Some nights I go to bed and worry about the Burnt Lands. Not much I can do personally, but I can keep people aware. It really needs to be protected better, and respected.
Burnt Lands Road is named for a fire that swept through the area more than a century ago. The road is on an alvar, a flat landscape also known as a limestone pavement, where soil is thin or non-existent. It is part of a rare and fragile ecosystem. Ottawa Gatineau Geo- heritage calls it “an outstanding example of this globally significant habitat.” The cracked and fractured limestone is dotted with stands of cedar, spruce, balsam fir and poplars. It supports some 82 breeding bird species, 48 butterfly species and 98 owlet moths and is home to a globally rare orchid called the ram’s head lady’s slipper. Some of the alvar is on private land. About 610 hectares of it has been designated an Area of Natural and Scientific Interest by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.
In 1986 Pat Taylorosa had a passion for the history and shapes of rocks returned to university to complete a study on the Burnt Lands of Almonte, an area famous for it’s great fire of 1870 and it’s many rare and unusual species of plants. Mrs Taylor, the mother of two young children, has a love o f geology that knows no bounds. Recently, she sat in her living room with the floor covered in geological maps and books, explaining the interesting facets of Almonte’s Burnt Lands. “The Great Fire ” of 1870 started at Pitch Hill, a few miles from Almonte and swept along throughout Huntley and March townships, consuming a great part of Carleton county.
Mr. Currie told how the combination of wind and fire, when it hit a tamarack swamp at Stittsville, threw whole trees into the air, with ashes and living flames hurled far and wide. read- CLICK HERE
The line cedar log fences for which the area was noted, acted as conductors. According to a report in an Ottawa paper of the day “ it was said that no horse could gallop as fast as those flames spread along the fences.” The air was on fire, presumably from combustible gasses gathered during the sweltering heat of the preceding weeks.
According to the information, people hid anywhere they could to escape the ravages of the flames. Hundreds spent the night submerged in the river at Bells Corners, which was the focus of the fire. It was said that people could read by the light 50 miles away, and the smoke was seen in upper New York state. About a dozen human lives were lost and a great deal of livestock.
After the fire The Almonte Gazette reported that a cow could be bought for four dollars, because there was not a trace of feed or grazing space left. Fires had been prevalent all that summer, and The Gazette didn’t report this one until a week later when it listed names of people and the losses they had suffered. The area was ripe for fire because of its topography; a thin layer of soil overlying limestone “ pavement” at the highest point on the landscape. This resulted in excellent drainage which left the plateau bone dry as the summer passed, it was August at the time of the fire, and the bush was like tinder. It was a natural for such a great fire.
Today, little has changed in the Burnt Lands area anymore, as farming is not possible with the thin layer of soil, but the trees still grow —-notably white pine, white cedar and white spruce. The Burnt Lands, like all of this area up to the Mississippi River was under the Champlain Sea until about 12,000 years ago, and according to Mrs Taylor, this accounts for the line of gravel pits extending along the edge o f Ramsay Township. These were beaches at one time: In these areas and in similar sand deposits are being discovered whale and seal bones and seashells. By 1870, of course, the sea had receded to it’s present location. ( read- Whale Sightings in Pakenham and Smiths Falls – Holy SeaWorld! and – Whale Sightings Outside Smiths Falls– Part 2)
The Burnt Lands has long been recognized as having a unique assemblage of plant life divided among the three types of habitat on the plateau. The areas mosaic the plateau. Communities of low pasture grass, open coniferous forests and bare limestone pavement are the most noticeable.
The grassy meadows are perhaps the most interesting, according to Mrs. Taylor Richardson Philadelphia Witchgrass and dropseed which are found here are considered to be rare in the province of Ontario. In the early summer can be found the showy yellow balsam ragwort and later on the white flowers of the Uplant white aster can be spotted.
The limestone pavement habitat looks just as it sounds, with flat bare rock patches edged with mosses and miniature plants growing in the soil trapped in cracks. Here is found in spring the Early Saxifrage, which only lives for a day. Later, the tiny Rock Sandwort and attractive blue Harebell can be spotted.
