Canadian Run 1000 Islands 2017

[Mark King]

Thousand Islands Moment – Tenth in a Series

First I apologize for the delay in getting this one out. Work issues that will continue to plague me for the next few weeks so I may be late with the next few as well. But the series is not over til I say so.

When you think about Napolean Bonaparte do you also think about the Thousand Islands? You would if you lived here.

I am going to let Kim Lunman, a local writer – take the story from here. This appeared in a magazine article about ten years ago but still holds true today.

Baguettes, berets, French pastries, Canada's flag flying while “O’Canada” is being belted out from a singer on a main street bandstand en Francais. Wait a minute. Is this New York state? Mais oui. Why else would Napoleon Bonaparte be taking centre stage?

Welcome to Cape Vincent, a charming community that has been transforming into a French village one weekend a year for nearly half a century along these sweeping shores where the St. Lawrence River meets Lake Ontario.

This quaint River town just west of Clayton known for its historic Tibbetts Point Lighthouse also happens to share an international ferry service with Wolfe Island along the western gateway to the Thousand Islands.

The celebrated lighthouse is a beacon for tourism but its annual French festival - this year marked its 42nd - grabs the limelight for visitors by transporting them two centuries back in time. Thousands of people flocked to the coastal town to take part in the two-day festival in July and catch a glimpse of its most famous almost son in French military regalia sporting riding boots, sideburns and the hat that says it all: Napoleon.

The 19th century French emperor was portrayed by Ronald D. "Doc" Jacobs, of Cape Vincent. He has been playing the part in the annual civic festivities since 1994, leading the parade astride a horse.

In the early 1800's, Napoleon said he wanted to move to Cape Vincent, but he never escaped exile in the South Atlantic. French along with German settlers emigrated to Cape Vincent in the early 1800s, many through the patronage of a man named James LeRay Chaumont, who moved from France to America in the 1700s and owned much of the area's land. He was also credited with bringing in a contingent of French nobility, including Count Francis Peter Real, once the chief of police under Napoleon.

Count Real even built a home in Cape Vincent, noted for its unusual architecture as "the cup and saucer" house for its resemblance to the table ware. He built the house for none other than Napoleon in an attempt to rescue the exiled French emperor from the island of St. Helena. However, he never got the chance to make Cape Vincent home, dying in 1821. French exiles then received amnesty and a number moved back to France.

However, many remained and became lifelong residents of Cape Vincent including Louis Peugnet, a former officer in the Napoleonic army. And the unusual house here built for Napoleon burned down in 1867.

Cape Vincent embraces its French roots. The village is festooned with French, Canadian and American flags during the festival with a mass held in French at the Catholic church. The hamlet's Seattle's Best Coffee shop even has a 'Bienvenue' sign painted over its door to welcome visitors.

Annual firework celebrations are held over the waterfront to mark the occasion in the otherwise sleepy village with panoramic views proudly embraced by one homeowner with the words 'River Runs By' displayed over his front door and a porch overlooking the mighty St. Lawrence. Canada is always on the horizon with Wolfe Island visible from its shores and Horne's Ferry routinely pulling up to its docks.

Dignitaries wear berets and period costumes to honor the town's French ancestors during the festival in a celebration of its unique history. And Napoleon Bonaparte comes to life once a year here as a most unlikely visitor to the Thousand Islands in the place he might have called home, or most likely, 'maison.'

[82aspy]

I'm disappointed that Redwood and Doc most likely won't be attending, after all.

that'd be a yuge bummer, crossing my fingers

[gltriker]

I'm disappointed that Redwood and Doc most likely won't be attending, after all.

that'd be a yuge bummer, crossing my fingers

Aspy! Your name is certainly going on the attendance list, too. Correct??

[Mark King]

Thousand Islands Moment – Eleventh in a Series

Of course one of the biggest outcomes of the War if 1812 came about because the British had to find a way to protect its colonies in North America.

