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The section of country formerly known as the Perth Settlement in the District
of Bathurst, was settled by the British Government in the years 1815 and
1816. |
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In the year 1814 the Home Government, in order to divert to Canada the tide
of emigration at that time flowing into the United States from Great Britain,
issued a proclamation making liberal offers of assistance, including a free
passage to all intending settlers in the New Country. As a consequence of the
offers, a large party of Scotchmen, mostly from Lanark and Renfrew shires,
and numbering about seven hundred persons, embarked for Canada in the summer
of 1815. On their arrival at Quebec they proceeded up the St. Lawrence, the
greater number of them preferring Upper Canada. A few settled in Montreal,
the remainder of the expedition proceeding to different points on the river,
while about sixty families went on to Brockville. As the season was now so
far advanced, it was determined that they should remain in the barracks of
this town for the winter months. In the meantime the new Townships of
Bathurst, Drummond and Beckwith were surveyed, and other preparations made
for their settlement. A place for a Government depot and a town - a piece of
land containing four hundred acres - had been laid out on the banks of the
river Tay in the Township of Drummond, forty-two miles north from the St.
Lawrence. |
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Early in the spring of the following year, 1816, a party of men, including
several surveyors, under the direction of a Captain McEvar, set out
for the lands on which they were to settle. They had to mark and cut out a
road fully half of the way through dense woods to the new Settlement on the
banks of the Tay, which they reached on the afternoon of the 22nd. of March.
Here in the midst of this immense forest with snow several feet deep, they
were obliged to spend their first night in the open air, on beds made of
hemlock branches, with large fires built on either side of them. As soon as
they got the road cut through to the Front, in a little less than a month's
time, they brought in their families and secured their lands. The most of
these people settled together along what is now called the "Scotch Line", the
line between Bathurst and North Burgess Townships. There was a good deal of
vacant land to be had also in the Townships of Elmsley and Burgess, which had
been surveyed before the war. |
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The Perth Settlement being formed soon after the termination of the war with
the United States and at a time when a great reduction in the army took
place, peace having been declared after the Peninsular War, was to a great
extent peopled by half-pay officers and discharged non-commissioned officers
and men. It was a strictly military settlement, having been formed under the
direction of the Commander of the Forces, and the expenses defrayed out of
the military chest. A grant of one hundred acres of land was given to each
head of a family, their sons to receive the same on their coming of age, also
household and agricultural implements and rations for one year. An officer
received double this amount. Those who wished to become farmers were settled
upon their lands at once, but those wishing to remain in the village obtained
town lots of one acre each, on condition of clearing and building a house on
the land. Most of the privates settled in the country, the officers as a rule
preferring the town. Many of these discharged soldiers did well but as many
of them proved rather unpromising settlers and remained only until they had
acquired the right to sell their land. Their previous life had not been such
as to warrant the steady, patient toil demanded of settlers in a new
country. |
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About the first person to draw a town lot of one acre was Captain Joshua
Adams, a veteran who had taken part in the recent American War. On
this lot he erected a tavern. Other settlers of all descriptions began to
pour in, and pending the taking up of their allotments, camped on the island
in the River Tay, which now forms the centre of the town. [Currently known
as Stewart Park -Ed.] In the summer of 1817 the total population of the
Settlement was 1890. |
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During the first summer the settlers lived in the rudest of huts roofed with
brak and boughs, these being the first buildings of any description erected.
The King's Store where, on the twenty-fourth of each month, the rations were
dispensed to the settlers, the Superintendent's Office and a bridge across
the Tay soon followed. During the year 1818 many of the settlers suffered
great hardships. The crops of the two former years had been very poor. Even
at their best there was not enough raised to meet the wants of the people,
the extent of land under cultivation being so small. An application was made
to the Government for assistance and after some delay, half rations were
granted to those with large families, or who were in the greatest distress,
this arrangement however, only lasting until the harvest, which to the
delight of all was very abundant. Many families had, during this time, to
take recourse to eating the buds and leaves of different plants and trees,
and the wild leeks to be then found in great quantities in the woods. The
first few years after the Settlement was formed, provisions were extremely
dear. In the year 1818 there were only two or three horses in the whole
District, and as there was yet no grass growing on the newly cleared land,
hay had to be brought a distance of twenty or thirty miles. Oxen were
employed altogether in the work of clearing the land, and continued to be in
general use for a number of years. After a time both cattle and horses were
more plentiful. |
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Soon after the village was laid out, a saw mill and grist mill were erected
in its vicinity by Captain Adams, who in these first mills of the
Bathurst District did a brisk trade. In 1823, others were building in
different parts of the Settlement and in course of time were all in
successful operation. Dr. Thom established a grist mill on the site of
the one now belonging to the Hon. John Haggart. Before this time,
there being no means of having the grain ground, many of the people were
forced to boil and eat it whole or bruise it imperfectly between two flat
stones, while a few who could afford coffee and spice mills, ground small
quantities of meal in that way. There was not oatmeal to be obtained in the
District for a length of time, unless brought specially from Montreal.