Later on in the summer are many of the showy flowers called Hairy Beardtongue and the lovely blue Fringed Gentian. The open evergreen forests also have their share of rare and unusual plants with equally intriguing names. In May is the, rarely found in Canada, exotic, Ramshead Lady-slipper orchid and the showy red columbine. Pink gaywings and another orchid, the yellow lady-slipper can be found along with the hairy honey suckle and the rare Cooper’s Milkvetch which is known in Latin as “neglected star galaxy” (rough translation).
The area is a suitable habitat for small mammals and even some deer and is especially accessible for hiking.
With files from the Almonte Gazette 1985.
The Gazette didn’t report this one until a week later when it listed names of people and the losses they had suffered.
Old Dick Langford was a miser, and the pride of his life was a fine bay horse with a white spot on his nose. Old Dick was eighty years old and the horse was eight. They lived on Old Dick’s farm in the county of Carleton, six miles from the town of Carp, ten miles from Stittsville, and thirty miles from Ottawa. Many a time the shrivelled old man and the spirited bay horse had done the distance to Ottawa in less than four hours. Old Dick’s wife had left him twenty years before he got the bay horse. She had said Old Dick was a skinflint and a torturer, and she would not live in the same county with him. He chuckled and showed his solitary front tooth, and transferred his farm so that she could not claim a part of it. After his wife was gone, Old Dick tried to regain title to his farm, but the man to whom he had transferred it disappeared, so Old Dick bought the farm near Carp and settled down alone, with his bay horse with the white spot on his nose, and a few farm horses, cows, chickens, dogs, and four books.
“Old Dick’s bay horse was stolen in 1889,” says Murray, ” and the old man raised a tremendous hullabaloo. About three months later the horse was recovered in Ottawa and Old Dick was happy. In the fall of 1890 the horse was stolen again. Old Dick declared he knew the thief, and the adjoining counties were placarded with the following:
‘STOP HORSE THIEF!
‘Stolen from Richard Langford, Lot 13, Concession 8, Township of Huntley, County Carleton, on Friday night, October 3rd, 1890, A DARK BROWN HORSE; age 8; height 16 to 17 hands; weight about 14 cwt.; black points, except white spot on nose and white hind feet. May have traded since. Arrest
‘GEORGE GOODWIN,
‘alias St. George, alias Brennan; height, about 5 feet 8 or 9 inches; age, about 24; fair complexion, small sandy moustache, sandy hair, slim build and sharp features; grey clothes, and wore a cap when last seen. Take charge of any horse he may have and wire
‘R. McGREGOR, ‘County Constable, ‘Almonte, Ont.’
“Old Dick spent his time driving about with other horses searching for his bay horse, and declaring that the thief would go to prison this time. In December Old
Dick ceased driving about and locked himself up in his house and devoted himself anew to his library of four books. The favourite was a ‘History of the Siege of Londonderry and Defence of Inniskillen.’ The other books were ‘Meditations and Contemplations,’ by the Rev. James Hervey; ‘A Short Defence of Old Religion against Certain Novelties, Recommended to the People of Ireland’; and a big family Bible. Old Dick would open the ‘History of the Siege,’ and lay it on the table. Then he would shout passages from it at the top of his voice and toddle up and down the room in the throes of great excitement over the deeds of the lads of Londonderry.
“On Saturday afternoon, December 6th, 1890, three weeks after Birchall was hanged, neighbours passing to and from the town of Carp could hear Old Dick, the miser, roaring away over the ‘Siege of Londonderry.’ His door was locked and his windows were barred, but his voice could be heard while he thumped with his cane and trod the kitchen floor, as if leading a gallant charge. Robert Clark, a neighbour, whose house was in plain sight of the home of Old Dick, saw a light in the house in the early evening and at nine o’clock, when he looked out, Old Dick’s house was dark, the light was out and the old miser, as was his custom, was supposed by Clark to have gone to bed. About half-past ten that night, as Clark was locking up for the night, he looked out and saw Old Dick’s house brightly lighted, something Old Dick never did, because he deemed it extravagance. It was so unusual, that Clark was on the verge of going over to see if all was well with the old man, but it was snowing and blowing, so he concluded to wait until the next morning. On Sunday Clark went over to Old Dick’s. The house was locked. It was blowing heavily. Clark beat on the door, and when no answer came he went to the barn. Lying on the floor of the barn was Old Dick, sprawled out senseless, his head a mass of frozen blood. Clark shouted over to his own house and his family came and they bore the old miser to his house, forced in the door and endeavoured to revive him. The doctors were called and they worked over Old Dick, but he died, declaiming a passage from the ‘History of the Siege of Londonderry,’ and speaking no word as to the identity of his murderer.
