HISTORY OF THE COUNTY : OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON
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BY WALTER S. HERRINGTON,,. K.C.,
AUTHOR OF ‘‘ HEROINES OF CANADIAN HISTORY,” ‘‘ MARTYRS OF NEW FRANCE,” ‘‘ THE EVOLUTION OF THE PRAIRIE PROVINCES.”
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ILLUSTRATED WITH EIGHTY-THREE HALF-TONES, TAKEN FROM DAGUERREOTYPES AND PHOTOGRAPHS
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CANADA, LIMITED
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COPYRIGHT, CANADA, 1913, BY W. S. HERRINGTON, K.C.
CONTENTS
| CHAPTER PAGE | I. Wuewn tie County was A WILDERNESS ...-+++++> I ' II. THe CoMING oF THE LOYALISTS .......-++0+0 0055 17 III. Tue Serr.inc oF THE LOYALISTS ....+++++++e0++5 36 ’ IV. Tue DevetopMENtT OF MuNictpAL GOVERNMENT... 54 ’ V. TRADESMEN, PRODUCTS AND PRICES .......+--++5+: 73 ‘ VI. THe CouNTY SCHOOLS .....-. eee e neers eet eeees 97 | VII. ADoLPHUSTOWN ...... Kay da Ziel wn gehts 135 VIII. ERNESTTOWN AND BATH ..:....00000ceeeeseeeeees 152 IX. FREDERICKSBURGH «22. .50. ccc es eee lees eens ce ces 182 A eaeeeed TS ANDi: . oe antic to Rowen usc Vee wenceres 189 KE "PRC MO ND a oop erie tag vos os 6 TFC Ae CLs ee 203 XII. THE BEGINNING OF NAPANEE .......---2 0002 eeeee 208 XIIT. THe Growth oF NAPANEE .......---20-s-seeeees 221 XIV. REMINISCENCES OF NAPANEE ......---0-++eeeees: 234 P XV. Diversions AND RECREATIONS OF NAPANEE....---- 248 7 XVI BANKS AND BANKING .. 23065 008 ese eens onc eel 255 XVII. NAPANEE CHURCHES ......-- 2. eee cee ere eereeeees 262 XVIII. Napanee NEWSPAPERS ........ 0000. e eee ccc ees 270 XIX. CAMDEN AND NEWBURGH.........0. cee eeeeeeeees 283 XX. SHEFFIELD AND THE NorTHERN TOWNSHIPS ...... 326 XXI. BrocRaAPHIcaL SKETCHES .......--+--+-++- Pre ee 348 TEN, . ce aks 84 96 Cte cs ES So eee "go
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE The County of Lennox and Addington ...........++++ Frontispiece ‘Specimens of Indian Relics from the Collection of Walter Clark 1 Pirie. Lerinox Agms 55.0 case sie id ew tacn outs hen peneepemen 17 The Addingtan: Arms. oi. secs pede eesce me reebieet as heh ee 17 A Commission, from: Sir Isagc Brock «3. 252s. wsiwe cess 32 Mills on the Appanee River, from the Drawing by Mrs. Simcoe,
5) SOR NT TRE CEs RET eT CE cee Lire ce ey 33 The Macpherson Mill at Napanee... . ......sn2ecccctnecen slots 33 Minutes of the First Town Meeting of Adolphustown....... 48 Hay Bay Methodist Church, Built 1792..........+--+.-055 48 Pe Nerd. FIDE), OGCNEE 5 5.5550 Sis = vid o's ndes 49.0 08 ee Wie Ed Bote 97 Logging on the Napanee River ...........500ceceeeeeeeees 97 Pree Log SCHOOL PROMS. 05.6 55 bes xs dean haa aee se - dee 112 Continuation. School, ‘Tanmuwortli .. ....<.00<. os. scan deere a sen 112 The Langhorn Residence, Bath ..... te CNET ELON TE ek. 129 ie Fone avert. Bath osc ce ugs fs oie ass ons pe te amo ae’ 129 Rg Oy fe Pee Dre eee REP ee 144 Eo Gey (a Pe et ae ee cee 144 The Switzerville Chapel, Built 1826 ............. Wee ee 144 The U. E. L. Monument, Adolphustown..............-..45. 149 ee Panl’s- Church, Adolphuttowi® .. 2.3 6s... seo sde ee ees 149
_ The hagas Residence, CST Beh ee a ee ee 156
viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS x ee PAGE
The Old Red Tavern, Napanee ................ IG vce ree 209 Archibald McNeil Residence, Clarkville ................... 224 Allan Macpherson Residence, Napanee .................-.- (224 David Roblin... 6005...) . oa ee 229 Benjamin C. DANY. src: teh see Sane BPR John “Herring © 21. i. 22.5. in oe eee 229. ei od: a re ANE Ee SU 229 Allan Maepherson 3, ¢:\/.. <5... <a 24 eenn a eee Betis 8 236 George HH. Detlor: ...abs.3 Anja cane ones ee ee e236 Alexander Campbell oi jae ds vctee oe co fee ee 236 Wiailami- Grate 5 ao hee pais ae cade pe 236 Sir John A. Macdonald at Napanee, 1877.................. 241 Napasice Snow-Shoe Club, 1886005... viv icaeew ea wos cais 241 The First Registry Office of Lennox and Addington, Millhaven 256 Promissory: Notes, Free, Holders Bank* >. 00:36:20 e.wh os oe 256 Rev, peeberd Ovens? .. 5st 8 3 oss cle Go ale eae vanes 261 ey: De. ermatd Laider i005 «s,s eatens wee mae a eee St. Mary Magdalene Church, Napanee, 1840-1872 .......... 261 Rev. Paul Shirley ..:........ Wsatdands saNa KS tee ee eo oem 268 — Rey -Cyris tk. AMison: > es .G ee cay eck lay Peis aoe a 268
» Bev; Father Browne (4600. cca, ie ce lecs s ls oe 268 Revs John -Se0tt= ose os ey ides Pcie ee sities sg ieee gatas iat. e) 268 Lennox and Addington Newspapers ............ AER's Snot ee The. Academy: Newbuteh 4.2500 ilu ns acne teres, eee 288 The Aeatieny, (Napanee AiG fis coe ov ee eeu ok ae 288 UTE MS faa Ay Creer ec ry Bere, Mert oe Or ER MRE 309 AINSE AV VOREELED talks So ais hae nw ne eee See oe et ee 309 ia Vatines (Alert Shei carats sean hoe SEV OS RIES ee 309 RSCG Es LEP at ny Po ab te eae ee ter ao ae 309 Pi OR OLEVERSON: 5 4h o 40s Ss shy tne os as cee 316 > Augustus Hooper ..... Pe se ree: vee ae 316
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Sir John A. Macdonald .......... Pe BE ae ae 336
Sir Richard Cartwright ...... ng CORA ad dee aT hate 336 ees N. Lapin... 6... sve wdg ie aya ebm rece eee Sane 330 Wittam EH. Wilkison i:<.....-.snd¢alle toaseane hae cons 353 Pahiel Powlér . .. os 65.55.05 pea wee ee wnle VAs eee 353 Captain Thomas Dorland ...... ins eee apea Ware Geen Meee 353 Ribert. Philling: ic csmnces pees 00 bs cane Menmahd e TEE 353 Sir Gibett: Parker BCBG. 65 cians ends acneepeae esse 368 Hon. Sir Allen Aylesworth, K.C.M.G............002eeeeees 368 Cities Gennite James; CMG cr soe oc ees ies era tice 368 Matthew Joseph Butler, C.M.G. 2.0 cic eee ace eee trees 308 Officers and Trophy Team, Napanee Curling Club, 1902...... 369 County Council of 1908 and others ............--.eeee eens 384 Silver Leaf Baseball Club, 1874-1878..............-0 20005: 385 Napanee Cricket Club at Syracuse, 1886 ........ Pe AP eae 400 Bieiice icvile. Club SROO (655 o45 wired ong ected whee chs 404 The Staff, The Napanee Standard, 1878......... gas 2 5 EN 404
Members of the Board of Education, Napanee, 1890-1893.... 413 Napanee Collegiate Institute Football Team, 1905.......... 417
PREFACE
Had I not consented to undertake the task of writing a history of Lennox and Addington, before I began to look about me for material, | would probably not have given that consent quite so readily. Those only who have attempted a work of this character can appreciate the difficulties that lie in the way of the amateur historian. Many hours of fruitless research may often be spent in an effort to fix a date or to ascertain a name, and very frequently what appears to be reliable author- ity may upon closer examination be found to be far astray in the inform- ation so confidently communicated. All the depositories appeared to be empty, many of the old residents had recently departed this life, and such records as could be found were very incomplete. Old minute books which had served their original purpose have been destroyed or are still concealed among the rubbish of some unknown attic. If municipal clerks and secretaries of public bodies had only been taught to preserve all the books and documents appertaining to their office the work of the historian would be greatly lightened. Yet with the assistance of many willing helpers I have endeavoured to unearth all the available data that I considered within the scope of my inquiry.
To Mr. Clarence M. Warner, President of the Lennox and Adding- ton Historical Society, I desire especially to acknowledge my gratitude for his never failing courtesy in placing at my disposal his own well selected library and the files of the Society. He has directed my atten- tion to many items that otherwise would have escaped my notice. I received many valuable suggestions from Prof. W. L. Grant of Queen’s University. I am also deeply indebted to the gentlemen whose papers are reproduced in this volume, namely: Mr. E. R. Checkley, Geo. Anson Aylesworth, Paul Stein, and J. P. Lochhead. The following have also cheerfully rendered all the assistance in their power :—Robert Cox, A. C. Warner, C. R. Jones, P. F. Carscallen, P. W. Dafoe, Daniel Davern, Dr. H. S. Northmore, Ira Hudgins, Jno. A. Timmerman, T. S. Henry, Alfred Knight, Jno. M. Wallace, Jno. T. Grange, Abraham E. Loucks, Isaac Lockwood, E. O. Clark, Miss Helen Merrill, James _ S. Cartwright, K.C., and Rev. James Cumberland. In short, on every hand where I have sought for information I have found an eager- hess to help. But for such encouragement I would long ago have felt _ disposed to abandon the undertaking. My thanks are due to the Hon-
Xi PREFACE
ourable the Minister of Education, for his kind permission to use the extracts from the Documentary History of Education in Upper Canada which appear in the chapter upon the early schools. I have also con- sulted and obtained much useful information from the following works: —Picturesque Canada, Nothing But Names, Centennial of Canadian Methodism, The Settlement of Upper Canada, The Makers of Canada, the Ontario Bureau of Archives Reports, The Loyalists of America and Their Times, The Medical Profession In Upper Canada, The Emigrant’s Guide to Upper Canada, the Statutes of Upper Canada, A Compendious History of the Rise and Progress of the Methodist Church, the files of the Napanee Standard and the Napanee Beaver, and many other author- ities dealing with the early history of the Province.
Doubtless many readers will think that some important events have been but lightly touched upon, and some may venture the criticism that undue prominence has been given. to others. In reply to the former I may say that I have endeavoured to make the most of the material at my command, and I would remind the latter that it is very difficult to measure the importance of preserving some apparently trifling bit of history. Above everything else I have aimed at accuracy, and while many errors may have crept in unobserved, I feel confident that the general statements of facts are upon the whole correct.
I have been singularly fortunate in securing photographs of many of the county’s most celebrated men. Some of these are copies from daguerreotypes, and others from faded photographs which are not in suitable condition for reproduction ; but I feel that it is better to preserve
imperfect likenesses of such men as Samuel Casey and Peter Perry
than allow the opportunity to pass and lose all knowledge of their per- sonal appearance.
W. S. HERRINGTON
Napanee, Ont., July Ist, 1913.
SPECIMENS OF INDIAN RELICS FROM THE COLLECTION OF MR. WALTER CLARK.
WHEN THE COUNTY WAS A WILDERNESS 1
CHAPTER I
WHEN THE COUNTY WAS A WILDERNESS
We have no reason to believe that our county was at any time the permanent home of the red man, though from the relics that have been found we know that he frequently roamed over it in his hunting expedi- tions and temporarily camped within its limits. We have not been able to find traces of extensive burial places or fortifications such as have been discovered in other localities, where the Indians were known to have resided in large numbers for years at a time. The history of Len- nox and Addington is thus a blank until the advent of the white men, and the first European to set foot upon our soil was none other than Champlain himself. In the autumn of 1615 he came down the Trent River with his Huron allies, followed the Bay of Quinte to its mouth, crossed the head of Lake Ontario, and entered the Mohawk Valley to make war upon the Iroquois. Returning from this unsuccessful venture, they wintered somewhere in this district, spending several weeks in a grand deer hunt. r
The exact route followed by the explorers after re-crossing the lake has been the subject of much controversy. We have advocates ready to uphold the claims of Cataraqui River as being the stream which they ascended, while others just as zealously award the distinction to Hay Bay, Napanee River, and Salmon River. Champlain has told the story himself, and I cannot do better than give his own words as trans- lated by Annie Nettleton Bourne. Having concluded the description of their retreat from the country of the Iroquois he continues: “After having crossed the end of the Lake (Ontario) from the Island before mentioned we went up a river about twelve leagues; then they carried their canoes by land half a league, at the end of which we entered a lake some ten or twelve leagues in circumference where there was a great quantity of game, such as swans, white cranes, bustards, wild geese, ducks, teal, thrushes, larks, snipe, geese, and several other kinds of birds too numerous to mention, of which I killed a great number, which stood us in good stead while we waited for some deer to be caught.
“From there we went to a certain place ten leagues off, where our savages thought there were a great many of them. Twenty-five savages
got together and set about building two or three cabins of logs of wood,
laid one upon another and they stopped up the chinks,with moss to pré-
g HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON
vent the air from coming in, covering them with barks of trees. When this was done they went into the woods near a grove of firs where they made an inclosure in the form of a triangle closed on two sides and open on one. This inclosure was made by a stockade eight or nine feet high and about 1,500 paces long on each side: at the apex of this triangle there was a little yard which grew narrower and narrower, covered in part by branches leaving an opening of only five feet, about the width of an ordinary door, by which the deer were to enter (this yard). They did so well that in less than ten days they had the inclosure ready. Mean- while some other savages had gone fishing for such fish as trout and pike of immense size which were all that were needed. When everything was ready they started half an hour before daylight to go into the woods about half a league from their inclosure, separated from each other eighty paces, each having two sticks which they beat together, marching slowly in their order until they came to their inclosure. When the deer hear this noise they flee before them until they reach the inclosure, into which the savages drive them and gradually they come together at the opening of their triangle, where the deer move along the sides of the stockade until they reach the end, towards which the savages pursue them sharply, with bow and arrow in hand, ready to shoot. And when they reach the end of their triangle they begin to shoot and to imitate wolves, which are plentiful and which devour the deer. The deer, hear- ing this frightful noise, are obliged to enter the small yard by the narrow opening, whither they are pursued in a very lively fashion by arrow shots, and there they are easily caught; for this yard is so well -inclosed and so confined that they cannot get out of it.
“There is great sport in such hunting, which they continued every two days so successfully that in thirty-eight days they captured 120 deer, from which they feasted well, reserving the fat for winter, which they use as we do butter, and a little of the flesh which they carry off to their houses to have for feasts with one another, and from the skins they make themselves clothes. There are other devices for catching deer, such as the snare, with which they take the lives of many. . . . . This is how we passed the time while waiting for it to freeze, so that we might go back more easily, since the country is very marshy.
“Tn the beginning, when we set out for the hunt, I went off too far into the woods in pursuing a certain bird, which seemed strange to me. It had a beak like that of a parrot and was as big as a hen and was yellow all over except for its head which was red and its wings which were blue. It made short flights like a partridge. My desire to kill it led me to follow it from tree to tree a very long time, until it flew away. Then losing all hope I wished to return my steps when I found none of
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WHEN THE COUNTY WAS A WILDERNESS 3
our hunters, who had been constantly gaining upon me until they had reached their inclosure. In trying to catch up with them, going, as it seemed to me, straight to where the inclosure was, I lost my way in the forest—going now one way, now another—without being able to see where I was. As night was coming on I passed it at the foot ot a large tree.
“The next day I set out and walked until three o’clock in the after- noon, when I found a little stagnant pond and seeing some geese there I killed three or four birds. Tired and worn out I prepared to rest and cook these birds, from which I made a good meal. My repast over, I thought to myself what I ought to do, praying God to aid me in my mis- fortune: for during three days there was nothing but rain mingled with snow.
“Committing all to His mercy, I took courage more than before, going hither and thither all day without catching a glimpse of any foot- print or trail, except those of wild beasts, of which I generally saw a good number: and so I passed the night without any consolation. At dawn of the next day, after having a scant meal, I resolved to find some brook and follow it, judging that it must needs empty into the river on whose banks our hunters were. This resolution once made I put it through with such success that at noon I found myself on the shores of a small lake about a league and a half long, where I killed some game which helped me very much; and I still had eight or ten charges of powder. Walking along the bank of this lake to see where it discharges, I found a rather large brook, which I followed until five o’clock in the afternoon when I heard a great noise. Listening I could not discover what it was until I heard the noise more distinctly, and then I concluded that it was a waterfall in the river that I was looking for. Going nearer I saw an opening, and when I had reached it, I found myself in a very large, spacious meadow where there were a great many wild animals, And looking on my right, I saw the river wide and big. Wishing to examine this place, and walking in the meadow I found myself in a little path where the savages carry their canoes. When I
had examined this place well, I recognized that it was the same river,
and that I had been that way. Well pleased at this, I supped on the little that I had and lay down for the night. When morning came and I had studied the place where I was, I inferred from certain mountains that are on the border of that river that I was not mistaken and that our hunters must be higher up than I by four or five good leagues, which I covered at my leisure, going along the bank of this river till I caught _ sight of the smoke of our hunters. I reached this place, greatly to their happiness as well as to my own.”
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4 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON
This brief narration of the experiences of the first white visitor to this district is full of interest. We can form an idea of the abundance of game when we consider that 120 deer were captured within the area embraced by the stockades, which would not be more than 300 or 400 acres at the most. This fact would also indicate that there was no extensive settlement in the neighbourhood. The trail of the portage referred to by Champlain would point to a well defined route probably used in reaching their famous hunting-grounds and lakes teeming with fish. No clue, however, is furnished as to the point where he entered this territory after re-crossing the lake upon their retreat from the Mohawk Valley, although he refers to the “island before mentioned ;” for no single island is referred to in the narrative. In describing the trip across the lake on their way to the land of the Iroquois he uses the following language: “When we arrived there we went across the eastern end (of Lake Ontario) which is the entrance to the great River St. Law- rence at Latitude Forty-three where there are some beautiful and very large islands.” It is not clear therefore which of these large islands he passed upon the return trip. It is reasonable to suppose that the river they ascended after re-crossing the lake was the Cataraqui (Rideau) for there is no other answering the description. It has been urged by some that he regards the bay as a river and that he came up this bay; but this theory will not hold, for no portage of half a league from the shore of the bay would bring them to a lake “ten or twelve leagues in circum- ference.” ‘The theory that Hay Bay is referred to may also be dismissed for they could not go up Hay Bay “about twelve leagues.” The descrip- tion of his route also negatives the suggestion made by some writers that he ascended the Napanee or the Salmon River. Thus by a process ‘of elimination and by giving to his words their clear and obvious mean- ing, we cannot arrive at any other conclusion than that the river he ascended after crossing the end of the lake was the river at the mouth of which he would find himself, the Cataraqui. Making due allowance for the distances which he gives, and, bearing in mind that the league referred to by him is the equivalent of two and one-half English sig let us open our maps and follow him in his wanderings.
Going up the Cataraqui, the only lake in any way answering Cham- plain’s description is Lake Loughborough, and the leagues would be pretty short ones. As the ultimate destination of the party was Lake Simcoe they would naturally work their way along in a north-westerly direction. The cabins were built upon the banks of a river ten leagues distant. I find great difficulty in fixing any spot upon the Napanee River that can in any way be identified as the location of this encampment. I would
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WHEN THE COUNTY WAS A WILDERNESS 5
rather suggest the Salmon as the river referred to, and the point where they took up their temporary abode as somewhere between Long Lake and Crotch Lake. I would further suggest that the noise which he concluded was a waterfall was made by the rapids at Tamworth. He does not say thére was a waterfall but that he was attracted by a noise which he concluded was a waterfall, and when he approached the place from which the noise came he saw an opening and found himself in a very large spacious meadow, and he saw the river wide and big. After the autumn rains, when the Salmon River would be swollen it would appear “wide and big” above the rapids at Tamworth. He would also recognize it as the same river which he had passed on his way to the site of their encampment above Long Lake. By studying the location, as he did on the following morning, probably from a tree top, he would be able to discern in the distance the “mountains that are on the border of that river” and satisfy himself that the hunters were higher up by “four or five good leagues.” In his wanderings about this region, while hunt- ing for his companions, he would easily come across several bodies of water corresponding with the “small lake about a league and a half long.” I am aware that this theory is not altogether free from objec- tions, but I submit that the identifications which I suggest are quite consistent with the narrative, and that in following out his course I have done less violence to the description given by Champlain than will be encountered in the other theories brought under my notice. While it would be satisfactory to be able to point out the exact spot where Champlain and his party built their cabins, it is not probable we will ever be able to do so; but practically all authorities agree that it was within or at least very near to the present limits of our county.
