Part 3 (1/2)
”Then, my men,” exclaimed he, foaming with rage, ”you don't get the money at all; I will send it back to York.”
They begged him to reconsider his resolution, and offered to expend 50 of the money at White Lake.
”No; not one farthing shall be spent elsewhere. You will suffer, my men, for this disobedience. The fate of Miller and the McIntyres shall be yours.”
Thereupon Duncan McNab, who was not only a settler but a lumberer, and had acquired considerable wealth, told the Chief flatly that he was nothing but an agent; that George Buchanan had found it out, and that the people were aware of it.
The Chief stared at him aghast, rolled up his eyes, made a number of pantomimic gestures, at which he was an adept; and terminated the interview by ordering them out of the house. This dispute eventually culminated in a law-suit, and four years elapsed before the money was obtained from the Chief, and expended.
While the Chief was building his cottage at White Lake, and disputing with the towns.h.i.+p commissioners, the Messrs. Buchanan were actively engaged in carrying on the improvements and investing capital in a new enterprise. Since the first settlers had taken up their locations in McNab, a regular line of steamboat communication had been established between Montreal and Fitzroy Harbor (the Chats). The _Ottawa_ plied between Lachine and Carillon; the old _Shannon_ performed its regular trips between Grenville and Bytown; and the _Lady Colborne_ made its tri-weekly voyage between Aylmer and the Chats. The Messrs. Buchanan resolved to extend the communication to the Cheneaux. Accordingly, in the autumn of 1835, they commenced making preparations to build the _George Buchanan_; the keel was laid--the materials procured--s.h.i.+p-builders actively at work--when Mr. Andrew Buchanan fell ill and died. This was a sad blow to the prospects of the Company. The deceased was a gentleman of education, ability and energy; and the a.s.sistance of his great commercial abilities was much needed at this crisis. Mr. Buchanan was buried on a knoll on the west side of the Madawaska. The spot is now occupied by the house and store of Mr.
William Russell. Previous to commencing their building in 1853, Messrs.
Russell caused Mr. Buchanan's remains to be removed to the Inch-Bhui burying ground at Arnprior, a beautiful spot at the mouth of the Madawaska, consisting of two acres specially granted by the Chief as a burying ground for the towns.h.i.+p.
At this eventful period the dispute between McNab and the Buchanans was at its height. McPhee, a foreman of theirs, had that season made an immense quant.i.ty of saw-logs on the settlers' lots for their mills, and had driven the greater part of them to the boom at Arnprior. To embarra.s.s the Buchanans was now his object and delight. By the wording of the patent from the Crown, certain reservations and restrictions were made with respect to the river, and notice was served on Mr. George Buchanan and by the Chief's legal adviser that an injunction would be moved for in Chancery to restrain him from violating the restrictions in the patent, in consequence of which a new boom had to be made further up the river, where the lands were not severed from the Crown. As this patent is of the utmost consequence to the people now, and to the lumber trade on the Madawaska, the writer has, with no small trouble, obtained an exemplification of the original deed. It is as follows:--
PROVINCE OF UPPER CANADA, } George the Fourth, P. MAITLAND: } by the Grace of G.o.d, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, KING: To all whom these presents shall come, greeting:
Know Ye that We, of our special grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, have given and granted, and by these presents do give and grant unto ARCHIBALD McNAB of McNab, of the towns.h.i.+p of McNab, in the County of Carleton, in the District of Bathurst, his heirs and a.s.signs forever, all that parcel or tract of land situate in the towns.h.i.+p of McNab, in the County of Carleton, in the District of Bathurst, in our said Province, containing by admeasurement Four Hundred and Fifty Acres, be the same more or less, being the South-Westerly halves of Lots Three and Four, the North-Easterly half of Lot number Three, and the broken Lot number Five, in concession C in the said towns.h.i.+p of McNab; Together with all woods and waters lying and being under the reservations, limitations, and conditions hereinafter expressed.
(Then follow the surveyor's boundaries, which are in the usual form, except the boundaries of number Five, which we transcribe:) Also commencing where a post has been planted at the South-West angle of the said broken Lot number Five, then north thirty-six degrees west thirty chains more or less to the Grand or Ottawa River, then easterly along the sh.o.r.e to the mouth of the River Madawaska, then southerly along the water's edge of the said river, against the stream, to the southern limit of the said Lot, then south fifty-four degrees west to the place of beginning, containing One Hundred and Fifty acres, more or less.
