Glengarry Life - Glengarry History

.$5
Glengarry Life
NUMBER3 3
MUNRoES MILLS -
SuartMcCormick
Glengarry Historical Society L994
GLE N GARRY LIFE
(wuom uuunnnaa)
1994
ISSN 0703-1556
ANNUAL VOLUME OF THE GLENGARRYHISTORICAL SOCIETY, ONTARIO, CANADA
tnbleof contents
Munroes Mills
Marion MacRae
Nuts of Glengarry
DonaldN MacMillan
The Family of David Thompson" Mapmaker
9
Daaid G Andnson . . . . .
74
The MacCrimmon Querns - muilleann-btd Jontathan
D McLennan
17
Black Loyalists of Glengarry
2l
MalcolmRobertson
The Rev. A L McDonald (1883-1958) Florntce(D.D.) MacDonell. . .
25
Ralph M Sketch, Sculptor
27
Rupert Ma4 Poet and Actor
Daaid G Anderson
DaneLanken
?a
{
OUR COVER:a preliminary sketch of Munroes Mills on the BeaudetteRive{,
circa 1940.From the Society's collection of Stuart McCormick material.
Munroes Mills
Marion MacRae
AURAoF AN EARLIER
DAy, when it was a busy little rural
Tnu
I community, lingers at Munroes Mills, on the BeaudetteRiver in
Charlottenburg Township. I, howeveq,know of that activity at one
remove. My mothel, Hazel Carlyle MacRae,was the youngest child of
Thomas Carlyle, millwright and, late1,mill owner there. He was {irst
employed at the mills to improve their efficiency for Donald MacLennan.
Maclennan had ventured as a youth into the sociallife of Charlottenburg from neighbouring Kenyon Township in search of a wife. It
was only a few miles distant, but Maclennan was spoken o{ by the
inhabitants of Munroes Mills in much the way the ancient Greeks
spoke of the inhabitants of Thrace, as denizens of a place impossibly
remote.
It was a successfulforay. Donald Maclennan married a Charlottenburg girl, Annie Munro, whose ancestors had founded the little
community of Munroes Mills by establishing a trading post there
sometimearound 1800,and then building a sawmill and a planing mill.
(May I pause here to note that although government documents speli
the name of the hamlet Munroes Mills, and my cousin who lives there
is Gordon Munroe, our branch of the family has always spelled the
name Munro. To add further confusion, it is Munroe's Mills on sorne
older maps,while current roadsignssay Munro Mills Road.)
A fascination for the bustle of milling and merchandising seemsto
have been in the Munro blood, for after a time of happy exile in
Kenyon, Annie Munro Maclennan persuadedher husband to trade
their farm for the mills. She found that, in her absence,her brother
Malcolm Munro had added a post office to his milling and
shopkeepingoperations.
All this mercantile activity raisesthe question of the legend, which
had been frequently told to my grandmothel, of the Munros as
merchantsin Albany, New York, before the American Revolution. With
all due respectto ancestralveracity,the Munros had not been resident
in Albany but in the rural Mohawk Valley.This raisesthe question as
to whom the ancestralmerchants could have been. They might well
have been the ancestors of Catherine, wife of Thomas Munro (the
ancestorwho established
the trading post at MunroesMills).
Reid's The Loyalistsin ontario lists a "catherine, wife of rhomas
Munro"' twice, once as CatherineKop, daughter of a Loyalist soldier,
Philip Kop, and once as catherine Ross,wife of ThomasMunro. There
is, happily, only one Thomas Munro in Reid's list of Loyalists.It is
possiblethat both entries applyto the sameperson,who seemsto have
enteredUpper Canadain the entourageof a family of Rosses.since it
was entirely probablethat Mrs. Rossspokeonly Gaelic,the recording
o{ficial may simply have entered young Catherine among the Rosi
children. on the other hand, there may have been another Thomas
Munro who escaped Reid's meticulous scholarship. It makes
no
differenceto the many Loyalistscarving out a new home placein
the
obdurate forest. Be that as it may, Donald Maclennan, having taken
over the Munros' miltrs,decided to improve them, and with this
laudableend in view, sought the skiled assistanceof Thomascarlyle,
a millwright from nearby Dundas county who was at the time
improving the Martintown mills for Sheriff MacMartin.
carlyle introducedthe improvementsat Munroes Mills, which Vera
Campbell, in her excellent family history ascribed to an unknown
millwright. Thomas carlyle rounded out his stay by marrying the mill
owner's wife's niece,Catherine(or Kate) Munro.
The Carlyles'first home at the mils was in the uppermostof three
cottageswhich used to stand in a descendingrow on the south bank
of the Beaudette,a little upstreamfrom the Munros, bridge.That is
to
say/ my grandmother lived there with their children while
her
husband flitted about the continent building mills and returning in
the
intervals to his familv.
{Jnfortunately my eldestaunt destroyedall but one of my grandfather's work journals, and it had to do with a mill complexwhich
he
built in Colorado,not alas,that at Munroes Mills.
At the time of my grandparents'marriage,DonardMaclennan
had
promised them that if they would name their first child after
him, he
would leave them the mills in his will. My eldestaunt, therefore,
was
christenedDonalda,and the mills in due time revertedto Thomas
and
Kate Munro Carlyle - together with the careof Donald
Maclennan,s
widow, Annie Mu-nro Maclennan. The mill owner's house
went, too,
and so did the neve-.endingoccupationof overseeingthe
mill-work for
Thomas Carlyle, and the equaly onerous occupationof boarding
the
mill-hands for Kate- It was, naturally, with this phase of the
Munroes
GLE N GA R R Y
LIIE
j
I
Munroes Mills
Mills enterprisesthat my mother's memorieshad to do.
My grandfathel, as mill ownel, employed Iroquois from St. Registo
fell timber in purchased woodlots for processingin the mills. At the
end of the tree-fellingseason,the Iroquois employeesbrought their
wives and young children with them in a visit of ceremony to my
grandmother whom they regarded,with reason,as the purveyor of
many things. Once inside the Carlyles' spaciouskitchen, the Iroquois
babieswere releasedfrom their cradle-boardsfor a happy playtime on
blankets on the flooq,while their elders talked with my grandparents.
one proud young father demonstratedthe effect of cradle-board
disciplineon the little ones.He releasedhis son from his cradle-board,
placed the child still standing upright on his right hand, and slowly
raised the hand to shoulder level, the baby standing bolt uprigh!
unaware that his back support had been withdrawn. The child was
then set down on his blanket on the floor, and cried bitterly when
returned to the cradle-board.
My grandmother had previously laid by a store of small, attractive
presentsfor the Indian women and childreryas her husbandhad done
for the men. The visits usually ended with the bestowalof beadwork
r ssu E 3 3 [ 79941
and basketsto my grandmother.After a formal farewell, the whole
troupe proceededto Malcolm Munro's store for an orgy of shopping.
My grandfatheralways reserveda portion of their wagesto be paid to
them on the ceremonialday.
If the Indians receivedceremonialattention on a single day in the
mill owner's house, the mill-hands receiveda bountifi-rlmeal twice
every working day in that hospitableplace.It was a period when mill
workers would have been highly affrontedif mill precedencehad not
been observedat dinner. My grandfather sat at the head of his table,
with the vast serving dishes set before him. The sawye!, Thomas
Richardson,sat in the placeof honour at his right, and the secondin
command at the foot of the table, where he could keep order. There
was a subtlegradationin between(which my mother knew but which
I have forgotten).
It was at that time imperative that a fine line be drawn between
what constitutedample portions of food for hard-working men, and a
bounty which would have implied greed on their part. My grandfather, heaping up a plate, handed it to Tom Richardson and said,
"Pleasepassthat down to Allen." Tothis Richardsonreplied,"l'm glad
that you said that, Mr. Carlyle. If that was for me I was going to
leave." Allen's appetite,it was well known, fell somewhaton the side
of greed.
