When the column readied Lapigeonniere the news of the rout of the rebel army met them. The prisoners were taken into a house and the leaders hastily consulted what they should do. They agreed to make for the United States. And what about the prisoners ? One hinted at shoot ing them, when another remarked that they would be hunted down and shot next. The prisoners were bundled into the carts again and the journey resumed. They were greatly 524 CARMICHAEL ADVANCES ON BEAUHARNOIS. alarmed and, when a halt was made in a lonely part of the road, and they overheard the words, "Won't this place do?" they looked blankly in each other's white faces, believing their last hour had come. At that moment the trampling of horses was heard, and a body of Hussars came in sight. In7 stantly the French vanished in the woods, where the cavalry could not follow. Overjoyed at their rescue, Brown took charge and succeeded in hiring conveyances to take them to Laprairie, and they reached Montreal in sore plight. Ellice Avas so thoroughly disgusted with Canada, that he started at once for New York and England, determined to induce his father to sell every acre he owned in the Province. Colonel Carmichael had no trouble in getting all the men required for his expedition. On the report of the rebellion reaching Glengarry, the county rose en masse, the loyal High landers burning with but one desire, to get an opportunity to crush it. They came to his headquarters in hundreds, be seeching him to give them the privilege of striking a blow for their Queen and British connection. As fast as he got, them enrolled and supplied with arms, he sent them by steamer to Coteau, where he meant to start from. By the 9th his ar rangements were completed and at daylight next morning the Neptune w7ith two barges in tow crossed Avith the first detachment. There was then no wharf on the Beauharnois side, and the wind Avas so high that great difficulty Avas ex perienced in landing the men at Knight's point, and still riiore in landing the horses. With all the expedition possible it was noon before the last of the force was brought over, and the march for Beauharnois begun. The frost had trans formed the mud into stone, making Avalking unpleasant and cutting the boots of the men. The troopers went ahead reconnoitring and seizing carts and horses for the use of the army. At 6 o'cloek they were within 2 miles of Beau harnois, when a halt for half an hour's much-needed refresh ment was called. Ensign Cox, who, at great risk,' had gone forward to note the enemy's position, returned wdth the report that neither the barricade nor the stone gristmill AA7ere occupied, as had been feared, but that the rebels were con- BEAUHARNOIS TAKEN. 525 centrated around the priest's house on the top of the hill and that the bridge was intact. Carmichael's plan was to cross the St Louis river and then let the cavalry ascend the hill to the east, deploy and surround the rebels on the south, vyhile the infantry would assault them in front. Silently, in the dim moonlight, the force resumed their march, and crossed the St Louis bridge at 8 o'clock, wheeled, occupied the mill and other buildings, and were facing up the hill, when the whole plan miscarried through the ardency of a bugler, who, rejoiced at the capture of the dreaded stone gristmill, sounded a joyful call. The rebels, who had got word late in the day of the crossing of the expedition at Hungry bay, had nut supposed it was so near, did not believe it would approach Beauharnois until daylight, now learned of its arrival by the. untimely bugle-call. They quickly gathered at the head of the hill, and when, in a short time, they heard the tramp of the advancing column, fired a hurried volley and fled. By their scattering fire 3 of the loyalists were wounded ; one of them, Private Turner of the 71st Highlanders, was shot through the head, and lay in an insensible state until morn ing, when he died. He Avas a Scotchman and well-liked by his comrades. The return fire did no execution. A scene of bustle and excitement followed. The prisoners in the priest's house, who had taken refuge in the cellar at the sound of the musketry, were rescued and French Canadians, suspected of being rebels, were arrested on every hand. Soon the village was lit by the glare of burning buildings. The loyal inhabi tants, known to be indignant at the rebels getting off so easily the previous year, were accused of starting those fires, and if so, they punished themselves for their wantonness, for the fires spread, and much property belonging to loyal people was destroyed. Next morning 4 of the Lachine troop rode- in with a message from Campbell telling of his unopposed occupation of Chateaugay. There, too, the torch AA7rought mischief, many houses and barns being destroyed and much property taken by the Indians. The Glengarry men had a special eye for the Canadian ponies, and Sir Francis Bond Head declared they went to Beauharnois infantry and left it 526 THE RISING AT STE. MARTINE AND cavalry. When the Lord Brougham Avas refitted, she started for Lachine Avith 82 prisoners, a rebel flag, and a wooden cannon, which was about 5 feet long, made of layers of plank, bound together with numerous iron-hoops. Comparatively feAV of the Beauharnois rebels were caught. The country being then nearly all bush, they had ample cover, and they fled towards the United States, especially to Fort Covington. The Old Countrymen of St Anicet had organized a guard to watch the Valleyfield road, and it was stationed at the end of the bridge that spans the small creek on lot 11. On the evening of the 11th, the three who were oa duty saAV, suddenly emerging from the Avood, a band of 29 men, marching in . military order, and all saAre two with muskets. They were a body of Beauharnois rebels making for the Fort. Despite their superiority in numbers, on seeing the 3 men on guard at the bridge, they broke rank and fled into the bush. As they were disappearing, the last man turned to take a look, when Barney McGuire fired and the bullet broke the bridge of the rebel's nose — Charles Rapin, who afterwards kept a tavern in Beauharnois and became crier of Her Majesty's court, of Avhich another, concerned in the outbreak at Beauharnois, Louis Hainault, was made sheriff The fleeing men were pursued by the settlers, who quickly turned out, but tnere was no tracking them in the marsh. It was afterwards learned part returned to their homes and part safely reached the Fort. The following day one of their number, Jacques Goyette, was found in the house of the fisherman Legare, Avhich stood on the shore of Hungry bay. He had Norval's sword and having been a leader, Avas sentenced to transportation to Botany Bay. Having- traced the course of the rebellion along; the -St LaAvrence, I would noAV narrate the events that happened in the Chateaugay valley during the week. The sun had not long set on Saturday, 3rd November, Avhen the habitants, intent on rebellion, began to gather at Miller's tavern on the outskirts of Ste Martine and in that village. The village then, as noAV, was purely French Canadian, so that the only ON THE BEAN RIVER. 527 Old Countrymen were the few who happened to be in its taverns on their way to or from Montreal. Among them Avas Archibald Henderson, the Huntingdon mill-owner, who,, at the first alarm, went to the barn and hid among the hay.. The rebels, after searching the house, came to the barn, ex claiming, "They must be hid here," and began to prod among the forage with their pikes, the point of one Avounding Mi- Henderson in the thigh and discovering him to his searchers,' who, in an excited manner, dragged him to the tavern, Avhen the wound was dressed by Dr Brienne. The other English- speaking guests taken prisoners were in no way molested beyond being deprived of their liberty. Having thus estab lished their supremacy at Ste Martine a detachment was sent to the Bean river to assist in seizing the Old Countrymen of that section and another and much longer force, led by Dr Brienne, Louis Dumouchel, who kept a tavern at Ste Martine,, his brother Joseph, and Francois X. Touchette, a blacksmith; started across the country for Beauharnois to help their brethren there, and which they did in the manner already narrated, returning to the Chateaugay next morning. The Bean river contingent was late in leaving and operations there were not begun until daylight. I leave David, son of Donald Cameron, (p. 234) to tell what they did : ; We had not the faintest suspicion that the French Cana-' dians were contemplating a rising and neither had any of our neighbors. They worked for us and we went in and out among them as usual. We went to bed on the evening of Saturday, 3rd November, without dread and with a full feel ing of security. In the morning we were awakened by the noise of a number of men rushing into our shanty. The door Avas only latched, and they came in without difficulty. We AA'ere all in bed. Day was just breaking, it being about a quarter past six, and a dull morning, rain falling in a Scotch mist The intruders were all armed in one way or other. Some had foWling-pieces, others pitchforks, and a number reaping-hooks (sickles) set at the end of poles, in the Avay they were then used for cutting peas. I knew them all, for they w7ere our neighbors. I comprehended at once their ob ject, and realized they had risen in a second rebellion. I calculated in a flash how many I could handle, and thought I might dispose Of five, and springing up I Avent at them. 528 TREATMENT OF PRISONERS. One of them grasped me by my night-shirt and lifting ine threw me out of the door, where I lay naked, the shirt having been torn. I now saw there were fully 60 men, and that it was folly to resist I could see my father struggling with a number of them, pushing and wrestling, and shouted to him. to desist, that the French were in force, and resistance was of qo use. He kept up fighting them, however, until over powered, when he was thrown out violently beside me. I told him it would be wise to submit, and finally he agreed to go with the rebels if they would give him his clothes. A rebel asked for them and while my mother was carrying them out, another (Chaloup) struck at her w7ith his weapon, a sickle set on a pole, Avhich missed her breast and cut a gash on her right arm,; the mark of which she carried to her grave. The rebels were under command of Joseph Patenaude, a neighbor of ours. I asked those who were guarding me, what object they had in rising. "Oh," answered one of them, "we are going to get tithes and (seigniory) rent put aw7ay, which will be a good thing for you too." I then asked what they were going to do with us. " We are going to take, you to Ste Mar tine to see King Papineau." They seized the two muskets we had as volunteers, and the place where they were AAas pointed out by two Canadians who had been working for us the day before. Having hastily put on our clothes, we were hurried away. While crossing the gully near our house, my father made another attempt to wrenph himself, away from tus guards, but was again overpowered and thrown down. A habitant, a neighbor, untied the sash from his waist and proceeded to bind my father's arms with it. While so doing, niy father gave a backAvard kick that sent him. sprawling. Tkere was again a great outcry, and my father Avas roughly used All beirig got in order again, we Avere forced fonvard, proceeding to Hugh Henderson's house, who was surprised in bed as we Were, and he and two Irishmen from Norton Creek, who had been working for him and unable to go home the night before from its being so dark and the roads bad, were made prisoners. The houses of Peter Henderson, Jas. Ritchie, and John Lowrey were successiA'ely A7isited, and in all 10 prisoners were made. The house of James Thomson had been visited before ours, and he was in their hands Avhen I Avent out. In fording the Bean river, Michel Patenaude, who had a great respect for my father, insisted on his getting upon his back, which he did and Avas carried over dry-shod. We had gone about 2 miles Avhen my father, Avho felt at being taken into Ste Martine with bandaged arms, got them loosened on LOYALIST VS. REBEL. 529 , promising he would not try to escape. We were marched up to Joseph Demers' tavern and given some bread and cheese. The tavern stood opposite the church, and the priest, Father Power, was walking up and down in front of the presbytery. ; The two Irishmen from Norton creek, who were Catholics, wanted to go over to speak to him, but were refused. After waiting some time, word came that we were to be taken to Dumouchel's, and the party was got ready. Another prisoner had been added to our number, Dominick McGowan, the Ste • Martine storekeeper. On coming opposite Dumouchel's, we were crossed in a scow. On entering his tavern, Ave found Joseph Dumouchel busy in serving out ammunition and weapons to the men who crowded the bar-room. My father at once complained to him of his treatment, when Dumouchel, who was a customer and a good acquaintance of father's, pro fessed much regret that violence had been used. "Why," he said, "I took Brown and Ellice prisoners last night, and did not hurt a hair of their heads." , On his saying he wondered ! neighbors like us should be against the French Canadians, > my father replied that we were not against the French Cana- ¦ dians, but were resolved to maintain the Queen's authority : and British connection, which, if they would only think it, was best for both them and us. Dumouchel said if we would take the oath of allegiance to King Papineau he would let us i . return to our homes, and produced a Bible, which I saw was an English one, and bore Perrigo's name. The two from ; Norton Creek and McGowan were disposed to comply, but ' none of the others would, my father telling Dumouchel he ' would take no pledge but perform his duty to his Queen so ' far as circumstances would permit him. After a good deal of < talk, we were unconditionally released, were treated, at the ' bar by Dumouchel, and got home in the middle of the after noon, and much relieved those we left behind us were on seeing us come. While at Dumouchel's we saw the Canadians assembling at Baker's, and towards the camp there a constant ' stream was flocking. It was part of the rebel plan to have treated the settlers on the English river and on the Chateaugay above Baker's in like manner to those of Bean river, but it was not carried out, probably because the risk of going into thickly populated settlements, where many were members of volunteer com panies, was too great for the courage of those to whom the task had been allotted. On Sunday morning, the first sign to the Scotch farmers west of Baker's of the rising of the. 35 530 MCEACHERN CARRIES THE NEWS WESTWARD; preceding night, was finding that their French Canadian servants had deserted and that not a man was to be seen in the houses of the habitants near them. It was speedily as certained that a camp had been organized at Baker's and the French everywhere were in arms. The tidings flew west ward like Avildfire, and the expectation in eA7ery household Avas that the rebels would speedily appear. As to a common centre, the settlers crowded to Sandy Williamson's, to get the news and decide on what was to be done. The general opinion was in favor of each- one going back to his own home and defending it to the last extremity. In the midst of their consultation the Rev Dr Muir arrived and perceiving the danger of such a course and that their only hope lay in united resistance, he pleaded earnestly with them to keep together and not to allow themselves to be captured in detail as they would did they adhere to their first determination Of the soundness of the advice thus tendered they were ultimately persuaded, and it was resolved that each man should go home and get his gun and then assemble at the church at Brodie's, which had just been finished, all save the pulpit and seats. This was done and by noon there was a band of resolute men inside its Avails, who would have disputed their advance had the Canadians left their camp, which they did not, being busily engaged in organizing the reinforcements that wrere hourly arriving. Wherever the alarming intelligence reached an Old Coun tryman, he shouldered the musket he had received as a volunteer at the rebellion of the year before, resolved to die sooner than let Canada pass from British sway. The blockhouse was regarded as the place to make a stand by the men of Jamestown and Ormstown, and Captain John Tate had soon a large body of loyal men mustered within its walls. At Huntingdon the people were gathering for Avorship, and some had gone into St Andrew's to take their seats, when Archibald McEachern (afterwards Colonel Mc Eachern, C.M.G.) galloped past, coated Avith mud, and went into Milne's tavern, where Colonel Campbell, who had charge of the volunteer service, happened to be staying, and told HOW RECEIVED. 