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[Named after Scotland's
patriot, Sir William Wallace, Knight of Elderslie.]
Extract from the Report of
County Valuators, 1879.
"This township has a large
amount of heavy clay land, with portions low and wet, also a considerable
amount of swamp. A portion of the township, is broken up by the Saugeen
River. The largest amount of good land commences at the south-east corner
and runs north-west until it strikes the township of Saugeen. It is very
well watered and has a large amount of mill property. Its average price is
$28.33."
Extract from the Report of
County Valuators, 1901.
Elderslie is a fair average
township with very little, if any, waste land. It is well watered; good
buildings and orchards are the rule. There are three railway stations in
the township, namely, Paisley, Chesley and Dobbinton. The large swamp in
the centre of the township is being cleared up and it will not be long
until it all becomes good grazing land. There are a few stiff clay
sections that take down the average somewhat, and we might say is the only
serious drawback to the township. The Saugeen River breaks a portion of
the township towards the south-west, as also does the Teeswater River. The
rate per acre for this township is $32.70; of this amount the village
property is equal to 54 cents, per acre.
Elderslie received its
first settlers on April 18th, 1851, when Simon Orchard and his family,
after floating down the Saugeen River on a raft from Walkerton, landed
where the village of Paisley now stands. Three weeks later Samuel T. Rowe,
with his family, followed his old friend in the venturesome voyage down
the Saugeen and settled alongside of him. As the circumstances connected
with the settlement of these two pioneers of the township are given pretty
freely in Chapters X. and XXIX., the fact of their settlement at this
early date is here only mentioned. The lands in the south-western part of
the township were the first to receive their quota of settlers. This was
owing to the facility of access afforded by the Saugeen River, which
permitted them to float down its waters on rafts, thereby conveying them,
their families and effects from the vicinity of either Hanover or
Walkerton.
The survey of this township
was performed by G. McPhilips during the summer of 1851. Elderslie was
classed among the school lands of the province, and was opened for sale on
July 30th, 1852. [See Appendix J.] The first person who is entered in the
books of the Crown Land Office as a purchaser of lands in Elderslie was
John Fraser, for lot 34, concession A, the date being December 6th, 1852.
The first to follow Messrs.
Orchard and Rowe in taking up lands in the township were David Lyons and
Thomas Hembroff, who settled on the north branch of the Saugeen River at
that point afterwards to be known as Lockerby. In a footnote [2] is given
an account of their settlement, condensed from a narrative published in
the Paisley Advocate in 1896. The house which Thomas Hembroff put up on
lot 2, concession 7, is said to be still standing and to be in good
condition, being the oldest house extant in the township of Elderslie. By
the end of 1851 four log shanties had been built in Elderslie, but only
the families of Orchard and Rowe spent the winter there. The next addition
to the group of pioneer families settled in Elderslie was possibly made by
the arrival of Henry Brown. The story of his settlement and also of the
early days of Elderslie, appeared in the "Souvenir Number of the Chesley
Enterprise," published at Christmas, 1902. By permission of the editor, an
extract from Henry Brown's narrative is here given:
[Footnote 2: David Lyons
and Thomas Hembroff learned of the excellent prospects for settlers in
Elderslie through a brother of the last named, who had been engaged with
the survey party under Mr. McPhilips. These two men lost no time after the
survey was completed in selecting a point at which to settle. They were at
that time residing at Chatsworth, in the neighboring county. One morning
in October, 1851, saw them leaving home loaded with necessaries for a stay
in the bush. Travelling south they at length reached the north branch of
the Saugeen River; following it, partly on foot and partly by canoe, they
arrived at the county line. Owing to the amount of driftwood met with in
the river there they had to pursue the rest of their journey altogether on
foot, following the course of the river. Being satisfied with the location
where the sixth concession crosses the north branch of the Saugeen River,
they, after doing enough work to secure for themselves a squatter's claim,
returned home, to return in the following month with necessary supplies.
The families and effects of these men were brought into the bush in May of
the following year. The first stage was by team from Chatsworth to
Hanover. There a raft, 12 x 30 feet, was constructed, and on it the
families and their belongings were placed. It took two days to complete
the voyage. A shanty, about sixteen feet square, was put up that summer,
in which both families lived. About a year and a half later Mr. Lyons
again placed his family on a raft and floated down to Southampton, where
he engaged in saw-milling. Unfortunately he was burned out, when he then
returned to Elderslie. The first shanty these men erected was utilized as
a schoolhouse, the first in the township, the teacher being Mrs. Thomas
Pearce, a sister of the present township clerk, J. C. McIntyre.]