For the fifty years following the expedition of the Hurons into the land of the Iroquois, this section of the country appears to have attracted little, if any, attention. The feud between these fierce tribes continued until the Hurons were almost exterminated and the Jesuit mission among them abandoned. During this period, the Five Nations, ‘forming the allied Iroquois confederation, had confined themselves to the territory south of Lake Ontario except when away upon their trad- ing, hunting, or war expeditions. Several years after the dispersal of the Hurons a band of Cayugas had crossed the lake and established a colony on the south side of Prince Edward County. Their village was called Kenté and the small body of water upon which it was located was later called Lac de Kenté by the French. Historians differ as to the site of this village, some contending that it was upon West Lake, others advancing as good, if not better reasons to prove that it was at Weller’s
6 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON
These Indians had for many years been more or less accustomed to receive the ministrations of the Catholic Church from the Jesuit missionaries who had been sent among them, and when established in their new home at Kenté they felt the want of the services of the “Black Robes,” as they called the priests, and in 1668 sent a deputation to Mon- treal to petition the authorities to send a missionary to them. As their application did not at first appear to be favourably received the old chief Rohiaria went himself to Montreal in the month of September to urge the needs of his people, with the result that two Sulpicians, MM. Trouvé and Fenelon, volunteered for the service. The great French statesman Jean Baptiste Colbert was at this time the moving spirit in all colonial matters under Louis XIV. He had shown a deep concern for New France and hoped to win the Indians from their savage cus- toms by teaching them the French language and thus bringing them in closer touch with civilization, and had given instructions to Governor ‘Courcelles to do all in his power to further this end. The missionary at this time was recognized, not only as the representative of the Church, but was expected to render certain services to the state also, and in more than one crisis proved himself to be a wise and skilful diplomat. The two Sulpicians, therefore, upon receiving the consent of their Superior to engage in the new enterprise, hastened to Quebec, obtained their appointment from Bishop Laval, and their credentials from the civil gov- ernment.
These were the first official steps taken by the church and state to care for the wants of the inhabitants of the Midland District of Ontario and we have no occasion to be ashamed of the first representa- tives set in authority over this territory. Father Fenelon was a young man of noble birth, son of Count Fenelon-Salignac and brother of the great Archbishop of Cambray. We may rightfully boast of the many great men who have lived in the counties bordering on the Bay of Quinte; but we recall none of better lineage and fairer parts than this modest and pious Sulpician, who freely abandoned a life of comfort and luxury in France to devote his means and talents to assist in redeeming the pagan Indians of New France. It was a long move from the Court of King Louis to the wilderness of Canada, but he gladly embraced the opportunity and, full of hope and determination, completed his prepara- tions for the journey to the new field that opened up for him at the Cayuga village.
Everything was in readiness on October 2nd, and the two priests set out from Lachine accompanied by two Cayuga guides. It was a long and tedious paddle and one that most young men not accus- tomed to the hardships of pioneer life would seek to escape; but the
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> WHEN THE COUNTY WAS A WILDERNESS 7
Sulpicians bore their full share of the burden and arrived at the appointed post on October the 28th. Tired and hungry they were wel- comed by the Cayugas, who regaled them with a repast of pumpkins fried in suet and varied the menu on the following day by a dish of corn and sunflower seeds. They at once entered upon their duties, making their headquarters at Kenté, from which their field of labour was known as the Kenté mission. So closely was this associated with that body of water, over which they frequently paddled, that in the course of time the name of the village was transferred to the bay, and in Quinte we retain to-day a corrupted form of the word “Kenté.”
Not content labouring in one place alone, the missionaries sought to extend their sphere of usefulness by establishing outposts at convenient points. One of these was at Frenchman’s Bay, the lake shore port of the town of Whitby, another at Ganeraski, the site of the present town of Port Hope, and the third, Ganneious, has generally been conceded to have been in this county, somewhere upon the Napanee River not far from its mouth, which would indicate that at this time there must have been at least some scattered Indian lodges along the bay. The necessity for living in villages was not so urgent among these representatives of the Iroquois who had crossed the lake to settle on the north shore, as it was among the Hurons and Algonquins fifty years before. There was no one to wage war upon the new arrivals in this part of the country and large communities no longer required to live together for the pur- pose of defence. Except for such general hunts as were described by Champlain, an isolated family could provide itself with game more easily if living apart from its fellows in some secluded cove or sheltered spot. There does not appear to have been any successful effort to fix with certainty the location of this outpost, probably because there is so little data from which to deduce any conclusion. Through the efforts of the zealous Jesuit Father the Rev. A. E. Jones, S.J., nearly every village and mission house of Huronia has been located; but there the structures were upon a more extended scale than we would expect in the case of a new mission station. It has been recently contended that Ganneious was on the Fredericksburgh side near the mouth of the river, and it is claimed that there still exist upon the farm of Ezra Hambly traces of the foundation of the building erected by Fenelon and his companions.
France had been bitterly disappointed at her failure to subdue the Indians, and severe criticisms had been made of the methods of the Jesuits in endeavouring to teach the Indians in their native tongue, instead of instructing them in the French language, which it was claimed was the surest road to civilization. Thus did these arm-chair
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8 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON
critics in Paris sit in judgment upon the holy fathers, who had laid down their lives for the cause that was so dear to their hearts. Little did the courtiers know of the wide gulf that separated the savage from the white man. Champlain, through his unfortunate alliance with the Hurons and Algonquins, had added more fuel to the fire of hatred that burned within the breasts of the Iroquois, who vowed a terrible ven- geance not only upon their hereditary enemies, but upon the white men who had humbled their pride, slain their chiefs, and invaded their terri- tory; and nothing would satiate their thirst for the blood of their rivals but the complete extermination of the tribes opposed to them.
The history of the world has recorded the incompatibility of the sword and cross advancing hand in hand, and the task of the Jesuits, difficult enough at its best, was rendered much more so by reason of the attacks of the French upon the Iroquois at the very beginning of their attempt to colonize New France. The messengers of peace, not through the assistance of the representatives of the crown, but in spite of the unwise policy of the civil authorities, had made substantial pro- gress in their missionary labours among the savages. To no other cause can we attribute the desire of the Cayugas at Kenté to have a missionary sent to them than that the lingering traces of the truths of Christianity that had been instilled in their hearts by such faithful exponents of the Gospel as Father Jogues still influenced them. It was upon this founda- tion laid by him and his fellow labourers, a foundation shattered and torn asunder by the inconsistencies of the representatives of the crown, that the Sulpicians now began anew to build up a faith in the religion of the cross.
To appease the Governor and the Intendant, who had received their instructions from Colbert, a new policy was to be adopted. ‘The Indians were to be taught the French language, and it was hoped that by this means all racial differences would be wiped out, the native tribes would be brought nearer to the superior race, in closer touch with their life, its aims, and ambitions, and that by this new method, light would be admit- ted to the darkness surrounding the pagan soul, trade would be re-estab- lished upon a surer basis, and a colony would spring up that would greatly extend the power of France over the new world. To this end the Sulpicians bent all their energies, and during the long winter even- ings in the stifling atmosphere of a crowded and smoking wigwam the patient fathers imparted to the wondering circle of attentive listeners the mysteries of the new tongue. At Ganneious was established one of their embryo academies, the first step taken towards the creation of an educational system in this district. In the spring of 1669 Fenelon paid a flying visit to Montreal and reported upon his work; and so pleased
——
WHEN THE COUNTY WAS A WILDERNESS 9
were the authorities with the progress he had made that another priest was added to his staff and he returned with M. D’Urfé, who remained with M. Trouvé at Kenté while his Superior proceeded farther west and spent the following winter at Frenchman’s Bay.
The season proved to be the severest ever experienced by the white men in the new world, both for its length and intensity. They were too far removed from Montreal to obtain any succour from that source and, as the colony had been in existence for only four years, the Indians had not been able in their new home north of the lake to raise sufficient food stuff upon the limited quantity of land under cultivation to tide them over until spring. To the bitterness of the keen frost was added the terror of a wasting famine, and the priests shared the miseries of their parishioners by eking out their scanty larder with such game as they could share and such roots as could be dug from the frozen ground. It is generally believ- ed that from the exposure suffered by M. Fenelon during these terrible months his constitution was so shattered that he never fully recovered. For five years he laboured in this district, dividing his time among the various stations of the mission, and penetrating to the north in Victoria County where Fenelon township and Fenelon Falls still bear the name of this ardent young pioneer priest and educationist.
In 1674, shortly after the building of Fort Frontenac, he became involved in an unfortunate quarrel over the appointment of a Governor of Montreal, which seigniory belonged to the Sulpicians, who claimed the right to appoint their own Governor and resented the interference of the Governor of the colony. Quite naturally, Fenelon espoused the cause of his brethren of the Seminary, and with perhaps more courage than prudence, considering the jealousy existing between the civil and ecclesi- astical authorities, he preached the Easter sermon in the Church of the Hotel Dieu at Montreal, and in the course of his remarks pointed out the attributes that should characterize the rule of a God-fearing Gover- nor. Among his congregation was a warm friend of the Governor who was associated with him in some business transactions of the very char- acter which the preacher had denounced. The offending Abbé was summoned before the Council at Quebec, appointees of the Governor, and charged with sedition. He challenged the jurisdiction of this civil tribunal to sit in judgment upon him and the case was eventually car- ried before the King. Fenelon’s objection to the authority of the Coun- cil was sustained ; but for diplomatic reasons, possessing no true merit, he was enjoined from again returning to the mission field. He died a few years after his return to France at the early age of thirty-eight, a natural death it is true, yet none the less a martyr to the cause to
which he so unreservedly devoted his life.
10 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON
While it is generally conceded that Frontenac was a wise and able Governor and possessed of remarkable tact in dealing with the Indians, it is at the same time alleged that he did not scruple to take advantage of the opportunities that came his way to engage in trade to repair his shattered fortunes. The member of Fenelon’s Easter congregation, who resented the insinuations of the pulpit, was none other than Sieur de la Salle, the famous explorer, whose long cherished dream was the dis- covery of a western passage to China. He, like so many of the early adventurers to Canada, was born of wealthy parents and had received a good education. From his elder brother, a priest of St. Sulpice, who . had preceded him to Canada, he had gathered much information of the new world. The priests of the Seminary of St. Sulpice were the feudal lords of Montreal, and in order to facilitate the growth of the settle- ment, they granted large tracts of land to intending settlers. In 1666 La Salle sailed to Canada and obtained from the Sulpicians a grant of land on the bank of the St. Lawrence at the place now known as Lachine. This he parcelled out among a number of settlers, reserving a considerable portion for himself. He soon mastered several Indian languages, preparatory to the great task he seems to have conceived shortly after his arrival in Canada, if, indeed, he had not entertained the idea before he sailed from France. Ever since the travels of Marco Polo in the thirteenth century the wealth of China had attracted the civilized world and it was still believed that a passage would yet be discovered across America that would afford a short route to that land of gold and spices.
La Salle had heard of the Ohio River, which he believed emptied into the Gulf of California, and which would thus solve the problem which had so long perplexed the adventurers in search of this western passage. To explore this river was now his one great object in life to which all his other enterprises were tributary. Such was his burning zeal that to his Seigniory was given in mockery the name of China, known in France as La Chine. Obtaining the consent of the Governor to pursue his explorations he sold his Seigniory at La Chine, purchased and equipped four canoes, and set out on his first expedition. I have dealt elsewhere* with the heroic efforts of La Salle to accomplish his end, and it is not to our present purpose to follow him through all his trying experiences. Suffice it to say, that by 1673, he had satisfied himself that the Mississippi flowed southward into the Gulf of Mexico, and would furnish a direct means of communication with the fertile plains of the interior of the continent, the hunting-grounds along the banks of.its northern tributar- ies, and the shores of the upper lakes. Frontenac, the Governor at this
* Martyrs of New France, page 105
- WHEN THE COUNTY WAS A WILDERNESS ll
time, had, from the time of his arrival, been studying the trade and Indian problem and adopting the recommendation of his predecessors, concluded to erect a fort near the outlet of Lake Ontario, which would serve the double purpose of holding in check the restless Iroquois and
controlling the fur trade of the upper country. La Salle had won the.
confidence of the Governor, who despatched him in advance to locate the site of the new fort, while he made elaborate preparations for his impos- ing trip up the St. Lawrence. The original design was to erect the fort upon the Bay of Quinte and, but for La Salle, who chose the mouth of the Cataraqui instead, Kingston would have been shorn of a portion of her glory and our county would in all probability have enjoyed the distinction of possessing the first military and trading-post in this part of Canada.
There is a general belief, which appears to be well founded, that the Governor saw in this new enterprise an opportunity to reap a rich harvest from the cargoes of furs that would naturally find their way to the new fort, and subsequent developments appear to justify the con- clusion that La Salle expected to enjoy a portion of the profits. In any event the establishment of a post at the foot of the lake was one step in his design and brought a possible base of supplies nearer the scene of his own future operations.
La Salle repaired to Onondaga, the chief village of the Iroquois, to invite them to meet the great Onontio, as the Governor was styled, at the rendezvous upon the banks of the Cataraqui. On July 12th, 1673, Frontenac, arrayed in his richest apparel, the centre of attraction of a flotilla of a hundred and twenty canoes, manned by four hundred follow- ers, was received with great pomp on the site of what is now the Lime- stone City. The following days were spent in outlining the new fort, haranguing the Iroquois, and in council meetings and festivities calcu- lated to inspire them with fear and respect for the Great White Father.
Meanwhile the Frenchmen in the district who were skilled in the use of their tools, set to work felling trees, hewing them into shape, and placing them in position under the direction of the engineer; and to the astonishment of the Iroquois there soon arose the first building on the site of the present City of Kingston, which in honour of its founder was afterwards called Fort Frontenac. There can be no doubt that it served its purpose of keeping the hostile Indians in check, but was not calculated to improve the trade of the country in general, as was quite evident from the storm of opposition raised by the merchants of Quebec. After the ceremonies were concluded and the Iroquais had returned across the lake, a number of representatives from Kenté and Ganneious appeared upon the scene to pay their respects to the Great
12 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON
Onontio, who addressed .them as he had their brethren, exhorting them to live in peace with the French.
It was in the following spring that La Salle so rudely interrupted the Easter sermon of Abbé Fenelon on behalf of his friend the Gover- nor, who was not slow to compensate him for his action. La Salle, armed with strong recommendations from Frontenac, returned to France and petitioned the King for a grant of the fort, upon condi- tion that the petitioner be bound to maintain it in an efficient state of defence, to pay to the Governor the cost incurred in establishing it, to make grants of land to all willing to settle there, to attract thither the greatest number possible of Indians, to induce them to lead lives more conformable to the customs of the white men, and to build a church when the settlement had reached one hundred souls; meanwhile, to entertain one or two Récollet friars to perform Divine service. In short La Salle was to be the feudal lord of this grant, which was to include not only the fort, but four leagues of land along the lake shore westward and the two islands now known as Wolfe and Amherst. To add further dignity to the proprietor he humbly supplicated His Majesty to grant him letters of noblesse in consideration of the voyages and dis- coveries he had made and the services he had rendered to the country. By a decree bearing date May 13th, 1675, the prayer of La Salle, with very slight modifications, was granted by King Louis.
This was the first grant of land in the province of Ontario, and as our Island township was included in the Seigniory it will be seen that that part of our county at least is justly entitled to some distinction. I reluctantly forbear enlarging upon the growth and development of Kings- _ ton which more properly belongs to the history of the adjoining county of Frontenac.*
When Amherst Island first figured in history it was known by the Indian name of Koonenesego and subsequently as Isle de Tonti, so called after the faithful companion of La Salle. So far as known, the only part it played in the programme of La Salle was upon the parchment bear- ing the seal of King Louis, as the plan of colonization of the first settler of Upper Canada was never realized. Had he been content to confine himself to the course mapped out in his petition to the King he could have amassed a fortune from the fur trade, which the advantageous position of the fort would have secured for him; but the obtaining of the Seigniory was but a means towards the accomplishment of the great object of his life. He was first and foremost an explorer, determined to wrest from the unknown west the secrets of its great rivers and
(*) To the reader who desires more enlightenment along this line I can confidently recommend a perusal of Miss Machar's ‘‘ Story of Old Kingston.”
WHEN THE COUNTY WAS A WILDERNESS 13
seas. To this end he directed all his energies, using Fort Frontenac as the first of a series of bases marking his advance into the wilderness. He had the satisfaction, after many reverses and bitter disappointments, of reaching the mouth of the Mississippi and proclaiming the sovereignty of France over all that great territory afterwards known as Louisiana.
Upon his return from this expedition La Salle found that his patron, Frontenac, had been recalled. There had been a long-standing quarrel between the Church and the Governor over the sale of liquor to the In- dians, the Bishops claiming that the natives were debauched through, the traffic, while the Governor upheld the practice as being necessary to retain their trade in furs, advancing the argument that if they could not get brandy from the French they would carry their peltries to the Hudson and exchange them for the rum of the English. The argument of the Bishops prevailed, and La Barre, who had no sympathy with the enter- prise of the western explorer, now ruled as Governor of New France.
Under the pretext that the conditions of the grant had not been ful- filled, he had in the absence of its proprietor sequestered Fort Frontenac. Enraged at this harsh treatment, La Salle sailed for France and laid before the King a plan for establishing a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi and another farther up the banks of the Illinois, which well- conceived plan, if successfully carried out, would have given to France the control of the trade of the interior of the continent. His Majesty favoured the project, rebuked the Governor for his seizure of Fort Frontenac, and bade him return it to its rightful owner.
Full of hope in his new enterprise, La Salle sailed from France for the Gulf of Mexico in July, 1684, fully equipped with four vessels, a hundred soldiers, and a company of mechanics and labourers. In addition to these, thirty volunteers, a number of families to form a colony, and six priests joined the expedition. This ill-fated venture was doomed to almost every form of disaster, and its unfortunate author, after witnessing the loss or departtire of all his ships and most of his followers, was mur- dered on the plains of Texas in a last desperate effort to reach New France overland. No stone or monument marks to-day the last resting- place of the first owner of a portion of the soil of what is now the county of Lennox and Addington.
La Barre had proven himself so incompetent to cope with the situa- tion in the New World that the King, under the pretence of solicitude for his health and advancing years, requested him in 1685 to return to France, acquainting him in the same letter with the appointment of Monsieur de Denonville as his successor. The new Governor was
expected to master the Indian problem, which had been going from bad
14 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON
to worse since the recall of Frontenac. The English were bidding high for the fur trade both at New York and on Hudson Bay, and the Iro- quois were growing restless and defiant. It was claimed by the French that the English resorted to every artifice, not only to intercept the trade on its way to the warehouses of Quebec, but to stir up the Iroquois to attack the French colonies.
In 1687, after receiving reinforcements from France, Denonville resolved to strike a blow at the Iroquois, calculated not only to subdue them but to regain the confidence of the western tribes, whose trade was slowly finding its way to the English. At the inception of his campaign he practised.a deception upon his enemies which his warmest supporters never seriously attempted to justify. Setting out for Fort Frontenac with a strong force he sent messengers among the Iroquois inviting them to a feast and friendly conference at the fort. The missionary, Lamber- ville, believing that the Governor merely intended to follow the course pursued by Frontenac at the building of the fort, prevailed upon many of the chiefs and their families to cross the lake to meet Denonville and, no sooner were they within the palisades than they were captured, and the able-bodied warriors deported to France as galley slaves. The Indians, with a more delicate sense of honour than that shown by their treacherous Governor, did not visit their vengeance upon the missionary, who was still in their power, but, knowing that he had been deceived as well as themselves, they permitted him to escape to his fellow-country- men.
