CHAPTER VIII.
NEW SETTLERS—SHERIFF'S RAID—INCIPIENT REBELLION.
In the year 1834 a large party of Highlanders from Blair-Athol arrived, and finally settled in the township of McNab. They were hardy, healthy, robust and industrious men. They consisted of the McLachlans, the Stewarts, the Fergusons, the Robertsons, and the Duffs. The majority of these families still remain in the township, although some of them, as late as 1849 and 1850, removed to the Huron tract, and remained there. This was a great acquisition to the numerical strength of McNab. Being all located on lands of their own selection, assisted in this choice by others of their countrymen whose long residence had given them experience and knowledge, their location tickets were similar to the last band of settlers, with the exception of a new feature which was introduced into their agreement by the Chief, that "all the pine timber was reserved for the use of the Arnprior mills." Their lands might be slashed, trees might be felled, roads cut through their lots, brush and rubbish and tree-tops accumulated, thus increasing the difficulties of clearing, and no compensation made for anything in the shape of a recompense or remuneration for the greater labor thus imposed, ever offered to them. They were, of course, serfs. They must submit without a murmur to their liege lord, and to those to whom he had partly assigned his rights, or his assumed rights. They did for a time acquiesce, believing that the whole property was McNab's, and that he had the right to dispose of it as he pleased. The question was afterwards tested in the law courts of the country, and there was then discovered by the people that the "Law of Trespass" existed in Canada as well as at home. Matters went on smoothly and tranquilly until the first Monday of January, 1835. Then an event occurred that sent an electric shock through the whole settlement, and the people looked on in consternation and apprehension. The township had by this time been regularly organized. They had come under the jurisdiction of the quasi Municipal Law as then administered by the Quarter Sessions, composed of broken-down gentlemen and half-pay officers from Richmond, March, and Perth. Every half-pay officer was made a justice, and every justice was a Socrates, combining in his person a knowledge both of military and civil law; but in their judicial decisions (and they were sometimes very lucid, especially when good old Jamaica used its influence,) the martial prevailed over the civil. This court, besides taking cognizance of assaults, petty thefts, and misdemeanor, laid out the statute labor, expended the taxes, and administered all the internal and municipal concerns of the District. The executive municipal officers were elected by the people at their annual meeting held in January. The officers then chosen were Town-Clerks, Assessors, Collectors, and Pathmasters—all of them under the authority and jurisdiction of their Worships, the military and dilapidated Dogberrys in General Quarter Sessions assembled.
The town-meeting of 1835 for the township of McNab was held in the shanty of Mr. John McIntyre, in the Flat Rapid settlement, being the central lot of the township. It had just concluded its session.—Almost all the male inhabitants of the township had assembled, more for the purpose of seeing each other than for the business they had to transact. They knew that the Chief was able to manage all the business of the township if they did not attend. The people were about to disperse, and were standing at the door, preparatory to their departure. All at once a Deputy-Sheriff of Perth, with a posse of bailiffs, made their appearance, and having seized all John McIntyre's cattle, were driving them off. Mrs. McIntyre, with the spirit and courage of her grandfather, who had fought at Culloden, regardless of law or of the consequences, rushed with a wooden pitchfork on the bailiffs and belabored them soundly, till she was disarmed and carried off a prisoner to Kennell. All her cows and all the cattle of Peter McIntyre were swept away, under the execution obtained a year before, but which could not previously be enforced. Taking advantage of a large assembly, and seizing the opportunity of making a durable example before the eyes of all the settlers, that they might continue true to their allegiance and not swerve in the slightest degree from their future loyalty to the Chief, McNab improvised the occasion, and completely effected his purpose. This judicial raid filled the minds of the people with anxiety and apprehension, blended with pity for the sufferers. To assist the McIntyres was to impoverish themselves, and provoke the undying enmity of their leader. That year the rent was well paid: not a bushel was withheld. What had occurred to John and Peter McIntyre might any day happen to themselves. The Laird was all-powerful. He was supported and assisted by the Government. He held the social position of a great gentleman, and was undoubtedly a Highland Chieftain—reduced in circumstances, it is true, but still the legitimate head of a clan, which office had been hereditary in his family since the days of Malcolm Canmore. To oppose him was useless, and not to submit and obey was worse than madness. Those who had not yielded implicitly to his commands had come to grief. Both Miller and Alexander McNab had been compelled to fly the township; and now the McIntyres had been harried and ruined. Thus reasoned the poor Highlanders of McNab; and had the Chief at this juncture used his power and influence with moderation and prudence, the chains of feudalism would have been firmly riveted around the necks of his followers, which nothing but a legislative enactment, backed by adequate pecuniary compensation, could have burst asunder. Mrs. McIntyre, without as much as a cloak, was hurried to Kennell in the dead of winter, but was released next day by the advice of Mr. McMartin, who was there at the time. She had suffered so severely from exposure to the cold that she was confined to her bed for weeks.
The cattle were sold and barely paid expenses. It was no joke to travel with an execution any distance in those days. The expense was enormous, owing to the paucity of travelling facilities and the state of the roads.
In the fall of this year the Chief turned his attention toward the back settlement of the township. He had heard from the settlers and others that there was a good tract of hardwood land around White Lake. Thither he betook himself in October. He sent the "fiery cross" through the people, and assembled on a spot where the village now stands a large concourse of settlers to assist him in making a new colony. A few acres were instantly cleared, and a small stone house with pavilion roof was erected, which he named Waba Cottage. The Chief's first motive for settling here was to be at a distance from the Buchanans, with whom he had quarrelled a few weeks before he began his new undertaking; but upon inspection he at once perceived the natural advantages for milling purposes, and the employment of all kinds of machinery afforded by Waba brook—the outlet of the lake,—and it was judged both profitable and expedient to secure the land in this neighborhood for his son Allan, whom he represented to the Government as a settler; and his pliable friend, Sir Francis Bond Head, Lieut.-Governor of Upper Canada, the year following made and ordered out a patent for 720 acres, round the lake, to Allan McNab, as a settler under McNab of McNab. This was making a splendid provision for his son (by the bar sinister) without impairing his own grant of 4,000 acres—an amount of land formerly given to a field-officer.
While these transactions were going on about White Lake, let us turn our eyes to other portions of the township, where improvements were being steadily made, and the furthering of which was the origin of a quarrel with the settlers which led to important results. The lands on the north side of the Madawaska were being rapidly filled up, and it became necessary to connect both sides of the river by a bridge at "Johnson's Rock" (the site of the present Burnstown Bridge). For this purpose, through the representations of the Chief, the House of Assembly, in February, 1835, on the motion of the Hon. Malcolm Cameron, granted a sum of money for that and other improvements, and appointed Duncan McNab (Auchessan), Donald McNaughton, (Mohr), and James Carmichael commissioners to superintend its expenditure. These were the men nominated by the Laird himself. They were his particular friends. They, he imagined, would do as he bade them, and expend the money as he desired. It was £200. A moiety of this money was to be appropriated to the Madawaska bridge. The Government handed the money to McNab to bring down to the commissioners. McNab called a meeting of these gentlemen to ascertain their views. He wished the other half to be expended at White Lake. To his utter astonishment the commissioners refused to accede to his proposal. They were independent men. They had paid their rents regularly. They had nothing to fear from the Chief. They firmly but respectfully suggested the plan of dividing a portion of the funds among other parts of the township. The Chief fumed and puffed with indignation at their presumption of even remonstrating.
"Then, my men," exclaimed he, foaming with rage, "you don't get the money at all; I will send it back to York."