North Grenville Heritage

JULY 2020. NO 1

ar ry e Y rsa 0 e 23 niv An

North Grenville

Heritage

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Two centuries of history Welcome to our heritage magazine marking 230 years since the first survey of Oxford-on-Rideau Township and the establishment of Upper Canada in 1791. It is our hope that this will be a commemoration of the beginnings of our community and province, and will provide a colourful and in-

formative souvenir for all the residents of North Grenville and beyond.

Most of the material in the magazine deals with the first century after 1791 when the foundations of the present were laid down. But, of course, we need to celebrate more recent turning points, such as the achievement that is the Kemptville District Hospital and the recently renamed Kemptville Campus.

So much of history can be seen as the stories of the politicians and the powerful; but it is the day-to-day lives of ev-

eryday people that matter in the history of any community.

So we can notice some leaders, but also talk about the general stores, or the schools, or the churches, for example.

Great credit must go to the North Grenville Historical Society, which has kept our past alive through the wealth of material contained in the North Grenville Archives.

Many of the illustrations in this magazine came from that source.

Thanks also to the Municipality of North Grenville. Mayor and Council have provided

funding which helped in making this publication possible.

And to those local businesses who advertise herein: as always, they have been supportive of our heritage and culture. From the beginning, it has been the business community and the farmers who have been at the heart of what is now North Grenville.

Those who came before us did a great work, and we hope that we have honoured them and their memory in some way.

of life and new possibilities.

Despite the many changes, and given what has endured, I share in the immense pride of so many North Grenville residents when it comes to our quality of life, kindness and generosity on display in this community each and every day.

While our history may be storied and tumultuous, North Grenville is slowly coming into its own. As a community, we are keen to revitalize historical properties, protect and invest in important natural assets including forests, trails, and parks and, most importantly, create and sustain a coherent community – a community that understands it history, and equally important, steps into the future on a strong foundation.

We hope you enjoy this magazine, and learn more than a few things. It is certainly worth your time and investment, and I am confident that you will be the better for it. Take it a few pages

at a time, and I encourage you to share any new insights and learnings with friends, neighbours and the next generation. We owe it to those who came before us, and all of those who are shaping this community for the years and decades ahead.

Enjoy – and Happy Canada Day!

On behalf of the Municipality of North Grenville, we are so pleased to support the production of this comprehensive historical retrospective on the evolution of our community. The painstaking efforts of Dr. David Shanahan to research and document (over decades) North Grenville’s history are truly remarkable. Whether you are multi-generational resident or a new arrival to North Grenville, it is critical that we understand our roots.

Whether you live in the Town of Kemptville, a rural sub-division, one of our historical rural hamlets, or a rural road

or laneway, those roots run deep.

As the saying goes, we are nothing without our history, which is - in and of itself - a complicated thing. History has often been told from the most dominant voices. This publication attempts to provide a multi-faceted perspective on both rural and urban development, and North Grenville’s significant cultural and economic drivers.

Of course, up until 1998, North Grenville did not exist in its current form. Forced amalgamation, the establishment of Highway 416 and key investments in Kemptville’s Water Treatment plant in the mid-1990s have changed the course for what is now known as North Grenville.

Remarkably, however, our rural hamlets have stood the test of time, institutions like the Kemptville District Hospital, local churches, key businesses, as well as Kemptville Campus (formerly the Kemptville College) are full

Dr. David Shanahan Marguerite Boyer

Sincerely, Mayor Nancy Peckford The Heritage Anniversary Magazine was produced by the staff of the North Grenville Times: Marguerite Boyer, Layout and Design; Pat Jessop and Amery Boyer, copy editing; Gord Logan, marketing.

Text by Dr. David Shanahan.

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Whose land was it?

A�er the the end end of of the the American American RevRevAfter olu�onary War, War, about about 50,000 50,000 refugees refugees olutionary sought refuge in the lands s� ll held by by sought refuge in the lands still held Britain.

Most of them went to Nova ScoBritain. Most of them went to Nova Sco�a to to settle se�le in in the the territory territory that that became became tia New Brunswick.

Others se� led around New Brunswick. Others settled around the forts forts at at Niagara Niagara and and Detroit Detroit which which the remained in Bri� sh hands.

But around remained in British hands. But around 6,000 took took up up land land grants grants on on the the north north 6,000 side of the St. Lawrence River.

Under side of the St. Lawrence River. Under the terms terms of of the the Royal Royal Proclamation Proclama�on of of the 1763, the the Crown Crown had had to to surrender surrender this this 1763, territory which the 1763 document had territory which the 1763 document had set aside as Indian Territory. set aside as Indian Territory.

The land land on on which which North North Grenville Grenville The was surveyed was claimed by Haudenowas surveyed was claimed by Haudenosaunee who were se� led at a mission at at saunee who were settled at a mission Oswegatchie (now Ogdensburg), a misOswegatchie (now Ogdensburg), a mission founded founded in in 1848.

1848. Colonel Colonel Campbell, Campbell, sion aa military military official, official, was was sent sent to to meet meet with with the Oswegatchie in 1784 in order to the Oswegatchie in 1784 in order to acquire the the lands lands north north of of the the St. St. LawLawacquire rence between the Long Sault and Jones rence between the Long Sault and Jones Creek, which is just west of modern Creek, which is just west of modern day Brockville.

Brockville. After A�er some some negotiation, nego�a�on, day the Oswegatchie agreed to allow the the the Oswegatchie agreed to allow Bri� sh to have “the Front of the Water”, British to have “the Front of the Water”, in order order to to “give “give lands lands to to the the troops”. troops”. in Discharged soldiers soldiers were were to to receive receive free free Discharged land grants, as were the many civilians, land grants, as were the many civilians, men, women women and and children, children, who who had had men, become refugees refugees after a�er the the war. war. become There were a number of problems There were a number of problems about this land transac� on.

To start about this land transaction. To start with, the the Oswegatchie Oswegatchie claimed claimed that that with, they had not “received one copper” they had not “received one copper” for the the lands lands they they ceded ceded to to the the British.

Bri�sh. for Furthermore, their understanding was Furthermore, their understanding was 4 4

Arrowheads found found by by the the shores shores of of the the South South Arrowheads Branch River in Kemptville in 2005 by Ken Mews.

Branch River in Kemptville in 2005 by Ken Mews.

that they they had had only only ceded ceded aa tract tract along along that the shores shores of of the the St. St. Lawrence, Lawrence, hence hence the the phrase, “the Front of the Water”.

The the phrase, “the Front of the Water”. The Bri� sh claimed that they had gained all British claimed that they had gained all the territory territory north north of of the the river river between between the the Long Sault and Jones Creek.

That land land the Long Sault and Jones Creek. That was to include Oxford-on-Rideau, South was to include Oxford-on-Rideau, South Gower, and and Wolford Wolford Townships, Townships, as as well well Gower, as the the townships townships surveyed surveyed along along the the river river as between the two points. between the two points.

When Theodore Theodore DePencier DePencier was was sent sent When to survey survey Marlborough Marlborough Township Township in in to 1791, he was confronted by at least one 1791, he was confronted by at least one Haudenosaunee warrior at gunpoint who Haudenosaunee warrior at gunpoint who demanded to to know know why why he he was was trespasstrespassdemanded ing on Oswegatchie territory.

But there ing on Oswegatchie territory. But there was nothing the Oswegatchie could do was nothing the Oswegatchie could do about the situa� on, as they had moved about the situation, as they had moved across the the river river and and were were soon soon dispersed dispersed across by the Americans.

There was no one left le� by the Americans. There was no one to contradict the Bri� sh interpreta� on of to contradict the British interpretation of

the agreement agreement made made in in 1784.

1784. the seems that that the the land land now now containcontainItIt seems ing the Municipality of North Grenville ing the Municipality of North Grenville was acquired acquired by by the the British Bri�sh Crown Crown under under was rather dubious dubious circumstances. circumstances. This This was was rather not unusual, and as no sale document not unusual, and as no sale document exists, and and no no report report was was made made at at the the exists, � me by those present at the mee� ng, itit time by those present at the meeting, seems the the land land along along the the entire en�re shores shores seems of the Upper St. Lawrence and Lake of the Upper St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario was was acquired acquired by by the the Crown Crown for for Ontario the cost cost of of some some clothes clothes and and trinkets. trinkets. the To add to the confusion, most of the the To add to the confusion, most of territory covered by the purchases from territory covered by the purchases from the Owegatchie Owegatchie and and Mississauga Mississauga was was the actually the tradi� onal territory of the actually the traditional territory of the Algonquins who have recently come to Algonquins who have recently come to aa draft dra� agreement agreement with with Canada Canada recogrecognizing that that the the land land was was taken taken from from the the nizing wrong people.

The story begun in 1784 wrong people. The story begun in 1784 has yet yet to to come come to to an an end. end. has

Paul A. Jansen, BA, LLB. Rachel S. Jansen, B.Comm., J.D. Tel: 613.258.7462 Fax: 613.258.7761 Joseph Street, Kemptville

info@jansenlaw.com

Real Estate - Wills & Estates - Corporate - Family Law

A dangerous journey in a dangerous land On March 30, 1791, 230 years ago, a young surveyor and work team set off from the St. Lawrence River to begin laying out a new township fronting on the West Branch of the Rideau River. His instructions had been issued on March 21 “to Jesse Pennoyer, Provincial Surveyor, respecting the laying out of Township between the South and West branches of the River Rideau to be named Oxford”. It was, for the residents of North Grenville, the beginning of their history as a community.

His instructions ordered Pennoyer to begin his survey at “the point of land lying between the South and West branches of the River Rideau, in order to determine the place of beginning the Survey of the Township of Oxford.”

The journey was far from straightforward for the group, having to bring along all the equipment necessary for the survey, including heavy measuring chains, food and supplies to last them during the weeks the survey was expected to take. They were joined by a second survey team led by Theodore Depencier, who was to make a survey of Marlborough Township on the far side of the West Branch of the Rideau. The groups headed north from the Saint Lawrence and struck the South Nation River (then the La Petite Nation), which they found it difficult to ford. Two rafts they made sank, almost drowning members of their work team, before they managed to get across the river and arrived at the South Branch on April 3. After three more days, they

completed another raft and a canoe and, as Pennoyer recorded, “prepared for setting off for the point between the two branches”.

Depencier had gone ahead, and encountered “very bad rapids” on the South Branch which obliged him to unload his rafts and carry them around the rapids. He tried to warn Pennoyer, but they could not stop their raft because of the current and “it went down the rapids with all the Provisions on it, but not without imminent danger, however we lost nothing”.

They continued on April 10 “about 8 miles past many dangerous and difficult places without any loss”, and the next day “brought the Raft and provisions round the point and up the West Branch about two miles and encamped. This would have located their camp around Beckett’s Landing.

It was on April 25 that Pennoyer made this historic entry in his diary: “Made a Cabbin [sic] to secure the provisions, came down to the Point and began the survey of the Township of Oxford”.

The weather throughout this journey had been miserable, and it continued that way for much of the following months. It was not until July 14 that they took a break in order to travel to Gananoque to lay out 1,000 acres of land on behalf of Sir John Johnson, a leading member of the Loyalists who had been refugees from the American Revolution. He had moved to Gananogue after being passed over as the new Lieutenant Governor of Upper

Canada.

Through the weeks between April and July, Pennoyer and crew had worked through rain, swamps and shortage of provisions, laying out the basic boundaries of Oxford Township.

Day after day in his diary, Pennoyer noted: “it began to rain and continued raining all day”. Some days, the rain prevented any survey work being done at all, and those days that permitted surveying Pennoyer noted with such entries as: “there’s a bad cedar swamp”, “a very bad cedar swamp”, or “much difficulty being obliged to ford a swamp of considerable length, the water being about 3 feet deep and very cold.”

The nearest source of provisions was at Roger Stevens’ clearing which was located near the site of Merrickville and Burritt’s Rapids. The crew went there for provisions occasionally and to sharpen their axes. Pennoyer’s health suffered also. On June 10 he reported that around noon “I was taken violently ill with a pain which obliged me to be still for the remainder of the day”.

Then, on June 26, as he finished the last line of survey, he cut his leg “in such a manner as wholly disabled me from proceeding further”. He was unable to work, other than on preliminary sketches of the survey until July 14, when he left for Gananoque.

But the survey was not yet complete, and Pennoyer and party returned to the Rideau in September and completed the survey by October 1.

It is almost impossible to imagine the 5

conditions under which men like Jesse Pennoyer worked as he laid out on the ground and in maps the boundaries and concessions of townships like Oxfordon-the-Rideau. He worked at a time when the landscape, geographically and politically, was changing in historic ways. As he surveyed Oxford, the British Government in London was passing legislation to establish a new Province to be called Upper Canada, the territory that would, in 1867, change its name to Ontario. Historic times and impressive achievements by those who came before us.

Pennoyer’s Diary entry for April 25, 1791: ‘Made a Cabbin to secure the Provisions and came down to the Point at the Forks and began the Survey of the Township of Oxford...’

South Branch in full flow below Kemptville, c. 1907

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The man who made Ontario

William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, by John Hoppner, National Portrait Gallery, London

For twenty-five years after Britain took possession of New France, the British faced continual challenges in administering the new Province of Quebec. Finding themselves ruling a colony where the vast majority of the population spoke a different language, and had different legal and land tenure systems, successive governors in Quebec and Colonial Secretaries in London could find no effective way to integrate the two traditions. They originally confined the new Province to the east side of the Ottawa River, leaving what is now Ontario to the indigenous people in what was called Indian Territory.

In 1774, Britain passed the Quebec Act which extended the colony’s borders west to the headwaters of the Mississippi River and down into the Ohio Valley. This attempt to further restrict the American colonies led only to a War

of Independence, which saw British possessions in North America reduced to the single colony of Quebec. Committees provided numerous reports on the political and legal issues involved in trying to rule both English and Canadians, as the two sides were called. By 1788, only 20% of the population in the colony were English and they were outnumbered fifteen to one by the Canadians in the more rural areas.

No one could come up with a practical and effective plan for dealing with the issues. Canadians wanted to keep their commercial laws and their seigneurial land system. Or at least most of them seemed to want that, but no one was sure. The English demanded an Assembly, an elected parliamentary body, instead of rule by governor and council. After 1783, around 6,000 Loyalist refugees from the Thirteen Colonies had been settled on the north side of the St. Lawrence and around the Bay of Quinté, and they were also demanding a change in the land system and an Assembly.

Then, in June, 1790, William Grenville became Colonial Secretary in London and in less than a year, had produced a plan, written the required legislation, and had it passed through Parliament. William Wyndham Grenville was born in October 1759, just a few weeks after the Battle of the Plains of Abraham when the power of the French King in North America effectively ended.