531 him of what was happening at Baker's. The colonel at once sent out messengers to warn the volunteers to assemble. The congregation by this time had gathered in St Andrew's and the Rev Mr Walker had begun the service, when Mc Eachern came in and walking up to the pulpit whispered to the minister that the French had again risen in rebellion. "Is that so ?" queried he in astonishment. "Yes," answered the messenger. Instantly Mr Walker slapped the open Bible before him together, with the Avords, "Then it is time we were away from here." Leaning over the pulpit he told his astounded hearers that the French had risen in rebellion and exhorted them to fly to arms, and march instantly to put. them down. The congregation crowded out and, before many minutes, a number had their muskets, Mr Walker himself being prominent, as he stalked back and forth; his tall form, though bent, towering above the throng, with a gun over his shoulder. All were not of his mind, however, and the maiden sister of an industrious settler was heard exclaiming to him, "Come awa hame, Jock; gin the minister wants to fecht let him dae't himsel." The reception of the alarming news had a different effect on another, though smaller congregation, that had met that morning. The Rev. Ashbel Parmelee, the Congregational minister of Malone, had come to conduct service for those who had recently formed themselves into a congregation in connection with the American Presbyterian church. They had met in the schoolhouse at the northwest end of the village, and were engaged in prayer, when one of the Danskins came to the door, and shouted that the French were on the way and would soon arrive to kill them all. Mr Parmelee, w7ith much dignity and composure, said quietly that the men should leave to meet the enemy, but the women and children rema%, for, if death was coming, they could not meet it better than while engaged in the worship of God. This was done, those able to bear arms left, and to those who remained, Mr Parmelee preached a striking sermon from that passage of Ezekiel where, under the figure of a river, the Deliverer from sin is revealed. Long before he was done, Colonel Campbell, accompanied by his man-servant Mulhol- 532 THE VOLUNTEERS MARCH. !*and and McEachern, were on the way to the scene of alarm, and reached Bryson's in a few hours. What he there learned caused him to send back McEachern with a despatch to Col. Davidson, ordering him to march with his command at day light to Reeves's. The facts of the rising had, as usual in times of excite ment, been grossly exaggerated. For instance, the report was spread far and wide that day, that the' Canadians were marching victoriously towards Huntingdon, burning every thing before them, and had reached the Portage (Dewittville). The alarming news by no means disconcerted the Old Coun trymen, who all day came flocking into the village to join the companies. The chief drawback was the want of arm3, for there were not muskets enough, and many of them were in wretched condition. Sandy Lumsden, blacksmith, of Athel stan, was set to work in the church repairing them, and not a few were brought to him with the flints tied to the hammer, while Willie Stark was kept busy shoeing horses for scouts and messengers. Such a Sunday had never been known in Huntingdon, the street being crowded with an excited throng, and St Andrew's made the rendezvous of armed men. In the confusion a musket was discharged and the bullet went through the roof of the sacred edifice. At night its floor was covered by sleeping men. Early on Monday morning they fell into rank, when it was found there were 150 men suffi ciently equipped to go forward, and they began their march ; watched until out of sight by women with moistened eyes and sad misgivings as to what might happen them ere they returned. The present aspect of the country gives little idea of what it was on that eventful warning, for the road from Huntingdon to Dewittville passed through>ia|ttiost solid bush, the clearances being small and the houses lpg-shanties. From Dewittville onwards the clearances were larger, yet they were only notches in the forest, which extended without a break ou the north. The road could hardly have been worse; so bad, indeed, that the men preferred the fields, along which they tramped, jumping ditches and fences. As each »an had been ordered to take a day's food in his pocket, the THE REBEL CAMP. 533 halt at the yellow house was brief, yet with all expedition it was late- in the afternoon when the blockhouse was reach ed, and to which they were ferried in a scow, and there the wearied men found food and rest within its walls and those of the neighboring shanties. To their eager enquiries, they were told the French were encamped at Baker's, and their numbers were grossly overestimated. Except along the St Louis and the 4th concession they had not molested the Old Countrymen. There a body of 200 had visited every house and seized what arms they had. After a miserable night, for the blockhouse was overcrowded and its atmosphere dense with smoke, the chimneys being out of order, the men fell in and renewed their march, Colonel Campbell leaving in charge of the blockhouse the company of Captain John Tate, raised mainly from the 2nd and 3rd concessions, with orders not to leave it under any circumstances.* The force in a couple of hours reached Reeves's tavern and found that there was no change in the position of the rebels. The ground they had selected possessed no military strength. The country is a great flat plain, with the Cha teaugay winding sluggishly through it. Along its banks and for some distance back from them were cleared fields, with a background of forest. The road from Huntingdon^ to the Basin followed the river bank, and at Baker's, where the rebels had formed their camp, a road that led to Beau harnois struck off. At the corners, formed by the joining of the two roads, stood George Washington Baker's house, a large 2-story wooden building, painted yellow. Baker was- of American descent (page 46) and strong for annexation, *This order gave rise to a strange misunderstanding. Three days, afterwards a trooper appeared on the opposite bank and shouted that Colonel Campbell ordered Capt. Tate to join him with all his men save 10 who were, to be left in charge of the blockhouse. The, captain was in a quandary, and asked Sergt Younie's advice, who, a shrewd old soldier, said the trooper had no written despatch and an order by word of mouth could not supersede the express one, personally given, not to leave the blockhouse. This seemed so sagacious, that the trooper's order was disregarded? 534 baker's. and in so far as the rebels were likely to bring that about he was favorable to them, but he was too astute a man to believe they could succeed. He told them only failure was in store for them, as they had neither plans, arms, nor a fit leader. In his brother-in-law, Dr Perrigo, (p. 137) Avho lived beside him, the rebels found more encouragement In 1837 he was deep in the rebel secrets, and set down as a colonel in their army. The clemency of the government, in with holding from prosecuting him, had had no effect beyond making him believe its mercy arose from timidity, and he unhesitatingly threw in his lot a second time with the rebels. Baker's conviction that failure awaited them did not prevent his house being chosen as headquarters, and the rebels from Ste Martine and the adjoining parishes made for it, on the morning of the eventful Sunday. Being a wealthy farmer, they found abundance of provisions in his cellar and barn. Hoping to save something, Baker affected to go in with them, and sending away his family to a neighbor's for safety, re mained. West of Baker's were three stone houses, where the Leclere brothers lived and beyond them was Reeves' tavern, but the habitants who swarmed around Baker's made no move to take possession of them. Their decision was to stay where they were, and await any attack that might come from Huntingdon. The timber of a stranded raft was hauled up the river-bank and with rails and^labs a barri cade was made, some 4 feet high, crossing the road and extending about 150 feet into the neighboring field. On the road a wooden cannon, made of staves strongly hooped, was planted, to rake any approaching force. On Monday evening they threw out a picket-line, which had its head quarters in Jean Leclere's house. On Tuesday, on the Huntingdon column's arrival, Campbell ordered 8 of them to occupy it. Creeping up behind a barn, they fired into the window that faced it, and reloading ran for the house and entered it. The men had fled to the camp, leaving a number of women and children stricken with fear. None had been hurt by the bullets, which had lodged in a cupboard and smashed the crockery it contained. The inmates Avere MAP OF THE SCENE OF OPERATIONS 536 CAMPBELL WILL NOT ATTACK. conveyed to other shelter, when the windows were planked and loopholed, and a guard stationed in it, each man being assigned his post in case of attack. A straw-thatched barn, between the house and the rebel camp, which would give shelter to an attacking party, was set fire to after dark, and its burning spread consternation among the rebels, who were seen flying towards Ste Martine. On Tuesday and Wednes day morning further reinforcements were received from Hun tingdon and more men came in from the English river and the neighboring country than there were arms for. Shelter wis found for them in the houses around Reeves, and there was no scarcity of provisions. The settlers' wives, for miles up the river, baked bread to send to them, hogs were slaugh tered, and old Mr Brodie brought them a number of cheese The volunteers, however, did not trust their commissariat entirely to such friendly hands. They lived, to use the phrase of one of them, at heck and manger, rumaging the deserted houses and barns of the French. In one house only the women were found, but when the volunteers were helping themselves to potatoes in the cellar, Jean Baptiste was unearthed himself, and, once assured of his safety, proved to be a hearty good fellow and a kind host. On Wednesday morning the men were eager in their desire to assault the rebel camp, the weakness of which was now apparent. Colonel Campbell refused, saying a majority of the volunteers were married men, and he would not be re sponsible for the butchery which might ensue. In this decision he was largely influenced by Dr Muir and several of his friends, who held, that the prudent course was to await the reinforcements that were on the way from Glen garry before assuming the offensive. A strict disciplinarian, he issued orders to the captains to complete the organiza tion of their companies and keep up constant drill. Baker, anxious to get out of his predicament, sent a, message by George Cross, who had passed the lines unseen, asking CoL Campbell to give him- a meeting. That evening, walking quietly down by the river's edge, he met Baker, and before coming up to him, called out, "That you, Baker, eh? you'll NORTON CREEK MILL. 537 be hanged for a rebel !" The salutation so alarmed Baker, who suspected that he was going to be seized, that he turned and fled, and next morning threw in his lot with the rebels and shouldered a musket. His intention Avas to have ac quainted Campbell of the true position of the rebels and showed him how he could have won a bloodless victory. Reinforcements kept arriving almost hourly at Reeves's, being farmers from the upper country, chiefly from Hin chinbrook and Godmanchester, very few being from the village, where the expectation was that American sympa thizers would come doAvn from Chateaugay, N.Y., and so they remained, under control of Major McGibbon, to defend their property from such a danger. The Jamestown company (Capt. Strachan's) was stationed at the gristmill at Ormstown, which had just been built and into which the machinery had not yet been put. The neighboring French Canadians were arrested as found and placed in its cellar, until, it be came full. Beyond being kept in custody until the danger was passed, they were not injured. The men of Williams town and Edwardstown, forming 4 companies, were stationed in the Norton creek gristmill, as a check to any advance the rebels of St Remi might make. An incident of their occupation is worth recording. One day the volunteers on the upper-story detected a lurking figure in the neighboring bush, and guessing he was a spy, who was examining their position, stole quickly out and caught him before he knew he had been perceived. His name was Lafrance, and he had been sent from Napierville to reconnoitre. Without more ado, his hands were tied and his eyes bandaged, and the guns were pointed to snoot him, when Mrs John McLennan, who had accompanied her husband to the mill and acted as cook to Finlayson's company, rushed out, and at her inter cession, he was let off. His narrow escape did not frighten him out of his treasonable courses, for he weut back and took part in the fight at Odelltown church. The settlers of English river formed a company under Captain James Craig. On hearing of the trouble on Sunday morning, they marched to the blockhouse, where they re- 538 DISCONTENT OF THE VOLUNTEERS. mained until ordered to reconnoitre St Louis, where it was reported the rebels were gathering. The men proceeded up the 3rd concession, meeting with no opposition, and after burning a house at the head of it, w7here they Avere told the rebels had lodged, came back, and slept in the church at Brodie's, leaving next morning for Reeves's. The appearance of the Huntingdon volunteers greatly dis concerted the insurgents in Baker's camp, many of whom seeing that matters were going to prove more serious than anticipated, took every opportunity to desert. A messenger was sent in hot haste to Beauharnois for reinforcements and he found the rebels having an easy time of it, lounging about the taverns and the mansion-house, the cellar of which con tained on ample supply of food and drink, and taking what else they wanted out of the store of Mr Ross, causing the clerk to keep an account, as they said all would be. paid for Avhen the French republic wras established. The leaders con sulted and agreed they could spare the help asked for. On Wednesday, after dinner, all who had guns were marshalled in front of Prevost's, and over a hundred A'olunteered to go. They were commanded by Prieur, a St Timothy storekeeper, and Delorimier, the Montreal notary, and their arrival did much to restore the confidence of those at Baker's. The discontent in the loyal camp at their continued in action was growing to the verge of mutiny, the men threat ening they would make an assault without orders. There were urgent reasons for bringing matters to a crisis, for the suspense throughout the English settlements was painful, and the majority of the volunteers were so situated that they could not remain much longer from home. In many settle ments there was not a man, all having gone to the front, and women not only tended the live-stock but hauled firewood and threshed. Colonel Campbell was not to be moved from his policy of remaining on the defensive. He had seen some service Avhile a subaltern, and was wounded in the leg at Waterloo, but his experience had made him a martinet with out giving him the dash and courage of the soldier. When his officers, as a few dared to do, remonstrated with him, he THE RECONNOISSANCE. 