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WwW. EL. PAT ES,
Auctioneer, Real Dstate and arial Agent and Goneral Oommission Mer- chant,
No. 43 RIDEAU EAU STREET, OTTAWA.
REFER&NORS :—Hon. J aioe, Skead, bnnice: “Ottawa; J. of Ourrior, Esquire, M. P., J. A. Grant, Esquire, M.D., R. W. Scott, Esqu:re, M.P.I , Mr. Sheriff Powell, Edward Griffin, Esquire, Edw ard Me “aitliecay, Esquire, Messrs. C. T. "Bato & Co., ‘Thomas Hunton,
Esquire, Messrs. Fingland & Draper, Alexander Workman, Esquire, P.A. Egleson, Sen., Esq.
CITY HALL SQUARE,
OTTAWA. ee
The Best Commercial Hotel in the City,
a. . os
CENTRALLY SITUATED,
Je And within TWO MINUTES’ WALK of the Parliament Buildings. “ay
—-— i 6D 0
This Hotel having*been THOROUGHLY RENOVATED, Visitors may depend upon receiving every comfort and accommodation.
— 2
| Onnntbaases and Active Porters to oarry Passengers to and from the 1 Care and Boats. r
ft | Jas A GOOD LIVERY 8T48L# ATTACHED.
ARMSTRONG BROTHERS, Proprietors.
on Mer-
f. P.,. J. , Edward ¢ [tunton, Sen., Hsa-
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OTTAWA
PAST AND PRESENT,
——OR, ———
A BRIEF ‘ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST OPENING UP OF THE OTTAWA COUNTRY, AND INCIDENTS IN CONNECTION WITH THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF OTTAWA CITY, AND PARTS ADJACENT THERETO,
a ; a $ ¥ ae
CHARLES ROGER,
Asthor of the ‘ Rise of Canada from Barbarism to Civilisation,” de, &e., &e.
@Ottawa:
PRINTRD FOR THE FROPRIETORS BY THE TIMES FRINTING & PUBLISHING (OMPANY, WELLINGTON £T:EWT,
4871.
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PREFACE.
Seeman’
The following pages are written with the view
of showing tho rapid progress mad¢ in the City of
Ottawa, since its foundation in 1826, and the general advancement of the Ottawa country since its first settlement in 1800. One effect of the information thus conveyed will be to draw the attention of per. sons at a distance, to the capabilities of this section of the Dominion. It will bring hither strangers to fill our hotels, to originate manufactures, to establish shops and other places of business, and it will tend in a high degree to the further development of the numerons resources of the vicinity, In giving such information as we have been enabled to gather from various sources, we have studied to throw in with the more serious matter, suc!. amusing’ incidents as will make the reading of the book rather a pleasure than a labor. The past ard present are com- bined by way of contrast, and from the past
and present the future of this beautiful dis-
trict of the Dominion may be inferred. Some of those who came here only half a century ago—and some yet remain — and found it a forest, see around them to-day a fertile and well eleared country, thriving factories, beautiful strects, and pleasing terraces, and a busy city. There are
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sigus of progress everywhere, and only that want which is inevitably to be found in the neighborhood of plenty, is to be met with. Here, as elsewhere, there is majesty and misery, and the two will go on side by side, while Ottawa continues to flourish. It is true, in every sense, that the poor will be always with us, but the condition of extreme poverty, congregating around plenty, is only the result of that plenteousness on which poverty hopes to feed. Here, on the whole, there is a general com- fort, and cases of extreme distress are rare, and sel- dom of long continuance. No amount of general prosperity can have tho effect of exterminating vice, and vicious habits will, even in the face of a general advancement in material comforts, produce their ordinary effects in Ottawa as in other cities. The room for improvement in new countries is, however, so ample, that no industrious man can possibly come to want in them; but, notwithstanding the progress which has been already made, there is, it must be admitted, still room for improvement here. Ottawa as she is, nevertheless, presents many inducements to industrious artisans and laborers, which other places do not afford to the same extent; and to the loyer of nature, her attractions are almost unsur- passed. If attention be drawn to this city and its neighborhood by anything that has been gleaned for and set forth in these pages, the aspirations of the writer will be fully realized, and his pride amply gratified. OTTawa, 17th Nov., 1871,
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CONTENTS. :
CHAPTER I, a Page. Accessibility of Capital Cities—Judicious Selection of Sites for first Cities 1 in Canada—Choice of the City of Ottawa as «he Seat of Govern- ment for Vanada—Rice Lake—Bytown—The Chaudiere Bridzes— a The Countess of Dalhousie—Pope’s Amusing Account of Rope- { ; Bridge Building—Mr, Philemon Wright's Arrival at and Settlement.
of Hul~The MeNab—Ottawa. Leading Men—Sir John Franklin— Honorable Louis Joseph Papineau
See ea Se
it Lae hoe he PMA ee ee
Sa a Ree
CHAPTER U1. \
“Natural Wealth of the Ottawa—The Gatineau--[ronside—The Gilmours— 40 The Rideau Canal—Cost of the Canal—Looking to Washington— The old Soldier in the Backwoods—Duke of Richmond—State of } Movlety in Ottawa.) oy cis. stcks. zee
CHAPTER III,
; Rebellion Losses Bill—Battle of Stony Monday—The “Shiners "—Cork 64 " OWT Faces cci cs. ae
CHAPTER IV.
‘The Parliament Buiidings—fhe Prince otf Wales—Prince Arihur—The 60 4 Ball—The Decorations—The Supper—The Honorable Thos. D’Arey ]
MoGee, M. P,—Death of Mr. Mc@ee—Rideau Hall—Sir John Rose 4
E -~Men of Note q
Pe SEER ORS ORKS PR OMOUC RS Fe Ob UE ba UR ANE Leo bo el Wi eee
CHAPTER YV.,
F ny
Gaol and Court House—A Women Allegory—The Roman Catholic Cathe- 74 dital—Obrist’s Chureh—The Bishop's Chapel—St, Alban’s—Reyv. M Mr. Johnston—Cathiolic Apostolic Church—St. Joseph’s—St, An- diew's, Bank Street,’ Metholist, and other Churches—Other ; Public Buildings—Incidental Remarks. bel
OHAPTER Vi.
—
The Press—The First Newspaper published in Ottawa—The Bytown es Independent—The Bytown Gazette-—-The Ottawa Advocate—The 8 Packet—The Citizen—The Monarchist-—The Orange Lily~—The uy Railway Times—i.e Progrés—The Canada Military Gazette—The Banner—The DailyNews—The Tribune—Le Courrier d’Outaouais —The Times—The Daily Post—Le Canada~—The Free Press—The Evening Mail—The Saturday Review—The Volunteer Review...
CHAPTER VI,
The First Settlement of Lower Town—The Lumber Trade—Report of 97 the Minister of Public Works—Slides and Boom Stations on the » Ottawe. River and its Tributaries—LeBreton’s Flats—The Chau- diere—Messrs. Bronson & Weston—Mr, A, H. Baldwin—Mr. J. R. Booth—Mr. E. B. Eddy—Messrs. Perley & Pattee—Mr. Levi | Young—Meesrs. Wrighi, Batson & Currier—Messrs. Gilmour & Co, Messrs. Hamiltca & Co., &e. .....60.-. iy cre eediretsceeearene
CHAPTER VIII. ®
@onelusion—Ottawa a Field for Immigration—Bouchette’s prediction of 12
Canada’s Future—Finis. Addenda,............ 5c cee ee eee ee Rbican fe ve ' j a i 4a { @ a e : j 4 i a ;
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CHA, J,
Accessivility of Capital Cities—Judicious Selection of Sites fer first Cities in Canada—Choice of the City of Ottawa as the Seat of Government for Canada—RBice Lake—Bytown—The Chaudiere Bridges—The Countess of Dalhousie—Pove’s Amusing Account of Rope-Bridge Building—Mr, ‘Philemon Wright’s Arrival at and Settlement of Hull—The MeNab— Ottawa Leading Men—Sir John Frankun—Honorable Louis Joseph
Papineau,
| HE capital city of any country should, it might “reasonably be supposed, be as centrally situated Seas circamsiances will permit. It sheuld be, QW howeve er, readily accessible on all sides. It should be, if possible, a hub of reads; and water communication with it should be easy. For the safety of the public records the capital city of any country should be interiorily situated rather than placed upon an exposed frontier, and even for public convenience the machinery of government should be as equidistant from one extremity as from another. There are some excepticnal cases to this rule. For instance, the chief city of Russia is certainly uot centrally situated, but is placed in such a position as to make it readily accessible by sea during peace, inaccessible during war, and, on the land side, so far removed from the frontier as to be only capable of attack after w very large portion of the country
was completely subdued. On the first eettlement of Canada, the nuciei of
future cities were most judiciously selected. Quebec,
tpn
SP i A i SE ie Serer se a
° CAPITAL CITIES, . : - >|
strong by nature and improvable by art, was situa- ted on a promontory at the confluence of the river St. Charles with the St. Lawrence, at a point where the St. Lawrence forms a basin in which the navies of the world might ride, at the foot of 2,060 miles of internal navigation, being a port of shipment for all the industries and natural products which these countries, situated on the borders of inland seas, afford; Montreal, at the head of ocean navigation, was, like Quebec, at the confluence of two rivers, | the Ottawa and the St. Lawrence, but, unlike Que- bec, navigation upwards was impeded for hundreds / . of miles by obstructions which art only could re- + | move; Frontenac, now Kingston, was situated on Lake Ontario, which, as Hennepin tells us, was called by: the Iroquese, Xanandario, which means “very pretty lake,” and where the deep clear waters of that iaost safely navigable of all the great lakes of this continent, the source of North America’s chiefest natural wealth, are gathered intoa very nar- row outlet; and Niagara was selected in a military puint of view, to protect those who were designed to interrupt the traffic between the Indians of the Far West, and the Hollanders of New York and « English of Massachusetts. It was not until after ' - the conquest of Canada by Ergland that the seat of ' Government was removed to Toronto from Niagara, : when, oddly enough, all the larger towns vr cities of Canada were found to be equidistant from each other—Quebec was 180 miles from Montreal, Mon- treal 180 miles from Kingston, and Kingston 180 miles from Toronto, Steam, Armstrong guns, and
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SELECTION OF SEAT OF GOVERNMENT. 8
a change of circumstances, brought about by the conquest of Canada, somewhat altered in a iilitary sense, the positions of these towns as protective points for Canada. Of them all, Quebec alone, was unepproachable to the only enemy, whose enmity could be apprehended. But even that fortress be- came not altogether trustworthy as steam, on land and water, became a more potent means of trans- port, and, when a seat of Government was wanted for that “ vast country in America, extending about 4,000 miles,” as Hennepin tells us in 1698, Ottawa was pointed out, by the mosi sagacious man in Eu- rope, as Lord Brougham styled him, Arthur, Duke of Wellington, as the most fitting place to become the seat of Government, not for Canada only, but for British North America,
The choice of the new capital was approved of by the Queen, and, to-day, Ottawa is the seat of Govy- ernment of a Dominion extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans, being the second maritime power, in a commercial sense, in the world, and coy- ering an area more extensive than the United States occupy, larger than that of Russia, and capable of affording food and active employment to the multi- tades, as yet, oppressed by poverty combined with unceasing labor, nou in England only, but in all the countries of Europe, from the Baltic to the Medi- teranean.
By the way, Bouchette, in his Tonography of Canada, describing Rice Lake, makes this observa- tion :
“ The exposed situation of York, now Toronto,
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4 RICE LAKE AND BYTOWN,
the Capital of the Province of Ontario, has frequent- ly suggested a removal of the seat of Government to some more defensible spot, and Rice Lake has not injudiciously been mentioned as offering superior advantages under that aspect. Rice Lake could easily be connected by a ship canal with Lake Ontario, and the capital being thus removed from the immediate frontier, and covered by the rising ground between the two lakes, which might be made a very effectual secondary barrier of defence, would be less open to invasion, and, therefore, bet- ter calculated to be the depository of the public archives and records of the Province.”
The advantages possessed by Rice Lake asa seat of Government for Ontario, are eminently those pos- sessed by Ottawa in her position as the seat of Gov- ernment of Canada. She has a canal connecting her with Ontario: she has more a direct river com- munication with Montreal, and she has railways running to the St. Lawrence over a country which certainly might be made “a very effectual second- ary barrier of defence.” In 1828 Ottawa contained 150 houses; now she has 7,250.
Bouchette thus speaks of Bytown in 1828, which in 1854 became Ottawa:
“ Bytown, in Nepean, is situated on the southern bank of the Ottawa, a little below the beautiful Falls of the Chaudiere, and opposite the flourishing vil- lage of Hull, in Lower Canada. It stands on a high and bold eminence surrounding Canal Bay, and oc- cupies both banks of the canal; that part lying to the east being called the Lower, and that to the west, from a superiority of local elevation, the Upper Town. The streets are laid out with much regu- larity, and of a liberal width that will hereafter contribute to the convenience, salubrity, and ele-
LOSS a RS OPN OEE ED Ot Se
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“8 7
OLD RYTOWN, 5 gance of the place. The number of houses now built is not far short of one hundred and fifty, most of which are constructed of wood, frequently in a style of neatness and taste that reflects great credit upon the inhabitants. On the elevated banks of the Bay, tho hospital, an extensive stone building, and three barracks, staud conspicuous; and nearly on a level with them, and on the eastern side of the Bay, is delightfully situated, the residence of Colonel By, the commanding Royal Engineer on tliat station. From his verandah the most splendid view is beheld that the magnificent scenery of the Canadas affords. The boid eminence that enbcsoms Entrance Bay, the broken and wild shores opposite, beyond which are seen part of the flourishing scttlement, and the church of Hull, the verdant and picturesque islands between hoth banks, and the occasional canoes, barges and rafts plying the broad surface of the Grand River, or descending its tumultuous stream, are the immediate objects that command the notice of the beholder. In remote perspective the eye dwells upon a succession of varied and beautiful bridges, abutting upon precipitous and craggy rocks, and abrupt islands, between which the waters are urged with wonderful agitation and violence. Beyond them, and above this level, the glittering surface of the river is discovered in its descent through the broad and majestic rapid Des Chénes, unti! the waters are precipitated in immense volumes over the verge of the rock, forming the falls of the Great and Litile Chaudiere. From the abyss into which they are involved with terrific force, revolving columns of mist perpetually ascend in refulgent whiteness, and as they descend in spray beneath a glowing sunshine, frequently form a par- tial but bright iris, that seems triumphantly to over- arch a section of the bridge. The landscape cf the Union Bridges, although not taken exactly from this enchanting spot, may convey some idea of the scope and splendour of the prospect which we have al-
6 UNION BRIDGES.
tempted briefly to describe, and partly secure to it that admiration to which it is so richly entitled.”
In the present, one can imagine the past. The Islands near the union bridges, or on which, proper- ly speaking, they rest are now covered with factories —that of Eddy which are of universal illuminating power—his matches being the best which the world has seen—being the most important; the saw mills of Messrs. Perley and Pattee, of Capt Levi Young, and of Wright, Batson & Currier, of Bronson & Weston, and of A. H. Baldwin, which deserve and will receive more particular mention hereafter.
Now there is but one UNION bridge, the suspen- sion one, constructed and designed by that most able of Canadian engineers, Keefer in 1849, through which the boiling waters of the great Chaudiere kettle pass; but at the time when Colonel Bouchette wrote there were a truss bridge of 117 feet in length vy 80 in width; a small wooden bridge, over a deep chasm; a wooden bridge 160 feet long; a truss bridge 212 feet long and 30 feet wide; a wooden bridge 180 feet long, and two stone arches built of
-eut limestone. These latter still remain to connect
the provinces of Quebec and Ontario, and time will yet do more in obliterating all distinctions between the different provinces of the Dominion than a mere Suspension Bridge could reasonably be expected to effect.
Of the existing bridges in Colonel Boxuchette’s time, the topographer informs us, more particularly, that the chain consisted of four principal parts, two of which are truss bridges, overarching the chan-
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FIRST CHAUDIERE BRIDGE. 7
nels, unsupported by piers; a third is a straight wooden bridge across the lost channel; and a fourth built in dry stone, with two cut-limestone arches, and partly in wood. The truss bridge over the broadest channel is 212 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 35 or 40 feet above the surface of the stream. Its construction was attended with considerable diffi- culty, it being impossible to moor rafts in the chan- nel owing to the depth of the water and the extra- ordinary swiftness of the current, as it passes in whirling eddies from the foot of the Great Kettle. Another expedient was therefore resorted to, and a hempen bridge, consisting of four three-inch haw- sers or cables was swung across the river, forming an inverted segment, the lowest point of which stood about seven feet above the dark and swift stream; whilst its extremities were elevated up- wards of 82 feet abutting upon the perpendicular limestone walls of the channel. It admitted with safety of the passage of pedestrians, although the attempt, with the unpractised especially, was not made without some consciousnes of danger. We cannot, says the gallant Colonel, forbear asssociating with our recollections of this picturesque bridge, the heroism of a distinguished peeress, the Countess of Dalhousie, who, we believe, was the first lady who ventured across it.
The late Mr, Charles Pope, of the Board of Works Department, in his “ Incidents of Ottawa City” thus ainusingly describes the difficulties atten- dant upon the making of the first bridges at the Chaudiere :—
i |
8 LORD DALHOUSIE, COL, DUNFORD AND COL, BY-
“In the meantime, the first bridge over the Ot- tawa may occupy our attention, and the modus operandi will serve to recall to mind the persevering spider alluded to in history. It appears that until the autumn of 1827 the present capital was a wil- derness, when Lord Dalhousie, Colonel Dunford, Co‘onel By, and several other gentlemen, arrived at Hull for the purpose of deliberating on the proposed construction of the Rideau Canal. They assembled on a rock near the northerly end of the present Union Suspension Bridge, with the view of consider- ing the propriety of first constructing a bridge over the Ottawa, which would facilitate operations on the Canal. They then retired to the house of Squire Philemon Wright, and finally came to the conclusion to commence the bridge immediately. Two days afterwards operations were begun—car- penters, masons, and quarivy men being hired on the spot. The centres for the first arch nearest Hull were soon put up, and in a few weeks the rubble stone arch was completed; but on taking out the centres the whole arch gave way and fell. Nothing Jaunted, however, another attempt was made, and with the experience of the past, centres were built and the arch constructed in the same locality. The arch was composed of dry hammered stone, without mortar, and it remained perfect after the removal of the centres. The second arch was built by Phile- mon Wright and Sons, under contract: thus the workmen were enabled to commence building the bridge oyer the main channel—a very difficult task in those days.
In order to obtain communication with the op- posite bank, Captain Asterbrooks, of the Artillerv, took one of the brass cannon down to the. rocks, near where the end of the bridge would naturally be, so as to fire off a rope across the channel—240 teet wide—to Chaudiére Island, For the first trial a half sinch rope was used; but the force of the powder cut it. The experiment was repeated, but
a a ‘We eS
THREE MEN DROWNED. 9
with the same result. It was then suggested. by one of the workmen to try an inch rope, which was approved, and on its. being carried out was found successful ; fur it was landed a hundred feet on the island. Having secured it at both ends the work- men were enabled to haul over larger ones.
A trestle ten feet high was then erected on each side of the channel, and two ropes stretched across over the tops of these trestles, and fastened at each end to the rocks; the ropes were allowed to be slack in order to have greater strength
The next step was ‘o have a foot passage to allow the workmen to communicate with each other and with this object the ropes were placed four feet apart, and properly planked over. A rope hand-rail on each side, made the crossing perfectly easy. Chains were then placed across over trestles in a similar manner, and planked on the top, until the planking from each shore reached within ten feet of joining in the middle, when the chains broke and precipitated the workmen and tools into the channel. Three men were drowned, and the others swam ashore. This checked further progress for a short time. A scow, about one hundred feet long and thirty feet wide, was then built, and anchored to a point of rock where the bridge was to be locat- ed. Stronger trestles, made of heavy timber, were erected, and two eight-inch cables procured and laid across the channel over these trestles, and properly secured to the rocks at each end. Then the build- ing of a wooden bridge was comnmenced, in accord- ance with a plan approved by Colonel By. The work progressed very favorably, and with the as- sistance of screw-jacks, placed on the scow below it, was kept up to its proper level. In the course of the summer the bridge was brought nearly to com- pletion, when the prevalence of a gale caused the whole structure to turn over up stream, against the wind. The two cables, before mentioned, held it until they were chopped off with axes, notwith-
2
10 FIRST STEAMBOAT ON THE OTTAWA,
standing the great force of the current; and thus “the whole affair moved majestically down the stream” as far as the present entrance of the Rideau Canal. This caused, of course, another delay. It is related of Mr. Drummond, the chief workman, that he shed tears at this unlucky event.
The next move was to build another bridge on the same plan. On this occasion two large chains were employed, made of one and three quater inch round iron, in links of ten inches long, which were put over the trestles, and in the same place that the rope cables were removed from, having been se- cured like the former to the rocks on each side of the channel, The mode of constructing this work was similar to the preceding, save that the scow below was dispensed with, as the chains were suffi- ciently strong to support the whole fabric.