Tom Richardson was given to larding his conversation with
examplesdrawn from a life, as he put it, "where I come from." Finally
a nettled colleagueasked,"WelJ.,where did you come from?" to which
the reply was, "From Wigan in Yorkshire." How Richardson had
turned up in Munroes Mills from Yorkshire remains a mystery. I do
know that he married a local girl, Margaret Tyo, and that they lived
(by right of mill yard precedence)in the uppermost of the three
cottages,vacatedby my grandparentswhen they moved into the mill
owner's house.
Tom Richardson'swife Maggie used to come over from her cottage
after the men/s main meal to propose a bargain to my mother Hazel
Carlyle, which was that if she would play the piano for he4,Maggie
would wash the dishes.This was much appreciatedby Hazel Carlyle,
who was musically gifted. That there was a piano for her to play had
occurred through a.typical Munroes Mills transaction. Shortly after
their move to the mill owner's house, Thomas Carlyle had comein for
something forgotten and heard his youngest child singrng to herself,
GLE N GA R R Y
LIFE
Munro's Store and Post Office
accompaniedby a curious rattling sound. Going in quietly he found
that his little girl had arranged the ivory-handled dinner knives into
the semblanceof a piano keyboard, which she was striking in time to
her song.Her bemusedfather tiptoed away to give seriousthought to
the idea of finding her a real piano.
The answer to his quest appearedwithin a few weeks in the guise
of an overwrought schoolmasterwho cameto Carlylein the hope of
borrowing money to pay a gambling debt. Although he had scant
sympathy for gamblers, Thomas Cariyle asked for the full story and
was told it at once. The harassedschoolmasterhad made a down
payment on a piano, a novel move at the time, and had promisedthe
balancein instalments. But in the hope of acquiring the money more
quickly, he had played poker hot well but too frequently' and in
consequence,he was behind with his paymentsboth for the piano and
for his room and board. His Munroes Mills hosts then impounded the
piano as security for payment.
The prospect as stated was not capableof immediate solution. But
rssuE 33 llee4l
the schoolmasterhad unburdened himself in the right quartel, for his
hosts had a barn which needed re-shingling. Carlyle proposed a
bargain:if the neighbour would releasethe impounded piano into his
charge,he would pay the debt with severalloads of cedar shingles.
The returning mill yard cart would convey the piano to the mill
owner's house, where the schoolmastercould work off his indebtedness by giving Hazel Carlyle piano lessons.When she had become
reasonablyproficient in the art, her father paid the balanceof the sum
owing on the piano. And the schoolmasterdeparted,without a piano
but solvent.
This was an era when Mrs. Carlyle's meticulous attention to the
provision of fish dinners on fast days led some newly recruited mill
hands to wonder why they never saw the Carlyles at the nearby
Roman Catholic chapel of St Columbkill's. The explanationwas that
the Carlyleswere Presbyterian,and attendedthe Presbyterianchurch
in Martintown. But Mrs. Carlyle usually had one or two young
children from assorted,overburdenedhouseholdsin her care,and she
ensured that these children attended school, went to their relevant
religiousedificesword-perfectin catechism,and observedfish days.It
was usually Hazel, the youngest Carlyle, who taught the catechisms,
she being the nearestin age to the children.
There was also from time to time a more exoticpresencein the mill
owner's house, for this was an era when peddlersof Near-Eastern
origrn travelled the roads, pack on back, offering small goods for sale.
Mrs. Carlyle invariably gave them a meal and suggested that they
might, if required, be given a night's lodging in the bunk in the
kitchen. She then picked their memoriesfor descriptionsof life in their
homelands, and concluded the transaction by purchasing some knickknack from them.
The exotic presencewas not limited to persons of Near-Eastern
origin. There was also Mr. Maq,whose actual employment in the mill
yard escapesme. (It usually escapedhim as well.) He had cometo "the
colonies"from the heart of London becausehis talentsas an actorhad
not been appreciatedin the theatrical world there as he thought they
ought to have been. His talents did him little better in the colonies,
where he was first employed by Harry Bowen, proprietor of.Fraserfield
near Williamstown. It used to be said of Harry Bowen that his
hirelings met each other in one or other of Fraserfield'slongavenues:
the recently fired departing as the hopeful newcomers arrived.
GLE N GA R R Y
LIFE
St Columbkille Chapel
corner
northeast
of Chapel Rud and the Ninth until 1954
at
the
stood
rssuE 33 l19e4l
Mar's stay at Fraserfield
had been even shorter than most, for Mat
self-centredand obtuse, knew nothing of farming or milling and
refusedto listen to thosewho sought to instruct him. His solo concerts,
howevel, were a memory long cherishedby the mill-hands.The one
he staged on a moon-lit night at the Carlyles' pasture gate was
especiallymemorable.Mar was treating his captive audience to a
soulful rendition of.Maud, and had just sung "l am here at the gate
alone" when this ceasedto be true foq, just as Tom Richardson
finished saying "By Jingo,he is at the gate alone," the long, inquiring
faceof Dougal,the mill yard cart-horse,appearedover Mar's shoulder
ruining his carefully preparedeffect.
Not long after this fiasco,Mar approachedmy grandfatherwith the
announcement,"I have just committed a most cruel murder.,, The
startled Carlyle cried, 'Good heavens,Ma1,what have you done?,,To
this query Mar replied,"Ihave just cut the head off Beatrice.""Brtt,,,
said my disgustedgrandfather,"That is nof the way to kill a pig!,,
The best descriptionsof life beyond local horizons came to my
grandmotherthrough the many magazinesto which shesubscribedoq,
even betteq, through conversation with her friend Christina MacLennan. Christy was nurse-companionto a Miss Dixon, from the
Finger Lakesarea of New York state,who spent every winter around
the Mediterranean,on the Riviera,in Egypt or the Near East.when
christina Maclennan came to visit Kate Munro carlyle, all the
running of the household had to be assumedby the Carlyle girls. Their
mother was lost in a dream of oriental ruins, souks, minarets and
palaces.
I inherited my grandmother Kate Munro Carlyle's collection of
articles,clipped from her travel magazines,when I was ten years old.
The inheritance explains why, as I stood twenty years later on the
warm paving stones of the old, old road that led to ancient Tloy, I
rememberedMunroes Mills.
Marion MacRae Erew uP on a farm on the 13th Concession of Indian Lands, near Apple Hill, the
daughter of Hazel Carlyle MacRae and John D. MacRae, farme4 and Mp for Glengarry 193s40.
She was an instructor in Design and Museum Research for more than 30 years at the Ontario
College of Art in Toronto, worked on research and restoration projects at Upper Canada Village,
and is the author of four trlr,ks,The Ancestral Roof,Hallowed Wal/s (both with Anthony Mamson),
MacNab of Dundurn and Cornerstones of Order.
GLENGARRY LIFB
Nuts of Glengarcy
DonaldN. MacMiIIan
pAsr
nMES,many Stormont and Glengarry youngstersenjoyed
f N
I excitingnut-gatheringexpeditionsto their farm woodlots,and later
tasty and satisfying nutrition
from this autumn harvest.In her
delightful little book, ance Upon
a Farm,publishedin 7974in San
Francisco, Donalda Maclntyre
describes the childhood years
that shesharedwith her brothers
and sisterson the 200-acrefarm
across the Payne River from
which this is written. Among
other autumn activities, she
recalls,"We gatheredbutternuts
and beechnuts for the winter's
supply." Ethei McKercher MacKinnon, who grew up in the northern concessions
of Roxboroughand
Kenyon townships,remembersthat as a child sheoften filled pailswith
beechnuts.And in Edith Ferguson'sunpublishedReminiscences,
there
is an account of the Christmas Day celebrationsin her Kenyon home
east of St. Elmo. There was always a large family gathering that
included grandparents and many grandchildren. At one point in the
afternoon, after the sumptuous turkey dinneq,some of the butternuts
that had been gatheredin Octoberwere brought out and, with the aid
of a hammer, cracked on a block in the kitchen. Perhapsthere were
somebruised thumbs as well as sore stomachs!
No doubt in the pioneer years there was a greater variety and
larger quantity of nuts than today. It seemsto me that even in my
boyhood years/on the family farm in the southeasterncorner of Finch
Township through which the Payne River flows, nuts were plentiful,
beech,hazel and hickory as well as acorns.
