, ;».>-^' r CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY GIFT OF Robert S. Bases Date Due &M= t5-tQ54r1 rs HPT 1 n imi T-« Ubl 1 5 ly/i r: =ft^^4- fr I 1 Cornell University Library F 1059O91 G71 by J. L- G Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028900864 HISTORY OF THE Ottawa Valley BY J. l>gourlay, a.m. A COLLECTION OF FACTS,, EVENTS AND REMINISCENCES FOR~OVER HALF A CENTURY. f 1 0' ^^, Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety six, by J. L. Gourlay, A.M., at the Department of Agriculture HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY ^^HE history of a country is the narative or story of the charac- ter and conduct of its prominent citizens or inhabitants. The succession of events they have been promoting or hindering, in which they have been the actors or participants, forms the theme and adventitious circumstances from the coloring of the picture. The topography of the soil, the salubrity or the reverse of the climate, occasionally come in as the local habitation on which they dwell and the atmosphere in which they breathe. Very little has been recorded of our fertile valley in past years and that little is scraps not available as history It fares no worse than other lands, whose early history lies deeply buried in obscurity and whose people's origin is unknown for want of records, or what are given as facts drawn from imagination or tradition where it is impossible to separate truth froui fable. Politicians have proposed to make it an Eden blossoming in beauty and filling the air with fragrance, provided we elect them to make their fortune at our expense but their promises were visionary and vanished away like the mirage of the desert as soon as the candidates were seated and in a con- dition to help themselves. To indolence and carelessness may be attributed the meagre information we possess regarding the origin,' progress, growth and decay of so many branches of the human race. Even the briefest correct records would be of signal advantage to posterity and to the his- torian. The migratory disposition of mankind makes it difficult to pre- serve such records even when they exist. Intelligent young people should keep short notes of stirring events that come within the range of their observation as these must be of interest and in the hands of one who could classify arid arrange and generalize they would not be heavy, but readable. The story of savage life is confined to the gratification of natu- ral appetite, idleness sleep and slaughter. If they observed any kind of laws they were not always in aid of the survival of the fittest. The history of such tribes is seldom written, or of much value if written.. We have some interest in the Indian tribes that roamed these parts, but few traces ' remain of them ; Algonquins, Hurons, Senecas have almost disappeared or at least greatly diminished, so that little reliable can be written of them to gratify curiosity, except we draw too extensively on the imagination. Many of the present rising generation with whom we have conversed can scarcely tell you of their great grandfathers or their grandfathers. We remember in youthful days the first inhabitants of the Ottawa country, on both sides of the river, who used to tell long stories of the red men, but we never met a vestage of encampment, to show that they had ever pitched a camp on the plains. Their wigwams were not bf a kind to require a foundation like more solid structures, as 4 HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. they were formed of little poles, set in a circle on the ground and con- verging their small points in the centre above, covered roun^ with white birch bark, to keep out the rain or snow, without an opening at the top to let the smoke escape, which had to make its way out by the door or other openings. When the tents were struck the bark was so light as to be easily rolled up and carried off, whilst the dry poles would do to cook the last animal to eat before they started out for the next halt- ing place. Their contact with civilization unmanned them, making them wards of the government, than a blanket became the door or screen of the tent. Cedar, ash and birch bark formed the staple with which their canoe fleets were built. Other tough timbers like oak and hickory were used for bows, arrows and clubs. Fish and the flesh of animals procured by the chase with wild vegetables, berries and other wild fruits were their prov-isibns. Dressed peltries were their clothing with a profuse decoration of feathers. To these hereditary wanderers the desolate forests were valueless except as hunting grounds or the home of the tameless fur bearing animals. They appeared very much the same to the first French immigrants, if we may judge froni a statement in a French man's letter to his French friends in the old land, in which the aspects of the country, its flora and funa, are grapically described thus : "You can see nothing but swamps, hear Aothing but frogs, and feel nothing but mosquitoes." Meadows have taken the place of swamps, large clearings have silenced the frogs, and mosquitoes are not so pro- ductive, or have betaken themselves to less civilized lands. We have conversed with the men who felled the first trees cut by the white men in this valley. We have not heard of a single trace of the march of Sam- uel Champlain with his little army of French men with their Ind'ian allies, whether he took the north shore, which is the more probable as it was the Indian trail, or the south shore, in making his way to Lake Huron and thence to the father of waters, or wherever he went to meet their Indian foes. The French did little or nothing in the settlement of the Ottawa country, except on the north shore, Two Mountains and Papineauville. The British, with a good sprinkling of U. E. L. Ameri- cans have taken up the whole valley. Almost all the .first settlers of Upper Canada were children of New England, refuges from the United States. These came in'after the war of independence and got land grants all along the line of frontier, from the Eastern Provinces to the Great Lakes, and penetrated back to the banks of the Rideau, and down the Mississippi to the Carp. The valley along the north shore. of the Ot- tawa river is beautiful lands, but it is only an average of six or seven miles, between the river and the Laurentian range of mountains. North of this range the land is good, but in small patches very broken, thinly settled, in a word, a wide sea of mountains and valleys, with lakes and streams innumerable, as far as the country has yet been explored and known. The south or Ontario side is now very populous, lots all owned or occupied worth holding. In our early recollections, what the people called half-pay officers held all the prominent place on the south shore, locating on the river bank till it was crowded full, then taking the rest of their large grants as near the other lots as they possibly could. Tier after tier of settlement followed, till all the best lots were occupied. Rivers were the channels of communication; and canoes and boats, were HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY 5 easily made in rude, strong ways, and served to convey men and freight with speed and safety, avoiding storms and squalls, and plying the paddle well on smooth water. We remember when a boy, perhaps twelve or thirteen, crossing with an old gentlemen, W. Nesbit, on a smooth sea in the morning to Aylmer. On our return in the afternoon the "waves were raging white." It fell to me to steer, as he could neither steer, row nor paddle but very poorly. He was ill to persuade to get in. The canoe was very large, dug out of an immense pine, fit to be the mast of some great Admiral. We embarked, got out a couple of lengths, when between two great waves she grated on a large bowlder that called forth a groan from the frightened old gentleman. The wind was in sailor phrase, on the larboard, blowing across the river, and too strong to face. To have run up the north shore would have put us alternately on the crest of the wave and in the trough of the sea, in a very danger- ous rolling position. We took the medium course, half against the wind trying to keep on three or four waves, so that we were breasting the wind and the waves, making steering and rowing anything but a plea- sure. Often by the blow of a heavy sea, the canoe quivering, we were thrown into a deep hollow between two large waves, the foaming crest of one dashing against the side of our craft, sending a shower over us. He would say "They're gathering on the shore to watch us go down." Trained from the cradle to trust in providence and fear no evil, the boy encouraged the old man. An unguarded dip would unship his oar, we shouted, "Hold up the blade and get it into the row lock again," and watched his stroke, we sailed about five miles on the north of the island and got under the lea of the land in comparatively calm water at the south shore- We took in our paddles and let her float down, whilst we breathed freely. We did thank the kind Providence for our safety, though we could not divest ourselves of the notion that it was a tempt- ing of that providence in not waiting for a calmer atmosphere and a smoother sea. This is one of many escapes we have made, which when we look back oti, we devoutedly thank the Lord for leading and deliver- ing us. We remember sitting enchanted with the narrative of pioneers, who told often in the funniest wittiest manner, sometimes with an ear- nest eloquence, always to our mind with originality, the hardships, priva- tions, difficulties, besetmentsv yes, suffering through which they passed, and over which they triumphed in such peculiar trying times. After this country had passed from the hands ofthe French into those of the British, the settlements began at once to be extended beyond their former bounds. Large parts ofthe eastern townships and the south shore of the Ottawa river were occupied by the British. The Scotch from highlands and lowlands generally clustered together, and filled places like Osgoode, Beckwith, Ramsay, Lanark, Renfrew, Bristol, Litchfield, Dalhousi, whilst Gloucester, Nepean. March, Huntley, Torbolton, Fitz- roy, Goulbourn, were takfen up by a mingled people of English, Scotch, Irish Welsh, whose rasping notes, enriched by Tipperary and Kerry brogues, the broad flat accents of Antrim and Down, together with the softer tones fra this side and fra yont the Tweed ; the tones ofthe Gorlos- nian mingled with those ofthe far down, making not so much a confus- ion of languages as of diaelects, burs, brogues and tones. Yet they were obliged to converse with and understand each other, or give it up. The conversations were rare, rich, entertaining, like the people, the cir. 6 ' a I STORY 6f the Ottawa Valley. cumstances and the times. Of course they were all from the British Isles, one nation, no denying that, but diversified in disposition and modes of life as if they came from the ends of the earth. Ladies of some training and refinement have told how they passed the summer, when their husbands were away earning what would keep the wolf from the door in the coming winter. They would make lye from ashes, boil hard corn in the lye nearly all day, and when it soft- ened wash and boil it again in clean water, and when cooked suffii- ciently, eat it with milk if they had it, or with maple syrup if they had that article. Go back in' your thoughts to 1820, picture to yourself a shanty 14x20, and 8 feet high, scooped, standing in a- clearing of three acres, that clearing fenced by cutting down trees, so -that one! raiet an- other, and some stakes and long poles on these made it high enough for the purpose, brush being thrown in freely to close gaps'. Elms were preferred if they were available, as they stuck on the stumps,, by that means standing much higher than if they fell flat. This was' the brush or ' slash fence. Withthis in view, look at the door of the dwelling and you see a smiling good-looking little woman with three pretty children, amusing one another at their play, the mother at her domestic employ- ment, or hoeing corn or potatoes among the stumps, and the wheat waving closely, all a rich color, as the land is full of potash, having been burned over recently and with this in view you have a picture of a new home in the bush seventy-five years ago. The cows, if she nad one, lod- ged at night at the bars, the entrance to the clearing, lived in the woods all day, and came in the evening again to be milked, if she forgot herself which seldom happened the bell would tell her wherea.bouts, or as she would obey the call of her owner whose clear voice would ring a long way in the echoing woods. The Government furnished a number of implements, indeed many things even to the door lock which was rarely locked at night throughout, the settlements. An old hoe that has survived when compared with the morden article looks as if it belonged to the stone age. A Huntley man once carried a number of these artic- les from Richmond the place of the distribution, some fixed on his back both hands full and a pot on his head, ran the gauntlet of a whole army of mosquitoes, not cutting his way through them, -but the reverse they piercing their way through his delicate Irish skin as he waded across the long swamps and bitterly complaining afterwards of his face and hands so unprotected and so perforated (the country was free trade then) the boys in expressing their sympathy would have it that they bit him through the pot. The fresh^ old country (Caucasian) blood had for them a new relish compared with that of the "red skin." The Ottawa Valley is well watered. Many of its rivers flow into the Ottawa river (called Grand river in the early times) nearly opposite each other. The Petite nation on the south a little below the Lievre on the north side of the Rid eau opposite the Gatineau, the Carp and Mississippi opposite the Quio, the Madawaska or the Bon Cheer, corresponding to the Colonge, while the Muskrat lake discharges its waters at the pretty village of Pembroke sometimes ealled the Indian river. But we could not discern from the C.P.R- a single stream worth naming on the north side for over a hundred miles falling into the Ottawa. This is owing to the nearness of the Laurentian range of mountains to the river bank and their height causing the flow of the chain of lakes on the summit to the northward HISTORY OF. THE OTTAWA VALLEY f and eastward whilst only rills come down, their face concealed by the green little gorges barely visible in the mountain sides. The Constance slowly flows into the Ottawa at the sand hills in Torbolton, the lake being only a few miles back. There is a string of lakes connecting with one another by creeks or outlets along R. R. between Pembroke and Mattawa on the south shore of the river occasionally turning a saw mill like Aumond creek now Klocks mills* Only in one place did we ob- serve anything coming south like a slide for planks in all that hundred miles. The Pitawawa runs into the Ottawa with some creeks that are nameless. The Castor with its many branches collecting in one be- comes a feeder to the nation. Mulberry creek, Stevens creek, the Jock and othdr little streams feed the Rideau. Bradley's creek runs into the Carp with many smaller ones. Many take their names from mil! owners or some one operating lumber on them or drowned in them. Some retain their Indian names which is very desirable and very proper, as commem- orating these aboriginal forest wanderers fast becomi.ng extinct. The land is of great variety from loose sands fit for glass ware to the thickest heaviest blue clay fit for pottery, bricks and tiles; said to be full of alluminum, which ought soon to be produced chtap enough to be used for roofing, the best yet discovered or applied. These lands were so thickly covered with forest trees standing near each other, and of so large a growth as almost wholly to exclude the sunshine from the soil in the leafy season "'when summer was green." Hardwood trees of fifty and sixty feet high were plentiful, some white pines there were whose height was found to be a hundred feet from the tops to the ground. • We helped to square one 73 feet long 24x25 inches, four straight lines over three hundred cubic feet and we have seen larger than this one. That piece on the ice in 1844 was worth fifteen dollars in planks, now at the mills it would be worth one hundred and fifty dollars. The density of these forests, the interlacing of the bows and their thick green foliage or' frondage account for the abundance of water then flowing in rills and for the disappearance of these wjaters when the country was denuded of this thick, close covering. These little river beds have disappeared before the plow and the present generation could hardly point out their place. Yet some of them with water not over three inches deep and twelve inches wide ran the whole summer. The cleared land has proved cap- able of producing all varieties of grains, grass and root crops. We have seen growing luxuriently the Alfalfa, or Lucerne clover, perennial rye grass, fescues foxtail, orchard blue grass, with every other kind named and nanieless. We once sowed a mixture of seven kinds of clover and eight kinds of grasses, and the experiment was a success. Fruits of every useful kind can be produced and are now grown in the various parts of the valley, from the wild strawberry to the flemish beauty pear. This last with a splendid orchard of apples of about fqrty varieties, a brother of the writer has succeeded in producing, beside old Glencairn, a beauti- ful sight to observe as you drive past, according to the expression of Judge Ross, who passes it slowly that he may take it all in and enjoy the beauty of the healthy looking trees in blossom and fruit season. The scenery of Chaudiere before its wild beauty was defaced by the axe or its sparkling waters were utilized in slides and mill races, was truly pic- turesque, almost indescribably grand. The rocky cliffs, green with the pedars and the pine to the rivers brink its volume of water tossed. 8 HISTORY OP THE OTTAWA VALLtiJY broken, dashed into foam, that foam floating down like islands of pearls on the bosom of the dashing current, the whole surveyed from the brow of the hills on the east in the evening sun, to be comprehended, to be esteemed, to be capturously admired, must be dwelt upcJn- Thus Samuel Champlain saw it, Mirrick and Stevens saw it, thus Philemon Wright saw it before a tree was removed or an arch had spanned it except the rainbow in its natural grandeur,.in its virgin beauty, in its pristine sublim- ity. This is much the finest fall on the riyer. , The next in importance is the Chats Rapids about thirty miles west of the Chaudiere,'observed from an eminence on the east side ^facing the falls, the rivers rocky bed is dotted with islands covered \vith ever green pine and divided into many channels forming great cascades, the rushing waters dashing over the precip"itious rocks, foaming into the abyss below, filling the eye with the magnificence of the vision and the ear with the soft but thundering sound of many waters. Other rapids and falls on the majestic river are exceedingly worthy of the artists' pencil, where travellers linger to ad- mire the scenery, but these two surpass them all in sublimity or grand- eur. Niagara has a greater: volume of water, a fall much higher, a roar deeper and louder, but its solitary goat island is nowhere in comparison with the number and beauty of these Islands. How ineffable in majesty and glory must the hand be that formed them ail! "He cutteth out rivers among the rocks and his eye seeth every precious thing." The Dominion in its length and breadth has few places more beautiful or at- tractive for travellers to visit- Mr. Charles ShiFriff, with his grown up sons educated civil engineers with practiced eye and cultivated intellect, explored the Chats at the in-, stigation of the government, and decided to sell out at Port Hope and' make his home here. The offer of three thousand acres of wild land was an inducement, but the splendor of the whole scenery, the illime- table water power and the dreamy prospect of a ship canal to the Huron must have helped largely to the decision. It was easy, it was natural to picture to themselves a city covering all these banks, with factories of every kind where water power could economize labor by turning the great wheels of machinery. Fancy could easily conjure up fleets flying the Union Jack at the mast head, bearing through suth a city the precious produce of the measureless west to the sea girt isles of their fathers, and returning laden with the rich and beautiful fabrics, showing and displaying all the colors of the loom, with abundance of iron and steel, the cutlery of Sheffield, and the tin of Cornwall, to distri- bute from ocean to ocean over so long a- line of inland navigable waters to supply the ever increasing demands of half a continent. This was something attainable, not the dream of an ethusiast or a fevered brain. The young man, Alexander Shirriffmade an exploration to the Geor- gian Bay past Rice lake at their own expense and great labor, and reported to the British government a feasable highway to open up the country to the overcrowded population of Britain. But the huge debt of England, and the desire of a breathing time after so great wars, and the counsels of the Duke of Wellington, the worshipped hero of the Pen- insula and Waterloo, and as nothing was known of the vast region save this solitary survey,, a less costly plan was adopted and the ship canal deferred to a later date, which may yet be realised as the vast resources of the Ottawa valley, come to be developed, understood and known HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. 9 Sir, then Hon. J. A. McDonald, when some constituencies were to be won, and many to be obtained for contractors and from them for other purposes, gave out that the government was in an interesting state that at the fend of three months, a Chats ship canal would be brought forth gave a contract to make some holes in the rocks which was done at an enormous expense, then the base born monster was strangled in his birth. The people in these times did not look at the river above and below and ask why build a ship canal in the woods where no ship would c(3me ? But it served the purpose, was an excuse for getting the money and Pontiac though fooled and deceived, sticks to the party. The British people are credited with being a shrewd and intelligent, en- terprising, conquering race or conglomerate of races. All this is correct and it may be added that they are ultraloyal to their Queen, govern- ment and political leaders. But it may be conceded that they are the most easily led of any people. They will believe in the most extraor- dinary shams to please the leaders, or through that fatal delusion under which men believe the false as if it were true, and defend the grossest untruths as if they were gospel. In our early history it was not so. Jamie Johnston ran against the supporters of the family compact and the people in and around Bytown elected hini by an overwhelming ma- jority. Then in a drunken mood he resigned his seat and when sober came to take it and was ejected from the house, the same electors by an overwhelming majority left it at home. The same people ele'cted afterwards Mr. John Scott subsequently judge a liberal worth> man and were greatful to have such a representative. In the days of our child- hood we learned from our fathers that the men of the family compa;c;t were men of honor compared with their weale vascilating, selfish suc- cessors, whose eyes are only on gain at the public loss preparing them for political perdition in spite of all warning and the cries of oppression. Men would have blushed to offer or to receive a bribe. Of course the country was poor and the statutes few. But even now we have no law to punish defaulters in government -when they retire from office. There is no. end of lawsuits to punish tho"se who swindle the public purse but the government lose them all and arbitrations go in favor of defaul- ters. Since our credit has been established in England we have gone every year a few millions deeper in debt in the estimation of most people double or treble that of our improvenients. Legislators are mostly lovers of money and such never repent. Drunkards may leave their cups, lovers of pleasure their companions, even thieves may repent, but the lover of money never gets enough, never repents, never makes res- titution without which professed repentance is but a mere sham. The clergy of those days ,were .devoted men, they had no millionaires in whose sunshine they could bdsk, no societies in which they could work up to the top of thp'heap and so procure worldly influence and patron- age such was thus considered not merely unspiritual but immoral. When W. L. McKenzie's election was twice voided and he was per- mitted to take his seat for Haldiman after the third election to the same parliament he published in his message that the cost to him of the three elections was only five dollars. When Wilks assailed the wrong doings of the English parliament in the north Briton and his election was de- clared void his friends inscribed on their banner "North Briton No. 44, Wilks and liberty," and carried him in three times with increasing ma- 16 HISTORY OF THE otTAWA VALLEY?' jorities- After they were compelled to let him take his seat he assisted in procuring legislation against the seizure of an Englishman's papers, which contributed to the welfare of his country. Ail parliamentary men are not plunderers of their country. The Burritts' began to explore the lands on the Rideau in the middle of the last decade of the i8th century. Mr. Wright came six or seven years later to Hull and cut the first trees on the north shore of this grand river west of Papineau settlement above two mountains. We have no land cleared more than one hundred years along the Ottawa west of Hawkesbiiry. Otters were plentiful on the streams. Beavers built dams with poles they cut, and formed hou.ses of poles and grass. Muskrats cut the thick, coarse grass that grew in the middle of the stream, drew it to their landing place, fed on its white roots using the stems for houses, under which they could get down the bank under ice in winter and help themselves to such provisions as came in reach. These little workers kept the streams clear of these grasses so that the currents ran freely, but their indiscriminate slaughter by the Indians, the care- lessness of the^farmers on the banks, the rank grass has grown up and obstructions abound and lands are overflowed to an alarming extent damaging the lands and injuring the health. The other wild occupants , have diminished or wholly disappeared, so that a beaver or an otter is not heard of within many miles of the highest up settlements of the lands. The floods killed fine oak and other forest trees. The Doininion Gov- ernment should deepen these streams for the health of the people. Three or four dollars a rod would take three feet deep out of the mid- dle of the stream. The people of this part of the Dominion have not got a grant of anything to improve the condition of the country that has supported Tories in all their straits. Men with India rubber boots could shovel out mud attWenty-five cents a yard- The authorities have been spendthrift with railroads why not do some other things for the people. What they waste wilfully in a year on the Experimental Farm to no purpose would deepen. all the streams in the flat lands and drain and make healthy the large tracts of country under their very eyes, but never looked at. How would it do to make the trial of d'oing a little stroke of justice to the inhabitants around the Capital ? Three feet deep cut out of the river bed below what it now is would carry offwater enough to let the lands dry up around and greatly benefit the farmers now suffering by draining their neighbors. Under yoqr view each farm resenibles arj embryo village with dwelling houses, barns, feeding houses silos. Most of the pioneers of 1818 are gone, and many born since have followed them. Some farms have changed owners. Most of them, however, are in the possession of the descendents ©f the original owners. The first occu- pants got their patents from the crown. The Simcoes, the Maitlands, Durhams, Gosfords heads figure on the old patents. From these the transfers has been made. Some have a long succession of mortgages. Here the law is loose, even defective. Every transfer the lawyer has a new search and the offence is piled up and no gain except the satisfac- tion of every- new lawyer as he executesthe mortgage. The early set- tlers were generally free from quarrels except when they indulged too freely in Jamaica. These were immediately quieted down and peace restored. Drink was freely used as if it were a necessity and so long as people kept in moderation it was not considered even a vice. Treating ktStORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLfiV-' il was consicjered an act of friendship. Moderate drinking very common, yet there was not much drunkenness. Profane swearing was by no means as common as at present. Lying, the vice of today was very rare. But now what man will you believe? "Even ministers they ha' been kenned in holy rapture great lies and nonsense baith to vend and nail't wi' scripture." The church has suffered more to-day by the false- hoods of the clergy than by intoxicating drinks. We do not give this as heresay, but as a subject, sad to say very capable of proof. Illegitimates were very few. Education was by voluntary subscription and well sustained. Boys got a good training for business and girls read fluently and wrote elegantly, whilst arithmetic was carefully taught and no such thing as the notion of denominational schools entertained. The idea originates and is largely cherished for the safety of the seats and to ab- sorbe the funds. Human beings greatly desire to_ be the dominant party forgetting that such a party is almost always tyrannical. The^e was great effort put forth to clear, and fence, and build. Some got up stone house?, but these being plastered on the stone become damp, and they had not got to the idea of building in bond timber furring and lathing which is the true plan, Some one recommended roughcasting the stone wall outside, which they did and secured a dry house. A properly built stone house is the most healthy, th^ most economical, the safest from tempests, and the most durable. After the temporary shanty, sided Iol,' houses became very popular. Several of these are yet standing and in good preservation. In the clearing of land very much was done by what they denominated a Bee. The people of the Ottawa valley need na description of what it is or was. For the benefit of others we may . say, it was a gathering of neighbors to pile up the logs of the burnt chopping that had been cut about 1 2 feet long. The teamster often chose the four or more men to follow his oxen, and with a long chain pulled in the logs from both sides, which the men rolled up in a pile and threw light ones on top. A team and a gang would log an acre a day The bee was according to the size of the chopping, provided they could command so many. The day was one of general feasting. The fatted calf or sheep was killed or the best beef procurable was well roasted with well boiled potatoes, the best of bread, buns, cakes, ' crackers, also puddings and pastries, whilst tea and coffee flowed in equal .streams. One man had charge of the bottle, if he was judicious the people went home sober, if not there would be odd ones a little in- clined to nlirth, others measuring the road as we observe some measur- ing a twelve foot sidewalk in the evening., The day being over and gone and the work done, the young men washed off the .coal dust of the burnt logs, and dressed as they came in the morning, the oxen were cared for or sent home. The young ladies having got through the dish-washing and looking as bright as bottled ale, they began a hearty contest at "song about." The mnsic of the human voice divine "put life a:nd mettle in their heels," and dancing followed as a matter of course till the short hours had passed and the young gehtlemen each saw, "his Nellie home" from the entertainment. The ' United Empire Loyalists and all others followed up these customs. In after years it was thought impossible to have a bee without the liquor, either to log or raise a building, but Mr. Hugh Gourlay broke the spell and disappointed the preditions of the seers 'by having a splendid bee without the Jamaica spirits, and since 12 HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY that time enough the bees are less numerous than before they succeed without a drop of alcohol. They used to have qulltings too in these pri- mitive times and plays sometimes were substituted for dances. The pioneers followed the customs and plans of those who came from the United States, who knew so much more of the new country and how to succeed in it. They planted more corn than the farmers did in the fol- lowing age, which gave an opportunity to have evening husking bees. General Booth has plans for bringing together the young people that mating may take place on proper principles of fitness. These husking bees gave favorable occasions -at ^;imes to meet and get acquainted and paved the way for the more formal calls at her mothers where the ' acquaintance thus formed could grow and ripen, happy matches often sprang up from these beginnings. The corn crop in these parts was not very large, and the ears should not be left to hang on the stalks very long, as in the Western States where they raised little else. It had to be housed as soon as ripe, and the animals were left to consume the stalks before winter set. in. So in the long nights of October and Nov- ember the fine moonlight, the buskers could convene and strip the ears whieh were disposed of on some dry loft or safe place till milling time came. They seldom used "Atolbrose" at these assemblys. A choice supper served all purposes. They had such a good time and went home before morning dawned. There must be marriages or the race must cease. One generation must pass away and another must come. Ever since Jacob went to see Rachel, and kissed her ruby lips, when they met at the well, and we are far from saying that, this was the first meet- ing or demonstration of the kind among our wandering species; jt is probable that the custom is as ancient as the race; nothing offensive, wrong or in bad taste could be said of the lovely, unstained and blush- ing Eve when she first opened her eyes on the dignified, manly form of her lover aud lord- in the pure innocence, submitted cheeks and lips to receive the salutation ag evidence of love at sight, without shame and with a modesty unsullied and becoming, the situation, and the circum- stances ; no stealthy invasion of a neighbors rights in the case ; so in this young world of the Ottawa Valley, when kindred spirits met, there were harmless and friendly greetings, "nemine contradicente." One institution of these early days has passed away. , The innumer- able places where a well can be had by sinking six feet, made it easy, to procure abundance of pure water. Jacob's well required a bucket with a rope to lift the water. "Sir thoii hast no 'antlema' and the well is deep. Instead of the long rope, a small pole with a limb near its thick end, set to hold the handle of the pail was used, and when skilfully man- aged served the purpose, but in unwary hands tin pails often gets off, and sank, to be raised by a fitting hook. But the spring pole was more common. A long thick cedar post, with the top prepared by a natural fork, or otherwise, to take the long spring pole that worked on a pin, was planted deep in the ground to be permanent and steady. The con- nection between the spring pole an\i the bucket, might be a rope or a chain, but was generally a small pole attached by a piece of chain* to the top of the spring pole and the heavy end had the bucket secured to it. The bucket was made of good oak staves, iron hooped with a strong iron wire handle, and hung there in the wind like a pendulum, The back weights on the spring pole would nearly balance the pole or HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. , 13 bucket full of water making it more managable, The well was built inside with stone, and a platform on top, with a crib or a box two or three feet high, and sometimes a lid covering the mouth for safety. • There were early cases of drowning in wells reported, as we had then no papers printed, and anxious mothers going to church, or store, or to make friendly visits, warned their children "not to fall in the well, not go too near the fire till Ma comes back." Like the Indiana lady in the days of great meetings and "Jerks," when she rushed to the penitent bench to confess, she left her little Pauline with her husband back in the crowd saying : "Hush now and be a good little Pliney while mother goes up and joins Church." In the onward movement of the world, the wooden pumps appeared of bored pine, and tamarac in joints. Chain pumps were introduced but did not stay. Force pumps after this came to stay. In some cases the bucket was worked with a chain and wind- lass. Later they used a tin bucket, the size to draw water out of wells drilled in the rock with a valve in the bottom of the bucket, that was resting on a pin in a box that conveyed the water to the pail. A little house enclosed such a well, and the pulley at the top let the six feet long bucket rise out of the well, to be set on the pin that raised the valve. There was one artisian well on the farm of one of the earliest settlers, beyond the stony swamp that ran freely for some time. But they have not been numerous. One of the Bonaparts was said to propose to bore such wells to run in the desert, which it was thought would be a success, and turn the wilderness into fields of verdure and fertility, but the plan has not been carried out as far as we know. We have too much land yet more ea,sily managed. ■ Education seems to have been after the Hebrew mode, taught in each family by some member of it, as there must have been some child- ren in the few families that first cast their lot in the land. Mr, Wright: of Hull and Mr. Billings of Gloucester had tutors. Mrs. Honeywell taught her own and some of her neighbors children in her own house. The Richmond colony having so many officers, succeeded in obtaining the money from the Home Government, to build a school and pay the teacher who was sent from England. It only lasted a year or two, schools were-indispensible. Governesses were employed by ■some, but except some retired army officers, very few were able to meet the ex- Dense. Many families kept a little school, some times two families of ■elativ^s united and one girl taught her cousins, also with her own broth- ers and sisters. The people of a district talked the thing over often Dcfore they could get a schoolhouse built, and a private building vvas lometimes used temporarily. Every man stated how many he could lend, and pay for, if the aggregate came to twenty, the fees would be ive dollars a head, as one, hundred dollars and "go rourid with the itholars," was the renurrieration. This corresponded with the wages on he farm. Many teachers were no better qualified than farm laborers. There was nothing taught but elementary principles, equal to the amoiis Three R.R.R. One man thought if his boy could "add up a raction," that would do for him. Of course they did not all so express hemselves. Lumbering was in advance of settlements, and many armers worked in winter cutting timber, whilst others drew with their cams when they got teams, and the grown up boys were employed in his absorbing work. Younger children could be sent to school, and 14 HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. high qualifications in the teacher were not expected, nor considered essential. Many teachers were old feeble men, that were incapable of progress. Young men pushed on their studies, and rose to the needs of the schools, retaining their places and doing efficient work. The schools were small in accommodation, and they we're thinly attended at first, but perhaps in as good proportion as ever after, all was done on the voluntary principle- Every improvement of a public nature was so. A subscription was opened, and pushed to meet the crisis whatever it was. There are people so unenlightened yet, as to think that method prefer- able even to-day. This would make sad havock with our bureaus of public works, agriculture and so many other institutions, that we delight to honor; could we not have macadamised roads, canals, railroads,, built by private companies without government aid? Would they not be as well done, as efficient; as profitable an outlay, and useful to the; community, as on our modern plans, which all men admit to be unexam - pled extra vagrance and leading to national bankruptcy ? The law of his commonwealth compelled every head to teach his family to read and vi^rite his own language and observe the morality of the Mosaic law^. The doors and gates of their habitations proved this, and their elders, and other rulers ofthe tens and hundreds, were bound to see the law obeyed Can any family now plead that a similar moral obligation is not of bind- ing force? Is a commonwealth bound beyond this to compel the educa- tion of its people ? Is it not possible to combine efficiency with economy and improve on the present boasted system — without its extravagrance ? Some of the churches are mad upon Separate schools. If these schools waste the time ofthe children in beautiful trifles and keep them unfit for citizenship, except as hewers of wood and drawers of water, is the com- monwealth bound to interfere, fight the leaders of these denominations, and give, at the public expense, a more efficient and liberal education ? Is the Provincial Government to take the place ofthe parents and of the clergy and see this done? How strongly would the parents have re- sented clerical interference in these early schools, when three or four families would have been compelled to keep their children at home in such circumstances ? Should the present fire, kindled in the Separate school cause, lead to a commission of investigation and lay.bare the true state of things ; and should the Government of Quebec refuse to secure a liberal education according to the vvishes of the clergy ; will the grand- fathers at Ottawa interfer by gentle coercion ? Are the Cardinals not kindling a fire in the bramble that shall consume the cedars? Unfor- tunate Mercier's night schools, after giving great offence, fell and perished, when people that did not know peas from barley, dism issed him and his col- leagues from office. The Americans oppose church establishments, but work up a costly, and yet faulty school system. The Saxons of Eng- land are bound to free trade with a faulty church establishment- But they have begun to take down the church establishment ; the Americans' to take down the high tariff. Both are abusive to mankind and in time must be got out of the way. If a church establishment is good for England it cannot be bad for America. Freedom in education may prevail some day- If efficiency is maintained, economy is also secured. Would it be constitutional to make such changes? If the people see History of the ottawa valley. 15 that such are beneficial they have the power to elect the men to make the changes. One century ago the Government here was mixed — civil and mili- tary— the country had been conquered. Officers were by appointment, not elective, and except the Municipal Council and members of Parlia-v ment most of them are appointive still or in in the patronage of the Gov- ernment, which it assumes, and without proper authority. Custom or habit is all they can plead. But so many of these long appointments have become so very offensive (some useless) and so costly, that they . are objectionable and demand reform. Our earliest settlements were formed of militery men, together with the United Empire Loyalists who had all, or nearly all, inherited their policy from the middle ages. The latter was the most remarkable as their progenitors had forsaken England because of the despotism of such a policy, but returned to it in the day of their power and burned witches freely when they should have turned the despotism out ot their hearts. The looseness of their ■ divorce laws is objectionable. They retained slayery until it was driven out by force. These and many others like our family compact create rebellion and the tyrannical enactments that cherish, or rather provoke the spirit of rebellion, as they cajl it, but the sustained struggle for plain common human rights as it should be called. All these show the humiliating in- consistency of fallen humanity. Besides these above named another class of people came and mingled with them in the settlements-^a class that wished to escape the grindings of their landlords and their agencies- These opposed high taxation and exhorbitaht outlay, and of course soon became marked men and fit subjects to be called rebels. What brought these men here? What have they to do advocating such questions? In a word what right had such rebels to brains or anything bordering on brains? But they are yet in existence and may as well be reckoned ' upon in the estimate of the world's progress. The descendents of the men that have forgotten the wail of Flodden, the tears of Drumclog, the humiliation of Killecrankie and the long starvation of Londonderry ; the men that to avoid oppression buried themselves in the woods tO' better their prospects and those of their children, in order that they might be; owners of the soil, independent freeholders, and have a large interest in the government of their country, cannot be expected to coolly approve of misrule. In the first town meetings these gentlemen contended for the lightest taxation, and the honest outlay of the money of the people. -But they were too few to be felt ; never aspired after office, not even to be pound keepers, path masters, or collector of taxes. They succeeded in.havi;ng the work of the year past read at the follow- ing town meeting, sp, that they might judge who were worthy of re-ap- pointment to ofiEice and who were to be rejected or kept out, if that were pcssible'. The man who would have spent money to influence an elec- tion in these early days would have brought on himself the execration of these upright, single-minded, straightforward men. Should there -not still be the determination to oppose undue taxation and encourage economy in every department from the House 01 Commons to the Township Council ? The chain of hills lying east and west, begin at the Jock mclme a littie northward to near Bell's corners, then trend southward across the 1 6 HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY corners of.Goulbourne and March, still inclining southward and stretch into Huntley at Glencairn and Elmwood, covering the borders of March, Huntley and Fitzroy and Torbolton terminating at the Chats.' Occasional levels and breaks and nitches appear through which roads pass. They contain limestone and sandstone of various colors in great abundance, materials enough to build a London. Minerals also abound mica, plumbago and phosphates enough to enrich the soil to the height of land. Geologists assert that there is no coal in them. Then every one else to be deferential scholarly and fashionable sing the same song. But they are finding shale at Lake Temiscamingue that is said to burn nearly as well as coal. We submitted samples from my brother's farm. No. 7, 1st Con. March to Professor Chapman in Toronto, who termed it choral, but a Philadelphia coal merchant said my sample was exactly like the rocks above the coal beds in the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania. No one has the disposition or the money to bore and test, but it may yet be done. The artic explorers report abundance of coal in the north, but is not available for our use (?) Could a railroad be built and worked in such an inhospital climate to bring the treasure to our doors ? No doubt a contractor could be found to go into the job if there were mil- lions in it. The fellows that propose to go to James B4y or to Hudson's Bay are ready to go to the worse place in the universe for money, but it is much more economical to bring it from Pennsylvania or Nova Scotia than from the polar regions- The fact, however, that coal ex- ists in the. parts explored in the islands near the pole, explodsthe theory that it is below' the coal formation and that other wise theory that the southern part of the continent is a drift from the northern. Where did the north get the earth to send down ? No trace of the old factories for the manufacture of so much earth have been discovered. Perhaps like the inventors they have passed out of recognition like Hans Breitman's party. Fair ish that party now? Fair ish dat loafly colden cloud vat; hang on te mountainish prow, all gone avay mit te loccar peer. Modern geologians may overturn the notions of older geologists and get us coal on the north of Ottawa. They talk of coal oil or kerosene far north of the St. Lawrence in Quebec. The shale of Temiscamingue may be introductory to coal. The latter may lie deeper and no one has gone in search yet of the coveted article. But the iron rods will be pushed down after it ere long and then we will have a boom like the Africian gold fever in which all our unfortunates will make their for- tunes. If it would only crop up berore the elections would come off. how grand and glorious !,! The highest point of these hills is at the junction of Huntley and Fitzroy- From these summits you can get the most delightful views of the country extending on all sides The beau- tiful level fertile fields of Templeton, Hull, Eardley,Onslow on the north shore of the Ottawa River, with Torbolton, March, Nepean, Gloucester on the south shore of the river and north of the ridge on which you stand, presents to the eye a pretty expanse of valley lands- Then the thousands of magnificient buildings in city, town, village and farm, the shining spires and towers of public buildings, the workshops, bridges, highways, all giving evidence of an outlay of engineering and architec- tural skill, an amount of labor skilled, and other wise presenting an ex- penditure of thousands of millions in current money with the mer- HISTORY OF THE' OTTAWA VALLEY. 