"In the early fall of 1852
the writer (Henry Brown) and a young man named Robert Cochrane walked from
Durham to visit their old neighbors, Rowe and Orchard, and see the much
praised new country. With Simon Orchard as pioneer guide we located lots
1, 2 and 3 on the 2nd and 3rd concessions, went home and returned in
November to take possession. Having got our outfit to Walkerton (at that
time containing two stores and a post-office), we made the usual raft and
started down stream. That was 50 years ago, but the memory of that voyage
still lives fresh in my mind. The river was very low; neither of us had
ever been on a raft in our lives before or knew how to handle one. We got
stuck on bare and fast on stones, and there was nothing for it but to jump
into the water and pry the raft clear. Night found us about the 4th
concession of Brant, soaked in ice cold water to the armpits. Our matches
had got wet in our pockets, but luckily our powder was dry, so with the
gun and some batting from a corner of a quilt we soon started a fire and
dried ourselves, made a bed of brush and each of us rolled in a blanket.
We went to sleep and awakened in the morning with six inches of snow on
top of us. Next day we had better luck, and struck Deer Rapids (so called
by the surveyors from the number of deer seen standing in the water to
protect themselves from the flies). By good chance we found the blaze and
got to Rowe's at dark, two tired and hungry men. Next day, with the help
of Rowe and Orchard, we raised our shanty, 12 by 14, floored it with split
basswood, and roofed it with scoops. This, to the best of my knowledge,
was the fifth shanty in Elderslie. Shortly after Cochrane went home and I
stayed till midwinter and did my first chopping. Wolves were plentiful.
One night when getting in my wood a pack came hunting up the river. They
killed a deer a few yards from the shanty and kept howling around all
night. In the morning I went and looked at the place. Some bloody snow, a
few tufts of hair, and scraps of bone was all that was left of the deer.
On the whole it was a pleasant two months; with a few good books the
solitude had no terrors for me.
"In 1853 the Clements and
others from Holland came and settled on the 10th and 11th concessions, and
Mr. Green, Wm. McBride and the McCartneys from Esquesing settled on
concessions 'A' and 'B,' south of Paisley. The same year the Gillies
family had located a large block on the 6th and 7th concessions, soon
followed by the Taylors, Blues and other old neighbors from Argyleshire.
On the 8th and 9th concessions the McDougalds, McNeils, Galbraiths, Munns,
Curries and a whole colony of natives of the island of Colonsay settled
clear down to the Elora road. Thus we see that the Scottish element
figured largely in the early settlement of Elderslie. I have before me the
collector's roll for the year 1854 (issued from Arran, to which we were
attached)., which unfortunately is the only one of the early records to be
found. On it are 65 names and of these 26 have the prefix "Mac," 11 being
McNeils, and many others spoke the Gaelic. The collector was an Arran man.
There was no assessment, the names evidently being copied from the agent's
book. No assessor could have found his way through Elderslie in the spring
of that year. There was nothing but the surveyor's blaze to guide you, and
if you lost that you were, too, as many a one found to his sorrow. The
roll was made out in Halifax currency and the tax was 10 shillings and 6
pence (equal to $2.10) for every 200 acres, and $1.05 for every one
hundred acres, every lot being the same value. This roll was returned to
the treasurer of Arran on 23rd of June, 1856, with "not paid " marked
against one-half of the names. "In 1853 Mr. Rowe built a commodious tavern
of hewed logs on the site where the Central Hotel now stands, which gave
ample accommodation to the rapidly increasing travel, and Mr. Valentine
had got his sawmill running, which enabled the settlers to erect better
buildings. In 1854 the great rush began. Early in the season the McBeaths
arrived and located the lands on the east side of the river, which they
still occupy. At the same time Mr. D. Porter arrived from Peterboro'. He
took up eight lots, and on his return home started the great rush of
Peterboro' men, the McDonalds, McGregors, Balfours, McLaggans, Lillicos,
Fortunes and others, who settled on the 1st, 2d and 3rd concessions. Mr.