After a delay of some months, the bridge was finally completed, and stood the travel for about 12 years, when it, too, followed in the wake of its pre- decessors. The channel being once more left with- out a span, communication was had by means of ferriage until 1843, when the present magnificent structure was commenced, which is now an orna- ment to the capital.”
In 1819 the first steamboat plied upon the Otta- wa. She was named the “ Univn of the Ottawa ” and was, literally, a cribbed, cabined, and confined affair, so far as the comforts of passengers were concerned. Slow in speed, ugly im appearance, small in size, and with no deck berths, this steamer, nevertheless, formed an era in the history of the Ottawa settlements and contributed materially to their acceleration. Her success was such that she was speedily followed by another steamer, “ con- siderably larger and affording very superior accom- modations.” Since then what changes have taken
a i a a: z 13 :
STEAMER QUEEN VICTORIA. 11
place in the way of navigation between Grenville and the City of Ottawa, to which Hull, then the destination of steamers from Grenville, is now a mere tributary suburb? The steame~ Queen Victoria, speedy and most elegantly furnished, with spacious saloons, and state-rooms, and a most comfortable cabin, commanded by the able and gentlemanly Captain Bowie, takes the chief rank among the nu- merous passenger, freight, and towing steam-vessels with which the waters of the Grand River are now covered. The Indian and his canoe have long since disappeared on this part of the Ottawa River, if @ very occasioral exception be made of some party of Outtaowacts, coming to the City with moccassins or purses, decorated with beads, for sale; and long lines of barges, loaded with deals, have entirely su- perseded such rude “ships” as the Griffin of 60 tons, built under circumstances of much discouragement by M. de LaSalle, near the “ Streights of Lake Erie, during the winter and spring of 1679.” Indeed, the Ottawa country now offers one of the most promis- ing fields for colonization to be found in the Domin- ion; and is being rapidly settled. Forty-three years ago the total population on the northern shore of the Ottawa river, westward, from the west bounds of Argenteuil, did not exceed 5,369 inhabitants, a popu- lation of Irish and Americans, some English, more Scots, and a few families of French Canadians. Now the City of Ottawa alone, which is opposite to what a quarter of a century ago was styled, us if in irony, “ the flourishing town of Hull”, contains nearly 80,000 inhabitants, and the whole country around is
12 MR, PHILEMON WRIGHT, =
being rapidly improved by a thriving, energetic, and progressive class of farmers, with whom reap- ing-machines are in use, and all the latest agricul- tural improvements, if steamploughing only be ex- cepted.
Colonel By, to whom the construction of that “stupendous undertaking” the Rideay Canal was in- trusted, was indeed the founder of the town named after him, which was created a city and called Otta- wa in 1854, but the opening up of the Ottawa country is more particularly due to Mr. Philemon Wright, an American gentleman, born in Woburn, Massachusetts, but whose parents came from Kent, in England ; and to the Highland Chief McNab, than to the enterprising and talented officer of the Royal Engineers, under whose direction the canal, which connects Ottawa with Kingston, was completed.
Mr. Wright had resided in Massachusets for thirty-six years, pursuing the occupation of farming and grazing, before he thought of making Canada his home. Then, he tells us, (in 17 ) he came to Montreal in Canada, to explore the country being determined to change his residence into Canada, “having a large family to provide for.” He gives the following account of the first settlement of Hull, which, although in the province of Quebec, is so connected with the City of Ottawa by the manufac- tories of the Chaudiere as to be inseparable from it, before a Committee of the House of Assembly of Lower Canada, in December 1820 :
“ After spending some time in exploring the country, I returned to Woburn, the place of my birth, and in 1797, I came again to Canada, and
ergetic, m reap- agricul- y be ex-
of that Was in- named ad Otta- Ottawa 1ilemon Voburn, Kent, in b, than e Royal , which ted, sets for arming’ Canada ame to y being anada, e gives f Hull, , 1s so pnufac- rom it,
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MR, WRIGHT EXPLORES THE OTTAWA. 13
visited Quebec; I then viewed the country on both sides of the St. Lawrence, the whole of the distance from Quebec to the Grand [tiver, in the township of Hull, taking some time to explore and examine the country, but more particularly the parts bordering on both sides of the Ottawa, H also particularly ex- amined the said river, as respects navigating it, with the advantages and disadvantages attending a new settlement in that country. After spending some time in the above pursuit, I returned home to Wo- burn.”
“In the year 1798, I came again to obtain further information, as regards the local situation of the lands on the Ottawa, or Grand River; which having done, I returned to Massachusetts, with a determination to commence a settlement on its fer- tile banks. I endeavored to hire some axemen but covld not succeed, in consequence of the great dis- tance, having to go eighty miles beyond any settle- ments, as was the situation of the country bordering on the Ottawa at that time.”
“This part of the country has immense re- sources in fine timber, not only merchantable, but for makin.; ashes, sufficient to furnish great supplies for any foreign market, even to load a thousand ves- sels. This part of the country was unknown cr un- thought of to the inhabitants of Montreal, except the North West company, whose interest it appeared. to be to keep the said country in the then uninhabited state, and consequently not feeling a desire to re- commend a setilement in this part of Canada. However, not wishing to give up my intentions of establishing a settlement, [ hired two respectable men in Massachusetts, for the purpose of going with me to the Ottawa, and after haying viewed the country we returned home, and they made a report to the public nearly as follows :
“ That they had ascended the Ottawa, or Grand River, one hundred and twenty miles from Mon- treal; the first forty-five miles they found some
14 MR. WRIGHT'S MODE OF SURVEYING:
settlers, who appeared rather inactive, as far as re- lated to their farms, but little done to what, appar- ently, might be done, towards making themselves independent farmers. We, however, ascended the Ottawa, up the rapids, sixteen miles farther to the head of the Long Sault, continuing our course sixty- four miles farther up the river; from the head of the Long Sault to Hull the river is remarkably smooth, and tle water stil!, and sufficiently deep to float a sloop-of-war ; at the last mentioned place we pro- posed to explore the township back of the river; ac- cordingly we spe:.i twenty days, say from the Ist to the 20th October, 1799. I should think we climbed to the top of one hundred or more trees, to view the situation 6° the country, which we accomplished in the following manner: We cut smaller trees in such a manner as to fall slanting, and to lodge in the branches of those large trees, which we ascend- ed until we arrived at the top. By this means we were enabled to view the country, and. also the tim- ber, and by the timber we were enabled to judge of the nature of the soil, which we found to answer our expectations; and after having examined well the local situation of the township of Hull, we des- cended the river, and arrived, after much fatigue, :t Montreal, when we gave a generai description of our discoveries, and returned home to Massachu- setts, where, after a report was made public about the situation of this part of the country, I was en- abled to obtain and hire as many men as I wanted to commence a new settlement.”
“T immediately hired about twenty-five men, and brought them with my mill irons, axes, scythes, hoes, and all other kinds of tools I thought most use- ful: and necessary, including fourteen horses and eight oxen, seven sleighs and five families, together with a number of barrels of clear pork, destitute of bone, of my own raising, all of which left Woburn on the 2nd February, 1800, and arrived in Montreal onthe 10th. After a short stay in Montreal, we pro-
3 re-
par- lyves the » the ixty- f the 0th, at a pro- > ac- st to nbed y the od in 1S In re in cend- s we . tim- ge of swer well des- e, at on of achu- about s en- anted
men, \ thes, st Use- 5 and rether
te of pburn ntreal @ pro-
THE EXPEDITION FOR SETTLEMENT OF HULL. 15
ceeded on our route for the township of Hull, mak- ing generally, amongst the old settlements, about fifteen miles per day, for the first three days, owing to our horses and oxen travelling abreast, and our sleighs being wider than what is usual in this coan- try; under these difficulties we travelled the first three days, stopping with the inhabitants those three nights, until we got to the foot of the Long Sault, which was the end of any travelled road in Lower Canada. Being eighty miles from our destination, and no road, we found that it was impossible to pro- ceed in consequence of the depth of the snow, and were, therefore, obliged to make a stand, and set one part of our men to alter our teams, so as to go singly, and the other part of the men to go forward to cut the road. After making the necessary _pre- parations we proceedzd on to the head of the Long Nault, observing before night came on, to fix upon some spot near water to encamp for the night, par- ticularly observing that there were no dry trees to fall upon us or our cattle, and if there was to cut them down. Then we cleared away the snow and cut down trees for fire for the whole night, the women and children sleeping in covered sleighs, and the men with blankets round the fire and the cattle made fast to the standing trees. In this situation about thirty of us spent the night; and I must say that I never saw men more cheerful and happy in my life than they seemed to be—having no faaor to call upon us for our expenses, nor to complain of our extravagance, nor no dirty floor to sleep upon, but the sweet ground which belonged to our ancient sovereign,—observing to take our refreshments and prepare sufficient for the day. so as to lose no time on our journey when daylight appeared, always observ- ing to keep ovr axemen forward, cutting the road, and our foraging team next the axemen, and the families in the rear,, and, in this way, we proceeded on for three or four days, observing to look out for a good place for our camp, until we arrived at the
ee a aa een nan ere ee “ “€
ene
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ih 16 A USEFUL INDIAN.
i, head of the Long Sault.. From that place we i travelled the whole of the distance upon the ice, until we came to the intended spot, which is about = sixty-five miles. My guide that I had taken up with me the fall before, was quite unacquainted with the ice, and likewise, the whole of our party, as not one i of us had travelled up this ice before—our. three \ @ former journies had been by water. We travelled | up the ice very slow, as we were much intimidated by fear of losing our cattle, keeping our axemen for- wara trying every rod of ice, the ice being covered with snow about one foot thick, so that it was impos- sible to know whether the ice was good without
sounding it with the axe. “T cannot pass over this account without giving the particulars of a savage, so called, from whom [| a received the greatest humanity it is possikle to ex- a press. On our journey up the river on the first day we met a savage and his wife drawing a child upon a little bark sleigh : they looked at us in astonish- ment, at seeing our habit, manner, and custom, and | more especially at our cattle,—they viewed us as if ‘ we had dropped from the clouds,—they were so astonished walking round our teams, as we were then halted, and trying to make discourse with us concerning the ice, but not a word could we under- stand from him, we observed him point to the woods as if giving directions to his squaw to go into the woods and make herself comfortable ; she imme- diately <«ft him and went irto the woods, and he immediately went to the head of our company with- out the promise of fee or reward, with his small axe trying the ice at every step he ‘went, as if he had been the proper guide or owner of the property. We passed on until we found night coming.on, and the banks of the river being so high, say about twenty feet, and that it was impossible to ascend i them with our sleighs, we then left our sleighs upon | the ice and ascended the banks of the river, cleared | away the snow, cut down large trees as usual to
~ lead as before. Owing to t
TRAVELLING DIFFICULTIES, 1 ”
make a fire, carefully observing that no stooping or dead trees could fall upon us. After cooking our supper and getting our regular refreshments, we then brought up our bedding and spread round the fire, and made ourselves as comfortable as possible, navy- ing nothing over us but large trees and the canopy of the heavens. Before daylight in the morning we cooked our breakfast and provisions for the day, and as soon as daylight appeared, we weve ready to pro- ceed on our march. I must observe that our Indian behaved with uncommon civility during the night, taking his regular refreshments with us, and pro- ceeded to the head of the company, as he had done the preceding day, with uncommon agility.
“ All being under way as soon as daylight ap- peared, we proceeded on this day as usual, with- out meeting with any accident. When night was approaching we did the same as the night before, and, likewise, began our march early in the morn- ing in much the same Wee our Indian taking the
e deepness of the snow, it took us about six days in passing up this river, about sixty-four miles, and we arrived safe at the township Hull. After some trouble in cutting the brusn and banks, we ascended the heights which is about twenty feet from the water. Our savage after he had seen us safe up the bank, and spent the night with us, gave us to understand that he must return back to his squaw and child, and after receiving some presents for his great ser- vices, he took his departure for his squaw, havy- ing to go ait least sixty miles when he left us. Our men thanked him in the best manner they could make him understand, and he went away -n good spirits, being well pleased. We arrived at this place on the 7th of March, and, immediately, with the assistance of all hands, we felled the first tree, for every person that was able to use the axe endeavoured and assisted in cutting; after hay- ing so done, we commenced cutting down and 8
18 CUTTING DOWN TREES.
clearing a spot for the erection of a house, and we continued cutting, and clearing, and erecting other buildings for the accommodation of the families and men. And as we commenced cut- ting and clearing, the chiefs of two tribes of Indians that live at the Lake of Two Mountains, came to us, and viewed all our tools and materials with astonishment, and would often whoop and laugh, as they were quite unacquainted with tools, or things of that nature. They also viewed with astonishment the manner in which we harnessed our horses, and oxen &c., all being harnessed in pairs. They seemed to view all our things with great pleasure; some of them fetched their children to see the oxen and horses, they never haying seen a tame animal before, being brought up near the great lakes upon the westward; they would also ask the liberty of using one or two of our axes, to see how they could cut down a tree with them, as their axes are very small, weighing only half a pound, our axes weighing from four to five pounds. When they had cut down a tree, they would jump, whoop, huzza, being quite pleased with having cut down a tree so quick. They received a glass of rum each and returned to their sugar-making in the greatest harmony. They continued very friendly to pass backward and forward for about ten days, after receiving small presents, for which they made me returns of sugar, venison &c. Their chiets as- sembled together, and procured an English inter- preter of the name of George Brown, formerly ua clerk in the Indian Trade, who also had an Indian wife and family, and spoke both languages. They requested him to demand of me by what authority I was cutting down their wood, and taking possession of their land. To which I answered—by virtue of authority received at Quebec from their Great Father who lived on the other side of the water, and Sir John Johnson, who I knew was agent in the In-
2 eI TEE
INDIAN DEMANDS UPON MR. WRIGHT. 19
dian Department, for through him they received their yearly dues from Government.
“They could hardly suppose thvir Great Father or other persons at Quebec, would allow me to cut down their timber, and clear their land, and destroy their sugaries and hunting ground without consult- ing them, as they had been in the peaceable posses- sion of these lands for generations past. I must con- sider these falls and river convenient for them to carry on their business, and that their families wan- ted support as well as mine.”
“T told them that I had got regular documents from their Great Father, which I had received at Quebec, and also orders from Sir John Johnson so to do; and I had been to my country, being five hundred miles distant and brought all these men and materials, to carry the business into effect, and the documents I was ready to produce when regularly called for; and I had further to state to them, from the mouth of Sir John Johnson that if they injured me or my property, to go and make complaint to him, and I should have remuneration out of their yearly dues.”
“ They believed that had I stayed at home it would have been to their interest as they had great dependence upon that situation, it being the chief hunting ground, sugaries and fisheries, &c., which was the chief support of their families, and they were afraid of further difficulties that would arise between us, such as taking their beaver, destroying their deer, breaking up their sugaries, and causing a deal of trouble; that I must know that clearing: off the forest was driving back their game, which would totally dislodge them of the former expecta- cions.”
“T told them that they must be sensible that the tools and the materials which I had brought were not for hunting or fishing, but for the clearing of land, and I should endeavor to protect their beavers and fishing grounds, but as to their sugaries, them I
Se Ste
AEE ENE IN
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tr aa lac iseeimie ant neem canbertpetnna bboniinenpoetiasaee
90 THE TWO-MOUNTAIN INDIANS. oo?
must make use of, as the land was already given to me. I would observe further to them, that this es- tablishment would be a great convenience to them and was intended so by their Great Futher, to have a settlement and inills in order to supply them with all their provisions instead of going to Montreal, which they knew was a dangerous and difficult passage.”
“ They answered, we know the passage is very difficult and are surprised how you found the way here with all these men, baggage, and cattle. The white people always tell us fine stories to drive us back; you tell us that you come here for farming and that you will protect our beaver huts, fisheries &c., but as we know that you have gotguns, pow- der and shot—what are you going to do with them ?
“ We observed that all are our farmers, where we came from, keep guns, powder, and shot to protect our farms, such as killing hawks when they came upon our poultry, the squirrels that eat our grain in the fields, bears when they kill our hogs and calves, and wolves when they kill our sheep.”
“ They then said, that is all very good, if used for that purpose; but if you do as other white people have done, you will make use of your guns for killing our beavers, deer, otter, musk-rats and bears; we are afraid you will not be contented upon your own lands, but will go out at a distance to our ponds and take our beaver, and then our re- taliation, if we should come and-take your sheep and cattle, that will bring on difficulties and dis- putes, and that will not answer. You say that our Great Father is making this settlement for our good, but we are afraid it will be to our disadvantage, in- stead of doing us good.
“ T told them I had received strict directions to use them well, and I intended so to do; and if they would go to their sugaries, and collect all their ma- terials that they wished to part with, as they had
MOONSHINE. 91
finished making sugar, that I would pay cash for them at a fair price.
The Indians considering this proposal fair asked Five Pounds ($20) which was paid te them, and they offered to give up their lands for $30 more. To this latter demand for $30 Mr. Wright refused to concede. He denied the right of tic Indians to
. the land and aesired them to produce written titles.
This of course they could not do. The lands, they said, were theirs by inheritance and by right of possession, but Mr. Wright argued that they had re- linquished all right to territory by accepting pre- sents annually from the Government, which some- what staggered the Indians, who looked upon their presents as very trifling indeed. Mr. Wright, how- ever, promised to consult Sir John Johnson the In- dian agent, Mr. Lee, the Commissary of the Indian Department, and a Mr. Lukin a Notary Public in Montreal next moon. Mr. Wright according to pro- mise went on the very next moon to Montreal to consult with Sir John and Messrs. Lee and Lukin. The result was that the Indian claims were looked upon as mere moonshine, and the Indians, being so informed, created Mr. Wright a brother chief, crowned him, kissed him, dined him, buried the hatchet, and, as he tells us, be never was acquainted with a people “that more strictly regarded justice and equity, than those people have for those twenty years past.” -
Having so satisfactorily arranged matters, Mr, Wright, brother chief of the Two Mountain Indians, continued to cut down and clear a spot for the erec-
99 PROGRESS OF THE SETTLEMENT. is
_
tion of a house, and “continued cutting and clear- ing, and erecting other buildings, for the accommo- dation of families and men.”
Mr. Wright goes on to say in his interesting narrative :—
“As I had laid in a good sicck of hay and grain, which I gave freely to my cattle, I was sur- prised to find that they took to the woods, living upon browse, such as the buds of fallen timber, and the joint rush that stood through the snow, which was about seven inches deep. In this way the horses and oxen fitished out the spring, and I never saw working cattle in so good a condition in the month of June as they were, being in full flesh and in good spirits. Our grain was used by the men, thereby making to me an additional saving in pro- visions.”
“T was also much surprised to find the snow disappearing so very soon by thawing underneath, and, on examination, I found no frost in the ground ; being quite the reverse of Massachusetts, where there is from three to four feet frost in the ground m the spring, which prevents vegetation from coming forward so soon as if it were otherwise. The spring opened much earlier than I ever knew it in Massachusetts, which gave us all much encourage- ment, all the men being much pleased with the country in finding vegetation come forward so much easier than they were accustomed to see it: which gives life to the farmer, and is the support of agri- culture.”
During the whcie of March, April, and May, My. Wright continued to build, to cut down trees, and to put in a crop of vegetables and garden stuffs, He continued this until “ we began to burn our fal- lows (which is the timber felled in rows) for winter wheat, which ought to be put in the ground to ex-
are no~
DIFFICULTY OF COMMUNICATION, 93
pect a good crop.” Provisions at length fell short and with the view ofobtaining the means of subsist- ence until “our crops could be harvested,” Mr. Wright and his man set off for Montreal, by water. He says, “this retarded, in some measure, the ad- vancement of the settlement. Our only communi- cation was by water, and the navigation of the river, particularly the Long Sault, was entirely un- known to our men, and those who understood the manne” of going up and down the river could not he hired short of three dollars per day. The swift- ness of the water, and crooked channel, being in- terrupted with large rocks and reefs of stone pro- jecting into the river and the waters rising and fall- ing about fourteen feet in those rapids, owing to the north waters or spring freshets, being compelled to pass as near the shore as possible, to have the benefit of the tow-ropes, renders the navigation very difficult.”
“The year 1800 was spent in clearing lands, building, and raising vegetables and roots. Among the latter were about 1,000 bushels of potatoes, which I put into the ground (to keep them through the winter) so deep that I lost the whole of them by the rot, occasioned by the heat of the grouud. We prepared some land for the fall wheat, and sowed about seventy bushels upon seventy statute acres, and prepared about thirty acres for spring wheat and peas: also a great deal of time spent in going to Montreal for provision’. Seeing my people were going on well, as to provisions, houses, &c., I gave directions how to proceed until my return.”
Mr. Wright in the following year returned to his former home in Massachusetts, taking his men
I4 BARN-BUALDING. ~
back to Woburn in accordance with his agreement, and paid them off. The greater number of those men, however, went back to Canada in the winter of 1801-2, and, by an agreement with Mr. Wright, took lands—‘ they finding the lands much better in the Township of Hull than in the state of Massa- chusetts.” He goes on to say :—
“This spring finished our spring wheat: sewing in the month of March about thirty acres, I had, the second year of my clearing, one hundred acres of the best wheat I ever saw.”
