Low Down Articles
Echoes from the Past
Article 43 of 111
This article first appeared in the "Echoes from the Past" column of the The Low Down to Hull and Back News.
Reprinted with permission. Search complete list of Low Down Articles.
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Meech Lake
This beautiful little lake nestling in the Gatineau Hills in Western Quebec must be known, if only by name, from one Canadian coast to the other. Little did the Reverend Asa Meech suspect that the body of water, to be named after him, would be household catchwords more than 140 years after his death.
Rev. Meech, an United Empire Loyalist, of Charlotte, Vermont, came to live in the area in 1824. Meech, like the Wrights, Chamberlins, Wymans and others, came from English stock, transplanted early in the 17th, century to New England, thence to Wright's Town (Hull) in the beginning of the 1800's. He was born about 1774, but no record of his birth place has been located.
Meech was ordained and served as Assistant Pastor from 1800, and then as Pastor until 1811, as the records of the First Congregational Church at Brockington, Massachusetts, reveal. He acquired a degree from Brown University in1807. Family tradition has it that he also went to Oxford University, and should this be correct it must have been prior to1800.
From 1812 to 1822 he was Minister at the Congregational Church at Canterbury, Connecticut. The records of St. James Anglican Church in Hull are reputed to show him in the area in 1815. Perhaps he had leave of absence from his charge at Canterbury and was looking over the possibility of settlement in the region. This had been the practice of a number of New Englanders - including Philemon Wright who came to Canada three times to explore the territory before settling in 1800.
Two hundred acres were granted to Asa Meech adjacent to the lake which later bore his name. He located on Lot 21 in the 10th Range, and there he built his log home, which, now clapboarded, belongs to and is maintained by the National Capital Commission (N.C.C.). Here he cleared the land, developing his farm in order to feed and clothe his family.
The Rev. Asa Meech married three times, first to Mary De Witt, who died in 1809, leaving him with six young children, only two of whom survived childhood diseases. Within two years he married Mary's sister, Maria, who bore him five additional children, again only two of whom survived. It was with his second wife that Meech came first to Wright's Town, then to the Chelsea area. It was shortly after their arrival in Wright's Town that tragedy robbed him of Maria and her three youngest children. Apparently she was shepherding her young flock across a bridge over Brewery Creek when the spring freshet of 1822 washed it away with its human cargo, and all were drowned. Meech had been away on a preaching tour - possibly accompanied by two of his eldest offspring - a boy and a girl - and only returned in time to conduct the funeral service for his loved ones.
Asa Meech married thirdly Margaret Docksteader with whom he lived contentedly and in constant companionship for twenty six years, until his death in 1849, at the age of 74. Margaret gave him ten children of which seven survived to reach adulthood and to marry in their turn. By his three wives he sired 21 children.
In addition to his being an ordained minister Meech was a trained teacher. He was also medically trained. Another of his attributes was that he was a Master of Shorthand. Willy-nilly he also became a farmer.
The first services conducted by Rev. Meech took place in the homes of the settlers. Ethel Penman Hope, a great grand-daughter, in an address to the Women's Canadian Historical Society, in 1925 (Vol. 9 of the Society's Transactions) indicated that Meech was buried in the Burial Ground - given to the community by Thomas Brigham - beside the church where he preached and taught Sunday School and day school during the week. There are no remains of the church now. A photograph of the old Dunn House before the turn of the century shows a building beside the hotel, which has lancet-like windows in its side, suggesting a church. There would have been enough land adjacent to the Burial Ground to have supported such an edifice at that time.
A fire destroyed the Dunn House in 1900 - it was replaced the following year - the same fire could well have razed the old church-cum-school, to be replaced by another school, as some former pupils still remember as being painted red and having a bell tower. This school was taken down in the 1940's, and a building which had served as the first official post office in Old Chelsea was moved on the foundations.
The Reverand gentleman is credited with teaching his own children and those of the settlers. It is likely that Meech's first lessons were in his own home. Later, it is believed, he taught in a small school house erected at the east end of the lake. At times he extended his teaching area to Chelsea - now known as Old Chelsea.
Whether one approves of the Accord (Meech Lake Accord c 1996 ) or is in disaccord with the current subject, it is safe to say that all Meech's contemporaries were in accord in their assessment that Meech was well loved and respected by those to whom he ministered.