17 chants. In a rtight view from the brow of these hills, the display of light, gas, kerosene, electric, is positively wonderful to look upon in every direction. This outlook is on the north side with the dear blue waves of the flood rolling along bearing on their bosom to man and everything that breathes, health inspiring breezes, building up bone and muscle, en- richingthe blood, invigorating the brain, and the mind, contributing to the health and the pleasure ;of a race of men as hardy, patient and laborious," brave, intellectual and scholarly as are to' be found in any clime, or in any division of the human family on the face of the wide world. Our remarks apply to the dwellers on these hill sides and valleys and overall these extended plains without a shadow of exaggeration. Turn now your face to the south side landscape though your stand is not at so high an altitude as on the Laurentians, 20 miles north of it, 5fet the pros- pect is so fair so agricultural, and so dotted with original forests in clumps yet untouched, the clearings are so extensve, so well cultivated, so productive, luxuriating in waving meadows, golden grain fields and'^ green pastures, teeming with flocks and herds of improved breeds and of many varieties and lengthy pedigrees. In the summer season the gardens shining with flowers, promiscuously blending their bright tints in the distance and shedding their aromatic fragrance in the atmosphere around. A large number of little orchards blooming in the loveliness of paradise as a Persian would say, pretty and productive as possible. The unbroken woods abounded in wild plums and cherries, the latter choice lumber for furniture, stair building and such like, but should be more cultivated. The red plums offered so plentifully on our market are the lineal decendants of these wild isf^jcimens, so much admired by the youths when no other fruit except berries, wild currants and thorny gooseberries were visil.>le on the landscapes except the never failing hawthorn that blooms in the vale. We should not omit the fruit of the beech, oak butternut, hazel- and hickory. These furnished abundance to beast and bird ere any footprint but that of the roaming savage had left its impression on the soil of the country. When you consider the lati- tude and climate you may ask the explorer to point you out any country much superior on the great globe we inhabit. You can see almost with- out a glass the spires of churches between you and the St. Lawrence. Your view from these hill tops, one hundred years ago, would have shown fou an unbroken forest on every side as far as your best telescope could take in the range of your vision. Not an axe had been laid to a tree by a white man. The country on the south shore of the Ottawa from its eastern point for 250 miles westward is very good soil, stretch- ing southward to the Valley of the St. Lawr. nee, and westward to Lake Huron. But in the last 100, miles east of Parry Sound it isbroken, com- posed of mountains, rocky bills, valleys, lakes and streams — not much of a country for settlemtnc. The north shore aiong t!ie river bank is good landi but only a strip between the great river and the Laurentian range of hills. North of this range there are patches of good land, but so broken as to be what travellers describe the west side of this conti- nent an "* Ocean of Mountains.'" These are not high but plentiful, with lakes and streams unnumbered. \ The Ontario side of, the river boundry is well cultivated and very populous now, but in our early recollection it was largely occupied by what they tetrned half-pay officers of the army I^ PlSTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. and navy, all of whona received large tracts of land from the Govern- ment. Old soldiers of the ranks and others filled up the back country, wniist the officers occupied the river front. O'le' hundred acres was the Sir. lest grant made at that time, and the settlements extended back by slow degrees on the good lands. The stories o,f these original settlers were very entertaining to the new comers, especially to the yOung, on whose susceptible minds deep impressions were made, as everything was new, strange and interes^^ng The French were the first European settlers keeping the river banks and lake shores closely, though they ex- tended the line far westerly exploring rivers and lakes over the greater part of the continent. The British followed in the conquest of the country and its occupation. The country was one great unbroken forest close and dense, through which the sun scarcely penetrated to the soil, the high-land and swamp alternating lay in shadow except in small openings of swales and ponds fed by rills and small creeks, all of which soon disappeared as the lands were cleared and cultivated. The cleared, lands proved to be of rich quality as the forests fell to the axes and the songs of the labourers. These early days were disturbed by no bush fires. The dampness of the soil made it sometimes difficult to burn the brush of the choppings. A horse was an interesting sight ; very rare indecd.and men got rich by the labours of the oXj whose backs served often to carry loads of provisions. Many were the sighs of the exiles for their native lands, though they often denied that poverty brought them from their ancient homes, for they had plenty of it there. How intensely they listened as one told them that he ground wheat or corn in a pepper mill to make a cake on whifb he fed, whilst he looked for work or secured a bushel of potatoes to carry home on his back, 17 or 25 miles, and plant for the next year's provisions. Some told how they had travelled hungry and weary to get ernployment and sent word back home to their wives that they had got work but _were doubtful if they would get paid for it. Lowrey's and Moorehead's carried whfat on their backs from the Rideau to Fitzroy and Huntley, at least 40 miles, for their seed, travelling along the south side of the Carp and staying over night at Harten's and Grant's. This was about 18 19 — years before our time. The great winter labour was choppling, then burn off and hoe or drag the wheat in the burnt land. In the end of the last century Mr. Philemon Wright explored the Chaudiere Falls, and in the second month of 1801 began his journey from Massachusetts via Montreal to Hull, fie commenced to clear land and build houses and mills. He was the first to employ the almost limitless water power. He chose J lull as his home and the scene of his opteratiohs, though the land was rough compared with other places, but it was covered with timber which was in his mind the prospect of a fortune. The Government of the times made him liberal grants of land, and almost everything else he re- quired. liJe was endowed with the best business capacity. We well re- trie.!nber a visit to his mill which was reputed then the best available. We came with a younger brother, th? best, teamster of ''his inches" in the land, with a yoke of three-year-old steers bred by Mr. Thomas Christie, half-bloods from some fine sire that Dr. Christie had got from Quebec to his Glencairn farm. We crossed the ice to Hull (or Aylmer) and came ciown ,to the Chaudiere mill. We were all night in the mill. ■ •) HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY.. I9 the Steers cliained in the shed. It blew a tempest in the night. We could not get our grist fpr several days and had to get home in the stQrm. We crossed the river on the ice to By-Town as the first wooden bridge had gone down the current for ever, from where it had stood some time before. JameS Morin.had walked to By-Town and brought back the nc vv^ tliat the bridge had fallen some time before this. He told the story that a "black man" was crossing when it broke down and ran for his life, and Morin affirmed that he was white when he reached the By-Town side, (if you demurred,) Well, as white as I am, which was not saying much for his own colour. The day was still stormy and very cold as we came home and we trotted our steers keeping up with a grey mare that led the way till we turned from her on the March road halting to feed them and warm ourselves. But darkness came on us on a road -we had never travelled, and the wearied steers turned in at a bars where a straw stack stood at a shanty door, the man, Mr. Mike Gleeson, came out of the shanty asking a question, and the two little fellows told their story. He chained the steers to eat at the straw stack, took the boys in before a blazing fire, the delight of their hearts on such a night. This act of hos- pitality has never been forgotten. What evoked our admiration on the Hull road was the beautiful rows of young maples Mr. Wright had ; .planted on the sides of the highway, before and on each side of his fine , house in Hull, surpassing anything else visible on our whole journey. His depot or store of provisions never failed. Seed wheat, corn, potatoes, oats and peas served to supply the wants of all the surround- ing regions. He was always in funds to meet all exegencies. The Jamaica spirits were freely used in those times in Hull as the thirsty used to tell. Bob Boyle is reported to have asked the Squire ''Is my credit good for some drinks?" "Yes, Bob, for a puncheon." " Roll it out then." So Bob and companions had some enjoyment for a time. A box of pipes and a keg of tobacco completed the year's wages. So he vvent to the woods cheerfully to pay it with the ajfe and the lines. Treating was kept up by store keepers for many years, hut this ruinous practice has gone to oblivion. The first cellar was not yet dug in Chicago, and pork had to be brought from Gincinnatti, the great porkopolis, all the way to Hull, for the "Lumbering" Hull became the centre from which radiated colonies, if ,we may so say, to all points up the river on both sides. Small boats might land easily along the north shore all the way from the Gatineau to the falls. Many people as they came to the country entered for some length of time into the service of Mr. Wright till they got some money and some idea of the country and looked up lands. Officers of fhe army and navy seemed not to settle in or near Hull. Upper Canada was their field or place of attraction. Settlements were early formed up the n'orth shore of the Ottawa. , Waller, Day, RoUin, McConnell, I-folt, Esterbrooks, Bell, Taylor, Grimes, Heath, Chamberlain, Parker, Hill, Kenny, Conroy, Eagan, Doyle, Hurdman, Coutle, Church, Mc- Lean, Radmore, Aylen, Aylwin, Haworths, Pinks, Gordon, Stewarts, Sparks, Lusk, with many others in these primitave times. Towards the west end of Hull Brekenridges, Duncans, McCooks, Beoby, Meri- fields, Maxwells, Eadies. P. H. Church and De Cell were their physi- cian all their life among them. 'Dr. Church left great wealth, but Dr. De Cell not much, and burned his books that no one could collect after him. 20 HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. Hull was the hub whence radiated so many to other parts, one after another especially between the mountain range and the river, till the leading road cut first to the lumber region and from which branch:s turned to the shanties, was all located on both sides to Eardly and Ons- low and Bristol. In the two former the hills trend southward and nar- row the land to a strip. Joseph Lusk had anumerous family ofsons'and danghteijs that married and filled up a large portion of the country. Joseph was an upright man and truthful. He told us of the kind of discipline he exercised. One daughter had a visitor her father did not like and forbade her, encouraging his visits, but they were continued, so he took a light trace chain and inflicted a few stripes on we suppose, what a young lady called "Henry Ward Beecher's part of the body" as the portion he thought was formed by nature to receive correction. We hope the stripes were not numerous nor heavy. He was not a stern man in the time of our acquaintance. The visits ceased, however, though the wrong party was punished. Were punishment, of course not too severe, resorted to more frequently in certain cases, there would be fewer ill-assorted marriages and much less misery inflicted on them- selves and others. Physiologists and stock breeders hold that certain animals should be employed for other purposes-than propagating their species. Pigeons are said if taken away aad left wild for a few years to lose all the rich colour of their improved condition and return to the dull leaden natural colour. Do^s the law not apply to the higher orders of creation? If the parents are not in harmony aboiit the upbringing of their offspring, will these left to grow not degenerate? Perhaps that is too strong a word for the negligent parents have degen- erated. Human nature requires eternal vigilance to keep on improving ; , rejecting the vile virulence of our fallen nature, and purifying it from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Farther on in Eardley the Finlays, the Frenches and Merrifields, Col. McLean and'his family, Moores, Joseph and Wm. Veleau. Joe Veleau kept hotel in the woods in Onslowon the leading road to Ottawa, greatly frequented and patronized by the shantymen. Sometimes the boys paid their bills, but without cash they would have the drink and give their employer for it The business broke down at last, as Joe could not keep up the supply, and he told doleful stories of how he was broken down : One big Hirishman he fill tumbler, an he say der ma coo, Joe, one odder big Hirish he fill tumbler, he say here's luck, Joe, anoder big Hirishman he say here's fortune, Joe ; he no stan French, but de no money, de luck and de fortune soon broke Joe Veleau. Dr. Church had some very long drives in his extensive practice, and sometimes- halted for a dinner with Joe, whose wife was a pure blood Indian woman. Joe was very proud of her as a tasty cook and a shanty keeper, for his hotel was a log shanty even when we saw it. He introduced her to Dr. Church thus : Dr. Church, my wife; some lady, some squaw. William Veleau was a shoe maker and tvrought extensively for Andrew Howley's shanty men. The lumber road was past his place. The men wore his beef-skin moccasins and coarse' boots. His brother's tavern was near, and on Sunday some drouthy soul would take his horses and a sleigh load from the shanty of the men to visit William. When the drink had hold of him WSilliam would fight with his own skaidow. His wife was HISTORY 6F the dtt A*WA VALLEY. -' kll for peace, and would take hold of him— "Wealyaam, Wealyaam;" he would turn to shake her off with "aret a vateau — cosh, me no wile man." , William would sometimes drive to the shanty for supplies. The boys all rushed to shake hands with him — Mr. Veleau, how is your family ? All sick. How is that, Mr. Veleau ? Can eat no bread. Oh, sorry for that, Mr, Veleau ; got no flour. So the foreman would furnish the flour in pay for the work done for the men and charg^e them, then all was serene once more. No matter how sick a French Canadian is pork will cure him. The children were often sent to us saying mama he very sick; he want a little piece of pork, or my fadder she very sick ; she want a little preeserve. The French people, however, did not mix up in the settle- ments with the English to any great extent, but generally formed their own neighborhoods. The Quion Village was not formed early and was small until after the building of the "Chats Ship Canal," but the line of , settlement went on merely as a line, not spreading out till long after- wards, so that as the land pleased them they sat down beside one another on both sides of the line rather than go back from it. The line was prolonged with settlers into Bristol, which was chiefly taken" up by Scotchmen. Prominent among these was Mr. Wm. King, educated for the law, he, however, did not take^to it, but with a widowed sister, Mrs. Laird, and her two children, Mr. James' Laird and MisS Lair ', a very superior young woman, came and built a mill on a creek nearly mid-way west- ward in Bristol. Being a scientific man and well trained he was of much service to the new settlement, an! the Presbyterian congregation I ^re, giving a healthy tone to both. The land being goo ', settlers cavne in from Beckwith and Ramsey, filling up in a few years- But the line of road was continued into Clarendon, lurrtbering preceding occupation of lands, and the road being at first that cut to reach the shanty to get in provisions for the work, the timber roads crossing this as they led from the groves to the river or the creeks that could float it to the O.tawa River. Clarendon became a great attraction with its thick covering of white pine on its level good lands, and as the laws had not gotabo.c the Long Sault they could, as in Israel when they had no King, do what was right in their own eyes. Multitudes were driven into it, not so much from persecution as t6 enjoy immunity from the iricessent annoyance and torture of creditors, whose polite duns became very irritating. There were fellows so vicious among these creditors as to nickname the happy retreat of these .escaped victims " Rogues Harbour." Inspite of all these draw backs the place was not only popular but became populous, so that ' Clarendon Centre soon became a village. Mr. Shaw kept .store in the place and gave it his name, arid it is now Shawville, through which runs the Chapleau & Church (now Pontiac) Railway. Still farther west Scotchmen flocked from Ramsay, and other parts of the County of Lanark to Litchfield, filling it with enterprizing farmers, many of whom lumbered and built beautiful houses and made fine farms, raising good stock of various kinds. , , , ., The Hon. Geo. Bryson & Sons lumbered extensively and built Colounge Village on the pretty river of that name, a village whose stpne buildings reflect the highest credit on father and sons. Their Presby- terian church, of stone, is an attraction and attended by all the com- munity. " So good and pleasant is it ibr brethren to dwell together in ^^ HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEVt unity." We can only now outline this march of settlement, but hope to return to it, and do it more justice in a fuller extended notice at a future ■; day. Hull thus became one centre whence the people proceeded to form > i other settlements. Mr. Wright got lands for the hands that wrou^Hit for him, and they would build a little shanty, brush out and clear a little bit, then he got them their patents and when they wished to go clsc\vhcr>; he bought them out for a small sum or a little trading, and so became -possessed of immense land property, in addition to the i^rants made to himself, which were very large. Years elapsed after the young settle- ment of Hull was begun before any survey was made in any part of the County of Carleton, as it now exists, except one side of Marlboro. March was unsurveyed when its first inhabitants took up lands along the river bank. General Lloyd and Captains Monk, Edwards. Street, ■ Weatherly, Lieut. Reed, fthe Admiral) and his brother James, with Dr. Christie, Daniel Beatty and others covered the front of the township on the south shore of the river from the line of Torbolton to the line of Nepean about 1818. The ist concessions of March and Huntley begin on the town line between them. A post was planted in the centre of '' lh3 line and one at each side; thirty-three feet from the central post | to each side post. Every fiive double lots, fifteen furlongs, a road allowance was laid out as wide as a concession andat right angles with it. Settlei's came to the front of March about the time the others occupied the river bank. Frederick Richardson, Thomas Apres, Thomas Wiggans, George Clarke, Thomas Morgan, James Armstrong, Samuel Milford, A. Harper, Cassidy, Scarf, Sparrpw, Wilson, Christy, Jamieson, Draper, McMurtroy, V , John Armstrong, Killeen, Gardiner, Burkes, Bouchers, Walls, Edge, and settled along the south of March. John Sparrow purchased from Cassidy. My father bought but Harpeif and Milford in March and Roberts and Hyde in Huntley. Anthony Summerville, Jacob and John Graham, Hugh McCaughan, Wm. Nesbitt,' Capt. Logan, Robert Duncan and Joseph Davis filled in along the 2nd and 3rd concessions. Amusing stories were told by these folorn hopes of settlers. John Cavahagh cut down a very, large tree then cut a lot of small poles plac- ing them with one end on the ground, the other on the great log, slept many nights under these poles with his axe on one side and an old Queen Bess musket on the other. Such a dormitory could not be long used as it was not water-tight and there was not a barrel near that he could go into head foremost, like Diogenes, turning its staunch end to the weather in defiance of wind and rain. Sergeant Cowie, a little farther west, lengthened out his provisions by shooting. They said he never plucked duck or partridge, but burned off the feathers as he roasted them on the fire of burning brush. Mr. Alexander Workman, so long and favourably known, and filling so many places of honour and trust in the Capitol, settled on the 4th concession 25 and 26. Mr. Workman and his man were chopping, and as they took a breathing time they heard the sound of an axe they thought away in the distance ; so taking out their compass they started to brush and blaze a path to see what they might discover. After some time they reached the bank of the Carp and began to cut a tall elm to throw across for a bridge. The sound of their axes drew the other man ttlStORY OF tut OTTAWA VALLfiV. 23 to brush and explore, so they met, and it turned out to be Mr, Cowic locating on the right or north bank of the Carp a concession below Mr. Workman. The latter remained only a fcvv years on the farm, but managed to teach a part of that time. He wrote a beautiful hand, and would take as much pains in writing to a friend or in keeping his books as in setting a copy in the old style to a tichool boy. He narrated some peculiar experiences he had in his time on the farm. One was a run, for Dr. Christie who could not be procured, being away on another call ; when Mr. Workrrian returned the boy was born and all right. John Zissca was born in the open field. The name indicates one-eyed, as he had lost an eye, but he seldom lost a battle, and when totally blind and guid- ed by a horseman on each side chroniclers say he never lost a battle when deprived of both eyes. He fell at la'st non tarn victus quam vin cendofessus. The splendour of the great bay, as well as the beautiful scenery of the Ottawa River bank, must have attracted to March the many ^officers as well as some civilians in 1818. Captains Cox, Landell and Stevens, in addition to those above mentioned, found room on the river front. But such large grants of from 800 to 2,000 acres, said to have been given Mr. Pinhey, could not be located on the river bank, and they agreed to divide the front among them and take the remainder of the gr.incs in other places. The survey had not been made, but Mr. John McNaui^h- ton and Hugh Falls rere excellent surveyors and genial gentleiricn, v/ho managed to arrange suitably to the satisfaction of all, so that from Capt. , Landell's at the Torbolton Corner down to the other corner the river ijrLiik was parcelled out to the satisfaction of all concerned. General Lloyd had no family, but his estate v.^ent to his ncph.cw, Mr. Lloyd Smith, who married Mi.ss Monk, now Mrs. McNabb. Anothrr sister is Mrs. R. Y. Green, whose late husband enjoyed a very higli place in the esteem of the people, was long Reeve of March, and whose sons are in the law and other professions in the city. The sons of Capt. Monk have been in the law, the army and Parliament, ver^ honourable men. Mr. Hamnet Pinhey, an English merchant, some times went as super cargo, was, at home on sea or land, He came rich to TiTarch and 'settled among the army and navy officers, built a grist and saw mill on a little creek, and a church at his own cost, as his neighbours, officers of high rank, were not overburdened with wealth. The talents, wealth and enterprise of Mr. Pinhey were of great service to the young colony, as he was private ba'nker to the people before any banking was thought of in the new country. He had don6 some gallant service for the British Government with his little bark: Dressed as a, Spaniard he sailed almojt throtigh the French fleet, delivered his dispatches to the King of ■ Prussia, and returned undetected and triumphant. Everyone honoured him. Gifted and unassuming he was in Parliaihent and the Legislative Council of Upper Canada. The lumber was exhausted, the creek dried up with the land clearing, the mill became useless, but the church is good to this day. Mr. Horace Pinhey, his eldest son, lived and died in the % old home. Many immigrants came in empty handed. Mr. Pinkcy sold '''" them lands, gave them time to pay, lent them money to purchase or took them for debts due him by others, and ^avc plenty of time, which was then a great accommodation. His interest was then only six or 24 HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. seven per cent. The writer's tather was often transferred to Mr. Pinhey in the many land purchases he made. He wa.^ frequently offered money at six per cent, if he wished to speculate, but he would not do so on borrowed capital. Mr. Pinhey. wrote all deeds to tliose who came, and prescribed for many sick folks till his nephew, Dr. Hill, came to practice in March — sometime after Dr. ' Christie left. The usual plan of pur- chase among the new comers was to buy at so much, pay an amount down and the remainder in yearly payments without interest. Dr. Hill married one and 'llr. John Pinhey the other of Mr. Pinhey's daughters. Mr. C. H. Pinhey, the late talented lawyer, was the youngest. Studious and obliging, he was our old school mate under Mr. Wardrope and Mr. Robb;ran a brilliant career at college and ranked high as a lawyer all his lifcji Several talented and distinguished men prepared for college in that old barn like frame building. The late judge, Robt Lyon, Esq., and the present judge, William Mosgrove, Esq., both talented, scholarly and in- fluential, together with Bakers, Moncks, ' Mallochs, O'Connors, Mc Larens, Chestnuts, afterwards Christies, Bishops, Grants, and a whole host in the law, medicine and other professions ran brilliant careers in the grammar school that had its early beginning in that' old building on Sandy Hill. We never meet the survivors of those times but with the most cordial greetings. They were manly, warm-hearted, generous and most obliging, and well conducted, with scarcely one exception. Many of them are gone. The four sons of the late Hon. Thos. McKay are all dead. One fell in battle in the east, a young officer so distinguished by his general conduct, and so much so in that action, several having fallen by his hand ere he was overpowered and dispatched, as to call forth an autograph letter from Queen Victoria of condolence to his sorrowing mother. The cheerffll, pleasant Joe Stephenson fell from a mast and was killed. John McArthur, we have not met since college days, when he related an incident worth mentioning. He had passed Bishop Strachan without the usual salute, whether in absent mood or not, he did not say, but the Bishop reported him to the Professors and he was called to answer to the charge. Forturnately for John, there had been a great procession of Oddfellows that day and he fell on the plea; that he had met so many Oddfellows, that he must have taken the Bishop for one in mistake. The plea was admitted; the Bishop himself not being able to suppress a smile. So he escaped with the gentle caution to "be more careiful." Capt. Weatherly sold a portion of his 1,200 acres of land to Mr. Didsbery, an English farmer who first imported .=hort horn Durhams and, Leicester sheep to March. The writer's father bought of these stocks and with some other importations began his improved stockraising. Mr. Tames Davidson of Nepean purchased some of the same animals. Mr. Didsbery sold the property to Mr. Berry, who started a brewery, and whose son, Mr.' W. Berry, carries it on successfully at present. Capt. Weatherly was a bachelor, and Tom, a son of Daniel Beatty, hired with him as cook, butler, man and companion. Once a hunting party called on the Capt-, who held them for lunch, (let the dogs rest) and to be sure that all was in order he made a look at the table Tom was spreading and says: "Tom, these plates f'on'tlook very shining." History oiF the oTtAWA valley. 25 Tom stammered out with an oath: "Thev were as clean as water could make them. "Water" was a very favorite setter the Capt. had. He had a man blasting a well on the farm whose solid foundation had not much depth of earth. The enterprise was somewhat doubtful, an-l the captam made many visits to the work. After a blast on one Decision the man had contrived to moisten the dust, and the Captain rushed <iown the ladder to see for himself, and touching the damp material applied his finger to his tongue saying to the man with an innocent loo:.-, "I think It's a salt spring." Wcatherly sold all out afterwards and returned to lingland. Capt. Street was very popular in his native Britain a-, well as in the land of his adoption to which he did equal honor. Early made a J. P., he married many of the aspiring youths that wished to carrv out their honest intentions. His son, J. G. Street, was then very youn.^^ and his sister, afterwards Mrs. J. B. Lewis, but either the Capt. or the young Mr. Street managed to get the first schoolhouse built, at their owr expense for the people. Mr. J. G. Street, called Jock when a boy, still lives on the old property. One of his daughters, a beautiful girl, is now the daughter-in-law of Mr. John Heney. Her mother was the sister of R. Y. Green, Esq., very handsome inhertime- Dr. Christie of the navy had lands on the first concession of March next to Huntley on the P,..ken- hanri road. There is a little cemetery on the place in which they have buried for .three generations. This farm lies in a nitch in the spiir of hills commanding a splendid view of the country to the south. Jamie Clarke, one of the Dr.'s people, called it Glencairn under which name it is still known. Here Mr. Thomas A. Christie spent the greater part of his short life. Among other excellencies he possessed a commanding intellect, a great deal of genius, was very obliging, and greatly beloved. In these times when clearings were small the lands yielded the finest of crops and the animals grew and multiplied in the woods and beaver meadows as they now do in the richest pastures. Sergeant John Arm- strong spent some time in Hull, then drew 200 acres on the 3rd line of March. A schoolhouse was built on his land, long taught in by Mr. John Younghusband. A fine stone house has replaced the old wooden struc- ture. Two or three were union schools with Huntley, (supported by subscriptions,) one on the Huntley side, two on the March side and oc- cupied by Roman Catholic teachers for years, with only two Catholic families in their section. No cry then for Separate schools, Headley , built a little sawmill on a creek on the third line farther west which wrought while the timber and water lasted, then ceased. Mr. Gainsford has a steam mill near by. These are all the mills up to date. The fire of 1870 consumed these old union schools. Old Mr. Potter made some fine scholars in one of. these at Star's Creek. A fine stone house at James Watts succeeds another of these union log houses. Col. Burke of .Richmond was the first M. P. and also Crown's land agent and afterwards Registrar for the county when it was defined. Through him most ,people got their grants from the government. The Bouchers lived in both sides of the township. John Wall, another old soldier, settled to- ward the west side of March. His son Tom Wall occupied the place after him. George Edge, or as the English called him, Hedge, was another of the army and taught school with a well preserved Irish ac- cent, ^is place was near the line of Torbolton and was termed Purga- z6 HISTORY 6F, the OtTAWA VALLEV. tory, it was so difficult to get through a swamp of such interininable length without ditch or bridge except a tree over a creek. A Bible agent said he had only got half way through Purgatory when he reached old age (Edgfe.) Capt. Bradley came from Richmond to the place now called March Corners. He traded with Mr. William Erskine giving him 200 acres in March and ;^40 for lOO in Huntley that had a mill site on it which he gave to his son, who built a mill there, so Mr. Erskine, a very upright man, became neighbor to the Capt. Mr. Erskine was once summoned to court at Perth as a juror but it seemed to him a bootless trip as he had got his shoes worn out and was wearing the bare feet. He consulted the Capt. "Are you not made a constable," said the Capt.,, "Yes but I am not sworn into the office yet." The Capt. being a J: P., put the oath, then pulling off his boots, (perhaps his only pair) said : "Here, put these on and be off to reach in time; you will be under pay and be able to come home in a new pair and bring mine with you." This was like the Capt.'s disposition. He was generous, good-hearted and bound to be obliging. The clergy had not yet come to these young settlements, and the J. P. performed the marriage ceremony when required. The Capt. had a great birch tree left growing on the roadside, on which he nailed the notice of marriage antedated some weeks but tacked on late on Saturday night and he would marry them next day and send them away double on their life's journey. Mr, Draper had been some time in Nepean but came and settled in March. His trade was shoemaking, but he raised seeds and supplied ,his neighbors around. He had a great family of sons and daughters and went with them up the Gatineau and prospered well in that region. Anthony Summerville living close by him had purchal-ed a wooden clock when they were first offered for sale with which he was very much pleased. He told them "when it comes to one she strikes one," and running over the whole figures wound up by saying "she never .strikes half a blow more or less than the exact thing." He was building a piece of wall for Mr. Pinhey to land his little boats at. Mr. Pinhey came down to look at it and being full of humor observing, hat it was somewhat uneven said to his son„ "Horace run up for the piumb, till we plumb it." "Plumb it, plumb it, plumb the debble, sir," said Tony, had I thought you were going to plumb it, sure I could have built it as fair as a." Here Mr. Pinhn- was convulsed with laughter and the last part of the sentence evaporate i into thin air. The Conleys came;, some of them lumberers; Rays, Scarfs, Savages, Davis', Gainsfords; Burkes, Kelleys, McMurtrays; some of whose sons are mechanics, merchants, doctors, successful in various occupations, but a lar^e proportion are still farmers. Most of all these came in between 1818 and 1826. Forest Cauldwel sold to Thomas Morgan close "^y him and purchased from Lieut Campbell, 3rd line Huntley, lot 21; Canipbell going up to Litchfield and giving the name to Campbell's Bay, that pretty sheet of water lying between the island and the north shore of the Ottawa. His large family of sons and daughters are residing there still on the line of Pontiac R. R. John Jones, eldest of the family, a very ac- tive worker in the lumber, was returning from Quebec and the boat taking fire near Three Rivers, threw out his trmk and leaped after it, and tnough a fine swimmer, was drowned. TLe fi.mily went west. The HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. ^y Presbyterians in March have no church but go to the Carp, Stittsville and Bell's Garners. The EpiscofJalians have a stone church and parson- age east of the Corners which is a stirring embryo village. The lands are well cultivated. Mr. Pinhey was school inspector for some years, when these institu- tions were established on a very limited base, and very far apart in the Bathurst district. He made the tour on horseback, 'the roads admitting of no other mode of travel except on foot, which was much more com- mon._ , He would .dismount at tlie schoolhouse, and with the bridle rein on his arm, place a hand on each side of the doorframe, the horse looking in as if to examine the furnishings, to the great enjoyment of the young folks, who seldoni saw a horse in that early time. The gentleman would ask a little boy how to spell a word , of one syllable to which, the little man would address himself with energy, but his eyes fixed on the horse. After a short standing examination he would dismiss them with a benign- ant smile and very gracious words of which he had an abundant treasury at easy,, ready corhmand. He was a free, voluminous correspondent of the papers when printing was introduced. Afterwards when we occu- pied the wool sack of the editorial office we had many interesting com- munications from his nimble pen in the Aylmer Times. Teachers' quali- fications were not high in that period of our history. Mr. Pinhey .re- ported cases as samples to the early press like the following : A short engaging conversation was held, then the aspirant was asked to spell cabbage. He began, chabb-^ that will do, sir. I am very much in want of a gardener. Could you not stay and help me instead of going into that dreary work of teaching ?" Oh, sir, I can get £2^ a year and go around with the scholars." That was like the times. Teachers preferred that to farm work, the wages being about the same. They sent me to several schools but the honest teacher wrote my father a note stating that the boy would lose his time with him. So the boy had to dig away at home among the roots, square and cube, and from early dawn to breakfast commit to memory Murray's large grammer. Mr. Pinhey on the hustings when opposing Capt. Lyon represented himself as the Lamb, and his tovimsmen sometimes called him that and Paddy Whelan called him the Hon. Lamb. His hardest hit against Capt. Baker, vvho half unwillingly opposed him, was that he, the Capt., would make a good weathercock but he changed too fast for the wind. Elections then lasted a week, there being but one polling place in the county. Open house was kept for the entertainment of the free and independent electors,' and they were not dry places, not from any de- fect in shingles or scoops but irrespective of the natural rainfalls, the clear rimnihg sraoth branch of the Carp, and the sparkling water of W. Kemp's deep well. The fluids were conveyed in puncheons and huge barrels. Same of the thirsty ones termed it divine juice. One poor man had-promised against tasting it for some months. His ingenious neighbor found a way to avoid the breach of promise. The man had got a small loaf for one or two with him to dine on, so this friend made him break off what he required and poured into it from the bottle. "Now eat that," said>e. They understood it as only eating, not drink- ing by any . means. The bread, beef and cheese, with various kinds of 28 HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLeV. drinks, for a week's entertainment of so many voters and camp follower^, must have been of some moment in a financial point of view. After gaining one of these elections, Mr. Pinhey indulged in some poetical descriptions of the rare occurrences at the place of polling. We give from memory a couple of lines as a sample of the fun in such cases : "Thom Acres, as cunninj ab any pet fox, The bread and the cheese he locked up in a box." In after times when he was warden of the county he would sit and enjoy the debates, sometimes throwing in a word gleefully to supplement or balance the opposing parties, or restore good humor if irritation had ap- peared. We recollect at the first formation of the council of the county of Carleton, they had agreed to have a district surveyor Then the question of his salary was discussed. Some would borrow the $700 and pay in advance, others thought it should be earned first. The friends of the surveyor then fell on six months pay in advance. The mover dwelt on the fact that the surveyor could not live six months on the air. The seconder also in an eloquent speech said he could not live six months on nothing. The warden said he never knew a man that had or could live six months on the wind and thought they would all agree that no man eould live six months on rfothing. But he had known many a man that had lived well six or more months on credit. The motion was dropped. The history of Mr. Pinhey's life would be the history of his township, and county, and the whole valley, as he was a very great actor in all the movements of note during his busy life. Col. afterwards General Lloyd, Col. Edwards, Capt. Logan and others lived in quiet retirement on their farms and half pay otium cum dignitate, taking little to do with municipal or school affairs or anything but to finish a green old age in the peace and comforts of rural and religious seclusion from all the rush and con- flict in the busy world. The north of March like the south of Huntley and much land on both banks of the St. Lawrence has a very thin soil on the rock foundation, adorned with wild roses, orange lilies, blue- berries and shrubs in multitude, all so beautiful in their season. North Huntley and South March form the Carp valley of rich lands well culti- vated as any part of the Dominion. The Ottawa & Parry Sound R. R. runs through this valley. About i8i8 or 1819 the first settlers of the Huntley side of the valley were John Scott, William Erskine and WHliam Montgomery. The last cut the first tree. Their lands were soon the property of Lieut. Sans Bradley who built the little mill so long used there. John Cavanaugh came in 18 19, William Mooney in that or the following year. The first located on the 3rd line, the second on the 4th line. The Stars, James and George, came from Hull about the same year and Moses Wilson from Cavan, Ireland. George and Thomas Graham from North of Ire- land held lots 5 and 6, 1st concession Huntley. Evans, an Engli/hman, drew lot 9, which he sold to Afthur McEldowney. Thomas Ro!.ierts, a Welshman, had lot 10, which he sold to John Gourlay. James Morin, James H^olmes, SamuelHyde; the latter sold throiajgh Col. Ahern to John Gourlay. Richard Rivington sold to Pearson. David Mofifet.Jas. Hays and Michael Rivington filled up to the rock spur wherejthe land i.s wortiiicss. j Sergent Cowie settled west of the Carp village and'tsold to Robert Wil- HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VA' LEV, • 29 son, whose numerous sons arc well established farmers around. One of them, Thomas, took to the tanning business, was very prosperous and is rich beyond most of his neighbors. His wife was a Miss Alexander. His family are all daughters that survived. Alexander Workman set- tled pro. tern, in West Huntley south of the Carp in'1820. A man the name of Cobourn wrought for him and his wife kept the house. One day she was taken ill. Mr. Workman came for Dr. Christie who was on a sick call in another quarter and Mr. Cobourn for woman help but be- fore any returned the boy was born and all well. Mr. Workman spoke of it as the hardest run of his life.. The Hodgins, Dornins, Argues, Alex- anders, Lowrys, Johnstons, Larretts, McEwaris, McKords, Hamiltons, WiUiams, Wiltons, Hustons, Kennedy's, Daleys, Irvins, Hogan.s, Gra- hams, all came in between 18 18 and 1824. Thomas Murdy and John Mannion came in 1825 and settled well up toward the south of the township on the 9th line. Hon Peter Robinson took interest in forming a settlenient and procured a lot for a church which the Catholics built after the canal work was finished. The next was an Episcopal church built by Mr. Alex Christie, stones furnished by W. B. Bradley from the quarry of R. Taylor. The Episcopal M-ethodist church at Booth's was the next built and the Presbyterian we.st of the Episcopal, and was consumed in the fire of 1870. its successor is at the Carp village. Its succession of preachers was Bennet, Penman and McLaren. The village has three churches and a good school. It is a fine centre; stores, railroad station, mechanic's shops, post office, agricultural fair grounds and buildings in good con- dition. A. Workman was the first teacher in Huntley. The first school- house was at Mooney's where James Lpwry, a gentleman and scholar, as well as a superior teacher, long held sway. He married Miss Sally Ronan of Goulbourn, the belle of that age and the finest horsewoman then in the county. Recently in our rambles for information we had the pleasure of dining with her family. The conversation turned on Motley's "Rise of the Dutch Republic." It was an hour of entertainment. The acquaintance shown with that history, and especially by the eldest daughter, was highly creditable and particularly pleasing. History read to purpose must enrich the conversation. Should knowledge not be in- haled with every breath and diffused by every utterance ? The second schoolhouse was on lot No. 6, 3rd line, taught by Mr.. Johnston ■ with force of character. We visited it for two days when a very small boy. It is replaced by a stone building at Mulligan's. Mr. Reid had a post ofifice in March and Mr. Hopper one in Huntley in connection with his store and jewellery business. This was removed farther east and kept by Mr. John Graham for many year^, then it was located about midway between these two places where it now is. A post office Was established at the Carp village and another at the Fitzroy line and one in South March. Mails were only weekly for many years. Then they got to be carried tri-weekly, now they are daily delivered. March and Hunt- ley were associated for legal and ecclesiastical purposes for a long time. Rev. James Padfield, a very excellent man, was Church of England ■ minister at first. He was .succeeded by Rev. John Johnston, afterwards Canon Johnston of Hull, ve^fy favorably known. Mr. Harper, Mr. Kerr, ' Mr. Rolph and Mr. Butlea followed in March, and Mr. Godfry, Mr. Mc- 30 HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. Morin, Dr. Codd in Huntley. Father Peter Smith of Richmond supplied back Huntley. East side of Huntley has much u.seless land, hard and thin covered with birch pines and swamps with no outlet. But its north- east corner can be matched with difficulty as to the excellent quality of the soil for thousands of acres. , The Grahams, Wilsons, Blacks, Burrows, Roes, Boyds, Hartrns, Daileys, Evoys have land in plenty of the best quality and in the highest state of cultivation. North of the town line opposite thes& the Richard-' sons, Robertsons, McCurdies, James and others exhibit fine buildings,^ well cultivated fields, large herds of improved stock of much value. We ' have recommended tree planting for the lighter soils. In former days when the country was covered with forests, the wild pigeon came thick as clouds in the spring and summer, rendering the air vocal with the ac- tion of their wings. Tliey were shot in great numbers. We have heard of fifty-two falling by one musket shot. We have not seen nor heard of a single one appearing in these parts for several years. Wild ducks and geese still come but in greatly diminished numbers. Par- tridges arc thinned out very much and rabbits are very rare. ' Deer and fur-bearing animals that were plenty are nearly all gone. Wolves were very numerous Sheep, deer, calves and some heifers became their vic- tims. Bears took pigs and calves. But we have not heard of wolves devouring human beings. It is told of an Indian belated who climbed into a beech tree to escape a pack and made it his shooting gallery for the night. As a wolf fell to his careful aim the others feasted on it whilst the Indian fired away. When daylight came the remnant disappeared and he thought he was safe to get home but his former visitors or a fresh lot were soon on his track in hot pursuit. He ran like an Indian butth";y gained on him and he had to stand at bay and defend himself as best he could occasionally with his back to the tree, splitting a skull with his sharp tomahawk. His squaw came to his aid in time. They cut, clubbed and made their escape reckoning twenty dead wolves as the trophies of their bravery. Savages are said to be truthful, being so free from the vices of po- lite life. Would they not stretch a little for self-glorification ? We give the substance of what wc have heard without denial, coloring or confir- mation. We had the honor, so called, of killing a wolf by laying poison on a sheep he killed, which he took and died. We had the great pleas- ure of saving a boy whose load of ashes had been upset on him on a hillside. His horses were held and his face was in the snow so that he did not suffocate by the dry ashes. My young brothers came up as the ashes were dashed off him- We thought him dead and carried him tp the sleigh and held his head in m)' lap whilst one drove and another put enow in his mouth. His breathing became perceptible as we drove the team at a gallop. We were soon at his home and had the satisfaction of seeing him restored. We wtre barely in time to save life. John Graham of the Bay got the north half of Sans Bradley's lands., James his son, died there and his family now live in the city. In 1833 J )hn Gourlay came from Drumquin, Tyrone, Ireland, and settled in :\[ u'ch. His youngest son Hugh owns the old home, but lives in Hunt- ley where he built the finest farm house and planted the largest and most thriving orchard in all the Ottawa country. The other brother HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. 