Up the Gatineau! Article
This article was first published in Up the Gatineau! Volume 2.
The Development of a Community in Lower Canada. Wakefield
Judith Geggie
This is a description of the development of the district of Wakefield, a small village in Lower Canada, situated near what is now Ottawa. However, it is true, in part, of the development and population of a fair amount of eastern Canada. It exemplifies the sudden wave of settlers that broke over rural Upper and Lower Canada in the 1800's. ln these areas, we see one or two farming families settling down to clear and plant acres of virgin land, then others grasping the opportunities offered and rapidly moving into the area. As the need arises, skilled tradesmen arrive to senve the people of the growing community, and, alarmed by the pressures of a greater population, the original families make haste to purchase the land they live on, to protect themselves. From here on the development and population of land constantly expands.
Probably the first settler in the district of Wakefield was Thomas Stevenson who arrived from County Antrim in Northern Ireland in 1830. He settled on land that was described in 1853 as “the south half of Lot number 7 in the 3rd Range of the Township of Wakefield."1 He paid £25/4/2 for 100 acres although in the 1842 Census returns he declares having cleared only 18 acres for cultivation. That year he produced 50 bushels of wheat, 100 bushels of oats and 200 bushels of potatoes and he owned 7 cows, 1 horse and 5 pigs.
The Pritchards, also from Northern Ireland, followed the Stevensons in about 1834, although James Pritchard did not actually buy his land until 1845. In 1842 from the 40 acres that he had cleared he obtained 22 bushels of wheat, 500 bushels of oats and 200 bushels of potatoes. Eight head of cattle, 2 horses, 5 pigs and 5 sheep constituted his stock and that year he produced 13 pounds of wool.
The first mill of the area was established by a Scot from Roxburghshire, Mr. William Fairbairn who came to the valley at the same time as the Pritchards, 1834. ln a letter dated May 2, 1838, to “His Excellency Sir John Colborn, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Her Majesty’s Forces in the Provencesses of Lower and Upper Canada," Mr. Fairbairn said that, "As the place we settled is a place destitute of mills" and as your petitioner is of the millwright trade, and viewing a mill stand convenient to me on unsurveyed land," he thought it proper to acquaint the Governor of his plan and ask his permission to go on with it. ln 1844 Fairbairn's grist mill was sold to James MacLaren, father of the man who, in 1900, founded the present firm of the James MacLaren Co., Ltd. at Buckingham, Quebec2
The first census in Wakefield Township was taken in 1842 and it was comprised of a list of inhabited dwellings, the number of people in them, the name of the head of the house and reports on the land in use, the livestock and the produce. Of the 37 families listed only 12 were property owners and so entitled to vote. All were listed as farmers except Charles Lowe who was a lumber merchant. The total population was 262, and the countries of origin were as follows:-
| Number of natives of Ireland | 94 |
| Number of natives of Scotland | 7 |
| Number of natives of the U.S.A. | 6 |
| Number of aliens naturalized | 15 |
| Number of Canadian born | 140 (mainly made up of the children the households.) |
Most people stated that they had cleared 20 to 25 acres or less and they grew, on the average, 30 bushels of wheat, up to 400 bushels of oats, and as potatoes were a major staple, most people grew over 200 bushels. (One person declared that he had produced 700 bushels.) Eleven people sheared sheep to produce 12 to 15 pounds of wool and Jarvis Mullen produced 50 pounds of maple sugar. The enumerator of the census was listed as James Shouldice.
The next census was in 1851, and from then on it was taken every ten years. These census’ showed the country exploding with people. By the 1851 returns the population had more than doubled to 588 people. These people owned 11,495 acres of land of which 2,659 acres were cultivated and 2,003 acres were in crops. Most farms had at least doubled their cultivated acreage to 40 to 50 acres. They grew the same items as previously except, by now, butter, cheese and wool productions were significant.
Quite a number of skilled tradesmen had moved to the area such as:
- John Pomeray on Lot 4, Range 2, blacksmith from England.
- John Taggart on Lot 2, Range 2, shoemaker from lreland.
- Joshua Breadner, storekeeper from England.
- Reverend John Corbett, Presbyterian Minister from Ireland.
- Thomas Wisgate on Lot 1, Range 2, tailor from Ireland.
- Robert Earle on Lot 1, Range 4, carpenter from England, among others.
A notation for James MacLaren states that he had a two storey frame building used as a place of worship with a capacity of 100 people. Thomas Copeland, a Wesleyan Methodist, had a log house holding 100 persons as a place of worship. The priest, Father Thomas O’Boyle, had a log house used as a Church that was large enough to seat 300 people. The buildings were mainly log shanties but frame houses were not uncommon.
By 1861 the population again almost doubled and was 927. The religious distribution was much the same at one half Roman Catholic and one half Protestant. Their countries of origin were 65% Upper and Lower Canada but 25% still came from lreland. The first medical doctor had now joined the community; this man was Doctor Stephen Wright, age 27. Seth Cates is listed as being an Innkeeper; he owned the Temperance Hotel in Wakefield. He possessed one carriage for pleasure valued at 75 dollars and two carriages for hire at a value of 60 dollars.
In that year's census a Free Presbyterian Church was listed at a value of 600 dollars and a capacity of 200 people. A Roman Catholic church was being built and upon completion would be valued at 2,000 dollars.3 This was opposite the home of Patrick McGooey and close-by was the school-house which had 50 enrolees. The enumerator was still James Shouldice.
In 1871, Seth Cates was the enumerator. The population by then was 1,340 people. A wagon-maker, a saddler, a weaver and assorted other tradesmen had joined the community and Hans Stevenson, son of Thomas Stevenson and Ann Pritchard, was registered as a medical student. Doctor Stevenson was to return as the community doctor in Wakefield in later years. The high percentage of lrish immigration into Canada stemmed from the general living conditions in lreland, the repeated potato crop failures and also from the fact that the landowners of lreland were forcing the peasants off their farms and reverting to sheep farming. Canada, as a young unsettled country, offered great opportunities.
Footnotes
- Archives of the Province of Quebec, P.R.O. Lib. 1, Folio 47, Land Sales (concerning Thomas Stevenson.)
- Albert MacLaren was the son who founded the firm in 1900. The grist mill was not in the township of Wakefield as one would understand by reading the letter from William Fairbairn to the Governor, but is actually on the edges of the Township of Masham.
- The first Anglican Church, the Church of the Good Shepherd, in Wakefield, was erected in 1873 and is still in use.
Judith Geggie, of Wakefield, researched and wrote this essay which won first prize in the Society's second Essay Contest for High School students in 1973. Prizes were presented to her and to four other students at an assembly in Philemon Wright High School on Friday, 27 April 1973.