Building a large barn, thirty-six feet by seventy- five, and eighteen posts, Mr. Wright found that this barn was not large enough to hold the whole of his wheat by seven stacks. The yield was over 3,000 bushels. From one measured acre threshed out upon the spot he had forty bushels of wheat. He next surveyed the township of Hull and placed 377 square posts, being a township of 82,429 acres. The survey was difficult, he tells us, owing to the river Gatineau running at an angular direction through the whole township, and not fordable at any place, known to his men, for fifty miles up. This survey cost him about £900.
He goes on to say :-—
“Tn the autumn, I secured all my crops. The crops exceeded every person’s expectations that was with me, or anything that we had ever seen or known in the latitude of 42 degrees, and all without the help of manure ; which was the more surprising to those who had been accustomed to go to Boston and obtain it at the price of $3 per load. After closing
our fall work I issued a notification that any person who understood farming and wished to obtain lands
F A SILVER MEDAL, 95
might be supplied on application to me, on the most advantageous terms; and I would lend them a cer- tain quantity of wheat, and other seed, until they could raise a sufficient quantity upon their own farms to repay me.”
The settlement soon commenced under these circumstances. Mr, Wright began to build mills, ana “more especially as the nearest mill to his set- tlement was distant 80 miles.” It cost him before he did so twice as much to get his grain ground as it did to raise it. Afterwards he expended £800 on the building and fitting up of a saw mill, and about £500 on other buildings, while he cleared about 100
acres of land, and laid down 100 acres in grass. He adds :
“ T also received a quantity of hemp seed from Commissary J. W. Clarke. I sowed it and it did ex- ceedingly well. I sent a bundle and gave it to the hemp committee, and it was deposited in the Com- mittee room. It measured fourteen feet long and was very fine. I raised eleven parts out of thirteen that was raised in the whole Province of Lower Canada; and according to a certificate that I receiv- ed from the Hemp Committee of Montreal, and another from the Commander-in-Chief, I sent two samples of seed with two bundles of the hemp, and the certificate to the Society of Arts, and received in return a silver medal.” Mr. Wright proceeds to state :
“ This is afine country for the growth of hemp; but the reason I did not continue to grow it on a large scale, was the expense of preparing it for mar- ket. My hemp peelers charged me $1 per day, or one bushel of wheat, labourers being very scarce in the township of Hull. I sowed nearly one hundred bushels of hemp seed, which I sold in Montreal at a fair price. I was obliged to send the hemp to Hali-
4
96 ESTABLISHMENT OF WORKSILOPS,
fax to find asale for it. I still continue to grow small quantities for my own use. I alse bought a hemp mill, which cost me £300, which mill was by accident, burnt, with two other mills. I lost by this accident about £1,000.”
In 1803 Mr. Wright had cleared 180 acres, and in 1804 commenced building a “ blacksinith’s shop.” It was large enough for four workmen, having four pairs of bellows, “worked by water,” and four forges. Next he established a “shoemaker’s shop,” a “tailor’s shop,’ and a large bakehouse, giving employment to a ‘great number of workmen.” Mr. Wright remarks:
“ Before I established these different branches, I was obliged to go to Montreal for every little article in iron work, or other things I stood in need of. Until I commenced these different branches in the township of Hull, the number of men under my employ was about seventy-five, employed in different mechanical businesses, trades, and agriculture; and I also commenced a tannery for tanning of leather upon a large scale; and I obtained from New York a cylinder for grinding bark, also by water; also cleared a quantity of land, commenced making roads and built several bridges.”
Mr, Wright had surely done -well in 1804. Next year he continued, clearing, planting, and mak- ing roads, and made a trip to Massachusetts where he procured e valuable stock of grass seed, and col- lected arrears »' debts due to him; and in 1806, after an. expenditu’ e of $20,000, he “thought proper to post and make up his accounts,” to see what he had ex- pended and how much the inhabitants owed him. He says:
“T had just returned from Montreal, having been down with flour; the expense of this journey
this same channel. Only s
TAKES TIMBER TO QUEBEC, x VQ o7
had consumed the whole value of it, as it was con- veyed upon sleighs drawn by oxen, and the roads bad. As I had now been six years in the township of Hull, and expended my capital, it was time for me to look out for an export market to cover my im-
‘ ports; no export market had been found as not a
stick of timber had been sent, from that place, down those dangerous Rapids. I then agreed to try to get some timber ready and try it, and accordingly I then set out to examine the Rapids quite down to the Isle of Montreal.”
Then, Mr. Wright informs us:
“The inhabitants, who uad been settled there nearly two hundred years, told me it was not possi- ble for me to get timber to Quebec by the route on the north side of the Isle of Montreal, as such a thin never had been done and never could be done. said I would not believe it until I had tried it. I prepared my rafts for the spring, and came from Hull down my new discovered channel for the Que-
bec market. From Hull we came down. all the Rapids of the Long Sault, to the Island of Montreal
and the river St. Lawrence. It was anew thing but a costly one to me. Being a total stranger to
‘navigating the Rapids, we were thirty-five days
getting down, as our rafts would often times run aground, and cause us a deal of labor to get them off again, and I had no person that was acquainted with the channel; but having, from experience, learnt the manner of coming down, we can. oftentimes come down them in twenty-four hours. However, after much fatigue and expense, we arrived at Que- bec with the first timber from that township that ever came to Quebec, and it can be brought a half- penny cheaper to Quebec than it can to Montreal. This was in the year 1807. Now, in the year 1828, upwards of three hundred common cargoes were brought to Quebec, and not one to Montreal, through
rentechn years back not
48
. * Tae ao eapertte ne Sh be: rare ak meena amen Ae a Op RA eR MER AEE me ger ee mm sb anne 2 pines oo er ER ae Bits a res . J ij pact Zatis ba eee ie meats = nr “ % sal *: ~
98 MILLS DESTROYED BY FIRE. one cargo of timber came from the Grand River, and whoever lives to see seventeen or eighteen years hence, will, no doubt, see four times that quantity, not only of timber, but potashes, and flour, beef, pork, and many other articles too numerous to men-
tion, brought from the same quarter to Quebec.”
Brave and far-seeing Crusoe of the Ottawa !
In the winter of 1808 Mr. Wright began to look out for employment for his “surplus man.” The surplus men he thus explains :
“In the snmmer we are obliged to employ a number of men, and in the winter ene quarter of that number is sufficient to carry on the business of the farm; and in order to find employment jor those additional or surplus men, I commence the lumber business, drawing and procuring timber for my mills and sawing them into planks and boards. If J had not given these men employment during the winter, it would have been impossible for me to obtain men in the spring when I most wanied them, as the dis- tance from my settlement was so great. UWnfortu- nately for me, on the 8th May, 1808, my mills were burnt, and not my mills only, but a large quantity of boards and planks, which were preparing for the Quebec market. [ had not a piece of hoard. for my use, without either chopping it with an axe, or obtaining it from a distance of eighty miles, except what was on my buildings. This loss was most severely felt, as it was very near destroying the set- tlement. There was no insurance effected on my mills. This loss, indeed, made me almost despair of ever recovering it, or doing’ any good upon the set- tlement, and I was about to quit it, but my sons wished me not to despair. It was also a great loss to the settlement, as the greater part of our corn was in the mill and burnt, with the exception of seven bushels of flour, w hick, were taken from the mill the night before; and to See the distress that was occa-
ee
MR, WRIGHT RENTS WOOD-LAND. 99
sioned by this accident was most affecting. The square timber lying afloat was saved, and with it I came to Quebec, and returned as soon as possible, and commenced a new saw mill. I set all hands to work I could obtain, and finished the mill in sixt days. After so doing I commenced a grist mill, which I also finished in the fall of the year. During this period I was obliged to obtain provisions from Montreal.”
The following year was spent in much the same manner, the clearances being increased, and eighty men being employed in “the mechanical branches,” the farm, and in preparingtimber for the Quebec market.
Three years later Mr. Wright “let” one hun- dred acres of wood-lands to be cleared and brand- ed, and the soil to be made fit for the harrow, for the price of £4 per acre. He also built a house in the centre for workmen. He paid £25 for ashes and £50 for having it well harrawed, the whole amounting to £500, which was finished and sown that September with wheat, and fenced round. Ninety men were employed in exporting timber to Quebec and on the different farms.
In 1813 he made a road from the saw mill to the last mentioned house, which he had built, dis- tant about one anda half miles and built a large bary 49x70, eighteen posts, covered in, and complete for receiving his wheat, employing 20 additional men in harvesting, reaping, carting &c. He got his wheat in “ well and in good order.” Then:—
“T also made an addition to this farm, by clear-
“ite about ninety acres for the next yeor’s crop of
“wheat, with-my own men labourers; and during
30 BUILDS A DISTILLERY.
the winter we threshed out our wheat, and paid the laborers six shillings for every ten bushels for threshing which they cleaned and bringeth to the grist mill. At the iinishing of threshing this wheat, we measured 3000.bushels, These 3000 bushels cost me $2000, for which I was offered $9000, three dol- lars per bushel being at that time the common price on account of the war. I must say it was the most advantageous uncertaking I ever engaged in since I commenced the settlement.”
“ Having a clean profit of 7000 dollars, I contin- ued to extend upon the farm.”
“JT then commenced building sheds adjoining
the same barn, upon the same farm, 100 feet west, 200 feet south, 208 feet east, and 100 feet to the barn,
‘making in’ the whole 100 feet of shed. The sheds
are 18 feet in width on the west, and on the south 36 feet, and upon the north and east they ai>1f * >t wide, 18 feet high on the east side in fron: 4; on square by 12 in the rear, with racks and mangers, the whole of the distance round bound with iron; the yard also is fenced. across for different herds of cattle, well clap-boarded and painted. Upon the outside, in this way, I keep my ccctle, giving every
‘kind a fair chaneéé to the air.”
“T likewise built a large distillery (40 by 80) with every article necessary for the establishment, with a shed of 500 feet, and troughs to receive the wash, for the benefit of the cattle and hogs.”
Mr. Wright continues to make improvements. He had sold 100 acres of wood land, adjoining his own farm in 1804 for 10 shillings an acre. in 1844 he re-obtained possession of these same acres, of which. sixty had been cleared by the person who had lived on it for ten years, and who had also placed some buildings on them, for £5 per acre. In ade dition to this purchase he cleared 120 acres, seeded
STUMP EXTRACTION. 81
down about’ the same quantity with red clover, white clover and timothy, sowing about a quart of each kind to the acre.
“T, this year,” Mr. Wright says, ‘employed abou’, twenty men upon this farm. They were employed mostly in clearing of land and building of fences, and also sowing the fallows with fall wheat.
“JT also made a new road through the centre of
this farm, and we arranged the farm-into different
sections, or pastures, for the accommodation of mowing, tillage, and pasturing, and also put upon this farm an additional number of cows, so as to make the number up to forty; besides thirty yoke of oxen, old and young, twenty working horses, besides breeding mares, sheep, goats, and swine.
“This farm up to the present day contains ubout 300 acres of cleared land, divided into differ- ent divisions, for the accommodation of the different kinds of cattle. I also built in addition to the for- mer buildings, six barns upon this farm, to stow the en and corn, besides having a number of large hay- ricks,
“ For some years- past, I have made it.a rule to raise from thirty to forty calves upon this farm, besides colts, lambs, pigs &c. I have in general about thirty old pigs, and double that number of young ones, besides. fifty breeding sheep.”
Mr. Wright gives the following information concerning’ stump-extraction :
‘“In.1815 I employed some men in taking out the small stumps and. roots, and levelling of the rough- est places, as the roots began to decay, according to the size of the stumps. Beech and rock maple stumps are much more easily taken out after the seventh year; pine, elm, basswood, and hemlock are less liable B rot, and therefore require about fifteen years before they can be taken out, especially those of the largest size. Hyery season I set apart a
Py
bi a it HA Ae
asic ae
$2 BUILDIN 3 OF WRIGHTVILLE
certain number of days, and take from two to six pair of oxen, harnessed with strong chains, which are fastened round the stumps and drawn up, col- lected together into piles and burnt upon the ground, and level the vlaces from which they are drawn. This work is generally done on our mowing or till- age ground ; but those of the larger kind we omit until a future time, as every year we are obliged to spend some time opening of ditches for draining the land, and also being very particular, upon the first fall of snow, to sow my grain seed upon the lands intended for mowing or pasturage, and also to have a quantity of woodland underbrushed, and the underbrush piled for the better accommodation of cutting our fire- wood, so as to have easy access for ‘be wood, if the snow should happen to be deep.
is land in the spring is then burnt, and sown with w. | or other seeds, which is a great saving to the farm...”
Up to 1824 this really remarkable man had in twenty-four years cleared 3,000 acres, and in that year was the owner of four large farms, made an- nually 1100 tons of hay, had 756 acres in grain and roots, wit stock and pasturage in proportion, while his buildings were valued at £18,257 and the sum total of farms, stock and buildings at £57,068 15s. He had even done more than this. He had opened roads for a distance of 120 miles through the lower townships, along the river shore to Montreal, and had Lnilt the village of Wright (now the Town of Hull) pleasantly situated on the south east angle of the township, containing a handsome church with a steeple 120 feet high, a comfortgble hotel, and several other public edifices. In 1828 the popula- tion consisted almost entirely of Americans and
DEATH OF MR. WRIGHT. 83
amounted to 1066. Hull had then 8 schools, 2 tanner- ies, 12 lime-kilns, 4 saw mills, 2 distilleries, and other manufactories to correspond. Now the popu- lation is chiefly French Canadians, although the ruiing spirits are Americans (former residents of the United States, rather) or their descendants, and there are two Roman Catholic churches, the old one of red-painted wood, the fine new edifice de- signed by Latour, one church of the Church of Eng- land, and a Meeting-House it may be for Hunkers, Tunkers, Shaking-Quakers. or some other minor denomination, slightly dissentient in its orthodoxy from that of the ordinarily recognized denomina- tions, into which Protestantism in this progressive cowntry is more particularly divided. The popula- tion is about 5,000; there being 1,000 houses, large steam factories, and all the trades necessary for a thriving community.
Mr. Wright is buried in the little cemetery situated on the road leading to Aylmer, to the west- ward of the town which he founded, having lied at a very advanced age, leaving behind him as happy a memory as that of the Patriarch Job, who had 14,000 sheep and 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 she-asses; having also seven sons and three daughters, when, at the age of 140 years the good old man, being full of days, died and was buried.
The family of Mr. Philemon Wright was large, equal, possibly to that of Job, and have all attained positions of eminence, one grandson being a member
5
84 THE McNABS,
of the House of Commons of the Dominion, another, distinguished alike for his eloquence and learning, and others, inheriting the enterprize of their grand. father, are engaged in farming, lumbering, and manulacturing; acquiring wealth for themselves, and enabling others to acquire it,
Another Ottawa pioneer was ‘“ The McNab,” a very different stvle of man from the late gallant lord of Dundurn castle, near Hamilton—Sir Allan McNab—an active politician, who, on one occasion, facetiously styled himself “The other MeNab.” “ High up, says Bouchette, on the bold and abrupt shore of the broad and picturesque lake of the Chats the Highland chief McNab has selected a romantic residence, Kinell Lodge, which he has suceeeded through the most unshaken perseverance, in render- ing exceedingly comfortable.” The McNab brought with him g.eat numbers of his clan to his settle- ment at the Chats, at much trouble and expense. They had, of course many difficulties to contend with, and were not so successful in their efforts as the followers of Mr. Wright, accustomed to the axe and to forest life. The highlanders, unaccustomed to much labor in their native heather, transferred from one wilderness, as it were, to another, were less likely to settle down into successful cultivators of the soil than men, who in early life had not those peculiar feelings which essentially belong to the highland character, and are only got rid of by asso- ciation with men accustomed to the plough, the hammer, or the plane from their youth up. Neverthe- less, with the splendid energy which distinguishes
A HIGHLAND WELCOME. 85
the highlander of Scotland, in war and peace, the clan McNab in America did at length make progress and are: .w a happy and thriving colony. Bou- chett<, in a note, thus speaks of his visit to Kinell Lodge: ‘‘ We cannot pass over in silence the char- acteristic hospitality that distinguished our recep- tion by the gallant chief, when, in 1828, we were returning down the Ottawa, after having explored its rapids and lakes, as far as Grand Calumet. To voyageurs in the remote wilds of Canada, neces- sarily strangers, for the time, to the sweets of civili- zation, the unexpected comforts of a well furnished board, and the cordiality of a Highland welcome fell upon the soul like dew upon the flower. “ The sun was just resigning to the moon the empire of the skies,’ when we took our leave of the noble chieftain to descend the formidable rapids of the Chats. As we glided from the foot of the bold bank, the gay plaid and cap of the no}le Gael were seen waving on the proud eminence, and the shrill notes of the piper filled the air with their wild cadences. They died away as we approached the head of the rapids. Our caps were flourished, and the flags, (for our canoe was decorated with them) waved in adieu, and we entered the vortex of the swilt and whirling stream.”
Since then there have been other men who have contributed to the wealth of Ottawa. The Egans, the Gilmours, the Aumonds, the Bells, the Reynolds, the Cassels, the Skeads, and _ the Powells, since By, in 1826, laid the foundation. stone of the political metropolis of this vast Dori-
al ee Oe, ea nk eaehe deena came 7
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aa Zp Seg smth — _ as ooo Ee ae roy ig
88 SIR JOHN FRANKLIN.
nion, gave the District a power in the political world by their wealth, enterprize, and influence, which has gone far towards making the city of Ottawa what she is this day—more even that the enterprize of the Chaudiére-men, all-powerful and highly com- mendatory, in one sense, as it is. With the excep- tion of a Currier and a Wright these latter wielded little political influence and, indeed, were too much occupied by purely business concerns to dabble in politics theinselves, and were, on the whole, perhaps, indifferent, if not careless, as to forms of govern- ment or the men who governed, believing that that form of government which is best administered is best, and unwilling to interfere with those who, very judiciously, did not interfere with them.
“Few persons could have believed,” says the late Mr. Charles Pope, in his ‘Incidents of Ottawa City,’ that the present capital could have been so favored asit has been. When the question ‘of placing the seat of Government at Ottawa was ‘irst brought up in Parliament, the spectators in the gal- lery will remember the speech of a Canadian states- man, who said: “I tell you candidly, gentlemen, you might as well send the seat of Government to La- brador.” Yet, strange to say, there were not want- ing those who, as far back as 1827, predicted that it would be what it is to-day. Sir John Franklin and Colonel By were the prognosticators. The former gentleman declared it on the occasion of laying the foundation stone of the locks of the Rideau canal: the remark was called forth from the latter by a Mr. Burke insisting on getting more land than the Colo- nel was disposed to give him, “Sir,” said the Colonel, “this land will be very valuable some day: it will be the capital of Canada.”
The Colonel fully believed in what he said.
‘ aa rs > 2
LOUIS JOSEPH PAPINEAU, ‘ 87
The By estate in the city of Ottawa is by no means insignificant and the sparks of his eloquence have otherwise taken effect there, and will not for genera- tions hence, it is sincerely to be hoped, be extin- guished by any system of water-works, which the Corporation, in its wisdom, sometime within the next fifty years, may devise and carry successfully to completion.
There was still another individual who dwelt upon the Ottawa, without being however an Ottawa politician, whom we cannot omit to mention. Born to sway senates and to rule mobs, an autocrat rather than an aristocrat, but with a lordly feeling ever swelling in his breast, he, who, for years, had
4 controlled the parliaments of Lower Canada, been | driven into exile and had yeturned hither again,— unchanged, unchanging, and unchangeable—the Honorable Louis Joseph Papineau held in _ pos- session the ample seignory of La Petite Nation situa- ted between the augmentation of Grenville and the ‘, gore of Lochaber, where the village of Papineauville now stands, from youth to age. It was he, who declared that the.conquest of Canada by Great Britain had given freedom to his countrymen. It was he who, being speaker of the House of Assembly of Lower Canada, thwarted every Governor who at- tempted to rule so as to make British rule almost impossible. It was he who urged upon the late Mr. Justice Morin the celebrated series of resolu- tions which paved the way for responsible govern- ment. It was he who, while acknowledging British justice, excited in his countrymen « fe+ling of in-
38 WILLIAM LYON MACKENZIE.
justice sustained at the hands of Great Britain, It was he, who wore the éfoffe du pays himself and ad- vised its being worn by others, not to encourage home manufactures but to reduce the imports into Canada from the United Kingdom. It was he, who having led others into rebellion, fearing the conse- quences for himself fled to France, and after re- maining there for a number of years returned to Canada, receiving $16,000 from the country as ar- rears of salary as Speaker of the Lower Canada House of Assembly. It was he, who being again returned to the “Reformed Parliament,” modified by Baldwin & Lafontaine, and recognized by Cartier, anathematized Responsible Government, in 1852, as little better than a sham, and, like William Lyon Mackenzie, unable to divest himself of previous feel- ings or to get rid of former reminiscences, at last re- linquished all share in the politics of the country to others and became a spectator of a progress and of changes, which he found it impossible to retard. That Louis Joseph Papineau settled himself down quietly at the seignory of La Petite Nation to watch events. Three years ago we saw him there. He was hale, hearty, and communicative. He remem- bered well his old opponent the late Robert Christie Esquire, and repeatedly member for Gaspé and the historian of Canada. He took an interest in all that was going on, and from the banks of the Ottawa, surveyed the changes that were taking place around. He revelled in books. A tower of four or five stories high held a mass of information which a life-time longer than his, could scarcely enable any one to
THE DEMOSTHENES OF CANADA, 89
digest. His mansion was a French chateau. There were chapels and servants’ residences on his grounds which are undu'ating and tastefully laid out. Walks meandered through green parterres and pri- meval forest. There was a rivulet and there was a deer-park in the vicinity. The peacock screamed, the fowls cackled, the cattle lowed, and all was peace, where, retired from men and the ordinary cares of man, the Honorable Louis Joseph Papineau was yet, until his 85th year, permitted to view hu- man progress in a country which he had governed if not ruled, and to which he had drawn particula,- ly European attention more than any person pre, viously had ever done.