31 Williiam occupies the old Roberts farm to whirh he has added some more at a high price and has the whole in a fine state of cultivation. On this farm he has bred Durham cattle pure and unmixed, for about forty years. John Pearson, whose sons are dentists and lawyers and farmers, popular and successful men, holds these many years, the Richard Re- mington farm. The people of South March in those early times had no church building but were obliged to walk to the 3rd line of Hun' ley to worship and hear an occasional discourse from a Wesleyan preacher who em- braced it in the long rounds of a great circuit. When old enough to w ilk to these meetings we remember hearing some old men remark specially bf a young McDowell, that he was "no cripple." My father, a good old Presbyterian of the straightest sect, kept open house and entertained these laborers in the Gospel field, the Nankievilles, Loverns and others. In after years a Presbytery meeting was held in his house to examine Mr. James Smith for license. Quarterly meetings were sometimes held in a schoolhouse in a grove on one of his farms. He sometimes ques tioned us after the collection was announced and before we could reach home what each gave, which summed up, was over half the amount. He was dissatisfied with these collections wondering how the preachers kept soul and body together on such allowances. He had lurking sus- picions from ample reasonings with the Methodists that they" laid a little stress' on their good works whjch he maintained did not abotmd in liberal contributions. The Dominion Government legislate for eight hours as a working day but set an example themselves of working a hundred and twenty-nine hours at a stretch on the Separate School Coercion Bill. But these people did not overstretch their pretentions in piety by putting in the collection hat taken round in the schoolhouse or in the grove.' My parents were very anxious to stir up and collect into a congre- gation the scattered Presbyterians in March and Huntley. The under- taking was neither an easy task nor very successful. Mr. Hugh Falls, a surveyor, a man of education, a Presbyterian from near Londonderry, Ireland, assisted much in the Scripture readings and sermon reading, in the meetings held for prayer and . religious exercises from house to house over the settlement. They made appointments and kept up the.se for years. Meantime a process of training was going on in the family. Readings were to be done by the boys, the eldest superintend- ing the exercises, so that nothing was omitted or neglected. Examina- tions were held on the lessons and in this manner the leading truths of religion were impressed on the minds of the growing up boys. The truths concerning the Supreme Being; His unity, Trinity, spirituality. wisdom, love, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth. His eternity, omnipresence, government (or Providence} over jail His creatures, their movemerxts and thoughts, influenced, controlled, guided or prevented . in His ruling the works of His creation. One primary le.sson engraved on the minds of the youths was reverence for the Holy Name of the Deity. Another was the strictest truthfullness. Boys in youth are not perfect. Faults will be found and must be corrected. But the truth must be told without any hiding or even coloring of the circumstances,' or punishment proportionately severe would follow, to avoid which, as- sisted materially till the principle of truth telling formed a habit in the 32 HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. tnin^i. H-onesfg^k their little trading with one another was strongly en- ft>rcei aad their fea^ains must stand unless the other party willingly consented to g^ve up his claim. Our good mother's influence was en- ' tirely against the use ©f alcohol and though it was kept as an entertain- ment for caBers it was soon omitted from the family groceries. Not a pipe was kept in the house. Our mother would not suffer one of us to mimic any oddity in any human being. Had the mother of "Ian Mc- Laren" (Rev. Watson) observed this principle, that religious buffoon would have furnished fewer subjects for laughter and ridicule, to his readers and treated with less profanity sacred themes, as well as the feelings of the less educated w'hose sincere hearts may be as priceless in the sight of God as his own heart, that can treat them with irreligious frivolity. But like Josh Billings by his bad spelling he has furnished, re- ligious fun and made a fortune and a great name. When the clergy like McDonald and Watson become novel writers, religion must be in want of a revival. The Bathurst Presbytery sent a minister to visit and preach on week days in school or private houses, and though they were flying and as they say, angelic, yet they were very highly esteemed and well ' at- tended. Mr. Bell, the oldest minister of Perth, Mr. Fairbairn of Ram- say, Mr. Wilson, Mr. Mann afterwards Dr. Mann of Pakenham, were the principle visitors of Huntley. Cousin Thomas Alexander was the only male member of these meetings that could "lead the singing." In his absence my mother. Mrs. William Alexander came to the place soon after these meetings began and she was a great assistance having a fine voice. The twenty- , four tune book was very interesting to us boys at that time with its illum- inations and birds painted in water colors. At this date everything was crude. The tools furnished by the Government were unwieldy com- pared with those of'the present day. Wheat, corn, oats and potatoes were the staple crops raised and almost the whole planting was done with the hoe. Mr. Thomas Morgan and his wife Mary used to tell how on the 4th and 5th of June they hoed in a bushel of wheat and threshed 42 bushels off it This was enough for .a year's provisions and seed the following spring. This was grown on Lot 5, 1st concession March. Mrs. Morgan was greatly delighted to receive visits from the children around. She made very popular readings, recitation of poetry, setting the ex- ample herself She had early memorized large portions of Pope's "Homer" and Dryden's "Virgil." She recited these in fragments and scraps to draw out the young peoi-le so that everyone had to say his Eiece in prose or ,verse, tell some story historical, oratorical, whatever e was master of, to even pass muster on such an evening. Being from the south of Ireland, she was not acquainted with Burns, but we from the north supplied that lack which afforded her very unbounded pleasure as she loved the ludicrous. A very imperfect idea can now be .formed of the country in its phy- sical appearance dotted with specks of clearings, paths blazed from one to another, a single tree for a bridge or two poles together across the Kttle stream in the vast forests and swamps all but impassible. The toil of making a livhig was immense. There was anxiety lest frost should destroy the wheat and potatoes like there is now in Manitoba and the Morthwest. Anxiety was felt lest the crop should not be adequate to HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. ^ feed the parties depending on it ftjr.the year and whei? there was a fail- ure prices ran very high. Once or twice in the memory of some yet hving flour was $i6 and even $20 per barrel. PoA varied greatly m price, sometimes brinsing $40 a barrcL Otiber articles of provision brought much like present prices. Good foctory cotton cost »5 cents a yard and woollen j^oods were high whilst butter for k>»g years was sold at sixpence a poui.d. Beef quartees sold at thtee to fo«M- dollars a cwt, but stall-fed sometinies brought she to seven dollars Hve weight. The settlements were diiefly formed of people ft<«>m the British Isles, but they were greatly benefitted by tlie ex:»erienceof t4»e Yankees as the U. E. L. were called, who brought with them the knowledge ac- quired in the States, a country once a forest like that to which they came, but a century older. These people commanded respect for their shrewdness and competency in almost every department of lumbering, stockraising and agriculture. Pines, oaks, elms and ash grew on every rock, hillside or valley, and lumbering was the natural cabling of almost every man. The river banks were firit stripped as the pieces could be laid on the ice or bank by oxen. These could live in tbe bush in sum- mer, and on beaver hay, brush and sheaf oats in winter, and after draw- ing timber in the snow would be ready for the work of the small clear- ing in spring. Everything required for their work could be made of wood except the chain, staple and ring- Even the plow only required an iron point, and the cattle eo«ld go so close as to pass one on each side of the stump turning the laaul to the roots. The harrow, as late as our time, was often a tree fork, ami sometimes oj^k or elm pins supplied the place of iron or steel. An oak block was sawed off, split and formed into a mould board with its natural twist suiting exactly. Among the stumps and on stony land the oxen were preferred. They were famous for logging. Canadian ponies came afterwards to be used but they re- quired a man exclusively to handle the chain, and keep the traces in ofder in their turnings. At that tinie a good acre of new land would yield 40 bushels of wheat, 60 bushels of com or oats, 400 bushels of potatoes. The new burned land with its surface well broken with the drag would bear, sown broadcast, 1,000 bushels of tnrnips. Immense crops of timothy and clover hay were raised on that virgin soil. About the summer of 1835 wc received a visit from the Rev. James B. Cairns, M. D. He was a man of, piety and marked devotion to the Presbyterian cause and was nxcivcli by my- father and mother with pleasure, nay delight and joy. .A Mv. Glen had been at the embryo village of Richmond some y»ars before this, but remained only a short while, but we never saw hitn d"f ■ing his slay, except a few visits he made to Torbolton halting at Mr ^lenry McBride's where he would gather a half dozen and'speaktothem. He never came irsto the region where we lived, he was before our time- Dr. Cairns preached and made some visits with my father, and arranged to preach again when they had had time to see what could be sub- scribed in order to have him stay, but the amount was small as tti^ people were few, scattered and not rich. He made a short stay in Tor. bolton where were a few gcQtch families, uut his missionary turii of mind led him to travel over most of the new settlenie:nts of the couniry, .find-' ing out nearly all the families of the Presbyterian name an'J lineage. On 34 HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. his return to Scotland and Ireland, he could tell to the delight of the astonished listeners, of almost all their distant relatives, and where they lived, and how theiy fared in this new world. He gave a great impulse to emigration, but he was not in the pay of the Government. Dr. Cairns was a great advocate of temperance and magnified his office on every possible occasion. He returned again to Canada and roamed round giving the accounts of his travels and visits, and causing considerable enjoyment to many by the freshest news from the old country relatives. An old lady in Torbolton was reported to hina as being fond of ale. On his visit he inquired if she still continued to use it; learning that she did, he made an early call, knocking before she was up. At this early unexpected knock she sprang up and in loose attire opened the door a few inches, and as it were with a single eye surveyed the Dr. who at once said, "You are Mrs. and I hear you always stick to your ale." "Aye, ye'l be that daft body they ca Dr. Caims ?" "Yes my name is Cairns." "Aye, aye, well awa' -wf ye then;" and closing the door she left the doctor to ruminate on his signal defeat and disappointment. A short time after I entered college at Toronto the Dr. came to the city and found I was there and hastening to see me asked if I was from March, reminding me of his visits and explorations. It was a very kind and friendly call and much and mutually enjoyed. Reuben Sherwood had the contract of the survey of Torbolton but the work was done by John McNaughton the great friend of Hugh Falls. In our early recollections these were our only surveyors for many years in these parts, both good and true men. The concessions and side lines in these townships wrere 66 ft wide. The plan was to plant a post in the centre of the road and one on each side 33 feet from it. These were the corner posts. Then 120 rods from these three more posts were driven into the ground dividing the first double lot of 200 acres frbm the next, and so it proceeded throughout. Any one could run a line dividing one double lot from another by setting up two pickets carefully at these posts, your pickets in a straight line from these must reach the Other posts, if the posts are correctly put in the earth- In halving a double lot you must chain across from post to post and plant your picket in the center. The form of Torbolton is almost triangular lying west of March on the south shore or right bank of the Ottawa river. It contains nearly 26,000 acres, a couple of thousand less than March, a gore like it. The side along the river is very irregular from the indentation of so many little bays. A French Canadian got a shanty on a point near the mouth of the Constance Creek, where he hunted and fished, and sang, and sold whiskey to- the raftsmen in summer and the teamsters in winter; but he could not be said to be a pioneer inhabitant or settler. He sailed up his canoe and stopped there, cultivating no land, following no trade, but with fish spear and hook and traps for the fur-bearers and grog he kept up there a while, and then disappeared leaving his ghost of a habitation sitting on the sand dry and deserted a desolated skeleton. Such shadows of humanity count for nothing in the history of any country. It appears to us that the first settler was a Mr. McLaren, brother of Mr. David McLaren who came here afterwards from Richmond. This Mr. McLaren had gone in his canoe to the post office to mail a letter to HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY 5^ his mother in Scotland, and coming home with some provisions upset h"is canoe or fell out in some way and was drowned. A son of David McLaren's was also drowned in connection with lurnbering. Both bod- ies were found and buried. The writer in the Atlas speaks of the Brit- ish government granting 400 acres to a Rev. Mr. G en inTorbolton, but says land grants had ceased before any settlers can.e tothe place. Also he says Mr. Buckham met Mr. Glen in Richmond as they were about their claims. Mr. Buckham invited or took him to Torbblton, but as he lived only two years after, we have not heard that he located in Torbol- ton or secured the title to his lands. We have seen Mr. Buckham and were well acquainted with his son, the late John Buckham, a man of good repute, well known as a public man, and very much respected. Captain Baird came into the township two or three days before Mr. J. Buckham. The first came on Saturday and the other the' Monday following in the beginning of May 1824. These have claimed to be the first settlers who took theii: lands. ' Mr. Buckham bought 200 acres for $40 or ;^io. (H.C.) This was the first purchase. The Captain and two naval officers, the brothers Grierson, had the right to draw their lands for service in the navy. David McLaren came from Richmond to Tor- bolton, we suppose to his brother's place or near it He had been a merchant in the hardware in Glasgow, a man of refinement and some education. He managed his farm and taught school. Then, he was a man of thought and "became very usefulto his township in municipal affairs. He loved truth and uprightness. He was an eminent christian whose good opinion we esteemed more highly than that of most men, and he had the honesty to express it without hesitation when necessity called for it. He had read the Scriptures to purpose. His views were clear on salvation by grace, and the impossibility of salvation 'by the works of fallen man, the' redemption of the soul by the sacrifice of the Saviour and the renovation of the heart by the power of the Holy Spirit eniploying the Word of Truth as the instrumental cause, and the con- tinual perseverance of the renewed man in the ways of righteousness,' in the language of Sacred Scripture : "Grace reigning" royally; sovereignly "through righteousness to eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." We conversed with him-frequently, enjoyed his friendship which we valued, and were persuaded that he *vas a man of the soundest mind in the whole comrnunity. It is a favor to be in a position to bear our testi- mony to his eminent parts, poHshed manners and his many good quali- ties. He' did not die so wealthy as some of his sons after him, but none were more respected than he. John McLaren, his eldest son, brought home gold, after a short but successful career in Australia. After, his return he married a wife 'pf great merit, a daughter of Captain Baird. He was very enterprising. He told us in some friendly visits, of his exploration in the forest between Kingston and Pembroke,, climbing trees, on some of the highest hilltops to get a view of the surroundings. He was hoping to find a mill site but nothing eligible appeared. He would have made the way out to market if a suitable site had existed with lumber to cqt. His early de- mise was a great loss to his family and country. We shall have occa- sion to speak of James in another connection. David is a merchant at Fitzroy Harbor doing very well for the place and the surroundings. 3f» "IISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY William was our school and college friend, a careful student, an able and sound divine, now Dr. McLaren, Professor of Systematic Theology, in Knox College, Toronto. His wife is a sister of Dr. John Laing, a sound and able minister of the Gospel: One of their sons is a preacher in Eastern Ontario. One daughter is Mrs. Mowat, daughter-in-law of Sir Oliver Mowat, Premier, long honored in Ontario. Rev. Alexander McLaren is another son residing now in Hamilton, a genial, generous- hearted, and also a sound divine. Professor McLaren is at times orig- inal in the treatment of his subjects, but there is nothing shadowy in his ideas, but sound in judgment, an excellent authority, and a trustworthy Christian gentleman, whom we wish God speed, the greatest measure of success in his great work of training young men for the grandest em- ployment under the sun. As we cherished the be.st wishes for the hap- piness of the good father and mother, we entertain. the same for the off- spring with the utmost cordiality. The settlement of Torbolton was slow. Walton Slack, Robdrt Glen. John McMurtray and others occupied the east side of the Constance outlet at an early stage. The Slacks were a numerous family spread over the place. Mr. Rolston followed, married a Miss Little ii Huntley, got land in Torbolton and raised a numerous family of sons and daugh- ters. Some of these do business now in Osgoode. One daughter mar- ried Mr. Robert Pink of Hull They have done very well in Osgoode. Mr. John Smitjh, educated for the law, settled in this township at an early date, married Miss Ferguson of Fitzroy. Their eldest daughter married Dr. Hcnder-son. A son is salesman for the Bronsons in the lumber bu.sincss. We had a great regard for Mr. Smith as a superior man. He took much interest in the township and county councils, but was shortlived. Mrs. Smith and family reside in the city. Messrs. Headly and Weir settled back from the river which was inconvenient, as they had to carry wheat to the river where they could borrow a canoe, and go to mill at Mr. Pinhey's or LeBretain's at the Des- chenes now Britannia: then return and carry the flour home with store goods. Or they could fall on the other alternative of carrying it to Richmond, and afterv '>ls Sheriff's at the Chats, or Landons on the loth line at Carp. Th<'rc is a tradition of Mrs. Weir when her husband was from home, taking her two children to go in search, of a lost cow, but losing her way in the v/oods. She was crossing a creek on an old. log and putting the children before her they got over whilst the rotten bark gave way under her feet and she slid into the creek striking her head on the log. The water was not deep enough to drown, only sufficient to soak her clothes. She could not tell how long she lay unconscious, but waking up found the little ones amusing themselves on the bank among the leaves. Night coming on .she tied some rods together at the top, winding in what sticks she could gather as a place for them to sleep, which they did whilst she watched lest wolves should come on them. She heard, or fancied she heard them, but they did not come, and the next day her husband found her and they reached home, all anxieties greatly relieved. Andrew and William Hawley came in among the early ones and located on the sand hills. William married Miss Buck- ham. He was drowned soon after and his yvidow married Robert Bell, editor; surveyor afterwards, and M. P. for Russell. SiStbRV Of tilt 6tf aVvA VAttfiV* . if Gibsons, Richards, Munroes, Aldridges, Penneys, Youngs, Floods, i Shouldices, Taylors, Ross, Dolans, McDoncll's, Capells, Keegans, all settled in between 1824 and 1840. Some attempt to account for the tardy settlement of the township, because some lands were drawn by officers and held at a high price, but the people were not forthcoming, or able to buy lands at almost any price. After the flying visits of Mr. Glen and Dr. Cairns they were some years without any. Then Mr. Henderson, a U. P. from Scotland was the first settled among them, who with Rev. William Atkins of Sniith's Falls, formed a U. P. Presby- tery. This would be about 1847 or i'?48. We had then three Presby- teries on the same ground. The (U. P.) United Presbyterian, the Free • Church, Perth- and the "Kirk" Bathurst. The three met in Bylown al- most unconscious of one another's existence at the time and place. Rev. Mr. Henderson seems to have had an eye single to thje interests of the church but he did not remain long There was a lengthy interrcgnvm after his departure, during which time Fitzroy and Torbollon were struck with a revival. Mr, James Gabie, a young convert, and Rev. Mr. Vanderburgh, a middle-aged preacher, began the work in that quar- ter with great enthusiasm. John Baird said you could hear them pray an English mile away. The excitement grew and intensified creating a great noise at the time. Religion is the one thing needful, and the one thing fallen men dislike, nearly as much as they lo^ e its antPgonist sin. When a stir is got up, mati) are willing to hope for the best from such Herculean effprts as are som.etimes put forth for it. Some fancied themselves possessed with demons, or at least attacked by them. Mr. Watts, an old elder, told me of some cases, but we said, you do not be- lieve in .such possession now ? 'Oh, yes 1 do, but it was a lazy devil." The pious Presbytery of Ottawa were greatly stirred by the news and sent Rev. John McEwan to assist, investigate and report. He re- turned and made a fine report which was well received and engrossed in the Fresbytery Records. But he could only judge Irom appearances which were often deceitful and disappear leaving not a vestige behind them. The excitement died our, the fiery billows cooled down and the waters sought and soon found their dead level again. The last slate of some was no better than the first The preachers having left, Mr. Gabic went up the Gatineau, lost his ballast and was found dead, by a pistol shot whether by accident or not we can not tell. Vanderburgh left for the States with a pretty girl, his wife being old and less attractive than the other. We have heard that she is yet alive, but of him or the young lady we know nothing. The United Presbyterian Church and the Free Church in Canada became one in the city of Montreal. The excitement in Fitzroy. and Torbolton was about forgotten, when Rev. James Taite became pastor in Mr. Henderson's old field. Mr. Tait was a student of Knox College, Toronto, a talented theolbgian, a keen metaphj'sician and a sharp business man. His wife was from Montreal and took a long time to acclimatise at the Chats, at kast we thought so,from a visit made to our college mate after his marriage. He took well for some time but he was rich, independent, and could retire without burdening the church. He was not a higher critic, but an acur.e one. V/c offer a sample. The : Presbytery of Perth opened with a sermon generally by the retiring moderator, or someone ai-ipointed to take his place. They were often good 3d HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEV i discourses. The Presbytery of Ottawa dispenses with all that now, and much else then observed and deemed right. (It is strange that they have not nominated Ian McLaren to one of the vacant chairs in Knox.) At this meeting Mr. Tait came in late, the sermon had made progress, he dropped into a seat we happened to occupy, gave attention for a while, then said in a whisper : "He has developed his voice very well." We nodded assent. "He has developed his stomach," the gentleman was becoming rather corpulent. After another lengthy paupe, "If he has developed his understanding as he has his voice and stomach, he is an able man;" all of course in low whispers. The last tinie we saw him he did not seem to observe us. He was armed for duck or deer shoot- ing, evidently bent on a raid upon the inferior portion of creation.^ Since his time Torbolton Presbyterians have not been very well supplied with preachers, .being vacant for long periods. Some, of the young men of Torbolton inform us that there is a degeneracy from the high quali- ties of the old pioneers. Have they not bone, muscle and brain enough for development? What they require is steady training, wliir'h is so largely in their own h^nds, that if attended to there can be nothing , to fear. We heard a lady of great intelligence say that in the many candidates they heard during a vacancy in her congregation, she thought it impossible that there were so many commonplace preachers in the Presbyterian church. We are sorry if such is the case. It is a well known fact that the Pres- byterian church is very careful in the education of her ministry. Profes- sors in colleges generally do their duty faithfully. 'But they can only cultivate or rather aid the youths in the cultivation of the powers they bring with them. A high notion of self and a disposition to go easy may account for these failures to interest the people or succeed in your calling., Our young 'men might dispense with bothj might work ivith head, hands and heart, and aivoid degeneracy and the severest criticisms, and be eminently usefuj everywhere. Mr. John Sm.ith took us to see the old mast road, down wflich to the river, "were drawn the stately pines, hewn on Torbolton hills, to mast the fleets that rule the waveS.that wash the shores of the world. The pines left behind, that have escaped the axe and the fires of 1870, are few in number and easily reckoned. But the lands are good over the most of the township. Even the lowest lands, on account of the large ' .clearings and some drainipg, are beginning to be considered valuable. Mr. ^cKenzie, a young Bible agent, coming through to March reported to us that he had waded through a continent of mud, battled with mil- lions of mosquitoes, and was only half way through Purgatory when he came to old age (George Edge), and was not in raptures with the as- pects of the landscape. But this was nearly half a century ago He could not sec a finer country or a better common road than now con- nects'Crown Point with March Corners. The term Purgatory is never • now applied to the long swamp road, showing what ditching and bridg- ing can do to a road that was seldom dry a[l the summer through. For a long time Mr. John Buckham v/as the most eastern of the settlers and except Mr. Drummond beside him on the west side of the side line there were none near him. Mr. Gordon, married to a daughter of Mr. Wil- liam Gourlay of Fitzroy, resides south of these. Mrs. John Buckham is ttisTokV OP TH£ Ottawa vallEV 39 still alive but not long expected to remain. She lives in the \o^ house once regarded as a fine one. Mrs. Young (Betsey) Buckham and Miss Jessie Buckham, her youngest daughter, wait on her at present. Mr. George Buckham has built a fine stone house beside the old house. He is a widower. His wife was Miss Young from Ramsay, siiter of Rev. Stephen Young, brought up in Ramsay. West of this is the great stone quarry where lies a fiel(1 of cnt stones for the would be ship canal. They, are too lari^e to be of use to the farmers that build around. Every thousand wasted 011 tli^m would, at six per cent, increase, be eight thousand to day. They lie tliere, not as a standing monument of the statemanship of the idol Sir John, wor- shipped by so many of our wise and sobpr-mindcd British Canadians. •Is it any use to pray for the conversion of the scores of dishonest incan- ables that infest the arena of our politics, whilst deluded people still take the bribes, and elect and re-elect such men ? One hundred and twcniy- nine hours of a session without adjournment to coerce Manitoba; with promises of office to their supporters, who never conld come back, tlicsc promises denied, whilst some of them are fulfilled, and the Cabinet ceasing to defend their acts, what a conditio., of things, and the Gov- ernor General has not dismissed them. A Lieut. -Governor and one or two cabinets were dismissed in Quebec because they were not of the blues, but ostensibly for some faults, but these faults multiplied by ten thousand could not disturb a feather on the back of the swans that Svvim so gracefully On the ponds of the public squares of our great Dominion. They have built a very pretty stone church in Torbolton and one at thj Chats. They used students in years gone by to teach their schools the six months in summer and considered it more profitable than other teachers the ten months or school year, as these young men were very conscientious and generally very efficient teachers. Education has been well attended to and cared for with ample provision in housfes. The society early formed was Presbyterian. Scotchm::n were the , most numerous, with some Irish, and the same holds still there, as other denominations have had little or no footing. The lands are in the ]-'OS- session of the descendwits of tKe first settlers. Some have married and acquired property there like Mr. Nesbitt, Mr. Blevvitt, Mr. Pearson an<l a few more. Mr.- Mills, as some others, came from Richmond and set- tled down to be a useful man like men of the JvlcLaren, Buckham and Smith order., The well fenced farms highly cultivated fields^ beautiful and well kept gardens, stock of all kinds well selected and fed, out- houses, barns and stables, and feeding houses, well planned arid substan- tially built; with tasty, comfortable, well constructed dwellings (a great improvement on bygone days), ornamental and fruit trees planted, roads well ditched and in fairly good passable order; altogether, prove to the observer a race of intelligent people, a condition of society far above mediocrity, showing evidences of thrift, vigor, industry and de- termination, other things being equal to attain in the future to a large measure of prosperity. Fitzroy was .settled from the north corner as its beginning at the Chats rapids. The simultaneous settlement of so many townships and the close analogy between them makes it difficult to decide which to treat of before another, and it is anything but an easy task to follow up 4^ HISTORY OlF THE OTTAWA VALLEV i the current of events in a district for half a century. Mr. Charles Sheriff of whose family we have made some mention already, purchased land at first in the region of Port Hope from one Stevens, known as King Stevens. Governor Simcoe had sent a gun boat with the Stevens fam- ily and others from Fort Niagara, where they had to take refuge, and the King, as he was called, was born under a maple tree the night they landed. Mr. Sheriff used to tell how the maple tree was reserved i.n the deed of sale. But Stevens had to die when his time came and the, poor. mortal tree succumbed to the squall at its time too. Port Hope region seems to have been settled amongst the earliest portions of Upper Canada. Fort Niagara and Fort York were Indian Forts originally and the little harbor at the outlet 6f Smith's Creek seems to have had some at- tractions for boatmen, and a settlement was begun on the banks of the creek, along which the Midland railway riins, and on the slopes of which Port Hope was built. A thin line of the U. E. Loyalists was dotted along the north bank of the St. Lawrence and spots on the shore of Lake Ontario at first. Mr. Sheriff was from Leith, his native tow.,, near Edin- burgh, Scotland, where his family was connected with the notables of the city. Whether he did not relish the society at Smith's Creek or V whether the tempting offer of the Crown of 3,ck30 acres led him to decide and settle at the Chats, we know not. The atlas tells us the refrgees drove their cattle from Niagara round the lake shore to Port Hope, but gives no intimation of how they crossed so many unbridged rivers' and streams that empty into the lake in a range of nearly half its circijmf r- ence. The hope of seeing a Georgian Bay canal was held out to Mr. Shirriff. How many she;er delusions have the leading politicians of the last twenty years held out to men. The Duke of Wellington was a warrior rather than a statesman, or a civil engineer. Mr. Shirreff was wealthy and 3,000 acres added might make him feel like a Duke. But like Crusoe's cianoe, it was in the woods, and no tenants to raise from it a revenue. The unchecked growth of years stood in these forests ready to be converted into wealth, and being four or five years in advance of all others, Mr. Sherriff with his friends and retainers began the lumbering. The ship canal was in the thoughts of the few settlers on the-Ottawa, as much the safest from Yankee guns. But the push was too big for the debt of Great Britain at that time. We have no recollection of Mr. Charles Shirriff, but we have clear' remembrance of Mr. Alexander, Robert and Miss Shirriff in our school days. The latter we often met at prayer meetings in Donald Kennedy's and William Lough's. She was a superior wornan commanding much respect from all Classes; so lady-like and so kind-hearte<^. Many of the early settlers had to work in the shanty some time in winter and on the farms part of the summer, to procure provisions and clothing for their families. Mr. Shirriff, like Mr. Wright gave them employment which w'as at once beneficial to all. He cleared land, made timber, built houses and mills. Labor and capital were on friendly terms. We wei-e often at the Chats and made many a tour through the surrounding town- ships on a halfblood from the Irish colt, Sleepy Tom or Blucher, some- times by the swamp hotel and what is now Kinburn, somecirnes'by the 9th Kne past McMillan's, at others on the loth by Landen's mill. Mr. HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY 4 1 Alexander Shirriff explored the Ottawa to the Georgian Bay, gave Rice Lake its name and made report to the British Government, bearing the whole expense himself. One of their descendants, a highly respectable rntleman, said to us recently : "If I had now what he expended then, wo«id be of some value." Where can they construct a railway or canal to be out of the range of American guns, in a country of settle- ments one hundred miles deep and four thousand miles long ? Let us, have peace. They must have felt great disappointment at the failure of their wishes and expectations after such a labor and outlay of cash. They got charge of tihe Crown timber depot at the Chaudiere Falls, but that was small compensation. One of the brothers assisted Dr. Christie s^^.^ in starting and conducting the Bytown Gazette. Alexander was a bache- lor. In 1825, Messrs. McMillan and Dingwell built the first mill in Fitz- roy to cut lumber, and kept a little store in connection with it. This supplied the men employed and the surrounding neighbors. Mr Her- man Landen built a grist mill on the Carp, where it crosses the lOth line, the only place between Hartins and the mouth, where Mr. Shirriff erected one, that there ws fall enough and current to turn a millwheel. Lan- den had fought at Ogdensburg and Chrysler's farm, and was a man of influence, a Justice of the' Peace. He married several people, the first being John Wilson and Eliza Riddell. Mr. William and John Forbes came from Perth in 1820. John died soon c^ter, the first death in Fitzroy on record. About the same time came Mr. Andrew L) son, afterwards sheriff. He was a man of great intelligence and mucij enterprise. Mr.> Mohr came about the same year, took great interest in the progress of the township. Mr. George Larmonth conducted a store on the Chats bank, assisted by his gifted sister- He built a saw mill on the Mississippi that empties in above the harbor. In 1825 the McCormicks, Owens, Grants, Thomas and Henry Fraser, Gleeson, Haliday, Willis, Marshall and Keeting all settled on the banks of the Carp or near them. The McVicars, Russels, Ritchies were nearer Fakenham. The RodiSons, Loweries, Moorheads, Moorhouses, Armstrongs, and some others took upall the lands eastward tp the town line and into Huntley, south of the Carp. On its north side were Erasers, Gourlays, Laughlans, Stevensons, McMillans, Bairds, Greens, Fergusons, Gabies, Hodgins, Bradleys, Featherstons. Some came with some money, some with little, some empty handed. But rich or poor, the condition of the country and the roads made it necess&ry to walk on foot to Brockville, Perth^or Prescott, and carry home on their backs or shoulders, what they purchased. Women carried wheat to the mill. In winter several small grists would be taken on one ox sleigh. Their at- tachment to one another was close for when Mrs. Dickson lo-st her darn- ing needle, the settlement turned out in force and found it. They had not another among them. This brings up the story of the New Eng- lander who went to "dicker" an egg for a "darnin' needle," then asked the merchant to stand treat. He said it was not his custom, but he would. So they went, and when the drmk was prepared, he could not take it without an egg; so the merchant brought his egg, and when he broke it into the drink h? exclaimed : "Geehosaphat, it has two yolks. Guess you must give me another "daniin' needle." Tea sold very high in those times. They tell of a woman whose 4^ History ot" the Ottawa ValleV two clat'ghterf^ were from home working, who brought her a nice present when they came home on a visit. But she was so much afraid of reviv- ing the old fondness for it, w ch she had about subdued, that she would not touch it. The pioneers mostly came to better their condition. They early learned to square timber. For ten miles back, they drew it to the Chats' bank and sold to the merchants that took it to market. Mr. Tufts is said to have been the first to run pine down the Chats xapids. John Gillon in after times, did great business in purchasing the farmers lots that were drawn there. He also made a market for all that the people rai.sed, and carried on his operations with vigor for several years. His credit was good, men had great confidence in him, and he got in their debt, and the fall in the price of pine left him unable to pay. My father proposed that they should release him from all obligations, and let him go on as before. John Smith, John Buckham and John Baird would agree to that, but it hung fire, as they saidof the old musket, Gillon left and no one took his place, and the village stood s]till, never recovered to this day. '^'^ej' lost the active man, the market and their money. 'VVAhether Sir John is looking down at it, or looking up, at it there is no ship canal at I lie Chats to this day nor likely soon to be. Whilst Mr. Char'es Shirriff lived at Fitzroy Harbor he turned his attention to build a church and schoolhffliise in one and the same building. Mr. Ramsay is said to have been their first teacher and a Miss Clarke taught first at Mohr's Corners, afterwards (Hubbell's Falls) Galetta. The Methodists are said to have been the first to preach in this new place. Preachers were easily made ready for the work in early times, and to the honor of the Methodists Ishey were the first in the field here. Like the potato bug for the leaves of the rising plant, they watched for the planting of the little colonies,, and in they went. Rev. Mr. Playfair is the name of the first. Mr. Adams of Fakenham followed. Rev. Mr. Alexander Mann* afterwards, Dr. Mann of Fakenham, favorably known all round, was their first Pres- byterian visitor. The first Episcopal minister was Rev. Hannibal Mul- kins, afterwards chaplain to the Kingston penitentiary, who returned to England and is a long time dead. William Owens was the first boy born in the township and the first girl was Jessie Dickson, afterwards Mrs. Lees of this city. Mr. Shirriff had the post office, for a long time the only one. Moses Holt brought the mail from Hull once a week in a canoe in summer and sleigh 'in winter. Mr. James Steene built a mill at Hubbell's Falls, but there are several now at Galetta, and churches and schools with considerable business carried on in the place. Kinburn is on the line of road to Fakenham and Arnprior and on the Parry Sound railway. Grants, Erasers, Croskerrys, Smiths, Ander- sons and Donaldsons are the principal villagers. Messrs. Neil, Steene, Fraser and Mohr have been the principal reeves. The brothers Elliott have long been clerk Mr. Taylor followed them in the same office. Surprising things were said of the toils of these early settlers. They carried store goods from Prescott and Brockville. Fancy, people' now, going alone SO miles, i'oilov. ing a road brushed out and bfazed and carry- ing through these solitary forests these neccs3;:ries of their lives. How it would try the nerves to go alone in such cir-jun-stances, or even i-n pairs or more. Or contetnpiate a solita.'-y traveOer getdng off the way HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY 43 and lost, having to spend the night on a beech tree, whose limbs growing out lower down its stem than other trees afforded the needed protection, and holding by these limbs' for verjr life whilst a pack of hungry wolves danced round to the sound of their own music. Such lodging and en- tertainment could hardly be regarded as either safe or enjoyable, yet no injuries were 'received. One young lady is reported as having on two occasions spent the night on a tree. She was called by the boys the angel of the swamp. We visited a young man in this township on the bank of the Carp, who was going to chop at a little distance, and seeing a young bear on a tree of thebeechfamily, with branches down towards the ground, and standing and wishing he had a gun, was surprised by the old mother bear and in his confusion ran and climbed the tree the cub was on, tak- ing his axe stuck in his clothes. The bear followed and he could not use his axe, but held by the branches. She, with her terrible claws, in- flicted seventeen cuts in one ieg and thigh, and some in the other; the blood flowed down on the bear and he fell at last faint with the loss of blood. His brother followed him soon after, and coming toward the scene discovered blood on his pants.' This had been rubbed off the glossy hide of the animal passing through the brush on the path. He came on his brother lying on the ground, picked him up, and carried him back home. His wounds were dressed and he recovered. Wfe saw and counted the wounds while they were still great unhealed gashes. He had when he could move about, a strap under one foot that with his hand he helped to lift forward the foot till it recovered somewhat from its stiffness. Some of our readers can furnish the name that has escaped our memory. A young girl got lost with her faithful dog' and was eight days away living on berries. She slept three nights under the same fallen tree. At last she thought the dog might take her out, and she scolded him ordering him home. He went reluctantly, every few min- utes turning to look at her, but at length brought her out. A Mrs. Mc- Caughan was lost a week and was found on the bank of a creek lifeless, in March township. We have had, as a boy, to search the woods for the cows daily but never got lost. Taught by our good mother to watjch the incline of the trees and the side on which the moss grew, and we could know our latitude in the darkest day. We have been several times close to bears and wolves, but never came to an encounter. We once saw in the twilight the white shining teeth of a wolf, but he did not press for a closer acquaintance and we mutually retired as from a drawn b?-*tle, withbut any blood letting on either side. Fitzroy has very much good land for meadow, pasture, grain and - root crops, perhaps not excelled on this continent. It cannot equal the western states in the production of corn, melons and peaches, and pork raising as corn i.^ plentiful there, and easily fed; but it can far surpass them in beef and mutton. Horses produced here are twenty-five per cent, better than those grown where lands are soft and spongy in winter, where their lower joints are soft and enlarged; but here they are clean and firm on summer dry pasture and winter clean snows. Chills, fevers, miasma are all unknown here, that are so fatal in the United States. 