Indeed, some of the settlers had not tasted any for a period of eighteen or
twenty years. |
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Fall wheat was grown in (for the time) large quantities in 1823 and the
succeeding years. The only outlet and market for it was Brockville, to which
place it was taken by ox-teams, a rude road having been constructed by this
date. There was wheat sold at 33s. 6d. a bushel, and the settlers were paid
in kind, taking home supplies for their families, - but a very small amount
of money being afloat in those days, in fact, until some of the veterans
applied for and obtained pensions from the British Government, nearly the
whole trade was done by the barter system. |
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The making of potash became quite an extensive industry in the course of a
few years, and large quantities were shipped both summer and winter to the
Brockville Market. Potash brought a very high price and vast quantities of
timber were cut down and burned for this purpose. This trade in potash was a
very brisk one until that of lumber was opened up in 1834 by Rogers
and Thompson, Porter and Gemmill, Alex. and Henry
Montgomery, James Flintoff and others. The lumbering operations
in the immediate vicinity of the Town of Perth were of a most extensive
character, and the settlers then saw to their sorrow, the quantities of
valuable timber which had been burnt by them while clearing their lots, and
the thousands of dollars that had been literally thrown into the fire. The
timber thus obtained was drawn to Brockville and thence rafted down the St.
Lawrence River to Quebec. Large quantities were also floated down the Tay to
the Rideau, and from there to Ottawa, also enroute for Quebec. This business,
while it performed the important office of clearing the land, was also the
means of bringing large numbers of men into the Settlement. |
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The first Minister of any denomination in the Settlement was the Rev. William
Bell, a Presbyterian, who was sent out by the Associate Presbytery of
Edinburgh as Minister to the Scotch settlers of the Perth District. A short
description of their journey may prove interesting, as showing the difference
in travelling facilities between then and now, and of what a journey from
Scotland to this new country meant in those days. Mr. Bell and his
family embarked at Leith and after a voyage of eight weeks, during which time
they endured many unexpected hardships on board ship, landed at Quebec on
June 1st, 1817, then after proceeding by steamer to Montreal, taking
thirty-six hours for the journey and the fare for which was three pounds, the
Government Commissary provided carriages to take them to Lachine. Here a
batteau was placed at their disposal to carry them up the St. Lawrence, stops
over night being made at points enroute, and great difficulty being
experienced wherever the rapids were encountered, in addition to the boatmen,
teams of horses having to be hired to help make the ascent. Prescott was
reached after an eight day journey, Mr. Bell proceding from there to
Brockville and reaching the Perth Settlement two days later in a rough wagon.
Many families had to walk this distance, mothers often carrying little
children in their arms, rough ox-teams bringing their baggage. Mr. Duncan
McNee, when a very little lad, remembers being stowed away among the
household effects in one of these waggons and jolting along the whole
distance from Brockville to Perth, his parents having to walk. After much
inquiry, Mr. Bell obtained a log house of only one room, at a rental
of twenty pounds a year, and this continued to be their home until the
following summer. |
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For more than a year Mr. Bell had to hold his services in the upper
story of Adamson's Inn, the only place in the village sufficiently large for
such a purpose, as most of the settlers were still living in small huts. This
room was not plastered and was very cold in winter, the only manner of
entrance being by a ladder. The house is still standing, known as the "Red
House", and is perhaps the oldest house in the Town at the present time. From
April 1819 the school house, then first erected, was used for public worship
until August of the same year, when the new Presbyterian church was completed
and ready for occupation. This church stood in the east end of the Town and
was burned down in 1867. Mr. Bell travelled more than a thousand miles
at his own expense, not only in the Settlement, but in various parts of the
Province and collected the greater part of the money expended on the building
of this church. During the first few years after he came to the Settlement,
he travelled altogether over four thousand miles, over the length and breadth
of the Provinces, visiting Mission stations, forming new congregations and
going on various missions to Quebec and other distant towns, often travelling
five hundred miles in making his yearly pastoral visitations. A just idea of
travelling in those days cannot now well be formed, when rocks and fallen
timbers had to be climbed over, almost impassable forests and swamps to be
got through in some manner and rivers to be forded in every journey that was
made. Roads were then very few, only rude paths through the woods, many of
them being merely trails, and as horses were almost useless, even had they
been generally available, a great deal of this travelling had to be done on
foot. Walks to Brockville, a distance of over forty miles, were of frequent
occurrence, as well as much shorter journeys. The mosquitoes in these early
years were almost a plague and caused much suffering. |
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The first evidence of a priest being in the Settlement to minister to the
spiritual needs of the members of the Roman Catholic faith, was in the fall
of 1817, a few months following the arrival of Mr. Bell. There is on
record a letter to the Rev. Pierre de la Mothe, Chaplain of the late
DeWatteville Regiment, dated 31st October of that year, from Mr.