A few hours in the steamer Queen Victoria will suffice to bring the traveller to the former residence of Louis Joseph Papineau—the Demosthenes of Canada—on the banks of the Grand River, where he died in September last.
te i a i ’ ib : ;
i | tp if ' | i t
mae
OHAPTER II.
Natural Wealth of the Ottawa~—The Gatineau—Ironside—The Gilmours— The Rideau Canal—Cost of the Canal—Looking to Washington—The Old Soldier in the Backwoods—Duke of Richmond—State of Soctety in Ottawa,
There js no part of Canada in which the actual means of wealth are so abundant as in the imme- diate neighborhood of Ottawa City. The water- power for manufacturing purposes could not pos- sibly be exceeded. Rivers stretch for hundreds of miles northward and southward, meeting the Grand, or Ottawa river in the very harbor, as it were; a canal intersects the city, to be y~t lined with streets for miles along its banks; fin wries of marble, Trenton limestone, and sandstone, supe- rior to that known as the Ohio, the Gatineau granite, and the lead and iron mines or beds in close prox- imity, offer inducements to the capitalist greater than mines of gold or silver possibly could do. There is yet timber to be cut down; land to be im- proved ; and new modes of ingress and egress ne being yearly projected. For the further develop- ment of unparalleled resources, money alone is needed, and, as the city rises in wealth and popula- tion, that money assuredly will come. The naviga- tion of the river will still further be improved ; the
difficulties of the Chaudiére Falls must eventually 40
oS. ea eee
THE GATINEAU. 41
be overcome ; and the long-talked-of communication of the head waters of the Grand River with Lake Huron be established, while a Central railroad, run- ning along the Ottawa Valley and tapping, it may be, the inland waters behind the towns of Peterboro and Lindsay ‘vill bring her more immediately in connection, by land, with the great riches of the fer- tile far off west.
Speaking of the Gatineau, Mr. M‘Taggart, Civil Engineer, in the British service, who explored a considerable portion of this remarkable route, long before the Gilmours had opened up their vast lum- bering establishments upon it, thirty years ago, says that it embraces ‘“ an area of 25,000 square miles, perfectly distinct from all lands of location, ranging between the 46° and 48° of north latitude, and may average about 300 feet .bove the level of the ocean. It is covered with a dense wilderness of trees, gen- erally of the hard wood kind, oak, beech, maple, butternut, &c., which are of the very best quality.”
Bouchette says :—‘ Our ignorance of this river is partly explained by the common report of its course, because for upwards of one hundred mus before it joins the Ottawa it flows parallel with, and but ata short distance from it, so that no Indian traders have found it worth their while to make establishments on it. This river has been wholly unfrequented by the lumber dealer, on account of the great rapids and falls near its mouth, at one spot said to be 100 feet perpendicular. It is supposed that the Gatineau will present one of the finest pieces of river naviga- tion in Canada after passing the heights of it near its mouth. The variety of minerals known to lie on the banks of this river renders it an object of still higher interest.” !
49 TRONSIDEA
Now there are lumbering establishments and iron-works of vast magnitude on its banks, the Messrs Gilmour having with characteristic energy placed saw mills on it at the beautiful town of Chel- sea, nine miles from its junciion with the river Otta- wa. They are on the south bank of the Ottawa, above the Falls, and booms stretch far above and below them to catch logs and to float down square timber to where it can be conveniently rafted for the Quebec market; and at Ironside a small village. completely destroyed by forest fires last summer, | forges have been established and smelting carried tr ie on with great energy, so that it cannot now be said i that this river is “wholly unfrequented.” These an are, indeed, immense establishments, $300,000 being ¥ paid annually for wages.
On the City of Ottawa side of the Grand River the country is equally good in an agricultural point of view, but the Rideau brings down no great rafts, nor are the establishmenis on its banks at all equal in magnitude to those of the Gatineau. Still there are brickyards, flour mills, woollen factories and e. saw mills along its banks and the banks even of the 5 ; canal, while a richly cultivated cleared country pro- ui | duces breadstuffs and root crops in more than abun- | dance for the use of the inhabitants of the metropolis.
Indeed it may be said the temptation to lumbering f being less on the south than on the north shore of the Ottawa river in the immediate neighbourhood of Bytown has conduced to the better clearing of the land as the farmers, have shown prudence by themselves avoiding the lumber business, and by
THE GILMOURS,
48
contenting themselves with « home market for the sale of the produce of their farms at generally double the Montreal price to the lumber trader. Pickens in 1836 says :—‘ Although the lumber trade ruined other parts of the country, it benefited the farmers of the Ottawa district, as it was generally people from other parts that carried on that business there, and had to depend upon inhabitants of this division for their supplies of provisions and forage.” One of the Gilmours, (Allan Gilmour, Esquire) it may be remarked, has long dwelt in the City of Ot- tawa, personally superintending and directing the operations of the firm, who have not confined them: selves to mere lumbering, but have no less than nine farms of about 1500 acres, from which they derive their own supplies.
Let us examine the country along the banks of the Rideau Canal, the immediate back ground of the city, first beginning withthe Canal. It commences at Kingston, and, in the words of Bouchette, traver- sing the tract of country lying between the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa, strikes the latter river at the foot of the Falls of the Chaudiere, and a short distance above those of the Rideau, situated at the mouth of that river. It is one hundred and thirty- five miles long, and perfectly unique of its kind in America, and, probably, in the world, being mad¢ up, in its whole length, of a chain of lakes, dams, and aqueducts, so connected by locks of large dimensions as to open a steamboat navigation from Ontario to the Ottawa river. Rideau Lake which
44 THE RIDEAU CANAL,
is about twenty-four miles long, and six broad on an average, is the grand summit level of the canal; it is 288 feet above the waters of the Ottawa on one side, and 154 above the surface of Lake Ontario, on the other, requiring, in the rise and fall a total num- ber of forty-seven locks, seventeen of which are on the Kingston side, and thirty-seven between Rideau Lake and the Ottawa. These locks were originally planned upon a scale to correspond with those of the Lachine canal, 7. e. 100 feet by 20; (the St. Lax. rence Oanal superseded in 1840) but these dimensions were subsequently increased to 142 feet in length, by 388 in width, the depth of water being 5 feet. There are twenty dams on the whole route, con- structed with remarkable solidity and skill, which, by the reflux of the waters they produce, have stringely altered the natural appearances of the country. In several instances, adam not more than twenty-four feet high, and one hundred and eighty- four feet wide, will throw the rapids and rivers into a still sheet above it for a distance of more than twenty miles. The dams also back the waters up creeks, ravines, and valleys; and, instead of making one canal, they form numerous canals of various ramifi- cations, which will all tend greatly to the improve- ment of a very fertile country. The land drowned by the raising of the dams is not worth mentioning, consisting chiefly of swampy waters, the haunts of otters and beavers, according to McTaggart, the able engineer, who was actively employed in maxing the surveys and taking the levels on the whole line of
ee A ee Se
GOST OF THE CANAT,
45
the canal, as stated in his work, intituled “ Three Years in Canada.” The principal works on the whole line are situated at the following places: Entrance Bay, Dow’s Great Swamp, Hogsback, Black Rapids, Long Island, Burritt’s Rapids, Nicholson’s Rapids, Clowe’s Quarry, Merrick’s Rapids, Maitland’s Rapids, Mdmond’s Rapids, Phillip’s Bay, Old Ply’s Rapids, Smith’s Falls, First Rapids, The Narrows The Two Isthmuses, Davis’ Rapids, Jones’ Falls, Cranberry Marsh,.and Round Tail, Brewer’s Upper and Lower Mills, Jack’s and Billydoxe’s Rifts, and
- Kingston Mills.
This great work cost England upwards of half a million sterling, and for many years after its com- pletion, being considered a military work, the lock- masters were all discharged sergeants of the Royal
Engineers or Royal Artillery, but, in 1854, it was
transferred to the Government of Canada, and now
forms one of the chains of canal maintained and
kept up hy the Dominion Government, purely for
commercial purposes, °|'! h as much as eyer
available for military pi n the event of v Bouchette says:
“There can be little doubt that \ hen the hole line of canal from Kingston to Montreal is eomp!et and it is now nearly so, the great thorough!
Canades will te transferred from the fron the Rideau route, until a canal shall have been opened along the St. Lawrence.”
The latter contingency has long since « ed, and the Grand Trunk Railroad sweeps, o: will shortly do so, the face of the Great Lakes and the
46 LOOKING TO WASHINGTON,
banks of the St. Lawrence, from Michigan to Gaspe, and from Gaspe to Halifax; but the com- merce of Ottawa is also being improved by inter- secting lines of railway, the Cttawa and the St. Lawrence and the Canada Central railway from the Chaudiere to Brockville—and the construction of the North Shore road, together with the demands of the city will create a commerce in the future scarcely even dreamt of by the talented and farseeing Bouchette.
One of the weakest points in Canada, in a mili- tary sense, is that in which the territory of the United States, a little above Ogdensburg down to Pigeon Hill, running past Hemmingford, lies con- tivuous to the British American Dominions. it, indeed, caused. considerable annoyance to the Im- perial authorities when they ascertained that roads had been opened from the frontier through Hem- mingford. The Horse Guards had determined to keep that part of Canada in the position of a wilder- ness as long as possible, so that the forest might be made a barrier of defence for Montreal, never sus- pecting that railroads would come into operation to annihilate distance, and make the transport of men and materials of war, to any selected point of attack, a matter of certainty and a thing easy of accomplish- ment, and, halfa century ago, were naturally enough, annoyed to find that the eastern townships’ people were beginning to look to Boston, New York, and Washington as markets for their supplies.
The military officers who came to Canada to
pe Te ree te ee
THE OLD SOLDIER IN THE BACKWOODS.
47
rule, always kept in view the defence of the country and frequently, with this end, they visited Upper Canada. One of their great aims was to establish military settlements. In spite of everything that could be done to prevent it, citizens of the United States, whether United Empire Loyalists or not, came and settled in English speaking Canada, and not a few ventured to “locate” themselves‘in Bas Canada, They were not bad settlers by any means. They cleared the forest, built saw-mills, kept taverns, and developed all the resources within their reach, but to the military man they were not pleasant to look upon. He could not bear to hear the words “guess,” “kalkilate,” “reckon,” “heow,” “critter,” and “tarnation,’ whatever virtues such people might pos- sass. To martial ears these were, indeed, unmusical, and possibly harsh sounds, and the probable influence of such settlers in particular localities was sought to be counteracted by military setilemenis. With this view humerous grants were made to deserving old soldiers in the interior of the country between King- ston and Brockville, and the Ottawa river. These men, on the whole, succeeded well. Far removed from the temptations which too frequently led astray men who have been accustome. to military life, the old soldier in the back woods of Canada has been the means of making the wilderness blossom as the rose, to as great an extent as any other class of settlers.
In the summer of 181) the Duke of Richmond, being Governor (Greneral of Canada, went on a visit to his son-in-law, Sir Peregrin Maitland, the Lieu-
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UKE OF RICHMOND. 48 D M
tenant-Governor of Upper Cenada. The Duke was a Governor by profession. In early life he had in- dulged in those excesses to which men of fortune are prone. He had been seduced into horse-racing He had played rouge ef noir at Baden. He had been bilked at the Derby and on the continent, and his private fortune was at a low ebb. But he had nevertheless, the spirit, the feelings, and the man- ners of a British nobleman, and notwithstanding his dissipations, or perhaps, on account of them, he was held in a certain amount of esteem by those who had the opportunity of coming into contact with him. He was not, however, popular as a Governor in Canada. Garneau says of him :—‘ he was one of the greatest of British notables, a personage who had governed Ireland tant bien que mal, and who was fain to pass from one vice-regal charge to another, to amend his fortune, which had been much impaired by dissipation and extravagance.” Well, this nobleman, having been on a visit to the Lieutenant-Governor at “ Little York,’ on his re- turn tv Quebec, thought he would take a run towards the Ottawa and view the military settle- ments, and contemplated military works there. With this view, one fine morning on the 26th of August he turned off at Brockville to see the settlement in rear, intending to go home by the river Ottawa. He was accompanied by a fatigue party to act as canoe- men, a guide, and the officers of his suite. At the start he was seemingly in the enjoyment of excel- lent health, and aithough not a young man, his step was buoyant and clastic. All went well, indeed,
POR EEA Tre basen
[OOS acevo uggs
DEATH OF DUKE OF RICHMOND,
49 until the party reached Chapman’s Tavern, on the spot where the village of Richmond now stands. Then the Duke became very ill. He had sudden starts, disordered vision, convulsive movements of the limbs, and severe pains in the stomach. There was ample accommodation for the sufferer in Mr. Ohapman’s house, but His Grace having heard that Mr. Chapman was a Yankee, refused to be taken inside, and was with difficulty prevailed upon to allow himself to be carried into Mr. Ghapman’s barn. However, he received every possible atten- tion but his malady increased, and after a few hours of excruciating suffering, the Duke of Richmond was no more. This distressing occurrence has been attributed to hydrophobia arising from the bite of a fox, and the deceased nobleman was buried with great pomp and ceremony on the 4th of September following, in the Protestant Cathedral at Quebec.
The land on the Upper Canada side of the Ottawa River is, on the whole, of good quality. Some of the front settlements are rough, stony, and gravelly, some poor and of alternate sand and clay, some light and sandy but well watered, Gloucester township having two fronts, one on the Ottawa and the other on the Rideau has in rear a clayey, and on the Rideau front a gravelly soil, while Osgoode, fronting on the east side of the Rideau River has a soil described as rich, black, and gravelly.
The farmers soon became comfortable, and the village, or as it was called, the town of Bytown, grew in wealth with the advancement of the sur- 7
50 STATE OF SOCIETY,
rounding country. The stores were ample for the wants of the community, They contained every- thing which a family needed; the grosser woollen fabrics, coarse linens, strong cottons, heavy-boots, teas, sugars, molasses, needles and thread, wax and thimbles, hoes and pickaxes, spades and rakes, shovels and dog-irons. The shops were indeed stores of everything great and small trom a needle to an anchor. There were smithies, or blacksmiths’ forges, cobblers’ shops, flour and feed shops, taverns and livery stables; but the haberdasher or the iron- monger, the merchant tailor or the perfumer, the fancy goods shop or Vienna warehouse, the grocer and Italian warehouseman, nor the wine-merchant had not established themselves. There were few churches and fewer schools. There were no danc- ing masters and no gymnasts. The people were rude and unlettered, and the rising generation were even worse than their fathers, who had had, at least, the beuefit, in early youth, of being brought up under the influence of an advanced civilisation. Necessarily, the young men growing up in the vil- lage of Bytown, who could not be sent off to Mon- treal, Quebec, or New York for the means of educa- tion, became roughs. They were being brought up, or rather, were growing up, as it were, beyond the influences of civilisation, and their manners were such as might be expected from such training. They
had little respect for the fifth commandment. They ° anathematized horribly, and lewd ideas suggested.
beastly language. The farmers’ sons were contami- nated by ‘“ the Shiners,” and “ the Shiners ” were
SL OEE
ESE Oe
STATE OF SOCINTY, 51
not improved by young men, whose knowledge scarcely extended to the ten commandments, and whose fear of the law was only excited by the pre- sence of an itinerant magistrate, while the abuse of justice by some political charlatan combining the office of store-keeper and justice of the peace became simply a matter of ridicule. The ministers of reli- gion, when they appeared, were objects of aversion rather than of respect. Horse-racingss took place on the sabbath. The mob estimated crime and punish- ed it. One fellow cut off the ears of his neighbour’s horse or shaved its tail. A mob cut off the scound- rel’s own ears or threw him violently over the Sap- pers’ Bridge. Political feeling, so late as twenty years ago, “ran high” uncontrolled by moral princi- ple. Reliyionists were intolerant of each other. Roman Catholic was arrayed against Protestant and Protestant against Roman Catholic. The two creeds, setting aside the precepts of that religion, the cause of which each pretended to espouse, came frequently into contact. There were fights as between the different tribes of Israel in David’s time. The champions of Protestantism and of Romanism fought sometimes with sticks, sometimes with stones and sometimes with firearms. It was dangerous for a resident of Wellington Street, twenty years ago, on some occasions, to pass the Sappers’ Bridge. It would have been equally dangerous for a resident of Church street to have crossed that celebrated structure and pass westward on the 5th of Novem- ber. There was neither toleration, nor good feeling. There was, indeed, scarcely order at any time, and
52 SOCIAL PROGRESS,
at all times, order was liable to violent interruptions.
All this has been altered, as if by magic. Now there are schools, the buildings being good, and the teachers being men of high education, of talent, and of character. Now there are Bishops of the Church of England and Church of Rome and eminent preachers of the Gospel in the Presbyterian, Metho- dist, and Congregationalist churches. Now there are Young Men’s Christian Associations, an im- proved police, a respectable magistracy, agreeable and instructive public entertainments, and that de- gree of civilisation among all classes of the people which the presence of education on an extensive seale invariably produces. Crime, or that rudeness, which is almost criminal without positively being so, no longer stalks abroad, feared and detested, but still unrebuked. It is not to be expected that an uncul- tured boor could to-day insolently ask a command- ing officer of Royal Engineers to become cook to a wood-smack and receive the reply given,by Colonel By to the ruffian who had so insulted him, amount- ing to that inadvertently given by a Venerable Principal of the University of Glasgow, to a persis- tent dun, who had rudely accosted him in the street —“ ite ad infernam | All classes of the people are being more or less influenced by the great change which has come over Ottawa since the advent of the seat of Government. Fine shops, vieing with those of Montreal or New York, in the character of their goods have sprung up; societies for the im- provement, of knowledge in literature and science have" been instituted; agreeable promenades haye
IMPROVED DW ELLINGS, 583
been constructed ; terraces of superior dwellings have taken the place of wooden buildings without eaves-troughs, or Wwater-sponts; and all the banks are doing business in elegant and substantial stone structures. The hotels are of the first class, so far as Management is Concerned, and Ottawa now, in- deed, affords enough of comforts for both man and beast.
CHAPTER III.
Rebellion Losses Bill—Battle of Stony Monday—The “Shiners”’—Cork Town,
The sanction given in 1849 by Lord Elgin, in his capacity of Governor General, to the Bill for the payment of losses sustained by those who had been in rebellion against Her Majesty in 1837-38, gave the greatest possible annoyance to the Tory or mer- cantile party of Montreal, and the feeling quickly extended to Quebec and other places. In Western Canada the “ Grits” looked upon the action of His Lordship with more favor, but, on the whole, the English-speaking portion of the Province, were, in this matter, opposed to the Lafontaine-Hincks ad- ministration, as represented, more particularly, in Lower Canada by those whose vernacular was French or who resided in Griffiintown, Montreal, Champlain street of Quebec, and in Letter O, the headquarters of “the Shiners,” in Ottawa. Lord Elgin did not seem to be particularly certain him- self, that he had done right, for, after the outburst of indignation visited him at Montreal, his carriage being smashed and the Parliament Buildings very thoughtlessly burned, he sent the resignation of his office to the Secretary of the colonies, who politely refused it, and obtained for the Earl of
REBELLION LOSSES BILL, 55
Elgin and Kincardine the dignity of a Baron of the United Kingdom, to compensate him, in some degree, for the abuse heaped u.on him by the Mon- treal and other Tories, among whom were particu- larly noticeable, by the violence of his passion, the gallant Sir Allan McNab whose promptitude in 1837 to meet the wishes of Sir Francis Bond Head, pro- bably had the effect of saving the Province from greater fillibustering efforts than were made against it. The feeling of gratification on the one hand and.of dissatisfaction on the other, reached Bytown in September 1849. A meeting was called to take the matter into consideration. Lord Elgin had been going from place to place, receiving addresses, and, in Upper Canada, at all events, was making up, to some extent, for the indignities which he had suf- fered ; and to these addresses he replied most ably, The very zealous towards him in Bytown conceived the idea of inducing him to visit the place, and a public meeting was called, with that object. It met in the Market House in York street. There was a vast attendance, but it was quite impossible to agree upon a chairman. A Mr. Harvey was about to take the chair when the agitation very much increased, and two men who had been scowling at each other came to blows. Everybody seized the opportunity of striking some other body, and the shouts and screams, and noise of blows were the only sounds heard until those in the hall had emptied themselves into the street, There was ample room in York street for a row, and there was good limestone of a good size to be thrown by the hand. ‘ Shiners”
56 BATTLE OF STONY MONDAY. &
and “Blazers” were soon busy. Blood might be seen pouring down wany a cheek. The “ Blazers ” were furious and advancing rapidly on the ‘Shiners’ when the latter took refuge behind a fence and had resort to fire-arms. The fire was irregular and not well kept up, but it, nevertheless, did damage. A young man, named David Borthwick, pursning with only a stick in his hand, a “ Shiner” who had a gun received the contents under his co.iar bone and dropped. His opponent, evidently, did not mean to hit, fev the ball first struck the ground and, rebound- ing, k’lled the brave lad. The mortal wound of young Borthwick did not by any means stay the lighting, however. The battle was vigorously re- newed and the paving-stones were nearly as effect- ive a weapon as pistol bullets. The “Shiners” con- tinued to ~etreat, and the Royal Uanadian Rifles were called out. The bugles were sounding loud and clear, when the leaders of the victorious party called a halt. Three days iater there was an atttempt to renew “ The Battle of Stony-Monday ” but this the authorities would not permit. The Royal Canedian Rifles took possession of the Sappers’ Bridge and re- fused to permit ans one to pass either up or down whil« there seemed io be any sign of a disposition to riotous conduct. The firm, but temperate beha- vior of the Rifles had the desired effect, and Lord Elem was permitted to visit Ottawa three years later, when he made a most able and effective speech art having now grown into favor with nearly every- body. Mr. Pope thus speaks of “ the Shiners ;’—
THE SHINERS. 57
“ For some years after tle completion of the Rideau Canal the inhabitants were troubled with a class of people in their midst known by the euphon- ious sogbyiquet of “Shiners,” better understood at the present day as rowdies.”