44 HISTORY OF THE OtTAWA VALLEV But their phj'sinians kindly console their patients by telling them of the fearful rheumatisms of Canada, etc., etc. The higher criticism of our day did not trouble the pioneers. They might express their regrets, that differences of opinion existed about • Apostolic succession, adult baptism, that the Armenians held so many rich livings in the Church of England, L'.iat moderatism prevented the extension of the church in colonial fields white to the harvest, But the profound erudition of the Robertsons, Smiths, Briggs, etc., had not thrown its searchlight on the mistakes, blunders and prejudices, of He- brews and Christians; no, the genius of these profound thinkers has set the modern world on fire. What young talented preachers in all Anglo- Saxondom, would not blush to admit that creation was the work of six days, or that Moses wrote the Pentateuch? They will admit, with diffi- culty, that Moses may have been the redactor (editor) of the scraps and fragments, out of which that wonderful book is composed. He did give' the sap of his vigorous mind to learn all the wisdom of the Egyptians for nearly forty years, and was mighty in word and deed. He had also forty years, of learned leisure, in the employ of Jethro, with his flocks cro ^ing the herbage on the very slopes of Horeb or Sinai. Now it would be pedantic indeed, to sit in judgment on the style of that "primus inter pares," that first, and most sublime of all writers since the world began. The Reformed church of France produced some of the greatest preachers, orators, and writers, and one, not by any means the least pf them, Saurin at the Hague, asks : "Did such a narrative as that of Joseph E^nd his brethren ever flow from other pen in all the ages ?" Saurin could measure weapons with the great Fenelon or Bourdaloo W Massilon or Bosuet. True indeed, the Hebrew language has not been a vernacular for thousands of years, which renders it the more difficult to criticise and in- terpret as you must depend so much on Lexicons and scholars such as the Greens, Lightfoots, Buxtorfs, Gesseniuses, not to say the Owen's, Howes, and Melvilles. Yet, if it were a spoken living language to-day, it might not exhibit any more variance from the ancient formsj than the modern Greek Bible does from. the translation of the seventy in Alexandria or the Helenistic of the New Testament. In this year of grace one thous- and eight hundred and ninety six we read with great care the Books of Moses and Joshua and we are the more confirmed in the belief that the whole is a glo-dous Revelation of Divine truth, respecting creation, the early history of our race, the fall into sin and the begun recovery. > It, as a whole, spans more than two thirds of the history of human existence here below. Without it we had been left to conjecture, 'if indeed, our wretched existence as a race had been prolonged. Now as to the frag- mentary supposition. It is even too childish to be thought of for a mo- ment. They deign not to tell us who wrote these fragments. Adam, Enoch, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Melchisedeck, and Joseph, were pre- eminently, excellent men of renown on the best side of the humanity;the ancient Kings of Egypt, Philistia and Tyre were far from being iirdig- ious, but not one of them mentions a fragment, though they were many of them writers. Suppose those had left memoirs who was capable of composing Genesis from such scraps or volumes ? Could any of tliese HISTO&Y OF THE 0TTAWAV ALLEY 45 ive US the important scrap about creation ? not eyen Adam till he ipened his eyes upon it and it was all over then. John Milton presents him questioning all creation to tell hrm of lis own origin. Thou Sun said I, fair light, and thou enlighten, eartu o fresh and gay, ye hills and dales, ye rivers, woods and plain's, and ye hat live and move, fair creatures tell: "Tell if you saw how came I thus low here ?" Now if Adam, the nearest to the creation, andof it, made n his Maker's image in knowledge, uprightness apd purity could tell lothing — what antidiluvian or post diluvian can do any better ? Job .sks scientists questions, they will not easily answer. The Rosh — Arke — <nncipia — Caput — head, first, or the Kephalia — Bibliou — all refer to the )eginning. Can any one tell of the beginning but the Creator who then :ommenced his work ? What of the light, the work of the first day? -low long was the day ? How long did it take to create the light? A^hat is it ? Something separate from the sun as affected by it so that he shadow is darkness ? Does it flow in straight lines or in waves ? Does it travel or stand still ? We have heard all the theories about it. Do the theorists know any more than others? By the word of the Lord vere the heavens made and all the host of them by the spirit or brc th ct; )f his nriouth. Through faith we understand that the worlds. were fra: jy the word of God, so that visible things were not made of visible ;hings. It is not evolution development, but creation. What do we enow about creation? Is it first forming or producing simple elements :hen combining them into the complex ? Time is a great thing in our jperations, because of our impotence- Is it so with our Creator who is jmnipotent and infinitely wise ? If a certain power is necessary to pro- duce a thing, an object, must it of necessity, be extended to millions of ^'ears? Could it not be exercised at once ? But this is miracle, so it is, Dut you must admit that or die in ignorance. ' 'Tis a beautiful, fancy of Hugh Millar that Moses had a vision each day, and that day represented 1 great period in creation That kills the sabbatical rest- There were plenty of ages in the eternity o' the past to cover all their speculations but that is not the order of Genisps arid so oft repeated in the command- ments of the law and the scores of repetitions with which the sublime record abound?. Calculating by astronomy you obliterate a beginning croing backward, and you never reach an end reckoning' forward- It' j^ou offere 1 a prize of ten thousand dollars for an essay that would prove bhe exact age of the earth, no sensible geologist, if there be such, could compete for it. Paul tells the Greeks, the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made. His eternal power and Godhead. But they did not know Him without revelation. Take away revelation and in a little time no one could prove a creation. All the mighty thinkers have a great debt to pay — they have borrowed from revelation without acknow- ledging it. In that revelation we get whatever truth we know of or abort crea- tion and not in chemistry, geology, or astronomy. Revelation is the key to these. Without it they are shut up in the fogs of ages and the fancies and splendid imagery of the intellect. The inevitable conclusion is forced on men, that without the reve,aled scriptures, all theories of creation must be fanciful, baseless, mere conjectures. The bcriptures 4*5 HISTORY OF T»E 0TTAWA VABEjEY prove their own inspiration of God, and in the words which tiie Holy Spirit teacheth. There could be much made out of the tradition of old time. Adam conversed or might have with Noah's father Lamech, .for a hundred years, Enoch, before his translation, lived one hundred years after Noah was born, and his father and grandfather nearly six hundred, years. Noah lived to the days of Nahor, Abraham's grandfather, and Shem till Isaac was a full grown man, but they may not have met and perhaps never .saw eacH other as Abraham left the country of Shem. There must ha^•e been much information conveyed from one to anotr.er in this overlapping of so many generations. We lay no stress on that, the scriptures are inspired the things written, Moses is the first who giveS ■ written books to be kept, and a copy was put into the Ark of the Covenant and that copy was brought out in the days of King Josiah. There may have been many copies in the hands of Priests and Levites, for they in- structed the people but this was the original in the clear hand writing of their greatest scholar, and prophet and was the words of the Lord God of hosts the king of glory. In Moses he selected the right man, for he testifies to Miriam that Moses was faithful in all God's house. Now we are not afraid to plant ourselves on the ground, that the whole histoiy and legislation, the or- ganizing of cliurch and state, the planting the heavens of the church and laying the foundations of the earth as a state, and saying to Zion, thou art mypeople that all was the work of God whilst the Word was the in- spired.— Word written for our learning that we, through patience, and, comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Moses testifies that the agency of God is in all this revelation, legislation, organization and the- whole people who saw it all, and in the days of Christ, the indelible im- pression on the minds of the whole nation was embodied in, this: "We know that God spake with Moses." Moses and the prophets hold the same authority : all scripture the same authority. The baseless state- ment of the great' Hebrew scholar Briggs, that no sacrifices were offered in the desert, was quietly upset by a young girl, a Sunday school teacher, that very much cattle were driven out of Egypt, and multiplied in thej-. desert, and again that these cattle suffered from thirst before the rock was smitten to give them a drink. The early settlers of this valley be- lieved the writings of Moses and the prophets and the woi'ds of Jesus Christ. The tribes of Reuben and Gad had much cattle forty years after. A few prominent names may serve to represent. the teeming thous- •arrds now around us : Wrights, Reids, Pritchards, Blackburns, McClel- land.s, SymiTics. Gordons, Kenneys, Curries, Kings, Brysons on the north shore of tlie river, and the Shirriffs, Forbes, Dicksons, McVickers,- Grants, Frascrs, Gourlays, Alexanders, Wilsons, Lowrys, Robertsons, Stevensons, Baircls, McBrides, Cauldwells, Bearmans,. Davidsons,, Gra- hams, Kennedys, Louijhs, Lusks, McLarens, Buckhams, Smiths, Grier- sons, Moffats, Irvirij;.'^, Whytes, Browns, Blacks, Fails, Hustons, Stewarts, Simpsons, Crawfords, You;igs, Toshacs, Eadies, Hartins,Fentons, Thomp- sons, Duncans, Logans, Hamiltons, Hodgins, Johnstons, among so, many. oc'iicrs that represent groups of families, almost clans and tribes, that in;' scatixrcd settlements held fast their- religion till congregations were formed and ministers procured of Wesk-yan Meiihsflist, Church of Eng- land, .Presbyterian who helci forth the faithfiii word and among whom. HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY 47 scepticism was unknown and unheard of. Yes, they planted the stnn- dard of the cross in these valleys, lived for truth and by it, and if need be die for it. The record of many of them is on high, and their followers believe, delight in, and defend the same Scriptures as -the rule and the only rule of their faith. We bear our testimony to the faithfulness of these pioneers. Many of their offspring are following their good example. But these men, before ministers could be procured, kept pure their faith. Would their grandchildren with all the advantages from ministers and churches, make as good a confession ? No doubt some would but with others; there is room for improvement. In bygone days when roads were impassible, little or no communication with the outside world, no railroad, nor macadamized road, lands to clear and fence, houses of every kind necessary had to be built, no improvement of agriculture but the crudest kind, heavy and unweildy, and human life in danger from at- tacks of wild animals: (John Gourlay in Fitzroy, carrying the floi'r_ and bran of a bushel of wheat from Landen's mill, encountered two wolves sucking the blood and eating'the neck of a deer, took up a club and drove off the wolves, then with the bags on his back, seized the deer by the hind foot and drew it after him on the light snow in the fall, and being a very large, strong man, dragged it home bathed in sweat; the wolves did not follow.) We say these people with all these difficulties to breast and overcome, were able to attend to their religion and main- tain the truth intelligently; with all the ad:vantages of a century, the most progressive of all t^e centuries of human history, with a vastly improved general education and every other facility of books, churches and minis- ' ters, this third generation ought to be asifar ahead of their grandfathers as the ratio of these corresponding advantages, in intelligence and true piety. Are they so ? Is there not a multitude given up to ease, idle- ness, worldliness, and even sensuality ? Oh, the happiness, the enjoy- ment men might attain to, did they give themselves to Godliness ! Some of the old families have disappeared. Some have gone to multiply and cultivate the orange groves in the Sunny South, some have gone into professions, others into business, but many of them are on the old farms of their grandfathers; stalwart sons of the soil. Their wives and sisters, the wives of others, retain a,t this day much of the vi- gor, freshness and good looks of former days. Wc speak of the children of the old generation of pioneers or white aborigines that entered in the early part of this nineteenth century on the subjucalion of the unbroken forests. The trees of these forests had grown to an immense size. There was a sad waste of the beautiful sidings, in preparing square timber for the British market which was then open to u& Chopping and clearing up the heavy timbered lands was heavy work. 'Churches were few for years. Farmers' houses were large shanties caulked with moss driven into the chinks between logs and scQops with a thin pointed handspike. The chinks between the logs on the outside were plastered with well-, wrought blue clay. Lim6 had not yet been burned on log piles as after- wards it was, and kilns were n«t thought ©f. Chimneys were very wide and low, causing free circulation of air, pare and wholesome, they had such a fine draught. If a stone c0»ld be found large enough to stand on the ground against the wall, it was set up; if not a piece of thin wall was built wiflb stomes* and bkic clay E»®rtar to keep the fire from the logs 48 HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY or w all of the building. Then, two crooked cedars were got and the ends pointed or thinned to drive into the chinks between th^ logs on each side of the stone work. The other ends pinned to the beam across the house about four feet in from the end wall. Cedars were cut the length for these lathf-. rtom one side to the other. The first lath was laid in a good bed ol clay mortar on the stone work on the back. Then the cedars flatted a little on their upper side, had a bed of mortar laid on and laths cut laid on them across the lath on the back; some of them nailed in the end to the crooked cedars, laid in plenty of mortar. When they reached to the level of the highest ends of these crooked cedars with the three sides or jsack and two sides they laid a lath in mortar on . the beam and formed the fourth side. So they built the chimney which they called a fireplace till they got above the scoops. The substitute they made for hair in the mortar was cut straw or beaver meadow hay, cut with the axe on a block, sometimes pounded to make it the more pliable. The back was kept straight with the house wall but the other thr£e sides were drawn in so that from, five or six feet wide at the bot- tom it would end in three by two feet at the top. The mortar was laid to give three quarters of an inch on the inside of the laths, and made smooth to be safe. They often caught fire but a cup of water thrown against it generally extinguished it. We have often so extinguished it. Mrs. Morin was entertaining Mrs. Milford at tea one evening when the shanty chimney took, fire. Mrs. Milford understood the business and was soon on the house-top re- moving the scoops and then pouring on the water as it was hai;ided up to her, soon quenching the fire. Taller houses, lime-burning and stone chimneys became popular, and Jimmie O'Meara and Luke Hogan, stone- masons, built for everybody. In a short time sided log houses and sided log churches became something to speak of and glory in. Sided log sehoolhouses became fine preaching places for a few years. Our pride and vanity have carried us to the other extremity. In the city we ex- pend far above our wants, v/hilst the poverty stricken appearance of the country church would indicate that it did not belong to the same denom- ination. Sometimes city ministers, with reverence be it spoken, of course, rarely, are suspected of lording it just a very little over their less fortunate country brethren; or the brethren are afraid to oppose anything these wish lest their popularity should be blanched. A baseless fabric of a vision ! But the appearance of smoke is pretty sure indication of fire. Is justice always kept in view in the proceedings of church courts? Enter not into judgment with thy servants ! Church loans are popular, as if it were a virtue to lend at low interest to encourage such architec- tural display. It looks like laying up treasure above. A Scotchman dying, is said to have asked a Free Church minister "If I leave twenty thousand pounds to the Free Church, would it benefit me anything in the other world ?" The cautious minister would not. 'comm.it himself, but said; "It would be worth trying the experiment." If one cannot help being rich, would it not be a fine experimert long before he dies to help feeble congregations yearly? Henry }. Tilden left six millions to found libraries. Had he given the interest every year of that sum to assist feeble congregations in the denominatk)n he preferred, l.e might not only have got'to occupy the White House, but he would HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY 49 have been embalmed in the hearts and remembered in the prayers of millions, as the man that loved their nation and had built them a syna- gogue. A writer in the Canadian Churchhian makes out that wealth will enable you to become Knight, Baronet or Lord, or procure you any de- grees the universities can confer; provided always that you support the party enjoying the power. The early comers were contented with plain things in houses and churches, not because they were destitute of taste, or blind to elegance They were thinkers and workers who made the country what it is but what the actors of to-day are undoing. Fifty years ago the little Presbytery of Perth was formed chiefly of young ministers and elders who set themselves to build up their cause in the Ottawa Valley, which thing they did at an outlay of labor, perhaps without a parallel in the history of the church for some centuries. As a Presbytery they visited almost every congregation' and mission station from the Long Saultto Fort William, and from Dalhousieto the Desci;:. What grand, rides and drives they had. Once when waiting for refreshments at the well-conducted hotel of Mrs. McFarland, Pakenham, Sheriff Dickson, her- brother, a man of " great conversational powers, laid himself out to entertain us. The horse, that in saddle or harness held a conspicuous place in our work, was referred to, and the Sheriff recommended us never to buy or keep a horse that in trotting described a semicircle with his front foot, as he would be slower or sooner exhausted than one that lifted his foot and reached it forward in a straight or direct line; a useful hint in many a se- lection afterwards. On one occasion at Dalhousie, a gentleman tried to borrow his friend's horse to drive in advance to his place to be ready to receive the others when they arrived, but was refused. He then offered to bet that he could drive him as fast as the owner. Another brought out a tall rangy raw colt in long shafts, to save the hind foot from striking the cross bar, and asked him to get in which he did asking if the shaft was all one stick ? He was driven home half an hour in advance in time, to prepare for their reception. The settlers were far apart and had to travel often a great way but they did.it gladly and the ministers rode in pairs greatly enjoying each others society and the meetings, enterrainments and especiafly the; pic- turesque scenery of which the Ottawa country possesses a great and envious monopoly. The Oilaw^ river so broken with rapids before slides were formed had its Siid njonopoly of swallowing multitudes of poor raftsmen, and, sorry to say, some excellent men, particular friends, were engulfed in its waters. The Carp that runs through so many of these townships has it's legends though scarcely any cases of drowning. It was difficult to bridge this flat river as it overflowed its banks in spring and at high floods in the summer or fall, so there was a long way to cro.jsiay and few could give the time or money necessary for the out- lay, but it had to, be passed over as it cut so many farms in two.'jWhere a beaver meadow left no trees on the bank, it had to be 'crossed with canoe or float. Where tall elms grew near the. bank and were long enough to cross it; one was cut and the stump cut so that the tree re- mained on it; other trees vvere cut to connect it on each side with the higher ground a little from the water's edge, so they could walk along these and get over. Soiric could perform the feat easily and safely, and ,50 HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY Others did it with fear and caution. If one slid off by a mishap or rather a misstep and got wet, he had to run home and change his clothes, or hasten with his teeth chattering to his journey's end, unable to tell what happened except, ah ! the Carp, the Carp, but it was soon known to the enquirer. Some had to go on their hands and knees over the logs. Mick Dur lirm, a tailor, had to cross to do some work for a farmer, and as his "goose" could not swim he made it fast but forgot that his scissors and spectacles were in his breast pocket, and in the kind of frog leaps he made on all fours they dropped into the flood. He seemed in an awk- ward mood, and meeting an old gentleman full of humor who questioned him how he got over, he said allright, but the scissors had fallen out of his pocket. "What 1 did you lose your scissors ?" No, I left the spec- tacles to watch them. William Gourlay, some years ago, explored the river through mud, marsh and creek, through fernSj beaver grass and willows to Landen's mill and got the councils of Fitzroy, Huntley and March to contribute and they blasted some stone and took it down a little which was perceptible several miles back. But it must be dredged and it ought to be with public money, as it is too much for the land owners on the banks to bear all the cost. Because farmers, are not lumbermen or railroaders, have they no claim ? Some politicians have a deathless dislike to the farmers. This should be gotten over. They cannot do without the farmers, especially at voting time. Nepean seems to have had a line surveyed on its eastern side from ' Crosby to the Ottawa river. It got a local habitation and aname, as the philosophers say. In its defined form it contains over 60,000, acres, but \\hen its name was first given, it included all on the west side; Carle- ton, Lanark,, and Renfrew, or for t;hat matter, might extend to the Geor- gian Bay. Like it, the county of Ottawa is bounded on the north by the polar seas- It has a janus face, one front on the Ottawa, the other on the Rideau. The Ottawa front is called twelve, the Rideau fifteen miles long. The poor surveyor disappeared and' was never heard from. The last post he was said to have planted was at Dow's Swamp. John McNaughton finished the survey. Some surveyors started the idea aboiit forty years ago that the lines were not correct, that the iron ore in Hull had affected the compass, so they ran a few lines but found that the defect on the first was made up on the last, and the thing was aban- doned, the old lines being as correct as the new ones. In 1798, there is a reference to the first survey. That was the third session of the second J a.1 iaaient of George III. Afterwards Upper Canada was formed into a provmce. The United Empire or English Loyalists were numerous, and some had fought on the side of King George, and these with those who sympathized with them flocked into Upper Canada. The Government gave them claims they called tickets, to land, but the people not paying much attention to the U. E. L., pronounced them all in a word "Ueright" tickets ".8, These people, male and female, drew lands freely and in ex- tensive lots, as they were favorites, and they were anxious to people the land with such loyalists. These coming fn m the other side, where their opponents were called rebels, canse to associate loyalty with their tory iiotions; and tP oppose them, was, in their crude notions, to be a rebel, HISTORY OF THE ©TTAWA VALLEY 5 1 the free application of which term has been disastrous to the welfare of the country. ' ' Rice Honeywell had fought on the American side, but after the war he was attracted by a young lady, daughter of a U. E. L. Tory at Pres- cott, whom he married and took to the Mohawk Valley where Ira was ■ born. The new country and land easily procured, and the prospects every new country opens up, together with the wish of his wife to be near her people, led him to come to Prescott, where they both drew land. If a person disliked the place of his location .ticket he cpuld sell it, take the money aiid go where he chose. When Ira Honeywell was grown up his father offered him tickets for i,odo acres, in Nepean, if he would go and make good his claims, which he did, and exchanged the Mohawk and the St. Lawrence for the Ottawa Valley. He was the first white settler on the Ottawa in Nepean- He selected his place and built a shanty, and Aopped four acres in 1810. He came down the Ri- deau and must have borrowed help from Hull to build his shanty. Hull was ten years old as a settlement then. Mrs. Stewart of Beckwith told ; us that she and her husband cut and carried the poles, and built their first shanty, not a pretentious one. Mr. Honeywell became hungry and i weary and homesick, and returned to Prescott. He found a Miss An- ; drews of Welsh descent, whose bright eyes and pleasant smiles, and in- telligent conversation, he concluded would be worth more to him than half a county. He proposed; she accepted. So the young married pair started for their new home in the woods to burn their choppings, plant their first corn and potatoes, with some onions, mellons and cucumbers. It must have been hard labor for a pair so young to log, as the small would scarcely burn all the large logs, and they must have planted sor/ie rows among the logs. We record it to their honor that women did give so much aid in the hard labor of those trying times. In the February of 181 1 the young pair came on a jumper, drawn by a yoke of steers, bringing their household goods. Such animals were then the camels of the Canadian desert. They travelled through the new settlements to Merrickville. They spent a night in the last house between his father's and his new home. This was the house of Mr. Dow, the father-in-law afterwards of Mr- Billings. He was of Scotch extraction because he called his pkce Kilmarnock. The custom.of those tiroes was a friendly greeting, a wel- come to stay, and the best entertainment they could give you, free of all cost. This set the wanderer at bis ease for the evening, making the hospitality doubly precious. The only open way was down the ice of the Rideauto the Hog's Back Rapids. It was a trying business for them to get their steers through the snow in mid-winter and such a distance witho'jt a halting place or roof to cover them, or fire to warm them, ex- cept the burning of a dry tree in the winter wind; or a human voice to cheer them or break the monotony. The road he must have brushed out before going heme, ar.d we hope he had the forethought to leave some v- cedent to dry so as to give her a warm reception, when they kindied then- first fire in their wedded life, at their new home. Othciwisc, though they had arrived in safely, it would have been a co©l rc<,epfc:on. "I hey heroically addressed then selves to carve out a living aKd ssececded. The steers had to be ^58 HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY fed on tree tops till the leaves and grass appeared, then they enjoyed a paradise around that little clearing. His nearest neighbor was Mr. Brad- didi Billings, across the Rideau, who built a shanty, and lumbered in 1810 with some men, but had not yet married. The first white man that settled near the Honeywells, vas a Mr. Draper, but he did not re- main long. Abram ' Dow selected and took possession of his farm on ' the Rideau front in 1813. The same year Roger Moore, uncle of David and Job Moore, long known as the richest of our lumbermen, settled in Nepean near by, and Martin Moore a brother of Roger, settled close to Honeywell, The pioneers delighted to call the Ottawa the "Grand River." Samuel Dow took up land in i8i6on Rideau front. After him came Johnathan Marble Dow with a family of five daughters and, two sons. The same year Lewis Williams with five daughters and three sons located near the Dows, and in the same row boat with him William Thompson with three sons and six daughters, settled on the^ farm on, the Richmond Road. His sons William and John Thompson went extensively into the lumber trade, creating a market for produce among the farmers, and were for many years the best stock-raisers and model farmers in the district. Andrew was a local preacher, but the family were all Presby- terians. One daughter was Mrs. Peter Whyte, whose husband was an extensive lumberer, who made his domicile in Pembroke. His son, Peter White, is the Honorable Speaker of the House of Commons. Another Miss Thompson became Mrs. Hickey, raised a large family of sons and daughters, well known and occupying respectable positions in the city. One sister was Mrs. Aylen, who after the loss of her husband, kept house for her brother John. Her son, William Aylen, was a very promising young man, very much liked, became heir to most of the wealth of his uncle, John Thompson, who died a bachelor. Mr. Aylen,, - after his uncle's death, married his cousin, the widow of Dr. Newton, whose mother was a' Miss Thompson, that was killed by a fall from a stage coach at Greriville. W. Aylen died young having no issue. Mrs. Haworth of Hull was another Miss Thompson whose family were in Hull. The sixth in our numeration was Mrs.. Radmer, also of Hull, with a large family of boys and girls. Mr. William Thompson, Jr., married , a Miss Doran of the village of Bytown. Some of his sons lumbered, }, some were in the employ of the Government. One daughter was a pretty school girl in our school visits. She is the wife of Hon. Speaker Whyte. William Thompson, the pioneer, died in December, 1833. John Thompson, another son, died in 1855, the other son William died in 1867. His wife survived him some years. All the sons-in-law of Wil- liam Thompson, Sr., were sailors, who ran away from the fleet or the merchantmen, that sailed into Quebec at the close of the long wars with France; wars that were almost interminable and nearly the destruction of both the nations. Peter Whyte, the shiner, was a familiar expression among the thous- ands in the lumber employ, but it must have been got up by some wag, for he was the reverse, took no stock in the party. Peter Aylen, another runaway sailor, was generally known as King of the shiners, as of neces- sity, he had so many of them in his employ, having lumbered so exten- sively on the Ottaiva and taken so .uauy rafts to Quebec. He built a HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY S3 great frame house and a still greater stone bam, east of the Thompsons, ! on the farm now in the possession of Mr. John Heney. He had a large stone in the wall of the bam with P. A. V. cut upon it. The surmise i was that the V. represented the surname, for it was thought the sailors i took their mothers' names to avoid detection and being captured or ; punished for desertion; but we give it no consideration. Most of them ! were too fearless and too enterprising to adopt any such subterfuge. Iri 1815, the year of Waterloo, Mr. Chapman settled on the. Jock. Isolated and alone his highway was the ice in winter, and in summer he plied the paddle, and sailed his canoe to Merrickville and the Hog's Back. W. B. Byers, who got rich by lumbering, gave his name to a creek in his limits, purchased, built on, and greatly improved this farm. He raised blood stock, his Rescue, Black Jack, Maid of the Mist, etc. among the horses, and his Ayrshire cattle for a while famous in the county. This fine property was secured by the wealthy, retired lum- berer, the late David Hartin, whose family reside there. Captain Collins planted himself at the junction of the Jock and Rideau, built fine houses and died in a good old age, much respected. His son Samuel, married Miss Pollock, a very amiable lady who survived him some years. Moses Holt came to Nepean in 1814, and George McConnel the year after. Jehiel Collins kept the first store on the south shore of the river, Collin's landing, but the boats were rowed to strike the beach. But he sold to Bellows who bad assisted him in the store. Bellows made a little dock, and hence Bellow's Landing. This was at the foot of the Chaudiere Falls on the Flats. His sister kept house for him, but the coming man, an American, persuaded her to marry him, and tbey kept an hotel on the hill overlooking the Flats, where Chitty kept after him. The whole flat here has been long used as a great field for drying lumber piles. The two brothers Burrows drew the lands on which Bytown after- wards stood. They had come in the same boat witfi William Thomp- son. Mr. Nicholas Sparks bought it for less than four hundred dollars. We have said Moses Hoh located in Nepean, but was so short a time there as hardly to merit the notice. He went to Hull in a little time, tiien to Aylmer, then Des Joachim. He left Honeywell nearest the Flats. Roger Moore was west of him, and between him and William Thompson, George McConneU. Bill and John McConnell settled in HuH, to which George soon followed. Richard and Renaldo were the sons of John. Mrs. Robert Conroy was the daughter of Bill McConnell. Benjamin, a brother of Roger Moore, was drowned. Moses Holt was the first to keep and drive a stage, and carry the maiils by canoe or cutter, The Holts cut a figure as mail carriers in the United States. We were well acquamted with the Aylmer Holts. Our acquaintance with the Chapmans was not so extensive. One daughter, in our boyhood we remember, was fond of field sports. She plowed and harrowed the fields, a work unavoidable, and she drove a fine pair of Greys. She afterwards became the third wife of Hugh Fails the surveyor. She and her husband very often visited at my father's. During the war of 1812-181S, everything was high-priced. Flour rose very high, and was hard to procure. Wright would not spare any and Ho.itywell had to go to the front, and having procured three barrels, returned well satisfied that his difficulties were over. But in a 54 HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY day or two after he had got it home with his steers and jumper, in sum- mer, having brought it down the Rideau on a cedar float, he received a friendly visit from A. Dow of Rideau front, and his brother-in-law, Brad- dish Billings. They soon told him their message. He remonstrated that the flour had cost him so much time and trouble as well as money to bring it for his own use too. They laid him down fifty dollars, stating that each needed a barrel as much as he did, and they would take it and not starve. Viewing all the circumstances Honeywell agreed. We have seen flour sixteen dollars, but not so high as that price. Capt. Le Breton was said to have built a mill at the Chaudiere but we do not remember it. We have been at his fine mill at the Deschene Rapids. He was an Englishman, and all in his employ were the same He sold afterwards to Mr. Robertson, also an Englishman, with whose boys we went to school, and who took much interest in municipal affairs. South of the sandy hills William Bell settled on good land, had a family of boys and girls. We remember thfe first impression made on our young mind by his empty sleeve in the pocket of his jacket; the short jacket being much worn then. South of him Sergt. Vincent; I . '^houldice kept' a tavern towards Bearmans, Rob Boyd made carts whcic Strinson lived, carts for oxen with great hubs, flat iron bands put in to take a great axle-tree that could not be broken. They were beauties in their way. These were probably all here before 1820. About this time the complaint was, that so many location tickets were given for land in Nepean, that these were held and sold from one to another, that people went for free grants to other townships, and from twenty or twenty- two for four or five years no one came to locate. In consequence, tickets did not rise in value to any .great extent, and people bought and began to settle down. The O'Grady's, Hugh Bell, Geo. Sparks, John Davidson, Thomas Teirney, all came and settled in various places in the township, say frOm 1820 to 1822, Hugh Bell got his farm beside Bearman, east of the line, Rideau front, and gave his name to the corners. The early settlers had to canoe it to Montreal for their goods. Honeywell is .said to have gone and returned alone more than once. This must have taxed all a man's ability to get a canoe up the Rapids with the lightest load, while he waded in the edge of the stream, and kept his frail bark from being broken on the rocks. We can fancy the Moores, Honeywells, McConneJls, etc., going in pairs or companies with ease and success, but we pity the man who would' do the thing now. The times of these fathers of the country cannot be well compared with OUT times. We well remember in 1833 starting in a company of seven- teen t© reach the settlement in Huntley. We started from Bytown on the morning of the 1 2th of July. The Richmond Road was opened by the cutting of trees and brush, but the stumps were not extracted, but stood as obstacles to teams that got round as best they could. There were no waggons, a kind of ox carts only. The stumps in many cases were decorated with berry bushes that were loaded with their fruits, red and black, a great attraction to the young travellers. Some of the mothers carried their youngest in their aims. One man was ninety and his wife eighty. The man's hair v.'as stiii black, (dyes had not come into use then,) his wile's was gray. They iiad five sons and two daughters. :>TS»t youngest was a beautiful gui, then perba-ps 111 her teens. HISTORY OP THE OTTAWA VALLEY. 55 The road was unditched in all its extent. There were patches of clearings on its sides. My mother was purse-bearer for most of the Mfty. My father had to remain with some others to try and get home (foe piuwder, as the Hoosreiss term k, n» easy thing; but a man witk a yoke of oxeii and cart brought potash for Mr. Robert Grant, and brought it on the cart, secured with all the ropes they had. But Mr. Culbert had to , cut withes when they got to the bush, which was very near, to bind it the more securely. The men who had not seen a withe twisted or used, wondered at his ingenuity and handiness. Some rotten trees had fallen and he cut them so easily to get theni out of the way, and restored the axe to its place, a hole in the tongue of the cart. Our company reached Mr. William Bell's at high noon. He was at his din- ner. The end of his empty sleeve was in the pocket of his short jacket.. He had lost an arm, and it being the first such caiee I had seen, made an indelible impression on my yOung memory. He sprang up, asked my mother if we would have dinner. She replied she thought most of the company, especially the younger ones would enjoy it. So we had a fine dinner. Mr. Bell pulled some young onions to please the children, more than half the party. Mother re- marked after we left that his charges were very moderate. We trav- elled on as directed to Malcomsons from that, past the Potash works. Some of our company went to see if it was not a distillery. Irish men were thep fond of poteen, of course they have reformed all that now. They reported that there was no means of smelling the cork, so, on we went. Many came to the roadside from their work to see us and hear from Ireland. Some of the grown up ones stood to talk, the others walked on. I encouraged a little brother from one berry bpsh to an- other, sometimes holding his hand, and others, groaning under the weight of him on my back. We reached a little log tavern, "Billy Brad- ley's", at what is now Hazledean, where we spent the night, on beds on the floor as usual. A grand procession of about sixteen miles, for the clearings were too small to let the sun shrivel up the road into short di- mensions as it may now, and wis had neither a flag nor whiskey bottle. We were (of course,) pretty girls and boys, with handsome married women and tall, sturdy men, all well dressed, so that we made a good innpression as we passed along the highway'. Farmers and their wives who were near the side of the way, came to see us if we would drink milk or water, or eat anything, enquire where we were from and \vhither we went. Looking back on. it from to-day we say these people had souls. The Jew was not to forget that he was a stranger in the land of Egypt. We held on our journey to Stittsville, then turned to the west along the third line of Huntley. Samuel Johnston had heard we were coming, or dreamed it.