Sometimes we all should take a little trip back into the history of how and why our ancestors did what they did.
Last Saturday, two of our municipalities, the library that they support and the Pontiac Archives that our Pontiac MRC also encourages, organized a little bus tour into the history of Clarendon, one of our municipalities. An educational tour like this should be offered to the public in every municipality so our citizens can have a chance to learn the true history of its past.
Although a few early pioneers arrived in the very early 1800s, mass settlement was not encouraged until the 1820s when Colonel Pendergast was charged by the British to survey the township and allot newly surveyed property to newly arriving settlers. The first settlers were given free lots if they accomplished certain criteria like clearing some property, planting some crops, constructing some sort of a . . .
dwelling to live in, and building some sort of a shed or barn. If those conditions were met in the allotted time, that pioneer could apply for another free lot, but, if no improvements were completed, the lot would be offered to someone else, and the same conditions would apply.
On our bus trip, local historian Jo-Anne Brownlee, pointed out the abandoned cheese factory, the earliest log homes, some of which still stand tall after almost 200 years, churches and graveyards which came after the earliest preacher circuit riders first visited the pioneers on horseback and held occasional services in the house of a pioneer. Some of the first graveyards were started on private land where family members were buried. Some cemeteries were also on donated, private land and started because of unknown people drowned in ship wrecks on the nearby river. Jo-Anne also pointed out where the earliest sawmills, grist mills, lime kilns, post offices and dwellings were located.
Most of the early settlers made landing on the north shore of the Ottawa River beside Colonel Pendergast’s home, which had been built of stone that had been used as ballast in empty ships returning from England, and stands at the foot of Heath Road, named after the second British agent who took over after Pendergast’s death in Quebec City.
Many of the little one-room schools, which came after the earliest education was offered in local homes until enough students warranted building a school, were also pointed out. Those little schools have been repurposed as cottages, homes, storage sheds, a municipal office, or even torn down or burned to make way for a highway. You would notice that all the early churches and schools in Clarendon were Protestant, because Pendergast had witnessed firsthand the religious unrest in Ireland that had gone on for many years and he decided to only encourage Protestants to settle in Clarendon while Catholics were persuaded to seek better land in an adjoining township. In 1998, Sir John Hume brokered the Good Friday Peace Agreement to end the severe religious unrest, and later received the Nobel Peace prize for his contribution to mankind.
Now in Pontiac County, Catholics and Protestants live, work, play, and marry together happily. Maybe Pendergast was more visionary than people thought 200 years ago?
We also witnessed how climate change has allowed Pontiac County farmers to now grow many acres of grain corn, soybeans, and even grapes for wine as we visited the first winery in Clarendon. Although we passed several old, abandoned barns falling down, we visited one proud, solid old barn that has been repurposed into a large, historic venue for weddings and other large parties, but on this occasion it was a place to view some recently unearthed very old artifacts from a location close to the Ottawa River.
We also drove past several very large grain, beef, and dairy farms. We noticed many new small farms specializing in home-grown garden crops, different animals, such as yaks for meat and an increase in farmers markets that give consumers opportunity to buy fresh produce while talking to the farmer who grew it. We witnessed the beginning of agri-tourism, an opportunity for consumers to learn where food come from and take a tour through the beautiful countryside where it’s produced. An increase in the number of bed and breakfasts, Airbnbs, camp sites, and information about sites of interest, like the old covered bridge, the chutes, cider mills, breweries, museums, fairs, restaurants, music venues, hunting, fishing, our beautiful historic old towns, and walking tours, help to attract visitors to this beautiful Pontiac County.
Ask your ancestors how they chose to come here and why.