“I arrived before the old man breathed his last. His head had been beaten by a blunt, heavy instrument. I searched the barn and found an iron pin, thirty-seven inches long and weighing ten pounds. Old Dick had used it as a pin to fasten the barn door, but white hairs and blood on it showed the murderer had used it as a club to beat Old Dick’s head almost to a pulp. The doctors, who examined the wounds on Sunday, said that Old Dick had been beaten on Saturday, and had lain all night in the barn. I searched the house. I found the ‘Siege of Londonderry’ open on the table, as the old man had left it. I found his bed had been disturbed and that some one had slept in it; a man, judging from the footmark, which was not Old Dick’s. The footmark showed no shoe, but seemingly a thick, wet sock. The murderer, whoever he was, called Old Dick out from his house to the barn on Saturday evening, either by hailing him or threatening to steal a horse, and as Old Dick entered the barn the murderer smote him with the iron pin and left him for dead, then quietly went to the house and lighted the light seen at half-past ten by Clark, who had thought at once that something was wrong, or Old Dick would not waste candles or oil. After warming himself at the fire, the murderer calmly went to rest in Old Dick’s bed, and
slept serenely while Old Dick lay dying in the barn with his wounds freezing. On Sunday morning the murderer had gone his way in the blinding snowstorm that covered his tracks.
“I began the usual house-to-house questioning of everybody in that part of the county, and at the very outset I was reminded of Old Dick’s stolen horse and his belief that he knew the thief. At every house I asked if they had seen George Goodwin recently. Goodwin was known in that locality as a loose character. He chopped wood and did odd jobs for farmers. I found a farmer who had seen him early on Saturday evening about a mile from Old Dick’s. Goodwin at that time was walking toward the Langford farm. I found another farmer who saw him still nearer Old Dick’s house. Later I found another who saw him on Sunday bound in the opposite direction, away from Old Dick’s. I got a good description of Goodwin. He was twenty-four years old, five feet eight inches tall, weighed one hundred and forty-five pounds, and had sandy hair and a light sandy moustache. He was bow-legged, had watery eyes, was near-sighted, and a silent fellow, who seldom spoke unless spoken to. But what satisfied me was the description of his clothing given by the farmers who saw him. He wore a blue suit, a short, striped overcoat, an imitation of lambskin cap, and beef-skin moccasins. The moccasins settled it. They accounted for the footmark in Old Dick’s bedroom as of a thick, wet, stained sock. I billed Goodwin for Old Dick’s murder. He was known also as Brennan, St. George, Wilkins, and used other names. He had relatives living near Ottawa, and I expected him to go to them before jumping to the United States. He had not robbed Old Dick, for I found his money.
“Goodwin did precisely as I expected. He sent money to his relatives for money, while he hid near Ottawa. I had hunted him through December 1890, and January and February 1891, and in March I located him near Ottawa. His trial was set for the Spring Assizes. His relatives retained Dalton McCarthy to defend him. Justice McMahon presided, and the trial was postponed until the Fall Assizes at the request of the defence. In the interval, Goodwin got out on bail. He skipped the country and never came back. It was good riddance of bad rubbish.
“I wondered often whether the murderer enjoyed pleasant dreams when he lay down and slept in his victim’s bed. The prosecution’s theory was, that Goodwin had killed Old Dick, not for robbery necessarily, but because Goodwin had stolen Old Dick’s horse and Old Dick knew he did it, and was waiting to locate him in order to have him arrested and sent to prison. If our theory as to the murderer had been wrong, Goodwin would not have been apt to run away.
“I had good luck in the Goodwin case, as indeed I have had in almost all cases. But about this same time I had a case where luck seemed wholly against me — in fact, I laid it away as a hard luck case. It was toward the close of 1890. John Brothers was the man in the case. He manufactured agricultural implements in the town of Milton, in the county of Halton, about twenty miles west of Toronto. He took farmers’ notes in part payment for implements. He became hard up, placed his genuine notes in the bank and added some forged notes to them. In due time the
manager of the bank told him to take up the notes. Brothers went to his brother-in-law, Amos Darling, an honest farmer who had a nice home earned by hard work. He dumped the notes on to Darling, telling him they were a good thing, paying seven and eight per cent. interest. Darling went to the bank and took up the notes, giving the bank his own note for $5,000, or almost the value of his farm. Brothers promptly disappeared, and the bank induced Darling to exchange his note for a mortgage on his farm, and in the end he lost his farm. I billed Brothers all over the country.