The War had proven beyond a doubt that moving supplies and troops along the St. Lawrence River in the Thousand Islands was a fools’ game. That the British hadn’t been defeated was more a matter of poor planning on the American part to control the traffic along the river route through the Thousand Islands.

There has been a massive amount of writing done about the history of the Rideau Canal but suffice it to say that after years of study and arguing it was decided to build a few locks on the Ottawa River to connect to the Rideau River and then build a canal to connect with Kingston – although Gananoque had been considered as well.

There was a lot of “stuff” going on and anyone interested in history would be advised to start with Dr. Leggett’s book, “The Rideau,” for an understanding.

No visit to the Thousand Islands is complete without at least visiting part of the Rideau.

Let me offer a few highlights.

The canal was to be protected at its southern end by new fortifications. These are still in place today – Fort Henry and the Murney Towers that line the shore in Kingston.

From today’s perspective the Chief Engineer on the project, Col John By, was an environmental rapist. In today’s over-regulated world it is highly unlikely the canal would ever be built.

Col By achieved what few others could have, yet he was called back to London for a Parliamentary Inquiry about the spending on the canal and died unrecognized for the incredible results he accomplished in the Canadian wilderness.

The Rideau today is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is the oldest continuously operating example of a slackwater canal in the world.

Col By enlarged the locks from the original plan to accommodate the steam boats that he foresaw using it. The original plan had been to build locks large enough for military gunboats and Durham boats. That decision to enlarge the locks saved the canal from falling into dis-use and disrepair.

Much of the original work that was done on the canal still exists today.

The Stone Arch Dam at Jones Falls was the largest of its kind in the world when it was built. It remains as an engineering marvel and other than a few leaks, that have been patched, remains in its original form.

In the mid -1980s timbers that were used for roadways and cribwork building the Jones Falls dam floated to the surface above the locks. Divers went down and discovered much of the original work had merely been flooded and left in place where it still exists today.

Col By used four major contractors on the canal and when it was complete he gave each of them a silver cup. One of those contractors was John Redpath the Scottish stone mason who built many of the early works in Canada and founded the Redpath Sugar Company. His cup is on display at the Redpath Museum in Toronto.

The canal, built for defence, was never used for defence. It has been used commercially, to help settlement, for local transportation and now, for tourism and recreation. The railway era, stole its commercial use and roads took away much of its other purpose. Tourism and recreation remain along with the historical aspect.

The building of the canal spurred the development of a community at its northern end called Bytown. This is today’s Ottawa, the capital city of Canada.

The canal is fiercely defended by many people along its route when government’s try to interfere. Three locks were electrified before a citizen’s protest led to the end of the plan to electrify all of them. Other than three locks, Newboro, Smiths Falls Combined and Black Rapids, all the locks are still hand cranked.

For more information there are several sites dedicated to the canal.

I recommend Ken Watson’s site

http://www.rideau-info.com/canal/attraction.html

[Rat]

Great stuff.

Tentative dates for the scouting trip are; arrive Gananoque Tuesday May 23, ride the loops and scout restaurants on Wednesday 24 and leave Thursday 25.

Anyone who wishes to join in the scouting trip will be most welcome and we can assign roles for the September Ride.

Please post here on the thread if interested ....

Scouting trip so far will be

Mark King
Ascot
RAT



Gord

[Alarmdoc]

Hi Rat

Count me in for the scouting ride. I would probably meet you guys in Gananoque the morning of the 24th depending on what time you would be starting.

Looking forward to meeting you

Alarmdoc

[Mike-C]

Good Day Gents;
I was looking forwards to joining y'all and going on the scouting ride, but I am scheduled to undergo to rotator cuff surgery on my RH shoulder on the 5th. My orthopaedic doc had me scheduled for early June but he had a cancellation and moved me to May 5th. I was originally hoping to go on the scouting ride, have the operation and then be all healed up by September. So I will not be able to ride. BUT I would like to join you at some point on scouting run at least to say hello. Tell me where and you will be on the 24th and I will be there assuming you do not mind me with 4 wheeled transport.
Mike Coleman
'84 Wing-Lite (ex-Aspencade)
'84 un-Terstate
'84 Standard (as yet un-named)

[Rat]

We will be based at the Gananoque KOA Campground, staying there Tuesday night and heading out on the scout after breakfast, say 0830 or so.
Maybe Mark King can chime in with a good suggestion of where to have breakfast ?