It is easy to pick hazelnuts from their shrub bushes and to extract
the kernelsfrom their pyramid-shapedshells.Unfortunately the bushes
tssuE 33 11e941
are no longer seen.The last ones that I saw were in Scotlandduring
World War II. In Kilninian, Isle of Mull, from which some of mv
Maclean ancestorshad emigrated, I was delighted to observe an
abundanceof hazelnutsalong the road. In recentyears,I have enjoyed
hazelnutsin cookiesimported from Europe.
An ontario Third Readerdated 1885and still in use in my time in
the public schools,had an article entitled "Canadian Tlees" in which
it was said of the hickory: "Every boy is famfiar with the delicious
nuts which this tree produces." In my opinion, the hickory nuts,
although plentiful, were not so desirable,being rather bitter in taste.
The squirrels, however; appreciatedthem and still do; recently I
discoveredsomenewly plantedin my tulip bed, evidently placedthere
by black squirrels.The tough, strong wood of the hickoiy has long
been appreciatedfor usein tool handles.Many of us recalla neighboui
or relative who was skilled in shaping axe handles.
There is good reason to put the oak high in any list of valuable
native trees.In earlier times,its nuts are said to have enabledIndians
to survive winter food shortages.Although acorns do not seemto be
gathered very much in our time, the timber of the different oak
varieties is used extensively for furniture, flooring, interior finishing
and casksand barrels.My attemptsto grow oak trees have met with
mixed success.while on vacation in the upper ottawa, I gathereda
large basket of acorns under some of the splendid oaks in the area.
Later I planted them in the woodlot on the family farm, but not a
single sapling grew. Perhaps the squirrels ate them. More recently,
someacornsgatheredby the Andersonchildren under the oakson the
historic Bethune-Thompsonproperty, wiliiamstown, have produced
seedlings.I may alsomention that the tallesttreesnow growing on my
acre lot are four red oal.s obtained from the Kemptvlile Cou"gl
nursery.
Another small nut, long familiar to Grengarrians, is that of the
beech tree. we recall that the early settlersinlhe lzth Concessionof
Indian Lands used beechlogs,in preferenceto ceda4,to build their first
church. It was located across the road from the present Maxville
cemetery,but the building did not survive very long, partly no doubt
becausebeechwood deteriorateswhen exposedto weaiher.it was only
in recentyearsthat the exactsite of the church has been appropriately
marked.
In view of the recent reintroduction of wild turkeys to Glengarry,
10
GLE N GA R R Y
LIFE
and the suggestion that they feed upon native small nuts, owners of
hardwood lots are urged to protect and promote the growth of beech,
hickory and oak trees.
Perhaps the most plentifr:l and productive nut-bearing tree in
Eastern Ontario has been the butternut. It would seem that in the
early period,someof thesetreeswere very large.A smallbook, Pioneer
has a description of the first St. Luke's
History of Finch Toznnship,
one and a half centuriesago near the
about
manse,probably built
presentSt. Luke's-ShaverRoadjunction, on the west side acrossfrom
the old cemetery:"The walls of the mansewere built of wide butternut
planks," the book notes. For the planks to be regardedas wide, the
tree or treesfrom which they were sawn must have been unusually
large - far more so than any such tree today.Unfortunately,fire later
destroyedthe buiiding.
The local areawith the greatestnumber of butternut treeswas the
MacDermidfarm, also on the ShaverRoad,immediatelyto the eastof
my own family farm. The entranceto the home was by a lane on the
top of a hill, the woods extending down the slopeson either side.
Stories har.e been told about an auction sale in which the trees
growing in marked acrelots were sold lot by lot to the highestbidder.
It is said that somelarge butternut treeswere doomedfor destruction
that day merely as heating fuel!
Many years later, a sculptor of note, Mauno Veltheim,lived for a
few years in Avonmore before moving to Kenyon Township.FortuISSUE 33
l1e94l
11
nately his skills were appreciatedlocally, and so in many homes there
are now specimensof animals and birds carved from butternut wood.
It seems, however, that Mr. Veltheim had difficulty in obtaining an
adequate supply of larger logs. Without being critical of the earlier
generation for disposing of the butternut trees as they saw fit, we may
comment that if even some of the big timbers resulting from the
MacDermid sale had been preserved in some dry storehouse, how
pleased Mr. Veltheim would.have been to obtain some of them and
what extraordinary examplesof his craft might have resulted.
Butternut wood was sometimes used in the interior decoration of
early churches, as these quotations reveal. St. Paul's Church, Hawkesbury, a new building in 1871,had'bak pews with butternut panels."
In Knox Church, Lancaster, completed in 1877, "the ceiling is of
basswood with butternut batten." And in 1904, when St. James
Church, Gravel Hi1l, was being renovated, thirty-seven new pews,
constructed by M.W Beach, Winchestel, were installed, "the backs ...
butternut, and the rest pine."
The black walnut, although closely related to the butternut (or
white walnut), is not native to Eastern Ontario. Tlrc Tiail of the Black
Walnut, a 1957 book by G. Elmore Reaman, is an account of the
migration of the Pennsylvania Cerman families to Upper Canada after
the American Revolutionary War. The author explains that the settlers,
aware that black walnuts grow best on limestone soil, tried to select
land of which these trees were flourishing. We may comment that had
they entered Upper Canada in the Glengarry area, instead of the
Niagara Peninsula, they would have travelled the length of the St.
Lawrence Lowland Region without seeing a black walnut. Howevel,
over the last two centuries, black walnuts with the assistance of
humans have shown that they can take root and spread in our area.
Permit me to use a personal illustration. One spring in Dunvegan
prior to World War II, I planted some black walnut seedlings obtained
from a nursery. One autumn day, half a century lateq, I noticed an
abundance of walnuts under one of the trees that had survived. With
permission, I filled a basket and later planted some of the nuts in a
small plot at my present home. My daily watch the next spring was
rewarded when I discovered that almost overnight some had burst
their shells and pushed shoots up through the soil. When asked
concerning the secret of successful planting, I reply that I have no
secret other than doing what the squirrels do. As R.C. Hosie points out
12
GLE N GA R R Y
LIFE
in Natiae Treesof Canada,"squirrels play an important role in the
natural reproduction of black walnut by gathering the fruits and
hiding them in the soil. The germination of some of these buried
walnuts is the principal meansof distributing the speciesthroughout
the forest." For peopleanxiousto assistthe squirrels,someadvicemay
help. It is important to keep the seedlingswell watered during their
first season.It is alsoadvisableto transplantthem to their permanent
locationbeforethe developmentof the long tap root. Someclaimthat
black walnuts should not be placedin pure standsbut rather mingled
with other hardwoodtrees.
Is there a commercialfuture for nut trees in our area? Three
possibilitiesmay be suggested.It may be that some who cater to the
increasingnumber of tourists will find it worth while to enhancethe
attractionsof maplesugarby adding crackedbutternut kernels,as has
been done in New England over many years.Secondly,farmers who
have more good soil than they are ableto cultivateprofitably may find
it to their advantageover the long period to grow black walnut trees
on some of their acres.Certainly the wainut's purplish-brown wood,
being strong, resistantto decayand suitablefor furniture and interior
finishing,is consideredto be amongthe most valuableof our Canadian
hardwoods.
The third suggestionwill surprisepeoplewho have never associated
nuts with coniferoustrees,and are not aware that nut-bearingpines
have been grown in the Orient for many years. Preferring a welldrained, sandy soil, the Koreanpine withstands temperaturesas cold
as -37"C, grows up to 120feet tall, and bearsnuts about half an inch
long. Although there are a few specialtechniquesto be learned,there
are now somesuccessfulgrowers of this tree in Ontario and Quebec,
including one in the NiagaraPeninsulawith an orchardof 10,000trees.
Perhapsin the 21stcentury,someof our Stormont-Glengarryfatmers,
with only a few acres of Korean pine trees, will be reaping rich
rewards with (as Harrowsmith magazine put it recently) their "tasty,
high protein nuts, shadein summe4,shelterin winter and beauty year
round."
