-Cumberland Gazetteer
-Travels of Fur Traders and Missionaries
-Township Statistics
-Churches
-Settlement Duties
-Old Cumberland Vignettes

(Please advise me of other 'interesting' facts and stories.)



======

 CUMBERLAND GAZETTEER ;
   
-Bearbrook (20-5c)
-Bearbrook Stn (another name for Vars)
-Borromee (P/O 1886-1915; near 5-11c)
-Canaan (had P/O in 1879)
-Carlsbad Springs (16-w11c)
-Cathartic (i.e. purgative waters; see Carlsbad Springs)
-Chartrand (P/O 1900-1915; near 3-9c)
-Cotton's Corners (9-9c)
-Creighton's Hill
-Cumberland Mills (Cardinal Creek 7km E of Orleans, P/O 1875-1877)
-Cumberland Village (P/O 1839; 14-1c os)
-Daniston (hwy 17 at 10th P/O 1892-1915)
-Dickenson (e«28-9c, P/O 1883-1898; previously Veighton)
-Dunlop's Hill (see Vinette's Hill)
-Eastman's Springs (hotel owner's name at Carlsbad Springs)
-French Hill (3-5c)
-Lavalee (8-11c)
-Leonard (13-5c)
-Martins Corners (25-1c os)
-Massey's Corners (11-Ac)
-Murray's Hill
-Navan (10-9c)
-Notre-Dame-des-Champs (6-w11c)
-Orleans (37-1c os)
-Osborne (P/O 1839-c1856 or 1856-1863); see Cumberland)
-Princess Louise Falls
-Sarsfield (10-4c)
-Vars (25-7c)
-Veighton (P/O 1864-1883; became Dickenson)
-Vinette's Hill

======

 TRAVELS OF FUR TRADERS AND MISSIONARIES. (up the Ottawa) 

Nicholas Garry, a Deputy Director of the HBC, and Simon McGillivray, of the old NW Fur
Trading Co, did a tour up the Ottawa in 1821.
'From the Long Sault to the Chaudiere (approx 60 miles), the banks on both sides are low but
present a most beautiful appearance, with the trees looking as they have for all the ages.  This is
nature in all its beauty, wildness and decay'.  He says the mosquitoes were terrible, and describes
the Rideau Falls.
  'Diary of Nicholas Garry'  NLC  AS 42 R6 Fol  1900 Sec'n 2
    pp.94/5; and MIC.F CC4 06955 


Claude Jean Allouez, s.j.  (Jesuit Missionary in Cda)
  On the way into the Outaouac (Ottawa) Country, Aug 1665.
No sooner had I embarked than he (an Indian) put a paddle in my hand, urging me to use it and
assuring me it was an honorable employment, and one worthy of a great captain.  I willingly
took the paddle and, offering up to God this labour in atonement for my sins and to hasten those
poor savages' conversion, I imagined myself a malefactor sentenced to the galleys; and, although
I became entirely exhausted, yet God gave me sufficient strength to paddle all day long, and
often a good part of the night.  But this application did not prevent my being commonly the
object of their contempt and the butt of their jokes; for, however much I exerted myself, I
accomplished nothing in comparison with them, their bodies being large and strong and
perfectly adapted to such labours.  The slight esteem in which they held me caused them to steal
from me every article of my wardrobe that they could; and I had much difficulty in retaining my
hat, the wide rim of which seemed to them peculiarly fitted for defence against the excessive
heat of the sun.  And when evening came, as my pilot took away a bit of blanket that I had, to
serve him as a pillow, he forced me to pass the night without any covering but the foliage of
some tree.
     When hunger is added to these discomforts it is a severe hardship, but one that soon teaches a
man to find a relish in the bitterest roots and the most putrid meat.  God was pleased to make me
suffer from hunger, on Fridays especially, for which I heartily thank him.
     We were forced to accustom ourselves to eat a certain moss growing upon the rocks.  It is a
sort of shell-shaped leaf which is always covered with caterpillars and spiders; and which, on
being boiled, furnishes an insipid soup, black and viscous, that rather serves to ward off death
than to impart life.
     One morning we found a stag that had been dead 4 or 5 days.  It was a lucky accident for poor
starvelings.  I was given a piece of it, and, altho its offensive odour deterred some from eating
any, hunger made me take my share; but my mouth had a putrid taste, in consequence, until the
next day.
     Amid all these hardships, whenever we came to any rapids I carried as heavy burdens as I
could; but I often succumbed under them, and that made our savages laugh and mock me, saying
they must call a child to carry me and my burden.  Our good God did not foresake me utterly on
these occasions, but often wrought on some of the men so that, touched with compassion, they
would, without saying anything, relieve me of my chapelle (group of sacred vessels for
celebration of the mass) or of some other burden, and would help me to journey a little more at
my ease.
     It sometimes happened that, after we had carried our loads and plied our paddles all day ong,
and even 2 or 3 hours into the night, we went supperless to bed on the ground or on some rock,
to begin over again the next day with the same labours.  But everywhere the Divine Providence
mingled some little sweetness and relief with our fatigue...
    PAC p.393 