Gord

[Mike-C]

Gord,
How about we meet for dinner on the 23rd? We can go out or I can bring my small BBQ, chairs, etc and we can 'eat in'?
Mike Coleman
'84 Wing-Lite (ex-Aspencade)
'84 un-Terstate
'84 Standard (as yet un-named)

[Rat]

Sounds good to me, made a reservation for Ascot and I at the KOA for 23 & 24.

Let's BBQ .... I'll text you an ETA when we're a couple of hours away on the 23rd .... pm me your cell

Gord

[Mark King]

Breakfast can be at the marina across the road from the KOA, the Glen House Resort, just down the road, or there is a restaurant where I go all the time and the name of which escapes me now at Cty Rd Two and Reynolds Road - Lansdowne. Home cooked to order and fresh pies and donuts and all sorts of good stuff. Our riding club used to eat there all the time.

Edit - Rapid Valley is the name of the Restaurant near Lansdowne.

[Mark King]

Thousand Islands Moment – Twelfth in a Series

The following is a story that I wrote for year 2000 special edition of the Brockville Recorder and Times, celebrating the previous Century. Sorry for the length.


If there is one technological improvement that changed the face of the Thousand Islands more than any other over the past Century, it is the horseless carriage and its descendants.

From the automobile to the bus, motorized transport continues to leave its impact on the region.

“There is no doubt that the Thousand Islands Parkway is crucial for tourism,” says Dave Seal of the Glen House Resort. “It provides us with enough drive-in traffic to make the resort viable year-round.”

Down the road, Howard Williams, one of the founders of Williams Marine, concurs. “It is a very important part of the tourism business, definitely.”

Voices from the past express mixed thoughts.

“There was lots of opposition to the road. Some people had their property expropriated and buildings had to be moved. They didn’t like that something was different along the river.”

Grant Haskins is smiling. From 11-years-of-age when his family arrived on the “Front,” and settled near Rockport, he has watched the changes.

“I guess I was interested in it because I saw it. We watched as the road changed the way we lived,” he says. His family house is about 100 feet from the road.

Credited now with being Rockport area’s historian, he pulls out a sheaf of papers dealing with the Thousand Islands Parkway.

“The Rockport Men’s Breakfast Club asked me to give a talk on the Parkway so I put this together,” he offers the cleanly type-written pages.

It was 1935. The Thousand islands Bridge was about to become a reality. Liberal MPP George Fulford saw another part of the dream; a waterfront road linking Gananoque, the Bridge and Brockville. The road would aid the growing tourist industry and would provide jobs in the depths of the depression.

In those days, access to the water along the Front was from Highway 2, south to River Road or along old cottage roads that meandered their way to the river.

The River Road itself, running roughly east to west and some distance from the river, was broken by bays and impassable hills of granite rock. It wound and twisted its way along old Indian paths, seeking the line of least resistance. Boats, horses, carts and other crude forms of transport were the order of the day if you wished to make your way along the Thousand Islands.

“You couldn’t get to the site of the Glen House very easily back then, “ explains Mr. Seal.

Travellers had to take Highway 2 to Lansdowne, then drop south along an old dirt road and make their way along broken pieces of road along the Front.

When the International Bridge was built, there was no immediate access to anywhere from the Canadian end of the bridge. The “Scenic” as it was called, the road along the waterfront, would change all that.

While facing much opposition at home along with some support, Fulford found an ally in Toronto. Tim McQuestrim, Minister of Highways, agreed that such a link should be developed and he even went so far as deciding it should be a four-lane road – divided for safety.