Among the number ensnared by this disgraceful artifice of Denon- ville were the leading representatives of the villages of Kenté and Gan- neious; in fact, some eighteen men and sixty women and children were made prisoners at the latter village while pursuing their peaceful occu- pations. During these years of strife they had remained neutral, living on friendly terms with the garrison at Cataraqui, for whom they hunted and fished, receiving in return such merchandise as the French were able to supply them. Although the Governor in his subsequent invasion of the Mohawk valley achieved a signal victory against the Iroquois, the honour of his achievement was robbed of its glory. The unoffending villagers, who had been instructed in the white man’s code of honour by Fenelon and his successors, fell easy victims to the trap that was laid for them. The apparent advantage gained at the time was more than offset by the years of bitter warfare which followed, culminating in the terrible massacre at Lachine. The good work of the missionaries was undone; and the Kenté villages, which might, under the fostering care of a prudent Governor, have developed into thriving colonies in this and
WHEN THE COUNTY WAS A WILDERNESS 15
the adjoining counties, no longer trusting to the promises of the white men appear to have faded away, probably to join their brethren across the lake. By 1689 the fate of New France was hanging by a very slen- der thread. The motherland was at war with England and the colonists of Canada were terrorized by the raids of the bloodthirsty Iroquois. _ Trade was paralyzed, the English were gaining ground in every direc- tion, and the colony appeared to be doomed. All eyes turned to Fron- tenac as the one man capable of coping with the situation. He was now in his seventieth year; but when appealed to by the King to assume command again in the colony, he consented. One of the last acts of Denonville was to order the destruction of Fort Frontenac, which order the new Governor sought too late to countermand. It was dismantled and blown up, to be rebuilt again in 1696 by its founder, who recognized its strategic position. :
The century following the return of Frontenac to New France was a period fraught with events of momentous importance to Canada; but our local territory was far removed from the principal scenes of action, and we hasten on to a time when our history begins to have a local colour.
It may well be asked what transpired in this part of the country during this long period of nearly one hundred years from the capture of the Indians at Ganneious to the arrival of the United Empire Loyalists. That the traders and Indians frequently passed this way along the waters of the Bay of Quinte there can be no doubt. It is equally probable, in fact almost certain, that the red man traversed these townships in pur- suit of game, camping in favourite spots perhaps for weeks at a time, and returning again to the same haunts in successive years; but no event
Fs of historic importance appears to have transpired within the limits of the county. Relics have been found in various parts of the county, but | not in sufficient quantities to justify the conclusion that at any time :7 prior to the advent of the Loyalists had there ever been a settlement of | any consequence. The collection gathered by Mr. Walter Clark of Ernesttown and now in the possession of the Lennox and Addington Historical Society consists of such articles as might, from year to year, be lost or cast aside in the chase or carelessly left behind when shifting a temporary camp from place to place. This excellent collection, the only one in the county worthy of the name, consists of arrow-heads, axes, pipes, spear heads, pestles, and ornaments, the result of a syste- matic search extending over a period of thirty years. With commendable pride and enthusiasm Mr. Clark recounts his experiences in gathering
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16 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON —
these were found upon or near the banks of Big Creek in the Fifth Concession of Ernesttown, and Mr. Clark is of opinion that they do not indicate the location of a village, but a temporary camping-ground of Indians engaged in the chase or some other peaceful pursuit. These hunting-grounds could be reached by canoe, entering the mouth of Big Creek at the head of Hay Bay, and that is probably the route that was taken.
; a ie = so many valuable relics of the aborigines of the county. Nearly all of
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THE COMING OF THE LOYALISTS 17
CHAPTER II
THE COMING OF THE LOYALISTS
The permanent settlement of this county began with the arrival of the United Empire Loyalists in 1784. Let us briefly glance at the causes which led to the emigration of so great a number of American colonists te the provinces of Canada. No one to-day attempts to justify the oppression of the American colonies by King George the Third and his ministers, and none will deny that the colonists had just cause of com- plaint.
From its very inception the colony of Massachusetts Bay, founded by the “Puritan Fathers” in 1628, but not to be confounded with the “Pilgrim Fathers” of 1620, had been a thorn in the side of the Parliament of Great Britain. No sooner had they set foot in America, than they cast to the winds all idea of religious toleration and set up an established church more exacting in its demands than that from which they had fled. As one eminent statesman tersely put it: “In short, this people, who in England could not bear to be chastised with rods, had no sooner got free from their fetters than they scourged their fellow refugees with scorpions; though the absurdity as well as the injustice of such proceeding in them might stare them in the face!”* The wor- ship of the Church of England was suppressed, the Congregational Church set up in its stead, and all who refused to subscribe to the new doctrine were disfranchised and punished by whipping and banishment. Operating under an English charter, they denied the right of that gov- ernment, under whose favour they had a legal existence, to exercise a supervision over the powers granted them. Although strong in their hypocritical professions of loyalty, they disregarded the mandates of the Crown and, while preaching the doctrine of freedom of speech and action, they granted no liberties to their fellow colonists who refused to subscribe to their articles of faith. True it is that in time their inso- lence was checked and much of the mischief which they had done was relieved by the intervention of Great Britain; but this only emphasized the danger of colonial rule and the wisdom of the American colonies _ Ttemaining integral parts of the parent state. For the disaffected colonies to complain of their treatment at the hands of the King and his advisers
-and to seek redress for their grievances was the undoubted right of
_—s- * Burke, Vol. II, Second London Edition, 1758
18 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON
every British subject, and many of England’s wisest statesmen, trusting in their repeated professions of loyalty, were the strongest champions of their cause.
In the autumn of the year 1774 a general convention of delegates from twelve of the thirteen provinces—Georgia not sending any dele- gates—was held at Philadelphia. The principal acts of this Congress, as it was called, were a Declaration of Rights, an address to the King, an address to the people of Great Britain, a memorial to the Americans, and a letter to the people of Canada. A close study of these several documents will not disclose a single expression of disloyalty to the Crown. Their arguments were based upon the constitutional rights of the colonists as subjects of Great Britain. There is no hint or sugges- -tion of secession ; but on the contrary they entreat “His Majesty’s gracious interposition to remove such grievances and thereby to restore to Great Britain and the colonies that harmony so necessary to the happiness of the British Empire, and so ardently desired by all America.”
In the address of this Congress to the people of Great Britain they specifically deny any idea of seeking independence in the following words: “You have been told that we are seditious, impatient of government, and desirous of independence. Be assured that these are not facts but calumnies.” It was upon the assurance that independence was not the object in view that the colonists supported the delegates in their Declar- ation of Rights, the principles of which could be advocated by every Canadian to-day, without detracting one iota from his loyalty. It was upon this assurance that Lord Chatham, and many other English states- men of unquestioned loyalty to the throne, so ably defended their brethren across the sea. Can it be supposed for one moment that the authors of the words I have quoted would have had the support of their fellow colonists, if they had announced their intention of invoking the aid of England’s bitterest foes, who, with their Indian allies, had raided the towns and villages of New England and laid in ashes the homes of the frontiersmen? The colonists were determined to insist upon what they considered to be their rights under the British Constitution and, if necessary, were prepared to defend those rights by force, not as revolu- tionists, but as British subjects, and the delegates to Congress had no mandate from the people to adopt any other policy. To depart from the principles outlined in the Declaration of Rights and in the address to Great Britain was a breach of faith, not only with the colonists them- selves, but with their sympathizers in Great Britain, who were fighting their battles for them in Parliament. The despotic rule of King George, seconded by his corrupt ministers and Parliament, was as loudly denounced in England as it was in America; but the champions of the
THE COMING OF THE LOYALISTS 19
colonists had no thought of encouraging secession, and no reason to believe that the American Congress would violate its professions of loyalty. As late as November, 1775, the legislature of Pennsylvania passed a resolution giving to its delegates the following instructions: “We direct that you exert your utmost endeavours to agree upon and recommend such measures as you shall judge to afford the best proposal of obtaining redress of American grievances, and restoring that unity and harmony between Great Britain and the colonies so essential to the welfare and happiness of both countries. Though the oppressive meas- ures of the British Parliament and Administration have compelled us to resist their violence by force of arms, yet we strictly enjoin you, that you, in behalf of this colony, dissent from and utterly reject any pro- positions, should such be made, that may cause or lead to a separation from our mother country or change the form of this government.” Could words be framed to express in stronger language the attachment of the legislature to the British constitution and its determination to adhere to it?
When we consider the feelings of the loyal colonists, who, although ready to assert by force of arms their rights under the British Constitution, were averse to substituting another form of government, we can readily conceive how their long cherished attachment to the British flag received a cruel and unexpected shock when the unheralded Declaration of Independence was passed by the Congress. Contrast the assurances given out on both sides of the Atlantic to the friends of the persecuted colonists with the concluding paragraph of that historic document: “We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that the United Colonies are, and of right ought to be Free and Independent States; and that they are absolved from allegiance to the British Crown; and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that, as Free and Independent States, they have full power to levy war, con- clude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a pious reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honour.”
Let us glance for a moment at the manner in which this remark- able change of front was brought about, and we shall see that it was far from the unanimous voice of the delegates, although it was so announced
20 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON at the time. Upon the reassembling of the General Congress in May, 1776, the great question of independence was for the first time proposed. During the adjournment of the delegates the worst government Great Britain had ever known, encouraged by its most despotic of Kings, had rejected the petition of the colonists praying for redress of their griev- ances and had resolved upon the most drastic measures to drive their American fellow subjects into submission. An Act was passed providing for the increase of the army and navy and_ the hiring of seventeen thousand Hanoverian and Hessian mercen- aries to chastise the colonists. The King entertained the hope that such a display of force would overawe the rising tide of rebellion, but in this he sadly misjudged his people. He had received ample warnings from America and from his ablest statesmen in England, notably such men as Chatham, Camden, Shelburne, Fox, Burke, and Cavendish that the spirit of freedom in the proud breast of every British subject could not be quenched even by a King and Parliament and that the fundamental principles of the British Constitution would in the end prevail.
When the news of the passing of this Act reached America, the country, as a whole, was determined to resist the invasion of their rights. Fiery editors and pamphleteers preached the doctrine of independence. Thomas Paine’s pamphlet “(Common Sense” was read in every village and hamlet and more than any other agency diffused the sentiments and feel- ings which produced the act of separation. Yet in the face of the agitation for independence, only four of the colonies had taken a position, which, upon the most favourable construction, could be interpreted as giving authority to their delegates to vote for a Declaration of Independence, if such a resolution should be introduced. Resistance to the King’s forces was held by the great majority to be quite compatible with a desire to preserve the old political ties. A parallel case has been aptly cited in that of the Barons of Runnymede, who had no thought of renouncing their allegiance or changing the form of government when they wrested the Magna Charta from an overbearing King.
On June 7th, 1776, a resolution in favour of independence was sub- mitted to the Congress by Richard Henry Lee and, after some discussion, it was found that the time was not yet ripe to bring it to a vote, and fur- ther consideration was postponed for a period of three weeks. On July 1st the debate was resumed, and it was determined upon the motion of some astute politician, whose name has not been preserved, that “the decision on the question, whatever might be the state of the votes, should appear to the world as the unanimous voice of the Congress.” On the first vote six colonies were in favour of independence and six were against it and, among those in favour of retaining British connection, was
THE COMING OF THE LOYALISTS ee
Pennsylvania, whose delegates had received specific instructions “to dis- sent from and utterly reject any propositions, should such be made, that may cause or lead to a separation from our mother country or a change of the form of this government.” Through the influence of Samuel Adams the vote of this colony, in violation of the trust committed to the delegates, was turned in favour of the resolution by prevailing upon one of their number either to absent himself from Congress at the criti- cal moment, when the resolution was again presented, or to vote against what must have been his own conviction up to that time.
It thus seems evident that the Declaration of Independence was not the spontaneous act ‘of the delegates to Congress or of the legislative bodies which they represented, not the deliberate act of the people, brought about by the regularly constituted authorities; but that the far-reaching resolution emanated from a small body of men carried away by a momentary popular uprising. Thousands, who declaimed against the tyranny of King George and his ministers and were prepared to defend their con- stitutional rights at the point of the bayonet, just as consistently refused to acquiesce in the invasion of those same rights by their fellow colon- ists. They had cast in their lot with their political leaders, who had repeatedly assured them that there would be no change in the form of government and, on July 4th, 1776, they felt that this confidence had been betrayed.
It is not my purpose to follow up the details of the bitter war that followed or to discuss the ultimate advantage or disadvantage of that bloody conflict to the contending parties. In our present examination of the events which followed the Declaration of Inde- pendence we are interested only in those whose loyalty to the British connection would not permit them to take up arms in a cause that meant the severance of the ties hallowed by many sacred associations. Their detractors argue that it was purely a matter of sentiment and that it was to their interest to fall into line and assist in overthrowing British rule. The last proposition is a debatable one into which we will not enter. As to the former, it has only to be proposed as an argu- ment to be at once dismissed, for the moment that we discard sentiment as a mainspring of human activity we destroy the home, patriotism, friendship, and all in life worth living for. The finer sensibilities of the Loyalists were wounded when the General Congress cast to the winds their former professed allegiance to Great Britain, and insult was added to injury when an alliance was sought with France. Tame submission to the new order of things by those who had been taught from their infancy to respect the ideals of British connection would have been more
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22 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON
humiliating than surrender to the demands of King George and his Parliament.
If Congress had adhered to the principles which they had advocated up to the secret session of July, 1776, the colonists would have presented an unbroken front and with the assistance of their sym- pathizers in England would have carried their point and driven from power a corrupt government; but having committed a breach of faith by declaring for independence, they not only stultified themselves but stig- matized their supporters in the British Parliament and House of Lords as accomplices in their design to sever the tie with the motherland. They could well afford to be tolerant to the Loyalists of America, even if the latter chose to enlist under the standard of their King but, as we shall presently see, those who consistently remained true to their principles were branded as traitors and exposed to the severest penalties.
The framers of the Declaration of Independence gave first place to the following articles of their professed creed: “That all men are creat- ed equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” No sooner had they proclaimed these self-evident truths, than they pro- ceeded to disregard the inalienable rights of those who were in every respect their equals and to enact cruel laws aimed directly against the life, liberty, and happiness of their fellow colonists. No one has pre- sumed to belittle the respectability and social standing of the large min- ority, men of wealth and unimpeachable character, who could not and would not enlist in a cause at variance with their convictions and repug- nant to the traditions of their forefathers. The legislatures of various colonies placed upon their statute books the most stringent laws imposing confiscation, banishment, and even the death penalty upon all who showed a disposition to remain true to the principles so warmly advocated by their persecutors twelve months before. Besides the general provisions operating against all who fell within their pale, scores and hundreds were designated by name, and by a stroke of the pen, without a trial or _ an opportunity to answer the charges preferred against them, were shorn of their property, rights, and liberty, and proclaimed as outlaws. In Massachusetts alone three hundred and eight persons, who had fled for safety from their persecutors, were proscribed and made liable to arrest, imprisonment, and banishment if they presumed to return to their own homes, and for a second offence the penalty was death. In like manner these exponents of the inalienable rights in Pennsylvania, who had instructed their delegates to Congress utterly to reject any proposition that might lead to a change in the form of government, designated by name sixty-two persons as attainted by treason, unless
THE COMING OF THE LOYALISTS 23
within a specified time they surrendered themselves for trial. These are not isolated cases, but fair examples of the legislation that followed that famous Declaration beginning with “All men are created equal.” Upon the slightest pretext, the property of the Loyalists was confiscated and not unfrequently passed to some prominent official and never reached the public coffers.
Whatever plea might be advanced for the unnatural treat- ment of the Loyalists during hostilities, it would be difficult to find an excuse for continuing the persecution after the conclusion of the war. During the negotiations for peace the welfare of the Loyalists was frequently under consideration. The Americans, having attained their end, could well afford to be generous towards all those who had differed from them, and one would scarcely expect to find it necessary for the British Commissioners to urge some degree of leniency in pro- viding for a general amnesty to the Loyalists and compensation for the property that had been confiscated. The Americans suggested no techni- cal objections when agreeing, as they did, that there should be no future confiscations nor persecutions and that all pending prosecutions should be discontinued ; yet, while assuming jurisdiction to embody these terms in a treaty of peace, they claimed that neither the Commissioners nor Congress had power to provide for restitution of the property that had been confiscated.
The outcome of the prolonged conferences was a_ provi- sion that Congress was to recommend to the several States that indemnity should be granted to the Loyalists, and with no further guar- antee than that, the Loyalists were left to the tender mercies of their persecutors. No colony suffered quite as much from the depredations of the British troops as South Carolina, yet, when peace was concluded, it was the only State to grant indemnity to the Loyalists and to receive them again into full citizenship. All the other States continued to pur- sue them with relentless fury. This uncompromising hostility towards their former citizens is tersely described in Sabine’s “Biography of the American Loyalists.” “At the peace, justice and good policy both required a general amnesty and the revocation of the Acts of disability and banishment, so that only those who had been guilty of flagrant crimes should be excluded from becoming citizens. Instead of this, however, the State legislatures generally continued in a course of hos- tile action, and treated the conscientious and pure, and the unprincipled and corrupt with the same indiscrimination as they had done during the struggle. In some parts of the country there really appears to have been a determination to place these misguided but then humbled men beyond the pale of human sympathy.”
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24 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON
In order that we may form a proper estimate of the character of the first permanent settlers in this county I cannot do better than supple- ment the foregoing quotation from an American author with the testi- mony of the leading statesmen of Great Britain to whom the Loyalists, in their extremity, were forced to appeal for assistance.
_Lord North, who was Prime Minister during the War, in speak- ing of the Loyalists, said: “I cannot but lament the fate of those un- happy men, who, I conceive, were in general, objects of our gratitude and protection. The Loyalists from their attachments, surely had some claim to our affection. ........ I cannot but feel for men thus sacri- ficed for their bravery and principles—men who have sacrificed the dearest possessions of the human heart. They have exposed their lives, endured an age of hardship, deserted their interests, forfeited their possessions, lost their connections, and ruined their families in our cause.”
Mr. Burke said: “At any rate it must be agreed on all hands that a vast number of Loyalists had been deluded by this country and had risked everything in our cause; to such men the nation owed protection, and its honour was pledged for their security at all hazards.”
Mr. Sheridan execrated the treatment of those unfortunate men who, without the least notice taken of their civic and religious rights, were handed over as subjects to a power that would not fail to take vengeance on them for the zeal and attachment to the religion and government of this country.”
Sir Peter Burrell said: “The fate of the Loyalists claimed the com- passion of every human breast. These helpless, forlorn men, abandoned by the ministers of a people on whose justice, gratitude, and humanity they had the best founded claims, were left at the mercy of a Congress highly irritated against them.”
It was in language such as this that both Houses of Parliament recognized the sacrifices that the Loyalists had made for the motherland and admitted their liability to make good to some extent the losses that had been sustained. To remain in a community that denied them the rights of citizenship was out of the question. During and after the war of the Revolution, it is estimated that no less than 30,000 were driven from their homes and settled in the Bahamas, Florida, the British West Indies, and Canada. Large numbers were conveyed to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, so many indeed, that the British commander of New York bethought himself of finding some other outlet for the hundreds still to be provided for and turned his attention to Upper Canada. Entertaining serious doubts whether that part of.the country was habit-
able, he applied for information to Michael Grass, who during the
.
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THE COMING OF THE LOYALISTS 25
French war had been a prisoner for two or three years at Fort Fron- tenac. His informant assured him that the territory about the fort and along the Bay of Quinte was a desirable location for a colony and, thanks to Mr. Grass’ favourable report, five vessels were fitted out, filled with refugees, and conducted by him to the northern wilderness. They: sailed from New York on September 8th, 1783, and arrived at Quebec on October 8th, and proceeded to Sorel where they wintered in tents and hastily constructed cabins. Another common route from New York, followed by the Loyalists after the war, was up the Hudson River to the mouth of the Mohawk River, a few miles north of Albany, thence up the Mohawk and Wood Creek to a portage leading to Oneida Lake. From this lake they entered the Oswego River which carried them to Lake Ontario, whence they proceeded to Kingston, the Bay of Quinte, Niagara, or Queenston. Others again followed the old Champlain route down the Richelieu River and thence to Sorel. It will be remembered that although hostilities ceased on September 20th, 1783, the British did not give up possession of New York until the 25th of November, which date has since been commemorated as “Evacuation Day.” This city naturally had become a rallying point for the Loyalists, 12,000 of whom sailed in the month of September from this port for the Bahamas, Nova Scotia, and Canada.
The incidents in connection with the emigration of many of the first Loyalists who settled in this country have fortunately been pre- served in an interview with the late John Grass, of the township of Kingston, son of the Michael Grass before referred to. His statement is as follows: “My father had been a prisoner at Frontenac (now Kings- ton) in the old French war, and at the commencement of the American Revolution he resided on a farm on the borders of the North River, about thirty miles from New York. Being solicited by General Her- kimer to take a captain’s commission in the American service he replied sternly and promptly that he had sworn allegiance to our King, mean- ing George the Third, and could not violate his oath and serve against him.