^for he met us two miles from his house and took us all there to dinner. ' After dinner, which was a very enjoyable one, all that had relatives, left to find them, some of whom came to meet them as they departed. Some of us stayed that night with Mr. and Mrs. John?ton. She was a Barton. All that were then married arc called and gathered to their people. William Holmes, the youngest of these, died a few weeks ago. AH the unmarried of the party are dead except my two brothers and myself. These details may have not a par- ticle of interest for my readers, but it being my first journey on foot in ^$6 HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY this Dominion, and the peculiarities and the incidents made such an inde- lible impression on my mind as to make it impossible to suppress it in this quiet narrative. Roderick Stewart, Robert Reid and George Bayne had the best of farms. The Richmond Road ran tlirough Mr. Stewart's. The city has grrown out on the Reed property as RocheSterville. The Experimental Farm has absorbed the Lewis and Kennedy lands, those owned by Donald and Alexander Kennedy, or a portion of all these. Sensible men ask what the Dominion Government have to do with agriculture, more than with education or the sale of liquor ? Let the provincial governments deal with it as with the others. It is one of the usurpations submitted to so cheerfully, by the large following of Sir John A-, elected on the occasion, when the people were smitten with political blindness, and seemed to follow wherever he pointed his wand. That Government did usurp the right to eell licenses, till snubbed by the Privy Council. Its successors, now in the agonies of conflict, to coerce in education, Mani- toba'would stick at nothing in that line. We have carefully consulted the farmers on every side; they are unanimous in their opinion, that it is an experiment ten times more costly than profitable, that it serves neither for ornament nor use, but only to assist in beggaring the people. No practical farmer can adopt its plans, unless he has an income behind it to carry out the projects, and then he would be the loser every year. A gentleman from Quebec said he need not take home his horses after they stood some hours in the equi-palatial stables of the Experimental as he would not be able to get them to enter their own poor establish ment under the whip. Sell the farm, and pension the experimenters, who would never earn their salt on that place. John Bower Lewis could aot make his farm pay, under the careful management of Thomas Clarke, and several good hands employed with him, and gave it up after making some loss, by his finest of shorthorns and sheep, and other stock. To get the plainest living off a farm now, you must work it yourself, at the rate of fourteen hours a day. The day may come when tampering with agriculture by the Dominion gov- ernment to make place, office and salary will be cheerfully abandoned. Mr. Stevensons' place lies next the Experimental Farm. It is now the property of Mr. and Mrs. McTierney, daughter and son-in-law of Mr. Ste\ enson. Mrs. Stevensoh is still alive, residing with her younge.st daughter and husband, Mr. Stewart Rev. Mr. Whillins lives opposite Mr. McTierney, on the upper end of the Stewart farm. Mr. Shillington has Johnston Brown's old farm and orchard. Messrs. Whyte, Taylor, Caldwell, Scotts, Booth, Baynes, Nelsons, Olmsteads, Nesbitts, Clarke's, Hoppers, Moffats, McFarlands, all good farmers, are largely in the milk business. John Dawson, nephew of the old bachelor pioneer, has taken, s^reat interest in municipal affairs, and with his sons, has recently bought out the store of the late George Arnold, of pleasant memory, who had kept it for, say fifty years. John Robertson began a store there, and one of his daughters kept it for some time. Kenneth' McKaskill held it a time, and went from it to Stittsville, to the store built by Howard & ThoiTipson, in which he was succeeded by Mr. Sproule. Mr. Arnold rebuilt after the calamitous fire of 1870, facing the west instead of the north as formerly. His sons have sold to the Dawsons HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY ' S7 and live in the city. The old stone church (Presbyterian) seems tc have been all that escaped the fire. The people took refuge in it, and held It some days till they made provision for building again. The first ses- sion was composed of Geo. Arnold, Thomas McKay Robertson and Hugh Gourlay. The latter went to the Carp session, Robert Moody was chosen after Mr. Arnold. The church was a union of Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and Methodists. The subscription showed what each gave, so that if necessary, each could claim the principal without inter- est. Subscribers have lots in the yard ten by twenty feet, non-subscrib- ers could purchase such at ten dollars. It was not a mine of wealth like Beechwood. The union worked a long time, but broke up at length,. without quarrelling at least openly. The worst elements prevent the union in the church. Good Christians should not suffer this. Are the evil elements necessary ? Is division a necessity ? Should the love of truth and honesty not pervade all men ? Election to office should give a deeper sense of responsibility. Virtue is more honorable tlian vice, self-denial than indulgence, benevolence than selfishness. Election to office fills some with pride, self-conceit, arrogance, to en- able them the better to oppress, plunder, tyrannise and ruin, and haughtily, live on the earnings of their down-trodden fellowmen. Arc the clergy and legislators to be the leeches of society, casting aside the * fear of God, and making void the offices he has appointed for the well being of his intelligent creatures, and which such appointees ought honestly and truthfully to fill? Are the most untruthfn,! the most dis- honest to fill our parliaments and our pulpits ? What is to become of the nation if its leaders, are lovers of lies, wealth, strangers, brandy and wine; covetous, addicted, to every kind of immorality ? They teach lies, legislate the public money into the pockets of those who have not earned it, and act generally as if they had a license to violate all laws of God and man. "The curse of the Lord is in the house of the thief." Must our earthly gods so demean themselves, that the wicked curse them, and the good dare not defend them, without making themselves an abomination to the Lord. When they make themselves despicable ? What are men to do ? Copy their example we dare not on pain of per- dition. Men who have ''no fear of God before their eyes," are not ex- emplary before their nation. These men and their 'admirers and sup- porters generally, realise that their destruction comes from themselves, that fire comes out of the bramble and devours the cedars. David ex- presses himself thus, in dealing with his valient, fearless, but unscrupu- lous commander of the forces: "Let there not fail from the house of Joab, him that hath an issue, or that is a leper, or that leancth on a staff, or that falleth by the sword, or that lacketh bread." v -,. How they denou'nce the minister that touches these offenders. He is lio Christian. He is ignorant of the Scriptures. Vile slanderer. Is it sl&nder to speak the truth ? Is it jiist to suppress the truth by keep- ing silent ? Must true. men by lying, cover the wickedness of bad men ? This would be charity with a vengeance. When an M. P. tells you, re- garding the propoSfil of one on the side of his opponents to improve any thing, he is not sincere, he does not mean it, do you not conclude that . the man is showing himself, speaking what he has learned from his own party. Suopose the whole is acting, and only to get money, if the man SS tilSTORY OF THfe OTTAWA VALLET I I and his dishonest gains perish together, where is the profit ? You say, it serves such people right that choose such a "Ben Bakar" to represent them in church or state. True perhaps. But the deterioration goes on for an age, morals are obliterated, poverty reigns, ignorance and vice are enthroned, falsehood and injustice triumph. For a remedy, let the dolt of a do little clergyman study. Let the thieving politician restore just what he took, not even two fold. Let both be t'ruthful and honest and society will soon begin to prosper. The bad example of these is the plague of leprosy, that contaminates the multitude, that brings loath- some death to the unthinking and the unwary. The bribers and the bribed, should be marked out and not permitted either to get or give a vote for have a life time. The minister who employs his congregation four or five nights in the week in formal routine meetings, instead of pursuing their industry, and reading and collecting information, whilst . he leisurely writes and reads them, the popular themes on Sunday, should be sent to Georgia to hoe corn and raise melons. These are the jurors that pronounce a case "guilty but not proven." These are the men that extract the sdng from religion to make it so pleasant that all men speak well of them. Our politicians have contrived to multiply departments, that are of no advantage to the governed, model farms, that waste our means with- out returning an equivalent, models that could not be copied, except as fancy farms, bj' gentlemen of great wealth, who are not to the fore, or exceedingly rare, and who benefit only a few employees. The people are led by tlse nose for years then cursed for sending such representa- tives to the legislatures of their country. The pressure of these times will cause men to think and act. Reformation not revolution is now an absolute necessity. The observance of the one may save us from the other. The multiplication ot departments is the extention of patronage and the increase of supporting voters. The salaries of Government members and employees are out of alt proportion with the salaries or earnings of the people who are taxed to make up these high salaries. The salaries of the legislative and the executive, the employees and fees of the professions must be lowered," their numbers diminished and economy pursued or the country grown so large headed and top heavy will topple over and become a ruin. The early U. E. L. settlers were largely soldiers or sympathisers with them, the disbanded soldiers were the other large element in the population. Out of these arose the family compaqt. That has degenerated into despots and slaves, millionaires and paupers. Can these glaring facts be denied or explained away ? Could any one believe, that in a half century, such political and re- ligious degeneracy could take place, had his own eyes not witnessed it ? The high-handed thefts are no longer concealed, cabinet ministers de- fend them, and declare they would repeat them. This is a lamentable piece of our history. Let it be hoped it will never repeat itself here again. Many of the liberty-loving pioneers never anticipated this de- generacy. They came in one by one, or sometimes in small companies, andtook lot after lot, resolved on making a living, b.y good, honest in- dustry, voluntarily supporting their little schools, improving their roads and crosslay log bridges as they could, urging and labouring to keep taxation within reasonable bounds. In this they succeeded; but to a HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY Jg limited extent, for very much to their dislike, they saw a "Ben Bakar" rise and steal power and influence, involving their young country in fatal consequences. We can name several gentlemen, whose protests were heard, and helped to modify materially the condition of thin ^s, t3f»og*h Ifjere men have been in the minority in the Ottawa Vall/y. The present tone of the community is i-ising into an indication that th jse methods of plunder must be abandoned that honest men must be se- lected to be our standard-bearers, that tamely submitting to be insulted aid plundered is not a virtue. South of Bell's Corners dwelt a man of immense brain power, aid the most prominent man as merchant, lumberer, and farmer successful in all, and whose heart was as kind as his head was clear. His ashes have slept for years, but it does us good at this date to bear a true testi- mony to his undoubted talents and real genuine worth. John Robert- son was born in Perthshire, Scotland, and came to this country in 1827, and took up the land now occupied by his son, Thomas McKay Robcrc- son. Some of his sons are deceased many years. One of these, Ebcno- zer, gave early signs of the greatest promise as an enterprising business man, raised great expectations in his parent's minds, which, had he be mi spared, we believe he would have fully, met or exceeded. It seem .J the loss of him to his father was irreparable. It prostrated and nearly killed that man of great mind. We do not mean in speaking thus to say that John Robertson had no defeats or faults (all men have). But -to a thinking mind the excellencies hid the defects. It would never oc- cur to such to hunt them up. Some have dwelt on them, made much of them. But they had their own defects and blemishes, whilst they could not lay claim to one tithe of his towering genius. His wife was not like him, though a distant connection of his own. She was cool, in- telligent, kind-hearted, well informed and good, a woman ampng' a thousand. ^ John Robertson died about 1880. Thomas, one of the surviving sons, is on the fine old homestead. He is not young enough to become vain by any stat'iment of mine. But in my estimate he is a well balanced, steady man, not perhaps so in- '• genious or tentative as his father, but a good farmer. He is-kind-liearted, liberal minded, and sincerely upright. He has been long a widower, wish some children, modest like himself; the only daughter, an admirable housekeeper, and the boys excellent workers on the farm. George, one son, died ere he reached his manhood. George, the youngest brother, kept store for some time at Bell's Corners, and then went to Oregon, U. S. Mr. Robertson had two daughters. One was very fair. Shei married Wm. Goodfellow. I was not so well aquainted with her as with her sister Mary. She was considered at 16 or 17, the most beauti- ful girl in- the Ottawa country. She married Mr. James Brown, a lum- berer, and a widower, with a family of sons and a daughter, all of wliom did well. Mr. Brown lived but a short ;time, leaving his beautiful young widow with one bright boy, an infant then; but who developed into the enter- prising Eb. Brown, grocer, of Sparks strefet. Mr. Brown had two brothers, David and John. The latter married the second daughter of Rev. D. Evans, of Richmond; they Hved in the region of White Lake, lumberers. Mrs. Brown, after a number of years, married the widower, 60 HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. Wm. Pollock, and has a large family of sons. Mr. Pollock died in 1892. We have regarded Mrs, Pollock as a woman of rare excellence, highly gifted, full of good sfense, and good works. John Robertson, of whose family we have spoken nothing but truth, of whose good qualities, we had the most intimate knowledge, began his life in Canada, after mak- • ing a little home for his family in Nepean, as an overseer of the vi^orks of. the Rideau canal. Thomas McKay and John Redpath, of Montreal, had the contract, and from their knowledge of Mr. Robertson's engineer- ing skill, employed him. The Perth silk-weaver soon showed his acquaintance with mason work, and brought the canal eventually to a grand success. Redpath and McKay had to cart home, in Mexican silver half dollars, etc., their part of the profits of the contract. Robertson had only good wages and a name worth much, and some experience. After the canal was finished, .< Mr. Robertson began storekeeping and lumbering. His acquaintance , with the Gilmours was of service to him. He often spoke of them with a warmth of affection you would hardly credit to a cool Scotchman. The field of his operation was on the Bonechere, west of the Round Lake. He has told us of losing himself in hunting groves and repeating aloud the Psalms, his heart beating to the sentiments they contained, and believing that his voice was more likely to chase the wild animals than attract them. This would occupy his attention till he came on some road or trace that led him to the shanty. He never was out over night. His accounts of the Gilmours gave me a fine impression of them before our acquaintance was made. But whatever Mr. Robertson did in other lines, he was intensely interested' in farming. He had great potash works, turned the leached ashes on the land, then dry ashes, buying from everybody around. One poor fellow lost his life walking into the hot lye. . He was> rescued, but lived only a few hours. Agricultural chemistry (Johnston's) - he had almost in his memory. He bought up almost everything printed in English or French on agriculture. He sent to London, England, for a ton of sulphate of ammonia for plant food on the farm or as a fertilizer. He under drained so much that some American, visiting the place, pre- dicted that when large clearings would be made, his land would be use- less in drought. He concluded the fulfilment of such predictions must be far, far away. Three large hemlock poles made the piping for his first drains, and he discovered 23 years after, that when he cut through ^ one, the poles were fresh and peeled like as if they had been cut in June. ^ Then he sawed plank to make boxes, two on edge, 3 inches by i^ and the cover 6 by I ^ nailed on. Others hollowed out the drain bottom and laid pieces, split like shingles, and a foot long, across; the ends rest- ing oh the bank, then covered all in. At length tiles came. My brothers have many drains with pieces across the earth hollowed out below for the water to run. Cheese making claimed his attention later, at which with 60 or 70 cows he was a success. He followed it up scien- tifically, found that ten pounds of milk made one pound of cheese twenty-five pounds of nfilk, one pound of butter. We have had no end of advice from the cabinet minLsrers to go iijto mixed farming as if they knew anything about it or as if it were something they had just dis- HISTORY OF TaE OTTAWA VALiK 6l covered.^ Such insincerity seems to pass current and serve their pur- pose and keep the shams in perpet'ial power. John Robertson had anticipated all this and fifty years ago de- clared it openly as nothing new. The hired girls milked 60 cows and Mr. and Mrs, Robertson made the cheese. A visit to his farm forty-five years since would have shown these lawyer-farmers the practical work- ing of what they have only read in periodicals. He kept so carefully accounts of all his outlay on the whole crops of the farm, that he could by a look at his books, give you at once a statement of what every hun- dred pounds cost that grew or was raised on the whole farm. He was very successful in the application of liquid manners, dropped or run from a barrel on his root crops. Ensilage and mixed grasses were the only things of our day that he had not tested. A description of the flora and fauna is not to be neglected in the history of any land, but the success of its hard working and close continuous thinking, and maturing plans for the performance by its people ought to be recorded for the benefit of posterity. We owe so much to the thinking men and women, as binds us to cherish their memory, and note their modes of successful action and operation. His land was swamp and had to be raised by drains that doubled its value. On returning home we discovered a whole cheese under the scat of our buggy. When speaking of it to his wife she said: "If ye hadn't been a favorite you would not have got it." Scotchmen are proverbial for the control of their emotions but he was a man of deep feelings. We have witnessed this on many occasions. But he disclaimed any svmpathy when the terrible fire swept all his buildings and crops away. fle said he had plenty in the bank. He never rebuilt the ruins. His religious views were clear and well defined, that in believing and giving credit to the truth that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, our sins are forgiven in his substitutionary sufferings, and that we ■ begin our life of righteousness from our forgiveness — that the invisible spirit leads us in that life of obedience — that the uncreated One is infinite in love, power, goodness, etc., carrying out his plans, in his works of crea- tion and providence and redemption; extending to every thing even the minutest in creation. But with this strong stand on the divine side, he was equally clear an the human side, holding that our responsibilities, to care, labor, and exertion, can never be shaken off; that every thing of duty within the bounds of human possibility should be performed. This is the creed of millions and should be that of the race. The Thompsons had to remove boulders for fences and drains, and level down hills and fill hollows, to make their lands the beautifiul level fields that almost smile in your eyes as you pass them. The Davidsons, Nesbitts, Grahams, Gourlays, Richardson, Morgans, Grants, Hartins, Bradleys, and a thousand others, had soils ready to the plow, more easily cultivated, in some cases richer in qua,lity; but John Robert- son, with his low-level, stiff, clay soil, was at once the most scientific, and the most successful agriculturist in the Ottawa Valley f The disas- trous fire of 1870, that ran over fourteen townships, swept away from him the labors of a lifetime- His splendid dwelling house, with barns, stables, feeding houses of every kind, were consumed; all save his live •>ock that roamed over unfenced fields, green turnips, crop plots, potato i6j2 HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. fields, in that August drought, maddened with the pain of being un- milked for days as we saw them, and heard their bellowing groans that moved our pity to beg the hired girls, whom we met as we drove past, to milk them, for once on the ground, promising them pay for their trouble. We are always sorry to see these ruins as we pass, they wake up so many old associations and reflections. Between Honeywells and Bell's Corners, for several years the only settlers were. Capt. Le Breton, William Bell, Sergeant Vincent, Mr. Bearman, grandfather of the pres- ent generation, with his good old lady, both a little inclined to Quakeri- son, and Robert Boyd, carpenter, a thin line drawn o„t .scarcely within hearing distance of each other by the sound of a long tin horn. Nepean township covered the site of the city before there was a city, town or village. The first Mrs- Honeywell taught school for the very few families then in the place. Burrows seems to have taught a kind of military school for the children of the people under Col. By, who was a kind of governor, in his little coterie. But the first school- house was raised near Robertson's as he boarded the teacher or teach- ers free of cost for years. We remember he proposed to spend what he would have to pay in board, for his two grandsons, W. Goodfellow, and Ebenezer B. Brown at Ottawa, if we could procure him a fit teacher, and add this to his salary in the section. We-sent him the man and he was there over twenty years. Stories were told of a wooden church built and supplied at his own expense by a Mr. Burroughs, who was pious and preached free, a plan that highly recommends itself at this day could it be carried out. There was a lull in the canal works and Redpath and McKay built, with the idle men, the first stone church where St Andrew's now stands. The locks a;'d bridge were finished before we saw the country in 1833, and a litt!.- graveyard lay about where the church stands with a road lying south around it. But Hull was the graveyard for years, at the first for both sides. McKay was an elder respected highly in the church, and we often met John Redpath in synod; a very strong man. He afterwards went into the refining of sugar and left great riches. Thomas McKay was afterwards an Honor- able in the legislature of the provinces. Rev. McKenzie, of Williamstown, seems to have been the first Protestant or Presbyterian minister that preached in Bytown. He also baptised Thomas Robinson, the first boy born and baptised in the little village. Mrs. Friel, daughter of Daniel O'Connor, afterwards county treasurer, was the first girl born in Bytown. Lyman Perkins built his first blacksmith shop beside the little graveyard, and Donald McLeod built his in the country, beside Francis Davidson's, east of the stoney swamp. ^The Catholics working on the canal, formed a settlement and bulk a church farther east, near the present Methodist and Presbyterian church. South of Mr. Robertson's were two very unassuming farmers, James Mcintosh and Francis Abbott, The former left early, the latter raised a large family of sons and daughters. The sons located in various places and followed various occupations. One daughter married Mr. John Nelson, a very strong farmer in Nepean on the Rideau. . Their eldest son is Presbyterian minister in Bristol,. Quebec province. The family, so numerous, were very musical in you'.hful dayi. Mr. Marsde^ kn old salt that escaped from his ship and went round teaching vocal HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. 63 music, was wont to declare when the "Habbotts took hall the parts Hi was in my helement and the ole thing was 'evenly." They were a very agreeable pleasant family, the best of neighbors. "Frank" was till lately in office on the Rideau canal. Frank-^we like to use the term of boyhood, and he will not object — well,, we have been friends for many years, and never anything else, and we wish thee a long and happy career of many years yet, and then a happy exit and everlasting glory; and have we any old friends of those days that we would not associate with thee in the wish ? Not one. We are finding this Nepean a large place and much of it yet to survey. We go back to the Flats. Capt. LeBreton got thdse Flats. Some say he built a mill here. We have; no recollection of it, but we often visited his mill, at what is now Britannia, which had a great run of customers for"* many years. The Captain was English and patronized mostly his country- men in his employ, so that you could with your young ear distinguish several English dialects in the conversations among the hands. Britan-. nia. of to-day is a small riverside retreat where distinguished citizens re- sort to for fresh air and bathing. Houses with three or more rooms can be had for the season at moderate amounts, and people who live in good large houses in the city can get much closer together there and enjoy in wooden walls on the beautiful currents of the Deschenes rapids. We have several of these watering places within easy range of the city. Could some of our early pioneers rise from their dusty beds and shake off the daisies, and look at the luxuries enjoyed by their great grand- children, they would be wonderfully, charmed and delighted. Near the southwest corner of Nepean-lived Henry Warran, a Pres- byterian. He lumbered, and soon became so acquainted mth the river that he was a safe pilot for years. Some of his family live in the Gatineau country, but most of them went west. Samuel Courtney, whose sister in-law was Mrs. Thompson of the wealthy family in the shoe store business in Montreal, lived east of Warren, and Henry Bishop, father of Mr. Bishop, of Wellington street, had a fine place and sandstone quarries, out of which very much of the decoration of the parliament and other buildings of the city was produced, which lay be- tween Courtney's and Pollock's. The Tierneys settled west of the Da- vidsons. Their descendants are there, fond of fine horses and cultiva- ting very beautiful farm.s on that pleasant southern slope of the town- ship. Coming from Bell's Corners to the Scott settlement, you pass be- hind H^a re's and Watson's on the sandy hills, to Dan Hobbs, a well de- veloped Irishman, whose sons, with their brother-in-law, James Hof.g, a Scot, gave and took some hard and heavy blows in the days of the Shiners. One of the Watson girls married a young teacher, who was decidedly the best in methods and qualifications we ever met in a com- mon school in our days of superintendent. Pie developed the young Hares, (whose mother was a Shillington,) the Grahams and others, "into bright scholars, who afterwards became doc- tors, clergymen and profe-ssors, and their sisters, clergymen's wives of a superior order of intellect and refinement. Close by. Ho^bbs'. is, tkg. resi- dence of Isaac Plunkett, an o]d Irish — ne of Prench-Huguenoc extrac- tion. Orat;crs of the -riarns Kave tigured at the Irish bar, and on the bench for generations, The Plunketts, father, sons and grandsons, hivfe 6| HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. developed well their farm, built good structures on it, and now furnish milk for city use, whilst John, one grandson, is making himself a name and a place in the grocery business on Wellington street. Close by him lived a Frenchman, Antoine Lemoine, an honest enterprising fellow, who married Miss Mary, eldest daughter of Thomas Lang. He became a Presbyterian with his wife, and raised a family of fourteen prosperous sons and daughters, two of whom are wives of two cousins, Nesbitts. The Lemoine boys, of say a dozen, all except one or two, stayed in the country, and have done much for its prosperity. Some of them are now in the United States. Several brothers of the Nesbitts, who all raised large families, occupy a great space of the country in their des- cendants, who have built fine durable stone houses and raised fine.ani- mals"^ John Nesbitt, who lived to be very aged, was long an elder in the church. John Clarke, some of whose sons are there and a multitude of grand- sons, was, long an elder. One son, John, was a great lover of horseflesh ;"'; in Clydesdale and American blood; enriched the people and himself by the great improvement in stock. The late Mr. Reilly of Richmond, ^^_ and the father of the writer, did also contribute largely to the improve- ' jf 'i ment of horses in the Ottawa valley from the days of Farmer and Hurd- ""'■ man of Hull. Stewart is now Hull's greatest horseman. John Thomp- son, James David.=on, John Clarke, Wm Gourlay, Richard Kidd, Thos. Graham, Hugh Gourlay, John B. Lewis and Thomas Clarke, have during 40 years contributed the most to increase the value of shorthorns and to develop and popularize the Durhams as a valuable, profitable race of cattle. Didsberry, an Englishman, first introduced the stock on the Ottawa. Hon. Thomas McKay, Wm. Byers, John Gourlay and after" ' him Hugh Gourlay and Allen Grant have done most to popularize that valuable milking race, the Ayrshires. wm Plantagenet and Ramsay yearly present fine specimens of Ayrshire ;™"" stock, whilst the M. P. for Russell, Mr. Edwards, has perhaps the best . lot of Durhams now in the whole Ottawa Valley. Tiventy-five or thirty years ago Robert Kenney of Hull, sustained for years the highest repu- " ' tation in Durham stock and long wooled sheep. In this latter article, John Nesbitt, known as Lord John, was among the first to raise long wooled sheep of good size and quality. John Thompson, Hugh Gour- lay, Samuel Sisson, Thomas and Wm. Graham, William Gourlay of Fitzroy, Robert Alexander's sons and a few others have been the lead- ing sheep risers and with Robert Kenny of Hull, . and Wm. Kemp of Goulbourn, have all expended time and money and pains to produce the best in Cotswolds, Leicesters, Lincolns, and the families of the downs. Merivale is not a village but a succession of fine farm houses. John Nesbitt is now dead. Robert Baine, who is an elder, is a great, milkman, with a great family. One son is a mmister in A-shton. One was a medical student and died at college in Montreal, very much re- gretted as a fine young man. The late Thomas Clarke, son of Elder Clarke, was a very successful stock man, took great interest in the affairs of the township and county, and left a large family. James Caldwell has been a very eminent and successful man as farmer and milkman. His parents were most highly -especced for hdncsty, piety, good citizen- ship and general exceilenry. The family have all been pillars in th^ HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA . VALLEY 65 Methodist church, and one of the most musical families In the land; they succeeded the Campbells now of Campbell's Bay, on their lands m Huntley. The late John Boyce was long a teacher of the first order in the Merivale schoolhouse, leaves a large family of enterprising people be- hind him. He also took a great interest in municipal affairs. About fifty years ago a Presbyterian church of sided logs was built in the centre of that rich settlement, and after occasional supplies for some time, the first minister ordained at Ashton, April, 1851, was installed there and for 17 years, ministered to the people with some degree of ac- ceptance and success. Many were added to the church, and five young men, who are talented and acceptable preachers in the church, were from that field. Many of the young men of those families in that field are good farmers, mechanics, merchants, and professional men. Their present pastor is the second they have had in forty years. Bell's Cor- ners; a part of the charge, has some faithful people, long ruled by Elder George Arnold, who is no more among them. T." Robertson and Mr. Moody are now their elders. The whole congregation is most flourish- ing with a fine new church in Merivale, and the old stone church at the corners is still true to the old Presbyterian cause. Mr. Whillans has another station with a little church on the Rich- mond Road, about three miles out of town, a little west of the John Heney farm, formerly that of Peter Aylen, whose P. A. V. still shows his. mark on the stone barn. This is a fine plain between the two lines of railway, the C- P. R. and the Parry Sound. Peter Aylen was a great lumberer and long known asking of the shiners. Peter, went afterwards to Hull, and was a specialty as a gardener, farmer, architect, and great engrafter and budder in the orchard line. This family consisted of three sonsand adanghter. Two of them were lawyers, one a doctor. Peter married the ejdest daughter of the late C. Symmes, Esq., and their fam- ily of sons are in prominent places, one being like his father very distin- guished in the law. The late Peter Aylen was a man of fine parts, of liberal education, a kind-hearted warm friend. His wife, is a sober-minded, well-balanced superior women of excellent taste and refinement. Hon. James Skead built a great steam saw mill on the river side, west of Aylen's old place, and carried on business for some time in lum- ber. Both he and his brother Robert lumbered extensively and were of great service to the country. James was a very honorable man, in- dependent of his title as a manber of the"tegislative council. His only son married Miss Mooi'e, daughter of David Moore of Hull, the wealthi- est lumberman on the Ottawa, next to James McLaren. The rest of his family were daughters, all beautiful. The eldest was Mrs. Wright. Their fine residence attracted the attention of all passers on the Aylmer road. One of Mr. Robert Skead's sons married Miss Brough and went to Manitoba, Another married Miss Munroe, the handsome daughter of a Presbyterian clergyman in the easte' n provinces, and is now engaged in mien mi:r'r;:y on the Gatineai', /not}>er son resides in the city and takes a great interest in the welfare of the church of which he is an es- teemed member and elder, also an employ of the Government. On the road leading to March Messrs. George Oaks,,William Purdie, Andrew Graham, lumberer, Thomas and John Graham, farmers. The 66 HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. former told the boys that he brouffht fifty pounds worth of fish hooks from Ireland when he came out, of course he could have matched Lord ■Stanley of Preston. John Ncsbitt, farmer, one of the finest horsemen, (calle'd Lord John), was married to a Miss Davidson and had a large family of sons' and daughters. One son lives in the old homestead, mar- ried to a Miss Humphrl^y's. One lives in Torbolton, married to a Miss Watts. One resides near Richmond. They are all well-doing, manag-, ingfjtrmers. One dautrhter is Mrs. W. McBride, another is Mrs. David Wilson, and Mrs. Wm.'Gourlay of Fitzroy is another. They are all in most respectable circumstances. The youngest son of the last marriage is Mr. Colburn Nesbitt of Aylmer, .Que., whose wife is a Miss Pritchard, very prosperous in their affairs. One of the Shouldice family lives west of Mr. Nesbitt and with Mr. Christian, fills up to' the Messrs. Beatty at the to\yn line of March. Be- tween Mr. Hugh Bells, which escaped the fire with the church, and Mr. Chapman's, east of, the stoney swamp, a long thick bush, regarded as little worthless frog ponds, and swales, with stones protruding through whatever soil was not under, and even what was under water, the tim- bers swamp, elm, cedar, balsam, hemlock and small spruce unattractive. Next to this the Davidson settlement, where Mr. Francis Davidson with his large family of sons and daughters had large possessions and lum- bered extensively for years. Mr. Samuel Davidson took an active part in the direction of affairs in the township, being Reeve for many years, and of much value in the county council. They were all good farmers, with the best of land and the purest stock in cattle, sheep and hogs. Samuel and Hugh married sisters, daughters of Mr. John Bell, merchant from Clonis, Cavian, Irelan*. James married a Miss Alexander and they had a large family of sons and daughters. The eldest daughter is Mrs. Thomas Graham, her husband being the eldest son of Mr. John Graham, P. M., of Huntley. Some of the others are married in the city, as Mrs. Champhness whose husband is in the customs of Her Majesty in the city; some of the sons are farmers. Mr. Samuel Davidson's sons are druggists and dentists, in good practice here. Mr. Francis Davidson belonged to a very respect- able family in the north of Ireland, s'ome of his brothers talented Presby- terian ministers. Beyond this seitiement are Mackeys^ and Eadies. All these with their numerous neighbors contributed to the development of the country and the formation of society in the first half, especially the second quarter of the present century. Mr. Peter Campbell built a large stone house on the 2nd concession, Otcawa front, the best then in the whole range, as the shanties began lo be replaced,^ and was a resident for many years. The house is now in the possession of one of the Honeywells. Mr John, son of Wm. Bell, married a Miss Campbell. Opposite Mr. Campbell on Rideau front awelt Mr Dan Hobbs, with a. large family of sons and daughters. One daughter married James Hogg- a Scot, who widi tiie brotiiersin law, all powerful young men, got into- frequent conflicts wiih ihe. Shiners dealt and received many a heavy blow in these enjunnLcrs. The Shiners were raftsmen, chiefly Irish, em- ployed in the luiiib<.r, rough and ready for a conflict when mellowed with potieen. 'L'hty cropper tlit cars off a horse belonging to Mr. Hobbs, that might be sten mAuy a yc^r 5 iter o.i the highway bearing the marks^ HISTORY OP THE OTTAWA YALLBJK, 6f of these Vandals. They had to walk from the foot np to the head of the rapids in running their timber cribs, and were open for a challenge aay day. James Hogg who was fierce as an eagle and fearless as a Kon, was living near by and on hand to help to settle scores with the Shiners. These latter were in such bad order that many another daring spirit stepped in to help to give a good account of them when not too numer- ous. When whiskey was in they were not much in the habit of reckon- ing numbers on either side. In summer time the river was nearly covered with raits, that were being taken to Quebec, each having its swarm of hands, in some cases all the crew, Shiners, as they got on better alone than mixed, for they regarded the French, though co-religionists, as a kind of rivals that must be looked after and kept in bounds, as well as the landlubbers round these rapids or in the villages on the river. Bernard Hughes had a large family peacably disposed, avoiding the Shiners and mixing themselves up in no quarrels. Mess pork sometimes sold from forty to even fifty dollars a barrel, and the story was told of a farmer who had purchased a large stock of herrings in barrels, which he fed very freely to his men on the farm. The thing, to use the western phrase, became monotonous. Remonstrances were made in vain agaiiwt using them so often. One of the hands got a newspaper, a rare thing at that time, and folding up a rusty herring, started to show it to Judge Armstrong, highly esteemed as one of our first Judges, an honest pains- taking gentleman. The employer followed the man, begging, entreating, then energetically remonstrating wkh him to return as they neared the Judge's place ; On on 2 condition would he return, provided a weather was killed and the provisions diversified. They went on a little farther and the farmer at length gave in. They returned, the ftit sheep was dressed, part of it cooked for the evening meal, and the strike was de- clared off. Two brothers, Plunkett, one the grandfather of John, the merchant, on Wellington street, got their lands in Nepfean. Near the Plunketts were the Switzei-s, one of whom is a merchant now in town. The Evans of whom a son is storekeeping in Rochesterville, and a sister has prop- erty in quarry lime and stone. The oid gentleman is yet living who seemed to be a middle-aged man fifty years ago. He tells me he has a cousin a Bishop. His family were very intelligent and cultivated. The Leslie family are close by, one of whom was the sepond wife of Mr. Thomas Clarke, a fine wife and mother. One son, William, lived up the Gatineau, married a Miss Gibson of Masham. They were a nice family. A half sister, Mary Jane Lark, lived in our house for years, an upright girl, and came back with her husband to get married by me at Aylmer, she died in middle life. Mr. John Boyce was one of'the early teachers in Merivale, as they now term it was much interested inmunici- pal affairs afterwards. His family occupy good positions as able and independent farmers. Between' 1828 and 1833 Hugh Bell, the O'Grady's, Gfcorge Sparks, John Davidson, Timothy McCarthy, John Tierney, and Malcom McLeod, blacksmith, came to their lands. The writer in the atlas says, there were only five schools in the county in 1833, but he must have been misinformed. There were two in Huntley that year, §8 HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEV two in March, one targht by Mf> Bish6p, grandfather of the Lawyer Bishop, and one at Capt. Streets. In Ntpean, there was one at Mr. John Robertsons, and one in the village of Bytown. Besides Mrs. Honeywell taught in her own house. Preacher Jones taught and preached in his first shanty in North Gower, and the Burritts settled at the rapids about three or four years before the end of 1800, and had children born there in the last century, one of whom at fourteen taught school and he was the second teacher they had. Then a Miss Burritt was a tutor in Mr. Braddish Billings and, a very young girl at that time, and the children of the surrounding fami- lies'were included in the little school. Then Mr. Shirriffhad one taught at the Chats which made eleven in 1833, for Mr. Shirriff had removed from there to Bytown to the Crown Timber office before 1833. It is a poor method of writing history if you have any regard for truth, to sit down in your easy chair and correspond with people at a distance for your material, to construct your work for posterity. Mc- Leods, Mowatts, Hamils, Steinsons, Colwels, Lemoines, and some others filled up to the border along Rideau front. After the canal was finished, many went and settled east of Davidson's settlement, and built the Catholic church close to which, and almost together stand a little Presbyterian and Methodist churches of brick, where one would do well were the people united. Along the Jock or Good Wood you meet Craigs, Monaghans, O'Mearais, Keives, Kilrays, Costalos, Cassidays and Conr.oys, Moylans, Quenlands and Watters, O'Grady's and Greens, Heffernans' Hoolaghans, Kelly's and McLaughlans, with many others who all set themselves to clear lands, build heuses and fences, accord- ing to the order of the times. Beyond this circle were the Hawleys, Latimers, Henderson, Browns and Nesbitts. T. G. Anderson came to Bell's Corners, then to Hintonburgh; McDonalds, Bradleys, James Smith, the great horsebuyer. He was going to a fair at Bell's Corners, his man wanted to go and purchase a cow which he would not permit, but set him to plant a new kind of potatoes he had got. The man worked away doggedly, planted a good part, then buried the rest in a pit, got to the fair and brought home his cow. James did not discover the thing till the mass of stalks discovered themselves by showing above gr6und, almost too late to dis- tribute them. The Lenaghans, Brennans, and Stapletons, moved in later. Mr. William Foster, whose son is a very successful tanner in the pretty village of Pembroke, resides here, whose brother Archibald Foster of the city, was once in the same region. The Gormans, McLeods, were fond of good stock, Durhams and horses. Michael Long brought the Blacksmith McLeod a nice piece of wood to get made into a pretty sleigh tongue and well ironed. When he saw it finished he thought it was reduced too light and said he wanted it so strong and solid. McLeod cut a thick elm pole and ironed it with the back on, Mike considered it would be fit to draw masts with. These were some of the jolly old stems from which the seedliiigs grew that cover so large a part of the h»ppy, ©Id, wealthy township of Nepean. How many others, as well deserving of a notice; must we leave out for want of space ? The Roman CAthoiics left the others far HI the rear, ia the inatter and buuneae oi chur<:h building. At Bell's HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY 69 Comers they had a union church, but they are all separate now, and the Presbyter; ans hold the old stone building which keeps togjether, but re- flects no ere dit on the builder. It was always connected with a church in the Nesbitt and Hopper settlement log at first, but replaced by a larger and better frame buildin? with a good congregation. They have only had two ministers in forty years, which speaks well for the people. Outside of the city there are four Presbyterian churches, lour Methodist churches, three Episcopal churches and one Catholic church. School houses were increased, as the population demanded, sections were formed, intellectual,'culture by good teachers, obtained, and en- joyed to gratificatioij. There may be some danger of the teachers be- coming a guild and proposing certain courses that rnay not be the best for human development. If any peculiarity of our mind should be neglected or not cultivated in the ^proper time and manner, the individ- ual AS not permitted to be what he would be under a better culture. The greatest care should be taken to let the mind unfold whatever may be in its nature rejecting th,e viqious. The endless school controversies are sapping the life of the community- We may yet have a government that will rigidly compel five and a half or six hour's a day with three hours on Saturday to the branches of study, necessary, to a proper education in the common school. It is not the church; gor is the church the common school. There is no room for the distinction between the civil and sacred, or the sacred and secular, except what the clergy get up for a special purpose. If we live, move and have our existence in the Great I Am which few will doubt or deny, then the boy, is in his line of duty during his study of Arithmetic, Geometry, and all mathematical science as far as the due proportion can be given them with a view to his calling for which he is being fitted and equipped as at his morning or evening or daily prayers. Is it not ba'neful that it is not so considered ? Is a religious education only con- sisting in the studies of the dogmas as they say of a particular sect, then no wonder that our strpets are vocal with neglected illbred children on Sundays. Their minds have not breadth, they are one sided and that often the worst side. Obedience is the first and most essential thing or prin- ciple to be taught, nay impressed on the childmind else its days will be few and vicious. Does our strife and quarrel arise from our clinging, closely to the only rule of faith or our divergence from it to our own theories ? Please reply. One man tells you there is no eternal punish- ment, another that there is no eternal happiness, but both are levened to the centre with the love of money and power. What care they that eternal life and eternal death are raj^ealed in the like terms and would not, otherwise, have ever bepn discovered. Let them have power lo tyrannise over men's right and liberties and trample them under their , feet. These men are one sided, their education was neglected or mis- formed. The parents, the clergy, the educators, are under fearful re- sponsibilities. The caricatures of humanity that we produce in' our home schools and colleges, produce all the disorder we groan under, keep mankind in the suds ovit of which they do not emerge like Wibcr- force (Soapy Sam) with clean hands. In England the governnient "ia preparing its own overthrow by a sectarian schoolbill as our govern- 70 HISVOBV 0^ THE OTTAWA VALLEY Boent is m«ddKng to its hurt by the <is(M|3ati<on of a Provincial right, and it takes so long to correct bhinde#s and make reflections to no just pur- pose. At the end of the wars with the French, they had given I^apoleon Bonapvarte, the renowned Cersican, and Emperor of the French, a safe retreat and comfortable lodgings at the expense of the English, in the Isle of St. Helena, the large army was to be reduced to a peace footing; so those troops, that had served on this continent, being the last en- listed into the service, were the first to be disbanded. Canada having come into the possession of the English, as a part of the conquest from the French, was to be colonized, and the regiments thait had some notion of the country from their short residence in it seemed very willing to re- main and settle on the free grants of land then given toind,uce coloniza- tion. The officers and men of the 99th and the looth willingly accepted (/^ the grants as remuneration for the toils of soldiering, and with their pensions hoped to live comfortably and form a new community, a greater Britain under the old flag. So they chose Upper Canada, and were about to sail from Quebec, where they had been on duty for some time, when the Duke of Richmond then appointed Governor General of the new provinces sailed into that port. We had no Atlantic cable even in our dreams, no ocean greyhounds to waft intelligence as on the wings of the wind, some of us not then bora. We can only imagine the excitement caused > in the announce- ment by the Duke of Richmond himself, of his arrival, ^s the white sails were forled, and the anchor dropped in the roadsteads of the St., Lawrence, under the frowning guns of the great citadel. He was the first and-so far only Duke appointed Governor. All- was Richmond- Every hamlet even had a Richmond street and the soldiers sailing out were fuM of Richmond and determined with one. consent to call their new prospective city Richmond.; The very young port they sailed irjto ♦ below the Chaudiere Falls was called Bellow's Landing, but this, they threw to the wild tempestuous winds, and called it Richmond Landing. Here they moored their little boats and landed their families and house- hold goods (i. e., their knapsacks and carpet bags). The little store kept by Jehiel, son of Capt. Collins, furnished some things they required and - they pitched their tents over the plain, known" for some time as the Flats. Here was a collection of fine lac'ies, many of them very fair; and gallant gentlemen. Among the many beautiful girls, perhaps the most beautiful was the then little Miss Hill, that afterwards was the pleasattt wife of Edward Malloch, the M. P. for twenty years for Carleton. These colonists did not seem to see any attraction in the suiTolindings of the Chaudiere, a settlement where the city now stands Most of the place was a cedar ifwamp, of deep, thick mud, so soft and watery that the trees might be said rather to float than grow on it. T. M. Blasdell, Esq., tells us that there was fine duck shooting on the pond, or half lake, where Maria street crosses Lyon and Kent streets. He and a young friend had waited long one afternoon on the home-coming of the ducks, which for reasons unexplained, had prolonged their calls, but home they came at ' last, were sighted and shot accordingly. But before they had bagged jlKeir game, or collected them out of the pond or "blind lake," night. HISTORY OF THE OTIAWA VALLEY. ^t with its thick darkness, fell npon them; and not knowing which way to procees in the dense woods, they concluded they muse remain till morn- '"g- A great swamp elm stood' by, against which they could lay their heads between the roots, and with leaves and i:oss make it tolerable. "^h^y got asleep ajid were awakened by the united vigorous crowing, in the hen roost of Mr. Nicholas Sparks, and starting with their bags at daylight, following the direction of the sounds, came out all right at'last. The Government Hill, and Ashburnham Hill, were then covered with hemlock, beech and maple. The, rest of the place was a .deep swale, fehrough wrhich years after, when the cows waded along Bank and O'Con- nor streets, they had to be washed before they could be milked. We never heard why these distinguished colonists chose the br.nks of the Jock in preference to those of the Rideau or the Ottawa. They arrived in the middle of August at the Richmond landing, having left Quebec on the 28th of July, i-8i8, passing and sakting the fine oian-of- war vessel at anchor, that had the Duke on . oard. Under Serjeant Hill, they organized to cut the road from_ the Flats, the place of their encampment to the Jock, ever since known as the Richmond Road. They kept within hailing distance of the river on their right hand until they reached the sandy hill, when the sight of the great bay directed them to the left, and at what was soon after. Bell's Corners; turned still more to the left till they struck the Jock, up which they kept their course till they reached the little falls, which Captain Lyons soon improved into a mill dam. The leaders of this'Richmond colony wcic : Col Burke, Mayor Ormsly, Capts. Lyon, Lett, Lewis, Bradley, Maxwell, Surgeon Cullis; Lieuts. Maxwell, Bradley; Sergts. Cunningham, Dempsey, D'ln- bar. Hill, McElroy, Spearman, Mills, Fit:^erald, Vaughan, with a long list of privates and a few civilians, such as, Joseph Hinton, Edwaia Mal- loch, Hugh Falls. Mr. Graham and David McLaren; soklier's, S. VV. and T. McFadden, Donald Mathieson, Jonas Btrry, M. Donaghue, James Greene, James Bearman, Wm Lackey, John McGuire,- Robert McMul- len, Alexander MeCasland, James Munce, D. Harrison, Wm. Copeland, Robert Birtch, Wm. Pender, John Withers, Pollock, McKinstry, Walsh Murrays, Withers, Stanleys and Denisons were men of the liiie. Read and Enough were both teachers. These were among the founders of the village and its environs. Lots were set apart for churches, graveyards, manses, parsonages, squares or parks, all on a, grand scale. Malloch was in the boot and shoe business, Hinton went to storekeeping, Malloch & Lyon, of the younger men the same. William Lyon followed dry goods. The Capt. had buih the first mill for flour and provender, and then took to carding, fuUing,, dying, shearing and pressing cloth, blankets and the hke of every variety. He kept the first stbre. Col. Burke, Capt. Lyon., Capt. Lewis, all were members of Parliament in turn. Some took to their trades as carpenters, tailors, blacksmiths, but the bulk took naturally to farming, and no better agricultural country could be selecte.