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Indigenous Peoples in Canada | The Canadian Encyclopedia
I am on this quest to find as many locations the Natives had in Ramsay and Almonte. Here is another story from the Templeton family:
Natives Numerous — The Ottawa Citizen 1931
When the Templetons arrived in Ramsay there were numerous Natives still about. Mrs. Ledgerwood tells of a small band which used to winter in Baird’s Bush on the 9th line of Ramsay near the Templeton home. This band was in charge of an old chief who had the English name of Joe Mitchell. In the summer the Mitchell band used to travel the country as far east as Cornwall, making baskets etc., and selling them. The Natives never Interfered in any way with the new white settlers. Baird’s bush still stands, but there are no Natives any more.
Big Joe Mitchell and Joe Baye were among the better known of the last local Natives.- As the Natives were crowded out from the land on the north side of the Mississippi in the 1820’s, they gradually retreated northward and westward. Their Mississauga descendants are on reserved lands in the Kawartha Lakes area now. A few chose to stay near the new settlements in Lanark County, in areas not suitable for farming. In the 1890’s those still living at points near Carleton Place included groups at McIIquham’s Bridge and at the Floating Bridge.
From Howard Morton Brown
In the first year only about sixteen settlers got established as far north as the Mississippi or into any part of Beckwith Township.
The Natives dispossessed here were Mississaugas who were a subtribe of the large nation of Ojibways. They had moved in from farther northwest after the Iroquois raids ended. They were a tribe which made an unusually wide use of wild plants for food, harvesting and storing large quantities of wild rice for the winter. They knew how to make maple sugar and to prepare dried berries and fruits for winter use. As hunters and fishermen they moved their camps about, by canoe in summer and by snowshoe and toboggan in winter. Their main efforts in this area were directed to moose in the winter, beaver small game and fish including suckers, pickerel and pike, in the spring and summer, while after the fall rice harvest they speared the larger fish spawning along the shores of some of the lakes, lake trout, whitefish and sturgeon. The Indian rights to this district were surrendered in a treaty made with the Mississaugas in 1819 at Kingston.
As the Natives were crowded out from the land on the north side of the Mississippi in the 1820’s, they gradually retreated northward and westward. Their Mississauga descendants are on reserved lands in the Kawartha Lakes area now. A few chose to stay near the new settlements in Lanark County, in areas not suitable for farming. In the 1890’s those still living at points near Carleton Place included groups at McIIquham’s Bridge and at the Floating Bridge. Big Joe Mitchell and Joe Baye were among the better known of the last local Natives.
John Cram left us the first settlers’ story of the Naives and the river here.
He was one of the nearest settlers to the river in this immediate vicinity. He came with the emigration in 1818 of about 300 persons from Perthshire to Beckwith Township, and his land included the site of the United Cemeteries. He left a story of finding the river by hearing the sound of a waterfall on a still day when he and a neighbor were clearing land together. They agreed on an exploring expedition. The next day, going along old Indian trails and new surveyors’ line they followed the sound until they reached the head of the falls, first viewing it from the present site of the Carleton Place Town Hall. On arriving according to his story as last told by him over 75 years ago, they saw a tall Indian woman leave the shore and plunge across in the shallow water to the north side, where there was an Indian camp. At that time and until the first dams were built, a long rapids extended above the falls here. At the place between the present Ritchie mill and the powerhouse there still was a rocky tree-covered island less than a hundred years ago, as well as a falls.
The next year the Indian campground became part of the farmland grants of Edmond Morphy and his family, newly arrived from Littleton in Tipperary
March 21,1890 — BEWARE VERY SENSITIVE TEXT Almonte Gazette
When the driver of No. 3 train from the east was examining his engine at Mattawa last Wednesday night he discovered the lower extremities of a man sticking to it. Further investigation revealed the fact that the remains were those of a native named Leduc, who had been run over a few miles from Mattawa by a freight train running ahead of the passenger. His remains were spread all along the track, and considerable difficulty was experienced in finding the head to identify the corpse. An inquest was held in Mattawa next day, and the jury returned a verdict of accidentally killed.
Looking for Information on the Native Fort Farm of Fred Sadler of Almonte
The Sadler Farm on Highway 44– Nancy Anderson
Did We Find Henry Lang’s Barn?
What Do You Know About Walpole Island?
Walking Without Knowing the Amplifying Truth
Kamloops Industrial School– “A New Idea in Residential Schools” After the Fire 1925
Another Segment in the Short Life of Jessie Comrie– Residential Schools –1919
- Where Was Meyers Cave?
- Looking for Information on the Native Fort Farm of Fred Sadler of Almonte
- The Adventurous History of the Mississippi – Linda’s Mailbag
- Beckwith Child Stolen by Natives
- The Natives of Carleton Place — Violins and Deer
- They Died From Dirty Clothing — The Whiteduck Family
- From Carleton Place to Fish Creek –North West Rebellion
Almonte and Ramsay Pioneers – Rafted Down to Their Locations
Mill of Kintail Museum. Known originally as Woodside Mills, this imposing stone structure was built by John Baird in the 130ss as a grist mill powered by a series of dams on the Indian River. Abandoned by the Bairds in the 1860s, it was purchased by Robert Tait McKenzie in 1930 and transformed into a summer home and studio. In 1952 Major and Mrs Leys purchased the mill and founded the museum as a memorial to Robert Tait McKenzie. In 1972 the property was purchased by the Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority. CLICK
Baird Trail
Dubbed one of the most beautiful trails around, this set of three loops through forests, featuring boardwalks over a sedge wetland, offers fantastic ecological values and giant maple and beech trees coupled with evidence of pioneer farming and red pine plantations. Parking, picnic tables and interpretive signs on site. Located at 1024 Herron Mills Rd., Lanark Highlands. 613-267-4200, ext. 3170. View or print the Baird Trail Map.
NINTH LINE RAMSAY
Also along the ninth line of Ramsay, on the cast side, settled David Leckie and William Lindsay. On the west side were James Rae from Ireland and John Toshack Sr. In 1825, James Rae was joined by a brother, Hugh W., who was a cobbler. Later he went to Western Ontario, returning to Almonte after a time and opening a shoe store and general shopping mart Across the Mississippi River from the Raes was William McEwen on the northeast half of lot 25, a 100 acres later the village of Rosebank. Opposite the present Clayton county road, on the ninth line, settled William Lindsay from Wisha, Lanarkshire, with his wife and family. Lindsays were about the only Lowland Clan to form themselves into a society. William, Jr., born in 1821, was one of the early school teachers in Ramsay. John, a stone mason, settled with his wife, Elizabeth Leitch, in the township of Pakenham. Along the ninth line between Shipman’s Mills and Appletree Falls located the Matthew McFarlanes, Sr. and Jr., and Thomas Patterson;
“The Gatehouse” Baird’s Store—Township of Ramsay Heritage Driving Tour #1 click
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