Porter's old friend, Andrew Dobbin, followed and took up 1,000 acres
around where Dobbinton now stands. The same year Thomas Orchard built the
first store (now occupied by R. Scott, seedsman) and opened out a general
stock of hardware, dry goods, groceries, etc. That fall the great land
sale at Southampton took place, and in the rush every lot was taken up. So
great was the number of those who passed through Paisley to attend the
land sale that in two days Mrs. Rowe cooked and served the carcass of an
ox, while Mr. Rowe attended to the liquid portion of the business. Two
large sugar kettles, one with beef and the other with potatoes, were kept
boiling all the time. It was a great strain on the resources of the
Paisley of that day, but as Rowe had a good stock of cattle and a field of
potatoes it was simply a question of killing and digging. By what device
the liquid stock held out has always been a mooted question."
Prominent among those who
settled in Elderslie in 1853, but omitted in the list given by Henry Brown
in the foregoing extract, were Donald McIntyre, for four years reeve of
the township, and Alexander Elves, a member at one time of the Township
Council, now a resident of Paisley, and Hugh McDougald (lately removed to
Owen Sound), who took up land in Elderslie in 1853. At that time he was
but eighteen years of age. Sufficient work to establish his claim to the
lot was all he did at first. His actual settlement dates from 1856. At the
age of sixteen he worked for his uncle, Donald Currie, in Saugeen. He
relates that while there he on one occasion went to Southampton for a
supply of flour, which he purchased of James Calder. Shouldering his load,
he followed the blazed path through what is now the village of Port Elgin.
Halting at "Lochboie" McLean's tavern to rest he met Peter Smith, who
noticed that the load was too much for the lad, so good-heartedly he
shouldered it himself, in addition to his own similar load. Of the crop of
wheat Mr. McDougald grew in 1858 he sold enough at 50 cents a bushel to
pay that year's taxes, holding the rest until 1859 ("starvation year"),
when he obtained $2 a bushel for it. Mr. McDougald for seven years held
the position of deputy reeve of Elderslie. Another prominent man was John
McDonald, who, as councillor and reeve, sat in the Township Council for
nineteen years. It was in April, 1855 that he took up his lot, No. 34,
concession 7. His son William, publisher of the Chesley Enterprise, has
followed his father in obtaining municipal honors, and was warden of the
county in 1905. This list of early settlers we close with an example of
fortitude in enduring the hardships of clearing a farm in the backwoods.
Neil Munn, in 1855, moved with his wife and family from Esquesing to
Elderslie. Upon arriving at Paisley their trials began. There was no
bridge over the Saugeen, and they had to cross the river at Rae's, to take
the roundabout way to their land on the 6th concession. One of the horses
of the team they had engaged to bring them and their effects up from Erin
village broke its leg at the "Hog's Back," while near the end of their
journey, yet their progress was very much delayed by the accident, and the
final stage rendered very laborious. Mrs. Munn was obliged to carry her
young son all the way in her arms. Prom the time of reaching their new
home until 1860 Mr. and Mrs. Munn steadily and patiently applied
themselves to the duties of clearing their farm and rearing the little
family growing up around them, but in that year a heavy stroke of
affliction fell upon the household when Mr. Munn was paralyzed by a tree
falling upon his back while working in the bush. He survived the accident
for fourteen years, but was a bedfast cripple until he died in 1874. Mrs.
Munn bravely and successfully shouldered the responsibility of carrying on
the farm and supporting the family after the accident, battling with
Christian fortitude against great odds until relieved by the assistance of
her growing sons.
At the time the pioneer
settlers of Elderslie entered that township there was no road nearer it
than the Durham road, running east and west through the southerly part of
Brant. In the summer of 1851 (as noted in Chapter V.) the Crown Lands
officers asked for tenders to cut a road, which they called the Durham and
Southampton Road, through to the boundary of Elderslie. Very little more
work to improve the roads was done until 1854, when the Bureau of
Agriculture, which had assumed the duty of seeing after the construction
of colonization roads, proposed a scheme, alluded to in Chapter V., which
would give Elderslie the Elora Road and one along its southerly boundary.
The Elora Road, as originally planned, entered the county at its
south-east corner, and passed diagonally through Carrick to the corner
where the four townships of Carrick, Culross, Brant and Greenock join,
thence northerly along the boundary between the townships of Brant and
Greenock, Elderslie and Saugeen. The surveyors who laid out Brant and
Elderslie must have reported to the department the difficulties of
constructing a road on the boundary of the townships near the point where
the Teeswater and the Saugeen unite. These views being accepted by the
department, J. H. Price, Commissioner of Crown Lands, wrote to George
McPhilips while he was engaged in making the survey of Elderslie, under
date of July 14th, 1851, as follows: "Previous to surveying the river,
mark out a line for a road from the rear of Brant to the Saugeen River in
Elderslie, in the general direction marked in red on the accompanying
sketch, selecting the best site for bridges over the Mud River and River
Saugeen, and making the necessary sinuosities to avoid hills and swamps.