“ A feud sprang uo between some Irishmen and Canadians, and the tlame thus kindled was soon fanned into alarming proportions; so much so that Captain Baker, a retired artillery officzr, and chief magistrate at the time, was compelled to order the people to arm and patrol the streets, The duties of the Captain were not of an envious character, for on him mainly rested tle responsibility ef quelling it by military interference, or tempering matters in such a way as to allow the ill feeling to die out quiet- ly. The course he adopted was one of prudence; and his persuasive arguments did more towards the accomplishment of the desived end than a volley of bullets.”
“As an instance of the lawlessness of the times: it appears the house of Mr. James Johnston was fired et, but the occupant escaped unhurt; he was then assauited on the Sapper’s Bridge and saved himself by jumping over its westerly side near the arch, The snow was very deep, and he sank in it to such a depth as to be incapable of extricating himself. While in this dilemma, a large stone on the edge of the precipice caught the eye of his assail- ants, which they attempted to hurl upon him, and in this manner to put an end to his life; but it being firmly frozen to the bank they were unable to carry out their murderous intention for the moment. Foiled again in their object they resolved to sur- round him and to complete the work; but the time- ly interference of friends not only thwarted them but finally succeeded in rescuing him altogether. Three of the gang were afterwards arrested and punished according to their deserts.”
“Mr, Johnston it is thought, followed no par-
Q CORK TOWN, 58
ticalar calling, and consequently having much spare time at his disposal, philanth: opically employed it in endeavouring to pacify the conflicting parties; but in so doing uufortunately made himself obnox- ious—probably because he was too officious He was however subsequently rewarded by being elect- ed a member of the Provincial Parliament.”
“ At hogsback a family were driven out of their house and a keg of powder rolled in for the purpose of blowing it up. The first match failed to accom- plish its object; and the second one was anxiousl watched by the Shiner who sat on the able ec straddle legs. The result was beyond his most san- guine expectations; for his involuntary aérial ex- cursion, without the aid of a balloon, caused much mirth among his friends, who could not but admire his abrupt and undignified descent,”
‘ There were a large number of shanties or ca- bins in the vicinity of the Lay By—then called Cork Town—in consequence of there being none but Irish families living there. The heads of these were canal labourers, and were not characterized for in- ordinate love of peace or order. As a proof of this, Father M - deemed it necessary to pay fre- quent visits for the double purpose of cathecizing and chiding his flock. On one occasion his ap- pearance was discovered before he had time to reach the ci.bin of an old female delinquent, who cried out most lustily: “By the Holy Mary, here’s Father M——-—.” She then made for the window; but so hurried was her attempt to escape, that not only did she effect it but took the window-sash with her round her neck. This anecdote was frequently re- lated by the reverend gentleman, whose risible fac- ulties were always excited at its recollection.”
“Tt is related of a woman who, in addition to sel- ling milk, made a daily practice of begging money and previsions. The old dame inhabited a “sand hole,” at the door of which her cows were accustom-
RETURNING SZNSE. 59
ed to wait to be milked. So successful was her mendacity, coupled with the proceeds of sale of her provisions, that in three years she and her family re- turned to the old country with the sum of eleven hundred pounds.”
“ At a later period matters took the form of re- ligious strife, when Catholics and Protestants opposed each other, and acts of ruffianism and outrage were the order of the day. It became a necessity for peaceable individuals when invited to a little re- union to first possess themselves of a brace of pistols, as night was the favorite time for disturbance.”
“This state of things continued until 1849 when reason took the place of mob-law, the Shiners learned sense, and, as a natural sequence, peace and ‘order were restored. It is pleasing to add that the city has ever since been comparatively free from crime,”
i a a a ET RT
CHAPTER iy.
The Parliament:Buildings—The Prince of Wales—Prinee Arthur—The ‘Ball— The Decorations—The Supper—The Honorable ‘Thos. D’Arcy McGee, M. P.—Death of Mr,.McGeée—Rideau Hall—Sir John Rose—Men of Note.
In approaching Ottawa, from whatever quarter, the Parliament ‘buildings are most conspicuous. They stand out against the clear sky in all the beauty of seemingly varied architecture. Towers,
pinnacles, buttresses, and gables are, in the distance,
apparently, heaped upon each other, and only become well defined on nearer approach. Not exactly upon the highest point of land in the neigh- borhood of Ottawa they are still so situated as to be visible for miles in every direction, and the effect is exceedingly imposing. The two Houses of Parlia- ment, ihe offices of the Executive Council and De- partmental buildings, forming three sides of a square are simply grand. The gothic windows, the im- mense turrets, the glittering spires, and the gigantic towers, together produce an effect which must be seen to be understood. They command a magnifi- cent view of the Falls of the Chaudiére, and of the lake above, studded with islets, and of the hilly country to the northward with the broad river im- mediately below. In speaking of them Lovell uses these words: “their splendor, their fine commanding site, together with the beauty of the sur.vunding scenery, place them in a very enviable position com- pared with other structures used for similar purposes,
PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS. 6L
and must ever be objects of interest to the tour- ist and stranger, and pride to the people of Canada.” £75,000 was the original estimated cost of the build- ings, but unforseen causes, among which were ex- cavations which had to be made in the solid rock, swelled the sum to nearly £4,000,000.” The corner stone was laid in September 1860 by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. The main building covers an area of 82,866 superficial feet, is 472 feet in length, and 522 teet in depth, from the front of the main tower to the rear of the library. The body of the building is 40 feet high and the main tower and central entrance 180 feet. The lobby is supported by massive marble pillars of very beautiful work- manship, and the corridors, around both Houses, are ornamented with fine paintings in oil of the Speak- ers of the two Chambers—some of the most noted men which this cou. try has produced. There are fine oil paintings of His Majesty George III and Queen Charlotte by Sir Joshua Reynolds, a magnifi- cent full length portrait of the Queen, a marble sta- tue of Her most gracious Majesty by Wood, and busts of Their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales, while the Speakers’ Chambers are palatially furnished and decorated with historical paintings of great value. The Houses too are very fine, the galleries, capable of accommodating comfort-. ably 1000 visitors are supported by marble pillars, the windows are of richly stained glass, and, at night, the House of Commons is lighted: by gas jets, reflect-. ed from the roof which is of glass and stained wood,
62 THE PRINCE OF WALES,
quite in keeping with the general character of the building. Around the face of the rock, fronting the river, on which the buildings stand, a curiously de- yised path has been made, with rustic seats, foun- tains, and every convenience for loungers. In front the grounds are being planted with trees, and as soon as the railing on Wellington Street is put up will present a particularly fine appearance. The Departmental buildings face inwards to the square, the eastern block being 318 feet in length and 258 in depth, and the western block 211 by 277 feet. They are built of cream-colored Potsdam sandstone, with the ornamental work in Ohio sandstone, and the external stone carvings are of a kigh order of ex- cellence.
His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, as has already been stated, came to Ottawa in 1860 as part of an official tour made by the Heir Apparent of the Crown of England through Canada and partly through the United States. The Prince of Wales was accompanied by several men of great distinction, He was under the special guardianship, being then under age, of His Grace the Duke of Newcastler Secretary of State for the Colonies, and was accom- panied by his Governor, General, the Honorable Robert Bruce, brother to Lord Elgin. His reception
in Ottawa was of the most cordial kind. Allclassesof —
the people vied todo him honor. Triumphal arches of huge piles of timber, constructed with wonderful skill, spanned the streets. Flags fluttered in the breeze from every house top. As he passed from
PRINCE ARTHUR, 63.
street to street, cheers rang through the air. He was carried up the Grand River. He was made to look upon the wonders of the Lake and the Falls. sie was shown the slides for bringing down timber iy safety past the Great Falls of the Chaudiere, and the miles of booms for conducting logs to the saw mill. He was showr. how expeditiously matches are made and was enticed to look upon the rapid revolutions of the saw, as it cut out pails and doors, and sashes. He was walked slowly over the Suspension Bridge that he might feel the spray from the falls, and he was. taken upon a drum of timber and carried down the- slides upon araft. His Royal Highness was delight- ed. He had indeed, every reason to be so. It was precisely similar with Prince Arthur, the youngest son of the Queen, who, coming to Canada in the fall of 1869 to join the Rifle Brigade, to which he had been appointed from the Royal Artillery, paid an official visit to His Excellency the Governor Gener- al Sir John Young (now Lord Lisgar) at Ottawa. Everything that had happened to the Prince of Wales, except the laying of the corner stone of the Parliament buildings befel Prince Arthur. It was not however until the Parliament met that he was feted. The new buildings of which the corner stone had been laid by the Heir Apparent of the Orown of England was now completed. Prince Arthur was therefore invited to an:entertainment provided at the cost of the Dominion, the like of which has been seldom equailed even in Europe.
G4 THE BALL.
Of this feast the following descriptior. is taken from the Ottawa Times :—
“The Ball given in honor,of His Royal Highness Prince Arthur, by the two Houses of Parliament, last night, was attended by upwards of 2,000 persons, representative of the rank, wealth, and beauty, of the te Dominion. Soon after the doors were thrown open a the guests began to arrive, and they kept dropping in Tha by dozens, till near the reception hour, when the An lobby of the Senate was literally packed. On the ct outside of the Parliament Building a guard of honor
of the 60th Royal Rifles was drawn up, while in
the vestibule, immediately inside of the main en-
trance, the Ottawa Garrison Artillery, under the
command of Major Ross, were placed in file, facing
inward, and lining the steps, leading from the
Senate Chamber to the Hall in which the Commons
meet. At nineo’clock the Koyal party arrived. His
. Excellency the Governor General, accompanied by
His Royal Highness Prince Arthur, Her Excellency
Lady Young, and a numerous suite, having received
the customary military honors, the distinguished
Hel party were met in the grand entrance hall by a joint it Committee of the Senate and House of Commons, ihe who led the way to the Chamber of the Commons, P| where His Excellency The Right Honorable Sir John Young, having on his right hand His Royal Highness Prince Arthur, and on the left Her Ex- : cellency Lady Young, standing upon an elevated _ paltform, in front of the chair of Mr. Speaker, sur- rounded by the Ministers of State, and such of the persons of distinction as were honored with the entrée, held a devée. The arrangements were admir- able, Notwithstanding the extraordinary number to be presented, there was not the slightest confusion. The vast throng moved in at the lower entrance door for mem#ers of the House of Commons, where the party to be presented gave a card to an. orderly placed at the door to receive it, remaining for a mo-
THE BALL, 65 ment or two, under the direction of Col. Bernard, one of His Excellency’s aides, until those who had gone before and who had been presented, had passed off through the Upper door and through the library into the Senate—for the ball—when he was per- mitted to approach, and pay the respect which is due to the representative of Her Majesty, the Queen of that great empire of which this Dominion forms a part.
Me In the gallery of this Chamber the band of the 60th Royal Rifles were placed and discoursed sweet music. Refloored and made quite level from wall to wall, the bar of the House being removed and the throne being used as a dais, a more finely ar- ranged ball room can scarcely be conceived. The paintings of Her Majesty the Queen, and of Her Majesty’s grandfather and grandmother were in the Chamber, and the other walls were hung with im- mense mirrors, festooned and draped with banners and flags. A wreath of red, white, and blue bunt- ing threaded through the gothic openings over the marble arches of the galleries, the richly stained glass windows over the throne being illuminated, vases of artificial flowers, beautifully true to nature, standing against the gallery walls, and a perfect flood of light pouring over the dense mass, who promenaded through the room, cr mingled in the dance, produced an effect which, without the heightening effect of those who moved about in it, can only be described as grand. The lobby or cor- ridor of the Senate Chamber, was decorated in the same tasteful style as the Chamber itself. Over the main entrance was the plume of His Royal High- ness the Prince of Wales, and on each side of the entrance were the letters P. A. in purple velvet strewn over with flowers, while pier glasses, of great size, were placed around the marble hall itself, the recesses of which were carpeted and fitted up as a grove in which the orange tree blossomed, -and rare plants seemed to grow. The wardrobe
9
i : i
te
i Ta
66 THE SUPPER.
of the Senate, with its fine paintings, rich carpet, rong $8 | tables and softly cushioned sofas, sufficed for a card room, and indeed there was no want of such accessories to the gay and festive scene, every committee room being at the service of such only as cared for a rubber of whist. A large room, the entrance to which is from a corridor, in rear of the Senate Chamber, answered the purpose of a refresh- ment room, where viands, coffee, and cakes were, without difficulty, procured.
“As the ball went on, the lobbies, and every available space of room around the ball room, proper, was occupied by dancers, and the scene was one of positive enchantment — from the variety and richness of the costumes of the ladies, and the uniforms of the officers of the different services, every branch of the army having, apparently, its re- presentative— from th gorgeously arrayed High- lander to the darkl essed Rifleman, and gayer scarlet and blue of the other corps in Her Majesty’s service.
“ The officers of the House were in'Court dress.
“Lady Young was superbly dressed.
“ His Bxcellenty the Governor General wore his ordinary robes of state, with the addition of white silk small clothes, silk stockings, and buckled shoes; and the Committee of both Houses wore white rosettes on the breasts of their coats, to distinguish them from the other members of Parliament, and the plainly dressed civilian guest.
“The supper was beyond all suppers of our re- collection. It was a trophy of honor to Messrs. Kavanagh and O’Meara, who provided it. There was everything that the heart of man could desire, prepared in a style of excellence which has no where been exceeded. Numerous as were the guests, the wants of all were attended to so soon as an entrance to the table could be secured. The dis- play of silver plate, the huge cake pyramids, of every imaginable shape and device, and the abun-
DEATH OF Mr. MCGEE, M. P. 67
dance of cliquot, mumm, and bouzy, with rare sack and crusty old port, heightened the animal enjoy- ments of eating and drinking to a degree hitherto unparalleled in the annals of feasting.”
The parliament buildings, on another occe- sion, presented a scene the very opposite of that we have just described.. The windows were darkened, the walls were hung in black, and mourning was on every face. One of the ornaments of the House of Commons, the member for West Montreal, had, early on the morning of the 7th of Apri!, 1868, fallen by the hand of an assassin. The House had risen about two o’clock that morning, and Thomas D’Arcy McGee immediately preceding the adjourn- ment, had made one of those brilliant and teiling speeches for which he was famed. On his way to his lodgings, he was followed and shot dead. Where there were many talkers, few good speakers, and with the exception of the limited number of gentlemen, immediately on the right and left of Mr. Speaker, no debaters, Mr. McGee was indeed an orator. He studied his every utterance, and spoke with an ease and fluency which betrayed the excel- lence of his memory. Besides, his was a kindly nature. Personal enemies he had none. In a word, .Mr. McGee was a martyr to the hate of an organiza- tion, wild in its schemes, prejudicial to the best in- terests of his countrymen, a nuisance to Canada, a source of annoyance in the United States—one of those politico-epidemic curses, which afflict a cer- tain class of peopie, and produce a mania leading oftentimes to most deplorable results, He fell in
68 DEATH OF MR, MCGER, M. P.
Sparks’ street, as he was in the act of’ putting ‘the key into the door of his lodgings, Mrs. Trotter’s Boarding House, in what was then known as Des- barats’ Block.
Mr, Desbarats shortly after the melancholy event, caused a tablet to be inserted in the wall of his house, at the spot where Mr. McGee fell, but the whole building, including the large establish- ment of the Queen’s Printer, the Hon. Malcolm Cameron, and Mr. Desbarats’ own extensive estab- lishment — printing-office, book-bindery, and stereo- type foundery—was, about a year afterwards, totally destroyed by fire, when the massive limestone walls, to the great surprise of every person, who witnessed it, crumbled to atoms, and fell down, and the tribute to Mr. McGee, raised at Mr. Desbarats’ private cost, was destroyed.
The House ef Commons unanimously voted a yension to the widow aud daughter of Mr. McGee, and the expressions of regret at the tragic occurrence did credit to the gentlemen on the Opposition benches who, in the warrath and earnestness of their utter- ances, were in full sympathy with the impassioned language, modified by sadness, which, in the fullness of his heart, Sir John Macdonald, as leader of the government, made use of in alluding to the deplor- able event.
The following character of Mr. McGee, in no- ticing a history of his life in the Times nev-yspaper, may not be out of place here :—
“So sharp, cruel and treacherous, and unexpect- ed was the end of one whe had filled a large space
Mr. McGEE'S CHARACTER, 69
in the public eye, that it needed nothing else to awaken public sympathy to the merits of the Hon. Thos. D'Arcy McGee, or to make it apparent that a public loss hail been sustained in his death. The sorrow even that was felt for his wife and daughters seemed obliterated in the regret for the loss of the man himself. His many excellent qualities of head and heart, his enduring love of country and _ his natural sense of justice, covered up from view all the shortcomings of a brief but chequered career. No words were strong enough to point out the great wrong done to society in his death. No language could be earnest enough to depict the many good qualities of which all, who had come in contact with him, knew him to be possessed. The brilliancy of his public utterances, the manly openness of his mind, the gentleness of his demeanour, and the sin- cere zeal which he had manifested for the social weal of his own countrymen, combined with the preservation of peace and good fellowship, among all origins and creeds, which it was his aim to culti- vate, contributed to excite an intense feeling of horror at the cruel audacity of the act which had deprived him of his life, and which manifested itself so immediately, so spontaneously, so acutely, and so universally in the public exhibitions of sor- row, which grew out of it. The Parliament and the Press, the Pulpit and the Bar deplored the loss which had been sustained, and public provision was made for the nearest of his surviving relatives, There was no other possible compensation to his family, and the injury to mankind was irremediable. In the tumult of sympathy it almost seemed as if the talents, if not the virtues of Mr. McGee, wer? too highly rated. And, perhaps, they were. Nevertheless, now that the calm has succeeded to the burst of indignation and the storm of human ey which immediately followed his death, there is still enough of “greatnesss ” left to Mr.
McGee to be publicly dealt with, and impartially
70 Mr. MCOGER’S CHARACTER.
discussed. Mr. MeGee was humbly born and humbly educated. A loving mother, superiorily endowed tor the wif. of a man in the social standing of his father, who was in the Coast Guard Service in Treland, seems to Have given him much of that early training, which he afterwards turne: « such excellent account; and a strong loving heart, in himself, brought forth those fervent and patriotic expressions of resentment for the fancied wrongs. of others, from the consequences of which he escaped as by a”miracle, becoming Conservative of Church, and State, and law and order after he had reached that maturity of intellect which enabled him to discriminate between the seeming and the real. In nv sense, however, was Mr. McGee a statesman, and in somefsense cnly, was he a poet. In that latter sens? Mrs. Sadlier has shown Mr. McGee to great advantage. She has done more than that. ler sketch, which is eloquent, perhaps even highly co- lored, affords the true likeness of the man. It pourtrays the man of genius in the eccentric im- pulses of the;youth.”
In the New Dominicu Moathly Mr. John Reade thus speaks of Thos. D'Arcy McGee the poet:
“ Likefmany others of the sons of song, he was, by force of reason or circumsiances, early separated from his first love—not, as we shall see, by an quarrel,‘ but probably because the alliteration of poetry and poverty did not present to him very pleasant prespects. So he parted from her—only seeing her now and then—hoping, one day, when fortune had found him, or he had found fortune, to come or’callfand sing once more. Alas! loves that are thus slighted, even if they remain true, cannot be expected to keep all the strength and beauty of their youth. So the reader need not be surprised if we say that Mr. McGee, the lecturer, and Mr. Me- Gee,"the statesman, did—during the days of the as-
a ee a ar ee ee
SIR JOHN ROSE. q 1
cendancy — no little violence to Mr. McGee, the poet.