“For this he .was obliged to fly from his home and take refuge within New York, under British protection. His family had soon to follow him, being driven from their home, which by the enemy was dilapidated and broken up. They continued in that city till the close of the war, living on their resources as best they could. On the return of peace, the Americans having gained their independence, there was no longer any home for the fugitive Loyalists of which the city was full; and the British Governor was much at a loss for a place to settle them. Many had retreated to Nova Scotia or New Brunswick; but this was a
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26 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON
desperate resort, and their immense numbers made it difficult to find a home for them all even then. In the meantime, the Governor, in his perplexity, having heard that my father had been a prisoner among the French at Frontenac, sent for him and said: ‘Mr. Grass, I understand that you have been at Frontenac, in Canada. Pray tell me what sort of a country it is? Can people live there?’ My father replied: ‘Yes, your Excellency, I was there a prisoner of war, and from what I saw I think it is a fine country and that people might live very well.’ ‘Oh! Mr. Grass,’ exclaims the Governor, ‘how glad I am to hear that, for the sake of these poor Loyalists. As they cannot all go to Nova Scotia, and I am at a loss how to provide for them, will you, Mr. Grass, undertake to lead thither as many as may choose to accompany you? If so, I will furnish a conveyance by Quebec, and rations for you all until such time as you may be able to provide for yourselves.’ My father requested his Excellency to allow him three days to make up his mind. This was granted, and accordingly at the expiration of the three days, my father went to the Governor and said he would undertake it. Notices were then posted up through the city, calling for all that would go to Frontenac to enroll their names with Mr. Grass; so in a short time the company of men, women, and children was completed, a ship provided and fur- nished, and off they started for the unknown and far distant regions, leaving the homes and friends of their youth, with all their endearing recollections behind them.
“The first season they got no further than Sorel, in Lower Canada, where they were obliged to erect log huts for the winter. Next spring they took boats, and proceeding up the St. I,awrence, at length reached Frontenac and pitched their tents on Indian Point, where the marine docks of Kingston now. stand. Here they awaited the surveying of the lands, which was not accomplished so as to be ready for location before July. In the meantime several other companies had arrived by different routes under their respective leaders, who were all awaiting the completing of the surveys. The Governor also, who by this time had himself come to Quebec, paid them a visit, and riding a few miles along the lake shore on a fine day, exclaimed to my father: ‘Why, Mr. Grass, you have indeed got a fine country! I am really glad to find it so.’ While the several companies were together waiting for the survey some would say to my father: “The Governor will not give you the first choice of the townships but will prefer Sir John Johnson and his company because he is a great man.’ But my father replied that he did not believe that, for if the Governor should do so he should feel himself injured and would leave the country, as he was the first man to mention it to the Governor in New York and to pro- ceed thither with his company for settlement.
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THE COMING OF THE LOYALISTS 27
“At length the time came, in July, for the townships to be given out. The Governor having assembled the companies before him, called for Mr. Grass, and said: “Now, you were the first person to mention this fine country and have been here formerly as a prisoner of war. You must have the first choice. The townships are numbered first, second, third, fourth, and fifth, Which do you choose? My father says: ‘The first township (Kingston).’ Then the Governor says to Sir. John Johnson: ‘Which do you choose for your company?’ He replies: ‘The second township (Ernesttown).’ To Colonel Rogers: ‘Which do you choose?’ He says: “The third township (Fredericksburgh).’ To Major Vanalstine: ‘Which do you choose?’ He replies: “The fourth township (Adolphustown).’ Then Colonel McDonnell, with his company, got the fifth township (Marysburgh). So after this manner the first settlement of Loyalists in Canada was made.
“But before leaving, the Governor very considerately remarked to my father: ‘Now, Mr. Grass, it is too late in the season to put in any crops. What can you do for food?’ My father replied: ‘If they were furnished with turnip seed they might raise some turnips.’ ‘Very well,’ said the Governor, ‘that you shall have.’ Accordingly from Montreal he sent some seed, and each man taking a handful thereof, they cleared a spot of ground in the centre of where the town of Kingston now stands, and raised a fine crop of turnips which served for food the ensuing winter with the Government rations.’’*
The point of embarkation upon the last stage of the journey was from Lachine, where flat-bottomed boats were constructed for the purpose. They were heavy and clumsy affairs capable of holding four or five families with their effects, and when ascending the rapids or against a swift current, the boatmen, sometimes wading up to their waists in water, hauled them along by means of a rope attached to the bow. Although the Surveyor-general had received instructions in 1783 to lay out the townships for the reception of the settlers, they arrived some weeks before they could be located. On June 16th, 1784, a mem- orable day in this county, Major Vanalstine with his band of refugees landed at Adolphustown near the site of the present U. E. L. Monu- ment. Each family had been provided with a tent capable of accom- modating eight or ten persons. Sufficient clothing for three years, of a coarse but suitable quality, had been given to each. To each two fam- ilies was given one cow, and the Government had been liberal in the
* The late William Kingsford, in his ‘‘ History o: Canada,” Vol. VII, page 218-9, attempts to disprove this story, but his reasoning is quite iaconclusive, and there is no reason to doubt the correctness of the story given by Captain Grass. Kingsford’s note at most proves that a certain amount of friction arose between Captain Grass and Governor Sir Frederick Haldimand.
28 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON
distribution of seed grain and tools, but of the latter the axe was ill- suited for the purpose of felling trees, being the short-handled ship axe intended for quite a different purpose. As the survey was not complete at the time of their landing, they pitched their tents upon the shore in groups until the allotments were made, when they dispersed to their several locations and the battle with the forest began. The concessions were laid out in lots of 200 acres each; four lots covered a mile in frontage, and every two or three miles a strip forty feet in width was reserved for a cross-road. The surveyors did their work so hurriedly that in later years there were found to be many inaccuracies which led to confusion and litigation and were the cause of a great deal of trouble and bad feeling.
As early as the month of July, 1783, the King, declaring himself desirous of encouraging his loyal subjects in the United States of America to take up and improve lands in the then Province of Quebec, and of testifying his appreciation of the bravery and loyalty of the royal forces in the Province, issued instructions to the Governor-in-chief to direct the Surveyor-general to admeasure and lay out such a quan- tity of land as he deemed necessary for that purpose, and to allot such parts thereof as might be applied for by any of his loyal subjects, non- commissioned officers, and private men in the following proportions, that is to say:
To every master of a family, one hundred acres, and fifty acres for each person of which his family shall consist.
To every single man, fifty acres.
To every non-commissioned officer in Quebec, two hundred acres. .
To every private man of the force, one hundred acres, and every person in his family, fifty acres.
The same instructions contained a notification of the purchase of the Seigniory of Sorel with a request that all undisposed-of lands be laid out into small allotments and distributed among the reduced members of the forces and other loyal subjects, as might by the Governor be judged the most conducive to their interests and the more speedy settlement of the Seigniory. These instructions account for the general muster of the refugees at Sorel before ascending the St. Lawrence for the Western townships.
The townships having been assigned to the several companies, as described by Mr. Grass, the first “drawings” took place in 1784. The Surveyor superintended the process, which was impartially conducted by placing in a hat small pieces of paper, upon which were written the numbers of the lots to be distributed. Each applicant “drew” out a
THE COMING OF THE LOYALISTS 29
‘piece of paper, and the Surveyor, with a map of the township spread out before him, wrote the name of the person drawing the number upon the corresponding number upon the map, and the locatee was given a certi- ficate or “location ticket” as it was commonly called, entitling him to a patent of the lot or part of lot so drawn by him. As provided in the King’s instructions, a record of every allotment and subsequent aliena- tion was kept in the office of the Receiver-general, which was the only land registry office in Canada at the time. It was under this system that the drawings took place in 1784, with the result that 434 of Jessup’s Corps received their location tickets for Ernesttown, 310 of the King’s Royal Regiment of New York and Colonel Rogers with 229 men located in Fredericksburgh, and Major Vanalstine and his party and some of Rogers’ men, about 400 in all, became the first settlers in Adolphustown. In addition to the plan of allotment referred to in the instructions of 1783, every Loyalist field officer was to receive 1,000 acres, every chap- lain 700, and every subaltern, staff, or warrant officer, 500 acres. The excess over the ordinary allotment was not to be in one block, and not more than 200 acres were to be drawn by one person in a front conces- sion. These regulations prevailed until superseded by instructions of a similar character issued in 1786 authorizing an additional grant of 200 acres, as a sort of bonus for good behaviour, to each settler who, by his conduct, had given such proof of his loyalty, decent deportment, and thrift in improving the land already received by him, as to warrant the presumption that he would become a good and profitable subject.
On July 24th, 1788, the Governor-general divided what was after- wards called Upper Canada into four districts, namely: Lunenburgh, from the River Ottawa to Gananoque; Mecklenburgh, from Gananoque to the River Trent; Nassau, from the Trent to Long Point; and Hesse, from Long Point to Lake St. Clair. At the same time a judge and sheriff were appointed to administer justice in each of these Districts, and the Dutch names soon gave way to the more acceptable English titles, the Eastern District, the Midland District, the Home District, and the Western Djstrict respectively. Early in the following year the system of parcelling out the land was improved by appointing in each District a Land Board to receive and report upon applications. Each Board was to consist of not less than three members, whose tefm of office was to expire on May Ist, 1791, unless continued by appointment. Regula- tions calculated to facilitate the faithful performance of the duties of the Board in receiving and adjudicating upon applications presented to them and in preserving convenient records of the same were prepared by the Governor-in-Council, together with approved forms to be used by _ them in their respective offices.
30 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON |
In November the Governor-general found opportunity for fur- ther expression of the gratitude of the Crown for the attachment of the Loyalists by ordering the Land Boards to take proper steps for preserving a register of the names of all persons who adhered to the unity of the Empire and joined the Royal Standard in America before the Treaty of Separation in 1783, as it was his wish to put a “Mark of Honour” upon the families in order that their posterity might be discriminated from future settlers. To the sons and daughters of all such he ordered that a lot of 200 acres be assigned upon their attaining the full age of twenty-one years. One member of the Land Board for the Mecklenburgh District was the Hon. Richard Cartwright. Another was the Rev. Dr. John Stuart, the founder of the Church of England in Upper Canada and Chaplain of the first Legislative Council. He was tendered the commission of Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, which honourable position he declined in order that he might devote his talents to his holy office.
In 1791 was passed the Constitutional Act, dividing the Province of Quebec into two separate provinces to be known respectively as Lower — Canada and Upper Canada. General John Graves Simcoe was appointed the first Lieutenant-governor of the western Province. The new Lieu- tenant-governor by a proclamation bearing date July 16th, 1792, divided the new Province into counties, among them being the counties of Ad- dington and Lennox; at the same time he superseded the old District Land Boards by appointing County Land Boards. For this purpose Addington, Lennox, Hastings, and Prince Edward were grouped to- gether, and the Land Board consisted of Peter Vanalstine, Hazelton Spencer, Alexander Fisher, Archibald McDonnell, and Joshua Booth. It was at this time our county assumed its present name. The name Lennox is derived from Charles Lennox, third Duke of Richmond, who at the coronation of King George III carried the sceptre with the dove. He was ambassador extraordinary to the court of France in 1765 and Secretary of State in 1766. Addington was named after Henry Adding- ton, Viscount Sidmouth, Speaker of the House of Commons from 1789 to 1791, afterwards Chancellor of the Exchequer and Prime Minister of Great Britain.
The new order of things was short-lived, for in November, 1794, the Executive Council of the Province abolished the County Boards and resolved that thereafter all petitions for crown lands be made to the Lieutenant-Governor-in-Council. A simple form of procedure was adopted in the case of intending settlers. Any person professing the Christian religion and capable of manual labour could present himself to a magistrate residing in the county, who, being notified of his proper
a ”
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THE COMING OF THE LOYALISTS 31
qualification to be admitted to the possession of lands within the Province, furnished him with a recommendation to the local deputy surveyor, who assigned him his location, upon payment of the usual fees of £4, 9s. and 6d., of which sum £4 was paid for the title deed when the patent was granted. It was not, however, until 1795 that the grants or patents to the allotted lands were actually issued and then only to such as produced their tickets or certificates. Originally the tickets were transferable by endorse- ment, but so many abuses crept into the practice that the Government and improvident andintervened for the protection of the thoughtless decided that patents should be issued only in the name of the original locatee.
The land jobber was then, as now, much in evidence, and when the patents were granted it was not unfrequently found that large tracts passed into the hands of single individuals, while others at the begin- ning of their career in the wilderness were forced to begin life’ anew as the servants of their more provident companions. Some parted with their holding for a pint of rum or some other trivial consideration, and others, being so unfortunate as to draw a lot in the third or fourth con- cession, regarded the location as too undesirable to be of any real value. As there were no roads the lots upon the water-front were most highly prized, and the locatee of land which could not be reached by boat, would willingly exchange his 100 acres in the interior of the township for a much smaller quantity upon the bay. The Government had supplied them with a number of small boats, they made more for themselves, and the common means of travel was by the water routes, as each family had its dinghy. punt, or dug-out.
The so-called pioneers in our prairie provinces who are to-day car- ried within a few miles of their locations by a comfortable colonist sleeper and have merely to break the soil of the virgin prairie in order to secure a harvest in a few months’ time, know little of the difficulties experienced by our forefathers, who, even after leav- ing Sorel, tugged at the oars and rope for weeks before reaching the site of their future homes, where a more stubborn foe, the forest, had to be overcome before they could engage in any form of hus- bandry. But men who had sacrificed all their worldly possessions and endured bitter persecution for the principles they cherished were not to be checked in their progress by any ordinary obstacle. With axe in hand they advanced against the last barrier. One man could not accom- plish much single-handed, so with that neighbourly spirit which is to this day so characteristic of our farming community, they organized “bees,” thereby imitating those industrious little insects, which by their united efforts successfully accomplish what would be an impossibility for the single individual.
32 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON
A suitable site for the log cabin having been selected, they set to work with a will. “Round logs (generally of bass-wood) roughly notched together at the corners, and piled one above the other to the height of seven or eight feet, constituted the walls. Openings for a door, and one small window designed for four lights of glass, seven by nine, were cut out, the spaces between the logs were chinked with small splinters, and carefully plastered outside and inside with clay for mortar. Several straight poles were laid lengthwise of the building, on the walls, to serve as supports for the roof. This was composed of strips of elm bark, four feet in length by two or three feet in width, in layers overlapping each other and fastened to the poles by withes, with a suffi- cient slope to the back. This formed a roof which was proof against wind and weather. An ample hearth made of flat stone was then laid out, and a fire back of field stone, or small boulders, rudely built, was car- ried up as high as the wall. Above this the chimney was formed of round poles, notched together and plastered with mud. The floor was of the same material as the walls, only that the logs were split in two, and flattened so as to make a tolerably even surface. As no boards could be had to make a door, until they could be sawn out by the whip saw, a blanket suspended from the inside for some time took its place. By and by four little panes of glass were stuck into a rough sash and the shanty was complete.’’*
While the dwelling was in course of construction and before the chinks were filled with plaster, long poles were placed across the ends about two feet from the floor, supported by the logs of the side walls. Across these were stretched thin strips of bass-wood bark, thus form- ing a platform which was the only bedstead known to our forefathers
.for many years after their arrival. Rude tables and benches hewed out
of the green timber supplied the furniture of their humble abodes. Before winter set in all were comfortably housed; but the attack upon the forest continued. The work was slow and tedious, and the ship axe would be found but a sorry tool by our workmen of to-day. To get rid of the green timber and remove the stumps and underbush was no easy task. They had at first no oxen or horses, and all work had to be done by hand. ‘To facilitate the clearing process the trees were killed by girdling them about the base and sometimes, at great risk of destroying their homes, fire was employed. The trees when felled were cut into convenient lengths, rolled by hand into large heaps, and the torch applied.
Among the settlers were many men not accustomed to manual labour, but old and young, without distinction of rank or age, joined in
* Canniff's Settlement of Upper Canada, page 185
—
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yp —- By ISAAC BROCK, Ejguire, Prefident admin- iftcring the Government of the Province of Up- “eng - per Canada, and Major-General C ommanding , ths Majefly’s Forces therein, &c. Ke. &e: PE . 2 hr ; ; 0 ooo Larscallare fie Jour f Carmdone
se pSs MBL. t Bistucche big cae),
WV ser EAS by an Ad of the Parliament ot this Province, passed in the Forty-
_ _ fourth year of ilis Majetty’s Reign, intituled, * An A@ forthe better securing this
© Province against jall seditious attempts or designs to disturb the tranquillity thereof,” it is among other things provided, “ That it shall and may be lawful for the Governor, * Licurenant Governor, or Person administering the Government for the time being, to ** appoint such Person or Persons as may appear to him proper, for the purpose of ar- “ resting such Person or Persons not having been an Inhabitant or Inhabitants of this « Province for the space of Six Months preceding the date of his Warrant, or not ha- te ving taken the Oath of Allegiance to our Sovercign Lord the King, who by words or ** aflions, or other behaviour or condutt, hath or have endeavoured, or hath or have * given just’cause to suspect that he, she, or they, is or are about to endeavour to alienate “ the minds of His Majesty's Subjeéts of this Province from His Person or Government, per “or in any wise witha seditious intent to disturb the tranquillity thereof.” Now KNOW YE, that I ISAAC BROCK, Esquire, President, and Major-General Com- mangng His Majefty’s Forces within the said Province, by virtue of the powers so vested
in me under the authority of the before recited A@, have appointed and deputed, and dé
by these Presents appoint and depute you the said Qofzy, aie nD
[tes Sour ste 7 Cirmudore, ACTUBEA SD Birslateks—
—
42 . SD prey tin rk em ate
to carry into Execution the several Provisions in the said before recited A@ contained—
striGly conforming yourself in every particular thereto.
ro eee Given under my Hand and Seal, at ay at the Government House, at York. ; this > Sestarrty Stren Vd day of AY IF At oo ae
in the year of Our Lord One thousand Eight hundred and Twe ve, and of za tice:
His Majesty's Reign, the Fifty-second. c Sf se : Ps = a E : ly Pn ee By His Honor's Command, Nifth il Joye
A COMMISSION FROM SIR ISSAC BROCK.
MILLS ON THE APPANEE RIVER FROM THE DRAWING BY MRS. SIMCOE. 1795.
THE MACPHERSON MILL AT NAPANEE.
THE COMING OF THE LOYALISTS 33
the general onslaught, working early and late. With aching bones, but buoyant spirits, they gathered about the open fireplaces during the long winter evenings and recounted, but with no expressiom of regret, the suffering their loyalty had brought upon them. Hard as was their lot, they rejoiced in the freedom of their wilderness homes. Day after day the sturdy Loyalists plied the axe; little by little the forest yielded and the spring of 1785 witnessed a wonderful change. The bright sun- shine revealed here and there small clearings covered with heaps of charred logs, unyielding stumps, and masses of tangled underbrush. In the centre was a rude cabin which would compare unfavourably with that which had sheltered their oxen in the south. A few ploughs had been supplied them but there were no draft animals to hitch before them and, even if there had been, little use could have been made of the plough during the first year or two. The cleared spots were small, many stumps and roots still encumbered the soil, and the spade was the only instrument of cultivation. The main staples of food were Indian corn and wild rice. In a few localities portable mills for grinding the grain had been furnished by the Government, rude contrivances, to be turned by hand, like a coffee-mill, but there were few if any in this county, and the settlers were forced to resort to the primitive method of placing the grain upon a smooth flat rock and pounding it with an axe or stone, until it was reduced to a powder. This soon gave way to the “hominy block” or bowl hollowed out in a hard-wood stump and cap- able of holding a bushel or more. This possessed the advantage that it held more and that the grain could be more easily kept in place while it was pounded with a heavy wooden pestle known as a “plumper.” Sometimes a cannon-ball attached to a long sweep took the place of a
pestle. 7 The pumpkin in our day serves two important ends, far removed from each other. By far the greater quantity is fed to our cattle and a few only are reserved for the old-fashioned but most palatable dessert, the “pumpkin pie.” But our forefathers and the Indians raised it more for table use and served it up in many styles. The “pumpkin loaf” appears to have been relegated to the past, its nearest survival being “Johnnie cake,’” now served up in individual cakes and disguised under the name of “corn meal gems.” The pumpkin was mixed with the Indian meal, spiced, rolled into a small loaf, baked in the open oven, broken into pieces, and spread with butter, if by good fortune the larder contained any, or was eaten with maple syrup,—an important article of food which could be had at the very doors for the taking,—or sweetened in the making by adding a liberal allowance of maple sugar. Game and fish, as a rule, were plentiful, so that with the rations supplied by
34 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON
the government there was a sufficient supply of plain but wholesome food to meet the ordinary demands. Cattle, horses, and pigs were gradually introduced, but, owing to the depredations of wolves, it was many years before sheep could be raised to advantage. Dishes were very scarce but, occasionally, we still run across a highly prized U. E. L. heirloom, a tea-cup or plate handed down from generation to gen- eration. This want was at first supplied by wooden dishes which the handy craftsman whittled out of the fine-grained wood’ of the poplar. These were gradually replaced by more durable pewter articles, intro- duced by the Yankee pedlars.