539 represented the danger of assaulting the rebels with an un disciplined force, and implied his distrust in the men he com manded. He would make no move until the force he had been advised of arrived from Glengarry. On Thursday a collision was precipitated by accident. On the forenoon of that day, Captain Somerville walked from Reeves' tow7ards the rebel camp, and seeing no signs of life about it ap proached very near. The log-house, in which the rebel picket lodged, a few acres west of their camp, was appar ently tenantless. Mr Somerville came to the conclusion that the camp had been deserted during the night, and returning to Reeves' reported what he had seen to Campbell, who de cided he would make a reconnoissance. After dinner, Capt Reid's company was ordered out and, accompanied by a few mounted scouts and several officers of other companies, he proceeded to do so. The men, 25 in number, were arranged in open order, 6 paces apart, and advanced steadily, throwing down the fences as they went, which was a stupid act, as, in case of opposition, it deprived them of all cover. No enemy appeared until the small creek was neared, when, suddenly, from Baker's house and barns the rebels came streaming out like bees from a hive, and ranged themselves along the road and behind the stockade, with Prieur, mounted on one of the black team stolen from the seigniory stables, endeavoring to get them in order. Those who had guns Avere posted in front and those who had only pikes stood behind. There were about 200, and all wore blue tuques. The ad vancing volunteers saw this, but Colonel Campbell, who had halted in the centre of a field and was trying to fix a tele scope upon the rebel position, was unconscious of the danger. The space narrowed until the volunteers were within 300 yards of the stockade, when the. French fired a volley. Startled by the sound, Campbell shouted to the volunteers to halt, which they did, remarking they had come to recon noitre and not to fight, when, on the rebels continuing to fire, he gave the order to retreat, which the men heard with dis gust, for they expected the next order to be to charge the enemy's position. Their captain, James Reid, lost no time 540 KING SHOT. in obeying the order to retire, and ran off, the new recruits of his company folloAving his example. The body of the men fell back slowly and irregularly, for they had their over coats on and all their equipment, and the field they had to traverse was a plowed one. Colonel Campbell commanded them not to return the rebel fire, which was superfluous, for few of the volunteers could have got their muskets to go off Rain had begun to fall in big drops which dampened what priming had remained dry after scrambling over the fields and ditches. Some of the men, when they came to examine their muskets afterwards, actually poured the water out Of the barrels. The French kept up a sputtering fire, so ill- directed that it did no harm, and, despite the colonel's com mand, a few of the volunteers, especially those who had rifles, fired back, possibly 20 shots altogether. When nearly out of range, and approaching where a line fence, had been pulled down, William King, of the 1st concession of Elgin, was hit. His exclamation "I'm shot!" startled those near him and his comrades hastened their pace. In the rush, the author of this shameful scene, Colonel Campbell, slipped and fell, and being slightly lame from his wound, was unable to rise. As the men hurried past him, he bawled out, "You rascals, are you going to leave your commander." Robert Morrison, who was mounted, tried to lift him on to his horse but could not, when James Coulter and Abram Foster of the Gore caught hold of him and assisted him off the field. Be fore leaving, he told Morrison to order the volunteers to keep the rebels in check, for they showed an inclination to move northwards to flank his force. A few shots caused them to again seek the shelter of the barricade. Poor King, though conscious of his wound, jumped a broad ditch and made for John Leclere's house, where John Anderson Avas waiting, and asked for a. drink. Anderson went out and got a dipperful of water, when, as King raised it to his lips, he fell in a faint. While some of his comrades, who had now assembled, went for a horse to take him to Reeves', one of them, a power ful fellow, caught him up in his arms and carried him across the 3 lots. By this time all the rest of the force were under Campbell's incapacity. 541 arms and hastening to the point of danger, the Rev Mr Walker at the head of Captain Somerville's company, wav ing a sergeant's sword and exclaiming that their captain might be killed but he would lead them. At sight of their comrades, Capt. Reid's men halted," and for a few seconds the general expectation was the order to advance and carry the French position. Colonel Campbell would not give it, however, and told the captains to march their companies back to their quarters. The mortification was great and the feeling was intensified by the order that came later to pre pare to withstand an assault by barricading the windows of the houses occupied by the companies and it was remembered how reluctantly Sergeants Ford and Corbett nailed them up. Hogs were slaughtered, provisions laid in to stand a blockade, and, instead of outposts, that night two men stood guard at each window. Campbell's apprehensions of a night attack, which caused such orders, were entirely groundless, for the enemy had not the remotest intention of. assuming the offen sive; in fact were so sick of the whole affair that the majority were watching for a chance to desert and were only kept in camp by the threats of their leaders and the cajolements of De lorimier, who assured them that, although the Americans had not yet appeared, they were certain to come. Unconscious of the state of matters in the opposing camp, the volunteers spent an anxious and sleepless night, deepened by the wea ther, for it rained heavily, and by the knowledge that poor King was dying. He was carried to an upper room in Reeves's and attended by Dr Shirriff, who could do nothing for him, as the ball had passed from the back through the lungs and lodged in the breast With the childishness of small souls placed in positions of authority, Campbell had all along exercised much mystery about paltry matters, and King's sickness was no exception. His condition was kept a secret and no information communicated to the men, and, when, after prolonged agony, he died, an hour before mid night, the body was taken to a room in the attic, put in a hastily-made coffin, lowered out of a window at daylight, and sent home. Such attempts at concealment only em- 542 ARRIVAL OF THE GLENGARRYMEN. bittered the state of feeling among the rank-and-file. As the body was on its way to Elgin, those in charge of it met the Cornwall militia, and a band of 70 St Regis Indians hurrying to reinforce Colonel Campbell. The meeting took place east of Ormstown, and at sight of the coffin the Indians raised the war-Avhoop, which, echoing over' the forest, was heard with dismay by families many miles off. How the Glengarries and their dusky allies had come to be there can be told in few words. Colonel Turner, Avho was in command at Cornwall, had received orders to send reinforce ments to Colonel Campbell, and he detached from his com mand a battalion of the 1st Stormont regiment of militia, 250 men, under Colonel iEneas MacDonnell, and he also had a fighting chaplain, in the Rev John McKenzie. The force went on board the steamer Neptune at Cornwall, which landed them at Dundee, where they were met by the St Regis Indians under their agent, Captain Solomon Chesley. This was the forenoon of the 6th. They at once formed into line and took the road for Huntirigdon, which they reached, after a fatiguing tramp, late that night, which was rainy. They resumed their march the following day but owing to the awful state of the roads were overtaken by darkness when they reached Ormstown. They were heartily welcomed by McEachern, who did all he could for his brother Highlanders, the rank-and-file finding quarters in the church and barns, while the gristmill was given to the Indians, who managed to get some whisky and kept up a constant yelling. Early next morning they resumed their march, hastened by mes sages from Campbell, and met the coffin of King as narrated. When the sound of the bagpipes reached the camp, the volun teers were ordered to line the road to greet them. On the Highlanders came, great stalwart men, with -swinging- stride, and swept by, amid cheers, their pipers proudly playing "The Campbells are Coming," and never halted until they reached the front and established their headquarters at Leclere's. Shaking hands, Colonel Campbell asked when his men would be ready for the assault. "As soon as they get their over coats off," replied the dauntless Macdonnell, but Campbell COLLAPSE OF THE REBELLION. 543 l was not prepared to avail himself of such promptitude, wanted to Avait until Col. Carmichael reported from Beau harnois, and the afternoon slipped by in like inaction to the three that preceded it. That day a messenger from Napier ville arrived in the rebel camp, with a letter asking for reinforcements. This was so contrary to the expectation of the habitants, who had been buoyed up by promises that the great combined army of Americans and patriots at that place was coming to help them, that desertions increased, and the leaders, not caring to await the assault they kneAv was in evitable after the arriA-al of the Glengarry men, decided pn abandoning the camp. Before daylight they began their retreat, were crossed at Ste Martine in two scows, and took the r,iad for Napierville. Before they had gone far, news of the defeat at Odelltown church met them, and then it was every man for himself. Their abandonment of their camp was discovered early on Saturday by Pet'er Gibson who, rambling about in his simplicity, crossed the barricade and found nobody. After breakfast the advance began, the In dians and Glengarry men leading, Avho tossed the barricade aside and passed on to Ste Martine, wading the river. As the others followed, Baker's and Perrigo's houses were emptied of what provisions they contained and then fired. It was noted as proof of the quantity of hay and grain they con tained, that fire smouldered in the ruins of Baker's barns for a fortnight. On ev7ery hand prisoners were made, the rebels submitting so meekly, that a trooper might be seen driving a score before him. Entering Ste Martine the Indians instantly overspread the place, and robbed every house they found tenantless. When Colonel Campbell entered the village he accepted Father Power's invitation to breakfast, who inter ceded on behalf of his neighbor, Joseph Brazeau, but the colonel was firm. Brazeau had been one of the leaders and they must be punished. "As he left, the match was applied to Brazeau's store. The habitants, on giving up what arms they had, Avere dismissed to their homes. Taking the Bean river road, the column marched to St Remi and their march was a trail of spoliation. The Huntingdon men refrained 344 A SAD MISTAKE. but the Glengarries and the Indians showed not the slightest compunction in plundering the houses they passed, and when they left for home, there wore few who had not a bundle of household effects tied to their shoulders or conveyed in a cart. One Indian was seen to coolly empty out the feathers from a mattress and take away the tick. The worst thieves of all, however, were unprincipled men who roamed in the rear of the troops and stole the horses of the habitants. Before the column came in sight of St Remi, word was received that the place was already in the hands of part of Colborne's army and their services were unneeded. The day they arrived a most painful incident took place. Thos. Gebbie, lieutenant in Finlayson's company, was ordered to go with a detachment and arrest certain rebels in St Remi. The duty, a most distressing one, for the majority were found in the midst of their families, he performed, leaving for Norton creek mill with 15. Among them was Grenier, a storekeeper, who had been a captain in the rebel ranks. Asking as a favor that he be permitted to ride, he took his horse. A few minutes after Lieutenant Gebbie had left, a troop of Hussars galloped into the village, and their sergeant Avaited on the priest to get information. The father, who spoke English imperfectly, said a body of rebels had just left, and pointed the direction they had gone. Taking it for granted he spoke of a body of fleeing rebels, the Hussars put spurs to their horses, and galloped after them. Coming in sight of a party of men, dressed like farmers, with muskets over their shoul ders, plodding through the mud, the Hussars shouted to them to halt and in a moment were upon them, each one seizing a man. Mr Gebbie, who had a pistol levelled at him by one horseman and a sword held over his head by another, was ¦ about to explain they were laboring under a mistake, that they were not rebels but a party of loyal volunteers in charge of rebel prisoners, when Grenier, either frightened by Avhat was going on or seeing a chance for escape, slipped off his horse and ran for the fence, in going over which a bullet, fired by a Hussar, struck him, and he died an hour afterwards. The rebellion being over the volunteers were discharged, HEMINGFORD. 545 and, they returned homewards. Those from Huntingdon got back after an absence of exactly ten days, during which time few had their clothes off, had undergone much privation, and borne most fatiguing marches over execrable roads in the Avorst of weather. To the w7idow and infant son of King they voted a day's pay, which, for a private, was 24 cents. The government gave her no compensation. I would now shift the scene to Hemingford and describe what took place there. While Colonel Scriver was on his way to Troy, he learned on the lake Champlain steamboat sufficient to convince him that a second rising was imminent, so, instead of prosecuting his visit, he returned home and made preparations for getting the militia companies in readi ness. On Sunday morning, 4th Nov., the intelligence was brought of the French having risen in St Remi and the parishes east of it, and throughout Hemingford there were lively apprehensions of an invasion by them. There was great spirit shown by the settlers,- who not only turned out themselves but brought their sons, if old enough to carry a musket The militia companies were soon filled,, and volun teer companies then formed. Alex. McFee raised one in the northern part of Havelock, John EdAvards another on Covey hill, and Thos. Woolrich a third on the 1st and 2nd ranges of Hemingford. There were not arms for all, so they took what they had, and the majority had only fowling-pieces. Guards were posted at the Flats, Perry's corners, and other roads leading from Chateaugay county and the States. The French leaders had assiduously striven to coax the Irish Catho lics to unite with them. Whatever dissatisfaction with the British government lingered in the minds of the Irish Catho lics who had become settlers, they were not going to be led by it into cutting the ground from beneath their feet. They took a commonsense view of the situation, perceived plainly that the motive of the rebellion was one of race, and that if they helped the rebels to drive the English-speaking Pro testants out of the province, the turn of the English-speaking Catholics Avould come next. They therefore rejected the ap- 36 546 THE MUSTER. preaches of the French,and joined their neighbors in the ranks. In Colonel Scriver 's opinion no attack was to be apprehended from the French parishes ; the source of danger was the United States, and the defeat of any body that might enter from there by way of Mooers or Rouse's Point was impera tive. With this in view7, he notified his captains to hold themselves in readiness to march. Captain McAllister with the Sherrington company arrived at Hemingford on Mon day, 5th November, and were billeted there until the move was made. On the forenoon of the 6th, a message was received from Colonel Odell, stating that he had positive information that the rebels were gathering at Rouse's Point, and asking Colonel Scriver to be prepared to come with all the men he could muster. He made instant preparations to da so. The day had been damp and loAvery, but towards even ing the sky cleared and a sharp frost set in, which formed a crust on the mud. The little hamlet of Hemingford was in a state of excitement. Every house Avas overcrowded with men anxiously talking over the prospect, whose number was each minute increased by the arrival of others, who came prepared to march. There was no talk of flinching among those hardy backwoodsmen, the overwhelming majority of , whom were from the North of Ireland. Their instructions had been to bring a day's provisions, pork and oatbread, and this with the muskets they shouldered constituted their equipment, for they had no uniform. In order that they might distinguish friend from foe in the dark, Col. Scriver had each man tie a strip of Avhite cotton cloth round his arm. Midnight came and went and still the expected order to march was not "given, Scriver being in doubt as to the point of attack. Captain Woolrich's company came in late from Clelland's corners, and cartridges Avere served out — 20 lound to each man, one cartridge having 5 buckshot besides the bullet. Two o'clock dreAV near, Avhen a mounted messenger emerged from the darkness with a letter. It was from Odell, and stated that the rebels were crossing from Rouse's Point and, fearing they would overwhelm him, asked for immediate assistance. Colonel Scriver wrote a reply, that he would be THE MARCH TO ODELLTOAVN. 