A DIGRESSION.
In the fall of 1831 Chief McNab had become acquainted in Montreal with
two young gentlemen of some capital, who had just emigrated. These were
Messrs. George and Andrew Buchanan. He had persuaded them to settle in
"his Township," and erect mills. He spoke in glowing terms of the rapids
at the mouth of the Madawaska, and of the advantages to be derived from
an early settlement in that locality. Lavish of promises and
protestations, he offered them the mill site free, and timber for
sawlogs to any amount for an interminable length of years for a trifling
consideration. Further, he claimed them as distant relatives, being
descended, as he discovered, from a collateral branch of the Buchanans
of Arnprior. The young men accompanied the Chief from Montreal, and
proceeded up the river to inspect the place. Impressed with the
favorable nature of the locality, they agreed to the Chief's terms and
named the place (in compliment to McNab, as well as on account of their
origin) Arnprior, which name it bears to the present day. As has been
before stated the Chief's grandfather on the mother's side was Buchanan
of Arnprior. In 1745 he became connected with the rebellion, and on the
final suppression of the revolt by the disastrous defeat of Culloden
_The Buchanan_ was arrested, brought to Carlisle, where his offence
against the House of Hanover was first committed, tried and beheaded.
His estates were all forfeited with the exception of Leney, which he had
previously assigned to his daughter. In 1809, Francis, Chief of McNab,
uncle to the gentleman whose adventures we are recording, by his
influence with Lord Breadalbane and the Scottish nobility, with whom he
was a great favorite, owing to his eccentricity and originality,
procured a reversal of the attainder, and being the only legitimate
heir, succeeded to the possession of the Arnprior estates in Kippin. In
1819, Archibald, the last chieftain of the McNabs, the subject of this
narrative, sold the estates to a manufacturer for L80,000, and
squandered most of the proceeds in Paris, and paid a small sum of it to
Breadalbane, in part of his lordship's _wadset_ against the Kennell
estate. So that now a cotton spinner and cloth manufacturer is King of
Kippin instead of the descendants of those who rivalled King James V. of
Scotland in magnificence and hospitality. The Laird of McNab, in
detailing this piece of historical biography to Mr. Andrew Buchanan,
suggested the name and it was at once adopted, and a glorious
jollification of it they had at Kennell that night. James McNee, in the
full glory of a new set of pipes, decorated with beautiful ribbons,
performed the part of the Ancient Minstrels at the castles of their
lords and blew forth in joyous peals the martial strains of Scotland's
music--strains that have led on the sons of the heather and hill to
those daring deeds of bravery and dazzling exploits of valor that have
adorned the victories and triumphs of Britain in every age, and still
have the same exhilarating effects wherever the trump and the drum, the
roar of cannon and the clashing of steel, proclaim the strife, the
battle and the victory. And thus the Arnprior of Canada was named, thus
Arnprior of the Ottawa came into existence, a village which many years
afterwards was visited by the eldest son of our gracious Queen, the
descendant of that house to which the forefathers of the Buchanans of
Arnprior were opposed in deadly strife from pure but mistaken loyalty to
an unfortunate race of princes, whose tyranny and violation of
constitutional rights drove them from a throne of now the greatest and
proudest united nation in the universe.
The arrangement between the Laird of McNab and Messrs. Andrew and George
Buchanan was finally concluded. McNab was to give them a free deed of
lot No. 3 in concession C of McNab, subject to the reservations in the
Patent from the Crown, and permit them to cut all the timber within
three miles of the Madawaska river for saw logs, while they or their
assigns occupied the mills. On their part they and their assigns were to
pay the Chief for this privilege L300 per annum. In January, 1832, McNab
procured the Patent from the Crown, with certain reservations of a
peculiar nature, which we will treat of hereafter in the proper place,
and the Buchanans were making the necessary preparations for bringing
up goods in the spring, and of commencing at that season the erection of
a grist and saw mill near the very spot where McLachlin's mills now
stand. Mr. Rogerson, the manager of the Buchanans' concern, accordingly
came up with the goods in the beginning of April, 1832, but he would not
open a bale or make the least preparations for the works until the
transfer deed of the Arnprior property was placed in his hands. Such
were his instructions. It seems that the Buchanans had some suspicious
conjectures respecting the Chief's good faith, as he had taken the same
lot from Messrs. Dan. and Alex. Ross, after they had begun to improve
it, and even after they had made a considerable clearance upon it. The
Chief reluctantly gave Mr. Rogerson the required transfer. It was
executed on the 27th of April, 1832. The Buchanans gave the Chief a bond
for the performance of their part of the contract, and immediately
commenced operations. The land was cleared. Workshops built of logs were
erected, a store and dwelling-house of the same rude material were
speedily thrown up, goods were opened out for sale, and energy and
business and work and stir and bustle were in the height of activity. A
large dam was thrown completely across the Madawaska, and over the
summit of the dam a bridge spanned the river from bank to bank. A grist
mill was erected on the small island where now the present bridge rests
one of its piers, and the saw mill stood exactly on the site of one of
McLachlin's lumber mills, on the east side of the river. By the spring
of 1833, all the works were in active operation. The mills were
finished, saw logs were driven down the river, cut up into lumber, and
sent to market. A gang of eleven saws were kept continually at work, and
Arnprior then bid fair to become the nucleus of trade and manufacture
for the surrounding country, under the auspices of the Messrs. Buchanan.
