Section One

"OLD CLAYTON" (the little village summed up like this)

There was Charlie the Tanner

Who tans the leather

and Johnny the Cobbler

Who puts it together

There’s Haron the Cooper

Who always looks sweet

When Drummond the Miller

Was grinding the wheat

There was Leishman, the hotel keeper

Who sold us the good wine

As ever was brewed

From blackberry wine

Banning sold sugar, tea, and coffee and nails

Calico. overalls, spices and pails

He stamped all the letters

To Uncle Ed them gave

Who uttered Good Morning with a nasal wail

Then drove he away with Her Majesty’s mail

John Nolan made Boots

The soles pegged with wood

Resisting the stones and every sharp root

The sport of the town

Would strut up and down

His gate was the same

Dan Thompson was his name

John Brown was the Doctor

Who could cure all your ills

With a wave of his hand

And Calomel Pills

Rev. Osborne was leader in spiritual things

And prayed that the soul might rise on wing

And fly with the spirits of infinite Love

To loose themselves in Heaven above.

This was supposed to have been written by

Ross Banting’s Uncle Jack Banning in the 1890’s.

(The Bellamys were the founders of Clayton)

A PEEK IN THE PAST (reprinted in the Almonte Gazette, August, 1969)

The following story of the trials and tribulations of its first settlers and the progress of the Township of Ramsay since its early beginnings in 1821 up to the year 1868, appeared in the Almonte Gazette of May 22nd, 1869.

* * * * * *

The Township of Ramsay is situated in the County of Lanark, and is nearly midway, in a north-easterly direction between Brockville on the St. Lawrence, and the Village of Sand Point on the Ottawa River, and is traversed by the Brockville and Ottawa Railroad.

It is surrounded by a healthy and populous farming country, and some years ago was among the most noted of the townships in Central Canada for the quality and quantity of the agricultural produce, particularly fall wheat, which it furnished to local purchasers, as well as to the then great lumber emporium of Bytown, now transformed into Ottawa City, the Capital of the Dominion of Canada. For some years past, owing to the increasing openness of the country, this grain has been liable to more or less winter killing, consequently farmers have turned their attention to other branches of agricultural products, particularly stock raising, which since the American war, has been a most profitable employment. The soil is generally good, embracing great variety from the light siliceous to the heavy alluvial.

The township contains about 63,000 acres, of which 58,488 are occupied. The Canadian Mississippi, a large body of water, traverses it angularly, and enriches it with several most splendid water powers, giving every facility for the erection of machinery of various kinds. which have been made largely available for manufacturing purposes; it is also well supplied with smaller streams, some of which have been utilized in like manner.

Fine quarries of building stone, both lime and sandstone, are accessible; iron ore of different kinds is abundant, but has never been wrought; a lead mine was carried on for some time, but was abandoned, we believe, for want of sufficient outfall for drainage.

During the period of clearing the land, large quantities of potashes were manufactured, and from being always a cash article, proved a useful resource to the settler. Great quantities of square timber, red and white pine, oak and elm, were also sent to Quebec, but although of the finest quality, not always with the most profitable results. It is unnecessary to say that both these branches of industry are now among the things that were, although other and more beneficial and lasting lines have been and are being largely developed.

The township was principally settled in 1821 by operatives from Glasgow and Paisley, who emigrated under the auspices of the government. They were furnished on their arrival in Quebec with a free passage (such as it was) to the Village of Lanark, then the nearest place at which accommodation could be procured for them, till they had an opportunity of going upon their land; they had also there a choice of location, the townships of Lanark, Dalhousie and Sherbrooke being open for settlement at the same time.

Heads of families received a grant of 100 acres of land; the government also furnished them with a few tools, blankets and other necessities. The sum of eight pounds sterling was also given by installments to every individual, which it was then understood was to be repaid after a few years, but was afterward entirely remitted. Here it may be remarked that those coming to any part of Canada now have no idea of the hardships that these pioneers of the present comfortable homes of Canada had to endure.

After a long and crowded passage in a sailing ship, they were put into what was called a steamboat at Quebec; which after three or four days, arrived at "the foot of the current" at Montreal, up which they had to be towed by horses and oxen; then transferred by carts to Lachine, and stored in military sheds, till bateaux could be found to take them to Prescott, the men getting out at the rapids to tow the clumsy crafts up the stream.

From Prescott they wended their weary way in ox-wagons, by Brockville and Perth to Lanark, through what was then but a thinly settled country, and mere tracks through the woods. On arriving at this promised haven of rest, each had to provide himself with a wigwam, of brush or other material, as his means, or ingenuity, enabled him. Sickness, as a matter of course, raged, especially among the young, and comforts were not to be procured, even by the few who had the means.

One of the best off families among the many hundreds who came out, found their first shelter in a human habitation in Canada, in the house of a gentleman in Perth, the late Col. Taylor, well known to all in those days for his kindness and philanthropy. After all this had been gone through, the land was to be selected and located; roads were not; the rivers or the surveyors’ lines were all that these unexperienced woodmen had to guide them.