He has rightly been described as “conscientious, thorough, and enormously industrious”. His plan had far-reaching ramifications for the future of Canada.

He divided the Province of Quebec into two separate provinces, to be called Upper Canada and Lower Canada. The dividing line between the two was the Ottawa River, for the most part, and it stretched from the St. Lawrence north to the Hudson’s Bay Company lands, and from the Ottawa west to the Great Lakes and possibly beyond. That border remained somewhat vague, as Britain had retained possession of certain forts

such as Detroit, that were meant to be handed back to the Americans but had been held on to as part of the fur trade network.

In 1867, Upper Canada would become the new Canadian Province of Ontario, but it was Grenville who established the foundations in 1791.

The Constitutional Act was introduced in the House of Commons in March, 1791, received royal approval in June, and became law in December. Upper Canada came into being on Boxing Day, 1791, 230 years ago.

By then, Grenville had taken the position of Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs during the wars against France following the Revolution in that country.

He would become Prime Minister in 1807 in a coalition government which tried and failed to win voting rights for Catholics. But Grenville did succeed in bringing about an end to the slave trade in the British Empire.

His political career was generally considered a success although his time as Prime Minister only lasted a matter of months. His support of Catholic Emancipation was a courageous move at the time, and the refusal of King George III to allow Catholics to take seats in Parliament led to Grenville’s resignation as Foreign Secretary in 1801. William Grenville left politics in 1823 when he suffered a stroke. He died in 1834.

In 1791, 230 years ago, William Grenville was the main guiding force and author of the Act that established Upper Canada, later to become the Province of Ontario after 1867. In 1792, his friend, John Graves Simcoe, first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, established counties in the newly-established Province. One of these he named after William Grenville. And so we have the Municipality of North Grenville named after a rather intriguing and talented man. He perhaps deserves to be better remembered than he is by the people of that county.

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An empty land The American War of Independence had forced many Loyalists into exile, and those who had fought in the various militia companies had been promised land in exchange for their service and their losses. Oxford was surveyed in 1791 to provide land for the “Gentlemen” who had been granted large increases in grants after 1788. Pennoyer had performed his survey work and the maps were drawn up by the Surveyor General. It seemed the next likely step would be a large influx of settlers to the new township; but that is not at all what happened. Although the 300 lots in the township were allocated to settlers, and for Crown and Clergy Reserves, the people who were granted patents for the land never arrived.

The main reason for this was that they had already received land in the townships fronting on the Saint Lawrence and had been settled there since 1784. These extra lands in Oxford were not needed by them to actually occupy; instead, their intention would have been to sell them to newly-arrived immigrants from the United States and Britain. But there was already more than enough vacant land for these newcomers, and demand for the Oxford lots never materialized.

After more than twenty years following the survey, the entire population of Oxford consisted of fourteen individuals, the Harris family from Ireland, whose story is told elsewhere in this publication. In 1804, they were joined by the Bullis family, and a young couple, Jonathan and Mary Fisher. This brought the population of Oxford up to 30 individuals; growth was slow. For another decade, the only people living in Oxford were settled close to the Wolford boundary, with Merrickville as the only settlement of note.

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But then residents of South Gower, to the east, began exploring the lands around the South Branch, and some gradually moved in, buying lands from those non-residents with Patents. When Lyman Clothier and his sons built their mill at the new settlement called The Branch, after the river which powered their business, they were soon joined by names that would become familiar in the coming decades: McCargar, Beach, Adams, Hurd and Bottum. By 1817, the population had risen to 71.

It would take another war with the Americans to bring about a real surge in the settlement of Oxford. Discharged soldiers after the War of 1812 were joined by immigrants as the great project of the Rideau Canal finally opened up the township to real and lasting growth.

Right: Census of Oxford, 1802

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Oxford’s First Family It takes a huge stretch of the imagination to visualize Oxford-on-Rideau Township in 1800. There were no roads, no houses, no residents. Think about the trees in Limerick Forest: they have been growing for about 60 years. The trees in Oxford in 1800 had been growing for thousands of years: pine trees 150 feet high and eight feet around, hemlock, tamarack, and large areas of swamp land. The rivers were the only means of getting around, and even they were not considered navigable at all times. Try and imagine: no Kemptville, no buildings of any kind. No Rideau Canal, the Burritt farm was on the far side of the Rideau, and the nearest settlement was at Merrickville, known as Mirick’s Mills.

Into this untouched wilderness in 1801 came three brothers and their families, the very first settlers in the new Township of Oxford-on-Rideau. Jeremiah Harris was 33 years old, his wife, Priscilla, was just 21. They had a son and a daughter, aged 2 and 1, and another son, Barnabas, would be born the year after they arrived.

William Harris was 28, married to Huldah, 30, with three sons aged 9, 6 and 3. Two more would be born before 1803, but William died later that same year. The youngest brother, Caleb Harris, was 24, his wife, Lucy, 22. Their son had been born in 1800, their daughter, Nancy, born the year they took up their land by the Rideau River. Another daughter, Mary, was born the following year.

The families came from Ireland, and leased a Crown Reserve, Lot 2 in the First Concession. This implies that they were not entitled to the free land grants available to Loyalists or discharged soldiers and nor were they ready to buy land.

The Lease record for Lot 2 on the Radeau (sic) to Caleb Harris, dated August 27, 1801. The deed was not registered until January, 1806

Oddly enough, the lease they held was in Caleb’s name, the youngest brother, and was dated August 27, 1801. It read: “Leased to Caleb Harris of the Township of Oxford in the County of Grenville in the District of Johnstown Yeoman Lot number Two on the Rideau in the said Township of Oxford, a Crown Reserve, Under the Administration of Lieutenant Governor Hunter The Lease to bear date at the time of the signing thereof and the Rent to commence 29th September 1802.”

The Harris families probably chose Lot 2 in that concession because it was on the river and two old Indian trails met at that point. The first linked the St. Lawrence and Rideau, and the part crossing North Grenville today is the line of Bolton and Davis Roads, and the other, now River Road, followed the line of the Rideau River. The Harris land was closest to Mirick’s Mills and Stephen Burritt and his family were across the river.

Jeremiah and Caleb became involved in the local government, which was centred in Mirick’s Mills and covered four Townships: Oxford, Wolford, Montague and Marlborough. The entire population of the four townships was just 264 in 1802. Two years later, it had grown to 408.

In 1802, Jeremiah was appointed one of the Overseers of the Highways and Caleb was elected Town Clerk. Jeremiah was elected one of two Assessors in 1804. That year also, a second family arrived to settle in Oxford Township. The Bullis family had settled in Marlborough Township, and Daniel and Elizabeth moved with their family on to the Clergy Reserve on Lot 1, Concession 1, next door to the Harris property.

William Harris died in 1803, but his sons, Hebron, Daniel, and Sylvanus and their children can be traced down through the history of Oxford-on-Rideau. Daniel bought Lot 22 in the Third Concession in March, 1818 at age 23.

The property remained in the extended family until 1944. Daniel Harris died on January 25, 1869 at age 70.

Sylvanus bought Lot 19 in the First Concession and it later passed to Robert.

After his death, his ten children leased the land to Robert’s widow, Clarissa. It then went to a younger Hebron Harris and was subdivided and sold over the years. These were the first residents of Oxford-on-Rideau Township, paving the way for so many more since.

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A harsh life in the early settlements Life in the early nineteenth century was hard, dangerous, and often without the little luxuries taken for granted by later generations. The population was slow to grow, and everyone depended on the help and support of their neighbours in everyday struggles, from building a home, to gathering supplies from far-off Prescott.

For the first decades of the century, the four townships of Oxford, Wolford, Montague and Marlborough were administered as a unit, with a single council meeting in Merrickville, which, though small in size, was yet the central urban hub of the four townships. In 1804, the total population of the four townships was just 209. One of these, Thomas McCrae of Montague, has left an account of life at that time, and it shows both the dependence residents had on their neighbours, and the state of the countryside through which they travelled.

“The whole of the inhabitants, for miles around, had gathered to raise a log house; at that time it took three or four days to complete the undertaking, men being very scarce. On the third day, after the last log to be placed in position, a council was held, and, after due deliberation in much discussion, it was decided that the settlement had so far advanced in civilization that some of the luxuries of life should be procured. Our grist mill consisted of the primitive stump and pestle, the meal when ground being eaten from wooden bowls with wooden spoons. It was decided by the council that I should take one and a half bushels of wheat, carried from the site of Merrickville to 10

Brockville, exchange it for one dozen bowls, one dozen iron spoons, the balance to be expended in groceries.

“With the bag on my back I started for Brockville, before the sun was up, the road consisting of a winding path through the woods, with marks on the trees to show the direction. During my journey I was buoyed with the thought of the great surprise which was in store for our good wives, as the matter had been kept a profound secret from them.

Never did the Minister go out to preach the gospel feeling a greater responsibility than I felt resting upon myself. I arrived at Brockville on the evening of the second day, pretty tired, and the next day I exchanged my wheat for a dozen white bowls with a blue edge and one dozen iron spoons bright as silver, half a pound of cheap tea and the balance in fine combs and little things for the children.

“Early next morning, with a light heart, and carefully guarding my precious load, I started for home. I arrived at North Augusta in the evening, and when crossing the stream at that place, on a log, the bark gave away and down I fell, some ten feet on the stones below, and horror of horrors, broke every one of my bowls. Never, never in all my life, did I experience such a feeling of utter

desolation. How to go home and meet the expected people, without the bowls, was an ordeal my soul shrank from, but there was no help for it.

“I spent a sleepless night on my bed of hemlock boughs, and in the morning proceeded on my way with a sad heart.

I found a few of the neighbours at my shanty waiting for me, and was greatly relieved when I saw that the loss was endured with Christian fortitude.”

No roads, two days to walk to Prescott, and two days back, just to trade wheat for the luxury of white bowls with a blue edge. Primitive conditions, primitive technology, but these men and women were the founders of our communities.

Thomas M.Byrne Barrister & Solicitor tom@tmblaw.ca 613.258.1277 222 Prescott St., Kemptville

The Rideau Canal It was the building of the Rideau Canal that really opened Oxford up for settlement. Waterways were the highways through the bush, roads were basically just tracks through the forests, and other parts of Upper Canada were far more easily accessed than Oxford. South Gower, for example, was settled much sooner than Oxford, and the main stagecoach route between the Ottawa and Saint Lawrence rivers ran through Heckston.

The main impetus for the Rideau Canal was not to encourage settlement; the British Government was very concerned about defence issues after the War of 1812. Throughout that conflict there had been a threat from American forces crossing the Saint Lawrence and cutting off military supplies and troops from the Niagara region, where most of the fighting took place. Although that threat never materialised, it was decided to act to prevent such a move in any future war. The vulnerability of the St. Lawrence corridor to enemy attack was recognised. The solution arrived at was that an alternate supply route between Lower Canada and Lake Ontario had to be found. This, it was hoped, would be far enough away from the frontier as to be safe from American raids or even a full-scale invasion.

Work on the Canal began in 1826 and was fully completed in 1832, a 202 km waterway with 47 masonry locks and 52 dams. The work was done by manual labour, with no machinery other than wheelbarrows and shovels. Most of the workforce were recent Irish immigrants, along with French Canadian workers from lumber camps. It is thought that about 1,000 people died during the

Burritt’s Rapids c. 1840, Archives of Ontario, William T. Clegg fonds construction, mostly from disease.

The main construction work in the Oxford Area was at Burritts Rapids, where huge quantities of earth were moved to create a route for the canal. Because the banks were too low for normal construction methods, a long dry channel, the Oxford Snie was used. A dam was built to redirect the waters down the

Snie, as the work records noted: "The River is to be raised at this place by a Dam of 10 feet high and 240 feet long or thereabouts with wing walls extending into the banks on each side. A lock of 10 feet lift to be constructed at the lower end of the natural ravine called "Oxford Snie" this is to be made and constructed according to the other locks on the Rideau Canal."

Section of a map by Col. By dated 1829, showing the Oxford Snie

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A high span bridge was built over the river a little upstream from the current swing bridge, as is seen in the illustration. Quite a lot of riverside land downstream was flooded in building the Canal, but it certainly brought more settlement to the area. In 1825, the population of Oxford-on-Rideau Township was 456. By 1840, the population had risen to 2,212. The role of the Rideau Canal in the history of Oxford was vital.

It remains today as a potential tourist asset, a World Heritage Site on the northern boundary of North Grenville.

A wonderful sight could be seen in the 1880's, as Mike Driscoll and Owen McGovern from Oxford Mills walked their 150 geese and turkeys from Kemptville to Prescott and on to the ferry to Ogdensburg.

The men and birds would walk the length of the plank road that ran between the two towns, past the toll booth where the road crossed the railway tracks outside Kemptville. When the birds got tired walking, they would be taken up on to a cart to rest. Then some tar, gravel and sand would be applied to their feet - shoe-ing the geese so they could walk the road again.

At night, the turkeys would roost on fences and the geese would settle by the side of the road until morning. Then the men would call the birds together and off they’d go again. It took four days for the trip from Kemptville to Ogdensburg via Prescott. What a sight that must have been: two men and 150 geese and turkeys making their way along the plank road and across the Saint Lawrence to the markets in Boston and New York.

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The changing political landscape In the 1830's, people in Upper Canada were unhappy with the legal and administrative structures. Upper Canada was divided into Districts, which were administered by the district court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace; the judges who made up these Quarter Sessions were appointed by the Governor, and met only four times a year. Frequently, these Sessions were held in places like Brockville, far away from the farms and homes of the majority of the population, who found it difficult to get to the courts, much less to get justice there.

So meetings were held to demand a reorganisation of the Districts in order to make them more fitted to the needs, and the homes, of the people. A series of meetings were held in Grenville County to draw up yet petitions to be presented to the Governor, seeking the division of the Johnstown District. They asked that a new District be formed, with Kemptville as its capital. Townships to be included were Edwardsburg and Matilda, Mountain and Osgoode, North and South Gower, Oxford and Marlborough, Montague and Wolford.

The first meeting took place in December, 1835, and was attended by many of the families whose names are associated with the region at the time. The venue was Thomas Beckett’s Hotel, which stood on the corner of Clothier and Sanders Streets, where the parking lot is today. Col. Stephen Burritt was Chair, and resolutions were made by W. H. “Squire” Bottom and Milo McCargar. The main resolution, passed unanimously, stated: “That it is expedient and highly necessary, for the convenience and

general interests of the people inhabiting the townships of Montague, Wolford, Marlboro, Oxford, North and South Gower, and Edwardsburgh of the Johnstown District - Mountain & Matilda of the Eastern, and Osgoode of the Ottawa District, that the said townships be formed into a separate District, and that Kemptville, in the township of Oxford, be the place selected for the transacting of the public business of the said proposed District.”