The line is not to be the boundary of the lots, but you will deduct the
area of a road, one chain in width, from the contents of the lots it
passes over." Almost simultaneously with this letter George Jackson, Crown
Land Agent at Durham, advertised for tenders to cut a road through Brant a
mile and a quarter east of the intended Elora Road, but in line with the
road laid out by Mr. McPhilips as above. When the Bureau of Agriculture
took up the construction of colonization roads, and possibly unaware of
the surveyors report, it announced the Elora Road as per original plan. It
is but a fair inference to suppose that when David Gibson surveyed it he
saw the reasonableness of accepting the road already cut out, which has
since been known as the Elora Road.
The early municipal life of
Elderslie is a blank until the year 1854. Prior to that year it was
nominally a part of the municipality of the united townships in the county
of Bruce, as referred to at length in Chapter IV. In 1854 Elderslie was
united to Arran for municipal purposes.[See Appendix P.] It was in this
year the first assessment of the township was made, which, as equalized by
the County Council, amounted to £7,037. On September 20th, 1855, the
United Counties Council passed a by-law dissolving the union of Elderslie
to Arran, to come into effect on January 1st, 1856. Thomas Orchard was the
returning officer at the first municipal election. The polling booth was
at Rowe's tavern, Paisley. The names of those elected as councillors were:
George Williscroft, Charles Ginty, John Gillies, Robert Falconer and S. T.
Rowe. These at their first meeting, as the law was then, elected S. T.
Rowe as reeve. George C. Urquhart was appointed township clerk; Thomas
Orchard, township treasurer; Donald McIntyre and John Henderson, auditors,
and Hugh McDougald, and Samuel Scott, assessors. The total financial
expenditure made by this Council for the year 1856 was only £107 l4s. l½d.
In a footnote ]2] are to be found the names of the various reeves of
Elderslie. An examination of Appendix M will enable the reader to see the
relative standing and development of Elderslie with neighboring townships
in their early days.
[Footnote 2: Names of the
various reeves of Elderslie: S. T. Rowe, 1856; John Gillies, 1857 to 1873;
Archibald Ewart, 1874, '75, '76; Henry Brown, 1877, '78, '85, '86, '87;
George Thompson, 1879, '80, '81, '82, '83, '84; Donald McIntyre, 1888,
'89, '90, '91; James Shouldice, 1892, '93, '94, '95, '96; John McDonald,
1897, '98; D. N. McIntyre, 1899, 1900; James Clements, 1901, '02; David
McBeath, 1903, '04; George McKay, 1905, '06.]
The Municipal Council of
Elderslie has during half a century guided the affairs of the township
with a wise hand. Among other matters, the drainage of the swamp in the
centre of the township was recognized to be a necessity, so as early as
1877 debentures were issued for about $2,000 to prosecute this work. This
was supplemented in 1883-84 by two other issues of debentures, one for
$4,474 and the other for $2,100. When the Stratford and Lake Huron Railway
asked for a bonus, the Council submitted to the ratepayers a by-law
authorizing the issue of debentures for $45,000 to aid the project,
[$10,000 of this was a sectional grant, levied on that part of the
township afterwards incorporated as the village of Chesley.] which was
carried by a majority of 77. In 1875 the township gave a municipal centre
to the township by the erection of a township hall on lot 15, concession
6, at a cost of nearly $2,000. The Township Council has been aided in its
efficiency by its officials, who deserve to have their names remembered,
for they have done their part faithfully in attending to the business of
the township. Their names are given in a footnote. [List of township
treasurers and clerks from 1856: Township treasurers —Thos. Orchard,
1856-'59; Dr. S. D. Crawford, 1860, '61; M. McMillan, 1862-'65; Geo. C.
Urquhart, 1866-'72; Wm. W. Hogg, 1873-1901; S. M. Ewart, 1902-1906.
Township clerks—George C. Urquhart, 1856-'61; P. Featherstonhaugh, 1867;
P. H. Sinclair, 1868; Daniel Sinclair, 1869-'71; Ed. Saunders, 1872; S.
Shannon, 1873-'76; D. McKechnie, 1877-'92; J. C. McIntyre, 1893-1906.]
Elderslie plumes itself on having paid off all debenture indebtedness, and
also in that no licenses for the sale of liquor are issued within the
township.