In the matter of dress, the beau of the last quarter of the eighteenth century far outshone in his gorgeous array the dude of the twentieth. Hanging on a wooden peg in the corner of the log cabin might be seen the faded blue damask frock-coat, with its high rolling collar and velvet lining. Carefully stowed away in the family chest was the white satin waist-coat, and the close fitting black satin knee breeches, the white silk stockings, and the red morocco slippers, surmounted with huge but highly prized silver buckles. What a sensation would such an attire create upon our streets to-day! The occasions for making use of such finery were rare indeed in this new settlement. The ordinary costume was made from the coarse cloth and Indian blankets supplied by the government; but the most common and serviceable garments were made from deer skins and were worn by both sexes. As soon as they could spare the land for the purpose flax and hemp were grown, and a coarse linen was woven upon the home-made loom, which became an indispensable part of the equipment of every cabin. Woollen garments, the most serviceable of all, were scarce until the danger from the wolves had been sufficiently reduced to allow the keeping of sheep. Soap was a luxury, and the week’s washing could be accomplished only through a weak solution of lye, and the records inform us of the embarrassing experience of a young woman who made use of this same liquid in cleaning her only garment, a suit of buckskin. To’ her amazement her leather gown shrivelled away to infantile proportions and she was forced to conceal herself in the potato pit beneath the floor until her mother came to her rescue.
Among the manuscripts given by the late Dr. Canniff to the Len- nox and Addington Historical Society is a copy of a “Testimonial of Mr. Roger Bates” whose grandfather originally settled in the Bay of Quinte district, but afterwards removed to the township of Clark where he died “at the premature age of 84.” As his grandmother lived to be ninety-six Mr. Bates believed that his grandfather, in the natural course of events, would have lived to reach his hundredth year but for
A i. a ’ 0
THE COMING OF THE LOYALISTS 35
a fright he received at a fire, which hastened his end. In writing of wearing apparel he says: “Skins of animals they obtained from the Indians who at that period were very numerous throughout the coun- try. With those skins my grandmother made all sorts of useful and last (lasting) dresses which were most comfortable for a country life, and for going through the bush made leather petticoats for herself and girls; as they could not be torn by the brambles, they made capital dresses—made some for the boys, and at night were extremely comfort- able for bed covers. There were no tanners in those days. Shoes and boots were made of the same useful material.” Dame Fashion had little to furnish to the young ladies of that day and the young man in search of a bride was not bewildered by the latest creations of the mil- liner or the ever-changing fantasies of the dressmaker. Such finery as they had was obtained from the pack of the pedlar who paid the settle- ments periodic visits. His stock in trade consisted of an inferior qual- ity of calico, to be had at a dollar a yard, a piece of book muslin and another of check for aprons at double that price, a few common shawls, stockings, and handkerchiefs, and an assortment of ribbons, tape, needles, pins, and horn combs. His arrival in the neighbourhood was one of the events of the season, heralded from clearing to clearing, for he not only supplied many of their wants from his pack, but in the absence of newspapers and a regular mail service, he was the bearer of news from the outside world. After displaying his tempting wares upon the floor and disposing of such coveted articles as the lean purse of the household could afford to purchase, the family gathered about the blazing hearth-log to be regaled by the pedlar’s latest experiences in the far away cities, which some of them in their better days had been wont to visit. a
36 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON
r
CHAPTER III
THE SETTLING OF THE LOYALISTS
At the conclusion of the war and before the Loyalists had left the colonies they organized an agency composed of one delegate from each State to prepare a statement of their condition and to appeal for com- pensation to the Government of Great Britain, which they felt had made very scant provision for their protection by relying solely upon the promise of the Peace Commission to recommend to the several State Legislatures that they be indemnified for their losses. We have seen how the persecution was continued just as relentlessly after the war, which would almost justify the conclusion that the American Commis- sioners at no time had any serious intention of taking the proper steps to see that their recommendation was put into effect. The Committee appointed by the Loyalists prepared a tract entitled ‘““The Case and Claim of American Loyalists impartially Stated and Considered” in which they forcibly set forth their condition and cited precedents which would warrant the Imperial Government in taking action in their behalf. This pitiful prayer for help presented the following unanswerable argument: “His Majesty and the two Houses of Parliament having thought it necessary, as the price of peace, or to the safety and interest of the Empire, or from some other motive of public convenience, to ratify the Independence of America without securing any restitution whatever to the Loyalists, they conceive that the nation is bound, as well by the fundamental laws of society as by the invariable and external principles of natural justice to make them compensation.” ‘The British Govern- ment was not unmindful of the claim of those who in its behalf had dared and suffered so much. At the opening of the session of Parlia- ment following the presentation of this petition of the Loyalists the King in the speech from the throne said: “I have ordered inquiry to be made into the application of the sum to be voted in support of the Ameri- can sufferers; and I trust you will agree with me that a due and gener- ous attention ought to be ‘shown to those who have relinquished their properties or professions from motives of loyalty to me or attachment to the mother country.”
Five Commissioners were appointed to investigate and report upon the claims, and the time for applying for relief was in the first instance
THE SETTLING OF THE LOYALISTS 37
limited to March 25th, 1784, but it was from time to time extended until 1789, and the final report was not presented and finally disposed of until 1790. The American Peace Commissioners had blundered in making no provision for restitution by those who had profited by the confiscation, a blunder which in the end cost them the loss of tens of thousands of their best citizens, with a corresponding advantage to Canada. The Commissioners appointed to adjust the claims also committed a serious blunder in imposing onerous and unreasonable conditions upon the claimants. They were disposed to view the Loyalists rather as sup- plicants for charity than as British subjects demanding British justice.
In commenting upon the procedure adopted the late Rev. Dr. Ryer- son, who gave the subject closer study than any other Canadian writer, said: “Every claimant was required to furnish proof of his loyalty, and of every species of loss for which he claimed compensation: and if any case of perjury or fraud were believed to have been practised, the claim- ant was at once cut off from his whole claim. The rigid rules which the Commissioners laid down and enforced in regard to claimants, examining each claimant and the witnesses in his behalf separately and apart, caused much dissatisfaction and gave the proceeding more the character of an Inquisition than of Inquiry. It seemed to place the claimants in the position of criminals on whom rested the burden of proof to establish their own innocence and character, rather than that of Loyalists who had faithfully served their King and country, and lost their homes and possessions in doing so. Very many, probably the large majority of claimants, could not prove the exact value of each species of loss which they had sustained years before, in houses, goods, herds of cattle, fields with their crops and produce, woods with their timber, etc., etc. In such a proceeding the most unscrupulous would be likely to fare the best, and the most scrupulous and conscientious the worst; and it is alleged that many fake losses were allowed to persons who had suffered no loss, while many other sufferers received no com- pensation, because they had not the means of bringing witnesses from America to prove their losses, in addition to their own testimony.”
As the Commissioners insisted in every instance upon the personal appearance of the claimant and attached little weight to any testimony that was not delivered upon oath before themselves, it can readily be conceived that a very large proportion of the Loyalists were not in a position to comply with the requirements of the Commissioners, and the result was that only about one third of those who emigrated to Canada received any compensation and the proportion in the remote part of the country was even less. Even so, however, the Government of Great Britain expended over $16,000,000 in satisfying their claims. In addi-
38 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON
4
tion to the grants of money there were the land grants, to which refer- ence has already been made, and the distribution of clothing, tools, and provisions which were dealt out impartially to all refugees. The rations were such as were allowed to every private soldier and were regularly conveyed in bateaux to each township where depots were established and placed in charge of some trusted refugee. ©
During the first few years of the settlement the only produce that brought them in any return was the potash made from the ashes. They bartered among themselves, and a very small portion of their roots and grain reached the military post at Kingston, which was the extent of their marketing. There was very little money among them and that was usually carried away by the itinerant pedlar. Promissory notes and I.0.U.’s passed current in the neighbourhood until worn out with usage, when they were replaced with fresh ones.
The letters U. E. L. which we see after the names of some of the earliest settlers are not of local origin or applied in any haphazard fashion to all the pioneers; but represented the honorary title con- ferred only upon those who had taken their stand for the unity of the Empire and had allied themselves with the Royalists before the Treaty of Separation in 1783. As has been pointed out the Executive Council of the Province of Quebec did, in, 1799, at the instance of the Goyvernor- General, direct the Land Boards to register the names of all that were entitled to have the “Mark of Honour” put upon them, but the direction appears to have been wholly overlooked or neglected. Governor Sim- coe had a passion for hereditary titles and one of his dreams was to build up a Canadian aristocracy, so in 1796 he revived the idea of con- ferring titles upon the class pointed out by Lord Dorchester, and by proclamation directed the magistrates of Upper Canada to ascertain under oath and register the names of all such persons, which was accordingly done, and from that time they were known as United Empire Loyalists and entitled as an honorary distinction to place after their names the letters U. E. L.
It must not be supposed that all the settlers in the front townships of this county came in one group in 1784. The greater number came then, settling in the first five townships, but for many years after others came trudging through the State of New York by different routes to join their old comrades on this side of the lake. Every newcomer received a grant of land and set to work to clear and cultivate it; but these later arrivals were not prepared to provide for themselves as were their more advanced neighbours who had preceded them. The Government had arranged to supply rations for three years following the arrival of the large contingent in June, 1784, and in accordance with this original
THE SETTLING OF THE LOYALISTS 89
design, which, it was hoped would give the colony ample time to become self-supporting, no provision was made for supplying their wants from the Government Commissariat after the expiration of that period.
A number of circumstances combined to threaten the extinction of the colony. The belated arrivals had consumed what they had brought with them, and some few, unskilled in pioneer life and farming, had not made very substantial progress in their clearing operations, and a current report appears to have gained credence among most of them to the effect that the King would continue to deal out the provisions for an- other year or so at least. By some misfortune or bad management the Commissary Department not only failed to forward supplies to the set- tlers, as had been done in former years, but even the rations for those in the public service who depended solely upon the Government for the means of subsistence were not forthcoming either. To add to the dis- tress, the season of 1787 proved to be one of those exceptional non-pro- ductive years when the soil yielded but a very meagre return for the seed and labour bestowed upon it, and, when winter set in, the disheart- ened colonists found themselves face to face with a threatened famine. The strictest economy was exercised in dealing out what little provision was on hand. Those who had laid by a store, paltry though it was, ungrudgingly shared it with their less fortunate neighbours, and the new year, 1788, known in their history as the “Hungry Year’ was ushered in with lamentations instead of the usual happy greetings. They had been eking out a miserable existence on short allowances ever since it had been learned that the Government could afford them no relief, there were several months of winter still ahead of them, and the larders were almost empty. The bay and rivers teemed with fish but the sur- face was covered with two feet of ice. Game was plentiful but ammuni- tion was scarce, and the ingenious snares devised to capture the wild animals and birds could not supply the ever-increasing demand. Fabulous prices were offered for food which under ordinary circumstances could be purchased for a few shillings.
In this connection the late Canniff Haight in an address delivered at Picton in 1859 said: “Men willingly offered pretty much all they possessed for food. I could show you one of the finest farms in Hay Bay that was offered to my grandfather for a half hundred of flour and refused. A very respectable old lady, whom numbers of you knew, but who some time since went away to her rest— whose offspring, some at least, are luxuriating in comfort above the middle walks of life—was wont in those days to wander away early in the spring to the woods and gather and eat the buds of the bass-wood, and then bring an apron or basketful home to the children. Glad they
own
40. HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON
were to pluck the rye and barley heads for food as soon as the kernel had formed; and not many miles from Picton a beef’s bone was passed from house to house and was boiled again and again in order to extract some nutriment.’’ Men dug in the frozen ground for roots, and in the early spring the first signs of vegetation were hailed with joy and the first green leaves and buds were eagerly sought out and devoured to allay the pangs of ‘hunger. It is recorded that one family was reduced to such straits that they lived for two weeks upon the tender leaves of the beech trees. Others ate the inner bark of certain varieties of trees, and ransacked the woods to discover the hidden store-houses of the squir- rels, that they might expropriate the nuts they had laid by for winter con- sumption. Some of the weak and aged actually died of starvation, while others were poisoned by eating noxious roots.
As the spring of 1788 advanced the famine was relieved, and the settlers applied themselves to their ordinary work and soon forgot the horrors of the “Hungry Year,” or referred to them solely as an incentive to greater exertion in order that they might avoid a re- currence of the bitter experiences they had just passed through. Cast upon their own resources they laboured as men determined to win; the clearings continued to expand, barns and _ outbuildings sprang up on all sides to receive the crops and shelter the cattle, which were being gradually introduced. They felt the need of im- proving some of the primitive*methods then in vogue, particularly the old-fashioned “hominy block.” This served its purpose fairly well in crushing corn, but proved very unsatisfactory when applied to wheat which required to be ground much finer than the coarser grain before it could be used to advantage by the good housewife. A mill had been built by the Government in 1782-3 at Kingston, or more properly
- speaking five or six miles up the Cataraqui River, the first one in
Central Canada before the arrival of the Loyalists; but this was too far away to be of much service to the inhabitants of the remote parts of this county. To propel a bateau from Adolphustown to Kingston necessitated the passing of both the Upper and Lower Gaps where the waters of Lake Ontario and the Bay of Quinte join at either end of Amherst Island, and these, at all times during the season of naviga- tion, are likely to be pretty rough. The only alternative was to carry the grist upon the shoulders through the forest or haul it upon a hand sleigh in the winter. At a moderate estimate, allowing but a few hours for the miller to do the grinding, the errand could not very well be accomplished inside of two days, and there would be a certain expense in procuring lodging for one night at least, unless the settler chose to do the greater part of his travelling in the night.
i : ‘< 4 :
ia
THE SETTLING OF THE LOYALISTS 41
The government recognized these inconveniences, and in order to overcome them, determined to construct a mill that would better serve the needs of settlers in this county, and quite naturally chose the site at Appanea Falls, which afforded the best available water-power. To Robert Clark, the mill-wright who had built the Kingston mill, was assigned the task of superintending its erection. It was built of logs. and roughly squared timbers during the year 1786, and was ready for operation in 1787 but, owing to the famine and the consequent scarcity of grain, very little grinding was done until 1788. From an examina- tion of the account of the articles purchased in connection with the work it would appear that intoxicating liquor was considered an indispensable part of the rations to be served upon special occasions such as a raising. No less than two gallons and three pints of rum were deemed necessary to keep up the spirits of the workmen at the raising of the saw-mill and four gallons and one quart when the grist-mill was raised. For nine years at least, until the building of the mill at Lake-qn-the-Mountain in 1796, this was the only mill in the Midland District west of the one on the Cataraqui River, and received the grist of all the townships along the bay, among the patrons being the loyal band of Mohawks in the township of Tyendinaga. Appanea or Appanee, and finally Napanee, became the synonym for flour in the Indian tongue, so popular had it become as the only convenient place where that article could be manu- factured. This led to the erroneous belief that the town took its name from the Indian word for flour, while the converse is the case. The original meaning of the word Appanee is unknown. The mill property was purchased by the Honourable Richard Cartwright in 1792 and remained in the family from generation to generation until 1911 when it was sold to the Seymour Power Company. So popular was the mill that it could not meet the demands made upon it and, shortly after its transfer to Mr. Cartwright, he decided to tear it down and build another with greater capacity, and Robert Clark was again commissioned to do the work. A new building with three run of stone was speedily com- pleted, and so well was the work performed that fifteen years later it was referred to as the best mill in the Province. Mrs. Simcoe, who accompanied her husband in his journeys through the Province, made a sketch of it in:1795 which is herewith reproduced.*
Robert Clark, who played such an important part in laying the foundation of what was to become the county town of Lennox and
* The cut of this sketch published in Mr, J. Ross Robertson's “ Diary of Mrs. Simcoe,” gives the impression that the mill stood on the left or north bank of the river, the copyist, evidently mistaking her representation of the falls to the left of the mill for a portion of the river's bank. The relative positions of the mill, the falls, and the mill- race in the sketch by Mrs. Simcoe will be more clearly understood by reference to the
___ photograph of the Macpherson mill which is built upon the same site.
G - . m4 2'¥ ¢
Gf ony aegis Ce i Sh ee
Pie)
42 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON
Addington, was born in Duchess county in the State of New York in 1744. He was a carpenter and mill-wright by trade and owned two farms of one hundred and one hundred and fifty acres respectively, both of which were confiscated because of his loyalty to the British standard during the revolutionary war. He served under General Burgoyne, Major Jessup, and Captain Sebastian Jones. While engaged under the Government in building the mills at Cataraqui his wife and their children arrived with the other refugees at Sorel in 1783, where they endured great hardships from the ravages of small-pox. ‘They subse- quently joined him after a separation of seven years, and the reunited family settled upon Lot Thirty-four in the first concession of Ernest- town. He was one of the prominent men of the Midland District, was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1788, a captain of the militia in 1809, and died in 1823.
As the clearings increased in size and number and the annual yield from the soil supplied more than the wants of the table, life among the settlers became more tolerable. The want of live stock had been a serious drawback; but during the first few years they had neither the means to procure them, nor the feed to maintain them. It is stated upon good authority that one Thomas Goldsmith obtained a fair herd of cattle in 1786, but being unable to secure a sufficient quantity of suitable fodder all but three starved to death. After the year of famine when the country assumed a brighter aspect and the virgin soil began to yield bountiful harvests, cattle and horses were gradually introduced from New York State and the older settlements on the St. Lawrence. By 1795 horses, cattle, and sheep were plentiful, the pioneers were relieved of, the heaviest part of their work, which they transferred to the beasts of burden, and enjoyed the luxury of fresh meat, butter, and cheese. Hens and other barn-yard fowls made their appearance about the same time; but considerable care was still necessary to protect them from the foxes and other denizens of the forest, which had a particular relish for the farmer’s poultry. One of the most onerous duties cast upon the settler was that of making roads, as each one was required to clear a road across his lot. At first trees were blazed from one clearing to another, marking a footpath through the woods; for, although regular allowances were laid out in the survey, these were rarely followed, and particularly in the townships of Adolphustown and Fredericksburgh, which are cut up by arms of the bay, the paths were irregular, some- times following the configuration of the shore line or deviating to avoid a creek or swamp. As horses were introduced the boughs were trimmed to permit the rider to pass along without the danger of being brushed
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THE SETTLING OF THE LOYALISTS 43
off by an overhanging branch and, with the advent of carts and’ sleighs, stumps and trees were removed to enlarge the passage way and there was gradually developed the modern highway; but many of the bends
still remain, although the causes for the deviations no longer exist, or -
if they do, most of them would be no serious obstacle to the modern road-maker.
The author of The Emigrant’s Guide of 1820 has this to say upon the state of society in Upper Canada: “The state of society in Upper Canada, especially to a European, is not attractive. To the spiritual mind it offers little spirituality, (but where alas shall we find more!), to the votaries of politeness and etiquette, little of that glare of studied polish, which is so often, so arrogantly, so blindly, and so ruinously set up in the place of the great principle of christian love of which it is so deplorable an imitator. The Canadian society has rather roughness than simplicity of manners; and scarcely presents a trace of that truly refined, that nobly cultivated, and that spiritually improved tone of conversation and deportment, which, even in the most highly polished circles and amidst all the inflections of real or imagined superiority, is so rarely to be found.
“Yet the state of society in Upper Canada is not without its advan- tages. It is adapted to the condition of the country and is consistent with the circumstances of which it forms a part.
“Its general characteristics may be said to be, in the higher classes, a similar etiquette to that established at home, with a minor redundancy of polish, and minor extravagance; and in the lower, a somewhat coarser simplicity. As far as I have seen the people, they appear to me fully as moral as any other I know, with as much mutual kindness among themselves, and more than commonly hospitable to strangers. They seem to me rather inclined to seriousness than levity, and to need only the advantage of pious instruction and of pious example, to become, under grace, one of the most valuable people upon the earth.
“Their habits are, in general, moderately industrious, frugal, and benevolent. Their amusements, of course, are unhappily like those of the world. Horse-racing, betting, shooting; and where leisure abounds, idle conversation, balls, cards, and the theatre, etc. Yet I have observed with pleasure a somewhat more domestic tone amongst their women; and it has amply compensated, to me for the absence of that greater degree of polish which at once adorns and disgraces the general mass of our European ladies. But the passion for that polish, corroborated as it is by all the vanities, as cultivation develops them, of our nature, is afloat. It is tending rapidly to displace the remaining and superior
44 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON
charms of that simplicity: and threatens ere long to render as irrelevant to Upper Canada that beautiful sentiment of Goldsmith:
“More dear to me, congenial to my heart, One native charm, than all the gloss of art.”
Though it does not bear directly upon the history of our county 1
cannot forbear quoting the same author’s comments upon the then town of Kingston. ‘There are few towns and villages in Upper Canada, and those few are small, Kingston, the most considerable of them, being less extensive than the generalty of the common county towns in Great Britain and Ireland. Agriculturalists, such as are almost universally the people of Upper Canada, scatter themselves over their farms, not crowd together as do the colonies of commerce.