The Rev. Dr. Donald Neil MacMillan of Finch is the author of The Kirk in Glengarry and Historbal
Sketchof Kenyon Presbyterian Church - Dunoegln (the latter in two editions: 1940 & 1993). He is a
past-president of the Glengarry Historical Society. The woodcuts are by Lucille Oille from the book
The Owl Pen by Kenneth McNeill Wells (Toronto, 1947).
rssuE 33 l1e94l
1.3
The Family of David Thompson,
mapmaker
DauidC Anderson
AN accouxr of tlrc descendants
(1770-1557),
of DaaidThompson
astrononrcr€t mapmakerof tlrc Nortlt WestCompany,and his wife of SByears,
Charlottesmall (1785-1857)of saskatchanan.
They liaed in Terrebonne,
(1813-1515);
Williamstowrt,
Ontariot'or20 years(t'ront
Quebec
for two years
1815);Montreal,tlmnLongneuil@earMontreal)utrtil tlrcir deathsht 1gs7.
David Thompson b. 30 Apr 1770 parish of St John-the-Evangelist,
Westminster,London. d. 10 Feb 1852 Longueuil, Quebec (facing
Montreal); interred Mount Royal Protestant Cemetery,Montreal
(Landellfamily plot C-507). Thereis a monumentdesigned
by LouisHeb€rt,
RCAand inaugurated
by the CanadianHistoricalsociety1927of a Grecian
columnsurmounted
by a sextant.m. r0 Jrn 1799 Isle-)-la-Crosse
(sask).
Son of David and Ann ap-Thomasof Avansee(or Avonsea),Wales.
David Thompson'syounger brother Jolnn(b.1772)was a Royal Navy
seacaptain.
CharlotteSmall b. 1 Sep1785 Isle-d-1a-Crosse
d. 4May 1852 Longueuil, Quebec;interred besideher husband. dau. Patricksmall (partner
NWC), son of Capt. Small& nephew of Major-Gen.John Smallboth
of the Royal Highland Ernigrants(84th) & Cree mother of unknown
name. Charlotte's sisteq,Nancy, was the wife of John McDonald of
Garth (NWC) and the mother of John Duncan Campbell(NWC).
rHE FAMTLv(13 children of whom 3 died young; 5 male & 3 female
lines):
Thenamesandbirth datesof thechildrenaret'romtheThompson
t'amityBibte
as transcribedin J B Tyrrell'sNarrative. The remainingdetailsare drausn
grandsonwiltiam Daaid scottof
from a 1976 interaieutwitlt Thompsorr's
Rockford,lll. uthowas 70 yearsof ageat the time. [J B Tyrrell papers:NAC,
MG30, D49, v.1]. There are four male Thompson lines with issue:
Samuel,Joshua,Henry, William; and three female lines: Scott (EEzabeth), Shaw (Mary E.), Landell (Eliza).
t4
GLE N GA R R Y
LIFE
Issue of David Thompson& CharlotteSmall
1) FannyMcleod b. 10Jun 1801Roclg Mountain House (Alberta),d.
77 May 1884 Peterborough (Little Lake) m. Dr Roderick Mcleod,
Montreal, surgeon,British army medicalstaff during the War of 1872;
no issue. Followingthe deathof her husband"sheliuedutith Mr Scottin
Canadafor seaeralyears;zuhanthey moaedto Cincinnati,Ohio,Fannycame
nnd liaed with her sister,Mary E Shaut,wit'e of Geo.Edward Shaw,at
Ont., until shedied..."-Wm DnaidScott,nephan,in written
Peterborough,
interaiapto J B Tyrrel, 1916.
2) Samuel b. 5 Mar 1804PeaceRiverForks(Alberta),m. l?).Therewas
a dau., Fanny Thompson Kuehn of Cornwall, who in turn had one
daughter who lived in Toronto.
3) fEmma (diedyoung, 8 yrs) b. Mar 1806ReedLake House,d.22Feb
1814 Terrebonne;interred Montreal Protestant cemetery (plot 353)
"buriedclosetouchinghubrotherin Montreal.An amiable,
innocentgirl, Too
goodfor this world" - dt. in family Bible
a) fJohn (dy. 6 yrs) b. 25 Aug 1808Boggy Hall (nr. Drayton Valley,
Alberta),d. 1.1,Jan 1814,Terrebonne;int. Montreal Protestant(353) A
beautifulpromisingboy."- dt
5) Joshua b, 28 Mar 1811Fort Augustus (now Edmonton),d. ,m. I?1,
convertedto Catholic,one son William who died at Torontowith issue.
"Joslmawasjack-ot'-all-trades,
mastn of none.Sold Thompson'snotebooks,
mapsandotherdocuments
to Canadiangoaunment[directlyor throughGeo.
thuebydepriainghis sisters,liaing at the
18681...
Lindseyof Torontobet'ore
of thesale...- wds
time,of any sharetheyraue entitledto of theproceeds
6) Henry b. 30July 1813Terrebonne,Quebec(nr. Montreal),d.23 Oct
MacDonald, dau.
1855Montreal (Mount Royal Cemetery)rr.
Major MacDonald,military commanderat Montreal and survivor of
Waterloo. 2s/4d incl. Collin Thompson of New York (John Roebling &
Co.,bridge & wire mfg.); Henry, U.S.Navy "he resembledhis
t'athu,who
of
m.
Wm
Douglas
dau.
Charlotte
rnds;
eldest
ll,asrery handsome."
Montreal, d. Chicago, one son; Elizabeth Thompson and Clara
Thompson,Toronto,both unmarried [1916].
7) Charlotte b.7 Jul 1815Terrebonne,
Quebec
8) Elizabeth [Ellen?]Scott &.25 Apr 1817Williamstown,d. Evansville,
Ill. rr. Wm Robt Scott ( -1871)of Cornwall, civil engineel,nephew of
Bishop Mountain. Aftn departing Williamstoutnin L835 residedin
rssuE 33 119941
15
Montreal giahg a roof to paretftsDaaid €t Clmrlotte Tlrompsort2s/3d: Wm
David Scott of Rockford, Ill. (b.1846);Charles Scott (gave his life for the
Union in the CiviJ War, buried in National Cemetery at Danville, Ill.);
Louisa d. Caldwell, Kansas; Harriet Ehrman of Evansville, Ind.; last
dau. died young.
9) William John b. 9 Nov 1819 Williamstown, nr. Isabel Kirkpatrick
(1829,lreland).At least one son/ Thomas (1864-1951).
10) Thomas b. 10 July 1822Williamstown,f. Covington, Kentu.ky (?);
probably unmarried . "Well-traaelled,
well-educated."
- wds. Three recent
queries |9941 to genealogical and historical societiesin the area of
Covington, Kentucky have received the reply that there is no knowledge of such a person.
I
J
11) tGeorge (dy. 6 wks) b. 13 Jul 1824Williamstown, d.27 Aug7824.
12) Mary E. Shaw b. 2 Apr 1827Williamstown, d. Peterborough (Little
Lake Cemetery) m. Ceo. Edward Shaw of Montreal, banker,4sAd: incl.
Charlotte E Shaw of Toronto who worked at Bishop Strachan School;
Mrs Sheldrake,Torontn; Mrs T P Tate,Toronto (these living 1916)
13) Eliza Barbara Landell b. 4 Mar 1829 Williamstown, clr. 12 Apr
1829,m. Dalhousie Landell of Melbourne, Ont. (Grand Trunk Railway).
The father (g-father?)was an admiral in Nelson's fleet at kafaigar and
passeddown his notebook containing coloured pennant designs of the
ships of the line at that battle. They later settled in Longueuil (near
Montreal) and gave a roof to David and Charlotte Thompson after the
Scotts moved to the United States. It was here that David and
Charlotte died in 1857. 3s/1d: "The three sons attendedschoolwlrcn the
family liaed in Peterborouglt"- C S Slnw; son William n. IsabelleRachael
MacDonald of Orillia and their line continues in the Landell family and
Lenox families; son Dudley; dau. Mary rr. (1) Robt E Tiivett, Norwood,
Ohio, 3 children: Clifford Trivett, New York City [1916]; May Trivett rn.