*****

'I'm told this grave marker is for a young Christian Indian who drowned in attempting to run the
rapid in his canoe.' (near Long Sault, i.e. Dollard des Ormeaux, above Pt Fortune on the
Ottawa).
'Diary of John MacDonell'  b.1768 in Scot; SO John, retired to Pt Fortune. pp.71/72; in 'Five
Fur Traders of the NW' by Gates, CM (editor), Minnesota Historical Soc, 1965.

It was the custom among the voyageurs to erect a cross to mark the grave of any of their number
who met his death along the trail.  When passing such crosses the voyageurs always pulled off
their hats, made the sign of the cross & repeated a short prayer. "Journal of Voyages & Trails in
the Interior of N.A." by Harmon, Daniel. Toronto 1911; pp.6,9


======

 TOWNSHIP STATISTICS. 

1831 Assessment    (from 1850 Twp Minute Bk)  Assessor= John Edwards
     Chairman of Court, Geo Hamilton; 20 Apr.  All on Old Conc 1
McLaughlin, Pat; lot 1, 46 unc, 4 cult, 1 cow
     1m 1f 2 girls (<10yrs)
Lough, Wm sr; lot 1, 2 oxen, 2 cows
     1m 3 boys (<10) 1f 2 girls
Buck, Joe; lot 2, 1 cow
     1m 4b 1f 3g
Wallace, John; lot 3, 96 unc, 4 cult, 1 cow
     1m 3b 1f 1g
Beckworth, Walt; lots 5/6, 330 unc, 70 cult, framed house, 1 saw
     1 horse, 4 oxen, 1 cow;    1m 1b 1f 2g
Orton, Nathan; lot 10
     1m 1b 1f 3g
Dunning, Wm; lots 12/13, 320 unc, 80 cult; hewn timber house,
     2 cows, 3 young cattle
Faubert, Amiable; lot 14, 182 unc, 18 cult, hewn timber house
     1 horse, 2 oxen, 2 cows, 1 young cattle; 1m 3b 3g
Dunning, Wm P; lot 17, 193 unc 7 cult, 1 cow, 2 young cattle
     1m 1b 1f 1g
Cameron, John; lot 18, 188 unc 12 cult, hewn timber house
     2 horses, 2 oxen, 3 cows  1m 3b 1f 1g
Mann, Wm; lot 20, 194 unc 6 cult; 2 oxen, 2 cows
     1m 3b 1f 1g
La Flamme, Joe


1832 Assessment; 15 families;  32m>16; 31m<16; 25f>16; 28f<16
     3 horses, 20 oxen (best for heavy clearing), 18 milch cows,
     9 cattle (Ass't Rolls)

Improved acreage to total settled;
1837; 513/8067
1838; 533/8765
1839; 749/9211
1840; 831/9956
1841; 926/9811
1842; 1080/10909
1843; 1184/12440
1844; 1377/10072
1845; 1616/9038
1846; 1822/12889
1847; 2033/11224
1848; 2450/14740
1871 Agric census totals  137 owners, 14 tenants, 2 employees
     spuds 19,063 bu (187 acres); turnips 924 bu; peas 2583 bu;
      beans 130 bu
     spring wheat 3266 bu (291 acres); oats 13301 bu; rye 24 bu;
      barley 170 bu; buck wheat 108 bu; corn 412 bu; hay 1593 tons
      (1697 acres)
     52 orchards and gardens 1539 bu (5211 acres); grapes 80 lbs;
      apples 368 bu; other fruit 140 bu
     maple syrup 150 lbs; tobacco 141 lbs; hops 41 lbs
     horses >3yrs  292; 91 colts and fillies; 7 working oxen;
      538 milch cows; 376 other horned cattle; 893 sheep;
      350 pigs; 190 bee hives
     slaughtered; 173 cattle, 465 sheep, 382 pigs
     butter 4352 lbs; cheese 708 lbs; honey 1655 lbs;
      wool 3388 lbs; 75 yds of cloth; 57 musk rats; 15 deer
     574,000 cu ft of sq white pine, 10,000 red pine, 63,000
      tamarac, 1000 birch or maple, 1000 elm, 141,000 other
      squared
     19,047 pine logs, 2,927 spruce; 5,294 cords firewood