“Still towns and commerce are essential parts of the prosperity of states: and as the settlements in Canada are extended, and at the same time that they produce more abundant articles for export, shall demand the enlarged introduction of foreign conveniences, towns and commerce must flourish.
“Kingston, situated in the township of Frontenac, at the head of the River St. Lawrence where it issues from Lake Ontario, already feels this difference. Within the last few years, it has increased amazingly and promises to go on rapidly improving. Placed in the great course of water communication: possessed of a harbour and dockyard, with a commanding point, which is fortified, and forms the strongest point at present in the province: while at the same time, it is the key of some subordinate, but extremely important lines of internal intercourse, it may be regarded as a dawning emporium, where wealth and grandeur shall hereafter stalk with a gait as proud and as lordly as they now stalk in places, then perhaps shorn of their meteor magnificence.”
If the spirit of the Captain were to revisit Kingston to-day would he consider that his eloquent prophecy had been realized? He enter- tained no such hopes for York nor ventured to predict its future pos- sibilities, but dismisses it with a few words as to its favourable location after referring to it as “next in importance to Kingston.” Belleville is described as “a new and thriving village, situated at the head of the Bay of Quinte.”
The Ambitious City was then in the embryonic stage and the author of the Guide was not very exact as to its location, but honours it with a passing reference:—“And between Belleville and York, near Smith’s Creek, is another village, called Hamilton.”
His advice to emigrants regarding methods to conduce to the pre-
servation of health is in many respects timely, even to the emigrant of |
es
THE SETTLING OF THE LOYALISTS 45
the twentieth century :—‘The first object to emigrants lately arrived, is to avoid every excess of every kind; to be temperate in all things; and to provide, as far as possible, against exposure to the inclemencies of the weather, particularly of the night air.
“For this purpose an ample supply, particularly of blankets, should be laid in at Quebec or Montreal; and this precaution should by no means be omitted on account of the incumbrance of their carriage. Of course this advice applies especially to those whose finances do not enable them to command the more expensive means of shelter wherever they go. Damp, and particularly remaining without motion in damp clothes, should, at however great a trouble, be sedulously avoided; and the best attainable shelter, even to the utmost extent of the person’s means, should be everywhere diligently sought; more especially between the months of September and June.
“Marshy and swampy situations should be particularly avoided, if possible, and where altogether unavoidable, the house should be built as remote from them, as consistent with any tolerable degree of con- venience in other respects.
“The wood about the dwelling should be immediately and entirely cleared away; no branches or logs left, as is very universally the case, to gather and preserve stagnant and putrefying moisture.
“The dwelling should be made as impervious as may be to the sur- rounding air, every crevice being well closed, and everything should be kept clean and dry about it.
“When clear, good spring or river water cannot be had, the water for drinking should always be boiled and suffered to cool before it is used.
“In damp situations, which are exposed to agues, I esteem a moder- ate use of liquor to be healthful; but it would be better never to use it than to use it with the smallest degree of intemperance.
“Generally throughout the province, but in the western district particularly, it is pernicious to work exposed to the sun during the hot season in the heat of the day. The labourers should rise at a propor- tionately early hour, and rest from eleven till two. People just arrived from Great Britain commonly feel a vigour which would tend to make them despise caution; but it is offered by one who has collected it from a very extensive experience, and he trusts it may be useful.”
Although the first settlers in this county spent nearly all of their waking hours in heavy toil their life was not to them a life of drudgery. Their hearts were in their work. Every acre that was cleared was one more victory over the stubborn barrier that stood between them and the road to prosperity. Every timber that was laid in their dwellings and
46 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON
barns brought them one step nearer to a realization of their desire. There was a grim satisfaction in subduing nature and enlisting her forces as allies in their struggle for existence. There was a spirit of independence in their daily battle for bread. After the government rations were with- drawn, they were beholden to no man; but trusted solely to their own good right arms, and to their work they devoted themselves with a will. Sunday was their only holiday and there were no fixed hours for labour. So long as there was work to do and strength to do it, the rule was work, work, work, and when tired out, lay it aside and enjoy that refreshing rest that comes to those who know what honest labour is.
During the long evening the pine knots would be piled about the huge back-log and the different members of the family would have their work apportioned among them; but an air of comfort and cheerfulness per- vaded the room in keeping with the dancing blaze which diffused its light to the remotest corner. The father, with a last resting upon his knees held in place by a strap passing over it and under his foot, would pause with uplifted hammer to recount! some amusing incident of his day’s experience. The mother would smile approvingly or join in the general laughter, never ceasing in her work upon the family socks except now and then to raise her knitting needle to caution the others against waking the younger children cuddled in a bunk upon the floor. A son musingly whittled at a shuttle he was shaping for the loom, while his sister, with a wooden tray upon her lap, hummed a favourite tune, while she peeled and quartered its contents of apples and hung them up in garlands above the fireplace to dry. Work was the predominating feature of many of their festive gatherings. The husking bee was the occasion of much good cheer. Each farmer had his corn to husk; but, instead of sitting down by himself to do it, he summoned his neighbours tc a, bee, to which all within a certain radius would expect an invitation, and if any were overlooked, they would feel that an offence was intended. These bees were always held in the evening in the barn, which was lighted by candle lanterns securely suspended a safe distance above the sheaves. Seated about in a semicircle on the floor, with a bundle of corn beside each couple, the guests did the husking, throwing the ears upon a heap in the centre, while the attendants removed the stripped stalks and brought them a fresh supply. Larger and larger grew the heap of golden ears to the confusion of the attendants who dodged the flying missiles as they were hurled through the air. At the sound of the dinner horn all repaired to the house, where a steaming pot-pie awaited the hungry huskers. Dough-nuts and cider usually formed a part of the menu, which always concluded with a pumpkin pie. Then followed the pipes and stories and sometimes the fiddle, the only
=o y ! oF iar | is eae
THE SETTLING OF THE LOYALISTS 47 ‘ musical instrument in the neighbourhood. At midnight the party would disperse; the farmer’s corn was husked, all had had a jolly, sociable evening and a good supper, and it never occurred to any of them that they had been at work.
There were also the logging bees in the earlier days, when the neighbours turned out with their oxen, their axes, and cross-cut saws. These were more serious affairs and meant hard work, but all applied themselves cheerfully to the task of cutting the fallen trees into lengths that could be conveniently handled, and hauling them to the burning heaps where they were consumed to ashes, which in turn were converted into potash, the only return from the magnificent trees for which there was little demand.
The women had their “afternoons,” a sort of clearing-house for the gossip of the neighbourhood, but that was the only resemblance it bore to the social functions of to-day. The housewife was never quite so happy as when at work, and when she called upon her neighbours she took her knitting with her. They had their bees as well as the men, and the most popular of all was the quilting bee, when they gathered about wooden frames upon which was stretched the material for the quilt and deftly plied their needles while they merrily discussed the cur- rent topics of the day.
The paring bees were also popular, when the apples that could not be kept fresh during the winter were pared, and quartered, and strung upon linen thread to be dried in the sun or over the fireplace.
The hospitality of the pioneers was proverbial, and visiting was a recognized social custom especially during the winter season. They did not wait for an invitation, but when they felt disposed, generally select- ing a time when the nights were bright and the roads were passable, the heads of the family would drive away to pay their respects to some old friend, arriving at his dwelling in ample time to give the good housewife an opportunity to prepare a hot supper, and rarely if ever was she caught with an empty larder. A good fat goose was gener- ally suspended from a peg in the woodshed and a peep into the cupboard would invariably disclose a stock of brown dough-nuts, fruit jams, mince pies and other delicacies awaiting just such an occasion. The visitors were always assured of a warm welcome and a right good supper. After doing justice to the edibles, more pine knots were heaped about the back-log, and the remotest corners of the room were filled with a cheer- ful brightness that no modern electrolier can equal, and hosts and guests gathered about the hearth, “spun their yarns,” and with the latest news bridged over the interval since their last meeting. Many happy hours were thus spent, and at midnight the visitors took their leave.
48 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON
At a time when newspapers were scarce, the postal service expensive and irregular, and the means of communication with the outside world very incomplete, these gatherings served the useful purpose of exchang- ing bits of news which had been gathered by different members of the company. As late as 1840 there were very few post-offices in this county, as appears from the following list taken from the Kingston Almanac published in the third year of the reign of Queen Victoria.
POSTAL RATE
POST-OFFICES Post MASTERS FROM KINGSTON t d. Adolphustown Stephen Griffiths 4% Bath Wm. J. McKay 4% Camden East Samuel Clark 4% Fredericksburgh W. Anderson 4% Mill Creek (Odessa) Timothy Fraser 4% Napanee Allan Macpherson 4%
The population of this county is given in the same little publication as follows:
Adolphustown, 1,620; Amherst Island, 822; Camden East, 3,155; Ernesttown (then Ernest Town), 3,976; Fredericksburgh, 2,674; Rich- mond (including the village of Napanee), 1,859; and Sheffield, 473.
The weather prophets were as venturesome seventy years ago as they are to-day. The one writing for the Kingston Almanac unhesitat- ingly informs the reader months in advance what he may expect from the elements. He thus predicts for the month of October: “The com- mencement of this month until the 4th will be unusually warm and steady. On the 5th, Northeast winds will set in, accompanied by cold, sleety rain, with heavy showers of hail, with interruptions of bright, cold, blowing days, continuing to the twelfth: after which the weather will become fine, with cold, frosty nights, the days being warm and temperate. On the 18th the weather will again change, with cold rain and blustering weather, with occasional cold, clear, frosty nights chang- ing at sunrise to soft rainy weather with frequent squalls. On the 23rd frost will set in with steady, clear weather. On the 26th it will become ‘more temperate.” The almanac joker had evidently just begun to put in an appearance, as only five or six of his attempts appear in this issue. This is one of them: “In what do the Loughborough girls ex-sell?” “In the market.”
We of the twentieth century within easy call of the skilled physi- cian by means of the net-work of telephone lines, urban and rural, know little of the disadvantage under which our forefathers laboured in this respect; for even as late as 1817 there were only ten qualified physicians in the Midland District, not a single one of whom resided in this county ; and at the time of the first settlement the pioneers were dependent
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MINUTES OF THE FIRST TOWN MEETING OF ADOLPHUSTOWN.
HAY BAY METHODIST CHURCH. BUILT 1792.
THE SETTLING OF THE LOYALISTS 49
entirely upon the army surgeons at the military posts. We are not to infer from this that all followers of that profession were on the revolu- tionary side; on the contrary the leading physicians not only espoused the cause of the Loyalists but made no effort to conceal their views. The explanation is given in Sabine’s Loyalists of the American Revolution: “The physicians who adhered to the Crown were numerous, and the proportion of Whigs in the profession of medicine was less, probably, than in either that of law or theology. But unlike persons of the latter callings, most of the physicians remained in the country and quietly pur- sued their business. There seems to be an understanding that though pulpits should be closed and litigation be suspended, the sick should not be deprived of their regular and freely chosen medical attendants. I have been surprised to find from verbal conversation and various other sources, that while the “Tory doctors’ were as zealous and as fearless in the expression of their sentiments as the ‘Tory ministers’ and the ‘Tory barristers’ their persons and property were generally respected in the towns and villages where little or no regard was paid to the bodies and estates of gentlemen of the robe and surplice.”
There were army surgeons attached to the garrison at Kingston; but as their duties were limited to the post at which they were stationed they were not at all times willing to go any distance from their station; and the refugees for years were obliged to depend upon what little knowledge they themselves possessed of the healing art. The most dreaded scourge was small-pox, and in view of the modern controversy upon the subject of vaccination the following extract from an editorial appearing in the Newark Journal of February 1st, 1797, is of interest: “We hear from every settlement the determination for a general inocu- lation for the small-pox. This resolution is highly commended by per- sons of prudence. The country being young, and growing more exposed to that disorder, a general inoculation every two or three years will for ever render its prevalence in any way of very little concern, there being then none, or but few excepting young children, to be affected by it. This season of the year is highly favourable to do it; to defer it until warm weather or summer is highly dangerous. The blood is in a state then easily to become putrid, fever may set in with it, and besides anese...... to place it in the most favourable situation,...... must sus- tain infinite injury. To enact a law to enforce a general inoculation looks arbitrary; but the writer of this who can in no wise be interested by himself or friends, is of opinion that such a law in any country, more ' patticularly in a new one, would operate to the greatest possible benefit of the country, and be justifiable on the principles of public and private
50 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON
remains a blindness in so many to their own safety and welfare, and a delicacy in our rulers to compel a man to throw off old prejudices and to do those things that are taught by the simple and natural law of self- defence.”
Although a statute was passed as early as 1788 to prevent persons practising physic and surgery without first having obtained a license from such person as the Governor or Commander-in-Chief should ap- point for the purpose, and though other acts were, from time to time, enacted with the same end in view, these laws were not enforced and the country for a time was overrun by a number of unqualified quack- doctors, possessing little or no knowledge of the diseases they treated or the drugs they administered.
One of the first to declare war against these fraudulent practitioners was the Reverend, afterwards Bishop, Strachan, who, under the pseu- donym, “Reckoner,” wrote several letters to the Kingston Gazette in 1812, in which, among other things, he says: “The Province is overrun with self-made physicians who have no pretensions to knowledge of any kind, and yet there is no profession of any kind that requires more extensive information.
“They comprehend not the causes or nature of diseases, are totally ignorant of anatomy, chemistry, and botany; many know nothing of classical learning of general science. Where shall you find one among them attending particularly to the age, constitution, and circumstances of the patient and varying his prescriptions accordingly? It is indeed pre- posterous to expect judgment and skill, a nice discrimination of diseases, or proper method of cure, from men who have never been regularly taught, who cannot pronounce, much less explain, the terms of the art they profess, and who are unable to read the books written upon the subject. The welfare of the people calls aloud for some legislative pro- vision, that shall remedy the increasing evil.” The Reverend gentleman cites several instances of gross incompetence that came under his personal observation, among them the case of a young woman ill of the fever for whom the doctor, without measuring it, poured out such a dose of calomel “as would have killed two ploughmen.” Upon the departure of the medical attendant, the patient’s spiritual adviser threw the dose out of the window.
Another Act to license practitioners was passed in 1815; but it re- mained a dead letter, and the war against quackery was renewed by a writer from Adolphustown who in a letter to the Gazette thus states the case:
“Tt is a subject of deep interest to many that the executive and magistracy should show such a sluggishness in enforcing the laws of the
THE SETTLING OF THE LOYALISTS 51
province. It is particularly to be deplored so far as those laws, relate to persons calling themselves doctors; not only our fortunes but also our lives are in the hands of those deplorable quacks. How does it hap- pen that an Act of the session of 1815 isnot acted upon? Is it because that Act is unwise, or is it because the executive does not think it of sufficient importance to put into operation? If the first, why not expunge it from the laws of the province? If the latter, what is the use of a House of Assembly at all?
“Perhaps, Mr. Editor, you and other respectable gentlemen living in town, who have access to and knowledge to value the merits of those practising medicine, may not feel so much as I do the miserable condi- tion of the country; but, sir, if the health of the subject is not a matter of sufficient importance to rouse the morbid sensibility of those whose duty it is to administer the laws, I should imagine that in a political point of view it would be a matter of great importance to look after those quack spies who are daily inundating the province. Those men (most brutal, generally speaking, in their manners, and in their conduct immoral in the highest degree) go from house to house like pedlars, dealing out their poisonous pills and herbs, and holding out to the gaping ignorant the advantages of a republican government.
“But to give you an instance of the contemptible conduct of one of those animals, nearer yourself. During the last Session of the Peace I had occasion to be in Kingston, and although I lodged in a private house, I had occasion to call one morning at a tavern. While speaking to the landlady in the bar, in comes a doctor and calls for a gill of brandy. He drank it, in the course of which he put a great many questions to her about the health of her customers, and finally said he would leave some fever powders, as it was likely the country people would be get- ting drunk (as he termed it) and would require medicine. The lady thanked him, and said if she wanted any medical aid she knew where to send for it.
“To conclude, Mr. Editor, the consequences of. the present system will be, in the first place, to prevent native merit entering into the pro- fession; secondly, those few respectable and regularly educated men whom we have amongst us will either leave the province or get a mis- erable subsistence if they remain; and, lastly, though not the least, the province will be in some degree revolutionized by those emissaries of a licentious republic.”
“Veritas”
“Adolphustown, May 14th, 1816.”
52 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON
The truth of the words of the Rev. Dr. Strachan and “Veritas” is demonstrated by the following advertisement of the cure-alls offered for sale by these impostors:
“Richmond, Oct. 17th, 1817.”
“Advertisement—This is to certify that I, Solomon Albert, is Good to cure any sore in word Complaint or any Pains, Rheumatic Pains, or any Complaint whatsoever the Subscriber doctors with yerbs or Roots. Any person wishing to employ him will find him at Dick Bells.
“Solomon Albert’’*
If Solomon’s remedies were of the same class as his English, it is to be hoped that the good people of Richmond did not consult him in a professional way.
The Legislative Assembly, no longer able to withstand the attacks made upon it for not protecting the public against the quacks and their pernicious concoctions, passed an Act creating a Medical Board, com- posed of five or more persons legally authorized to practise medicine, with power “to hear and examine all persons desirous to practise physic, surgery, or mid-wifery or either of them within the province,” and upon the certificate of the Board as to the fitness of the applicant, a license to practise might be granted to him. This Statute came into force on November 27th, 1818, and the Board was promptly appointed and con- vened at York and proved themselves equal to the occasion by rejecting one out of two petitioners for license. At the April session one out of two was rejected, and at the meeting in July four out of seven appli- cants were found unfit to practise. A remedy was at last found for the long standing evil. Mr. George Baker of Bath was the first gentleman from this county to pass a satisfactory examination before the Board. He received his certificate in January, 1820. In July of the same year Hiram Weeks of Fredericksburgh was similarly honoured, and the third practitioner for the county was John Vanderpost of. the same township, who was licensed in January, 1821.
For the next sixteen years the following appear to be the success- ful candidates from this county, so far as can be gathered from the minutes of the Board.
Hames. Pairfield: «.\ bss 0 ae aes Baths . scenes Abraham V. V. Pruyn ...... Bath... . sie une Isaac..B. Aylesworth «040423 Rath .wi Nee ioe. Gpamberlain: :....4604s4 Bath, .\eaineeeamas
* The Medical Profession in Upper Canada, page 36
.
ys ee "ee women en Ga rea ernie” ae
Pick cuaciery was ‘ick throuetay sradicabed te quite caniiiiod Trost : re
the following advertisement which appeared in the Napanee Standard a in 1873: . * “Dr. Hyatt” | tt,
“Clairvoyant and Magneticphysician”
“examines diseases by a lock of hair, photograph, or autograph. Can be consulted at his residence opposite Green & Son’s furniture ware- houses, Dundas Street, Napanee.”
«+54 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON
CHAPTER IV
THE DEVELOPMENT OF MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.
By an Imperial Act passed in 1774 entitled “An Acf for making more effectual provision for the Government of the Province of Quebec in North America,” the boundaries of the province were so fixed as to include all lands lying north of a-line drawn from the Bay of Chaleur, following approximately the present southern boundary of the Province of Quebec, thence along the St. Lawrence, Lake Ontario, and Lake Erie, and on westerly to the Mississippi River, excepting only the territory granted to the Hudson’s Bay Company. It also included Newfoundland and all islands and territories falling within the jurisdiction of its government. Provision was made for the government of this extensive territory, by further enacting that His Majesty might appoint a legis- lative council, not exceeding twenty-three in number nor less than seventeen, which council would have power to make ordinances for the peace, welfare, and good government of the province. ‘There was an express prohibition against levying any taxes, except such rates and taxes as the inhabitants of any town or district might be authorized to assess, levy, and apply for the purpose of making roads, erecting and repairing public buildings, or for any other purpose respecting the local convenience and economy of such town or district. In the same year an Act was passed fixing the duties to be imposed upon brandy, rum, and other spirits, and syrups and molasses, discriminating in favour of all such manufactured in great Britain or carried in British ships. In striking contrast with this last mentioned Act there was passed in 1778, as a result of the American Revolution, an Act declaring that the King and Parliament of Great Britain would not impose any duty-tax or assessment, except only such as it might be expedient to impose for the regulation of commerce, and that the product of all such duties should be applied exclusively for the use of the colony in which the same were levied. From the breaking out of the rebellion in 1776 the Province of Quebec appears to have been a special object of solicitude on the part of King George and his Parliament. Year after year we find enact- ments calculated to encourage new settlers. With the coming of the Loyalists the people of this extensive domain felt that they had outgrown the age when they could be ruled by a Government and Legislative
THE DEVELOPMENT OF MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 55
Council in whose appointment they had no voice. The Act of 1774, popularly known as the Quebec Act, provided no machinery for the self-government of the local districts, such as the Loyalists had been accustomed to in their former homes; and such ordinances as had been passed by the Legislative Council were not well suited to the require- ments of a people accustomed to British laws and institutions. During the first few years after their arrival in the county the settlers were too busy to give much attention to the question of the administration of justice; yet differences arose between neighbours, and offences were committed by wrongdoers, and these differences had to be settled and the offenders punished. From the time they had first set out on their northern journey they had lived under martial law, and the officers appointed to command the several companies continued to exercise their authority until they were gradually replaced by the civil authorities. They, however, did not enforce that rigid military discipline that is generally understood to prevail under such circumstances; but, in their own way, endeavoured to maintain peace and order by applying the English laws as they understood them.