Hundreds of signatures had been received on previous petitions to this end, but with no immediate result. In July, 1840, was passed An Act to Reunite the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, and the new United Province of Canada reorganised the Districts.

The Johnstown District consisted of what is now the United Counties of Leeds & Grenville, as well as North Burgess, North Elmsley, Montague, Marlborough and North Gower. In was not until the following year, 1841, when the District Council’s Act was passed, which removed North Burgess, Montague and North Elmsley from the Johnstown District, adding them to the District of Bathurst, and removed Marlborough and North Gower and added them to the District of Dalhousie.

The legislation was amended in 1849, to establish municipalities, towns, and villages, with the authority to raise taxes and enact by-laws. It also established a hierarchy of types of municipal governments, starting at the top with cities and continuing down past towns, villages and finally townships. And that system has remained basically unchanged, ever since.

Right: The Township of Oxford-on-Rideau c. 1863

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Burritt’s Rapids 1865 A snapshot of life in Burritt’s Rapids, which was described as “a flourishing village on the Rideau Canal. It has two first-class schools and does a good lumber business. Population about 400”.

John Meikle was Postmaster and ran a general store. Uriah Depencier was the proprietor of the North Burritt’s Rapids Hotel, and P. T. Depencier was the owner of a saw mill. Silas Andrews was a lumber merchant, owning saw, flour and grist mills. Hugh Conn and William Kidd also had general stores in the village, and both James Halfpenny and John Healy owned grocery stores.

Thomas Brown ran a hotel, as did William Reid, and there were wagon makBurritt's Rapids 1860s ers, carriage makers, cabinet makers, saddle and harness makers, and even a “photographic artist” in R. O. Campbell.

The Mills family had quite a business as tailors, shoemakers and carpenters.

T. A. Parnell was the Anglican minister, and W. G. William and Mr. McGill took care of the souls of the local Methodists. The horse was still the essential element of every community and farm, and Burritt’s Rapids had five blacksmiths working with the carriage, saddle and harness makers to keep everyone on the road.

Burritt’s Rapids even had its own dentist in 1864, F. L. Waldo.

Local government was represented by no less than five justices of the peace, a bailiff of the Divisional Court, and J. K. Read was town councillor and produce merchant. All in Bridge Street, 1900 all, a very busy village in its day.

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Oxford Mills 1865 This settlement was described in 1865 as: “a small post village”, with a population of 120. Nevertheless, it had two hotels, William DeWinter’s Oxford Inn, and Magee’s Hotel. Archibald Magee was Innkeeper, the Coroner, a shopkeeper, and tavern owner. In 1856, he built a large wooden structure which served as a hotel and local meeting place for many years. The Township Council met here between 1857 and 1875 when the new Town Hall was built, and the local Anglican congregation met here until their church was erected in 1869. In 1900, Ormand Barnard bought the property and used it as his workshop, and it was here he invented his curd cutting machine, patented in 1907.

However, in November, 1939 it burned to the ground. It was never rebuilt.

Oxford Mills in 1865 had the usual complement of blacksmiths, carriage, saddle and harness makers, and three boot and shoe makers. John Foley ran a tailoring business, and William Rose was a brick maker. Two merchants served the inhabitants, John McPherson, and the real power in the hamlet, Richey Waugh. Waugh was the Postmaster, owned the flour and saw mills, and ran his store from the premises now occupied by the Brigadoon Restaurant.

Waugh had built the store, and later moved into another of his buildings across the street, the fine stone structure he used as his family residence.

When this entry in the Gazetteer was being written, Waugh was actually starting a slow and sad decline in his fortunes. By that time, he was negotiating to sell his store, and by 1871 he had left the hamlet under a cloud.

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Oxford Mills Public School, built in 1875

Water Street, Oxford Mills c. 1890

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www.grahamesbakery.com 17

The General Store Within living memory, the old General Store was an important part of the hamlets in North Grenville. Oxford Mills, Bishop’s Mills, Burritt’s Rapids, and Heckston all had the local store, and even Beckett’s Landing had Cecil Beckett’s store, part of his summer resort establishment.

These stores were social centres of each community, allowing locals to meet and chat, gossip and catch up on the latest news from near and far. But all of these stores are gone now, with the exception of Heckston, where Shelley’s Kitchen keeps the tradition alive.

Burritt’s Rapids John Meikle opened a general store in the hamlet some time before 1851, and it was later taken over by T. A. Kidd, who was Meikle’s clerk, in 1871. As with many of these general stores, the one in Burritt’s also served as the Post Office, and, as the photo shows, was a favourite place for the local men to hang out.

This store continued in business until 1964, when it burned to the ground.

There were other stores in the hamlet over the years, including one run by John French and which is now the Community Hall. The last store to close in Burritt’s Rapids was owned by Deborah Symonds at 7 Grenville Street, and closed in 2016.

Above: The Kidd Store, c. 1878 Below: The Kidd store c. 1890

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Oxford Mills Over its history, Oxford Mills has had a number of stores open and close again. The first, and most famous, was located in the imposing stone house that Rickey Waugh built around 1852, replacing an older frame building, and which also contained the store and Post Office. This is now the Brigadoon Restaurant. Waugh, and those who followed him, could not make the store profitable, and he was forced to leave the hamlet. But that was not the end of a general store in that building. Over the years, other owners came along and it remained as a store until the 1970’s.

In 1982, it was bought by William Rankin who renovated it, restoring it to its earliest configuration, and operated it as a craft and antiques store.

Cheryl Mackie took over in 1990 and

The Waugh Store c. 1970 opened the Brigadoon Restaurant. T. A. Kidd, who owned the Burritt’s Rapids store, opened a General Store in the village around 1887. It also served as the Post Office until it burned down in 1939. A replacement store was

then built on the same site by Joseph Postlethwaite, but it also burned down in 1976. The last general store in the village was owned by Kevin Cameron and closed down just a few years ago.

Heckston Shelley’s Kitchen is located in what remains of Wilson’s Inn in Heckston.

Built in the early 1800's, it operated as an inn and stagecoach stop for decades.

It housed many different businesses and activities until 1948 when the building was bought by William Angus Gilmer who opened a General Store and gas station. Angus Gilmer lived upstairs.

The store was bought by the Bakers in 1958, and they operated the store for seventeen years, until they sold it to Grant Christie in 1975. The store was, as always with general stores in small communities, the centre of the social life around about. A wood stove sat in the middle of the floor, and the men of the area sat around smoking and talking while the womenfolk did the shopping.

But, after just five years, disaster struck.

On February 8, 1980, Grant Christie went into the back storeroom and found it full of smoke and flames. He grabbed his cash box and escaped as the building was consumed by the fire.

Wilson's Inn before the fire No cause was ever found for the blaze, but the structure proved more durable than anyone imagined. When the fire was put out, it was found that the walls were as stable as ever, and even the 3-inch thick wood floors had survived.

Finding it would cost almost $200,000 to rebuild, a great deal of money back in 1980, Grant instead opted to save just the ground floor and the upper floors were demolished. The store re-opened in the smaller building later 19

in the same year, and has continued in business as a general store ever since.

Today, it is Sherry’s Kitchen, serving homemade meals and baked goods, following the tradition of the Wilson’s Inn and the general stores that came before.

Another general store in Heckston was owned by Cecil Hess, and it was located near the corner of County Road 22 and Slater Road. Originally operated by Andy Workman, it finally closed in the 1970's and was renovated to be a private residence, as it is today.

Did you know?

Did you know that Oxford-on-Rideau is older than Germany, the New York Times, the bicycle, the United Kingdom, and the state of Texas?

Cecil Hess store in 1955

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Gilmer’s Store in 1955

Bishop’s Mills General Store

c. 1863 Moses Waldron arrived in the new settlement of Bishop’s Mills from his home in Lower Canada in 1861, along with his wife, Miriam, and their two daughters. That year, Moses opened his store in this building. The General Store was the centre of life in small communities, selling all the things people could not provide for themselves such as tools, hardware and glass. Very often, the store keeper would barter these things for the crops farmers raised, or for potash and pearl ash they made from burning trees as they cleared their land. The general store served many functions in a small community: a place to meet neighbours and catch up on news,

a clearing house for farm produce, information, supplies and news.

Stories from that time say that Moses Waldron was responsible for bringing postal and telegraph services to Bishop’s Mills in the 1870's, and a sketch of his store appeared in the History of Leeds & Grenville, a book published in 1872, showing telegraph wires and a pole outside the store. A few years later, Moses died and the store was kept going by Miriam.

She married George Ferguson, who had been a clerk in the store, and taught in the school. George carried on the business after Miriam died in 1906, going into partnership with his nephew, Jack Ferguson,

who carried the main responsibility for the store from around 1893.

Jack, in turn, passed the store on to a man who had been a clerk for him, William Nottell. Billy, as he was called, had come from Winchester and started working in the store in 1919, taking over from Jack in 1927. The store hadn’t really changed at all since it was opened by Moses Waldron more than 65 years earlier, but the village had certainly grown.

As the name implies, Bishop’s Mills had grown up around saw and grist mills in the early days, and later the same water power was used in a cheese factory, as in so many small villages in the region. The cheese factory took the milk produced by local farmers and

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Bishop’s Mills General Store, 1927. turned it into cheese blocks. The store acted as a depot for the cheese until it was taken to the railway at Oxford Station by men like Rube McLellan, whose horse and cart brought back supplies for the store after dropping off their cargo of cheese. In 1924, the cheese factory was destroyed by an explosion caused by the boiler running dry. Three people were killed in that tragedy.

The exterior of the General Store began to change a little in the 1930's.

The old verandah was removed,

but the open stables remained on the east side of the building.

The General Store continued in business through it all, and contained the Post Office which operated there from 1878 until 1970. The Nottell family acted as postmasters for forty-one years; Mildred Adams, nee Nottell, being the last in that position when the office was closed in 1970, after serving for a quarter century. Mildred had quite a record in connection with the store. She had started helping out her father there

around 1927; she was Acting Postmaster in 1945 and Postmaster from 1946 until the post office closed in 1970. By then, much had changed; now there were cars instead of horse and wagon, and the old stable had been closed.

The store changed hands a number of times after Mildred sold it in 1975, and it finally closed as a General Store in 2002, after more than 140 years of service to the village.

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Kemptville and Kempt

Most of the accounts of the renaming of Kemptville in 1829 say that it was named after Sir James Kempt who was Governor General of the Canadas at the time, and who had camped on the Rideau Canal nearby at some point. Some of that appears to be true.

Kempt had a distinguished military career during the Napoleonic Wars, was seriously wounded in the assault on Badajoz in Spain in 1812, and later took part in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

He had links with Canada before this, having served as Quartermaster General in British North America between 1807 and 1811, and commanding a brigade despatched to Canada to reinforce British forces during the War of 1812.

After Waterloo, Kempt found employment in the Colonial Service and was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia in 1819. There is another

Kemptville in that province today, also named after Sir James. His connection with our Kemptville is much more tenuous. He reluctantly accepted the position of Governor-General of Canada on 10 July, 1828. It was before this appointment that he made the trip that would forever link him to North Grenville.

In early 1828, he was put in charge of a commission of inquiry into the building of the Rideau Canal. His superiors in London were concerned at the increasing cost of the project, and Kempt was assigned the job of looking into Col. John By’s supervision of the work. He was quite unwilling to undertake the long and arduous journey from Halifax to the Rideau, especially since his war wounds had caused serious problems with his legs. He had, apparently, been confined to Government House in Halifax for most of the previous winter, and he complained that: “my legs are by no means in Campaigning Order”. But he was obliged to make the trip, spending as many as seventeen hours a day pushing through difficult terrain between Bytown and Kingston. On one of those days, he and his party camped on the river near the junction with the South Branch. His experiences in this region were not pleasant, and his comments on reaching Kingston speak volumes: “I am at last again in a Christian Country and out of the land of Swamps and Mosquitoes.”

So, in spite of this, the worthies of the village at Clothier’s Mills chose to rename their settlement after the prestigious figure of decorated war hero and colonial governor Sir James Kempt. The name first appeared on a map of the village dated 1836.

Top: Sir James Kempt. Library and Archives Canada, ID number 2935395

The first use of “Kemptville”, 1836.

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A picture of Kemptville in 1838 It would be a strange person who would stand out in the middle of the street where Clothier and Prescott meet in Kemptville. A dangerous, sometimes busy junction. But what if you could imagine yourself at the same spot in 1838, what would you see? Why 1838?

It was a pivotal year in the history of North Grenville. The Township of Oxford-on-Rideau was in the midst of a population explosion. In 1825, there were 85 homesteads in the township; by 1840, there would be 416, a huge increase in settlement in just fifteen years. In that very year, the Battle of the Windmill near Prescott involved settlers from the village. By 1841, the two Provinces of Canada East and West would be united, and a new form of municipal government would be in place. So, in many ways, 1838 was the end of an era, the end of the pioneer years for Kemptville, and the start of a period of more settled and advanced development.

But, standing out there in the middle of Clothier Street and looking around you, what would you see? Most surprising perhaps is that Kemptville only seems to exist on this side of the river. There are a few buildings across the bridge. The big tannery of Sandford and Hunton is the first building on the west side of Prescott Street past the bridge, and you can just make out the log school house at the corner of Reuben Street. It’s the oldest building on that side, built in 1823. The rest of the stores and blacksmiths are quite new. The area around Prescott Street is known as “across the river”, and, where Asa Street joins Prescott, cows 24

are grazing and the narrow trail leading to the far-off town of Prescott disappears into thick bush. James Shaw carries the mail to and from Prescott on his horse, as Kemptville is well off the main road from Prescott to Bytown. It passes through Heckston and Mountain, and Oxford-on-Rideau has only a part-time Post Office located in Levius Church’s store, where O’Heaphy’s pub is now.

Levius bought the land in 1830 and has built a nice store and home on the lot. The store is an important part of local life in the area, a place where settlers come and trade for goods. “The farmers usually paid their store bills in ashes, collected when clearing the land, which the merchants made into potash, and with that paid for their goods”. Across the street from his store, on the banks of the South Branch, Levius has built a pot ashery and a pearl ashery, and he exports the ash on the steamboats that moor at his wharf. There was a scandal in the family this year when Levius’ brother, Daniel, who is a bit of a rebel and democrat, was part of a republican group that burned a steamer in Prescott.

But Daniel recently saw the error of his ways and gave a full account of their activities, including the names of his friends, to the local authorities.

One reason why there has been so little development on the south side of the river is that it is regularly flooded during the spring and early summer.