Juel Park of Detroit, 3 children 11916l.
David G Anderson is past-president of the Glengarry Historical Society and lives with his family
in the Bethune-Thompson House at Williamstown.
t6
GLE N GA R R Y
LIFE
'I
ri
The MacCrimmon Querns
JonathanD McLaumn
(from an unpublished manuscript of 1901)
I
)
AuoNc rHE MANYvaluable relics
to be found in the museum of
Queen's University, Kingston, is
one which cannot faii to draw the
attention of the visitor. This relic is
a pair of querns(muileann-brd)-the
hand
gristmill
of the
old
days-which was added to the
museum collection in March 1898
and donated by Mr
Angus
McCuaig,
Kirkhill,
Glengarry
County, Ontario.
These querns first came to my
notice while on a visit to my grand
uncle, Mr McCuaig, in the summer
of 1892 when he showed them to
me and told me something of their
history. At that time he had offered
them to the Redpaths of Montreal,
65. An ditigh ab
brr,gen.
brithru,
pl.
o' hhrd, oibreachail.
brlthntr!,
r./.
Quera,
to whom he was relatedby marriage,for the RedpathMuseum at
McGill University. His generous offer must evidently have been
forgotten for someyearsafterwardsI learnedthat my grand uncle still
had the stonesin his possessionand in 1898I was successfulin
pressingthe claimsof Queen's University Museum for these querns,
and soon after in receivingmy uncle's donation and placing the same
in the museum of my almamater.
In structurethesequerns are very simple,being in the shapeof two
flat circular stonediscs,closed,fitting on top of eachother.Thesediscs
are madefrom flat slatesof a metamorphicrock known as mica schist
or glossyschist,which is thickly studdedwith commongarnet crystals.
The fine-grainedschistoserock itself is not very hard materialbut with
the harder garnet well cemented in, a good abrasive or grinding
IS S UE 3 3
[1e e4 l
17
surfaceis secured.Being a highly stratifiedrock, after being quarried
in large slabsit is easilysplit into thin slabsof one and one-halfto two
inchesin thicknessand then dressedto the desiredcircularshapewith
bevelled edges. The specimenin question is about 18 inches in
diameterand is in two sections,eachof which is about one and threequartersinches in thickness.
The top sectiondiffersslightly from the bottom sectionor basein
that it has a circularhole of about four inchesin diameterat the centre
of it which acts as a funnel through which the grain is passed.This
circular hole at the centre is spanned by a small hardwood bridge
about 3/4 inch thick, strongiy wedged into the section.This bridge
servesthe double purpose of being a handle by which to lift up the
top sectionfrom the basewhen it is necessaryto cleanout the ground
meal and alsoas a pivot-bearingfor the hardwood pivot securedin the
centre of the base, each about which pivot the top sectionrevolves
while the base is stationary.On top of the upper section there are
drilled at equalintervals around the circumferenceand closeto it three
small holes in which cotrld be placedwooden handles with which to
revolve and operatethe mill.
The lower section or base shows a slight circular groove or
depression-the only sign of wear after its long continuoususe.In the
centre of the section a hole has been drilled and a small hardwood
pivot inserted.The grain fed in at the top is caught between the two
discsand by the revolution of the top sectionit works its way toward
the outer edges over which it finally Passesin a well-ground meal.
Thesestonesso long since retired from active serviceare still in first
classcondition and as {it for servicenow as they were in the days of
our ancestorswhen the probiem of 'bur daily bread" \ /as not such an
easyOne.
Although I have been told that there was only one locality in
Scotland,Stromtian in Ardnamurchan, Argyllshire, where this rock
could be quarried for nrillstones,it is quite possiblethat this one
particular qualry was so well known and so generallyused for that
purpose that other placesof similar formation were either overlooked
or possiblynot then known. Similarrock formationsare quite common
in easternOntario in Hastings County and in western Ontario in the
Lake Superior district.
Regarding the history of these querns the following is an extract
18
GLENGARRY LIFE
from an articlewritten by Mr McEwen for the Montrealwitnesson the
occasionof his visit to Lochiel, Glengarry County, in 1894at the
centennialcelebrationof its early settlement:" HereMr McCuaigshouted
us a pair of ancierftquernsor handmillst'orgrindinggrain.Thesestones,he
said,zttereownedby MacKatzie,Chiefof Kintail or Lord seaforth,and u)ere
usedto grind grain t'or his soldiersin the Battleof Kintail in 171s. They
werebrouglftt'romtlrcreby Mr McCuaig'sgreatgrandfatlrcrMcCrimmon.,,
From conversationI have had with, and letters I have had from, my
grand uncle Mr McCuaig and also from my uncle Mr Duncan
Mclennan of Mccrimmon and from my father I have alsolearnedthe
following facts: The querns came into possessionof the McCuaig
family through Catherine (McCrimmon) McCuaig, mother of the
dono1, who as youngest daughter received them form her father
Donald Ban McCrimmon as part of her marriage dowry. In 1802
Malcolm McCuaig with his wife left Glenelg and came to Canada
settling down in Glengarry County. Needlessto say, part of the
necessaryoutfit brought with them to the new country was their grist
mill-these same querns. Here they were used during their pioneer
days until the more modern grist mills allowed them to discontinue
their use. When their service was not longer required Mr Angus
McCuaigbecametheir owner and for aboutthree-quartersof a century
as a highly-prizedmementoof the hardshipsof the early days,until he
sent them west to Kingston. Mr McCuaig, now a hale gentlemanof
about 93 yearsof age still keepsup his interestin the past and enjoys
telling his friends of the many changeshe has seentake placesincehe
was a boy in Glengarry.
Among other travels these querns were once taken by the former
McCrimmon owner on a military campaignto Strascuile,Ross-shire,
in
1719where they were no doubt a very important part of the regimental equipment.The owner of such a pair of querns was evidently a
highly respectedman in a community. In many casesa community
could probably only boastof one paiq,but they were at the disposalof
all and due respectwas paid to their owner. An incident illustrating
this respectis told of Donald Ban MacCrimmon'sownership of these
querns.A herdsmanwas troubled by the stray cattleof his neighbours
and was driving the offending cattle to pound. The herdsman was
informed by a passer-bythat among thesecows wete somebelonging
to Donald Ban the owner of the querns,who would not allow him use
I SSUE 3 3
11994ll
1.9
of the same if his cows were impounded. As his daily bread depended
on these querns the herdsman wisely decided to releaseDonald Ban's
cows and, to show no partiality, the other cows were released and
driven home. The owner of a small handmill of that day was probably
a more popular man than the owner of a flour mil1 today with its
capacity of thousands of barrels a day'
Slow as the process of making flour by this handmill might seem/
stories are told of some amazingly quick work done by them in cases
of emergency. From standing grain in the field to a baked bannock
inside of thirty minutes would be a record hard to beat today, yet
stories are told of many actual casesin which this has been done. The
grain was reaped, prepared for the mil1, ground, and baked up into
bannocks all within half-an-hour. Such bread or bannock was known
in Gaelic as aran gradan (quick bread) and from this it is seen how
serviceable such querns would be in the rnilitary campaigns spoken of
above. When we consider the immense output of flour from the
present grist mill we cannot have any proper conception of what must
have been the conditions of the old days with the handmill.
That these querns, made in Scotland, used there for many years
during peace and waq, brought out here and used for many years
more by those same Scotchmen who became pioneers in Canada
should find a final peaceful resting place in the museum of our
scottish-Canadian university is but a fitting tribute to the memory of
those sturdy pioneers and patriots.
was the son of Donald J Mclennan (b.1832)of Port Hope and
Jonathan D Mclennan 08n-D\n
his wife, a Dingwall. He studied at Queens and on visiting Glengarry stayed with his uncle
Duncan who was a well-known house builder in the McCrimmon and Vankleek Hill area, one of
whose fine works is the Deady house of Kenneth & Rhoda MacDonald. This article is from the
original handwritten manuscript dated "November 1901, Queens University, Kingston" now in
the collection of Donald S Fraser of Lochinvar.
