The Engagement of Rosanna Ouelette

One spring when Rosanna was just 14 two young shantymen both husky lads, came to the Ouelette door and asked for a drink of water. One was French, the other English and both were about 18 years of age. The lads lingered long at the Ouelette door. It was evident that the English youth had taken a shine to the pretty French rural girl. Pa and Ma Ouelette were in the fields. The young men announced they were on their way to join a raft to Quebec. The English lad told her through his friend, that he was going to write to her. Becoming afraid, the girl said “No, no. he mustn’t!” A month later when the girl went to the post office for the family mail, the postmistress told her that there was a letter for her from Quebec.

The girl opened the letter and it was in English. She could not read it and in desperation she told the whole story to the postmistress and asked her to read it in confidence. The lady read the letter and then she told the girl that Richard Holden had written to say that he loved her and wanted to marry her. He would come back that fall and claim her.

At the girl’s request, the postmistress wrote back to Richard Holden that he had better stay away as their dog was wicked, and her father was worse. She said she couldn’t marry anyone for years yet and anyway she didn’t know him. That letter must have scared Richard, as the girl did not hear from him for over two years. Then he wrote to say that he still loved her and would call the next year and ask for her hand in marriage. The girl did not answer the letter.

As promised Richard appeared at the Oulette home a year later. He sought out Mr. Oulette and formally presented his case. As the news was known to Pa Oulette he nearly took a fit. He summoned Rosanna and the whole story came out. There was much talk and finally Rosanna admitted she wasn’t averse to marrying her seldom seen lover.

Prior to all this Richard had told his family history and presented good credentials of character and that he belonged to Chichester. Mr. Ouelette told the young man to return the next day. That night there was a family council. Mr. Ouelette declared that as the girl was now 17 she could get married if she wished, but his mind was made up that she must stay at home till she was 20.

She was too young to start housekeeping. She must spend the next three years learning housekeeping and the duties of a wife. Mr. Ouelette said the marriage could be carried out at any time, but only under the conditions named. The next day both Richard and Rosanna agreed. Then Pa announced that the wedding would be the finest wedding ever pulled off within many miles from La Passe. He said that as he only had one daughter it was his duty to see that she received a send-off befitting the fact. In passing it may be mentioned that Pa Ouelette was the richest farmer in the La Passse district. The story of the wedding is next.

click-

The Wedding of Rosanna Ouellette

Information where you can buy all Linda Seccaspina’s books-You can also read Linda in The Townships Sun and theSherbrooke Record and and Screamin’ Mamas (USACome and visit the Lanark County Genealogical Society Facebook page– what’s there? Cool old photos–and lots of things interesting to read. Also check out The Tales of Carleton Place. Tales of Almonte and Arnprior Then and Now.

1. 

The Wedding of Stanley Alexander Jackson and Margaret Elizabeth Forbes

The Thomas Alfred Code Journal – Letters-Part 15- Code Family– Love and Runaway Marriages

Odd Ironic Wedding Stories –Or it was Almost Lonely Valley

Marriage Records Lanark County, Ontario, Canada– Names Names Names

Till Death Do Us Part in Lanark County?

Taming of the Beckwith Shrew?

A Smith’s Falls “Frustrated Young Love’s Dream” Purdy vs Lenahan

Going to the Chapel? Hold on– Not so Fast!

Another Episode in Spinsterdom–The Armour Sisters of Perth

She Came Back! A Ghost Divorce Story

Slander You Say in Hopetown? Divorce in Rosetta?

Go Ask Alice – The Saga of a Personal Ad Divorce

Marjorie and Charlie Rintoul–The Rest of the Story– Thanks to Norma Ford

 

Photo- Charlie and Marjory from Norma Ford

 

Yesterday I wrote about Mrs. Charlie Rintoul. People of Lanark County — Mrs. Charlie Rintoul. Norma Ford was able to help me out and now we know the rest of the story thanks to Norma.

I think I can help. Not sure about your story, before my time but mine picks up after 1948. Mrs. Charlie Rintoul maiden name was Marjory Douglas and they lived beside us on Sarah Street in Carleton Place. Her parents were Howard Douglas and Marietta nee Price. Charlie Rintoul delivered ice to people around the Sarah Street area from a horse and wagon and I got to “drive” the horse on a Saturday morning around the years 1950 – 52.