William Blackburn, who owns a store at the corner of Prescott and Clothier on the town side of the bridge, has recently built a home across the river, and commutes to his store every day. But the bridge across the river is just a plank structure down almost at river level, and it tends to disappear under the water during flood times too. So the inhabitants of Prescott Street have to cross the South Branch on the ferry operated

by James Landon just east of the bridge near the wharves. Both Levius Church and the firm of Averell & Hooker have built wharves by the river, where the

steam boats coming up from the Rideau Canal dock to load and unload their cargoes. With so many settlers clearing land, there is no shortage of felled trees for the mills, and there is good business to be had exporting potash through Kemptville.

There are quite a few taverns and hotels in the town; and Lyman Clothier’s old house, the first in the village, is now “The Freemason’s Arms”, a hotel run

by N. R. Hollenbeck. Thomas Beckett has a hotel at the corner of Clothier and West (now Sanders). The village stretches from the Methodist Church at Clothier and James to the Anglican Church. North of Clothier, you can walk for three blocks before finding yourself back in the bush again, with just the new road lately cut through to the ferry at Beckett’s Landing. Oxford Mills does not exist yet, and the only possible rival to Kemptville is at Perkins’ Mills, just west of the village, where Hurd and Clothier Streets meet. There, a dam has been built, with water power for saw and grist mills and soon there will be a little settlement of houses, a brick yard and a tannery. Who can tell what might develop there? But today we travel down Clothier from our vantage point at Prescott and find...nothing. Overgrown land and the four well-designed homes are all that remain of Perkin’s Mills.

Kemptville at one moment in time.

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February, 1852. Lecture delivered to Mechanics Institute in Toronto by Adam Lillie, CoE minister Kemptville in Oxford, situate about 4 miles from the Rideau Canal communicating thereto by a navigable stream, and also on the route of the proposed Bytown and Prescott Railroad. Population about 1,000. Has good water power, on which are erected flouring and saw mills, with various other machinery. Has post office, churches, school houses, merchants’ stores and mechanics’ shops; lumbering to some extent is also carried on in the neighbourhood. The country around abounds with highly cultivated and valuable farms.

An early scene on the South Branch Joseph St., 1907

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The Wharf When the Town of Kemptville celebrated its 150th anniversary in 1957, the Kemptville Women’s Institute collected a great deal of information about the town’s history. The following article was part of that collection and deals with the wharf that existed at the bridge on Bridge Street.

In 1872, my grandfather, Ambrose Clothier, bought from the Rev. Henry Shaler two acres of land bordering on the river and extending from the bridge southward on the east side of Bridge Street. On this property, he built a mill, which served as a saw mill, a planing mill, and a shingle mill. I have only a vague recollection of it, for it was destroyed by fire, probably in 1877.

My father moved his small family in June 1878 from the brick house known at present as the McKeen Hotel [later the Kemptville Hotel] to the house in which my sister Mrs. Boyle, and I now live. At that time, a new mill had taken the place of the one recently burnt.

A wharf had been built at some time between 1872 and 1878. It contained a coal shed on the end near the bridge. A steamboat, probably the “Olive”, was making weekly trips from Montréal. The freight that it brought was deposited on the wharf and drawn away at once by the owners or by carters. Sometimes so many bags of coarse salt were unloaded that they remained for one or more days, piled and covered by tarpaulins, and providing a playing area for the group of boys that always gathered.

In 1887, or soon after, my father built a freight shed on the wharf and collected for the boats their charges, usually on goods brought in, but in some cases on freight taken out. He also made a small charge for a wharfage on goods left for shipment.

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The steamboat Olive moored at the Wharf beside where Bridge Street crosses the South Branch today.

With the building of the freight sheds came the recording of the steamers and their cargoes. In 1888, three different boats made regular trips once a week; in 1889 only two did this, but in 1890, the third resumed its run.

All told, between 1888 and 1925, nine boats assisted in freight carrying. Several of these were equipped for passenger service also. During this period, the freight charges alone on goods brought in amounted to $27,201.

How much money the boats collected on goods carried from here to other parts, I cannot say, as the freight charges were, in most cases, paid at the points of destination. For a season or two, many tons of potatoes were sent out, by Mr. S. T. Mills. Also, from 1899 till 1904, the Kemptville Milling Company, comprising Alonzo Bowen and Sons, shipped 407 tons of flour and feed. In 1892, the cheese factories of this district began sending their product by boat to Montréal. From this date till 1925, when motor trucks replaced boats, at least 41,000 boxes of cheese were carried from here, by the “Olive” and its successor the “Ottawan”.

In the early years of this trade, a box of cheese weighed about 48 pounds; later it weighed from 80 to 98 lbs. Allowing an average of 66 lbs. to

the box and the price of 11¢ a lb., we find the value of the 41,000 boxes to be $297,660.

As a shipping point, the wharf became unnecessary when the boats withdrew from business in 1925. At present, it is barer than it was in 1878.

The somewhat dilapidated coal shed of that date was removed to make room for the freight shed. The latter remained in place, usually empty, until a few years ago when it was moved to another part of the property and used for storage purposes.

Spring floods and the weather have damaged the wharf in the course of the years. However, it is still used in many ways. Men wash their cars on it, boys and girls swim from it, men and boys cast trolling lines there hour after hour, motorboats are launched or are taken from the water at its edges, sleighs and cars cross over it to travel on the ice in winter, and women and children relax upon it on the hot days of summer.

In the more than 60 years that have passed since James Clothier wrote down the story of the Wharf, the location has changed even more. There is little there now to indicate what a busy centre of business existed on the river in those olden days.

The Ottawan on the South Branch near Kemptville

The Great Divorce In 1857 Kemptville separated itself from Oxford-on-Rideau Township, beginning a division that would last 140 years. On the face of it, there is nothing surprising in the act. Kemptville was the political and commercial centre of the township, the railway had recently arrived bringing a newspaper and increased importance to the village. Many of Kemptville’s leading citizens had invested heavily in the new railway company, and the municipal council of Oxford had done likewise.

But there were some less obvious motives behind the separation. After all, Kemptville didn’t have the required population to qualify as a village, less than the 1,000 souls called for in law.

But a special law was passed exempt-

ing Kemptville from the requirement.

More of what lay behind the move was revealed when the new village council tried to avoid paying its share of the funds promised to build the railway, the very thing that promised such prosperity to the new incorporated village.

That attempt to escape its obligations failed completely, and there were losses all round when the railway company finally went bankrupt not long afterwards. One leading citizen, William Bottum, who took to calling himself “Squire”, also had a law passed exempting his lands from being part of the village, possibly because the tax implications were more than he expected. The result of his action was that the western boundary of Kemptville followed a very tortuous route, as the map here shows.

South of the South Branch, the boundary barely went much beyond Prescott Street, leaving what became Riverside Park outside the village. This remained the case until 1902, when the Kempt-

ville Council bought the land from the Bottum family.

The northern boundary of the new village of Kemptville ended at what is now County Road 43, and the southern border was at Concession Road. Oxford Township continued, with its new centre in Oxford Mills where the new Town Hall was built. Kemptville built its own Town Hall on Water Street. It was a strange business, ending only when the government of Ontario imposed amalgamation on Oxford, Kemptville, and South Gower, creating the new municipality we know as North Grenville in January, 1998.

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The Village of Kemptville in 1957, the centenary of the village.

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The Great Fire of 1872 One of the pivotal events in the history of Oxford Township took place on May 13, 1872, when fire destroyed almost the entire length of Prescott Street. Both sides of the street, from Asa north to Water Street, were reduced to ashes as the wood frame buildings that had stood for around 25 years went up in flames.

It began early in the morning, around 1.30 a.m., in a foundry owned

by Ambrose Clothier behind Selleck’s

After the Great Fire The Ottawa Free Press reported on how Kemptville was recovering from the Great Fire of 1872 in its issue of February 28, 1874 Early in the month of May, 1872, about 11 o’clock a.m., from some unaccountable accident, a fire broke out in a Cooper shop in the rear of what was then known as Selleck’s Hotel, Kemptville on the east side of the river, and on the north side of Prescott street. In a few hours, this, at the time, the most prosperous and flourishing part of the town, was laid in ashes. Twenty-six houses, with all the necessary outbuildings, were consumed by the devouring element, and thirty families, who, a few hours previous to this disaster, were comfortably situated and living in affluence, were rendered houseless and destitute....The farmers in the

Hotel, which stood on the north east corner of Asa and Prescott. The fire quickly engulfed the hotel and them moved down the street until it reached Water Street. For some unexplained reason, instead of continuing across to the buildings between Water Street and the river, the fire leaped across Prescott Street and began to move back up towards Asa. It finished by re-crossing Prescott and destroying the building at the south-east corner of Asa. Remarkably, no one was killed or injured, in spite of the early hour and the size of the conflagration. And that is just one strange aspect of the event.

One professional fire official has stated that the fire looks to have been deliberate and planned, given the course it

took, and the lack of casualties. Insurance covered the losses, which were immense, and an entirely new street rose, literally, from the ashes. The new Prescott Street was one of stone and brick to replace the former frame buildings. A new era in the history of Kemptville began with the blaze of May, 1872. Some of those buildings have survived to this day, though others have, in turn, been replaced over the decades as Kemptville’s Old Town renews itself periodically.

immediate vicinity of the Town, and the townfolk on the west side of the river, came forward to the rescue...

Today it may be said that the old business aspect of the town has been fully resumed; the only difference being that the face is somewhat changed, and for the better. Where there was nothing but temporary frame buildings, now stands massive stone and brick structures.

Starting on the south side, east of Asa street, the first building of note is that of Mr. A. Blackburn. This is a very fine brick building, three full stories in height, of red brick, with large bow windows, arched with white brick coppings.

This is occupied as a general fancy and dry goods store. [This later became An-

dersons, then Anderson and Langstaff, and then the Red and White Store] Next to these is a substantial two storey brick building erected by Mr. W. H. Cochrane, Saddle and Harness manufacturer. Mr. Samuel Martin comes next with a two storey brick building, which affords two store fronts, on the ground flat, the upper portion is occupied as a Photographic gallery.

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A new Town Hall for Kemptville in 1874

After the Great Fire, Anderson’s Store, c. 1890

The Ottawa Free Press reported plans for a new Town Hall for Kemptville in its issue of August 24, 1874: On Water street the new Town Hall has been commenced. The site is close to the river. The structure is to be of stone, and will contain a Council chamber, a hall to be used for concerts, balls, lectures, et hoc genus, and fire engine house, and that very necessary apartment to all well regulated communities, a lock-up, though fortunately Kemptville is singularly free from the characters who usually tenant such places. The cornerstone will shortly be laid with great ceremony, and the building is to be finished by the 1st of January next.

The estimated cost is $5,000.

The new Prescott Street, 1905

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Kemptville Town Hall Also known as the Court House, the old Town Hall in Kemptville is a building with real ties to our past, both as built heritage, and in terms of the people who passed through its doors over almost 150 years.

The land was bought from local residents in 1873 for the large sum of $350, as the Village of Kemptville, which separated from Oxford-on-Rideau Township in 1857, needed a Town Hall. It was the Municipal Centre for Kemptville until 1998, when Kemptville rejoined Oxford and amalgamated with South Gower to form the new North Grenville. For another seven years, it remained in use by the Municipality, until the new Municipal Centre opened.

But it was not just a century of Council meetings that took place there.

The stone building also housed the offices of the Kemptville police, and the Council chamber on the upper floor doubled as a court room for inquests, hearings, and trials. Judges and juries decided cases ranging from drunken

behaviour to murder, and councillors, mayors and reeves debated and decided on the issues which affected the development of the village into the town it became in the 1960's.

While the political and legal minds worked away upstairs, the ground floor of the Town Hall was given over to the Fire Department and generations of firemen (as they always were then) and fire trucks were stationed in the space now used by the courts. It was not until 1968 that the Fire Department moved out of the Town Hall and into the Armoury in Riverside Park. The Department maintained a fire dock behind the Town Hall, and around 1881, a hose tower was erected attached to the Town Hall. This was a high, wooden tower in which the old fabric fire hoses could be hung up to dry after being used at a fire.

Around 1898, a bell was installed in a special decorative canopy at the top of the tower and it was used to warn of fires until the tower was badly damaged in, ironically, a fire in 1935. The tower was demolished in 1957.

There is an unusual vibe in that upper room. Perhaps it is the memory of the trials and inquests that took place there, or the historic meetings of councils over so many decades. Person-

alities who stood in that room included G. Howard Ferguson when he was on Council, and more recent mayors, reeves and councillors who also argued and governed Kemptville there. I can remember interviewing people like Ralph Raina, or Sam Gaw who could point to a spot in the room and say: “That’s where I sat when I was on Council”. It remains one of the most atmospheric places in North Grenville. The ground floor has been extensively renovated over the years and nothing really remains there of the Fire Station that once housed frontline workers of their day who fought fires that destroyed the original high shool on Prescott Street, or the 1910 fire that levelled most of Asa Street.

After the Municipality moved out of the building, the Ontario Provincial Courts and the Provincial Offences Court began to hold their sessions downstairs.

One of the original jail cells is still in use also, a remarkable link to the history of the building.

It seems only appropriate that the upstairs room of the original Town Hall, where so many council meetings and court cases were played out, should today house the North Grenville Archives. Operated by the North Grenville Historical Society, the Archives are where our common history is preserved, in documents, photographs, maps, and so many other ways.

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New Anglican Church Planned in 1874

The following notice appeared in the Free Press, August 24, 1874: The Rev. John Stannage, the much respected rector of the village, has on foot a movement to build a new Episcopalian Church on Main street, to be called the “Archdeacon Patton Memorial Church” and out of his parish alone has had $5,000 subscribed towards the object, and he is coming to Ottawa to see what he can raise here. The subscriptions are to be paid in five years, so

that the money given will not be missed much by the parishioners. This rule only applies to those living in the parish. The church is to be of stone, and the plans will be prepared by an Ottawa architect.

Mr. Stannage expects to raise through the diocese about $15,000...The spire of the old church, knocked out of line of perpendicular by the gale before alluded to, still remains in that condition and looks very much as if another “puff” would scatter it.

A view of the south side of Kemptville in 1917, taken from the old Post Office building on Clothier Street

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Kemptville in 1951 Things have changed a lot in North Grenville over the past few decades and it’s fascinating to take a close look at some of those changes in detail. Back in 1951, the Eastern Ontario Development Association published a brochure on communities in the region of the St. Lawrence Seaway. Their statistics on the Village of Kemptville, as it was then, make interesting reading.

“Population: 1,555. 1951 census data: Males, 46.2%; Females, 53.8%; Roman Catholic, 10.7%; Protestant 84.7%.

Total families, 397. Average persons per family, 3.1. Families with children, 215 (54.2%). Total households 481. Families maintaining own households, 367 (76.3%).” By 1965, the population had grown to 2,088.