“Fulford’s Folly” would be built.

Even before work began on the Thousand Islands Bridge, the contract was let for the first section of the scenic road from Long Beach to Brockville.

The next step was the section from Long Beach to Gananoque, at the time believed to be the biggest construction project ever undertaken by the province.

It proved to be Fulford’s undoing. He was defeated in 1937.

Only the most southerly two of the four lanes was ever built because of what many considered to be an exorbitant cost.

“My family thought the road was a good idea. We were used to living along Highway 2 and didn’t have a boat. We knew nothing of river travel,” says Haskins.

They were among the people thrilled to have the road project underway.

Others, who had spent their lives fairly isolated along the river and who built boats to carry out commerce across the river, were threatened.

“It was different way of life down here,” says Haskins.

Three camps were established to undertake the blasting, tree felling and building removal.

“There was a lot of discussion about where it was going to go. Some buildings had to be moved and some land had to be severed.”

Two wealthy residents were accommodated specially by the construction. Near the bridge, George Darling who had a thriving business on the river demanded an underpass be built to allow his hay wagon to get to the river and near Jones Creek, the Siftons had a bridge built over the Scenic after they paid an additional $6000.

The woodcutters with axes, saws and horses led the way. Pay was 35 cents an hour for a nine hour day, six days a week.

The culvert crews came next in combination with the blasters.

The “Front “ is comprised of Laurentian Granite, among the hardest rocks in the pre-Cambrian Shield. It would require thousands of tons of dynamite to open a smooth road.

The heavy blasting often blew out windows in homes along the route. Dynamite boxes by the hundreds became useful items for the locals and some were even used for furniture making, says Haskins.

The crews worked from both ends toward the middle and at the same time one crew was busy bridging Landon Bay (where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau just visited a few weeks ago – I added today)

The River Road had always stopped at Landon Bay and to get to the other side without a boat meant proceeding back up to Highway 2 towards Gananoque and then coming back down another dirt road.

At Landon Bay, a small island was joined to the mainland to provide support for the bridge.

“Building the road was a big project,” says Haskins. “Anyone who could, took in boarders. My mother had eight people living with us at one time.”

At the end of 1941, with much of the world at war, work ground to a halt.

The only section of the road that was opened was the part that joined the new Thousand Islands Bridge. That road took traffic to Ivy Lea then up to Highway 2. Today, that road dead ends at the 401.

Much of the road bed was in use though, by cars in the summer and by horses and sleighs in the winter.

As soon as the war ended work re-commenced and within two years the two lanes of the Scenic were opened.

The province planned to incorporate it as part of Highway 401 and it actually formed a link to the 401 for close to 20 years. But during 1967, when Expo 67 was taking place in Montreal, locals found it impossible to access the road.

“You had to wait up to half an hour top get across,” recalls Haskins.

Highway 401 with a speed limit of 60 or 70 miles per hour, would slow down to 50 and narrow to one lane in each direction at the Scenic.

Accidents and fatalities were so frequent that it became known as “Death Alley.”

Commercial traffic made it even more dangerous and soon local pressure ensured that the 401 was extended north of the Scenic from Gananoque to Long Beach.

A personal note here – My family lived in Trenton, Ontario in 1967 and we went to Expo 67 with a stop first in Ottawa. What should have been a trip of just over three hours from Trenton to Ottawa took almost a day as traffic was backed up at the Scenic.

“The day they opened the new stretch of the 401 we woke up and wondered where the noise was, it was so quiet,” recalls Haskins.

After the new stretch of the 401 was opened, Gananoque Boat Line owner Hal McCarney convinced the province to rename the Scenic as the Thousand Islands Parkway. Many locals still refer to it as the Scenic (including a local resident I frequently bike with).

Today it is a well-travelled all-season road.

A recreational path, established when Bell Canada laid cables under the original north lane road bed runs the full length of the Parkway and is used in every season.