“Through a letter he wrote from San Francisco, I located him there. He was working as a moulder in the Risdon foundry. I prepared extradition papers and started for San Francisco. While I was on my way west and before I arrived there, a friend of Brothers in Canada notified him of extradition papers having been issued, and Brothers disappeared the day before I alighted from a train in Frisco. I notified the police all over the country, and after waiting some days and hearing nothing, I returned to Toronto. My train was several hours late. I learned that Brothers had been arrested by the chief of police at El Paso, Texas, on the Mexican border. The chief had wired me to Toronto and the telegram had been repeated to San Francisco and I was on my way back, so it missed me. I telegraphed immediately to El Paso, and the chief replied he had held Brothers as long as he could and had been compelled to release him a few hours before my telegram arrived, and Brothers had just left the town. If my train had not been late I could have reached the chief in El Paso in time. But luck was against me clear through in this case.
“Brothers crossed into Mexico and stayed there. I have heard he is dead. I felt very sorry for his brother-in-law, Amos Darling, whose home paid the forgeries of Brothers. Such Brothers as this one are not desirable even as brothers-in-law.”
MURRAY, JOHN WILSON, provincial detective for Ontario; b. 25 June 1840 in Edinburgh, son of Daniel Duncan Murray, a sea captain, and Jeanette Wilson; d. 12 June 1906 in Toronto. Read more here… click
I posted this story the other day on Tales of Almonte on Facebook and I got a tag on the posting.
Linda Mills — Linda, can you tell me the year this happened. The young man in the article was my Father in Law and I’ve heard this story more than once. The toe is buried at St. Michaels cemetery in Corkery. I then checked everywhere and could not find another burial of a toe. So this is one in the Odd Stories in History.
As you might gather from all the other answers, “Headstones” are far more common than are “footstones” At least they use to be. In some cemeteries they still are. And in many rural and small-town cemeteries, the graves are laid out with the feet all to the East, with the symbolism that all will be facing the rising sun on resurrection day. More modern cemeteries are not so picky, and lay out the graves so as to most efficiently use the available space.
Before embalming came into practice, the deceased were bathed, dressed, and were buried the same day or the morning after. Often times a family member would place a wooden cross, or something along that line, marking the grave. Footstones were placed at the end of the grave, with the initials of the deceased engraved at the top. When a headstone was ready to be placed, months and even years later, the footstones were sometimes the only record of burial. The metal funeral home markers we see today are basically evolved footstones. But again, do webury toes?
Dr Metcalfe–Photo Doug McLean who is a descendant of the Blairs from Clayton. (Rose Mary Sarsfield) who attended to the toe incident
After a destructive fire in January 2013, the Cheshire pub and former schoolhouse has been rebuilt and reopened.
Year the school first opened.: 1/1/1883 Year the school closed.: 1/1/1957
Thomas Mulligan donated land in 1820 for the site of “Mulligan’s School”. Initially there were log structures before a stone building was erected in 1883. An organ was installed in 1929. The building ceased operation as a school in 1957 and became a residence for several families. In 1989, it was converted into the popular “Cheshire Cat” old English pub. It is owned by Dustin & Crystal Therrien, and is also a designated heritage site. (2193 Richardson Side Rd, Carp, ON K0A 1L0)
Mrs. Mulligan, who, prior to her marriage, was Eliza Jane Bradley belonged to one of the oldest families in the Carp district of Huntley township. She was a daughter of the late Clement Bradley, and a granddaughter of the late William Bron Bradley, who settled on the first line of Huntley away back in 1639 on property deeded to him by an older brother. Edward Sans Bradley, who pioneered there more than a hundred years ago. William Brown Bradley and his family were residing in Montreal and came from there to take possession of the homestead. On her mother’s side ther mother was Rebecca Alexander. Mrs. Mulligan is a granddaughter of the late Andrew Alexander, another of the Carp district early settlers.