Lord Dorchester, who came to Canada in the autumn of 1786; was the first Governor to take up the question of the administra- tion of justice in Upper Canada. A few magistrates were appointed in this part of the province, but their jurisdiction was so limited that matters of any magnitude could be determined only by the higher tribunals in the lower province. When Upper Canada was divided into districts in 1788 a General Commission of the Peace was issued appointing two magistrates for each township in the district of Mecklenburgh. This number was added to from time to time as cir- cumstances required or sufficient influence was brought to bear to secure an appointment. More extended power, both ministerial and judicial, was vested in the justices, who were authorized to sit collectively as one body known as the Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace, a name retained long after the justices had ceased to exercise their powers in session. This important body performed the duties now assigned to our municipal councils, justices of the peace, police magistrates, and to some extent the county judges. One such court was established in each of the four Districts, and the first court held in the Mecklenburgh District was at Kingston on April 14th, 1789. There were four jus- tices present, Richard Cartwright, Junior, Neil McLean, Richard Porter, and Arch. McDonnell.
For over twenty years Richard Cartwright was the leading spirit of these sessions, at which he presided when present, and his addresses have been characterized as remarkable for their “sound principles, liberal
56 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON:
views, and tempered dignity.” Upon the few occasions when he was absent his place was taken by Neil McLean, Alex. Fisher, or Thomas Markland. During the first few sessions up to the passing of the Con- stitutional Act the court not only heard and determined civil and crim- inal cases, but also issued ordinances calculated to provide for the good government of the district. Some pretty heavy sentences were handed out by the sessions with the evident intention of stamping out the crime of larceny. We find that at the April sessions of 1790, one Frederick Piper, for having stolen a ploughshare purporting to be of the value of ten shillings, was ordered to be given thirty-nine lashes on his bare back at the public whipping-post, to be imprisoned for one month, and to suffer the further humiliation of being exposed one day each week in the stocks and duly labelled with the word “Thief,” in order that all passers-by might know the crime for which he had been convicted and have the opportunity of taunting him upon his degradation.
That the reader may appreciate the multifarious duties performed by the Court of Quarter Sessions in addition to the hearing of civil and criminal cases, let me briefly review the records for the year 1797. The first meeting presided over by Alex. Fisher was held at Adolphustown on January 24th, and no less than thirteen justices took their places upon the bench. Two new justices were sworn in and took their seats, thus swelling the number to fifteen. The formal proceeding of reading the commission and summoning the grand jury was performed in the usual manner, but no general business was transacted except the ordering of a levy of £26 from the counties of Addington and Ontario to meet the expenses of the member, Joshua Booth, in attending the meeting of the Legislative Assembly for the year 1796 and the sum of £25 to cover his expenses for the year 1795.
A special session, attended by only two justices, was next held at Kingston on March 18th to receive the accounts and lists of the road overseers and to apportion the road work to be done by them.
Another meeting was held at Kingston on April 25th and 26th, at which five justices were present the first day and two on the second. The chief business transacted at these sessions was the ordering of the levy of a rate for the ensuing year, the recommendation of the appoint- ment of two additional coroners, the passing of several accounts for services rendered in connection with the relief of the poor, and other accounts of the clerk of the peace and township clerks, the granting of a license for a public inn, the auditing of the treasurer’s accounts, and the appointment of constables for the year.
On July 11th and 12th the sessions were held at Adolphustown with seven justices in attendance, which number was increased to eight ‘by
; ' f
THE DEVELOPMENT OF MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 57
swearing in a newly appointed member of the court. At this court the justices established a Court of Request in the township of Marysburgh, and another in the townships of Sophiasburgh and Ameliasburgh.
At a meeting held in Kingston on October toth, four constables were fined twenty shillings each for non-attendance.
From the foregoing it will be seen that the justices transacted a large amount of business outside of their judicial duties. In 1798 licenses were granted by them for the establishment of a ferry across the Napanee River, fixing the toll for foot passengers at 3d., and horse and man at 7d., and another at Murray at which the toll was fixed at 4d. and &d., respectively.
Prior to 1798 ministers of the Church of England only could legally perform the marriage ceremony, but an act was passed in that year authorizing the Quarter Sessions, when six justices at least were pre- sent, to grant licenses to clergymen of the Church of Scotland or Luth- erans, or Calvinists to solemnize marriage, upon their taking the oath of allegiance, being vouched for by seven respectable persons members of the congregations or community to which they belonged, producing proofs of ordination and the sum of five shillings. Robert McDowell, the Presbyterian minister, complied with these conditions at the sessions held at Adolphustown in July, 1800, and was given the required certi- ficate, the first issued in this district. In January of the following year a similar certificate was granted the Lutheran minister, John G. Wigant.
At the sessions held at Adolphustown on January 25th, 1803, the first ferry license between Ameliasburgh and Thurlow was granted to William Garow (Gerow) with the following tolls:—every man Is., two or more 9d. each, man and horse 2s., span of horses and carriage 2s. 6d., yoke of oxen 2s. 6d., every sheep 3d., every hog 4d.
In 1791 was passed the Constitutional Act, dividing the Province of Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada and making provision for the government of the two provinces thus formed. Each legislature was to consist of three branches, the Lieutenant-Governor, the Legislative Council, and the House of Assembly, corresponding to our Governor- General, Senate, and House of Commons. Under the new order of things Colonel John Graves Simcoe was the first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, and pursuant to the authority vested in him, he pro- ceeded by proclamation, bearing date July 16th, 1792, to divide the province into counties and to declare the number of representatives to be elected by each to serve in the Legislative Assembly, which was to con- sist of sixteen members. The component parts of our county, as at present bounded, entered into the composition of three separate counties, namely, Ontario, Addington, and Lenox (afterwards spelled Lennox).
7 i ’ ‘ 2 aT 4) ne 2
58 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON
The county of Ontario was composed exclusively of islands, compris- ing all the islands lying between the mouth of the Gananoque River and the most easterly extremity of Prince Edward County, among the num- ber being Amherst Island, then known as Isle Tonti; Addington was composed of the Township of Ernesttown and all the land between Lake Ontario on the south and the Ottawa River on the north that would fall within the extension of the eastern and western boundaries of the town- ship, including of course the then township of Camden. Lennox was bounded on the east by the county of Addington, on the south by the Bay of Quinte, and on the west by the Bay of Quinte, and the western boundary of the township of Richmond extended northerly, until it intersected the western boundary of Addington. In fixing the repre- sentatives that the several counties, nineteen in all, were entitled to, the apportionment was much more confusing from the twentieth century point of view. Ontario and Addington were to send one representative ; Adolphustown was severed from the neighbouring townships and linked to Prince Edward to form an electoral district to be represented by one member, and the remainder of Lennox, that is Fredericksburgh and Rich- mond, were united with Hastings and Northumberland in sending one representative.
The present county of Ontario was sparsely settled at the time and had then no separate existence. So few indeed had taken up land on the north shore of Lake Ontario that all the territory between Weller’s Bay and Burlington Bay was divided into three counties, Northumberland, Durham, and York, and the latter two had not suffi- cient population to entitle them to a representative, but were joined to a part of Lincoln to form one electoral district. The members of the Legislative Council, seven in number, were appointed by the Crown and held office for life. Fully equipped with all this legislative machinery, to which was added an Executive Council or advisory board, Upper Canada entered upen its career as a self-governing province at Niagara | in September, 1792. The first act of the miniature Parliament contained a provision which gave great satisfaction to all the inhabitants and has i proven a blessing to all future generations. It was expressed in few . words but was far-reaching in its consequences, for it swept away the obnoxious French Civil Code and brought the province under the laws of Great Britain. The operative words were as follows: “That from and after the passing of this Act, in all matters of controversy relative to property and civil rights, resort shall be had to the laws of England, as the rule for the decision of the same.” At the same session trials by jury were established and Courts of Requests created for the easy
;
THE DEVELOPMENT OF MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 59
4
and speedy recovery of small debts before two or more justices of the peace. ‘
The four Districts which had been given Dutch names to appease a large number of Loyalists of German descent were renamed the “Eastern,” “Midland,” “Home,” and “Western” Districts respec- tively. The Court of Requests, corresponding to our present division courts, were presided over by justices residing in the respective divi- sions. In 1840 there were eleven of these divisions in the Midland District, and the Kingston Almanac published in that year gives the fol- lowing list of courts and justices severally assigned to them:
“Division 3rd.—Ernesttown and Amherst Island:—lIsaac Fraser, Wm. I. McKay, Orton Hancox, Benjamin Seymour, William Fairfield, Junior.—Holden at Bath.” °
“Division 4th.—Camden and Sheffield:—Jacob Rombough, Samuel Clark, Calvin Wheeler, R. D. Finley, W. M. Bell.—Holden at Camden Fast.”
“Division 5th.—Part Fredericksburgh and Adolphustown:—James Fraser, David L. Thorp, Samuel Dorland, Samuel Casey, Jacob Detlor, Williams Sills—Holden at Charters Inn.”
“Division 6th—Part Fredericksburgh and Adolphustown:—Archi- bald McNeil, James Fraser, W. W. Casey, Geo. Schryver, A. Campbell. —Holden at Clarkville.”
“Division 7th.—Richmond and part Hungerford:—Allan Mac- pherson, Archibald Caton, George H. Detlor, David Stuart, Charles. Macdonald.—Holden at Napanee.”
There was only one registry office in the District. at that time, and it of course was at Kingston, but there were two deputy registrars, Isaac Fraser at Bath, and Robert McLean at Belleville. When the Loyalists. first settled here there was no workable statutory authority for municipal government, but the necessity for it was felt, and the Quarter Sessions took it upon themselves to supply the defect, levied assessments, let public contracts, and issued orders for the good government of the Dis- trict corresponding to our by-laws. The citizens were not content with the rule of the justices. They had been accustomed to their town meet- ings, their town offices and by-laws, and saw no reason why they should not enjoy the same privileges in their new home, and they proceeded to convene town meetings, appoint their own officials, and frame regu- lations to meet their needs.
There lies before the writer the original minute-book of the town meetings of the township of Adolphustown extending over a period
_ from 1792 to 1849. rT
60 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON
All of the business transacted and recorded at the first meeting is embodied in twelve lines, containing only ninety-four words, and the entire record from 1792 to 1849 inclusive, after which date the Municipal Act came into force, is contained in less than one hundred pages, the greater portion of which is given over to census returns and lists of officers elected. The officers chosen at the meeting of March 6th, 1792, were a town clerk, a constable, two overseers of the poor, three pound-masters, and two fence-viewers. At the meeting of March sth, 1793, there were chosen a town clerk, two constables, two oyerseers of the poor, four overseers of the highway, and six fence-viewers. The Act providing for the nomination and appointment of parish and town officers was passed July oth, 1793, after which a special town meeting was held on August 28th of the same year, and the following officers were chosen: a town clerk, two assessors, a collector, four overseers of the highway and fence-viewers, the two offices being combined by the Statute, three pound-masters, and two town wardens. The Statute enacted that the inhabitant householders should choose “two fit and dis- creet persons to serve the office of town wardens for such parish, town- ship, reputed township, or place; but as soon as there shall be any church built for the performance of divine service, according to the use of the Church of England, with a parson or minister duly appointed thereto, then the said inhabitant householders shall choose and nomin- ate one person, and the said parson or minister shall nominate one other person, which persons shall jointly serve the office of churchwarden ; and that such town wardens or churchwardens, and their successors duly appointed, shall be a corporation to represent the whole inhabitants of the township or parish, and as such, may have a property in goods or chattels of or belonging to the said parish, and shall and may sue, prosecute, or defend in all presentments, indictments, or actions for and on the behalf of the inhabitants of the said parish.”
Notwithstanding the building of a church for the performance of divine service, the town meetings in apparent disregard of that provi- sion of the Statute, continued to elect two wardens until 1823, when for the first time the right of the church to nominate one of the wardens was recognized, as appears by the following minute for that year: “Thomas Williams, Esq., Church Warden, appointed by the Clergyman ;” and Lazarus Gilbert was appointed by the town meeting. In each suc- ceeding year up to 1836 the church nominated one of the wardens, after which date the wardens or commissioners were all chosen by the inhabitants.
At the annual meeting of 1792 Reuben Bedell was appointed town clerk, Joseph Allison and Garret Benson constables, Paul Huff and ~
THE DEVELOPMENT OF MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 61
Phillip Dorland overseers of the poor, Willet Casey, Paul Huff, and John
Huyck pound-masters. The dimensions of hog yokes were fixed at
18 x 24 inches. The height of a fence was fixed at four feet eight inches,
and Abraham Maybee and Peter Ruttan were appointed fence-viewers.
It was further decreed that water was not to be regarded as a fence, that no pigs were to run at large until they were three months old, and stallions were not to be allowed at large at all. Our forefathers wasted no words in their municipal enactments as the foregoing regulations were embodied in the following brief sentences: “Dimensions of hog yoaks 18 inches by 24,—height of fence 4 feet 8 inches. Fence-viewers Abraham Maybee and Peter Ruttan,—Water voted to be no fence,— no pigs to run till three months old. No stallion to run.” The minutes concluded with “Any person putting fire to brush or stubble that does not his endeavour to hinder it from doing damage shall forfeit the sum of forty shillings.” We thus see the two bodies, the. self-constituted town meeting and the Court of Quarter Sessions exercising concurrent jurisdiction, as the latter body at its session of July 14th, 1789, passed the following order: “No stallion more than two years old shall be allowed to run after the twentieth instant under a penalty of forty shill- ings to be paid by the owner, one half of which will be allowed the
informer.” This conflict of authority was the subject of legislation at the next meeting of the Provincial Parliament held at Niagara in July, 1793.
It must be borne in mind that Adolphustown was recognized as the most important centre of civilization in Upper Canada at the time, and the representatives of this district were men of high standing whose counsels carried great weight. Kingston had grown to be a town of a hundred or more houses, was a military and naval*centre, but Adolphustown took the lead in all matters appertaining to the adminis- tration of the civil affairs of the province. The right of the people to appoint their own officials was recognized by the second Act of this the second Parliament which authorized the calling of town meetings on the first day of March each year for the purpose of choosing a town clerk, assessor, collector, overseers of highways, pound-keepers, town wardens, and constables. To those officers was intrusted the authority to administer the laws within their respective spheres; but no power was given to the local body to enact any by-laws, yet upon this slender foundation has been built our Municipal Act of to-day. At the same session an Act was passed for holding the Quarter Sessions for the
_ Midland District alternately at Adolphustown in January and July, and at Kingston in April and ‘October. The town meetings scored another victory at this session by being given the power “to ascertain and deter-
62 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON
mine in what manner and at what periods horned cattle, horses, sheep, and swine, or any of them, shall be allowed to run at large.”
Turning again to the minutes of the town meetings we find the inhabitants of Adolphustown providing for their own needs, regard- less of either the Quarter Sessions or Parliament. In 1794 the first declaration of war was made against the thistle which was carried to this part of the province in the bateaux from Lower Canada. ‘The following minute appears in the record for that year: “It is agreed by the township that the weed called thistle should be crushed in its growth and to this purpose that pathmasters do direct the people to assist every person on whose land the same may grow in subduing it. Pro- vided it be found necessary and of this the pathmasters are to be the judges.”
Beginning with the year 1794 the town clerk carefully entered in his minute-book, as directed by the Statute of the previous year, a return of all the inhabitants of the township. This is repeated in the same precise form each year, giving the name of the head of the family in the first column and the number of men, women, male and female children in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th columns respectively, and the total number of the household in the 6th. From these records the population of the township in 1794 was 402; in 1804 it had increased to 585, but fell back to 552 in 1814; the last return, which is for the year 1822, gives the total as 571. The average family during these twenty-nine years was six and seven, and Paul Trumpour and Alexander Fisher head the list, each having a household of seventeen. The war against the thistle was continued, and in 1799 eleven overseers were appointed “to determine whether a fine of forty shillings shall not be laid on any person or per- sons who shall be found remiss or negligent in stopping the growth of the thistles on their premises, which fine if so laid by the aforemen- tioned persons or any three of them shall be laid out in subduing said thistles in this township. It is also agreed that when any person has so many growing on his lands that it may by the pathmasters or any one of them be thought to be burthensome for him to cut, that the path- master do order out ail the persons liable to do statute duty on the high- ways to his assistance.” Notwithstanding the master stroke in adding the rider to their order by which a friendly pathmaster could come to the relief of the delinquent the provision appears to have been unpopular and this “Prudential Law” was repealed the following year, only to be re-enacted in 1801.
For the next eight years the town meeting contented itself with appointing officers and continuing the same “Prudential Laws” from year to year, the only attempt at original legislation being
THE DEVELOPMENT OF MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 63
the simple enactment in 1810 “that hogs and pigs are not to be commoners unless lawfully yoaked the whole year.” For the next thirty-nine years the town meetings did little more than appoint the officers of the township and re-enact the laws of the previous year by simply inserting in the minutes “Prudential Laws the same as last year.” Their efforts at law-making were practically confined to vary- ing from time to time the regulations concerning animals running at large. Meanwhile the Quarter Sessions continued to administer the civil and criminal laws to the extent of their jurisdiction, and to exercise their other powers in managing the jail and other public institutions; in laying out and improving the highways; in levying an assessment to provide for the sessional indemnity of the members of the Assembly; in appointing street and highway surveyors, district and township con- stables, and inspectors of weights and measures. They regulated ferries and markets, and the granting of certificates to applicants for licenses to sell liquor, and to the clergymen of dissenting congregations, who could not solemnize marriage until authorized by the court. That the people of Upper Canada for over fifty years continued to intrust the manage- ment of their local public affairs to a small body of men nominated by the Crown speaks volumes for the patience and law-abiding qualities of the inhabitants, and is no small compliment to the intelligence, public spirit, and fair-mindedness of the justices composing the Sessions.
When we consider what the Loyalists had already undergone in order to maintain their principles we wonder that they submitted as long as they did to the autocratic rule of the justices. They had been accus- tomed to popular self-government and had learned through their experi- ence at the town meetings how easy a matter it was to make and repeal laws. The towns gradually broke away from the authority of the Quarter Sessions by the creation of Boards of Police to regulate their affairs, and in some cases notably Toronto, Kingston, Cornwall, and Bytown (Ottawa), by special Acts of Incorporation. With these examples before their eyes, popular government in the rural sections could not long be deferred, and in 1841 the Quarter Sessions were shorn of much of their power by the passing of The District Councils Act. Each District was constituted a municipal corporation to be governed by a District Council clothed with power to build and maintain schools, public buildings, roads, and bridges, to fix and provide means for paying the salaries of the district and township officers, and to levy assessments to meet the expense of the administration of justice.
It was not without a bitter struggle that this victory for the people was achieved. Lower and Upper Canada had just been re- _. united, and the Honourable S. B. Harrison at the first session cham-
‘64 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON
pioned the Act through the néw House against such strong opposi- tion as Sir Allan MacNab and Mr. J. S. Cartwright, the member for Lennox and Addington, both of whom are credited with oppos- » ing the bill because it was democratic and republican in prin- ciple, while the member for Hastings (Mr. Baldwin) thought that it did not go far enough, and was pleased to style it “an abominable bill” and a “monstrous abortion” which he viewed “with detestation.” The bill was eventually passed, some sections being carried by very narrow majorities. In 1798 there had been a readjustment of the counties by which the old county of Ontario was done away with, and it was enacted “that the townships of Ernesttown, Fredericksburgh, Adolphustown, Richmond, Camden (distinguished by being called Camden East), Amherst Island, and Sheffield do constitute and form the incorporated counties of Lennox and Addington.” The Midland District at the time the District Councils Act came into force comprised the counties of Frontenac, Lennox, and Addington. The first meeting of the new council was held in 1842 and was composed of one repre- sentative from each township duly chosen at the respective town meet- ings. .
The Act of 1841 proved to be so satisfactory that the same Mr. Baldwin who had viewed it “with detestation;’ sought to extend its principles in 1843 by introducing a general municipal act providing for the incorporation of all townships, towns, counties, and cities. The bill passed its three readings in the Assembly but was strangled in the Legis- lative Council. Six years later he reintroduced the same measure with certain amendments and improvements, among them. being the inclusion of villages in the list of municipalities eligible for incorporation. The principle of the District Councils Act had so grown in the popular esteem that but little opposition was offered, and our “Magna Charta of Municipal Government’ became law, and remains to-day in our Municipal Act a lasting monument to the wisdom of its author. During the same session it was deemed expedient to abolish the territorial divi- sion of the province into districts, and the county was made the unit for judicial and other purposes.