547 with him by 10 o'clock at the latest, and the messenger left, while, another was sent to Capt. Shields of Sherrington to join with his company at Roxham corners. The order to fall in was giA-en, and in the starlight the companies mustered quickly on the road. Woolrich's company was placed in front, and following it were the companies of Donald McFee and McAllister. Colonel Scriver, who alone was mounted, briefly told the men they were going to Odelltown to meet the rebels there. He knew that many among them had un justly suspected him, but he would now show them what sort of man he Avas. He exhorted them to act bravely, and added, if any of them saw him act as did not become a man, to shoot him. Up to the moment of this announcement, the impression among the men was that they were to go to St Edward's. The Avord to march was given and the Avretched journey began. The road, soaked by the recent rains, and the mud cut up by the unusual travel of the past feAV days, would have been almost impassable but for the frost, which made firm footing where the puddles were not deep. No wagons were taken, and each man stumbled forward in the dark, weighted by his musket, the 20 rounds of ammuni tion, and his day's provisions. No apprehension being en tertained of a surprise, the column, with no further precau tion than having their guns loaded, pushed forward through the swampy flats, covered by a dense growth of tamarack and brush that marks the dividing- line between Hemingford and Lacolle, the strains of the bagpipes, played by Dryden, a Highlander, relieving the tedium. Soon the column emerged on the cleared lands of the Roxham settlement. Four miles and a half were traversed and the comers reached, when the order sounded through the night air to halt. Capt. Shields with his company had not come up, and the column would have to wait their arrival, one of the 3 mounted despatchmen in attendance being sent to hurry them up. While the men waited they munched the crusts they had brought and the neighboring farmer, Charles Stewart, brought out all the milk he had. The eastern sky was whitening with the coming- day, Avhen Shields' company came up, raising the little force 548 TWO PRISONERS MADE. to a total of 220 men, and, falling in at once, the hurried anarch Avas resumed. Leaving the rocks and knolls of Rox ham, Aiath its strips of forest, a fine opojn country was entered. On reaching the turn that leads to Beaver meadow, the road was left, and a short cut taken across the commons. Scriver, who from the start, had never ceased to ride up and down the column, encouraging the men, here remarked, "If the rebels will giATe us a chance on a field like this, we will show them what we can do." It avos now broad day, and in front Spread the beautiful flats of Beaver meadow, which were then in as high a state of cultivation as they are to-day. The turn Was taken to Harper's house, a roomy two-storied edifice, and here a brief halt Was made for breakfast Men were detailed to visit the nearer farm-houses to get Avhat food they could spare to eke out the provisions the men had in their pockets. Here the 3 despatchmen left their horses and took their place in the ranks. Scriver alone kept his mount, a powerful buff colored horse, which he rode with grace. Eight miles had now been got over, and the rising ground along which Odell- ' town-street runs was in sight. The men's spirits rose as the hour of encounter approached, and the anxiety was great to find where the enemy aAA'aited them. It Avas 8 o'clock when they fell in and as they took the turn up the slope to Eld- iedge's corners, which is marked by a lonely graveyard on the north side, two men were seen waiting. One of them, who wore a blue military cloak, advanced and taking it for .granted the approaching straggling column of men in the ordinary attire of farmers 'was a portion- of the rebel force from Napierville or St Remi coming to unite with the ex- |>edition that had gathered near Rouse's Point, and which he, with his companion, had been sent to meet, walked con fidently up to the front ranks and addressed them as French Canadians. He was quickly undeceived, for in a twinkling both were made prisoners. Following this incident, the dis tant boom of cannon was heard in front The pace was •quickened and the corner of the Odelltown road gained, when one of the finest landscapes on the continent burst upon the view of the wearied but excited men. The morning was a MAP OF THE COUNTRY. 549- a a H»0!-nioo ft 3 *i 3g 12l 9 U 0 1 w gloriousone — bright »>f ^,^"0 sunlight permeating • the frosty air. To the south-east were* ranged, sharp and clear, the ranges of the Green Moun tains; every outline of Mansfield and Camel's Hump traced against the cold sky. Midway, in the great plain that stretched be tween them and the peaked heights of Vermont, the sun light fell on the gray masonry of the bastions of Fort Montgomery, and between it and the clustering houses of Rouse's Point was seen the shimmer of lake Champlain. In front the level fields, outlined by their fences, of Od ell to wn and , bey ond, of Caldwell's Manor, were depicted as on a map. The Herii- ingford men Avere looking on*" the cradle df their township, where its pioneers had been reared, and many of whose fathers had 550 THE REBELS IN SIGHT. helped to clear this fertile plain. Not a few of them, reared in the bush, for the first time saw smooth fields, free from stumps and stones. Northward the great plain, lightened at uncertain intervals by the gleam of the waters of the Riche lieu, stretched until lost to view. From the name Odelltown the reader is apt to be misled into supposing that it desig nates a village or town. Among the refugees from the tyranny of the victorious Republicans in the war of the American revolution was Joshua Odell, who took up land a short distance across the frontier from the town of Champ lain, and on the direct road to Montreal. After the custom of the country his name was used to designate the settlement of which he was the first and leading member, and as his family Avas large and took up farms around him, the whole section, a strip of several miles, came to be known as Odell town. But there was no village, not even a corner-hamlet, simply a fine concession of farmers' homesteads. In front of a stone-building, erected by Squire Odell for a store, was drawn up in line the Odelltown force, consisting of a bat talion of hastily enrolled militia and March's company of Lacolle volunteers, Avho alone had uniforms, consisting of white blanket suits. Passing to the head of the line, the Hemingford men halted, and Scriver stepped into the house with Colonel Odell and his officers. While they were con sulting, the rank-and-file had an opportunity of viewing the position of the enemy. OdelltoAvn-street, as the road they stood on is named, folknvs the crest of the western side of the valley of the Richelieu. The height above the river is slight, but the slope downwards is so gentle, and the great plain it overlooks so perfectly flat, that every object for miles can be distinctly seen from it. To their right, and over a mile away as the crow would fly, at a point on the road parallel to them, where stood a log-house and barn, could be seen a black cluster of men, and from the glitter that momently flashed from it, it was apparent they Avere armed. More palpable proof was- given by the cannon, which stood between the house and the barn, firing an occasional shot in pure bravado, for they were beyond its range. The rebel force was com- THE REBEL CAMP. 551 posed of French Canadians Avho lived on the American side of the frontier, and who, the evening before, had crossed from Champlain and Rouse's Point to reinforce their brethren at Napierville. Selecting the road that leads to Montreal from Rouse's Point, they had crossed the line and taken up their quarters at a farmhouse about 200 yards in Canada. Here they awaited the arrival of the Americans who had promised to join them from Vermont, and who came straggling in all night, the most of them rowing up the river in boats. At daylight a barge and a scow moved sloAvly up, and landed some 40 American sympathizers, with several hundred stand of arms, a large quantity of ammunition, and a 6-pourider field gun. These were conveyed to the house. The total force was nearly 400, commanded by a French officer, tall and pock-marked; named Touvrey, assisted by Dr Cote, a respectable physician of Napierville, who had been led into the rebellion from entertaining republican A'iews, and Gagnon, a vulgar agitator. All three had left Napierville the previous day to lead the movement. The contingent of Americans called a farmer of Alburgh, Benjamin Mott, their captain. Their information being that Colonel Odell, whose force they could see distinctly on the Odelltown road and on which they tried shots from their cannon, was afraid to assume the- offensive, they took matters coolly, believing that, before the day was over, their force would be overpowering. Breakfast was got ready in the house and the table had been filled and refilled repeatedly, when a lad came galloping up the road on a steaming horse, with a message from a friend in Champlain to Dr Cote, that the enemy had received word of their move ment and that Scriver had left Hemingford to fight him. Dr Cote had hardly read the letter, when the Hemingford column could be seen defiling down the slope from the Odelltown road. The rebel officers acted With indecision. There was still time to go back to the United States or to take up a defensive position in the scrub of a small swamp that stood in rear of the house. They did neither, but remained to receive the onset where they were. All this takes some time to record, but the consultation 552 THE FIRST BATTLE OF ODELLTOWN. between Scriver and Odell only lasted a minute or two. Odell said, though superior in rank he had not had Scriver 's mili tary experience, and his desire was that he should assume command, to which Scriver, a man of few words, consented, and leaving the room went out to where the men were rest ing on their arms. His plans were quickly made. Captain March was ordered to lead, and endeavor to get between the rebels and the frontier-line, a maneuver which the screen afforded by some bush and a deep ditch favored Captain Weldon's company was told off to march east and, then strik ing south, prevent the enemy from retreating towards the Richelieu. Odell, Avith the remaining companies of his force, was to follow as a reserve, while he himself would attack the rebel position with his OAvn battalion. The orders were given in quick succession, "Try if gun is loaded and primed," "Fix bayonets," "Shoulder arms," "Right wheel: march!" The men marched swiftly down the side-line road from Odelltown street, turned southward at where a stone-school stood, and were soon opposite the enemy, a broad field intervening. The word was given, the 4 companies wheeled, faced the fence, and jumped into the field. At this moment the rebels fired their cannon loaded with grape. The gun had been pointed too low, and the shot tore the earth up in front of the charging-line, though one bullet hit a rail and carried it with the volunteer Avho was crossing it some distance. The order to fire was given, and a fair volley was deliA'ered at the rebels, who were kneeling behind the road-fence, and Avho returned the fire individually. The attacking party got ex cited, broke rank, and began running across the field, firing as they went Again the cannon belched flame and smoke, and again harmlessly. In correcting the first mistake, it had been trained too high, and the shouting loyalists heard the grape shriek above their heads. Every eye was fixed upon Colonel Scriver, who rode fearlessly in front, waving his sword as he encouraged his men, and that he escaped with his life was solely due to the nervousness and inexperience as marksmen of the rebels. Half the field had been crossed, the cannon had sent another harmless volley of grape into THE VICTORY. 553 the airland the rebels were now fairly within the range of the old Brown Bess muskets of the volunteers, when Col. Scriver shouted: "Cease firing: charge!" Instantly a cheer burst from the loyal lads, who dashed forward at the French as they crouched behind the log fence, and, as instantaneously, the rebels jumped up and fled, running at the top of their speed in a slanting direction towards Rouse's Point and find ing early cover in the scrub that then covered the plain. Dashing pn to the road, the volunteers found the fence that a few moments before Avas alive with rebels deserted, and not one of them in sight. It was like a transformation scene on the stage. The cannon was there, half -loaded for another shot, behind the fence lay in order a number of pikes, ready to use as bayonets to resist a charge, and in the house blazed a huge fire in the open chimney, and on the table pans of potatoes and meat, as the rebels had left them while break fasting. Ranged in the house was a great store of muskets, 500 in all, pistols, bowie-knives, and bayonets, brought in from the States to arm the habitants. In the barn were 30 horses, ready saddled, and in the stable-yard the corpses of two rebels lay stretched as they had fallen. Behind the house 6 more dead bodies Avere seen, and 3 were afterwards discovered. The wounded had crawled or been carried away. Only one prisoner was taken, Captain Mott, found hiding below the sill of the barn. Great was the indignation against Captain March and his blanket-men, for the Hemingford lads stoutly held that had they shown equal zeal to theirs, and been less heedful of the ditch, they could have cut off the rebels' re treat While still excited by the encounter, Capt. Weldon's men appeared in the east, and narrowly escaped being fired upon, being mistaken for a fresh rebel force. As many of the arms in the house as could be carried were taken out and then the building set on fire, while ropes being attached to the cannon it was dragged in triumph by the volunteers to Odell town-street But, alas, they had burdens more sad. Two of the Hemingford men had fallen. William Mclntyre, soon after crossing the fence, while halting for a moment beside a small oak tree to take aim, was hit in the groin. 554 THE MdNTYRES. He made no exclamation, but, turning ghastly pale, fell dead. His brother Robert, who was near him, said, "Oh, my brother is shot !" and running up to him found he was dead. He wasted no time in vain grief. The blood of an Irish loyalist coursed in his veins and he turned more eager than before to do his duty against the foe. He hurried forward, and while in the act of taking aim at a rebel behind the fence, was struck in two places, one bullet severing the femoral artery, and he sank to the ground with the words upon his lips, "I am a dead man." Twelve hours before, in leaving home he said to his young Avife in parting, "I go to fight for my Bible and my country, and I hope I will do my duty." Their bodies were reverently placed on doors and passing muskets underneath their comrades bore them away with heavy hearts and buried them in their clothes in shalloAA- graves until they could be removed to Hemingford. James Allen of Sherrington was carried in like manner. He was sorely wounded, and despite the medical skill of Dr Adams died that night. The other volunteers who were Avounded recovered. The escape of the rebels with such light punishment was attributed more to the volunteers having fixed bayonets than the shelter they enjoyed behind the rail fence. The fixing of the bayonet on the old musket was clumsy, and made correct shooting difficult It is also to be borne in mind, that few of the loyal forces were marks men; indeed, many fired a musket that day for the first time. The men straggled back to Odelltown-st as they pleased, no effort being made to reform the companies on the field. The impression was, that the engagement had killed the rebel movement in that neighborhood and that there would be no further need of their services. KnoAving how anxious their families would be and how much they were required at home, a number started at once for Hemingford. In the afternoon, Colonel Scriver, leaving 20 of Woolrich's company under Lieutenant Sims to reinforce Odell's command, ordered those who remained to fall in, and they followed, the object of the quick return being a dread that the rebels at Mooers would make a like move to that they had checked from NAPIERVILLE. 