Doreen Sample’s class at S.S. No. 1 Huntley, circa 1960 – Courtesy of Doreen Sample. Front: Doug Radbourne, Doug White 2nd Row: Wayne McGee, Bobby Styles, Ray Rothwell, Bruce Story, Ralph Paul, Herbie Stykes, Sefton Moore, Clifford White, Weldon Wilson, Brian McGee, Roy Daley, Stanley Cowan 3rd Row: Bruce Mordy, Ernie Manchester, Harold Daley, Dale Wilson, Ken Paul, Eleanor Daley, Marilyn Mulligan, Donna Baskins, Verla Cowan, Fred Manchester, Sterling Howie, Ronnie Radbourne, Calvin Mulligan Back: Elva Moore, Kathy Manchester, Glenna Bradley, Gail Radbourne, Sandra Rump, Marion Moore, Diane McGee, Arlene Boyd, Cheslyn Mulligan, Catherine Boyd, Diane Rothwell, Linda Baskins
These were Carleton Place and Almonte men, so they had quite a ride in the winter to get there.
Jaan KolkI question whether the young Nicholas Sparks mentioned in the 1938 article as having taught there ca. 1860 really was the son of Bytown’s Nicholas Sparks. There were *a lot* of Sparks family members in Carleton; I wonder if this might have been Nicholas Sparks born in Bell’s Corners in 1835 to George Sparks and Letitia (Caldwell) Sparks. George was the brother of Bytown’s Nicholas (and not to be confused with cousin George Sparks.) Two of George’s other sons, George and William Edward, married two daughters of John Oliver Riddle of South March, and moved to that area.Doris Grierson Hope has worked hard on sorting out the connections of the Sparks family. CLICK HERE
Convivial British pub featuring a robust array of whisky, local beer & refined bar fare. Service options: Dine-in · Takeout · No delivery
Address: 2193 Richardson Side Rd, Carp, ON K0A 1L0
Trudi FarrellYes, they have pictures up on their walls of its former past, if memory serves me correctly
Marjorie Moore KellyMy mother and her siblings walked several miles down what is today known as the Richardson Side Road to go to school in this building. They were instructed to dive into the ditch when they heard a car coming (which was rare). I have a very old picture of the youngest girl (barefoot) with other students in the schoolyard. Later, my husband and I visited when our friend Hartley Green lived in the schoolhouse and built a catamaran in the yard. He and his wife sold the schoolhouse and sailed to the Caribbean.
Marjorie Moore KellySchoolgirls in side yard of Cheshire Cat, my aunt Lillian barefoot in front. This picture hung in the Cat for quite a few years and I think their copy may have been destroyed in the fire.
Marjorie Moore KellyMarilyn Lindhard Barefoot Lillian Craig, b. 1929, youngest daughter of Rowland and Catherine Craig. Farm situated between 5th and 6th lines “up the way” from the schoolhouse on what is now Richardson Side Rd.
Marilyn LindhardI went to school at S.S.No 1 Huntley school (cheshire cat now)for 8 yrs starting in 1945 with Ruth Bradley as my teacher.(marilyn cox)good yrs
Marjorie Moore KellyGwyn Nicholson Yes, I didn’t know of the Aboriginal camps but my mom (older sister to barefoot Lillian in picture) told of periodic gypsy encampments on their farm. While my grandfather allowed the gypsies to camp, the kids were scared stiff of them. I suspect they were warned they’d be stolen. Truth be told, I think my grandparents were afraid of the gypsies too, the way my mother told the story.
Mrs. William Mulligan (Eliza Jane Bradley), was my second cousin if I were born four generations ago! Little did she know she was sort of related to her teacher Nicholas Sparks; Her second cousin Catharine Bradley was married to John Snow, whose cousin Philemon Wright Jr. married Sarah Olmstead, but after Phil’s tragic death, Sarah married Nicholas Sparks Sr., and they had Nicholas Sparks, the teacher. Lillian Craig was Eliza Jane Bradley’s first cousin (twice removed).
We went as far afield as Constance Bay, Rideau Ferry, a variety of Fall Fairs, upstairs at the Richmond arena and all of the aforementioned towns, but the favourite for me was Mulligan’s barn; located on the Carp road (long gone). read-
With Files from Country Tales by Stittsville Women’s Institute- thanks to Ed and Shirley (Catherine) Simpson
Before 1860 a number of families had settled on farms where Beckwith and Ramsay Townships in Lanark County meet Goulburn and Huntley Townships in Carleton County.