‘And yet, the first love had been faithfully re- membered. Never. for a day, was there the slight- est intention of repudiating her for the sake of any of those iavorites that, for the time, might seem to occupy her throne of affection. She was, in fact, rapidly rising into acknowledged queenhood—the crown was just slanting upwards to her head— when the deed was done.
‘We discover in these lines the natural bent of Mr. McGee’s mini. He was, as we have said, es- sentially a poet. Hverything connected with poets and poetry had a charm for him that nothing else afforded. In the lines under the heading, ‘’Twas glorious then to be a bard’ we find as enthusiastic an appreciation of the poetic gift and office as ever we remember to have seen. They may be found among the ‘occasional verses’ appended to his ‘Canadian Ballads,’ published about twelve years ago by Mr. Lovell. Similar in tone are these lines from his poem on Sir Phelim O'Neil, “ Infelix Fe- lix:”
O! clear eyed poets, ye who can desery, Through vulgar heaps of dead, where heroes lic,
Ye, to whose glance the primeval mist is clear, Behold, there lies a trampled noble here !
Shall we not leive a mavit? Shall we not do Juscice to one so hated and so true.
His high ideal of a poet, and his aspiration after that ideal, are he:e very manifest. There is in these lines, too, a strangely prophetic apr’. »bility to the sad close of his ovn career.
Among others to whom Ottawa may lay a kind of claira, is the Honoruwble Sir John Rose now of London, England, who held the high position of Minister of Finance, in the Dominion Government for a considerable period of time. Like one of the most celelyrated of England’s chancellors, Sir
79 MEN OF NOTE.
John worked his way up in the world by his own cnergy, industry, tact, and perseverance, As a very young man he was a tutor in the family of Major Boulton of the Royal Engineers, while that officer was stationed in Bytown, and, becoming amember of the Bar of Lower Canada, by the mere dint of pluck and continuous study, combined with unswerving prohitv, he first attained eminence in his profession, and afterwards entering into the arena of politics, reached a position of which any man might be proud. But there are others of whom Ottawa may justly boast as being among her residents. They are men in the humbler walks of life, taking only that part in polities, which all men of intelligeuce, and who love their country, inevitably take. They are not even to be mixed up with those men of business whose energies have contributed so much towards the advancement of Ottawa, in a commercial point of view, but are men of genius, whose talents reflect lustre at every turn, and, foremost among these is the almost self-taught sculptor, etcher, and painter, Burns. He it was, who contributed to the art beauties of the city, in the design of that magnificent edifice, erected for Messrs, Hunton & Shoolbred, in Sparks street ; and about whom, like the inspired designer of the Scott Monument, there seems to be that taste for combina- tion of styles of decoration, almost amounting to originality of conception. Then there is Mr. Wil- liam McKay, a house decorator, who is, indisputa- bly, a genius. He is an inventor of several useful things, such as the magic mirror, in which the
RIDEAU HALL, 73
human face divine, may be seen in ll its aspects, and multiplied fifty-fold; and his well-known character for taste gave him the coniract for the supply of those rich windows of stained glass, with which the Houses of Parliament are enriched.
The residence of His Excellency vhe Governor General is in New Edinburgh and is commonly called Rideau Hall. Jt isa large plain, but conven- lent building, surrounded by 385 acres of well laid out grounds, and there are beantiful avenues of' shaded trees attached. New Edinburgh is a small village on the Gloucester side of the Rideau, which is rapidly growing into something closely approach- ing to a suburb of the city. It hes mills and some fine private residences particularly that of Mr. Ourrier, M. P.
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CHAPTER V.
Gaol and Court House—A Wooden Allegory—The Romar Catholic Gatho- dral—Christ’s Churech—The Bishop’s Chapel—St, Alban’s—Rev, Mr. Johnston—Catholic Apostolic Chureh—St. Joseph’s--St, Andrew's, Bank Street, Methodist, and other Churches—Other Public Buildings—Inei- dental Remarks.
The Gaoland Court House of Ottawa, two distiact and very fine buildings are crnamental to the city, and are situated on Daly street. The gaol is a model in so far as its internal arrangements are concerned. It is heated by hot water pipes, is roomy, well ventilated, and admirably kept. The governor is Mr. Powell, a brother of the Sheriff, and the excellence of whose management is fully admitted. Strict without being severe, firm but judicious, he commands the respect of those placed under him, and has the confidence of the Counties Council, whose officer, under the Sheriff, he may be considered to be. It was in front of this gaol that Whelan, tried and convicted of the murder of Mr. McGee, was hanged, nearly a year after the perpe- tration of the crime.
The Court House is not yet completed, It isa spacious and handsome structure. The rooms are commodious, and every comfort made for judge and jury, the accused and the public, the members of the bar, and the officers of the different courts. The
A WOODEN ALLEGORY, "5
former Court House was destroyed by fire on a cold winter's morning, in January, 1870, and the present one is to supply the place of it.
The building bears on its front the Royal arms, finely cut in Ohio sandstone, by Mr. Somerville, sculptor, Rideau street, and is surmounted by a large wooden image, meant to represent “ Justice.” This wooden image has a pair of scales in its hands, seemingly made of iron, and if it receive, as it will need, a coat of paint once a year, it will not produce a more hideous effect on so fine a building than is generally anticipated. “Justice” sometimes needs a coloring. Here, a yearly coat of paint is indis- pensible to the beauty of the wooden-headed “ alle- gory ” surmounting the Court House of the County of \ ‘arleton.
Qne object of attraction is the Roman Catholic Cathedral, situated on Sussex Street. It has two towers of light, open, gothic work, 200 feet high. The ceiling is 65 feet high, and the church 200 feet long end 72 wide. It was founded in 1841, and can contain 2 congregation of 2,000 souls.
This really, handsome structure, which was finished in 1864 is built in the early English style and although net presenting a gorgeous interior has still a highly respectable appearance. Everything is light and neat—pulpit, galleries, and altar. “here
are several fine oil paintings and one—the “ Flight into Egypt” isattributed to Murillo. The organ is a very superior tstrument. It was built in 1849 by
Casserant and restored in 1861 by Mitchell. ‘he
q 6 OHURCHES.
soubassement is 120 feet in length, 72 in breadth, and 17 feet in height. The Bishop of the Diocese is the Right Revd. Monseigneur Guigues, and the Vicar- General the Rev. D. Dandurand.
The oldest church in the city is, however, Christ’s Church of the Church of England. It stands upon the promontory at the end of Sparks street, and, from its site, one of the finest views imaginable is obtainable. The whole north shore with its densely wooded, hilly aspect, the basin of the Chaudiére the mills and immense piles of lumber and the rapidly rolling river, form a landscape, peculiar of its kind, and particularly attractive, The church was built forty years ago, the primeval forest having been eut down to make a place for it, and, some years since, under the ministry of the Revd. Dr. Strong, it was enlarged to its present cruciform shape. The church now accommodates about 1,000 people but it is intended to build a new church at a cost of $40,000 of very much larger dimensions, and in a style of architecture befitting the capital of the Dominion. Six years ago a parsonage house was built, which is now occupied by the Rector, the Rev. J. 8. Lauder, M. A., at a cost of $7,000 not in- cluding the site, and which is considered one of the best in Canada.
The Bishop’s Chapel on the corner of Sussex and Rideau streets, as it were, was built originally for a School House, but has ever since its erection been used as a Chapel of Hase. This year, His Lordship the Bishop of Ontario having decided
OHURCHES, vad
upon residing permanently in Ottawa, a wing was added, and the name was changed to that which it now bears. It is really a very pleasing edifice in the gothic style of architecture, but it would be very much improved were it surmounted by a spire about the centre of the building, rising from the ground.
St. Alban’s Church of the Church of England is situated on the corner of Daly and King streets and was erected in 1867. The style of architecture is gothic. Itis said, indeed, that it is one of the most correct gothic edifices in the province, but it certainly has a not very attractive exterior. The architect was Mr. King Arnoldi, whose work, how-
ever is not yet complete, as the Chancel tower and vestry have still to be erected ; a temporary Chancel, arranged inside of the east end, is used at present The church was opened for Divine Service on Sep- tember the 8th, 1867, and the whole structure, in- cluding a splendid basement-story, of the same di- mensions as the church, was completed in six months, At present there is comfortable accommoda- tion for 350 persons and when the church is com- pleted it is expected to seat 500. The building of this church, the cost of which was over $10,000, is chiefly due to the zeal and energy of the incumbent the Revd Dr. Jones, the chief contributors being a few friends from various parts of the Dominion, and the gentlemen of the Civil Service residing in the neighborhood. The seats being all free, large numbers of the poor and working classes availed
78 OHURCHBSs.
themselves of the benefits to be derived from the ministrations of Dr. Jones. All the expenses, in- eluding the stipend of the clergyman are defrayed by offertory collections.
The only other Churches of England in the neighborhood is the one in New Edinburgh, that of St. Bartholomew, of which the Revd. Mr. Hig- ginson, is incumbent, near the residence of His Excel- lency the Governor General, a small gothic building neat and unpretending, capable of accommodating about 250 persons, and that at Hull, of which the Revd. John Johnston Chaplain to the Senate, is the in- eumbent. The latter is really a beautiful little church, styled St. James’. It was erected about four years ago, to replace the old St. James’ Church, destroyed by fire, and which is said to have been the first sacred edifice built on the Upper Ottawa, Bytown being then only an out-station in connection with it, the clergyman in charge at St. James’ being in charge also of the church congregation in Bytown, The Revd. Mr. Johnston, the present incumbent, has been thirty years doing duty in Hull, and to him the changes which have taken place in the way of church extension since the commencement of his ministry cannot seem less than marvellous. He is to-day the same pains-taking minister that he ever was, and rejoices heartily at the progress which has been made.
In an upper room of the house, in Hull, occu- pied by the minister in charge, the Revd. Ed. J. W. Roberts (Episcopus) the members of the “ Catholie Apostolic Church” assembled for worship and prayer
CHURC HESe 79
when the seat of Government was removed to Ot- tawa. The whole congregation, including priests, deacons, under-deacons, and deaconnesses, only numbered 150 souls. The church was first organiz- ed in Ottawa, in the year 1855, under the charge of the Reva. Joseph Elwell and fell under the charge of Mr. Roberts in 1856. In 1860 it was found ex- pedient to remove the altar and hold the services thereat in Hull. Again the Church is back in Ot- tawa avery neat gothic church having been built at the corner of Albert and Sally streets, in 1870, and the officiating clergyman is still the Revd. W. Roberts, the priests being Mr. Alpheus and Mr. Al- fred Todd, and Messrs. Webb and Curtis.
Being a small congregation, the members of which are much and widely scattered, all the ser- vices which, under more favorable circumstances would be fulfilled by it, are at present impossible Those actually fulfilled are — ist. The Holy Eucharist, with a preliminary forenoon service, be- ginning at 10 \. M.; and Evening Prayer, at 5 Pp. M., every Lord’s: Day (Sunday). The Holy Eucharist, at 10 A. M., every Tuesday, and on all the principal festivals of the “ Catholic Church ;” Evening Prayer daily, at 5 p. M.; and Forenoon Prayer, with the Litany, at 10 A. M., on Wednesdays and Fridays. The general doctrines held and taught, of all, with- out doubt or dispute, are embodied in the three Creeds, commonly called; “the Apostle’s,” “the Nicene,” and “the Athanasian.” The particular dif- ferences between this and similar congregations and others, consists: 1st, In the former believing in an
80 CHURCHES.
Universal Centralizing Ministry of “some Apostles, some Prophets, some Evangelists, and some Pastors and Teachers’, having divine authority to care for and to minister to all the Churches of the Baptized, binding all together in one doctrine, one fellowship: one breaking of bread, and one object and hope of prayer with Apostles, both those who were in the be- ginning, and others believed to be given in these days; and 2nd. In an assured faith and lively hope of the second personal (as distinguished from spiritual) coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, to receive His whole Church—the great body of His faithful bap- tized people—unto Himself, some by resurrection and others by a change of their bodies; to destroy “the beast and the false prophet,” and to set up His Kingdom in visible power, glory, and honor, upon the earth. The name “Catholic and Apostolic” ts assumed because it is the true name for the whole Church and serving as a connecting link with all who profess and call themselves Christians, and are baptized into the one body—the church. The ends contemplated, in all the services of worship and prayer are, first, the restoration of all the Churches of Christendom to unity and peace, as members of the one Holy Catholic Apostolic Church” and ultimately to that spiritual as well as corporate Ecclesiastical condition, in which they need to bein order to be ready for the Lord’s second coming, “ as a Bride adorned for her Husband.”
~ St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church is situated en Wilbrod between Ottawa and King streets. It was built in 1857 and was enlarged in 1866. It belongs to the Society of the Missionary Oblates, is
JHURCHES, CHURCHES 81
built of stone, and cost about $20,000. The first parish priest was the Rev. F. Trudeau, whose me- mory is still held in veneration, and who was suc- ceeded by the Rey. F. Corbett Coopman. The Rev. J. Guillard is the present parish priest, and has held that position since 1862. There are 220 pews in the church, which accommodate one thousand persons. The choir, presided over by the Revd. F. Derburt, is a very fine one, and the organ not much inferior to that of the Cathedral. The congregation is Irish and French, and the preaching alternates in French and English. The church is most ad- vantageously situated, and adjoins the “ Ottawa University.”
St. Patrick’s Churcen, Hugh street, between Nepean and Gloucester streets, is not yet completed. It was designed to supply the place of the exceed- ingly plain building in Sparks street, called “St. Andrew’s Church,” originally occupied, it is said, by the Wesleyan Methodists. It is truly the ugliest sacred edifice, interiorily and exteriorily, on which eye ever rested, but has a good organ. Two or three years ago, the members of this congrega- tion, urged thereto by their excellent pastor, the Revd. J. J. Collins, began the erection of the new St. Patrick’s Church, but the undertaking was un- happily interrupted, owing to some misunderstand- ing with regard to the proceeds of a bazaar, got up with the view of helping towards its erection. The new building will be, when completed next sum- mer, of which there is little doubt, the largest place
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89 CHURCHES.
of worship in the city. It was cominenced early in the spring of 1868 and the style is English gothic. There will be a clear story rising above the aisle-walls, and the extreme length of the building will be 195 feet and the width 76 feet. The height of the spire from the ground will be 204 feet. It is perhaps worthy of remark that there is no debt on the site or building with tne exception of $579 of a balance to be paid for material on the ground. Other- wise, the property is free from all encumbrance and the pastoz is fully confident of the closing in of this fine edifice nextsummer. The Rey. Wm. H. Sheehy is Vicar of St. Patrick’s.
St. Andrew’s Church, in connection with the Onurch of Scotland, stands on Wellington street. It is beautifully situated and has some fine old trees within the grounds. Commodious and comforiable it is nevertheless plain within and equally plain without; but the congregation is rich, zealous, and enterprizing, and the clergymar pious, learned, ang earnest, with an addition thereto, that rarest of all gifts, the gift of preaching sensibly and well. The first minister of this church was the Rev. John Cruikshank, now a minister of a parish in the north of Scotland. He was succeeded by the Rev. Alex- ander MacKid, since retired from the duties of the ministry ; by the Rev. Mr. Durie, who died and was buried on Sandy Hill, where a monument has been ~ erected to his memory by an affectionate brother; and by the Rev. Alexander Spence, D. D., who studied at Kdin»urgh and Aberdeen, and was ordained on the
CHURCHES. 83
22nd February, 1841, as the first minister in con- nection with the Charci of Scotland, in the Island of St. Vincent, West Indies. Mr. Spence was in- ducted as pastor of St. Andrews, in this city on the 17th July, 1348, and resigned on the 28th October, 1867, being sueceeded by the Rov. Daniel M. Gordon, B. D., the present able incumbent, on the 17th De- cember, 1867.
It is gratifying to know that a magnificent new structure is about to be erected on the ground on which the present church now stands, at an expence of $60,000,
As yet the finest Presbyterian Church in the city is that known as the Bark street Church, in which the exemplary and painstaking Rev. Wm. Moore officiates to a large and highly intelligent congregation. It is a guthic structure, very neatly fitted up and capable of accommodating 700 persons. The spire is very conspicuous being visible from every quarter of the city, and towers up into the clear sky a distance of 162 feet from the ground, and on the whole is an erection creditable to the city.
Knox’s Church, in Daly street, is another of the Presbyterian churches in Ottawa, which is the re- verse of a painted sepulchre, being beautiful within if not particularly attractive from without. It was built in 1845. It is, in a word,« frame build- ing, and cost about $3,000 while it accommodates be- tween 600 and 700 people. It is intended, we be- lieve, very shortly to erect a new edifice on a cor- ner lot adjoining the present church,
84 CHURCHES:
Presbyterianism is thriving here as everything else is. The Rev. Mr. McLaren, a pious and excel- lent man, succeeded the Rev. Mr. Wardrope, who was called to Guelph two years ago.
The Congregational Church, a neat stone build- ing situated in Town Hall Square, corner cf Elgin and Albert streets, Centre Town, was erected in 1862, and is capable of accommodating over three hundred persons. The denomination to which i belongs, first appeared in the beginning of the Re- formation, and ‘have ever sitice occupied the front rank of the dissenting bodies in that country. At present, in England, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, the United States of America, and other parts of the world, they have more than seven thousand churches in fellowship with one another. The Church in this city was formed in 1860. In the be- ginning of 1859, the Colonial Missionary Society, London, England, determined on the cominence- ment of a Cougregational. cause here, no doubt deeming such a movement of especial importance, as Ottawa had been selected as the future Capital of the Canadas,—and with this object in view, the Committee entered into correspondence, on the sub- ject, with the Can. Cong. Missionary Society, and under the auspices of the two societies conjointly, the Rev’ J. Elliott, formerly of Bury St. Edmunds, England, who is now pastor of the Church, entered on the undertaking in July of that yaar. The few in Ottawa who were prepared to join in the under- taking, rented the Temperance Hall, in which reli- gious services were conducted till 1862, when, with the generous aid of friends in the cause of England
CHURCHES. 5
and Canada, their church edifice Was erected and opened in the course of that year. In 1865, an effort was successfully made to Wipe off all the debt that remained on the building ; and last year, handsome end gallery was erected, an organ intro- duced and both paid for. The only debt now re- maining on the property is part of the price of the site-—payable 20 years from the time of purchase,— and when this is paid the value of the whole will be about $8,000. The Trustees are Mr. James Foote and Mr. John Lamb, sen.
re4y,
people. The first pastor was the Rev. J. Mackie, who was succeeded by the Rey. R. J. Langridge. The Rev. Mr. McPhail is the present pastor.
The Wesleyan Methodist Church, situated cor- ner of Metcalfe and Queen streets, was opened in 1853. Itis a plain, substantial, stone edifice with- out any exterior adornments, but wel! finished and comfortably seated in the interior, having a gallery on each side and in front. The church is about 80 feet long by 55 feet wide, with parsonage in rear on Queen street, and cost, originally, fifteen thousand dollars. The Rev. Mr. Stephenson is the pastor of this church, having succeeded a very learned and excellent man, the Rey. Mr. Harper, about two years ago. Mr. Stephenson is distinguished for the aptitude cf what he says of spiritual matters in con- nection with the concerns of real life. He is a man of far more than ordinary ability, of strong literary tastes, and exempiary in his intercourse with the
86 CHURCHES.
members of other churches. A preacher of the gospel, he is evidently free from that mere “ cant,” which is too frequently mistaken for zeal, and never attempts to strain scriptural truth to meet sectarian dogmas.
The Methodist Episcopal Church, York street,
was built in 1844, during the pastorate of the Rev. James Gardiner, and re-built during the year 1867.
It is a handsome brick building, with white brick corners and window arches, and a basement of stone. It is situated at the corner of York and Dai- housie streets, and will accommodate over 400 per- sons ; is provided with a fine large basement for the use of the Sunday school, and is worth about $6000. This congregation has established branches in various parts of the adjacent country, and organized what is now a flourishing cause at the west end of the city. It is now under the pastoral care of Rey. Mr. Abbs.
The Methodist Episcopal Church, Chaudiére, is’
situated at the corner of Queen and Bridge streets: is a good substantial frame building, painted white, and capable of accommodating 250 persons. It was spened for Divine Service on the 25th December, 1864, arJ is worth about $3,000. This congrega- tion has succeeded in organizing a very flourishing Sabbath School. It is now under the pastoral care of the Rev. Mr. Lane.
Besides the churches and other public buildings there are several buildings werthy of notice in the city. There are two public hospitals for the care
PUBLIC BUILDINGS,
87
and cure of the sick—one called the “County of Carleton Protestant Hospital,” on Sandy Hill, and the other the “ General Hospital,” under Roman Oa- tholic influences and control, in Bolton street. Both institutions are admirably conducted and eligibly situated.