The housing situation also compares with today’s situation: “Construction presently meets demand. Sites are available with sewer and water. There are sufficient rental units. There is a town plan in effect... Zoning bylaws are awaiting approval”. In 1965, it was reported that: “New areas are being opened up, houses erected, with modern conveniences and roads are laid as quickly as possible....back of the Anglican Church area, new roads are being completed, and cosy homes built.”

The working population made up just 29.4% of the residents, of which 74.8% were male. The wages paid may seem a little low, to put it mildly, compared to current minimum wages. “Median wage, $1,650 with 21.7% between $1,500 and $1,999 and 43.2% under $1,500. Median family head wage, $1,980 with 39.1% between $1,000 and $1,999 and 51.4% under $2,000. Good available labour supply.” However, costs

were far lower then than they are today.

Industrial development sites were available, with sewer and water services, from $1,00 to $2,00 per acre. The main employers in the village were The Borden Co., producing milk, with 40 employees, and Moore Business Forms, employing 25 people. (The Manager of Kemptville Creameries, Ltd., Lorne Reddick, later complained that his company, which employed 15 people, had not been included in the brochure.) There were 35 stores in Kemptville, and just one bank, the Bank of Nova Scotia.

The general description of the village gives a social and cultural context to

the report: “On Rideau River close to Rideau Lakes resort area. Good fishing and hunting. Lawn and indoor bowling, hockey, skating, golf course, tennis, movie house. Schools: Public 1, High, 1. Kemptville Agricultural School and diploma courses in Agriculture and Home Economics. Nearest hospital, Winchester 15 miles.”

It points out that the nearest crossing point to the United States was a ferry operating out of Prescott, 29 miles away. Transportation infrastructure included the C.P.R. railway line between Prescott and Ottawa, and Highway 16, linking the same two destinations.

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Kemptville’s lost heritage The corner of Prescott and Clothier streets in Kemptville is, today, an open area, with Rotary Park on one corner and a parking lot on the other. It was not always so. In fact, this corner of Kemptville was once a thriving section of the town. As the accompanying photographs show, the junction was once bordered by large and impressive buildings, some of the finest Kemptville had to show at the beginning of the twentieth century.

In 1834, where Rotary Park is today, William Bradbury opened a small store on the corner of Clothier and Prescott, and it was taken over in the 1850’s by Thomas Maley. Maley was a successful financier and entrepreneur, and over the years added to the Maley Block until it was a three-story edifice covering the entire block from the bridge to Clothier Street, with offices and stores facing on to both streets. Maley’s grandson, William Fraser, took over the business in 1907. The Block contained many enterprises over its history, including a job printing office between 1870 and 1880, tailors, lodge rooms for the Orange Order, watch makers and jewelers, and the first Public Library in Kemptville. In Kemptville Past and Present, this library is described as follows: “Another important institution of which the town boasts is a free public library. The first library in Kemptville was instituted about 1870 under the auspices of a Mechanics Institute and continued for several years, when the organization became defunct and the library allowed to go down. The books, however, reverted to the corporation and were for many years stored in 34

the town hall. In the autumn of 1900 a number of citizens feeling the need of an institution that would provide proper reading matter, not only for themselves but also for their children, organized a library board in accordance with the Ontario statute. The books of the old library were handed over to them and a large number of new ones were purchased and provisions made by the council for its maintenance. It contains about 2000 volumes selected from the standard authors with great care. All residents of the town have access to the books when duly vouched for by a property holder.

It is largely patronized and is doing a vast amount of good. It occupies large and commodious quarters in the Fraser block, where is also provided a reading room which is supplied with the leading papers and magazines.”

In 1922, a fire broke out in a meat shop in the Block and the entire wood frame structure was quickly reduced to ashes. It was never rebuilt. A gas station stood on the site from 1927 until 1974.

The White House Hotel was built by Nathaniel Fenton in the mid-1830’s on the opposite side of Prescott Street, at the corner of Clothier. Fenton was also

responsible for the fine building on the north-west corner of Clothier and Rideau streets, and was an important individual in the business life of Kemptville for many years. A map of 1861-62 indicates that the Hotel was then called Rideau House. Thomas Adams bought the hotel in 1865 and maintained it until 1881. Thomas Warren, whose name appears on the sign in the photograph, owned it from 1894 until 1928. One of the first buildings in town to be heated by furnace and lit by electricity, it also had large carriage and livery barns in the rear, with power generated by two windmills. This establishment took up the entire block from Clothier Street to the river.

Today, fire has taken its toll on many of Kemptville’s most historic and imposing buildings. In far too many cases, they have either been replaced by vastly inferior “modern” structures, or, as with our two buildings, an empty space is all that remains. Rotary Park is a wonderful addition to the town, of course, but it is important to remember what came before.

A view of the Clothier-Prescott junction with the White House on the right and the older Fraser Block across the street.

Above: Prescott Street, c. 1890 Below: Clothier Street looking west from the corner of Rideau Street

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The certificate of appointment of Thomas McCargar as Captain in the 1st Regiment of the Grenville Militia, January 17, 1836. Signed by Sir John Colborne, Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada.

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A pioneer of North Grenville

the Canal. Beckett’s Landing became the main crossing place for people following the road from Prescott to Bytown, the point at which they joined the Rideau passenger boats that would bring them into Bytown. As early as 1835, maps of the area showed Becketts Landing, now a major commercial centre. Aside from operating the ferry across the river, Beckett had built a wharf where river boats stopped for fuel. The increasing number of lumber companies running log rafts through the Canal began to use Beckett’s Landing as a stopping place, and Beckett built a frame hotel back from the river where the lumber workers could stay. A water colour from 1835 shows the Landing, with the wharf and Hotel, and the scow used as a ferry moored nearby.

His successful business venture at These days, Becketts Landing is a the Landing allowed Thomas Beckett to quiet place on the banks of the Rideau, invest in the Village of Kemptville. In the and it is hard to believe that for more late 1830's, he bought Mahlon Beach’s than a century it was a pivotal point hotel on the corner of Clothier and West in the economic and transportation (now Sanders) Streets, and later built a life of North Grenville in general, and fine residence on Clothier Street West, Kemptville in particular. As with so many behind which he opened a brewery places in North Grenville, it was origiwhich operated successfully until 1865 nally settled by an Irish family. Thomas when he officially retired. The site of A. Beckett arrived from Ireland in 1823, his hotel in Kemptville is now a parking receiving a land grant on the Rideau in lot. The house he had built remained a the years before work began on the Ca- private residence for the Powell family nal. His son records that when rumours from 1900 until 1948, when it passed of the Canal project reached Thomas, he to Eva Adams and Elsie Byers. These immediately has his brothers and father two ladies restored the building to its move from Ireland to take up land beoriginal plan, maintaining the porch side his along the Canal route. It was to that runs the full length of the front, prove an inspired move. and decorating the interior to match Beckett himself worked on the the high ceilings and well-proportioned Canal, and after the various locks and rooms. Miss Byers sold the property in dams began to operate in 1832, water 1971 and in 1988 it became the Featherlevels rose and the river widened along stonehaugh Manor for seniors. its length, making it even harder to find As the area developed and the safe crossing places. As settlers arrived population grew, the dependence on in the area opened up by the Canal, the Beckett’s Landing ferry for crossing Beckett established a ferry crossing on the Canal became an obstacle to travel the Rideau. About 1833, Beckett and and commerce and cut Kemptville off his brothers joined with the people of from its natural hinterland north of the Kemptville, still “The Branch” at that canal during times when the ferry could time, to cut a road from the village to not operate. In 1858, the Legislative

Assembly of Upper Canada was petitioned by the new Kemptville Village Council to have a bridge built on the site to replace the ferry. This was approved and a new swing bridge was erected in the 1860's. Thomas A. Beckett was appointed the first bridge master, appropriately enough, and served until his death in 1889. He was replaced by his son William, and the job remained in the Beckett family until 1919.

Beckett’s Landing became Beckett’s Bridge, and traffic across the swing bridge increased annually as the road from Prescott to Ottawa became more travelled with the advent of cars and trucks. In 1919, the road became the third of the new Provincial Highways to be established by the provincial government. Known at first as the Prescott Highway, it officially became Highway 16 in 1925. This highway, not fully paved until 1929, became a King’s Highway in 1930, an important link between the Capital of the Dominion and the main commercial artery of Highway 2, connecting Toronto with Montreal. The increase in traffic led to concerns about the safety of the old bridge, and in the early 1930's a major survey was conducted of the size and weight of vehicles using the bridge. The results were surprising and the bridge was closed to vehicles over five tons in weight. Amazingly, these vehicles were detoured through Burritts Rapids, across the swing bridge there.

The old Becketts Bridge was removed, and plans were in place to replace it with a newer, fixed bridge.

During the winter of 1935-36, cars passed through gaps cut in the snow along the banks of the Rideau, and crossed over on the ice. Before a new bridge could be built, however, surveyors were sent in to consider a new location further to the east. The line of road from Kemptville to Becketts and then joining the highway on the far side, contained a number of sharp curves and there had been many serious accidents 37

as a result of vehicles failing to make the corners. It was decided to change the road layout and allow the highway to run in a straight line across the Rideau beside the golf course instead. The present bridge across the Rideau was built in 1937 and Becketts Landing was bypassed, ending a long history of use that had started with Thomas Beckett back in the 1820's. From being a major artery in the Ontario Highway network, Becketts Landing Road is now a deadend leading to old stone supports where a bridge once spanned the Rideau.

This appeared in the local newspaper in July, 1898

The history of any country, county, or community is full of little incidents and facts that are often overlooked in telling their stories. Little things that may not deserve mention in more general works may have a fascination of their own. Indeed, sometimes those apparently trivial events had a much greater impact on the people of the time than we can now imagine.

When the Province of Upper Canada was established in 1791, the governing authorities wished to see the emergence of a minor aristocracy, large land owners who would rise to positions of leadership in the community. At the time, this necessarily meant Protestant men. Even more, it meant Anglican

men (and it was all men). During that same period in the history of Ontario, the position of the Anglican Church was to be as close to a State Church as possible, as having government run by Catholics was illegal, and Methodists and Presbyterians (other than Scottish Presbyterians) were looked on as fanatical and tending to hold democratic, that is, mob rule principles.

So it was that the laws passed in the first Assemblies in Upper Canada recognized only those marriages presided over by an Anglican priest as having legal validity. An exception was made for those couples who lived in a district that had fewer than five Anglican clergymen in residence. In their case, a

civil marriage was permitted. Marriages solemnized by any other type of minister, pastor, or whatever, were simply not legal. It was to be some years, even decades, before other Christian denominations were recognized in law as having the legal right to perform marriages.

The new Actons Corners School, 1906

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The Schools Actons Corners Actons Corners is another settlement that grew and withered over the decades. Between the 1830's, when the Acton family settled the area, until 2011, when the school was sold to private owners, Actons Corners saw churches, schools, Orange Halls, a vibrant community come and go. There were actually four schools in the area over that time period. But the focus of the settlement was the crossroads, where, today, there remains just the deconsecrated Anglican Church and the last of the four school houses to remind us of that history. This familiar building was erected in 1905 and served as Public School, S.S. No. 6 until 1964.

The High School

Actons Corners School 1890 This was, in fact, the third school in the area, but the other two log buildings were located to the east and west of the crossroads, one near Johnston and Muldoon Roads, the other on Lot 12, Con. 2, about a mile to the west of the crossroads. The school in the picture was built in 1858 to replace both of those log buildings, and was in operation until 1905. It was on the same site as the current building, between it and Actons Corners Road. Since 1964, it has

served as a base for the Actons Corners Community Association and then as the location for the North Grenville Archives until 2010. It remained a complete and prefect example of a stone one-room schoolhouse, with the original chalkboards, box stove, desks, books, bell and outhouses, and received a Heritage Designation for both interior and exterior.

The photograph was taken in the winter of 1906, when the school was only one year old.

The need for a High School was recognised early in the 1840's, and a meeting was held in 1843 to investigate the need and find a location for the new institution. The new Grammar School opened in 1844-45 in the building at 205 Clothier Street, and continued there until 1873, when it was decided to make a single School Board and locate all students in a new building where the B&H now stands. This school was in use until 1888, when a new High School was built on the site on Prescott Street.

School equipment is always an issue for teachers, but today’s professionals don’t have the same problems their predecessors did. When the new High School was being built in Kemptville back in 1888, the Principal, W. S. Cody, wrote to the Department of Education in Toronto looking for the recipe for making blackboards on plastered walls.

The Department had sent a circular out the previous year on the subject, but it had been lost. Mr. Cody noted that “the Blackboards are very important, [and] I wish to have the best that can be had for the new H.S. building now in course of construction”.

By the 1930's, the building was showing its age and concerns were expressed about the school, describing part of it as "a veritable fire-trap".

On January 8, 1936, the school was destroyed by a fire that may have been started deliberately. The photo of the fire was taken by the local United Church minister, who lived down the street. A local volunteer fire fighter, James Ault, died while combating the fire. A new Combination High School and Public School were opened the following year in the same site.

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Kemptville Public School, 1873-1936

The old Kemptville Public School, lost to fire in 1936 The B&H Grocery store in Kemptville stands today on what was once the site of this really lovely school. The Kemptville Public School served the children of Kemptville for sixty years before being destroyed in a suspicious fire in March, 1936. Before it was built, there were two School Boards in the Village of Kemptville: one for the Grammar School which was in the building still standing at 205 Clothier Street West; and a Board for the two Common Schools, also still standing. One was at 402 Oxford Street, on the north side of the village, and the other was at 12 Elizabeth Street on the south side. But, in 1873, the Boards merged and a new combination Public and High School was built on the site between Rideau and West (now Sanders) Street. The two-storey brick building had four classrooms and employed three teachers for the Public School, and one for the High School. Supply teachers were paid the generous sum of $1.50 per day in the Public School.

The school was very successful and drew students from around the area, so that, by the mid-1880’s, this building was too small to cope with the enrollment. In 1888, a new High School was built on Prescott Street, and the older building was used exclusively for Public 40

School classes from that year on. By the time of the First World War, the levy on local taxpayers for the school was $3,000, as it was local residents who made up the Board. Non-residents of Kemptville were charged 40¢ per month to attend the school, but this was raised to $1 a month after 1914.

The members of the Public School Board represent some of the families with the longest history in Kemptville.

Names like Sanders, Kilfoyle, Ferguson and Eager were noted, and many of the leading business people in the village put time and energy into their roles supervising the school and its activities.

In March, 1936, the school burned down. This was just three months after an equally suspicious fire had destroyed the High School on Prescott Street, and there seemed little doubt in the minds of residents at the time that both fires

were the result of arson, possibly by students. The Kemptville Fire Department turned out to try and save the building, but without success. It was estimated that the loss of the building cost around $35,000, but insurance on it and its contents was just $20,000, a serious loss to the Board. But, by the end of the year, a new school had been erected on the site of the old High School, repeating the original function of the Public School in catering to both Public and High School classes.