The first school in the
township was opened in 1855 at Lockerby, and was taught by Miss McIntyre
(afterwards Mrs. Thomas Pearce). [Thomas Pearce was one of Mr. McPhilips'
chainmen in the survey of the township. When married, in 1856, to Miss
McIntyre, the young couple walked all the way to Southampton so that the
ceremony might be performed by a Presbyterian clergyman.] In 1856 Miss
Falconer (afterwards Mrs. Thomas Fleming) taught a small school on lot 11,
concession 5. The following year the Township Council took action in
regard to schools that can best be described by an extract from the report
of Local Superintendent McNaughton, for the year 1857, as follows: "The
township of Elderslie has done admirably in the way of school buildings
during the past year. Although the newest of three townships under my
charge, it is now the first with regard to school-houses. This may be
attributed in a great measure to the wisdom of the Township Council
offering certain sums of money to each section, on condition that a
schoolhouse be erected within the year. The result is there is not a
single section without a schoolhouse." The staff of teachers in the
different school sections in 1858 consisted of Miss Eliza Stewart,
Paisley; Mr. Murray, Chesley; Archibald Ewart, S. S. No. 6; Donald Gillies,
S. S. No. 5; J. C. McIntyre, S. S. No. 4; Miss Jane Porter, S. S. No. 2;
Malcolm Munn, S. S. No. 10; James Saunders, S. S. No. 7.
Although to-day there is
not within the township of Elderslie an unincorporated village of any
pretensions, it has nourished and witnessed the swarming off of two of the
busiest villages of the county, Chesley and Paisley. The development of
these two villages sealed the hopes and fate of two other places that were
sanguine of becoming in time the trade centres of their respective
localities, namely, Lockerby and Scone. The settlement at Lockerby by
Thomas Hembroff is mentioned in the first part of the chapter. The
water-power at this point was early made use of, and a grist mill was in
operation there about 1856, within a short time of that at Paisley. A
little earlier than this a rumor spread that the Elora Road, about to be
opened up, was to be brought up the side line at lot 5 as far as the 6th
concession, then to turn west to the township boundary, [There may have
been something in the rumor, as the engineer in charge of opening the
Elora Road purchased lots 16 and 17, concession B, and lot 16, concession
"A" (where the road would make the turn). Presumably he bought on
speculation.] passing through Lockerby. At the time the grist mill was
built George Jardine had portions of adjoining farm lots surveyed into
village lots. Plans of this survey were scattered far and wide, and every
effort made to boom this town on paper into tangible being, even going as
far as the holding of a sale of lots at Hamilton. All Mr. Jardine's
efforts were fruitless, the Elora Road was cut so as to pass through
Paisley, and Lockerby never developed. In 1866 Jardine and Hembroff were
engaged in a lawsuit as to the ownership of the mill and adjacent
property. Jardine, thinking that if he were in possession of the mill his
claim would be more firmly established, one day in the fall of 1866 went
to it when no one was about, pried open one end of a board and sought to
enter through the opening. In some way he failed to keep the boards apart,
and they coming together, he was caught like a mouse in a trap, and,
unable either to extricate himself or to make himself heard, was held
until death relieved him from his sufferings. The water-power at Lockerby
is now made use of by Donald McIntyre to supply electric current for
lighting purposes to Paisley.
Scone began to take form
and put on the appearance of a village before Chesley—ultimately its
successful rival—was thought of. The founder of the village, Thomas
Bearman, came to Elderslie in 1854. Being possessed of means, he purchased
about seventeen hundred acres of land in Elderslie and Sullivan, started a
sawmill about 1856, a grist mill some years later, and also a potash
factory, and opened a store. In 1858 a post-office, bearing the name of
Scone, was opened. Thomas Adair (who owned the most north-easterly lot in
Brant), was the first postmaster, but he soon left the locality, and the
post-office was moved to the house of Thomas Bearman, his successor. The
little village flourished until, overtopped by the growth of Chesley, all
hopes for its development vanished.
One of the most noted men
Elderslie has had was John Gillies, who for seventeen years was reeve of
the township. His portrait, with a biographical sketch, are to be found in
Chapter VI.
Owing to the large
emigration to the North-West provinces, Elderslie has suffered marked loss
in population. In 1881 the census returns showed Elderslie to have 3,273
inhabitants. The assessors return for 1906 gives a population of 2,018,
less than 62 per cent. of what it was a quarter of a century previous.
This but illustrates what has been going on all through the county. The
youth of its population is moving to the West to establish homes for
themselves there. |