555 Champlain and Rouse's Point. On reaching Hemingford and learning all was quiet at Mooers, the men, wearied alike from ¦exertion and AA7ant of sleep, were permitted to go to their hOmes, with a warning to assemble next day. Apart from those under Sims, all the Hemingford men did not leave Odelltown. A number remained to haunt the scene of the late excitement, in the expectation that it would soon be renewed. That the rebels who hid under the shelter of a pretendedly friendly power would make a second raid into Canada was not supposed ; the seat of danger Avas tq the northwest. On the afternoon of the previous Saturday, the 3rd November, under the direction of one Trepannier, the rebel element in Napierville suddenly asserted itself, by ap pearing in the streets in bands, armed in a rude fashion, who arrested the loyal inhabitants, some 50 in number, placing them in prison, and posting guards at all outlets so that no message could be sent to the authorities of what had hap pened. Soon after reinforcements came straggling in from the neighboring parishes, St Remi, St Valentine and La- pigeonierre, among others, furnishing contingents. At four o'clock Lucien Gagnon came marching in with a strong band of habitants and with Dr Cote assumed command. The rebels had it all their ow7n way ; the few loyalists were in custody, all the rest of the population were in sympathy, and the ease with which they had gained the upper hand created a feeling of unbounded confidence, Avhich caused every man able to bear arms to crowd into the little toAvn, so that when Sunday dawned there was the raw material of a little army. All was excitement in view of the expected arrival of Dr Robert Nelson* and the American contingent, and they went out to meet him. The previous evening he had embarked on a barge * Dr Nelson was a native of Montreal, and was led to sym pathize with the revolt against the crown from his being an ardent republican. He was arrested for complicity in the re bellion of 1837, was released on bail, and taken in charge by Jacob Dewitt, who sent him from Lachine to the Basin on his steamer, and he was driven from there to the lines by the mate of the vessel. When it was discovered, too late, that he 556 DR. NELSON. at St Albans, accompanied by two officers from France, Hin denlang and Touvrey, the boat having for cargo 250 muskets. Dropping doAvn the river to lake Champlain, a course was taken for the Canadian shore and early in the morning she tied up to an obscure wharf near the mouth of the Richelieu. Nobody awaited the leader of the contemplated revolution, and the guide left to get aid. After Avaiting an anxious hour, he was seen returning with half a dozen habitants, whom he had roused out of their beds, and three horses. Getting into the saddle, Nelson and his two aids-de-camp rode to Napier ville, the arms and ammunition following in 4 French carts. The road Avas so bad, that it was drawing towards noon when the little cavalcade was met by the delegation that had come out from Napierville to receive them. With shouting the procession entered the village, when the rebels formed a hollow square in the market-place and Dr Nelson Avas form ally welcomed. In responding the doctor denounced Britain as a tyrannical nation, and declared that the hour had come Avhen its power should be overthrown in Canada Of the assistance coming from the United States, which he had left a few hours before, he gave a gloAving account. Turning to the two gentlemen who were on horseback beside him, be introduced them as officers from old France, exiles on account of their republicanism, and who had come to assist in freeing Canada from the curse of monarchy. The habitants yelled Avith delight and- believed the day of English rule Avas at an end. The waggons w7ere unloaded and they exchanged their pikes and scythes for fine neAv American muskets. The French officers set to work to organize the habitants into companies and to teach them something of drill. The com missariat Avas simple, consisting of the confiscation of the property of the English-speaking residents. The goods in their stores were appropriated for the benefit of the neAv had passed through OrmstoAvn and Huntingdon, there was loud indignation against those Avho had sheltered him. Once safe in the United States he actively co-operated with the French Canadian refugees in organizing another rebellion. A REPUBLIC PROCLAIMED. 557 army as Avere their cattle and grain. Before evening tAvo elaborate documents were promulgated. The first Avas an imitation of the American declaration of independence, giving reasons for throwing aside allegiance to the British govern ment and for erecting a republic, followed by an enumeration of the reforms that were to be made in "the State of LoAver Canada." The second was simply a declaration that they had taken up arms and that they would not "lay those arms down until we shall have secured to our country the blessings of patriotic and sympathizing government" To those who would assist the hand of fraternity and fellowship was ex tended; on those who opposed them they would "inflict the retaliation which their own terrific example has set before us." Dr Nelson signed these documents as "president" and as "commander-in-chief of the patriot army." The troops paraded Avith two small flags, blue with two white stars, and a large white flag with two blue stars was hoisted on the village flag-pole. It was the flag of the new republic. A perfect furore possessed the habitants on hearing of these doings at Napierville, and by Tuesday it was estimated that there were 4000 of them who had come to support the rising. There were more recruits than there were arms for, and the arrival of fresh supplies from the United States was anxi ously waited for. On Tuesday morning Gagnon, Cote, and Touvrey left for Rouse's Point to hasten the reinforcements Of men and supplies, and next morning were routed by Col. Scriver as already described. The tidings of this defeat fell like a thunderbolt on Napierville, and the habitants, true to their volatile nature, dropped from exultant confidence to blank despair. That night a large number deserted and re turned to their homes, and their place Avas by no means supplied by the few who came in that day and next from Chateaugay and Beauharnois. Dr Nelson saw that if he was to effect anything at all, he must strike at once. The, in tention had been to advance on St Johns, and had that town been captured it would have afforded a base for operations and a convenient rendezvous for the parishes that lined the St Lawrence. Instead of striking a bold bloAV for the cap- 558 COLONEL TAYLOR. ture of St Johns — the only place of the slightest strategetical A-alue within his reach— he weakly determined upon falling on Odelltown and restoring his communication with the United States. , Hindenlang; had, with miserable success, striven during the past 5 days to lick the crude material, of which there was such abundance, into something like an army, but it Avas still little better than an armed mob. All Thursday, it rained, preventing any movement, but on the morning of Friday, the 9th, the order to march was issued and the rebels, to the number of 1200, took the road that led to OdelltoAvn. They moved in companies, the officers being on horseback, and were fairly well-armed, 800 haA7ing mus kets, the others pikes. Opportunity favored them, for the loyalists had not expected such a movement, and Avere taken unprepared. An easy-going man and satisfied that the rebels would not assume the offensive, Colonel Odell had the day before, which was very rainy, freely allowed such of his men as wished to visit their families, with orders to muster after dinner on Friday, when Scriver with the Hemingford men were to return and an attack be made on Lacolle. The conse quence Avas that he was left with few men beyond the Hemingford volunteers who had remained, and Avho were billeted at Fisher's tavern or the Methodist church, w7here Lieutenant Sims was posted. At 9 o'clock Colonel Taylor, of the regular service, who had been sent the previous winter to organize the militia on the frontier, arrived at Fisher's tavern from St Johns to take command of the designed attack on Lacolle, and for which he brought a quantity of ammunition. He found everything quiet and not a suspicion of clanger being close at hand. While resting quietly a mes senger came galloping up with a message from Capt. Weldon, Avho held the advanced post, about half a mile from Lacolle, that the rebels wrere advancing in great force, and that he was falling back before them. Surprised by the startling news, the colonel ordered out his horse, sprang into the saddle and galloped up the road. He had not gone far when he saw, in front of the Methodist church, a cluster of volunteers gazing earnestly northwards. Among them were THE REBELS APPEAR. 559 Captain Weldon and his men. They Avere watching the head of the rebel column as it appeared above the rise in the road a little to the north of them. All told there were not 200 men about the church, but Colonel Taylor had no intention of retreating. The cannon that had been captured two days before had been left in charge of Lieutenant Sims, and it was wheeled to the middle of the road and pointed at the ad vancing column. It was handled by a member of Capt Ed wards' company, Lieut. Curran, an old artilleryman, who had become a Covey hill farmer, and Sergeant Beatty, of the Royals, a regular, detached to act as adjutant in Woolrich's company. When about to apply the match, Colonel Taylor, who was watching the approaching rebel host with his spy glass, said, "Wait a minute; I will give the word." In a few moments he cried, "Fire now!" The gun was badly directed, and the shot riddled the adjoining fence. At the report, the rebel column halted, and, dividing, one-half deployed on to the fields to their right and the other to those on their left, when they resumed their advance behind the shelter of the trees and buildings that lined the road. The movement was well-executed, and its object Colonel Taylor perceived. From the church there ran backward an old fence with a deep ditch which continued some 200 yards when it reached a graveyard. This ditch and the graveyard were promptly occupied by the loyalists, and the attempt to flank the church checkmated. As the rebels drew near they set up a dreadful yell, and opened fire. Up to this time the cannpn alone had been brought into requisition, and, though energeti cally served, did no damage to the enemy beyond making them cautious in advancing. The conduct of the gunners was admirable. Beatty stuck to his post until disabled by a shot in the calf of the leg, and Curran had the powder-horn carried away by a bullet while pouring in priming. When he shouted that he had no wadding for another shot, a vol unteer took off his coat and, tearing out the lining, handed it to ram home the charge. The rebels after halting a while, began to edge nearer the church from the northeast when Colonel Taylor, fearing they designed to make a charge to 560 THE CHURCH. capture the field-piece, ordered it to be dragged into the church. He received a coarse refusal. A minute afterward, it became apparent it was impossible to stand by it owing to the stealthy approach of sharpshooters, and an effort was made to run it from the road up the steps of the entrance into the church, when it Avas found too heavy to handle, and was left in the ditch. Captain McAllister, whose long white locks and simple piety alike commanded respect, was stand ing at the church-door watching the movement. At the engagement of Wednesday he bore himself bravely, and when the day w7as won was overheard to exclaim, "Glory be to God for this A7ictory." Now he scanned the coming foe with unblanched cheek, w7hen a rifle bullet, fired by an un seen rebel, struck him on the breast, passing through his body, grazing the right arm of a loyalist behind him, and denting the door of the church. Without uttering a word, the stout-hearted Ulsterman, for he was an Irish Protestant, fell dead. Colonel Taylor's order, that all should go inside the church, was unneeded, and the door was shut. It con tained 60 men, of whom half Avere from Hemingford. The scene of .the engagement thus, begun has changed but little during the intervening 50 years. The church was a plain- stone-building, about 45 X 50 feet. In the gable, facing the road, was the door, with a window on either side of it, and above 3 small AvindoAvs, Avhich lighted the gallery. On each side of the building were 3 windows, and in the rear 2 more. The door opened into a vestibule, ceiled by the gallery above, and small doors led to the aisles. The pews Avere high and square, yet the pulpit toAvered above them, and faced the gallery that filled the opposite end. The windows were high set, so that the bullets, which noAV began to come whizzing through them, passed over the heads of those standing be neath.* When it became plain that they were in for a siege, the courage of the men did not quail. They recognized their * The church is different now, having been remodelled and modernized, with long gothic windows and new peAvs and pulpit. The windows that Avere behind the pulpit Avere built up and the exterior of the Avails plastered. THE SECOND BATTLE OF ODELLTOWN. 561 danger, and one sentiment animated them, that they would die at their posts rather than save their lives by surrender ing. One drawback there Avas, they did not like their commander; had contracted a prejudice against him while organizing the companies. To such a feeling Colonel Taylor was indifferent, for his faculties were absorbed in devising means to defeat the rebels. Watching from a window he could see a mass of them mo\7ing along the fields to the east of the road with the intent of surrounding the church. It was a moment of supreme anxiety, relieved by seeing Colonel Odell marching up the road with some 140 men. Gallantly they came on until Colonel Odell discovered the overwhelm ing numbers of the enemy, when, abandoning the idea of attack, he formed a defensive line along the road from Fisher's tavern to near the church, which kept up so steady a fire that it checked the rebel advance. Thus balked on the eastern side of the road, the rebel commanders tried the western flank of the loyalist position, and assailed the grave yard. From behind the tombstones and the bushes and apple trees between it and the church, came so well-directed a fire that the rebels would not face it. Captain March held the line from the church to the graveyard,* and held it firmly to the close. ' Finding a flank movement either east or west too difficult for them, the rebels concentrated their efforts upon the church, and their best shots crept forward, finding shelter in fence and tree, until a storm of bullets assailed it on every side except the southern. Their strongest position was the two log barns and the stone fence that surrounded the barn yard to the north-east of the church, and which Col. Taylor had neglected to occupy .f * When the contest outside had re- * James Brownlee of Hemingford was among those in the graveyard. On asking him if he hit anybody, he answered, "I used to do some poaching in Scotland and I could shoot a bird on the wing or a dog running. That day I did my best" •f-The map on page 549 indicates the situation of the church, house, and barns. The house was not occupied by the loyal-' ists because it was a frame one, clapboarded, and therefore not bullet-proof. 37 562 FATHER KOONEY. solved into a duel at long range between combatants under cover, those in the church felt that they were surrounded by enemies, of whom a few were within 50 yards of them. Cooped up in a small building, with musket-bullets pattering against its walls and flying through its windows, all they could do to prevent assault was to keep up a hot fire upon their assailants. As each man loaded his musket, he cautiously approached a window, took aim, and fired, in stantly retiring to give another his place. The danger was extreme. More than one was pierced while delivering his fire, and hairbreadth escapes were of momentary occurrence. Lieutenant Sims, a capital shot, stationed himself at one win dow, and fired as quick as 5 of his men could supply him with loaded muskets. A private of the regulars, an English man named Negrass, one of the Royals, and adjutant to Odell 's battalion, took possession of the pulpit, and fired out of the windows in the rear as fast as muskets were handed up to him. The supply of ammunition being limited, Colonel Taylor dreaded its giving out, and his voice was heard ever and anon warning the men not to waste a shot Father Kooney, the minister of the circuit, who had been educated for the priesthood and converted under the Methodists, a truly sincere and zealous man, was among those shut up in the church- Visiting the volunteers quartered in it that morn ing, the rebel advance had surprised him. When told the enemy was coming he dropped on his knees in prayer, but as soon as the fighting began and his services were needed, he became assiduous in attending the wounded and in en couraging the men to contend for their queen and faith Small need was there for such exhortation. The stubborn courage of the British race was roused, and the resolve was to fight to the bitter end. The conduct of the enemy tended to encourage them. They could see the rebel officers urging their men to make a rush for the church, and the habitants skulking away. Decoigne, dressed in the uniform of the French army, flourishing his sword, rushed forward repeated ly, but not a man would follow him. Hindenlang's voice they could hear shouting, "Forward, we are sure to win!" THE SCENE IN THE CHURCH. 