The old Public School was replaced by a garage and, in 1963, by the new B&H Foodliner Store. As a side note: the area that is now the parking lot for the B&H, as well as that covered by the old Giant Tiger building, was once occupied by a few homes and stores, also long gone.

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The First Newspaper The Kemptville Progressionist, published by R.W. Kelly from his offices on the corner of Clothier Street and Sanders Street, was the very first newspaper published in Oxford-on-Rideau Township. There is only one issue of the Progressionist still in existence, so far as we know.

It dates from February 17, 1858, and was Vol. 4, No. 4 of the series. It provides a fascinating glimpse of Kemptville and surrounding area less than forty years after Clothier first built his mill on the South Branch.

The editorial of this very issue reported the news that had just been relayed to Canada that Queen Victoria had selected Ottawa as the seat of the future Government of the Canadas.

On the face of it, there’s not much to interest us today, since the first three pages were almost all advertisements. But a review of all those ads tells us a great deal about the daily life of Kemptville and the area in the 1850’s. To start with, everyone was

still using sterling as currency; the dollar was about to make its appearance later that same year. A subscription to the Progressionist cost 5 shillings a year. If you lived in Kemptville village, you could have it delivered to your door for an extra 1s. 3p.

The Kemptville Bookstore advertised an extensive and eclectic selection of books for sale. The ads show very clearly that Clothier Street West was still the focus of business in Kemptville. In fact, it was still known as Main Street. Doctors, cabinet makers, hotels, even a maker of artificial limbs, conducted business there.

Dr. Sparham was running his clinic near the Baptist Chapel on Clothier Street every day from 10 am until 2 pm.

Mrs. Hardy was working as a “fashionable shirt maker” across the road from the English (Anglican) Church.

Her neighbour, Thomas Beckett, was operating his brewery on the river bank behind his new house, now Greystones Manor on Clothier Street. Adams` Hotel, on the corner of Prescott and Asa streets, advertised a free shuttle service to and from the railway depot at Bedell.

Thomas Lonsdale ran a dry goods store in the same building as the Progressionist, and he warned those

customers who were slow to pay their bills that 20% would be added to any bills not paid by January 1. Running a newspaper didn’t seem to be very lucrative (some things don’t change), and Kelly also advertised his brick making business: Kemptville Machine Brick Factory, Kemptville Brick Works.

Nor was Kelly slow to deal with people who didn’t pay their bills. He inserted a notice warning them that, should they fail to post their money by a certain date, he would “post” them: meaning print their names in the newspaper. Fascinating strategy.

In a very small insert at the bottom of page 2, it was announced that an application would be made at the next session of the Legislature to have the boundaries of the new Village of Kemptville changed. “Squire” William Bottom, whose land included what was to become Riverside Park, wanted his property excluded from the Village, possibly because of the higher taxes he was paying there. As a result, when the Village of Kemptville needed a park, they had to lease the land from Bottom’s family, as it was by then outside the village boundary.

So much history in one issue of a newspaper. Such an insight into life in our community all those years ago.

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A forgotten memorial Is there anything sadder than a memorial that no one remembers? In the first half of the last century, Deek’s Quarry was a hive of activity. At one time, around 200 workers quarried there employed in crushing rocks to be used as rail beds for the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Ontario Northern Railway. The contract for the crushed rock had been granted to Dominion Construction Limited of Montreal owned

by Harry Falconer McLean. In order to obtain the ballast for the tracks, a divi-

sion of his company, Grenville Crushed Rock Ltd was established at the site on Scotch Line Road and a production plant set up to crush the road bed ballast.

McLean bought the land for the quarry in 1919 and the operation continued until 1932. At its peak, almost three million tons of local limestone was quarried every year. The work was hard and dangerous and there were deaths among the workers. When the quarry closed, McLean erected a stone cairn in memory of the dead workers, one of around a dozen such memorials he built at various quarries he owned across Canada.

On the stone monument metal plaques were mounted carrying the names of the dead, and on one side, a poem was placed: “The Sons of

Martha”, which McLean had received permission to use by its author, famous British Imperialist Rudyard Kipling. Many are the stories about Harry McLean, especially during the last decades of his life which he spent in the Merrickville area. Deek’s Quarry, also, is a place of historic importance. During the Second World War, the disused quarry was used as a staging point for trains carrying munitions and equipment eastward to Halifax to be sent on ships to Britain.

But time was not kind to the McLean Cairn, and it remained neglected and vandalised for many years. The metal plaques were removed and some, at least, ended up in the care of the Historical Society in Merrickville. The cairn itself became lost in overgrown bush and the memories of local residents until a few individuals decided in 2001 Deeks Quarry cairn in 1927.

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to see about moving it to Merrickville for preservation. The plan was to have it sited on the green space beside the cenotaph.

It was then that John Shawarna, one of those involved in the project, says they made their first mistake: they informed the Township of North Grenville of their plans. Meant as a polite gesture, it led instead to the North Grenville Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee [LACAC] recommending to the municipal council that the cairn be given a heritage designation, which would prevent it from being moved to Merrickville.

An appeal to the Ontario Conservation Review Board which took place in July, 2002 resulted in a recommendation that the cairn be designated on site.

John Shawarna remembers being quite unimpressed by the Board hearing, and disappointed that the residents’ group had been thwarted in its attempt to protect the cairn from further damage.

Throughout 2002 and 2003, meetings were held in North Grenville as steps where discussed for the renovation of the cairn and negotiations took place with the then-owner of the site, Barry Forbes who was prepared to contribute to the costs. The Algonquin College Heritage Institute’s Heritage Masonry Program was recruited to restore the stonework of the cairn. The Historical Societies in both North Grenville and Merrickville-Wolford joined in the project. Everything seemed to promise a speedy and professional restoration of the McLean Cairn to its rightful heritage state.

But at that point, it seems that everything stopped. The North Grenville Council refused any financial support for the restoration and would not agree to purchase the site from Barry Forbes.

No tax receipts would be issued by the Municipality for donations of materials to use in the project. In short, after all the effort, conflicts, and time, the cairn remained where it was, in its dilapidated state. In fact, the cairn became even

less accessible when the Municipality of North Grenville closed that part of Scotch Line Road to vehicles a few years ago so that anyone wishing to see the cairn had a bit of a walk to get to it. In addition, the cairn is now in a very sad state, easy to miss as you walk along the road, and apparently destined to simply fall apart in time.

The aim of McLean in 1932 was to provide a memorial to the workers of Deek’s Quarry, itself a historic site that has been left to decay. The words of Rudyard Kipling, along with the names of the workers memorialised, have been removed from the cairn and from the site. Perhaps, in hindsight, it would have been better if those concerned citizens in 2001 had just moved the cairn to Merrickville where it could have been restored and preserved for future generations. Then the memorial would have achieved its proper purpose.

A yard locomotive at Deeks Quarry

The Cairn today

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1880 A moment in time For the historian, a document will come along that provides a unique opportunity to look at a particular moment in the past and a snapshot of a society at a particular point in time becomes visible. Thanks to a man named Samuel Casey Wood, such a snapshot of North Grenville in 1880 is available.

Samuel Wood was the Commissioner of Agriculture for the Province of Ontario from 1875 to 1883, as well as being Provincial Secretary. In his Annual Report to the Provincial Assembly in 1879, he suggested that a commission be established “to inquire into the agricultural resources of the Province of Ontario, the progress and conditions of Agriculture therein, and matters connected therewith.” An Order-in-Council was passed on April 3, 1880, and the Commission got to work compiling an amazing set of statistics on the state of agriculture in each of Ontario’s counties. Questionnaires and circulars were mailed out to municipal offices requesting statistical data, and open hearings were held across the Province in order that the Commission might gather views and opinions. The commissioners also obtained evidence from the other provinces, the United States and Great Britain.

The final Report presented in 1881 gives that snapshot of the state of affairs in Grenville County in 1880, and it makes for fascinating reading. At the time, North Grenville was still separated into the Townships of Oxford-on-Rideau and South Gower, as well as the Village of Kemptville. The Report shows that Oxford had a population of 3,333 and South Gower had just 883 residents.

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It is interesting to note that almost 80 years after the first settlers arrived, Oxford had only half of its land cleared for agriculture although it was believed that about half of the uncleared land would be suitable for cultivation, if cleared. South Gower was even less cultivated, with only 3,629 of its 22,000 acres cleared, again with half of the uncleared land suitable for cultivation.

Only half of the cleared land in South Gower was free of tree stumps. It was calculated that land could be cleared of stumps at an average rate of 1 acre per year.

Perhaps it is a surprise to note that Oxford had more sheep than cows, almost a thousand horses, and 680 hogs. South Gower had more cows than sheep.

The commissioners asked what market facilities the townships enjoyed, and Kemptville is listed by both Oxford and South Gower as the nearest market.

For South Gower, the Village was just half a mile away, and Oxford noted that Kemptville itself was just half a mile from the railroad, meaning the station at Bedell.

As for local industries, South Gower reported that they had “No industries excepting one cheese factory, situated at a place called Heckston”. Oxford was in a slightly better position, being able to boast of two cheese factories “located at Oxford mills and Bishop’s mills”.

Another interesting statistic from the report is that both South Gower and Oxford remained well-covered with trees.

Oxford had 20,000 acres under trees,

about one-third of the land, made up mainly of ash, elm, cedar, beech, maple and tamarack, which was described as good for “fencing and building purposes”. South Gower had about 8,000 acres of trees, much the same kind as Oxford, which were also used primarily for “firewood, fencing, and sawed into lumber”.

Of the cultivated land, Oxford’s main crop was hay (8,000 acres), oats (7,000 acres), and rye (5,000 acres). There were 1,000 acres each of potatoes, buckwheat, and peas. The main crops in South Gower were oats (2,500 acres), spring wheat and barley (2,00 acres each) and hay (1,500 acres). Neither the farmers in Oxford nor South Gower used “salt, superphosphate, lime, plaster, or other artificial fertilizers” on their land.

In both townships, 75% of farmers were using “improved farm machinery, reapers, mowers, seed drills, and sulky rakes”, whatever they were. The farms were progressive, it seems, and the farmers’ homes were 60% brick or stone in Oxford. However, in South Gower, 92% of the houses were still log or “inferior frame” in construction.

It is good to remember that behind the dry statistics lie innumerable stories of real people, men, women and children who lived and worked on the land we now share. With no electricity, no tv or internet and very few modern luxuries, they were, at the time of the Commission’s Report, turning a forest into farms, and building roads and the communities that became the Municipality of North Grenville. Snapshots can tell many stories.

215 Prescott Street, Kemptville

Proud to be part of Kemptville for 22 years

Blacksmiths unite!

In 1905, the blacksmiths of this region formed an alliance to push through an increase in what they charged for their work. Knowing that there would be opposition to the raising of rates, the twelve men (and they were all men) signed a letter in which they agreed to “pledge our word and honor as men to abide by the above mentioned prices and rules”. Clearly, this was a matter of

some importance, and the letter they signed was written to warn anyone who would try and break their alliance by influencing one of their number to maintain the lower prices for service that the blacksmiths were united.

The twelve blacksmiths represented the communities of Oxford Mills (J. Kingston and Robert Lindsay), Burritt’s Rapids (D. B. Davis and W. H. Derrick), Merrickville (Charles Edwards and J. F. Hicks), Andrewsville (W. J. Quinn), and Kemptville (James Tobin, T. M. Griffin, George Taylor, William Spotswood, and Zachariah Beach).

The terms they used may seem rather extravagant to us today. In rejecting

the idea that one of them would buckle under pressure from customers, they declared: “Apparently their object is to see if some one of the twelve is not weak minded enough to betray the cause, degrade his word and honor and become a Judas”.

Standing strongly against any suggestion of dishonourable dealings, the twelve blacksmiths insisted that their price for shoeing a horse would rise, from 10¢ cents to 15¢, while the cost of new shoes would go up from 25¢ to 30¢. On such small things blacksmith’s honour and integrity depends.

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Limerick ruin This is one of the reminders that exist in Limerick Forest that, once upon a time, it was the home of an entire community that settled here in hopes of a new life, only to see the topsoil blow away as the trees were removed, leaving the farms sterile and bare.

Opening of the Kemptville Legion:

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Kemptville Legion No. 212 received its Charter from the Canadian Legion of the British Empire Service League, as it was called back in 1932. The Branch had formed in late 1931 and gradually gathered members from the region. It was officially chartered on April 16, 1932, but it was some months later before the formal presentation of the Charter took place at a special banquet in the Armouries, now the Williamson Memorial Hall, on October 24, 1932, when the thirty members of the Branch were joined by representatives of the national and

Ottawa branches of the Canadian Legion to mark the event.

The Charter was formally presented

by Captain W. P. Grant to the President of the Branch, Walter Tuck. The newly-chartered Branch held the first Poppy Day that November. Between 1932 and 1957, the Legion had met primarily in the Armoury building. But on Kemptville’s 100th anniversary, a new building was opened on July 6, 1957. The date was itself an anniversary of D-Day, July 6, 1944.

Leisure and recreation Over the past two centuries, the people of Oxford knew how to relax and unwind in the face of often hard and comfortless lives. Sports and leisure activities were important to them, and gathering together in what were called Fraternal and Benevolent Societies, forerunners of the service clubs of today, were a vital element in creating community spirit. The list of those societies is lengthy, and includes various forms of Masons, the Orange Order, the Macabees, Ancient Order of Foresters, and the Oddfellows. Social clubs also proliferated: the Horticultural Society began in 1899; there were branches of the Women’s Institute in Kemptville, Oxford Mills, and Bishop’s Mills; the Women’s Christian Temperance Union first organised in Oxford around 1890, and so many other organisations catered to the social needs of the community.

Hockey, marching bands, bowling, tennis, and other more physical activ-

ities were, as now, extremely popular, and Riverside Park has been a traditional location for outdoor fun.

The land that is now Riverside Park was originally part of a 200-acre parcel granted to Ensign Elijah Bottom for his services to the Crown during the American War of Independence. When the Village of Kemptville separated from Oxford-on-Rideau Township in 1857, Bottom quickly moved to have his property remain outside the Village, which meant that the parkland was never settled and remained a green space just outside the village limits until the Kemptville Agricultural Society was founded and leased part of the property between the river and the village in 1887. The Society was allowed to erect stables and other buildings for its activities, as well as a race track. Riverside Park, as it became known, became the venue for Dominion Day events, the annual Kemptville Fair every June, and sporting events of all kinds. In 1902, the Kemptville Council bought the Park and a grandstand, accommodating 500 people, was built.