A medical gentleman named Dr. Higginson, was induced to settle in the
neighborhood, but finding the people too robust and the climate too
salubrious, he was compelled to "_vamoose the ranche_." Mr. Andrew
Buchanan was appointed a Justice of the Peace, and he sat with the Chief
to administer the law, and also acted the part of clergyman in
celebrating the marriage ceremony in the absence of the Chief. A number
of emigrants from Scotland settled in the township this year (1833.)
They were principally from Breadalbane, and it was about this time that
Mr. James Morris, father to the High Sheriff of the County of Renfrew,
took up his abode in the Canaan settlement of McNab. The settlers had a
peculiar _penchant_ for giving scriptural names to the several
settlements which continue to this day and are used in common parlance.
Thus they have Canaan on the 2nd line, and Goshen on the 4th and 5th,
Dan on the East side of the Madawaska, etc., etc. The Chief was now
receiving the rents pretty fairly. He had a number of settlers who
looked upon him with respect and awe, and they thought that the Flat
Rapid people were in a state of sinful rebellion.
The following letter, written by the Chief about this time, shows the
kind of feeling that prevailed at the time between himself and the
majority of the settlers. It was written to a person then on the most
friendly terms with him, who from the force of circumstances five years
afterwards, found himself impelled to join the other settlers in a
strong remonstrance to the Government.
[COPY.]
KENNELL LODGE, October 16th, 1832.
_Mr. Matthew Barr:_
DEAR MATTHEW,--I again am to trouble with more letters. This will
be put into your hands by James Dunlop, his brother accompanying
him. He wishes to have 100 acres of land, and if you could show him
a half lot of land that you think would suit him, I will thank you
to point it out to him. I am certain Donald McNaughton or Donald
Fisher will give them a night's lodgings if your house be throng.
Excuse this and believe me,
Yours truly,
(Signed) McNAB.
There were no taverns in those days, but the people were, as they still
are, remarkably hospitable.
The Chief always signed himself "McNab," except in legal documents, and
considered it a gross insult to be styled Mr. McNab.
It was in the commencement of 1834 that McNab procured judgment against
Donald McNaughton, Sr., John McIntyre and Peter McIntyre, for the
amount of their bond. The others of the "black sheep" could not be
served with process, notwithstanding all the efforts of the Sheriff and
his bailiffs. Donald McIntyre came to the Chief's terms and settled with
him. It was about this time too that the Buchanans and McNab had a
serious quarrel. Mr John Powell had been member of the Legislature for
Lanark, and he had discovered the tenure under which McNab held the
township. George Buchanan had married his sister, and the fact came out
that he was only an agent for the Government, consequently, when the
annual subsidy of L300 became due, the Buchanans refused to pay, upon
the grounds that they had been induced to sign the bond under
misrepresentations. McNab instantly went to law and invoked the common
law courts to his aid. The Buchanans appealed to Chancery for an
investigation upon the grounds they had alleged. The Buchanans, on their
side, stated that the Chief had allowed Matthew Barr, Mitchell &
Sutherland, and other lumberers to make timber on the particular
localities set apart for them, viz., within three miles on both sides of
the Madawaska, and had therefore broken his contract. The injunction
was granted, and both parties were induced by mutual friends to leave
the matter to arbitration, which was held at Fitzroy Harbor during the
fall of 1835, and the arbitrators decided against the Chief. McNab then
appealed to Chancery, and the case was going on when the Buchanans
failed in 1836, and handed over the property to Messrs. Gold, Simpson &
Mittleberger, and McNab lost the whole. The Buchanans had offered to
compromise the matter by giving the Chief L150 per annum. This McNab
indignantly refused.