Because of all the swamps and other conditions it became a close knit community. At a central on Lot 3 of Concession 12 in Goulburn on a map of 1863 was a schoolhouse- Union School No. 9 Huntley and No. 16 Goulburn. The children came here from all four townships and one of the former Union School’s pupil whose name was Cecil Scarfe said their family had one of the longest walks of anyone going to that school. It was a frame building and 30- to 35 names on the roll. Some of the other names were: Kelly from Huntley and McArton from Ransay and from Beckwith was Aiken and Fumerton. When Christena Aiken taught in her home school in 1920 she barely had 10 pupils. They replace the log building with the frame school in 1898.
Things changes as the years progressed the children decreased with declining population. In June 1938 they closed the school and children were driven to S.S. 9 the stone school at Dwyer Hill on the corner of Highway 15 and the School Fair Banner for Union School #9 was rolled up and put away for the last time.
Aida Margaret Drummond BIRTH 24 Jul 1907Ramsay, Lanark County, Ontario, Canada DEATH 20 May 1989 (aged 81)Almonte, Lanark County, Ontario, Canada BURIAL Auld Kirk Cemetery Mississippi Mills, Lanark County, Ontario, Canada PLOT Block F
The Almonte Gazette Almonte, Ontario, Canada Wednesday, May 31, 1989, p. 12
DRUMMOND, Aida Margaret – In hospital, at Almonte, on Saturday, May 20, 1989. Aida Margaret Drummond of Almonte. In Her 82nd Year. Beloved daughter of the late Sam Drummond and his wife May Paterson. Dear sister of Agnes of Deseronto. Predeceased by two brothers, Howard and Ralph and by one sister, Elsie. Friends called at the C. R. Gamble Funeral Home, 127 Church Street, Almonte on Sunday. Service was held in the Chapel on Monday. Rev. Clifford Evans officiated. Cremation Pinecrest crematorium. Interment of cremains, Aulk Kirk Cemetery, Almonte
About WI Women’s Institute is a local, provincial, national and international organization that promotes women, families and communities. Our goal is to empower women to make a difference.
About FWIC
The idea to form a national group was first considered in 1912. In 1914, however, when the war began the idea was abandoned. At the war’s end, Miss Mary MacIsaac, Superintendent of Alberta Women’s Institute, revived the idea. She realized the importance of organizing the rural women of Canada so they might speak as one voice for needed reforms, and the value of co-ordinating provincial groups for a more consistent organization. In February 1919, representatives of the provinces met in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to form the Federated Women’s Institutes of Canada.
The identity of the Women’s Institute still lies profoundly in its beginnings. The story of how this historic organization came to be is one that resonates with women all over the world, and is engrained in the mission and vision Ontario WI Members still live by today. CLICK here–
I was writing a story about a mail delivery man to Pakenham and in my newspaper archives I found the above two clippings. I became very curious to what happened to this postmaster and what happened to him. As I began to dig a story came out of all this. Get your Kleenex out reading the text and watching the video.
Francis and Elizabeth Shaw
Francis Shaw was born in 1846 and worked as post master at Pakenham. At age 25, he married Elizabeth-Lizzie Argue in January 29, 1873 in Huntley, Carleton, Ontario. Between June of 1873, and February of 1874, Francis moved to the United States. In the 1920 US Census gives Francis’ immigration date to US as 1876; (according to newspaper clipping in Perth Courier in 1873 and the Ottawa Daily Citizen, he was there earlier). He married Margaret Charlotte Hunter Shaw and died in 1922. They had one child John Erwin Shaw. Some websites indicate Elizabeth Argue and her husband, Francis Shaw divorced. A source has not been found for this information.
Frank H Shaw BIRTH 22 Mar 1846Canada DEATH 4 Nov 1922 (aged 76)Fort Wayne, Allen County, Indiana, USA BURIAL Lindenwood Cemetery Fort Wayne, Allen County, Indiana, USA PLOT Section C MEMORIAL ID 55415998 · View Source
So what happened to his poor wife Elizabeth Argue Shaw who was deserted in Pakenham? According to a Wiki Tree entry done by Janice Bradley this is her story:
Elizabeth was born in early 1851.