They had a store that jutted into the Mississippi River on the North shore before the bridge on Hwy 7. (I believe one of the Rintoul’s still own property and live there). Marjorie made jewellery and other crafts and sold them at this store in the summer time to the boaters, etc. (I donated a brooch that Marjory had made to the Carleton Place & Beckwith Heritage Museum a couple of years ago).

 

Howard and Marietta Douglas – Photo Norma Ford

Charlie had his ice house storage barn behind the store. In the summer they stayed in the back of the store, winter months living with Marjory’s parents on Sarah Street. Marjory was born in 1904 and died in 1961 (I was told from a ruptured gall bladder, she waited too long to go to a doctor). I am not sure of the date of Charlie’s death. I am sending a picture of Charlie and Marjory, a picture of Marjory’s headstone and a picture of her parents Howard and Marietta Douglas (terrible picture but the only one I have of them sitting in their back yard). Howard Douglas had a forge in a barn on his property on Sarah Street and he made well casings and pumps for a living.

Marjory and Charlie had no children, I was the closest to a daughter they had and both of them as well as Marjory’s parents were my surrogate parents. Bill Rintoul, not sure what relationship to Charlie but I think a nephew gave some of Charlie’s ice tools to the Middleville Museum and I sent the picture of Charlie up to them as well. The Douglas’s and the Rintoul’s were fantastic neighbours and substitute parents to me.

Norma Ford

 

St. James Cemetery

 

Thursday, March 9th, 1961  —We are very sorry to learn of the passing of Mrs. Charles Rintoul, Carleton Place and extend our sincerest sympathy to her husband and parents.

 

Come and visit the Lanark County Genealogical Society Facebook page– what’s there? Cool old photos–and lots of things interesting to read. Also check out The Tales of Carleton Place.

Information where you can buy all Linda Seccaspina’s books-You can also read Linda in The Townships Sun andScreamin’ Mamas (USA)

 

 

People of Lanark County — Mrs. Charlie Rintoul

A Settler’s Love Story

The Love Story of the Lanark County Brakeman

A McDonalds Corners Love Story

I just Wanted Someone to Love Me- 1868

True Love Story

A Settler’s Love Story

November 1897

Twenty-one years ago, in the village of Glengarry county, a young couple plighted their troth, and agreed to share each other’s lives. But at the time it was understood that the engagement was to be a long one, inasmuch as the young man was determined to go west and seek his fortune.

He departed, and the maiden was left alone with her parents to gain what comfort she could from her sweetheart’s letters and a daily glance at his photograph, which was renewed each year. The months rolled on, and grew into years, and still Dame Fortune did not shower her favours upon the young Glengarrian. But his fiancee was willing to wait for him until the good time should arrive, and it came yesterday, when Matthew McCrimmon and May Urquhart were united in matrimony in this city by Rev. Mr. Evans. Time had changed them both, but had not altered their affections.

Mr. McCrimmon arrived in Montreal on Sunday from Seattle, Wash., and put up at the St. James Hotel. He sent word to Miss Urquhart at her home to meet him in this city, and then made all the arrangements for their wedding. The bride elect came to town yesterday morning by the Canada Atlantic train which arrived at Bonaventure depot at 11:30. Mr. McCrimmon was on the platform to meet his bride.

The years that had intervened since they had parted, were bridged by Cupid’s device, and the middle-aged man, who had left his sweetheart when a boy, at once recognized her, even though the score of years had transformed her from a fresh young lassie into a full grown woman. The meeting was a most affecting one. The couple repaired to the St. James, where they had dinner, and at four o’clock went to the clergyman, who compensated for all the years of separation by making them one in the sight of God and man. This morning they left for Rouse’s Point to visit friends, and will next week go out to the bridegroom’s home in Washington Territory, where, it is said, he is comfortably situated so far as worldly means are concerned.

 

The first Hotel St-James to grace the streets of Montreal was a house of great standing, a place where powdered beauties and important men sipped scotch in the grand ballroom. Built at the turn of the 19th century, the hotel’s main entrance faced the Bonaventure train station. Hotel St-James was noted for its comfort and elegance, a sanctuary for a distinguished clientele.

