Up the Gatineau! Article
This article was first published in Up the Gatineau! Volume 16.
Whither This Point of Land?
Norma Geggie
An excerpt from Wakefield And Its People: A Tour of the Village to be published this summer.
In the centre of the village of Wakefield, a small group of buildings sits comfortably on a short peninsula jutting into the Gatineau River on the west bank. Unlike most of the buildings which line the north-south highway and face east across the river, the buildings on the point face west and so share a unique situation.
Known locally as the Cross/Wills Point, it was at the turn of the century Patterson’s Point; in the 1850s it belonged to the Maclarens. However, this part of Range 1, Lot 1, in the Township of Wakefield belonged originally to Joseph Irwin, who had come from Ireland, and stated in the 1842 census return that he had been 13 years in the Province of Lower Canada. He may have arrived in Wakefield Township in l829 or, being a weaver by trade, he may have worked initially with the Wright family, as did other weavers who settled in the Wakefield area. But to have procured the sweep of land around the west bank of the river, he would certainly have been here in 1830 when Wakefield is understood to have been settled. Range 1, Lot 1 comprised most of the village of Wakefield. One wonders if the tall white pines, for which the country was settled, swept down to the river before the route north made its way up along the west bank of the Gatineau River. As the road ran straight past the curve of the river, a point of land large enough to contain several buildings was left between the river and the new highway.
After his arrival in I844, David Maclaren purchased William Fairbairn's mill on the Pêche River, began a general store and bought much of the central property that had been in the hands of Joseph Irwin. On the point he constructed a sawmill, as well as a log building, which is said to have served as a school and a Presbyterian church.
By 1851, also in the same area, a larger frame building was added to serve as a Presbyterian church which could accomodate 100 people. This was most likely demolished within ten years when a church double its capacity was constructed on land opposite. The property had been sold by David Maclaren for five shillings and is now the site of the present United church.
Further south the William Patterson family was farming in the north-east corner of the Township of Hull — where the Meech Creek joined the Gatineau River. William Patterson and his son George operated the stage-coach service between Bytown and North Wakefield (Alcove) between 1851 and I876. With the growth of the community in Wakefield, George Patterson moved up to the vigorous centre in the 1880s and built a general store, house and stables on the point. A photo of the Patterson complex, taken before the railway line came through, shows a frame store, with a one-and-a-half storey house setback from and south of it, and various outbuildings. Mrs. Patterson was one of several women who took in boarders, including holidayers, who visited during the summer months, especially after the construction of the rail line in 1892.
A fire, which began in the Thomas hotel stables immediately south of the Presbyterian church, swept through the centre of the village in 1904, destroying several businesses and houses. Even the group of buildings across the road from the original fire was destroyed. George Patterson lost his store, home, carriage shed with rigs and a valuable colt, two store-houses and stock worth $13,000. Fortunately he was able to rebuild on the same site. This time the store and house were larger and were as one sees them today - the large two-storey white house and the general store facing the church. And so George Patterson, and later his son Homer, carried on their business in the centre of the community for many more years.
In the fire of 1910 which destroyed the Maclaren mill complex, one of the families displaced was that of Harry Cross, a mill worker. His son Karol remembered being housed temporarily in the old log Methodist ’schooIhouse' behind the Methodist church. Karol and his brother Harrison purchased the Patterson general store in 1927 and served the community well until they closed their doors in I977. Karol Cross and his wife Edith and their three girls lived for many years in an apartment on the second floor of the shop, until a new residence was built directly south of the store. The Patterson house was bought by Elmer Wills and his wife Louise and continued to be Mrs. Wills’ home until her death in 1986. It is now owned by Edith Cross's daughter and her husband.
The role that a general store plays in a small community is one of tremendous importance to the residents. Apart from the necessity and convenience of being able to shop in one’s own village, the store serves as a meeting place for young and especially old, and the storekeepers become reliable friends, confidants, and in some cases, philanthropists in their community. The closing of the Cross store spelled the end of an era and about 90 years of continuous service.
The well-situated building, still in the possession of the Cross family, has been the home of a busy wood working enterprise; an antique and second-hand furniture outlet; the Gallery Camboose; an art gallery with a boat repair shop in the annex and, most recently, Boutique Julie selling women's clothing. The large white “Patterson” residence is little changed from that constructed after the 1904 fire.