[Mark King]

Thousand Islands Moment – Thirteenth in a Series

The following is another story that I wrote for year 2000 special edition of the Brockville Recorder and Times, celebrating the previous Century. Sorry again for the length.


“I can see him to this day. He fell backwards just like this, and then hit the rocks.”

Jack Truesdell is in a semi-squatting position, still sitting on his couch.

“I’m the only one who saw him fall all the way, you know.”

It was the late 1930’s. The man was Angus MacDonald. He was the only person killed during construction of the 1000 Islands Bridge that joins Canada and the United States near Ivy Lea and he died on the Canadian side.

“The undertaker, Bert Sly from Lansdowne, came and took him away in a basket. No, I’ll never forget that.”

Truesdell was 19 when he went to work on the bridge project. He worked for every contractor on the Canadian side except for the company that poured the giant cement footings that hold the bridge in place.

“It wasn’t as easy building the Canadian span,” he says. “On the American side they had islands to build those cement piers on. On our side they had to pour them in the water.”

But, it was good work and well-paying for its day and for a young man from Ivy Lea preparing to get married, it was ideal.

A bridge across the 1000 Islands had been proposed as far back as the late 1800’s. In 1926 Gilbert Freeman, a New York entrepreneur and capitalist, suggested that an automobile bridge be built between Ivy Lea, Ontario and Collins Landing, New York.

While the state legislature approved the project, the governor turned it down because it was against policy to put a toll bridge on any public highway.

Communities along both sides of the river also protested, stating that if any bridge was to be built it should be in their community.

The bridge would become the first link over the St. Lawrence River between Canada and the United States.

In 1930, the New York State’s Bridge Commission evaluated 10 possible sites for the bridge but nothing further happened.

Six years into the Great Depression, the bridge became more important. A major construction project would help eliminate local unemployment and the economic spin-offs would maintain low unemployment.

Two Watertown residents championed the project and one of them, Russell Wright, was elected to the New York State legislature. He lobbied the state and federal governments and finally in 1934 the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority was established to erect the bridge.

Enabling legislation was passed in the United States and Canada and funds were secured.

Gananoque was an enthusiastic supporter of the project believing that the bridge would bring a rush of tourists and commerce.

Construction began on April 30, 1937 with a two lane bridge spanning the International Rift, a small stream that separates Canada and the US between Wellesley and Hill islands. It was a 90 foot rigid-frame arched span of reinforced concrete with masonry facing.

“My father Peter Truesdell was hired to haul supplies and drive the piles for that bridge,” says Truesdell.

“He had the only power-scow that could carry a big load and make its way up the rift.”

When the project was looking for workers, Truesdell signed up. His father’s scow hauled men from the local resort where they stayed out to the bridge work each day and then spent the rest of the time running to Clayton or Ivy Lea to haul coal, cement, steel and rock for the project.

“My first job was on the small bridge,” says Truesdell. When that bridge was complete he placed one of the two plaques that indicate the international border.

He was immediately called upon to work on the larger Canadian bridge.

“My job was to keep the compressors going,” he says.

The compressors were placed on thin planks laid along the skeleton of the bridge.

“One wrong step and it was 125 feet to the river below.”

The only time work halted was the day MacDonald died.

“They were lowering the steel crossbeam into place and his side slipped, only about six inches, but it knocked him backward.”

Another man was also knocked off by the accident but he was grabbed by his coveralls and he and his rescuer slid to safety on a guide wire. The wire left a permanent indentation on the rescuer’s arm.

Rivets for the bridge were heated up and tossed into the air to a two man crew who set them in place.

When the steel work was completed, Truesdell became an electrician’s helper as they strung the wires and hung the lights on the bridge.

When that job was complete it was on to painting.

The bridge was officially opened August 18, 1938 by Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King and American President Franklin Roosevelt who greeted his Canadian counterpart as a “fellow bridge builder.”