-l than that they had chosen. Capt Maxwell imported and 'engaged in the improvement of animals, raising, selling and aiding his neighbors in improvement of their stock. So much were the animals esteemed that to say it was from Maxwell's stock made the sale the easier. Some years elapsed before tl»c^' l^wi a settled cleryytnan, and Capt. Maxwell being the most piously J2 HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. mclincl, acted as a kind of chaplain in the new school house and read them the church service. The Captain and Sergeant McElroy were both reliable gentlemen, as in boyhood we often heard Mr. Falls tiie young surveyor, was in his early pricne, and was wont to enliven society with stories of interest, racy and thrilling. His stock seemed limitless which he retailed out with a liberal hand. We have not been able to collect all the names of the pioneers, but have done our best. Many of the officers ,and men of the ranks lived in and around Richmond. Some left for other parts as the country was ex- plored, and good land was found with.suitable openings, presented them- selves. Capt. Bradley obtained lands in March and other town.shifis. He exchanged with Mr. Erskine for a lot with a mill site. Sans Brar'le/ built on it and Mrs. Denison kept house for him for some years. The Capt. himself settled down vigorously to cultivate his farm. Captain Bradley discouraged lawsuits. But when a plaintiff was very urgent and must have a hearing, if the defendent seemed to be in the wrong grievously, he generally discharged two or three volts of electric- ity on the criminal, then heard/his defence. If there was room, he gave him the benefit of the doubt, and if any opening offered; gave a hearty broadside to the plaintiff. ■ Then as if forgetting that he held his club "in terorem" over the heads of both, he w6uld in the mildest tones ask the plaintiff what good it would do him to have the man fined and the money laid out on some rough crosslay in a swamp that none of them perhaps would ever travel. ' Plaintiff by this time was ready to chime in, "Well Captain whatever you think best." The captain woujd then conclude a general peace, make them shake hands and engage to live in concord, and avoid ever after such unseemly displays of ill . jelings in a quiet and peaceable neighborhood and country. C. Bradley went into farming in Gloucester. The captain and his sons were men of stature, handsome and well formed. The drift of our story has carried us down stream, but we return to state that the building of so many houses in the village for so many families could not be com- pleted in a tew days. Shanties could easily be raised and Scooped and made tight, but many were not content with shanties. Then boards must be sawed by men and whip saws, or be rafted and sailed down the Rideau from Burritts Rapids or Merrickville in cribs, and sailed up the Jock, Mr. French had built the first mill in Burritts Rapids some time before this, but there was no road nor means of drawing. The river alone was the highway. Think of boards drawn from the mill by oxen on two crotches, then put into cribs in the river, and pushed by poles, or towed by a log canoe or hurriedly constructed boat, and soldiers were not the best of oarsmen; then when brought up the Jock drawn to the sit« by ox teams on crotches again soaked full of water. Suppose the houses had all been built of round logs, everyone who had a family wanted a house; they had September, October and November in which to do the work and then the winter was on them. , The families were left in their tents between the Richmond Land- ing and Holts and Honeywells, and tiie men went to work. But to cut forty k^s and draw them to the place and raise one building, would be labor for twenty good strong men, even if the trees stood around the ,*po^whe(« the building was to be raised. The balsam rafters were to <«ST«RY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY 73 be cut, peeled, fitted, and the boards to be sawed or got from a distance, shingles to be naade, a chimney erected of some kind, stones were not near and bricks were yet in the clay. How they mnnaged to get so many houses fit to be occupied by white people before the thermometer registered at zero, is' a mystery unsolved to this day. 'I'rnc, .=ome had to live in tents till the winter, and one soldier's wife, Osburn, was f">zcn or died, and was found frozen; also Denison, a soltlicr, was found frozen. Sergt.-Major Hill moved from his tent into his new house the day be- fore Christmas. Some were later in their tents. The Government fur- nished them a year's provisions, with implements of various kin'l.=; the old cross cut and whip saws, (one to every five men), were ofien used being lent all round. These old fashioned things formed the siibjjct of much coriversation of a pleasant nature in after times. The Duke of Richmond remained about a year in the conn'rv be- fore his death. He vs^as sent by the successors of a cabinet that had lost thirteen colonics, almost all that pertained to Englftnd, e.xcent Can- ada, then little esteemed, and 'the fortress of Gibralter. He was not highly spoken of nor was hisson-inlaw that had eloped with his daiiL,f'iter from Paris, at the close of the war; Sir Peregrin Maitland, goverr, irof' Upper Canada, whose name we remember reading on some of my father's deeds. The Duke must have had good . points, as grahVnde, which appeared in the wish to visit the people whose enthusiasm led them to call their youthful city after him. The Duke of Richmon ' was the only Duke we ever had as a Governor-General, not because of his excellence or celebrity. He is decidedlly ab.used by most writ> rs as "unpopular." — ''Dissipated" gambler, governed Ireland badly, ran into great excesses, great at the Derby on the continent — at the same time highly esteemed." "His son-in-law foisted on the country -to give him a sal u/— -the Duke holding the British Government in servitude." Thes-; writers might have reserved some of their fine expressions for others as highly deserving them. His visit to his son-in-law and daughter was in the summer of 1819. He determined to travel on foot over the route ad- vised by the Duke of Wellington as the location of the Rideau canal. Two attendants only accompanied him, carrs'ing his camp bed with the etcetras. He reached Perth and rested there on the night of the 17th Aug. 1819. Next morning he started for Richmond as an exer- cise, a walk of thirty miles on a road only blazed and cleared of brush, one may consider, he had an interest in the place and people to undertake the like. He reached Sergeant Vaughan's tavern at dark and put up there whilst his two servant men plunged through the swale and struck Richmond at midnight. The news stirred the colonists as a stroke would a bee hive. They were in a fermentation. Every piece of Hoard, plank or flat stick to be found was carried by scores of willing hands to enable the Duke by temporary bridge to cross the gullies, taking them up and hastening forward for his comfort and safety. Had he let them they would have carried him the three miles through that slough. They got him down, in the forenoon he lunched and enter- tained in friendly converse, ordering a fine dinner in Col.-SergcanC Hill's to the leading people ; he wa.-^ -social among them, which thc^ wvb eftiovf-d. But at the sight of wacer he showed much nervousnc:is. H HISTORY or THE OTTAWA VALLEY. He pflced bis ro©m all night steefJess, having refused to take the pte- scriptions of Dr. Gotlis, but he was niote cahn in the morning and todk some refreshment. He had arrange*! to reach Hull on the 20th Ai'gi.ist, and he va'ked d»wn past Co). Burk's to take the boat down the Jock or Good Wood to Chapman's farm, whers a «3giJO.i and two yoke of oxen sent by Mr. Wrigrht, were to ti*ke min tJ^roi'gh. He be- came more troubled at seeing the water and soon leaped out of the beat^ rushed v/iidly through the woods, and they owMtook hi^ri lyiiii? on the hay in Chapnsan's barn in a violent fit. Dr. CoDis was h-fO.*g"'»*t, awd he bled liim. A swift messenger was sent to Perth for another, but he died before anything could be done. Chapman drove his rei-iwins «o Hiiil on the waggon sent for him, and the boat sent, to meet him took the bcdy to Quebec, where he was buried with the honors becoming his rank. Chapman was rewarded with four hundred acres of land. Tlie hydrophobia was induced by the bite of his pet fox on his heel. His fauks and defects were forgotten in the kindnes3 of his vi.sit and entertsraiM»ent, and the sadness and' suddenness of his death, whicli threw a clowd over the villagers for some time after. Fie had given the name of his nej^ew, the Earl of March, to the unsurveyed township on the river at the dinner at Sergeant Hill's, the whole term of office in the country being only one year. Lumbermen like Mr. Wilson and others had lands round the village. Robinson Lyon, brother of the Captain kept hotel, was a fine horseman, but excelled all others at the violin. . He lived long in Richmond, then in Bytown, and finished a popular career in Ampri^r. The Government built a school in Richmond and paid one or two school masters for a year or two, fifty pounds a year, but soon witlwrew the grant. The schoolhouse was used for a preaching station for Catho- lics aad Protestants alike. The first to officiate in it was a priest, Mc- Donell, who was Bishop of Kingston before his end came. Mr. Heaiy a Methodist, was second. Mr. Glen, a Presbyterian, was third. Judg- iBg from the names, the Episcopalians mu.st have been tlie most n«n\er- ous as they built an Episcopaliaxi church befo e all others. Mr. Glen lived but a short time among them and seeaied to wear out in wA^ng swamps, travelling to Torboltoo, Kemptville, Prescott, and other places. Mr. Burns was the first Episcopal minister for seime years. Thek church and Mr. Pifihey's house- were buRt about the same time, »ti4 St. Andrew's Presbyterian church in Bytown. The Presbyterian cfeurch in Richmond was not built till Ahec the decease of Mr. Glen. It was a neat little frairie building on the line ©f street coming from North Gower, crossing the Jock ano tertMt«ating on the Rich'^iind and Perth Roads. Rev. David Evans was its firsi s^^ied pastor. Mr. Philips was then its prominent ruling elder from about 1S40 to 1848 v/hen Mr. Evans removed to Kitley Corners. Rev. John Flood was the Church of England minister contemporary with Mr. Evans. Mr. Flood was born a Roman Catholic but became a member of the Episco- pal church, and being disposed to study, pursued his course with great disadvantages, reading with firelight and 'Tat pine" chips, instead of 'the dip of those times.' The pine chip was smoky but the rezinous odour was as, agreeable as incen.se and determination overcomes difificulty, Mr. Flood got merited credit for his perseverance and success. -He was HISTCHIY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY 75 '■ rftlic swpcrintendatrts of education in tlie county, and assisted in getting th« Grammar school at Richmond under way. A young Irish man from Belfast, John Bouland Finlay, Ph. D., a gifted scholar from t4« school ®f Dr. Cooke, -came to Richmond, and whilst visiting some ftie«<b, was introduced to Mr. Hinton and Rev. John Flood, and en- gaged as teacher of the Grammar school. Dr. Finlay has run a brilliant career. He became preacher in the Reformed Church in East Brooklyn, them went to Kittanning, Pennsylvania, and is now Colonel John Bou- land Finlay, Ph. D., L. L. D., D. C. L. He is a man of shining talents, fnJH of history, extensively read in the works of the fathers, overflowing with Irish and Scotch anecdote, also a sound and able divine. He di=- IflceS the application of the term Rev. to clergymen, considering it the usurpation of an exclusively divine title : "Holy and reverend in His name." Hearing of our career at Knox College, he came to visit us, and a lasting friendship then began and has continued. The Free church movement had given a great impulse and North Gower Presbyterians caught and acted on the inspiration, Dr. Finlay preadied to them and to the Huntley people severa,! times with great acceptance. The most prominent young Presbyters in this Perth Pres- bytery, at that time, had gone into the Free church movements about the ntiddle of their divinity course, and the demand for preachers was s« great that they did not return to finish their stlidies at Quee ' ; or Dundee or Edinburgh, and it seemed to us that they were slightly dis- posed to look askance at the qualification of those who had taken the time and advantage of a full course. However the Ph. D. was new to them and they tried to get up wit at its expense. But it was a well merited honor and the wearer was unquestionably beyond them in natural talents where the D. D. might come under the rule of the fisher- man's application on his mackarel barrel, one D. for damaged and D. D. for doubly damaged. These young clergymen were by no means de- fective in wit, humor, and fun, although Scotchmen that could look aw- fully sober and grave at the right time. Dr, Finlay is now a very accomplished author, which no one of his mimickers ever became. Dr. Finlay was called to a congregation and was leaving Richmond, a-nd a Rev. Mr. Lowry was applying for the place and submitted to an examination conducted by Rev. John Flood as superintendent. The Greek readings were in the Iliad which, when finished, was pronounced satisfactory by Mr. FloQd, but might, perhaps, have been a little better rendered. Mr. Hinton always full of humor, could not k)se so fair an opening, and requested Mr. Flood to give them the benefit of the finer interpretation of so beautiful a passage ? This slip of Mr. Flood was unfortunate as his readings in the classics from his beginning late in life were not extensive. However, he tried it, making many periods and failing a little in trying to do justice to the translation. Dr. Finlay who had been a success in the school said, Robert Bkck would translate it for them. 'He was the son of Sergeant Birch and was preparing to take orders in the Church of England. Robert waHced up in a dashing, off-handed, manly styie for a boy, took up the book read, transited or interpreted saii.sfactorily. Mr. Flood blushed red. Mr. Hinton declared himself well pleased witn the translatios. ,Hki*©n, 7^ HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY Finlay, Birch, and those present, enjpyed the scene, Lowry did not safc fer but Bob was the hero. Some time after this a good thing happened in the Presbytery of Perth which some of the survivers yet remember. A student was be- inj ex \mined for license and was told to read and translate the first page in the thirteenth book of Virgil. The candidate said he had not read the book. But a young domine said no matter he can read. So he read. Now translate. He began and ran down easily till about half way when he caine to a dead stand.- One Presbyter rushed to his side to get him out of the slough but slid down the page with hesitancy till he reached the chasm. Another hurried to the rescue. Let me help, I am the best Latin scholar in the Presbytery. Here the poor candidate was sandwiched between these two great Latin scholars. The latter gentleman drew up at the same awful stand point. None seemed will- ing to imitate the noble Roman by leaping into or over the chasm. Can you furnish a supplement? .said the G. T. The candidate took the hint, fillel the hiatus and to the satisfaction of all finished the translation. The two learned gentlemen quietly resumed their seats well satisfied with the important aid they had rendered so timely. An aged minister, hearing of this case said : It reminded him of a car»didate on trial for ordination, who was cautiously admonished by an aged Scotch clergy-' man to be cxrcful to translate his Hebrew correctly, for if you make, mistakes or blun lers there is no one here fit to correct you. Mr. Flood was an indefatigable worker though not always in harmony with his' Bishop John, Toronto, who always ruled with a rod of iron and no slack The Bishop had issued a pastoral, in which he asked the , Roman , Catholics to unite with them in saving to them the clergy reserves, and ofifering them an equivalent when the Jesuits' estates woiild come up for legislation or adjudication. * Was the profoun 1 Protestant silence main- tained in Quebec ivhen $300,000 was legislated into the hands of the Jesuits, the quj,d pro quo in this case ? A Liberal wrote strictures on the , pastoral. Mr. Flood rushed to the rescue, to be reconciled to his bishop with the head of the Liberal who refused, to surrender his head to the block. In his next letter fvlr. Flood quoted Dr. Beggs. His friend ex-* amined the Edinburgh Witness, and found the quotation objections which Dr. Beggs demolished. This made hard ag-iinst him but his friend after correcting bis careless reading invited him to go on with the controversy, assuring him that while there was a shot in the locker he was welcome to a share of it. The 'thing proceeded no farther but the Bishop re- warded the attempt by a good promotion- The old "Admiral," his father-in-law, thanked the Liberal when they met as being the occasion, if not the cau.se of this clergyman's elevatidn. j/ Capt. Lyon, of Richmond was some time a parliamentarian. His family, largely boys, took te professions or mercantile life. They were all talented and William, who died a comparatively young man, was of the very highest type for ho' ~rable and manly conduct in every de- partment of the business of life. We had reason to know that his friendship was very sincere, true and valuaWe. In his early demise t ;e couwtry suhtAined a very signal loss. .G. B. Lyon, who added Fellows, / long held tlie moet «iistiHg;'Hkh«^ ||il««e »t the \>*x\ And as a pw^Uc man HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. 7y •nd M. P. We recollect laboring with might and main to prepare our lessons and gain time to hear him conduct cases at the court, admiring his eloquence and dignity of manner, even when . his opponent, Mr. Harvey was most abusive. Robert was our school mate, talented, amiable and very obliging ; was afterwards able at the bar, a representa- tive man in the legislature and a judge. His early death left Miss Foster a young widow to mourn his great loss. Some of the younger brothers are in the medical profession, one married a Miss Rieley: another JMiss Riley married Mr. Ea^on, and after his death, Mr. Martin, who has greatly distinguished himself in the law and in the legislature of Mani- toba as attorney-general of the Greenwav "^vcrnment, and more at Ot- tawa as M. P. Capt Lewis ran a parliai nt ly career like his fellow-offi- cers of Richmond. One of his sons, John Bower, was a man of high standing in the city and very deservedly so — his first wife was sister of John Street, of March, and his second, a sister of Zak Wilson, now high in Her Majesty's customs. Both were worthy of their high position. Mr. Lewis died young, having filled the important offices of recorder, mayor and M. P. Robert Lewis, like so many, followed lumbering. One sister was Mrs. W. L3'on and then Mrs. Lauder, the other is Mrs. Chas. Pinhey, of this city. Edwanl Malloch followed his honest calling so "carefully that he brought up his, family, f-iving them a fine education; two of his sons sat on the bench, and the. third Edward was merchant in Richmond in its best daj's. He married the then beautiful Miss Hill, afterwards gave up the store anil sat in parliament for over 20 years. One daughter married Rev. Mr. Milne of Smith's Falls; another is Lady Grant. One son was our schoolmate, was called to the bar and died young; the other is a successful physician. Capt. Lett died young in Richmond, leaving a widow and two sons, Andrew and William Pittman. The widow married Dr. Stewart and Jiad one daughter, tall and beautiful, who married Mr. McCraken, a successful lumberman. Andrew Lett married the talented and handsome MissEmily'Hyde, of Huntley, and lived there a farmer. One of his fair girls is Mrs. Dr. Baird. W. P. Lett married the second daughter of Mr. Joseph Hinton, of Richmond, and was long and favorably known in this city, as talented editor, brilliant and witty poet, and in his latter years as city clerk. Mrs. Lett lost her life by a railway accident, very much missed by a large circle of.friends. Mr. Jo.seph Hinton like Mr. Malloch was not a so'ldier but went into the storekeeping for years — a very kind, honorable man in business and in the affairs of the county, lived to a good old age, very highly esteemed by all wiio knew him. His son, ■ the late Robert, \vas well' known in his native village and" Hinlonburgh and the city. His first wife was a Miss Burrows, his second a Miss Hyde, daughter of Thomas Hyde and the beautiful Mary" Somervillt, and his third Victoria, daughter of the late Lymain Perkins. Mr. Hinton's eldest daughter tnarried Mr. George Patterson, one of the earliest merchants of this city, and now consideraiile time dead. Mrs. Paltersun is still in health and vigor: The youngest Miss Hinton mar- ried our much esteemed friend, Donald Grant, fciir years a very success- ful manager for the Hon. Thomas McKay in his large business. Mr. Grant was a warm hearted friend, liberal with his pursQto good objects in 78 HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY early life, and ended his days a chief of police, the duties of which he discharged very faithfully and pleasantly. Mrs. Grant is a lady of superior excellence, has been so as young lady, wife and mother. She has sustained her loss, if we must so say, like an ancient Roman matron and she cannot have happier days than we wish her and the prosperity of her sons after her. • We never had the pleasure of acquaintance with Sergt. Major Hill, Edward Malloch's father-in-law, but he was very highly spoken of as a good benevolent man, who was exceedingly kind to the ea:rly mission- aries, who travelled the land on foot, through dense forests and dismal swamps, to supply the lack of services in those days and doubtless he has his reward. We never met Major Ormsby, but have had accounts of him as a magistrate performing marriages in early times; but sceptical :: as to their legality; for it is told of him that when a clergyman came from Perth to marry Miss Elizabeth Birtch to Donald Mathieson, and Miss Jane Campbell to ex-Sergeant John Dunbar, he got his own mar- riage repeated, or as the Irish then said, clinched to make it safe. The clergyman was Rev. Mr. Harris, of Perth, son of the dean of Dublin, Ireland. Perth and Hull were the only places could boast of churches and settled clergy, Harris and Ainsley. Sergeant P. McElroy seems to have had some education, though he did not take to school teaching, but went into trading, or mercantile life, and his sons and generations follow to this day. Captain Maxwell seems to have been the most devout man among them. He assembled the people on Sundays and read the services of the church, what Dr. Ckalmers called the beautiful pi^ayers of the Church of England. He did it well and was highly esteemed among his con- temporaries. A little note is told at his expense though only arising from adventitious circumstances. One very cold morning the Captain was reading the lessons for the day from the Old Testament, he had ' come to, "Spake unto Moses saying," "Pat McElroy put a stick in the stove." This parenthesis in a soft ur>der ton^e, the boys insisted must be in the origina:!. The C-aptam was a good agriculturist, very fond of well bred stock. For years k was sufficient to commend an animal to a distant former, to state that it came from Capt Maxwell's herd or flock. Two or three years after the founding of the village, came an Episcopal ' gentt^iaan from Athlone, Ireland. Thomas Sproule regarded as a very pious mftR and who stimulated tiie colony into erecting an Episcopal efeurdi; the first in a long distance on the south shore of the Ottawa river, except Perth wltidh.was about midway between it and the St. Lawrence. We once had the pleasure of spending a night with a por- tion ©f his kaaity on a farm between Richmond and the long swamp. We had been at Richmond mill with a few bags of wheat, drawn on a "long-bodied cart" and returning with flour and bran, etc., it became d«u-k. When we QOt a naiSe from the village, and in a grove a tree had faflen across the road and aay feveiy horse leaped over it and broke my cart axle, so there was nofebtsg for it but to undo the horse and find a lod^ng. In a little time a lig^rt m a. window attracted my attention a«id fa -V ing my way to the gase, feltowcd lay Che »iiiBWfii, the liouae wa;> aj n reached, ihe length of a good &»id £eMci 'tine soad. A yi>ut%£ gemiSisuiam HISTORY or THE OTTAWA VALLEY ;i9 came out, very attentively heard my short statement of disaster, at ooce too> my horse to the stable, proposing to go with his lantern and p«rt my bags into a safe place, which he did. He then introduced me to his family of mother and sisters, a portion only of the family. Despite my remonstrances they persisted in serving up refreshments, which was i done with very good taste. Afterwards a sister conducted family wor- ship reading Isaiah, 32 chapter, in a sensible conversational becoming style and manner, mailing a running comment and offering an extem- porary prayer- Whether it was because it was the first I had heard from the lips of a woman or whether it was the Christian spirit it breathed throughout, or the aid afforded by the Spirit from above, I was then too young to determine, but it made an indelible impression on my mind : i The pure words, the petitions for Christian growth in the minds of the converted of the family, and the pleadings for those who had not yet experienced the power of divine grace, were to me themes for reflection many a day after. That highly gifted Christian woman, led us that night in the homage, the dependent creature owes to the in- dependent Sovereign Creator, from whom we receive all things and to whom we return nothing, but this fruit of our lips giving thanks to his , name. 2. The luxury of our, admission to converse with the Most High, the maker and possessor of heaven and earth. 3. The leverage given to our faith in the expectation, the assurance that the promises will be fulfille'd to us in the use of the heaven appointed means. There was the humble confession of our guilt, helplessness and illdesert, and a magnifying of tiie; infinite, jxire, holy One, in whose presence we were bowed together. Then the aid of the Holy Spirit was invoked to help us. We were led to shelter oursrlves under the man Christ, as an hid- ing place from the 'tempests of wrath we had incurred. Thanks were most sincerely given for the answers received and for other things sub- stituted for what we a.'^ed, which were in divine wisdom more suitable to us There was no Kniattng of the Most High and holy in the answer we ^expected; but an evident disposition to wait His wise time, to reply and to bless. The young gentlesman showed me to my room, where, grate ful that I had fouixl s«ch a restiog place, instead of sitting all night on my 'broken cart in the woods miomentarily expecting to hear the growl of a prowler of the forest. Alter a sweet sleep in a nice bed and room, I was ©ut by the dawn, cut a maple pole, and had my axletree made by breakfast. Yom\g Mr. Sproule helped me to put it to the wheels and body, and we parted witti greater gratitude than could .be clothed in words of an'y laitigHage. One brother married Miss Hopper rf the family well-known in N-epeaa., and kept store at March Corners for a time, then at old Stittsvik, in the ibouse built by Howard & Thompson, and occupied for a time by Mr. McKaskill, who had kept at Bell's Corners' before the days of George Arnold. Another was deputy regis- trar iH the county office in this city. The youngest remained, we think, on the farm. They were a highly respectable family But meeting in my early teen's with that kind peiopie and that middle-aged lady of such gentle, ma-jestic, Christian spkk ; fifty years have not in their slow pro- gress ®r voiucritic swiftaess been able to obliterate the impression from nay samd. 80 HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY Ifthe Invisible Almighty Spirit can in a meeting, tor a mon>enti in this beclouded world, create such feelings, in sin-stained souls, what ^all be the divine delight when kindred redeemed spirits shall encompass that throne whereon the Man rcigneth; who was here below, "an hiding place from the wind, a covert from the tempest, as rivers of waters in a dry- place, and as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." Rev. Jdhn , Flood was long the incumbent, a convert from Catholicism. Mr Petit was his successor. He took rather a peculiar way of collecting his sal- ary. He posted up printed bills of the names of the contributors and what they had paid during the year. It gave offence but he survived it. , The Presbyterians built a little frame church but Mr. Glen did not re- main very long and after beii:ig some time vacant they secured the Rev. David Evans who was many years their pastor. He supplied Huntley and Fitzroy as a p?.rt of liis charge in connection with Richmond. After him came Rev. P. Lindsav then Rev. Wm. White. Mr. Mc- Cleland, whose amiable wife was a Miss Bailey from Aylmer, was their . pastor for some years. Fallowfield and the Jock above Richmond be- came the wings and under their present pastor are doing exceedingly well. They are made up of very intelligent, respectable families. They have a neat brick church at Fallowfisld and a good frame church at the Jock. Many interesting stories are told of the long, tiresomes travels of the early preachers through long", dark wbodr and deep, interminable swamps, the short sleeps and long fasts which were so kindly alleviated by Sergeant Hill, in whose hotel, they all, of every denomination,, seemed to find a kindly home, pleasant faces and refreshments of the best provisions and in the richest abundance. More than forty years ago a member of the Presbytery of Perth was sent several times to supply North Gower and too'k Richmond in the afternoon, occupying a school house in which Mr. Bryson, father of the dry goods merchant, taught the advanced classes. Though there was no tRtention to interfere with the rights of the kirk, then vacant, yet the Smiths, Browns and Jones were neither gtateful nor satisfied, and gave no attendance at tite altar. The Jock church is in the old Gordon settle- ment and is a well attended, flourishing congregation. The last preacher had Stittsvttle in connection, but it is supplied from the city by Rev. Mr. Danbey. The Methodist church has a long history in Richmond, and an extensive list of preachers, »vith very few of whom we have had the pleasure of acquaintance. The first Roman Catholic church was built about two years after the Episcopal. The first services ,vere held by an ex-chapiain of the army, Mr. Mcdonell, afterwards bishop of Kingston, but he seems to have b«w« but a wayfaring man at Richmond. Father Heron appears to have been their first settled priest: We never met him but were well acquainted with his successor. Father Peter Smith from County Cavaa, Ireland, who ruled there many years, and had both hands *"ull ©n naany a fair day held twice a year in the village. He was of gigantic stature, and when mounted on a splendid charger with a long whip, »r even on fo^ he was a terror to evil-doers. We recollect Rev. Mr. Smart of Brockville, who was almost equal to the p.-p4t in Iciigth if not in pounds avordupois, being taken down to the Spri^-jc beJow the city by Edward Malloch in his carriage and intro- docad t« Rtv. Mr. Smith. Rev. T.Wardrope remarked that if they qjjac HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEt,, 9^ relied Mr. Smith had the odds in his favor. Mr. Smith replied that they would not quarrel as Mr. Smart was in delicate health, but if he died while there he would give him extrenae unction. Father Smith often charged through on horseback to the ''BaHigibelines" in Huntley and like young "Lord Lochinvar that came out of the 'ves*, of all the wi<Je border his steed was the best." He was succeeded by Father Cullen, aiwd then xve believe, our cM schoolfellow, Father O'Connor. Sergeant Major Hill is said to have in- troduced the first cow into the new colony and to have brought hay from Burritt's Rar.ids, down the Rideau on the ice, and up the Goodwood to feed her, and in addition to supply plenty of brush from the tree tops for f -ttening purposes. Of course we do nbt question this, but ooe cow would not require much if they cut beaver hay and grew anything on the clearings. Great use was made of brush from tree tops arid the lerel lands .around were covered with elm, maple, oak and birch. , The mater- ial was better by far than the same kinds in Ohio and Indiana, where, as the Buck Eyes say, it is "very brash." As clearings grew larger they raised abundance for feeding purposes. The U. E. Ls. set the example in most things and kept their cattle running loose in sheds, maintaining that there was less danger of freezing than tied up in feeding houses. This plan has been abandoned almost universally now, and 9ie best farmers stall-feed. Salted meat, especially pork from the west, was the order of theday. Beef killed in the fall, salted, sometimes kept frozen, was packed in wheat straw for use. But years passed before butchers became popular. Game was very abundant. Deer, bears, rabbits and hares were very plentiful, and were shot and trapped at will, and there were no closed seasons. Venison was sent round as people succeeded in shooting, and the Ipenevo- lent principle was highly cultivated. Wild geese, and especially wild ducks in flocks, frequented the streams and lakes. But the most plentiful of all was the wild pigeon that came in spring, flying in clouds almost obscuring the sun. The woods were swarming with them all summer. Old muskets or shot guns as Americans say; were freely used and many were the victirns. Partridges drummed in the vicinity of their brooding mates, often within hearing of one another. River, lake, stream and brook teamed with fishes — these remain but not in such numbers; but the winged creatures have almost wholly disappeared. For a quarter of a century hardly a wild pigeon has been seen in hundreds of miles. An odd duck or partridge turns up, and a rabbit or a mink very seldom, but otter, beaver and martin are scarcely ever caught. The fox and the skunk are with us, but the racoon is nowhere hereabouts now. There was no effort for years to keep pure the breeds of cattle or sheep. Mix- niif-^ ,-i white-faced Hcrefords, and long-horned Devons with inferior bri-c'J:- ilirtwirig indications of the ancestry in a state of djsgredation, sr.rc tlie coa'.-non flocks on farms everywhere. Sheep averaging 3 lb. a clip, have given place to 'iome of 7 or 8 lb clir'=; and twice the weight in flesh, ffogs were lengthy in limb and snout. Berkshires, Yorkshires, at;d Suffolks were yet in the future, but now very conimon. It is not to be woMilered at if agriculture had not made much progress in a land of stiunps with plowing difficult and stump extractors uninvented, and afl implements in the most primitive state. ISZ HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. Mrs. Stewart of Beckwith was unequalled in the land as wife, mother, church member, benevolent Christian and good neighbor. She lived to a good old age a model of excellence, helping the needy, strengthening the feeble-minded, supporting weak Christians and young professors of religion, with a kind word and an open hahd to everyone. The eldest daughter married her cousin, Neil Stewart, a worthy elder in the Beck- with church. The second daughter is the wife of Thomas Simpson, the third, who was Mrs. Dewar, died young; the fourth, Mrs. James Conn, who kept store long in Mr. Sumner's place, whose very enterprising sons since his early death, have built a fine stone store and dwelling house and do a large business; her daughter is now the widow of the late Dr. , Potter, whose brother is one of the most eminent physicians and large- hearted, trustworthy men in the city, and whose immense practice ac- cords well with the great range of his experience and ability. The eldest son, Sandy Stewart, lives at White Lake and is in the cheese business. The second, Neil, was long and favorably khown as farmer, owner of a small steam sawmill, and councillor and reeve of Goul- bourn. His youngest son John, married Miss Kennedy, eldest daughter of Robert Kennedy, the pious-ruling, influential elder in Ashton, sound in the faith, enthusiastic in the temperance movement, and indefatigable in the works of faith and labors of love. Mrs. Kennedy was a McDiar- mitl, a good woman; their family like that of Jacob's was thirteen; but strike his in that they were twelve girls and one boy. The last died young, the gins-married wisely, and are mothers of a numerous interest- ing offspring. The Episcopal church and the Methodist congregations at Ashton are not large or numerous, though of some' time standing. The Presbyterian was an offshoot from Beckwith and had been ministered to' in 'connection with that church since the disruption. The writer was the first ordained minister who, after three pleasant years of labor, gave place to Mr. P. Gray, an excellent and worthy man, who after some years went to Kingston and after a successful ministry died tliere. Their next minister was Mr. McKinnon, for a number of years, then Mr. McAHster, son of Elder McAlister of Kingston. Their next minister died with them when very young. They have now Mr. George Bayne, brought up in Nepean. From a very small beginning, the congregation has grown to be self-sustaining with a large and beauti- ful stone church. Some of the first elders are succeeded by their sons in office. , The growth has been steady not spasmodic and the future erf" the place may be considered as hopeful and prosperous. Appleton, a flourishing village on the Mississippi, has been associated with it for some years, with a good assembly of attentive hearers. James Wilson, near the centre of 'Goulbourn, was the first, like Mrs. Stewart, to plant and col- lect an orchard of any pretentions; but all seedlings of conaderable value. They sold well at Kcmpt's fair and Richmond fair as well as elsewhere, the taste of the people being not yet vitiated by more luxuriant and los- cious fruits. We remember well, perhaps fifty years ago when sent to get horses ■ shod by J«hn Barber, a famous work.aan in his line, in James Wilson's employ, awJmiring the you»g flourishing orchard a«d tbe large number •f beehives, as tbings were in that day and to be wandered at a.s sources 9£ w«Altk,as wcH »s pieasant and ftttFact»v«. N«t far iiroin Wilsotv's. some HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY 831 of whose descendents we have mot on the Gatineau, dwelt the Cathcart ' family, distantly allied to the heroic general who had both linnbs shot ofi in the great battle in the Crimea and by his own request was lifted from ! his horse, and set on a piece of d stabled cannon, that he might give com- ' mands while he lived. He was ;i descendant of the famous warrior in the days of the peerless Nelson of imperisfeable memory. These Cath- carts, too, had seen service at Lundy's Lane and elsewhere, and their eoemies never discovered that they had backs. , They- were uniortiinate in worldly enterprise; fire smd lightning doing much dire work ©f destnici ion to the amount ®f many thousands of dollars in buildings and stock, including a new steam saw mill — all yery much regretted. EastM-ard on both sides of the Jock, you meet the Mackeys, Eadies, O'Grady's, Greens, Bennetts, Craigs, McBndes, Gam- bles, «nd further up the stream the Mortons and Shil-lingtOMS, ancestors of the doctor and druggists, and farmers nearby and in the city. There is a p>ost office at Hazeldean, \vth some workshops and a store. It i«a,y be called a village on the principle that Lever adopts the Inshenafi's vS- lage, "a blacksrriith shop, a Sunday school, and a pouud." Eagie«on's Corners had some resewsblance to a village twenty years ago.; b»t it is a deserted village containing wooden ruins, and two residents, Mr. Eagie- son and Mr. Scharf. The Goulbourn half of Ashtoa is better buik and rather larger than BeB's Corners. Goulbourn, in which Richmond is situated, was caffled after an English nobleman and contains about 55,ooo acres, very tnuck varied in quality of soil, not half of it fit far cultivation. Tke Kgfeter so8s would produce certain kinds ©f crops, but whilst land is plent^ul, it is vtnl^eiy that time and labour wiH be spent on a quality of soil so unproductive. That part of this township on the north end cailed Haj^edean was set- tled very soon after Richmond, or contemporary with it and Maiceh and Huntley. William Hod^ins, grandfather of the present M. ¥., wan ■ among the first. James Bell, who married the widow of Ad'yuiamtt Adams, "was very early planted on the hill beside Mr. Hodgirvs. The other brothers Hodgins went to Hantley and Fitzroy and lumbered. Abbot Lewis, blacksnjith, had his house and shop on the highest h^-tep on the north of Mr. Hodgins' His sons followed the same business, and were very ingenious mechanics. They went west. James Mufti^n opposite J. Bell has followed careful farming. John Young pMrchsMJcd Bell's fa:;m at a high price in the estimation of many but sold it much higher. George Morgan purchased higher still, but parted with it, as im- possible to make it pay now in the altered times and prices current. Robert Young long occupied the beautiful farm on the hill, butting »n the town line of March, where John Barber, blacksmith buik a pretty white sandstone house. John Young's house had bkie limestone corners and decorations, varying the white sandstone. John Culbert lived south of the north east branch of the Carp. Dr. Colar Church built a fine stone house east of R. Young, and .south of that. Billy BraeWey kept tavern, south of the Carp east of the 12th line. His sons, Joshua aad ■ Samuel occupied the same lands. William Kemp . south of that, th«« John McCurdy and Jackson Stitt at old Stittsville On the west siiJe op- posite the Bradleys and Kemp, Robert Grant got a large ferm aad kept store in our boyhood, as also William Hoslfins. Mr. Grant hoid no 84 HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. famil}'^ by t'le first marriage, but four sons and two daughters by his second. His first wife was a Miss Powell, his second a Miss Hardie. Mr. Hodgins had two sons, James, who died young, and John, the father of the M. P. for Carleton, and several daughters. One of these is the mother of the M. P. P. at present. Mr. Grant took great interest in municipal affairs, so a'^n ''id hi'^ son Robert, who is married to Miss Sarah, third daughter of Mr. W. Gourlay of Huntley. Robert is a prosper- ous scientific farwjcr. Joiin Grant is also a successful farmer south of Robert. The other two brothers, William and James are fine business men in har^iware, corner of Bank and Sparks streets in the city. One Miss Grant became the wife of John Gourlay, Huntley, the other is Mrs. Templeton, Winnipeg-, Man. South of John Grant, Charles Hartin on the old farm and mill site, son of David and Miss Malcomson, who is married to Miss Wilson, daughter of David Wilson of Huntley. On the Huntley side jTmes and John Hartin had fine farms. James Stitt lived above t'ne McG:c chapel. This is replsfced by a much larger brick building than the old' white frame church of former days. The Bradley's and Mr. Kemp married daughters of George Clark of Marrh. -Above Old StiU.s\ilie' Andrew Argue, Baker, and John Wright filled up to the pines. Wm. Cuthbert, farmer and local preacher, James Cherry and Joseph Magee lived n>;pr the chapel. James Walker and the Scharfs filled up from the town line of Nepean all the good land. W. Eagleson at the corner with a little store, with his vigorous wife, a Miss Shore, bid fair to get up, not only a business, but a village with blacksmith, shoe- maker, caroenter, weaver, etc , but all the little wooden cottages are rot- ting without an inhabitant. Eagleson and Scharf were the only two there when we passeu through some time ago, a deserted village, we are sorry to report. Thoma.s Alexander who sold 200 to my father, James Arthur, Jacob Stuart and James Birch, occupied the oasis in the pine desert, south of Stitisv ille. Then Mr. Crawford and Mr. Ford with many brothers of the Simpsons, Cherry, the tanner, and a few others, fill up to Ashton. All on the west side of the township, from north to south, except Elder Davidson, are Irish, , the Atlas to the contrary notwithstanding. Stitts- ville at th-; railroad station, is a thriving little place with three stores, a hotel, and several mechanic shops and tasty private dwellings. John Sumner, an Englishman, opened the first, and for a long time the only store in Ashton, then called Sumners' Corners. He had large potash works carried on, from which some have supposed the place took its pres- ent nam?. Donald McFarland kept the only tavern for many years in the place, a peaceable and quiet house. Neil Stewart, a son of John Stewart, of Brckwith, long time reeve of Goulbourn, was of highland descent; all the others were Irish by birth or lineage. When Sumner lef; for Carleton, James Conn took his place in store and post office. His wife was Janet Stewart, and his sons have built a great stone house for store and dwelling and have been the leading business men in the place ever since. The little stone church of the Presbyterians is re- placed by a sightly looking edifice. There is an Episcopal church there, the leading supi^orter of which, in its beginning, was Mr. Shore, whose wife was Miss Fanny Acres, of March. The Methodists arc not numerous in the place We are not HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY S5 aware that any other denomination has any people there now. From Sergeant Vaughans to the Jock is a fine settlement. The pretty liitle Presbyterian church there, is well filled with an intelligent, cnqiiirit'g looking audience. The Shillington settlement extends towards the \ii- lage of Richmond with the Mortons and others. The Brownlees, south aid east'of this treiid.s towards North Gower. Mr McFadden, an old ! oldier from Tyrone, who li\'ed near Ashton, was ahout one hundred, fi;>' a Sergeant Steinzell clcseby lived to be nearly a, hundred. Sun)ncr li.'id a little saw riiill on the Jock at Ashton, but was not of long duration, ami Mr. Neil Stewart built a sinall steam mill in its place but there was too little lumber to be much si!])ply. Mr. Stewart was not long lived, llis wife, Mrs. Stewart, was Miss Cram of Beckwith or Carlcton Pla'-e, a sweet-tempered, pler.s;uit ant^ excellent woman, who died be- fore him. 'J'hcy left a fine familw Mr. Shore carried on business in the wa^^gon ai'd carriage making. From .Archie Campbell, wlio v as '^'le of the curliest blacksmiths down to the present, there lias been a rucce-^ioii of workmen in e\ ery trade. Mr. Turner, who married a M.ss Craai, sister of Mrs. Neil Stewart, built and followed his business here for years. The Beckwith side of Ashton was occupied by the Clarks, Dnimmonds, McNabbs. The r.