 

 

 

The Love Story of the Lanark County Brakeman

A McDonalds Corners Love Story

Love, Lanark Legends and Ghosts

The McArthur Love Story

For the Love of a Telephone Table

I just Wanted Someone to Love Me- 1868

The Ghost Lovers of Springside Hall – A True Love Story

 

The Love Story of the Lanark County Brakeman

Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario

 

I found this anonymous story and had to share it. A brakeman in the service of the railway that ran through Lanark County fell between two cars of a moving train, the merciless wheels crushing off both legs. The unfortunate man was removed to a comfortable place and being told by the attending surgeon that he could not survive the injury, he was asked if he wished to send any message to his family.

He replied that he would not die until his wife could come to him and the surgeon shook his head in a doubting manner. The bleeding helpless but conscious brakeman, knowing that every one despaired of his life, again assured them this time more determinedly than before, that he would foil the plans of his master, Death, until his wife in person could receive his farewell.

 

 

 

lindaseccaspina – WordPress.com-Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum

When one of the superintendents received telegraphic advice of the accident and the dying man’s wish, he ordered his most experienced and courageous engineer to attach his locomotive to a coach and bring his wife to the side of her husband. In ten minutes from the time the order was given the train had the wife on board even though the night was stormy.

 

Perth Remembered

The Superintendent stood at the back of the telegraph operator, and in flashes of electricity ordered all trains on to side tracks. Through the darkness and the storm the “special” whirled upon its mission of devotion and love. The villagers who hovered around the depot stoves at way stations on winter nights crowded out upon the platforms and stood in respectful silence as the mighty locomotive dazed both sight and hearing for an instant only.

Steel rails vibrated under wheels and the engineer knew that God and a good road-bed were in his favour. As he backed his driving-wheels at the station his engine seemed as proudly conscious of victory as does the race-horse when leading under the wire. The brakeman had kept his word. Husband and wife embraced. Bystanders, blinded by pitying tears, left the two alone for a moment, only a moment. For with the kiss and the farewell the brakeman closed his eyes and died.

 

Come and visit the Lanark County Genealogical Society Facebook page– what’s there? Cool old photos–and lots of things interesting to read.

Information where you can buy all Linda Seccaspina’s books-You can also read Linda in Hometown News and now in The Townships Sun

 

Related reading

 

A McDonalds Corners Love Story

Love, Lanark Legends and Ghosts

The McArthur Love Story

For the Love of a Telephone Table

I just Wanted Someone to Love Me- 1868

The Ghost Lovers of Springside Hall – A True Love Story

Love, Lanark Legends and Ghosts

As the story goes, there was quite a handsome man in Carleton Place, and all the girls admired him. But, in all honesty, he just couldn’t find a wife to suit his taste. One night when he was on his way home from a get together, he met a girl on the road back into town. Immediately he was smitten, and they began to see each other. She came from a family with no monetary means, but her family was decent and of very strict morals. Each time they met, she didn’t even allow him to accompany her to the family porch, only to the final bend in the road. Time was scarce with this young lady as she was always helping her parents with the never-ending chores around the house.

As the leaves began to turn the young man decided to propose. She said ‘yes’ immediately, but told him that she couldn’t do it without her parents’ blessing. He decided the next day he would go talk to her parents on the edge of the village, three houses away from the mill. He just could not seem to find her home as now there seemed to be just only two houses away from the mill, and just a little bit  further there was a cemetery behind a fence.  


The young man became distraught and figured he had gotten the directions wrong. Frustrated he stopped by the fence of the cemetery and out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of the first grave. There right before him stood  a monument with a portrait photo of his bride. That my friends was all he remembered and suddenly the world went black. He didn’t remember much after that– all he knew was that he woke up a month later in the hospital.

