Updates made to Up To Rawdon
What’s New – December 2024
With thanks to those who shared and good wishes to all in 2025
- Page 568 photo of Canon George Albert Mason 1868 – 1950 added to the Photo Gallery. https://uptorawdon.com/photo-updates/#p568 Canon Mason, , grandson of ‘English’ John Mason and Ann Swift, son of George Mason and Jane Herbert, courtesy of Bishop Peter Mason (his grandson).
- Two photos of my great grandmother Ann Boyce Smith have been added. She has been on my mind since finding a “cure” for rheumatism in her receipt book. “2 oz sulphur, 2 oz cream of tartar, 1 ounce saltpetre in 2 quarts of water boiled down to 1 quart. Take a wine glass of the liquor night and morning.” One can see how badly her hands are afflicted with arthritis in the 1903 photo; she was only 64 years old and would die at 96. Go to photo gallery p_841
- There is a link on updates page xiii to Rawdon was “a Devil of a Place” for settler Michel Nicolas and his Indigenous kin. It tells the story of Indigenous Rawdon settlers who came from New Brunswick in the 1830s. It was added August 26, 2024 and was updated in October. I believe it will appear in Quebec Heritage News, Winter 2025 issue. This camp ground is very close to the land settled by Michel Nicolas, on the Eleventh Range, and gives an idea of what it was like when he lived there – https://foretocascades.ca/
- Rawdon: Ready for Development in 1830 is the story of a survey for a road to cross Rawdon at the Seventh Range to connect Grenville to the St-Maurice River. It will appear in Quebec Heritage News, Spring 2025 issue.
- In July, I announced that I had published a long story marking the arrival in Canada of my Parkinson ancestors, two hundred years ago. There is a somewhat shorter version in French and a short English translation https://www.histoirederawdon.ca/en/la-famille-parkinson-a-rawdon-depuis-200-ans/. For the full original go to 200 Years at Rawdon.
- When I added Some Early Rawdon Schools on 22 July 2024, I should have mentioned another school on the Ninth Range. It is described in https://uptorawdon.com/drop-me-a-card/ when Cecil Parkinson, son of Dora and Fred Parkinson, sent a postcard to his Aunt Aggie Morgan to say he was one of 15 going c.1911. It was close to the Jones homestead and would be replaced by Mount Loyal #7 built and opened in September 1939 at Lot 9, Ninth Range and closed in June 1947 due to consolidation. Cecil stayed with Aunt Aggie when in high school in Rawdon and left his ruler there. I gave it to Jeffrey Parkinson, a grandson of Cecil’s brother, Leslie Parkinson.
Updates to stories and individuals
page 75 Correction – Elizabeth Rachel Burns was born and baptized in 1866.
Clarification of footnote 13: This illustrates the good will and religious tolerance that existed between Protestant and Catholic neighbours. Thomas Lane and his son John, who was about 18 years of age, were one of the earliest Catholic families to settle at Rawdon in 1823, and located on the Third Range, Lot 25, close to the John Burns family. St-Liguori became his address when the new parish was founded. He was the eldest son of William Burns at 4/24 . There was an epidemic of typhus or scarlet fever and the Burns family was in quarantine. The Lanes took the three girls’ bodies to the Methodist Cemetery to be interred by the minister on December 13 and on Christmas Eve they took the last and youngest daughter, Ellen Charlotte for burial.
Page 261 a reference to David Gibbs and Joseph Connor in 1810 and transactions between David and his nephew Orrimill Gibbs in 1813 and 1814 for property on the Third Concession of D’Ailleboust Seigneury. Full story is at Joshua Gibbs Family, Immigrant Years in Lower Canada.
Page 262 fn. 18 and p. 1076 more about John Van Hussen and family. See these files about the family: at Gibbs Family and Robinson From Cavan in 1820.
Page 264 a brief mention of the Reverend John Campbell Driscoll who was a SPG missionary at Kildare, Ramsay and Berthier; his events at de Ramsay are recorded 1828-1831 at Protestant Settlers in the St-Felix. He died in Quebec City, June 1831.
The Reverend J. C. Driscoll with citizens of the township founded the first school at de Ramsay in 1831. Included in this posting are the names of trustees most of them are mentioned briefly in UTR.
Page 309 some details about the marriage of Bernard Greenan and Alice Donnelly.
Page 337 fn. 2 identifies James Sawers Cates who inherited the property of his grandmother Margaret Tucker and step grandfather James Sawers.
Page 343 is about later owners of George Hobs’ mill on the Red River.
Page 372 Some further thoughts on William Holtby, a man of many talents.
Page 836 a photo of the interior of St. Mary’s Church of Ireland in Geashill, County Offaly, Ireland taken in July 2024 by Pat Widdifield of British Columbia, who is a descendant of Jane Smith Livingston.
Pages 939 and 1045 another American entrepreneur Jerahmeel Cummings Pratt: settled briefly at Rawdon. He was eighteen when he occupied his lot and was in business as a millwright.
Pages 1057-1058 mentions the names John Hibbert of Lake Maskinongé, Cornelius Trusdell and Daniel Trusdell of Côteau du Lac hired for road building at 2 shillings 6 pence per diem.
Page 1132-1133 Patrick Mason recounted his parents memories of early days and the charming story of Arthur Magee who chose his wife Catherine Burgess ‘right off the boat’. He mentions Charles Heney and Jane Fisher whose marriage I recently found and added to the updates where I added the 1828 story of Mrs. Heney and the bear.