Up the Gatineau! Article
This article was first published in Up the Gatineau! Volume 3.
The Gatineau Mountain of Iron
Elaine Bedford Theberge
A man with dreams of vast enterprises which one day would rise out of the wilderness first came to the Gatineau in 1807. Near a place that years later would be known as lronsides he discovered what he called his “mountain of iron."
Robert Randall emigrated to Upper Canada from Maryland in 1798. He was thirty years old at the time: young, ambitious, and confident that he could make his mark in a country where frontiers were being edged back to make way for new communities. Reared in a society where ownership of land was a badge of success, he had the ability to recognize natural sites which, with the coming of settlement, would be valuable for future development. Soon after he arrived in Canada he bought land at Chippawa, just above Niagara Falls. Here he built the Bridgewater Works, which became one of the largest manufacturing enterprises in the Province. According to William Lyon Mackenzie, Randall was the first manufacturer of wrought iron in Upper Canada. This early success encouraged him to buy other strategic sites and to spread his holdings widely throughout the country. But he was over-eager and although at first he had considerable financial backing he soon found it necessary to mortgage properties he owned in order to buy others.
Some of Randall's enterprises were at the newly-established town of Cornwall where he operated a general store, a potash works, and a ferry service across the St. Lawrence River. Of all his holdings, these projects held the best prospects for a ready cash return. So, in 1804, he resolved to concentrate his efforts there in order to clear his indebtedness on the Bridgewater Works, the business at which he could best employ his skill as an iron manufacturer.
Three years later, while in Montreal on business, Randall learned that there was to be a sheriff's sale of waste land which was in the Township of Hull. Since iron had been discovered in this area in 1801 by Theodore Davis, a land surveyor, it is likely that Randall suspected the presence or iron ore on the property to be offered at the Montreal sale. investigation of the site in the Gatineau confirmed his suspicions. To him it appeared as a mountain of iron. Elated at the prospects of wealth, he was convinced that, if he could secure the lots in the Township of Hull and also acquire a power site for a forge on one of the nearby rivers, he could establish a manufacturing empire which would grow as the country developed.
At the Montreal sale Randall purchased Lot 11, 5th Range, and Lots 12 and 13, 6th Range. ln addition he leased Clergy Reserves consisting of Lot 12, 5th Range, Lots 7, 11, and 14 in the 6th Range, and Lot 6 in the 7th Range. The terms of payment for the rent of the Clergy Reserve lands offered the purchaser a curious alternative. He could pay his rent in cash or in produce: “For the first seven years... twenty-five shillings or eight bushels of good, sweet, clean merchantable wheat. For the second seven years... fifty shillings, or sixteen bushels of... wheat. For the third seven years... seventy-five shillings or twenty-four bushels of... wheat.” Since it was iron, not wheat, that concerned Randall, he paid for his lease in cash, but it is interesting that the authorities of the time could only conceive of land having value for agriculture, its worth measured in terms of what it could grow.
Having located the iron ore, he needed power to operate his forge. With the object of exploring water-power sites, Randall engaged Indians to guide him on an exploring trip. For over two hundred miles of wilderness they paddled and portaged through a network of lakes, rivers, and swamps which lay between Kingston and the Ottawa River. At the Chaudiere Falls Randall found what he desired: a mill-site even better than the Bridgewater location, with sufficient power to operate his new forge. He estimated that with two hammers at work he could produce six tons of bar iron per week. Referring to the ore potential of his Gatineau mine, he said in a letter to a friend, “I have an immense body of Mountain Ore scarcely to be equalled in America for its goodness and shall be able to make Bar Iron equal in quality to the best... His ambitious plans for his “mountain or iron" in the Gatineau seemed to be taking shape. Even with his foresight in anticipating the effect of settlement on the value of land, Randall would never have dreamed that, one day, this particular spot on the Ottawa River would be in the heart of a nation's capital and in sight of Canada's Parliament Buildings.
Upon returning to Cornwall, his next move was to apply for a grant of the Chaudiere land. In a letter to his lawyer, D’Arcy Boulton at York, he asked him to present his request to the government. He directed him to apply for Broken Front Lots 38, 39, and 40, opposite the Chaudiere Falls in the Township of Nepean and for the four small islands adjacent to the river bank which were set apart by rocky chasms."... You will greatly oblige me to hasten the business as much as in your power and forward the deed and lease by the first safe opportunity as l am very desirous to get my dam built before the freezing of the waters..."
