YEAR END POTPOURRI OF HISTORY.

1813, winter. Glengarry House, east of Glen Walter. When this stone mansion was built in 1791, at the enormous cost of 1,300 pounds sterling, for Lieutenant-Col. John Macdonell (Aberchalder), it became the largest private residence in present day SDG. During the War of 1812, this three story stone house was occupied by Canadian Militia, who, tradition relates, accidentally set it on fire, burning everything at hand to keep warm one cold night, in 1813. While the outline of the old stones remain, the site is too unstable and closed to public viewing.

1814, a Yankee smuggler in Cornwall aids the Canadian cause! British Army surgeon Dr. Wm. ‘Tiger” Dunlop related that Canadian Lieutenant-Colonel “Red” George MacDonellof the Glengarry Fencibles let it be known that he was in need of fresh provisions “…that might be got from the American side, and accordingly sent emissaries over the river, and the result justified the correctness of his views.” from Dunlop’s Recollections of the War of 1812. reprinted in 1908.

While sitting after dinner one day “tete-a-tete with the Colonel, his servant announced that a gentleman wanted to see him. As the word gentleman on this side of the Atlantic conveys no idea of either high birth or breeding, nor even a clean shirt, or a whole coat, my friend demanded what kind of a gentleman… is servant said he believed he must be kind of Yankee gentleman, for he wore his hat in the parlour, and spit on the carpet… He was ordered to be admitted, and the Colonel telling me that he suspected this must be of one of his beef customers, requested I would not leave the room, as he wished a witness to the bargain he was about to make.”

“Accordingly, there entered a tall, good –looking, middle-aged man, dressed in blue something …and was invited to sit down,” and enjoy a glass of wine.

Within minutes this Vermont State Major announced that he was “…a little in the smuggling line,” and could provide the kettle(cattle), he “heered that the Colonel wanted some very bad, so I just brought a hundred of ‘em across at St. Regis,” and drove them “right at the door here.”

MacDonell paid the Major in American “half eagles,” who justified his treason by claiming that he received a fair price, and let him know that he could buy three hundred more cattle from St. Regis belonging to the son of a Vermont Senator if he wished!

1845, FINCH. The Township meeting of January 6, held in the home of Adam Cockburn the following by-laws were passed and are related in their original grammar: Cattle could “…Run at large from Sunrise to Sunset but No Longer.” “No Horses, Oxen, Hogs or Sheep to Run at Large this Year, No Free Common.”…All Log fences that is four feet Higher is allowed to be a lawful fence this year.”…“Bulls is allowed to run at large both Night and Day.”And finally, “Rail fences must be four feet High and Staked and Reddened before they can be called a Lawful fence this Year.”

If these by-laws appear to have been made for a rural settlement rather than a village, that’s because the village was not organized until 1854.
LATE 19TH CENTURY – FINAN THE “BUFFALO” BECOMES A LEGEND.

Facts rarely get in the way of a good story, and nowhere else is this truer in SDG than Glengarry County. Many people like to claim an association with a famous person or event and woe be-tide anyone who attempts to correct the legend. I experienced this firsthand , when I debunked the myth that one of my ancestors was not a British naval Captain at the Battle of Trafalgar. My crime was so heinous that many of my relatives stopped speaking to me, but back to Glengarry.

Finan the “Buffalo” McDonald’s wrestling match with a buffalo attracted those who wanted to demonstrate their physical prowess. So much so that journalist Gilbert La-Rue, in preparing the genealogy of the LeRoux Family, claimed that he knew Buffalo and that a relative of his,“Dangerous Dan La Rue, ”born in Glengarry in 1850, fought the Buffalo“ when both were young. ”La-Rue claimed that he was told by Buffalo that Dan “…was a good boxer and dealt sledgehammer blows and was quick as a steel trap. Would have been a much better boxer had he kept training.” The problem is, McDonald died in 1851, while Dan was an infant of one and Gilbert was not born until 1875!

Legends are cemented from stories like this!

1948, July 3, Prime Minister Mackenzie King, M.P. for Glengarry opened the first Highland Games in Maxville.

1952 to circa 1957, Lester R. Perkins and his wife Helen operated the Waverley School, an all boys’ prep school in South Lancaster from Thornhill, the former Second Empire McBean estate. A reporter for the “Glengarry News,” wrote: “…if lads in crested Blazers and grey flannels, with blue and white school ties atop white shirts are noticed in the district…they will be Waverley Boys.”

When the school closed, Perkins continued his teaching career in Quebec, while Thornhill went through a number of ownership changes and was eventually abandoned and destroyed by fire in May of 1957.

1979, October 3 the Cornwall Square opened with SDG’s first escalators.So many people had never used an escalator, management had to provide guides to show patrons how to safely ride them.