The bank buildings are beautiful specimens of the architectural art. There are several bank build- ings, indeed, only in the course of er»ction — “ The Merchants’ Bank,” on Sparks street, the building for the Bank of British North America, in Wellington street, and the Union Bank at the corner of Rideau and Little Sussex streets. These are all handsome and substantial structures, but for elegance of design and symmetry of proportion, the “ Bank of Quebec” is unsurpassed by any building in the city. The foundation of a fine new structure for the branch of the Bank of Montreal in this city, on a site adjoin- ing the Times office, is being laid while we write, and will doubtlessly be one of the most imposing edifices of the kind in the metropolis. The private residences recently erected, and the business houses, are very handsome structures, Sussex street, in a business point of view, is a very fine street with spacious shops, but the finer buildings of the busi- ness class, are probably to be found in Sparks street —those of McGee & Russell; Allan, McKinnons & MMcMoran; the wholesale establishment of Garland & Mutchmor; and the beautiful business house of Messrs. Hunton, Son & Co., being cases in point.
There are excellent sporting facilities, in the neighborhood of Ottawa. The rivers and lakes
88 INCIDENTAL REMARKS.
abound with fish and fowl, and there is only a very short distance to travel to get at them. Even in the “Raging Canal” there are maskinonge, and all the back lakes have fine trout.
Nothing is wanting to the resident of Ottawa but learned leisure to insure the most perfect happiness, as the climate is the most healthy that possibly could be desired. There are no plagues, nor any other pests if forest fires be excepted. The people are all growing wealthy, and streets are being built where a dozen years ago there were swamps. Taere are steam fire engines, and all that the heart of man could desire except water-works to make man comfortable. Ottawa is, we repeat, making rapid progress, covering a space of three miles in length and about as many in breadth but having no good place of amusement-—no theatre, nor any proper Music Hall,’ and a wretchedly ugly looking City Hall. Tine, however, will speedily remedy those drawbacks.
CHAPTER VI.
The Press—The First Newspaper published in Ottawa-—-The Bytown Inde- pendent-—-The Bytown Gazette—-The Ottawa Advocate—The Packet— The Citizen—The Monarchist—The Orange Lily—The Railway Times— Le Prevrés—The Canada Military Gazette—The Banner—The Daily News-- ‘he Tribune—Le Courrier d’Outaouais—The Times—Thé" Daily Post—Le Canada—The Free Press—The Evening Mail—The Saturday Review—The Volunteer Review.
ee
Newspaper progress in British America has been, in the fullest sense of the term, extraordinary. In 1764, over a hundred years ago, the Quebec Ga- zetle, a very small sheet, was first published at the City of Quebec, in French and English. It was not however until 1816 that the first Ontario newspaper appeared, while ai that period, in both Canadas, there were altogether only five newspapers published in the Lower Province and one in the Upper. The first newspaper in Bytown only made its appearance in 1849, fourteen years after the foundation of the town. Now there are 255 newspapers printed in Ontario and 96 in the Province of Quebec, and the number is daily increasing, while there are at this moment, published in the city of Ottawa alone, six daily newspapers. The great increase in the num- ber of newspapers printed and circulated in Ottawa is indisputably due to the network of railways spread over the Province. The Grand Trunk and Great Western Railways have given the Toronto Globe, the Toronto Telegraph, and Torento Leader an impetus,
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90 THE PRESS,
which, without it they could not possibly have ob- tained. The railroad places these newspapers on the breakfast-tables of the reaaing populations of towns, hundreds of miles to the eastward, westward, northward, and southward of Toronto. The rail- road, indeed, is the great news distributor, and rail- roads having hitherto been more common in Western Canada than in Hastern Nanada, or the other Pro- vinces of the Dominion, the progress of newspaper literature has been consequently greater, in Western than in Kastern Canada, one fact not being over- looked, that the majority of the people of Upper Oanada read and speak the English tongue, while in Lower Canada the bulk of the city populations, and, nearly the whole rural population, speak French, ard are not so particularly interested in English news or English politics, or so greedy of the - acquirement of such information as the Teutonic tribes seem naturally to be.
The first newspaper published in Ottawa was intituled “The Bytown Independent” and was. es- tablished by: Mr. James Johnson, a man of consider- able energy. and no inconsiderable talent. It was published in.a house at the corner of Bank and Wellington streets, immediately opposite the present: Government workshops, which was this year torn down to make way for a new building. On the easterly gable of the building were two small win- dows, which, together, resembled somewhat a pair of spectacles. This house, when the Independent wes printed there, belonged to an odd genius, named Latimer, a shoemaker, whose conceit this spectacular
THE PRESS.
91
gable-end attic was. The Independent was soon fol- lowed, in the same year, 1840, by the Bytown Gazette and had for its editor, Dr. Christie, the first medical man who had estaplished himself in Ottawa, and who held the sometimes comfortable, if not import- ant position of ‘ Clerk of the Court.” Dr. Christie was succeeded in the editorial chair of the Gaz-tte by Mr. W. F. Powell, who became, afterwards, . mem- ber cf the Parliament of Canada for the Oounty of Carleton, and now holds the distinguished posi- tion of Sheriff of that county. The paper after- wards fell into the hands of Mr, Alexander Gibb, a barrister of some note, and possessed of very congi- derable ability as a writer, who edited and published it for five years, when it was managed by Mr John McLaren for a short time, and, ultimately falling into the hands of Messrs. Healy and Yielding, the latter gentleman becoming one of the members for the city, possibly through its instrumentatity, it col- lapsed.
In 1844 the Ottawa Advocate, pudlished by. Mr. Dawson Kerr, the present proprietor and publisher of the Volunteer Review, rnade its appearance, but it did not stay long upon this gay and festive scene.
It was succeeded, in 1848, by the Packet, esta- blished by Mr. Harris, who, soon afterwards, sold it io Mr, Henry J. Friel, afterwards Mayor of Ottawa, a man of excellent understanding, like Dr. Christie ‘(a Clerk ef the Ccurt,” atid who died very unex- pectedly, and much regretted, two years xgo, while
99 : ‘THE PRESS.
holding the position of Mayor, when he received the honors of a public funeral.
The Citizen also appeared in 1848, Mr. J. G. Bell being its proprietor. It soon, however, passed into the hands of Mr. Robert Bell, a gentleman of good education, of very considerable talent, and to whose enterprise and energy, the railroad connecting the Ottawa and St. Lawrence is principally due, and who renresented the County of Russel), in the Parliament of Canada, for several years. To-day it is the property of a newspaper man by profession, Mr. I. B. Taylor, who holds also the position of Parliamentary Printer, and with whom it seems to be aliovether a success. Myr. F. W. C, Iidgeway is the managing editor.
In this same year the Monarchist made its ap- pearance, the publisher and editor being the Mr. Powell already alluded to, who shortly afterwards sold it to Mr. H. J. Friel, who changed its name to that of The Union, in 1854.
In 1852 The Orange Lily. edited by Mr. W. P. Lett, the present talented City Cierk, a poet of no mean account : was established by that indefatigable newspaper publisher, Mr. Dawson Kerr, who, in 1854, himself edited and published The Railway Times, into which The Orange Lily had su’ . ded.
The first newspaper, in the French language, published in Ottawa, appeared in 1856, and was
named Le Progrés. It was cleverly edited by Mr. A. L. Malhio
THE PRESS. 93
In 1857 The Canada Military Gazette was esta blished, but by whom we have not ascertained,
The Banner saw the light in 1858, It was the pro- perty of Mr. Andrew Wilson, a gentleman of very considerable enterprise and indisputable perseve- tance, who afterwards, in 1864, changed its name to the Daily News, which still exists under the same proprietorship, being cleverly edited by one of his sons, Mr. — Wilson. The Daily News is. indeed, quite . family affair. The head of the family looks after the business of the concern, and his sons and daughters edit and print the paper. The business of Mr. Wilson, it is almost unnecessary to say, has been eminently successful.
The Tribune, which appeared in 1860, was sold by Mr. Burke, to Messrs. O’Counor and Friel, who, having made it the organ of the Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese, Monseigneur Guigues, it was most ably conducted and edited by the Revd. Dr, O'Connor, His Lordship’s secretary.
Le Courrier d’ Ottawa made its appearance in 1861 and was the proper’y of Dr. J. E. Dorion, who consented to its fusion with L’Union, a Fren ‘ newspaper published in Ogdensburg, in the Siate c1 New York, the publication of which was suspended in 1866, to be followed by Le Soleil, which was eclipsed completely after a short lived existence of only a few days.
_ In 1870 the Ottawa Courrier again gave signs of life. It was, indeed, resuscitated in French and English, the French name being Le Courrier d’Ou-
04 THE PRESS,
taowaiz. The management devolved upon Mr. Na- poleon Bureau, a practical printer and it was pub- lished by Mr. James Cotton, the then Menaging Di- recio: of THE Times Publishing Company, the English -editorials being written by Mr. Charies Roger, and the French by Mr, Gustave Smith. The paper was ultimately altogether printed in French, and the sole editorsLip was entrusted to Dr. J. E. Dorion, a gentleman of good acquiremerts, and a very graphic and pleasing writer. Dr. Dorion is still editer.
The Times was established in 1865, by Mr. James Cotton, whe made it the organ of the Admi- nistration, It was first edited by Mr. Davis, a gen- tieman of rare scholastic acquirements, and, after- wards in succession by Mr. Robertson, at present the able editor of the Canadian LIllustraiea News ; by Mr. Walsh, a gentleman of good attainments. from Nova Scotia; by Mr. Speight, who, while connected with the Montreal Gazette, was unfortunately drowned in the Lachine Rapids, last summer; by Mr. Charles Roger, the authcr of this “ Brief is- tory ;” and now by Mr. W. T. Urquhart, a schoiar, journalist, and poet, while the newspaper mazuage- ment is held by Mr. James Bailiff. This newspaper, has, without doubt, the present largest circulation of any printed in this locality.
The Paily Post was established in 1867 by Mr. Jones, now a bookseller in Ottawa. Mr. Jones] was himself the editorial manager, and the writings were at once humorous and powerful. It was a journal conducted with great ability, but being in
THE FRESS. 95
opposition, had nething to feed upon, and soon per- .. ished.
Le Canada was published under the preprietor- ship of Mr. Duvernay, from 1866 to 1870. It was edited by several “journalists,” distinguished for their attainments now as then ; bet gave way to the Courrier in the latter year. -
The Evening Mail and Free Press eppeared sim- ultaneously in the spring of 1870. The Mail was an out and out opposition paper, and being ably con- ducted by Messrs. Moss, Ryan, and Gilbert, soon attracted attention. Its success, for some time, seemed assured. Want ofmeans, however, and an absence of real sympathy with its political utter- ances, caused it to change hands and character, and in its new character it now appears as a evening edition of The Times under the auspices of ‘The TIMES Pubiishing Company.
The Free Press is managed, printed, and pub- lished, by Messrs. Mitchell & Carrier, and is edited by Mr. Marshall, who writes well and ably upon all matters which he undertakes to handle. It is an evening paper and appears to be doing well in a business point of view.
The Volunteer Review, a journal devoted exclu- sive:y to news connected with the “ Army of Cana- da” is published by Mr. Dawson Kerr, and has exis- ted since 18—
There are some minor publications—The Satur-
day Review was one of them, and it was ably writ- ten— which may still exist, but the above comprises
96 THE PRESS.
a tull, though brief, record of newspaper enterprise in Ottawa. The time is, of course, not distant when it will be of greater magnitude, but it is even now coasiderable, when taken in connection with the fact that the first newspaper in Bytown only ap- peared in 1840.
CHAPTER VII.
The First Settlement of Lower Town—The Lumber Trade—Report of the
Minister of Public Works—Slides and Boom Stations on the Ottawa
River and its Tributaries—Le Breton’s Flats—The Chaudiere—Messrs.
Bronson & Weston—Mr, A; H, Baldwin—Mr. J.R. Booth—Mr, E. B.
¢ Eddy—Messrs. Perley & Pattee—Mr. Levi Young—Messrs. Wright, Batson & Currier—Messrs. Gilmour & Co—Messrs, Hamilton & Co., &e.
The Lower Town of Ottawa, themost densely ‘*
peopled part of the city, tc the northward of York street, is almost entirely occupied by a French speaking population, The bulk of the people seem to have come hither originally as raftsmen, and the others, the tavern-keeper and physician, the shoe- maker, the butcher, and the baker, seem to have followed to supply their wants. It was the raft even mote than the canal, which first peopled that ori- ginally great marsh on which Church, St. Patrick, Olarence, and other streets, now stand, and the vast lumbering establishments of the Chaudiére at which the reader will, bye aud bye, glance, suggests a few words on the continuance of lumbering in the Do- minion. ‘The timber of this country and of the Ottawa Valley, it has been alleged, will soon be ex- hausted. If, say some persons, the ground upon which the Oity ef Ottawa now rests, was a wilder- ness to such an extent that, in 1834, a deer was shot where the Bank of Montreal now stands, and snipe
were killed, by the sportsman, in Wellington street, 18
PAE MEAL Boe ea PO
98 KIRST SETTLEMENT OF LOWER TOWN.
in a small clearance, little better than a marsh, it may be inferred that the continued increase in the quantities of timber yearly manufactured on the tributaries of the Ottawa, and exported to England, must soon have the effect of denuding the country of trees altogether, if those of the orchard be ex- cepted. Pleasing delusion! Look at those hills to the northward. See the yet unbroken forest, for thousands of square miles, and say what can man do in a thousand years, with his axe and stump ex- tractor in extirpating that? Impenetrable, iuac- cessible, wild, and distant, it seems as likely to be placed under the harrow in a century, as does the snow-clad summit of Loch-Na-Gar. Centuries, indeed, will elapse before the railway penetrates in that di- rection, and, until it does, timber to be floated down rivers ouly navigable in spring for cribs or single sticks, will be found in plenty for home consump- tion as for exportation. The lumberman will only go further back, creeping up gradually towards the North Pole, but the farm-settler will surely finally stop in his northerly journey, where nature must inforra him he can no further profitably go, and so wil! the forest be permitted to stand up in North America as in Norway for centuries after the alluvial districts of the country have been cultivated and are even densely settled.
A recent writer, Mr. Urquhart, tells us that during the past few years over 80,000,000 cubic feet of timber have been cut down in the forests of Canada, $13,000,000 worth of which was exported to
THE LUMBER TRADE, 99
Europe und the United States; Great Britain alone taking $8,000,000 worth; that 16,000 men are em- ployed in the forests; 10,000 men in saw and planing mills ; that 1,200 ships are annually required to carry off square timber, deals, and staves, to the United Kingdom ; affording employment to 17,000 seamen; and that, everything considered. the pro- ductions of the forest afford employment for 50,000 men annually. This is, therefore, a branch of in- dustry, which it is to be hoped wil! not speedily die out. But if it did, the cultivated lands, of almost incredible extent, finding a market throngh the Valleys of the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa, in England and elsewhere and the coal fields of the Saskatchewan for home use, would find ample em- ployment for thrice the number of men and ships that are now fed upon the forests of this Dominion. The settlement of the country will improve, not retard, trade ; and every improvement that the Go- vernment may make on the Ottawa and its tribu- taries will have the effect of increasing not only the population but the amount and value of imports and exports.
From a valuable little work on the Lumber Trade of the Ottawa Valley, the iollowing extracts are taken.
Many improvements have been made of iate years by the Government, in the navigation of the Ottawa and its tributaries, by the construction of slides and booms to facilitate the passage of timber past the frequent rapids and falls, and the following list of such works, taken from the last Report of the
100 THE LUMBER TRADE,
Minister of Public Works, may not be uninteresting in this place :—
THE OTTAWA DISTRICT.
The Government works connected with the de- scent of timber in this district are on the following rivers :—-On the Ottawa, main river, 11 stations ; on the Gatineau, 1; on the Madawaska, 15;.on the Coulonge, 1; on the Black, 1; on the Petewawa, 31 on the Riviére du Moine, 11.
LIST OF SLIDE AND BOOM STATIONS ON THE OT-— i TAWA RIVER.
The distances given are measured on the latest ant maps, following the channel through which lumber is floate.| down the river:
Distance from mouth of Naines of Stations Ottawa, at Ste. Anne.
Hi Corillonc .icitiieid ene BE aes:
2, Chaudiére (north side, Hull, south side, Ottawa............. .. 98 E 8. Chaudiére (Little).............4......100 Bet LS AROROUE dirs vawiosdestedhisi st sEnue 4 5. Deschénes Rapids.................5. 104%” 6; CUBS DOO isk iificcss cies eck On ‘ 7. Head of Chats...... Paver eve! venture nom . BV GROHAN Es yess ube eed Gabe 7 9, Portage du Fort........ seriiesen ako O ee . 10: Moutain sven inc ities Gace id BE EEO, if
eGelamebiincc G60 Bal ian aes ” Wr 9 Joachim Rapids... ccc evecseerr Qh 9%
jenk bo
THE LUMBER TRADE. 101
The works at these twelve stations consist of:— 2,000 lineal feet of canal; 3,834 do. slides; 29,855 do. booms; 346 do. bulkheads; 1,981 do. bridges; 52 piers; 3 slide keepers’ houses, and 3 store houses.
The necessity for the construction of dams at certain additional points on the Ottawa, so us to afford the means whereby a more abundant supply of water can be obtained for use in the slides, is again urged by parties interested. Tle lumber trade of this district has now attained such increased pro- portions that the work on which the supply of water to the slides is dependent, which answered their purpose tolerably well while the trade was in its infancy, have become inadequate to perform the services required, the result being that during dry seasons the passage of timber through the slides is difficult, owing to the scarcity of water. His Excel- lency the Governor General was pleased, by Order in Council, dated the 18th May, 1870, to autherize the incorporation by patent of the “ Ottawa im- provement Company,” a society formed for the pur- pose of effecting improvements on the upper waters of the River Ottawa, to facilitate the descent of tim- ber, the Company binding itself to adhere to certain specified conditions.
‘GATINEAU RiveR.—lIn ascending the (ttawa, the Gatineau is the first tributary possessing Go- vernment works.
These works are all at one station, about one mile from its confluence with the Ottawa. They consist of :—3,071 lineal feet of canal; 4,138 do.
RAS: Soe eee ears
102 THE LUMBER TRADE.
~
booms; 52 do, bridge; 10 piers; and one slide- keeper’s house.
Mapawaska RiveR.—The Madawaska is the second tributary in ascending the Ottawa, on which the Government has provided works for the descent of lumber.
_ List of the names of slide and boom stations on the Madawaska, numbered from the mouth of the river, upwards :—1 Mouth of river. 2 Arnprior. 3 Flat Rapids. 4 Balmer’s Island. 5 Burnstown. 6 Long Rapids. 7 Springtown. 8 Calabogie Lake. 9 High Falls. 10 Ragged Chute. 11 Boniface Rapids. 12 Duck’s Island. 13 Bailey’s Chute. 14 Chain Rapic.. 15 Opeongo Creek.
The wo ks at these stations consist of :—1,750 lineal feet of slides, 18,179 do. booms, 4,080 do. dams 182 do. bridges, 48 piers, 1 slide keeper’s house, and 1 work shop.
The slide at High Falls sustained considerable damage in the spring of 1870, in consequence of the unprecedented height of the river, the water of which passing over the Nagle dam, caused a breach in that work, through which the debris, mingled with large quantities of logs, escaped. This mass, on coming in contact with the slide, tore down five hundred feet of that structure. Efficient measures were taken for the reconstruction of a portion of the damaged work, so as to admit of the season’s lumber being passed through. This accident and the gene- rally decayed state of the siide, will, it is feared,
THE LUMBER TRADE. 103
necessitate its being entirely rebuilt before the be- ginning of another season.
THE CouLONGE River.—The Coulonge is the third tributary, in ascending the Ottawa, on which the Government has placed slides and booms.
The following is a list of Government works on this river :—Boom at the mouth 300 .eet ag, and one support pier. Boom at Romain’s Rafting ground, 400 feet long, and three support piers: Boom at Head of High Falls Slide, 1,848 feet long, and six support piers.
Buack RivER, — Ascending the Ottawa, the Black River is the fourth tributary upon which works have been placed.
The Works consist of : — 1,139 lineal feet of single-stick booms. 873 lineal feet of slide. 346 feet of glance pier. 135 lineal feet of flat dam.
THE PETEWwAWA.—This is the fifth tributary in
ascending the Ottawa, upon which Government slides and booms have been made. ) Seven miles from its mouth the Petewawa se- parates into two branches, Ou these seven miles there are five stations; on the north branch there is eighteen stations, and, on the south branch, eight stations.
List of the slides and booms on this river, in the order in which they occur, from the mouth up- wards :—1 Mouth of river. 2 First Chute: 3. Second Chute. 4 Third Chute, 4 Boisdur.
NortH BraNcoH.—1. Half-mile Rapid. 2. Crook- ed Chute. 3. Between High Falls and Lake Tra-
104 THE LUMBER TRADE.
verse [a slide and a series of dams and booms]. 4. Thompson's Rapids, 5. Sawyer’s Rapids. 6. Meno Rapids. 7. Below Trout Lake. 8. Strong Eddy. 9, Cedar Islands. 10. Foot of Devil's Chute. 11. Devil’s Chute. 12. Elbow of Rapids, 18. Foot of Sault. 14. Middle of Long Sault. 15. Head of Long Sault, 16. Between Long Sault and Cedar Lake (south shore). 17, Between Long Sault and Cedar Lake (north shore), 18. Cedar Lake.