563 but all in vain. To use Hindenlang's OAvn words, "The greater part of the Canadians kept out of the range of shot, threw themselves on their knees, with their faces buried in the snow, praying to God, and remaining as motionless as if they were so many saints, hewn in stone." With such remarkable soldiers, the bravery of Hindenlang and Decoigne went far nothing. They had the loyalists at their mercy. A rush of a hundred yards over the open would have brought them to the walls of the church, when they would have been safe, for its windows were too high to allow of a raking fire. To burst in the door would have been the work of a moment, when, with their overwhelming numbers, the few loyalists would have been overpowered. The rush was not made, and the fight went on, 60 men holding at bay 1200. And now the danger fore seen if the fight should last long overtook the gallant band. Their ammunition was running short. A violent snow-squall had come up and the big soft flakes darkened the air. Col. Taylor saw his opportunity. Volunteers were called for to go for a fresh supply of flints and cartridges, and 4 answered. They had not far to go, for in Fisher's tavern, to the south of them, there was plenty stored, and the road was held by Colonel Odell and his men. They ran fast and returned safe with a full supply. When the snow flurry passed away, it was seen that many of the rebels had improved the oppor tunity to get closer to the church, and now from every tree and bush and fence, even to within 30 yards of it, came the flash of muskets. The storm, however, if it had given them a better position, had impaired their fire. The soft snow had wet many a flint and pan, and the priming failed to take fire. Still, the bullets came thick and fast, and mingled with the reports were shouts from the rebels to give up and they would receive quarter. They were answered with cries of derision and defiance. The little garrison Avas now desperate and acts of daring that verged on recklessness were enacted at every window. The scene was repulsive. In several pews lay stretched dead men, in others the wounded, writhing in agony, for whom nothing could be done, for there was not even water to give them. Every man was blackened with 564 THE FIRING OF THE BARNS. the smoke of gunpowder and many were smeared with blood. But there was not a whisper of surrender. Colonel Taylor re tained perfect composure and coolly directed the men where to aim. The fire from the barn-yard being peculiarly galling, it was determined to put a match to the nearest barn, when James Rodgers and John Crystal, both Huntingdon men, volunteered to do the work. For a minute the fire from within the church Avas concentrated upon the barnyard, so that not a rebel dare lift his head aboA7e his cover. The result was, that when the door was opened, and Crystal and Rodgers sprang out, the one with a smoking portfire the other holding a brand snatched from the stove, they were not seen. A short rush across the road and they Avere in the nearest barn, the combustibles thrown among the straw in stall and mow, and then a dart back to the church, which was safely gained. A yell of exultation from its defenders at the completion of the gallant deed, and the column of smoke springing upwards, told the rebels what had been done. The adjoining barn caught, and the heat and smoke obliged the rebels to leave their shelter. And here a strange incident took place. Instead of following his companions, one of the rebels ran up to the church shouting "Me fight for the Queen !" A shot from within brought him down, but he managed to drag himself to the door and was admitted. After all was over, while walking across the church, he dropped dead But not alone in the church did the men of Odelltown and Huntingdon bear themselves bravely that day. On the line along the road, in the graveyard, and the cover that stretched between it and the church, were deeds of daring done, which explain how it came that the rebels, though four to one, were held at bay for over two hours. In the ditch next the church were some 16 men, mainly Huntingdon volunteers, and among them Avas Robert Rodgers.* The ditch made a * Now Colonel Rodgers of Franklin Centre and of H. M. Customs, to whom I am indebted for not a few details em bodied in this account of the fight. James was his brother. THE REBELS FLEE. 565 fair trench, and loading within its shelter, they rose and fired, keeping their position throughout the engagement and having only one wounded, William Moore of Covey Hill. A bullet struck him on the forehead, when, failing to penetrate the skull, it ran up between it and the scalp. After recover ing from the momentary stun, he tied his handkerchief round his head to stop the bleeding, and went on loading and firing as if nothing had happened. The fight had now lasted over two hours and the rebels were no nearer capturing the church than when they began. Relief was nigh at hand. That morning Scriver had left Hemingford with his battalion to join in the expected attack on Lacolle. On reaching Eldredge's corners, he cried a halt, and the men rested on the knoll, where the graveyard is laid out, and munched the food they had in their pockets. The colonel went about the companies, encouraging them, and urging the officers to set an example and keep up the spirits of their men, for they would have a tussle with the rebels before night He was in no hurry. Two o'clock Avas the hour when he was to join Odell, and it was now only noon; he would give his men a good rest. Had he only known that within a mile of him, a handful of loyalists were holding at bay a horde of rebels, he would have rushed to their rescue, but no messenger came with word of their peril, and, the wind being west, no sound of the firing reached his ears. Help arrived more swiftly from another quarter. Captain Vaughan, with his company, the ClarenceA7jlle Rangers, had started that morning from Caldwell's Manor to join Colonel Odell's. force, and were now seen eoming up the side-line road down which the church looks. They were a mere handful, but the sight of them was enough to complete the discomfi ture of the rebels, now heartily sick of fighting. Hindenlang says, "Presently some 20 bureaucrats (loyalists) appearing from a wood, struck , such a terror into the Cariadians, that forthwith the little, army was like a flock of sheep, flying as fast as legs could carry them." The panic was as complete as sudden. Dr Nelson who had posted himself to the west of the church, shared in it, and galloped towards Napierville 566 AFTER THE VICTORY. at the head of his redoubtable army. Colonel Taylor * on seeing the movement, ordered out the men in the church to pursue, which they did, but nothing short of cavalry could have got wind of them. They disappeared in a minute, leaving the fields strewed with muskets, pikes, and even poles, with points hardened by fire, and not a few of then- dead and wounded. The rebels never halted in their flight, and, sweeping past Lacolle, late in the afternoon straggled into Napierville, covered with mud, exhausted, and starving. The leaders saw that all their hopes were blasted and that night they fled for the United States, and the patriot army became a thing of the past. The dauntless defenders of the little Methodist church had given the rebellion its deathblow. Unconscious of the importance of their achievement, that little band was intent solely on getting something to eat They had had no breakfast, and two hours and a half of fighting had sharpened their appetites. Father Kooney had got a great cooler filled with potatoes, whose boiling he looked after, and the carcase of a sheep was set to roast. When served, the heroes sat around the church with a rib in one hand and a potato in the other. Ere their frugal meal was ready ScriA7er arrived, and learned, to his vexation, what service he could have rendered had he been earlier. "And why didn't ye come sooner ?" asked a Hemingford man of his neighbor. With a glance of admiration at the powder- blackened hero, whose achievement would have been lessened by sharing with others, and another of caution at the dead and the wounded, he answered Avith the exquisitely witty equivocation, "An, troth, I think, we came soon enough." The losses on neither side Avere heavy. The loyalists, though fight ing under cover, had 5 killed and 10 seriously wounded outT of their small number. The rebels left 6 dead and 9 wounded on the field. They had removed those who fell during the early part of the engagement to Lacolle. Afterwards it was ascertained that their total loss was about 50. *On his return to England he was appointed to the com mand of the 29th regt, and fell in the Sikh war, being killed while acting as brigadier at the battle of Aliwal. * THE CONDITION OF THE ENGLISH MINORITY. 567 The crushing of the rebellion was the work of the English- speaking minority. Of course, the army with which Col borne was slowly moving to the scene of danger, would have done what Scriver, Odell, and Taylor effected, but that does not change the fact, that it was the farmers of English speech who gave the blow that extinguished for a time the movement to convert Lower Canada into a French republic. Even had Colborne with his battalion of regulars delivered the finishing stroke, it would still have remained true that it was the dogged opposition of the English minority to the effort to snap the chain of British connection that defeated the agitation which Papineau represented. This great service has not been hitherto recognized, but to the existence of a handful of farmers born in the British isles, and scattered over the province, future historians will point is due the pre serving of a united Canada. Had the rebellion succeeded, Lower Canada would have ceased to be British, and, as the gateway to the west, all the rest of Canada would have been driven into annexation. That we have a united Canada, de stined to be the theater for the development of all that is good and great in British institutions, untrammelled by the hereditary hindrances that clog the footsteps of the mother land, is to be ascribed to those Irish, Scotch, and English backwoodsmen, who, no matter how small the cornmunity they formed, set their faces as flint against the aspirations of the majority among whom they dwelt Can the Dominion at large afford tO permit these communities to be wiped out ? Have the fifty years which have elapsed wrought such a change that no menace to British institutions or the consoli dation of Canada is any longer to be feared ? Had circum stances permitted me to complete this work in the form designed, I would, by simply tracing out the chain of events, have answered those questions. As it is, the sense of duty to my country will not allow me to drop my pen without touching on points of vital bearing alike on the future of Canada and the well-being of the English-speaking minority, the history of no inconsiderable portion of whom, I trust, the reader has followed with some degree of interest The narra tive of this book leaves that minority, prosperous, aggressive and hopeful. To-day they show signs of decay, are lethargic and disheartened. Once they controlled seven counties. It is questionable if the next census will show them to be a majority in more than three. Whole settlements have dis appeared in those fifty years and the strongest of those that 568 CAUSE OF THE DECLINE survive no more than hold their own. The most sanguine person among them acknowledges that, at the existing rate of decrease, the extinguishment of the English-speaking farming communities is simply a question of time; and that, unless a speedy change in the laws is effected, that decrease will go on with accelerating rapidity. In 1838 the English-speaking population of Quebec was full of vitality, expansive and self-assertive : in 1888 it is the reverse. What has caused the change ? I submit, that it is to be found in the extension to the townships of French laws and customs. When, after the rebellion, the constitution of Canada was recast, the cause defeated in the field won victory after victory in the domain of politics. The bait of gaining the support of a solid phalanx was too much for the patriotism of the Ontario politicians and they bought coali tions with the French party with what they ought to have held inviolable. From 1841 to the present day the political history of Canada has been largely that of compacts with a party whose aim is to strip Quebec of its distinctive British features. For ten years after the union the supreme qualifi cation to entitle an applicant to become a servant to the Queen was that he had borne arms against her, and the national aspirations that had caused so much trouble were revived and strengthened by the spectacle of seeing the public offices of Quebec placed in such hands. Every concession has increased those aspirations, so that while we find a Papineau declaring in 1837 he would be content with the abolition of the veto of the council, by making that body elective, we have now a Mercier who protests against the federal veto and demands for Quebec nothing short of com plete autonomy. To the class-legislation which has been building up Quebec as a province peculiar among its sister provinces, and enjoying powers and privileges that pertain to none of them, is to be ascribed the decline of the English- speaking settlements. How this class-legislation affects them a single instance will illustrate. The first aggressive step was the act that extended the parish- system to the townships, whereby the priests resident in them enjoyed the same powers as those in the seigniories, and could, by force of law, collect tithes and taxes to build and maintain churches and presbyteries. Both taxes being collectable off real estate alone, a strong monetary motive was thus supplied by the legislature to the priesthood to get as many of the farms iri the townships into the hands of Roman**Catholics as possible. So long as a farm is OAvned by a non-Catholic, it ENGLISH LAW GUARANTEED TO THE TOWNSHIPS. 569 is unproductive to the church ; the moment it changes owners and passes into the hands of a Catholic, it yields a 26th part of its grain towards the priest's salary and whatever tax to huild or repair church or house the churchwardens may levy. A systematic scheme Avas inaugurated and is carried on with growing vigor, to push out the English-speaking farmers and substitute habitants. Surely, of all the shortsighted and fool ish acts passed by a popular legislature, that was the most superlatively imprudent which offered a premium to a wealthy, disciplined and ambitious organization to get rid of the Old Country farmers of Quebec. I believe the act to be more than unwise, that it is unconstitutional, and do so on these grounds. That after the conquest English law took the place of French law is undeniable, for there is the proclamation of the king to that effect The point to be settled is, Was not that proclamation superseded by the act of 1774 ? The Hon J. W. Horton, than whom there could be no more competent authority on the subject, was one of the witnesses examined before the parliamentary committee in London in 1828, and, in reply to a question, he declared that "so far as regards the townships that proclamation (of 1763) has never been re pealed." Several French witnesses were examined, but none of them disputed that statement, and they could not, for the act of 1774 expressly states that the French law and custom is restored to the fief land alone. The distinction is plainly and broadly drawn between the seigniories and the town ships; between fief and non-fief land. The people residing in the first were to enjoy again the civil law and customs that had prevailed in the days of Vaudreuil; outside the limits of the parishes and over all the rest of the province, English law was to continue and English law alone. For obvious reasons, French politicians always refer 'to the act of 1774 as one that covered the entire province, but, in truth, it applied only to a very small portion of it. French law and the poAver to tax and tithe was conferred not upon the pro vince of Quebec, but the 82 parishes that then existed and them only. It was a limited concession, in no sense applied to the territory outside those 82 parishes. This was proved in Craig's time, when Bishop Plessis was not permitted even to annex new territory toexisting parishes or to rearrange their limits. From. the beginning, the intention of the Im perial government was that, while they might have to submit to French law and usage lingering for a time in the strip of settled land that fringed the St Lawrenee, the province at large should be English to all intents and purposes. What- 570 