Cumberland was created a township in Russell County in 1799.  It was named after Prince
Ernest Augustus (1771-1851), the 5th son of King Geo 111. (Not to be confused with his grt
uncle, 'Butcher' Cumberland of Culloden imfamy).  The Prince had became the Duke of
Cumberland (a County in N'n England), in 1799.

The 4 twps were formed into the single municipality of Russell in Jan'50 but this was reversed in
Dec'50.

Council for the United Co's of Prescott and Russell, in Feb'47, required every man of age 21-60
to work 1 day/year (or pay 2s6p for a substitute).

The first road to open up the south shore of the Ottawa River was completed c1850.  Originally
called 'the L'Orignal-Bytown Rd', it  linked the little villages that huddled on the banks whose
only means of communications had been by canoe and river steamer.  It also brought in a new
tavern (where the road crossed the Gloucester boundary) to add to the two previous ones; near
the Cumberland Village ferry wharf, and another near Bearbrook.

The milk industry began c1885 when creameries began to appear.

======

 CHURCHES. 

-Cumberland Old Kirk; built 1823 in Cumberland Village, Rev Geo
  Bell.  Destroyed by fire 1878.
-St Andrews Presbyterian in Cumberland Village was built 1836, Rev
  John McEwan.
-Methodist services were held in a frame house donated in 1862 by
  Mrs Jessie Wilson.  They later went to Bearbrook.
-Bearbrook Anglican  c1845; present stone one built 1900
-Plymouth Brethern
-Anabaptist
-RC mission was established Oct'48 (just N of French Hill, on Robitaille
  land).  The missionary was Father John Brady.  The 1st services in
  Cumberland were in the Giroux residence on Market St.  Mr Foubert
  offered land in Cumberland Village in 1855 to Father FR Michel
  from of Buckingham).  The Cumberland chapel burned down in 1866.
  Father Almeras from Curran (1858).  Father G Ebrard in 1860.
  In 1861 Father Onesime Boucher from St Eugene, built a new chapel
  and presbytery, but both were destroyed by arson in 1866 and then
  services moved to Clarence Creek.  James Morin donated the land
  in Cumberland where the present church stands.

======

 SETTLEMENT DUTIES. 

Settlers were given a location ticket.  They had 2 years to clear « of the road in front and rear
(altho it appears they had only to do the front road), cut down, clear and fence 5 acres along the
front of each 100 acres (altho it was considered adequate to cut down, without clearing, a 1
chain depth of land along both front and rear; and even then it seems the front was adequate);
and build a 16x20 dwelling house.

======

 OLD CUMBERLAND VIGNETTES. 

'A few days ago, an Italian minstral was arrested on the Ottawa River, on suspicion of having
committed a robbery, from having, when in liquor, exhibited a number of Bank bills of 100 and
50 dollars amounting altogether to $900, which he wished to exchange for gold; the bills were
also suspected to be forgeries.  On enquiries in Montreal they are discovered to be good, and the
man has been enabled to satisfy the Magistrates, that the money he possessed was the wealth he
had acquired during 10 years absence from his home, during which he has traversed almost
every part of this continent, with no other means of acquiring money than a monkey and a hand-
organ.'
  Montreal Gazette, 14 June 1834. 


Vars; wanted to continue using the name Bearbrooke but it was already
         officially allocated.  So took 1st letter of the 4 orig families;
         McVeigh, Armstrong, Rowan and Smith

Veighton; 6mi from Eastan's Springs on Cda Atlantic RR
         1st post-master was John McVeigh