Reportedly a procession of 85,000 people lined the route from Kingston, through Gananoque and onto the bridge. Another 25,000 were at the bridge.

The great project was completed in less than 15 months.

The American crossing is an 800 foot suspension bridge with a clearance of 150 feet above the river and is now over the main shipping channel in the St. Lawrence Seaway. It is 4,500 feet long.

The Canadian crossing includes the 600 foot continuous Warren Truss span connecting Hill Island to Constance Island and a steel arch of 348 feet that connects Constance Island to Georgina Island and the suspension bridge of 750 feet from Georgina Island to the mainland, for a total length of 3,330 feet.

The bridge soon proved its worth. In its first year just under 150,000 vehicles crossed in both directions. It hit one-half million in 1953, and today there are well over two million crossings each year.

The bridge had a lasting impact on the 1000 Islands in many ways.

It changed the way in which residents viewed the border and changed the way people traveled from one country to the other. Prior to the bridge there was regular ferry service in the summer and ice crossings in the winter.

Unfortunately for Gananoque, the highest counts ever for crossings comes from Canadians heading to the US to shop.

As for Angus MacDonald, he was one of the Indians hired to do the high steel work on the bridge and as of the writing of this article in 2000, because of that, he has never been counted in the official records. The history of the bridge presented in the Bridge Authority’s public building on the US side states that no one died while constructing the bridge.

For Jack Truesdell though, it’s an image he will never forget.

Note: Jack Truesdell died a few years ago in Gananoque.

[Mark King]

Thousand Islands Moment – Fourteenth in a Series

I have to step back – this story should have been included around the stories about the Patriot’s War. It was on my list and I kept thinking about it, but before we move on to more modern times in the islands I need to relate this.

This particular piece was taken from the Kingston Whig-Standard as it tells the complete story. It was my current employer, MP Gord Brown, (yes, he’s the guy who Trudeau grabbed by the elbow in the House last year) when he was a town councillor in Gananoque and I was the Editor of the Gananoque Reporter, in the mid-1990s, who brought forward a motion to declare Elizabeth Barnett Day in Gananoque. It has been celebrated every year since.

Barnett and her actions were mentioned in the epistle by George Stanley but here is the full story …

Crowded into a rustic tavern in mid-January 1838, rebellious Patriots planned a full assault. Canadians, they believed, were yearning to be liberated from British colonial oppressors.

Upper and Lower Canada should be divided into two republics, similar to the system in the United States. Fleeing to the United States to drum up support after the rebellion the year before, William Lyon Mackenzie and his radical supporters were still determined to reform Canada’s government by any means. Even by violence.

Americans Rensselaer van Rensselaer and Bill Johnston (aka “Pirate of the Thousand Islands”), Mackenzie and others strategized attacks on Gananoque and Kingston in the dim flickering light of the bar room.

“If Fort Henry fell, Kingston would fall; if Kingston fell, the key to Upper Canada, would be in Patriot hands,” wrote John Northman in “Elizabeth Barnett, the Heroine of Gananoque” in the Watertown Daily Times, Oct. 8, 1932.
Reinforcements would be at hand, too, thought the rebels, as “thousands of Canadians would flock to the Patriot standard, and victory would be assured!”

The paramilitary actions were illegal in the United States. President Martin Van Buren attempted to enforce Proclamation 45A, Neutrality with Respect to Canadian Affairs, signed into law in January 1838. He ordered all arrested who were entering Canada for military purposes.

The rebels paid little heed. Exuberant preparations were well underway, organizing supplies, ammunition and heavy weaponry. Invasion would be a fait accompli. Until, that is, a young school marm from Gananoque caught on to the conspiracy.

Elizabeth Barnett was born in 1815 at Stone Mills, N.Y. She realized her dream of becoming a qualified teacher at age 18. In 1836, Barnett joined her brother in Upper Canada. He soon returned to the United States but she remained.

