Up the Gatineau! Article
This article was first published in Up the Gatineau! Volume 18.
As Long as Love and Music Last
Joan Brownrigg Barrow
In Martindale, Quebec, at St. Martin's Church, a Celtic cross stands guard over an old pioneer cemetery. It commemorates the memory of 72 Irish families that settled the area around Venosta, Martindale and Low, Quebec. On the cross, in English and French is inscribed a prayer. It is repeated in Gaelic on a memorial which stands beside the cross, along with the names of 164 Irish colonists who homesteaded in the area in the mid 1800s. The prayer is as follows:
“Solas na bhflaitheas Ar anamacha
na ngael a d‘iha geirinn in aimsir
an ghorta rnhoir agus a fuair a suan
siorai san uir seo beidh cuimhne
orthu fhad's a rnhairfeas gra is ceol."
“May the light of Heaven shine on the
souls of the Gaels, who left Ireland
in the years of the Great Famine, to
find eternal rest in this soil. They
will be remembered as long as love
and music last."
According to an article in the Ottawa newspaper The Citizen, in August 1982, the cross was erected that year by private donations, through the efforts of Father Pierre Marois, Martin Brown, Elaine McCay and Eddie McLaughlin. The latter three are direct descendants of original settlers. Interwoven with the Celtic design on the cross is a ship and a man and woman holding a child.
Father L.S.D. Blondin, first priest of the Roman Catholic parish at Martindale, described the immigration of these families and life in the parish in his book titled Little Memorandum for 1900. In his book, Father Blondin states that the Irish Catholics who settled in that area had immigrated to Canada to escape the great famine. He goes on to say that the majority of them immigrated from Tipperary, Waterford, Galway, Mayo and Clare.
Cecil Woodham-Smith poignantly describes the emigration from Ireland caused by the famine in her book The Great Hunger. The Emerald Isle lost twenty-five percent of her inhabitants. One and a half million died and another million braved the long Atlantic voyage, crowded in the holds of cholera-ridden immigrant ships. The trip to Canada took three weeks in fair weather and two to three months if the seas were storrny1.
All ships landed at the quarantine station at Grosse Isle, Quebec. Many of the immigrants were ill with typhoid fever and they died there before having a chance to settle in the new land. One hundred thousand Irish emigrated to Canada in the year 1847 alone.
The records for May 31, 1847 show 40 vessels, with over 13 000 aboard, extended in a line two miles long, waiting to put their passengers ashore. More were to come2.
My ancestors, the Sloans and the Foxes, were among the hearty souls who survived the treacherous crossings of the 1840s. Their story, like most family histories has been handed down by word of mouth from one generation to the next. Some facts can be substantiated by family Bibles, written family histories and diaries. History was sometimes re-arranged to suit the story teller, but the strong family feeling of loyalty and love was undiluted.
They were part of a group that originally settled around the Osgoode, Kemptville and Merrickville area in Ontario. Their names were recorded in the early census of 1841 and 1851 for those areas. The census of 1871 records many of the same families in Low Township, Ottawa County West. Several reasons spurred them on to relocate. They heard of land available in Quebec and of the jobs available in the Gatineau, cutting timber in the bush.
Early maps of the area show that a permanent road which ran from Hull to Maniwaki had been established around 1852. However, it was not much more than a rough trail through the bush at that time. The new settlers moved in the late spring and the move was a difficult one. According to my family, a baby was born along the way.
Under the Homesteaders Act, grants of land of 100 acres were available to settlers in this area. Also, to encourage population growth, the Quebec government gave an additional grant of 100 acres to fathers who had received the initial grant of 100 acres, if they had four children under the age of 163.
According to the Ottawa Archives of the Oblate Fathers, a few of the families that left Osgoode had been “lured” to resettle in his area, when Father Clement, who had been transferred to Maniwaki. returned to Osgoode and "unscrupulously" stole 16 or 17 families from the area and encouraged them to resettle up the Gatineau in the late 1840s. St. Martin's Church at Martindale was built in 1872, at a cost of $2 8454.
These early pioneers knew hardship and sorrow, but amidst it all they kept their sense of fun and laughter. They expressed this in their singing, dancing and story telling, There was always someone in the room who could “give a little step" or “sing a little tune“. After a hard day's work there was time to spin a few yarns. The stories often grew and improved with each retelling.
This simple, homely way of life left an indelible mark on all of the people who think of the Upper Gatineau as "home." We learned friendship, faith, simplicity, resourcefulness and endurance. As the Irish Memorial at Martindale avows, we will remember these pioneers. "as long as love and music last."
Footnotes
- Cecil Woodham—Smith, The Great Hunger, New York <3: Evanston: Harper and Row Publishers. 1962.
- National Archives of Canada. ‘Irish Immigration,‘ 1840-1850.
- Homesteader’s Act. Quebec Statute, Amendments to the Administration of Public Lands and Forests Act. National Archives of Canada. 1847.
- Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Ottawa Archives. 1840-1850.