After selecting their lots, a few of the most enterprising built scows, and in these most of the Ramsay settlers got down to the nearest points on the river to where they intended to settle, and under them many of their families lived for weeks of the cold wet months of September and October, till they got their primitive shanties built, no easy job with unpracticed men, and with only their neighbours to help them to carry logs, many of whom had never seen a full grown tree in their lives, till they came to Canada

Contrast all this with the troubles of the emigrant of today. Hurried over the Atlantic in a magnificent steamship, only eight or ten days out of the sight of land; from Quebec, rushing at whirlwind speed on the finest steamers in the world, or on the swifter railway, towards the setting sun, through towns and cities vying with each other in their eagerness to serve them, and reaching their destination on the far shores of Huron or Nipissing, in less time than it took between Quebec and Montreal, or between Brockville and Perth, surely we must say that their lines have fallen in pleasant places.

Could those who now complain of their hardships only realize those of the emigrants of half a century ago, they would surely show a less discontented spirit.

The Ramsay settlers, from their former mode of life, being necessarily unacquainted with agriculture, and not having been accustomed to severe labour, had, as might be expected, many privations to endure for the first few years; they were in the undesirable situation of the African traveller; "no cows had they to give them milk; no mills to grind their corn;" but alas! this is not all, for during the first and second years, the great difficulty was to procure corn, or indeed, provisions of any kind.

In 1822 there was but one ox in Ramsay, owned by James Metcalf, of the ninth line, and one horse, Mr. Robert Mansell’s; cows were plentier, for there were two, Mr. Mansell and John Gemmill having one each. The clearings were small, all the logging, etc., having to be done by hand, and the woods shading a great part of the small crops. What grain was sowed had to be covered with the hoe; the returns were therefore small, and many families were reduced to great distress, and were obliged to live on the most unsavoury and often unwholesome viands. But, with the plentiful crop of 1823 all their hardships were forgotten, and no serious difficulties of the kind ever afterwards occurred.

During the fall of 1823, a new trouble came upon a portion of them; the Government brought out a large body of Irish emigrants, chiefly from the Counties of Cork and Limerick, under the charge of Hon. Peter Robinson, brother of the late Chief Justice. They were established for the winter in a camp, which they called Ballygiblin, about the spot where Mr. McGuire’s furniture establishment now stands in the present village of Almonte, where they received military rations and lived off the fat of the land.

As the landlords in Ireland, who had selection, naturally wished to rid themselves of the most improvident and unruly, it was no wonder that, with a few exceptions, they were disposed to follow their old system in Canada - leading idle and dissolute lives. For want of other amusement they took to fighting among themselves, and as a variety, to beating and maltreating others; for any or for no cause, unoffending men were beaten nearly to death. Some dared not to sleep in their own houses, and to such a pitch had they got that on the morning of May, 1824, the Militia of Perth and vicinity, under command of the authorities made an attack upon the camp, killing one, and wounding and capturing many of the turbulent, which put an effectual stay to their outrageous proceedings.

It is worthy of remarks that of those who remained about the camp during the winter, very few ever came to any good, while those who settled at once upon their land and their descendants, are at the present time among the most respectable and wealthy people in the township. So much for seizing time and opportunity.

Another enemy for a few years troubled these adventurous men and their families; from the admission of the sun into the small clearings, and what the want of thorough circulation of air. The decaying vegetable matter produced a miasma causing great prevalence of fever and ague. This is generally the case in a climate like this, in similar circumstances; the enlargement of the clearings, promoting freer circulation, always as here, does away with any endemic disease of this kind, and since that time the settlement has been one of the healthiest on the continent.

The change since 1821 has been rapid and great; the forest has given way before the stroke of the axe; the wigwam of the Indian and the shanty of the settlers have been discarded for comfortable and substantial dwellings of frame, brick or stone; well cultivated and verdant fields have taken place of woods and swamps; bridges, mills, schools and churches have sprung up as if by magic; villages dot the surface of the township, and one of them, Almonte, already rivals many towns in size, as it far exceeds them in business and manufactures.

The Public Libraries in the County of Lanark in 1866 were one hundred and twenty-four, containing 21,319 volumes, and of this large intellectual provision, the people of Ramsay, true to their descent, enjoy a large proportion. The township is also the headquarters of the North Riding Agricultural Society, disbursing in 1867 $1380.

Of the manufacturing and business resource of the township, and particularly of the Village of Almonte, it is impossible here to speak, especially as the later deserves an article in itself.

A comparative table showing the rapid advance of the township and some of the material prosperity since 1851, would gladden the hearts of the old settlers, could they now see the fruits of their hardship and labours, but alas! they are fast passing away, not more than eight or ten of the original locatees of 1821 being left, but their descendants are now enjoying in peace and comfort the results of their arduous struggles.

Let those who are now coming into the country take courage from a knowledge of the success that crowned their labours, and go on perseveringly, in the firm belief that they can do the same, nay, in the altered and improved condition of the country, they may with less hardship accomplish much more.

Canada is no country for any man to sit down with folded hands, but he who has strength and a stout heart is sure of plenty for himself and those given to his cause, and ultimate comfort if not affluence.

Received from Frances and Donald Cooper - E-Mail - [email protected] Stittsville, Ontario. 20 January 2001.