By a series of so-called “Gerrymandering” Acts successive gov- ernments have carved up many of the counties into electoral dis- tricts; but for other practical purposes the principle of the Act of | 1849 has been maintained. As the several districts had erected jails and other public buildings the rights of the several counties making up the district were preserved by providing that the dis- trict jail, court-houses, grammar schools, and officers should thence- forth belong to the counties and union of counties set forth in the
THE DEVELOPMENT OF MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 65
schedule to the Act. In this schedule we find Frontenac, Lennox, and Addington united for judicial purposes and, under the above mentioned proviso, joint owners of the public buildings which had been erected in the town of Kingston. In 1851 certain other alterations were made in the territorial divisions of the province whereby new townships were added to many of the existing counties. Addington is described as being composed of the townships of Camden, Ernesttown, Kaladar, Anglesea, Sheffield, and Amherst Island; while Lennox retained its original territory but was defined as Adolphustown (formerly Adolphus Town), Fredericksburgh, Fredericksburgh additional, and Richmond.
By an Act of Parliament passed in 1860 the county of Lennox was incorporated with the county of Addington to form the county of Lennox and Addington and the union with Frontenac was continued as before. By the same Act the townships of Effingham, Abinger, Ashby, and Denbigh were added to and formed part of Addington. In 1863 Frontenac was severed from Lennox and Addington, and each became a separate county for both judicial and municipal purposes. The only connection between the two, apart from the neighbourly feeling created by long association, is in respect to our county judges, whereby the judges of the two counties alternately exchange duties in the county and division courts.
In 1896 an attempt was made to improve the system of selecting county councils, as the number of members in some counties was so great that the councils were too unwieldly to dispose of the business brought before them with that despatch that is supposed to characterize their proceedings. The new Act provided for the subdivision of the counties
‘according to a sliding scale under which our ripe was rearranged
with five divisions as follows:
I. The Highlands Division, consisting of the unalone of Abinger, Anglesea, Ashby, Denbigh, Effingham, Kaladar, and Sheffield.
II. The Camden Division, consisting of the township of Camden and the village of Newburgh.
III. The Ernesttown Division, consisting of the village of Bath and the townships of Amherst Island and Ernesttown.
IV. The U. E. L. Division, consisting of the townships of Adolphus- town, North Fredericksburgh, and South Fredericksburgh.
V. The Napanee Division, consisting of the town of Napanee and the township of Richmond.
Two councillors, or commissioners as they were called, were to be elected from each division, making ten in all, and each elector, being entitled to two votes, could if he saw fit cast his two votes for one can- didate by making two crosses upon his ballot opposite the name of the
66 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON
candidate of his choice. For ten years the experiment was continued, and while it had a few redeeming features, which operated to some advantage in very large counties, yet, in the average county, the innova- tion was not regarded as a success. It was felt that the old system of sending members of the local councils as the representatives of the municipalities which elected them brought together as a county council a body of men in close touch with the wants of every part of the county. Such representatives, being members of the councils of the lesser municipalities, were better able to give expression to the wishes of the body they represented than one or two individuals elected by the general vote of two or more townships. The policy of the local munici- pality should be in harmony with the policy of its representative in the county council, and a representative not cognizant of all the inner work- ings of the lesser body might very easily have defeated the aims of the electors who supported him. This opinion was quite general, and the Act was repealed in 1906, and we returned again to the original method of forming the county council.
/ We have seen how in the early days the justices of the peace were the most important personages in the community. The squires were looked up to as the supreme local authority; for they not only adminis- tered the finances of the district, levied the rates, and appointed officials; but sat as judges in both civil and criminal matters. Little by little encroachments were made upon their authority, first by the town meet- ings, to which bodies were assigned certain rights, then by the district councils, and finally by the County Courts Acts passed in 1845. In the same year a law was passed providing that the county judge should preside as chairman at the Quarter Sessions of the Peace. The right of the justices to sit at the sessions was still recognized, and the justices present were authorized to elect a chairman pro tempore in case the county judge from sickness or other unavoidable cause was unable to be present.
' The legislature went one step further in 1873 and declared by Statute that in order to constitute a court of sittings of the General Ses- sions of the Peace presided over by the county judge, it was not neces- sary that any other justice of the peace be present. Thus the squires were told in modest yet unambiguous language that, while their presence was not prohibited, the business of the court could be carried on without them.
_ Inthe following year the legislators went one step further and enacted that whenever from illness or casualty the judge was not able to hold the sittings of the General Sessions of the Peace the sheriff ‘should adjourn the court, or in other words while the presence of the
THE DEVELOPMENT OF MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 67
justices could be dispensed with, that of the county judge could not. It is many \years since the justices have taken their places upon’ the bench alongside the county judge, but their right to do so could not be successfully challenged. The statutory authority for the constitution of the court remained unchanged from 1801 to 1909, except the provisions relating to the chairman and to adjournment in case of the absence of the county judge. He is still styled the chairman of the court, and the present Consolidated Act of 1909 still recognizes the right of the justices to participate in the proceedings by re-enacting the section of 1873 that the presence of the justices is not indispensable in order to have a regularly constituted court.
Another inroad upon the jurisdiction of the justices was made by the Police Magistrate Act first introduced as a part of the Municipal Institutions Act of 1866, and after Confederation so amended from time to time that now justices are prohibited from adjudicating upon or otherwise acting in any case for any town or city where there is a police magistrate. In this very prohibition, extended also to cases arising in a county for which there is a police magistrate before whom the initiatory proceedings have been taken, these words appear “except at the Court of General Sessions of the Peace.” This quotation from the Police Magistrates Act of 1910 makes it clear that it never has been the intention of the legislature to exclude the justices from taking part in the sessions if they see fit to exercise their preroga- tive. .
The result of all the foregoing legislation is that our justices of the peace to-day have been shorn of practically all their power, and to- day are the custodians of the Statutes and administer an occasional oath to the witnesses to conveyances. There are scores in every county, among them many of our best citizens; but not one in ten has ever presumed to take an information or adjudicate upon a case. The old- fashioned “Squire” who was a terror to evildoers and the standard authority upon all matters in his neighbourhood, has passed away with the stage-coach and wayside inn. Faithfully he served his day and generation as the local legislator and judge, the guardian of the public funds, and the administrator of the public business, and not unfre- quently his counsel and advice were sought in matters not falling within the pale of his public duties, and his services were sought as arbitrator of the disputes between neighbours. By precept and example he gen- erally wrought for the well-being of his fellow-citizens. As a public conveyancer his presence in the community was -a convenience, and many of the documents drafted by him display considerable skill and good judgment. To the old justices, who before the creation of our
— P ‘ r » ‘ = ee nn ae
alll
nua
68 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON
present system of courts and municipal institutions, took upon themselves the burden of ministering to the people’s needs, we can all look back with admiration and gratitude, for they were the stalwart men of one hundred years ago.
In the year 1820, one C. Stuart, a retired captain of the East India Company’s service, after a year’s residence in the Western District of Upper Canada, wrote a very interesting little volume entitled The Emigrant’s Guide to Upper Canada. He appears to have been a keen observer, and his reasoning is clear and sound, particularly in dealing with the adverse opinions of the day in respect to the gift by the British Government of a free constitution to the Canadas. In commenting upon the administration of justice in Upper Canada he writes: “At York (the capital) is the Supreme Court, consisting of a chief and two minor judges. These three traverse the three circuits into which the province is divided, namely, the Eastern, the Home, and the Western in rotation; holding their assizes at Brockville, Niagara, and Sandwich, in the autumn yearly. Besides these in each District, there is a district court, which sits quarterly the day following the breaking up of the general quarterly sessions, and determines all minor civil suits.
“The general quarterly sessions are the same as in England, and meet early in April, July, October, and January.
“The magistrates or justices of the peace, and the various other parish or town officers are the same as in England; and are equally invested with the authority to correct and equally inattentive to the
sacred duty of correcting the common vices of drunkenness, profaneness,
and Sabbath breaking, which distort and afflict society.
“As far as this remissness, which is everywhere a general feature of the human character, permits, and where these common principles of corruption, which are everywhere inherent in human society, interfere not, the administration of the laws decidedly partakes of the general excellency of the laws themselves. Justice may be said to pervade the province. A Canadian is free, in one of the fairest and happiest mean- ings of that term. He need fear no evil, to the correction of which human laws can reach, unless he himself provoke, and the public good require it.”
The Consolidated Statutes of Upper Canada provided that when the census returns taken under an Act of Parliament showed that the junior county of any united counties contained 15,000 inhabitants or more, then, if a majority of the reeves and deputy reeves of such county in the month of February in any two successive years passed a resolu- tion affirming the expediency of the county being separated from the union and, further, if in the month of February of the following year a
4 - we
THE DEVELOPMENT OF MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 69
inajority of the reeves did transmit to the Governor-in-Council a peti- tion for the separation, then the Governor, if he deemed the circum- stances of the junior county such as to call for a separate establishment of courts and other county institutions might, by proclamation setting forth the facts, constitute the reeves and deputy reeves a provisional council, and therein name one of its members to preside at the meeting, also therein determine the place for and the name of the county town.
Twelve years before its consummation, conditions were ripe and the agitation began for the separation of this county from Frontenac; but little progress was made until the Honourable John Stevenson took the matter in hand and followed it up with that determination which charac- terized the man. Frontenac of course was opposed to the movement and used every means in its power to thwart the will of the inhabitants of Lennox and Addington. The greatest drawback, however, arose from the prolonged controversy over the selection of a county seat, there being no less than four aspirants in the field: Tamworth, Newburgh, Napanee, and Bath. The case of Tamworth was thus summed up in a resolution presented at a meeting of the reeves and deputy reeves called for the purpose of considering the question: “Whereas this county being ninety miles long, we think that there would be an injustice perpetrated against the settlers in the rear of the county if a frontier village should be chosen for the county seat; for of a necessity the inhabitants of the new townships cannot for years have good roads, nor acquire wealth enough to have easy carriages to convey them to the county town; and if Bath, Newburgh, or Napanee should be chosen the rear settlers would have - to travel over eighty miles to do their county business. And whereas the Village of Tamworth, in the township of Sheffield, approaches the nearest to the centre of this county and is a healthy location, we deem it the best available place for the county seat.” For obvious reasons this species of argument did not appeal to the county’s representatives, and Tamworth did not long continue in the race. Bath’s chances of securing the prize were little better than those of Tamworth; but Ernesttown fought stubbornly for the claims of the old village in the forlorn hope that in the bitter war waged between Newburgh and Napanee, the dark horse might win through a compromise between these irreconcilable contestants. Matters became more complicated by the presentation of a petition from the inhabitants of Amherst Island that in the event of a separation their township should remain in the senior county.
When just on the eve of the general election of 1863 the reeves and deputy reeves determined to force the hands of the government; and on April 18th, a meeting was held in the town hall, Napanee, to con-
70 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON q
sider the best method of selecting the county town. In the month of February of the two preceding years the necessary resolutions had been passed affirming the expediency of the separation, and in the month of February of the then current year the necessary petition had been trans- mitted to the Governor, praying for the separation; but the vexed ques- tion of the county seat still remained unsettled. It was a critical hour for the two rival villages of Newburgh and Napanee when Mr. J. J. Watson of Adolphustown was called to the chair. Bath had retired from the contest, and the reeve and deputy reeve of Ernesttown joined forces with those of Camden to establish the seat of the county at, New- burgh. All manner of wire-pulling was indulged in to outwit the cham- pions of the claims of Napanee. The first vote taken was to seal the fate of Tamworth, when to the surprise of many the vote of Camden went for the northern village in the expectation of capturing the nor- thern vote when the yeas and nays were called for the resolution favouring Newburgh as the county town. Tamworth secured five out of fifteen votes, Newburgh obtained but one more. It was apparent at this stage of the proceedings that Napanee would carry the day, and it would have befitted the wisdom and dignity of the meeting to have passed the re- maining resolution unanimously; but such was not the temper of the disappointed fighters from Ernesttown and Camden, and when a show of hands was called nine supported the claims of Napanee and the same six, who had voted for Newburgh, still persisted in their opposition and, to their chagrin, the votes of the northern townships were all in favour of the present county town.
The opposition did not stop there. Much bitterness had been engendered during the long struggle, and the editors of the Napanee papers were not wholly blameless for the bad feeling created. The reeve of Newburgh might with good grace have accepted his defeat; but his blood was up, and he petitioned the government to defer the question, thus causing a further delay. To offset this last move Mr. Stevenson prepared a counter petition signed by the repre- sentatives of Napanee, Kaladar, Sheffield, Richmond, Adolphustown, and North and South Fredericksburgh in which the attention of the government was again called to the fact that all the conditions precedent for the issuing of the proclamation had been complied with, and that the delay was “highly detrimental to the interests of the localities which your petitioners represent, and inconvenient and injurious to the great majority of the people at large.” Finally on August 21st, when the elections were over and no further excuse could be found for withhold- ing from the people of Lennox and Addington the long deferred answer to their petition, the royal proclamation issued; the separation was an
THE DEVELOPMENT OF MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 71
accomplished fact. Napanee was the county town, and John Stevenson was named as the person to preside at the first meeting of the provisional council which was called to meet in the town hall, Napanee, on the roth of the following month. The Newburgh sympathizers bowed to the inevitable, and the Napanee press, content with the victory achieved, counselled that all local jealousy should cease, and that the provisional council enter upon their new duties in a proper spirit and with a view only to the welfare of the whole county. At the appointed time the council met and was composed of the following gentlemen: J. J. Wat- son, Adolphustown ; J. McGinnis, Amherst Island; W. F. Peterson, Bath; S. Warner, Reeve, C. Fraser, Deputy Reeve, Ernesttown; D. Sills, South Fredericksburgh; M. Parks, North Fredericksburgh; J. N. Lap- um, Reeve, G. Paul, Deputy Reeve, Camden; J. D. Ham, Newburgh; E. Perry, Reeve, J. Murphy, Deputy Reeve, Sheffield; C. R. Flint, ' Kaladar and Anglesea; I. Sexsmith, Reeve, R. Denison, Deputy Reeve, Richmond, and John Stevenson, Napanee.
Mr. Stevenson was unanimously elected warden and Mr. Wm. V. Detlor was appointed clerk. To the credit of all concerned the coun- cillors sank their former differences and entered upon the serious busi- ness of setting their house in order. A by-law was introduced at this first session providing for the issue of debentures for the sum of $20,000.00 to provide funds for the building of a court-house. At a meeting of the council called on December 18th to consider the by-law introduced at the September session the same was finally passed, and the incoming council for 1864 found themselves in funds for the erection of the court-house, which was energetically proceeded with.
The County Courts Act had been in force for many years at the time of the separation, and Judge Mackenzie was the only judge in Frontenac, Lennox, and Addington. He presided at all the division courts in the united counties and the county court as well, which was held only at Kingston. Division courts in this county were held at Amherst Island, Millhaven, Conway, Tamworth, Centreville, Newburgh, Napanee, and Wilton.
The separation called for an entire new set of officers for Len-
‘ nox and Addington. John Joseph Burrows, county crown attorney of , the united counties, was appointed county judge of this county, and Judge Mackenzie remained county judge of Frontenac for a few years, when he resigned and removed to Toronto and resumed prac- tice. He was succeeded by Judge Draper, who died in 1869, when Judge Burrows was transferred from Napanee to Kingston and made judge of the county of Frontenac. William Henry Wilkison, who had _ been called to the bar in 1861 and was practising in Napanee, was the first
72 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON
county crown attorney of this county and was appointed judge in 1869 to fill the vacancy caused by the removal of Judge Burrows. His Honour Judge Price was appointed in 1878 to succeed Judge Burrows, and His Honour Judge Madden was made Judge of Lennox and Add- ington in 1903 upon the death of His Honour the late Judge Wilkison. The first sheriff of the county was Oliver Thatford Pruyn, who dele- gated his duties to his brother M. W. Pruyn for a few years and after- wards to his son, Thomas Dorland Pruyn. He died in 1895 at his farm in the front of Fredericksburgh where he had continued to live after . his appointment, and was succeeded by the present sheriff, G. D. Hawley.
There have been no less than five county crown attorneys in the following order: W. H. Wilkison, W. A. Reeve, A. L. Morden, S. C. Warner, and H. M. Deroche.
John Bell McGuin was the first clerk of the county court, and upon his death in 1887 was succeeded by the present incumbent W. P. Deroche.
Our county has been singularly fortunate in its public officers and particularly in the judges of the local courts. By an arrangement which prevails in'very few other counties in the province the county judge of Lennox and Addington exchanges every alternate sitting of the county and division court with the county judge of Frontenac, so that each county has the benefit of the services of two senior judges. At the time of his death the late Judge Wilkison had borne the honours of county judge thirty-four years, and the present judge of the county court of Frontenac has already completed his thirty-fourth year upon the bench. It falls to the lot of few public servants to render such long and faith- fr:l service to their country. His Honour Judge Madden now complet- ing his tenth year as judge is still in the prime of manhood and bids fair to maintain the record for longevity in service established by his predecessor and contemporary. Fortunately for the bar of the two counties, and fortunately for the litigants, our county judges have been men who ranked high in the profession and brought to the high office to which they were called not only the experience of a successful practice but what is of greater importance still the unblemished record of men of high moral standing. The township of Camden claims the honour of being the birthplace of the county judges of both counties.
TRADESMEN, PRODUCTS, AND PRICES 73
CHAPTER V
TRADESMEN, PRODUCTS, AND PRICES
The settlers in our newly opened territories of to-day suffer very little inconvenience in obtaining the staple necessaries of life whether it be in the forests of New Ontario or on the plains of the Northwest, and the prices paid are not much greater than those prevailing in the towns and villages of the older settlements. The catalogues of the departmental stores will be found in the remotest corners and they serve as useful guides in determining the values of the goods offered for sale. When there were no railways, express companies, or parcel post the merchant and customer were both sorely handicapped. The transportation facili- ties were of the most primitive character and the carriage of goods from the larger centres to the country store was slow and expensive.
From dire necessity the farmer had learned to wait upon himself, and his patronage of the store was confined to a few staples which he was unable to procure from the rivers, the forest, or the soil, or to manufacture from the raw material which those afforded him. To a certain extent he was his own butcher, baker, carpenter, blacksmith, tailor, and shoemaker, and he served himself in many other capacities. His wants were so few and simple that could he revisit the scenes of his toils and pleasures he would stand aghast as he viewed our honest yeomen of to-day revel- ling in the luxuries and labour-saving devices of the twentieth century. The pack-pedlar was the first to serve his needs, and then the country store, and as his circumstances improved his patronage of the latter increased. As the merchant’s sales increased and the cost of carriage was reduced he could not only lay his goods down for less money but could subsist on a smaller margin of profit. Stores in the neighbouring villages or townships created competition, and from these several causes the cov- eted merchandise was gradually brought within the reach of the poorest inhabitant. A few references to the growth and development of the customer’s means and the tradesman’s sales will not be without their useful lesson. In the “Testimonial of Mr. Roger Bates,” to which I have elsewhere alluded, he writes: “As our family grew up in the Clarke settlement my grandfather wished to see them well settled before he died, and an opportunity offered by the purchase of a military grant
74 HISTORY OF LENNOX AND ADDINGTON
from George Shaw of 600 acres which they drew in 1804 in the vicinity of Cobourg.
“Whilst the lands were being cleared and a log house erecting they opened a small store close to the property now possessed by the White family. Here my father, Stoddard Bates, and my uncle, Lew Bates, planted an orchard, and we had a snug temporary residence. This store was supplied with goods by Enoch Woods, who brought the first assortment to Toronto. Everything at that time was very dear, but a system of barter was carried on that was of advantage to all parties. My father made a great quantity of potash which fetched at that time a good price. This in part paid for his goods. On referring to the old books now in possession of my mother I find some entries that give an idea of the general prices of goods, which people then had to pay: 1804, Gimblet, $14, Padlock $14, Jack-knife $1, calico $114 per yard, needles 1d. each, Ball of cotton $71%4, Board of pigs $1 dollar per week, old axe $214, had to send them to Kingston to be ground, Tea 8s., bk. 19s., Halifax currency, barrel pork 27 to 30$ per barrel, flannel 6s. 3d. yard, salt 6d. per lb., mill saw fourteen dollars.
“My father and uncle were partners in this store, which turned out very profitable, as the settlers round were always in want of something or other. The woods at that time were alive with deer and bears. Many were killed by the Indians who traded off their skins dressed by the squaws, which made useful garments.
“For a long time my grandfather had to go with some of his neigh- bours all the way from Clarke to Kingston,