20
GLE N GA R R Y
LIFE
Black Loyatistsof Glengarry
MalcolmRobertson
settlement of the
h"
T
I so u the r np a r tof Glengarry
County bordering the St.
LawrenceRiver was part of the
great movement of thousands
of American colonists who
stayed loyal to Britain during
the Revolution of 1776. Not
from iust one singleethnic unit,
this group of people was composed of English, Scots,Irish,
German, Dutch, Swiss, and
most important to our story,
black freed slaves.This mixture
of nationalitiesgavethe "front"
of Glengarry a different and
distinctive flavour. Before we{designby PeterJohnsoryU.E., inTle
continue, it would be wise to
Spring 19901
ltynlist Gazefte,
understand why this piece of land that we now call Glengarry was still
unclaimed by settlers in the last half of the eighteenth century.
For over one hundred years the canadiensof New France had
spread Iheir seigneurieson both sides of the St. Lawrence River from
the Gasp6 to just beyond the junction with the Ottawa River. Further
expansion was stopped, first by the rapids at what is now the city of
Valleyfield, and secondly by the fact that the land now known as
Lancaster Township was considered too low and wet to be of much
value. When Quebec City fell to the British in 1759,the boundaries of
what became Lower Canada were set at the limits of the seignories.
With the retreat to France of much of Quebec's upper class, the
habitantsof Canada were left to look after themselves and expansion
ceased.The lands west of the Lower Canada border were left undeveloped and little travelled except by a few traders and explorers for
twenty years until another war left a group of refugees looking for a
rssu E 33 llee4l
21
safehaven.
of the
The AmericanRevolution of 1776setthe stagefor the exodus
new
the
peoplewe now callUnited EmpireLoyaliststo found' in1784'
from the
settiementson the north shore of the St. LawrenceRiver
of the
border of Lower canada to the Great Lakes. At the time
subjects
rebellionin the Americancolonies,a large number of British
one
decidedto stay loyal. One of thesepeoplewas Sir John Johnson'
tens
of the largestiu.do*ners in the colonies,whose tenantsfarmed
River
of thousandsof acresin the beautifuland productiveMohdwk
v a l l e yi nn o r thwe sternNewY orkS tate.A l rln g wit h mo s t o f h is
Highland settlers,he
tenants,amongwhich were 600recently-arrived
the time of
felt that Britain could easilydefeatthesecolonialrebels.At
Mohawk
the rebellion,sir John was the lairdof the loyal settlersin the
he
troops'
rebel
the
by
Valley.When finally threatenedwith arrest
his
made the decisionio fl"" for safetyto the British lines. Leaving
200 of his
family to seek shelter with friends in Albany, he' with
their way
tenantswho were mostlyHighlandersand Germans'made
(the
directly north through ih" Adi.ottdack Mountains to St. Regis
Montreal.
Mohawk reserve.r"J. pr"r".rt-day Cornwall),then eastto
military
various
the
at
There in the fall of vza, they set up camps
posts surrounding Montreal.
the
sir John was askedto form a provincial regiment from among
Royal
many refrrgeeswho had escaped'Thus was formed the King's
the first
Regiment of N.* York. over the next few years he built
almost
battalion of the regiment to its full strength of 650 men, and
same
this
Throughout
completedu ,".o.rd battalion of the samesize.
harassthe
tim", they undertook raids back into the Mohawk Valleyto
Americansand also to regain some of their confiscatedpossessions.
were
Finally, and more importantly to our story, the "Royal Yorkers"
bysystem
canal
a
sent to Coteau-du-Lacto assistwith the work on
the
passingthe rapids on the st. LawrenceRiver that were hindering
the
up
pick
we
i.u^rpi.t of military suppliesto the west. It is here that
trail of our own black settlersof Glengarry'
to
Due to the need for labourerson the building of the canal,also
west,
the need for men to handle tl-rcbateauxthat carried the freight
Army
and to put the refugeesto some productive work, the British
65 men
createdHerkimer's BateauCompany,a companybeing about
brought
been
strong.Most of thesemen were freed slaveswho had
GLE N GA R R Y
LIFE
back from the Mohawk Valley.There were also runaway slaveswho
had fled north in order to join the armed forces,as well as captives
that had been brought in by the scoutsor raiderswho were in it for
the profit. These blacks were almost always known only by their
Christiannames,and only when freed did they adopt surnames,often
those of their past owners or new patrons. Johnson, Fonda, Dow,
Prime,and Adam were only a few of the many used.Confusion arises
when membersof the samefamily useddifferentsecondnames.Under
captain Herkimer fifty Loyalist ex-slavesand their familieswere based
at the British fortificationsat Coteau-du-Lacand put to work. supplied
with minimal provisionsand housing,the work crewswere used with
mixed successfor severalyears. Many complaintswere receivedby
Gov. Haldimand concerninglack of suppliesto maintain the Bateau
Company,and alsothe advancedageand large familiesof the workers
which placedextra strain on the suppliesof the army post.
In17M, Governor Haldimand appointedSir John Johnsonto oversee
the resettlement of many of the destitute Loyalists in the new
townships openedup for habitation along the north shore of the St.
Lawrence River. Under the guidance of William Falkner, a number
were settledon the first two concessions
of LancasterTownship,then
called rhe Lake or sunken Township. Among these were the Black
Loyalistswho took up the following lots on the 2nd concession:
Cato Prime,Lot 10
ThomasFonda,Lot 14
JackPowell,Lot 16
JosephGoff, Lot 27
William Thomas, Lot 2Z
Amego Londonderry,Lot 27
Sambo,Lot 30
of thesesettlersvery litfle is known. cato Primefarmed from 1zg4to
1820,accumulatingseveralpiecesof land before selling to Murdock
MacPherson.He was a staunchPresbyterianand worshippedwith the
Rev.John Bethune at the home of Jacobsnider.Therewas a cemetery
on the snider property on Lot 23 in the early 1780s.The other half of
Lot 23 was owned by william Thomas. This same snider family
donated land for a church also on this lot. The church on this land
now is St. Andrew's United Church, Bainsville. At the time of Mr.
Bethune's death in 1815,Cato Prime was one of the persons who
ISSUE 33
llee4l
23
pledged money to hire a replacementminister from Scotland.Both
bato and his wife CatherineBodet are buried at St. Andrew's United
Church on the }nd concession of Lancaster Township. Amego
Londonderry married a girl from the Fraserbrothers' f.armFrasert'ield
in Dundas county [not Glengarry]. Their daughter Rachel was
christened by Mr. Bethune at st. Andrew's, williamstown. Thomas
Fondawas originally owned by the well-known "patriot" Fondafamily
of the Mohawk Valley.The actor Henry Fonda was descendedfrom
this family. As for sambo, a gravestonerock can be found at the
having
Anglican church, Lot 29,Concession1, st John-the-Evangelist,
the name "Sambo" on it.
of the rest of the Black Loyalists nothing is known- they have
vanishedintrt history.Thelot of theseearlyrefugeeswas not easy,and
wl.len cconornics,marginal land, lack of opportunity and racial
combine,it is not surprisingthat groupssimplymovedon.
r:lifferences
Althor:gh very little remains of the history of this unique group of
settlersin Clengarry,they are part of our heritage and we should be
proud of it.
References:
pringle, JacobFerrand. Lunenburg,or thcAndEasternDistrbt (Cornwall, 1890and Belleville, 1980)
Mu.rson, Lyall (comp.).Index oJ Namcsin 'Lunenburgor the Old EasternDbtrbt' (Cornwall, 1984)
Ross,Ewan. LancasterTownshipand Village(Ste.Anne de Bellevue,1980)
Dumbrille, Dorthy [Mrs J T Smith]. Up and Down the clens: Thestory of Glengarry(Toronto,1954)
Braggrt In MY SteP('Ioronto, 1956)
{.JnitedEmpire Loyalist Associationof Canada,Heritage Branch. TheLoyalistsof Quebe 1774-1825:
Histor.y(Montreal, 1989)
A Forgotten
Magee,Joan (ed,.).LoyalistMosaic:A Multi Ethnb Heritage(Toronto,1984)
National Archives of Canada.The sir FrederbkHaldimandhpers MG21 ',3" series.