To have and to hold the said parcel or tract of land hereby given or granted to him the said Archibald McNab (reserving free access to the beach by all vessels, boats and persons, and also all navigable waters within the said tract of land) his heirs and a.s.signs forever, saving nevertheless to us, our heirs and successors, all mines of gold and silver that shall or may be hereafter found on any part of the said parcel or tract of land hereby given and granted as aforesaid,--&c., &c.
2nd proviso reserves all white pine trees.
3rd proviso enjoins the erection of a dwelling-house.
PROVIDED also that it as any time or times thereafter the land so hereby given and granted to the said Archibald McNab and his heirs shall come into possession or tenure of any person or persons whomsoever, either by virtue of any deed or sale, conveyance, enfeoffment, or exchange; or by gift, inheritance, descent, devise, or marriage; such person or persons shall _twelve months_ next after his, her, or their entry into and possession of the same, take the oaths prescribed by law, before some one of the magistrates of our said Province, and a certificate of such oath having been so taken, shall cause to be recorded in the Secretary's office of the said Province. In default of all or any of which conditions, limitations and restrictions, the said Grant, and everything herein contained, shall be, and We hereby declare the same to be null and void, to all intents and purposes whatsoever; and the land hereby granted, and every part and parcel thereof, shall revert to, and become vested in us, Our Heirs and Successors in like manner, as if the same had never been granted, etc., etc.
(Signed) JOHN B. ROBINSON, _Attorney-General_.
Given under the Great Seal of our Province of Upper Canada: Witness our trusty and well-beloved Sir Peregrine Maitland, K.C.B., etc., etc.; this Twenty-eighth day of February, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight, and ninth of Our reign.
By command of His Excellency in Council,
(Signed) D. CAMERON, _Sec'y_.
Entered with the Auditor, 8th March, 1828.
(Signed) S. HEWARD, _Aud. Gen'l_.
[NOTE.--It will be observed that anyone who has purchased land from the McNab or his a.s.signs, or from any one holding under them, in the village of Arnprior, itself, or in any portions of the lots described in the patent, must have the oaths of supremacy and allegiance taken and registered within a year of their entry and possession, or their land is forfeited to the Crown. And again, by another of the provisions it stipulates that if free access to the beach on the sh.o.r.es of the Ottawa and Madawaska by means of booms and other impediments is prevented, the whole of the above land is forfeited; and the party hindered from this free access, either through the land, or by boat or vessels by water, has his remedy by action. There seems something strange in the wording of this particular patent, differing, as it does, from all others, but it was drafted by Sir John Beverly Robinson, late Chief Justice of Upper Canada, and was evidently drawn up with great care and forethought, in order to protect the rights of the lumbermen taking their timber down the Madawaska.]
At the close of this year, in consequence of his dispute with the Buchanans, the Chief procured a specific grant of all the white-pine timber on all unlocated lands in the towns.h.i.+p. This grant was made by patent, but he took special care in locating new lots to reserve the timber for his own use. We now find McNab at the close of this year (1835), engaged in a law-suit with Mr. George Buchanan and others involved in a dispute with the Commissioners respecting road-grants, and making a new farm and building a new cottage at White Lake.--His hands were full, but this did not prevent him from carrying out his revenge on certain of the ”black sheep,” the full particulars of which will be detailed in the following chapter.
CHAPTER IX.
1836 AND 1837--IMPRISONMENT OF THE M'INTYRES--DISAFFECTION OF THE SETTLERS.
This year opened with disputes between McNab and the people, about the road money. At the town meeting Duncan McNab resigned his commissioners.h.i.+p, and Angus McNab was elected in his stead.--Before the town-meeting had terminated its business, the Laird made his appearance, told the people he had the money, pulled our a large roll of bills, and openly defied the commissioners. If the money was not laid out where he wanted it, they would not have the satisfaction of expending it at all.
He said he would return it to the Treasurer with instructions not to pay it over without his order. Accordingly he returned 100 to Mr. McKay, who was then County Treasurer; the remainder he kept in his own hands.
The commissioners could not go on with improvements. The bridge at Johnston's Rock (Burnstown), had to be postponed; legal advice was taken, and a suit, under the management of the late T. M. Radenhurst, was commenced against the Chief. While this was going on the Chief had procured a _ca. sa_ against John McIntyre and his son Peter. In the dead of winter, in the latter end of January, 1836, the officers of the law made a raid into the Flat Rapid settlement, arrested and carried off the two unfortunate victims of the Chief's anger. The old man, John McIntyre, was then seventy years of age, and his son Peter was in the prime of manhood. Their wives accompanied them to Kennell. The old man was not allowed an overcoat to keep the cold from his attenuated frame.