Up the Gatineau! Article
This article was first published in Up the Gatineau! Volume 6.
Footnote to History
Unveiling of the Thompson Memorial
Brooks Hill, Low, Québec, 4 Oct 1968
Dear Mr. Davison:
We must congratulate you and the Historical Society most heartily on the magnificent unveiling of the Thompson Memorial at the Chelsea Cemetery. We were present through the kindness of an invitation from, we think, yourself. The whole ceremony was done on a worthily national level. Thompson 's soldier soul must have stirred when old Mr. Hare came forward to lay his wreath while the pipes sang under the Gatineau pines.
One wonders if Pte. Thompson had kin in the Gatineau and whether that drew him here in the first place. My Mother-in—law's family were Irish Thompsons and we still own 100 acreas of their farm on Thompson Lake near Gracefield.
After the service my wife and I visited her great-great-grandparents’ tomb, John Chamberlin and Mary Bloss. He was drowned 1837 in Farmer's Rapids when his over-laden canoe overturned. So he must be one of the early ones in the cemetery. Mary Bloss Chamberlin died at this house 1889 in her 100th year. There are cousins living who remember her.
At the grave we met Miss Jean Church, also a descendant of John Chamberlin. She told us a story of her first Church ancestor in the Valley and it seems a tale worth putting on record. Perhaps the Society has a file of early stories.
Church was returning to his farm with grist when night overtook him and he lost his way. Seeing a fire, he headed for it and found a group of Indians camping. They said it was too dark to show him the path but if he would stay the night they would put him on his way in the morning. He stayed but with some trepidation as the Indian band looked tough customers.
In the middle of the night he woke to feel a hand reaching under his head. Springing up he seized his musket and prepared to defend his life. At this all the Indians roared with laughter. "We were only trying to put something under your head” they said ”to stop you snoring”.
Always thereafter Church insisted his family treat the Indians with consideration as they had been kind to him when he was in trouble.
Yours sincerely,
Reginald B. Hale