Boarding with a physician’s family, she found a teaching job in Gananoque to support herself and settled into her new homeland. Two years later, Barnett made a wintry trip home to LaFargeville to visit her parents. She was alarmed by what she heard and saw.

“All around her, men and women were talking invasion and intervention in a manner and to a degree which boded ill for the peace and security of Canada,” said Northman.

Barnett accidentally overheard a discussion of the details on Feb. 20, learning the date – only two days away -- and where the first prong was going to attack. Perhaps it was all talk and exaggeration. Barnett wanted to see what was happening.
The next morning, Barnett climbed into a horse-drawn cutter and made her way French Creek to the staging point of the plan. There she saw with her own eyes the groundwork for the incursion. That was enough for Barnett. Canadians had to be warned.

Ending her visit early, the fearful Barnett rushed the 10 miles across the frozen river to Gananoque.

“She was driven across the ice of the St. Lawrence in the bitter cold of February and reached her destination in safety though badly frozen,” said Fred Williams in “The Unsung Heroine,” Montreal Gazette, Feb. 26, 1934.

Rushing to inform her physician landlord, Barnett’s message was passed on to the postmaster and then hastily on to Lt.-Col. Richard Bonnycastle in Kingston. Barnett’s sincere dash to save her fellow countrymen was in time but was only a confirmation of the impending incursion. Bonnycastle already knew.

“Persons who could be depended upon informed me that the whole frontier opposite, for many miles, exhibited a nightly scene of assemblages of men in arms,” Bonnycastle wrote in “Canada, as it was, is, and may be,” adding, “and we knew that the United States’ Arsenal at Watertown had been broken open on the night of Feb. 9, and from (600 to 800) stand of arms taken from it.”

Bonnycastle’s spies reported that several heavy cannons were ready for transport at French Creek to Hickory Island, across from Gananoque. They also estimated that 3,000 or so volunteers were ready to take up arms for the cause. More materiel was found by a young lad later, powder kegs, ammunition for rifles and muskets, buckshot and “other warlike stores” hidden in the woods

Calling out the militia from Kingston, Gananoque and Brockville, Bonnycastle as well sent for regular soldiers, marching from Montreal and prepared for battle. As they learned of the offensive ready to rebuff the incursion, the rebels lost the desire to fight. Swiftly deserting, the men scrambled back to French Creek, fearing British retaliation. The next day, Bonnycastle went to Hickory Island, only to find the place abandoned.

“Only a few boxes of ammunition, and that monstrous cannon – it was an oak tree bored full length to a diameter of five inches, and banded with iron – a Bertha of the backwoods – remained as evidence of what might have been,” Northman said.

Out of the chaos came happiness for Barnett.

Among the militiamen was Warren Fairman, a carriage-maker and blacksmith who enlisted the year previous for duty with the Dragoons. Born on Howe Island in January 1809, Fairman’s family moved to Gananoque when he was a child. He learned the trades of woodworking and ironwork, and participated in the lumber industry with his own sawmill.
Fairman was a client and friend of the young lawyer, John A. Macdonald, and held “the opinion that ‘John A.’ could do no wrong,” noted Fairman’s obituary in the Gananoque Reporter in 1909.

Marrying Barnett in short order, Fairman and his bride remained in Gananoque for the rest of their long lives. They were proud parents of 11 children.

Elizabeth Barnett Fairman died at age 92 on Aug. 24, 1906. Barnett’s intrepidness went unnoticed and uncelebrated during her lifetime. Years after her death; the information was found in one of her diaries and brought to light.

Warren Fairman died three years later at age 93.

The Town of Gananoque now celebrates its reticent heroine annually during Heritage Week.

[Alarmdoc]

Hey Guys. Went for a ride on the weekend and found these routes that may be interesting. If you have not already decided.


There may be some ideas here without reinventing the wheel. We could either use one of these or combine parts of these rides.

This is the first time I try to have an attachment. Hopefully is goes.

Alarmdoc