| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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." |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| TOP of Page |