-csbyterian congregation was then com- posed of the hearers of Dr. Cooke of Belfast, Dr McDonald of F"erintosh, the apostle of the Highlands These spoke the gaelir and were among the warmest friends of the young minister. Others had been the hearers of Dr Burns of Paisley, then of Toronto. Some otliers came from hear- ing men of far less celebrity; but fancy the notions produced by learning these things on his first' visit around the little flock ! He had been talk- ing away to them as so ma ly plain country farmers, that aid not require any stilted language or scientific figures, or striking illustrations. He ■had told them his story from the open bible without a scrap of paper be- fore him. They had forgotten the talents and the eloquence of the above old heroes and had given the. kindliest and closest attention. What was he to do now on his new discovery? The world of the past must answer. He must hold on his way ignoring the discoveries, ex- cept to stimulate to more careful study, a greater exettion to place eternal truth clearly and forcible lefore the minds of the audience. When the teacher was removed by the vote of the court, and the men, old and young, had remonstrated with their might against the change, but could not prevail to keep him, old men and full grown strong young men burst into tears. Among those still living who can attest this a.s true are, Dr. Wardrope and J. B. Duncan and Robert Kei nedy elder, SHtd Peter Campbell of Galetta. So much may be said for the soundness, kindness and goodness of the people of Ashton. The south branch of the Carp river, one of the many tributan^a of the Ottawa, rises in Goulbourn, in the lowlands above old Stittsville, a creek passing between it and the Canadian Pacific railroad, and winding through the farms of Messrs. Kemp, Hartin, Grant, etc., unites below the town line, in the first concession of March, with the north branch, which rises in Nepean, near the ■ oad, and runs westerly to the junc- tion. It was in our early recollection a clear stream, all its length except an odd tree across it, which was used instead of a better bridge for cross- 86 HfSTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. mg on foot. Beaveiss, otters, minks, SMaskrats, were its aboriginal io- feabitants. Our first voyage on its placid waters was in a log canoe with WaKa,in Acres, to inspect his traps placed under the grass drawn on the banlK marking the landing of the muskrat, some of which he brought home. William Harper, then a boy, showed us the stumps and some dead poles with the marks where the beavers had bit them rou^nd with their teeth which then excited our boyish amazement, and still further when we heard that they drew these poles with their tails and dug clay »«d plastered the poles in the stream to make dams for their luxurious dwellings. The tail seemed to be a great and useful implement as well as tiw: teeth. The river now, for miles, resembles a long narrow lake grown full of taH coarse grasses. A dead sea. ,It is a government work for 25 miles to dredge it and prevent its being injurious as well as useless. Public and private roads suffer by it. The Hartin brothers had a saw mill on its south branch and cut as long as the timber lasted around it. They offered a site near the mill for a Presbyterian church and logs of white pine were sid-ed and laid on the ground. David claimed (he was but a boy then) that as he was giving the ground and would have to saw a good deal of the lumber he should have the choice of a pew when built, which they all cordially agreed to, except Jacob Stewart, who made a funoy objeetion "gee him the pulpit." The project was abandoned, Thc'Methodists built a log church close by, which the facetious James BeH termed "Mud street chapel." It is yet standing. Rev. Mr. Horner held revivals in it on the mode of prostration. Crowds attended and trouble and litigation followed. The mode was not adopted and the services of this evangelist have been dispensed with. The Magce chapel. 9. neat Iktle whke church, further south, was erected, and beyond that, in a forest of giant maples, they had a camp ground at which we spent a week. We were often invited to lead their prayer meetings amid the greatest excitement we ever had to that time witnessed. Whole families from far away. Clarendon and Hull, and many other places were there encamped in board huts, tents an-d sheds. Many preachers were there, and many sermons daily delivered to the vast, attentive audience. Prayer meetings followed the sermon and were greatly, prolonged, some one leading till exhausted, his voice was lest in the responses and another started up to take his place. Often in evenings, continuing till midnight. Rev. Ben NankieviHe presided and with a long tin born summoned them from walk or conversation to at- tend the services. One night after eleven o'clock the preachers and other notables were very politely invited to take tea in the capacious tent of Brother McCurdy. Whilst doing great justice to the excellent, well- prepared refreshments, the doctrine of predestination was served up for discussion. Some one said the Presbyterians did not beliexe it themselves. Mr James Lowry referred them to me for a reply We admitted the docr,m*e, but said it was very inconvenient to d;scuss it then and there. However, they were in the mood for it, after a fine supper moistcHcd by old hyson. Questions were piled in upon the stu- dent from every quarter. W . Fitz B. Healey and James Stitt stood in the door, heWing by the frame, t© prevent their being hustled in and hurtdteds stood an^oiAad. All admitted the doctrine of fore knowlccl-ge : HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY 87 We maintained that it was so intimately connected with fore appoint- ment that they must stand or fall together on the ground; that we can- net possibly know that a thing exists if it does not really and certainly exist; that it is equally impossible to know that a thing will exist if its future existence is not fixed and certudn. Dr. A. Clarke has said that past, ^jresent and future are all present with the Deity. On this reasoning his present purposes are his past pur- poses, and what is right now to do or purpose could not be otherwise in past purpose or deed, and so for ever. That man acts willingly under the knowledge and purpose, as if there were not a providential rule that includes everything under it cannot be denied nor explained from our limited understandings, neither can we deny our own accountability. But said Mr. Nankieville, if a man is justified and sins afterward is he not unjustified ? We were at a standstill for a moment but replied- He re- pents and is forgiven, and restored to favor, as David and others. Justi- fication is not annulled or revoked- It is God that justifies and it must include the whole life. On that he took my hand. Lelf us get some £resh air? And off we went in the clear dawn of morning for a most pleasant walk and chat. He was i-eported to have had a number lof his bones broken m coal pits in England in youth, but he was a sound Christian man. General Booth is contriving ways to bring together the working young people of London and elsewhere for acquaintance in or- der to marriage. In this light this camp-meeting must have been a great success, for we were told that about 60 marriages took place rfiortly after it broke up- The Township of Goulbourn was like some ethers very rich in lumber at the first. This made a market for produce, especially oats and hay, which were raised in the richest abundance on the fertile portions of the soil. These were disposed of at the doors where raised, or within a few miles. But afterwards the farmers had to seek a market up the Ottawa, Madawaska^ Bonnechere and elsewhere, and drive with teams in winter, requiring from one week to three weeks, for the go and return, but it paid them as the prices were good. That market is no more, as it d<- mini^es yearly, and settlers near the limits can supply the demand The farmer is now in the hands of a few millers, who prepare rolled oats or meal to be consumed at home, or if it pay, sent to Britain- The elec- tric railroads in the streets diminish the demand for horses to be used- The distance to England, the style of horse ^required there, and the McKinley tariff have put farmers into such difficulties as now, not to raise 25 per cent of the colts they formerly did, and beef at $4.00 per hundred will not pay 25 cents a day to a man the year round; and his board, working his own farm, and with hired help, will leave him slightly in debt. Wheat and oats at a cent a pound when crops are good, and i}4 cents, when half crops, and hay at $8 a ton, make a striking con- trast with the prices and demands of forty and fifty years ago. We are HOt saying that the former days were better than these, and we have no controversy with the modern philosophers, who, provided with good salaries, are booming the rimes, and the goodness and progress of the world, we are only stating- things as they were, and are now, which is ofAy truth m history to which we have bound ourselves and from wfaick ^•S mSTORY ©F TH« OTTAWA VALLEY. we wis mot knewingly swerv« to please friend or foe, ScKne oW names have dtsappeKred from the ^d farms altogether. f In other cases a father that owned 400 acres has left it to children and the farm now is one hundred acres to a man. In other cases tlic grandchildren are on the single hundred acres the grandfather tirewfrom tbe Government. If it be said, so much the better; let them cultivate four times as much as was done in the past. Good, if they can. But those who know the lay of the country and the flat fine lands that have BO fall of any extent for draining, and estimate how much it would cost to underdrain such farms and we ask what great use for any other kinds of drains will easily tell that the money for such underclrains. must he borrowed and the lands put under lien for 20 or 30 years to pay it back. Without such an improved system of agriculture our lands in the level Valley of the Ottawa will not yield half their strength to the faraier and his wife with their 14 hours a day of toil and an.xiety. We have what our ancestors had not. Ministers of agriculture and their well-manned departnsents; can they tell us anything about agriculture, except give us a few BnreUaKle statistics ? To our farmers this department is utterly useless but highly ornamental. They pay fdr it all in hard earned cash. The progress in labor-saving machinery in tliesc 60 or 70 vears has been very great indeed. They reaped with sickles and bound with their hands for 30 years, now the old scythe is no more except as a relic Mower, rakes, tedder, loader, horse fork, are all improvements to be grateful for; so is the reaper, and much more the reaper and binder;^ but tiae cost ©f these to the farmer is at a fair estimate five times theirivalue. Fifteen years ago $300 for a reaper and binder, which with interest at 6 per cent., $380, then the instrument is done. If by foreign competition it is now $120, that is $60 too much, what reason or henesty is there in charging for a sewing machine $80 in one country where it is made and protected, and $25 in another country in competition? The castings of it are said to be worth $7.50, now per- haps $5. These men have become millionaires j'ou say. So they would had they sold at the factory at $25 and wealth would have been without robbery. At one stage of our recollection a man cbuld buy a farm and pay for it out of his own labor on the farm. Can he do it now ? A single horse top-buggy sold at|^22S; at about ten years after, such vehicles were sent in long trains after one pair of horses, and two men, in num- ber from ten to fifteen a»«i sold at $50, the principle difference being on the finish as they declared. We do not put in the plea that the manu- facturers of 96' are more honest and reliable than those of 45' 55' or 65'. We simply chronicle their doings as a spectator. The taxes coUectedthe first year in one township amounted to fif- teen dollars. The settlers from the Old Country were opposed to heavy taxation. And no wonder, as almost every month in the ycsr I'lcre was an officer to collect for something in the land of their nativity. They decidedly opposed the expensive, cumbersome machinery by v.-hich it was raised. We very weM remember some gentlemen had a method bv which all that was necessary could be obtained with the greatest econ- omy. But no, these men came late and the U. E. and the Captains who were J. P.s, had their methods and ihey contrived to follow them. Pre- judice, customs of our fathers, our habits, aM plead; then our stubborn- ' j HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY 89 ness to prefer our own plans to all others, and so many willing to be led without thinking, and so many man- worsiiippers, that could not turn f'-'^m the objects of their devotion to reform anything. Arguments, the fie rest, are lost on multitudes — dollars take them The old lady's argu- tnei against the education of her boy was to the point with so many: "Fii^j shillings stands a man more stead, than all the books that ere he rcaa." These ignorant, purchasable wretches, arc winked at because tbey belong to our party, or they count in voting for our party; pcr'raps enceuraged by men that wish to be thought of as honest and honorable. These early reformers would have had experts from a distance, to ijiake ^e assessment according to the native value of the land, wild or unim- proved, and exclusive of buildings, slork, and all else, as these arise from the toil and industry of the laborer. This vaUiation to be permanent as the soil itself, as the matter once fairly adjusted would satisfy, and the expsRse ofasscssment.be avoided for ever after. If a farm or any lands became the site of towns or villages, the lots could be valued accordingly. But no man can point out the object to be £?fncd by assessing a house and lot a thousand times in as ni; ny years, except to reduce taxes, which they never do unless to give Lm- ployrrtent to idlers at the expense of the honest. The treasurer coul i be elected for five years giving good security for his behaviour. Allot the time for each section of the county to pay, and let everyone pay, ()r be canipelled to pay by the authority of the treasurer. There would then be no expense for collecting. How quiet, just and pure is such a ] Ian compared with the millions of perjuries, arid acts of dishonesty, pv ipe- trated by a bhnd adherence to the barbarous plans of the dark ages ? Is it pleasant that any party in church or state, should keep on the down- hifl course of degeneracy, dragging humanity through the slough, in- creasing the poverty as well as misery of the race, insensible to all ad- vancement, only tending to discord, hatred and anarchy, rtLtllion and bloodshed ? Are they reasoning or unreasoning people, who multiply offices to make retainers to pocket the people's money without giving an «*ulva!eHt; multiplying idlers to live on the labor and toil of their fcliows that a few may be enriched, and all patriotism and progress crushed out of humanity ? Soils do not change in value, permanent houses change as iktle, why then disturb this estimate from 3 ear to year, except to keep to ©Id customs? Some traditions of our fathers are good : such as in- uustry, truthfulness, honesty; but from the days of Nimrod to our tiays, men have arisen to interrupt our peace, retard our industries, tax our powers of endurance, and embitter and shorten our lives; that tl'ey may ride into power and glory on our backs, as if we were so, many beasts of burden, saddled and bridled for the purpose. Bewndless love is professed for our dear Motherland, but only "In word and'tongue," to catch votes and popularity. What do they love ? Her rock-bound, sca-be.'.ten coa.sts— her broad, fertile valleys and sunny biWsides, her daisies and pnmro.ses, her well selected, high-bred varietif s of animjils, her peace-loving, indu.strious, but manly and unconquerable ^eopic,' their liberal policy by which they are increasing their commerce paying off their crushing national debt, diminishing pauperism every year, ff.creafng'their population and lessening crime, any or all these ? They love Downing street because there they can be Knighted, 90 HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. Baronetted, Lorded, and how deWgKtfnl is that operation, to a fellow that began his career as a ceok or road cutter in a shanty, or a trapper in the rat catchino;- fraternity of Hudson's Bay, or a herring or seal fislier on the Labrador coast ? What will some men stick at if a throne is in view ? The English must be a mightily dcluiled people, that can listen to these hollow sounds of loyalty from men who tax the labor of their artisans and mechanics ten to fifteen per cent, higher than that of a foreign na- tion, and grant them patents of nobility^asa reward for their well-studied unfeigned hypocricy. If the Sovereign herself attended to the elevation of these unprincipled creatures above the common herd; when she" touched them with her little sword, or bound, on their politically gouty "lower extremity" the ribbon garter, she woulJ hesitate to perform the ceremony, on cases, that if well-known, should be in fetters. Salisljury is good at these things and Beaconsfiekl at his last fall is said to hav e elevated only five hundred of these single timbers. Combinations easily subdue individuals. Often very wdrthy men arc singled out for this ele- vation, but in nine cases out of ten it is the gentleman who has washed the soiled linen for the highly unprincipled leader. If these hfts in society cannot be, but at the sacrifice of the many, they should cease. Will the time ever come when men will not be daz- zled with such gorgeous shows, bowing the knees to such emjHy shadows? Of late years politicians have threatened us with that fero- cious beast "direct taxation." ^Oh! gentleman what have wc done or left undone, that you should iiijflict upon the generations to come such immeasurable, incalculable, untold miseries— -a yoke that could never be broken, never removed, but be crushing and galling to the last hour of the last man's life ? Calamity of calamities ! ! They will think before in- volving us in such disaster. It would load out county treasurers without additional pay and compel us to look after the outlay of the money in- stead of our continuing indolence. Every one would find out what was to be raised and for what paid out. Our customs gentry pensioned, and dismissed, with every sentiment of respect, and the places sol . 'Ihous- ands of offices demolished, and their overworked occupants retired on a yearly allowance. Then the degraded burners of kerosene would be compelled to pay seven cents a gallon retail, or discontinue its use, ex cept in the short-nights of summer. Lamentation and darkness would' cover the west end of the peninsula, and the oilmen would commit that awful felo de se, which ought to be carefully avoided. What would be- come of our investments to make for men shoddy wooiiens, and co^itly cottons, when we are such imbeciles that we cannot compete with ititcHi- gent men of other countries. Then we would have to pay twenty-five or twenty per cent of their present price for the goods, the other coun- tries would hasten to deluge our slaughterfields with, they would so re- joice at our degradation and ruin so blue. Foreigners would come and settle on our wild lands and we would be obliged to import Kroger arid a number of his Boors to teach us how to hold the power of squeezing money out of them, keeping them dis— no unfranchised till we got ihe wealth and they got death. We would be unable to elect a clever politician, arnl the work of the clergy in that line would be killed. The goveniaient have too much regard for our happiness, to suffer our country to enter such- a cycle of unmingled HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. gn . DOtrors, knowing that if they did, we would become so dementecl as i never to re-elect them. Parliament is become so popular since the return of the one man power and the oversight taken of us by the hierarchy that those resident in the county of the Capital, who know these advantages are preparing for the sacrifice to the number of ten devotees for Carle- ton-^Eight Conservatives, one opposition, and one temperance man. Our population has increased so uriprecedentedly in the last eighteen years that we now reach almost five millions. There may be in these two and a half millions wage-earners, and the business of the country has been conducted for the moderate sum of thirty-eight millions annually. Our borrowings have been so little during eighteen years that they are well within two hundred millions, and our interest only a little over twelve millions, making in all only fifty millions a year to meet interest, and running expenses of the Government, for a country stretching from the wild Atlantic to the mild Pacific, and from the American lines to round the pole, and to the countries down below the pole on the other si(ic ex- cept Alaska which the Yankees claim, but that they cannot detach from us, whilst we are a continent say what they will. Now we can point you out fifty countries, not one of which would make a patch to ours, that cost far more to govern them. Supposing ■ our estimates to be cbrrect-^-it costs our wage- earners an average ofoaly twenty dollars a year each to keep happy thousands of officers now in Her Majesty's customs; thousands of assessors, collectors and treasurers, and tens of thdusands of hard-worked, under-paid employees, besides Uncle Thomas and. Uncle Michal and a host of these book-burning oak- pocketing Frenchmen, cousins of our members, whose "iU-farred" names we cannot remember, and whose barbarous language no decent man should be asked to pronounce. Our guides have learned a lesson from Samson. The Philistines neglected him and his hair grew, and he gave them trouble; but they keep the country well-shaven for their safely. We give a bushel of wheat to thirty farmers that costs us five dollars worth of time to pick it off tlje stalks with our fingers, lest it should be injured by thrashing. We distribute peas in like manner that costs us a dollar a bushel to pick the black ones out and we enrich them with cleaner grain than they raise,. or will take the same trouble with. It has been found very difficult to bring about the abolition of slavery in the most enlight- ened nations, whilst it remains a sacred principle in others to this day, and polygamy is on the increase among white men even in America. If these things be so ill to eradicate, the same holds with habits that might be remorselessly uprooted. We have known a goodly number of men, that have done much and made considerable of sacrifice for the im- provement of this country. They have been the most maligned, misrepre- .=entcd, hated and abused. When they have corrected these baseless falsehoods that have been ' repeated again and again, simply to injure when the fabricators and slanderers knew that no one believed them. ^ David, said, all men are liars. Alas! the conduct of most men con- firm and illustrate this truth, in their daily conversation. Oh ! if the Opposition get in you might as well have the lowlands under water and the hills volcanoes. People are thinking that things can be no worse and that they will not be bettcr.:d without a change. Legislation has cost much, and is worth little, much of it being not constitutional. Our 92 HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. protected manufacture's productions are costing miicli more than they are worth, and robbing the treasury, but furnishing some election funds for a government tlat they tliink deserves donations. 'Offices have been multipHed witliout stint or end. The hierarchy ride and domineer; tlieir sermons do not contain the tni'h either about tl;c decisions of the Pri\-y Council, or the position of the friends in Manitol^a. The leaders ofti c people cause them to err and they that arc lea by them are destroyed. The battle between church and state has been pretty well tlira.slicd out in this country and any -interference lo\v;uds a return to such a union Brill wake up a power that the church cannot control, if the Vatican were even transferred to Quebec. Sir Charles and his bTshops will soon secure the well-merited conicmpt they now labor for, as the heaven-inspired are not much in their favor. Gloucester is said to ha\'e had a first wh''e inl abitant in 1E03, a Mr Ferguson, on the Ottawa front, but he disappeared 'eaving no traces of his existence and no one has reported where he v.cnt. Ihe first actual settler was Mr. Braddisli Billings, a son of Dr. Eiilir.gs, a U. E. L., who had been a surgeon in the re\ olutionary army and ]>ad settled at Brock- viUe, 1792. Braddish, born in 1783, was nine years old when they came to this province, as the youth grew up he became like most of the early settlers fond of lumbering. Mr. Wright of Hull, had been in the busi- ness a few years and Mr. Billings, with a couple of men, took ont staves for him, oak at that time being very plentiful on the banks of the rivers. The Rideau bank from the Isthmus was covered with the finest of tim- ber, offering a field of enterprise unequalcd in value. You miglit cut what you pleased and where you found it most convenient, as no fees were charged for any timber of any kind growing on the soil of the lands known as British North America. The beautiful banks of this river were terraced by nature and must have attracted attention even when in forest, to such a young man so eminently practical as Mr. Billings. These slopes inclining to the west and south, showed eariy what they would become under the hands of the skilful and' industrioi s,» as they now appear in fertile fields and pleasant market gardens. Mr. Billings, with his men, built the first shanty against a rock where his fire could burn harmlessly all the long winter nights. His men ivere Ypnkees, Blakely, Moor, and Stowell. His supplies must have been brought from the St. Lawrence or from Hull but Mr. Wright supplied to some extent the new comers, but chiefly his own extensive business. Tiie river was navigable from Burritt's Rapids to Hog's Back Rapids for floats, scows, canoes, and such crafts of which they made good use, as tl.cre were no roads cut or blazed. He brought a cow down the bank and they sai'ed a scow on the water tying the cow to a pole at night, the men spending tlie night sleeping on the scow. The scovv got frozen in a'tiove Loi.g Island, and had to be secured by poles anJ withes mooring it to the shore to save it in the breakup in spring. TliCy Jiad to carry down their provisions from where the scow was held in the ice to the sh?rAy. The Billings were of old English descent. Bradclish was born at Goshen ngar Boston, Mass. Mr. Charles Billings has traced his family name throi^gh his English ancestry, back to German counts, of the same name, as the old Guelphs HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY, 93 of the middle ages. The German counts of the name were nen of par- ticular eminence and manly chivalry. Rev. Mr. Dudiet of iJuckin^ham showed us parchments ver)- aged proving his ancestors in ;:^\ iiztrland to have been men of highly honorable name and position. .^ "1 'icsc docu- ments of much value can bring no wealth to tlicir owner in tho present generation. Still there can be nothing degrading or dishonorfi-lc in the line of connection with such an elevated class of ancesters, be t'cy ever so remote. In Germany, and the low countries, all the sons cif counts held the same exalted rank In other countries like England, the eldest son only inherits the title of the father. Count John of Nassau, bro'.ii.er of William of Orange, the Silent Prince, had six sons, patriots, heroe.=, c, ery one sacrificed his life for his country's liberties in the wars wilh the Spaniards. Another young Count Nassau, a commander in the nrmy of the patriots, fell mortally wounded and was made prisoner. Wl,i.n a priest was introduced he turned away his face on the bed. But thru ;','i the humanity of the Spanish general, when his cousins were invited to see him. on the promise that they would be safe, he met them and ex- erted himself to entertain them and impress on them that he gloried in lay- ing down his life for his country's cause. When he expired they brought his remains from the Spanish camp, the grief of his fellow soldiers in the camp was great and some of them enquired how he bore himself in so great .juffcnhgs. I'hey said he died like a Nassriij. If Braddish Billings had the blood of cents flowing in his veins, his clear head was not disturbed with lofty pi..-;ntions above his circumslanccs, but like a man of sound judgment, a practical business man, he built the first dwelling, as he had made the first timber in the township, 3'ct unsurveyed. Like a man of failh and sense too, he earfy began to provide for himself and his household. Patrick Hamilton and George Wishart, with ducal blood in their veins, would burn atthe stake rather than dishonor themselves by sacrificing their convictions. Their destruction became the eternal disgrace, shame and ignominy of their enemies. The young lady that became the wife of Mr. Braddish Billings was Miss Lamira Dow. Her father lived near Merrickville, called his place Kilmarnock, showing his Scotch origin, although Americanized. She was, s .y, 17 years old, when she married. Her birthplace was Cambridge, Washington county. New York. She had been an energetic teacher for some months, but she was told they had no money, and they would give her notes, but she must take wheat for her pay. She made np her accounts, took the notes in her pocket, walked thirty miles to Brockvillc, buttlie merchant would not cash them, nor give anything but goods, and that onl when the wheat was delivered. She walked home, collected the wheat in due time, drove it to Brockville, received her store pay and returned in safety. After coming home with Mr. Billings, young and beautiful as she really was, she stepped lightly and gaily into the corn-field, and assisted her husband in pulling and husking their first crop of a four acre field. Their shanty was built against a rock, which served as the back of the chimney, against which the logs burned all night through the cold of winter- The shanty has disappeared jon^ ago, but the rock with its dark brown face still remains visible. > A ll-,ousand mothers might be cited to tell how well they worked during that age in garden, field an 1 meadow. Would occasional mild exercises §4 HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEVi of that kind injure the taper fingers and fair faces of their charming, grand-daughters ? A little browning in the flower garden is pleasant and healthy. Ladies are not averse to labor, even continuous and diffi- cult, provided it be in the Hnes that are customary and of high repute, and remunerative. They make, they cherish the customs and fashions. They will drive teams, ride steeplechases, take hurdle high leaps, do things "infra dig" ' at times, and for which, they would blame Lord Rosebery. Mrs. Billings was no stranger to the canoe and paddle. Steam and electricity have nearly dispensed with the labor of man and beast, to say the least of it, in our labor-saving age. Billings tried to float in cribs from the Upper Rideau the lumber for his first farmhouse, ';'hich is yet standing in good shape. Seven dollars a month and board round was Miss Dow's salary as teacher. This style of boarding when houses of large size were on-ly one room,, was, or would be amusing to us in the present day. A young gentleman in Ohio, then an eloquent, distinguished lawj'er, now an emin- ent judge, told us of his experience "going round with the scholars." The males retired with candle light, kicked off their pants in bed, the (others .extinguished the lights, retired without light in summer and by' the fire-- light in winter. In the rising the one party got into the tights under cover; the other sat up, clothed and alighted on the floor in full dress ex- cept the boots. But in spite of crowded circumstances and early incon- veniences, the morals of those times were immeasurably higher than in our cities today. Miss Dow did not teach long, but she ppssessied the material out of which good wives are manufactured. Mr. Billings seemed to divine this and secured her in her teens. Many a pine tree grew on the borders of streams, that twenty feet long of its thick end could have been sided down to between thirty-six and forty inches by twenty inches. This, when excavated or dug out, to say, one and a half or two inches of a shell, made a good canoe, not easily upset but safej The bark canoe was very light, easily taken over rough places, but frail and easily broken up. On one of these sailing ex- peditions to Mr. Dow's and returning they collided with the c-{ioe of Mr. Tiberius Wright, son of the old. Squire, and father of Alonzo the M. P., and Mr. Billings' canoe was driven into the rapid so that it was out of his power to strike the beach, or land Mrs. Billing.s. Mr. Wright could render them no help, as they were carried down the swift dashing cur- rent. Mrs. Billings with her infant in her lap kept her seat as she paddled in the bow- Then as the water dashed into the canoe, she baled it out in the terrible emergency, as the little craft rolled arid tossed in the foam: ing waves, among the huge rocks, that every moment threatened their destruction. It was a narrow escape, rescued from the jaws of grim death. Mr. Wright leai>ed ashore from his canoe, and rushed down the banks in consternation, lest by his fpul, they should be engulfed among such swells and he was ready to aid when they struck the shore. She did not lose presence of mind nor faint till all was safe. Mr. Wright was profuse in his apologies as he felt so much in fault. We have not heard of any one since, red men or white, trying the experiment of such a run. For sevewl years Mr. Braddish Billings was monarch in Gloucester. Ira and Elkana, his brothers built in Nepean in 1813. Jonathan Marble Dow about the same time'in Nepean got lands, and died of cholera in HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. 95 J 832, the first year of that terrible plague. We found, on consulting Miss Sabra Billings, that she was the first girl born in Gloucester and her brother the first boy, that she was the young sailor on the rapids, in that canoe race. Looking at her fine face and majestic form with the corre- sponding vigor of thought and intellect, the ease and facility with which she conversed on so many topics, wc questioned whether we had met any one in this region to match her since her time. Hale, healthy and pleasant, she is not fastidious, voluntarily telling you her age, and gaily chatting on the events of early times, and the changes so many years ■ have witnessed. She has been a benevolent giver, and steady worker in the church, useful and ornamental in society. Leaving her pleasant dwelling on the hill side and reflecting on the interview, it seemed to bs an unsolved mystery, that a lady of such aspect, parts, and endowments should remain to this day, without blessing a husband and his home, with affection, congeniality, womanly dignity, and sobermindedness be- fitting a countess or a duchess. We saw with her, a sister seemingly much younger, a retiring, but very pleasant looking lady. It was agree- able to drop in and renew old friendship after an absence of some years. Mr. Elkana Billings, the lawyer, we remember in our school days, as a gentleman of talent energy, and fond of the young science of geology, then coming into notoriety. He left Byto>vn, and went to Montreal, where he published a geological monthly magazine very highly spok,en of among scholars. Some of the brothers are deceased. One is a strong farmer on part of the old lands. Mr. Charles Billings has also a fine farm but has been township clerk for years. We have seen his history of the family in M. S. or type-writing in which he traces his longline. He is a kind of thirty third cousin of Queen Victoria but he missed an introduction to her whefi in London so recently, though he brought home, a stone from' the old "l^erry walls away." <He had a grand tour of England, Ireland, Scotland, and France, and describes to the life the many scenes, places and points of interest, embraced in his extensive tour. We have been told on good authority, that a young gentleman asked Mr. Billings to give him perrnission to besiege the citadel of babra's affections, but whether the fortress was impregnable or not, she did not say, but said it would not suit, but she introduced him to one whom he married and the union was happy and productive of much good. If the history of the Billings' family were published it would be very readable and would throw much light on the history of their life and times in this young country of their adoption. The township lies in the corner of the county with Russell on the east, the Ottawa river on its north side, the Rideau on the west, and Osgoode on the south. For six or seven years Mr. Billings' neighbors were across the Rideau in Nepean and he was the solitary occupant, the monarch of the township. About the year 1819 Capt Wilson of the navy, and Mr. Otterson came in, but they planted themselves southward on the right bank of the Rideau. The Capt. was a prominent, popular man, whose house was the resort of all travellers, especially those searching for farms and being well informed ,and very communicative, he did good service to these strangers in <fi- recting where to find suitable localities on which to settle. Old Mr. Johnston, the father of that Johnston settlement Was di- rected to where his location ticket pointed, and when he returned, told \i6 UISIORY or THE OTTAWA VALLEY. ^ ihe Captain he }>-io a harti sera ..Lie to find i^, and the Capt. wa.= so anrmseJ i*e caBed it"haril s--rabb!e" to this dsiy. Mr. and Mrs. O'Connor, the jirtiver and mother of the rich descen-rfwnts of that name, made the Cap- taki's their resting place, as weary an^l I'ootsor'", they carried their bag- ST'igje on their backs from Kingston; atvl Mrs. O'Connor was so deliglited with the jolly olH Captain, and the place where she was so rested and refreshed, that s!ie declared if ever they would be able they would buy the place, which they did afterwards, but sold it again. Contemporary with the O'Connors Cajit. Smith came in i82r, and took lands north of the Billing;s estate. Ke, like Mr. Billings, took much interest in municipal affairs and the commission of the peace, at once a popular and useful man. Gloucester contain*; 83,573 acres of land, and nearly all good. The MrKcnna, brothers, Irishmen, came in 1819, and whose offspring are s' '1 in the region. The Christian name Hugh seems to imply French connection or oriein. But in the middle ages there were intermarriages between French, Scotch, Irish and English from peasants to peers and princes, that the name as well as many oth.ers came to be international. John Holden came the same year with a nnmc^roiis family, and in pos- session of such help, took great contracts of clearing from Mr. Billings, thus making his the largest clearing in the township compared with which the others were little openings. Many of these first settlers lived to be very old people from whatever country they came. Several were drowned attempting to cross the ice in a dangerous state, in that rapid running Rideau; among others Mr. Hoiucii when about eight years in the country. About 1S22 the Holisters and the Carmans came and settled there. Bishop Carman the Episcopal Methodist clerg3'man was of this family, whose usefullness and energy is known in all the churches. ' The survey of the township was made about 1820, which aided much in the settlements, as the lots could be, identified, and the men knew where to improve and build. Cunningham, McFadden, Brush, Telford, and others, came in after the above names, and one encouraged another in clearing and raising such productions as they could use and .■^ell to advantage. Mr. Thomas McKay of New Edinburgh, got a little mill on the place he afterwards built, so fine and so large a building, and began to grind for the people and to purchase wheat to meet the de- inand of the settlers. The lumbermen, however, were the best purchas- ers of flour, pork, hay and oats, and lumbering was the principal business V of the country, that brought money in, and consumed the spare produce of the farmers. The Rideau river was not fordable in spring and fall, or at any high flood, and the current being swift was not inviting for canoes or any other crafts to ferry over. The people began to speak of the possibility of constructing a bridge. Rot the conversations, proposals and plans were many, before they could decide to get to work. At length the subscription was begun, e\ ( ry one contributing, according to his ability, and &iall)' the bridge was built. First it was known as the . farmer's bridge, as it was the voluntary subscription of the farmers fur- nisred the funds to build it, then Billings' Bridge, the name it still enjoys. V Krivaie enterprise is sltsw, but it is capay« of meeting all the de- war.i-'soiaray cetirttry. Our B®ar«js of Works with our »etfaods of j HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. 97 fitiaitce liave been dens of thieves preparing men to corrupt one another, drag down to poverty the millions, and themselves and their abettors to perdition. But these men, with their consciences burned out, thinkthere is no violation of the law of God in thieving from the nation because it IS not an individual man. That they do these things under forms of law, r,nd are Sustained by one another, make the offence \ite more aggravated. Should they be able to keep their supporters duped and deluded to the end, and with the aid of the clergy, escape the judgments of Rien, yet tkere is a judge they cannot escape. Our indirect methods rf raiang revenue, and the covetous people tbat handle it, work up innumerabte ways of wrong-doing, and from the vast inequality a few years make be- tween one class and another, that many forms of immorality and sin pre- sent themselves, and rich extortioners, and tlweves ru« great risks of assassination and robbery. Sanctimonious hypocrites are in the church for wealth, power and greatness; the authors and abettors ®f crime in the ^ate, a tariff so high as' to stir unprincipled merchants to cheat in the revenue, and officers to take bribes, and for every dollar's worth we get in improvements we pay five. The two old Conservatives, Washington and Hamilton, estab- • : Ijshed in the minds of the Congress of the United States, that by in- direct tax they could raise ten for one by direct tax, the same old-crj' was echoed by a candidate the other night in Montreal, which everyone knows is false. He reads the Bishop's progress and catechism. What have dur leading politicians done for their country between 1878 and 1896 but contrive to transfer our earnings, the fruit of our toil, into their own pockets, leaving us the poorer every year ? Robin Hood and his merry men took from the rich on the h^hway and sometimes gave it to the needy, but our Hoods take it from the poor in imposts, and give it . to the rich in companies and combines under the name of governing us. They first vote their own salaries, then those of the officers under them, then fix that of the employees, and we ask discriminating men, compe- tent to judge, if the commonest employee in office is not able to Kve in as good a style as our best middle class farmers can ? Our history since 1878, shows that real estate has lost one t^rd of its value. They are become se conscience-seared, that tkey can, un- blushingly, defend the swindles in contracts, openly declarii^ they w31 repeat them if they can. The hopeiessness of the case is, tbsrt the briberf, deluded, gerrymandered multitude keep them in office; endorse their outrageous, unrighteous, infernal frauds. Why is the cost of ruling us ' so immensely oppressive? We are not unruly people. The Govern- ment is always in the law courts, and ten to one, always losing cases that should not be in law, and millions wasted on lawyers^hat earn them . nothing, but like the Irishman, "gain themioss." Two hundred and six- teen representatives, when forty would do better and more wb«|c. Most of these are lawyers who know how to ruin their clients, but nevTer ei> ricti them. But our strictures on such doings resemble the young noble* m,an who said, when asked to address an august assembly of the nobility, . that it would be "casting pearls before . .. ine." Poisoning, assassination, revolution, must ever be the result af mJ* rulcj and who is to blame for it all ? Does honest goveramcnt prevoke opposition ? Under the great chief, years ago, I<ord Raglan, • Daai^l 98 I IST08.Y OF THE OTTAWA YAUtaV. ©'C«fmdl, and o<^rs, such, cHd dtity at the poHs in Quebec anJ !!te supporters were elected. On the milk of our contractors, the Dominion "caUnes, s irfcs, knouts and bullocks" are raised, and we have a fine Aock. What weuW the dead M. P.'s of sixty years ago say if tliey saw oar present rulers in their golden chariots — Our hierarchial stretchep ? The provoked execrations, of our sun-browned farmers, and their toiling wives, careworn and exhausted by fourteen hours daily labor to keep out of the workhouse, and make ends meet, cannot but pursue a class of men, whose love of money renders them callous to every sentiment of humanity, invincible to honor, impervious to disgrace, swallowed up by covetousoess in church and state. From such monstrous vampirtes of hamanity, such land leeches, lovers of filthy lucre, good Lord deliver the people of this Dominion, and all peoples in like condition. Private companies take care of the outlay, and do not, if possible, follow a los- ing course. The bridge began to be built round the north side of the river and the community increased. , A school was begun in Mr Billings'. Miss Burritt taught in their heuse as a governess, but the children around were admitted till a proper schoolhouse could be erected. A post office was established, and a town hal), and little church followed. Mr. Collins next taught what they regarded as the first public school and was followed by Mait- land and Colquhoun, and others in succession. Attendance was very limited for years. The Methodists built the first church towards the south of the township. It was hoped that a village would have grown up in time, but the business of the country was chiefly lumber and potash, and no inducement was held out for years from any source till M. K. Dickenson took hold of the Island where now there is a thriving village- Presbyterians met in goodly numbers in houses, as in Capt Collins and others, where the young minister of Nepean officiated. The Hoodies, Blairs, Findlays, Cuddies, Blyths, Dunlops, many of them were members in Nepean, ("The church at the Beaver"), at Hoppers and Nesbitts. The distinction between labor and capital was unknown. Some lumberers were able to supply themselves but most had to be fur- nished at a ruinous per centage, and as prices fluctuated greatly, it was not uncommon for the hewer to bring home as much money as his em- ployer. Peace reigned between the parties. No strikes were ever thought, of. Now, the least thing creates a strike, and such barbarous savages a,re we that no reasoning will prevail to make us submit to arbitration. The settlements were formed by the U. E. L., always in the van, who saw, from their New England experience, a fortune in ' the intact forests, where they might cut and take away without let or hindrance. Good lands were discovered and possessed, and when surveyed, the titles 9ec»red. They easily discovered where the best lands lay in the wide fields of their limits, (if that name is applicable to unsurveyed lands), and* they knew enough of a new country not to fear going farther into, the ferest to get the better situation. The new-comers from the old world bad everything to learn about land-clearing and stock-raising and build-; ing and even fencing, and had to acclimatize. He as a tenant was notj accurtomed t© command but to obey. In such cases, one naturally^ led, tiie other followed, voted with and for his leader. Tu these Am-J , (Vankees, ^e others cafted th«ra^ were aM««i anotker rlnmanlj HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VAIXEY. 