HISTORICAL AND LEGAL PROOF. ever land Avas surveyed, was measured by acres and not by arpents, and the divisions were named townships and coun ties, and not parishes and seigniories. The Canada Tenure act, passed in 1826, declares "the law of England the rule by which real estate is to be regulated and administered in the townships," and the report of the select committee of the Imperial parliament in 1828 re-affirms this in these words: "The provision of the act of 1774, providing 'that in all matters of controversy relating to property and civil rights be determined agreeably to the laws and customs of Lower Canada,' there is a marked exception to this concession of French law, namely, 'that it should not apply to lands which had been or should be granted in free and common soccage.'" This condition of affairs continued without alteration until after the union. The two tenures and the two laws existed side by side. In the parishes, seigniorial tenure and French law; in the townships, free and common soccage and English law. From 1841 to the present day can be traced a suc cession of statutes assimilating the law in Quebec, not by adapting the French law to the English, but by superseding the English law with the French, ignoring the plain rights of the townships and producing the effect, already noted, of weakening the English-speaking population and driving it away. The question naturally arises, seeing the Old Country settlers of the townships were induced to immigrate and take up their abode under the promise of King George's pro clamation, that they were going to a colony where they would be under English law, a promise confirmed and ratified by subsequent legislation of the Imperial parliament, whether it Avas in the power of the legislature of Upper and Lower Canada, or is even in that of the present Dominion parlia ment, to violate those terms ? The townships of Quebec were settled under certain conditions entered into by the king and his parliament Can these be violated by subordinate legis latures ? In other words, is not the legislation, since 1841, affecting the status of the townships of Quebec ultra vires ? When the priest sues a townships farmer for tithes, when the churchwardens lay on his land a tax to build a church, when a bishop steps in and forms a parish Avith municipal powers* out of township land, are the statutes by whose authority •While the book was in press, Judge Belanger decided that Archbishop Fabre was within his prerogative in creating Ste Barbe. See page 164 for details. WHAT THE MINORITY SHOULD DEMAND. 571 they act, conformable with the compact under which the townships were settled ? Nay, more than this, can land held under English tenure, be made liable to the servitudes im posed under the French law upon seigniorial land ? When the crown issued its patents, vesting the settlers of the town ships in their farms in free and common soccage, is it con stitutional for the legislature afterwards to violate that concession, by giving the priesthood a vested right in those lands, a right which sleeps while it is held by a non-Catholic, but comes into force the moment he leaves ? Surely it is contrary to common sense, that upon land conveyed to a settler by crown patent, the priesthood of Quebec should hold a conditional lien, and yet that is what the extension of the parish-system to the townships means. The inhabitants of the townships are neither strangers nor intruders. They are the descendants of men who settled in them at the invitation of their sovereign, who had become possessed of the* country by the most absolute of all titles, that of conquest ratified by the cession of the former owner. In settling in those townships they dispossessed nobody, they were in a state of nature, and by what labor they redeemed them the narratives in these pages bear testimony. Why should they be placed under disabilities that tend to dis possess them of these lands ? Why, for nigh fifty years, should successive governments have legislated for Quebec on the assumption that it belongs to the French, and that their wishes and prejudices should be deferred to ? The French Canadian has the same rights as every other subject of the British throne, and no more. He has no claim to exceptional legislation or to be treated otherwise than his fellow-subjects of English speech. Their orators talk of treaty-rights — talk unheard until the present generations- it is mere rhetorical flourish, for they can quote no article guaranteeing what they term their peculiar institutions. They are the majority, they have skilfully exchanged their votes for the assistance of Ontario politicians, and they have abused their power to trample upon the rights of the mi nority, to invade the townships with laws and customs from which they were to be preserved and entangled the English-speaking farmers in the net-work of a system which stifles enterprise, independence, and progress wherever it falls. The hope of the English minority lies in The Vindi cation of the Rights of the Toavnships : that there shall be restored to them that independence which was secured to them when they were founded. With that reform, the 572 appeal to the dominion. injury done in the past would not be repaired, it would not even save many English communities now grown so weak that they are unable to maintain school or church, but it would ensure the continuance of the great body and give a strong stimulus to their prosperity. And that minority, weakened as it has been, is still a considerable body. In the county of Huntingdon there are ten thousand of English speech, in Chateaugay four thousand, in the province at large there must be fully 150,000 who live on or by the land. Surely an intelligent and hard-working farming population of that number is worthy of preservation, and yet there is nothing more certain than that, unless existing laws are abolished and reforms instituted, it will become extinct, and that the sole representatives of the English-speaking minority will be found in the mercantile, manufacturing, and professional circles of the province. But not on this ground, sufficient though it be, is the plea rested for the help that is called for. How can the Canadian, whose heart glows with love of his country, hope for its having a glorious future, while the Dominion is shackled and weighted with a province, which, at every step, claims pe culiar and exceptional treatment and casts the shadow of medieval institutions over the entire Confederation ? Can we have a pure and patriotic parliament while three score of its members have an interest in bartering their support with any faction that will, in return, agree to assist them in maintaining the union of church and state in Quebec ? Is the public policy of our country to continue, as it has since 1841, to be one of constant compromise between the bounding aspirations of freedom and a clutching backward at feudal ism; between a national spirit, broad and benign, and a greedy sectionalism, as narrow as it is intolerant ? Freedom will take her flight from a land where one arm is bound and a nation is not to be built upon pillars of unequal height. When the Dominion shall realize her great destiny and show the world a community spanning the American continent, permeated with the spirit of liberty and loving, honoring, and, if need be, supporting the land from which it sprung; standing thus in vivid contrast with the people of that republic who smote the breasts that nursed them, and make an element of their patriotism the reviling of their own kindred; it -shall be upon the basis of equal rights and equal laws; a policy that shall make no distinction between its subjects on the score of , origin or religion, but shall haye the one law and the one measure of administering it for every the alleged treaty rights. 573 man whether he be French or English, Catholic or Protes tant That is what the finger of Patriotism points every true Canadian to work for; that is all the English-speaking farmers of Quebec ask of their brethren in the more favored provinces of the Dominion. Note. — Only one treaty was made between France and Britain, so that, if such a thing as "treaty rights," touching the peculiar institutions of Quebec, exist, they must be con tained in that document The treaty, that of Paris, ratified 10th Feby. 1763, contains but one article, the 4th, which refers to the religious or social concerns of the inhabitants of Canada, and it reads as follows : "His Britannic Majesty, on his side, agrees to grant the liberty of the Catholic religion to the in habitants of Canada; he will consequently give the most effectual orders, that his new Roman Catholic subjects may profess the worship of their religion according to the rites of the Roman Church, as far as the laws of Great Britain per mit." When the Canada bill was contemplated, the govern ment obtained the opinion of Wedderbum, afterwards Lord Chancellor, on the meaning of this article, which he gave in 1772 as follows: "The 4th article of the Treaty of Paris grants the liberty of the Catholic religion to the inhabitants of Ca nada, and provides that His Britannic Majesty should give orders that his Catholic subjects may profess the worship of their religion according to the rites of the Roman Church, as far as the laws of England will permit. This qualification renders the article of so little effect, from the severity with which (though seldom executed) the laws of England are armed against the exercise of the Roman Catholic religion, that the Canadian must depend more upon the benignity and the wisdom of Your Majesty's Government for the protection of his religious rights than upon the provisions of the treaty." There have also been deliverances by our own courts on the intent and scope of the article. On the petition to declare null the Charlevoix election on the ground of clerical influence, Judge Routhier rejected it for, among other reasoris, "that the priests of the Church of Rome in Quebec enjoy exceptional privileges by virtue of certain treaties." The petitioner ap pealed to the supreme court, which rendered judgment iri his favor on the 28th Feby. 1877, when Judge Taschereau stated that the article in the treaty "merely confers on the priests 574 OCCUPANTS OF LOTS IN GODMANCHESTER. k and Catholics generally the privileges allowed by British law in the toleration of their faith." Judge Ritchie was more minute and equally explicit on the point. If there is one thing more certain than another in our history, it is that the exceptional privileges which exist in Quebec, haA7e no better authority than that of statutory law, and the greater part of it of recent date. The proclamation of King George, referred to several times in the preceding chapter, was issued Oct. 7, 1763. The fol lowing extract is decisive as to English law being made the laW of Quebec and all immigrants to it being guaranteed its continued enjoyment: "Whereas it will greatly contribute to the speedy settling of our new governments that our loving subjects should be informed of our paternal care for the security of the liberty and properties of those who are and shall become the inhabitants thereof, we have thought fit to publish and declare, by this our proclamation that all persons may confide in our royal protection for the enjoyment of the benefit of the laws of our realm of England." FIRST SETTLERS OF GODMANCHESTER. Settlers on Chateaugay and 15 Alex. Cowan Jas. Hamilton Trout river lots, ranges 16-17 Butterfield Dr. Whyte 5 and 6. 20 Wm. Lallanne Benj. Lewis 1 Jas. Millar Jno. Monique 21 Benj. Palmer 2 D. McNee 2 John Todd James Adams 3 Alex. Stewart Wm.Hassan 22 Benj. Stebbins Geo. Hunter 4 John Purse, erected a card- John Hunter, jr. ingmill and hat factory in 23 Jas.Anderson Thos. Smith 1834 24 Jno. Hunter, sr., Jas. Robb 5 Peter Kearney Jas. Laird David Milne 6 Wm. Dickson John Purse 25 David Milne Wm. Lamb - 7 John and Patrick McArdle Robt. Murray Louis Ciroux 26 Hugh Barr Geo. Danskin 8 James Mitchell Henry McDonald 9 Felix Hughes T. Blakey 27 Jas.andAndrew McDonald 10 Peter McNaughton Benj. Lucas Alex. McNaughton 28 Robert Ford 11 Jas.Freeland Jno.Davidson 29 Robt. Nelson Danl. Wallis 12 John McLean 30 John Wallis 13 Ptk.Sherry Jno. Humphrey 31 S. Richardson Wm. Black 14 Jas. Brown John Telford Matt. McCrae OCCUPANTS OF LOTS IN GODMANCHESTER. 575 32-3 Wm. Stark John Smith 6 Jno.Coughlan, S.Dunsmore — Miner 2 Jas. Black 7 R.Douglass C. McNarland H. Logan And.Grennan 8 Jonathan and Jas. Sparrow 34 Maj.Wright Wm. Dalgliesh 9 James Sparrow John & James Creighton 10 Wm. Feeny Robt. Stewart 35-6 Kelicate McKittrick 11 Cushing & Clawsori Wm. Johnston 2 Alex. Young 37 Green Jas. Stephen 12 Alexr. and William Sadler 38 Jno. Reed O. Force RClark 4th range. 39 Stone John Tannahill 1 Martin and Patrick Caveny Peter Booth Wm. Arthur 2 Jno. Waters Thos. Whealy 40 Saml. Pelton Thos.Dryden 3 Richd. and Major Feeny W. Lanktree N.Waggoner James Feeny Wm.Wilders 41 Hitchins Isaac and Orange 4 John and Wm. Montieth Davis 2 Wm. Morrison Peter Flynn 42 Thos. Marshall 5 Ptk.Kiernan 2C.McHugh 43 Rbt Jamieson Jos.Vaughan 6 H. Suttle 2 Benj. Douglass 44 Thos. Barlow Wrn. Wattie 7 T.Donohoe R. McNarland Longdale Bradbury 8 Jas. Gardner John Reid 45-6 Thos. Barlow Alex, and 9 Bar. Flynn John Dowler Arthur Anderson 10 Jas. and Thos. McCartney Bpte. Deschambault 11 Jno. Barnes Jno. Howlett 47 Jos. Bombard B. Burnside 12 Richard and Joseph Rice John Tannahill 13 O. Heffernan Jno Rooney 48 Sutton brors. John White 14 Ant. Murphy Alex. Cowan 49 Wm. Nesbitt Charles Brown 50 Geo. Elder John Massam 15 Robt Cowan David Smith Dempsey Peter Donnelly 16 John Gilmore Daniel and 51 The Barters John White John Murphy Archd. Henderson 20 James McNab 52 Wm. Barter Hartle 22 Hugh Kinniburgh James Lunan 23 Mrs Hingston 53 Jno. Wilson, Henry Starnes 24 James Laird, senr. storekeeper , Jas. Laird, jr. Jos. Laird 54* Allan McGowan 25 Alex, and James Lunan 55 Jas. Donnelly 56 Pk. Solan 26 Geo.Lunan 2 W.Henderson 57-8 Sylvester F. Healy Patrick Reardon 3rd range, new Ireland. 27 David Armstrong 1 R. Ferguson E.Dunsmore 28 L. Charlebois A. Duheme David Kennedy 29 Hugh Wiley Jno. Tannahill 2 John Reid Wm. McMullen John Tannahill, jr. David Nicholson 30 Walter Barr Wm. Danskin 3 John Dunsmore 31 Arch. Buckless Jos.Lafleur 4 Thos.Elliot John Douglass 32 Geo. and Thos. Danskin 6 David Reid Wm.&Ged.Bell M. McVeay W. Dalgliesh 576 OCCUPANTS OF LOTS IN GODMANCHESTER. 33 James McNair 23 Jos. Hutton Eb. Danskin 34 Ricord Michael Murphy Alex. McPhee Jno. Dunlop S. Ingles James Smith Archd. Elliot 35 Dank Michael Curran 24 D. McPhee Alex. Danskin Dewey Mrs Burnside 24-5 James and Wm. Biggar 36 Wallis Green Jas. Stirling 26 Alex. Caldwell D. Nichols J. B. O'Connor 27 Capt. James Gordon 87 John Ingles James Coslow James and And. Caldwell 38 Donald Stewart Campbell 28 Jordon J. Laird R.Graham Robert Taylor 29 Wm. and Peter Caldwell 39 Thos. Murphy Rielly 30 Hugh Wiley John and Donald Mcintosh Brian McDonagh 40 Jno. Hamilton T. Murphy31 Wm. Caldwell, jr. 41 Peter Phillip Geo. Stephen 32 Hugh Logan Wm. Clyde John Christie Jno.Smellie Benj. Prevost 42 Asa Campbell Jas. Warden 33 George Reid John Mack Patrick Keogh 34 Peter Booth Robt. Mack 43 Miles O'Neil John Pettis Jas. Smellie 44 Jas. Sweeny Jas. Leahy 35 Chas.Filow Maurice O'Neil M. Donovan Jas. O'Neil Thos. Clyde 45 T. Tamerson Jno. McCarty 36 Wm. Smith Hosea Shaw J. Cunningham J. Leonard Peter Boban 46 John Bannon Joseph Vann 37 John Wright Patk. Burns John McGee 38 Wm. Wright Jas. McNab 47 N. Campbell Thos. Walker 40 Thos. Dryden Geo. Patton Cor.Whealey James Smyth Oliver and Solomon Force 48 Philips James McManus 47 Archd. Henderson James Lee 48 W.Wilson 51 Ptk. McComb 49 Peter Welch Richd. Welch 52 W. Tannahill 54Jas.Tallon 50 John Armstrong, jr. 55 MattConnell Patk. Tallon James Moore Ths. Murphy Peter Brady 51 Michael and Thos. Fallon 56 Peter Grant Peter Brady 55 Nichols C. Waggoner Wm. Brady 56 Charles March 57 Thomas and Charles March 57-8 Thomas McGarvey John McArthur 59-61 Arth. Moore J. McCarthy Mathew McRae Jas. Clark Wm. McDonald 58 Rood W. Kerr 5th range. Charles O'Reilly 17 James Hamilton Walter Sutherland 18 Alex.and Jas. Cunningham 59 James Walker B. O'Neil 19 RCunningham G.Mentieth 60 Wm. O'Reilly M. O'Neil 20 Wm. Hamilton 61 Owen and Patrick O'Reilly Wm. Cunningham Alex, and John McMullen 21 John Dunsmore Dougald Cameron 22 Robt and Jas. Dunsmore Charles Gray OCCUPANTS OF LOTS IN HINCHINBROOK. 577 1st range. 40 P. Mooney & Jno. Mahoney 23 Jos. Silver 2 Ad. Patterson 41 Daniel McMillan & Peter 26 Andrews Job Sylvester McDonaugh Gibson Ptk. Walker 42 Wm. McMillan & Daniel 27Chas.McHardy Peter Hall McMillan, sr. Peter Comstock 43 Isaac Cain & Robt. Rennie 28 James McClatchie 44 Felix McCormick & John 29 Rev. Jacob Hart C. Manning 30 Wm. Taylor 45 Abraham Manning 31 Geo. Gillis 2 Wm. Burns 46 Hy. Wilson &Wm. Craik, sr. 32 Chas.McCurry Creamer 47 Julius Manning 33 Capt. Barron John Nichols 3rd range. 