Trap racing was extremely popular and the regional schools, agricultural societies, and social organisations used it for their activities. Dominion Day

celebrations were centred on the Park, and all co-operated in running Fairs and Parades and Band Concerts there. The Park continued to be developed, with a covered ice rink and landscaping added to the facilities. In 1921, a Tennis and Bowling Club was organised in Kemptville, and new tennis courts and a bowling green were laid out in the Park.

In June, 1931, a new running track was laid out in the Park, as well as other improvements. The old stables and sheds were replaced by new stables and a kitchen, and a judge’s stand was built near the main grandstand, which was extended. A softball park was laid out in the mid-1950's, opening up another activity in the Park. Ever since, leagues have played in the Park from all over North Grenville and even further afield.

The Rotary Club provided play structures, and the swimming pool was a great addition to the facilities provided for the community.

Riverside Park has now been at the centre of public celebrations in North Grenville for more than a century. Dominion Days, Canada Days, Kemptville Fairs, tournaments, concerts, fireworks and races: Riverside Park has seen them all.

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The old Ice Hockey and Skating Rink in Riverside Park was built in 1927, and residents enjoyed free skating and exciting hockey games there until the current Curling Club was opened in 1968 as the Kemptville and District Community Centre.

The Empress Theatre There was a moving picture house on this site before 1921, opened by the Bowen family, and later carried on

by Paul Bedell, who went bankrupt.

It was run then by Richmond Theatre Ltd. until 1929, when it finally closed and the building was turned into law offices. But, in 1949, Vincent Kelly, from Ottawa, bought the premises and reopened a movie theatre there.

The Empress Theatre provided movies to the people of North Grenville until Christmas, 1959, when it finally closed for lack of business.

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The theatre was a great social asset in the village, showing all the movies, serials, and short newsreels of the day.

It brought people into the downtown in the evenings, and, after the movies, people could walk around the corner to the malt shops that once were part of Prescott Street. But television and easy travel to Ottawa took away the business for the local theatre, and so it was lost

to the community.

The building was bought by Ralph Raina, who renovated it into a storage space and later a store. In 1967, Raina sold the site to the Crown and the Empress was finally demolished to make way for the present Post Office building, which replaced the one at the corner of Prescott Street in 1970.

The two Post Offices stood side by side for a short time in 1970.

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The Rideau bridge After the opening of the Rideau Canal, Thomas Beckett began operating a ferry across the river to allow people and goods to move from one side to the other. By 1835, he had opened a hotel and fueling station for steamboats on the river, and a road had been opened from Kemptville to Beckett’s Landing, as the site came to be called. Traffic increased, and in 1860 a new swing bridge replaced the ferry at the Landing, which now became Beckett’s Bridge.

This bridge served all the traffic moving between Ottawa and Prescott, and was a vital link in the King’s Highway joining the Capital with the Toronto-Montreal Road, now Highway 2.

In 1936, concerns were raised about the state of the swing bridge, and it was decided to replace it with a new fixed bridge further east of Beckett’s Bridge.

This would eliminate some dangerous bends on the highway which had been the cause of numerous accidents over the years. The new wide-spanned and modern bridge was built over a wider section of the Rideau in 1937, using two islands in the river to provide bases for supports. Beckett’s Bridge was demolished after more than seventy years of service and Beckett’s Landing reverted to being a quiet spot on the river, bypassed by the rush of life.

The new bridge over the Rideau was itself replaced in 1991 with the current structure. The new bridge was built just a few feet east of the old one, and the grass-covered ramps leading on to the old bridge can still be seen today.

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Beckett’s Landing around 1835 [Thomas Burrowes fonds, Archives of Ontario]

Beckett’s Bridge, the old swing bridge around 1930

Building the new bridge, 1937

The finished bridge spans the Rideau The remnants of Beckett’s Bridge today

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Volunteer heroes: the Fire Service North Grenville has a long and proud tradition of volunteer firefighters, one that has continued now for more than 150 years. It began with a notice in the newspaper of the day, The Kemptville Progressionist, on July 18, 1855, inviting interested parties to a meeting at Lyman Clothier’s hotel to hear a report of a committee which had been tasked with buying a fire engine for the village. A company of volunteers was established, including many of the leading businessmen of the place, and an engine was acquired with which to fight future fires. It was a rather primitive piece of machinery, perhaps, with water pumped by hand, and served the fire fighters until 1881.

But it was shown to be inadequate for a growing community when most of Prescott Street was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1872. The fire engine was described as: “a rather ancient and very small hand-pump made by Perry, of Montreal, good of its kind, but better suited to wash windows or disperse a disorderly crowd than to fight fire.”

The Village Council of Kemptville had taken over responsibility for the fire service soon after it separated from Oxford-on-Rideau Township in 1857, but still relied on local residents to volunteer for the work. In 1881, Council reorganised the fire department and a new steam engine was bought, allowing the members to boast that, between 1890 and 1900, all fires had been confined to the building in which they started, without spreading as the disastrous 1872 fire had.

The Kemptville firefighters had attended fires outside the village on a number of occasions, including at Oxford Mills and Bedell, so the entire township benefitted from the presence

of the Kemptville volunteers. Another incident that reflected well on the volunteers took place when “a representative of the Underwriters Association gave an alarm, quite unknown to the officers, and in a short space of 9½ minutes the brigade was in working order and a stream of water running. This materially reduced the rate of insurance”.

The new Town Hall on Water Street, built in 1875, contained the fire station, and new machinery and organisation brought a greater efficiency and effectiveness to the fire service. And over the years, the volunteer heroes of the service have continued to protect and serve the people of their community.

Their responsibilities have grown too, and it seems that the days of a volunteer fire department may be coming to a close. But the men (and they were all men) who manned the pumps and fought the fires for the past 150 years will be remembered and honoured regardless of what comes next.

This photograph was taken in 1957 on Water Street opposite the Fire Station. Those pictured are: Gord Windsor, Doug Somerville, Lorne Stewart, Gar Van Allen (in truck) Clarence Sissons, Herm Crowder.

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Above: Volunteer firefighters at the Town Hall, c. 1920. This 1914 model engine was used to pull the steamer and take hoses and ladders to the fires until 1941. Arthur Eager was an International dealer at the time and took the 1914 truck to his farm and for several years it was used as a truck in the field to haul crops. Around 1966, the volunteers received permission from Eager to use the 1914 truck in parades. In 1976, the volunteers purchased the truck from the Eagers and it is a regular participant in parades through the year.

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Anglican missions in 1839

An early image of the original Anglican Church mentioned by Patton in his report. It is of very poor quality, but remains the only photo we have of the building.

In November, 1839, an Anglican travelling missionary named Morris toured the northern townships of Upper Canada and reported to the Bishop of Quebec on what he found. The places he visited were mostly the townships between the Rideau and the Ottawa Rivers, but included Oxford, South Gower, Wolford and Marlborough. His report included the following status report by Henry Patton (also spelled Patten in the records), resident minister in Kemptville and Secretary of the Clerical Association in Upper Canada (spelling is as in the original): Rectory of Kemptville, Rev. H. Patten.

Mr. P. reports. "The Townships in which I officiate, either regularly, or occasionally, are Oxford, Marlborough, Wolford, North and South Gower, and comprise

a tract of country nearly forty miles long, and varying in breadth from ten to twenty miles, with an aggregate scattered population of 5000 Souls. In the five Townships I have seven preaching stations, and to do Justice to the people I ought to have twice as many more, but it is morally impossible to extend my labour. The two extreme Stations at which I preach are distant thirty six miles.

The Township of Oxford contains about two thousand Inhabitants, of whom nearly one third I believe belong to my charge; In this township is situated the Village of Kemptville, where I reside; here we have a neat Church, with a Bell, and a Burial ground well enclosed. This Township alone would amply employ the best efforts of one Clergyman, as there ought to be divine service performed in three different places within its limits.

Marlbrough. Here is a handsome frame Church, and a Burial ground well enclosed. The Township contains about eight hundred Inhabitants, half of them, or more, belonging to the Church, only a part of this Township is under my care, the rest being attached to Richmond on account of its Proximity.

In Wolford is situated the Village of Merrickville, where the people, by great and praiseworthy exertions, have succeeded in erecting a handsome stone Church. This Township contains about fourteen hundred Inhabitants.

Besides the congregation in, and about Merrickville, there is a Station for Divine Service seven or eight miles beyond the Village. Here is great and pressing need for the Services of a resident Clergyman. Merrickville is sixteen miles from my residence, I have never been able to afford it service more than once a fortnight, and that always in the evening.—During the past Winter, the Rev. W. Wait, has officiated in a very zealous and efficient manner at this place, and the neighbouring Station, once in four weeks.

South Gower. The Church families

here are but few in number, but North Gower contains between five and six hundred Inhabitants, a large proportion of whom attach themselves to my Cure—and I am fully persuaded a very large congregation might be formed here, if a Clergyman could attend them every sunday. At present Mr. Wait visits them once in four weeks on Sunday, and his services have been highly appreciated. His attendance however will end in May. These five Townships then are partially supplied—it is however indeed but partially, and in a degree utterly inadequate to the wants—for where the sphere of labour is so extensive, occasional visits which cannot be followed up by pastoral intercourse, and pastoral supervision, will do little more than keep together the zealous members of the Church—and cannot be expected to retain much influence over the young and the thoughtless.

Mr. Patten desires especially to remark for your Lordship's Information, "that the expectation of having a Clergyman stationed among them at Merrickville, rendered the people much more zealous in erecting their Church, and a desire of seeing their Spiritual wants more effectually supplied, as well as relieving myself from a part of a laborious charge far too extensive for my strength, makes me equally anxious to see a Clergyman stationed there."

The editor who published this material noted: “I may add here that I am informed by the Bishop, the roads, and modes of communication, in the districts are worse than in almost any other part of Canada, which makes the Duties of the Travelling Missionary more necessary, rendering it impossible for the fixed Clergy to devote the time required for visiting the remote and scattered Settlers, with justice to their own flocks.”

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Holy Cross parish 1846 An important event took place in Kemptville in February, 1846. The local Catholics of the surrounding townships had their own church building, opened and blessed by Bishop Patrick Phelan, titular Bishop of Carrhae and coadjutor of Kingston. An entry in the Parish Register records: “On the twenty fourth day of February one thousand eight hundred and forty six, We the undersigned Bishop have blessed with due solemnity the new church at Kemptville, and dedicated under the name of...the Exaltation of Holy Cross.”

But the Bishop may have been wrong to call it a new church, as it was only an extended building that had been in use since around 1834. The older church building has been added to, with 70 feet being added to its length. The rectory in the photograph here was built in 1860, and the current church building was erected between 1887 and 1889.

The 1846 visit must have been one of the first visits by the Bishop in quite some time, as it is recorded that: “On the above day and date the Right Rev’d Patrick Phelan, Bishop of Carrhae & Coadjutor of the Diocese of Kingston has visited the Mission of Kemptville and given the Sacrament of Confirmation to the following persons”. The list of names shows that 89 people were confirmed that day, all from the Kemptville and surrounding area, while another 88 individuals from Merrickville were also involved in the ceremony. The register goes on to note that they were “all teetotallers”.

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The first Holy Cross Church and Rectory, 1860's

The parish covered a wide area, and, in June of 1848, another new church was blessed by the same Bishop Patrick Phelan, this time in Merrickville. Back in Kemptville, Bishop Phelan blessed the burial ground of the Mission of Kemptville on October 24, 1853, assisted by the parish priest, Daniel Farrelly, and Peter O’Connell, the Bishop’s Secretary.

The previous day, he had blessed the crosses and pictures of the Stations of the Cross “and erected the same in the aforesaid Church with all the privileges, Indulgences and spiritual blessings and favours usually granted by the Sovereign Pontiff to the faithful who piously and devoutly perform the exercises of the Stations of the Cross”.

The Registers are an historical record of the life of the Holy Cross parishioners.

Baptisms, weddings, deaths, all are listed between 1846 and 1874. The parish priest would also make more secular entries, usually at the end of each year, including items of world news, such as “Prince Albert died this winter”, or “The Italian Question yet unsettled, not much done there all summer”[1861].

But most of the entries provide us with

the names of parents, children, sponsors of baptisms, etc., even the text of agreements by Protestants wishing to marry Catholics, in which they promise to raise the children as Catholic without hindrance.

Many of the names are Irish or French, and many are still familiar to residents of North Grenville, such as Arcand, Bishop, Brennan, Clothier, Tobin, Dolan, Flannigan and McGahey.

The church in 2007 before the front porch was added

The Presbyterian Church North Grenville was an almost empty place when Robert Boyd first travelled through the bush from Prescott in 1821.

Boyd was from Northern Ireland, where the Presbyterians were closely linked to the church in Scotland, where their ministers received their training. A graduate of Glasgow University, Boyd held a Doctorate in Divinity, and was to eventually become the Moderator of the Free Presbyterian Church in Canada in 1851.

But in the early 1820's, he trudged on foot through his mission field, which stretched from Maitland to Cornwall, and as far north as the Rideau River. He gathered adherents into congregations in Pelton’s Corners, and by 1826 had already built a church there, in what is today the South Gower Cemetery, and the church served that area, as well as Oxford and Mountain.

In 1834, Boyd’s work in the area was taken over by Joseph Anderson, another Irishman, another graduate of Glasgow University, this time with an M.A. In that same year, the Presbyterians had grown to a point where they were ready to build another church, this time in Oxford Township, which was slowly growing in population with the opening of the Rideau Canal. Trustees of the church bought a half acre of land on the Bedell Road, at the corner with Dennison Road, where they built a log church, with a cemetery. The work seemed to be progressing well when a division occurred, in large part as a result of the links to the church in Scotland. In 1844, the Presbyterians there had divided on

St. Pauls Presbyterian Kemptville, 1905 a number of issues, one of which was regarding the freedom of congregations to choose their own ministers. The breakaway group became known as the Free Church, and its supporters raised the same issues in Canada the following year.

Joseph Anderson held to the Auld Kirk, as it was called, but much of his congregation split away, along with six of the elders of the church in South Gower. The Free Church group took over both the Pelton’s Corners and Bedell Road buildings for their own use, with

William McDowell as their minister. Anderson moved his services to the school house in Perkins Mills, on Clothier Street. A new white frame church was built in Oxford Mills to replace the Bedell Road building. It stood on the same site as the current building, and was called the Central Presbyterian Church.

Anderson and McDowell continued to minister to their two groups for a number of years, and it was not until 1875 that the various strands of Presbyterianism reunited as the Presbyterian Church in Canada.

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A new Presbyterian Church was built in East Oxford in 1902, replacing a much older frame building, and it remained in service until it, to, was closed due to declining numbers, in 1972. The building was then repurposed as a private residence.