Malcolm Robertsonof Bainsville and his wife Susanfarm on the 3rd Concessionof Lancasterin
the midst of the settlementarea of the Black Loyalists of whom he writes'
?/L
GLE N GA R R Y
LIFE
The Rev. A L McDonald (1383- 1953)
basedon the notebookof the late Florence(D.D.) MacDonell
FarHun ALEX, son of Duncan
McDonald and Catherine Kennedy
of Glen Robertson,was born in that
small village in the first year of its
f€J
founding when the new Canada
Atlantic Railway swept through
Glengarry.He died in Cornwall 75
years later and was buried in the
village of his birth. After local
schoolinghe graduatedfrom Alexandria High School, went on to study
at the Grand Sdminairein Montreal,
and was ordained at Alexandria in 1908.As an outstanding football
playeq,he exemplified one of the finer aspects of Glengarry sports
history, that of the "gentle giant" such as the renowned Col R R
Mclennan-a brawny Highland physique coupled with the quiet
confidenceof a good nature. In Father Alex's case,his love for fair play
and character building was of the type portrayed in the Glengarry
novels of Ralph Connor.
He servedfirst in Alexandria and, in Glen Robertson,headedup the
effort to rebuild the church which had been destroyedby fire in 1915.
Appointed pastor to the Church of the Nativity of the BlessedVhgm
Mary (St Mary's, Williamstown) in 1929he remarked on the occasion
that he knew few of the people in the area. However his gift of
oratory, like that of St Paul, enabled him to win over the new
parishioners. This, on top of his kind and friendly mannet was to
ensure him a warm spot in their hearts.
During his time at St Mary's he had reorganized the Altar Society
(ater the Ladies Guild) which still servesthe needs of the church. In
December 1933,the Ladies Guild staged a banquet celebratinghis 25
yearsin the priesthood.
There are two stained glasswindows in the sanctuary.The second,
on the west (and most appropriately so), was installed during Father
McDonald's time and is of a theme of considerablehistoric interest: the
martyrdom of Jean de Brdbeuf and Gabriel Lalennantat Sainte-Marie-
ISSUE 33
119e41
25
among-the-Huronsin1.649.FatherMacDonald'sinvolvement with the
window revealssomeof his abilitiesand we are pleasedto recountthe
story in some depth.
Williamstown, since the very year of its founding in 7784by the
New York Loyalist Sir John Johnsonof the Mohawk Valley,had been
a sourceof clerksand partnersfor the Indian trade of WesternCanada
then conducted to great advantage by the mighty North West
Company.Indeed,St Mary's was built on land given by a prominent
partner of that concern,Hugh McGillis,the secondLaird of Williamstown. The former mayor of Cornwall, John Chisholm, himself a
descendantof Nor'Wester Archibald Mclellan (South Branch) as well
as an active student of pioneer history, in his will of 1928allowed
funds for the endowment of a memorial window. The martyrdom of
Brdbeufand Lalemantis a centralelementof the civiJizingwork of the
early church in the western frontier of our nation. Even the site,at St
Ignaceon Lake Huron near Midland, Ontario, is notable for the local
prominence of another Williamstown family-the Nor'Wester John
McDonald le borgne,son of Angus Ban a'Mhuinneal of the Glen and
a substantialproprietor in the area,albeit 150yearslater.
Father McDonald had developed an interest in the early wood
of New Franceand noted how they had renderedthe scene
scr-rlptors
of the martyrdom in works now preservedat the Urselinesin Quebec
City.From oil paintingsin the custodyof Mother Nellesof SacreCoeur
at Sault au,r Recolletsnear Montreal, Father McDonald derived the
conception of the window. The executionof the work required the
glassartisans,O'Shea of Montreal, to use the colours of the stole to
compensatefor the black robes-black being a colour most difficult to
use to good effectin stainedglasswork. The dual symbolsof the stole
and bible are used to convey priestly authority and the apostolicwork
of these ancestorsto our nation. The canonizationof the Canadian
the 29 June 1930by Pius XI and the Williamsmartyrs was proclain",ed
town church, througli the efforts of FatherMcDonald,is now adorned
by Chisholm'swindow, a montunent to saintsprior to their sainthood.
chaptu of the
At the time of writing (January1994),the Williamstousn
Knights of Columbusreceioesits founding charter.That FatherAlex's name
shall beincorporatedin :hetitle of the charterot'the councilis in homageto
his 29 years of seraiceto the parish and the fine qualities of charactn,
whichmarkedhim asa true sonof Glengarry.
and sportsmanship
conscience,
26
GLE N GA R R Y
LIFE
Ralph M Sketch,sculptor
Daaid G Anderson
bronze sculpture ltled Arriual - 1,784in the
the
have
seen
who
Those
front of St Andrew's Church Cemeteryat Williamstownwill recognize
the name of Mr Sketch as sculptor of this image of a U'E. Loyalist
kneeling by his horse in gratitude for safe arrival to the King's
domains.The bronze castingis dated 1988.
Sketch was known for his equestrian monuments. From an article
of 2l May 7977:"Sketchis
by PatrtMoss in the VictorinTimes-Colonist
one of the t'ew sculptors in Canadaspecializingin equestrianthemes.
Inueasingly in recentyears,thesehaaealso tendedto combinea historiul
flaaour,recreatingin splrndidstatuettessomeof thepioneut'iguresand epic
history."
momentsin Canadian
Someof his works are: Sir JamesDouglas g"ing his horse to drink
after reconnoitring the wagon route through the Fraser Canyon
(Victoria City Hall); surveyor Edgar Dewdney's trail clearing trek {rom
Hope to Fort Steele;Louis Riel; Sir Isaac Brock on his horse Alfred
(near the Brock Monument at QueenstonHeights, Niagara).
Sketch (1910-1993)
spent time as a boy in England in the Chelsea
studio of the celebratedequestrian sculptor Adrian Jones and earlie4,
during a childhood among the gauchosof the Argentinean Pampas,
acquired a love of the horse and its role in historical events.He was a
graduate of McGill University in agricultural economics and later
worked in the insutance industry in New Zealand before returning to
Canada.He was with the Third CanadianDivision at Normandy on DDay and in 7992completed a one-third scale of himself on the horse
Lady ltem as commander of the 10th Battery of the Royal Canadian
Artillery at Caen. This piece is destined for the new war memorial
museurn in Normandy, Franceas a donation to the Canadian wing of
the museum by the Ottawa-based Canadian Battle of Normandy
Foundation.
ArtisVsculptor Ralph Sketch and his wife, Marian Ogden Sketch,
perishedby fire October 1993in their home at StanleyPoint on Pender
Island,BC.
ISSUE 33
|1e94l
27
Rupert Mat Poet and Actor
DaneLanken
tTth. poem A CanadiqnWinterldyll by Rupert Mar was submittedto
I this issueof GlaryarryLit'ebyDr RoyceMacGillivray,an Alexandria
native, professor of history at the University of Waterloo, and coauthor (with Ewan Ross)of ,4 Historyof Glengarrv.He found the poem
in an old scrapbook,without indication of where or when it was
published,thor-rghclippingsnear it suggestit was in the period 1910
to 1918.Its author, Rupert Mar, was (as MacGillivray notes) "an actor
and stageperformerwho farmedin the MunroesMilis area1908-1915.
He is said to have been in Sir Henry trrving'scompany on irving's last
tour of hlorth America (in 190a).During World War I he gave Red
Crossconcertsin England.He returned to Canadain 1918and gave a
concert at Williamstown in 1920but beyond that I have no record of
him." By remarkable coincidence,this same "Mr. Mar" (we may
assume)figures in Marion MacRae'saccountof her mother's recollections of life in past times in Munroes Mills (seepage1). She notes that
it was said that he had come to "the colonies" becausehis talents as
an actor were not appreciatedin London. Although he was regarded
as a poor worke4,she says,his solo concertsformed a long-cherished
memory among the hands at Munroes Mills.