34 Peter McGregor 17-18 Thos. McC. Gardner 35 Peter and Danl. Campbell 18 William H. Pringle 36 Duncan Campbell 19 George & David Sandilands 38 John Barron 20 John Kelly & Patk. Grady 38-39 Felix McCormick 21 John Cook Robt. Higgins Wm. Shaw 22 John Outterson 39 JamesDuffin Daniel Leahy 22 John Patterson Thomas Rielly 22 John White 23 John King 40 Henry Mooney John Grace 23 Wm. Kerr & Jas. McBeth 41 Henry Lavery Martin Iby 24 Thomas Edgerton 42 Ptk. Kelly Robert Riley 25 Matthew McCrea 43 Jno.Fitzcharles Danl. and 25 Wm. Johnston 26 Jas. Terry Wm. Leary 26 John Kennedy 45-46 And. Craik Thos. Blair 27 Robert Johnston 2nd range.. 27 John Trainer 22 Robert Percy 28 John Kelly S. McCrea , 23 T. Cockburn 24 — Smith 29 Danl. Sweet Jas. Allen 23 Henry Platt 24 Wm. Reid 29 Patrick Keirney John Kidnell 30 Paul & Henry Herdman 26 Duncan McGregor 31 Wm. Gamble 32 P.Brisben 27 David Robertson 33 Jas. Black 34 John Black 28 P. MiddlemissJn. Brewster 35 Hy.Renniefe Lewis McKay 29 Richd. Gillis — Pittenricht 36 Saml. & Thos. Gibson Dnld. Fisher G. McClatchie 37 Wm. Gibson & Ed. Downs 30 David Barron — Murphy 38 Jos. Arthur & Arch. Ramsay 31 M. Kehoe — Henderson 39 William Arthur 32 Patrick McElroy 40 S. Leckie & Jos. Arthur, sr. 34 Hugh Lavery James Miller 41 John & James Eston and 35 Capt. Wm. Steel William Esdon 36 John & Archd. Mather 42 Jas. Logan & Jas. Leckie 37 Alex. Rennie & Jas. Wilson 43-44 Andrew, James, and 38 Jas. Condron & Edwd. Cody Wiiliam Lauder 39 Hy. Duffin & Robt. Gibson 43 2 Dominick Solway 38 578 OCCUPANTS OF LOTS IN HINCHINBROOK. 44 Ant. Sarsay& Jno. Manning 17 Wm.Irwinand M.Campbell 8th range. 18 Wm. Johnston and Archd. 1-2 Alex. Mcintosh & James Adams Simpson 19 Peter and Martin Munro 3 Hugh & Matthew Simpson 20 Wm.Anderson, Jno.Collince 4 Jno. Murphy & Thos. Eaton Alex. Pringle, Jn. Patterson 5 Hugh Calhoun, Wm. Small 21 Jas. Waldie and Mai. Munro & James Stewart 22 John Harrigan, John Mc- 6 Alex. Mclntyre Williams, James Baird, 8 Joseph Watson and John Pringle 9-11 Alex. & Chas. Broadfoot 23 James Johnston, Samuel 7th range. and Robert Hudson 3-4 James Anderson 24 Edwd.Boyce 25 Pk. Grady 6 Jas. Graham, Saml. Dalzell 26 Alex. Lumsden Peter Walsh 5th range. 9 Hy.Mulholland&PtkFury 1 L. Monique and O. Eutaw 10-11 John & David Johnston 2 Archd. Cameron and Wm. 12 Henry Henderson Menzies 13 Thomas Gibson & William 3 Donald and Duncan Henderson, sr. Robertson 14 Robt. Todd & Jasper Haws 4 Thomas Moore 15 Wm.Peake 16 J.Armstrong 5 T.Ouimet Archd. Cameron 17 Martin Armstrong & Archd. 6 Donald Downie Adams, sr. 7 Pk. McCaffrey Wm. Irwin 6th range. 8 Hugh McConville 1 Benj.Neely&Hy.Coulter.sr. 9 John Telford. Jas. Kelly 2 John Rutherford 10 John Grant Wm. Robson 3 John Neejy and -JasCoulter 11 H. Telford Wm.McClean 4 T.Whiteside and Jos. Greer 12 Robert Kelly 5 SamuelandWm.Henderson 13 Jas.Davidson Jno.Barnes 6 Jas. Gallagher and Robt. 14 Melvin Kelly John Boyd Knowles 15 Wm.Boyd Sarah Douglas 7 Sherick Crump and Daniel 16 Wm.Nicol 18 Peter Lukin Gilmore 19 John Grant Jas.Hampson 8 Patrick Walsh and John 20 William Hampson Campbell 22 Arth. McCarthy S. BroAvn 9 Jno. Henderson and Henry 24 James Watt Wm. Cairns Murray 25 R. Pringle Alex. Lumsden 10 Fred. Sheets and S. Foster 26 Alex. Anderson & Sons 11 Jas. Foster and Ptk. Briniff Thomas Way 12 John Todd and Robt. Howe 27 James Reid 13 Andrew Wilson 28 Allan Munro John Seely 14 Thomas Docheity 29 John Wilson 15 John Johnston 4th range. 16 Archd. Johnston 1 Francis Lapointe OCCUPANTS OF LOTS IN HINCHINBROOK. 579 2 James and Alex. Davidson Jas. Logan Robt. Kelly Hugh Cameron 15 James Edgar James Flynn 3 Peter McArthur Wesley Cox 4 Alex. Reeves 5 Pierre Moss 16 Wm. Hamilton Jas. Ewart 6 James and Alex. Davidson 17 John Somerville Robert Gordon 19 S. H. Schuyler 7 Malcolm McNaughton 21 Claud Burrrows 8 Jas. Hall 9 Neil McCallum 21 James McCallum 9 & 10 Archd. Muir Robert McCracken 11 Robert Lowrey 23 William and Samuel Fee Malcolm McNaughton Thomas Burrows 12 Wm. Cowan Jno. Donnelly 24 Thomas Gage John Hyde 13 JohnCassidy Jas. Gardner 26 George Blaik Wm. Rose 13 Jas. Gardner T.Dickinson Thomas Cairns O-LiELAJSrElIR, TALLIES. Jeanie Morison, A tale of Elgin. An Incident of Huntingdon Fair. Lost in the Woods, a Hinchinbrook Incident. The Settler's First Grist, a Story of Dundee. The Drover's Weird, a Scotch Story. Abner's Device, an incident of the War of 1812. What a First Settler Told Me, a Picture of Old Times on the Chateaugay. It is from such endeavors as that of Mr Sellar — endeavors to depict what he has really seen — that we may expect to obtain a Canadian literature hereafter. — Toronto Globe. The stories are extremely well-told, and display quite a new phase of Canadian pioneer life in an interesting and enter taining manner— The Week. Some of the tales bear the stamp of reality; they are all racy of the soil. — Montreal Gazette. All who are interested in preserving the records of the heroism of the peasants and crofters who, in so many cases, have been the pioneers of Canadian civilization, w7ill enjoy these simple tales of sacrifice and suffering, of toil and triumph. — Toronto Mail. Price 50 cents. Sent free by mail on receipt of price. Address : The Gleaner, Huntingdon Q. INDEX Agricultural society 214, 338 American settlers 33, 43, 46, 50, on Trout river 53, fly to U.S. 62, part return 131 Asheries started 137 Athelstan 54, 425, sawmill 426, school 427, gristmill 427 Aubrey 468 Backwoods, Life in, 394 Barron, Captain, 55, 95 Bean river, 234, rebellion 527 Beauharnois, town of, 211, re pair of mill 212, L. G. Brown arrives 213,first steamer 214, early storekeepers 214, parish of StClement215,cholera215, Rev.W.Roach 216, his death 217, rebellion 516 Beauharnois, seigniory of, 7, bought by Ellice 8, terms to censitaires 35, its first settlers 36, mill 37, St Louis feeder 37, Edward Ellice 2 11, Brown arrives as agent 213, model farm 214, harsh treatment of Williamstown Highlanders 442, prosecutes the Russel- town settlers 443, surveys 444, 448, tenure changed 451, sold to a company 453, sur veyed by settlers 454, end of theRusseltoAvn case 457, Dun can defies seignior 464 Blockhouse, the, 133, sold and destroyed 136, use during re bellion 530, 533 Canoes, line of, 247, 334 Census of 1820 148 ChateaugayBasin, see Chateau gay seigniory Chateaugay river 34, 39, 239 Chateaugay, seigniory of ,5, rafts 219, the Macdonalds 220, habi tants theircondition andmodes of farming 221, the Scotch ar rive 224,ferryboats 226,bridge 229, church 229, drowning of Rev. J. Bowles 231, rebellion 509, 521, 523 Cholera 115, 248, 271, 346, 429, 439 Cold Summers, the two, 132 Covey hill 22, cyclone 24, Saml. Covey 24 and 26, immigrants 475, school 475 Curling 268 Dalhousie settlement: itsfound- ers leave Scotland 149, arrival 151, first winter 154, road to Huntingdon 156, first harvest 158, their land claimed 159, prepare to leave 162, Ste Barbe 164, names of settlers 166 Danskin, Thomas, 353, 392 DeSalaberry 83, account of his life 86, warned of invasion 93, his report of the fight 113 Dewittville52,Toddarrivesl38, gristmill 364 Dundee 69, its earlysettlers 169, Isle of Skye 170, leases 172, Colonel Davidson 173, AA-ant of roads 175, lumbering 177, smuggling 178, bateaux and navigation of St Lawrence 179, Rev. Duncan Moody 183, INDEX. 581 church built 185, Dr McGib- bon 185, list of settlers 186 Durham-boats 179 Elections 11,133, 503 Elgin 322,386, Major Hingston 391, Thos. Danskin 392, the settler's life 394, first occu pants 411, 477 English minority, the, 567 English river 39, 257, Scotch concession 260, Norton creek 262, curling 268, school 269, cholera 271, church 272, Ed- wardstown 465 Fort Covington (French Mills) 69, blockhouse built 71, cap ture 72, visited by a spy 74, origin of name 124 Franklin 30, improves after the war 141, 440, Wm. Cant well 441, Dr Austin 441 and 472, struggle with theseignior 442, roads 469, mail 470, the hill 479 Freshet, the July, 346, 380,390 Frost, the August, 390 Georgetown church 244 Godmanchester 364, New Ire land 365, Laird settlement 373, the Ridge 374, Trout river 375, school 383, grist mill 383, the Beaver 384, list of first settlers 575 Gore, the, 417 Grants of land to Militiamen 148 Habitants, their condition, mode of living, farming, etc., 221, farming and tithes 584 Harrison, Squire, 299 Havelock 23, the flats 459, new road 473 Hemingford 11, survey 12, first settlers 19, after the war 143, first school 143, building schoolhouse 144, road to St. Edward 146, 483, sawmill 485, Rev John Merlin 486, revival 488, Methodist, Episcopalian and Catholic churches 489, the blank lands 490, stores 491, roads 492, gristmill 493, the mad wolf 494, rebellion 545, 555 Hinchinbrook 11, survey 13, first settlers 54, 411, 577, riA7er lots 416, the Gore 417, Boyd settlement 422, Seely's bridge 425, Athelstan 426, ridge road 428, brook road 429, Herdman 430, Black's church 432, Rock burn 433, Wm. Craik 434, first concession 435, Buck's mill 438 Hope's corners (Holton) 238 Howick, 40, 42, 264 Hunting, decline of, 142 Huntingdon, county of, 10, first election 17, abolished 501 Huntingdon village 139, 315, first school 319, Dr Fortune 319, Wm.BovA7ron 320, McFar lane cpens store 323, gristmill 325, salmon 327, bridge 328, village surveyed 329, Lewis & Ames 330, religious services 332, David Fitch 333, Dr Bell 335, drowning of McFarlane 337, first show 338, stage 339, court 343, registry office 344, visited by governors 344, cholera 346, Dr Shirriff and the Somervilles 348, the stone gristmill 348, burning of card- ing-mill 349, S.S. 352, temper ance 353-, St Andrew's 354, the revival 357, Episcopal church 359, Methodism 361, rebellion 530 Indian corn year 225 Indians : condition at St Regis 582 INDEX. 166, experiences with 27, 118, 161, 267, 415, services during rebellion 513, 542,duringwar of 1812, 64, 77, 94, 101, 109, 113, 115 Killed and wounded at Cha teaugay 118 Laguerre,an old settlement 17, village founded 190 and 196, church 198, McBain's death 199, John MacDonald 200, boating leaves it 202 LandO'Cakes 303 Life in the Backwoods 394 Lumbering 136 197 Manning, Jacob, his interview with Hampton 90 Mathieson, Rev. Dr., 351 Meadows, the 136 Miller, Rev. James, 296, 352 Milne, James, 36, 38, his letter about Hampton's army 120, his death 212 Moundbuilders 4 Muir, Rev Dr., 306, 530 McGill's corners 237 McLeod, Norman, 50, 236 McWattie,Rev. Alex., 243, 270, 332, 388 Narratives.personal: A.Adams 419, Mrs Barr 291, Wm.Barr 492, Josiah Black 466, James Brownlee 483, W. Caldwell 357, A. Cameron 234, David Cameron 527, Robert Carson 267, Mrs Cooper 380, Robt. Cowan 368, D. Cumming 290, Mrs W. Cunningham 251, Wm. Cunningham 369, P. Curran 205, Mrs Ford 377, Wm. Grant 240, J. Hamilton 411, A. Herdman 431, John Hunter 315, Alex. Johnston 417, Benjamin Johnston 479, Robert Kelly 423, Alexander Lunan 373, J. March 384, T. Marshall 379, W. Miller 260, MrsMoel41, Mrs McClenaghan 262, J. McDonald 375, J.Mc- Fee 484, W. McKell 257, D McMillan 189,Mrs McNee 317, A. McPherson 194, J. McPher son 191, Mrs Peak 417, Jas. Pringle 428, W. C. Roberts 459, Mrs Wm. Robson 422, R. Stevenson 476, J.Stewart 264, R. Sweet 494, J. Symons 276, W. Taylor 436, E. Wallis 389, J. Whitall 295, J. Woodrow301 Navigation of St Lawrence 179 New Ireland 365 North Georgetown 276 Norton Creek 237, 262, 467, occupants of lots 481, grist mill occupied during rebellion 537 Nun's Island (isle St Bernard) 4, windmill 6 Oatmeal mill, McArthur's, 253 Occupants of lots, first: Ameri cans 50, Chateaugay river lots 255, Dundee 186, Edwards- town 481, Elgin 411, English 274, Godmanchester 575, Hel- enstowm 289, Hinchinbrook 577, Jamestown 312, Lake- shore 166, North Georgetown 288, Ormstown 312, St Anicet 208 Ormstown 290, Catholic church 298, Re.A7. Thos. Taylor 301, Rev. A. Colquhoun 305, Rev. James Anderson 308, Charles Forest 309, Yellow house 310, gristmill 310 Power, Father, 234, 543 Prospects of the English min ority considered 567 Rebellion, the, 496, use made of self-government 498, the legis- INDEX. 583 lature 499, the townships Roads, grants to, 341 499, the county nomenclature Russeltown Flats 29, 459, changed 501, meetings of Allen's gristmill 468, stores loyalists 502, election of 468, roads 469, school 471, 1834 503, the 92 resolutions church 472 504, the first rebellion 505, Schools early, 25, 32, 47, 50, secret societies 506, prepa- 68, 246, 383, description of rations for a second rising them 408, gOA'ernment aid 507, the outbreak 508, events 410 at ChateaugayBasin 509, mur- Scotch settlement 48, 442 der of Vitty 511, expedition Scriver, John, ,143, arranges to Caughnawaga 512, its terms for squatters 491, opens failure 515, the rising at store491, tannery 493, objects Beauharnois 516, the manor- to politics in church 503, de- house captured 519, Ellice claration at meeting 505, com- and others taken prisoners mands at first battle of Odell- 520, capture of steamer 522, toAvn 552, marches again to escape of Ellice 524, Colonel Odelltown 565 Carmiehael routs the rebels Settler's life, sketch of the, 394, 525, events at Ste Martine the shanty 395, his food 396, and on Bean river 527, news dress 397, clearing the land reaches Huntingdon 530, the 398, potash-making 399, first rebel camp at Baker's 533, crops 400, live-stock 402,social discontent of volunteers at and religious life 406 their inaction 538, a recon- Skye, Isle of, 169 noissance 539, King shot 540, Sweet settlement 22 the Glengarrymen 542, flight St Anicet 11, an abandoned of the rebels 543, St Remi settlement 17, Eustache Du- 544, Grenier shot 544, Hem- puis 17, Dalhousie settlement ingford 545, course pursued 151, narrative of Torramore by Irish Catholics 545, Col. 189, Laguerre 190 and 196, Scriver marches toOdelltown the Scotch ridge 192, McEd- 547, rebels gather near Rouses ward the poet 195, lumbering Point 551, Scriver given com- 197, church 198, McBain 's mand 552, and routs the death 199, John MacDonald enemy 553, the Mclntyres 200, Newfoundout 201, decay killed 554, rebels assemble of Laguerre 202, St Anicet at Napierville 555, a republic village 202, its church 203, the declared 557, rebels advance Irish ridge 205, list of settlers on Odelltown 558, the church 208, rebellion 526 560, Colonel Odell's tactics St Antoine Abbe 32, 473 561, defence of the church Ste Barbe 165, 571 563, the rebels panic-stricken St Chrysostom, Duncan builds 565, losses 566 sawmill 463, John Severs 464, Reeves, Alex., 44, 247 school 465, first occupants 482 584 INDEX. St Louis de Gonzague 278,283, sawmill 284, feeder reopened 285, church 287 Ste Martine 232, mill 232, Pri meau 233, Father Power 23 1, rebellion 527, 543 St Regis 69, its capture 70, its condition 167, attempt to edu cate its boys 168, assist to put down rebellion 543 Townships, the, 16, jealousy of 499, their case considered 567 Trout River 53, Geo. Elder and John Massam settle 139 U. E. Loyalists 14 United States' revolution 13, immigration from 14. Walker, Rev. W. M, 307, 355, 531, 541 War of 1812, 58, habitants resist serving in militia ¦ 60, proclamation 61, American settlers fly 62, the blockade 63, the Indian guard 64, raid into Franklin 65, outpost es tablished at La Fourche 66, militia organized 68, assault on St Regis 70, blockhouse at Fort Covington (French Mills) 71, its capture 72, de serters shot 75, American thieves 75, smug-g-ling 76, raid into Hinchinbrook 78,an army prepared to invade Lower Canada 79, camp formed at Baker's 80, skirmishing at Odelltown 83, Hampton ar rives at Chateaugay, N. Y., 84, DeWatteville assumes command at Baker's 85, a second raid on Franklin 89, Hampton invades Canada 91, Izard surprises outpost 92, Macdonell arrives 96, De Watteville lays his plans 97, Purdy detached with a bri gade to flank the British 99, and is checkmated by Mac donell 100, Hampton advances 102, and attacks deSalaberry 's outpost 104, Purdy again mov7es 106, a fancied midnight attack 107, Hampton decides to leave Canada 108, the Avounded 111, Gov. Prevost arrives 112, the resolve of the settlers 113, the retreat of the Americans dis covered 115, the blockhouse at Chateaugay, N.Y., burned, deSalaberry attempts a recon- noissance 120, preparations to receive Wilkinson 122, battle of Crystler's f arm 123, retreat of Americans to Salmon river 123, sufferings of men 125, break up camp 126, Col. Scott makes a raid on Fort Coving ton and goes as far as Cha teaugay, N.Y., 128 Whisky, 179, 233, 250, 268, 337, 343, 407, 441 Woolrich, James, 25 THE END. THE CANADIAN GLEANER, Which, for nigh quarter of a century, has advocated the rights of the English-speaking population of Quebec, is carried on with un abated vigor, and aims to give all the Local News of the Counties of Beauharnois, Chateaugay, and Huntingdon, and a well-digested Summary of the News of the World. $1.50 a-year. Address: THE GLEANER, Huntingdon, Q.