Conservative, royalty-worshipping D'Arcy Boulton was made a barrister by a decision of the Executive Council and the stroke of a pen. For two years after Upper Canada was established as a separate province there were insufficient lawyers to interpret the numerous acts placed on the statute books by the early parliaments. To correct this shortage of lawyers the government decided that"... His Majesty should appoint not more than sixteen (men) whom he should deem, from their probity, education, and condition of life, best qualified to receive the license to practice law." These instant practitioners were derisively dubbed"... heaven-born lawyers."
In spite of Randall's request for prompt action in applying for his grant, he did not hear from Boulton for some months. Then he was shocked to find that Boulton's letter made no mention of the lots on the bank of the river, which were the ones he had asked for, but to lots behind them in the first concession.
Randall was angry at what appeared to be either a stupid error or a deliberate attempt to prevent him from securing the water—front land. Perhaps he had a foreboding of the disasters which were to close in on him. Anxious to have the matter straightened out, Randall wrote to another solicitor asking him to personally visit the government offices at York to find out if the lots he had asked Boulton to secure had been acquired by anyone else and, if so, to check the date of the grant.
It was not until nine months after his original letter to Boulton that the petition for the right land was filed. Before Randall could be given the grant he had to wait until the government could get an opinion concerning the effect any dams he might erect would have on canoe and boat navigation on the river. The man selected to investigate this was the famous fur trader, William McGillivary who, about the same time as Randall made his explorations in the Ottawa and Gatineau country, had been honoured by having Fort William (now part of Thunder Bay) named after him. Later McGillivary reported that the “Mill Dam will not in any manner, interfere with or obstruct the navigation of boats or canoes in the said Grand or Ottawa River...."
At last, in February, 1809, Randall's grant of one thousand acres was approved, and with the receipt for the patent fee of forty-five pounds in his pocket, he set about fulfilling the first of two provisos which Sir Francis Gore, Lieutenant-Governor, specified in the grant: “...within three years erect and build a good and sufficient dwelling house...." After all the delays, Randall needed no urging to start building; he erected temporary headquarters on the river bank below the falls.
Gore's second requirement, a typical rule-of-thumb approach to land boundaries at the time, was that Randall obtain a certificate from a surveyor that he “...could walk, in dry season, from Lot 40 to the rocky chasms and not wet his feet, in which case the rocky chasms would be considered part of the broken front lot." This was important in the location of the dam, but since the requirement could scarcely be fulfilled in February, Randall returned to Cornwall to hire men and secure materials for his new enterprise.
Just as success was within sight, creditors concerned with the Bridgewater Works clamoured for settlement. Realizing the value of Randall’s holdings and the possibilities open to them if they pushed their advantage to the limit, they refused further mortgages.
Randall had been associated in Montreal with Austin Cuvillier, a merchant who was later to become a member of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada and involved in the founding of the Bank of Montreal. His letter to Cuvillier asking for help expresses the anxiety of a man caught between heartless creditors and merciless justice.
I am determined at the risk of everything to make my establishment good and can with ease extricate myself from my debts provided my creditors will allow me to pursue my business. But to sacrifice my property at 1 or 2 sh. to the pound to gratify the envious ambition of any man I never shall.... all those who are owing me in my present hampered condition throw all the difficulties they can in my way...
The letter goes on to ask Cuvillier to try to arrange a settlement with Randall's creditors allowing him three years to fully discharge his obligations. For this consideration he offered to pay one-third of the whole amount he owed within two years in bar iron from his mine, to be delivered at Montreal. The remaining two-thirds he would undertake to pay within the three years. He asked Cuvillier to use his influence to settle the matter as soon as possible.
Resolved to do everything he could to get cooperation from his creditors, he wrote to Mr. David, the brother of a man to whom he owed money, asking him to intercede on his behalf. Explaining his plans he pointed out the importance of giving him sufficient time to get his mine in operation.
I am as anxious as any man to pay my debts. If your brother is determined to pursue the steps against me that he has done for upwards of6 months it will not only have a tendency to prevent himself from receiving payment at the time set forth but will injure the rest of my creditors... Relying on your former friendship to me and your usual goodness....
After what seemed a long time Cuvillier was able to report to Randall that his major creditors, with one exception, had signed an agreement to accept the revised terms for settlement.
With renewed confidence Randall went to Montreal to arrange for a shipment of supplies needed to start his work on the forge. While walking along a Montreal street he was arrested and taken to the city jail. The one creditor who would not extend the term of the debt as offered by Cuvillier had taken full advantage of the law and had ordered Randall imprisoned for debt.