The Crozier children tombstones-St James Cemetery- Photo by Robert McDonald

Six months later the young man figured he needed closure to what happened. In the field next to the two homes there used to be a house that a family had lived in for 20 years. Coming from a family with morals the father of that particular family had chosen a groom for his daughter himself, but she had refused to marry him. She told her family she would wait forever for her beloved and that eventually he would find her. The Father became angry and locked her in the house, and one night she could stand it no more so she set the house on fire. Everyone perished in that fire and what was left of the house was raised to the ground. The young lady didn’t find her beloved, and neither did the young man. He died unmarried and miserable.

It is said she still walks these grounds today still looking for her beloved. So watch where you walk, and watch what you bump into– and if you see her, tell her that he loved her forever. But, we all knew that.

Alternate Ending to The Last Duel?

At 6 am on June 13th, 1833 both Lyon and Wilson went to the clearing now known as The Last Duel Park in Perth, Ontario. There the duel was fought standing sixty feet apart with Robert Lyon ending up the clear loser after the second attempt. His lifeless body was carried back to the Radenhurst house.

Wilson was shut away in the Perth jail for three months until his case could be heard in the courts of Brockville. He acted as his own lawyer, and his passionate defence resulted in his acquittal. Wilson made the jury see how desperate and lonely he was to commit such a crime of passion.

Robert Lyon on the other hand was buried in the Last Duel Cemetery, where his tombstone still stands today. John Wilson, the winner of the duel, eventually married Elizabeth Hughes, but alas, it was not a happy union–Would You Duel Anything For Love?

An Alternate Ending to The Last Duel- Pure Fiction– by Linda Seccaspina

What can I say– I had a few moments LOL

After the duel Elizabeth Hughes married John Wilson at midnight. Those that viewed the ceremony watched the prisoner and his bride clasp their hands tightly through the bars of his cell.  Each night Elizabeth would sneak up to the walls of the jail under the cover of darkness, clambering on to her uncle’s shoulders  reaching out to her sweetheart inside. There was never any more mention of Robert Lyon, who some swore could still hear the whispers of his tears and his heart still breaking for young Elizabeth.

The bride persisted in kissing and crying over the groom’s hand through that small window reported the Perth Courier in 1883– until her brother reminded her that she weighed 135lbs, and soon she would cry herself to her own death.

And so Elizabeth Hughes was now the wife of  John Wilson, the man accused of attempting to kill his rival for her affections. The duo believed that Robert would not be accused of killing the unfortunate victim since the others had fled after the duel. Elizabeth was now the only witness to the whole event. By marrying, she wouldn’t be able to testify against her husband in court.

 

The town constable in Perth, got wind of the secret wedding ceremony. He was so disgusted at being outwitted, he took to his bed where he remained in a coma until his death. John Wilson was released and The Perth Courier reported that Wilson’s former fiance Joanna Lees brought up a challenge to the now Mrs. Wilson. Lees said that young Elizabeth had stolen her finance and a  duel must be fought between the two of them in the same field that Robert lost his life. By this time Elizabeth was less enamoured with her husband and told Ms. Lees that there would be no duel, as now her marriage in life was like a duel in the midst of a battle.

The End

 

 

Would You Duel Anything For Love?

The McArthur Love Story

The McArthur Love Story
One of the highlights of the Norway celebrations, “One Hundred Plus Five” was the unveiling of a plaque marking the spot where Neil McArthur built the very first habitation in Norway Bay in 1853.
This ceremony was performed by Mr. J. G. Larivere, Member for Pontiac, assisted by the octogenarian grandson of that pioneer builder, Mr. Lorne McArthur along with his grandson, David Nugent.

Article from the Almonte Gazette – 1972

Read the Almonte Gazette here

A Ramsay Elopement

By Edna Gardiner Lowry.

At the resort area of Norway Bay on the Ottawa River a plaque was erected in 1972 to mark the spot where the earliest home in the area was built back in 1853. There was only forest there then, with no indication of the summer recreational spot that Norway Bay presents today.

The author learned about the romance that led to the establishment of that humble home from Mr. Lorne McArthur of Ottawa, a grandson of the young people who built it, and from Mrs. Peter Syme of Ramsay, and from several other sources.

Ellen Naismith was a lovely young lady of twenty years, who lived with her parents on their farm on the sixth concession of Ramsay. Across the Clayton Road lived a young man, Neil McArthur. They were deeply in love with each other and hoped to marry before long. Neil with his father, Archie McArthur, had come to Ramsay in 1847 from McArthur’s Mills in Renfrew County. Mr. McArthur bought the farm from Mr. James Bowes who had settled there in 1821.