SoutH BrANcH.—1. First slide. 2. Second slide, 8. Third slide. 4. Fourth slide. 5. Fifth slide. 6, Sixth slide. 7. Seventh slide. 8. Eighth slide.
The works at these 31 stations are as follows :—
ON THE MAIN RIvVER.—2,363 lineal feet of slides, 8,469 lineal feet of booms, 2,077 lineal feet of dams, and 7 piers.
On tHE NortH BRANCH.—380 lineal feet of slides, 2,671 lineal feet of booms, 1,131 lineal feet of danas, and 23 piers.
On THE SoutH BrancH.—2,134 lineal feet of slides, 388 lineal feet of dams.
RivigRE DY Moing.—The sixth and last tribu- tary of the Ottawa upon which the Government works have been executed is the “ Du Moine.” The length of this river is about 120 miles, and it drains an area of about 1,600 square miles. It flows into the Ottawa from a northerly direction at a point about 256 miles above Ste. Anne. The works on this river, consists of a pier and retaining boom at its mouth, a single stick slide, and a series of flat dams from the mouth upward. They may be de-
THE LUMBER TRADE. 106
tailed as follows, viz :—300 lineal feet of slide, 800 lineal feet of booms, 1,324 dams, and 6 piers.
From this extract it will be evident to all that the Government have been at great expense already in developing the Ottawa and its tributaries, and that still further improvements are intended by a Company which will render this natural highway to the Sea, still more valuable to the lumber trade of Canada, We will conclude this division of our subject by another little extrac’ from Mr. Langevin’s report showing the quantity of timber which passed down the Ottawa, during a year, from July, 1869 to July, 1870.
“ Through the Chandisre Slide from Upper Ot- tavva country there passed the following products of the forest :
18,851 cribs of square timber contain- ing 300,689 pieces.
196 ” of deals. 81 ” of flatted timber.
- Total 18,628 Through Hull slides from the Upper Ottawa :—
213,143 saw-logs. 2, 300 pieces of flatted timber.
Through the Gatineau booms and other works :— 496,099 sawlogs. 7,002 pieces of square timber. 1,124 » ” flatted timber. 1,128 * ” round cedars.
which does not include the vast quantities of
sawlogs brought down to supply the Chaudiére Mills.”
id
THE LUMBER i, 106 THE LUMBER TRADE
Jrossing Pooley’s Bridge, named after the con- structor of the first bridge over what is termed ‘The Gully,’ one of the outlets of Lake Ohaudiére— Lieutenant Pooley, of the Royal Engineers,—is a level tract of land called “Le Breton’s Flats,” or more ordinarily “The Flats.” These “ Flats” are occupied by a particular population, the employees chiefly of the immense manufacturing establish- ments of the Chaudiére. There are some very fine private residences, however, of stone, and some good sheps, or stores. The “ Flats,” indeed, are al- most a distinct town. The stir is greater than in any other section of Ottawa, and the movements 0 vehicles, laden with manufactures, is continuous. This level tract of land is surrounded by immense piles of deals, intersected by tramways, and two railways have termini on its western border—the Canada Central, and the Ottawa & St. Lawrence. On the north side of this part of the city are those large manufacturing establishments which ccntri- bute so much to the wealth of the locality, Some of these establishments it is now necessary to de- scribe, and, in doing so, we unhesitatingly take ad- vantage of the writings of others, believing that ‘here is little more to be said than has been already
vitten by the contributors to Messrs. Hunter & ose’s Directory and by the author of “ The Lum- ber Trade of the Ottawa Valley.”
Messrs. Bronsons & Weston established them- selves in 1853, and were the first to take up land at the Chandiére for the purpose of establishing a saw mill on a large scale.
THE LUMBER TRADE. 1 O07
They are now proprietors of two large saw mills, a carding and grist-mill, lath and splitting mills, and own a large tract of land used as a piling ground—the whole premises extending from near the wooden bridge to the point of the island. They get out annually about 175,000 logs, producing be- tween:30 and 40 million feet of lumber, cf which from 5 to 10 million are always kept on hand.
The Jarge mill contains 2 stock gangs, of 30 to 40 saws; 2 slabber gangs, 14 to 16.saws; 2 Yankee gates, 82 saws; 1 single saw ; with the necessary butting and edging saws. The smaller mill con- tains 1 slabber gate, 1 stock gate, and butting and edging saws.
The wheels employed are Rose’s improved and the Lamb wheel.
The lath mill conta’us two gangs for sawing laths, 5 or 6 saws each; a butting apparatus and picket saw; and a splitting mill for slabs; and pro- duces 10 millions of laths.
In addition to their saw mills, this firm have an extensive grist and carding mill They employ for six months of the year, in shipping the productions of these mills, 26 barges with 5 men each, 4 steam- boats, 9 men each ; in all 222 men.
It requires $3,000 to pay the weekly wages of the employees of this establishment.
Mr. A. H. Baldwin commenced business here in 18538 and owns ‘two saw mills, a machine and blacksmith shop, and a ship yard for building barges.
He gets out annually about 125,000 logs,
° ’
108 THE LUMBER TRADE.
making 25,009,000 feet of lumber, and employs in the larger mill 1 ‘arge slabber, 24 saws, 1 stock gang, 40 saws, 2 Yankee gates, 32 saws each, and 2 butting and edging tables ; in the smaller mill there are 2 Yankee gates, 1 edger, and 1 butter. The wheels employed are Rose’s improved.
He also owns 14 barges, 2 steam tues. and one steam barge, manned by 80 men, and «:ves employ- ment throughout the year to about 400 men.
Ths ship yard, which has been in operation for about four years has turned out 16 barges and one steam barge, whose engines were made in ihe ma- chine shop, owned by Mr. Baldwin, and e1zaploys 12 to15 men. Mr. Baldwin sawed and shipped the first lumber for the American market, from the Chendicre, and in company with Messrs. Harris, Bronson & Co., brought <he first logs down the Ottawa from the Des Joachims, and also brought down the first logs above that point.
Mr. J. R. Booth first established business at the Chaudisre in the year 1858 by the manufacture of laths, and now carries on extensive operations in sawing pine lumber, His mills are situated on the south shore of the Ottawa, just below the falls, and manufactnre annually from 26 to 30 million feet of pine. lumber, of which 12 to 15 million feet are always on hand on his piling grounds, which cover a space of about 10 acres of land.
These mills are fitted with. gang and circular saws as follows:
Three gangs containing 40 saws; 38 slabber gangs containing 18 to 20 saws; 1 Yankee gate :
THE LUMBBR TRADE. 109 e
taining 36. saws; 1 large circular saw for dimension timber; and alarge number of cirenlar saws for butting and edging.
The power employed is derived from the waters of the Chaudieére, assisted by 14 Rose’s improved water wheels, 2 fer each gate, and upright and central discharge wheels.
_ This establishment gives employment, in the winter time, in the woods to about 850 men, and 800 teams, and in the summer time at the mills to 4v) men and 40 teams.
My. Booth gets out 3 or 4 rafts of square timber in the season.
Mr. E. B. Eddy carries on the largest busiaess in the manufacture of the products from our forests, on this continent, converting the timber of his enor- mous estates into every description of useful article from saw logs and lumber to wooden ware and lucifer matches.
The business was first established in 1854, when Mr. Eady commenced his operations in this section of the country, manufacturing matches; and such are the resources of the valley of the Otiawa, and the immense advantage. of the water power of the Chaudiére, that be, with the characteristic eneggyg of his race, has been enabled to build up Pa,
a gigantic scale, the productions of which are of vast utility to the people of this continent.
We give here the annual prodactions of these mills, and will speak more fully of the processes of manufacture hereafter,
110 THE LUMBER TRADE.
Eddy’s mills and piling grounds cover a large tract of land on the north shore of the Ottawa, at the Chaudiére falls, and extend from above the fells to the island opposite the Parliaraent buildings. They consist of one large Pail Factory, puilt solidly of stone ; a Match Factory, also of stone; four saw mills of great extent, built principally of wood, and numerous other buildings, offices, &c., necessary to such extensive operations, including a sash, door, and blind factory, and a general store.
In addition to these mills, Mr. Eddy has builta double track railway of over a mile in length which runs from his mills to the further extremity of his piling grounds, and enables him to distribute and pile the enormous amount of lumber produced, ex- peditiously. :
_ “hese mills manufacture annually about 40 million feet of pine lumber, of which there are always from 8 to 10 million feet cn the piling grounds, They also manufacture annually 600,000 pails, 45,- 066 wash tubs, 72,000 zinc ‘vash boards, and 270,000 gross of matches, besides the productions of the sash, door, and blind factory.
The saw mil.s are fitted with gang and circular saws of all kinds and sizes, and the whole establish- gives employment to from seventeen to eighteen hundred persons, many of whom are girls employed in the manufacture of matches. In addi- tion to these there are about four or five hundred men employed in the woods, where Mr. Eddy owns “ limits”—a tract of land of about 500 square miles
THE LUMBER TRADE. 111
in extent, the greater part of which is forest, but there are also some cultivated lands, and a growing village called Fort Eddy.
The force employed in driving the mills, is de- rived frei the unlimited water power of the Ottawa, assisted by mechanical agencies of modern inven- tion, and is equal to about 600 horse power.
The Match Factory, the most extensive of its kind in Canada, consists of a range of buildings con- taining two machine rooms, two dipping rooms, two large packing rooms, a warehouse and shipping office, besides engine house, anc drying rooms. It is built on the North side of the Chaudiere Fails, and the machinery is worked by water power. There are few who possess any knowledge concern- ing the making of matches. These useful articles are here manufactured in inconceivable quantity. The process of their production is a most ingenious one, and can be carried on with great rapidity. The factory, of course, is occupied by machinery which now-a-days performs its part sc extensively in every stage of inechanical labor. Mr. Eddy employs about a hundred men, boys and girls the whole year round, Many people who use these matches doubtless have wondered how so great a number can be given for so small asum; but when the process of their manu- facture comes to be briefly explained, the reason will probably be understood. The business is conducted in two buildings. In one department of the factory proper is a bench contuining a series of saws, the work of which is to cut to a proper length and grocye the boards intended for the boxes, that hold
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112 THE LUMBER TRADE.
each, a quarter of a gross of matches. These boards are cult and grooved with astonishing rapidity, and are fitted in their places with equal speed ; so that no fewer than fifteen hundred boxes can be turned out in the course of a day. In one part of the fac- tory is a powerful machine for prepariug wood to be formed into matches. A log is cut up by a cir- cular saw ; the boards are then pushed under a planing machine, where they are planed to a pro- per thickness. Another set of saws are next brought into requisition, which cut the boards into blocks of the required length. The breadth of these blocks does not require to be uniform so long as they are all mated, as each pair of blocks as they are placed in the machine together, must be precisely of a size. These blocks are now carried into’a room in which are three telegraph match machines. They split the blocks into the size of the match in the following manner: a mould of steel is fitted into the back of an iron bed, so that it projects slightly, but corres- ponds te the depth of the block of wood. This mould has running lengthwise through it a series of holes, the size of the match in thickness; each hole alternates with a very small chisel. The wood is placed within a holder leading across ‘to the mould, The machine is then started; the wood lying upon its flat side is forced against the mould end wise, and the matches are forced through horizontal grooves in the iron, the one propelling the other into a rack placed in its proper position by a boy who takes it when full, arsi presses down the rack by a machine
THE LUMBER TRADE. 113
until the matches are all firmly lield within it, These racks are placed in boxes and carried across the street to a building where ‘they are dipped in a vessel of boiling sulphur, and afterwards into a preparation of phosphorous. When dried they are shaken upon a bench; a little girl takes them by the handful, and packs them into boxes. There are engaged in box- ing the matches about twenty-five girls, who earn at it very respectable wages. The rapidity with which the process is performed is wonderful, for as many as thirteen of these boxes can be closely filled and covered by one person ina minute. The estab- lishment employs a number of men, and a great many boys and girls, and can turn out about 500 gross per day, that is to say 2,000 boxes. The fac- tory, by the employment it affords, is of much benefit to the city.
The pail factory is a large stone building of three stories high near the principal saw mill, where pails are manufactured at the raté of 2,000 pails and 150 wash tubs perdiem. Every partis made by beautiful machinery. Inone room the staves are sawn into regu- lar:sizes, in another the bottoms and hoops are manu- factured; in another the handles are twrned. and in another the various parts are joined together, planed and finished.
The pails are then taken to the painting room, where they are painted and grained by patent India rubber rollers. They are then finished off and fitted with handles, after which they are packed in hay and made ready for shipment,
The Saw Mills, which are four in number and
15
114 THE LUMBER TRADE.
of great extent, contain every description ‘of ygang and circular saws, numbering in all 248 saws: The capacity of the em mills is equal to, the sawing of 200,000 logs per annum.
Perley & Pattée established’ themselves: in’ the year 1857, and have very; extensive / mills on .the Chaudiere Falls, with large piling grounds, through a portion of which are laid:lines of rail for distribut- ing, piling, and shipping the 'iumber.. They get out annually about 150,000 logs ;.producing 30 to 40 million feet of pine lumber. . They” employ ‘a, large number of men through: the. year ;. on an average over 860. Their mills are furnished:with 2slabbing
gangs of 20 saws each ;:2 stock gangs of 40 saws each ; / 2 Yankee gates of $2 saws each; 1 single gate) and.1 re.’
sawing gate, with the usual complement:of. circular saws for butting and edging.. The wheels employed are Rose’s improved,:1 pair. to\each gate’ ; and.centre discharge for circular saws. This ‘firm: get out 500,- 000 feet of square timber per annum, making: alto- gether about six rafts:
Levi Young, first, established his, Wastin 38 at: the Chaudiere.in 1854, and’ owns: one saw.mill, getting out and sawing, about’ 100,000)-tons in:the year, pro-
ducing about 20,000,000 feet of pine’ timber, — He:
employs one slabbing gate of 40 saws’; one stock gate of 40 saws ; one Yankee gate of 32 saws, and the necessary edging and butting saws... The whezls employed are Rose’s improved,.1. pair to each gate: In addition to this Captain Young: gets out annually about three rafts of square timber, employing through the year from four to five hundred men. = |
THE LUMBER TRADE.
116
Wright, Batson & Currier’s Steam Mill is situ- ated in the Village of Hull, (P. Q.), with 24 acres of land attached and enclosed, and with excellent piling grounds and shipping docks adjacent. The mills eontain fiye gang saws, one large circular saw for cutting building timber, also saws for cutting laths, clapboards, &c. The capacity of these mills from May 1st to December Ist, is thirty million feet ; the quantity usually cut averaging from sixteen to twenty-five millions. The timber limits belonging to this firm are situated on the river Madawaska, and are six in number, containing in all 275 square miles. There are three farms on the limits, well stocked with cattle and provided with convenient buildings, offices, &c. The main depotis at Griffith, Renfrew, where there is a Post Office, also a general store, blacksmith and carpenter shops, &c.
The average number of men employed all the year round ranges from 250 to 300 exclusive of those employed in freighting lumber away.
The Gatineau Mills, belonging to Messrs, Gil- mour & Co., are situated at the village of Chelsea, about eight miles from the city of Ottawa arn nine miles from the junction of the Gatineau with the Ottawa river. The scenery above and below the mills js exceedingly romantic and beautiful—four or five rapids and cascades, and sloping banks to th® water's edge, covered with trees and foliage, render this portion of the river most picturesque and charm- ing. The mills are situated on the south bank of the
Gatineau above the high falls, and are surround-
1 16 THE LUMBER TRADS#,
ed by a series of booms and works of great magni- tude, upon which immense sums have been expended. The whole of the saw-logs which descend the Gati- neau are caugat in these booms, and a very faint idea can be conveyed to a stranger of the immense amount of skill required to separate those belonging
to the Gatineau Mills from those belonging to differ- ent manufacturers below.
During the summer this point of the river pre- sents a scene of bustle and animation of the most ex- traordinary kind, and as the firm employs literally an army of workmen, the scene can be better ima- gined than described.
Below the booms, the worst point of the river has to be encountered by the logs descending the stream, and it is frequently enlivened by the appear- ance of perfect islands of stranded timber, technically called jams, and the efforts of the owners to set them afloat exhibit scenes of daring and endurance seldom witnessed elsewhere.
The mills belonging to Messrs. Gilmour & Oo., consist of two large substantial buildings, and a smaller mill for preparing lumber for the American market, and they were commenced about thirty yearsago. The water power used is equal to about five hundred horse power. There are 13 saw gates containing about 220 saws; and twenty edging, butting and re-sawing circular saws. These mills will manufacture 230,000 feet, board measure, in eleven hours, or about 85 millions of feet per season. About one-third ofthis lumber is cut for the Quebec
THE LUMBER TRADE, 1 17
market, and the balance for the United States. At- tached to the mills there are about three miles of wooden canal for conveying the sawn lumber to the piling grounds. Messrs. Gilmour & Oo. possess tim- ber limits to the extent of 1,700 square miles, whence they obtain the requisite number of saw-logs to sup- ply these extensive worls, and 1,000 men receive employment from them during winter and 500 in summer, including lumbermen, farmers, surveyors, &c., &c. They also employ 250 spans of horses and 80 yokes of oxen ; and during each season they con- sume 40,000 bushels of oats, 690 tons of hay, 1,500 barrels of pork, and 3,000 barrels of flor, besides large quantities of clothing, boots, shoes, tea, tobacco, blankets, &c., &c., &c. These mills are amongst the most celebrated in the country, not only for the ro- mantic beauty of the sur.ounding scenery, but for the perfection of the machinery employed and the order and good management exhibited throughout them.
We must not omit to mention that upon their timber limits this firm has no less than nine farms comprising in all about 1,500 acres ; the land is ex- cellent; as much as fifty bushels of wheat to the tere having been raised some seasons. Of course this is above the average, but the yield is generally excellent. The whole of the produce of these farms is consumed by the employees of the firm. On the banks of the river Gatineau they have four principal depots, from which supplies are sent to the lumber- men at work in the woods. One of these is distant upwards of 200 miles from Ottawa. This firm pays
| 18 THE LUMBER TRADE,
from $275,000 to $380,000 in wages annually. Mr. Mather is, and has been for some years the Manager of the Gatineau Mills.
The mills and limits formerly owned by Messrs. Thomson & Co., Buckingham, are now the property of Messrs. Le Moyne, Gibb & Co. One of the part- ners, Mr. McPherson LeMoyne resides at Buck- ingham, and personally superintends the whole business ; he was also the managing partner in the late firm of Thompson & Co.
These Mills are situated onthe river Dv Lievre, about four miles back from the Ottawa river, and in conjunction with the mills belonging to Messrs, Jas. Maclaren & Co., on the opposite side of the river, have control of one of the finest water powers in Oanada ; the falls are 70 feet in height, and the river Lievre being very deep and supplied by many large lakesin the north, there never is any scarcity of water, even in the driest summers’ The timber lands and limits on the west side of the Lievre are
held by LeMoyne, Gibb & Co., and those on the east by James Maclaren & Co,
The mills, which are quite new, having just been rebuilt, are of large size and fitted with every modern improvement, to save labour and to do good sawing; they have already cut up 125,000 logs be- tween the 15th May and the 15th October. The business done at present is about 200,000 logs a year, which are sawn almost entirely mto 8-inch deals for the Quebec market. A slide over two miles in length “eonveys the timber from the mills to the Basin, where
THE LUMBER TRADE, 119
the thin lumber is taken out and piled, and the deals are run into the water and rafted up into cribs,
All the logs sawed at these mills are made on the tributaries of the River du Lievre, which drains an immense extent of country. The two firms that work on this river have, at their own expense, built very expensive slides to pass their logs over different falls, and also constructed many booms, piers, &c., at different points, the Government never haying ex- pended anything on the River du Lievre for im- provements of any kind, though the public have for very many years derived a large revenue from it.
Hamilton & Co., Hawkesbury Mills, is one of the largest of the great milling establishments of the Ottawa Valley. It is situated about 60 miles from Ottawa city, on the south shore of the river, nes ine head of the Grenville Rapids. There are included in this establishment, four saw-mills, together with a grist mill, with four runs of stone, for the production of tiour for the use of the raftsmen, shantymen, and other employées, as well as for the neighbouring far- mers. The mills contain 101 vertical saws and 44 circular saws, driven by 72 water wheels, ond turn out from 35,000,000 to 42,000,000 feet of lumber per annum. About five hundred men and boys are em- ployed constantly by the firm at Hawkesbury alone, in summer. Some conception of the immense ex- tent of the operations of this firm may be formed when we say that more than 3,000 tons of agricul- tural produce are consumed annually.
The Honourable John Hamilton resides at
THE LUMBER TRADE,
120 Hawkesbury ; and the whole village and establish- ment bear evident signs of opulence and comfort.
The limits from which these mills obtain their supply of timber are situated principally upon the rivers Rouge, Gatineau, and Ju Moine. Messrs. Hamilton & Co. bring down from their limits 200,- 000 logs, on an average, annually.
ia tit fh Ba ie oo¥ He Ar
CHAPTER VIII
@onelusion—Ottawa o Field for Immigration—Bouchette’s prediction of Canada’s Futurs—Finis.
Ottawa, as the capital of a Dominion, the future greatness of which it is almost impossible to predict, was the original field on which emigration experi- ments were made. It was to this