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BY GEORGE KENNEDY, LL.D.,
TORONTO.
IN 1826 the Imperial
Government began the construction of the Rideau Canal to connect Lake
Ontario at Kingston with the Ottawa River at a point126 miles north,
near the junction of the Ottawa and Severn Rivers. The military engineer
in charge was Col. John By, from whom the infant village that started up
at the north end of the link derived its name of Bytown. In 1847 it was
incorporated as a town, with a Mayor and Council, and in 1854 it became
the City of Ottawa. Four years later it was selected by Her Majesty as
the capital of the old Province of Canada. In 18130 His Royal Highness
the Prince of Wales laid the foundation stone of the Parliament
buildings, in which the Provincial Parliament met in 1835. At
Confederation, on 1st July, 1837, Ottawa became the capital of the
Dominion of Canada. It has now a population of about 60,000, has many
large and extensive manufactures, is the great emporium of the lumber
trade of the Ottawa Valley, and is all railway centre. For
picturesqueness of situation and scenic beauty it can be surpassed on
this continent.
From the very beginning
Scotsmen have had a large part in building up the city. Hardly a walk of
life can be named in which Scotsmen were not among the leaders. The
builders of the magnificent tier of locks connecting the canal basin
with the Ottawa River were two Scotsmen, John Redpath and Thomas McKay
the former afterwards the great sugar king of Montreal, and the latter a
member of the Legislative Council and founder of the extensive New
Edinburgh mills at the Rideau Falls. He it was, too, who built, and for
many years resided in, Rideau Hall, which is now the official residence
of the Governor-General of Canada. The splendid suspension bridge which
spans the gorge through which rush the seething waters of the great
river after their plunge over the Chaudiere Falls, was the work of
another Scotsman, Alexander Christie. The first flour mills and sawmills
at the Chaudiere were built by a Scotsman, Daniel McLaughlin, afterwards
member for the city in the Provincial Legislature and fornierly of the
flourishing town of Arnprior. Another Scot, Allan Gilmour, was for long
the wealthiest lumberman oil river, and established the great mills at
Chelsea,on the Gatineau. Still another Scot, who reckoned his wealth by
the million, was James Maclaren, owner of immense mills at New Edinburgh
and Buckingham, and formerly of the Bank of Ottawa. His brother,
William, is a well-known Professor in Knox College, Toronto. The first
newspaper, The Gazelle, was published by an Aberdonian, Dr. A. S.
Christie, in 1836, whose grandson, John Christie, is head of one of the
leading legal firms of the city. The paper was subsequently edited by
Robert Sherriff, a Scot of great ability, but somewhat eccentric. It
then became the property of another Scot, Thomas Mackay, and still later
of a lawyer named Alexander Gibb, who exhibited Scottish persistance by
retaining its name of By/own Gazelle bug after the change of name of the
city. It is to be remembered, too, that the first daily paper in Ottawa
was the News, issued by a young Scotsman, Andrew Wilson, who was one of
those whom the gods love, and died while still a youth.
The first President of
the first railway that linked Ottawa to the world outside was a sturdy
Scot, named John McKinnon, although the credit of pushing the railway
through to completion is due to a North of Ireland man of extraordinary
energy, Robert Bell, afterwards M.P.P. for Russell. In all the
professions and businesses, Scotsmen have been prominent in Ottawa.
Among merchants may he named, Thomas Waddell, Benjamin Gordon, Simon
Fraser (afterwards sheriff) William Stewart, Andrew Main, Edward
McGillivray, William Lang, James Brough, Gilbert Heron, John McNider,
and many others. Among booksellers and stationers, John Dune and J. G.
Whyte; jewellers, John Leslie and Alexander Gray; hardware men, George
Hay, Frank McDougal and A. Grant; lawyers, Robert Hersy, G. R. Lyon,
Robert Hees, Donald Campbell, etc., etc.; druggists, John Roberts and
Alexander Christie; hotel-keepers, Donald McArthur, John L. Campbell,
Robinson Lyon. The youth of those days has kindly remembrance of a
confectionery store of a good Scotch lady, Proderich, who was the
caterer for all the gay parties and entertainments. The Grammar School
was opened about 1843, and it is a singular fact, that with one
exception, all the Head Masters have been Scotsmen. The first was Thomas
Wardrope, now the Rev. Dr. Wardrope, of Guelph, and the present is John
Macmillan, under whom it has been raised to a Collegiate Institute, and
is one of the most progressive educational institutions of the country.
Scotch Presbyterianism
has, has, of course, had a marked influence on the community. The
pioneer minister was the Rev. John Cruickshank, who preached in a quaint
old structure, which has been replaced by the present beautiful St.
Andrew's Church. The disruption in the Church of Scotland in 1843 was
felt here too, and the congregation was split in two, the seceders
forming Knox's Church, which was built on Hill, on a site granted free
by a liberal Roman Catholic named L. T. Besserer. The present Knox
Church is on Hall Square, and is one of the handsomest church edifices
in Ottawa. Both churches have had many offshoots, and there are
Presbyterian places of worship in all sections of the city, and all now
working in harmony within the Presbyterian Church in Canada.
Being the Capital of
Canada, Ottawa is, of course, the place of residence of the members of
the Administration, and it is something which Scotsmen call that the
first two Prime Ministers of the Dominion were of this nationality, the
Right Honorable Sir John Alexander Macdonald and the Hon. Alexander
Mackenzie. Three of the Speakers of the House of Commons also may be
claimed as Scots, the Hon. James Cockburn, the Hon. Peter White, and the
Hon. J.D. Edgar. We have also had three Scottish Governor-Generals
residents of Ottawa, the Marquis of Lorne, the Earl of Aberdeen, and the
Earl of Minto.
A unique personality
among Ottawa Scots was the late Father Dawson, a Roman Catholic priest,
of broad sympathies. He was a man of great learning, and was frequently
chosen on occasions of public festivities to be the orator of the day.
For some years he was chaplain of St. Andrew's Society. He lived to a
very advanced age, and had won the admiration and esteem of all classes
in the community, Protestant as well as Roman Catholics. The St.
Andrew's Society, of Ottawa, has had a long career of usefulness, and as
well as the other Scottish Societies, such as the Caledonian and the
Sons of Scotland whose aims to a large extent coincide, especially in
patriotic matters has done much to preserve the memory of the Old Land.
G.K. |