From the Wesleyan Methodist Baptismal Register:
Name of Person Baptised: Argue Elizabeth Father: Robert Mother: Mary Parents Place of Residence: Huntley Born Where: Huntley Born When: 1851-01-29 Baptised When: 1851-12-20 Baptised Where: Huntley Minister Baptising: Greener, Rev. Jas.
She attended school in Huntley Township, and went onto Ottawa Normal School to become a teacher at S.S. #14 Goulbourne
At 19, she married Francis Shaw. They were married in 1873, Rev. Webster W. Leech. Francis was a postmaster at Pakenham. He was the son of James and Eliza Shaw. They were married at Lizzie’s father’s house in Huntley twp.
Francis Shaw left the marriage sometime between 1873, and 1874. He went to the U.S. and remarried.
Elizabeth went back to teaching. She taught at S.S. No. 14 Goulbourne in 1881, and ran a dress making shop.
In September of 1898, she went to Port Simpson (later known as Lax Kw’alaams) B.C. to work as a relief matron at the Crosby Home for Boys, which was a residential school. She was disturbed by what she saw at the home.
She was offered a teaching position at the Greenville Boys Mission at Greenville (now known as Laxgalts’ap) up the Naas River. She taught there and later returned to Ontario.
She lived with her sister, Louisa Fennell for several years before her health failed. She stayed for 7 years at the Eastern Hospital at Brockville.
Elizabeth Shaw died in the Brockville Asylum in 1917 at the age of 64. It was her time at Port Simpson Crosby School that deterioated her mental state.
In 1898 Elizabeth Shaw went to the Tsimshian village of Port Simpson in Northern B.C. and worked for five weeks as the Matron of the Crosby Boys’ Home, a residential setting for First Nations children. She was extremely upset by what she saw at the home and left. Later, while teaching in Greenville-Lakalzap, she wrote a letter to the Women’s Missionary Society of the Methodist Church describing the bad food and harsh treatment at the Home and detailing a case of physical abuse of a young woman there. Excerpts were forwarded to the Superintendent of the Methodist Church in Toronto who arranged for an investigation. When the investigative report was released stating no change of management was recommended, Mrs. Shaw suffered a breakdown of her health and returned to Ontario.
Five years later, in response to complaints of the same nature from parents and from the Village Band Council, Rev. A.E. Green, the School Inspector and former Methodist Missionary to the North Coast, initiated an investigation which resulted in the Principal’s immediate resignation.
Elizabeth Shaw died in the Brockville Asylum in 1917
Based on Mrs. Shaw’s original letter The Awakening of Elizabeth Shaw video below combines an impassioned reading with photographs, other archival material and moving images. This video documents one white woman’s response to the unfair and inhumane treatment of First Nations children in British Columbia’s residential schools.
The first Crosby Girls’ Home, residents and staff, c. 1888. The building had originally served as the mission house, where in 1875, Emma Crosby started inviting girls to live with her and her family and instructing them in the running of a “well-ordered Christian home.” Miss Sarah Hart is standing on the left, and Miss Ross, on the right. Bob Stewart Archives, Pacific Mountain Regional Council, 2-980. CLICK
The Crosby Girls’ Home, c. 1892. Opened in 1892, the new home was located outside the Tsimshian reserve. Girls no longer attended the day school in the village, and they were not permitted any vacation time. Bob Stewart Archives, Pacific Mountain Regional Council, 2-978. CLICK
Based on Mrs. Shaw’s original letter The Awakening of Elizabeth Shaw combines an impassioned reading with photographs, other archival material and moving images. This video documents one white woman’s response to the unfair and inhumane treatment of First Nations children in British Columbia’s residential schools.