Young Neil was a fine looking young man of twenty-five when he went to the lumber camp some distance away to earn money during the winter months. He had a very special reason to earn all he could as he intended to marry Ellen Naismith when he came back in the spring.

Sad to say, Ellen’s parents were not keen on her marrying Neil. They had set their hearts on her marrying another young man in the neighbourhood who was much better off financially.

The mother tried to encourage Ellen to accept his attentions. Ellen objected and cried, saying that she loved only Neil; but in spite of her pleadings, her mother went on making preparations for the wedding, so it would be over before Neil returned home from his winter’s work. The date was set for March 17^th, 1853. A very lovely wedding dress was made for the event. Arrangements had been made with the minister of the Auld Kirk and all was in readiness.

Neil was seventy-five miles away to the northwest at McArthur’s Mills where his older brother was starting up a lumber business. Here he would work all winter and bring home his pay in the spring. He had kissed his sweetheart goodbye when he left and both of them looked forward to that great day when he would return to claim his bride. Now, Ellen’s heart was torn with agony, but there was no way for her to contact Neil.

Finally in the early part of March, Ellen learned that some men from Almonte were soon going up to McArthur’s Mills to help with the sawing of logs into lumber. She wrote a long letter to Neil telling him the state of affairs and how if he could not get home in time she would be forced to marry another and she begged him to come quickly.

Somehow she got the letter into the hands of one of the men who was going north, but by the time Neil got it there were only three days left before the wedding date and he was far from home.

When he got the word, he immediately drew his pay and set out for home.

At home in Ramsay, Ellen waited! Her mother went on busily preparing for the wedding. The invitations were out, the house was in order and much of the baking was done in readiness for the approaching occasion.

On the night of March the 16^th, Ellen’s mother suggested that she retire early to get her beauty sleep. She sadly went off to her room at the rear of the house. Fortunately, the others slept at the front. Ellen got into bed with a heart full of sadness wondering if Neil had ever received her letter. She could not sleep. Finally the others went to bed and all was still in the house.

Still lying there awake she thought she heard something like footsteps in the snow beneath her window. Then there was a sound of something gently hitting the wall. She held her breath. When a soft snowball hit her window, she jumped out of bed. Her heart leaped with joy for there in the moonlight stood her beloved Neil. She wanted to shout for joy, but didn’t dare make a sound. She tried to raise the window. At last it went up and Neil whispered to her “Hurry”!

She quickly dressed, grabbed some clothes, but left the wedding dress hanging in its glory. She whispered to Neil to get the ladder from the woodshed. He got it quickly and Ellen descended to his waiting arms.

Neil had borrowed a horse and cutter from his brother and left it out at the gate. Silently they ran to the cutter and away. Safely out of sight of the house, they laid their plans. They would go at once to the manse on the 8^th line of Ramsay near the Auld Kirk. (Both buildings are still there) It was well past midnight. It was most unusual for a minister to be awakened at such an unearthly hour. Indeed, he was sound asleep and Neil had to rap on the door several times before he awakened the Rev. John McMorine. When he came to the door in his nightcap holding a flickering candle in his hand he wanted to know what on earth they wanted at this time of night and why they couldn’t come at a decent hour.

When they told him that they wanted to get married, he refused to marry then and told Ellen to go back home like a good girl and not bring disgrace on her parents with her foolishness. He absolutely refused to marry them. After all, how could he? How could he face Ellen’s parents if he married her to Neil when all arrangements had been made for her wedding to another the next day?

When the young folk got back into the cutter, Neil suggested that they go to Pakenham. He knew the Rev. Dr. Alexander Mann, the Presbyterian minister there and he was sure that he would marry them. Ellen declared that she would go to the ends of the earth with him if she had to.

Pakenham was another ten miles away and it was just breaking morning when they arrived at the manse there. This was the second minister that they got out of bed to accommodate them; but they were in a desperate hurray. If they were safely married, Ellen’s parents could do nothing to bring her back.