99I in ^cers and raeo. The fonnrr with inest of the Yankees were Justfces ©f the Peace, a title that pleas^ed them and gave ihem power and authtw- ity which wefe irresistible. They had one policy, held all offices, and soon were known as *%« family compact," holding the destinies of the multitudes which tiiey had governed from the first beginrring. ^gainst their doings there was no appeal nor redress, not even by laying tlieir petitions of grievances at the feet of the monarch, who was too hn away and under other influ- ences and other skies. This disastrous principle had produced two revo- lutiorw in England terrible and bloody, dethromng two despotic kings a«d securing equal rights to some extent for the down-trodden. A third was precipitated in America, which lost to the empire thirteen colon- ies, nearly all it possessed. This created a schism in the Anglo-Saxon race, the healing of which, though most desirable, may not be possible for many generatiojis. We have had several rebellions in these prpvinces caused by m^ish stubboriinciss of the domin^it party, detrimental to the peace, and disastrous to the pfospcrity o( our people, and always ending in conceding more by compulsion than at first demanded, and if given with a good grace, would have cost less of blood and treasure, prevented so many beartbumings and alienations of feelings and affec- tions, compacted and consolidated hi a Messed oneness and cordiality. of the whole community. When a ruling party or cabinet seik itself into the hands of design- ing men, whether clerical or political, it may reckon on opposition. They may throw the red brickbats of "rebel" and "disloyal" in perfect showers, at tiic beads of Oliver Cipinwell, William of Orange, and George Washington, but they cannot keep on the head of the little despot CharMe, nor save the little-minded James from exile, nor yet pre- vent the formation of a great rival, foreign nation, formed of their own kith and kin. When they have driven into banishment for a time, the men who dare to ask the rights refused their fellows and themselves, they are obliged to concede, though with a bad grace, these rights, and more, bring back the banished and reinstate them in their possessions, whilst their own reputations vanish into the obscurity of the rapparee and the assassin. How pleased would be the cabinet of the great stretcher to assign to prison and warder in Kingston, Laurier and Mc- Carthy, as former cabinets did their compatriots, to Niagara and Brock- ville;_but they may not be able. The terms "dlsioyal" and "rebel" are often thrown at the heads of the most reputable and valuable men in the community but they are too harmless to injure except by returning in the faces of these ;pelters themselves as we have witnessed during the last twenty years. Wilhe McDougal went to the nor' west and to the nor'west went he, says he to himself I'll feather my nest if the halfbreeds and I can agree." Colonies and Parliaments must cease to be the places, where needy designmg, knavish and greedy politicians may feather their neste. We ought to have some thing more independent than pensioners of the Bishc^s. We may as well abolish the pariiaments, and let the Bishops rale, then we will have legislation as it ought to be, bills drawn up m lajiguage, clear and forcible, logical and consistent, models of literary beauty and excel- Icnce The country would economise with no legislature to ^ppost on loo HISTORY OP THE OTTAWA VALLEY. the Governor-General would not have to "fellowship" and to swallow whole, such cabinet ministers. , . I We once asked a very talented gentkmeHi wtio had then spent a jTood part of a long useful life, wliy hg had n'dt entered parliament ? His answer was peculiar : "that he WOuld then have to shake hands with people he would not spit on.** He was an aristocratic liberal. It took many years to make the roads even passable in Gloucester. One near the Rideau was only blazed and cleared of brush and poles. This led by Capt. Wilson's to Prescott through Kemptville, to travel with a jumper, or train on one horse, the other being more used by oxen. Some early bridges like at Cumming's Island were of slow construction where passengers had to. go on the stringers and animals had to ford it. Some drowning cases are reported. From Capt. Wilsons they had to ferry across the stream and travel down the Nepean side to Bytown, but the other road was blazed and could be used as . batter in winter than irt summer to Billings' Bridge, but from there to NeW Edinburgh was stony, muddy, crooked, and narrow and not much to speak of for many years. That to Green's Creek was little better for years after Clement Bradley and Benjamin Rathwcll, Robert Skead, and others, got lands on it. The road to Hawthorne, East Gloucester, and settlements round the Mer Blue was pushed, and the lands occupied between 1828 and 1836. What is called JaneviUe, was started by Sergeant Templetoft, Gtorge Sparks, and others. About 1833 Baily, Hill, Little, Low, Savage, and others, settled along the Russell road. Some of these little places have several names as, Ramsay's Corners, Taylorville. From 28 to 37, Mr. Gregor Stewart and Sergeant Johnston settled along here. Billings' Bridge became a stirring place, as we approach the middle of this cen- tury. Churches, schools. Town Hall, mechanics .shops, stores and busi- ness places were constructed whilst an impulse was giv:;n to business in general. Mr. Hugh Masson about the same time began to make his iron and steam ploughs, and perform many other operations in the busi- ness with marked success and acceptance to the public. Latterly he has taken to private banking on a nice little paying scale. He is a respected . citizen, a goo 1 neighbor, a genial, pleasant gentleman. His wife is a daughicr of Mr. Alexander Kennedy. Her mother was a Miss McDiar- mid of Lanark Co., near Carleton Place. , They had a numerous family of fine looking daugh'ers and some sons. The eldest son, a superior young man, died oflockjaw. He had cut his foot and the wound had healed and seenicd all riglit. He had come with several of his sisters to Aylmer, rendering iis a real kindness in a service of song at a church festival. They had fijie voices, cultivated them well, and never failed to do justice to tiie piece, and delight the audience. The value of that ser- vice was much cniianced by the good will with which it was rendered. A few days after tbi-, unfavorable symptoms appeared The skill of the physician was e.-chausted and was utterly unavailing. With great sorrow, we, among his other many friends, witnessed his extreme, excruciating agonies, which he endured with fortitude, meekness and patience, and t»e end was perfect peace. One of his sisters married John Anderson, a cabinet maker, then .afterwards a Presbyterian minister of unloubted piety. One married Mr. McMillan, long an efficient assistant to thac very able teacher. Dr. HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEV. I©t Thorbvirn, and now principal of the CoHegiate Institute, which the Dr. held for about twenty years. Both very acceptable and successful head masters. Another married Mr. Mcintosh, a grammar school teacher, now an active insurance agent. Another married Mr. Dalglish, mer- chant. She died young. Another wedded Mr. Dewar, and went to the Sarnia region. One, we thought the finest, is unmarried. The younger bKsthers are bachelors. Three brothers of the Kennedys were elders in the church," devout men. Mrs. Robert Kennedy, a fine woman, good and true, was sister of Mrs. Alexander Kennedy, and Mrs. Donald Ken- nedy was Miss Buckham of Torbolton. Robert, the slirviver, is now far advanced in years and has alwavs borne a character eminently Christian. Mr. Bartram, of Her Majesty's Customs, resides on this side the bridge beside the store opposite the hotel. The buildings are good. The Pres- byterian church is not pretentious, but like what should be rather than the showy things, ttie age delights in. It was a chapel of ease to Knox church and was usually supplied by the wealthy city ministers, who took the fees these afternoons for the services rendered It has been recently settled as a charge under Mr. Morrison. From peculiar circumstances it was not subjected to the hard nursing, as were other places in tlie suburbs, that had to fight their way to every position they gained- Poor policy on the part of the clergy. The more church organizations in a city the better. No salary of a city minister should be all'jwed above two thousand dollars a year, and no country minister's salary below one thousand. With free manses this would be sufficient. The church should not pe^rmit the display of human pride usually made in the huge, useless church buildings which stand as monuments, evi- den-ing the neglect of human souls, and encouraging the disposition and the Christlessness of wealthy rninisteiis of religion. Has the church broken loose from her moorings to gorge one minister and compel ten others to put up with an equal sum among them all ? Or is he worth the ten doing the work of the ten ? The large loaf and the big fish argu- ments have a poiverful influence against church growth. The grand ini- pulse given by the Free church movement is followed' by an age of moderatism knd a breaking loose from the truths of pure religion, plea- sure taking the place of spiritual devotion. These things ought not so [ to be. T^ ^ , i A very loud and bitter cry was raised against patronage. Do'ibtless^ there was a cause- To fa.st and tithe may be faultless, but you need,; not boast'of it in your prayer, but should the clergy enjoin this and com- pel payment by law, it is a cur.se. Were patronage necessary, which we deny, it would be safer in the hant!s of an honorable layman, than in those' of a Bishop, or two or three domineering, despotic Presbyters. Is the ecclesiastic, who clandestinely calumniates you, destroying your in- fluence and livelihood, any better than the highwayman who demands. your purse? These men, powerful by wealth and cunning, rule among others who are only cyphers to be placed where they please. How often is the wicked justified and the jiist condemned? What stories of .blood, the history of the nations present in the murder of their best patriot citizens ! It is one thing to place a minister at the point of the bayonet, and another to deprive him of his just rights through an un- ' justiSable partiality. . Inuendoes, misrepresentations, calumnies, and . »0B HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA V^JULEY, raasiug Httle storms of prejudice accomplish their low designs, like the honest Quaker with the objectionable dog. "Dog," said he, "I will not kitt thee, only give thee a bad name." So he cried in the street, bad dog ! bad dog ! The crowd took up the cry as mad dog ! mad dog ! and- the chase soon waxed warm and the dog lost his life. With what seem- ing detotion these men pray for what they have before determined not to receive ? . . . A false report may be circulated privately, and the party injured ay not know of it for years till it is past remedy. We heard of a case a devoted missionary whom we know well as a man far superior to his detractors, but a false report was got up apjainst him by his enemies, the man sent to investigate took the report of these fabricators, which, when the missionary heard, he took it so to heart that in a moment of weakness he left the place, and sickened, and died aEnong strangers in a strange land. Poor human nature is the same through the ages. The priests of the temple with the scribes and Pharisees, wearing all the in- signia of righteousness so far as the linen and muslin Would show, were not only capable of, but actually did condemn the Eternal Son of God. They have their congeners, alas, in the camp of the reformation. Truej > the authors of these monstrosities receive their reward but the down- trodden sufferer has to wait till the resurrection of the just perhaps, be- fore he is righted. Where men receive not the love of the truth," strong delusions possess them. Under these delusions they will employ ignor- ant young laymen to preach to the disgust of congregations that have not the courage to refuse their .pulpit, and the cause suffers. Students are over-wofked in their college course giving supplies, and often corne out without quaHfications for the work and the church licenses, and or-^ dains young men who cannot answer the simplest questions in ecclesias- tical history and divinity. We observe that young candidates read their Greek and Hebrew with too many periods, and translate with too much c^the sing-song hesitation to be able long to sustain a congregation. ' Mr. Billings, a very intellectual and practical man, having early secured plenty of land, such of his sons as preferred farming were k)cated conveniently near each other, round the Bridge, along the river bankj-and on the beautiful slopes so much like terraces formed by nature for the most desirable and eHgible sights as residences. Others of his sons, as we have seen, went into professions. None of them at present occupy the immediate site of the village but their lands stretch out on the east of it. , The farms are the finest lands, highly cultivated, furnish- ing milk frsm th.»ir fine stock, and vegetables from the fields, for city use at once enriching their farms -and furnishing the best prices at the most seasonable times for every kind of production. These farms are exten- sive gardens in which they raise every vegetable and fruit that can be profitably disposed. of in the growing city near them. The city is a steadily enlarging market and the supply is furnished all around, the areaex tending annually, larger and wider things being conveyed from a distance that some time ago would have been thought improbable or impossible to accomplish The demand and supply seem to keep pace wi& eaech other, as closely connected as cause and effect, which is na- t^acal, {feasant, useful and beautiful. HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VAT.LET. !03 u^ j°" ^'"'"gs' Bridge people had for a long time, to travel the road to hard scrabble up the river side, because of a swamp deep and wet lying east and south of the Bridge. They travelled round the swamp to the Johnston neighborhood turning, south-east and north-east to reach the Siveright and Fenton settlements, leaving Browns, Gambles,D;uncans, arid a multitude of others to the right and the southward- Further south still a vast settlement was forme'l, when the workingmen left the employ of the contractors on the canal. They built a chapei for their accommo- dation in the centre of the new settlement, which is a thriving farming *strict> ; After some years, the above-named swamp was cut through but only for a winter road, and was wa'ded in summer between ankle arid knee deep till it was made a passable road all the year round.^ It became a more direct way to Osgoode and to the St. Lawrence, or ks it was called the front at that time. Mrs. Fentoii, a \\idow, came in 182S to Gloucester with a numerous family of sons and daughters. James, the eldest son, married the widow Jury, who was herself a Hodgins. William, the second son, married Miss Siveright. Mr. Siveright in our early recollections, was a very old man, whose son James succeeded him on the farm and was Reeve of Gloucester for some years. One of Mr. William Fenton's sons married Sarah,^ second daughter of Mr. Thomas Symmes of Aylmer, whose fam-, ily is mentioned above. They are now in the Northwest. Mrs. George Fenton was the prettiest and most energetic of the very numerous family of Mr. Forest Caldwell of Huntley. They have also a numerous family doing business in many parts of the country around them. John, a con- siderable time a bachelor, married a sister of. Mr. William Cuthbert of Goulbourn, and was long clerk of the court in Huntley, a true, kind and obliging gentleman- Johnston, the youngest, was married to Miss New- ton, niece of the Thompsons on the Richmond Road, and sister to Dr. Newton, whose mother was killed by falling out of an omnibus at Car- rillon. They had no family. Mr. J. Fenton was Reeve of Huntley. He procured me my first appointment as local superintendent of schools. He was a friendly man, talented, and possessed fine business capacities. One of Mr. Fenton's daughters is Mrs. Fred Bearman. James JBearman, her eldest son, lives in the old-homestead. Mrs. Bearman was well ad- ■ vanced in years, before her decease. Two of her sons, Fred and Thomas, are dead. Another son is in Western Ontario. One Miss Bearman is married to Mr. Watson of Sandy Hill. One is Mrs Bryson ofBryson & Graham. Mr. Graham's mother, Mrs. William Graham, is the granddaughter of Mrs. Fenton. A Miss McCullough, Mrs- Gra- ham's sister, was Mrs- George A^'iold, a good woman, highly valued by a8 who knew her- Mrs- Arnold's family of two sons and a daughter reside in the city. Mr. T. G. Burns married a daughter of Mrs. Fenton. They were long and favorably known as residents of Sandy Hill, Ottawa, when few houses were there. It was a pretty green common. Mr. Alexander Workman, merchant, and Mr. George Lang, the great old sign painter, sandwiched them on the street and "Mr. Elkana Billings. Mr. Justice Armstrong, and Mr. Joseph Coombs, having given up drugs in Osgoode, came to be jailer, were the neighbors, ^We had not yet got a governor of prisons.:, y Mr. yt^mBums, son of T. G. Bams, is in the civil service, deserving a high ^ 104 HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. position for his good qualities, both of head and heart. The original pioneer, the grandfather of the present generation of Bearmans, and his pious old lady were a little inclined to Quakerism, and were very much esteemed. ''Mrs. Fenton was a pious promoter of religion, took great in- terest in the first Methodist church built in that portion of Gloucester, whilst she lived with her son William. The pretty church on their land sprang up and flourished from this beginning. One of Mrs. Fenton's grand-daughters. Miss Burns, was married to Mr. Hugh Stalker. The other became the wife of Rev. Loverin, a Methodist clergyman, who often called at our old home, and with whom we had very pleasant asso- ciations in former days: Rev. Mr. McGill, a friend and colleague of ours ' in Aylmer, married a Miss Fenton. A Scotch friend of ours, k widower, whose wife left him eight girls, married the widow of a sea captain, who had seven girls, to whom, when we said, it was a pity he had not some sons, remarked, that he would be able to furnish wives for a whole coun- try side. So did Mrs Fenton. The Fentons now are numerous, and enterprising, with the multitude of their connections. Mr Siveright had a second son who entered the army and rose pretty rapidly in the service. He became Equery and private secretary, holding the rank of major, to the Duke of Lucca, a Spanish Bourbon prince, who held him in high esteem, and, ere he quitted his service, conferred on him a patent of no- bility, creating him. Baron d'Everton in perpetuity and transferable to his heirs. He then returned to the Biltish service and was knighted; by his Sovereign, while Consul-General of the Ionian Islands, under the protec- tion of Great Britain at Cephalonia and Corfu, where he spent' several years. In 1871, he married'Georgina Mafy, eldest daughter of Sir John' Muir McKenzie, Bart. The Baroness died a short time before him. His death took place on the 9th day of October, 1884. Both sleep in a beautiful spot among the lonely tropical trees in the Island of Corfu, in that far distant land. As neither brother left any heirs, the title and honors go to the eldest son of their sister, Mrs. William Fenton. Her son will be known as Baron Fenton d'Everton, and rank among the no- bility. Sebright was the original name in English, but it was corrupted in the Gaelic, and they had to sign important documents in both forms of orthography. These facts we state on the authority of the copy, a certified translation of the patent of nobility, kindly lent us by the widow Mrs. James Siveright. She also showed us the photographs and litho- graphs of the graves and monuments in the cemetery in Corfu. The Siveright Fenton settlement is one of the most beautiful in the township. The lands are of the richest soils and capable of under-draining to the best advantage- 83,000 acres in round numbers the township contains besides the "Mer Blue" which, with a good deal more land under water in other parts of the township, could all, with some outlay, and a careful management be made to smile with fertility and productiveness. There was a great number of Justices of the Peace in Gloucester at an early day, of whom, when they met in commission, Mr. Braddish BilHngs, the original settler, was chairman. Mr. Doxy was clerk till 1855, since that up to date, Mr. Charles Billings has held the office- From the beginning of the county councils and township councils, the following ^names have figured as Reeves : K'.Kianon, Billings, Tomkins, Grant; HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. 10$ Brown, Blackburn, Siveright, McGuire, Cumrnings, Robillard, Hurdman; whilst Bradleys,- Smiths, Browns, Johnstons, Gambles and a host of others like Dpxys, Ottersons, Carmans, have held offices in the various departments., Several fine macadamized roads radiate from the environs of the city and run to Cumberland, Osgoode, and the interior, eastward- Some attention in some places is given to ornamental trees on the sides of the highways, and some large orchards are visible on these roads, with many small orchards or gardens of apple trees. Many farms are large and well, cultivated and fenced, with some fine buildings, and many others servicable and convenient with moderate outlay. The cemetery in the north, of Gloucester is the beautiful cemetery of Beechwood, a little way from the Ottawa bank. This is finely, tastily laid out for a place comparatively young. The forest is preserved as far as possible, and walks superbly graded, and smooth. Wheelmen might there break the record to their hearts content with impunity. About the year 1834, Mr. Charles Cumrnings bought land on the Rnssell Road, and settled down for a short tine, but after looking around and examining, he bought the squatter's claim from John Scott, about the year 1836, and called the place Cummings Island. At that time such a claim was called the good will. The Island is crossed by Rideau street, which turns up stream at the bank and here the bank is high and steep. A fine iron bridge now spans across from each bank to the Island wliich divides the river into equal streams- The road leading eastward to Cumberland has long been known as the King's Road and the Mont- real Road It had been cut out in the reign of Queen Victoria's male predecessors on her throne, and as it led toward Montreal to Hawkes- bury, it got the name from the most important place. The original bridg- ing of the river was only abutments at first with stringers laid on them, and for years uncovered by log or plank. People generally walked on the .stringers but the horses had to ford the stream. They were not near so high above the water as now. But the unbroken forest kept up the streams and rivers all summer. The volume of water was much larger than now. With a current running so swiftly from such a deep volume of water, it was no easy thing for women to pass on flatted stringers, nor even for men. They, required to be sober-minded or "level-headed." One man, Peter Kinmond by name, attemptitig to cross, fell off and was drowned before the eyes of his wife, who was powerless to help him in the least. She was a daughter of John Sharpe, sister of William Sharpe, afterwards a fine workman as a stonemason. The east corner with the pointed Gothic arched >vindows of the Presbyterian church in Aylmer is a standing monument of his superior skill and workmanship. He did very honest jobs in his day. He was a straightforward, upright man. A road from what is now the village of New Edinburgh ran past Beechwood Cemetery and formed a junction with the Montreal Road. From Long Island to New Edinburgh the settlement was formed on the east of the Rideau radiating froi'n Mr. Braddish Billings, the first of all the settlers. '. The belt for miles back to Green's Creek and far beyond it was covered with the finest timbers, a^id very soon became a vast lum- ' bering region before men thought of surveying and bounding limits or any duties were paid to Government for the privilege of cutting such forests. Quebec was thus sup[)lied with the most merchantable timber too HlStORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. ever floated to its markets. All manner of supplies were drawn by axin^ on jumpers. V They also drew the lumber to the ice to be rafted, or to the banks if the current was rapid to be rolled in and rafied in calfti water. They were the most valuable of the brute crealiir(:»'"for labor on the farm, in summer living in the woods at night, and in \vinter fed on hay from the beaver meadows, corn stalks, sheaf oats, and sumnaer turnips; with yoke chain and crotch, could lay many pieces a day on the river. If fatally injured by accident, whether the bone broken was the leg or the neck, the flesh was good to be eaten and the skin could be dressed and worn for moccasins. The horns could summon to the sa- voury meal, or chase away the yelping pack from pursuing the startled elk. The road at first down the Rideau bank to the Ottawa was any- thing but a straight line. However,' by improvement from year to year, it has become a beautiful drive, an excellent country road. Before we leave the Island, Mr. Robert Cummings, tlie eldest son, and proprietor of the place deserves at least a brief notice. He has been popular since his boyhood, has filled every place of note in his township and county, except a seat in Parliament, for which he is eligible, and to which he would do no dishonor. We are not much acquainted with Mr. Cummings and know not his views, but if he is of our mind, the seat should be wiped and well dusted before he would occupy it, as so many have been soiled of late years by disreputables. The air is surcharged with microbes from Curran and othet bridges, mammoth swindles on railroads, canal locks, and contracts in every department, and boodle in every form, that the diseases of lying, perjury, dishonesty, are caught easily and soon become fatal; baffling all medical skill, and more than decimating the community. But death never catches these fellows un- awares, They have provided well for their own. That Mr. Cummings knows his own business and attends to it, his establishment manifestly indicates. He still continues to manufacture carriages, waggons, sleighs and cutters, though the business is not so lucrative as in former times. Combinations with large capital have pushed individuals into the back- ground. Still he is doing a good, legitimate business. His store is de- servedly well patronized, and doing splendidly for a locality so near a large city, with so much competition. He has no protection, no bonus, has asked no exemption from taxation in his municipality. Why is the attention of bonusing parties not called to such cases ? To bonus one is to put down another, and to bonus all of the same craft is to destroy the taxpayer. One such bonus only prepares the receiver to seek another and a third, for the lover of wealth is never satisfied. ^ He will rush from place to place as he hopes to get gainj If an M. P. so much the worse for his competitors. His influence will secure the more, and he has neither heart nor soul but that of a miser, Who would swallow whole provinces and be still as lean as tl»e lean kine or the blasted ears. He will start a factory . everywhere he gets a bonus and make the carts here turn out the wheelbarrows there, and the bobsleds in a third, or become insolvent, a thing so easily done arid so profitable. Will this immorality not bring any Ifnd to ruin ?— They bone us. Is it not reasonable that every man should have a fair right to the fruit of, his" la- bor, that he should not be compelled lo support the combinations of line i.,ost grasping and dishonest, that the competition should be on a fair HidTORV Of THE OTTAWA VALLEY. to; f«»t?ng SO that the best res'.ilts of brain and muscle should be rewarded. The bonus enables men to hold for higher rates, and extort with impun- ity. Extortioners shall not inherit the Kingdom of 'God. Perhaps they do not care for that but prefer their position in this life. Mountains of lead are lighter than the responsibilities that rest on the rulers that grant the bonus and encourage the iraud Might is discarded from being con- si^^ei'ed right, but, these quiet steals from the many to give to the few are samples of that old barbarous principle, and worse, for no chance is given to hold one's own withoivt violation of law, -which they are very quick to punish. Hew strange th9t a million of people who have votes, should so abuse tl. ir privileges ! should allow such oppression and share the crime ! ! Consumers should boycott the bonused swindlers. Mr. Rebert Cummings was Reeve of Gloucester for years and some- times warden of the county. Mrs. Cummings is a granddaughter of Mrs. ¥empleton, ©ne of the earliest settlers in the township, and daughter of Mr. Borthwick of Borthwick Ridge and Borthwick Spring.s. Their chil- dren are very intelligent and enterprising, and, as an old chronicler w»ul^ say of them, are of a beautiful countenance. The Island is small, less than an acre, but in appearance it is simply lovely, with the soft, rm«rmur of the waters flowing round the sides of it, the bridge, spanning from shore to shore, at the base of the Sandy Hill, high and sloping on the west, fit to be terraced into the greatest beauty; to the eastward, Janesvitle, and the well cultivated valley of smiling farins and fine build- ings; and southward extending as far as the eye can see, an agricultural prospect not excelled anywhere; on the north the Ottawa river, the val- leys of Templeton and'Hull on both sides of the Gatineau, stretching up to the mountains, an amphitheatre in full view^ that at certain seasons of the 3'ear is an enchrmting scene of landsc3.pe.^^ The road was early cut from Janesville to Green's Creek. On this roadside lived a Mr. W. Hop- kins, the only carpienter in all that region for many years. He left a nu- merous nice family. An old Scotch minister introducing a sermon he preached at the funeral of an elder, said, he never had had the pleasure of preaching at the funeral of an elder before. Mr. Hopkins had the pleasure of making all the coffins to hide away the dead from the sight of the hving. These were at first, plain boards painted black. Then they covered them with alpaca, before more stylish vain things were in- troduced. Deaths were few among the early, hardy pioneers, except by drowning or killed in a chopping or the like. Mr; Farrel furnished the boards cut at the Rideau Falls, before the Hon. Thomas McKay purchased these Falls with so much surrounding lands, and the boards were of the very first quality of lumber, worth then $6. or $7, or in the hands of some, as high as $8 a thousand, the latter then considered rather high for honesty. But a couple of men in the woods and a teamster with a 3'oke of oxen and a crotch, could keep a littk mill sawing, and the raw material cost nothing but the bringing to th& mill door- Prices, of course, must be advanced, as the prepanation costs more, but we cannot see a sufficient reason for the very high prices, excepting to make the fortunes that are made 1 the business. We also maJBtain that the people who amass these foiames would be happier with the half or the fourth, whilst the purchasers would be in a little bet- ter circumstances and be able to use the more, consequently to contribute io8 HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. the more to the wealth of the merchant. The immense credit business under which the people groan is ruinous, because ever)' bad debt has to D^ niet by the honest men who pay one hundred cents to the dollar. Whereas, if the credit was stopped people could get the cash to transact business with as readily as, pay and take on anew, and be always one or more years behind.. On this honest plan twenty-five per cer.t. would be saved at the fountain of supply, and making allowance for the middle- men, the last purchaser would net twenty per cent, on his annual outlay. ^ On this Economical principle, and economy , is no disgrace, twenty , years would show much money saved. jj^Lvvcen Cumming's Island and Green's Creek, the fine lands soon became settled and occupied. Clement Bradley, son of Capt. Bradley of March, became a permanent resident and fanner. One of his da\ighters was Mrs. Snow, whose husband was a P. L. S., and lived on the Hull road, about the spot where Mr. Holland, the tanner, formerly lived. They raised a large family, most of whom are well known in the city. Mr. Bradley was a man of good repute all his life. , Mr. Carson was a neighbor with a large fine family. The same may be said of Mr. George Lang, Thompson, McKegg, and Spears. Mr, Barricle first built a wharf, then kept store in town in- our school days. Robillard first lumbered, then furnished lime, then great building stone, from his quarry; went to Parliament and retired. Mr. Graham was farmer, then called the potato man, from his dealing somewhat extensively in that good and useful root. The Hon. James and his brother, Mr. Robert Skead, had fine farms on this road at a later.date. ^They lumbered very extensively, but sold out afterwards. Mr, Simpson now lives there in the fine old stone house, tin-roofed, in a forest of lilacs. Mrs. Simpson is a highly accomplished woman, possessing the fine conversational turn of her father, the doctor, at Hawkesbury. He has been physician to the house of the Hamiltons fro'm the Judge's days for three generations. We write from a very brief, casual acquaintance with, Mr. and Mrs. Simpson in which we were highly pleased and entertained. Mr. Simpson furnishes dimension stones from his fine quarry in the farm, and ships on the river side, ijorth of the place. John Hamilton lumbered extensively, on the Gatineau, whose farms and limits are now held by W. C. Edwards, Esq., & Co., who bought them out some ^ears ago and now conclutts tfie business on a very extensive scale in those regions. Beyond Mr. Simpson's, further east, is the site of one of the oldest settlers in the township, Benjamin Rathwell, who was a local preacher for years, highly esteemed, also a good farmer too. He met his death in the harness going to a meeting in Cumberland; a log standing or reach- ing out in the narrow cut road in the close wood, against which he was struck driving past, inflicted a fatal blow from which he did not raHy but very soon expired. Between the farms of these two last mentioned gentlemen, you ascend from either side the highest elevation in the township. Here you stand on a level with the tops of the highest pine trees in the hills of the surrounding country.' On the north is the ma- jestic river and half, as it were, of the Ottawa Valley in view risv«g to the Laurentian range of hills and stretching east and west as far as your vision ranges over Ottawa county and towards Two Mountains, a pan- orama of lovliness. On the south the range of your vision is the sonsib'.e HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. ' 109 horizon. You take in the whole level country to Cornwall, Frfescott , arid Brockville along the St. Lawrence. Looking westward you see the spires of the churched,- the prominent buildings of the city and away to- wards the west side of the cOurity. Half a mile off on the east is a large ■ old orchard, andat your feet, several pretty young orchards, not large but seemingly healthy and thriving, indicating that they may be culti- vated with success. This is one of the best positions from which to get 1 a surpa.ssingly interesting view of a whole region of country without break or interruption. It enhances one's idea of the riches of the lands. our people possess, and if many of them would only look at, it would , -^ive them a moreprofound view of their responsibility , to" see that our country is governed by a class of rtien, possessed at least, of intelligence and honesty. The farmers of.this region mu.st be eminently successful, if we are to judge by fine buildings, the fertile fields in their summer bloom, the great milk herds that cover their deep green pastures, the large teams and milk waggons driving to and from the city on the fine macadamized road that stretches into Cumberland. The pioneers have left an intelligent, enterprising race behind them to inherit their really valuable possessions. With a soil so rich and productive, an atmosphere so clear and salubrious, a market for their products so near and so steady, religious advantages so convenient, these people should write the Divine truths of the Revelation of God, if not on their gates and doors, as was commanded of old, at least on the hearts and memories of their off- spring, that they may guard their riglits, civil and ecclesiastical, with eter- nal vigilance. The Ru.ssell road lies south of the King's or Montreal Road, running from Cumming's Island through Eastman's Springs to Russell and Dun- canville, and thence to the St. Lawrence. Ramsay's Corners or Taylor- ville lies on this road nearly midway between the Island and Eastman's Springs. Here there is a nice little Presbyterian church, and post office Tlie Plymouth Brethren hold their meetings in a schoolhouse at the Cor- ners. Tl.ey.are nearly all preachers, though only one occupies the plat form at a time. We think they ought to set some apart to teach, who could give themselves largely to prepare food for the others. Beaten oil for the lamps is the best of all. East of this is another little Presbyterian church with a good attendance. It is a little to the right of the road souThward. Here we met old friends from Huntleyjthe Hustons, Boyds and others, all doing >vell in that place. One of the Boyd family has a fine establishment at the Springs, of mills, store and shops, etc. We were entertained too in the family of our old friend the late William Sharpe, glad to make the acquaintance. of his family for his sake, as we held him in high esteem as an upright man. The Crowls, one of whom is a clergyman, another a good teacher; and the Lilicos, one an elder, live near the church. In early times Mr. Duncan was the only one who made and fur- ni^ed the oatmeal, so highly prized and ex'tensively ;Used by sensible people. Rev. Dr. Rentoul, a professor from Australia, at the Pan Pres- byterian Council in Toronto said, (and he is a very eloquent and very talented divine), tha^; he had travelled, some in both hemispheres and many parts of the Globe, and the best men he met anywhere were raised ta. porridge and the shorter catechism, Mr Duncan rnust have held the •■■O HISTORY WF THE OTTAWA VALiaET. ssMne confession of faith as the Professor. At aH events he fomMcd the stuff the porridge is made of, and left his name to the villagp. Re- cently we met a Rev. Mr. Duncan, a descendant of his, the field of whose labor is in western Ontario; a man, if we mistake not, who will be heard from. Mr. Loux, afterwards M. P., ] rchased the mill', and his son con- ' ducts the bu.siness up to date. Rev. Mr. McDiarmid supplied these little ckiirches for years, then Rev. George Bayne After his removal ,to Ash- toB, Rev. Mr. McCauley, who is now with them. On this ro_ad from Janesville were very earh' settled : George Sparks, brother of Nicholas Sparks of tlie city and father of the surveyor, James McLay, John Whil- lins, father of John, Thomas and George; Mrs. W. Shari>e and otb rs; William Whillins of the Workman store is a descendent. Thomas Whil- lins is father of the two clergymen, one in Nepean, the other in the east- ern townships. This table land lies west and south of the great quag- mire swamp, known as the Mer Blue, a little continent of peat, mud; v deep, damp and shaky, covered with cranberri.es growing wild, and ^ whose cultivation no one has yet attempted. They are gathered by parties wl o often hang out a flag that they may keep in sight, lest they lose their latitude and longitude. Mr. Alexander Anderson, long ar.d favorably known as an esteemed elder in Knox Church on Daly street, before the division of that congregation, lived in this quarter. Some of his family are here, .some in and around the city. We knew him in our school days and regarded him as a good and true man. Law, Little, Bailey, Savage, Hill, McGregor, Payton, Findlay, Johnston, Bradburn, Bailantyne, Dowal, Dempsey, Tremblay, Kelly, with many others, located along the lines of these roads and towards the bank of the Ottawa river. The village of St. Joseph has a church, a school, some stores, hotels, a smith's shop and perhaps some others. The nuns on the west ®f it have a great farm, a fine house and mill, vast flocks of sheep growing long wool late ia June; roam the large fields. The sheds are long enough to adorn show-grounds. The settlement is French. The few English are at a great loss for want of a school as they do not amalgamate. Cyrville, on the Russell Road is a very insignificant village. Its site was taken up by two brothers named Cyr. The French around these places seem to be very industrious. Dupuis, a medalist, has seen service at Chatagnay, where a handful of French chased sev- eral times their number of Americans in a fog. This was a source of great glory to the French, showing their valour, and not very diahononng to the Americans as they only committed the blunder of coming' out and losing themselves i« the mist that magnified the size and the num- ber of their enemies. They were bewildered in a strartge land. The French were very brave for so small a detachment of troops. They have merited and we have ^ven them great credit for the gallant stand. they took, at»d the heroic display they made of their fighting quaNttes. Gideon Olmstead early planted himself in Gloucester. Some of the Olmsteads are in Nepean, some in Hull. Others we found in Letchfield when we bad a ramble in that part of the Valley. Gideon, among the Christian names still survives in their families. The' Eastman's Springs take their nan»e from the proprietor. They rise in a large swan>p that aids in fcedtng Bearbrook. They say tbey possess several kinds of medicinal waters, and multitudes of viaftafs ewfoy very highfy tfae tiH* HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. Ill they spend at the place. When out west we were enquiring at a dnic^ store for a species of water, termed in the Hoosier dialect, Blue Lick. A gentleman standing by and hearing the conversation, and as the drug- gist had not the article, said he could make it or give the recipe, viz : Take a pail full of soft water from the cistern, put into it six eggs laid by a deceased hen, well beaten, stir long and carefully, then shake up well before drinking. Still the people had great faith in the Kentucky Blue Lick and drank of it freely, certainly not so much for pleasure as health. Around this part of the township crop up names like Sims, Hall, Tie, Clarke, Kettles. The township was organized in 1832, postmaster, poundkeeper, town clerk, assessors, collectors, pathmasters and constables were appointed or perhaps elected. The court had made the appointments up to this time. The first tax collected the first year was fifteen dollars. The south end of the township was settled by the workmen from the canal, scattering over the land pretty near each other. Browns, Gambles, Lees, Majors, McKennas, Telford, Skiffingtons and Johnstons, took up the lands their descendants still occupy. It is a fine plain of agricultural land, and the people with anything like a fair opportunity might accumulate a remun- eration for their labor. The manufacturer holds a high place in the hearts of the governing body in our land. He is largely protected and alw ays claiming far more. Combines of merchants fix their prices and furnish only what will keep theSe prices up. The machine takes our money and builds the railroads and equips them for the companies, and they dictate what we must pay in freight and fare on the investment of our own money in their possession, and as we have said above, one me- chanic bonused to the detriment of another not so favored. (We can give names.) Farmers are producers, but nobody, in the estimation of the powers that be, but let the farmers take their stand and send twenty- five or thirty members to the House, and before two years you will see a change. But farmers are kept poor by too much labor, and too low prices to pay, and are presumed to be unworthy of pains or trouble on their behalf Let them hew wood and draw water forever. A boy with pipe and soap suds can blow a bubble that will look rainbow-colored as it floats so as to attract the eyes of a whole crowd till it breaks. There are men who can place so vividly before themselves and their fellow- men, future prospects that they readily enibafk in the projects. The disasters of the past do not warn them. They have neither eyes nor cars for them. The half par stock and the half pay earnings of the ' Canadian Pacific ought to teach, never to permit a Government to give another dollar to a public railway which is the property of, a private 'company. A speculation that will pay can command a large number; what will not pay should not be done. The Methodists built the first church in South Gloucester, a very '.mpretentious structure. The sect was only young at that time and the zeal of early days was much cherished. Of Israel in the wilderness it was said : "I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown It was customary too at that time tor other denomina- tions to assist the one that had rcsoludon and courage enough to build the first church in the place and support religious ordinances. 112 HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. Would it not be well if true charity were more manifest among the men of all creeds ? Many people travelled far to hear the truth from a man after their own desires. The Curries, Pinks, Davis's, came from near the mountain range of Hull to Mr Cruikshanks at Bytown. The first, Mr. and Mrs. Pritchard rode on horses from North Wakefield to the same St. Andrews' church. It was expected that s. village of note and some pretentions would spring up on the east side of Long Island, but beyond the shanties first built during the days of construction of the canal, it never attained to anything. The tendency then, as now, was to the town or city. Can men of enterprise be blamed for doing what they deem best and most profitable, especially if their genius or temperament inclines them in that direction ? , ■ ' A few years on the farm satisfied Mr. Workman, that it was not the sphere in which to exhaust his energies, and the event showed that his judgment was not at fault. Many who would have made good farmers, had they followed it up with persev erance, are now in the cities doing very little. Some are good for nothing anywhere. Some of the old settlers have disappeared from Gloucester leaving scions on the farms to preserve and perpetuate t^^eir names on the old places. The Dunlops are mostly in the city, i iie Moodies in and around the city in various occupations. So it may be said of the Cuddies, Blyths, Blairs, Findlays, who could have been successful at any employment on the farm, in the shop behind the counter, or anywhere. Having far to travel to the churches some sold out and purchased in more convenient places, or they went into business more suited to their capacities. Schools multi- plied to meet the growth of the population. With the extensive clear- ing of the woods of the country, the development of business and the in- crease of population, church accommodation must be provided. At first the buildings were log, then frame, finally brick and stone, where the people were sensible enough to erect such. M. K. Dickenson, Esq., M. P., gave a great impulse to Long Island. The village of Manotick owes its existence, or is very largely indebted "to his energy, skill and enterprise. Rev- James Whyte was the first Presbyterian mdaister settled in the village and its environs. Its present pastor is Rev. William Findlay, formerly of Portland and Cantley. All around is a fine agricultural '^ country. But that particular department of our industry has been far below par for several years past, and there are no signs of<its rising into any activity. If all men are created equal, they soon show grasping and holding fast what they seize, a most marked inequality. The burden of taxation is chiefly borne by those whose means of liv