Daverne of the Settling Department, regarding the location of the
former's lands. Father La Mothe is supposed to have been sent here
from Quebec. It was not, however, till 1823 that the first resident pastor
came to the Perth Settlement, the Rev. Father McDonald. In 1819 came
the Rev. Michael Harris, a missionary of the Church of England.
Churches were built by both these congregations, the former on the Sand Hill
on Harvey Street, the latter on the present site. The earliest preacher of
the Methodist body was the Rev. John Griggs Peale who came in 1821.
The Baptist congregation in this place was not organized till a much later
date in 1842, with Rev. R. A. Fyfe as their first pastor. In 1830, a
second congregation of the Presbyterian persuasion was formed with the Rev.
R. C. Wilson as their pastor. |
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The early inhabitants, after a short time, were not without educational
advantage, there being teachers in both Town and country. Mr. T.
Halliday, father of Mr. James Halliday, was sent to teach the
children of the Scotch settlers in the vicinity of Perth, in consequence of a
petition sent by them to the Commander of the Forces for aid for the
maintenance of a school master, the former having applied and being appointed
to the position. In July 1817 the first school in the town was established,
at the request of the inhabitants, by the Rev. William Bell, he
finding it a necessity for the sake of his own children, starting with
eighteen pupils, the school continued to be most prosperous under Mr.
Bell's control. The Governor-in-Chief hearing of the circumstance, not
only expressed his approbation, but ordered a salary of fifty pounds a year
to be paid to Mr. Bell for his services as teacher. He taught in his
own dwelling till there was such an increase of scholars attending, that it
was a necessity to have a school house built. Things continued in this state
till the end of 1819, when the Rev. Mr. Harris, the first Episcopal
clergyman arrived. He preached the first Sunday and sometime subsequently in
the school house until the church was built, and on the following Monday
morning took possession of the school. The inhabitants unanimously petitioned
against this measure, but without effect, the Deputy Quarter Master General
stating that he had no fault whatever to find with Mr. Bell's
management of the school, which had been most prosperous, but that he thought
it right that a clergyman of the Church of England ought to have situation
under Government in preference to one of any other denomination. The school
under its new instructor did not seem to succeed as well, as the numbers of
scholars gradually decreased, till at length it was given up and the school
house stood empty. |
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The schools were about this time divided into two classes, the District
Schools in which the classics, mathematics, etc., were taught, and the Common
Schools, giving instruction in the ordinary branches of education only. Mr.
John Stewart became teacher of the first District School in 1823 and
Mr. Benjamin Tett of the first Common School in the same year. Mr.
Stewart retained his position until 1834, when Mr. William Kay
took charge. The school in the meantime had gained such a reputation in the
surrounding Districts that many boys came from a distance, from Bytown,
Richmond and other places to receive the higher branches of education. Many
of the younger pupils, especially the girls, attended private schools,
several of these being boarding schools where they taught the higher
branches. Prominent among these were those kept by Mrs. T. C. Wilson,
the Misses Jessop, Mrs. Jessop, Miss Buchanan, Mrs.
Hughes, and later Mrs. Luard, the Misses Fraser, Mrs.
McKenzie and the Misses Sinclair. |
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In 1820 when the first emigrants on the Government Grant arrived from Glasgow
on their way to the new Settlement at Lanark, it became necessary to open a
road between there and Perth. The superintendence of this Settlement was
given to Captain Marshall, an arrangement to which it is indebted for
much of its prosperity. About the same time the military road began to be
opened from Point Nepean on the Grand River, to Kingston, through the
Richmond and Perth Settlements. |
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Perth was growing all this time in size and importance, and was the capital
of the whole Bathurst District, containing the gaol and Court House. Here as
far back as the year 1824, before Carleton was made a County in itself, the
Court of King's Bench sat twice a year, and it was also here that most of
Bytown's law business was transacted. In the course of seven years after the
Settlement was formed, wonderful improvements were made, luxuriant crops were
growing in the place of the forests, the roads were improving and means of
communication with other parts of the Province were becoming every year more
easy. Within a few years the settlers had a postal service twice a week
between the Towns instead of once a fortnight, as at first. The military
superintendence of the Settlement was removed on the 24th of December 1822
and Perth had all the civil privileges enjoyed by the rest of the Provinces.