Dr. Mann recognized Neil and invited them in, no doubt wondering, as Dr. McMorine had wondered why they came to see him at such an unearthly hour.

Neil hastened to tell him that they wanted to get married. Dr. Mann suggested that they have breakfast first and then he would marry them but the young folk urged him to marry them first and have breakfast later so the minister roused his wife, witnesses were summoned, and the nuptial knot was tied.

In the parlour of the manse, the two were wed and Mrs. Mann gave them a bountiful breakfast after which they drove fifteen more miles to Sand Point where they left his brother’s horse to be picked up. The bride and groom then walked across the ice on the Ottawa River to Norway Bay where they stayed with friends till spring when they built their first little home at Norway Bay,

One hundred and five years later, crowds gathered at Norway Bay, as a plaque was unveiled to mark the spot where this little love-nest stood. It brings to mind the old adage so often repeated, “Love will have its way!”

 

Related reading:

Children of NEIL MCARTHUR and ELLEN NAISMITH are:

8.	i.		ARCHIBALD4 MCARTHUR, b. August 23, 1854, Norway Bay, Ontario, Canada.
9.	ii.		PETER MCARTHUR, b. June 03, 1856.
	iii.		BETHEA MCARTHUR, b. July 21, 1858; m. (1) UNKNOWN MAGILLIS; m. (2) ALEX WALSH; m. (3) JAMESMILLER.

Notes for ALEX WALSH: Alex’s daughter (unknown whether also Bethea’s daughter) later married Bethea’s youngest brother Allan.

 

 

10.	iv.		DAVID MCARTHUR, b. December 19, 1860; d. September 01, 1933.
11.	v.		ROBERT MCARTHUR, b. August 22, 1864; d. November 20, 1943.
12.	vi.		NEIL MCARTHUR, b. August 21, 1865; d. February 13, 1961.
	vii.		JENNIE MCARTHUR, b. March 05, 1869.
	viii.		JAMES MCARTHUR, b. April 30, 1872.
	ix.		ALLAN LAWRENCE MCARTHUR, b. 1874.

 

Lanark County Genealogical Society Website

Information where you can buy all Linda Seccaspina’s books-You can also read Linda in Hometown News

Because You Loved Me — A Vintage Lanark Romance

 

The Central Canadian told a condensed story in one of their issues about two children who grew up farm by farm on 7th line of Drummond. Each was well favoured physically and mentally, and the mutual friendship of infancy and youth grew into a warmer feeling with added years.The young man, Peter Archibald McLaren, went west to earn a position that should match Sadie Cullen, which was one of ease and opulence. Now let us quote:“It was Jacob’s tedious footsteps he was treading”.

He came back three times to Drummond, but in each case her father, turned him down and out, and he went back to his Dakota lands with a sorrowful heart. Months later he returned, but the old gentleman was still obdurate, harder than flint this time, and warned him to begone forever.

But hearts will speak to each other in spite of locks or laws, and these two met at a schoolhouse one night. It was said there was a large meeting of good size at the Drummond schoolhouse. Sadie, heavily weighted from the wardrobe, with her father and sister, was there. Peter gave the Masonic tap on the window, and the bird arose and flew while the father’s mind was enrapt with a piece of elocution at that moment on the boards. The two retired to a friend’s house within half-a-mile: as this was as safe as a cave in the mountains.

Meantime the parental sentinel, baffled on the very parapet of duty, took on a noble rage at the close of the festival, and divining that their flight was in the direction of Carleton Place, secured a friend, and was there early in the morning. He telephoned to outlying posts in the hope of intercepting the marriage, and did all an earnest father could devise to save his daughter from Nature’s foreordination.

Now let us return to the lovers. Next morning they drove to Perth and were married without much ceremony, and the same evening returned to the beauteous haven in the country of the night before. On Wednesday they came to Carleton Place, and that night took the midnight train for the west, she sad yet in the sweet ecstasy of her lover’s embrace; he in the very acme and pitch of epic joy.

The father was courteously counselled to withdraw the dreadful sting of his anger, and dispatch a note of forgiveness and blessing. No doubt he did. In conclusion, why should we suppress names in such a perfectly delightful romance; one, moreover, that will end, we are sure, in a sweet reunion ?