Today, with our recognition of personal liberties, it is hard to realize that in this country a person could have been sent to jail by his creditors when he owed money he was unable to pay. Deprived of the means of earning money, imprisonment for debt could turn out to be a life sentence.
As Randall entered the debtors‘ section of the Montreal prison, iron-grated doors closed on his plans for developing his property in the Gatineau. in those days before penal reform, debtors were given the same treatment as criminals convicted of the most serious felonies. The daily food allowance of bread and water, with the occasional luxury of a few root vegetables, the constant lack of fresh air and exercise, and the isolation from friends and family were enough to break the health and spirit of the sturdiest of men.
After seven years of imprisonment Randall was released on October 13, 1815. His freedom apparently came as a result of a mass petition by the inmates in the debtors’ prison, to the Governor-in-Chief of Canada, protesting the appalling conditions of their lives.
Randall returned to Niagara to make a new start and found himself caught up in legal technicalities. His land holdings had attracted politically powerful enemies who were determined to gain control of key areas. In trying to prevent the loss of his properties he incurred debts for legal fees and signed a promissory note for his lawyer, Henry J. Boulton.
In the meantime Randall's friends demonstrated their belief in him by electing him to the House of Assembly to represent Lincoln County (Niagara). As a conscientious member of parliament he was pre-occupied with the political problems facing the province at the time but he was still planning to return to the Chaudiere and build his iron forge. One day, while in attendance in the House at York, he heard from a fellow member that his Chaudiere property had been sold at auction, quite without his knowledge. When he learned the whole story he found that the thousand acres of strategic land at the Chaudiere had been sold by the order of Henry J. Boulton to satisfy Randall's note for one hundred pounds! Without the Chaudiere property he could not process the iron from his Gatineau mine.
Randall began a long series of appeals for redress but they became political battles. In 1821 he and William Lyon Mackenzie became friends and Randall found he had a real champion for his cause. Mackenzie said that the story of the wrongs done to Randall by an autocratic government and self-interested politicians “...made a deep impression on my mind and was one of the causes that induced me to interfere directly in colonial politics." But the power held by the opposing forces was too much even for Randall’s fiery friend Mackenzie.
Randall died in 1834, a poor and disillusioned man, but his death did not close the story of the Gatineau “mountain of iron.” As executor of Randall's estate, Mackenzie carried on a fight for justice for twenty years. The property in the Gatineau resumed importance in the legal battle of the heirs for it was the most likely possibility for some inheritance. In 1838 some of the legatees who had moved to the United States engaged Millard Fillmore of Buffalo (later a president of the country) to act for them. In his correspondence with Mackenzie he wrote, “From what we can learn we are led to believe Mr. Randall was greatly injured by the Government Party when living.“
In Mackenzie‘s papers there is a maze of claims, notes of money owed to Randall, and offers of sale hinging on the possibility of the development of iron on the Gatineau property and concerning the land relating to it as the source of power. In 1854, John Forsyth of Pittsburgh staying at Dorion‘s Hotel, Bytown, offered to buy six hundred acres for three thousand dollars but Randall’s son-in-law told Mackenzie to refuse less than ten thousand dollars. Forsyth was not interested in the Randall property at that price but acquired adjacent areas where he mined iron which he sent to Pittsburgh. In 1855 he contributed a specimen of magnetic iron ore, weighing over two thousand pounds, to the Exhibition of industry of all Nations in Paris. The mine from which it was taken was reported to be four hundred feet thick, rising in a dome-shaped mound seventy to eighty feet above the level of the surrounding land.
Mackenzie presented many petitions to Parliament seeking justice for Randall’s heirs — but without success. The final petition in 1853 was ordered to be printed in the Journals of the House and these words closed the affair. "The principal characters are all dead and old conflicts.. have become matters of history...."
The Randall property in the Gatineau was finally auctioned off in 1861 for unpaid taxes and since then has changed hands many times. From 1873 to 1874 about four thousand tons of highgrade ore was taken from Lots 12 and 13, Range 6 by A.H. Baldwin of Ottawa and shipped down the Rideau Canal and on to Cleveland. More recently there have been found small veins of amber mica, as well as some phosphate and diabase which have been taken from the Randall lots, but all too late to help the man whose ambitions overran his ability to cope with the political intrigues of the time. The Randall story of a “mountain of iron" in the Gatineau, dimmed by time, has gradually faded from memory.
Mrs. Clifford Theberge of Oshawa, Ontario was awarded First Prize for this article in the fifth annual Essay Contest sponsored by The Historical Society of the Gatineau — 1976.
We would have liked to include a photograph of Robert Randall but his death pre-dated, by about five years, photography becoming a practicable art.