June 7 at 10:30 AM · Following are excerpts from Donna Sinclair’s “Remembered Heroes” that appeared first in the United Church Observer (2000) and was reprinted in the Lanark Era in 2000 and 2008:“Lucy Affleck was 44 years old when she took up a teaching position at Round Lake Indian Residential School near Stockholm, Sask. It was 1929. … [described as] ‘totally honest in her thinking.’That honesty led her to write a passionate, five-page confidential letter to the Superintendent of Home Missions, Dr. Alfred Barner, in Toronto, after she had been at Round Lake on a few months.Ms. Affleck was appalled at the living conditions of the children: … no heating fires in the building, ‘except for the day the inspector visited’ during the wet and windy autumn; donated quilts sold instead of used …Steps would be taken to remedy the situation, he replied. But just over a month later, Ms. Affleck wrote again to say she had been called to the principal’s office. ‘Your cheque is there on the desk … [no explanation other than] the church demands the immediate dismissal of anyone disloyal to the staff.’ …She returned to her family home in Lanark, Ont. remaining there until she died in 1949 …”For the full article, see the Journal page of our website: http://www.middlevillemuseum.org/journal
On Saturday evening last one of Huntley’s well-known residents passed out of life in the person of Mr. James White, who lived on the twelfth line. Deceased was 76 years of age, and was ill for a couple of years from a complication of ailments. He lived nearly all his life on the farm on which he died.
His funeral took place on Monday, and was largely attended. Deceased was a successful farmer, and amassed considerable of this world’s goods. By will he leaves to his only son, John, whose whereabouts have been unknown for twenty years, the homestead with its 100 acres and $2,000 in cash, provided he turns up within the next twenty years. Should the son not be found the above will revert to his daughter’s family.
To his daughter, Mrs. Dennis O’Brien, he leaves $1,200 in cash, 100 acres of land and all the stock and implements, etc. The estate is worth over $10,000. The father of the late Mr. White was one of the leaders of the famous Ballygiblin settlers who came to this section in 1822.
Peter Robinson settlers in Huntley township, Carleton County, Ontario [Upper Canada], 1834. The names below can be found on the passenger lists for the Hebe and the Stakesby (from Cork to Quebec, 1823).
Transcribed from:
Return of a portion of the Irish Emigrants located in the Bathurst District in 1823 and 1825, by Peter Robinson Esqr, and who are now entitled to receive their Deeds, the lots having been inspected by Francis K. Jessup in 1834.1.
While the Meehan-Fenlon wedding party was driving from Rosebank to Huntley through the pelting rain of Tuesday evening the customary hilarity at such gatherings was being manifested by some of those composing the gay procession.
Mr. *Thomas Coady and Miss Meehan, sister of the bridegroom, were driving together behind Mr. Coady’s spirited team, and, the noise frightening the animals, without a moment’s warning they bolted out of the procession when opposite Mr. John Wilson’s, passing those ahead at a furious rate.
Mr. Coady was thrown out and Miss Meehan then pluckly took the reins but the horses coming in contact with an obstruction, the rig was overturned and Miss Meehan was thrown out, while the team ran seven or eight miles before coming to a stop.
They were found opposite Mr. Wm. O’Keefe’s homestead on the town line. The buggy was still upside down with nothing broken except the pole and the buggy top, the gear and body remaining intact.
Miss Meehan, drenched with rain, and with her arm and knee injured, was carried into County Councillor Hamilton’s residence, where her injuries were attended to. We are glad to learn that she is now little the worse for her exciting experience. Mr. Coady escaped with little injury.
8355-1898 John Lawrence MEEHAN, 28, farmer, Huntley Ont., same, s/o John MEEHAN & Catherine O’CONNELL, married Ann FENTON, 22, Ramsay, same, d/o John FENTON & Ann MANTEL, witn: Christopher MEEHAN of Huntley & Catherine FENTON of Ramsay, 11 Oct 1898 at Almonte
Thomas Coady– Raymond Patrick Coady-son
Anna Rose Nugent was born 15 February 1917. She married Raymond Patrick Coady, son of Thomas Coady and Mary Carroll. He was born 23 January 1917, and died 30 March 1975.
More About Raymond Patrick Coady:
Burial: Indian Hill Cemetery, Pakenham Twp. Lanark Co. Ontario
Child of Anna Nugent and Raymond Coady is:
John Raymond Coady, born 10 July 1943. He married Helen M. Farrell; born 02 June 1948.
Cowell Ghost
Over the years, reports of ghostly apparitions on a fire road below Cowell College (Santa Cruz California) have prompted the area to be named Haunted Meadow. It was in that area on May 14, 1903, that young Sarah Agnes Cowell was killed when she was thrown from a buggy after the horse bolted.
lindaseccaspina 