The groom’s name was Peter McLaren; the bride’s Sadie Cullens; the haven of refuge was at Mr. Flintoff’s. No doubt that the 13 year age difference was a huge factor in the father’s wrath. In researching I only found the following information. I would hope they had eternal happiness.

Read in The Almonte Gazette– Read the Almonte Gazette here

 

Lanark 1897

8315-97 Peter Archibald McLAREN, 34, farmer, Drummond, same, s/o Jane (sic) & Christena, married Sadie CULLEN, 21, Drummond, same, d/o Arthur CULLEN & Mary MOORHOUSE, witness T. KENNEDY & Janet ROCK, both of Perth, 30 March 1897 at Perth

 

Peter Archibald Mclaren

mentioned in the record of Peter Archibald Mclaren and Sadie Cullen

Name	Peter Archibald Mclaren
Event Type	Marriage
Event Date	30 Mar 1897
Event Place	Perth, Lanark, Ontario, Canada
Gender	Male
Age	34
Birth Year (Estimated)	1863
Father’s Name	Jane
Mother’s Name	Christina
Spouse’s Name	Sadie Cullen
Spouse’s Gender	Female
Spouse’s Age	21
Spouse’s Birth Year (Estimated)	1876
Spouse’s Father’s Name	Arthur Cullen
Spouse’s Mother’s Name	Mary Moorhouse

Sarah Ellen Cullen

Ontario Births and Baptisms

Name	Sarah Ellen Cullen
Gender	Female
Birth Date	25 Mar 1876
Birthplace	Drummond Township, Lanark, Ontario
Father’s Name	Arthur Cullen
Mother’s Name	Mary Moorhouse

Related Reading

Would You Duel Anything For Love?

 

The Crane that Brought Back a Message of Love – A True Story

Johanna sat there quietly at the memorial and remembered their past. Thirty years had gone by too fast and now suddenly Bruce was gone. What would she do without him?

While she wept softly, a crane slowly walked beside the white picket fence. He began to watch her carefully “as the wise flower elves wept in the hollows”. How could he explain to her that he was there. Flying over the fence in a gentle swoop, “he felt the drops of dew, and kissed cold tears from the grass”.

The crane tried to get closer to Johanna with one measured step at a time. The “grass blades parted with sighs” as he was trying to tell her that he was there. Bruce had only been gone for just a few brief days, but had returned to tell her that he loved her. Yes, he would always remember the joy from the life they had shared together.

The delicate bird stopped during certain moments when people spoke of the memories they had shared with him. Cocking his head from time to time he listened to words and tried to remember—for this is all he had now.  Attempting to make a sound so she might turn her head; a silent noise stuck in his throat, and now she would never know he was there.

Three people watched the bird closely from their seats, and he knew they realized who he might be. The three mourners had already decided that he was not really a proud graceful crane walking across the grass – he was simply the departed in another form, trying to tell his wife he was okay.

The spoken words of love suddenly stopped, and everyone became silent. The crane knew he must go; but somehow had to tell her that he had read the beautiful card she had made for him.

“The heavens part the high planets, blade parts back and edge; not even eternity can part souls that are sealed in love.”

“Yes”,  he thought. Eternity will never separate our souls as we are forever sealed with love. Remember that my darling; never ever forget he seemed to say with his eyes.

And with that, as quickly as he had appeared, he was suddenly gone. Those that had seen him spoke quietly, and told each other their thoughts. They knew that when the heavens had grown clear, he had come.

His soul had descended “when the mountain brims grew bright” to speak of his eternal love for her. Others would tell Johanna later that her husband had been there to tell her that he loved her one final time.  After that day there is no doubt in my mind that we never lose the people we lost— not even after death.

In memory of those who we loved.

This was a true story that happened to me at a private funeral in Napa Valley in California. I wrote this piece a few hours after I left the memorial servic and forwarded it to her later.  I also used a handful of selected words used in a scattered “here nor there fashion”  from the memorial card Johanna had made for her departed husband, Bruce.  The selected words she used were from : Journey’s End (Ferdalok)

Feathers of Love – Zoomer

 

Feathers of Love – Zoomer.