In the years after unification, there was a great deal of expansion enjoyed by the church. The church in Kemptville was furnished and a new building was planned for Oxford Mills. In 1882, the old frame church was removed, and the cornerstone laid for the present one, a solid and permanent home, it was hoped, for the Presbyterians of the area.

The new church was opened officially on May 20, 1883 by George Munro Grant, Principal of Queen’s University in Kingston, a Presbyterian foundation originally. He was named Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Canada a few years later, in 1889.

When the Union Cemetery was opened in Oxford Mills in 1883, the remains from the Bedell Road cemetery were moved to the new location, as well as some of those that had been buried in the churchyard of the original white frame church in Oxford Mills.

The Voice of North Grenville

Past, present, or future, it’s good to keep up with the Times.

613-215-0735 58

The Salvation Army invades On Saturday, January 14, 1888, Salvation Army Adjutant Marshall Joshua Spooner and three young men left Ottawa to begin a planned campaign in Kemptville that was to launch a new congregation, or “corps”, of the Army.

They had arranged with the Village Council to hire the Town Hall for a few days, but when they got off the train from Ottawa, they found that the local Methodist congregation had already taken over the Town Hall, and the Army was without a venue for its crusade.

The fact that the newly-arrived Salvation Army had nowhere to meet, nor to lay their heads gave them something in common with Jesus, so they decided to follow his example further, as Spooner remarked: “So we had to follow our leader. Not to be beat, we made friends with the publicans and leased a large billiard room for one year”. In fact, it was an old store that had once been a billiard hall, which they rented from a local hotel-keeper. Spooner did not waste any more time. That very evening, the Army started the work in Kemptville.

Spooner recorded the event briefly: “It was then about five o’clock, so we threw off our coats and went to work, and took the counters out, got a stove up, and got some lumber and fixed up some seats; borrowed some lamps, and out we go for a march, had an open air.

The whole town was astir; the crowd followed us to the hall and crowded the building. We had a good time, consider-

ing, of course, they had never seen the Army before”.

A large group of Army members arrived from Brockville that night, and remained in Kemptville for the next couple of days, as more open air meetings were held on Sunday morning, afternoon and evening. Each meeting retired to the Hall, and so great were the crowds that the landlord, the hotel-keeper, ended up acting as doorman (or bouncer). On the following Monday, the Army acquired lumber from Ambrose Clothier’s mill with which they made extra seats and a platform to hold about twenty Soldiers.

The seats were supported by soap boxes. Spooner noticed that a number of Methodists were at the Sunday evening meeting.

By Wednesday morning, the work had been properly launched, and Spooner and the men from Ottawa and Brockville left Kemptville in the willing hands of Captain Grace McKenna and Lieutenant Hannah McMullen. The meetings would continue through the years, and the “outpost” of Oxford Mills would be added to the work within a few weeks of the Army’s arrival in Kemptville. The fruit of those first meetings would be seen too, as the years passed. One young man who attended the very first meeting, Harry Banks, long years later in 1933, remembered his first sight of these newcomers: “How well do I remember the coming of the Salvation Army to “open fire” on the hosts of sin in old Kemptville.

I stood in front of Blackburn’s general store that winter’s day the 14th of January, 1888, and saw “the Army advancing”up Asa Street and past my home. I certainly was one interested boy at that first open air meeting on Clothier Street just between Bedingfield’s harness shop and Hagan’s tin shop.” [Now a parking lot facing Prescott Street] Harry would drop by after school and help build a permanent home for the Army Corps on Water Street across the road from the Town Hall, later used

as the Sears store. Banks would become an officer of the Army and for the rest of his more than 100 years would work at preaching the Gospel in Canada and the United States. And to the end of his days, he loved telling people about the winter day in 1888 when the first strange and energetic people in uniform came marching through Kemptville with their loud music and joyful noise.

Left: Mrs. Burley and Band in the Army HQ on Water Street.

Right: The same building today

Those disreputable Methodists

In the earliest days of Upper Canada, it was assumed by the Crown that the Anglican Church would be the Established Church of the Province.

After all, were Catholics or Methodists to be trusted to be loyal? The Methodists, in particular, were objects of grave suspicion by the authorities, largely because they were, at that time, mostly American-born. It was suspected, probably with good reason, that they brought with them to Upper Canada many of the more democratic ideas of government that were so dangerous to

the leaders of society.

In addition, Methodist preachers were hard to pin down: they were itinerants, moving on horseback from one community to another, their entire belongings packed into their saddlebags. They were called Circuit Riders, because they literally rode around a circuit of congregations. The first Methodist preacher for Kemptville had a circuit that included Prescott, Cardinal, Maitland, North Augusta, Bishop’s Mills, Heckston, South Mountain, Spencerville and Oxford Mills. In 1840, this circuit was reduced to include only the hamlets of Oxford and South Gower Townships, along with South Mountain.

In November, 1830, Asa Clothier sold lots 12 and 13 on the south side of Clothier Street, to the Trustees of the Methodist Church for £17.10.00.

The Methodist congregation had been meeting in various homes before then, but in 1831 they began to build the first church on the site, a 30x40 foot frame building. Opened officially around July 1, 1832, it took another four years to equip the place with a pulpit and to replace the plain benches with pews.

In the 1840's, a parsonage was built on VanBuren Street and an assistant for the preacher was appointed. It was not until 1884 that Kemptville was considered a large enough settlement to employ a dedicated minister.

A Methodist Church was opened in Heckston in the 1840's, and Oxford Mills

and Acton’s Corners also had congregations from that time. The Methodist Church in Oxford Mills is the third one on that site: the first one, built in 1858, was replaced in 1881. This building had to be demolished because of structural issues (part of it fell down) and the current church was erected in 1897.

In Kemptville, as the congregation, and the village grew, it was decided to relocate the church to Prescott Street.

Early in 1869, a contract was let to Erastus Fenton to build a brick church at the corner of Prescott and South Victoria Street, now Reuben Street. The new building was dedicated on March 4, 1873 and extended to accommodate a larger congregation in 1899.

In 1925, many of the Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregationalist congregations in Canada united as the United Church of Canada. In Heckston, this meant one building was made redundant, and the older Methodist Church was later demolished. The church in Acton’s Corners was demolished in 1964.

The cemetery that was attached to the old church in Kemptville continued to be used throughout the nineteenth century. As it became more difficult to maintain the site, the headstones were removed and the obelisk which stands there today was erected, with a small selection of headstones surrounding it, in memory of those early Methodist residents of Kemptville.

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Town and gown; Kemptville College Kemptville College was established as the Kemptville Agricultural School in 1917, with an investment by the Ontario Government of $50,000. The School’s existence in Kemptville owed much to the influence of a local resident with a position within that government.

On September 21, 1916, the Kemptville Agricultural Society was holding its Annual Fair. The guest of honour was the Honourable G. Howard Ferguson, Ontario’s Minister of Lands, Forest and Mines and local boy made good.

Stealing the thunder of the Minister for Agriculture, whose announcement it should have been, Ferguson revealed that the Ontario Government would be establishing “a two-year course in Agriculture and Domestic Science in the Village of Kemptville”. As an ex-Reeve of the Village, and coming from a family with deep roots in the community, it is, perhaps, only fair that Ferguson got to break the good news.

But it would take some time to get the courses operating. First of all, land had to be found, and two farms were bought in 1916 from Thomas Murphy and Alex Armstrong, one on either side of the Ottawa-Prescott Highway (now CR 44) in Concession 4 of Oxford-on-Rideau Township. Over the years, the College would purchase other parcels of land.

The house on the Murphy farm had been built by an earlier owner, Thomas McCargar, in the 1840’s and was completely renovated in 1918 to house the new President of the Kemptville College, W. J. Bell, and his family. Over the years, 60

The Administration Building in 1925 various alterations were made to the building, and it still survives today.

It was not until 1919 that classes officially began at the College, then known as the Kemptville Agricultural School, when short courses were offered in Farm Power, Agriculture and Domestic Science. And it was only in February, 1921 that the official opening of the school took place at a special ceremony attended by the Ontario Deputy Minister of Agriculture, the Hon. Bert W. Roadhouse, who officially declared the campus open. There were around 1,000 people present to mark the occasion, as well as the Principal, William James Bell, and some of the teaching staff, E.K. Hampson, A.J. Logsdail, P.M. Dewan, W.J. Johnston and D. M. Morrison. And G. Howard Ferguson was there, of course, to remind everyone who was to get the credit for bringing the school to the community. Within two years, Ferguson was to become Premier of the province.

It seems the students had already established traditional school songs and yells, and the relationship between the College and the Village of Kemptville, the old Town and Gown, was celebrated in a song sung at the opening in 1921.

Sung to the tune of “Vive La Compagnie”, some of the verses expressed a tongue-in-cheek attitude to Kemptville.

Oh, here’s to the town, it’s been having a nap.

When we get going ‘twill be put on the map.

The recent introduction of electric street lighting also got a mention: Here’s to the lights that we witnessed last Fall, Oft times they were dim, more times not at all.

The Chinese laundry which operated beside the Prescott Street bridge got a mention too. The lyrics would not be considered acceptable these days. The barbers in town were not treated well either.

A boost to the barbers we’ll give in a trice.

For they tear out your hair and pile on the price.

And, of course, the students enjoyed the leisure amenities in Kemptville, such as the movie theatre on Reuben Street and the ice rink in Riverside Park.

The Movie-House here is indeed quite a treat.

They charge you the price of the place for a seat.

Here’s to the rink that they keep down in town.

Sometimes there is Ice, and sometimes you would drown.

The official opening in 1921 marked the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship between Town and Gown, and the absence of the students is still keenly felt.

The official brochure of the Opening Ceremonies for KAS, 1921

The Pavilion and Gym, early 1920’s

It’s raining rocks!

Building the Kemptville Agricultural School involved some really fascinating scenes. On September 27, 1917, this report appeared in the local paper. It was raining rocks on the people of the village.

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Explore North Grenville’s Heritage and Natural History Explore the Rideau Heritage Route - the longest section of the Rideau Canal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The section of the Rideau Heritage Route that passes through North Grenville is part of The Long Reach, the longest section of the Rideau Canal uninterrupted by locks (40 km / 25 mi). The river channel winds through the countryside and makes for an excellent location for boating and fishing.

The North Grenville trail system links together trails, roads, walkways, and waterways throughout the municipality. With so many opportunities to get around to choose from it’s easy to get out and explore year-round.

Discover Historical Walking Tours for our six unique and charming hamlets. Don’t miss Old Town Kemptville for its unique architecture and great choices for shopping and dining.

Discover North Grenville’s Walking Tours

www.ExploreNorthGrenville.ca 62

Kemptville District Hospital Kemptville District Hospital has celebrated over 60 years of growth and service. It was in 1959 that construction began on the new facility, supported by an enormous outpouring of support, financial as well as moral, by the surrounding communities. This was not just a hospital for Kemptville, but for Oxford-on-Rideau, Merrickville, Wolford, South Gower, Mountain and Osgoode also.

KDH has been a valued and vital part of North Grenville since 1960, when it was officially opened on June 29 of that

year. In 1955, a provisional charter for a hospital was granted by the Department of Health, and an organising committee was formed, but lack of financial support meant that effort, too, failed to go forward.

Finally, in 1958, when the Winchester Hospital could no longer cope with the numbers using that facility, a public meeting was called in Kemptville, attended by more than 400 residents from around the region. It was decided to raise funds for a 32-bed hospital, and the immense sum of almost $200,000 had to be raised, in addition to the funds donated by government and charitable institutions. In September, 1958, six acres of land were bought on Concession Road in Kemptville, and construction work began in April, 1959.

But costs were rising, as well as the walls. An extra $150,000 was needed, so fund raising continued; but by February, 1960, all the money raised had been spent, and the campaign was actually

in debt by $25,000! But the building continued, along with the fund raising, and the doors were officially opened on June 29, 1960 by the Ontario Minister of Health and Marjorie Hawkins, Administrator of the new hospital.

In 1964, the hospital achieved accredited status from the Canadian Council of Hospital Accreditation, and it has not looked back since. Growth continued in the mid-1960's, with another twenty beds added, allowing for improved services in Radiology, Physiotherapy and Emergency services.

Then, in 1985, a long-term master plan for development was drawn up which led to further expansion, including the building of the Health Unit building. The entire community of North Grenville, as well as many surrounding communities, has benefited greatly from the vision and drive of those residents back in past decades who worked hard, raised funds, and pushed through the concept of a modern, professional medical facility to

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benefit their neighbours.

After years of planning and fundraising by a determined group of local volunteers, what was a small rural hospital has evolved into an integrated health services organization, focusing on building healthier communities.

Accredited with Exemplary Standing, it provides primary-care management services, acute-care hospital services and advanced orthopedic care.

The original KDH was a true community achievement.

The Law Office of

Connie Lamble 222 Prescott Street, Kemptville www.lamble.ca connie@lamble.ca 613.258.0038

This detail from a map of Kemptville in 1900 shows Prescott Street from Water Street south almost to Mary Street. Some buildings shown here still stand, including the Union Bank building at the corner of Water Street, now Mr. Mozarella’s Pizza, and the Salvation Army building on Water Street, seen in a photograph on page 59. At the south end of the map can be seen the two buildings at 220 and 222 Prescott Street, built around 1897 and still in use as offices today. The Drug Store on the corner of Asa Street is in operation as MM Books and the Richardson Hair Design salon.

At some later date, someone has crossed out some of the buildings on Asa Street, which were destroyed by fire in 1910. The fire started behind the McPherson House Hotel, seen at the corner of Asa Street.

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Kemptville train station Although the first railway reached Kemptville in 1854, no station was built in the village at the time, apparently because the local council was not prepared to pay the premium the Bytown & Prescott Railway Company wanted to provide one. Instead, a station was built at Bedell, or Kemptville Junction.

This provided business opportunities for people who ran a taxi service between Bedell and the hotels in Kemptville. The Canadian Pacific Railway bought out the older company and opened a station on Wellington Street in Kemptville in the early 1880's. It remained in service until 1969, when the CPR ceased using it, and in 1975 it was demolished. Attempts to have the building saved were unsuccessful, with the local Council unwilling to buy it for $1 and transfer it to a local community organisation. Only Councillors Winston Kinnaird and Garnet Crawford voted to buy the building and move it to Riverside Park. It was taken down even as talks on its future continued.

A good view of the station in its prime.

After it closed in 1969 65

In 1970, a special excursion for railway enthusiasts used the station Bedell Station, 1955

The right people The right products The right services

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Crysler 613-987-524 3 877-376-3378

www.harvex.com The site of the station in 2014, since then the tracks have been removed and the station platform (on left) flattened.

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Addison 613-924-2632

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Proudly Serving the Community Since 1963 68

301 Rideau Street, Kemptville

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