RhodesGrant, in his Horseand BuggyDays in Martintown,reports
that Mar, his wi{e, a boy and a girl came from Britain and bought a
farm on the 7th Concessionof Charlottenburg early in this century. He
was saidto have beenvery well educated,perhapsat an Englishpublic
school, and had been on the stage as an actor and singer' "The
possessorof an exceptionallyfine voice," Grant writes, "he was in
great demand as a singer and elocutionist at all the concerts and
sociablesin the neighbourhood.In the evenings after his farm work
was done, he would often stand or sit in his back yard and sing. The
neighbours for miles around enjoyed the concerts.He also wrote
articlesand poetry for the newspapersand peoplelooked forward to
the appearanceof his efforts." Grant adds that when World War I
broke out, both Mar rnd his son (named Harold) enlisted.The son,
"like so many of the young men of that generation," was killed in
action, while Mar was drafted into a concert group that entertained
28
GLE N GA R R Y
LIFE
troops.It was said that he was knighted for his efforts,but MacGillivray could find no record of this. Mar returned to Munroes Mills after
the wa{, and died soon afterwards. Grant indicated that Mar's
daughter was living in New York City when Horseand BuggyDays in
Martintotanwas publishedin 1975.
As for the poem A CnnadianWinter ldyll, MacGillivray notes that
while it is impossibleto connect it positively with Glengarry County,
"lt recapturesthe Glengarry winter scenesvery nicely."
A CanadianWinter Idyll
Round me my cattle crowd
At the well drinking,
Slowly the daylight fades,
And I stand - thinking. . .
Sharp the red fox's bark
Breaks through the hush;
Mourn{ul the lonely coon
Wails in the bush.
Loud crack the freezing trees
Their volleys telling,
Steelis the frost-ring's gnp,
Iron-willed, compelling.
Deep the sun's ruddy glow
This bleak December;
Crimson the spotlesssnow
With dazzling splendour.
Clear rings the singer's voice,
Chanting his lay,
Far o'er the snowy waste
Dyr.g away.
When on some future eve, in bleak Decembel,
Low lies the singer'shead,
Deep in his frozen bed,
With the bright stars o'er head,
Who will remember?
- RupertMar
ISSUE33 alee4l
29
Individual Members ' Local
Mr & Mrs Ken W Alexander, Alexandria
Mr & Mrs David G Anderson, Williamstom
Mrs Patricia Amstrong, \Tilliamstom
Mrs KaY Amott, Comwall
Mrs Douglas Baxter' Alexandria
Mrs Suzanne Blackbum, Alexandria
Prof & Ms Mardn Bowman' Villiamstom
Mr & Mrs Thomas J BoYle,APPIe Hill
Mr William T BraY'Lancaster
Mr & Mrs Charles Bruns, Martintown
Prof & Mrs Arthur Buckland, Martintown
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Mr & Mn Hugh Grice, Green ValleY
Mrs Grete Grzegorek,Villiamstown
Mr & Mrs lnme Hall, Alexandria
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Mr & Mrs Andrew Harkness, South Lancaster
Mr & Mrs Emest Higginson, Martintown
Mr John Hope, Alexandria
Mr & Mrs Jack Hunting' Martintown
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Dr Max Irwin, Long Sault
Mr & Mn Gary Ivens, APPIe Hill
Mrs ioan Johnston, Martintom
Mr & Ms JamesJoYce,Dunvegan
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Mn Helen KennedY, Comwall
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Mn Rachel ConwaY, Alexandria
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Mn Margaret Dean, Villiamstom
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Mr & Mrs Donald S Fraser' Lochinvar
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lh & Mrs Maynard Gertler, Williamstown
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Mr Bemie MacCulloch, Glen RoY
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Mr Ewen McDonald, Alexandria
Mr & Mrs Hugh Allan McDonald, Alexandria
Mn Joan P MacDonald, Villiamstom
Mr John Angus McDonald, Comwall
Mr & Ms Kenneth MacDonald' Dalkerth
Mrs Thelma McDonald, Comwall
Archibald C MacDonell, Williamstown
Mrs
&
Mr
Mr & Mrs Duncan A Macdonell, Alexandria
Mrs PhYIlisMacDonell, Comwall
Mr & Mrs R:vmond McDonell, North Lancaster
Mr & Mn Ron Macdonell' APPIe Hill
Mr Ron MacDonell, Lochiel
Mr & Mrs Gamet MacDougall' Williamstown
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Ms Anne MacGillivray, St Andrews Vest
Mr & Mn Archie MacGillivray, Dalkeith
Mn Christena MacGillivray, Alexandria
Major & Mrs R Crant Maccillivray, Maxville
Miss Emilv Maclnna, Martintown
Mr & Mrs Gordon & Ruth Mclntosh, Maxville
Ms Jean Maclntosh, Martintown
30
GLE N GA R R Y
LIFE
Mr & Mrs Jim Palmer, Apple Hill
Mr & Mrs John Petrie, Bainsville
Dr & Mm J S Polson, Bainsville
Mr & Mrs JamesPoulton, Martintom
Mm Hazel Power, Williamstown
Mr & Mm Richard Rigby, Dalkeith
Mr Mackie Robertson, Bainsville
Mr & Mn Leslie H Rose,Villiamstown
Mr & Mrs D Alford Ross,Lancaster
Mn Onagh Ross,Martintown
Mrs Rhcrla P Ros, Bainsville
Mr Keith Maclntosh, Monkland
Mr Kenneth McKenna, Clen Sandfield
Mrs Patricia H MacKenna, St Andrews West
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Mr Alan D MacKinnon, Alexandria
Mrs Harriet I MacKinnon, Alexandria
Mr W A MacKinnon, Alexandria
Mr & Mrs Larry Maclaurin, Comwall
Mre Loma (Robert) Maclean, Summerstom
Mn Mabel (Walter) Maclean, Summerstom
Mr Beverly Maclennan, Apple Hill
Mrs Jean Maclennan, Dalkeith
Mr & Mrs John J Macleod, North Lancaster
Mr & Mn Victor Rowland, Martintown
Mrs Vendy Rozon (Wert), \Tilliamstown
Mr Johnny Schell, Comwall
Mr & Mn Jin A Seay, Hawkesbury
Miss Marguerite M Seger, Alexandria
Mr & Mn Bruce Sova, Glen Roy
Mr & Mre Emest Spiller, Villiamstown
Mr & Mn Wilfrid St-Pierre, Lancaster
Mr Kenneth Macleod, Dunvegan
Miss Marian Macleod, Alexandria
Mr Norman M Maclcod, Dunvegan
Miss Marjorie McMartjn, Comwall
The Rev Dr Donald N MacMillan, Finch
Miss Elsie MacMillan, Comwall
Mr & Mrs Grant MacMillan, Alexandria
Mrs Helen McMillan, Martintown
Mn Llovd MacMillan. Dalkeith
Mr & Mrs Alan MacPhail, Apple Hill
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Mrs Sybil MacPhee, Dunvegan
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Mn Catherine Meth, Alexandria
Mrs Gwen Morris, Alexandria
Mr & Mn Jim Morrison, Vankleek Hill
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Mr & Mn Douglas Murray, Martintom
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Mr & Mrs Roland Stuhlmann, Lancaster
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ArnbassadorAlan Sullivan, Williamstown
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Mr & Mn E H & Rita Tourangeau, St Raphaels
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Mr & Mrs Cyrus P \(/alker, Dunvegan
Ms Janet Wame, Domie Road, Alexandria
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Distant Members
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Mr Juan M Cameron, Vashington, DC
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rssuE 33 tlss4l
Mrs Edward S Clements, Toronto
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Mm Beatrice M Corbett, Kingston
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31
'lhe Rev Cliftbrd Evans, Almonte
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Prof Paul S Fritz (McMaster), Hamilton
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Mr'\i7illiam Hampson, Wocrlstmk
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Dr John C Maclennan, Dundas
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32
GLE N GA R R Y
LIFE
GLENGARRY LIFE is published annually in the month of June at
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