It at that time contained four churches, seven merchant stores, five taverns,
besides between fifty and one hundred private dwellings. |
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The mercantile business was one of the most important forms of industry from
the very beginning of the Settlement. The first store in Perth was opened in
1816 by Mr. William Morris, on the South side of the Tay -- the
proprietor sleeping on a buffalo robe behind the counter, which consisted of
a piece of bark laid over two barrels. The next store, which is still
standing, was established by Benjamin DeLisle, who came to the
settlement in the summer of 1816. Others came in their turn and the place
began to be in some measure independent of markets at a distance. Mr.
Roderick Matheson was one of the next merchants to open a business in
the village, this being in successful operation at the present day. In 1827
Mr. William Bell, jr. commenced business on Foster Street. The year
following his brother John joined him and the firm was then known as that of
W. & J. Bell. John carried on a branch of the business in Carleton
Place for some years but afterwards removed to Perth, the firm being in
successful operation for a number of years. In 1837, on account of the
embarrassed state of commercial affairs and scarcity of specie, W. & J.
Bell issued their notes in the form of bank bills, payable on demand
in current bank bills. This fractional currency took the place of small coin,
and their circulation at this time proved a great accommodation to the
general public. |
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On the 10th of July 1820, the first election for a member to represent the
County in the Provincial Parliament took place, the two contestant candidates
being William Morris and Benjamin DeLisle, the former being
successful. |
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In the summer of 1825 there was a great want of rain, the woods being on fire
from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. So dense was the smoke for more than a
week all over the country that the steamboats could not make their regular
trips, and but for a dead calm prevailing, the country would have been
ruined. In that and the following summer, fever and ague were universally
prevalent, whole families being often stricken down with it at the same time.
It was in the latter part of this season that quinine first began to be used.
1826 also was a year of sickness, which prevailed to such an extent during
the harvest that on some farms the crops rotted on the ground for want of
hands to gather them. Most of the emigrant population became greatly
discouraged, and not a few talked of returning to their native land. In the
early summer of 1832 and also that of '33, the weather was excessively hot.
Cholera broke out in the lower Province and began to appear on the lines of
travel in the upper Province, thus spreading alarm over the whole country. In
each of the cities of Quebec and Montreal over one thousand lives fell
victims of this dire disease. In Perth every precaution was used to prevent
its introduction, a Board of Health being established, including all the
Ministers and Magistrates of the place. There were no decided cases in the
Town, but several deaths occurred not many miles away. |
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Among the earliest physicians who came to the place was Dr. Thom,
formerly of the Forty-first Regiment, and Dr. Reade, who was
afterwards made Coroner of the District and Clerk of the Peace. Then came Dr.
James Wilson, whose memory is green in the hearts of many to this day.
Dr. O'Hear[e?] in 1825, Dr. Holmes in 1836 and the year '37 saw
Dr. J. S. Nichol, another well-beloved physician beginning his
practice here. |
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In 1834 there were many fires near the Town. A description of one of these
may prove interesting, as it was written by an eye-witness. "A shower of rain
had checked the fires in the woods, but so dry had the ground become that
they soon broke out again. One of these was raging in an extensive cedar
swamp close by our house and presenting an alarming appearance. In the
evening a breeze sprang up and carried a sea of fire over the whole swamp,
destroying the timber and bushes for more than a mile square. It blazed like
an immense furnace, rolling up vast masses of dark smoke to the sky. The
crackling of the flames was terrific and their solemn roar through the
stillness of the night was like that of the ocean." |
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For years a canal had been talked of to connect the waters of the St.
Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers. This was begun in the year 1825, or '26, and was
completed in 1832. It passed through the Perth Settlement, some miles from
the Town. About this time, the channel of the River Tay was, by private
enterprise, deepened and made navigable for steamers to the Rideau River. A
steamer called the "Enterprise" was built and launched in 1833,
making but a few trips however, before being transferred to the Rideau Canal.
In summer at this time, goods from Montreal consigned to Perth were brought
in barges up the Rideau Canal, via Ottawa, and then up the Tay. They
generally returned loaded with grain. In winter the goods were transferred in
loaded trains. W. & J. Bell, in company with John Doran, owned
a barge in which all the merchandise was brought to Town. |
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On August 12th, 1837, an interesting event occurred in the Town. The public
proclamation of the young Queen, Alexandria Victoria, by the Deputy Sheriff
(in the absence of the Sheriff). The order in which the procession moved was
as follows:- The deputy Sheriff on horseback, the Clergy, the members of the
Medical Profession, members of the Bar, Officers of Militia, Clerk of the
Peace and the Magistrate, with the Perth Volunteer Artillery Company in
uniform in the rear. When Her Majesty had been proclaimed in four different
parts of the Town, the Artillery fired a royal salute on conclusion of the
ceremony, after which three cheers being given by the loyal townspeople for
the young Queen, the assemblage dispersed. |
